Iowa

2024 Paris Olympics wrestling: Day 6 live updates, Iowa’s Kennedy Blades’ shines

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1 year ago

August 10, 2024

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2024 Paris Olympics wrestling: Day 6 live updates, Iowa’s Kennedy Blades’ shines

The Iowa Hawkeyes have one more chance at wrestling gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, in a way almost nobody expected.

Kennedy Blades committed to the Hawkeyes in July following a stint with the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club out of high school and attending Arizona State University. She qualified for the Olympics in April by defeating Adeline Gray, a six-time World champion and a 2020 Olympic silver medalist. While Blades lost to Gray at the 2020 Olympic Trials, then at the age of 17, she got her redemption by beating one of the United States’ all-time wrestlers.

Blades, 20, is one of the premier talents of the sport as a Junior World champion in 2021, but had never made a senior-level team until making the Olympic team.

“This was honestly my goal since I was seven. 2024 was definitely my goal,” Blades said. “I’ve never even made a Senior World team, so it’s just amazing to think I made an Olympic team.”

Before she becomes a Hawkeye, she has a dream to realize, so follow along for updates here on her journey throughout the day Saturday.

Quarterfinal matches getting set for Day 6 of wrestling at Olympics

WFS 76 kilograms

Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy vs. India’s Reetika Reetika
Team USA’s Kennedy Blades vs. Cuba’s Milaimy De La Caridad Marin Potrille
Columbia’s Tatiana Renteria vs. Mongolia’s Davaanasan Enkh Amar
Turkey’s Yasemin Adar Yigit vs. TBD

MFS 65 kilograms

Armenia’s Vazgen Tevanyan vs. Mongolia’s Tulga Tumur Ochir
Japan’s Kotaro Kiyooka vs. Puerto Rico’s Sebastian Rivera
Hungary’s Ismail Musukaev vs. Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliyev
Albania’s Islam Dudaev vs. Iran’s Rahman Mousa Amouzadkhalili

MFS 97 kilograms

Azerbaijan’s Magomedkhan Magomedov vs. Poland’s Zbigniew Baranowski
Georgia’s Givi Matcharashvili vs. Ukraine’s Murazi Mchedlidze
Team USA’s Kyle Snyder vs. Cuba’s Arturo Silot Torres
Kazakhstan’s Alisher Yergali vs. Bahrain’s Akhmed Tazhudinov

Future Hawkeye Kennedy Blades puts on show in first round

About all you could do while watching this was gasp at Blades dominance of Catalina Axente.

Blades from the first whistle flashed some of the most entertaining throws and moves we’ve seen from any wrestler all tournament. First going for a slick blast double and nearly into a cradle lock for a pin. When she didn’t get that, she came right back with a four point, feet-to-back throw to lead 6-0 going into the second period.

While Axente largely slowed up the match with front headlocks, Blades still found a way in the second period to line up the move of the Olympics thus far in wrestling, going for a five-point grand amplitude throw to lock up an 11-0 win over Axente. Axente fell onto her neck and had to be stretchered off the mat.

Blades will face Cuba’s Milaimy De La Caridad Marin Potrille next, who dominated Bulgaria’s Yuliana Vasileva Yaneva with seven first period points and held on for a 7-1 victory.

Team USA’s Zain Retherford drops first match to World champion

Retherford couldn’t of asked for a tougher first opponent, drawing Iran’s Rahman Mousa Amouzadkhalili. Amouzadkhalili. He’s a 2023 world champion and a three-time age-group world champion at 22 years old competing in his first Olympics.

Amouzadkhalili’s talent flashed here, getting a 8-0 lead and not conceding from there to defeat Retherford. Now, the American will need his opponent to reach the final to have a chance at bronze.

Team USA’s Kyle Snyder rallies to advance to quarterfinals

Down 4-0 to China’s Awusayiman Habila following a review that flipped points from Snyder to Habila, Snyder went on to outscore Habila 9-1 the rest of the way to advance.

It was a scare for the American, who is a three-time world champion looking for his third Olympic medal, but he eased Team USA’s nerves with a solid finish.

Bronze medal matches getting set for for second session of Day 6

MFS 74 kilograms

AIN’s Mahamed Khabib Kadzimahamedau OR Albania’s Chermen Valiev vs. Tajikstan’s Viktor Raddadin
Team USA’s Kyle Dake vs. Serbia’s Hetik Cabolov

MFS 125 kilograms

Kyrgyzstan’s Aiaal Lazarev vs. Turkey’s Taha Akgul
Poland’s Robert Baran vs. Azerbaijan’s Giorgi Meshvildishvil

WFS 62 kilograms

Mongolia’s Orkhon Purevdorj vs. Kyrgyzstan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova
Canada’s Ana Gonzalez vs. Norway’s Grace Bullen

Kennedy Blades’ path

Blades will face Romania’s Catalina Axente, who took fifth at the World Championships in 2023 and is the No. 4 seed while Blades is unseeded. Following a win there, Blades would have the winner of Cuba’s Milaimy De La Caridad Marin Potrille or Bulgaria’s Yuliana Vasileva Yaneva. Potrille was a 2019 U23 World champion and a fifth-place winner at the 2023 Senior World Championships, while Yaneva won a 2023 gold medal at the European championships.

