Midwest

Trump lands another legal victory as lawsuit against Iowa pollster, Des Moines Register remains in state court

Published

3 months ago

December 1, 2025

Trump lands another legal victory as lawsuit against Iowa pollster, Des Moines Register remains in state court

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FIRST ON FOX — President Donald Trump scored yet another legal victory Friday when the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit shut down Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer’s appeal, reinforcing that the president’s “election interference” lawsuit will now land in Iowa State Court.

Trump’s legal team has accused Selzer and The Des Moines Register of “brazen election interference” with their final 2024 Iowa presidential poll that showed him trailing Democrat Kamala Harris.

Trump originally requested the case be moved to Iowa State Court in May after the defendants “removed” the case to federal court. A federal judge denied the request at the time, but the Obama-appointed judge was overruled by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.

TRUMP SCORES LEGAL WIN, GETTING LAWSUIT AGAINST IOWA POLLSTER, DES MOINES REGISTER MOVED TO STATE COURT

President Donald Trump scored yet another legal victory Friday when the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit shut down Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer’s appeal, reinforcing that the president’s “election interference” lawsuit will now land in Iowa State Court. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Trump last month notched a key victory when the 8th Circuit granted Trump’s petition for a writ of mandamus — a rare judicial order used to correct clear legal errors — and directed a district judge to treat the case as dismissed “without prejudice,” allowing Trump to refile the case. As a result, the case would be litigated in Iowa State Court.

The defendants petitioned the 8th Circuit for relief but were shut down.

“The petition for rehearing en banc is denied. The petition for rehearing by the panel is denied,” Clerk of Court Susan Bindler ruled.

Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), who represents Selzer, issued a statement.

“This procedural decision doesn’t change what has been true from the beginning — this frivolous claim is entirely without substance and that fact ultimately will be borne out in court,” Corn-Revere told Fox News Digital.

FORMER POLLSTER ANN SELZER HITS BACK AT CRITICISMS OVER IOWA POLL: ‘THEY ARE ACCUSING ME OF A CRIME’

President Donald Trump, seen here at the America250 rally in Des Moines, successfully got his lawsuit against Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register to land in Iowa State Court. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital in a statement, “President Trump is committed to holding those who traffic in deception and fake news to account. The Des Moines Register and Gannett knowingly ran a phony poll from the now disgraced Democrat pollster Ann Selzer in an underhanded attempt to interfere in the election and defraud the country into believing Kamala Harris was winning the state of Iowa and nationwide, mere hours before she lost Iowa and the overall election by an overwhelming margin to President Trump.

“This scam was designed to damage President Trump’s dominant campaign in the final days of the race. Such fraud cannot be allowed to stand, and President Trump is committed to seeing this case through to a just, winning conclusion.”

Polly Grunfeld Sack, USA TODAY Co. Chief Legal Officer, told Fox News Digital in a statement Friday: “Although we are disappointed that the appellate court has allowed President Trump to avoid the inevitable dismissal of his complaint in Federal Court, running away to state court will not change the outcome of this meritless case. We are confident that the Iowa state court will come to the same conclusion as Judge Ebinger in the copycat Donnelly case and dismiss President Trump’s claims, and those of Representative Miller Meeks and state representative Zaun, with prejudice. USA TODAY Co. will continue to vigorously defend The Register’s reporting, which is protected under the First Amendment.”

TRUMP’S LAWSUIT MOVES TO IOWA STATE COURT: WHAT’S NEXT IN HIS CASE AGAINST POLLSTER, DES MOINES REGISTER

Pollster J. Ann Selzer came under fire after releasing a poll claiming candidate Kamala Harris was leading Trump in Iowa ahead of the 2024 election. (Getty Images/ The Bulwark Podcast via YouTube screenshot)

Selzer released her final Des Moines Register-sponsored poll showing Harris leading Trump by three points in Iowa just three days before the election. That shock poll showed a seven-point shift from Trump to Harris from September, when he had a four-point lead over the vice president in the same poll.

Selzer’s poll was hyped up by the media in the days leading up to the election as her polling predictions had been historically accurate. Many suggested it implied a monumental shift in Midwest support for Harris in a red state, but the poll turned out to be way off.

Trump thumped Harris in Iowa by more than 13 percentage points, the third straight time he’d won the state and the first time any candidate had won there by double digits since 1980.

Shortly after the election, Selzer announced she was done with election polling and moving on to “other ventures.”

Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Brian Flood is a media editor/reporter for FOX News Digital. Story tips can be sent to brian.flood@fox.com and on Twitter: @briansflood.

