LA archdiocese settles 4 sex abuse cases for $10M

FILE - In this May 10, 2006 file photo, Cardinal Rogery Mahony celebrates mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay nearly $10 million to settle four clergy sex abuse cases that alleged abuse by a now-defrocked priest who told Mahony nearly 30 years ago he had molested children, attorneys confirmed on Tuesday March 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

FILE - In this May 10, 2006 file photo, Cardinal Rogery Mahony celebrates mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay nearly $10 million to settle four clergy sex abuse cases that alleged abuse by a now-defrocked priest who told Mahony nearly 30 years ago he had molested children, attorneys confirmed on Tuesday March 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

FILE - This 1974 file photo provided by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles shows former Catholic priest, Michael Baker. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay nearly $10 million to settle four clergy sex abuse cases that alleged abuse by the now-defrocked priest, who told Cardinal Roger Mahony nearly 30 years ago he had molested children, attorneys confirmed on Tuesday, March 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Archdiocese of Los Angeles, File)

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay nearly $10 million to settle four cases alleging abuse by a now-defrocked priest who told Cardinal Roger Mahony nearly 30 years ago he had molested children, attorneys confirmed on Tuesday.

The cases involving ex-priest Michael Baker span 26 years from 1974 to 2000. Two were set for trial next month. A judge had said attorneys for the plaintiffs could pursue punitive damages at trial.

The cases were settled this week.

Two of the claims named Mahony and alleged he didn't do enough to stop Baker from abusing children, said plaintiff's attorney John Manly.

Mahony retired as Los Angeles archbishop in 2011 and was rebuked by his successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, last month after confidential church files showed the cardinal worked behind the scenes to shield molesting priests and protect the church from scandal.

Mahony, who is in Rome helping select the next pope, was aware of the settlement, said J. Michael Hennigan, an archdiocese attorney.

"We have for a long, long time said that we made serious mistakes with Michael Baker and we had always taken the position in these cases that whatever Baker did we were responsible for," he said. "That was never an issue."

Baker could not be reached for comment.

Two of the plaintiffs, a pair of brothers, will get $4 million each, and the two others will get nearly $1 million each, Manly said.

Confidential files show that Baker met with Mahony in 1986 and confessed to molesting two boys over a nearly seven-year period.

Mahony removed Baker from ministry and sent him for psychological treatment, but the priest returned to ministry the following year with a doctor's recommendation that he be defrocked immediately if he spent any time with minors.

Despite several documented instances of being alone with boys, the priest wasn't removed from ministry until 2000 after serving in nine parishes.

Baker was convicted of child molestation in 2007 and paroled in 2011.

Authorities believe Baker may have abused more than 20 children in his 26-year career.

"The person who could have stopped this in its tracks and prevented three out of four of these children from being sexually assaulted is now sitting in Rome voting for the next vicar of Christ," said Manly. "I find that terribly troubling."

Mahony has apologized repeatedly for his handling of clergy abuse cases. The cardinal was sequestered for the papal conclave and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The archdiocese settled more than 500 clergy abuse lawsuits in 2007 for a record-breaking $660 million.

Baker was charged in 2002 with 34 counts of molestation involving six victims, but those charges were dismissed because they fell outside the criminal statute of limitations.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-12-US-California-Church-Abuse/id-fff579eb0d0b449289099afb0074109a

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safety factors for marketing of a new business (guest post)

Safety factors of marketing for new business

Safety factors play an important role especially when you are planning to head for a new business marketing plan. Approaching new customers by still being a novice or even a seasoned entrepreneur could be challenging. Consumers often rely over online stores (even the brick and mortar stores), which are well established in the market and they love to buy brands that are well known to them. This is because they simply do not want to put them into any kind of risk of getting a wrong product. Also, while doing a new business online, the consumers are justified to get deflected owing to several safety and security reasons. Hence it is very much important to know and understand these factors before heading to marketing for your new business. Let?s check these safety factors, which you need to take care while going for a new business venture.

Consider key safety measures over your business portal

If you look at the consumers of this modern age, you will find them with good amount of awareness. They are now becoming more and more aware especially when it comes to online shopping. They understand the online security issues better than before thanks to the huge information available over the web. The consistent barrage of scams and spam have made the modern day consumers have made them more secured about their information. This simply means that while heading for your new business, you are supposed to set up a clear cut internet security policy, which should be vividly reflected in any of your online marketing drives.