The top-seeded wrestler on her side of the bracket is Aiperi Medt Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan. She’s a 25-year-old World silver medalist in 2023 and a World bronze medalist in 2021. She thrashed Gray at the Zagreb Open in Croatia in a 10-0 technical fall. She’s wrestled in six World Championships prior to making this year’s Olympic team.

The 2023 World champion at 76 kilograms, and perhaps the favorite in Paris, is Yuka Kagami of Japan. At age 23, she is a World champion and a World bronze medalist, but remains on the other side of the bracket and could be a finals opponent should Blades get there.

Blades is young, but there is growing confidence as she was the betting favorite (+150) on DraftKings to win gold as of Friday night.

Who is Kyle Dake?

Dake is one of the best wrestlers in the United States at the moment as a four-time world champion and a 2020 Olympic bronze medalist. The former Cornell wrestler, where he won four NCAA titles, is Team USA’s representative at 74 kilograms.

After losing in the semifinal in an offensive showcase with Japan, Dake will face the winner of Cuba’s Geandry Garzo Caballero and Serbia’s Hetik Cabalov.

Who is Zain Retherford?

The former Penn State star, who won three NCAA championships, is hoping to remain on top of the world.

He is the reigning World champion at 70 kilograms, but he’ll be the Team USA representative at 65 kilograms in Paris. He won a World silver in 2022 as well.

Retherford has it tough from round one, facing Iran’s Rahman Mousa Amouzadkhalili. The Iranian beat Cornell superstar Yianni Diakomihalis for 2022 World gold at the age of 20 and is competing in his first Olympics. If Retherford gets through that, we’ll know he means business.

Who is Kyle Snyder?

We’ve had Michigan Wolverines compete, now it’s time for a Buckeye.

The former Ohio State star, who won three NCAA titles, is Team USA’s representative at 97 kilograms. He has won three World Championships, an Olympic gold in 2016 and an Olympic silver in 2020.

He has China’s Awusayiman Habila first. Habila has not finished higher than 26th at the Senior World championships. Snyder is the second-odds on favorite (+110) to win gold, trailing only Iran’s Akhmed Tazhudinov, who was a World champion in 2023.

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him atEmckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.

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Iowa

Iowa woman accused of pandering for prostitution and harassment after incidents at Casey’s and a daycare

Published

5 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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Iowa woman accused of pandering for prostitution and harassment after incidents at Casey’s and a daycare

AURELIA, Iowa (KTIV) – A Northwest Iowa woman is facing charges of harassment and pandering for prostitution after two incidents took place in December 2025.

Forty-seven-year-old Kristal Miller of Odebolt was taken into custody on an arrest warrant and faces three charges: one count of pandering for prostitution and two counts of first-degree harassment, according to court documents.

Kristal Miller(Cherokee County Jail)

The charges stem from two separate incidents that took place on Thursday, Dec. 18. 2025.

According to court documents, at 6:15 a.m., Miller reportedly went to the Casey’s General Store, located at 100 Pearl St. in Aurelia. Documents state Miller approached an employee and customers, requesting money from them.

Authorities state Miller claimed she was wanted by the FBI and told people, if anyone called the police, “she would kill them.”

During this encounter, she also allegedly asked an employee to remove the string from her hooded sweatshirt. Documents state when the employee refused this request, she threatened to strangle them.

That same day at 7 a.m., Miller reportedly approached a female employee outside an Aurelia daycare and asked them for money.

Court documents stated Miller suggested the unnamed employee leave her boyfriend. Miller reportedly told the employee, if she did, then she and Miller would both be paid.

Authorities say when she was told no by the employee, Miller became upset and started yelling at them.

Miller also allegedly threatened to “steal her car” and ”take her away to her guys to start a new life.”

She was booked into the Cherokee County Jail on a cash-only bond of $5,000. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled in Cherokee for Friday, Jan. 9, at 10 a.m.

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Iowa law on police appeals ‘constitutionally vacuous,’ prosecutor says

Published

17 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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Iowa law on police appeals ‘constitutionally vacuous,’ prosecutor says

The Iowa Supreme Court is reviewing a 2024 law that allows law enforcement officers to appeal their placement on a Brady-Giglio list.
A dispute between Jefferson County’s attorney and sheriff led to the sheriff being placed on the list, which identifies officers with credibility issues.
The county attorney argues the law is unconstitutional because it lets judges interfere with a prosecutor’s duty to disclose evidence to defendants.

