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.

Two people were arrested on separate charges, Thursday, in Creston. Authorities say 28-year old Shelby Nichole Johnson, of Chariton, was arrested at around 10:40-a.m., on a charge of Theft in the 5th Degree. Her arrest followed an investigation into a series of thefts at the Creston Wal-Mart, the merchandise for which was valued at $170. Johnson posted a $300 bond and was released from the Union County Jail.

And, at around 4:55-p.m., 22-year old Aaron Jeffrey Johnson, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Suspended. He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $300 cash or surety bond.