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Vatican spy story takes center stage as fraud trial resumesVATICAN CITY — The Vatican's big fraud and extortion trial resumes Friday after exposing some unseemly realities of how the Holy See operates, with a new spy story taking center stage that is more befitting of a 007 thriller than the inner workings of a papacy.According to written testimony obtained Thursday, one of Pope Francis' top advisers brought in members of the Italian secret service to sweep his office for bugs and commissioned intelligence reports from them, completely bypassing the Vatican's own police force in the process.The reported actions of Archbishop...

[Catholic Caucus] Accused Predator Zanchetta Retains Job in Rome Despite abuse allegations, Francis protégé still 'employed by the Vatican' VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Under pressure from the Holy See, an Argentine judge has cleared accused sexual predator Bp. Gustavo Zanchetta to return to Rome. According to Crux, Judge Claudio Parisi gave the final green light for Zanchetta's return last week, saying the alleged predator prelate has "collaborated with the justice system." Zanchetta was suspended from his Vatican post in February after he was publicly accused of sexually abusing seminarians in 2016–2017. In June, Argentine officials criminally charged him with "aggravated continuous sexual...

The first perfect game in American League history was thrown by a pitcher who ended it with a taunt, defending his teammates against an insult, screaming at the final batter, "How do you like that, you hayseed?" The year was 1904, and the pitcher was Cy Young. On Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, imitating that long-ago barb with an inside fastball, a battling Clayton Kershaw proved worthy of winning the award that carries Cy Young’s name. Although Kershaw will never admit it, his pitch that plunked the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Gerardo Parra in the elbow in the sixth inning of the...

CAMPO - A U.S. Border Patrol agent was fatally shot in Campo near the border with Baja California Thursday night. The shooting was reported about 9:15 p.m. near the border on Shockey Truck Trail southeast of the San Diego Sheriff Department's Campo substation. Four engines, paramedics, and a medical helicopter were dispatched to the area, but the agent was declared dead at the scene, according to Cal Fire Battalion Chief Nick Schuler. Police report that the victim was shot in the head.

Democratic Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, who is being forced of the Legislature by term limits this year and has been squabbling with her party's leaders, is planning a final act of defiance - supporting the Republican candidate for her San Joaquin Valley seat. The Fresno Bee's Capitol correspondent, E.J. Schultz, broke the story of Parra's plans, which stem from her family's long-running political and personal feud with state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and his family. Parra's father, Pete, lost his seat on the Kern County Board of Supervisors in one manifestation of the feud. Schultz's account in the Fresno Bee continues:...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. A Democrat in the California legislature has been kicked out of her Capitol office for not supporting the party's state budget proposal. Assemblywoman Nicole Parra of Hanford said Monday she wasn't surprised about being punished but was "a little taken back" by Democrats' decision to move her out of the Capitol. When she abstained from Sunday night's budget vote, the bill fell nine votes short of the two-thirds majority needed. Parra was the only Democrat present who didn't vote for it.

Assemblywoman Nicole Parra speaks with fellow Democrat Alberto Torrico on Monday after learning that Speaker Karen Bass was ousting her from her Capitol office to a legislative office building across the street because she abstained from Sunday's budget vote, failing to support party leaders. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The only perceptible movement Monday in the Capitol's long-stalled budget debate came on the fifth floor – Democrat Nicole Parra was booted from her office for bucking her party during a vote Sunday night. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass sent Parra packing not to smaller Capitol digs – the usual reprimand for rebellious members –...

What happens when you cross Karen Bass, the L.A. Democrat who leads the Assembly? Nicole Parra, the lone Assembly Democrat to refuse to vote for her party's spending plan, on Sunday shared the answer as her staff packed for a sudden banishment move to a small office across the street from the state Capitol, Nancy Vogel reports. (That's Parra in the photo at right.) Bass ordered Assemblywoman Nicole Parra of Hanford out of her fifth-floor Capitol office and into an office building across the street where legislative staffers work. “They wanted us to have everything packed up by 4 p.m.,”...

Two members of the board that appointed Judge Kathe Tuttman now want her booted from the bench, charging that former Gov. Mitt Romney did not inform them of her involvement as a prosecutor in a botched case that freed a child rapist. “This is ridiculous. The Romney people didn’t do their investigation,” Governor’s Councilor Marilyn Pettito-Devaney said. Romney has not responded to numerous requests for comment about the case of child rapist Daniel Parra, who walked free after prosecutors headed by Tuttman missed deadlines in their failed bid to have him committed as a sexually dangerous person in 2005. Romney...

SACRAMENTO -- Nearly every time I've walked into the Capitol building this week, I've been buttonholed by one Republican or another who says something like, "Did you see that Nicole Parra voted for driver's licenses for illegal immigrants?" It's all part of the GOP's search for anything they can use to help Republican Danny Gilmore in his campaign to unseat the Democratic assemblywoman who represents the west valley 30th Assembly District. Republican strategists believe the district, while it is heavily Latino in population, is conservative, especially on social issues like immigration, abortion and guns. They hope to paint Parra as...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in Oakland today that he supports state legislation that would give crime victims new rights. Accompanied by local police chiefs and several high profile crime victims, Schwarzenegger also said he has appointed Susan Fisher of Sacramento to the newly-created position of Crime Victim Advocate and that he is expediting a program to use global positioning systems to track dangerous criminals. He said he supports "The Crime Victims Bill of Rights," a comprehensive legislative proposal authored by Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, to help crime victims overcome the hardships caused by criminal acts. Schwarzenegger said he has directed...

