(Radio Iowa) – Iowa native and former astronaut Peggy Whitson will come out of retirement and return to weightlessness next month as the first female commander of a private space mission. Whitson, who grew up on a farm near Beaconsfield, will lead a four-member crew on a ten-day mission to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX capsule. Already a veteran of three trips to orbit, Whitson says she and her crew have spent months training for the mission at various locations.

NASA file photo

Axiom 2 is slated to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on May 8th aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Whitson says the crew plans more than 20 different experiments aboard the space station, including those related to science, outreach and commercial activities.

Axiom plans to launch the first module of its commercial space station in 2025. Whitson, who’s 63, retired from the NASA astronaut corps in 2018. She says she’s particularly intrigued by one of the experiments.

Whitson holds the record among American astronauts and women for the number of days in space at 665. She was the first female commander of the I-S-S and the only woman to serve as its commander twice. In addition, Whitson holds the record for most spacewalks by a woman at ten, and during her last mission, became the oldest woman in space.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa House of Representatives passed 13 bills with 11 having bi-partisan or unanimous support. Republican Representative Thomas Moore, from Griswold, in his weekly report, highlighted the Parent Empowerment Bill. The Iowa House of Representatives he says, passed SF496 which contains many education proposals. The House amended this legislation, sending it back to the Senate for their consideration. It does the following and has a number of requirements:

Among the requirements, is: Full access to an online library;  The identity of parent/guardian who requests removal must be kept confidential, and Students are no longer allowed on book review committees. Moore said there are sections of the bill that pertain to Parents Rights Language, Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Survey Language, and Special Education/Home School Language.

With regard to the Special Education section of the bill…

Other amendments to SF496…

If a student requests an accommodation for a gender identity different than their sex at birth, the bill says the teacher must report that to the their administrator and the administrator contacts the parent/guardian.

Rep. Tom Moore (R-Griswold)

Representative Thomas Moore can be reached at tom.moore@legis.iowa.gov and (712) 789-9954. If you would like to set up an in-person meeting or would like to visit the capitol please let him know.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Police in Glenwood report a Nebraska man was arrested Thursday on a repeat OWI offense. 36-year-old Benjamin Muitu, of Bellevue, NE, was taken into custody for OWI/3rd Offense. His bond was set at $5,000.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – If you have documents you no longer need and are not comfortable with throwing in the trash, bring them to the Spring Shred Day and Scouting for Food Drive this Saturday, April 8th, in Atlantic. Ken Moorman, with Friends of the Atlantic Public Library, says the two-in-one event will make it easy for you to get rid of old papers, and it serves a good cause. Shred Day is an annual event.

Moorman says Boy Scout Troop #54 will coordinate traffic control and take your boxes, bags or bundles of paper. No Commercial paper, please.

Once they take your paper, you’ll move your vehicle forward and have an opportunity to make a donation to the Scouting For Food Drive, with your cash or non-perishable items be delivered to the Atlantic Food Pantry.

Non-perishable food donations include…

The Shred Day and Food Drive takes place Saturday, April8th, from 9-to 11-a.m., outside the Atlantic Public Library.

(Radio Iowa) – G-O-P leaders in the legislature are considering a formal response to a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling critical of so-called “logrolling” in the lawmaking process. The justices concluded proposals that didn’t have majority support were attached to a bill during a vote taken well after midnight in the Iowa Senate, violating the constitutional requirement that each bill address a single subject. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says the ruling raises concerns. “That decision will now make its way back through the court system and we will definitely want to get involved with a brief from our standpoint on legislative intent,” Whitver says.

The ruling also accused a state senator of misrepresenting the contents of the bill to sway votes. Whitver says assigning a single reason for every yes vote on a bill is questionable. “I believe legislative intent is whatever is on the paper and to ask why a legislator votes for a bill — there could be 20 different reasons or 30 different reasons,” Whitver says, “and so to say: ‘This is the legislature’s intent’ is problematic. Whatever’s on the paper is the intent of the bill.”

A spokesperson for House Speaker Pat Grassley says leaders are reviewing options and the House is interested in doing something to respond to the ruling, but no decision has been made. Last month’s Iowa Supreme Court decision centered aroud a 2020 Iowa law that was changed by language added to a bill on another subject. The justices ruled the law had unfairly prevented out of state companies from bidding to build transmission lines in Iowa and the case was sent back to a district court.

(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department report two people were arrested on separate OWI charges this (Friday) morning. At midnight, 51-year-old Pedro Quintanilla-Flores, of Lenox, was arrested at 509 W. Taylor St. He was charged with Operating While Under the Influence (OWI) – 1^st Offense, and Driving While License Suspended. Quintanilla-Flores was being held in the Union County Jail on a $1,300 bond.

And, at around 2:15-a.m., Creston Police arrested 30-year-old Abel Estuardo Vargas Blanco, of Richmond, Virginia, at Elm and Freemont Streets, in Creston. He was charged with OWI/1st offense. Blanco was taken to Union County Jail and released after posted at $1,000 bond.

(Oskaloosa, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Thursday, said a man suspected of shooting a man in Oskaloosa, Tuesday night, was arrested Thursday, in Missouri.  22-year-old Gavin Jones was taken into custody in connection with an incident whereby another man was shot in the leg. Jones faces a charge of Willful Injury causing serious injury.

