Brawl breaks out at kindergarten graduation

A brawl that started over spilled punch at a kindergarten graduation ceremony Friday resulted in the arrest of eight people, authorities said. Police were called when one participant pulled out a pipe and another a hammer.

Two teenage girls apparently started hitting each other at Michael R. White Elementary School, and their families joined in, Cleveland police Cmdr. Wayne Drummond said. The fight involved adults and minors, he said.

"You had adults fighting adults, juvies fighting juvies, and so forth," he said as parents streamed into the building to pick up their children. "You just had a melee here."

No one was hurt, Drummond said.

Outspoken cleric, author Rev. Andrew Greeley dies

Source: CBS

The Rev. Andrew Greeley, an outspoken Roman Catholic priest, best-selling author and longtime Chicago newspaper columnist who even criticized the hierarchy of his own church over the child sex abuse scandal, has died. He was 85.

Greeley died Wednesday night at his Chicago home, according to his longtime publicist, June Rosner. In a statement released Thursday through Rosner, Greeley's niece, Elizabeth Durkin, praised her uncle as a loving individual who "tremendously enriched" people's lives.

"He served the church all those years with a prophetic voice and with unfailing dedication," she said.

Greeley was the author of more than 50 best-selling novels, many of them international mystery thrillers, and dozens of nonfiction works. His writing was translated into 12 languages and his career spanned five decades.

Fr. Andrew Greeley - 1928-2013

The Rev. Andrew Greeley, an outspoken Roman Catholic priest, best-selling author and longtime Chicago newspaper columnist who even criticized the hierarchy of his own church over the child sex abuse scandal, has died. He was 85.

Greeley died Wednesday night at his Chicago home, according to his longtime publicist, June Rosner. In a statement released Thursday through Rosner, Greeley's niece, Elizabeth Durkin, praised her uncle as a loving individual who "tremendously enriched" people's lives.

"He served the church all those years with a prophetic voice and with unfailing dedication," she said.

Greeley was the author of more than 50 best-selling novels, many of them international mystery thrillers, and dozens of nonfiction works. His writing was translated into 12 languages and his career spanned five decades.

Democrat Mark Schauer to challenge Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in 2014

Source: Detroit Free Press

Former Democratic congressman Mark Schauer made it official today. He is running for Michigan governor in 2014.

“I’m in!” Schauer said on Twitter. “Today I’m announcing my campaign for governor. I’m ready to run, I’m ready to work & I’m ready to win.”

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“Rick Snyder has taken Michigan in the wrong direction – cutting schools & raising taxes on seniors,” Schauer said on Twitter.

“We need an economy that works for everyone – not just the wealthy and not just the special interests.”

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20130528/NEWS06/305280065/Mark-Schauer-announces-Democratic-bid-for-governor

Hermit lived in woods for 27 years, committed more than 1,000 burglaries

Christopher Knight told police he had lived undetected in the woods for 27 years, spoken to only one person in that time, and not made a single purchase since the mid-1980s.

But Knight knew how to steal, authorities said, and how to stay hidden even though his tent lay within 600 yards of the nearest cabin.

Such is the singular world of the man dubbed the North Pond Hermit by the long-spooked residents here, where Knight is believed to have committed more than 1,000 burglaries for food, fuel, tools, and clothing since he left a computer-technician job and retreated to the forest.

Now, the 47-year-old is residing in the Kennebec County Correctional Facility in Augusta, facing burglary and theft charges, as banjo players rhapsodize about him and bewildered Mainers shake their heads at the thought of 27 winters in the open.

Francis’ Humility and Emphasis on the Poor Strike a New Tone at the Vatican

He has criticized the “cult of money” and greed he sees driving the world financial system, reflecting his affinity for liberation theology. He has left Vatican officials struggling to keep up with his off-the-cuff remarks and impromptu forays into the crowds of tens of thousands that fill St. Peter’s Square during his audiences. He has delighted souvenir vendors near the Vatican by increasing tourist traffic.

Pope Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, has been in office for only two months, but already he has changed the tone of the papacy, lifting morale and bringing a new sense of enthusiasm to the Roman Catholic Church and to the Vatican itself, Vatican officials and the faithful say.

...

But Francis’ emphasis on attention to the poor, and a style that is more akin to that of a parish priest, albeit one with one billion parishioners, is already transforming perceptions. He has chosen to live not in the papal apartments but rather in the Casa Santa Marta residence inside the Vatican, where he eats dinner in the company of lower-ranking priests and visitors.

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“If investments in the banks fail, ‘Oh, it’s a tragedy,’ ” he said, speaking extemporaneously for more than 40 minutes at a Pentecost vigil last weekend, after a private audience with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the architect of Europe’s austerity policies. “But if people die of hunger or don’t have food or health, nothing happens. This is our crisis today.”

A nightclub in a water tower

A trapdoor in the water tower opened when the guests approached. Thumping live music, candlelight, chatter and the sound of clinking glasses emerged, as well as a helping hand.

