The nation’s leading motor home manufacturer has announced further cutbacks. Forest City-based Winnebago Industries is announcing that they are cutting pay and work hours for their salaried employees as they try to trim expenses and save jobs. Winnebago says starting March 1st, most of their salaried employees will see a 3% cut in pay, while vice presidents will see their pay cut by 10%. Winnebago Chairman and C.E.O. Bob Olson says he’ll take a 20% salary reduction as part of this latest announcement. The company also says workers will be forced to take a one- week furlough during the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, with most likely to take that week in the days leading up to the 4th of July. Winnebago’s sales have dropped after the struggling economy and higher gas prices this last summer, with the company already cutting its workforce by 12% in the last three months of 2008.
Winnebago making more cuts
Task force looking at laws regarding mentally retarded workers meets again
The task force set up to review the way the state handles mentally retarded adults is meeting for the second time today. The task force was created by the governor in response to the revelation that 21 mentally retarded men were living together in a run-down home in Attalisa while working at a turkey processing plant.
Department of Elder Affairs Director, John McCalley, says they got things organized in the first meeting and will get to work in this second meeting. He says they have until April 1st to deliberate and then make some recommendations to the governor for action before the legislative session is done.
While the Atalisa case led to the task force, McCalley says it will not be the main focus of their work. McCalley says they are mindful that there are civil and criminal investigations going on in the case, so they won’t be involved in those investigations, but will be using the case as an "opportunity to identify lessons learned and to make some positive recommendations for improvements."
There will be a public comment period during the meeting from noon until one p.m. McCalley says public input is important to the commission.
McCalley says you go to the department’s website and click on a button on the site and submit written recommendations. Or you can call: 1-800-532-3213 to give your comments. Today’s meeting is at the State Historical Building in Des Moines. The meeting begins at 10:30 a-m.
Omaha man charged with sending explicit e-mail to young girls
An Omaha man is now jailed on charges he sent sexually explicit e-mails and nude photographs of himself to underage girls — most of whom were in Iowa. Twenty-seven-year-old Jayson Tegeder is charged with enticing a child with an electronic communications device.
Omaha police officer Michael Pecha says all of the charges are felonies. Pecha says, “Tegeder had been contacting girls under 16-years-old by instant messaging on a social networking site.” Pecha says most of the children the suspect was contacting on-line were living nearby and all of them were under 16.
He says, “Most of the girls were from Iowa.” Pecha says Tegeder knew he was talking to young teenagers. He says, “During contact with these girls, he did send nude photographs of himself to them, knowing that they were underage.” A parent of one of the victims, a 13-year-old, knew her daughter’s password and discovered what was going on. She then contacted police and Tegeder was arrested. He is being held on a $25,000 bond.
Theatre Cedar Rapids has plan to restore flood-damaged home
A performing arts group, that’s celebrating its 75th year in Cedar Rapids, has announced a six-million dollar restoration of their flood-damaged home. Theatre Cedar Rapids was forced out of the downtown Iowa Theatre Building in June.
Tim Boyle, executive director of the Cedar Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the new theater will help revitalize the city. “We can’t simply inflate and rollout a downtown, or a scene or a nightlife or a community. It has to exist on its own and be sustained by itself so that when we bring people to town, they can see it and they can have an authentic and memorable experience,” Boyle said.
Work on the new theatre will begin this spring and it’s expected to open next February. Artistic director Leslie Charipar says the original theatre first opened in 1928 as a vaudeville and movie house. Theatre Cedar Rapids moved into the building in the early 1980s.
“It’s all going to be new and it’s all going to be really user friendly. I think people are going to be blown away by how beautiful this facility is,” Charipar said. The first production in the renovated building will be the Broadway musical hit, “The Producers.”
Charipar says the play’s creator, Mel Brooks, will be invited to the opening performance.
Over a dozen charged in child pornography investigation
Federal officials have released the names of 14 Iowans who are facing charges in a statewide child pornography investigation. Eleven of the suspects were initially identified when search warrants were served last November. Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. Attorney for Iowa’s Southern District, says it took some time for investigators to piece together all the evidence.
"When we executed the search warrants, we only had probable cause that there were computers at those locations," Whitaker said. "We had to further our investigation, do interviews and also (conduct) computer forensics to make sure they still had the illegal contraband on them."
The 11 people named in the case, dubbed "Operation Wire Breaker," are all charged with receipt and possession of child pornography. Some are charged with distribution. Three other men are facing charges in a case that’s unrelated to "Wire Breaker." Of the 14 total suspects, two are charged with producing child porn.
Whitaker says the young victims of the production crimes are believed to be from Iowa. He says it appears there were at least two victims. Chad Cunningham of Norwalk and Jeremiah Windschitl of Council Bluffs are identified as the men charged with child porn production.
The other people charged are Ralph Johnson of Clemons, Hugo Alberto Duran-Garcia of Des Moines, Matthew Collins of Council Bluffs, Jerry DeAngelo Valdez and Ramon Marcelo Valdez, both of Des Moines, Todd Montgomery of Marshalltown, Brian Tracy of Davenport, Benjamin Lucas of Earlham, Jennifer Abbott of Iowa City, Christopher Conger of Buffalo (Iowa), Robert Hawes of Des Moines and Matthew McArthur of Clive.
Whitaker says, if convicted, the punishment could range from five to 20 years in prison for distribution or receipt of child pornography. Possession of child porn is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while the penalty for production is 15 years to life behind bars. Three of the defendants – Johnson, Cunningham and Hawes – are already in custody. Duran-Garcia recently escaped from a halfway house. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. The other defendants are receiving summons to appear in court.
Body found in Boone County is identified
Investigators are releasing the name of the person found dead in central Iowa earlier this week, though questions remain about how he died. Authorities have now identified the body as found in rural Boone County as 38-year-old Shannon Washburn of Boone. An autopsy by the State Medical Examiner showed Washburn died of exposure. The body of Washburn was found in a wooded area shortly before 6 P.M. Monday near 115th and Nature Road, eight miles north of Boone. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation assisted the Boone County Sheriff’s Department in the case that remains under investigation.
