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Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor took $2 million from a nonprofit foundation to feed a gambling addiction in which she lost more than $1 billion over a nine-year period, federal prosecutors said Thursday. O’Connor, 66, appeared in federal court and pleaded not guilty to a money laundering charge as part of a deferred prosecution. Under the arrangement with federal prosecutors, she has two years to repay the $2 million taken from the R.P. Foundation, a nonprofit set up by her late husband, Robert O. Peterson. Peterson was co-founder of the Jack-In-The-Box restaurant chain and later Southern California First National...

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor apparently got in a real zinger at last weekend’s Alfalfa Club dinner: Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made a joke about the GOP candidates Saturday that reportedly drew much laughter. At the black-tie steak-and-lobster Alfalfa Club dinner Saturday among political and business elites in Washington, she said that of two GOP presidential candidates, “one is a practicing polygamist, and he’s not even the Mormon,” according to an Associated Press report. The remark appeared to be a comparison between Romney’s Mormon faith (which no longer allows polygamy) and thrice-married Newt Gingrich. The...

O'Connor pleased with exhibit of her lifeIt's been 30 years since Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. An exhibit about her life opens this week at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. O'Connor is an El Paso native who spent summers on her family's Arizona ranch that initially didn't have electricity or water. She said Wednesday she was pleased with the exhibit. She said her time on the ranch taught her responsibility and how to solve problems on her

After more than 24 years in the U.S. Supreme Court, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor now strives to make civics and government more interesting for young children than it was for her growing up in El Paso, Texas. “I was so sick of learning about Stephen F. Austin,” she said Saturday inside a University of Chicago lecture hall, referring to the man after whom the Texas capital city is named. “All they teach in Texas is Texas!” > O’Connor argued that young people need to be better informed about the workings of their own government. To that end, she said,...

The San Francisco Giants won the 2010 World Series thanks to great pitching performances from Tim Lincecum(notes), Matt Cain(notes) and Brian Wilson(notes). And they got timely offensive contributions from the likes of rookie Buster Posey(notes), Aubrey Huff(notes) and Juan Uribe(notes). You remember those guys. How could anyone forget? And what about Robin O'Connor, a payroll department manager? There's no way the Giants get past the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS without her.

“The priest I am today is largely due to his example.” That’s how Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien remembered the late New York Cardinal John J. O’Connor during a panel discussion at the 12th annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life Jan. 23. Archbishop O’Brien paid tribute to his mentor’s courage in speaking out for truth and the cardinal’s pastoral sensitivity in serving priests and laity alike. “To accompany him to the bedside of a priest in the hospital who was dying was a retreat for me,” said Archbishop O’Brien, a former New York clergyman who served as Cardinal O’Connor’s first...

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has violated the Code of Conduct for United States judges. She should resign from her position as a roving judge on "senior status." If she doesn't resign, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. - at whose sole discretion she serves as a "pinch hitter" on lower federal courts - should no longer designate her for such duties. In a controversial case Tuesday before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Mrs. O'Connor provided the deciding vote in a 2-1 decision to throw out Arizona's requirement that new voter registrants provide...

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has violated the Code of Conduct for United States judges. She should resign from her position as a roving judge on "senior status." If she doesn't resign, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. - at whose sole discretion she serves as a "pinch hitter" on lower federal courts - should no longer designate her for such duties. In a controversial case Tuesday before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Mrs. O'Connor provided the deciding vote in a 2-1 decision to throw out Arizona's requirement that new voter registrants provide...

I've been collecting fragments from the writings and sayings of others for nearly forty years. They have always struck me as pieces of a vast mosaic that is being slowly and painstakingly assembled. As in an actual mural mosaic (Byzantine, complex, more than the sum of its parts), if one stands too close to it the image blurs. Focus on a single component and the part becomes the whole, throwing all into misinterpretation. Stand back, find proportion, locate the range of vision, and the portrait emerges. It is my hope that through the passages quoted here a portrait of humanity...

..."The law will make entering the country illegally a state crime in Arizona..."

In a recent Senate floor speech, Democratic Leader Harry Reid likened Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to another woman who sat on the court, Sandra Day O'Connor. "One of my favorite Supreme Court Justices in recent years has been Sandra Day O’Connor, not because she’s a Republican, but because she was a good judge. I think one reason she was a good judge is she had no judicial experience," Reid said on May 11, 2010. He pointed out that O'Connor served in the Arizona state legislature, giving her a different perspective on legal matters. "I think Solicitor General Kagan will...

