Iowa
Lawsuit claiming pathology 'monopoly' is dismissed by court • Iowa Capital Dispatch
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging a group of central Iowa pathologists conspired to maintain a monopoly at the expense of patients.
The lawsuit was one of three involving allegations of unfair competition, harassment, retaliation and discrimination among central Iowa pathologists.
The suit was filed in May 2024 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa by four pathologists who last year established Goldfinch Laboratory of Urbandale – physicians Tiffani Milless, Caitlin Halverson, Renee Ellerbroek and Jared Abbott.
The four sued their previous employers, Iowa Pathology Associates of Des Moines and Regional Laboratory Consultants, alleging the two companies tried to suppress competition for pathology services in central Iowa and maintain a monopoly, all in violation of state and federal law.
Each of the companies provides dermatopathology and other pathology services for patients in central Iowa whose physicians require laboratory services that provide medical diagnoses from biological specimens.
The lawsuit alleged that since 2021, IPA and RLC pressured its pathologists to sign employment agreements that include a no-compete clause. At the time, the four IPA-employed pathologists who would later depart and form Goldfinch refused to sign the agreement.
The lawsuit claims the agreement was not intended to prohibit the use of confidential corporate information and was instead aimed at maintaining IPA’s and RLC’s monopoly on services.
As part of its lawsuit, Goldfinch accused IPA of refusing to share biopsy slides with Goldfinch pathologists, even when those slides were required to ensure the continuity of care offered to patients and even when, according to Goldfinch, the refusal “could well have caused harm to patients.”
IPA and RLC denied any wrongdoing and filed a motion to have the case dismissed. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger recently granted the motion after finding that Goldfinch failed to define a geographic market in which consumers had no other source for pathology services.
“Even assuming central Iowa is where the defendants draw a sufficiently large portion of their business, Goldfinch has not sufficiently alleged a plausible reason why potential referral sources cannot practicably turn to alternative sources outside central Iowa,” the judge ruled. “Goldfinch has not plausibly identified a relevant market as required to allege attempted monopolization.”
Two other lawsuits still pending
The federal lawsuit followed a still-pending state court lawsuit filed by IPA and RLC against the four Goldfinch partners in late 2022 that is in the final stages of litigation.
That lawsuit seeks to block Goldfinch from soliciting IPA clients or using IPA information, and alleges the Goldfinch pathologists were “flagrantly, rampantly and disloyally working against” IPA’s interests even before they left IPA.
A bench trial in that case was held last month, but the court has yet to issue a decision and recent post-trial briefs are sealed from public view.
Separately, two of the Goldfinch pathologists — Tiffani Milless and Caitlin Halverson – have filed a discrimination lawsuit against IPA and RLC, alleging they were paid $200,000 to $350,000 annually, which they claim was far less than what some of the less qualified male doctors were paid.
A trial in that case is scheduled for August 2025.
TIFFIN, Iowa — Authorities have now identified Lee Earl Krogh, 57, of Iowa City, as the man killed in a shooting outside an apartment building in Tiffin late Saturday morning.
Deputies responded to the 400 block of Iris Court at about 11:44 a.m. and found Krogh outside the building suffering from a gunshot wound, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said.
Emergency crews took Krogh to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators said the shooting appears to be isolated and does not pose an ongoing threat to the public. No arrests have been announced, and authorities have not released information about a suspect or motive.
The investigation is ongoing.
In five of six legislative special elections last year, Democrats overperformed by more than 20 percentage points compared with the 2024 presidential election.
Here are the top 2026 midterm races to follow in Iowa
Des Moines Register Chief Politics Reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel breaks down Iowa’s top races ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Iowa Democrats ended 2025 on a high note, winning a Dec. 30 special election in Des Moines’ western suburbs by a wider margin than during the presidential election.
That capped off a year in which Democrats won four of the six legislative special elections and ended Republicans’ supermajority in the Iowa Senate.
In five of those six special elections, Democrats overperformed by more than 20 percentage points compared with 2024.
They’ll look to build off the momentum going into the pivotal 2026 midterms that will include open races for governor and U.S. senator as well as regular Iowa congressional and Legislature elections.
Whether 2025’s Democratic Party victories are bellwethers or blips will play out this year.
Democrats saw Iowa special elections consistently tilt left
Though Republicans won in two special elections in 2025s, their margins of victory were significantly smaller than 2024.
Republican Wendy Larson won December’s special election for the vacant seat in House District 7 by 40 points. That’s a wide margin, but wide margins are expected for Republicans in that part of the state: The party holds strong advantages in voter registration totals in Calhoun, Pocahontas, Sac and Webster counties, where the district is located.
And even that 40-point margin represented a shift toward the Democrats.
In the 2024 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris by 50 points in House District 7. Democrats didn’t even field a candidate for the district’s legislative seat that year.
The 10-point shift toward Democrats from the 2024 presidential election to the 2025 special election in House District 7 was the smallest of any legislative district that held a special election last year.
Each of the five other districts shifted toward Democrats by more than twice as much.
Moreover, those special elections were spread across the state.
