For five hours last month, Cardinal Roger Mahony answered the questions. The L.A.-based leader of the largest Catholic archdiocese in the U.S. was interviewed as part of a civil trial regarding one of his former priests in a child molestation case. Michael Baker, the priest in question, has been defrocked and is serving ten years in prison. Despite the grilling, Mahony isn’t the target of the investigation, authorities say. source
problem Haiti wants to try the ten Americans accused of trafficking children into the Dominican Republican. However, with a broken infrastructure, they don’t have a working court system right now.
solution The Haitian government may be willing to ship them off to the U.S. to get tried there. Were they acting in good faith when taking away these “orphans” (some of whom actually had parents)? source
We are proposing canceling the program, not delaying it.
Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag • Regarding the decision to scrap the new moon mission, Constellation, that NASA has been working towards since the Bush administration gave it the green light a few years ago. Instead, the money will go to building technology for an eventual mission to Mars. Why? The Constellation program needed an extra $3 billion a year to work. In other news, the Obama administration is pushing for commercial firms to develop space taxis to send crews between Earth and the International Space Station. All this adds up to a massive shake-up of the NASA program. source
Florida stands ready to assist our neighbors in Haiti, but we need a plan of action and reimbursement for the care we are providing.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s spokesperson, Sterling Ivey • Regarding the governor’s push for the U.S. to end airlifts from Haiti due to the fact they’re not getting paid. These airlifts, which were for critically-injured patients, were costing the Florida government millions – and they weren’t even the only state doing them! The military claims they ended the airlifts because the hospitals stopped accepting patients. This is bad all around. source