Any online business portal (e-commerce, loan and application websites) which obtains several indentifying details or bank/financial information of the consumers should be secured. You are supposed to carry the SSL certificate backed by the latest technology. The consumers are well aware of this factor and hence often look out any e-commerce site before shopping. So your marketing efforts would be a big waste if you are selling out products online without SSL certificate. Also, make sure you rely over the latest encryption technology for your website and allow your consumers to know this. It will boost confidence in your consumers and they will come with this security factor that they find over your business portal.

Lastly, you also should ensure a fact that you would protect all their contact details along with other sensitive data of your consumers. These details for any online business website is a very vital thing both for the new and old business owners, which has to be kept intact and avoided sharing or selling with other people. All these details, you need to put over your site for your consumers.

Setting up your publishing policies

Another important safety factor, which you need to consider in your new business online marketing, is setting up your publishing policies. It is always recommended to have clear cut safety and security policies for your online business website. You could easily find template for such policies over the web, which could help you in modifying the changes you find as per your requirements. As you build up your own policies, you are supposed to consider elements, which are vital to the sites users or consumers that has to be highlighted before them as your key policies.

Once you do this, make sure your marketing team sit together and review all your policies and identify the number of important policies, which are supposed to be highlighted before your consumers. This will certainly impact the way the policies are posted over your business portal or ecommerce site. And the most important policies could be made in bold letters over your website to get an instant notice by the website visitors. You could even think of pointing out your safety and security polices over other areas of your site. One of the important goals of your online marketing efforts is to establish the element of trust over your site. If your marketing efforts are able to give your consumers a good amount of comfort regarding their safety and security, you end up establishing the trust and they would become more comfortable while using your website.

Full fill your promises

The other important safety factor is to full fill all your promises you made for the safety and security. You should make sure that your business site is full proof and abreast with the latest security systems to carry out the business transactions from confirming things from website hosting company and your developer. You should avoid selling, leasing or lending your email marketing data with anyone if you have promised your consumers for not doing the same. If you fail to?fulfill your promises you end up ruining the trust and confidence of your customers on your brand, which take long to build up. Customers consider the security issue very seriously, hence it?s imperative for you as well to pursue in the similar fashion.

Final word

As you put all your efforts in your online marketing for your new business, make sure you follow these safety factors without any hitch. These three things would help you in establishing your loyalty and trust in the market and thus making your marketing efforts more effective.

About The Author: Margaret is a writer/blogger. She loves writing travelling and reading books. She contributes to Carribean Cruise Line Scam

Tagged as: consumers, customer privacy, new business, online safety, safety and security policies

Source: http://www.blog4safety.com/2013/03/safety-factors-of-marketing-for-new-business-guest-post/

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Long to-do list awaits the next pope

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? The moment Cardinal Albino Luciani learned his colleagues had elected him pope, he responded: "May God forgive you for what you've done." The remark, by the man who became Pope John Paul I, was seen as an expression of humility ? but also a commentary on the mammoth task ahead.

There is no job like that of pope. He is the CEO of a global enterprise, head of state, a moral voice in the world and, in the eyes of Roman Catholics, Christ's representative on earth.

And the man who emerges as pontiff from the conclave starting Tuesday has a particularly crushing to-do list.

Here are some of the challenges awaiting the next pope:

___

REFORM: The next pope will have to restore discipline to the scandal-plagued central administration of the church. Benedict XVI, the former pope, commissioned a report on the Vatican bureaucracy, or Curia, that will be shown only to his successor. Benedict's butler had leaked the pope's private papers revealing feuding, corruption and cronyism at the highest levels of administration. The secretive Vatican bank recently ousted a president for incompetence and is under pressure for greater financial transparency. Bishops in several countries say nonresponsive Vatican officials are hampering local churches. The Curia decides everything from bishop appointments and liturgy, to parish closings and discipline for abusive priests.

___

SEX ABUSE: The Vatican remains under pressure to reveal more about its past role in the church's failures to protect children worldwide. The issue erupted ahead of the conclave, when victims from the U.S., Chile and Mexico pressured cardinals to recuse themselves because they had shielded priests from prosecution. Benedict instructed bishops around the world to craft policies to keep abusers from the priesthood, but church leaders in some nations haven't yet complied. "There's still the victims," Chicago Cardinal Francis George said in a news conference last week. "The wound is still deep in their hearts, and as long as it's with them it will be with us. The pope has to keep this in mind."

___

EMPTY PEWS: Secularism has already taken a toll on churches in Europe and the U.S., where a growing number of people don't identify with a faith. The move away from organized religion is also hurting parishes in Latin America. Churches in Brazil and other predominantly Catholic countries in South America already had been losing members to the spirited worship found in independent Pentecostal movements. As the church loses members, it also loses influence in public life in many countries. Church opposition to same-sex marriage has been largely ineffective in the West. The next pope must be a missionary-in-chief, with the gravitas, charisma and personal holiness to bring Catholics back to church.

