(Radio Iowa/updated) – Senator Chuck Grassley says the confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is off to a good start this (Monday) morning. ) “I’ve continually emphasized the need for a thorough, respectful process by the committee,” Grassley says. Grassley says Democrats turned the opening hours of the 2018 hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh into a spectacle and Republicans are taking a different approach.

“What we will do, however, is ask tough questions about Judge Jackson’s judicial philosophy,” Grassley says. “In any Supreme Court nomination, the most important thing we look for is the nominee’s view of the law, judicial philosophy and view on the role of a judge in our Constitutional system.” Grassley is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We depend on judges to interpret laws as we write them,” Grassley says. “If judges impose their own policy preferences from the bench and, essentially, revise the laws we pass, it makes it harder for us to write good laws.” Grassley has said if he’s reelected in November and Republicans regain control of the U.S. Senate, he’d be able to return as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

(Atlantic, Iowa) The City of Atlantic’s Parks and Recreation Department Board held a brief Zoom meeting, Monday evening. Parks Director Bryant Rasmussen discussed several matters, including the Sunnyside Tennis Courts.

He mentioned also works continues on the Bull Creek improvement project, and on that note, that Parks and Rec was approved for a $300,000 Water Infrastructure Grant he had applied for, which will help with the costs of the Bull Creek Project. Board Chair Jolene Smith was elated to hear the news.

Bryant said also, the Atlantic Lions Club applied for a grant on behalf of the Parks and Rec Department, and were awarded $5,000 to update the Community Gardens as Mollett Park at the end of E. 3rd Street Place.

The Lions Club’s pancake breakfast benefited the Parks Department in that there will be Inclusive Playground equipment at the Schildberg Recreation Area.

In other business, Rasmussen reminded the Board, that, in conjunction with the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce, they’re bringing back the Easter Egg Hunt in the City Park, on April 16^th, and one other event the week before.

The Parks and Rec Department will also hold an “Easter Egg Cruise.”

There are 75 eggs currently out, plus 60 more available for painting and decoration by the public. Just call or stop by the Parks & Rec Department on Sunnyside Lane to pick up one of the wooden egg cutouts.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 8-a.m. on Wednesday, to act on an Atlantic Middle School Principal’s contract recommendation for Scot Aden, who is currently the Middle School Principal in the Cherokee Community School District.  Mr. Aden has worked with the Cherokee District for more almost eight-years. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from St. Ambrose University, in 1992.

Mr. Scot Aden

The process to hire a new Middle School Principal in Atlantic began with the announcement Josh Rasmussen had accepted the Superintendent’s job with the AC/GC Community Schools.

The Board of Education’s Special meeting will be held Wednesday in the Central Office Conference Room at 1406 S. 7^th Street in Atlantic.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University researchers are studying the production of blood stem cells in zebrafish in hopes of eventually growing cells to fight diseases like cancer and anemia in humans. I-S-U’s Raquel Espin Palazon says she’s found inflammatory signals from cells — triggered by illness or an injury — which could be the missing ingredient to generate usable blood stem cells in a lab.

“We know they’re needed, but we just don’t know what they’re doing,” she says. “We don’t know when to add them.” Espin Palazon says those inflammatory signals in cells are also seen in embryonic development. “People were not looking at, ‘Oh, actually, you need to add these inflammatory signals,’ you need to activate the inflammatory pathways during embryonic development or in the dish to make blood stem cells,” she says. “You need those.”

Zebra Fish used in research

Finding a matching human donor to transplant healthy stem cells, which are formed in embryos, is extremely hard and scientists can’t yet generate quality cells in the lab. The team will start by studying zebrafish because their embryos develop externally and are transparent, plus, they share more than 70-percent of their genes with humans. The research underway in Ames recently received a grant of around two-million dollars from the National Institutes of Health.

(reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has just returned after leading a weekend trip to Germany and Poland where she and nine other U.S. Senators met with government officials, refugee organizations and U.S. military commanders in Europe. She says the U.S. must send more lethal aid to Ukraine. “There is no time to waste,” Ernst said. “Every second counts in war.” It’s the second bipartisan group of Senators to travel to the region in the past week. Ernst says the group met with Ukrainian refugees as well.

“There were rightly concerned by the pace and the flow of lethal aid that congress has passed and the president has been announcing over the past week,” Ernst said. “Washington bureaucracy is once again slowing the process down.” Ernst says the U.S. and its NATO allies must figure out a way to get the Russian made fighter jets Poland has offered to Ukraine and to then equip Poland with American-made F-16s.The delegation also discussed whether the U.S. should set up a speedier process to accept refugees from Ukraine, but Ernst says that doesn’t seem to be needed.

“Right now, what we have heard from many of those Ukrainian refugees is that they hope to stay close to Ukraine,” Ernst says. “…They are hopeful that the Ukraine will win this war and then they can return home or what may be left of their home communities. Many of them are very adamant about that. They wouldn’t have left if it had been safe.” Ernst, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says Vladamir Putin is a war criminal and should be held to account by the International Criminal Court.

“He is targeting schools, hospitals,” Ernst says. “He’s killed innocent women and children.” But Ernst says the focus now should be on helping Ukraine win the war.