The Catholic official who oversees sex abuse complaints against priests in the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, has himself been accused of past sexual improprieties. A Kansas City man wrote the bishop of the diocese four years ago, alleging sexual harassment in 1984 by the Rev. Robert Murphy, a priest who is now vicar general.
Brian Heydon, a licensed professional counselor, said Murphy exposed himself and propositioned him as a young man during a meeting at St. Catherine’s rectory, where Murphy then lived. The diocese has said Heydon’s claims are unfounded.
Once-accused priest now leads diocese inquiries into sex abuse
6 Real Examples of Food Terrorism
The latest warning coming from British intelligence that al-Qaeda and other political organizations could contaminate the food supply is part of a continuing plot line that hides the obvious: our food already has been poisoned under the auspices of oversight agencies who have been complicit in the very real threats to the public food supply. The following toxins offered into the marketplace by corporate-government collusion have contributed to far more sickness and death than E. coli or salad bar terrorists ever will . . . unless of course the terrorists have bioengineered a superbug, or it has escaped from a bioweapons lab like the one at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Nuclear fuel has melted through base of Fukushima plant
The nuclear fuel in three of the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant has melted through the base of the pressure vessels and is pooling in the outer containment vessels, according to a report by the Japanese government.
The radiation will also have contaminated the soil and plant and animal life around the facility, making the task of cleaning up more difficult and expensive, as well as taking longer.
Conn. to decriminalize pot possession
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said he expects to sign a bill that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
The measure received final legislative approval Tuesday, passing the House of Representatives 90-57, the Hartford Courant reported. Under the law, which would take effect July 1, possession of half an ounce or less would call for a fine of $150 for a first offense and between $200 and $500 for subsequent offenses.
Senate panel opens door for BP rig workers' families to sue
The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved a bill to help the families of the 11 victims of last year's Deepwater Horizon blowout by changing outdated federal maritime laws, one going back to the 1850s, to make it possible to recover damages from BP, rig operator Transocean and rig subcontractors.
The Deepwater Horizon Survivors' Fairness Act would amend the Jones Act and the Death on the High Seas Act to allow the victims' families to claim non-compensatory damages, such as pain and suffering and loss of companionship.
Arsenic worries prompt chicken drug withdrawal
A drug that farmers have given to chickens for decades is being pulled off the market after federal scientists found a potentially carcinogenic form of arsenic in the livers of animals treated with the substance, officials announced Wednesday.
Alpharma, a subsidiary of Pfizer, is voluntarily suspending sales of the drug 3-Nitro, which has been given to chickens since the 1940s to protect them from a parasitic disease and help them gain weight, the Food and Drug Administration announced.
Swiss Move to End Nuclear Era
The Swiss government Wednesday decided to exit nuclear energy by phasing out the country's existing nuclear plants and seeking alternative energy sources, in a response to security concerns following Japan's nuclear disaster.
Switzerland is the second country in Europe, after Germany, to drop nuclear energy as an electricity source after protests flared up amid fears that the reactor meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami in March, could be repeated elsewhere.
US universities in African land grab
Harvard and other major American universities are working through British hedge funds and European financial speculators to buy or lease vast areas of African farmland in deals, some of which may force many thousands of people off their land, according to a new study.
Researchers say foreign investors are profiting from "land grabs" that often fail to deliver the promised benefits of jobs and economic development, and can lead to environmental and social problems in the poorest countries in the world.
2 new elements officially added to periodic table
Remember the periodic table from high school chemistry? It just got a little bigger. Two new chemical elements, numbers 114 and 116, have been officially recognized by an international committee of chemists and physicists.
The elements last for less than a second and join such familiar neighbors as carbon, gold, tin and zinc. The new ones don't have approved names yet. That brings the total of known elements to just 114 because elements 113 and 115 haven't been officially accepted yet, said Paul Karol of Carnegie Mellon University.
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