Just got my new Illinois Tollway transponder in the mail. Instead of a plastic device, it is now a sticker with a barcode that is supposed to be stuck on the windshield. I typically use the tollways no more than 3-4 times a year and have no interest in putting the sticker on my windshield if I don't have to. Does anyone have first-hand experience with putting the piece of paper with the sticker on the dash near the windshield like I did with the plastic device? I'll hang up and listen.

(I understand that the sensors read my license plate and I can go online after-the-fact and pay, but prefer to pay in real time with the transponder if possible.)

I just watched the hilites of the usc vs Tx A&M bowl game. USC just loaded with receivers, how did they go 6-6 this year. And the other thought is how can Iowa not get at least one stud 6-3 type fast receiver with great moves, fast and with great hands?

This is the key to a much better hawk passing attack as one receiver like that who can make 6-8 grabs a game, draw double coverage at times which opens up your other receivers is a huge need.

Yes, we need the QBs who can put the ball on them also but I think that part is starting to materialize.

Maybe Buie and Howard become those types of receivers but the portal might be the quickest way to find one

Apologies for the lack of content the last couple days. Experienced some flu-like symptoms on the first night and was hit with food poisoning last night after getting home from broadway. Nashville apparently hates my guts 😂

Hopping on a pod with the Missouri guys and then hoping to get some stuff out later today.

Got word from a source this afternoon that Iowa has locked in an official visit with a priority 2025 target.

This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.

Where illegal immigration and police violence are concerned. Here are the parallels:

1) Both identified a problem:
A) Poor constraints around illegal immigration for MAGA
B) Instances of unacceptable police conduct for BLM

2) Both made extensive use of specific events pertinent to their cause via social media in order to drum up support and illustrate a problem.

3) But.... Both then made claims that didn't fit the evidence:
A) The MAGA movement markets the illegal immigrant as very dangerous -- you could say more dangerous than the American citizen -- despite poor evidence for this claim. (in fact, on balance extant evidence indicates the opposite is true)
B) The BLM movement marketed cops as more dangerous and corrupt than they really were -- this helped to spawn attitudes like ACAB and the widely held belief that black people were much more highly targeted by cops than they actually were.

4) This happened because the movements were more interested in feelings than in (statistical) reality. While both identified legitimate problems, their rhetoric clearly misinformed the public.

high bar.

Just finished up a rough look at what Iowa's defensive depth chart could look like in 2025.

Some thoughts, nuggets from bowl prep, where the Hawkeyes have question marks and need portal additions, + more.

STORY:

Dezmon Briscoe

A court in Georgia has harshly upbraided Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and ordered her to pay a substantial sum for repeat violations of Peach State open records laws.

As Law&Crime previously reported, the violation occurred when the prosecutor’s office, in response to an open records request, denied having any documents showing any communications with special counsel Jack Smith or members of the since-defunct House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Late last year, in response to a lawsuit filed by conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered the district attorney’s office to provide the requested documents and/or offer an explanation for their continued absence — while leaving open possible attorneys fees.

After hearing what Willis and her office had to say, the judge assessed an award of $21,578 in attorneys’ fees and costs for the plaintiffs, according to the court’s latest order, dated Jan. 3 but just released this week.

Related Coverage:
“Fani Willis flouted the law, and the court is right to slam her and require, at a minimum, the payment of nearly $22,000 to Judicial Watch,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release. “But in the end, Judicial Watch wants the full truth on what she was hiding — her office’s political collusion with the Pelosi January 6 committee to ‘get Trump.’”




Loaded: 46.32%


Play
Current Time 0:01
/
Duration 0:30

Quality Settings
Captions
Fullscreen

USA TODAY
District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from Donald Trump's election racketeering case
Unmute
0

View on Watch

In the underlying lawsuit, Judicial Watch accused Willis of making “likely false” representations about the retention of the documents in question.

In sum and substance, the court agreed with the plaintiffs, finding that Willis had both procedurally lost the case by refusing to respond and violated the law on the merits by repeatedly lying about the existence of at least some of those requested documents.

The court’s order is withering in its appraisal of how Willis and her underlings violated the Peach States Open Records Act (ORA).

“Most basically, by operation of law Defendant acknowledged violating the ORA when she defaulted,” McBurney writes. “But actual evidence proves the same: per her Records Custodian’s own admission, the District Attorney’s Office flatly ignored Plaintiff’s original ORA request, conducting no search and simply (and falsely) informing the County’s Open Records Custodian that no responsive records existed.”

To date, Willis has since admitted that documents responsive to the Jan. 6 committee do, in fact, exist. Her office continues to maintain there were never any communications with the special counsel’s office. Initially, and for over a year, Willis claimed no such records — in response to either request — were anywhere to be found.

“We know now that that is simply incorrect: once pressed by a Court order, Defendant managed to identify responsive records, but has categorized them as exempt.” McBurney continues. “Even if the records prove to be just that — exempt from disclosure for sound public policy reasons — this late revelation is a patent violation of the ORA. And for none of this is there any justification, substantial or otherwise: no one searched until prodded by civil litigation.”

But, the court explains, Willis’ office, in fact, also had at least one responsive document that was not exempt — a letter Willis wrote to the Jan. 6 committee chair. Notably, this letter was the focus of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit — the nonprofit came into possession of the document after Willis denied the letter even existed.

