The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 3

September 17, 1986 THE DES MOINES REGISTER 3A IOWA? ft i DATELIilE IOWA Computer games teach, amuse state's legislative staff By DAVID YEPSEN RttHltr SMI Wrttar The Iowa Legislature's million-dollar computer still is being used by some legislative staffers to play games such as Battleship and Solitaire, more than two years after the practice was first questioned, officials confirmed Tuesday. About 20 computer games are programmed Into the system to "help people learn how to use the computer," said Sandy Scharf, director of the Legislative Computer Support Bureau. Also included are games such as Bio-rhythms, Bomb-the-Ship and Hangman, chemistry quiz and other numbers games, he said. Scharf said the games are included "for new people who may be afraid of the computer and they can play some games to become familiar." That was the same explanation given in July 1984 by officials of Sperry supplier of the then-new system, when there were allegations that the game function of the system was getting more use than any other of its functions. Officials said then that it was impossible to determine which function was used most.

Scharf said that he has the ability to moni-. tor who is using the games and that he does it is now in excellent working condition. He said the games came with the original com- puter programming. But critics and some executive branch officials have complained that the Legislature's computer Is a duplication and is unnecessarily complex. Other state workers, who asked not to be identified for fear of upsetting influential legislators who support the new computer, said privately that the state should not be paying employees to play computer games.

One official said an employee in his office was invited to the legislative staff offices one afternoon to play the games. not believe there is any abuse of the system by legislative staffers. He said be has not actually monitored staff game-playing. "It would take me about 20 seconds to turn it off," he said, if the Legislative Council ordered him to do so. "But we leave it on for people who are trying to become familiar with the keyboard." The Legislature's computer system has been a controversial one ever since it was Installed.

There were complaints about its com- plexity and its cost. Scharf said the total cost of the system is no more than $1.5 million and REGISTER PHOTO BY HARRY BAUMERT Gosches claim they know who took their son urn .1 I'- rv V--. -4 Girls change complexion of football foam By JOHN GILARDI Rtdittr Cff'ViiwidOTt IOWA CITY, IA. Southeast Junior High School football coach Mark Kubler knew the very first day of practice two weeks ago that this was going to be an interesting season. Two girls stopped by that day Maureen Brookhart and Juli Roten-burger and expressed an interest to the first-year coach in playing football on the eighth-grade team.

They were serious enough about participating that they filled out the necessary paper work. "They told me at the time they loved football," Kubler said. "Now I believe them." Brookhart and Rotenburger may have run into difficulty playing football if they lived in other Iowa school districts. But last week, the Iowa City School Board suspended its policy of prohibiting boys from playing on girls' teams, and vice versa, to allow 17-year-old Trevor Adamson to play in non-conference games for the West High School girls' volleyball team. "When the board suspended our current policy, there isn't any policy now that would prohibit a girl from being out for football," said Iowa City Superintendent David Cronin.

Brookhart said her and Rotenbur-ger's decision to play football was no fluke. Supported by Parents "We were thinking about playing this summer," she said, "and no one really took us seriously. My parents were against it at first; now they support me." "Mine, too. Now they're behind me," Rotenburger added. Now, teammates and friends are behind them and do take them seriously seriously enough about the Maureen Brookhart, left, and Juli Rotenburger hustle to the boys.

Last week the school board suspended a policy of practice at Southeast Junior High School in Iowa City prohibiting males from playing on female teams and vice where the two teen-agers are allowed to play football with versa. The coach is impressed with the girls' progress. "But Maureen and Juli are picking up the basics quickly. They listen to us when we point something out." Rotenburger said, "The drills are fun. It's exciting to beat someone going for the ball or blocking." Teammates Have Noticed Brookhart was more concerned about being injured: "I don't want to play in a position where I would be tackled a lot.

But I like the contact drills. Practice is fun except for the running." Teammates have taken note of the girls' presence. "It was different hitting them, real different," said Carson. "It didn't feel issue of co-educational teams that some boys are considering playing volleyball in January. "I'm going out for the volleyball team," said Swen Carson, an eighth-grade football player.

