(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says she enthusiastically supports expanding the North American Treaty Organization. “The accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO is a great success, but regarding the war raging in Ukraine today…the U.S. cannot grow weary,” Ernst said. “Our resolve to support our partner must carry on.” Ernst says protecting American security and prosperity demands partners like Finland and Sweden who can meet NATO’s military obligations.

“Our commander-in-chief, our diplomatic and military leadership and members of the Senate must hold our partners accountable to their own defense,” Ernst said, “and not lean on the reach and lethality of our soldiers sailors, airmen, marines and guardians alone.” In 2006, NATO member states agreed to annually spend two percent of their Gross Domestic Product on defense. Ernst says some longstanding members of NATO are not meeting that obligation.

“I’m confident that Finland and Sweden are ready to stand up and help shoulder the resource burden of NATO’s military obligations in Europe,” Ernst said, “particularly following Russia’s bloody, lawless invasion of Ukraine.”

Ernst, a Republican, was in the bipartisan U.S. delegation that attended last month’s NATO summit in Madrid, Spain. It’s possible the U.S. Senate will ratify NATO’s expansion this month. More than 80 senators signaled weeks ago that they’d vote to approve Finland and Sweden’s membership in the alliance.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – (UPDATED) An 11-year-old boy from Lewis has spent the past few weeks gathering money for veterans, through lemonade sales.  Kaden Frieze set up his lemonade stand outside of Farm Bureau Financial Services on 7^th Street in Atlantic, to raise money for the non-profit Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association (CVMA). Through the guidance of his mom, the soft-spoken Kaden said he donates in alternate years to police and fire organizations, and this year it was the CVMA’s turn.

Club Secretary Benjamin Bartholomew was presented by Kaden with a check for $405. The event took place Tuesday evening in front the Cass County Freedom Rock, located in Lewis. Kaden comes from a military family.

Kaden says he hopes to become a pilot in the Air Force, when he gets older. His mom says she’ll support whatever he decides to do, now and in the future. Kaden said he donated to the CVMA, as a way to say “Thank you,” for their service. About a half-dozen members of the Iowa CVMA Chapter attended the check presentation, Tuesday. Some came from as far away as Des Moines. There are also several from Atlantic. They had a beautiful day for the ride. Ben Bartholomew spoke about Kaden and what it means to receive the donation from him.

He said also,

The mission of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association, is to support and protect those who have defended our country and our freedoms. They provide assistance to veterans, veteran care facilities and other veteran organizations and registered charities.

CVMA Secretary Ben Bartholomew receives a check from Kaden Frieze (7/12/22; Ric Hanson photo)

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(Radio Iowa) Stargazers around the globe are jubilant over the spectacular, first images being released from NASA’s new James Web Space Telescope, including Professor Keri Hoadley, an expert on far-ultraviolet astrophysics at the University of Iowa. “My first impression was, ‘Wow!,” Hoadley says. “The just sheer number of objects in this tiny patch of sky that JWST observed was phenomenal and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an image with so many objects in it before like this.”

The size of a tennis court, the ten-billion dollar Webb is the most powerful telescope ever launched into space. It replaces the Hubble Space Telescope, which is still functioning, but with 1980s-era technology. Hoadley says, “Webb is giving us a whole new view of the universe in ways that something like Hubble cannot, but with the same kind of beautiful detail that we’re seeing with Hubble, and even more.” Named for the former NASA administrator who led the agency during the moonshot years of the 1960s, Webb will be able to essentially peer back billions of years in history into the most distant galaxies.

Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field (Image from NASA.gov)

“That’s going to let us look further back in time than we’ve ever been able to do before,” Hoadley says, “to understand our origins, how the first stars formed, how the first galaxies formed and how we came to be today.” Just as exciting, she says Webb will allow researchers to study planets around other stars, gazing into their atmospheres as they search for signs of life.

Hoadley has submitted a proposal to use Webb in her own research, vying against hundreds of other space scientists for just a half-hour of time, perhaps in 2023. She wants to inspect a ring nebula which she believes collided with a star a few thousand years ago.