Democrats consistently gathered a greater share of votes from Senate District 1 in the northwest part of the state to House District 100 in the state’s southeast corner, ranging from 10 to 26 percentage points.
The two seats Democrats flipped in special elections — Senate Districts 1 and 35 — each shifted to the left by more than 20 points compared with the 2024 presidential election.
In Senate District 1, Trump outpaced Harris by 11 percentage points in 2024, while Democrat Caitlin Drey won the seat there by more than 10 points in August.
In Senate District 35, Trump’s victory margin in Senate District 35 was more than 21 points. In January 2025, Democrat Mike Zimmer won the district’s Senate seat by 3½ points.
In 2022, Republicans won both those seats by even wider margins than Trump in 2024.
Should Democrats expect momentum to carry over to 2026?
Pushing voters to the left in six isolated special elections is one thing. Parlaying those successes into November’s midterm elections is quite another.
Turnout was key in 2025’s special elections, and it will be again in 2026.
The numbers of votes cast in 2025’s special elections equaled roughly one-quarter to one-third the votes cast in the 2024 presidential election in those districts.
Turnout should be higher in November’s midterms.
Since 2000, the percentage of Iowa’s registered voters who have participated in the midterm elections typically has hovered around 55%. (About 75% of registered Iowans usually vote in presidential elections.)
But what determines an election is less about the number of people who show up and more about who those people are.
An increased share of those who went to the polls in the special elections were Democratic voters — or, perhaps more accurately, a greater number of Republican voters stayed home.
Republicans will be working to get those voters back to the polls this November.
Republicans maintain advantage in Iowa voter registration data
The leftward shift in last year’s special elections has yet to materialize in Iowa’s voter registration numbers.
Over roughly the past 15 years, voter registrations in Iowa have swung heavily toward Republicans.
Democrats, conversely, have lost 200,000 voters in that time, and Republicans have opened up an overall advantage of more than 10 percentage points.
Despite their victories at the ballot box in 2025, Democrats have not chipped into Republicans’ significant lead in voter registrations.
Last year was the first since at least 2000 when the share of active voters who were Republicans was at least 10 percentage points higher than the share who were Democrats throughout the entire year.
Republicans began 2026 with nearly 200,000 more active registered voters than Democrats, among their largest leads this century.
Those two parties do not comprise the entirety of Iowa’s electorate — a large share of Iowa’s active voters are not registered to a party, and a smaller amount are registered to other parties, including Libertarians.
And just because a voter is registered as a Democrat or Republican doesn’t mean they’ll vote for their party’s candidates.
But the large voter deficit indicates Democrats are starting from a less favorable position.
Their special election victories in 2025 proved they can win elections, but they’ll need to make up some ground to replicate that success in 2026.
Tim Webber is a data visualization specialist for the Register. Reach him at twebber@registermedia.com and on Twitter at @HelloTimWebber.
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IOWA CITY — Furman transfer receiver Evan James has committed to Iowa football, he announced Jan. 11.
James, who is listed at 6-feet and 175 pounds, will come to the Hawkeyes with three seasons of eligibility remaining.
James, a 3-star prospect in the 2025 high school recruiting class, had a standout true freshman season at Furman. In nine appearances, James accumulated 65 receptions for 796 yards and seven touchdowns. He also rushed seven times for 72 yards and one touchdown.
James was named an FCS 1st team Freshman All-American by Phil Steele.
James hauled in at least five catches in each of his nine appearances last season and went over 100 yards three times. James had a career-high 10 receptions against Campbell. He had a career-high 146 yards receiving against Chattanooga, which included a 61-yard catch.
James is the second FCS first-team Freshman All-American receiver that Iowa football has landed this transfer portal cycle.
The Hawkeyes also got a commitment from UT Rio Grande Valley receiver Tony Diaz. The addition of Diaz, who held offers from Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, Virginia Tech and others, was a major recruiting win for the Hawkeyes. Diaz hauled in 68 receptions for 875 yards and 11 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman last season.
The Hawkeyes are seeing the departure of some serious contributions from their 2025 receiver room. Three of the team’s top five leaders in receiving yards during the 2025 season are moving on: Jacob Gill, Sam Phillips and Kaden Wetjen. Not to mention Seth Anderson, who was tied for second on the team lead in receiving touchdowns last season with two.
On top of that, there’s a level of uncertainty regarding what Iowa’s quarterback play is going to look like in the post-Mark Gronowski era.
But there are some pieces to inspire some hope.
The Hawkeyes have done commendable work in the transfer portal to bolster the receiver room, getting a pair of productive players at a position of need. What makes it even sweeter is that they each have three seasons of eligibility remaining, giving them time to grow and develop in the program.
Reece Vander Zee is the most prominent name that can return to the wide receiver room in 2026. Dayton Howard and KJ Parker were rotational guys in 2025 and could take a step forward next season.
The tight end room appears loaded — with the return of Addison Ostrenga, Iowa’s 2025 leading receiver DJ Vonnahme and Thomas Meyer — but the Hawkeyes still need reinforcements on the outside to get the passing game where it needs to be.
The Hawkeyes will look to sustain momentum on the offensive side of the ball in coordinator Tim Lester’s third season with the program.
Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at ttachman@gannett.com
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