The Cubs have officially signed the following draft picks:
Iowa
Iowa State basketball touches its ceiling in win over Texas Tech | Hines
KANSAS CITY – What would it look like, if you closed your eyes and let your imagination soar, for Iowa State to play its best basketball?
The defense would be electric, connected and furious. Joshua Jefferson would be dictating and dominating offensively. Tamin Lipsey would make every critical play. The bigs would be tough, active and productive. Loose balls and tough plays would both go in the Cyclones’ direction. There would be contributions up and down the rotation.
It would look a lot like what happened at T-Mobile Center on Thursday, March 12.
The seventh-ranked Cyclones unleashed perhaps their best and most complete performance of the season in their 75-53 smackdown of No. 14 Texas Tech to advance to the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.
“Against that caliber of opponent,” said Iowa State senior Nate Heise, “that’s probably our best game. That’s always what you want to be able to do at the end of the year and be able to stack it – yesterday to today and hopefully tomorrow.
“It was fun to watch how everyone stepped up today.”
It was fun to watch an excellent team play excellently, truth be told. These Cyclones have touched their ceiling before, but those wins against Kansas and Houston are now nearly a month old. When these Cyclones get going, there are only a handful of teams that can stop them.
The Red Raiders weren’t one of them.
“You can tell,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said, “they had an edge and had the right edge in order to win this basketball game.”
There was lots to love for Iowa State. Between Lipsey’s 20 points (and four made 3s), Heise’s tip dunk, Jamarion Batemon’s timely shooting and the physical, Killyan Toure’s never-say-die hustle and the efficient play of centers Blake Buchanan and Dom Pleta, Iowa State’s play was a symphony.
Most impressive of it all was how Jefferson directed the music.
Iowa State’s All-American was at the absolute height of his powers. The 6-foot-9, 240-pound power forward wasn’t so much playing basketball as he was controlling everything around him. And I mean everything. I’m not ruling out that space and time were under his direction.
His 18 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a steal only hint at the extent to which he influenced the game, but Jefferson’s command was exquisite. It seemed, at times, that whatever unfolded on the court was doing so only with his permission and at his instruction.
“I think that was huge,” Jefferson said of his play and feel for the game. “Playing on the fly and playing with freedom and playing with confidence is the biggest thing for us.
“That’s when we’re at our best – when I’m more vocal and leading that way. Sometimes I can fall away from that if I’m not confident in myself. If I’m being confident in myself, that’s going to feed the team.”
And Iowa State ate well.
Iowa State basketball beats Texas Tech, advances to Big 12 semifinals
Iowa State basketball beats Texas Tech, advances to Big 12 semifinals
The Cyclones shot 53.6% from the field and 38.9% from 3-point range. They committed just 10 turnovers and led by as many as 24, which is impressive, sure, but when you consider the Cyclones trailed by 12 after the first six minutes, it’s incredible.
Texas Tech shot 33.9% from the floor, 31% from deep and saw the Cyclones just steamroll right into the semis where a rematch with No. 2 Arizona awaits.
The Wildcats dispatched the Cyclones with ease, 73-57, in Tucson last week, but this looked like a different Iowa State squad playing at an entirely different level than what happened at the McKale Center.
“We all believe it’s sustainable,” Lipsey said. “We’re playing our best basketball of the year. That’s exactly what you want to do this point in the year.
“We can play like this moving forward.”
If they can and if they do, the Cyclones are going to be push right against their ceiling and, maybe, push themselves into the Final Four.
“We played well today,” said Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger. “Was it our best? I think our best is still in front of us.”
After a day like this one, it’s not hard to imagine what that might look like and where it could take them.
Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
What is an indictment? Here’s what you should know
In American courts, an indictment is a formal notification that an individual has been charged with a crime.
A shortfall in funding is endangering one of the last lifelines for imprisoned Iowans seeking to challenge their criminal convictions.
Affiliated with the national Innocence Project, the Midwest Innocence Project investigates and litigates wrongful conviction claims across five states, including Iowa. That work is at risk after recent federal funding cuts have forced the organization, founded in 2001, to slash staff, and raise the possibility it may have to close altogether.
