The next step in the maturation of the Iowa Hawkeyes’ offense under offensive coordinator Tim Lester lies with the wide receiver group. To open things up, the Hawkeyes need their pass catchers to take the next step and become a viable weapon in the offensive scheme.

Iowa returns Reece Vander Zee, Jacob Gill, and Seth Anderson, who have all flashed at times but have not sustained consistent output. Part of their answer to this group could be the addition of a transfer portal player from Chattanooga, wide receiver Sam Phillips.

Phillips comes to Iowa after spending three years with Chattanooga, where he earned a spot on the SoCon All-Freshman team in 2022. His output has been strong, and it has him graded among Pro Football Focus’ highest-rated receivers returning to the college game in the Big Ten.

With Chattanooga, Sam Phillips registered 117 receptions, 1,519 yards, and 7 touchdowns in 28 games with the Mocs. Phillips also sparingly returned punts and kicks for Chattanooga, which furthers his skill set and versatility that Iowa can tap into.

Coming out of Cartersville High School in Cartersville, Georgia, Sam Phillips was lightly recruited before joining Chattanooga. He joined the Iowa Hawkeyes in December of 2024 via the transfer portal.

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Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate will seek a fifth term in office.

Pate, a Republican, announced June 14 that he would run for reelection in 2026.

“I am thrilled to announce that I will once again be running to serve as your secretary of state, because we’re not done yet,” said Pate in a video announcing his candidacy.

In his announcement, Pate detailed key accomplishments the state has achieved under his leadership.

“Throughout my life as a public servant, I’ve been guided by three core principles: service, participation and integrity,” Pate said. “During my time as Iowa Secretary of State, we’ve broken numerous records for voter registration and participation, we’ve been recognized as a top state for election administration and integrity and even earned awards for cyber security measures, accessibility for the disabled community, and poll worker recruitment and voter outreach.”

He went on to discuss the importance of secure elections and promised to continue his mission of ensuring “every Iowa business thrives (and) every eligible vote counts.”

Pate previously served as Iowa’s secretary of state from 1995-1999. He lost a primary bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 1998 and served as mayor of Cedar Rapids from 2002-2006.

He ran again for secretary of state in 2014 before running for the office again in 2014. He won reelection in 2018 and 2022.

The most recent election saw Pate defeat Democrat Joel Miller with 60% of the vote, compared to Miller’s 39.9%.  His current term will end on January 1, 2027.

Pate has supported several changes to Iowa’s election laws during his terms in office. Most recently, he backed a bills that give his office more tools to verify a voter’s citizenship status and standardizes recount procedures.

The legislation comes in response to the chaotic weeks leading up to the 2024 election, when Pate instructed county auditors to challenge the ballots of 2,176 registered voters who he suspected were not citizens based on a faulty list from the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Ultimately, his office found 277 noncitizens on Iowa’s voter rolls, including 35 noncitizens who successfully voted in the 2024 election and five more who tried to vote but had their ballots rejected. 

The last-minute moves faced criticism and legal challenges.

Throughout his career, Pate has also served as a state senator and president of the Iowa League of Cities. He was unanimously elected president of the National Association of Secretaries of State in 2019, according to his campaign website, pateforiowa.com.

“I’m Paul Pate, your secretary of state,” the video concluded. “And I’m asking for your vote.”

Norah Judson is a reporter for the Register. Reach her at njudson@gannett.com.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Local officials warned more than half a million Iowans in the state’s capital city and suburbs on Thursday that near-record level of pollutants in its rivers could make drinking water dangerous if immediate steps are not taken to reduce demand.

But the officials declined to explain what they believe has caused the surge in nitrate levels, which has historically been tied to runoff from farmland draining into Des Moines-area rivers.

The water utility, Central Iowa Water Works, issued a first-ever ban on lawn watering for the region after seeing the highest levels of nitrates in the river water since 2013. Federal regulations require a maximum nitrate level of 10 milligrams per liter. The current level being provided to 600,000 customers is 9, local officials said.

“If we end up in a space where we’re well over that … threshold, we’re really going to start worrying about our pregnant women and our children under the age of six months,” said Juliann Van Liew, public health director for Polk County.

Van Liew warned that drinking water with too-high levels of nitrate could potentially cause birth defects and a condition when an infant’s blood doesn’t have enough oxygen, commonly known as blue baby syndrome.

Tami Madsen, executive director of Central Iowa Water Works, said it is not unusual to see an increase given Iowa’s “nitrate seasons” but noted this year has been unusually high. Still, she deferred on an explanation of what is driving the higher rates.

“Unfortunately, this is a first and this is not history that anyone should be proud of,” Madsen said of the ban on lawn watering.

She urged cooperation. “If we continue on the path we’re on today, where people are still choosing to water their lawn over producing water that meets safe drinking water standards, we’ll be back here to talk to you all about a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act,” Madsen said.

Officials made clear the water currently meets regulations and is safe to drink. But while the water utility works to treat the water to reduce nitrate pollutants to a safe level, Des Moines metro residents’ demand is higher than the amount they are able to treat. The utility said it has been treating water for 55 days, at a cost of between $14,000 and $16,000 a day.

In the past, the high cost to Des Moines and the rest of Polk County has led officials to go to farmers directly, to the statehouse and to court in a tug-of-war with the state’s dominant agricultural industry. The officials have long complained that nitrates and phosphorous from farm fertilizers pour off fields, concerned about rivers so polluted that even the utility’s sophisticated and costly equipment could fall short in purifying.

In 2015, the utility took the issue to court to ask for the millions of dollars it was being forced to spend to filter unsafe levels from drinking water taken from the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers. A judge ultimately dismissed the lawsuit against three northwest Iowa counties, ruling the issue was one for the Legislature to address.

The state’s Republican leaders at the time lauded the ruling, saying the lawsuit wasn’t necessary to improve water quality because farmers and government subdivisions already are taking steps to ensure water quality.

The nitrate issue goes back decades and involves a huge watershed area in agriculture-heavy Iowa, said Chris Jones, a retired University of Iowa research engineer trained as an analytical chemist whose research focused on water quality in agricultural landscapes. He also previously worked at Des Moines Water Works.

The root cause of the nitrate problem is runoff from fertilizer and manure from agricultural operations, and June 1 is roughly the peak in Iowa, he said. Two new treatment plants have helped, but Jones suggested the long-term situation needs changes in agriculture.

“Although the idea that lawn watering is an aesthetic and maybe not needed,” he said, “the fact that they’re telling people not to use water in this way is a real red flag about the situation with water quality.”

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