"I like the sport, and so do other guys. You will see a lot of them out for the team." Brookhart stands 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 108 pounds. Rotenburger is 4 feet 11 inches and 106 pounds. Both want to play split end and wide receiver. The team started contact drills last week, and Kubler said he has been impressed with Brookhart' and Ro-tenburger's progress.

"Most of the team played in seventh grade, so they are a year behind skill-wise," he said. right. They're girls." But teammate Carl Nelson said: "I don't feel guilty hitting them. It's like hitting anybody else on the team." Southeast hosts Bettendorf jn the team's first game Sept. 25.

Kubler said he expects the two girls to play some if they stick with the practices and do their best. The two change into their uniforms in a girls' locker room. They have found the pads and uniforms "too and a bit tight," they said. They have had to adapt in other ways, too, to their athletic careers. Said Brookhart, "We were running late for practice and didn't have a chance to take off our makeup." By FRANK SANTIAGO Rttftttr Staff Writer Noreen Gosch, mother of the West Des Moines newspaper carrier who has been missing for four years, said Tuesday that she knows who kidnapped her son, but she would not say who it was.

At a press conference she called, Gosch said the family's investigation has uncovered names of suspects and concluded that an organized effort was behind Johnny Gosch's abduction. She said she knew of three persons, including two Des Moines-area men, who were involved. She would not give details about her suspicions, except to say that two of the men were more than 40 years old and that the third had lived in Houston, Texas. Gosch said her information wasn't strong enough "at this time" to support the arrest of the men. She said the information came from three persons, one of whom was in prison.

"There have been severe threats against our family. I've done this lor peace of mind for the family," she said in explaining why she called a press conference. She said the announcement also had a "hidden mes sage that only the abductors would understand." She would not discuss the nature of the threats or who she suspects made them. Gosch said she had given the information to West Des Moines police and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation but they declined to join in announcing that leads had emerged in the case. West Des Moines Police Lt.

Lyle McKinney said the investigation of Gosch's disappearance Sept. 5, 1982, continues but declined other cou-ment. 1 A source close to the investigation said, however, that Gosch had supl plied the information to police but had declined to say where it came from. "We have no way of checking ii out without knowing where it camfi from," the source said. He said invfs tigators were "skeptical without knowing more." Investigators haven't uncovered leads that point to what happened to Johnny Gosch.

There has been speculation that he was abducted by a per son who lives in or near Des Moinef The disappearance of newspaper carrier Eugene Martin Aug. 12, 1984, from a south Des Moines neighbor' hood may be connected, say investigators, but there has been no evK dence to link the two. Martin, like Gosch, was delivering the Des Moines Sunday Register. Gosch said the private investiga-1 tion disclosed that her son was taken, by people who deal in children mostly for pornographic purposes. The sus-1 pects, she said, were involved in other: abductions, including that of Martin.

i Gosch said she was making the an-" nouncement to put the on notice that she and her husband, John, continue to work "against overwhelming odds" to unravel the mys-: tery. "This may not be completely understood by the public," she said, but "we want to tell those responsible that we know who they are." Gosch said she was withdrawing ar reward, which she said totaled "several hundred thousands of the safe return of her son. She! would not say why. She said the deci-1 sion did not affect a $125,000 reward pledged by the newspaper and several businesses, i Dubuque twins found down the street from home Tlw Rtgittor'i kwi Newt Strvtc DUBUQUE, IA. Dennis and Dar-rin Crite were safe at home Tuesday after the 20-month-old twins, clad only in diapers, were found in a busy Dubuque street.

The redheaded twin sons of James and Mary Jo Crite apparently slipped out the front door of their home and toddled more than a block before they were spotted in the street by a nurse, Diana Glasgow. Glasgow and another motorist took the twins to the police station. i James Crite was entertaining iguests in another part of the house when he discovered that the twins were missing. Family members and friends then launched a search for the children. Mary Jo Crite called police and was told her children were safe and sound.

