Free Republic

A Utah County man allegedly defrauded family, friends and fellow LDS Church members out of about $17 million in a deal in which he was to buy Texas oil refineries and an old paper mill that was to be dismantled and sold for scrap metal. Dennis Lee Keating II, of Highland, entered into an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle the allegations without admitting or denying them. And the licensed securities agent agreed to not violate securities laws and to not associate with any broker, dealer or investment adviser. In addition, Keating will be assessed a penalty...

A tightly held administration plan to consider designating up to millions of acres of land in the West as national monuments has Western Republicans up in arms.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told CNSNews.com that national security and ecological values can coexist at the U.S.-Mexico border. The comments came amid Republican criticism that the Interior Department is using conservation as a pretext to interfere with U.S. Border Patrol operations on federal lands, particularly when it comes to stopping illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was asked in a Feb. 26, 2010, letter from Western Caucus Chairman Rep. Rob Bishop, R-UT, and other representatives from western states for the missing pages from a leaked government memo that “contained detailed information about the administration’s plans to designate as many as 14 new national monuments and lock up as much as 13 million acres in states throughout the West.”

BRUSSELS — Belgium's longest serving bishop resigned Friday, expressing sorrow for having sexually abused a young boy both as a priest and after becoming a bishop in 1984. The resignation of Roger Vangheluwe, 73, the Bishop of Bruges, was the first from Belgium since a child abuse scandal began testing the Catholic Church several months ago in Europe and the United States. His resignation stands out because while several bishops have resigned amid the abuse scandal — three from Ireland in the past four months alone — they did so under the weight of accusations they shielded pedophiles in their...

A feud between the Departments of the Interior and Homeland Security over federal wilderness areas that constitute 40 percent of the nation's southern border has been undermining the mission of both agencies for nearly a decade. This adolescent refusal to cooperate threatens the security of all Americans. That much was made clear March 27 when Arizona rancher Rob Krentz and his dog were shot to death by someone crossing the border illegally. The murderer then escaped in a pronghorn antelope protection area that the Interior Department placed off limits to Border Patrol agents. Krentz had repeatedly complained that illegals were...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, introduced a bill Wednesday seeking to end the Interior Department's current practice of denying the U.S. Border Patrol access to wilderness and other protected federal lands along the Mexico-U.S. border. He said that would ensure that Interior's policies "no longer enable dangerous criminals to co-opt federal border lands as their drug trafficking highways." Bishop for months has been calling for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to change the policy on his own. Bishop, the ranking Republican on a subcommittee that oversees national parks and public lands, visited the border earlier this year and said he...

The shocking tragedy in Russia today includes the news that several prominent members of the clergy were among those killed: The Holy Father expressed his sorrow over the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and those accompanying him on a flight to Russia on Saturday morning. Pope Benedict remembered all of those who died and implored "a special blessing to the people of Poland from God omnipotent." According to CNN, President Kaczynski, his wife, top members of the Polish government, army and several Church authorities were on the plane that went down just seconds from landing at the airport...

Featured Term (selected at random):VICAR-GENERAL A legitimately deputized assistant to a bishop with ordinary jurisdiction over an entire diocese. His term of office expires with the death, resignation, or transfer of the bishop. Unless the size of a diocese or diversity of rites absolutely requires it, there may be only one vicar-general appointed. He should be an experienced priest of excellent moral character. The vicar-general may also be an auxiliary bishop. In view of its importance the office is regulated by definite legislation in the Church's canon law. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic...

Heber City » Minutes after a judge ordered 68-year-old Village of Hope co-founder Lon Harvey Kennard held without bail on charges that he sexually abused two of his adopted daughters Wednesday, his family issued a public apology. Verl Kennard, one of Kennard's six biological children, provided a prepared statement outside the courtroom and said the family was badly shaken but holding together. "We want him to pay for what he's done," Verl Kennard said of his father. "And we want him to get help." The statement reads: "The recent arrest of Lon Harvey Kennard, Sr., who in the past has...

DUBLIN - Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation Wednesday of Bishop John Magee, a former papal aide who stands accused of endangering children by failing to follow the Irish church's own rules on reporting suspected pedophile priests to police. Magee apologized to victims of any pedophile priests who were kept in parish posts since he took charge of the southwest Irish diocese of Cloyne in 1987. "To those whom I have failed in any way, or through any omission of mine have made suffer, I beg forgiveness and pardon," the 73-year-old Magee said in a statement.

