Waterloo Courier (Newspaper) - December 2, 1996, Waterloo, Iowa NE Iowa Iowa More state residents voting against retaining judges Page A3 WATERLOO CEDAR FALLS Cresco gets ready for holidays with big stocking Page Bl Sports Green Bay Packers continue streak against Bears 2817 50 cents 40 pages 5 sections Monday December 21996 Waterloo Cedar Falls Iowa The groping doctor Fear shame in a small town Allegations against longtime doctor divide community By BARRY SIEGEL Los Angeles Times First of two parts REXBURG Idaho Rexburg physician retires proclaimed the headline in the Idaho FaUs Post Register Withers prescribes rest relaxation after career It 1 1995 Above the headline a large photo displayed a beaming Dr LaVar Withers scope to his ears caring for one last patient Below the headline an article offered a fond eulogy to this popular physician Withers readers were told always made time for patients and nurses Withers remembered the names faces and medical histories of all his patients Withers had a reassuring people Withers loved his work Its time to stop and smell the flowers went the doctors parting quote Ive had a great life had a lot of fun met a lot of nice people Withers 58 at the time said some thing else as well I have no regrets wouldnt change a thing It was this last comment that most stirred so many here in southeastern Idaho In home after home that Mon day afternoon people stared wide eyed at their afternoon newspaper The chairman of the Idaho State Board of Medicine was dumbstruck How could LaVar sit for such a trib ute wondered Dr Donald Bjornson What a blunder All over eastern Idaho hands reached for phones It had finally begun the end albeit slow and tant to an uncommon public silence doctor For three decades women had whispered about Withers conduct in examining rooms Those who didnt have their own stories to tell about the friendly physician fondling their breasts and genitals knew someone else who did The booby they called him Some had come to him with coUds or the flu others with broken ankles migraine headaches ingrown toe nails acne Ail told much the same story Withers groping wasnt the least subtle or ambiguous At times his gloveless fingers moved into their vaginas It appeared to some that he particularly enjoyed having third par ties in the room such as a husband or parent Although many kept their stories to themselves a few women told not only friends but also nurses lawyers hospital administrators police detec tives church officials and other doc tors None ever responded It was an See DOCTOR page A5 Shopping season off to a strong start By RACHEL BECK AP Business Writer The Grinch may not be able to steal this Christmas At least thats what retailers are hoping after early figures showed plenty of buying over the ing weekend the official kickoff of the holiday shopping season After a dismal season a year ago consumers crowded the nations stores and malls with their wallets open Several retailers said hey had their best Thanksgiving weekend Weather Low teens tomorrow upper 20s Tuesdays Forecast Flurries Complete weather Page 01 Metro Classified N Comics C5 Crossword j Opinion B2 A4 ever Last year was the weakest Christ mas in 11 years said Clark Johnson chairman of Pier One imports Inc which sells home furnishings But this weekend was beyond our level of expectations This is going to be a strong Christ inas he predicted Last year a shaky economy and low consumer confidence left retail ers with depressed holiday sales which generally account for about half of stores annual sales and prof its A rebounding economy has retail ers more upbeat about consumer spending and the strong sales over the holiday gave merchants more confidence that shoppers would spend enthusiastically until Christ mas Revenues at malls rose by 11 per cent from a year ago on the day after Thanksgiving according to the Inter national Council of Shopping Cen ters Services Inc a check approval service said the amount of sales paid for by check that day rose 36 percent Topping many gift lists was cloth ing a big boon to apparel retailers who have struggled over the last few years Sales at JC Penney Co Inc stores were boosted over the week end thanks to buying in its all its apparel departments spokesman Duncan Muir said Toys and jewelry also sold well as did perfume and cosmetics Con sumers also showed interest in home products including electronics fur and tools That was good news for Sears Roebuck and Co which reported strong sales in tools as well as com puters mens and kids apparel shoes and jewelry We had our best Thanksgiving weekend ever said John Costello the department stores senior execu tive vice president Other stores didnt fare as well Business at Dayton depart ment stores which include Daytons and Marshall Fields was a little slower than last year said spokeswoman Susan Eich who See SHOPPING page A5 Oregon mudslide GOP leaders plan to resist welfare reform 82 Sporty CU Horoscopes j Theaters B5 low TV C5 AP PHOTO A Douglas County Search and Rescue member probes In the Umpqua River Sunday for a car that was pushed into the river near Elkton Ore The car was pulled out Sunday morning with the bodies of a young mother and her two children Mother children drown in swollen river ELKTON Ore AP tractor trailer slammed into a car on a mud dy riverside highway sending a woman and her two young children to their deaths in the bodies were found Sunday Searchers found all three buckled inside the Toyota Camry about 40 feet from shore in the bloated Umpqua River in water about 15 feet deep Georgina Marie Appier 24 was still wearing her seal belt in the front passenger seat Daisha Ann 2 and Austin Wayne who was to celebrate his first birthday Monday were strapped into child safety seats in back Mrs husband Craig managed to escape the car after the truck crashed into it Saturday night as he was driving his family home to North Bend about 50 miles southwest of Elkton in western Ore gon He came upon the mudslide on Highway 38 at Paradise Creek just west of Elkton Ke stopped the car near a curve and as he tried to back up an oncoming truck crashed through the debris and into the car police said The rig pushed the car down the road until it plunged over a embankment state police Lt Gregg Hastings said Truck