The former Garnavillo City Clerk has admitted to taking thousands of dollars from the city. 51-year-old Linda Casperson pleaded guilty in Clayton County District Court to first-degree theft. The state auditor determined that Casperson used 16-thousand dollars for her personal credit card bills and used city credit cards to make 50-thousand dollars in cash advances. Casperson had been the Garnivillo City Clerk for about 20 years. She was suspended after the theft was discovered and not re-appointed when her term was up in December of 2003.
Key figure in Shelby Duis case arrested
February 16, 2005 By
The northwest Iowa man who was acquitted in a highly-publicized child murder trial two years ago now faces federal drug charges. 30-year old Jesse Wendelsdorf has been indicted in federal court in Sioux City. The charges include conspiracy to rent, use and maintain a residence in Spirit Lake for distributing and manufacturing methamphetamine and marijuana, possession with intent to distribute 50-grams or more of mixed meth and conspiracy to manufacture 5-grams or more of pure meth. Wendelsdorf faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 5-years and a maximum of 40-years in prison and a 2-million dollar fine. Wendelsdorf was acquitted in the sexual abuse and murder of Spirit Lake toddler Shelby Duis. He was living with Shelby and her mother, Heidi Watkins, in January of 2000 when the two year old was killed. Watkins is serving a 50-year child endangerment sentence in connection with Shelby’s death. Wendelsdorf’s trial is set for April 4th.
Chemicals spilled in accident in Waterloo
February 16, 2005 By
Crews have cleaned up a chemical spill in Waterloo that sent a man to the hospital. The accident happened at the Waterloo Water Works around 4 p.m. yesterday. Waterloo fire rescue officials say the driver of a chemical truck spilled a mixture of chlorine and fluoride. He ended up in the hospital after inhaling vapors from a mild gas that developed when the chemicals mixed together. The man’s identity and his condition haven’t been released. Firefighters called to the scene quickly dissolved the vapors, using water. During the operation, emergency crews took additional precautions by closing off two city streets and ordering nearby residents to stay in their homes. The chemical spill happened next to an elementary school, but classes there had already dismissed for the day. A Des Moines company owns the chemical truck involved in the accident. The company sent a crew to Waterloo last night to clean up the spill.
Company agrees to settlement in telemarketing fraud case
February 16, 2005 By
A California company that served as an electronic bank for a Canadian telemarketer has agreed to pay thousands of dollars in a settlement with the Iowa Attorney General. Attorney General Tom Miller says the Canadian telemarketer would call Iowans and get them to give out their bank account numbers on the promise of discount medication or some other scheme. Miller says the Electracash company would then make an electronic withdrawl using the account number — but the customer ended up with nothing. Harry Russell of Des Moines says his wife gave out their account number on the promise of discount medication. He says he found out about the electronic debit when he got his bank statement. He says he was checking over the statement to balance his checking account and he noticed the debit for 299 dollars. He says he called to find out about it, “and they began to give me this line of malarkey.” He says he told them they wanted their money back. Russell says after months of getting the run-around, he went to the Attorney General. Attorney General Miller says an investigation found 44-percent of the people billed by Electracash had called to complain and that should’ve served as a warning. He says since Electracash didn’t stop making the withdrawls after all the complaints, and he says the company then became responsible for the fraud. Miller says Electracash has agreed to a settlement.that will pay 56 Iowans, including Russell, nearly 16-thousand dollars to cover the fraudulent billings. He says they also promise to do some “due dilligence” when a return rate for a company builds up, so they don’t have more problems. Miller gave Russell a check for their 299 dollars.Russell says he’s thankful to have it taken care of. He says he knew when he called that “there was a story being told and we were getting ripped off.” Miller says hitting the electronic transfer companies will help stop telemarketers that’re based in Canada, but he says the public has to help out too.The consumer advice is to not give out your credit card or bank account number. And he says always check your credit card bills and bank statements for any unauthorized charges. Miller says you should also be wary of any high-pressure pitches and be careful of “free trial offers” that charge you automatically when the offer is up.
Senate committe approves restrictions on cold medications
February 16, 2005 By
A state Senate committee has endorsed new restrictions on the sale of common cold medications, but didn’t go as far as Governor Vilsack wanted. The governor wants to put all drugs that contain pseudoephedrine — an ingredient used to make meth — behind the counter and force customers to ask a pharmacist for the medication. The committee instead voted to put over-the-counter medications with a heavy dose of pseudoephedrine behind the pharmacist’s counter, but cold remedies with a lesser amount of pseudoephedrine may still be sold in grocery and convenience stores. However, the person who buys it will have to ask a clerk to get it from behind a counter and then he or she will have to sign a log book. Senator Bob Brunkhorst, a republican from Waverly, says he wants to make sure a rural family with a sick kid can buy some over-the-counter cold medication on the weekend, but he doesn’t want a meth-maker to be able to buy a whole bunch of it. “Rural folks will be able to buy this in their retail stores. They won’t have as much selection, but they’ll have some opportunity to…buy this on weekends or at night,” he says. Senator Keith Kreimen, a democrat from Bloomfield. “We don’t think this is a perfect bill, but we’re very hopeful we’ll achieve everybody’s ultimate goal and that is of course to dramatically decrease the number of meth labs in the state,” Kreiman says. Legisaltors admit that some small stores may quit selling cold remedies because of the hassle of putting ‘em behind the counter. The next stop for the bill is in the full Senate. A committee in the Iowa House is working on similar legislation.
Woman in critical condition after Des Moines crash
February 16, 2005 By
No charges have been filed in a crash that left a woman in critical condition this week in Des Moines. Police sergeant Todd Dykstra says Monday night a woman’s car stalled as she drove across a 2-lane bridge with no space to pull over. The sergeant says the woman got out and apparently tried to push her car off the bridge — when another vehicle came up from behind and struck her and her car. The driver of the pickup truck that hit the woman apparently didn’t realize there was a car stopped in the travel lane on the bridge until too late. Dykstra says where typically there’d be a shoulder alongside the travel portion of the road, on this bridge there wasn’t. The officer says the woman was badly hurt when she was slammed between her car and the pickup truck that came up from behind. Police advise if a driver’s stranded in a situation where oncoming traffic is likely and may not see you till it’s too late, to get out of the way of a possible resulting accident. Put on your hazard lights, he instructs, put the hood up, and if you can get out, get away from the vehicle if there’s any chance of a collision from another vehicle that comes upon the scene. Notify law-enforcement that there’s a stalled vehicle on the roadway or a bridge, so they can come give aid.
Flights from Des Moines to Washington to resume
February 16, 2005 By
It’ll soon be possible to take a flight from the state capital to the nation’s capital. Northwest Airline’s Thomas Becker says the carrier stepped in to offer airlink service after another airline dropped it last year. While it can be a battle to get a “gate” at a big airport, Becker explains a “slot” is even more elusive — because it’s a moment of time, at the nation’s busiest places. It’s a time frame you can land and take off in, he explains — and Washington’s Reagan National Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare and New York’s LaGuardia airports are the only places where an airline must have a “slot,” a document from the federal DOT that entitles their planes to land and take off at certain times …or if something’s thrown off all the schedules, at least land and take off a certain number of times per day. Unlike the carrier that gave up the Des Moines to Washington route last year, Becker says Northwest will use a smaller plane, a 44-seat regional jet that will make the route economically viable. Flights are set to begin two weeks from today, on March first, with Northwest airlink partner Pinnacle Airlines.
