CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY
A free service of Jesus Christ is Lord Ministries
News selected and edited by Ray Mossholder
MORNING EDITION, March 12, 2014
GOD ANSWERS PRAYER – SICK BOY GIVEN THE CHANCE TO LIVE
Overnight, there’s been a total change of heart. A pharmaceutical company that sounded to most people like Ebenezer Scrooge before his conversion says they will now supply the medication needed to save a dying 7-year-old boy. The company will begin a pilot trial for the drug – with the child to be the program’s first patient beginning today.
The announcement comes after the company, Chimerix, faced intense media scrutiny after it reportedly denied the medication brincidofovir to Josh Hardy, a Fredericksburg, Virginia, boy who developed a bone marrow disorder as a result of his cancer treatments late last year. CEO Kenneth I. Moch said in a statement Tuesday night that the company would provide the much-needed drug.
“This 20-patient open-label study underscores Chimerix’s mission to develop innovative antiviral therapies in areas of high unmet need — for everyone,” Moch said. “Being unable to fulfill requests for compassionate use is excruciating, and not a decision any one of us ever wants to have to make. It is essential that each individual in a health crisis be treated with equal gravity and value, a principle we have upheld by pursuing further clinical study of brincidofovir that will inform its use in adenovirus and other serious DNA viral infections.”
Through a grassroots campaign launched by Josh’s mother, Chimerix had received hundreds of phone calls and emails in support of Josh, and the hashtag #savejosh had been trending on Twitter. Supporters even chartered buses so they could protest at the company’s headquarters.
Dr. Robert Hariri, the CEO of the biotechnology company Celgene, told FoxNews.com on Tuesday that colleagues in the industry “look to a company like Chimerix to provide an example of being heroic in these situations for the best interest of society.”
“We all run into problems where potentially life-saving therapies which are in development and under investigation are called upon by people who have no other choices, and who will die whether they receive the experimental therapy or not,” he said. “And we’re often facing the very complicated decisions on whether to potentially jeopardize the development of a drug or product because there’s need for compassionate use.”
THE KING JAMES BIBLE IS STILL THE MOST POPULAR INTERNATIONALLY
2011 marked the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. It also marked the beginning of a three-year Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis study of the Bible’s place in the everyday lives of Americans. With a $507,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture — a program of the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI — set out to answer questions of how, where, when and why ordinary Americans use the Bible. According to findings made public online this week in the 44-page “The Bible in American Life” report, the four-centuries-old King James Version of the Bible is far from dead. Despite its archaic language and a market flooded with newer, more modern English translations, more than half of the individuals and two-fifths of the congregations surveyed still prefer the King James Bible. And of those surveyed, African Americans reported the highest levels of Bible engagement:
• Seventy percent of all blacks said they read the Bible outside of public worship services, compared to 44 percent for whites, 46 percent for Hispanics and 28 percent for all other races.
• Bible memorization is highest among black respondents, 69 percent, compared to 51 percent among white conservative Protestants and 31 percent among white moderate/liberal Protestants.
“There are no measures, individually or in congregations, where ‘black’ is not strongly correlated with the most conservative, most active, most involved level of scriptural engagement, no matter which other group comes close,” the report says. “If one wanted to predict whether someone had read the Bible, believed it to be the literal or inspired Word of God, and used it to learn about many practical aspects of life, knowing whether or not that person was black is the single best piece of information one could have.”
The newly released report first looks at the practice of scripture reading in the United States, and then explores eight measures among those who read the Bible, such as Bible translation used; scripture memorization habits; favorite passages; and race.
Roughly half of Americans have read religious scripture outside of a public worship service in the past year. For 95 percent of those, the Bible is the scripture they read. What did the study reveal about Bible readers?
• Most of those people read at least monthly, and a substantial number — 9 percent of all Americans — read every day.
• Women were more likely to read than men; older people were more likely to read than younger; Southerners were more likely to read than those of any other region.
• The percentage of verse memorizers among Bible readers (48 percent) equates to roughly a fourth of the American population as a whole, or nearly 80 million people.
• Psalm 23 — which begins “The Lord is my shepherd” — was the most popular Biblical passage.
• Younger people, those with higher salaries and, most dramatically, those with more education among the respondents read the Bible on the Internet or an e-device at higher rates.
The written report, based on survey questions on both the General Social Survey (1,551 individuals) and the National Congregations Study III (denominations represented among the General Social Survey respondents), is the first stage of the study and offers sociological data about the role of the Bible.
