Silver Spa, at 504 E. Main St. Soon Rye Kim was arrested at about 3:30 p.m. Jan. 14 when she offered to perform a sexual act after giving a massage to an undercover officer
St. Charles spa masseuse charged with prostitution - Courier News
Friday, January 21, 2011
St. Charles spa masseuse charged with prostitution - Courier News
In 1997 Letter, Vatican Warned Irish Bishops on Abuse Policy - NYTimes.com
Click on the above photocopy to enlarge:
newly disclosed document reveals that Vatican officials told the bishops of Ireland in 1997 that they had serious reservations about the bishops’ policy of mandatory reporting of priests suspected of child abuse to the police or civil authorities.
The document appears to contradict Vatican claims that church leaders in Rome never sought to control the actions of local bishops in abuse cases, and that the Roman Catholic Church did not impede criminal investigations of child abuse suspects.
Click on the following for the full NY Times article: In 1997 Letter, Vatican Warned Irish Bishops on Abuse Policy - NYTimes.com
Vatican Radio - Vatican clarifies 1997 letter to Irish bishops
Some call this damage control—you be the judge.
Vatican clarifies 1997 letter to Irish bishops
Concerning a 1997 letter from Archbishop Luciano Storero, Apostolic Nuncio, to Irish bishops (remarks by Fr. Lombardi)
In the course of a recent television programme in Ireland, mention was made of a letter written in 1997 by Archbishop Luciano Storero, then apostolic nuncio to Ireland, to members of the country's episcopal conference. That letter has been given biased treatment by some media outlets, who have presented it as proof of an instruction, from the Vatican, to cover up cases of sexual abuse of minors.
The letter – written on the basis of indications received from the Congregation for the Clergy – concerns a document produced by an advisory committee of the Irish bishops, highlighting certain problematic aspects therein and indicating the need for a deeper examination which also takes account of similar situations in other countries, and which had to be conducted through dialogue and collaboration with the episcopal conferences of the countries concerned.
In the first place, it must be noted that the letter does not in any way suggest that national laws must not be followed.
Furthermore, the letter rightly emphasises the importance of always respecting canonical legislation, precisely in order to ensure that guilty parties do not have justified grounds for an appeal and thus producing a result contrary to the one desired.
Finally, it must be stated that the letter was written prior to the norms of 2001 which unified responsibility in this field under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a move which has certainly led to clearer guidelines and more effective procedures.
Vatican Radio - Vatican clarifies 1997 letter to Irish bishops
Misunderstandings Regarding State Debt, Pensions, and Retiree Health Costs Create Unnecessary Alarm — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
…recent articles regarding the fiscal situation of states and localities have lumped together their current fiscal problems, stemming largely from the recession, with longer-term issues relating to debt, pension obligations, and retiree health costs, to create the mistaken impression that drastic and immediate measures are needed to avoid an imminent fiscal meltdown.
- Municipal bond defaults have been extremely rare; the three rating agencies calculate the default rate at less than one-third of 1 percent .[1] Between 1970 and 2009, only four defaults were from cities or counties. Most defaults are on non-general obligation bonds to finance the construction of housing or hospitals and reflect problems with those individual projects; they provide no indication of the fiscal health of local governments.
- State and local shortfalls in funding pensions for future retirees have gradually emerged over the last decade principally because of the two most recent recessions, which reduced the value of assets in those funds and made it difficult for some jurisdictions to find sufficient revenues to make required deposits into the trust funds. Before these two recessions, state and local pensions were, in the aggregate, funded at 100 percent of future liabilities.
- A debate has begun over what assumptions public pension plans should use for the “discount rate,” which is the interest rate used to translate future benefit obligations into today’s dollars. The discount rate assumption affects the stated future liabilities and may affect the required annual contributions. The oft-cited $3 trillion estimate of unfunded liabilities calculates liabilities using what is known as the “riskless rate,” because the pension obligations themselves are guaranteed and virtually riskless to the recipients. In contrast, standard analyses based on accepted state and local accounting rules, which calculate liabilities using the historical return on plans’ assets, put the unfunded liability at about a quarter of that amount, a more manageable (although still troubling) $700 billion
- State revenues are 12 percent below pre-recession levels, and localities also are experiencing diminished revenues. There simply are few good choices for meeting state and local balanced-budget requirements during an economic downturn this long and this deep.
- Some pictures of the longer term realities of government finance.
Projected Operating Deficits
And what about Illinois:
Illinois is an extreme example of the implications of failure to fix these types of problems. It has a flat, low-rate income tax that does not adequately capture income growth, and income tax revenues thus routinely lag behind economic growth. The state relies heavily on a state and local sales tax that is almost exclusively applied to goods and excludes almost all services. It is among the states that exempt from state income tax the largest share of income received by elderly individuals, regardless of their income levels. Illinois also does a relatively poor job of scrutinizing its spending through the tax code. Its budget considers only the single upcoming fiscal year, and policymakers often have taken budget actions without full consideration of the longer-term implications.
