(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Transportation wants you to take a minute and pull out you driver’s license and be sure it hasn’t expired. The director of the D-O-T Motor Vehicle Division, Melissa Gillett, says some people haven’t been driving or thinking about it for a while during the pandemic. And now there is going to be another change in the renewal deadline. “As we’ve gone through 2020 there have been several extensions of the disaster proclamation that suspended the expiration date of our driver’s licenses. And that is likely to expire on January 8th of 2021 — meaning that the normal driver’s licenses renewal requirement will once again take effect,” Gillett says.

The normal rules give you 60 days from the expiration date to renew the license. “If they are expired — we are encouraging them to check and see if they are eligible to renew their license online through our website at iowadot.gov,” Gillett says. “If they are not able to renew online then they’ll need to schedule an appointment in one of our locations — either at an Iowa D-O-T location or at a county treasurer’s office.” There are some basic rules for on-line renewals. “For those who are 70 or younger, they would be eligible to renew online as long as they have not renewed online the most recent time they were set to expire,” she explains. “So it you did it online last time, that means you will need to make an appointment to see us this time.”

She says they have roughly 10-thousand renewals each week for 30 to 40-thousand renewals a month. With that many people trying to renew it is important for you to think ahead. “We really encourage Iowans to take a look at what’s available know so they can ensure that there is enough time for them to get that completed,” Gillett says. She has one tip if you have had a hard time finding a time slot. “Each morning our driver’s license teams are taking a look at their availability for the day. And most often, first thing in the morning they’ll open up more appointments for that day,” she says, “so if someone is having a hard time finding an appointment time that works for them — my advice would be to check first thing every morning — because there will be same day appointments opening up for each day.”

The provision of the governor’s proclamation extending the expiration time for licenses is expected to end on January 8th, 2021. If your driver’s license is expired by more than one year, you will be required to take a knowledge and drive test in order to renew.

An investigation Sunday into a reported suspicious vehicle in the vicinity of 155th and Highway 71 in Montgomery County, resulted in a traffic stop and an arrest. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says upon further investigation, 19-year old Nicholas Freund was taken into custody for OWI/2nd offense. Freund had a BAC (Breath Alcohol Content) of 0.190 (a little more than twice the legal limit), and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where he was being held on the OWI charge.

BRUSSELS (AP) — A vast, globalized industry of low-cost social media manipulation service providers continues to flourish, distorting both commerce and politics — including the verified social media accounts of two U.S. senators. That’s according to a new investigation by researchers from the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence.

FILE – In this Monday, Oct. 12, 2020 file photo, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, uses his smartphone during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Researchers from NATO StratCom, a NATO-accredited research group based in Riga, Latvia, paid three Russian companies 300 euros ($368) to buy 337,768 fake likes, views and shares of posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, including content from verified accounts of Senators Grassley and Chris Murphy. Both senators consented to participate. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

They paid just 300 euros for 337,768 fake likes, views and shares of posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, including content from the verified accounts of Senators Chuck Grassley and Chris Murphy. Both senators consented to participate in the experiment.

The researchers said that while Twitter and Facebook have made some improvements, TikTok appeared defenseless.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa reported another 138 deaths related to the coronavirus Sunday. The high death toll follows two days when no deaths were reported. The state said 3,589 deaths have been linked to COVID-19 in the state. Officials have said there is a lag between when a person dies and when it is reported. Over the past week, Iowa has been reporting an average of 45.86 deaths per day. Iowa also reported 1,158 new virus cases to give the state a total of 267,144 cases since the pandemic began. The state said 639 people were hospitalized with the virus on Saturday, down from 679 the day before.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An outside audit found that a Des Moines library employee who died in April improperly charged more than $28,000 to a library credit card. The auditors the city hired found that Bekki Kirkland made 159 fraudulent transactions between 2016 and 2020. Roughly one-third of the improper purchases the former office manager made were to purchase prepaid VISA gift cards. Library staff discovered several suspicious purchases on a credit card Kirkland was authorized to use shortly after her death. Library Director Sue Woody said in a statement that additional procedures have been put in place to protect library funds in the future.

FAIRFAX, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have identified the man who died in an eastern Iowa apartment fire. The Linn County Sheriff’s office said Sunday that Ronald Weston, 43, died Friday in the fire in Fairfax. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. The fire was reported shortly after 10 p.m. Friday. Flames and smoke were coming out of the six-unit apartment building when firefighters arrived. Weston was found in an upstairs unit.