RI records spotlight double life of Legion founder

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2004 file photo, Pope John Paul II gives his blessing to father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ, during a special audience at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI took over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined that Maciel had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children by two women. Following a decision Thursday Feb. 14, 2013, by the Rhode Island Supreme Court, documents are set to be unsealed related to a lawsuit contesting the will of Gabrielle Mee, who left $60 million to the Legion. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2004 file photo, Pope John Paul II gives his blessing to father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ, during a special audience at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI took over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined that Maciel had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children by two women. Following a decision Thursday Feb. 14, 2013, by the Rhode Island Supreme Court, documents are set to be unsealed related to a lawsuit contesting the will of Gabrielle Mee, who left $60 million to the Legion. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri, File)

Attorney Bernard Jackvony poses at his office in Providence, R.I., Friday Feb. 15, 2013. Documents released Friday shed light on the inner workings of a secretive and now-disgraced Roman Catholic order called the Legion of Christ, including new details on how the organization took control of Gabrielle Mee finances and persuaded her to bequeath it $60 million. Jackvony represents Mee's niece. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

Snow covers the grounds of the Mater Ecclesiae College in Greenville, R.I., Friday Feb. 15, 2013. The facility previously was home to Gabrielle Mee, who bequeath $60 million to the Legion of Christ, a secretive and now-disgraced Roman Catholic order. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) ? Newly unsealed documents in a lawsuit brought against the Roman Catholic order Legion of Christ show the group's former second-in-command testified he discovered the order's founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, had fathered a daughter in 2006, but never confronted him about his double life and didn't share the news with the group's broader membership.

The documents, previously sealed in a lawsuit in Superior Court in Rhode Island, include thousands of pages of testimony from high-ranking leaders at the Legion, its members, and relatives of Rhode Island widow Gabrielle Mee, who bequeathed $60 million to the Legion before her death at age 96 in 2008.

The Legion, founded by Maciel decades ago in Mexico City, was taken over by the Vatican in 2010 after a church investigation determined that Maciel had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children by two women.

The scandal, which tarnished the legacy of Pope John Paul II, has been cited as an especially egregious example of how the Vatican ignored decades of reports about sexually abusive priests because church leaders put the interests of the institution above those of the victims.

The documents released Friday, at the request of The Associated Press and other news organizations, include the first-ever depositions made available of high-ranking Legion officials, including the Rev. Luis Garza, the Legion's former No. 2.

In a deposition December 2011, Garza says he became suspicious while visiting Maciel in 2006 at a Jacksonville, Fla., hotel about two women he saw there. He later learned they were Maciel's daughter and her mother, a fact he confirmed with both women.

Garza said he obtained the daughter's birth certificate as proof ? listing the father as "Jose Rivas." Later, it was revealed that Maciel used the "Jose Rivas" pseudonym with his other hidden family, a Mexican woman with whom he had two sons.

Yet Garza said he never asked Maciel about his daughter or discussed it with him, and he didn't think it was necessary to share the news with the Legion's membership or its lay movement, Regnum Christi. He said he only told the Legion's superior and two other priests.

"I didn't think at the time that the fact that fathering a child would change in any way the way we needed to behave vis-a-vis Father Maciel or the actions that we needed to do," Garza said in the deposition. "Because we needed to comply with indications of the Holy See and also because there was an issue of privacy and respect for the mother and the daughter."

The Legion didn't acknowledge Maciel's children or the sexual abuse allegations against him until February 2009, about a year after he died.

Mee's niece, Mary Lou Dauray, filed the Rhode Island lawsuit after her aunt died, saying Mee was defrauded by an order whose leaders orchestrated an effort to hide its founder's misdeeds from her aunt. A Superior Court judge ruled in September that Dauray did not have standing to sue.

But the judge noted that the documents filed under seal raised a red flag. He referred to the Legion's top officials as "clandestinely dubious religious leaders," and said there was evidence that Mee had been unduly persuaded to change her trusts and will.

Bernard Jackvony, the lawyer for Mee's niece, said taken as a whole, the depositions expose how the Legion knew by 2004 that the Vatican was investigating Maciel for sexual abuse and by 2006 that he had a daughter yet kept the information private. He argued that Mee never would have given the Legion her money had she known of Maciel's true nature.