NEW YORK, February 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following a period of relative silence since his installation last year, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan eagerly took an opportunity to set forth Church teaching on controversial points, including the forbidding of public honors for pro-abortion politicians, in a recent interview with NY1.  The bishop also asserted that his outspokenness on such issues was simply part of his job as shepherd and teacher of the faith.When NY1 News reporter Roma Torre asked whether a pro-abortion Catholic should be invited to a "Catholic event" such as the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Dolan's...

John J. O'Connor III, 79, an Arizona lawyer and civic leader who became active in Washington's social and charitable circles after his wife, Sandra Day O'Connor, became the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, died Nov. 11 in Phoenix. He had Alzheimer's disease. As a lawyer, Mr. O'Connor specialized in business and real estate law and commercial litigation. He represented leading companies in industries including mining, manufacturing, real estate and financial services. He was a partner at one of Phoenix's largest firms, Fennemore, Craig, von Ammon & Udall, before moving to Washington when his wife was confirmed to...

Obama pick faces questions over bombers' clemencyBy PETE YOST Associated Press Writer Originally published Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 2:05 PM WASHINGTON — New York police detective Anthony S. Senft's life changed forever when a bomb set by Puerto Rican separatists exploded, blowing him 15 feet in the air and blinding him in one eye. Now, he's angry that Eric Holder, who played a key role in awarding clemency to the bombers, is in line to be attorney general. Holder, as President Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general, worked closely with the Justice Department's pardon attorney to raise the possibility of...

CITY PRAYER POLICY UPHELD Fredericksburg Free Lance - Star Fredericksburg Virginia http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/072008/07242008/397448 Date published: 7/24/2008 BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE Fredericksburg City Council can keep Jesus Christ out of its prayers. The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the city's right to start its meetings with nonsectarian prayers. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sat on the three-judge panel hearing the case and wrote the opinion. "She didn't feel my rights were being violated, but my rights are definitely being violated," said City Councilman Hashmel Turner, who filed the case. "It removed an opportunity for me to pray...

NEW YORK — Sandra Day O'Connor is developing a free interactive Web program for middle schoolers on the U.S. court system. The program will be called Our Courts and allow students to participate in realistic government simulations and investigate and argue actual cases. Arizona State and Georgetown universities are helping the retired Supreme Court justice develop the program. Arizona State professor James Paul Gee says the program will teach children the importance of free and independent courts in a democracy. The Web site will be launched this fall. O'Connor is the first woman to have served on the nation's highest...

Her spouse's Alzheimer's has exacted a toll her, and the country feels it, too.From Arizona last week came the sad news that John O'Connor, husband of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has grown romantically attached to another patient in an Alzheimer's facility where both live. For Justice O'Connor, the pain of watching her husband drift away must at some level be balanced by the notion that his new relationship brings him some measure of happiness andpeace. Their son reported she was gratified that her husband "was relaxed and happy and comfortable living here." John O'Connor's fading connection stands...

The retired Supreme Court justice's spouse, John O'Connor, has had Alzheimer's disease for 17 years, and after moving into an assisted-living center in Phoenix, he began a romance with a fellow patient also suffering from the mind-debilitating ailment. But the justice isn't jealous - the O'Connor family believes the love has given John, 77, a new lease on life. "Mom was thrilled that dad was relaxed and happy and comfortable living here and wasn't complaining," their son Scott O'Connor, 50, told Phoenix's KPNX-TV. Scott said that when his father recently arrived at the Huger Mercy Living Center, he was depressed....

The husband of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has struck up a romance with a woman who is a fellow Alzheimer's patient and lives at the same assisted living center as him, according to a television news report. The retired justice isn't jealous about the relationship and is pleased that her husband is comfortable at the center, the couple's son, Scott O'Connor, told KPNX in Phoenix in a broadcast that aired Thursday. "Mom was thrilled that dad was relaxed and happy," Scott O'Connor said. An effort by The Associated Press to reach Scott O'Connor on Tuesday morning was...

Hubert O'Connor, the disgraced Roman Catholic bishop, has died of a heart attack in Toronto. He was 79. His death was announced by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. He resigned as bishop of the British Columbia diocese of Prince George after being charged with sex crimes in 1991. He was convicted in 1996 of committing rape and indecent assault on two young aboriginal women during the 1960s when he was a priest. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison by Mr. Justice Wally Oppal, who is now British Columbia's attorney general. After serving six months, the disgraced...