(Radio Iowa) – The 21st annual memorial march to honor lost children wound through Sioux City Wednesday. The march remembers Native American children all the way back to the 1880s, who have been removed from their homes and placed into foster care. Manape Lamere led the march that he says is focused on healing and wellness among the Native American community.

Lost Child March (KSCJ photo via Radio Iowa)

“We’re trying the best we can to provide not just services to Indian people, but be more proactive. And maybe Sioux City could be a hub for the rest of the state of Iowa all the foster parents and all the Indian foster parents and then all the Indians too,” he says. He says progress is being made.

“So we got a lot of bases to cover and bit by bit we’re feeling more confident in that, Lamere says. The theme for this year’s walk was “Healing our spirits, creating culturally competent systems of care.”

(Radio Iowa) – A planetary geologist at the University of Iowa is closely following one of the latest NASA missions, the recent launch of a spacecraft called Psyche. Valerie Payré, a UI professor of earth and environmental science, says the orbiter is headed for a distant asteroid, also called Psyche, which is floating between Mars and Jupiter.

“The Psyche mission is actually not landing on the asteroid,” Payré says. “It’s a spacecraft that will be orbiting around it and it will analyze the chemical composition of the surface, looking at rocks, minerals, what the surface is made of.” Research indicates the far-away rock is composed mostly of metals. Copper, cobalt and platinum are in high demand to build everything from cars and computers to cellphones and TVs.

Sending robotic mining machines to an asteroid is likely decades away, she says, but that’s the eventual goal. “There are a few companies working on this,” Payré says. “The first step is exploring, looking at the surface of these asteroids, finding the perfect metal deposit where they could extract those metals, so the first step is quite long and really important.” It’s very long, in fact, as the spacecraft Psyche won’t even reach its namesake asteroid until 2029.

Launch of SpaceX rocket carrying Psyche on October 13th. (NASA image)

Scientists are theorizing whether it’s possible to attach a rocket to an asteroid and propel it back to Earth, as that would make for a much shorter commute. “There are some companies thinking about that, to kind of like attract the asteroids into the Earth orbit,” Payré says, “because that would be easier maybe to extract the metals from a terrestrial orbit and not several hundred millions of miles away from Earth.”

Many asteroids are billions of years old, she says, and can vary in size from as big as a grocery store to the size of the state of Iowa. While it might be more convenient to mine an asteroid from Earth orbit, or at least nearby, Payré suggests that could open up another whole can of killer worms. Ever see the movie, “Armageddon”?

“I’m not sure we want to have a Moon-size asteroid orbiting around us right now,” Payré says. “That could be very dangerous for the Earth, but if it’s a small asteroid, that could be the option.” It’s thought the asteroid Psyche may be part of a former planet’s core, similar to Earth’s core, and she says this mission promises to begin unlocking some of the mysteries about valuable core minerals and metals.

(Radio Iowa) – Matthew Ung, the chairman of the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors, is calling on fellow board member Jeremy Taylor to resign. Taylor’s wife, Kim, was convicted yesterday (Tuesday) on 52 counts of voter fraud connected to elections in 2020 when her husband’s name was on the ballot.  “I hate the situation. I hate the situation that I’m put in, that the board is put in, but this is what putting principles over politics looks like,” Ung says. “It’s asking someone that you’ve served with and done good things with for nine years to resign when things just get truly out of hand.” Jeremy Taylor has not been charged, but court documents filed before his wife’s trial referred to him as an unindicted co-conspirator.

“This is a political Hindenberg of a case hurdling towards the state of Iowa and has a lot of repercussions, especially for Republicans,” Ung says, “and it is not something that I think the board is going to provide political cover for.” Ung is a Republican, as is Taylor.  “The thing that has everyone in the community confused and upset is who is taking the fall here. My heart goes out to Kim, my heart goes out to their kids,” Ung says. “…There was never a time in my campaigns where I did not know what my wife was going to help my campaign. It’s just something you don’t lose track of…what your wife is going to help your campaign. I think everyone knows that.”

Woodbury County Board of Supervisors chairman Matthew Ung (KSCJ photo)

Iowa does not have a recall process for removing elected officials. It would take action from the Woodbury County Attorney to remove Taylor from office, but Ung says that’s not something he wants to foist upon the county attorney. “This is a political question for now,” Ung says. “Yes, the county attorney can file something to remove a county officer, but there’s thresholds for that and technically (Taylor) hasn’t been charged.” The Taylors have six children. Neither Kim nor Jeremy Taylor took the stand to testify in her federal trial.

In a written statement, Jeremy Taylor said the jury’s guilty verdicts were not the outcome the couple had hoped for, but he and his wife are thankful for friends, family and community members who have stood by them.