“Historians and sociologists have been working for years to understand how religion is lived out on a daily level,” said Philip Goff, executive director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture and one of the three principal investigators and professors of religious studies at IUPUI who led the study. “This gives us a good snapshot of the practice of Bible reading. That should also help ministers understand the people in their pews.
“We are hopeful that some of our findings — especially that people read the Bible more for personal prayer and devotions than for the culture war issues we constantly hear about in the news — will add to the media’s understanding of religion. Religion can be political, but it usually is not.”
Goff’s co-investigators are Arthur Farnsley, associate director of the center; and Peter Thuesen, chair of the Department of Religious Studies at IUPUI.
The second stage of the study is a national conference August 6 to 9 in Indianapolis. The project will culminate with the publication of at least two books, one by the project’s principal investigators, and the second an edited volume of expanded papers presented at the conference.
About the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture
The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture was established in 1989 to explore the connection between religion and other aspects of American culture. It is a research and public outreach institute that supports the ongoing scholarly discussion of the nature, terms and dynamics of religion in America. As part of the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, the center pursues its aim as part of the mission of humanities and social science learning.
AIR FORCE ACADEMY CADET MAY BE PUNISHED
FOR POSTING A BIBLE VERSE
The Air Force Academy removed a Bible verse posted on a cadet’s whiteboard after it determined the posting had offended other cadets, a spokesman for the academy said. The cadet wrote the passage on the whiteboard posted outside his room. “I have been crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” the verse from Galatians 2:20.
Mikey Weinstein, director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said 29 cadets and four faculty and staff members contacted his organization to complain about the Christian passage. “Had it been in his room – not a problem,” Weinstein told me. “It’s not about the belief. It’s about the time, the place and the manner.” He said the Bible verse on the cadet’s personal whiteboard created a hostile environment at the academy.
“It clearly elevated one religious faith (fundamentalist Christianity) over all others at an already virulently hyper-fundamentalist Christian institution,” he said. “It massively poured fundamentalist Christian gasoline on an already raging out-of-control conflagration of fundamentalist Christian tyranny, exceptionalism and supremacy at USAFA.”
Who knew that a Bible verse posted on a whiteboard could generate such outrage?
Weinstein said he immediately contacted the Air Force Academy and filed a complaint. Exactly two hours and nine minutes later, the Bible verse had been scrubbed from the cadet’s whiteboard.
A spokesman for the AFA confirmed that the religious text was cleansed from the board. “The whiteboards are for both official and personal use, but when a concern was raised we addressed it and the comment was taken down,” Lt. Col. Brus Vidal told me in a written statement.”
Weinstein said the Air Force Academy did a good job in fixing the problem and credited Lt. Col. Denise Cooper. “She immediately said this is wrong and will use it as a teachable moment,” he said. The academy said the cadet will not be punished. “We don’t see misconduct here but the division between your personal room and the hallway is a gray area.”
Weinstein took umbrage with that comment and said the cadet must be punished. “It’s not a gray area, this is absolute misconduct,” he said. “Not only should the cadet be punished but (also) his/her responsible USAFA cadet and officer chain of command who ignored this blatant and egregious violation of Air Force regulation 1-1 and the United States Constitution.”
The 1-1 regulation Weinstein cited is an extensive document with a section on religious proselytizing and other religious matters. But An Academy spokesman said the whiteboard Bible verse did not violate Air Force regulations.
Retired General Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council declared his outrage over the removal of the Bible verse. “Once the academy allowed cadets to use these whiteboards for their personal use, censorship of religious commentary is unacceptable,” Boykin told me. “Either the Air Force Academy is very confused about the Constitution of the United States or they don’t really believe in the liberties that are provided by that document.” Boykin said the academy needs to take a few moments for some personal reflection.
“In essence, what they are doing is preparing young men and women to defend the Constitution while at the same time depriving these cadets of their own constitutional liberties,” he charged.
Michael Berry, an attorney with Liberty Institute said it appears the Air Force Academy’s decision is in violation of a new Pentagon regulation meant to protect religious liberty. “If the cadet didn’t violate any rules, then why was the quote removed?” Berry asked. “It appears that the Air Force now believes Bible verses are a violation of AFI 1-1.”
Berry said Liberty Institute, which specializes in religious freedom cases, stands ready to defend any cadet whose religious rights have been violated.
THE GROUNDHOG WAS RIGHT!
You’ve got to give the groundhog credit. He’s getting every last drop out of his forecast of six more weeks of winter. Just as the jonquils and tulips are poking their leaves above ground, a monster of a storm is sweeping across the Midwest, up the Great Lakes and into the Northeast. Look at these snowfall predictions with the official start of spring just over a week away.
