Anthony Smith, owner of Flying A.J. Towing Co., is suing Wilson and the town on claims that Wilson did not contract his company’s towing services because Smith is African American.
several current and former town police officers have taken legal action against Wilson.
Click on the following for more details: Beloit Daily News - your source for news, entertainment, sports, opinion, events, community, shopping and more > News > Local News
dubbed a J-20 fighter, were leaked online recently and prominently featured in the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper.
Analysis of the J-20 photos shows it to be larger than similar Russian or U.S. planes, likely allowing it fly farther and carry heavier weapons.
It has been theorized that the jet seen in the images is not actually a working model, but simply a mockup, according to Fox News.
Click on the following for more details: Chinese stealth J-20 fighter jet photos leak online: 'Plane' truth or flight of fantasy?
the village declined to release public documents on the basis that they did not have a physical copy of a settlement agreement that had been negotiated on their behalf by the Illinois Municipal Risk Management Association.
several elements of the act came into play—the new act prohibits sealed settlements and provides that public records held by third parties must be provided under the law.
Click on the following for more details: FOIA opinion in Village of McCook a victory for free press | The Rock River Times
By Amie Shak
Chicago Daily Herald
February 10, 2006Andrew Howell, 38, claims he was sexually abused by William Joffe when Howell was a parishioner of Saint Mary Church and a student at Saint Mary Catholic School, 313 N. Tryon St., Woodstock.
Howell stated that he began having memories of being sexually abused by Joffe about two years ago, Cook County court documents show.
He claims that when he was 8 years old, Joffe accompanied his family on vacation and went on retreats to a farm where Joffe engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with him.
Joffe was removed from the priesthood in November 1993 after a separate allegation of sexual misconduct. After being removed for that allegation, three more claims of misconduct were reported against him, records from the Diocese of Rockford show.
Joffe never has been criminally charged in the cases.
But Joffe has done time. Joffe was sentenced to prison in January 1992 on four counts of bank fraud and three counts of interstate transportation of stolen securities in July 1991 after he was discovered to have mismanaged temporal goods at St. Joseph Parish in Harvard, diocese documents show.
After being indicted by a federal grand jury, Joffe was sentenced to one year in prison and five years probation, which included 300 hours of community service and a $27,500 restitution payment to Walworth State Bank in Wisconsin.
When Joffe was released from prison in 1993, he was assigned to assist as a priest at a parish in Amboy, documents show. It was that year the diocese reports to have received the first allegation of sexual misconduct against Joffe, from when he was an associate at a parish in Dixon in 1965. Later that year, Joffe was removed from the priesthood.
In 2002, the second claim of sexual misconduct was reported, allegations from when Joffe was a pastor at St. Mary Parish in Morrison and a teacher at Newman Central Catholic High School in Sterling.
In March 2004, both Howell and another man separately alleged that Joffe had engaged in sexual misconduct with them while he was a pastor at St. Mary Parish in Woodstock.
Howell, who now lives in Colorado, names the Catholic Diocese of Rockford in the lawsuit, as well as Ellen Lynch, who, the suit claims, in April 2004 contacted Howell as a representative of the Catholic Diocese of Rockford and left inappropriate comments on a voicemail about Howell and other victims who had experienced sexual assault and abuse by Joffe.
Click on the following for more details: Ex Priest in Rockford Diocese Sued over Alleged Sex Abuse, by Amie Shak, Chicago Daily Herald, February 10, 2006
One of the victims says she first told leaders in the Rockford Diocese about the abuse back in September 2002, when Campobello was serving at Saint James Parish in Belvidere. However, he continued in active ministry until his arrest in December 2002.
The delay in removing Campobello from his ministry caused the women to sue the Rockford Diocese in 2004, leading to today's
Rockford Catholic Diocese has agreed to pay $2.2 million to two women who were sexually abused by a former priest. …
sue the Rockford Diocese in 2004, leading to today's settlement of $1,150,000 for one woman and $1,050,000 for the other. The Rockford Diocese paid $250,000 from its own funds. Insurance covered the rest.
Click on the following for more details: Priest Sex Abuse Settlement
All of this information is taken from the website cited at the bottom of the posting.
Roughly two-thirds of top U.S. Catholic leaders have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to keep working, a systematic practice that spans decades and continues today, a three-month Dallas Morning News [Downloaded from http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/dallas/2002/priests.cgi on 2/18/04. See also the original list of bishops as it was printed and the article about the database.] review shows
Here is a write-up taken from reporters Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin they relied on published reports, court records, interviews and church records obtained in civil litigation. Many other bishops are in their study.
Rockford
BISHOP THOMAS DORAN 
The family of three boys came forward in late 1996 with allegations that the Rev. Harlan Clapsaddle had molested them decades earlier. "We were encouraged by the diocese to keep quiet," Kevin Misslich recently told a Rockford television station. "They assured us that they would handle the Clapsaddle matter." In early 1997, the diocese removed Father Clapsaddle from his parish and ordered treatment. When he finished, he was put back to work, ministering in a nursing home. He stepped down in May. Bishop Doran has said he "acted responsibly" and stressed that Father Clapsaddle was working in a "restricted setting." Nursing home officials said they weren't told about the priest's past until two days before he quit.
Click on the following for these articles about Rockford and other Catholic Catholic Diocese: Catholic Bishops and Sex Abuse
DIOCESE OF ROCKFORD IL
as of 2-10-2004
Accused Priests: 28 (of which 21 diocesan priests, 1 deacon, and 6 religious priests; of the diocesan priests and deacon, accusations against 5 "were found to be without any merit," accusations against 3 were "found to be substantiated and proved," and accusations against 14 "remain unsubstantiated and, to this point, unproven")
Total Priests: 468 (of which 388 diocesan and 80 order priests)
Alleged Victims: 32
Cost: $110,110 (of which $105,110 on "counseling for victims and alleged victims," and $5,000 on an unspecified expense)
See more at : Bishop Accountability
