(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports the arrest today (Friday), of 41-year-old Ralph Cleveland, from Council Bluffs. Cleveland was arrested on an Omaha, NE, warrant. He was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.
(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports the arrest today (Friday), of 41-year-old Ralph Cleveland, from Council Bluffs. Cleveland was arrested on an Omaha, NE, warrant. He was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.
AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State women’s cross country team swept the top-six individual finishes enroute to a team title at the second annual Cyclone Preview. Maelle Porcher was the individual champion to lead the Cyclone effort.
“The athletes ran great, we had really nice stuff happen for both the men and women,” said director of track and field/cross country Jeremy Sudbury. “On the women’s side, we ended up running the whole roster. Coach (Cale) Wallace wanted to see where everybody was at and obviously get a chance to evaluate how training has been going. They’ve been training pretty hard this week and maybe doing some things they’ve never done before, so just getting that validation of ‘we’re tired but we can still run well’ was good.”
Despite losing three of its top four finishers from the 2023 NCAA Championships squad, four upperclassmen stepped up to lead Iowa State to the team title in its 2024 season opener. Porcher took the individual title in 16:58.8 while seniors Bella Heikes (second) and Taylor Briggs (fourth) as well as junior Riley Beach (third) followed. Freshman Josie Baker opened her rookie campaign with a solid fifth-place individual finish in 17:13.6 while Sydney Morrell ran for sixth in 17:14.1 to open her sophomore season.
Freshmen Claire White and Becca Heitzig rounded out Iowa State’s top-10 individual finishers, placing eighth and ninth, respectively.
“Even though we ran controlled today, it still shows us a little bit of where we’re at,” said associate head coach Cale Wallace. “Obviously (the Nuttycombe Invitational) is a 6K race versus the 5K race we ran today, so we’re preparing for that and continuing to get better running on the grass.”
Up Next
Iowa State travels to Madison, Wisconsin on September 27th to participate in the Nuttycombe Invitational. The women’s “B” race will begin at 11 a.m. CT with the “A” race set to start at 12:20 p.m.
Team Results
1. Iowa State, 15; 2. UNI, 56; 3. Drake, 71
Individual Results
1. Maelle Porcher, Iowa State, 16:58.8; 2. Bella Heikes, Iowa State, 17:02.4; 3. Riley Beach, Iowa State, 17:08.7; 4. Taylor Briggs, Iowa State, 17:12.5; 5. Josie Baker, Iowa State, 17:13.6; 6. Sydney Morrell, Iowa State, 17:14.1; 8. Claire White, Iowa State, 17:18.6; 9. Becca Heitzig, Iowa State, 17:22.0; 11. Keelee Leitzen, Iowa State, 17:34.0; 14. Makayla Clark, Iowa State, 17:37.6; 15. Mya Trober, Iowa State, 17:40.4; 16. Aspen Fulbright, Iowa State, 17:41.9; 20. Ashlyn Keeney, Iowa State, 17:47.2; 23. Camryn Sattler, Iowa State, 17:58.5; 28. Ruby Hughes, Iowa State, 18:15.6
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is working on a constitutional amendment that would make clear children do not have to testify in person — in a courtroom — against their alleged abuser. In June, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a man who argued it was unconstitutional for two children to testify against him via a live video link that was shown in the courtroom. “Iowa is the only state that has found that and so I am working in my office to draft a constitutional amendment to solve this problem,” Bird says, “because we have to protect children.”
Four Iowa Supreme Court justices joined the majority opinion that says remote testimony from children in abuse cases violates a defendant’s right to confront their accuser in court. Bird says while she respects the opinion as an officer of the court, the attorney general’s office argued the confrontation clause in the constitution does not require an in-court appearance by a child abuse victim. “They’re kids. It would be hard for them to testify in court about something good that had happened,” Bird says, “much less something really bad and awful that has happened.” Bird, a former county attorney, prosecuted cases involving child sex abuse victims. “I would advise child victims and also adult victims of crime that they did not have to look at the defendant. They are there as a witness,” Bird says, “…but these kids and other victims are often really scared to be there.”
The process of proposing amendments to Iowa’s constitution is long and 2027 is the earliest an amendment on this topic could be presented to voters for ratification. The Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling requiring in-the-courtroom testimony from children is likely to spark appeals from adults who’ve been convicted of child abuse or assault. An Illinois LAW passed in 2023 gives Illinois judges the discretion to let children under 13 testify outside the courtroom when warranted. Last year Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled prosecutors may use outside-the-courtroom testimony from older children.