Because Illinois is chronically short of the revenues it needs to cover its expenses, it has engaged in a number of poor fiscal practices over the years. It has postponed payments to vendors, failed to make adequate pension contributions or borrowed money to make the contributions, securitized or sold assets, and taken other dubious actions. As a result, it has had a particularly difficult time coping with revenue declines during this recession, with a fiscal year 2012 deficit projected to equal half of its general fund budget, and has developed an large overhang of longer-term debt and unfunded liabilities.
But it is important to remember that the root cause of Illinois’ problem is a revenue system in urgent need of modernization, one that cannot support the level of expenditures that the state has chosen. Proposals have repeatedly been made over the last 25 years to remedy many of these problems, but political gridlock has prevented solutions to Illinois’ well-known budget problems from being enacted. In January 2011 Illinois temporarily increased its personal and corporate income tax rates to close a portion of its budget gap. But it still plans to borrow to cover its pension contributions and has not addressed the fundamental problems in its revenue system that are the principal cause of its large structural deficit.
Most states are not in as dire shape as Illinois.
Click on the following for more details: Misunderstandings Regarding State Debt, Pensions, and Retiree Health Costs Create Unnecessary Alarm — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Boone County real estate transactions recorded Jan. 3-7.
Thursday, 13 January 2011 19:39 Editor
BOONE COUNTY - Following is a list of the Boone County real estate transactions recorded Jan. 3-7.
Recorded Jan. 3
685 Southtowne Dr., Belvidere, $65,000, Federal National Mortgage Assoc. to Marcia L. Flegler.
395 Cloud Mist Dr., Capron, $174,000, Contry Homes of Ill. to Cesar Rico and Teresa Omelas Vega.
12306 Empire St., Loves Park, $265,000, Antoinette Dunlap to Thomas G. McNeany Jr.
Recorded Jan. 4
309 Constitution Dr. SW, Poplar Grove, $55,900, Beneficial Financial Inc. to Tamara L. Moore.
Recorded Jan. 5
2941 Graham Road, Belvidere, $79,800, Federal National Mortgage Assoc. to Rebecca L. Voss.
107 Callaway Cove, Loves Park, $207,900, Sonja Ebersole-Hanson to Randy A. and Linda F. Sarlo.
12281 Arrowwood Lane, Belvidere, $259,000, Craig and Kristine Leider to Mark E. Johnson.
Recorded Jan. 6
10078 Beaver Valley Road, Belvidere, $150,000, Heirs at Law – Ralph E. Hombeck, dec. to Kevin A. and Jody O. Farris.
1212 Perrsons Parkway, Belvidere, $120,000, Kevin M. Lubicz to Lori Tobler.
Recorded Jan. 7
528 Prairie Point Dr., Poplar Grove, $128,000, JP Morgan Chase Bank to Titus and Andrea Lernic.
2717 Mary St., Belvidere, $202,849, Cline’s Ford, Inc. to Jerry L. and Kimberly A. Hoiness.
1848 Danielle Lane, Belvidere, $100,000, Alpine Bank and Trust Co. to Salvatore L. Tarara and Jamie Zander-Tarara.
1624 Kirby Ct, Belvidere, $477,000, Mickey Leona Retra and Hans Retra to Joseph P. and Eufemia B. DeChatelets.
Click on the following for more details: Boone County real estate transactions recorded Jan. 3-7.
Debit Card Predators - NYTimes.com
new F.D.I.C. rules require banks to clearly explain overdraft costs. Most important, if a customer is charged a fee for overdrawing his account more than 6 times in a 12-month period, the bank must offer a less costly alternative, like a reasonably priced line of credit or linking the card to a savings account.
These regulations will bring basic fairness to the system. But banks worry about profits, and some are threatening to change their charters so they can shop for a less rigorous regulator than the F.D.I.C.
A race to the regulatory bottom would be a disastrous idea. Anyone who doubts that should recall what happened when the bank’s regulator of choice, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, failed to rein in reckless mortgage lending and actually blocked the states from doing the job.
Click on the following for more details: Debit Card Predators - NYTimes.com
State Bankruptcy Option Is Sought, Quietly - NYTimes.com
For now, the fear of destabilizing the municipal bond market with the words “state bankruptcy” has proponents in Congress going about their work on tiptoes…..
“The precipitating event at G.M. was they were out of cash and had no ability to raise the capital they needed,” said Harry J. Wilson, the lone Republican on President Obama’s special auto task force, which led G.M. and Chrysler through an unusual restructuring in bankruptcy, financed by the federal government. …
G.M. was salvaged only through an administration-led effort that Congress initially resisted, with legislators voting against financial assistance to G.M. in late 2008.