Chicago-area commuters could be facing up to 8 inches of fresh new snow as they head to work today.
Sorry Cleveland, it looks even worse for you. Close to a foot of snow is possible by the time the storm passes.
Blizzard warnings are up for western New York. Up to 18 inches of snow is forecast for Rochester. Winds will gust up to 44 mph.
Ready to cry uncle yet?
Burlington, Vermont, is in the cross hairs too. Folks there will see winds up to 32 mph. Snowfall could reach 20 inches before it’s all over. And so it goes, all the way into Maine. People in Bangor can look forward to up to 19 inches of snow before the system exits New England tomorrow.
Out West, the weather’s warming up, but even that comes with problems.
The melt from a heavier-than-normal snowpack has turned into flooding along the Bighorn River in north-central Wyoming, forcing folks from their homes. “We actually have about 60 residences that we’ve evacuated,” Worland Police Chief Gabe Elliott told CNN affiliate KCWY. “Probably around 80 people reside in those residences. Police are preparing for the worst. The area’s just getting larger and larger and further northbound. So it’s definitely expanding as we speak.”
ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU APOLOGIZES TO JORDAN
Israel’s prime minister expressed sorrow yesterday over the fatal shooting of a Jordanian judge and announced a joint investigation into the incident, seeking to ease tensions with its key Arab ally.
The statement of regret by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reflected the importance that Israel places on its relations with Jordan, one of just two Arab countries that have peace agreements with Israel. The two countries signed their peace deal in 1994 and maintain strong security ties.
The death of Raed Zueter, a Jordanian magistrate of Palestinian descent, has caused an uproar in Jordan, triggering street protests and calls in parliament to annul the 1994 peace agreement with Israel.
The Israeli military said that guards shot Zueter on Monday after he tried to grab a rifle from a soldier at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. Zueter, who is originally from the West Bank city of Nablus, had been visiting relatives there and was on his way back to Jordan at the time.
The military said an initial investigation found that Zueter attacked a soldier while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is Great,” and the soldiers were forced to open fire, first at his legs and then at his body after he began to strangle a soldier.
In Nablus, about 1,000 people attended Zueter’s funeral. The Palestinian Authority escorted the body in a 20-vehicle military procession. As the convoy snaked through the streets, mourners shouted and chanted anti-Israeli slogans.
About half of Jordan’s population is Palestinian, where public sentiment toward Israel is often hostile.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said, “Israel regrets the death of Judge Raed Zueter… and expresses its sympathies to the people and government of Jordan.” It said Israel had shared the results of its preliminary investigation with Jordan, and agreed to a Jordanian request to establish a joint investigation immediately.
In Amman, the Jordanian parliament discussed the killing yesterday. Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said the government condemned the killing and said that Israel had apologized. Lawmakers mocked and dismissed the Israeli gesture, and the parliament speaker, Attef al-Tarwaneh, said the shooting was a violation of the peace treaty. During the discussion, a spectator was escorted outside of the building after trying to set fire to an Israeli flag.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the parliament afternoon for a second day of protests against Israel. Meanwhile, hundreds of lawyers and judges staged a one-day strike, calling on Jordan to deport the Israeli ambassador and cancel the peace treaty.
About 150 angry Jordanian protesters gathered on Monday near the Israeli Embassy to condemn the killing. Security forces dispersed the demonstration after protesters tried to attack the embassy.
A mass protest against Israel is expected after Friday noon prayers organized by opposition parties.
JOLLY SINKS SINK IN FLORIDA HOUSE RACE
Republican David Jolly narrowly defeated Democrat Alex Sink yesterday in a Tampa-area House race largely seen as a critical test for ObamaCare. With nearly 100 percent of the vote counted, Jolly had 48.5 percent of the vote to Sink’s 46.7 percent. Libertarian Lucas Overby had 4.8 percent.
The race to replace the late Republican Representative Bill Young was considered a tossup, and was cast as a political bellwether, and a testing ground for each party’s messaging strategy — which revolves in part around the Affordable Care Act.
Jolly was introduced by former “Price is Right” game show host Bob Barker, via video. Young’s two adult sons were also onstage with Jolly and he embraced them at the end of his speech. Jolly didn’t mention the issue that dominated much of the campaign — the president’s health care package — and instead said that Pinellas County must work together.
“This race is not about defending a broken agenda in Washington or advancing a broken agenda in Washington. This race is about serving the people in our own community,” he said. “Let’s dispense with the rancor and vitriol of the last five months.”
Jolly thanked Sink and Overby and said it was “OK” that tens of thousands of others voted for his opponents. “While this campaign at times seemed to be partisan, your next congressman is not partisan,” he said.
