January 10, 2011 Spokesman

Guests: Brian Tucker introduced the student of the month, Alex Burt. Alex is a senior at Juanita High School and will soon be an Eagle Scout. Today was Alex’s last day visiting our Club. Chuck Brockway introduced Joe Hammond of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity at University of Washington. The fraternity has been a consistent volunteer with the Miracle League event that our Club hosts each year.

Joe Hammond is a junior at UW, majoring in Economics and Math. The motto at Pi Kappa Phi is “Push America”, and the fraternity is involved with raising awareness and funding for people with disabilities. As such, the members of the fraternity sponsor several fund raising events throughout the year, such as the summer bike ride: Journey of Hope and wheel chair basketball, to name a few. As a token of their continued support of Miracle League, the fraternity gave a grant of $1,071 to the Rotary Club of Kirkland to be used for this worthy cause.

Since this was Alex Burt’s last meeting visiting us, he spoke about his experience as student of the month. Alex has applied to BYU, Harvard, and Stanford for college, where he intends to pursue business management. Alex is involved with Boy Scouts, his church LDS, and acting. He has participated in several productions, and shared a story of a recent play. Alex spoke of a friend, Devin, who was injured in an accident, and Alex stood by his side during the recovery process. Alex said all of the things he has done circles back to the Service Above Self that Rotary is all about, and he thanked everyone for the opportunity to be the Student of the Month.

Announcements:

1. Dan Bartel thanked the following people for their involvement with the Rotary First Harvest event on Saturday morning: Carl Boruck, Doug Carter, Joanne Primavera, Barb Seaton, Pat Swenson, Bill Taylor, Sandy Taylor, David Tucker, Jason Wang, Rick & Stephanie Walter, Shellie Gehring, John Woodbury, and Dan & Wilma Bartel. Over 14,000 lbs of frozen carrots were packaged and over 17,000 lbs of canned and dried goods were processed.

2. Joanne Primavera will be hosting a party at her home on February 3^rd in the afternoon. This party is open to all Rotarians who have already taken or who have signed up to take Jason Wang (our exchange student) on an outing.

3. President Pat announced on behalf of Steve Shinstrom that scribes and greeters are still needed.  Thank you to Pat Swenson who crafted a template for the Scribe, making it easy to take notes and post them to the website. The template can be found on Club Runner.

4. Mike Hunter encouraged everyone to read this months Rotarian magazine, as it celebrates 100 years of Rotary.

5. President Pat announced the monthly Rotary board meeting is held the second Wednesday of each month from 4pm to 6pm at Conover-Feek Insurance. This month, the meeting is Wednesday, January 12 in the 1^st floor conference room. All Club members are invited to attend, and please let President Pat know in advance if you are planning to attend. New members who are working toward their blue badge are encouraged to attend.

6. President Pat announced the District 5030 Conference would be held in Portland on April 29^th to May 1^st. All are encouraged to sign up for this inspirational event. Cost is $275 per person, and so far there are 14 people (including spouses) from our Club attending. Each Rotarian who signs up to attend the conference receives a red rose for their badge.

7. Brian Tucker referenced the recent District Newsletter, where National Immunization Day in India was announced. There is room for Rotarians to attend next month. Brian will be speaking to our Club in March regarding his trip to Ethiopia.

Program:

John Woodbury introduced Ted Barr, a criminal defense attorney with Ted C. Barr & Associates in Bellevue. Ted is a graduate of Washington State University and obtained his law degree from Northwestern University Law School.  Ted spoke about why DUI’s are such a big deal, and why a DUI attorney is important.

Over 45,000 people are killed each year from DUI-related incidents. This number is higher than the number of people who die from AIDS. The United States has higher tolerance for driving under the influence than any other country. The current tolerance level of .08 in Washington is down from its original level of .15, which was later reduced to .10, and Ted projects it will eventually be reduced to .05. Most other countries have a zero tolerance. The biggest lobbying group that is against zero-tolerance is the restaurant and hotel industry (revenue driven). The “hypocrisy factor” described by Ted: the State sells it, the State taxes it, and the State prosecutes people for abusing it. One in five people have had a DUI in their life.

DUI attorneys are necessary to uphold the presumption of innocent until proven guilty. Ted indicated it is not uncommon for a person to get arrested for DUI when in fact fatigue played a major role in the incident. Additionally, arresting officers can often be intimidating and further cause a person to become frustrated and appear disoriented. The penalties for DUI are severe, and five-DUI convictions over a 10-year period is a felony. Drunk driving is based on the condition of the accused at the time of the event. Relying on a machine to convict a person creates problems because often times, these machines (breath tests) are not properly maintained, and the machines themselves are not the highest quality on the market. The breath test is only an estimate of a person’s blood alcohol level. The same test is used for all individuals, regardless of gender, size of the person, age, or tolerance.  Additionally, the reliability of the operator and the reliability of the people maintaining these machines have caused the breath test to be thrown out due to poor handling. To avoid the possibility of the “divided attention trap” when getting pulled over, always have your drivers license, insurance car, and registration readily available so that you are not rummaging for it when the police officer asks for it. It is difficult to win a drunk driving case because the arresting officers are very convincing to a jury and often embellish the event. While video cameras helped a defense attorney uncover the real truth to the story, most video cameras have since been removed from patrol cars. Cost to defend a DUI case is $7,000 to $10,000 plus at least 6-months of ones life. This does not include court costs. Handouts provided to all attending contained valuable and useful information. Good Q&A followed Ted’s presentation, and overall it was an excellent presentation.

President Pat presented Ted Barr with a certificate indicating that 500 lbs. of food would be donated in his honor to Rotary First Harvest.

Joker Pool: The Joker Pool is up over $700. Alice Volpe had the winning ticket, but did not select the joker card to win.