Eleven State Highway Patrol leaders along with national transportation professionals, have accepted a challenge to eliminate fatalities along the entire 2,900-mile stretch of Interstate 80 July 24th through the 31st. The focus of the “I-80 Challenge” is to create public awareness through both an increased law enforcement presence and media outreach.  The  eleven (11) state highway patrol agencies along Interstate 80, including those in Iowa, have each dedicated an increased presence of troopers for each of the eight days during this challenge.

The event kicks off on the west steps of the Iowa State Capital Wednesday, beginning at 3-p.m.  Dignitaties on hand will include: Iowa Governor Terry E. Branstad; Iowa Dept. of Public Safety Commissioner Brian London; Federal  Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Anne Ferro, and representatives with the California Highway Patrol, New Jersey State Police, Iowa State Patrol and Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, and State Patrol agency representatives from 10 other states across the country.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration join their state and local law enforcement, partners to implement combined highway safety law enforcement campaigns, like More Cops. More Stops, which focuses enforcement on multiple traffic safety laws at one time.For more information on the More Cops More Stops campaign, visit www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov

About 284-thousand Iowa drivers will be able to renew their drivers license online, starting today. Iowa Department of Transportation director Paul Trombino cautions drivers to beware of imposter websites. “The only place to renew your driver’s license online is through www.iowadot.gov or our mobile app,” Trombino says. “That’s really the place to come. It’s secure. That’s where you’re going to input all your information and do all that activity. All the rest of them are really giving you false information.”

It costs 20-dollars to renew a driver’s license and there’s a dollar-and-a-half “convenience fee” for renewing online. Drivers will only be able to renew online every other time, since the duration of the license will increase from five to eight years. Drivers with medical or vision problems are to go into a D-O-T facility or country treasurer’s office to renew their license and there are a series of questions in the online format to screen out people who’ve had recent eye trauma or vision problems.

“I think that it’s consistent with the process that we have right now,” Trombino says. “People, when they come into the office, they certify that there haven’t been significant changes in their eye statement. The screen that we do is not a vision test. It’s really just a quick screen and that online renewal is consistent with that and the statement that you sign (online) is the exact same one you sign if you did it in person.”

Trombino demonstrated the online license renewal process this morning (Monday) during the governor’s weekly news conference and Branstad noted drivers can apply to renew their license within a large window — 180 days before the license expires. The D-O-T plans to help eligible drivers renew their license at the State Fair, and Branstad plans to renew his license on the fairgrounds. Go to www.radioiowa.com to find links to the D-O-T’s website and to listen to the briefing about online license renewals.

(Radio Iowa)

The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education will hold a work session this evening, at the High School. During their meeting in the Media Center at 7:30, the Board will discuss and act on approving a replacement work bid for the AHS lights and sound system, as well as various contracts, and a resignation.

Prior to adjournment, the Board will hear from Larry Sigel, with the Iowa School Finance Information Service (ISFIS).

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A federal judge says two Omaha, Neb., men who are suing the city of Council Bluffs and two former police detectives for wrongful conviction, will get a joint trial instead of two separate ones. Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee have asked for separate trials in their civil lawsuit after the first trial ended in mistrial because jurors couldn’t agree on a verdict. The men seek millions of dollars in compensation for 25 years in prison.

They were released in 2003 after the Iowa Supreme Court found prosecutors committed misconduct. The men allege retired officers Daniel Larsen and Lyle Brown coerced witnesses and hid evidence from their attorneys during their 1978 trials. Federal judge Robert Pratt denied separate trials and ordered a new trial to begin Oct. 15 in Des Moines.