“Now Congress is much more conservative,” he said. “A state shows up and wants cash, Congress says no, and it will probably be at the last minute and it’s a real problem. That’s what I’m concerned about.”
Unfunded pensions become unsecured debts in municipal bankruptcy and may be reduced. And the law makes it easier for a bankrupt city to tear up its labor contracts than for a bankrupt company, said James E. Spiotto, head of the bankruptcy practice at Chapman & Cutler in Chicago.
The biggest surprise may await the holders of a state’s general obligation bonds. Though widely considered the strongest credit of any government, they can be treated as unsecured credits, subject to reduction, under Chapter 9.
Read the entire article by clicking on: State Bankruptcy Option Is Sought, Quietly - NYTimes.com
Wind Power in Wisconsin
With the large proposal for Boone County I began to think about whether I ever saw a Wind Turbine in Wisconsin. My answer was “no” but could that be true. Yes, you are right—I was wrong.
Boone County Journal: Wind Power Project Proposed to County
Wind Power Project
Proposed to County
By Rebecca Osterberg
Boone County Representative Marshall Newhouse
(District 1) announced a major wind power project is in the
works at the Boone County Board meeting. Newhouse,
board Chairman Bob Walberg (District 1), county Engineer
Rich Lundin, county Administrator Ken Terrinoni and
Belvidere-Boone County Interim Planning Director Kathy
Miller were invited to an informational meeting held at
Belvidere City Hall last week.
According to Newhouse, the proposed project area
includes most of Leroy Township with a small amount of
Boone and Manchester Township, bordered by the state line
to the north and McHenry County line to the east.
Information from the Mainstream Renewable Power
Company’s website indicates, “The North Boone project
is a mid stage project in northern Illinois with a moderate
wind resource, good grid queue position and open, rolling
farmland. Abutting the Wisconsin border, the project will
provide power to the greater Chicago region and economic
benefits to the immediate local area.”
“They are working with officials to make this as smooth
a process as possible,” said Newhouse. “They are in the
midst of preliminary studies, potentially moving through
our zoning process at least a year away. They said they
have been met with a lot of interest.”
The proposed project currently includes approximately
6,200 acres of land with 34 owners.
“As of today they made it quite clear they were satisfied
with the number of contracts they have signed, the number
of acres that they represent and that they have the physical
land resources to move ahead,” Newhouse said. “What
they are waiting on now, is the completion of a multitude
of studies that have to be done to determine the spacing of
turbine, the size of turbine, the megawatts of turbine, and
they don’t have that done.”
Other board members were very interested in getting
further information, but Newhouse indicated it was a work
in progress and would likely not come before the board until
the Special Use application process was ongoing.
The project includes a proposed 200 megawatt system
however Newhouse indicated that until studies were
completed, the actual size and number of turbines was still
not confirmed.
“Mr. Terrinoni reminded me we have a very structured
ordinance on how a project can proceed,” said Newhouse. “I
congratulated them on how they were doing so far. Former
objections that there were on a previous project were 75
percent addressed. They picked a part of the county that is
very sparsely populated.”
Boone County Representative Cathy Ward (District 2)
was concerned about future meetings as well as whether
or not the townships affected had representatives at the
informational meeting. Newhouse indicated he had no
information on future meetings and that township officials
were not in attendance.
“They said they had already planned not to encroach too
close to Sharon (Wisconsin), when I said we want to be good
neighbors,” Newhouse said. “There was also discussion of
some type of compensation for neighboring properties.” He
indicated that there was an ordinance requiring a distance of
a 1,000-foot radius away from houses.
“I am confident that they are very aggressive about this,
and they have a track record of up-and- running projects just
in county’s south of us and bordering us.”
The project will have to complete the special use
procedure.
“We had what I considered a very ordinance friendly
language,” said Newhouse. “I was instrumental in making it
much more restrictive. We have new board members, a few
elections prior to this one, the board at that time voted to go
back to the more turbine friendly language. We are staying
with the more turbine friendly language, today.”
Taken from: http://boonecountyjournal.com/news/2011/Boone-County-News-01-21-11.pdf#page=4
Vatican reportedly told bishops in Ireland not to report abuse - The Boston Globe
.
1997 letter from the Vatican warned Ireland’s Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police — a disclosure that victims’ groups described as “the smoking gun’’ needed to show that the church enforced a worldwide culture of covering up crimes by pedophile priests.
Signed by the late Archbishop Luciano Storero, Pope John Paul II’s diplomat to Ireland, the letter instructs Irish bishops that their new policy of making the reporting of suspected crimes mandatory “gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature.’’
letter undermines persistent Vatican claims, particularly when seeking to defend itself in US lawsuits, that Rome never instructed local bishops to withhold evidence or suspicion of crimes from police. It instead emphasizes the church’s right to handle all child-abuse allegations and determine punishments in house.