The family has wired the front door shut and placed double hooks on the gate in the front yard to prevent the twins from escaping again. Iowa firm goes to court to retrieve parts list IOWA CITY, IA. (AP) The Shell-er-Globe Corp. is seeking a court order requiring one of its Iowa City employees to return a sensitive master parts list that contains information it considers a trade secret. The company, which manufactures padded parts used for automobile interiors, claims that if the list falls into the wrong hands, it could jeopardize the company.

Employee Dorothy Goad, 58, told lawyers that she obtained the list from a fellow employee because she was curious about the kinds of chemicals being used at the Iowa City plant. Goad suffers respiratory ailments and the list contains the names of 558 chemicals used at the plant, according to court documents. Ottumwa man sues city over loss of home in fire OTTUMWA, IA. (AP) An Ottumwa man is charging that the City of Ottumwa is responsible for a fire that destroyed his house in August 1985. Donald Knotts has filed a lawsuit claiming the city hired Gordon Dean Riley to raze an abandoned house next door to Knotts' house.

Riley started a fire in the abandoned house that spread to Knotts' home, the lawsuit says. Knotts said he is seeking compensation from the city because Riley does not have liability insurance. Controversial mortician to surrender license WATERLOO, IA. (AP) Former Waterloo mortician Charles H. Dyke-man has agreed to voluntarily give up his funeral director's license rather than proceed with a hearing before the Iowa Board of Mortuary Science.

The state board, which is part of the Iowa Department of Health, was scheduled to conduct a hearing on Dy-keman's business practices this week. The agreement will have no effect on another civil lawsuit filed by the attorney general's office against Dy-keman. That suit seeks to have Dyke-man pay back more than $1,788 the state claims he overcharged people for the funeral services of indigent friends or relatives. Positive identification of victim called impossible COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA. (AP) -Pottawattamie County authorities 'said Monday they cannot positively identify a man killed in a fiery truck crash near Neola Friday, but they are releasing the remains to the family of Wayne Mull, 32, of Hardesty, Okla.

Sheriff Mike Kerns said the body, found in the truck cab, was burned beyond recognition. Mull apparently had no known dental work done since his dental records were burned in a fire in 1968, he said. Elsewhere: Cameron E. Johnston, 79, of Hudson, and his daughter, Mary L. Jensen, 44, also of Hudson, a passenger in Johnston's car, were killed Tuesday when Johnston pulled into the path of a truck.

Tama County sheriff's officials said the truck, driven by Richard W. Launer, 24, of Worden, III, hit Johnston's car broadside. Launer was not injured. Jay Joseph Rokusek, 25, of Dubuque, was killed Monday night when his car slipped off a jack and crushed him. Rokusek, who was pronounced dead at the scene, had gone to change the car's antifreeze about 6:45 p.m.

When he had not returned by 9:20 p.m., his father, John, went to investigate and found his son pinned beneath the car. An Omaha man, Edward Mil-bourne, 61, was believed dead after jumping from the Interstate Highway 80 bridge over the Missouri River between Omaha and Council Bluffs Monday evening. Police said Mil-bourne, who was unemployed, leaped from the bridge moments after a police officer arrived to try to stop him. His body had not been recovered by Tuesday evening. Vandals flood road with water, cars 2 men charged in slaying plot By TOM ALEX Dedham's leaky water tower has drawn so many sightseers and created such a wet mess that town officials closed the road leading to what vandals turned into an improbable tourist attraction.

The tank began iDESMOINESf 0 Mll 2X) ficials say shots were fired at a car, two pickup trucks and a garage door. Later, at the Russell Heck farm, shots were fired at a mailbox. In Guthrie County, according to Roetman, shots were fired at the Ron King farm. Witnesses telephoned authorities with a description of the car and the teen-agers were arrested shortly thereafter in Coon Rapids. Three of them gave Coon Rapids addresses, and Anthofer said he had moved to the Des Moines area recently, according to officials.