"In terms of fraud, when you withhold information from people, that's the same as if you said something to them that's not true," he said.

The Legion said Friday it didn't exert undue influence over Mee's decision-making and she made her gifts of her own will.

"Our actions with regard to Mrs. Mee and her estate were appropriate and honorable," Legion spokesman Jim Fair said. "We were respectful and diligent in carrying out her wishes in the handling of resources provided to the Legion."

Among other documents released Friday was 2001 testimony from Mee in a separate lawsuit, showing her complete trust in the Legion.

"I know they needed money and what their dealings were, and I have complete confidence and trust. I know it's all above board. It's all very honest," she said. "I know no details and I don't ask."

The documents in Dauray's lawsuit were kept under seal until the AP, The New York Times, the National Catholic Reporter and The Providence Journal intervened, arguing that the documents were in the public interest. The Legion argued that media coverage of the documents could taint prospective jurors if there was a trial.

___

Winfield reported from Rome. Contributing to this report are Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Billings, Mont., Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia and Chris Sherman in McAllen, Texas, and AP Projects Editor Brooke Lansdale in New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-16-Legion%20of%20Christ/id-d9626ffaa3064e44939f6ae013ddc3cd

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Obama attempting to change face of the judiciary

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is trying to change the face of a federal judiciary that has a long tradition of white men passing judgment on parties from all walks of life ? if he can get his nominees past the Senate.

Republicans have used the powers accorded the Senate minority party to slow Obama's influence on the federal bench. But recent changes to Senate rules suggest the process may begin to move faster, at least at the lower, U.S. District Court level.

Under a recent bipartisan agreement, the Senate will limit debate on district court judge nominees to two hours, far below the 30 hours that used to be allowed. The hope is that it will curtail a tradition dating to the Clinton administration of the president's opposing party stalling judicial nominees.

Democrats also used the tactic on some of President George W. Bush's nominees, but the delays have been particularly long under Obama.

Nearly half of Obama's nominees have waited for more than 100 days for confirmation votes, while less than 10 percent of Bush's waited that long, according to White House figures. Most of the Bush nominees were approved in less than a month after clearing the Senate Judiciary Committee, the White House said.

Michael L. Shenkman, a fellow at the Center for Law and Politics at Columbia Law School who worked on Obama's judicial nominations team in the first two years of his presidency, calculated that district judge vacancies across the country represented more than 275 lost years of judicial work and $160 million in wasted public resources during Obama's first term.

"Having an empty bench means people don't get their cases heard," Shenkman said, adding that federal law requires judges to give priority to criminal cases, so civil cases can face repeated delays. "It makes litigation more frustrating and more expensive."

Nationwide, 90 out of 874 federal judgeships are vacant, with 31 of those vacancies labeled emergencies by the judiciary because of heavy caseloads. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved 13 of Obama's nominees Thursday.

White House press secretary Jay Carney argues that the judges approved by the committee are "extremely well-qualified" and "reflect the president's unprecedented commitment to a judiciary that reflects the nation it serves." The group of 13 includes eight women, six minorities and one openly gay candidate.

"This needless delay is unacceptable, and these nominees deserve immediate consideration by the full Senate," Carney said.

White House officials express little hope that the Senate will change its ways.

They point to Wednesday's confirmation of William Kayatta of Maine to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. Kayatta's nomination a year ago was supported by both of Maine's Republican senators. But other Republicans in the Senate refused to agree to a vote because of election-year politics, so Obama had to renominate Kayatta again this year, even though he ultimately won confirmation without much controversy and with 88 votes in support.

Caroline Fredrickson, president of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, says the change in Senate rules still won't impact nominees to the federal circuit, where appeals are heard and judges have more influence. "Where I'm worried is that on the circuit court nominees, there will be a lot of delay and obstruction that's completely unrelated to anyone's merits," she said.

Despite the delays, Obama was able to make some progress on diversity in his first term, with more black, Hispanic and openly gay federal judges confirmed than in two terms under Bush, according to the White House. Nearly half of Obama's confirmed judges have been women, compared with about a quarter for Bush and Clinton, the White House said.

Obama hopes to build on that diversity in his second term. Only seven of 36 nominations the president currently has pending are of straight white men. Compare that to the makeup of the roughly 780 judges currently active on the federal bench, where 425 are white men, according to the Federal Judicial Center. There are small percentages of minorities ? 96 black judges, 70 Hispanic and 17 Asian.