Ken Nixon ― a board member who was himself exonerated and freed from a life term because of the work of innocence advocates ― said the recent federal cuts have affected close to half the Midwest Innocence Project’s annual budget. The loss of funding has crippled the group’s ability to pursue the time- and resource-intensive work of proving a jury got it wrong.
“We’re accumulating documents that are sometimes decades old, tracking down people that have moved and may be in different states, having to travel sometimes. That requires a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of manpower for cases that can be extremely old sometimes,” Nixon said. “So, when you factor in that the Midwest Innocence Project lost close to $1 million in funding just from the federal government alone, that’s a problem.”
The project already has had to cut a quarter of its 12-person staff. It has enough money to continue operating through the end of the year, Nixon said, and is actively fundraising online, but if its finances don’t improve it faces further cuts or even closure.
“If the Midwest Innocence Project eventually has to close its doors, which I don’t think it will, just to be clear, that would affect lots of people,” he said. “We are the only organization in the region fighting for this cause, and the last resort for a lot of innocent people. It would be a travesty if that were the end result.”
Currently, the organization is serving 21 clients, Nixon said, with 10 cases under investigation and 11 in active litigation. Some of those cases are in Iowa, where the project has teamed up with the Iowa Public Defender’s Office to represent clients like James Mayberry, who is challenging his conviction in a 1985 Iowa City murder.
Erica Nichols Cook, who leads the public defender’s wrongful conviction unit, said the Midwest Innocence Project has been an important partner not just in litigating cases, but in research and advocacy to prevent future false guilty verdicts.
“They’ve just played such an integral role that losing their experience and knowledge and advocacy will set Iowa back even further in our efforts to ensure we have a more just system,” she said, noting she faces certain constraints as a public employee. “Midwest Innocence Project has been really important to advocate without being part of the Iowa legal system and figure out what’s working and what’s not.”
Midwest Innocence Project also provides post-exoneration support
The Midwest Innocence Project also supports people after their exonerations, both with short-term needs such as housing and a longer-term sense of community.
Teresa Engberg of Council Bluffs was convicted of manslaughter in the death of her infant in 1997, but her conviction was reversed the following year. More than 20 years later, she met a Midwest Innocence Project staffer at an event organized by Nichols Cook, which resulted in an invitation for her to attend a national conference.
“Let me tell you, that was something else, to go to an Innocence Network conference where there’s all these other exonerees who understand what you’ve been through,” she said. “It was extremely emotional, but it’s also been very healing.”
Today she continues participating in a biweekly support group for exonerees that the project organizes, and said she’s deeply concerned by the organization’s financial woes.
“It would be just devastating to think about all the people that, for starters, aren’t going to have somebody working on their case,” she said. “And then for all of those that have gotten out already, they’re losing that connection and that support locally.”
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.
A proposed data center in Clinton, Iowa, is dividing residents
Recently, a split City Council in Clinton chose not to place a moratorium on any new data center projects.
A recent item on DesMoinesRegister.com invited Iowans to share their thoughts about data center construction and how their elected leaders are handling to push to build more of the facilities. Below is a selection of the responses we received.
Don’t give public benefits to data centers few people want
Anyone remember the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008? The Chrysler Motor Co. bailout in 1979? How about the savings and loan crisis in the 1990s? These all involved large, for-profit companies owned primarily by shareholders.
Big companies have come to expect preferential tax treatment, subsidies and bailouts. They expect taxpayers to pick up the tab if they fail.
If Big Tech falters with its intention to impose data centers on our society, the same thing will happen.
Data centers and the CO2 “Pipeline to Nowhere” present some similar threats: water resource exploitation, decreased property values, higher utility rates, health and safety risks, and dismal prospects for human employment. Taxpayers will be expected to carry the load despite the fact that hardly anyone wants the data centers or the pipeline.
The top seven Big Tech oligarchs increased their wealth by $1.7 trillion since 2024. They are likely to come crying if things don’t work out. Let’s collectively decide that data centers are a problem and show resistance. Pay attention to what is going on with decision makers. Especially at the local and county level.
Jeff Milks, Oelwein
How long will data centers’ consumption be sustainable?
The mayor of Council Bluffs got it right. Mayor Jill Shudak proposed a moratorium on new data centers to the Council Bluffs City Council. The council voted it down, citing a possible loss of economic growth.