Inside was a round wooden space no bigger than a freight elevator, filled with about a dozen people sipping whiskey cocktails. Couples sat at five petite tables built into the cedar paneling. A young woman mixed drinks behind a bar. Above people’s heads, a two-man band — accordion and upright bass — serenaded from a platform.

But amid the revelry, the staff communicated using headsets, checking that the operation remained unnoticed outside. In the event that the police did arrive, several exit routes were planned. This was life inside the Night Heron, a decidedly illegal nightclub run by a group of adventure-minded artists in a water tower atop a vacant building in Chelsea for eight weekends in March, April and May.

The Night Heron was as exclusive as it was lawless. The only way to get in was to be handed a pocket watch by a prior guest (who had been instructed to offer minimal explanation), report to a street corner at a certain time, and call a number pasted inside the watch. Mysterious helpers led guests through one decrepit building into another and up 12 flights of stairs to the roof. The watches were taken at the door, but guests were given the chance to buy watches at the end of the night if they wanted to continue the chain of invitation.

Kevin Durant’s large back tattoo finished… except maybe for a typo

Kevin Durant has a plenty of business tattoos — he’s got ink, just not where it shows when wearing a basketball uniform. Somehow this shocked people, although if most of those people saw the 25-year-old from accounting they think so highly of out on the weekend they’d find he has ink under his suit to. It’s a generational thing.

That incudes a new, massive religious tattoo on his back that has just been finished and was put on instagram by sniperjones35 (via Dan Devine at Ball Don’t Lie, the go to guy for players’ ink). You can see the image to the right.

The quote is from the Bible (as you might have guessed), James 1:2-4 specifically.

Except as Sarah Kogod pointed out (again via BDL), there seems to be a typo.

Krueger: Moral Relativism and Commencement Politics: Cardinal O'Malley's Boycott of a Prime Minister

For Catholics it has become a rite of spring in the past decade: the commencement speaker controversy involving a U.S Catholic bishop and a prominent Catholic political figure upon whom an honorary degree will be bestowed by a Catholic college. The controversy is a result of the bishop's judgment that the speaker lacks a sufficient degree of Catholic worthiness based upon the speaker's position on a narrow range of partisan political issues. Their diocesan authority aside, Catholic bishops certainly have the right to boycott the ceremony. Their right to censor the college's choice is another matter. In either case, let's not be mistaken -- this is a public action and display of their authority with a public end in mind. The message is clear although inevitably counterproductive -- be warned, this person is a bad Catholic. And the long-term, adverse consequences for both the Church and our democratic process can already be seen. It marks a new moral relativism within the Catholic hierarchy, a shift in priorities related more to politics than pastoral care.

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While the moral principles of the Catholic Church have not changed, the U.S. bishops' worldview, focus and behavior, representing their attitudes and values, have gradually changed in the past 15 years. This change has given effect to their own hierarchical brand of moral relativism that has emerged at the expense of a diminished role as pastors. Unfortunately, it has also reduced the advancement of the core of the Catholic Social Justice Tradition in the hearts of lay Catholics: helping the poor. It is attributable to a confluence of overlapping Church and politically related factors including: the elevation of more conservative priests to bishops, beginning under John Paul II; the emergence of the not-so-subtle Evangelical-Catholic (bishops)-Republican alliance starting in the mid 1990s; and the need of the U.S. bishops to regain their moral authority squandered as a result of, and too often in response to, the clergy sexual abuse crisis. To this last point, it is a notable coincidence that the U.S. bishops' assertion of their authority over Catholics in political life followed the news cycle of the crisis.

In the context of this hierarchical moral relativism, Cardinal O'Malley's boycott of the Boston College commencement can be viewed as a reflection of a collective mindset that entraps too many of the U.S. bishops today.

I sympathize with many of the good Catholic bishops within our Church and count Cardinal O'Malley among those. However, what the Catholic Church needs today is love -- not more enforcement. Perhaps if we all asked ourselves why the selection of Pope Francis has, by all accounts, animated the hearts and imagination of Catholics, and people of good will throughout the world, we might find a consensus direction for building the culture of a more caring Church and society that will put the matter of both politicizing the Eucharist and boycotting ceremonies of such venerable Catholic institutions as Boston College behind us.

Thomas Saenz, Navy Pilot, Earns Degree In Combat Zone

Finals week was dangerous for Thomas Saenz.

The Navy lieutenant needed armed guards and an armored car to get to an exam site, in Kabul, Afghanistan. A deadly bomb attack also caused him to miss classes – transmitted live via the Internet – but he persevered and earned a master's degree in engineering from the University of Southern California while commanding a top security team.

His class graduated on Friday, as he joins a growing number of service members earning college degrees while deployed in a war zone.

"Not only was he out there living on the edge, but he had to get his homework done," USC professor Frank Alvidrez said.