In the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis, a group called the Infinity Project was formed to promote more gender equality, with just one woman ever having been appointed to serve on the circuit. Executive Director Debra Fitzpatrick argues that a diverse bench enhances a court's legitimacy by reflecting the population on which it passes judgment.

"You can't always predict when and how and in what ways a person's personal experience will illuminate a case," Fitzpatrick said. She pointed to the case of an Arkansas prisoner named Shawanna Nelson convicted of check and credit card fraud who filed a lawsuit over being shackled to a hospital bed while in labor.

Nelson's attorney, Cathleen Compton, grew frustrated as she argued before the panel why her client, a nonviolent offender, didn't pose a flight risk that required shackling. "I'm a little disadvantaged here, or maybe it's you that are disadvantaged, because I've given birth and you haven't. I can tell you that a woman about to deliver a nearly 10-pound baby is not going anywhere," she said.

The appeals court sided with Nelson, in an opinion written by the sole woman among the 11 judges that heard the case, Clinton-appointed Judge Diana Murphy.

Two weeks ago, Obama nominated another woman, Iowa public defender Jane Kelly, to the 8th Circuit.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nedrapickler

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-attempting-change-face-judiciary-083144844.html

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Australian Federal Court Rules For Patent Over Breast Cancer Gene

instead of the research staying a trade secret

False dichotomy.

it's monopolised for 20 years

20 years of unnecessary deaths so capitalism can have its way.

and then in the public domain

Except that it will likely trigger further monopolised research which receives other protections or is kept secret.

this is devastating for cancer victims?

Yes. Greed kills people.

Any society organised on competition instead of cooperation, where a man's ultimate goal is to please himself rather than to lift up the world, will result in a lot of death. An extreme will always be harmful. Only a careful balance of individual vs group demands, as in the social democracy practised in Europe up to the early '80s, produces progress.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/mHZSeyqFkiw/story01.htm

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Snapshot: 28 today + Wolves lose + 'Blade Runner' Olympic star charged with murder + Mpls suicide linked to woman's disappearance + Marco Rubio's Florida home up for sale ? VIDEO

Yep, today is Valentine's Day. Jim Goldman,?CEO?of Godiva Chocolatier, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York on Wednesday. Godiva Chocolatier, manufacturer of premium chocolates and related products, owns and operates more than 600 retail boutiques and shops in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_59/~3/M5Y5_G3bV7s/snapshot-feb-14.html

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Obama: Pre-K about teaching (CNN)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/284896787?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Greenpeace details Duke Energy contributions to sponsors of controversial bill

photo GREENPEACE

Greenpeace has been a frequent critic of Duke Energy. Last year it flew a blimp over Charlotte to protest Duke's rate increase and its use of fossil fuels.

Greenpeace has taken issue with Duke Energy?s political contributions to N.C. legislators who have proposed dismissing everyone on current utility and environmental boards.

But a spokesman for Charlotte-based Duke (NYSE:DUK) says the contributions were routine and that the company had no role in developing or proposing the legislation.

Greenpeace researcher Connor Gibson posted a blog item this week detailing about $147,000 in contributions that Duke and Progress Energy have made to some of the bill sponsors. More than $102,000 went to the three primary sponsors, including $65,000 Duke and Progress have contributed to Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson. The contributions go back as far as 2002, covering six election cycles. State campaign records indicate Apodaca raised almost $1.4 million over those six elections.

About $45,000 went to four of the nine co-sponsors, again dating back to 2002. Duke spokesman Tom Williams says there is no significance to the contributions.

?We routinely contribute to candidates of both parties in races for the General Assembly,? Williams says. ?We have no involvement in developing or proposing the bill.?

New appointments

The bill passed in the state Senate a week ago. It passed its first reading in the state House this week and has been referred to committee. It would dismiss all the sitting members of the N.C. Utilities Commission, the N.C. Environmental Commission, The Industrial Commission and some other boards. It reduces the size of the boards and would allow Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republicans who control both houses to appoint all new board members.

John Downey covers the energy industry and public companies for the Charlotte Business Journal.