A feud between two Jefferson County officials has landed before the Iowa Supreme Court, which must decide if a 2024 addition to Iowa’s Rights of Peace Officers law is unconstitutional.

Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding is asking the state’s high court to overturn what he calls the “constitutionally vacuous” law, which allows officers to petition the courts to be removed from their county’s Brady-Giglio list.

Named for two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the lists compiled by prosecutors identify law enforcement officers and others whose credibility is in question, and it can provide grounds for questioning their testimony in court.

After a dispute over a case involving a sheriff’s deputy’s use of force, Moulding in 2024 notified Jefferson County Sheriff Bart Richmond he was placing him on the Brady-Giglio list. Richmond petitioned a court to reverse Moulding’s decision, and a district judge did, finding Richmond’s actions in connection with the case, while unprofessional, did not bring his honesty or credibility into question.

In his appeal, Moulding argues that’s not up to the court to decide, and that the law lets judges improperly intrude on prosecutors’ professional judgment and, ultimately, defendants’ rights.

“The practical real application of (the 2024 law) is to create a Kafkaesque scenario where a criminal defendant could face the prospect of criminal charges involving a State witness who is so lacking in credibility that the State’s attorney has qualms about even calling him to testify, but is prevented from disclosure,” Moulding wrote. “Such a situation is unconscionable, and underlines the constitutional vacuousness of the statute itself.”

The court has not yet scheduled arguments for the case, which could have impacts far beyond Jefferson County. Attorney Charles Gribble, representing Richmond, said this is just one of three Iowa Brady-Giglio appeals he personally is involved in.

What is a Brady-Giglio list?

Under the Fifth Amendment, criminal defendants are entitled to due process of law. In Brady v. Maryland in 1963 and in subsequent cases the U.S. Supreme Court held that due process requires a prosecutor to disclose any known exculpatory evidence to the defense. That includes anything giving rise to doubts about the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses, including law enforcement officers.

In 2022, Iowa formalized that process by mandating prosecuting agencies maintain a Brady-Giglio list of officers whose credibility can be questioned due to past dishonesty or other misconduct. The law requires agencies to notify officers when they are being put on a list and allows them to seek reconsideration.

Being placed on a list can damage or destroy an officer’s career, as prosecutors generally will decline to call them as witnesses or to bring charges that would depend on their testimony.

2024 law gives courts a role in Brady-Giglio lists

Iowa’s 2024 law went beyond requiring officers be notified of their placement on a Brady-Giglio list by giving them the right to appeal to a district court if their prosecuting agency refuses to take them off a list. The law requires judges to confidentially review evidence and allows them to affirm, modify or reverse an officer’s Brady-Giglio listing “as justice may require.”

In less than two years, courts have reversed local prosecutors on several Brady-Giglio placements, including a messy Henry County dispute in which prosecutors accused a sheriff’s deputy of making misleading statements on a search warrant application.

What happened in Jefferson County?

The lawsuit before the Iowa Supreme Court involves an April 2024 traffic stop by a Jefferson County deputy. As laid out in a subsequent memo by Moulding, video recordings show the deputy handling the driver roughly and, when the man complains, telling him “I can do whatever I want” and, “You’re not going to tell me what I can and can’t do. … You’re going to learn what respect is, young man.”

After learning about the incident, Moulding wrote, he repeatedly emailed Richmond, asking if the deputy’s actions had violated any county policies. Richmond did not respond. Concerned about possible litigation against the county, Moulding then asked another county to conduct an investigation. While the details are disputed, Moulding accuses Richmond of stonewalling both his office and the outside investigators and instructing his subordinates also not to cooperate.

“A county sheriff ordering deputies not to cooperate with an inquiry into a deputy’s use of force represents a fundamental lapse in judgment and raised serious concerns regarding the Sheriff’s honesty, candor and ethics as a law enforcement official,” Moulding wrote.

He scheduled a meeting that Richmond did not attend and then placed him on the county’s Brady-Giglio list. In an emailed statement, Moulding called the entire matter “unfortunate.”

“Frankly, I am shocked that instead of attempting to address this matter with my office cooperatively, the Sheriff instead decided to stonewall an investigation, stonewall the Brady-Giglio investigation, and then take this matter to court instead of sitting down and addressing the matter like an adult and an elected official,” he said.

In a letter, Moulding warned Richmond that he would no longer be called as a law enforcement witness and advised him to limit his involvement with criminal investigations, as “your engagement in such activities could likely negatively impact the outcomes in court.”

Judge disagrees with sheriff’s placement on list

After Moulding denied Richmond’s request for reconsideration, Richmond filed suit. In February 2025, Judge Jeffrey Farrell ruled Richmond should be removed from the list.

