Iowa

Potential kratom ban in Iowa City prompts fraudulent emails

Published

1 year ago

October 3, 2024

Potential kratom ban in Iowa City prompts fraudulent emails

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa City may ban the herbal substance kratom, and the potential ban has prompted suspicious emails to officials.

Kratom can produce opioid- and stimulant-like effects. It is also largely unregulated.

Lots of people are against the Iowa City ban, or at least it would seem that way if you didn’t look too closely.

Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague said he got an email from a friend. It was against the ban of kratom. It had her name and her Iowa City address. The giveaway: she’d just called Teague and mentioned she was living in Des Moines.

“I forward her the email and a text and said, ‘Did you send this?’ She said, ‘Absolutely not,’” said Teague.

City officials said they received almost 100 of these emails.

According to Bobby Kuzma, Director of Offensive Cyber Operations for ProCircular in Coralville, sending emails that seem to be from real Iowa City citizens would actually be incredibly easy to do.

“At a guess, the names were probably pulled from a voter registration list so that they appear to be members of the community or from a property owner list,” said Kuzma.

He added, “It’s something that someone with basic computer skills could probably throw together in under 30 minutes with free software.”

Kuzma said, when it comes to hearing from constituents, elected officials needed to “trust but verify.”

He added, “It’s obviously important for our elected officials to pay attention to what’s going on with their constituents and what their constituents’ concerns are. But when there’s a sudden surge of feedback about a particular topic, diving in a little deeper absolutely makes sense.”

Luckily, that’s exactly what officials in Iowa City have been doing.

“There’s a lot of weird stuff happening with this,” said Teague.

TV9 did reach out to the City Clerk’s office in Iowa City to get a copy of the email to share with Kuzma, but we haven’t received it yet.

The meeting Tuesday was just a first consideration; the kratom ban ordinance will be back on the agenda at the council’s next meeting.

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Iowa

Arrests made in SD in Iowa courthouse incident

Published

1 hour ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Arrests made in SD in Iowa courthouse incident

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Two suspects in the incident at the Lyon County, Iowa, courthouse were arrested in Spearfish, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post earlier Saturday.

The sheriff’s office identified two suspects as Brandon Lyle High Pipe, 39, and Luciano Eliseo Sanchez, 18, in a social media post on Thursday. Nationwide warrants were issued for the two suspects.

The sheriff’s office said on Tuesday the courthouse had burglarized overnight. The damage inside includes writing on walls, broken glass, tipped-over Christmas trees and other items tossed around.

The incident caused the courthouse to be closed for at least one day.

The sheriff’s office said on Saturday morning that more information should be released later.

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Iowa

Iowa City West sweeps City High in a pair of close contests

Published

13 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Iowa City West sweeps City High in a pair of close contests

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – Grace Fincham led the West High girls to a second-half comeback in a 60-51 win over City High, giving the Trojans a win on their rival’s home floor.

The Trojans improve to 6-2 with the win. The Little Hawks drop to 6-2.

In the boys’ nightcap, the Little Hawks’ comeback attempt fell short, as the Trojans held on for a 53-51 win.

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Iowa

Iowa football dissects LeVar Woods succession plan

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Iowa football dissects LeVar Woods succession plan

The loss of LeVar Woods, the Iowa Hawkeyes’ long-time, elite special teams coordinator, cannot be dismissed. The Hawkeyes have consistently been among the nation’s best special teams units, from punting to kicking to owning the return and field position battle.

With LeVar Woods departing Iowa for Big Ten foe, the Michigan State Spartans, the Hawkeyes have a big hole to fill, and head coach Kirk Ferentz spoke to the media this week on what that succession plan may look like.

“Yeah, it’s not a light decision. The trick will be to find the next LeVar Woods. He’s done a fantastic job. He didn’t have the profile necessarily maybe at that point to predict what he was going to do, but he’s done all the work. It’s like a good player; players do the work. LeVar has done a great job immersing himself and learning every aspect and then growing with each and every turn. So I guess I’m describing what we’re looking for, a guy who’s a good coach, who’s eager to take a challenge on, and immerse themselves in that world.

“Special teams is a unique niche, if you will. I’m sure we’ll have good candidates. It’s not pressing right now in my mind. What is pressing is the next two weeks getting ready for the game, and then after that we’ll have eight plus weeks or eight plus months actually to get it right. I don’t plan on waiting until August to fill it, but we’ll figure that out when we get in the new year,” Ferentz said about LeVar Woods.

The past few seasons, Iowa has been elite on special teams with kicker Drew Stevens being incredibly consistent, the punting game flipping fields, and the run of returners consisting of Ihmir Smith-Marsette, Charlie Jones, Cooper DeJean, and Kaden Wetjen.

The Hawkeyes have won more than their fair share of games relying on this unit, and to continue that success, Ferentz needs to hit on this hire.

Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions. Follow Riley on X: @rileydonald7

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