From the Associated Press:
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The chairman of the Iowa House Judiciary Committee says he wants to launch an investigation of a state court judge who last year was accused of trying to rig a judicial nomination to get a favored candidate appointed to the bench. If Republican Rep. Steven Holt’s investigation is approved, as expected, it apparently would be the first of its type in decades. Holt said Tuesday that he’ll ask the full House to pass a resolution granting his committee powers to investigate last year’s unusual judicial appointment process. Judge Kurt Stoebe, then chairman of a northern Iowa judicial nominating commission, was accused of making inappropriate and unprofessional comments about certain nominees and falsely stating that a nominee had withdrawn from consideration.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources plans to evict more than two dozen park rangers and other state parks workers from government-owned houses, citing the estimated $1 million expense of needed renovations and maintenance of the homes. The Gazette reports the agency has determined that of the 26 houses on state park grounds, it would cost $341,000 to get them up to code and another $556,000 for maintenance such as replacing windows, roofs and central air and heating systems. It would need another $100,000 per year for ongoing maintenance. But critics of the plan say moving rangers out the parks, where they live rent-free, would mean the public would have to wait longer for help in an emergency.
PRIMGHAR, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman accused of allowing her infant daughter to be abused by the baby’s father has been sentenced to probation. The Sioux City Journal reports that 22-year-old Brittanee Baker, of Sheldon, pleaded guilty last week to one count of felony child endangerment. She received a five-year suspended prison sentence and two years’ probation. Police say Baker told officials that her 5-month-old daughter had been hurt in 2020 by a lamp knocked over by cats in her home. But police determined that the baby’s father, 21-year-old Lawrence Ruotolo Jr., injured the baby when she wouldn’t stop crying, then suffocated the infant the next day. Ruotolo was sentenced in September to five years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of child endangerment.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former Wichita high school teacher has been sentenced to three years’ probation for sexual exploitation of a child. Television station KAKE reports that 49-year-old Shawn Wingfield was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to in November to the charge. He was ordered to register as a sex offender and undergo sex offender treatment. Wingfield resigned in July from teaching gifted English and debate at Wichita Northwest High School after police launched an investigation into him. That investigation began after a woman Wingfield dated gave police text messages he had sent to her in which he said he was sexually attracted to 11- to 14-year-olds. Investigators said they later found images of child pornography on electronics seized from his home.
BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — Law enforcement officers have released the name of an Iowa snowmobiler who was killed in an avalanche west of Yellowstone National Park in Montana. Gallatin County Sheriff and Coroner Dan Springer said 30-year-old Bradie Harold Becker of Algona, Iowa, was killed Sunday in a slide near West Yellowstone. An autopsy determined he died of asphyxiation after being buried in avalanche debris. Becker had been separated from the people he was snowmobiling with at the time of the avalanche. When they found him, resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. He was wearing an avalanche airbag that deployed.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — Two men are charged in the fatal shooting of a Cedar Falls man during the weekend. Police say 19-year-old Arthur Craig Lang was killed in the shooting on Sunday. Twenty-five-year-old Brandon Javon Mitchell, of Mason City, was charged Monday with attempted murder, intimidation with a weapon and felon in possession of a weapon. His bond was set at $100,000. And 24-year-old Daniel Martez Judon, of Mason City, was charged with intimidation with a weapon in the shooting. His bond was set at $25,000. Police say the shooting occurred during a confrontation between pedestrians and the two suspects and Lang, who were in a vehicle.