___

EMPTY PULPITS: Europe and North America need more priests. Clergy in developing countries need more resources. And everywhere, priests are struggling with the outsized burdens of the modern-day pastor. The job requires fundraising, personal counseling and an ability to uphold doctrine, often to Catholics who don't want to listen. The abuse crisis, meanwhile, casts a shadow on today's clergy, even though most known molestation cases occurred decades ago. In recent years, some priests have made their own proposals to strengthen their ranks. Clergy in heavily Catholic Austria in 2011 called for ordaining women and relaxing the celibacy requirement. Benedict rebuked them.

___

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION: Catholics and other Christians live as religious minorities in many countries, including Syria, India and China, where they face discrimination, government interference and, in many cases, violence as they try to practice their faith. The issue is a rare one that unites religious leaders across faiths. The pope is considered a key voice in the fight. Some of the tougher conditions are in Muslim nations, which often ban and punish Christian evangelizing. Addressing the issue requires utmost diplomacy; a misstep can cost lives.

___

GLOBALIZATION: While the church is shrinking in the West, it's booming in Africa and Asia. The new pope will have to shift much of his attention to the challenges for these relatively new dioceses: a life-and-death fight against poverty; threats from radical Muslim movements; and maintaining Catholic orthodoxy while leaving room for local styles of worship.

___

OTHER FAITHS: The new pope will have to keep up friendships with a long list of other Christian groups and other religions, including Orthodox Christians, Anglicans and Jews. But his most pressing task will be navigating relations with Islam. The importance of the issue was made starkly clear in the fallout from Benedict's 2006 speech in Regensburg, Germany, in which he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman." Benedict made many efforts to mend fences, including praying beside an imam that same year at the historic Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

___

UNITY: The next pontiff inherits a church divided over the role of lay people and women, on doctrine and social justice teaching ? even on what is required to be considered Catholic. In Benedict's final audience with cardinals, he urged them to work "like an orchestra" where "agreement and harmony" can be reached despite diversity. He could have been talking to the whole church.

_____

Follow Rachel Zoll at www.twitter.com/rzollAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heavy-workload-awaits-next-pope-church-turmoil-164626575.html

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Sandy-damaged homes hit market at bargain prices

Eileen AJ Connelly , The Associated Press ? ? ? 20 hrs.

LONG BEACH, N.Y. ? It sounds like the premise for a new reality TV series: "Hurricane House" ? people scouring waterside communities looking to buy homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy at a deep discount.

While there are bargains out there, ranging from 10 percent off pre-storm prices for upscale homes on New York's Long Island and the Jersey Shore to as much as 60 percent off modest bungalows Staten Island and Queens, it's still very much a game of buyer beware.

Not only are buyers are on the hook for repairs and in some cases total rebuilds, they're also wading into a host of potentially expensive uncertainties about new flood maps and future insurance rates, zoning changes and updated building codes.

"It's totally changed the way I sell real estate," said Lawrence Greenberg, a sales associate with Van Skiver Realtors, whose own Mantoloking, N.J., office was wrecked in the storm.

Prior to Sandy, prospective buyers rarely mentioned issues such as flood maps and building elevations until the matter of flood insurance came up ? often at closing. "Now, everybody asks the question of elevation," Greenberg said. Even if potential buyers plan to tear down and build new, they ask about the pending changes in flood maps proposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, because flood insurance rates will depend upon the new zones.

There is no sign of a mass exodus from shoreline communities. The number of for-sale listings in January in the 380 zip codes hit by the storm was about 2 percent below the same time last year, according to online real estate information company Zillow Inc. That indicates that most homeowners are rebuilding, or have not yet decided how to proceed.

But real estate agents in New York and New Jersey say the majority of homes for sale in these areas have some damage from the Oct. 29 storm, and it appears to them that a rising number are being put on the market as the spring home-buying season approaches.

In addition to people looking to create their dream house out of a damaged home, Tripodi has seen investors eyeing the area. In Long Beach's West End neighborhood, for example, investors are looking to tear down gutted 1920s-era ranch homes and build bigger houses with multiple stories at higher elevations in their place.

New listings range from destroyed oceanfront properties being sold for the land, to flooded bayside homes untouched since the storm that must be gutted. Even the few undamaged homes in affected neighborhoods are listing at prices about 10 percent lower than they would have been pre-storm.