Meanwhile, national Republican groups swiftly got to work casting Jolly’s victory as a blow to ObamaCare and those who support it. “Tonight, one of Nancy Pelosi’s most prized candidates was ultimately brought down because of her unwavering support for ObamaCare, and that should be a loud warning for other Democrats running coast to coast,” said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Representative Greg Walden, R-Oregon. “Pinellas County voters have made the right choice; David will be a dedicated and thoughtful representative for them in Congress.”
In St. Petersburg, Sink’s party was subdued. Backed by her adult children, SinkI spoke to a couple hundred stoic supporters in a half-empty ballroom at a lakeside Hilton in St. Petersburg. “We know that life brings many challenges. It brings many opportunities. My values have always been to do good for my family and for my community. Although we’re disappointed, the bars are open,” she said.
With that, Sink left the ballroom.
Jolly, a former aide to Young, had, along with Republican groups, spent millions to hammer his Democratic opponent over ObamaCare.
Sink, who narrowly lost the 2010 governor’s race to incumbent Governor Rick Scott, had cautiously embraced the health law — while insisting it urgently needs fixing. She had played down its importance in the special election. “I hear a number of different issues that people are concerned about — like protecting Social Security and Medicare,” she said. “They’re frustrated with Washington and believe that Washington is not working for them.”
The perception of what the race means had inspired both parties to call in star advocates like President Bill Clinton and former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, in addition to blanketing the district with ads, calls and mailings. More than $11 million was spent on the race, according to the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit group that tracks government information. More than one in four registered voters in the district is older than 65, a population that could account for more than half of those casting ballots.
The battle for Florida’s 13th District seat was a prequel of sorts to the national fight this year over who controls Congress in the last two years of Obama’s final presidential term. The House is expected to remain under Republican control. But in the Senate, Republicans are hoping to leverage Obama’s unpopularity and his health care law’s wobbly start to gain the six seats required to control the 100-member chamber. That made the race in Florida a pricey proving ground for both parties, with the candidates the faces of the effort.
Clinton recorded a phone call last week seeking local volunteers to help with Sink’s campaign, and a half dozen House Democrats emailed fundraising appeals to their own supporters on her behalf. More than a third of Jolly’s campaign contributions came from members of Congress.
Meanwhile, Paul Ryan had joined Jolly on a conference call with voters, while Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul recorded a phone message for the GOP nominee aimed at supporters of Libertarian candidate Lucas Overby.
While Republicans held the congressional seat for four decades until Young’s death last year, the district’s voters favored Obama in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. The district is 37 percent Republican, 35 percent Democrat and 24 percent independent.
Sink had outspent Jolly by more than 3 to 1 on television advertising, though outside groups aligned with the GOP had narrowed the overall Democratic advantage.
Fox News’ John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated activist whose organization recently came under fire for holding an anti-Semitic rally in support of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi will head a fundraiser for Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly of Virginia. U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood allies Akram Elzend and Sameh Elhennawy will co-host a fundraiser for Connolly later this month at the Fairfax residence of Mohamed Mohamed, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Attendees of the March 22 fundraiser are asked to donate between $150 and $400 in order to attend the event, where supporters will have a chance to “express appreciation and have direct conversation with” Connolly, according to the invitation. A form attached to the invitation asks donors to include their personal information and contains a message that the materials were “paid for and authorized by Connolly for Congress.”
The event has attracted the attention of some U.S.-based analysts who track the Muslim Brotherhood, particularly due to a pro-Morsi rally several weeks ago in New York City that featured anti-Semitic displays and was organized by a group Elzend co-founded.
DEFENSE CONTRACTOR GIVES MILITARY SECRETS TO CHINESE GIRLFRIEND
A civilian defense contractor accused of giving military secrets to a Chinese girlfriend half his age will be entering a guilty plea, his attorney said yesterday.
Benjamin Bishop was expected to plead guilty to one count of transmitting national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it and one count of unlawfully retaining national defense documents and plans.
Bishop was arrested last March at the headquarters for the U.S. Pacific Command, where he worked. An FBI affidavit last year alleged the then-59-year-old gave his 27-year-old girlfriend classified information about war plans, nuclear weapons, missile defenses and other topics. Bervar has said the two were in love and that the case was about love, not espionage. Bishop has been in federal detention in Honolulu for the majority of time since his March 2013 arrest.
U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi allowed him to move to a halfway house last June. But a magistrate judge ordered him back to jail in December after he violated the terms of his release by emailing his girlfriend and writing her a letter.
