Free Republic

Yesterday afternoon, the California Senate passed SB 282 which legalizes aiding, advising, or encouraging assisted suicide. The bill was rushed through on the first day the legislature returned from its summer recess, giving no opportunity for debate or even opposing remarks. The bill was introduced in the wake of Life Legal’s challenge to California’s assisted suicide law. We registered our opposition to the bill early on, as it grants complete legal immunity to anyone who wants to facilitate the death of someone who is defined as “terminally ill” under California’s assisted suicide law. The law defines “terminal” as a condition...

Note to retirees: Beware the family. Financial swindles are one of the fastest-growing forms of elder abuse. By some estimates, as many as five million senior citizens are victimized each year, says Sara Aravanis, director of the nonprofit National Center on Elder Abuse, which provides information to federal and state policy makers. Because of the problem's spread, "many states have laws authorizing financial institutions to report suspicions of elderly abuse," says Bruce Jay Baker, general counsel for the Illinois Bankers Association. Earlier this summer, the Securities and Exchange Commission hosted a Seniors Summit to highlight the issue, with SEC Chairman...

A family member's ties to special interests raise questions in the case of Democrat John Murtha. When Congress passed the $417-billion Pentagon spending bill last year, Rep. John P. Murtha, the top Democrat on the House defense appropriations subcommittee, boasted about the money he secured ... But the bill Murtha helped write also benefited at least 10 companies represented by a lobbying firm where his brother, Robert "Kit" Murtha... Clients of the lobbying firm KSA Consulting — whose top officials also include former congressional aide Carmen V. Scialabba, who worked for Rep. Murtha for 27 years — received a total...

  Email This ArticleCelibacy    RAYMOND ARROYO When he met with the U.S. cardinals to formulate some response to the sexual scandals besieging the Church, the Pope, in his wisdom took the issue of clerical celibacy off the table as a cure-all. Against the strident voices of dissenters, disaffected clergy, and at least one American cardinal, His Holiness suggested that celibacy was part of the solution, not the problem. And the facts seem to bear him out. In 1992 the Archdiocese of Chicago reviewed some 2,252 priest personnel files. They found that 40 priests — 1.8 percent had been guilty...