(Wiota, Iowa) – Joining forces, the Wiota Fire Department and Wiota Community Boosters are excited to announce their annual fundraiser, a comedy night, is back! It happens Friday, February 11, 2022, and Saturday, February 12, 2022, at the Wiota Fire Department. Doors open both nights at 6:30 pm with the comedian starting at 8:00 pm.

After putting the annual fundraiser on hold last year due to COVID, officials with the Wiota Fire Department says they’re gearing up to bring back their annual Valentine’s Day weekend fundraiser event. To that end, they are currently raising funds to purchase a much-needed new truck for their department. Officials say Wiota has seen a recent surge in revitalization with the Wiota Community Boosters banding back together around a shared goal and vision of renovating the city park. Because of this, the Wiota Fire Department has decided to combine forces with them to put on this fundraising event, which will now benefit both the Wiota Fire Department and the Wiota Community Boosters. Proceeds for the Wiota Community Boosters will be ear marked for their “Let’s Build a Playground” initiative, which serves as phase one for the city park renovation project.

Tickets for the comedy night are $30/person and good for one night only. Be sure to specify if you’d like tickets for the Friday night or Saturday night event when purchasing. Your ticket gets
you in the door and a robust charcuterie board at your table. A bar will be available all evening, and drink tickets can be purchased at the door upon arrival and throughout the evening. The
doors will open each evening at 6:30 pm for drinks, food and mingling and then the comedian, Mark Poolos, will start at 8:00 pm. Seating is limited each evening and tickets are anticipated to
sell quickly!

To get your tickets for the Wiota Community Fundraiser Comedy Night, contact Mitch at 712-250-0078, stop into the Wiota Steakhouse or Venmo your ticket cost, which night you’d like to
attend and your mailing address to @wiotafire.

A man from Montgomery County was arrested Wednesday night on a warrant for Contempt of Court. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports Deputies picked-up 48-year-old Jerry Lee Dawson, of Red Oak, from Montgomery County Deputies, at around 9:30-p.m. The transfer of custody took place at the Mills/Montgomery County line. Dawson was being held in the Mills County Jail, without bond.

The Cass and Audubon County Community Foundations are reminding nonprofit organizations in both counties, that the deadline to apply for grant funds is Tuesday, February 1. Applications are currently being accepted online for the spring grant cycle with approximately $125,000 available in each county to support their respective county nonprofit organizations and community projects. Full application details, a fact sheet, and a link to the application form can be found online at www.swiowafoundations.org, and selected either Cass or Audubon County. Applications will only be accepted through the online system, and only from nonprofit organizations in each county. For example, Cass County nonprofits cannot cross over and apply for funds in Audubon County, and vice-versa.

This cycle of grants is made possible through the State of Iowa County Endowment Fund Program and is funded by a percentage of the state’s commercial gaming tax revenue, which is distributed annually to participating community foundations associated with counties without a state-issued gaming license. Only organizations providing services in Cass or Audubon County are eligible to apply. In each county, those organizations must be able to demonstrate broad community/county support and be an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) public charity, a local municipality, or a fiscally sponsored project.

For Spring 2022, the Community Foundations will entertain requests for capital and program support. General operating support will only be considered for extenuating, non-recurring circumstances. Please contact Stacey Goodman (stacey@omahafoundation.org) or Sydney Calcagno (sydney@omahafoundation.org) at 800-794-3458 with application-related questions. All completed grant applications will be considered at the March board meeting, with applicants being notified of funding decisions by the end of March.

(Radio Iowa) – Cedar Falls native and astronaut Raja Chari, who’s aboard the International Space Station, did a long-distance question-and-answer session today with cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Chari, who graduated from the academy in 1999, was asked via NASA-TV about how his mission on the orbiting station is related to future missions to Mars. “We’re increasing our sample size of people who’ve been here longer than six months, up in space,” Chari says. “The reason we’re doing that is we want to see — is the progression of human change linear, with months to years as we look at Mars, or is there a cliff? Does something happen at a year? Does something happen at 15 months? We’re trying to solve that problem. As we look at a Mars mission, we need to understand that.”

Beaconsfield native Peggy Whitson spent a record 665 days in space during three separate missions. Chari is in his second month of what’s scheduled to be a six-month stay on the space station. With current technology, it would take about six months for astronauts to fly to Mars. Chari appealed to the academy cadets who are studying rocketry and astrophysics to seek out new ways to propel our spacecraft. “If we can get there faster, that will solve the problem. Most of our problems, whether it’s radiation, human psychology, water, consumables, getting there and back and living there, it’s all because it takes so long to get there,” Chari says. “If we could have a quantum leap in propulsion technology, whether it’s electric, whether it’s nuclear propulsion — getting to accept that politically and socially — I think that would solve a lot of our problems.”

Astronaut Raja Chari talks with cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy from International Space Station. (NASA-TV)

While astronauts endure many months of training for all types of tasks, Chari says there’s one aspect about being in space for which no amount of preparation could ready you. “The thing that you can’t ever completely experience is the weightlessness and then actually how your brain is going to respond to that,” he says. “Everyone responds a little differently and you can’t quite train for that on the ground. For me, I think that was the most — not unexpected — but the most surprising thing, but what’s most amazing is how quickly your brain does adapt to it and it eventually becomes something you just naturally do, just like breathing.”

Chari is a 44-year-old Air Force colonel and this is his first mission in space, though he’s flown a multitude of aircraft, including the F-15E Strike Eagles during combat over Iraq. He’s only the 8th Iowan to reach space. His wife, Peggy, is also a Cedar Falls native and they have three children.

(Anita, Iowa) – An accident involving a semi-tractor trailer has both lanes of Interstate 80 eastbound blocked, at mile marker 69. The accident happened a little after 6-a.m. Anita Fire/Rescue & Cass EMS responded to the scene. A detour is in-place via Highway 148 and White Pole Road.

Iowa DOT Traffic CAM at mm 72 near Adair