Farrell’s order criticized both parties, finding that Moulding had failed to comply with some procedural elements of the law but that Richmond could have avoided the whole situation with “basic and professional” responses to Moulding’s emails. Nonetheless, he found Richmond’s actions did not demonstrate dishonesty or deceit that would justify placement on a Brady list.

“This is not a case in which an officer lied to a court, was convicted of a crime, manufactured or destroyed evidence, or committed some other act that would serve as the basis for impeachment in any criminal case,” Farrell wrote. “Game-playing the county attorney is not the standard of professionalism that Iowans expect of our elected county sheriffs,” he added, but does not constitute grounds for a Brady-Giglio listing.

Prosecutor appeals, argues law is unconstitutional

In his appeal, Moulding does not address Farrell’s factual findings, instead asking the court only to decide whether the law is constitutional.

“The most glaring constitutional defect in (the 2024 law) is that it impedes a criminal Defendant’s substantive and procedural due processes of law, and right to a fair trial,” the appeal says. “These fundamental rights constitute the bedrock raisons d’être for the entire body of Brady-Giglio jurisprudence in the first place.”

Iowa appears to be the only state with a law allowing officers to sue to be removed from a Brad-Giglio list, but Moulding cites a recent federal lawsuit where a judge rejected a South Dakota officer’s attempt to get removed from a list, finding the request “in essence, asks this Court to require a State’s Attorney to violate the constitution.” He further argues that the law violates the constitutional separation of powers and is “so poorly drafted as to be unenforceable and void for vagueness.”

Sheriff’s attorney says single lapse of judgment is not grounds for listing

Gribble, Richmond’s attorney, argued in his Supreme Court brief that the law is constitutional and that the sheriff’s actions fall well short of Brady-Giglio standards.

“Under (the 2024 law), placement on the Brady-Giglio list results not from a single lapse of judgment but rather from repeated, sustained, intentional and egregious acts over a period of time,” he wrote. “Thus, while a singular act of bad judgement may undermine a police officer’s credibility in a particular case, placement on the Brady-Giglio list places a permanent and unreviewable scarlet letter on the officer that he/she is unlikely to be able to ever overcome.”

He also suggests that a court order removing an officer from a list “does not in any way alter the prosecuting attorney’s duty to provide exculpatory evidence in all cases.” In an interview, he argued there should be a legal distinction between prosecutors disclosing concerns about an officer’s conduct in the case in which it occurred, and doing so in every future case involving them.

“To me, that’s what Brady-Giglio is for, not for occasional or first-time wrongs, even if established of a police officer, but those that have a history of that sort of thing,” he said.

The Supreme Court has not yet set a date for arguments in the case.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.

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Univ. of Iowa students practice life-saving skills through realistic medical simulations

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

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Univ. of Iowa students practice life-saving skills through realistic medical simulations

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – Some students at the University of Iowa are getting hands-on medical experience before the spring semester officially begins — and they’re doing it inside a mobile simulation lab.

Wednesday, Simulation in Motion-Iowa (SIM-IA) brought its high-tech training truck to the university’s main hospital campus during what’s known as “transitions week,” just days before physician assistant students head out on clinical rotations.

Instead of practicing on classmates, students worked through simulated emergency scenarios using lifelike mannequins designed to closely mimic real patients. The mannequins can breathe, blink, sweat, and even go into cardiac arrest — giving students a realistic first taste of what they’ll soon face in hospitals and clinics.

“So they have pulses like you and I, they have lung sounds, breath tones, so they get to practice their patient assessments — their head-to-toes, what they think is wrong with that patient, determine what treatments they’re going to offer and do,” said Lisa Lenz, a Simulation in Motion-Iowa instructor.

Lenz controls the mannequins’ movements and symptoms behind the scenes, adjusting each scenario based on how students respond in real time.

“We can kind of assess and watch and make sure they’re doing the skills that we would expect them to do, we then get to change and flow through our scenario,” Lenz said. “So we start out with a healthy patient, maybe something like chest pains and continue through states of either progression or decline.”

Faculty members say the goal is to help students bridge the gap between classroom learning and real patient care — especially with clinical rotations beginning soon.

“This is now putting book work to the clinical practice,” said Jeremy Nelson, a clinical assistant professor in the university’s Department of PA Studies and Services. “We’re getting them ready to go out to various scenarios.”

Nelson says repetition is key, especially since some medical emergencies are rare while others are unpredictable.

“They may see them 10 times on rotation, they may see them once,” Nelson said. “This gives them that ‘first touch’ so when they do see it they have a better chance of learning more and being engaged and practicing.”

The spring semester at the University of Iowa officially begins January 20 for those students. Faculty say experiences like this help boost confidence and reduce anxiety before students ever step into a real emergency situation.

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