Iowa
American Press Male Scholar Athlete of the Year: Iowa benefits from Guillory’s leadership – American Press
American Press Male Scholar Athlete of the Year: Iowa benefits from Guillory’s leadership
Published 9:20 am Saturday, July 6, 2024
- Iowa’s Luke Guillory, a two-sport athlete and National Honor Society member, is taking his leadership skills and work ethic to the U.S. Air Force Academy. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
In his four years at Iowa High School, Luke Guillory grew into a leader everywhere he went.
His academic excellence and athletic skills landed him a coveted spot at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and earned him the American Press Male Scholar Athlete of the Year.
“He is an amazing young man,” Iowa Principal Luke Dietz said. “In everything he does, he works as hard in the classroom as he works on the playing field.
“In everything he does, he wants to be truly excel. He puts the work in to be able to do that. He is just a blessing to have here at the school. He has such high character.
“Even with all the success he has had in academics and athletics, I truly believe his best attributes are probably his character, work ethic and moral beliefs. He bases everything he does around those three things. It drives him to succeed in everything he does.”
Guillory started his six weeks of basic cadet training last week. He will be required to serve at least five years of active duty and three years as an inactive reserve after graduation.
Guillory ranked fourth in his class senior class at Iowa of 140. He scored a 32 on the American College Testing exam and a 4.36 grade point average.
He was a member of the National Honor Society, student council and helped start a chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the school.
His influence extends into the community where he volunteers for Special Olympics and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
“That kid is off the charts and in the community,” Iowa head football coach Tommy Johns said. “Anytime you needed him for something, he was going to show up. He was the guy that would get everybody else to show up with him. If Luke Guillory walked into the locker room and said, ‘We are going to help this organization,’ everybody got up and followed. Nobody had any questions. That is the kind of person he is.
“All of it comes from his parents. He was raised right. His parents have a very structured home. They demand excellence out of their kids. It has been very impressive. We are definitely going to miss him, not only the football player but the person.”
Johns said Guillory started at defensive end but found his place at tight end and turned into a top pass catcher with 36 for 420 yards and six touchdowns for the state quarterfinalist Yellow Jackets.
“When he first stepped on to our campus he was shy and a little timid,” Johns said, “but you could tell he had the body and the brain to be a great player. He is very, very intelligent. He progressed along.
“I remember after his freshman year he was questioning if he really wanted to play ball. We had a long, long talk in my office, and he decided to stick with it. From that day forward, he turned into a man. He has been our leader the last two or three years. He is a wonderful person.
“Everybody in the school respects him. They flock to him. He earned that. He is a tremendous asset to Iowa High School, the entire community and our program.”
His intelligence and athletic skills helped him to become a force in the lane for the Yellow Jackets’ 2023-2024 basketball Nonselect Division II state runner-up team. He was a second-team all-District 3-3A forward.
“He is so mobile,” Johns said. “I thought he was a little stiff when he was younger, but so is every other kid for the most part. For somebody to carry around that kind of frame and that kind of weight and move like he could was very impressive.”
Iowa
US House Speaker campaigning in Iowa responds to President’s election fraud claims
DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau) — U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told Gray Media Iowa that he got briefed late Thursday afternoon, a few hours before President Donald Trump gave a prime-time speech to make his latest claims about election fraud.
“Yeah, I just got off of a telephone call literally in the motorcade as we were driving here,” Johnson said after arriving at a campaign appearance with U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R – 1st District, Ottumwa) at a Pella bakery.
Miller-Meeks is running for re-election in what is again considered a competitive race with Democrat Christina Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor from Iowa City.
This is the third straight election that the two will meet in a general election.
Johnson said the “off the record” intelligence briefing to leaders in the U.S. House and Senate previewed Trump’s new election fraud claims. He called it “blockbuster information.”
“It’s the result of an investigation that’s been ongoing for some time now about fraud and irregularity in in federal elections, American elections around the country,” Johnson said.
Gray Media Iowa asked Johnson whether he believes congressional colleagues were elected because of fraud.
He did not directly answer that question.
“…everybody’s going to be able to evaluate all that information on their own, and it will lead to other investigations, I’m certain,” Johnson said of the briefing.
