Five years ago, such a thing would have been unimaginable. I have been an abuse survivor advocate and attorney for the past twenty years and the rapid change in state laws and the public’s perception of childhood sexual abuse has forced the Catholic Church to…
Monday, December 2, 2019 was the first day survivors of sexual abuse had an opportunity to file lawsuits against the institutions that protected their abusers. Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill earlier this year that allowed survivors more time to bring accusations, doing away with…
The title for this post is taken from The Who’s 1971 song Won’t Get Fooled Again and it’s an appropriate question to ask now that the “new” boss in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has been elected president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.…
Legislators in the Keystone State have taken major steps this fall to overhaul the state’s criminal and civil statute of limitations governing sexual abuse. The proposed legislation passed the state House with overwhelming support and is currently in the state Senate Judiciary Committee, which held
In less than a month, the state of New Jersey’s new childhood abuse protection law will take effect. This new law, effective December 1, 2019, will also create a one-time, two-year window for civil action claims to be filed by any adults who were previously…
In a stunning allegation a former Juul Labs executive has alleged that the vaping company knowingly shipped 1 million tainted nicotine pods to customers. This allegation comes in a lawsuit filed recently by lawyers representing Siddharth Breja, a one-time finance executive at the e-cigarette maker.…
California has joined other states across the nation and expanded the statute of limitations for victims of sexual assault. In October Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation giving victims of childhood sexual abuse until age 40, or five years from discovery of the abuse, to…
Norman Pearlstine, executive editor of the Los Angeles Times, was honored at the Poynter Institute’s Bowtie Ball in St. Petersburg, Florida on Saturday, November 2 for his distinguished service as a journalist. Poynter is a premier training institution and think tank for journalists. Pearlstine wa
. On September 26, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported growing wave of 805 reported cases of vaping-related respiratory illness in 46 states These cases are either confirmed (tests have shown there’s no infection causing the illness and vaping appears to…
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has concluded his investigation into the three Catholic dioceses in Colorado and has issued a report on his findings. It chronicled the abuse of 166 children at the hands of 43 priests across the state since 1950, with most of…
Last week, the Associated Press published a lengthy article on the consequences of allowing priests who’ve been accused of the sexual abuse of children to remain unsupervised after their dismissal from their diocese or religious order. In far too many of the cases cited by…
It’s been nearly two decades now since the latest iteration of the childhood sex abuse crisis rocked the Catholic Church. This isn’t the first time in the church’s history that it has faced such a crisis over the abuse of children. The canons of…