Bishop, who is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, worked in the field of cyber defense at Pacific Command from May 2011 until his arrest. Prior to that, he helped develop Pacific Command strategy and policy. He was familiar with the Pacific Command’s highest priority capability gaps, the command’s chief of staff, Major General Anthony Crutchfield, said in a declaration filed in support of the prosecution’s motion to have him detained without bail. Bishop was well-versed with the way Pacific Command used cyber security, the declaration said. Crutchfield added, “From 2010 to 2012, Bishop had access to ‘top secret’ information on efforts to defend against a ballistic missile attack from North Korea,
The FBI alleges Bishop and the woman, now 28, started an intimate, romantic relationship in June 2011. The prosecution said she was a graduate student and she and Bishop were having an extramarital affair. Utah state records show Bishop was married until 2012.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN ACCUSES CIA OF SPYING ON SENATE COMPUTERS
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the head of theSenate intelligence committee, escalated a behind-the-scenes dispute with the CIA by publicly accusing the spy agency of secretly searching a Senate computer system, an act she said that undermines congressional intelligence oversight.
The expanding dispute has opened a rift between the CIA and the Senate committee that oversees it and often has defended it. Already, some CIA officers could face criminal prosecution as a result of a Justice Department investigation of the incident. “I have grave concerns that the CIA search may well have violated the separation of powers principles,” Feinstein said on the Senate floor. “I am not taking it lightly.”
CIA Director John Brennan is also expected to speak publicly Tuesday, and he and his agency see the situation much differently. They believe the CIA acted appropriately in response to Senate staffers who improperly gained access to documents they were not supposed to have.
The clash grew out of a long-running Intelligence Committee study of the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices under the George W. Bush administration. As part of that inquiry, the CIA set up a special facility in Virginia where committee staff members could review millions of secret documents. At some point during their work, Senate staff members gained access to the draft of an internal review the CIA had done of the interrogations. Senators say that internal review, which remains classified, was far more critical of the CIA than the agency’s official responses to their questions had been.
CIA officials say the Senate aides were never supposed to have access to the draft, which they claim is covered by executive privilege. They began to investigate how the committee staff members had gained access to it.
In January, the CIA informed the committee it had conducted what the agency called an “audit” to determine how the staff members got the study.
The CIA has referred the conduct of its own officers — and also that of Senate aides — to the Justice Department for possible criminal investigation, officials said.
Feinstein said CIA action may have violated the Constitution, various federal laws and a presidential executive order that prohibits the agency from conducting domestic surveillance. She asked for an apology and an acknowledgment from the CIA that its search of the committee’s computers was inappropriate, but “I have received neither.”
In a statement last week, Brennan said the CIA acted appropriately.
Feinstein’s comments raise the stakes of the dispute that has surrounded the committee’s study of the CIA’s actions. The committee report on interrogation practices has not been made public, but people who have read it say it amounts to a blistering indictment of the CIA program that many consider to have involved torture.
Little useful intelligence was gained from the tactics, the report concludes, and it says CIA officials lied to their superiors and Congress about what was happening.
In a written response that it also still classified, the CIA disputes those conclusions.
CATHOLIC CHURCH SEX SCANDALS ROCKING PUERTO RICO
First, the Catholic Church announced it had defrocked six priests accused of sex abuse in the Puerto Rican town of Arecibo. Then, local prosecutors disclosed that at least 11 other priests on the island were under investigation for similar accusations. Now, as U.S. authorities acknowledge that they, too, are looking into abuse allegations by priests on this devoutly Catholic island, many are reeling from revelations of abuse involving some of the U.S. territory’s most beloved clerics.
Puerto Ricans had largely been spared the lurid accounts of sex abuse involving the Catholic Church, and many had come to believe they were immune. But Barbara Dorris, a director with the U.S.-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the new reports mean it’s likely the problem is much worse than previously imagined.
“In general, these things tend to snowball because victims are afraid to come forward,” Dorris said. “If the priests have been on this island for a while, it probably means that it’s dozens upon dozens of victims out there.”
Puerto Rico Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda said last week that at least four dioceses are being investigated. He also warned he might file charges against church officials suspected of withholding information. He described the situation as “truly scandalous.”
“We are not going to rest,” Miranda said. “We are going to capture them, we are going to process them and we are going to put them in jail.”
Allegations of sex abuse by priests are not new in Puerto Rico, but the latest wave of investigations has dwarfed anything seen on the island of 3.6 million people, more than 70 percent of whom identify themselves as Catholic.
