The Spokane Record

The news was inevitable.  Abuse Payments sap diocese fund.  The claims against the Spokane Diocese in bankruptcy exceed the money the diocese came up with.  To meet more claims, claims not presented during the actual bankruptcy proceedings, the diocese mortgaged assets of several parishes.  Now, the parishes are at risk.

How did all of this come about?  I fear many of the claims are illegitimate.  I also fear the people deciding whether a claim is valid or not valid are not able to decide and are inclined to decide in favor of the claimant.  I doubt they really have the ability to know, and are making decisions which are . . . .  (. . . politically correct? — I do not know, but I worry).

What we do know is this:  Kenneth Putman made a claim in the bankruptcy and gained hundreds of thousands.  When he presented a claim (the same claim?) in the Morning Star Boys Ranch case this past spring, the jury decided he did not have a case.  To anyone observing the trial, it was obvious Mr. Putnam did not have a case.  In fact, one shuddered at the shear audacity of the claim.

We hate the notion that priests took advantage of young boys and men.  It is disgusting!  But, are plaintiffs and their lawyers trying to take advantage of the faithful?

Another Morning Star case is coming up for trial.  I think it is set for the 13th of September in Judge Kathleen O’ Connor’s court.  It will be well for us to observe.  Maybe we will gain more knowledge about the current run on the assets of the faithful in Spokane.

One wonders why so many Catholics in our community are so silent.  And, one wonders who so many lawyers, trained at Gonzaga Law School, are so reticent to say something, anything.  What gives?

The Spokane City Council has finally decided to try to use Spokane County Conservation Futures Taxes for the payment of the loan it took out to buy the YMCA building on the Spokane River.  Council members and two Spokane County Commissioners say the money is being used to create open space on the river.  That is an excuse.  The money is to be used to pay a loan the city made to itself from funds it held in an account which has nothing to do with parks and recreation funding. 

What we witness here is the misuse, the illegal use, of tax revenues for an impermissible purpose.  The city and the county are merely raiding the Conservation Futures Tax account to pay off a loan the city of Spokane has incurred and which it does not want to pay.

What are we becoming?  Today, there is this news of the death of Salvation Army worker, Major Philip Wise, in front of his three small children?  The killer may very well be a very bad man.  But, it seems  there are lot of bad men these days.  More than I remember.  I think something else is happening.  Something is happening here at home, in our cities and towns, in our neighborhoods. Perhaps, before we think we can help others with our “guns and drones” and “our ideals” it may be a good idea to see how we can help ourselves.

Mayor Verner is calling for substantial increases to the Spokane utility rates.  Not surprising.  The increases pay for new capital expenditures in the city utilities.  But, they also call for substantial increases to the amount of utility tax to be collected by the city.  Normally, the increases in utility fees to pay for capital improvements would not be subject to utlity taxes.  That changed last year when the city said that the utility tax would be applied to money coming in for “rate stabilization” that is, captital expenses for infrastruture.  No one complained.  So now rates for capital expenditures are subject to the utility tax.  Wallaaa — increased utility fees and increased utility taxes for the city.  You might be interested in the rate of the utility tax.  That’s easy.  Hang on to your shorts — it is 25% of every dollar you spend for utilities.

Tonight I read this in the Spokesman Review about the Envision Spokane Community Bill of Rights Initiative, Proposition 4. –  “[t]ogether, the two campaign committees have raised more than $275,000.”  See Jim Camden here.

What an extraordinary waste of money.

The opponents should not have spent a nickel. The initiative is clearly, and I mean clearly, illegal.  It is illegal because it violates the single subject rule of the charter of the city of Spokane.

So why are people spending so much money?

I suppose it is due to the fact that people have the notion that the judicial system is not a judicial system at all but rather a system of political favor. If the opponents had confidence in the judicial system they would have assurance that Prop. 4, if passed, would be declared illegal. 

The opponents, if they had any respect for the judicial system and expected the judicial system to follow the law would, likewise know spending money to enhance passage of the proposition would likewise be a waste of money — they too would agree that the initiative (Prop. 4) was illegal.

I suppose, since nothing can be predicted these days when looking at what the legal system will do,  it makes sense that people ho simply want something or do not want something together would spend $275,000 or more regarding a  clearly illegal ballot measure.  No one wants to take the risk — after all the matter could win and the court could say it was legal, was not in violation of the single subject rule.

The money spent is significant in that it is a statement concerning people’s notions of the predictability of the decisions to be made by members of the state’s judicial fraternity.   I fear we have grown up to be little children without a clue as to how the real world works.

See this.

Yesterday I talked to a father of a young man, a helicopter pilot, who is on his way to Afghanistan. The father tells me that the son thinks that he and his fellow soldiers and pilots are being sent to Afghanistan without having the proper equipment installed on their helicopters. Yesterday, I also read a story in the Washington Times wherein it was reported that money had been taken from the military budget for non-to military purposes such as libraries for deceased senators. If what I learned yesterday from the father and from the Washington Times is true our nation is in serious moral trouble.

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has long held that judges should be appointed not elected.  She was in Seattle the other day to pursue her goals in that regard.  Seattle Times.

In Washington we have the notion that we elect judges. We do, and yet we do not. Most judicial positions are filled by gubernatorial appointment to vacate judicial positions. Rarely does a judge at any level serve out his or her full term. Usually, a retiring judge retires before his or her term is up and the governor appoints someone to fill the position. The judge then runs for election as an incumbent.

Also, we think we elect the judges who act as judges of the three judge panels by which the Court of Appeals does its work. We do not. We elect judges to the divisions of the Court[s] but the judges who decide the cases are not elected, they are appointed. And, the panels are not apportioned as to the judges appointed and the electorate of the Division. See my article and attachments and my other efforts with regard to the Washington Court of Appeals. 

So much for the election of judges to the “real supreme court of the State of Washington” for most cases — the Washington Court[s] of Appeal. For the most part the only cases which get to the Supreme Court are those which the Supreme Court has decided to review - about 1 out of 10 cases.

RIYADH (Reuters) - A Shi’ite who has been on death row in Saudi Arabia for 16 years for insulting the Prophet Mohammed was sentenced this week to another five years in jail for criticizing the Saudi justice system, an activist said.

Barack Obama will cement the new co-operative relationship between the US and the United Nations this month when he becomes the first American president to chair its 15-member Security Council.

This is truly a momentous event.  I have been a student of the United Nations since my years of study in the International Relations Department at the University of Denver.  There is no finer idea for the world than the United Nations.  This will help the organization evolve and will bring the United States into the organization in a way never before thought of.  This, I believe, will be a turning point for us all.   It will help us all understand that we are in this together.