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peppertree's JournalStanley Rother, Oklahoma-born priest killed during Guatemala's civil war, is set to be beatified
Few religious pilgrimages lead down a dusty, unpaved Oklahoma roads. But the unusual destination of this trek from Central America to a rural farmhouse seems an appropriate honor for the Rev. Stanley Rother, a martyred Roman Catholic priest celebrated for his unassuming nature and hard work.
Rother was beatified Saturday at Mass in Oklahoma City, moving him one step closer to possible sainthood. Thousands of people attended the ceremony at a downtown convention center to honor the church's first U.S.-born martyr and the first priest from the United States to be beatified. This is only the second beatification ceremony held in the United States.
The native of Okarche was a 46-year-old missionary in Guatemala when he was killed in 1981, one of several priests slain during the country's civil war between a right-wing dictatorship and liberal guerrillas. His name first appeared on a death list, and then he was shot to death in his mission.
"I feel like his brother — that we lived together, that we share the bond of brotherhood," Juan Pablo Ixbalan said in Tzutuhil, which is spoken by a subgroup of Mayans, through an interpreter. "He became one of us. He learned the language."
Ixbalan, 63, was a young teen when he first met Rother at his church in Santiago Atitlan, situated on a lakeshore between two volcanoes in the Guatemalan highlands where he grew up.
Rother started a radio station, worked alongside farmers and pushed for locals to make and sell knitted clothing. In helping translate the New Testament, Rother is credited with helping start the written form of Tzutuhil. He helped install an irrigation system and brought in crops such as wheat and soybeans, dissuading farmers from using chemicals. He brought in tractors to till the land, and repaired vehicles when they broke down.
Rother was born in 1935, a descendent of German immigrants who homesteaded on the outskirts of Okarche, Oklahoma. While much of the state remains largely protestant, Okarche — population 1,300 — has held to its Catholic heritage. It's still home to the Holy Trinity Church and school Rother attended.
At: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/thousands-attend-beatification-mass-for-american-priest/ar-AAsn4gT
Father Stanley Rother, 1935-1981.
Bernie Casey, Football Star Turned Actor, Poet and Painter, Dies at 78
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Actor Bernie Casey, who appeared in numerous films after a career as a standout NFL wide receiver, has died. He was 78.
Casey, who also starred in Cleopatra Jones and several other blaxploitation movies of the 1970s, died Tuesday after a brief illness at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his representative told The Hollywood Reporter.
Not long after he unexpectedly retired from the Los Angeles Rams, Casey portrayed Chicago Bears player J.C. Caroline in the 1971 ABC telefilm Brian's Song. In Brothers (1977), Casey distinguished himself by portraying a thinly veiled version of George Jackson, a member of the Black Panther Party who was killed in San Quentin in 1971.
Casey played a heroic former slave and train robber in Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha (1972); CIA agent Felix Leiter (a recurring Bond film character) in Never Say Never Again (1983); fraternity president U.N. Jefferson in Revenge of the Nerds (1984); and Col. Rhumbus, tasked with training Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase in John Landis' Spies Like Us (1985). He also wrote, directed, starred in and produced The Dinner (1997).
A true Renaissance man, Casey also was a published poet as well as a painter whose work was exhibited in galleries around the world.
Read more: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bernie-casey-dead-actor-nfl-910749
Bernie Casey, 1939-2017.
Roberto Navarro, Argentina's top rated news anchor, forced out by alleged government pressure
Cable news anchor Roberto Navarro, host of Argentina's top-rated current events program Economía Política, was fired yesterday. Executives at Channel 5, according to Navarro, admitted receiving pressure from the government to force his removal.
Navarro had reportedly drawn ire from the authorities as a result of a number of investigative exposés into alleged corruption and other wrongdoing by the two year-old Mauricio Macri administration, of whose trickle-down policies he's been critical.