….The letter is of huge international significance, because it shows that the Vatican’s intention is to prevent reporting of abuse to criminal authorities. And if that instruction applied here, it applied everywhere,’’ said Colm O’Gorman, director of the Irish chapter of Amnesty International.
Click on the following for more details: Vatican reportedly told bishops in Ireland not to report abuse - The Boston Globe
A BBC documentary broke much of the allegation about cannon laws prohibiting discussion of cases and reporting to civil authorities. That documentary is available at: http://catholicsexabuse.com/ Below is an extraordinary quote from that documentary.
The secrecy, the obstruction that I saw during my investigation was unparallelled in my entire career here as a prosecutor in Phoenix, Arizona. It was so difficult to obtain any information from the Church at all. In fact, we knew of certain meetings that had taken place, and yet no documentation was ever produced to be able to show that that meeting had even occurred. You know, when we started looking at it, it was really interesting. We came across in the Canons for the Church there are supposed to be secret archives where this information is to be kept, and not given to the civil authorities, no matter what the circumstances. There was an instruction from the Nunzio, because of his ambassador status, to shift all of this incriminating information to him, because under the law we could not subpoena that information from him, because of his ambassador status. I think that is really the story — the Church's failure to acknowledge such a problem, but not just a passiveness, it was in an openly obstructive way of not allowing civil authorities to stop the abuse within the Church. They fought us every step of the way.
If Jesus is Love, Where’s the Amor for 9 Year Old Brazilian Rape Victim | VivirLatino
The child- who’s identity is being kept private- would’ve had her life in danger had she allowed the pregnancy to continue according to doctors. (At the time of the abortion the eighty-pound girl was in her fifteenth week of pregnancy). “She is very small. Her uterus doesn’t have the ability to hold one, let alone two children,” said Fatima Maia- the director of the hospital where the abortion was performed.
And instead of the faith community offering compassion and comfort to a child, the Roman Catholic Church has come down on the girl’ mother and doctors for saving her physical life.
A Roman Catholic archbishop says the abortion of twins carried by a 9-year-old girl who allegedly was raped by her stepfather means excommunication for the girl’s mother and her doctors.
Click on the following for more details: If Jesus is Love, Where’s the Amor for 9 Year Old Brazilian Rape Victim | VivirLatino
List of people excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Does Sister Margaret McBride belong on this list? Her story at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126985072
21st century
- Eduardo Aguirre, Guatemalan Catholic priest, now bishop of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church.[1]
- Call to Action group members in Nebraska were excommunicated by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, with the Vatican later confirming their excommunication.[2]
- Emmanual Milingo, former archbishop of Lusaka, for consecrating four bishops without the papal mandate. Also excommunicated were those receiving consecration.[3]
- The Community of the Lady of All Nations for heretical teachings and beliefs after a six-year investigation. The declaration was announced by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on September 12, 2007.[4]
- Rev. Dale Fushek (also laicized by Pope Benedict XVI 02/2010) and Rev. Mark Dippre. Former Priests were issued a Decree of Excommunication by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted for operating "an opposing ecclesial community" in direct disobedience to orders to refrain from public ministry.[5]
- Father Marek Bozek (since laicized by Pope Benedict XVI), and the lay parish board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis, Missouri in December 2005 were declared guilty of the ecclesiastical crime of schism by then-Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke.[6] Their excommunication was ratified by the Vatican in May 2008. (Four of the parish board members have since reconciled with the Church.)
- The Archbishop of Olinda and Recife in Brazil, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, excommunicated the mother and doctors of a nine year old girl who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather, for having the pregnancy terminated.[7][8]
- Margaret McBride, a nun excommunicated for allowing an abortion that was medically necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman suffering from pulmonary hypertension.[9]
- Xavier Eubra de Borja excommunicated by Bishop Honesto Ongtioco of the Diocese of Cubao in the Philippines. de Borja untruthfully claimed to be an ordained priest when he was a layman even offering Mass and hearing confessions. The excommunication was declared June 2, 2010 according to UCA News 18 June 2010.
- Rev Vernon Meyer was excommunicated by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix for participation in the ordination of Elaine Groppenbacher. Meyer was advised of the excommunication on 17 September 2010[10]
- In 2009 Rev Chris Carpenter was also excommunicated by Bishop Olmsted. The excommunication became automatic when Rev Carpenter became affiliated with the 'Reformed Catholic Church.' The bishop's notice to him, the 'decree of excommunication' was the formal declaration of what had alreday happened by virtue of his schismatic act.Full details are given in 'The Catholic Sun' newspaper May 7, 2009.
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This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
This list of excommunications is a list of persons excommunicated by the Catholic Church. It includes only excommunications acknowledged or imposed by a decree of the Pope or a bishop in communion with him. Automatic excommunications are not included here if not confirmed by a bishop.
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