It was a winter storm that didn’t bring a lot of snow, but it did bring a lot of trouble on the roads.

Many districts closed schools, and slick conditions caused accidents all over the region.

“Man, it was totally icy, just a sheet of ice on the roads,” said Ravine Street resident Silas Damron.

The steep street was the scene of multiple collisions.

“It was really slippery. I had to put my car in low gear and go really, really slow, but it's really bad right there. I mean, it's dangerous,” said delivery driver Regina Sweeten.

All over the area, there were problems.

At Boudinot and Montana avenues a life squad and a car collided.

On Interstate 74, icy conditions brought vehicles to a standstill.

North of Cincinnati, at I-75 and I-275, a wreck involving a semi and a car shut down the highway.

On Dorchester Avenue, a crew from God’s Bible College pushed cars to help them get up the hill.

“Well, there’s a lot of ice,” said God’s Bible College employee Anthony Paules. “We had to push several cars.”

Cincinnati crews had more than 50 trucks on the road by daybreak.

“We were out there last night. We're out there this morning, and we're going to continue to be out here until the roads are treated,” said Cincinnati Streets superintendent Jarrod Bolden.

CINCINNATI —

Doctors said more vaccines could soon be weapons in the fight against COVID-19.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is still being carefully studied at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, but it has just been given authorization in the United Kingdom and officials expect to see applications for emergency use in the United States in the next month or so.

Medical experts said AstraZeneca's vaccine could come just in time.

They believe it will be more than capable of defending people against the latest mutation of COVID-19 and it appears to have few side effects.

"I think we soon are going to have four vaccines that look very effective," Dr. Robert Frenck said.

Frenck, professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, shared words of hope.

He expects an application for emergency use authorization could be weeks away for the Oxford University, AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

It's now authorized in the United Kingdom.

Frenck has been studying the two-dose vaccine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

"For both the Pfizer and Moderna, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the exact same thing for Janssen and Astra-Zeneca, is that the vaccine has shown equal efficacy across the ages, and regardless of your race, regardless of your gender," he said.

Frenck said 502 people in Greater Cincinnati have volunteered in the trial.

He said side effects have ranged from nothing to headache, fatigue and muscle aches and those faded.

As a more infectious variant of COVID-19 has surfaced in the United States, Frenck said viruses normally mutate.

The AstraZeneca vaccine uses a weakened version of the common cold virus and he thinks it will work against the mutation.

"It's not really worrying me that much, as far as that the spike protein is what we're having this target for our vaccine and that still looks pretty much conserved," Frenck said.

AstraZeneca's vaccine is receiving praise for only requiring refrigeration which makes it easier to distribute.

Company leaders have said they believe the vaccine will prove as effective as its rivals.

With the Phase 3 trial nearly complete, Frenck anticipates a safe AstraZeneca vaccine will soon be added to the arsenal to protect you.

"To me the biggest travesty, the biggest horror is that we have vaccines and then people don't get them and then people die that could've been saved," he said.

Frenck expects the Johnson and Johnson Janssen vaccine will also be up for emergency use consideration by mid-to-late January.

It's important to note that during the AstraZeneca trial, there were some dosing issues and it is not clear if that will impact the EUA process.

Frenck said timing for the AstraZeneca vaccine will likely be similar to the other vaccines, with a first vaccine given and a second given about four weeks later.

That's to be seen once federal officials receive an application for emergency use and review the data.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Protests are being planned for Jan. 6 in support of President Donald Trump and his continued attempts to overturn the election results.

Trump tweeted Friday that “The BIG Protest Rally” will take place in Washington D.C. starting at 11 a.m. EST on Wednesday, the day Congress will convene to certify the Electoral College votes and solidify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Trump has continued to spread his false claims that the presidential election was stolen from him, alleging mass voter fraud without providing proof. Nearly all of his legal actions attempting to sway the results have failed.

The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2021

The Washington Post reports that four different rallies are scheduled so far, and they’ll reportedly be headlined by some of Trump’s most fervent supporters, like George Papadopoulous and Roger Stone, who were recently pardoned by the president.

According to USA Today, federal and local law enforcement are bracing for the protests, which The Post says could turn violent. In online chats, the newspaper reports supporters have described smuggling guns into D.C. and setting up a possible “army encampment.”

Several different far-right groups have said they will attend these demonstrations, including the Proud Boys and white supremacist organizations, The Post reports.

The effort to overturn the Electoral College votes is far-fetched though.

Congress will likely vote on the matter, since GOP lawmakers in both the House and Senate plan to object to the certification. However, both chambers must agree, which is unlikely to happen, since the House is controlled by the Democrats and multiple Republicans in the Senate have acknowledged Biden’s win.

Some of those accused of smashing through police barriers and storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 are now saying their part in the riot wasn't their fault.

At least a dozen Capitol riot defendants identified by the Associated Press say their presence among the mob was an accident; that they were "caught up" and pushed inside by force, not as supporters of the fight.

The defense is partly a tactic for some to restore reputations after being part of the event, while others are trying to defend themselves at trial or for sentencing.

More than 400 people have been charged in connection to the riot — the largest prosecution in the Justice Department's history. Federal prosecutors are expecting to charge at least 100 more.

One man, who was accused of helping break a glass door to the House chamber, said he never planned to storm the building.

Another said he was overwhelmed by a moment sparked by then-President Donald Trump.

"He would never have anticipated finding himself in the situation, but for the president and the rally and the way everything went down," the suspect's lawyer said. "We’ve heard ‘mob mentality’ — and he describes it to a T."

That's what many are saying — that participants acted in ways they wouldn't have naturally, but the crowd of like-minded people changed their ways. But that defense of outside influences and a blame-the-crowd point of view is typically rejected in court.

While plea negotiations are underway in some cases, the amount of evidence — including that from other rioters themselves — is making it hard for many to cut deals with prosecutors for lighter punishments.

This story was originally published by Alex Arger for Newsy.