Council Bluffs is home to two of Google’s hyperscale data centers, which are massive computing facilities, typically spanning over 10,000 square feet and housing 5,000 or more servers. These facilities consume massive amounts of water and electricity.
A third hyperscale center is under construction. Given the massive consumption of our natural resources, a pause or moratorium makes sense, we need to figure out what is sustainable in the long run.
Patricia Fuller, Council Bluffs
Companies shouldn’t need our help to build data centers
Why are our elected officials in such a hurry to give our resources to big tech, especially by moving forward with or without the approval of the communities they serve, such as Palo?
The officials who believe these data centers will be such a benefit to their communities should be talking to the people who are already affected by these centers. The U.S. Department of Energy has directed grid operators to order some large data centers to switch to on-site backup generators so there will be enough power for regular citizens. It does not require an extensive search to find information as to why so many people who live where data centers already exist are opposed to them; higher energy costs, massive water consumption, noise, just to name a few.
The data centers should cover their own costs rather than receiving billions of dollars in financial incentives from state and local governments and not be built in communities where the community members oppose them.
Lori Amos, Center Point
Each data center forever changes Iowa’s landscape
“Take your medicine, it will be good for you. And here is a little something extra to make it taste better,” said every developer coming into Iowa who wants to gobble up more precious land for a project with questionable merit.
Iowa soils have a structure that once disturbed may take years to recover from, if they ever return to past productivity.
Hog confinement buildings represent thousands of acres of disturbed soil covered with concrete. Housing and urban sprawl continue to eat up fertile land. Wind turbines cover their development tracks by leveling and seeding disturbed soils at the project’s conclusion, but during development each turbine build causes a shocking amount of soil destruction.
And now we have data centers creating a huge footprint over the soils of our state. As energy needs rise with the growth of data centers comes expansive new power plant builds. Any of these endeavors alone might be causing minimal loss of acres, but this is all happening together. We need to stop and seriously assess what this means for our future as an agricultural state. Who is benefiting by exploiting our land?
Every developer has a well-thought-out strategy to convince us this is all good for us. We don’t need manipulative strategy. We need transparent and honest information and an Iowa-first strategy going forward. This is for us to decide. not them.
Berleen Wobeter, Toledo
Data centers are OK if resources are available
If the water resources are readily available to handle the needs of these centers, I think they are something local governments should consider.
John Torbert, Clive
For data centers, the product doesn’t at all justify the cost
I am worried that data centers are a significant drain on our resources, contribute to increased energy bills for residents, and are primarily used to gather data that is sold online.
Furthermore, if people are against traffic cameras and government surveillance, it follows that they should also be against the data centers that collect and store this information.
John Moore, Newton
Don’t invest to enable government surveillance
They are called data centers. What they really are is mass surveillance centers. They will be leveraged for government and corporations to track individuals and much more. Building them and disrupting wildlife and Iowa’s beautiful landscape is just sinful.
Mary Crist, West Des Moines
No new data centers in Iowa
Data centers are a huge concern for thousands of Iowans. That’s what Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement learned from a statewide survey we did in May.
They gobble up our water, energy and farmland, among other things. And they also gobble up our tax dollars to the tune of billions each year through property tax abatements, sales tax exemptions and other subsidies.
The technology that data centers use may be new, but the underlying story has been around a long time: big corporations profit by extracting and over-using our finite resources, while offloading the costs onto taxpayers and our communities.
People are turning out in large numbers to tell their elected officials: No new data centers in Iowa! So far, nearly 20 Iowa counties have passed data center moratoriums. More are needed.
Analysts say the current AI data center expansion far exceeds what we need for our normal, day-to-day lives, which makes me wonder: Is this mostly about putting a lot more money in the pockets of Big Tech’s wealthy tycoons?
Let’s use some common sense and put a long pause on this too-fast, too-much expansion. Prudence will serve us well.
Hugh Espey, Des Moines
1st round—RHP Cade Townsend
3rd round—RHP Carson Jasa
4th round—RHP Dylan Marionneaux
7th round—LHP Cole Tryba
10th round—RHP Luke Alwood
Catcher Owen Ayers was promoted from Double-A Knoxville to Triple-A Iowa.