As current federal health-care legislation moves forward toward law, we need to draw several lessons from events of the last weeks and months: First, the bill passed by the House on March 21 is a failure of decent lawmaking. It has not been “fixed.” It remains unethical and defective on all of the issues pressed by the U.S. bishops and prolife groups for the past seven months. Second, the Executive Order promised by the White House to ban the use of federal funds for abortion does not solve the many problems with the bill, which is why the bishops did...

Former House Majority Leader Kevin Garn was cited for driving under the influence in 2006, as he was attempting to return to politics and later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge. Salt Lake City Chief Prosecutor Sim Gill said Salt Lake City police received a call in May 2006 reporting a person passed out in a car at a downtown hotel. "They could smell the odor of alcohol. Based on that, they decided to do a DUI investigation. They did a field sobriety test," Gill said. "Based on their observation, they reached the conclusion that they thought the person was...

To the Editor: A common image of Christ throughout Christianity is that of the "Good Shepherd." Christ compared Himself to a shepherd and stated that, "I know my sheep and my sheep know me." As Catholics, we believe that the bishop of a diocese acts in Christ's place as a shepherd for the people. This is symbolized by the bishop's crozier (a staff that resembles a shepherd's staff). This week the students in the Catholic schools of Schuylkill County have been able to witness the shepherding actions of their bishop, Bishop John Barres. On Monday, Bishop Barres visited St. Stephen...

STATE OF GEORGIA OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR Sonny Perdue GOVERNOR OP-ED / For Immediate Release Contact: Office of Communications Saturday, March 20, 2010 (404) 651-7774 ***Editor’s Note: Below is an op-ed by Governor Sonny Perdue. The Governor’s Office is aware of the late notice, but please consider this op-ed for publication in your opinions section or on your website.*** Bishop’s Healthcare Vote Important for Georgians to Watch By Governor Sonny Perdue Last Thursday, I wrote to Congressmen Sanford Bishop and John Barrow asking them to put the needs of their districts and state before their political party, and oppose the...

Richard Doerflinger doesn't look the part of a high-powered political strategist. Bearded and bespectacled, he works in a small, cluttered office out of one of Washington’s less fashionable neighborhoods, far from the lobbying bastions of K Street. Yet as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' point man on abortion, Doerflinger has emerged as a major player in the health care debate, one likely to play a pivotal role in the outcome. It was Doerflinger who orchestrated the bishops’ successful campaign late last year to add a tough anti-abortion provision to the House legislation. The Senate adopted less stringent language....

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt blew nearly $560,000 in campaign cash last year - much of it on lavish meals and a family-friendly payroll that includes his ex-wife, son-in-law and daughter - stoking speculation the Quincy Democrat is emptying his war chest and won’t seek re-election. -snip- Delahunt told the Herald last week that he was still weighing whether to seek re-election, but Democratic Party sources have privately indicated his departure is anticipated - and expected to draw a host of candidates-in-waiting out of the woodwork.

The Amy Bishop debacle has gone from horrifying to humiliating over the past week - and it’s getting worse by the day. Amid the cacophony and the finger-pointing, somebody needs to play the role of the adult. Braintree and State Police were corrupt, or incompetent, or perhaps both, when they let Bishop walk completely free after she shot her younger brother in the chest in 1986 and ran around town with a shotgun under her arm. Now that Bishop has allegedly killed three of her colleagues at the University of Alabama and critically wounded two others, an embarrassing blame-game is...

Amy Bishop, neuroscientist, inventor, murder suspect, has become bigger than life, a symbol for those who think that genius is close to madness, or that women cannot get ahead in science, or that tenure systems in universities are brutalizing — or even that progress against fatal diseases is so important that someone like Dr. Bishop should be set free to pursue cures. At least that is what emerges from hundreds of comments on the Internet about Dr. Bishop, the assistant professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville charged with shooting six colleagues — three of them fatally — at...

Tensions are starting to boil between one Boston talk radio host and a local prosecutor in charge when accused Alabama rampage killer Amy Bishop killed her brother with a shotgun blast in their Braintree home in 1986. John Kivlan, a former Norfolk Country assistant district attorney, left an ominous message for WTKK-FM (96.9) yakker Michael Graham during Friday’s show. (Graham is an op-ed columnist for the Boston Herald).