Free Republic

A federal grand jury in Utah has indicted four people for attempting to illegally sell $1 million worth of paleontological resources, including to buyers in China. The stolen goods include 150,000 pounds of paleontological resources, including dinosaur bones, removed from federal and state lands in southeastern Utah, in violation of the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA). Vint Wade, 65, and Donna Wade, 67, of Moab; Steven Willing, 67, of Los Angeles, California; and Jordan Willing, 40 of Ashland, Oregon, have been charged with causing $3 million in damages by stealing more than $1 million in paleontological resources, which included dinosaur...

Through his well-chronicled derelictions of duty, Roger Mahony, the cardinal emeritus of Los Angeles, placed a number of ticking time bombs near his successor's feet. Last week, one of them went off. Archbishop Jose Gomez, who replaced Mahony last year, announced that Los Angeles auxiliary bishop Gabino Zavala had submitted his resignation to the Vatican after fessing up about two children he fathered years before.The media fatuously describes this scandal as Archbishop Gomez's first "controversy." But it belongs entirely to his predecessor. Cardinal Mahony appointed Zavala to his position in 1994. Did Cardinal Mahony know about Zavala's children? (The Los...

One month after Pope Benedict XVI made his historic visit to the United States, Sean Cardinal O’Malley ordered the closure of Boston’s oldest German parish, Holy Trinity, and declared all its assets — including $ 242,000 in its bank account — be transferred to Holy Cross Cathedral. The priests and parishioners of Holy Trinity Church, established by German immigrants in 1844, opened the first parochial school in New England and introduced the Christmas tree and Christmas cards to Puritan Boston, among many other traditions. Since 1990, the parish has been home for the Traditional Latin Mass community from 1990 to...

At Christian Heurich's mansion, near Dupont Circle, it looks as if the German-born brewer just stepped away -- back in 1894. Little has changed inside, from the plush patterned carpets to the pale painted ceilings. But now the "Brewmaster's Castle," the site of many a wedding and other happy event, is facing a serious threat from the modern world. Unless supporters of the Victorian-era museum raise $250,000 by Feb. 15, the property, at 1307 New Hampshire Ave. NW, will face foreclosure and might be sold, according to Friends of the Castle, a group trying to save the facility. The sale...

Richard Carter of Kansas City is not the father of a 13-year-old boy but must continue paying child support anyway, a Missouri appeals court ruled Tuesday. The ruling overturns the decision of a Jackson County Circuit judge. It also exposes what experts say is a national problem that pits fairness to men against what is considered best for children. Like Carter, many men do not attend initial paternity hearings and do not get DNA tests or blood tests. The men then find out too late they are not fathers and still must pay support at least until the children in...