driver Joseph Sturt 25 of Laguna Beach Calif suffered cuts and bruises The rig was totaled No charges were filed The mudslide spilled across both lanes of the highway which had just been reopened Tuesday after a series of slides west of Elkton A woman was found dead in her car Nov 20 when the river receded WASHINGTON AP In more signs that the spirit of coop may be shortlived lican senators are promising to resist any White changes in the new welfare law and to keep pushing investigations into Democratic Party fundraising activities We dont want to undermine welfare reform Sen Don Nickles the Senates second ranked Republican said of dent Clintons efforts to make adjustments in the legislation that effectively ended the welfare enti system I think Congress is going to be very cool to make those changes Nickles said on Meet the Press Sunday Clinton said he was concerned that some elements such as cut backs in the food stamp program and eventual elimination of bene fits for legal aliens were too harsh The White House is considering a plan that would restore some billion of the projected bil lion in savings over six years Sen Daniel Patrick Moynihan DNY the Senates leading expert on welfare also said he saw no support for changing the new law and urged Clinton to take other steps to ensure that more children arent thrown into poverty If the president can produce a national awakening about the con dition of children and not get us into fussing about eligibility for food stamps we may pull it off Moynihan said on NBC If not why we have a calamity I believe Nickles also said he opposed suggestions that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton who headed the failed national health care reform effort in 199394 play an active role in the welfare issue To have her be the overseer for the administration if shes philo sophically opposed to the and the big change that we made think it would be the wrong person to be in charge of the review Nickles said Both Republican leaders and Clinton have insisted that they will lay aside differences and work together when the new Congress convenes in January But as with welfare Nickles indicated theres trouble ahead on the campaign finance issue that so dominated the 1996 elections Nickles and campaign finance reform advocate Sen John McCain both said Republicans planned hearings on Democratic fundraising from and by wealthy foreigners in the wake of the Jus tice Departments decision not to name a special prosecutor to inves the issue We will place more emphasis on congressional hearings which are not always the most san way of addressing these issues unfortunately McCain said on ABCs This Week Nickles said the GOP may request Attorney General Janet Reno to reconsider appointing an independent counsel saying it looked like they were nitpicking one or two of the requests that came in The department has turned down three requests now for an dent counsel on the grounds that there is no credible allegation that a top official the president or a Cabinet member was involved in criminal wrongdoing An inter nal Justice Department tion continues and the department could still decide an independent counsel is needed Sen Bradley was concerned efforts at campaign finance reform promised by both parties during the election would get pushed aside in the partisan wrangling over Democratic fund raising practices The real issue here is not to be preoccupied with picking over the bones of the past but actually to move to do something in the future he said on ABC Family of barbers agree theyre cut out to be hi hair business By CAR NOGA Courier Staff Writer WATERLOO Like many families when the But ler clan gathered for Thanksgiving dinner last week they caught up on each others lives This year was a lot like the last or so Tons of trims Several thousand shaves Some side bum shaping A few flat tops Between them there are five bar bers among three generations of But lers Howard his son Dan and his son Matt Jean Holmes who is married to younger Connie and lives in Kansas and older Linda Mashek who runs her own shop in Gilbertville Hair does come into the conversa tion Dan Butler says But for him Howard and MaU those conversations dont have to wait until the holiday reunions The barbershop ahem trio works side by side by side at the Butler Bar ber Shop 925 W Fifth St Fabian Stanton while not a rela tive makes the staff a genuine quar tet Offering oldfashioned straight edge razor shaves and maintaining a strict walkins only policy the shops been an institution on the block since 1962 Thats when Howard moved it from the basement of the Conway Building which stood where the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center is today Cecil moved along with it Hes been showing up about even three weeks for as long as he can remember Ive got him trained pretty well says Howard Get free coffee shoots back settling into a chair with a steaming cup and a newspaper after his ritual visit last week Free coffee notwithstanding the Butlers believe theres something else that keeps customers coming back Theres that goodnatured kidding back and forth Theres a ready ear for any topic whether it be sports family or current events And for customers like Megan Flynn theres Tootsic Pops I took her to beauty salons and she just wanted to come here says her mother Sue Flynn Her husband Tim is another Butler regular Perhaps Megan inherited her fathers predilection for the place She isnt typical of most customers From the golf clubs hanging above the mirror to the fish and antelope head it reflects its clear Butlers caters to a male clientele Its not a salon its a barber shop Dan Butler says I think it creates a masculine atmosphere Bob Schmadeke who vacates Dan Butlers chair for Megan comes for the masculine atmosphere from halfway across the state Schmadeke moved to Des Moines 27 years ago but still holds off on haircuts until he can get up to Butlers Till it gets to where I cant see See BARBERS page A5 DAN Courier Photo Editor Three generations of barbers work at the Butter Barber Shop on Fifth Street near downtown In October Matt Butler 22 center officially Joined his grandfather Howard left who has barbered for nearly SO years and his father Dan a veteran with scissors at the shop