SACRAMENTO — Assemblywoman Nicole Parra and her father traveled to Cuba in early December on what has reportedly become an annual event organized by one of California’s most powerful lobbyists and political fundraisers. Parra, D-Hanford, and other participants said the trip was arranged by Darius Anderson, founder of one of Sacramento’s premiere lobbying firms and a top fundraiser for former Gov. Gray Davis. Since travel to communist Cuba is generally prohibited except under a license from the U.S. government, Anderson’s repeated trips there with lawmakers, business people and others raise a number of questions. Why is a lobbyist arranging religious...

Did you know that in California, child molesters and rapists are a protected class? It's true. Not only are California landlords banned from using the state's Megan's Law database to decline renting their properties to sex offenders, they're not even allowed to warn other tenants that these paroled criminals are now their neighbors. If they do the first, they can be fined $25,000 for housing discrimination. But if they don't do the second, they can be sued for failing to protect tenants against a known danger. Landlords are caught between a rock, a hard place and the California State Assembly's...

SACRAMENTO -- Under threat of a subpoena, embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley agreed Thursday to testify voluntarily before a committee investigating his handling of federal election funds. Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, the committee's chairwoman, said Shelley would be sworn in as a witness, leaving him vulnerable to possible perjury charges if he lies. Shelley is willing to testify under oath at the committee's next hearing Feb. 3, said spokeswoman Caren Daniels-Meade. "If that's what the committee wants, yes," Daniels-Meade said. Parra's Joint Legislative Audit committee is holding hearings on a stinging audit report that found Shelley mismanaged millions of...

SACRAMENTO -- Assemblywoman Nicole Parra on Tuesday gave beleaguered Secretary of State Kevin Shelley two more days to decide whether to testify voluntarily before her audit committee about his handling of federal election funds. At the conclusion of a committee hearing late Monday night, Parra said she would seek a subpoena if Shelley had not agreed by noon Tuesday to appear before the committee's next hearing. Tuesday afternoon, she released an exchange of letters between herself and Shelley in which the secretary of state asked for more time to consult with his attorneys before responding. "As you might imagine, your...

When Kern's Democrat Assemblywoman Nicole Parra said "no stone would be left unturned" in her committee's investigation of scandal-plagued Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, she must have meant only the light stones. Next week's hearing by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee seems destined to fall short of Parra's pledge to hold Democrat Shelley accountable for his management of millions of federal Help America Vote Act dollars. A review by the state auditor concluded Shelley's management of federal voter outreach and election reform funds was inept and much of the money was used to promote Democrat election efforts. Shelley also is...

SACRAMENTO -- Kern County Assemblywoman Nicole Parra found herself at the center of a storm of controversy Friday over her handling of a hearing on allegations of wrongdoing by Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, a fellow Democrat. Republicans and even one Democrat said it looks like a partisan "whitewash" may be under way. Parra insisted that is not the case. A report by the state auditor last month found that Shelley mismanaged millions of dollars of federal voter education funds. The audit followed news reports of allegations that Shelley had used some of the money for self-promotion and partisan political...

Candidate's Stage Fright Ends Debate Parra: 'I Just Can't Do This' October 22, 2004 FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- A northeastern Indiana congressional candidate said she abruptly ended a debate because she got stage fright. Democrat Maria Parra walked off a television stage Thursday, ending what would have been her only debate with incumbent Republican Mark Souder in the 3rd District congressional race. "I'm not used to being in front of the camera. ... I couldn't get my words out. I was just overwhelmed," she said after the aborted debate, which was being filmed at WPTA and would have been aired...

SACRAMENTO -- Assembly Democratic leaders thought they were doing Assemblywoman Nicole Parra a favor when they installed her as chairwoman of the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee. It's no secret that she was given the job to give her a chance to win points with one of the more conservative voting blocs in her tight re-election battle this year. It didn't work out that way. When politically active veterans got together in Clovis on Monday night and listened to both candidates, they endorsed her Republican opponent, Dean Gardner. The fact is, Parra probably never had a reasonable chance to win the...

Parra cries foul over Web attack By CHRISTINE BEDELL, Californian staff writer e-mail: cbedell@bakersfield.com Posted: Tuesday September 7th, 2004, 11:35 PM Last Updated: Tuesday September 7th, 2004, 11:39 PM Go to nicoleparra.com and you'll get an eyeful -- but not from Nicole Parra. It's a Web site registered to a longtime Parra critic and contains vicious personal and political attacks against the 30th District assemblywoman. Parra is called "Sacramento's fraud queen," a "Parrasite" and "princess." "This Web site is dedicated to one of the most slippery, slimy, worthless (yet ruthless) slimeballs in California politics ... Her Royal Highness, Nicole Parra,"...