Source: http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~r/bizj_charlotte/~3/iC29yXUZkPQ/group-details-duke-energy.html

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Love & Lust: 7 Lessons from the Animal Kingdom

NEW YORK ? Sex. Many (but not all) animals do it. Partners come together to combine their genetic material in hopes of creating a healthy next generation for passing down their genes.

For humans, romance, love and sometimes Valentine's Day can be involved, although the formula varies greatly depending on culture. Meanwhile, other animals go about it in a dizzying variety of ways. Creatures may form pair bonds or mate promiscuously, like bonobos. Corals and fish spew their eggs and sperm out into the environment to unite there.

A panel discussion at the New York Academy of Sciences on Tuesday (Feb. 12) explored how lust, and sometimes love, are manifested throughout the animal kingdom, past and present. Here are some of the top lessons science has taught about love and lust:

First, figure out who's who. "Sexing," the scientific term for figuring out whether an individual is male or female, has been a challenge for paleontologists studying dinosaurs. Looking for skeletal differences just didn't work, said panelist Brian Switek, who writes about dinosaurs and is the author of a forthcoming book, "My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs"?(Scientific American/FSG). In recent years, however, the task has become more feasible. For instance, paleontologists have begun looking in fossils for what is called medullary bones. Among birds, which experts consider to be living dinosaurs, females store calcium for egg-laying in this temporary bone tissue. [Top 10 Swingers of the Animal Kingdom]

Fatherhood can be complicated. "Thanks to molecular testing, we can now genetically trace, like Maury Povich, who's the daddy," said Danielle Lee, who studies animal behavior and behavioral ecology at Oklahoma State University. The results of testing: The female's social partner may not be the father of any of her young. Moderator Joshua Ginsberg of the Wildlife Conservation Society pointed out that the same phenomenon applies to humans. The man on the birth certificate is not always the biological father, although the rates at which this happens vary widely depending on the population. Marina Cords, a professor at Columbia University who has studied blue monkeys for 30 years, said that the female monkeys who live in harems "seem to get pretty tired of the one guy." She added, "They sneak around, too."

There's more than one way to get the girl. Not all males within a species are created equal. Among some animals, such as salmon and squid, some males invest more energy in acquiring the traits attractive to females. "Others are smaller: the wimpies, if you will," Lee said. These are the "sneaker males," which use their innocuous presence to their advantage to mate furtively with the females.

Don't believe in animal love at first sight. For humans, it's easy to interpret animal interactions as evidence of love. Cords, who studies monkeys, noted that she attempts not to attribute human characteristics to her study subjects, but "the question is, how do you know?"

Work in psychology that looks at the behavior of mothers and babies to assess their attachments has some applicability to nonhuman primates, she said. "I think that is a way of measuring what I would perhaps call akin to human love," Cords said. "I think it has to do with attachment and a certain feeling you have when you are with someone and you miss someone when you are not with them." In addition to behavior, primatologists can look at hormone levels, she said.

Simulated sex can't trump a good specimen. Work with paleontologist Heinrich Mallison's digital model of Kentrosaurus, which resembled Stegosaurus with more spikes, has shown that the male dinosaur could not have been realistically expected to mount the female from behind, "doggy-style." Instead, the results suggest the female lay on her side, Switek said. He and Mallison are now working on a related paper. The science of dinosaur sex needs good fossil specimens, he said, citing the discovery of 50-million-year-old turtles preserved while mating. "It would be fantastic if someone found this in dinosaurs," he said.

Scientists' experiences and biases shape their questions. Lee, who works with rodents, has begun conducting experiments on the degree to which pairing a female with a male she prefers affects her success having offspring. This is the sort of question that would occur to a female ecologist like herself, but not necessarily to a man. Responding to a question about homosexuality in animals, she said it had not occurred to her to investigate whether adult females nesting together constituted any homosexual behavior. ?That is why we need more diverse scholars within those fields to ask those questions,? she said. [The Animal Sex Quiz]

Love is a turn-on for the human brain. When Stephanie Cacioppo, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago, and colleagues showed people pictures of their beloved partners and recorded their brain activity, they saw increases in the release of dopamine, a chemical signal associated with rewarding experiences, and the release of oxytocin, a signal that is associated with pair bonding and empathy. For people who reported feeling madly in love, a part of the brain known as the angular gyrus became activated. This region is also associated with self-representation and language, she said.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/love-lust-7-lessons-animal-kingdom-134904079.html

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