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Iowa

NCAA Wrestling Championships at-large bids announced

Published

3 minutes ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

NCAA Wrestling Championships at-large bids announced

The 330 wrestlers competing in Cleveland at the NCAA Championships are now set.

After the conference tournaments established the lion’s share of wrestlers, the NCAA announced the at-large bids on Tuesday, March 10, completing the rest of the field.

Brackets and seeds will be announced on March 10, but here’s a look at the contingents each state of Iowa program will be sending after the at-large bids were announced.

Iowa wrestling NCAA qualifiers

For the third year in a row, Iowa wrestling will be sending nine to the NCAA Championships. Victor Voinovich did not earn an at-large bid at 157 pounds after finishing ninth at the Big Ten Championships, one place outside of NCAA automatic qualification. He concludes his season with a 12-6 record.

Voinovich narrowly earned the starting job over Jordan Williams at 157, with Iowa coach Tom Brands saying it was very close, but Voinovich had shown a little more “fight” this year. Now that Voinovich hasn’t qualified for NCAAs, it’s a decision that will go further under the microscope.

What’s done is done, however, for Iowa. They’ll take Dean Peterson (125), Drake Ayala (133), Nasir Bailey (141), Ryder Block (149), Michael Caliendo (165), Patrick Kennedy (174), Angelo Ferrari (184), Gabe Arnold (197) and Ben Kueter (285) to Cleveland in hopes of salvaging what has been a tough season.

Iowa State wrestling NCAA qualifiers

For the first time since 2010, Iowa State will send all 10 wrestlers to the NCAA Championships. Vinny Zerban earned an at-large bid at 157 pounds despite falling short of the automatic qualifying threshold at the Big 12 Championships. Zerban suffered a concussion and medically forfeited out of the tournament after his first match in Tulsa. His health status will be worth monitoring NCAAs inch closer, from March 19-22.

The Cyclones look poised for one of their best postseasons in recent memory with their 10 qualifiers ―Stevo Poulin (125), Garrett Grice (133), Anthony Echemendia (141), Jacob Frost (149), Zerban, Connor Euton (165), MJ Gaitan (174), Isaac Dean (184), Rocky Elam (197) and Yonger Bastida (285). The loss of Evan Frost hurts the Cyclones, considering his pedigree and season as a whole, but Grice’s has earned several ranked wins since entering the lineup in February and could still add some much-needed team points as the team chases a team trophy.

Behind title contenders Elam and Bastida, proven podium threats in Poulin, Echemnedia, Jacob Frost and Zerban (if healthy), Iowa State will be in the mix for a top-four finish in Cleveland.

UNI wrestling NCAA qualifiers

Northern Iowa will send five to the NCAA Championships. Automatic qualifiers Julian Farber (133), Caleb Rathjen (149) and Ryder Downey (165) will be joined by Jared Simma (174) and Nick Fox (184), who each earned at-large bids. The number of qualifiers could extend to six, with Trever Anderson (125) being the alternate at 125 pounds for NCAAs. However, he had to medically forfeit out of the Big 12 Championships, so his health status would be in question if he got called up.

With that, Max Brady (141), Cael Rahnavardi (157), John Gunderson (197) and Adam Ahrendsen (285) will have their seasons come to an end. Brady, a true freshman, will still have three NCAA chances in his career after showing promising moments in relief of Cory Land’s season-ending injury. Gunderson, a U23 World team member, will return for next season as well. Rahnavardi and Ahrendsen were both in their final seasons of eligibility.

Following injuries to Land and Wyatt Voelker, it’s been a hard year for the Panthers. This is half the number of NCAA qualifiers that UNI had last season when they qualified 10 for the first time since 1986. The last time UNI had five or fewer qualifiers was 2016.

However, all five of their wrestlers have each shown moments of brilliance, either this season or in prior NCAA Championships. They may be a smaller crew than normal, but Downey, Rathjen, Farber, Simma and Fox are all ones to watch in Cleveland.

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

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Michigan

Does Kyle Whittingham face ‘win now’ pressure at Michigan?

Published

39 minutes ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Does Kyle Whittingham face ‘win now’ pressure at Michigan?

For some programs, spring football has started in earnest, but for Michigan football, it will have to wait another week. But with practices on the horizon, college football pundits are starting to ask questions about what the upcoming season may look like, and among the questions is what Kyle Whittingham’s Wolverines will be in his first year.

On3’s popular show ‘Ari & Andy’ attempted to ask and answer that question on their latest episode.