He added, “we’ll have to see where all this goes.”
For years, Trump has alleged widespread fraud that cost him the 2020 election. Trump has lost dozens of court cases on the matter.
On January 7, 2021, Congress certified his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, a day after Trump supporters rushed the U.S. Capitol Building. Some attacked law enforcement officers and damaged the outside and inside of the building.
After returning to office in 2025, President Trump pardoned supporters for their crimes.
Copyright 2026 Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau. All rights reserved.
Iowa
Jaylen Raynor Wisely Predicted To Be Starting Quarterback for Iowa State Football
With the college football season right around the corner, the Iowa State Cyclones will be hoping to have a strong campaign with a new regime coming in. However, a lot of their success might depend on one key player.
Following the departure of Matt Campbell to the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Cyclones saw their roster get completely gutted. Most of their players entered the transfer portal, leaving new head coach Jimmy Rogers with plenty of work to do.
Fortunately, Rogers and the coaching staff were able to get out there and bring in a lot of new players from all over the country. While Iowa State might be lacking star power and aren’t going to be as talented as they were last year, they do have a good amount of depth.
There should be quite a bit of competition for spots in camp, but there are some players who should clearly be starters that transferred in.
Pete Nakos of On3 recently predicted who would be the starting quarterback for every team in the Big 12. Unsurprisingly for the Cyclones, it was Jaylen Raynor who was the choice.
Raynor an Easy Pick
After bringing in the three-year starter from the Arkansas State Red Wolves, Raynor instantly became the favorite to be the starter for the Cyclones in Week 1. Him being predicted as that guy should come as no surprise, and his ability to play against elevated competition on a weekly basis will be key.
There is a lot to like about Raynor’s game, and he could certainly help Iowa State exceed expectations next year.
Last season with the Red Wolves, he totaled 3,361 passing yards, 19 passing touchdowns, and a 66.5 completion percentage. It was career-highs for him in all three of those categories, showing some nice improvement in his junior season.
As a dual-threat player, he also totaled a career-high in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. The junior recorded 423 yards on the ground to go along with seven rushing scores.
Overall, the numbers for Raynor were really solid, and there is reason to believe he might be even better in his senior season. For the Cyclones, with all of the new players on the roster, there will undoubtedly be some competition for starting spots around the field. However, it should certainly be Raynor who is under center to start.
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Iowa
Weight loss drug needles creating safety risk for eastern Iowa law enforcement
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Syringes from injectable weight loss medications are turning up in drug drop-off boxes across eastern Iowa, creating a safety hazard for law enforcement officers who handle the containers.
Sgt. Erich Lear of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office said emptying the drug drop-off box is part of his daily routine — and the box fills fast.
“It’s probably a 30-gallon tote, and I’d say 3 out of the five days of the week it’s completely full,” Lear said.
Needles found mixed in with other medications
Lear said he has noticed over the past five years that people are placing medicine, nasal sprays and syringes in the bin. He said many of the syringes come from people discarding GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy.
“That tote that I pull out — there’s nothing that protects me from needles other than my observation and using gloves when I sort through things,” Lear said.
The Hiawatha Police Department said it is also seeing an increase in improperly discarded syringes.
Where syringes should go
The Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency is the proper disposal site for sharps. The agency said it has seen syringe intake increase by more than a ton in recent years.
“We’re talking about two thousand pounds of sharps and syringes coming in,” said Joe Horaney of the solid waste agency. “Before 2021 we were around 1.9, maybe 2 tons a year — now we are over 3 tons a year.”
Horaney said any Linn County resident can bring syringes to the facility, provided they are contained properly.
“We just ask that you have it in a heavy plastic container — so one of those medically certified red biohazard containers,” Horaney said. “If you don’t have that, it can be a heavy plastic container like an old laundry detergent [bottle].”
A third-party company picks up the sharps from the facility and incinerates them.
Some drop-off programs discontinued
Lear said another reason sharps are appearing at drop-off locations is that some agencies have ended their disposal programs. The Marion Police Department said it stopped offering the service after people continued to place broken glass, liquids and other garbage inside the box.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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