Right-hander Jace Beck was also promoted to Iowa from Knoxville.
Right-hander Kevin Valdez was promoted to Knoxville from High-A South Bend
Catcher Miguel Useche also went from South Bend to Knoxville.
Smokies right-hander Yenrri Rojas was transferred to the development list.
Iowa Cubs right-hander Liam Hendricks, right-hander Kyle Wright, left-hander Aaron Bummer and catcher Eric Yang have all been released.
Right-hander Jake Woodford has elected to become a free agent.
If I missed anyone, I apologize. I know there are a lot of announcements on amateur free agents, but none of those have been made official yet.
The Iowa Cubs were edged by the Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals), 10-9.
Jaxon Wiggins started this game and ran into a lot of trouble in the third inning, giving up five runs. The final line on Wiggins was five runs on two hits and five walks over 2.2 innings. Wiggins struck out three.
Iowa fought back and took the lead with a four-run fourth and a two-run fifth, but the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead. Corbin Martin ended up getting the loss after giving up a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. Martin’s final line was one run on three hits over 1.1 innings. The run was unearned, but it was his own throwing error that caused it to be unearned, so he has no one to blame but himself. Martin walked two, one intentionally, and struck out one.
Iowa had 12 hits and ten walks in this game, but all 12 of the hits were singles.
Center fielder Brett Bateman was 2 for 6 with three RBI and one run scored.
Third baseman Owen Miller was 2 for 5 with two RBI.
Second baseman James Triantos was 2 for 4 with a walk and a run scored.
DH Owen Ayers didn’t slow down in Triple-A. Ayers was 3 for 4 with a walk and a stolen base in his I-Cubs debut.
Nice defense from Bateman.
Martin took the loss in the ninth, but he got out of trouble in the eighth on this nifty double play.
The Knoxville Smokies were burnt by the Montgomery Biscuits (Rays), 5-1.
Luis Martinez-Gomez was activated off the injured list and pitched the first four innings. Martinez-Gomez allowed one run on two hits, with one of those hits being a solo home run in the fourth. He walked two, hit one batter and struck out one.
Evan Taylor pitched the next two innings and got the loss after allowing one run on two hits. Taylor struck out one and walked no one.
The Smokies managed just three hits tonight. DH Andy Garriola was 1 for 2 with a sac fly. Right fielder Alex Ramírez went 1 for 4 with a double and he scored on the sac fly.
The South Bend Cubs were caged by the Peoria Chiefs (Cardinals), 9-3.
Starter Ethan Flanagan pitched 3.1 innings and surrendered two runs on two hits. The two hits were a triple and a home run though. Flanagan struck out five and walked no one.
Luis Rujano had a rough go of it and took the loss. Rujano got rocked for five runs on three hits and two walks over just one-third of an inning. He struck out one.
First baseman Josiah Hartshorn was 2 for 3 with a walk. He had an RBI single in the third inning and later scored in that frame.
The Myrtle Beach Pelicans got blasted by the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (White Sox), 9-1.
Emilio Ramos started and got the loss after he was tagged for three runs on four hits over just two innings. Ramos walked three and struck out one.
Just four hits, all singles, for the Pelicans. Left fielder Ethan Conrad was 1 for 3 with a walk.
Alexis Hernández was also 1 for 3 with a walk. He scored once.
Second baseman Ezequiel Pena hit his first professional home run.
-
Georgia3 minutes agoGeorgia Bulldogs News: Big time commitment, injury rumor, Stetson Bennett disrespect
-
Hawaii9 minutes agoHilo Orchid Show returns – Hawaii Tribune-Herald
-
Idaho15 minutes agoOPINION: Repudiating Idaho’s voters is tempting fate
-
Illinois21 minutes agoIllinois woman dies in ATV crash near Big Rapids, deputies say
-
Indiana27 minutes agoSee all the records Kelsey Mitchell and the Indiana Fever set vs New York Liberty
-
Iowa33 minutes agoFederal funding cuts threaten Midwest Innocence Project, active in Iowa
-
Kansas39 minutes agoVOTE: Kansas City ice cream spots up for national honor
-
Louisiana51 minutes ago41-year-old killed in early morning Scenic Highway crash, LSP says
