Karma's a bee-yotch, baby!

Newspaper executive arrested in prostitution sting

DULUTH, Minn. - A newspaper executive received a probationary sentence after being caught in a prostitution sting conducted by the Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force in a Duluth motel room.

Former Ashland Daily Press publisher Todd R. Keute, 49, currently regional operations manager of the Superior Publishing Corporation and publisher of the Herald Review in Grand Rapids, pleaded guilty to prostitution in a public place, a gross misdemeanor.

Keute was sentenced on May 15 to one year of probation with terms including completing the “Breaking Free” educational program. Breaking Free is a Minnesota nonprofit providing services and resources to prostituted and exploited women and girls.

The defendant was fined $1,500 and $85 in surcharges for the incident last November.

“I deeply regret my lapse of judgment and am sorry for my actions,” Keute told the News Tribune on Monday.

Keute, of Grand Rapids, Minn., served as publisher of the Superior Evening Telegram and later as vice president of administration at the News Tribune before leaving the company. He was publisher of The Daily Press for one year, prior to his promotion to his current title in May 2011.

According to the criminal complaint:

The Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force advertised prostitution services on a website on Nov. 8. The ad read: “Put me ur TO DO list, sexy blonde, 22.”

The ad was posted on the website www.backpage.com in the escort section. Among the callers responding to the ad was Keute, who identified himself as "Jeff."

The woman, who is described in the complaint as a “cooperating individual,” told Keute the cost for “full service” would be $75. After receiving a second call from the defendant, the woman gave him the motel and room number where she would meet him.

When he arrived at the motel, Keute told the woman what he wanted to do. He placed $75 on a night stand. The woman told him that she needed to go into the bathroom and freshen up. Keute is accused of grabbing the woman and placing his hands inside her shirt and grabbing her breasts.

Investigators then entered the room, identified themselves as police officers and took Keute into custody.

[Info from the May 22, 2012 Duluth News Tribune article by Mark Stodghill]

Now here is ACM's response this afternoon:

“The company has only recently learned about this matter and is investigating the information that has been reported. The company does not condone the conduct that has been reported and is treating this as a very serious matter. The company has no further comment at this time,” ACM said in a statement.

And this is from the corporate-generated release appearing on Wednesday's front page:

Keute said on Tuesday that he apologizes to his family, the company and all his co-workers for a “terrible personal mistake.”

An unlikely pairing

It's very late, it's been another long day at work, I am rather drunk and TCM is showing Dr. Crippen (1963) with Donald Pleasance. As it happens, I am also listening to Dirty Vegas on my old-school iPod: a Sony Discman. LOL.

Anyway, the music and lyrics were totally synching up with the film for a bit and I thought what an odd juxtaposition to have occur. I guess you had to be here to appreciate it, but I felt compelled to come in here and blog.

Here are the lyrics to the Dirty Vegas tune that inspired this serendipitous sequence of events - "I Should Know"  - from their eponymous debut album:

I show you things that you've never seen.
I know places you've never been,
Somewhere the grass isn't green.
Cuz I, yeah, I should know, 
Yeah, I should know.

Congratulations to Mayor Barrett!

  

  MADISON (AP) – Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett won the Democratic primary Tuesday in Wisconsin's historic recall election, emerging from a field of three Democrats to face Republican Gov. Scott Walker next month.

   Barrett's win sets up a June 5 rematch of the 2010 governor's race in what will be the culmination of an effort to oust the first-term Republican that officially began more than six months ago.

The recall, triggered by the collection of more than 900,000 petition signatures, was spurred by anger over Walker's proposal passed last year taking collective bargaining rights from public workers.

   Barrett, who gained national attention in 2009 when he intervened in an attack at the state fair, had 54 percent of the vote in preliminary results.

   "We know that the real battle is ahead and it's really going to be a battle for the values of Wisconsin," Barrett told The Associated Press shortly after the race was called. "Our view is Scott Walker has done a lot of damage to the state and Wisconsin can't be fixed as long as Scott Walker is governor."

   Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, who was the favored candidate of the unions that pushed the recall, came in second with 37 percent of the vote, with 32 percent of precincts reporting.

   Union leaders said they were ready to quickly pivot and summon support for Barrett.

   "I think we'll get just as much activism," said AFL-CIO national political director Mike Podhorzer. "This isn't about `Are we for team A or team B,' this is about what workers need. And workers understand they are being hurt by Walker."

   Barrett has had a rocky relationship with unions over the years and some Wisconsin union leaders urged him not to get into the recall race. He has promised to work toward restoring collective bargaining rights Walker took away, but he didn't go as far as Falk, who pledged to veto any state budget that didn't undo Walker's changes.

   Other Democrats on the ballot finished far behind. Secretary of State Doug La Follette got 4 percent followed by state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout with 3 percent.

   Gladys Huber, the fake Democrat, got less than 1 percent.

   Walker easily defeated Arthur Kohl-Riggs, a Walker opponent running as a Republican.

   The June 5 recall is one of the most closely watched elections in the nation outside of the presidential race. Walker has tapped his status as a national conservative rock star to raise $25 million so far, most of it from out of state, shattering fundraising records he set during the 2010 race.

   Walker has embodied the Republican rise to power in 2010 and hopes to avoid becoming just the third governor to be recalled in U.S. history.

   Barrett, 58, has been mayor of Milwaukee since 2004. He's popular in Wisconsin's largest, and mostly Democratic, city. He won re-election in April with 70 percent of the vote. Walker beat him by 5 percentage points, or about 125,000 votes, in November 2010. Barrett also ran for governor in 2002 but lost in the Democratic primary.

   Barrett previously served eight years in the state Legislature and 10 years in Congress.

Green aurora

The northern lights over Chequamegon Bay earlier this year. That glow along the far distant shoreline is Washburn. (Photo by John Welling of Ashland)

Hoppin' down the bunny trail...

Hippity, hoppity, Easter's on its way! ;-D

Seriously, why are those Easter Bunny costumes always so damned scary?! LOL