“People want to believe in the specialness of the priests, in the power of the priests,” said Richard Sipe, a California-based psychologist and former priest who is an expert on clergy sexual abuse. “The Latin American community is much slower in bringing charges against the priests. …The priests themselves are held in greater esteem, and the culture is identified with the Catholic Church more closely.”
On a recent Sunday morning in Arecibo, churchgoers streamed through the heavy wooden doors of the city’s 17th century cathedral. A swell of voices soon joined the priest inside in prayer, while 44-year-old Jose Soto hurriedly walked past the Mass in the town’s deserted streets. “When you go in through those doors, it is supposed to be a spiritual, wholesome place,” he said, adding that he once regularly attended Mass in the cathedral. “You don’t know who you’re listening to anymore … It’s like using the word of God for other purposes.”
The wave of allegations began in late January with a series of reports in local media, primarily in the newspaper El Nuevo Dia. In response, Arecibo Bishop Daniel Fernandez released a statement disclosing that since 2011 he had defrocked six priests accused of sex abuse, an unusually large number for a diocese with about 90 priests. Church officials said they have also provided counseling for at least one alleged victim and reparations in an unspecified number of cases across the island.
Last week, one of Arecibo’s defrocked priests, Edwin Antonio Mercado Viera, was charged with committing lewd acts. The 53-year-old, who had been a popular figure in the parish, is accused of fondling a 13-year-old altar boy in 2007. Prosecutor Jose Capo Rivera said the bishop himself is “part of the investigation” due to accusations he committed lewd acts involving a minor. Fernandez has said he is innocent. “Clearly, it’s revenge for the decisions I’ve taken since the moment I assumed leadership of the diocese, where the situation that I found was not the most positive,” he said in a written statement.
Agnes Poventud, an attorney for a man who says Fernandez molested him when he was child, told The Associated Press that federal agents recently interviewed her and her client. She declined to say when the alleged abuse occurred or how old her client was at the time, only to say he was a minor.
Further revelations have followed the Arecibo cases. The Diocese of Mayaguez, on Puerto Rico’s west coast, said it has handled four cases of alleged sex abuse, the majority of them being reviewed by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which takes on such accusations.
In addition, San Juan Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves said prosecutors are investigating six alleged sex abuse cases in the diocese of Puerto Rico’s capital. He said the accused priests have been suspended and the statute of limitation has expired in five cases.
Prosecutors also are investigating a sex abuse allegation in the Diocese of Caguas, Capo said.
Meanwhile, justice officials accuse the Arecibo diocese of withholding information and are fighting a lawsuit still pending in court that the diocese filed to keep secret the names of alleged victims to protect their confidentiality. Prosecutors assert the move is intended to protect the accused priests, a charge diocese attorney Frank Torres denies.
“The church has cooperated and has a policy of transparency, but that cooperation does not mean the church is free to violate the guarantees of confidentiality it has awarded the victims,” Torres said in a phone interview.
Diocese officials in Puerto Rico say that the statute of limitations has expired in many cases, an argument that Florida-based lawyer Joseph Saunders said has been the church’s first line of defense. He said many church officials argue they should have been sued when the alleged violations occurred. “Nobody sued a bishop or a priest back then,” he said. “There’s an underlying fear of going to hell for suing the bishop.”
DEAD WOMAN VOTED IN 2010!
The case of a Michigan woman whose mummified body was found years after her death is getting even more bizarre. Apparently, Michigan records show she voted in 2010 — two years after authorities believe she died.
The Detroit Free Press reported Monday that Pia Farrenkopf voted in that year’s gubernatorial election. Authorities have not publicly identified the woman whose body was recently found in a sport utility vehicle parked in the garage of a foreclosed home northwest of Detroit. However, the newspaper reported Farrenkopf owned the home in question, and authorities believe it is her.
Authorities say all signs indicate Farrenkopf likely died in 2008, when she would have been 49. The voting records, though, throw that timeline into question. They state Farrenkopf registered to vote in 2006 and voted for governor in November 2010.
It’s unclear whether Farrenkopf was actually alive, or someone else voted in her name. County officials also caution that the recorded vote could have been an administrative error.
An employee of a property management company working for a bank that now owns the house stumbled upon the body last week in the rear seat of the vehicle while doing a walk-through, officials said. A cause of death has not been determined.
Her death was seemingly hidden for years because her bills continued to be deducted from her bank account. Eventually, the money ran out and Farrenkopf’s house went into foreclosure.
Authorities are still attempting to find dental records that could be used to positively identify the body, and are working to determine more of the facts of the case.