Iowa will be without head coach Kirk Ferentz on Saturday when the Hawkeyes host Illinois State. Ferentz is serving a one game suspension for a recruiting violation and assistant head coach Seth Wallace will have the final call on the sideline.
Ferentz wants to see the new offense under coordinator Tim Lester play a sound game.
The Hawkeyes are a three touchdown favorite but Ferentz says upsets happen every week.
Pre-game coverage on KJAN begins at 9-a.m., Saturday, with kick-off at 11-a.m.
Iowa State opens at home against North Dakota. Cyclone Coach Matt Campbell says a key in every opener is to be sound on both sides of the ball.
Campbell says the opener always has a lot of question marks.
Campbell says season openers are unique.
Northern Iowa opens in the UNI-Dome against Valparaiso. The Panthers were 6-5 a year ago. Out of the Pioneer Football League Valpo was 3-8 last season.
That’s UNI coach Mark Farley who is not sure what to expect from Valpo.
It is the first time the Panthers have opened at home since 2010.
(Des Moines, IA) – A company that won a state contract to provide managed-care services in Iowa is seeking a court injunction blocking the state’s disclosure of certain information in its bid. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports OptumRx of Minnesota is asking a Polk County judge to declare that information the company provided the state in response to a solicitation for bids by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services is a trade secret and should be kept confidential. The bid submitted by OptumRx earlier this year was to provide managed-care oversight and administrative services related to pharmacy benefits for Iowa Medicaid beneficiaries.
DHHS’ solicitation for bids on the work specified that information submitted by a bidder might be treated as public information by the DHHS once the winning bidder was selected, unless the entity that submitted the bid requested that it be treated as confidential. On July 20, OptumRx submitted its bid in two forms: a complete, unredacted version and a version that was redacted to omit information the company considered confidential or proprietary. On Aug. 16, DHHS awarded the contract to OptumRx. Three days later, DHHS sent the company a notice that the state agency had received a request for a complete copy of OptumRx’s bid.
The department told OptumRx it would have 72 hours, beginning on Aug. 20, to seek injunctive relief blocking disclosure. The department also indicated the company’s unredacted bid was being sought by MedImpact, a Michigan-based company that had submitted a competing bid on the project. OptumRx alleges that the information sought by MedImpact would give that company an advantage over its competitors and that disclosure will serve no public purpose. In court filings, OptumRx says the information it seeks to keep confidential “includes things such as employee and client management information, customer information and references, performance analytics, a description of its processes and metrics used to perform the requested services, project management and work turnover plans.”
The company alleges that “MedImpact regularly bids against OptumRx for similar Medicaid contracts,” and that MedImpact would “benefit from having such information for their competing bids in other states.” OptumRx is seeking a court order temporarily and permanently enjoining DHHS from releasing the unredacted copy of its bid.
DHHS and Medimpact have yet to file a response to the court petition. A hearing on the matter has not yet been scheduled.
(Des Moines, IA) – The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today (Friday) said “Through the Safe Haven Law, a baby girl, born July 30 is now in the care and custody of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, and will be placed with foster families until permanent placement is determined.”
Officials say that brings the overall total to 71 infants since the law went into effect more than two decades ago. This is the fifth case so far in 2024. In 2023, ten infants were relinquished to HHS custody under the Safe Haven Act. 
Iowa’s Safe Haven Act is an option for parents in crisis who determine they cannot care for an infant up to 90 days old. Designated safe havens are locations like hospitals, police and fire stations, etc. Iowa HHS then works to place infants in in approved foster homes while awaiting permanent adoption.
If you are interested in becoming a foster parent or adopting a child, visit https://iowafosterandadoption.org/ to learn more about becoming an approved foster or adoptive family. For more information on Iowa’s Safe Haven, visit https://hhs.iowa.gov/programs/CPS/safe-haven.
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ALTOONA, Iowa — [KCCI] – Friday (Today) is the last day of production at the Smithfield meat processing facility in Altoona. The company announced this summer that the ham boning facility at 612 Adventureland Drive NE, would close and 314 workers would be laid off. According to Iowa WARN, a state-run log of notices of layoffs, 319 employees will be affected.
Smithfield’s Altoona production is expected to be consolidated at locations in Monmouth, Illinois; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Crete, Nebraska. The company said the move will help improve the efficiency of manufacturing. A news release from Smithfield said the company would provide transition assistance to the Altoona employees, “including severance, financial incentives to assure business continuity and potential employment opportunities with Smithfield.”
UFCW photo
Iowa Workforce also provided help to the workers, including a job fair in July.
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