Dedham City Clerk Henry Heman said he doesn't know how much it will cost to repair the town's 65-year-old water tower. "All I can say is a thousand dollars doesn't go very far when you need a crew to come in and do that kind of work," he said. "We have a bole in the side of the tank and unfortunately it's toward the bottom of it. Another shot hit the seam where it was double strength and it didn't penetrate," he said. Heman said, "There was a lot of traffic around the water tower after 4 people started hearing about it." Heman estimates 10,000 to 15,000 gallons of water had spilled from the tank by Tuesday afternoon, but the water pump was having no trouble keeping up with the leak and there was no loss of water pressure.

By NICK LAMBERTO Riftittr Staff WrHtr Two men accused of plotting to kill the wife of one of them were being held Tuesday in the Wapello County Jail in Ottumwa, officials said. The two, Jerry Wayne Rupe, 27, of rural Ottumwa and Joseph Michael Day, 27, of Ottumwa appeared Monday before Magistrate Richard Campbell on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder. Day also was charged with second-degree burglary after an incident on Sept. 4 at the home of Rupe's estranged wife, Ka-thy, who now is under police protection. Campbell set Jerry Rupe's bond at $50,000.

Day's bonds total $61,500. The charges were filed by Ottumwa Detective Sgt. Chris Logan, who said officers had been involved in the investigation since Sept. 4, when a complaint was filed. Details of the alleged plot were not released.

Ottumwa Police Chief Art Le Tour-neau said Kathy Rupe is under police protection because of fears for her safety. She has been moved to another residence and has been keeping in contact with police by radio and telephone, Le Tourneau said. Magistrate Campbell said the two men waived preliminary hearings and their cases were transferred to district court. Day was arrested Saturday in Ottumwa; Rupe was arrested Sunday near his home, Logan said. Youth found dead in Stanhope By NICK LAMBERTO RttHttr Stiff WrUtr The body of a 16-year-old youth, an apparent suicide victim, was found lying on the sidewalk across the street from his home in Stanhope early Tuesday, officials said.

leaking when it was hit by bullets from a high-powered rifle Sunday in what officials suspect was a shooting spree in three counties that also left a dog dead and a number of vehicles damaged. Four teen-agers were arrested in connection with the shootings. Jeff Roetman, a deputy with the Carroll County sheriff's office, said charges of criminal mischief are pending in Carroll County against Duane Anthofer and Brian Olesen, both 18. Two boys, ages 15 and 17, who were with the other two during the Sunday morning ride around Carroll, Audubon and Guthrie counties were released to their parents pending juvenile court action, officials said. Audubon and Guthrie counties are discussing possible charges.

Roetman said the boys shot at the water tower in Dedham and then headed for Audubon County, where they reportedly shot and killed a dog at the Jim Doidge farm. "It only took about five seconds," Doidge said. The car's occupants "drove in, cut their lights, turned them on again and shot the dog right in front of the house." The small dog, Spanky, died instantly. At the Norman Detlinger farm, of Stenhopt Hamilton County Sheriff Kenneth Famham identified the victim as Marty Anderson, a student at Southeast Hamilton High School in Jewell, and said his death was "consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound." A passing motorist discovered the body about 6:55 a.m., DES MOINES aoo Farnham said. The youth lived with his father, Murray Anderson.

His mother, Beatrice, lives in Webster City, Famham said. Dr. Thomas Bennett, a Des Moines pathologist who performed an autopsy on the body, said the death was probably a suicide caused by a small-caliber gunshot wound to the abdomen. Dr. Kie Yun Lee of Webster City, Hamilton County medical examiner, said a baseball bat and a gun were found near the body.

Agent Ron Makin of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and a DCI laboratory crew were summoned to the scene. There was no suicide note and no indication why the youth took his own life, Makin said. REGISTER PHOTO BY BOB NANDGLL I Wit "Tl 1 it I 14 Angelo Klingopoulos of Des Moines spends a gloomy Tuesday painting a large metal grating on the side of a downtown building..