Editors Note: The following article is by Juan Williams, a former CNN reporter who was fired in 2012 because he spoke in favor of one black conservative viewpoint. He now is seen regularly on Fox News representing liberal positions.
Have you heard the news? Condoleezza Rice lacks “moral authority.” She fails to meet the standards of “exemplary citizenship” and she does not have what it takes to “inspire” graduating college seniors.
That crazy thinking comes from the New Brunswick Faculty Council of Rutgers University. They voted last week to ask university leadership to cancel Rice’s invitation to be this year’s Commencement Speaker and receive an honorary degree. Yes, apparently the first African-American woman to serve as National Security Adviser and the nation’s Secretary of State doesn’t have what it takes to be honored by Rutgers.
Rice holds a Ph.D. in political science. She has taught college for decades. She was Provost of Stanford University. She worked her way up from a working-class family in the segregated South to the highest echelon of world power and politics. But according to the Rutgers faculty council, all of that is negated by her service in President George W. Bush’s administration.
They cited her roles in pushing the false claim of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They also point to her support for using enhanced interrogation techniques to get information from terror suspects. The facts are right. The conclusion is wrong.
I, too, disagreed with many of the policies Rice faithfully supported as a member of the Bush administration. But only partisan hatred can blind the faculty to her extraordinary level of accomplishment for herself and her country.
Rice is smart, disciplined, hard-working and the model of an inspiring modern American. She personifies the American Dream. She is living inspiration for a young person trying to accomplish great work no matter what the barriers. And in Rice’s generation there were some serious barriers starting with her race and gender. That is why New Jersey Republican State Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini called the Rutgers faculty’s wrongheaded decision “appalling and an embarrassment to our state. This is nothing more than a political firestorm fueled by their hatred of an opposing ideology, and President George W. Bush in particular. Dr. Rice and the people of New Jersey deserve better,” Angelini said.
There is an added element at play here. There is a disgraceful double standard amongst liberals, particularly those in academia, in the hatred they direct at black conservatives. We saw this last April when the conservative neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson was forced to step down as a Commencement Speaker for Johns Hopkins University (where he ably served as the head of pediatric neurosurgery). Liberals on the Hopkins campus mobilized against Carson because he criticized President Obama’s health care reform law and said that he opposed gay marriage.
I am not a conservative but I have spoken out for years against the staggering amount blind hatred directed at black conservatives by liberals.
Liberals are shockingly quick to demean and dismiss brilliant black people like Rice, Carson, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), Professor Walter E. Williams and economist Thomas Sowell because they don’t fit into the role they have carved out for a black person in America. Black Americans must be obedient liberals on all things or risk being called a race traitor or an Uncle Tom.
I’ve experienced some of this vitriol firsthand when I have veered by liberal orthodoxy. I wrote about it in my book “Muzzled – The Assault on Honest Debate.”
This shunning of Rice is especially troubling coming from a great American university. This is the place where debate and dissenting views are to be valued as sacred. Rutgers’s own university mission statement says that one of its goals is to produce students who perform “public service in support of the needs of the citizens of the state and its local, county, and state governments.”
How is the public served by muzzling one of the most thoughtful, accomplished and respected political voices of her time just because she happens to be a Republican? Doe the Rutgers University faculty really have so little faith in the students they are about to graduate that they think are incapable of hearing opposing views and making up their own minds?
Before her commencement speech, I would like to see any of one of the members of faculty council debate Secretary Rice on foreign policy and then let their students see how well their professors’ critique holds up. Hell, how about we invite the entire faculty council to take their best shot at Secretary Rice in a debate.
Rice is the most famous Republican woman politician in the country. She gave the best speech of the 2012 Republican National Convention and, despite her lack of interest in political office, still gets mentioned as a potential Republican presidential candidate for 2016. If she is truly on the fence about a White House run, I would suggest she go for it if for no other reason than to rub it in the faces of these pompous jackass professors.
Of course that is not the only reason she should run, but it sure would be a delightful bonus.
WISH YOU HAD A DIAMOND?
A Louisiana man has found a 2.89 carat white diamond at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro. Park officials said Tuesday that Brandon Kalenda of Maurepas, Louisiana, found the diamond on March 6 and said he plans to keep it. Kalenda named the diamond “Jax Diamond” after his infant son Jackson.
Park Interpreter Margi Jenks said the diamond is the 47th to be registered by park visitors this year and is the fourth weighing more than a carat to be found since mid-February. “Sure enough, Brandon found his diamond after searching for about 20 minutes in the Fugitt’s Bank area of the park’s search area,” Jenks said. “We encourage park visitors to look for pockets or layers on the surface of gravel, and search there.”