As the duo of Ari Wasserman and Andy Staples mulled over various storylines in the coaching realm, once they got to the ‘newcomers’ — coaches who have taken over new programs — they started with Whittingham. For Wasserman, the big question is how quickly Whittingham can win in Ann Arbor?

“How much pressure is Kyle Whittingham to make sure that Michigan doesn’t lose whatever momentum that it had from winning the national championship and falling back into another 25 year period of being pretty good, but not great?” Wasserman said. “Because on one hand, this is a very critical moment in their program arc. But on the other hand, don’t you also have to give him the benefit of the doubt that, hey, what happened at the end of or during last year was highly dysfunctional in a way that we don’t really see very often in sports in general, let alone college sports? And you got hired during a weird time on the calendar. You probably weren’t anticipating coaching this year.

“Like, do you get a year to try to get your bearings of a new place that expects to win a championship? Like, I don’t know how Michigan fans are viewing this season. Now you’ll tell me what you always tell me. They demand excellence, and they expect excellence. There’s no honeymoon. I think that’s true. But from a rational analysis of this, I don’t know how to view what the (expectations are), like what is a successful season for Kyle Whittingham in year one, make the playoff?”

Staples is a little less about the questions and more about the answers. Because in his mind, regardless of how he got there, Whittingham to Michigan might be the best hire of the entire cycle.

“This really isn’t about Michigan’s expectations. It’s more about Kyle Whittingham’s expectations,” Staples said. “And the fact that Kyle Whittingham did this and the fact that Michigan did this, this was Michigan going out and getting the best coach they could get. But it’s very interesting because let’s say Michigan had fired Sherrone Moore in a more conventional way. And it had been just for losing and had been at the end of the season. And Kyle Whittingham had been one of the coaches that was available, but one of many that was available that the whole cycle hadn’t already been done. I still would have called hiring Kyle Whittingham, maybe the best hire of the cycle. I don’t think a 66-year-old guy goes to this place to build, to rebuild it. He’s going to win now. That’s the whole point of this. He’s not doing this except it is to win now.”

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Minnesota

Proposal would ban crypto ATMs in Minnesota

Published

51 minutes ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Proposal would ban crypto ATMs in Minnesota

article

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – ATMs that deal in cryptocurrency could be banned in Minnesota soon.

Crypto ATM ban considered

The backstory:

Police across the state are urging lawmakers to pass a DFL ban on those kiosks that convert cash to crypto.

They say the machines are used extensively by criminals trying to scam people or to hide the proceeds of their crimes. In 2024, lawmakers passed a law to regulate the machines. Still, last year Attorney General Keith Ellison warned of an increase in crypto ATM scams.

At a hearing last month, Faribault police reported their residents had lost $500,000 since 2022 from crypto ATM scams. Woodbury Detective Lynn Lawrence told lawmakers about a victim she helped who had completed at least ten Bitcoin transactions over six months at crypto ATMs.

By the numbers:

Right now there are about 350 crypto kiosks in the state. They are often located in gas stations and grocery stores.

Their owners say this proposed law goes too far, but they’d support a law requiring full refunds for any customers who were victims of fraud.

How crypto ATMs work

Dig deeper:

Crypto ATMs allow users to turn fiat money into digital currency or vice versa. Users typically have to scan their identification to be able to use the machines and then the currency is sent to a wallet of their choosing.

However, the machines are increasingly used by scammers who convince elderly victims to use the ATMs to use the machines to send them money. Once the money is sent, it’s impossible to recoup the funds from the scammers.

Exchanges can blacklist scammers’ wallets and block them from withdrawing ill-gotten funds. However, most scammers will use “mixers” which wash the funds through a service that makes the coins hard to track or find ways around large exchanges like decentralized exchanges and peer-to-peer exchanges.

The other side:

At a hearing on Tuesday, Larry Lipka, counsel for digital currency platform CoinFlip, which operates 50 crypto ATMs in Minnesota, recognized scams are an issue, but pointed out scamming won’t disappear if crypto kiosks are banned.

“While I understand that scams are a problem, scams are a problem everywhere in this country,” said Lipka, “They are a problem for crypto kiosks, they are a problem for wire transfers, and they are a problem for gift cards. But no one is here today saying we should ban exchanges or gift cards or wire transfers because scammers use them.”

Instead of a ban, Lipka urged lawmakers to instead consider smarter and better controls for kiosks. According to Lipka, back in 2024, CoinFlip pushed for further protections when the previous crypto ATM bill was being discussed, arguing that legislation didn’t go far enough.

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