$50 million Eskimo Pie: Because its priests and missionaries sexually abused 110 Eskimo children from 1961 to 1987, the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church has almost finalized a deal to pay $50 million to the victims, William Lobdell and Stuart Silverstein report in today’s LA Times. But “the settlement does not require the order to admit fault” and “more than a dozen” priests escaped criminal charges, according to the article. “Many plaintiffs said their once devoutly Catholic villages — cut off from the world and without law enforcement — offered a perfect setting for a molesting priest,” write Lobdell and Silverstein.
Look! Up in the Sky! It’s Super Schroeder: Allen Bartlett at the Powder Blue Report and Steven Greenhut at the Register think the Orange County GOP Central Committee meeting should be “a doozy” because Cypress Mayor Mike McGill is expected to offer a resolution calling for an STD examination for indicted Sheriff Michael S. Carona. I jest, Mikey. McGill wants the central committee to ask Carona to step aside following FBI revelations about brides and obstruction of justice. Of course, this will require deft defensive moves by Carona consigliere and GOP powerbroker Mike “Darth Vader” Schroeder (pictured out of uniform). But according to McGill’s resolution, “The sheriff’s own conduct, coupled with the serious federal charges against him and the pending trial, provide a significant distraction to the sheriff in the performance of his duties and ability to serve Orange County.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch: Chris Prevatt at theliberaloc.com published his interview with chief Carona Kool-Aid drinker, Jo Ann Galisky, who is temporarily running the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Poor Jo Ann (pictured with drink in hand). “If I do not speak with reporters and answer their questions, they will suppose that I have something to hide,” she told Prevatt. “When I answer their questions truthfully, I’m accused of being a shill for Sheriff Carona.” Cause you are a shill, honey. Galisky goes on to spin that the media “frenzy” on Carona’s corruption woes is an attack on the “hard working men and women” of the OCSD. Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Poor Mikey too. Here’s Prevatt: ”I asked Galisky if the Sheriff’s current leave of absence has had any effect on the day to day operations of the department. ‘Not really,’ she replied.” Ouch.
Hanoiville? Times reporter My-Thuan Tran writes that San Jose’s Vietnamese district is attempting to re-market itself and is struggling to name itself. Here’s Tran:
One group strongly pushed for “Saigon” to be in the name (as in “Little Saigon” or “New Saigon”) as a tribute to the fallen capital of South Vietnam. Others wanted “Vietnam” included (such as “Vietnamtown” or “Vietnamese Business District”), which rankled the pro-Saigon groups that say such a name would glorify the communist country.
Some of those who want “Saigon” in the name say anyone who opposes them is a communist sympathizer.
Yawn.
— R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.