Some sellers are overwhelmed by the daunting prospect of restoring a damaged home. Some are older homeowners who had stayed in the houses where they raised their families, but now are relocating. Some didn't have flood insurance.

"They either don't have the funds or don't have the energy to go through the renovating and rebuilding process," said Jeff Childers, a broker with Childers Sotheby's International Realty in Normandy Beach, N.J.

Lisa Jackson, broker and owner of Rockaway Properties in the Belle Harbor section of Queens, N.Y., said a number of her new listings are homes owned by senior citizens. One 85-year-old client was living alone in her 1940s-era six-bedroom, six-bath brick home right on the beach. The house was hammered by Sandy, and must be at least partially demolished, but will still command a hefty price. "Everything on the water is big money," Jackson said.

But the $3 million listing price is nevertheless a huge discount from the roughly $4.25 million it would have commanded before the storm.

Another set of sellers were in the process of getting out before the storm hit. Jackson had 18 properties in contract prior to Sandy, but all of those sales either fell through or were renegotiated for a lower price.

One 1930s-era three-bedroom, two-bath house with a view of the bay was in contract for $665,000, but the entire first floor was gutted after it took on about four feet of water. The buyer, a single woman, was unwilling to take on the renovations. The property is back on the market for $550,000. That's a 17 percent discount, but the eventual buyer will have to pay for new floors and walls, plus a new kitchen and bathroom.

Still, that sort of cut might make the neighborhood affordable for a family that was priced out in recent years, when houses were selling for $750,000 and more.

And in one sense, buying a storm-damaged home can offer an advantage, said Tom Tripodi, president of the Tripodi Group/ Douglas Elliman Real Estate in the Long Island city of Long Beach, where damaged houses are selling for about 10 percent less than before the storm.

"If it's all gutted out, you can do what you want," he said. "You can own the house with a brand new kitchen, new appliances, new floors."

The shorefront sections of Staten Island are also seeing accelerating turnover of homes that are likely to eventually get torn down.

Lee Venezia, a broker with Neuhaus Realty Inc., recently sold three adjacent bungalows owned by a longtime resident of Staten Island's Midland Beach for $240,000 cash ? about $20,000 less than each one might have garnered before the storm. "The homeowner refused to go back," she said.

The buyer will fix the properties up and rent them "until the dust settles," Venezia said. Once new flood maps are finalized and new building codes sorted out, she expects the houses to be sold again to a developer who will replace them.

Cash deals are the only ones closing right now in Staten Island's storm-damaged neighborhoods, Venezia said, which means the buyers are almost all investors, even though the area's small houses are selling for $85,000 to $100,000. "Banks are not going to lend," she said. "The banks are waiting for the dust to settle to see what the building requirements are going to be."

The new flood maps must go through public hearings before they are finalized, a process likely to take two to three years.

Meanwhile, public officials and homeowners are trying to look to the future.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced a plan to buy out the entire Staten Island neighborhood of Oakwood Beach and allow the land to revert back to the marshland it once was, because the homes there have flooded multiple times. It remains unclear if any other neighborhoods might get bought out.

That may be the best hope for homeowners like Michael Kuhens, who has been trying to sell his bungalow in Staten Island's Ocean Breeze section, which was ripped off its foundation by the 14-foot storm surge.

A buyout would be attractive because, instead of dealing with bargain hunters, the state is offering pre-storm value.

"I know a lot of people in my neighborhood don't want to stay, and if they were offered a buyout they'd take it," said Kuhens, who is staying at his parents' house with his wife and 1-year-old daughter. "We just want to get on with our lives. It's a hundred-something days after the storm, and we're still stuck in limbo."

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/sandy-damaged-homes-hit-market-bargain-prices-1C8781254

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Politicians look for credit in a rising economy

FILE - In this March 8, 2013 file photo, specialist Donald Civitanova, right, works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. When it comes to the economy, presidents usually get the rap for downturns and reap benefits from upturns. But the main factors affecting the current recovery and the record activity in the stock market may have less to do with high-profile fiscal policy fights in Washington than they do in the decisions of the Federal Reserve Bank, which has pumped trillions of dollars into the economy, kept interests rates at near zero and pushed investors away from low-yield bonds to stocks. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - In this March 8, 2013 file photo, specialist Donald Civitanova, right, works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. When it comes to the economy, presidents usually get the rap for downturns and reap benefits from upturns. But the main factors affecting the current recovery and the record activity in the stock market may have less to do with high-profile fiscal policy fights in Washington than they do in the decisions of the Federal Reserve Bank, which has pumped trillions of dollars into the economy, kept interests rates at near zero and pushed investors away from low-yield bonds to stocks. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Increased hiring, lower unemployment, stock market on the rise. Who gets the credit?

