From farmer to chart topper, country music singer Logan Mize is doing it his way
Logan Mize is running late. Not the “I’m a rock star, the world runs on my clock” kind of late, but rather the “can’t find a taxi in the entire city” kind. It’s a rainy night in early October. He’s fresh off a 6-mile run, 20 minutes late to his “Meat & Greet” event, and decides to resort to an Uber ride that takes him through the heart of Iowa City before dropping him in front of the venue where he performs in an hour and a half.
Up the creaky wooden stairs of the Blue Moose Tap House, standing on a black-and-white checkered floor at the meet and greet, below a leaking ceiling with a missing tile and a red vintage Budweiser chandelier, Logan Mize holds a plate of hot dogs.
“You want ketchup on it?” he asks.
Unbroken: Tragedies can’t deter Iowa State’s Matt Thomas
Martha Thomas didn’t understand it. Nobody in her family did. She didn’t understand why in the middle of her shift as a nurse, her manager came to her desk and took Martha downstairs. She didn’t recognize the two cops there, or the detective who was waiting for her. She did, however, know the sheriff. He was the father of one of her son Matt’s best friends. She also recognized the sheriff’s wife. But why was she there? Why were any of these people there? “It just didn’t click,” Martha said.
“Your kids are fine,” were the first words anybody said. “Your kids are safe.” Relief, but not an answer. Martha could tell the reason everyone gathered in the room wasn’t going to be a good one. It was obvious. She could see it in their faces.
She was right.
Tears, a promise and a picture propel Haylee Young to National Championship
It was 5:20 a.m. in Marietta, Georgia, and 10-year-old Haylee Young wasn’t in bed. The sky was pitch black, and the sun still had more than an hour before coming out for the day, but Young started hers 20 minutes ago. She sat in the kitchen eating breakfast with a few minutes to finish before she hopped in the car with her mom, Fran, like she did every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next three years.
A 25-minute drive to Kennesaw, Georgia was in front of them and she could not be late. She’d kept herself together thus far, mostly because the morning was so frantic and she hadn’t had time to think about what she was about to go through. But now, with the nervous anticipation of 6 a.m. gymnastics practice looming, Young did what she did every early morning before practice. She cried her eyes out.
The secret Olympian: Ariana Orrego brings Olympic experience to Iowa State
To understand Ariana Orrego’s experiences, you have to start in Brazil, under the bright lights, between the never ending green walls, on the world’s biggest stage — the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
But to understand who Ariana Orrego is, you have to start here, in Orrego’s 10 a.m. class — Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering 160, officially known as ‘Systematic problem solving and computer programming.’
Dozens of students sit in on the lecture inside Sukup Hall, but Orrego said she doesn’t think any of them know who she is or what she’s accomplished.
They don’t know that just 18 months ago she made history as the first female gymnast to compete at the Olympics for her home country of Peru. She isn’t going to tell anyone, either.
Pat Miller is a living legend in lectures at Iowa State
A career that has led Pat Miller to eat insects with Jay Leno, kept the ashes of Gloria Steinem’s final cigarette, and after 35 years, produced one of the country’s most successful lecture series … all on only five hours of sleep a night.
Nineteen hours after a lecture on polar bears and 18 hours after a lecture on the Arab Spring, Pat Miller slowly leans in and squints at the computer in front of her.
She could be examining a number of different things. Potentially finalizing details of one of the over 120 speakers she helps bring into the lecture series each school year as director of the Lectures Program. Or she may be making sure the cookies she ordered for the first livestream of the first presidential debate will be in the Great Hall on time.
“People have no idea how much goes into these lectures,” Miller said.
Ireland Asylum Seeker after Supreme Court ruling: ‘I will be able to live my life’
Lesley Mkoko lived his life in fear. His home country of Swaziland is one of the last remaining absolute monarchies in the world.
The government has one ruler, King Mswati III, with supreme authority that cannot be restricted by any written laws, legislature or customs. Mkoko wanted to leave his homeland, a country with a life expectancy of only 51 years, the fourth lowest in the world.
Mkoko felt he had to escape a country that has more than one in six of its citizens living with HIV, the world’s highest rate. He knew he had to get out from under the fear the regime instilled.
But if Lesley Mkoko knew what was waiting for him in Ireland, he never would have left Swaziland.
Iowa State gymnastics reacts to U.S.A. doctor’s sentencing of up to 175 years
Iowa State gymnast Ariana Orrego remembers him. She was competing for Peru at the World Championships in 2014 and she needed athletic tape. Orrego was in the same session as the United States and one of the Peru coaches pointed at U.S.A. team doctor Larry Nassar. “That doctor is my friend,” the coach said. “Go ask him for tape.”
“No,” Orrego’s personal coach said immediately. “Don’t ask him.” She was confused but didn’t think much of it. Her mother left to go buy her tape from somewhere else. “I just thought my coach didn’t want me to talk to them,” Orrego said. “That was really weird.”
Maybe that was the case, or maybe Orrego’s coach might have known something the rest of the world had yet to catch on to. Being around Nassar wasn’t safe.
How Bud Light’s Super Bowl ad brought MillerCoors closer to farmers
The sales data is in for the month following Bud Light’s Super Bowl commercial boasting about the company’s lack of corn syrup in its beer.
According to Nielson data, Bud Light is down 6% in sales in the four-week period following the Super Bowl and 4% in 2019. Miller Lite is up 2% in 2019 and flat in the recent four-week period. Coors Light’s four-week sales weren’t made available, but the company is down 1% so far this year.
While it’s not possible to say the drop in sales results directly from the Super Bowl ad, it is fair to say that MillerCoors has done its best to take advantage of the opportunity to build relationships with farmers.
An oral telling of Iowa State gymnastics unique superstitions
Like many other sports, gymnasts have superstitions that they believe — rightly or wrongly — contribute to their success. Some may be as easy as keeping the same routine each time. Others go much further.
Junior captain Briana Ledesma: “We can sometimes be a little superstitious. When traveling, it kind of changes up your game plan. When you’re at home you can make the breakfast you want, you can get the lunch you want, but when you’re traveling you can’t do that. You just have to take what’s there.”
Sophomore MJ Johnson: “Personally, I don’t have really any superstitions. Some girls have to do their hair the same way or they get freaked out.”
Sophomore Meaghan Sievers: “I have a Mountain Dew before every meet, but I don’t know if you should tell my coaches that.”
Austin Anderson 