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Burt: "I made a terrible mistake and…am paying the price"

August 21, 2009 By

A state legislator who has been fighting a drunk driving charge for six months has reversed course and pleaded guilty.

State Representative Kerry Burt, a Democrat from Waterloo, now admits he was drunk and a judge has ordered him to pay a $625 fine and attend an Operating While Intoxicated education program. He’ll be on probation for a year and could be tested for substance abuse.

Burt’s trial on the drunken driving charge had been scheduled to start Monday in Des Moines. He was charged February 11, 2009, with drunken driving in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny.

In a written statement issued midday today, Burt said there’s no one to blame but himself for what he described as a "foolish decision" that was "completely out of character."  (You can read the full statement below.) Burt went on to say he wanted to set the record straight and he offered his own account of what happened early that morning. 

In video released by the Ankeny Police Department in July, Burt can be heard telling the arrresting officer he’d been drinking with the governor that evening. In July, Governor Culver said he’d been to the same reception Burt attended that night, then had a glass of wine over dinner with a group of legislators. The governor said he was home by nine p.m. and had no idea what Burt did after that; Burt was arrested almost six hours later.

Burt, in his written statement, said his tire blew out as he was driving on Interstate-35 and he ran into a concrete barrier, damaging his SUV.  Burt said he drove on, exited the highway and then pulled into a convenience store parking lot. Burt said that’s where he was approached by the Ankeny cop and Burt went on to applaud the officer for doing his job.

Burt is a first-term legislator from Waterloo, a former Iowa Hawkeye football player who lost his job as a fire fighter because he lost his commercial driver’s license after the drunken driving arrest.

Burt said in his written statement that he "made a terrible mistake" and is paying the price.

Burt’s also in hot water over listing the wrong home address on registration papers which let him avoid paying over $35,000 in tuition so his children could attend the Price Lab School in Cedar Falls.

Here is the statement Burt issued today:  "I wish to apologize to my family, colleagues, constituents, and all who share Iowa’s roads for my poor judgment in drinking and driving.  There is no one but me to blame for my foolish decision.  Everyone who knows me recognizes that this action was completely out of character, and I will not allow it to happen again. 

"In the hope of setting the record straight so that all of us may move forward, I will relay what happened that morning: While driving on I-35 my tire blew out, which caused my vehicle to swerve and hit a barrier.

"After determining that no one was hurt, I cautiously drove with flashers on to the nearest exit, where I knew I would find a convenience store at which to park and wait for a ride. 

"In the parking lot was Officer Phinney, who I approached to report the incident.  He suspected that I had been drinking, and – following proper police procedure – tested and subsequently arrested me.  The officer treated me with courtesy and respect and I applaud him for doing his job. 

"Contrary to a particular media depiction, I do not consider myself above the law or deserving of any preferential treatment.  I made a terrible mistake and rightfully am paying a price.  I hope this statement clears up any confusion that has surrounded this incident since I have no further comment on it.  Instead, I wish to focus my energies on putting together solid legislation that benefits the state and community to which I am devoted." 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

Man sought in southwest Iowa is arrested

August 21, 2009 By

Michael Mundorf After a four-day search, a suspect in a string of crimes in southwest Iowa was captured last night in Atlantic.

Fugitive Michael Dean Mundorf was arrested for felony eluding, assault on a peace officer, 2nd degree theft, contempt and possession of drug paraphernalia among other charges.

The search began Sunday in Red Oak when police began pursuing Mundorf, who was driving a stolen 1972 tow truck.

A chase ensued and Mundorf escaped on foot into a Pottawattamie County corn field. However, the passenger, Frank Ernest Kutz, age 62 of Lewis, was caught and arrested after fleeing into the field.

Police got a tip that Mundorf was staying in an Atlantic apartment, officers responded and arrested him without incident. The Red Oak Police Department reports Mundorf is now being held in the Adams County Jail on $15,300 bond.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Des Moines woman charged in son’s drowning

August 21, 2009 By

Teresa Tuner (Polk County photo) A central Iowa woman is now jailed in connection with her son’s drowning. Six-year-old Jordan Rutto was found at the bottom of an Urbandale hotel swimming pool on August 2nd.

Other swimmers pulled Rutto’s body out. A 15-year-old Boy Scout performed CPR, but the boy died a few days later. An autopsy found he’d been underwater seven or eight minutes.

Police now say the boy was left unattended by his mother which resulted in his death.

Twenty-nine-year-old Teresa Turner of Des Moines was arrested Thursday afternoon on a charge of child endangerment resulting in death. Turner’s held in the Polk County Jail under a $50,000 bond. 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Iowa’s unemployment rate hits 6.5 percent

August 21, 2009 By

The state’s unemployment rate is up, again — reaching heights not seen since the “Farm Crisis” of the 1980s. The unemployment rate in Iowa in July was 6.5 percent. It hasn’t been that high since October of 1986.

Kerry Koonce of the Iowa Workforce Development agency says comparable unemployment data goes back to the early 1970s. “The highest we’ve ever been is 8.5 percent and that was for the first five months of 1983,” Koonce says. “It kind of stayed level there for a little bit and slowly began to edge down.”

The state’s unemployment rate two months ago, in June, was 6.2 percent. The July jobless figure jumped three-tenths of a percent. ”Obviously, Iowa’s still seeing some layoffs in industries across the state, particularly still in our manufacturing — we still lost 4800 jobs from last month,” she says, “so that’s having an effect on it.”