Finally, after defaulting, Willis provided the letter directly — attached to a memo filed in response to a court order directing her to do so.

The judge glaringly recounted this turn of events:

In this memo, Defendant announced that there still were no records responsive to one set of Plaintiff’s requests (communications with former Special Counsel Jack Smith) but that there were in fact records responsive to Plaintiff’s second set of requests (communications with the United States House January 6th Committee) — but those were exempt from disclosure. Defendant, despite these reservations, did gamely attach to her memo a copy of the letter she wrote to the Chairman of the House Committee that (1) does not appear to be covered by any of the exemptions identified in the memo and (2) had already been identified by Plaintiff as a responsive record that was wrongly withheld.

Click to expand...

“Somehow something had changed,” the judge angrily went on. “Despite having previously informed Plaintiff four separate times that her team had carefully searched but found no responsive records, now there suddenly were — but they were not subject to disclosure under the ORA.”

The district attorney’s office eventually provided some key admissions about how all of this transpired.

“Plaintiff’s deposition of Defendant’s Records Custodian shed some light on this mystery: he admitted that there was no search for records back in August 2023,” the court order goes on. “Just a ‘no, go away.’ He further clarified that, when Plaintiff did not go away but instead sued, there still was no organized, comprehensive examination of the District Attorney’s Office’s records.”

In a footnote, McBurney further criticizes the DA’s office for the sum of their efforts to comply with the law. The judge observes: “Even after litigation began, Defendant’s Records Custodian initially merely asked certain employees if they thought they had any responsive records; there was no rigorous review of e-mails or case files.”

The lawsuit was filed in March 2024; by April of last year, Willis was in default. The legal process has played out slowly since then; the formal default verdict was entered in December.

After the prosecutor was found in default, Judicial Watch filed a separate motion asking for the court to appoint a special master in order to scour the agency’s files for the documents. Willis has until Jan. 16, to respond to that motion.

For now, her office has a bill to pay — due on Jan. 17.

“The ORA is not hortatory; it is mandatory,” McBurney lectured. “Non-compliance has consequences. One of them can be liability for the requesting party’s attorney’s fees and costs of litigation.”

Me(age 13), my younger brother (age 11), and my dad went to an Iowa vs. ISU meet in 1981. It was in the Fieldhouse and it was packed! The weather was horrible. The Iowa Highway Patrol updated the weather in between each match. The meet was almost over and Lou Banach was wrestling Wayne Cole. Cole took Banach to his back, but then Banach was given an injury timeout (I think it was an ankle problem). At that point we thought the match was over so we were leaving to get to our car. Before we got outside there was a gigantic roar and we ran back just in time to see Banach pin Cole!

I watched many meets on PBS, but this was the first one in person.

3-80 wasn't there yet so we traveled on Highway 218. It took us two hours to get home(usually it took us around 30/40 minutes. We lived in Cedar Rapids.). My mom was not happy with my dad for taking us out in a blizzard!

My dad also tapped meets when they were on PBS and would mail them to me when I lived out of state. I was a wrestling junky and I could not wait to get my next fix!

This is the story that got me hooked on all things Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling.

Sadly my dad is no longer with us. He died from Parkinson's and dementia some years ago.

I would appreciate any donations. Right now I am sitting at $1065.00 and in first place in the team standings. I would love to get at least $1500.00 and more would be awesome.

Thank you!

This is the link to my donation page: https://boom.hawkeyewrestlingclub.com/team/625106

I've been debating on what to make, I don't want a ham or turkey. Might try a brisket or prime rib this year.

Apologies for being a little bit tardy on this one.

Iowa WBB takes on Purdue (7-5, 0-1 Big Ten) today at 2 PM CT.

BTN+ has TV coverage.

Starting five:

Login to view embedded media

Now squeezebox/fran steal this link and duplipost this.

Thanx.

WHO: #3 Iowa State Cyclones (7-1)
WHEN: 6:30 PM CT (Thursday, December 12, 2024)
WHERE: Carver-Hawkeye Arena (Iowa City, IA)
TV: FS1 (Cory Provus and Bill Raftery)
RADIO: Hawkeye Radio Network (Gary Dolphin, Bobby Hansen)
MOBILE: foxsports.com/mobile
ONLINE: foxsports.com/live
FOLLOW: @HawkeyeBeacon | @IowaHoops | @CBBonFOX | @IowaonBTN
LINE: Iowa State -5.5 (total of 159.5)
KENPOM: Iowa State -5 (Iowa State 69% chance of winning)

After a two-game appetizer of Big Ten action, Iowa returns to non-conference play for a few more weeks -- and faces its toughest test of the season so far: #3 Iowa State, 7-1 on the season and looking every bit the part of a Top-5 team. The game is also the annual CyHawk clash, of course, which hasn't featured many close games of late.

Since an 84-78 Iowa State win in 2018, no CyHawk game has been decided by less than 14 points (a 98-84 Iowa win in 2019). Last year was one of the most lopsided, with Iowa State rolling Iowa, 90-65, in Ames. The Hawkeyes have won four-straight games over the Cyclones in Iowa City, by an average of 18.8 points per game.

MORE HERE: