Bishop Daniel O’Reilly knew in 1971 that one of his priests Robert Marcantonio, had abused several young boys yet Marcantonio left for Ames Iowa in 1970 for treatment. He also apparently abused again in Dubuque Archdiocese where he was released for “service” to the Archdiocese of Dubuque. He continued to abuse there as well. Yet, when a television report reveals the abuse the new bishop is outraged at the tv station and not the abuser Marcantonio. Bishop Louis Gelineau cancelled all programs with the station including televised masses for the cavalier attitude of the station.
Unfortunately, this has been the typical reaction of the bishops. They would rather shoot the messenger than deal with the problem of sexual abuse of children. This is not new and it continues to this day. In dealing with archdioceses and dioceses throughout the country, they would rather blame the victims, their advocates, their lawyers, and the media for the problem. they call it Catholic bashing. I call it covering up criminal behavior.

In case you missed it, the Pope has spent the last few days in Australia for the World Youth Day celebrations. By most accounts, the trip was not as successful as his trip to the United States. The abuse saga in Australia continued to shadow everything the Pope did during the trip, including secretly celebrating a private mass with hand picked victims prior to leaving Australia. In my opinion, this is precisely the problem with the Catholic Church’s handling of the abuse crisis (other than the fact that they’ve covered up the abuse for hundreds of years). The Church, in seeking to deal with the situation, continues to insist on dealing with it on their terms instead of the terms dictated by those victimized by the criminal sexual behavior of its priests. You can’t handpick victims to meet with if you are seeking healing and reconciliation for the masses of victims who’ve been abused by priests. It just doesn’t work that way. You can’t decide to meet with a select few who happen to be ok with the way you handled the abuse crisis if you’re trying to reform the church and deal with the massive public relations problem created by the bishops. It just doesn’t work that way, not in the real world anyway.

Merck will start issuing checks to Vioxx claimants who’ve been injured by the drug. Merck has stated that nearly 97% of eligible claimants have enrolled in their settlement program and as a result, Merck will waive its right to “walk away” from the agreement reached last fall with plaintiffs’ attorneys. As a result, the Enrollment Deadline Date is now October 30, 2008, pursuant to Section 17.1.26 of the Settlement Agreement. Claimants may continue to Enroll in the Settlement Program until October 30, 2008.
The settlements will range from $5,000 to a few million dollars depending on the usage and severity of injury. The settlement agreement should resolve approximately 50,000 lawsuits at a cost to Merck of $4,85 billion.
Former Vioxx users, or their survivors, are eligible for part of the settlement if the patient suffered a heart attack, stroke or death. They must have had pending lawsuits or tolling agreements, which suspend the statute of limitations, as of Nov. 9, 2007, the date the settlement was reached.

US Senator Bill Nelson plans to hold a news conference this morning at the Azalea Adult Community Center in St. Petersburg, Florida regarding the toxic plume in the Azalea neighborhood. During the press conference, Nelson is expected to call on Raytheon to clean up the neighborhood toxic spill as well as ask the federal government to get involved. “The plume is now at the front door of the elementary school,” Nelson said in a news release. “We have to make sure the kids and everybody else aren’t exposed.”
Raytheon plans to extend its testing to include air quality in the surrounding homes and apartments. The spill occurred in 1991 but area residents didn’t know about it until a news investigation uncovered the toxic plume. At the time, the plant in question was owned and operated by E Systems. Raytheon purchased the plant and operation after the spill occurred but in so doing inherited the problem from E Systems as well as the responsibility to clean it up and inform residents of the possible dangers.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has found toxic waste in a creek near the Raytheon property in St. Petersburg. The toxin found, 1,4-dioxane, is one of the toxins discovered in the plume of underground contamination in the Azalea neighborhood. This is the first finding of groundwater contamination related to the toxic waste associated with the Raytheon site. However, this groundwater contamination has no known connection to the previously discovered contamination in the underground aquifer. The DEP has asked Raytheon to investigate in order to determine the source of the contamination.
This new finding will surely be a topic of much discussion this evening when the DEP and Raytheon hold a public meeting to discuss the problem. The DEP has told Raytheon to sink test wells near Azalea Elementary School. Officials at the school have been notified and have been instructed to inform parents of the issue.

Bayer AG’s Cipro and Johnson & Johnson’s Levaquin will receive black box warnings from the FDA after evidence has shown that the antibiotics contain a risk of tendon ruptures. The antibiotics in question belong to the same class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones.
While the ruptures occur most frequently in the Achilles tendon, they are also know to occur in the shoulders, biceps, hands, and thumbs. Six months ago, the advocacy group Public Citizen sued the FDA in order to obtain the black box warning, the FDA’s strongest warning label that is used to warn consumers and doctors about the potential dangers and adverse effects of drugs.

Twenty five years after one of the worst industrial spills ever, the people of Bhopal continue to suffer the consequences of the toxic poisons that remain in their soil. The toxins that remain in the soil have filtered into the water yet no one seems to know the extent of the toxicity. What is clear from the aftermath of the toxic spill is that a second generation of Bhopal residents are now suffering the effects fo the industrial accident that was never cleaned up-from cleft palates to mental retardation.
On December 3, 1984, a tank at the Union Carbide facility in Bhopal leaked 40 tons of the poisonous and lethal methyl isocyanate gas, killing approximately 3,000 people while they slept. More than 500,000 people were said to be effected by the toxic leak and they were to receive compensation of $550 each. However, some people have yet to receive any compensation.
This is where the Bhopal tragedy turns tricky. Union Carbide was sold to Dow Chemical in 1991. But Dow claims no responsibility for the cleanup or remediation of the site since it passed through the hands of the Madhya Pradesh State government in June 1998. Dow remains committed to the story that it did not know the accident site remains unremediated and won’t take any responsibility for remediation citing potential further liability.
So, in the meantime, due to government ineptitude and possible corporate malfeasance Bhopal remains a toxic waste dump. Its people continue to suffer from an accident that happened 25 years ago. An Indian doctor expresses it best, ““Had the toxic waste been cleaned up, the contaminated groundwater would not have happened,” says Mira Shiva, a doctor who heads the Voluntary Health Association, one of many groups pressing for Dow to take responsibility for the cleanup. “Dow was the first crime. The second crime was government negligence.”

The federal judge in the Zyprexa litigation is asking Eli Lilly to settle legal claims and lawsuits arising out of its off-label marketing of Zyprexa as well as hiding its side effects. In his 291 page draft order Judge Jack Weinstein argued, “”There is sufficient evidence of fraud under RICO to go to a jury,” He added: “There is evidence that off-label use of Zyprexa was excessive and may have been encouraged by Lilly.”
While the order is not in final form, it is significant and will add pressure to settle the Zyprexa claims. It also is important regarding other pharmaceutical companies’ marketing techniques, especially the so-called off-label usage.

In an unprecedentedly frank interview with National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen, Archbishop Edward O’Brien of Baltimore has demanded that the Legionaries of Christ as well as their lay colleagues in Regnum Christi be more accountable and transparent to the Archbishop as well as the wider church. In the wide-ranging interview conducted during the American Bishops meeting a few weeks ago in Orlando, O’Brien stated that he was prepared to remove the controversial religious order from the Archdiocese until three prominent Roman cardinals intervened on the Legion’s behalf. An excerpt of O’Brien’s interview follows,
“But what goes on in the one-on-one counseling … there seems to be a tendency to say, ‘We represent God. You can tell us anything, and you better believe that what we tell you is from God too. If your parents disagree, we know better. We’re in the God business, and they’re really not.’ This is a caricature, but it’s there.
They sponsor father/son weekends. The father drives 14 hours, brings the kid up to New Hampshire and drops the kid off at 11:00 at night. Where’s the farther going to stay? Well, there’s a place about 40 miles away you can stay, so the father’s sleeping in the car overnight. Next day they’re ready for the hike, but no, the fathers don’t go, it’s just the counselors and the kids. That’s the tendency.
Who’s in charge of this? Who’s responsible? Each time you meet with an official, [they say], ‘Oh, no, that didn’t happen, did it? You should have let us know right away. That’s not right.’ But it happens over and over again.”
In light of the sexual abuse charges against the Legionaries late founder and the highly secretive, cult-like behavior of its members, it’s fortunate that a Bishop has acted and spoken somewhat forthrightly about this group.

In a move widely seen as an attempt to lessen criticism, Pfizer is halting its funding of medical education courses. The courses which had been funded by Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies were widely seen by industry professionals as a marketing tool during which the drug companies could showcase their line of products under the guise of continued medical education. Fortunately for the consumer, the public outcry reached a level that Pfizer’s public relations machine decided it no longer made sense to offer the courses to the doctors.