According to Koonce, the “civilian labor force” in Iowa is shrinking. ”Which means people are falling out of the labor force. That can come from a variety of reasons. It can be they’ve left or to be counted in the labor force you either have to be employed or unemployed and looking for work,” Koonce says. “And you sometimes get into what we call the discouraged job seeker where they are unemployed and have stopped looking for work and that counts in and removes them from the labor force.”

In July of 2008, the statewide unemployment rate was significantly lower, at 4.1 percent. Koonce, from Workforce Development, says they don’t have county-by-county unemployment data yet, but they are able to analyze some of the layoffs in the manufacturing sector of the state economy.

“We’re seeing a lot of layoffs of 100 here and 100 there,” Koonce says. “And we’re also seeing a lot of companies that do temporary layoffs where they may layoff a group of their employees for six weeks and then bring them back to work for six weeks and then off for six weeks.”

Koonce says there were some sectors of the economy which seem to be bouncing back. ”We did add 600 jobs in construction for the last month which is good. That’s something that we’ve been looking to see,” she says. “We also added jobs in the financial activities and in the professional and businesses services sectors.”

The national unemployment rate for July was 9.4 percent, down a smidgen from June.

 

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Court sides with AOL in tax dispute

August 21, 2009 By

The Iowa Supreme Court has sided with America Online in its tax dispute with the State of Iowa. The dispute is over whether AOL should pay sales tax to the State of Iowa for the Internet services it provides to Iowans.

The determining issue, according to the court, is where the AOL service — or connection — begins and ends. While a customer in Iowa first conects to A-O-L on an Iowa line, all connections are then routed through an AOL "authentication" system in Virginia. It would be impossible for one Iowa AOL subscriber to communicate with another Iowan who is on AOL without going through that system in Virginia.

The Iowa Supreme Court accuses Iowa Department of Revenue officials of engaging in "legal jujitsu" when it comes to their arguments that AOL should be paying sales taxes to the state. The key part of the Supreme Court’s opinion features this four-word sentence: "We agree with AOL."

Read the decision .

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Villisca man dies in motorcycle accident

August 21, 2009 By

A motorcycle accident in southwest Iowa’s Page County has claimed the life of a Villisca man. According to the Iowa State Patrol, 20-year-old Matthew Jeffrey Samo was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash at 12:05 AM Thursday near Shenandoah.

Officials say he was not wearing a helmet. According to authorities, Samo was traveling northeast on Highway 48, when his 1990 Honda CBR 1000 motorcycle left the highway, entered a ditch, traveled up the embankment and crossed Avenue "A." In the process, Samo was ejected from the cycle.

His body struck a railroad crossing signpost and continued through a ditch before hitting the tracks and coming to rest. The rider-less cycle, meanwhile, continued down a ditch and across a set of railroad tracks before finally coming to rest on its side. The Patrol says weather and poor traction may have played a role in the crash.

The area was experiencing rain, and officials say the cycle’s rear tire was bald. Samo was a 2007 graduate of Lenox High School.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Man turns periscopes that once rode warships into museum exhibits

August 21, 2009 By

Top of periscope sticking out of Goldstar Museum building. A man who once helped make periscopes for warships, now helps install the periscopes in museums so everyone can see how the devices work.

Paul Lapinski retired from the Kollmorgen Electric Company of Rhode Island, and by chance got into helping install periscopes in museums.

Lapinski estimates he’s installed some 25 periscopes in museums, with the latest Thursday in the new exhibit building at the Iowa Gold Star Museum at Camp Dodge. The periscope was built in 1964 and was once carried aboard a nuclear attack sub.

Lapinski says the periscopes were in used up until two years ago. He says these periscopes were replaced by a more sophisticated model that has thermal imaging capability and antennas.

View of periscope from floor to ceiling. Lapinski says the whole periscope from top to bottom is about 43 feet, with the main tube being 40 feet.

The tube is made of one piece of stainless steel that is drilled out and the inside and outside are machined. The inside of the tube is full of lenses that send the images to the eyepiece down below.

Lapinski says this is one of two periscopes the subs carried, and it was used to find the range for torpedo attacks. He says you would find the height of the target ship and then you could then estimate the range to the target and set that into the target data computer. While the periscope at Camp Dodge won’t be used to sink ships, Lapinski is setting it up so visitors can look out over the surrounding area.

Lapinski says the periscope will be rotated to find the best image and they will set the magnification for a 32-degree field of view or for an eight-degree field of view. Lapinski says the Iowa setup is unusual as you will be able to look out across a relatively flat area without a lot of buildings blocking the view.

Lapinski says this periscope was state-of-the-art when it was built, and cost around $250,000, a bargain when compared to today’s subs. Lapinski says the new class of submarines, the Virginia class, doesn’t actually have a periscope, it has two photopic masts, and he says the last cost he heard for them was about 37-million dollars. Those masts are all electronic and digital.

Lapinski says Kollmorgen began making periscopes in 1916 and now is the only manufacturer left. He says for the last 20 years much of his work was with foreign navies who still used the periscopes with the glass lenses, while the U.S. had switched to digital.

The new exhibit area at the Gold Star Museum that includes the periscope is expected to open in March of 2010.

Filed Under: Human Interest, Military
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