(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.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A former Sioux City councilman has made an agreement with Iowa environmental regulators on removing potentially hazardous materials that accumulated from his electronics recycling business. The state attorney general’s office sued Aaron Rochester in 2018, saying more than 17 million pounds of the material was being stored at facilities in Iowa and Nebraska. The Sioux City Journal reports that Rochester has agreed to annually ship at least three semitrailer loads of used or broken cathode ray tubes and/or containers of leaded glass to a federally approved treatment, storage and disposal facility.

(Radio Iowa) — It’s likely the 2020 Iowa legislature will try to adjust the state-run medical marijuana program, but it’s not yet clear what will win final approval. A bill last year would have let state-licensed growers and pharmacies make and sell slightly more potent cannabis-infused products — but after objections from a state board about raising the “cap” or limit on T-H-C, Governor Kim Reynolds vetoed the legislation. “Almost every aspect of that bill I supported and they were all recommendations from the board,” Reynold says. “The only piece that I didn’t support was the jump from where the cap is right now to where they went to.”

The state advisory board recently weighed in again, recommending an increase in the potency of medical marijuana allowed for sale at five dispensaries in Iowa — but not as much of an increase as was outlined in the 2019 legislation. “They listened to some of the individuals that have been impacted by the program and actually changed one of their recommendations,” Reynolds says. “…That was a positive step in the right direction.” The board is also embracing the idea terminally ill patients should not be subject to any limits on medical marijuana use.

Republican House Speaker-select Pat Grassley of New Hartford says it’s too soon to say what lawmakers may wind up doing. “The House, the Senate, the board and the governor have to work on a bill that we can pass in each chamber and something that the governor can obviously sign, so as I sit here, I’m not going to get into what the weeds would be on that specific issue.” Senate President Charles Schneider, a Republican from West Des Moines, has met with the governor to discuss what may be possible in 2020. “I have been a strong supporter of medical cannabis since I came into the legislature,” Schneider says. “…It’s a matter of us working together and finding a way to get something done for Iowans that makes dosing more practical for the patients and for the producers.”

Current law uses percentages for the T-H-C in state-regulated cannabis products rather than grams, which is how prescription medications which typically measured. Schneider’s also hoping lawmakers agree to expand the list of medical conditions that health care providers may recommend cannabis as treatment. The legislators and Governor Reynolds made their comments this week at a statehouse forum organized by The Associated Press.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Utilities Board has given final approval to an agreement with Alliant Energy for an electric rate increase. Alliant had requested an increase of 204 million dollars in revenue from residential customers. The amount was reduced to 127 million dollars to give the company a nine-point-five percent return. The agreement also includes a refund of seven-and-a-half million dollars for customers who paid interim rates.

The monthly customer charge will increase form 11-50 to 13 dollars for residential customers and from 19 to 20 dollars for the general service customers. Customers who don’t want an automated meter will have to pay a monthly fee of four-dollars, six cents. The I-U-B says the evidence in the rate case demonstrates that Alliant has not efficiently managed its relationships with its customers.

Alliant is required to file a comprehensive improvement plan within 90 days and review its own internal processes, and identify opportunities for improvement, and correct deficiencies as they become apparent.