It's a hotly debated point in Washington, where political scorekeeping amounts to who gets blame and who gets praise.

Following Friday's strong jobs report ? 236,000 new jobs and unemployment dropping to a four-year low of 7.7 percent ? partisans hurriedly staked out turf.

"Woot woot!" tweeted former White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee. "With 12 million still unemployed?" countered Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's spokesman, Don Stewart.

Presidents usually get the rap for economic downturns and reap benefits when things improve. But the main factors affecting the current recovery and the record activity in the stock market may have less to do with high-profile fiscal policy fights in Washington than they do in the decisions of the Federal Reserve Bank, which has pumped trillions of dollars into the economy, kept interests rates at near zero and pushed investors away from low-yield bonds to stocks.

"From a policy standpoint, this is being driven primarily by the Fed," said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo.

Yet to some, Washington deserves little recognition.

"Economies recover," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and now head of the American Action Forum, a conservative public policy institute. He acknowledged the Fed's monetary policies halted the initial free fall by the financial industry, but he said the economy has had to catch up to the Fed's low interest rates.

"It took a long time for the housing market for them to matter and for the auto market for them to matter," Holtz-Eakin said. "So I don't think that's a policy victory."

If Democrats are eager to give President Barack Obama acclaim for spurring the recovery with an infusion of spending in 2009, there are just as many Republicans who will claim his health care law and his regulatory regimes slowed it.

If there is common ground among economists, it is that the next step in fiscal policy should be focused on reining in long-term spending on entitlements programs, particularly Medicare, instead of continuing debates over short-term spending. But such a grand bargain has been elusive, caught in a fight over Obama's desire for more tax revenue and Republican opposition to more tax increases.

Obama and some Republicans are trying to move the process with phone calls and a dinner here and a luncheon there. Next week, the president plans to address Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate in separate meetings to see, as he put it Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address, "if we can untangle some of the gridlock."

Who gets credit does have political consequences. A strong economy would create more space for Obama to pursue other aspects of his second-term agenda. But it's an important question for the long term, too, because if the recovery is indeed accelerating it could validate the policies that the Obama administration and the Fed put in place.

Hiring has been boosted by high corporate profits and by strength in the housing, auto, manufacturing and construction sectors. Corporate profits are up. Still, it might be too soon to declare victory. While the recovery may be getting traction, the U.S. economy is not yet strong.

Economic growth is forecast to be a modest 2 percent this year. Unemployment, even as it drops, remains high nearly four years after the end of the Great Recession, with roughly 12 million people out of work.

Last year's early months also showed strong job gains only to see them fade by June.

March could prove to be a more telling indicator as the economy responds to a third month of higher Social Security taxes and as across-the-board spending cuts that kicked in March 1 begin to work their way through government programs. Economists say anticipation of the cuts already caused a downturn in the fourth quarter of last year as the defense industry slowed spending. The Congressional Budget Office and some private forecasters say the coming cuts could reduce economic growth by about half a percentage point and cost about 700,000 jobs by the end of 2014.

"My view is that aggressive monetary and fiscal policy response to the recovery has been a net positive," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

But referring to the automatic cuts, he said, "Fiscal policies have turned from a very powerful tailwind to a pretty significant head wind." And, he added, "the economy is going to be tested again in the next few months."

Obama has been distancing himself from the potential consequences of the automatic cuts, even though he signed the legislation that put them in place. Initially, they were designed to be so onerous that it would force all sides to work out a long-term deficit-reduction and debt-stabilization package. But that agreement never materialized.

If the recovery has been slow, White House officials argue, it is because Republicans have been unwilling to yield to Obama's demands for deficit reduction that combines tax increases and cuts in spending.

Obama himself seemed to touch on that viewpoint in his weekly address.

"At a time when our businesses are gaining a little more traction, the last thing we should do is allow Washington politics to get in the way," he said while heralding good economic news. "You deserve better than the same political gridlock and refusal to compromise that has too often passed for serious debate over the last few years."

Vitner, the Wells Fargo economist, argues that if anyone deserves credit for the recovery, it is the American public and American businesses "for being able to tune out all the noise that's coming from Washington."

"It's remarkable," he said, "that in the face of so much political uncertainty we've been able to see the growth that we have."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-09-Economy-Who%20Gets%20Credit/id-57ed4e9793554554b935c9db91d8c7f4

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