Gavin Jones (latest booking photo)

Original story follows…

“On Tuesday, April 4, 2023, at 10:16 p.m., officers with the Oskaloosa Police Department were dispatched to 709 D Avenue West on the report of a shooting. Responding officers found an adult male with a gunshot wound. Officers and EMS rendered aid at the scene. The man was transported to a Des Moines area hospital, where he remains.

As a result of the overnight investigation, officers with the Oskaloosa Police Department and agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation are seeking help from the public to locate 22-year-old Gavin Jones. Authorities say “This incident appears to be isolated, and there is no known ongoing threat to the public.”

Gavin Jones (photo issued in the 1st press release by the DPS)

(Radio Iowa) – This week’s NASA announcement naming the four astronauts who will crew the Artemis Two mission to the Moon is being called “historic” by a physics and astronomy professor at the University of Iowa. Professor Allison Jaynes says she was thrilled to see astronaut Christina Koch assigned to the lunar mission, the first in more than 50 years. “Having her to be one of the first people to revisit the Moon is very substantial because we are living in a society where we’re still talking about and arguing about these issues of equality,” Jaynes says, “and so having her be selected, and Victor Glover as well, is an incredible decision.”

Glover will be the first black astronaut to orbit the Moon. All previous Moon missions were crewed entirely by white men. Artemis Two will fly around the Moon late next year or early in 2025, while later missions aim to -land- on the Moon’s surface, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since 1972. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the Shuttle Challenger in 1983, and women have played an increasingly important role in the program over the decades. Still, Jaynes says there are glass ceilings in space, too.

Artemis 2 crew

“You might say cowboys are the ones we think of when we think of astronauts,” Jaynes says. “Women still aren’t the image of an astronaut. When you say ‘astronaut’ to a bunch of schoolchildren, they will assume a man, they will assume a male astronaut. So this spaceflight, it’s really going to change the way that students and children and everyone around the world views astronauts.”

Iowa native Peggy Whitson, who retired from the astronaut corps in 2018, is among the most accomplished space travelers. Whitson, who was born in Mount Ayr and raised on a farm near Beaconsfield, spent 665 days in space — a record for any American astronaut. She was the International Space Station’s first science officer and its first woman commander. In addition to the space endurance record, Whiston logged more EVAs — or spacewalks — than any other woman.

(Radio Iowa) – The president of the University of Iowa cut a virtual ribbon during an online ceremony Thursday afternoon, to open what’s known as a digital twin replica campus. The so-called “metaversity” will be used for online learning as well as campus labs for residential students. Steve Grubbs is the founder of Victory-X-R, a Davenport-based tech company that creates 3-D immersive educational environments.

Victory built an online replica of the Pentacrest and the Tippie College of Business where remote students can go to class, just as if they were actually on campus. Thursday’s launch of the Metaversity of Iowa only makes a couple of courses available, for starters, but students who attend those courses will be able to attend from anywhere.

Other Big Ten schools are using virtual reality for this type of distance learning, but Grubbs says the U-I is the first to launch a full digital twin campus. He says 40-percent of today’s students already take classes remotely.

(Radio Iowa) – The U-S-D-A will become responsible for the Iowa Wesleyan campus in Mount Pleasant when the university closes May 31st and U-S Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says it’s too early to tell what’s next. “Our folks will work with the community to see what the options could be,” Vilsack says. “I mean there’s a variety of opportunities to think about. I’ve asked the team to be very creative about this.” Last week, the university’s board of directors voted to close the school at the end of the current semester.

“Right now the community’s hurting. There are people whose lives are turned upside down and in that circumstance and situation you’ve got to be able to say to them: ‘We feel for you and we’re going to try our level best to create something good out of this that will help the community,” Vilsack says. Iowa Wesleyan has had significant operating losses for years and nearly closed in 2018. The university owes 21 million on a U-S-D-A loan and another five million dollars on a bank loan that was guaranteed by the U-S-D-A.

“One of the reasons we invested and have invested in other colleges across the country is that they’re an economic driver. They’re a job creator…A lot of opportunity can be generated by a college in a regional area,” Vilsack says. “Wesleyan, I think they did an evaluation. They had a $50-70 million dollar impact on the community every single year, so that’s real and obviously the community is going to have to be dealing with the potential of how do we replace that.” Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, was mayor of Mount Pleasant in the late 80s and early 90s. Vilsack says he’d like U-S-D-A staff to avoid dividing the 60 acre campus into parcels and selling off individual buildings.

“I’d like them to start working with the college to see whether or not there are other universities or colleges that might be interested. Are there other folks that might be interested in a campus of some kind? Are there agencies of the federal government, for example, that might be thinking about training facilities and could this be an opportunity,” Vilsack says. “People need to think creatively at this point to try to keep it as a whole, if possible, and keep it as the economic driver that it has been.”

Vilsack’s wife Christie is a Mount Pleasant native and Tom Vilsack told reporters yesterday (Thursday) that she recently resigned from Iowa Wesleyan’s board of trustees and Vilsack says that means he may now speak and be involved in decisions about the campus property. Five years ago, the Vilsacks hosted a three day event on Mount Pleasant radio station K-I-L-J that raised more than a million dollars for Iowa Wesleyan.