Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Supreme Court Acting Chief Justice David Wiggins says he’s retiring. The 69-year-old Wiggins said Friday he will retire March 13. He was appointed to the court by Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack in 2003. He was named acting chief justice in November after the unexpected death of Chief Justice Mark Cady. Wiggins’ departure will give Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds an opportunity to replace one of the two remaining Democratic appointees on the seven-member court. She just received the names of three nominees Thursday to fill Cady’s vacant seat.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Schools in Nebraska and Iowa cancelled after-school activities and shut down early, Friday, as residents in both states braced for the latest winter storm. The National Weather Service had issued winter storm warnings for the southeastern corner of Nebraska and southern, central and much of eastern Iowa for Friday afternoon into early Saturday. Those areas — including Fall City in Nebraska and Des Moines, Dubuque, Davenport and Burlington in Iowa — were expecting high winds and up to 8 inches of snow. Surrounding areas, including Omaha, Nebraska, and Waterloo, Iowa, were under a winter weather advisory for 2 to 4 inches of snow.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — A judge has ruled that a man charged with first-degree murder in the beating death of a central Iowa pastor is mentally unfit to stand trial. The Fort Dodge Messenger reports that a Webster County District judge on Friday found 36-year-old Josh Pendleton incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation and treatment at the Iowa Medical Classification Correctional Facility in Oakdale. Pendleton’s attorney says he has a long history of mental illness and was unable to assist in his own defense. Pendleton is accused of robbing and beating to death the Rev. Al Henderson, who was found unresponsive on Oct. 2 outside St. Paul Lutheran Church in Fort Dodge.

COLO, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have released the names of two people who were found dead by a relative in their Story County home _ deaths that authorities say were the result of a murder-suicide. They’ve been identified as 79-year-old Richard Davis and his 78-year-old wife, Charlotte. Authorities say Richard Davis shot his wife before shooting himself. A shotgun was found Wednesday near his body on the kitchen floor of their Colo home. Her body was found in a living room chair. No note was found. Their son Russell Davis told The Des Moines Register that his parents seemed happy at Christmas.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) – A judge has ruled that a man charged with first-degree murder in the beating death of a central Iowa pastor is mentally unfit to stand trial. The Fort Dodge Messenger reports that a Webster County District judge on Friday found 36-year-old Josh Pendleton incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation and treatment at the Iowa Medical Classification Correctional Facility in Oakdale.

Pendleton’s attorney says he has a long history of mental illness and was unable to assist in his own defense. Pendleton is accused of robbing and beating to death the Rev. Al Henderson, who was found unresponsive on Oct. 2 outside St. Paul Lutheran Church in Fort Dodge.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) –  Iowa Supreme Court Acting Chief Justice David Wiggins says he’s retiring, a vacancy that will give Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds an opportunity to build an even more conservative court. The 69-year-old Wiggins says Friday he will retire March 13.

He was appointed to the court by Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack in 2003. He was named acting chief justice in November after the unexpected death of Chief Justice Mark Cady. Wiggins is one of the two remaining Democratic appointees on the seven-member court. Reynolds just received the names of three nominees Thursday to fill Cady’s vacant seat.

OMAHA, NE (AP) – Schools in Nebraska and Iowa cancelled after-school activities and shut down early as residents in both states brace for the latest winter storm. The National Weather Service has issued winter storm warnings for the southeastern corner of Nebraska and southern, central and much of eastern Iowa for Friday afternoon into early Saturday.

Those areas — including Fall City in Nebraska and Des Moines, Dubuque, Davenport and Burlington in Iowa — can expect high winds and up to 8 inches of snow. Surrounding areas, including Omaha, Nebraska, and Waterloo, Iowa, are under a winter weather advisory and can expect 2 to 4 inches of snow.

COLO, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have released the names of two people who were found dead by a relative in their Story County home _ deaths that authorities say were the result of a murder-suicide. They’ve been identified as 79-year-old Richard Davis and his 78-year-old wife, Charlotte. Authorities say Richard Davis shot his wife before shooting himself. A shotgun was found Wednesday near his body on the kitchen floor of their Colo home. Her body was found in a living room chair. No note was found. Their son Russell Davis told The Des Moines Register that his parents seemed happy at Christmas.