Jenks said Kalenda’s diamond is triangular-shaped with a metallic appearance and is about the size of an English pea. “No two diamonds in the rough are alike,” Jenks added.
Kalenda’s family decided to visit the park after a relative watched a segment of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” where the Duggar family visited the Crater of Diamonds State Park.
Jenks said conditions are “perfect” for diamond hunting at the park, noting recent rainfall and the fact that staff plowed the diamond search field at the end of January. “Diamonds are a bit heavy for their size, and they lack static electricity, so rainfall slides the dirt off diamonds that are on the surface of the search field leaving them exposed,” she said. “When the sun comes out, they’ll shine and be noticeable.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WANT TO KNOW YOUR FUTURE?
Researchers have announced a rather morbid find: a “death test,” as the Telegraph puts it, which may predict the likelihood of a seemingly healthy person biting the dust within five years. The blood test looks at the levels of four of the body’s “biomarkers,” molecules that can point to health conditions. Researchers found that when those biomarkers were “off-kilter,” subjects were five times more likely to die within five years.
The study results, published in PLOS Medicine, followed two experiments. First, Estonian researchers made the finding in a study of 9,842 people. But they doubted their results and asked Finnish scientists to try; after research on another 7,503 duplicated the results, the Finnish called their findings “astonishing.” Scientists followed the 17,000 subjects for five years, during which period 684 died.
All of them had comparable levels of the biomarkers. Britain’s National Health Service explained that those biomarkers include increased levels of infection-related Alpha-1-acid glycoprotein and the metabolism-related compound citrate, reduced levels of the nutrient-carrying protein albumin, and reduced size of very-low-density lipoprotein—or “very bad cholesterol”—particles.
“What is especially interesting is that these biomarkers reflect the risk for dying from very different types of diseases such as heart disease or cancer. They seem to be signs of a general frailty in the body,” says a researcher.
But the NHS cautions that “due to (the study’s) observational nature, it can only show an association, rather than causation, thereby limiting its potential impact.”
MILLIONS WILL GO MAD THIS MONTH
As a rough winter of snow and frigid temperatures winds down, employers all across America are bracing for their next big challenge: March Madness. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is known for grabbing the attention of workers each year, causing an inevitable dip in productivity. An average of 10.7 million people watched March Madness games in 2013, the most since 1994.
In recent years, it’s been easier than ever to follow the action with live streaming on PCs and mobile devices. The online video service even includes a “boss button” that launches a fake spreadsheet or email to hide the video feed.
Global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said an estimated 50 million Americans participate in March Madness office pools, and companies stand to lose $1.2 billion for every unproductive work hour during the tournament’s first week. The firm calculated its projections using a 2009 Microsoft survey on the popularity of office pools and average hourly wages of $24.31, based on the latest jobs report. More recent surveys on the number of office workers who devote time to their tournament brackets suggest the $1.2 billion estimate could be low.
An MSN poll in 2012 found that 56% of respondents, equivalent to 77.1 million employees, planned to devote at least one hour to March Madness. Using those figures, the damages rise to $1.9 billion for every unproductive hour.
The tournament, which tips off on March 18, features games square in the middle of the work day for people in the eastern half of the country. On the west coast, March Madness coverage starts around 9 a.m.
“There are distractions every day at the office, but the first week of the annual men’s college basketball tournament is particularly hazardous to workplace productivity,” he said. “While March Madness distractions may not alter the nation’s quarterly GDP numbers, you can be assured that department managers and network administrators notice the effect on work output and company-wide internet speeds.”
Live streaming alone may account for $660 million in lost wages. Turner Sports, which operates the NCAA’s website, said 6.8 million unique visitors watched games online during the first week of last year’s tournament. Visitors spent an average of 1 hour and 51 minutes online each time they opened a stream.
Even though productivity may slow, Challenger advised employers to avoid clamping down on March Madness activities. Blocking web access to boost productivity in the short term could do more damage to employee morale and loyalty in the long term. “At the end of the day, it is unlikely that a few days of March Madness distraction will impact the company’s bottom line,” Challenger added. “Taking a hardline on office pools and online streaming, on the other hand, could have a dramatic impact on the bottom line, if it leads to increased turnover or causes employees to become disengaged.”
Instead, Challenger suggested employers can boost employee engagement through company-wide office pools. Televisions around the office would also prevent workers from streaming games on their work computers, he said, especially if they are large-screen TVs and there are lots of Cokes, chips and dips nearby.
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Time on Earth is most valued by those who realize they have little of it left.
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CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY – MORNING EDITION March 12, 2014
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