INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) — A 68-year-old man with felony convictions who voted last November has pleaded guilty to election misconduct in eastern Iowa. Buchanan County prosecutors say William Gibson, of Hazleton, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of election misconduct and a drug possession charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 17.

The prosecutors say Gibson lied on his voter registration application when he attested that he’d never been convicted of a felony. And prosecutors say Gibson cast a provisional ballot in the November election. Poll workers suspected he was a convicted felon. Prosecutors say Gibson was on probation for a felony drug offense at the time and has had at least seven felony convictions.

Iowa bars felons from voting unless the governor or president individually restores the right. Legislative efforts to change those laws have been stymied.

Atlantic Rising, in partnership with Hy-Vee, will continue to lead the Christmas Box Program this holiday season. Bailey Smith, Executive Director at the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce says “The program was started by the Atlantic Jaycees over 20 years ago and helps families and individuals in need of a Christmas dinner.” Ashley Hayes, Program Director at the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce says “Atlantic Rising took over the program, officially, last year and had a great first season. We delivered boxes to 86 individuals and families.”

Hayes says also, “Trivia Night was continued this year as the organization’s main fundraising event and saw another packed venue, filled with excitement in February. Hy-Vee is partnering with us again this year to help with promotion of the project to reach out to as many people as possible and to supply the food items that will be in the boxes.” On December 19th, members of Atlantic Rising will help fill and deliver boxes of items families and individuals can use to cook Christmas dinner to those who have been nominated.

To nominate a family or individual, or if you are interested in volunteering, contact Atlantic Rising at 712.243.3017 or chamber@atlanticiowa.com.

The Creston Police Department reports 25-year old Jordanne Rae Beardsley, of Creston, was arrested Wednesday afternoon. Beardsley was taken into custody for Driving While Suspended, and was later released on a $300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) — A spacecraft carrying instruments designed and built at the University of Iowa is now the second man-made object to leave our solar system and it’s heading off into interstellar space. Don Gurnett, a U-I professor emeritus, helped craft the plasma wave instrument onboard Voyager 2, which has passed the outer boundary of the sun’s influence, what’s known as the heliosphere. That’s a long, long way away. “Think of the speed of light, that’s the speed at which a radio wave propagates, and it takes 19 hours now for the radio signal to get from Voyager 1 back to the Earth,” Gurnett says. “It’s just out there at a staggeringly large distance.”

This artist’s concept shows one of NASA’s Voyager spacecraft entering interstellar space, or the space between stars. This region is dominated by plasma ejected by the death of giant stars millions of years ago. Hotter, sparser plasma fills the environment inside our solar bubble. (JPL/NASA)

Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched within weeks of one another in 1977 and the first spacecraft reached interstellar space in 2012. Gurnett and his research team now confirm, Voyager 2 has joined its twin in going beyond the solar system. It’s unclear how long the sub-compact-car-sized craft will continue to send messages we can receive. “They have a nuclear power supply onboard, that’s how we get the electricity to run the transmitter,” Gurnett says. “It’s going down at the rate of about four watts per year and the best testaments might be we can continue to operate for another ten years but that’s not really certain.”

One of the Mars rovers, Opportunity, was designed to explore the Red Planet for about 90 days but managed to continue gathering and sending back data for more than 14 years. Likewise, the Voyagers are proving very long-lived. “It is amazing,” Gurnett says. “The spacecraft, we originally designed it just to get to Jupiter and Saturn. That was about a four year trip, if I remember right.” The Voyagers have enduring that four years — times a factor of ten and then some — now at 42 years and counting. They’re now traveling at roughly 34-thousand miles an hour. While deep space is very cold, perhaps 450-degrees below zero, Gurnett says now that the Voyagers are beyond our solar system, they may continue to thrive. “Once you get this far from the sun and we’re no longer flying by other planets, the temperature is very stable and that’s an important factor for the longevity of electronics,” Gurnett says. “What you don’t want is a lot of temperature variation, cyling up and down. That tends to break solder joints, in case you wonder why.”

Astronomer Carl Sagan successfully pushed NASA to have the Voyagers stocked with Earthly audio recordings, photographs, writings and even a map of our solar system, should the spacecrafts ever be encountered by other-worldly beings. The fictional Voyager 6 was the subject of the 1979 movie, “Star Trek, The Motion Picture,” as alien life forms found the far-traveling probe and sent it back toward Earth on a deadly, new mission. Gurnett says there are clear lines that draw distinctions between science fiction and science fact. “Of course, I think the chances of an alien life finding it out there are probably nil to none,” Gurnett says. “It’s really kind of a romantic idea.”

After a 60-year career at the U-I, Gurnett retired earlier this year at age 79. He says the Voyagers’ accomplishments are a milestone given their longevity — and he laughs — “the longevity of people like me.”

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A man accused of using bogus cards to steal money from ATMs in the Cedar Rapids area has taken a plea deal. The Gazette reports that 21-year-old Romica Martuica, who is from Romania, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The charges: illegal transactions with an access device and aggravated identity theft. He originally was charged with 10 related counts. His sentencing has not yet been scheduled.

A court document shows that Martuica and another man used more than 50 magnetic strip cards on Feb. 16 to steal nearly $8,700. Authorities say the magnetic cards contained the account numbers of different victims.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says he’s continuing to work on a plan to fix the flaws in Iowa’s list of people who cannot vote due to felony convictions.  “My office is going to be assigning more resources to this issue,” Pate says, “but I want to make sure the legislature is aware of that and will choose to support that effort.”

Iowa is one of two states that doesn’t automatically restore voting rights to felons who complete their sentence. The Des Moines Register has reported some Iowans have been wrongly identified as felons and their ballots were improperly thrown out.

This summer, the Brennan Center for Justice and the League of Women Voters of Iowa warned Pate that the situation might violate federal law. Pate says he’ll present options to lawmakers and they’ll decide how to proceed. “It’s kind of like a menu: ‘Here’s what we can do. Here’s what some of those projected costs are,'” Pate says. “And then the legislature and the governor’s office will have something to say about what pieces they’re going to fund.”

A Brennan Center lawyer says she expected to see Pate’s proposal released in mid-October, before this week’s municipal and school board elections.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Officials say a late harvest, wet corn and the fall chill have combined to multiply demand for propane in Iowa and other states. Iowa’s agriculture secretary told The Des Moines Register that the demand has created a supply pinch as farmers rush to bring in their crops. A Nebraska Propane Gas Association official says the shortage is more of a transport problem in meeting the propane demanded by farmers, grain elevators and rural residents.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sen. Chuck Grassley doesn’t agree with calls from President Donald Trump and other Republicans to reveal the identity of the whistleblower who first reported concerns about Trump’s dealings with the Ukrainian president. Grassley, who wrote significant portions of federal whistleblower laws, says they ensure anonymity for whistleblowers and should be followed.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Court of Appeals says an Ottumwa police chief and the local civil service commission were right to fire a police sergeant for failure to be truthful during an internal investigation into a January 2017 arrest. Former Ottumwa police Sgt. Mark Milligan was fired after an internal investigation concluded he was dishonest about his interactions during the incident in which another officer and a female juvenile argued and she was arrested on charges that were later dropped.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — A jury has convicted a man of a hate crime and other counts for tearing down and burning an LGBTQ flag flying at a church in Ames. Television station KCCI reports that 30-year-old Adolfo Martinez was found guilty Wednesday of a hate crime, third-degree harassment and being a habitual offender. Martinez was arrested in June. He told KCCI in an interview that he tore down the flag that had been hanging from the United Church of Christ and burned it because he opposes homosexuality.