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say three Burlington police officers rescued an unconscious man whose house was burning. The officers were patrolling nearby when the blaze was reported a little before 4 a.m. Thursday. Authorities say the officers used a neighbor’s ladder to climb up 8 feet to a bedroom window, break it and then get the man out to safety. He was treated at the scene and then taken to a hospital. A dog inside the house was able to run out the front door. The names of those involved haven’t been released. The fire cause is being investigated.

DES MOINES– Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds today (Friday) announced the appointment of Stuart Anderson to serve as Interim Director at the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT). His appointment is effective as of today (Friday, January 10th). Reynolds says “Stuart brings a wealth of transportation experience and will provide steady leadership to the department until a permanent Director is appointed,” said Gov. Reynolds. “I look forward to working with him to not only ensure a smooth transition at the agency, but also improve infrastructure and road safety.”

Anderson said “I appreciate the opportunity to guide the Iowa DOT through this interim period while the process to identify a permanent director is completed.During this time, the great team at Iowa DOT remains committed to providing outstanding service to Iowans and other users of our multi-modal transportation system.”

Stuart Anderson, P.E. (Professional Engineer) joined the Iowa DOT in 1992 as an engineer-in-training, in the Systems Planning Bureau. He served various roles within the bureau until his appointment to director of the Office of Systems Planning in 2002. Most recently he has served as the director of the Planning, Programming, & Modal Division which he has held since January 2009. Anderson is a 1991 graduate of Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.

(Radio Iowa) — After two years of training, an Iowan is graduating today (Friday) with NASA’s first class of astronauts in the Artemis (ART-ah-mus) program, which aims to send humans back to the Moon and on to Mars. Forty-one-year-old Air Force Colonel Raja Chari (RAH-jah CHAR-ee) grew up in Cedar Falls. In a 2017 interview with Radio Iowa, Chari told how he was picked from among 18-thousand applicants to be in the first class of 12 astronaut candidates, but was ordered to only share the secret with his immediate family. “I was able to call my wife and that’s when there was screaming on her end and I was still in my office with all of the folks right outside the door,” Chari says, laughing. “I had to just do a little happy dance in place. It was about all I could do at the time to not totally give everything away.”

Chari has degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Air Force Academy and M-I-T, and he flew combat missions over Iraq. Chari’s wife, Holly, is a Cedar Falls native and they have three children. His mother still lives in Cedar Falls. Chari graduated from Waterloo Columbus High School in 1995 before heading to the academy. He admits he hasn’t always dreamed of becoming an astronaut but learning to fly was one of his early goals, along with studying science. “Right around eighth grade, we got a new science lab and new science tables in that lab and that was a very big deal to an eighth grader,” Chari says. “I distinctly remember, ‘Now we can do all kinds of cool things in there.’ We dissected frogs and other activities that we now have this science lab for and that really sparked my interest.”

Chari’s father came to the U-S from India to get his master’s degree and spent his entire career at John Deere in Waterloo. “My father came to the country with the goal of getting an education and realizing the importance of that and that directly translated to how I was brought up,” Chari says. “There was a focus throughout my childhood on education and that being the thing you really needed to do well to succeed.”

This is a particularly exhilarating time to be joining the space program, he says, with so many new possibilities on the horizon as NASA looks past the space station and toward missions to the Moon and beyond. With the space shuttle fleet long since retired, the prospects of being the first to pilot a completely new spacecraft into orbit are a thrill for Chari: “I wouldn’t say daunted so much as excited.” Chari is graduating at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

(Radio Iowa) — Authorities in northwest Iowa’s Plymouth County have identified the man who was killed in a traffic accident Wednesday night. Thirty-two-year-old Mitchell L. Anderson of Hinton was driving his 1999 Chevrolet pickup truck in the southwestern area of the county. Anderson lost control and started sliding off the roadway, going down a steep embankment, and rolling over into a creek bed. There were no other vehicles or passengers involved. Anderson was transported to Floyd Valley Healthcare at Le Mars where Plymouth County Medical Examiner, Dr. Sheila Holcomb conducted her examination.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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