His weeknight show had been the first to reveal Macri scandals such as:
·The dollar futures case (in which officials and relatives profited from a 40% devaluation a week after taking office)
·Th partnership between Macri and disgraced contractors Lázaro Báez and Brazil's Odebrecht
·Alleged vote buying to secure congressional approval for a $9 billion payout to vulture funds and other holdout bondholders in March 2016
·Numerous undeclared Macri family offshore shell companies (beyond those uncovered by the Panama Papers leaks)
·Plans for the secret purchase of $2.5 billion in U.S. military equipment
·And the attempted unauthorized sale of the ARSAT-3 satellite to Hughes Electronics this July.
Navarro, 57, has no intention of leaving investigative journalism however.
"We have important denunciations to publish in (online journal) El Destape that concern Vice President Gabriela Michetti's role in laundering money from state banks through her foundation for use in campaign finance," he said in a radio interview today.
He revealed that another top Macri ally, congressional candidate Gladys González, solicited a bribe through WhatsApp. "I wanted to air it and was told that I couldn't mention her," he said.
Channel 5's parent company, the Indalo Group, is currently facing 10 billion pesos ($570 million) in back taxes and penalties from its 'Oil' service station chain. Navarro alleges that the group's news division director, Mariano Frutos, informed him that if he was not dismissed, he (Frutos) would "go to jail."
"A government minister informed me on August 13 that I would be removed, that it had been decided, and that they expected more sympathetic journalists," Navarro said. "Economía Política, which I produce, was then limited as to its content - even the headlines."
"This is happening in the context of (indigenous activist) Milagro Sala's arbitrary imprisonment and the disappearance of Santiago Maldonado - of a democracy that has become precarious."
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicaymedios.com.ar%2Fnota%2F9306%2Froberto_navarro_fue_el_gobierno_quien_exigio_mi_salida%2F
Argentine news anchor Roberto Navarro in one of his last broadcasts. Behind him a reference to activist Santiago Maldonado, who disappeared on August 1.
There is meddling in Germany's election not by Russia, but by U.S. right wing
Source: USA Today
Less than a week before Sunday's vote that is likely to hand German Chancellor Angela Merkel a fourth term, evidence of anticipated Russian meddling has yet to materialize; but U.S. right-wing groups have interfered, according to German researchers.
"So far we have not been able to track down any specific Russian activity," said Simon Hegelich," a professor of political science data at the Technical University of Munich who has advised the German government about the threat of hacking and fake news.
Instead, Hegelich and others point to an alliance of mostly anonymous online trolls and extremist agitators who are disseminating right-wing materials through YouTube; messaging board sites like 4chan and reddit; and Gab.ai, a texting service.
"A lot of the stuff we are seeing in Germany can be linked to, or is at least inspired by, the 'alt-right' movement in the U.S.," Hegelich said, referring to a loosely defined group whose far-right ideology includes racism, populism and white nationalism.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/09/20/meddling-germany-election-not-russia-but-u-s-right-wing/676142001/
65 Skulls Found in Mass Grave at Site of Gruesome War Crime
Source: Time
Forensic experts say they have retrieved the remains of at least 65 victims from a mass grave in central Bosnia, the site of one of the most gruesome crimes of the country’s 1992-95 war.
Lejla Cengic, from Bosnia’s Missing Persons Institute, said on Tuesday that remains including 65 skulls have been found since September 7 in the grave at the Koricanske Stijene cliff near Mount Vlasic. She says they’re believed to belong to some of the more than 220 non-Serb civilians executed there by Bosnian Serb forces on August 21, 1992.
Most of those killed were taken from Serb-run detention camps near Prijedor and told they were going for a prisoner exchange. Only a dozen men survived by falling or jumping down the ravine when the shooting started.
The exhumation work is continuing.
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/65-skulls-found-in-mass-grave-at-site-of-gruesome-war-crime/ar-AAsdIxD
Soviet soldier credited with averting nuclear war dies
Source: USA Today
A Soviet soldier credited with saving the world from nuclear holocaust has died at age 77.
Stanislav Petrov was the duty officer monitoring an early warning system from a bunker outside Moscow on Sept. 26, 1983, when the radar screen suddenly appeared to depict a missile inbound from the United States. “All my subordinates were confused, so I started shouting orders at them to avoid panic," Petrov told the Russian news agency RT in 2010. "I knew my decision would have a lot of consequences."
The alert siren wailed. A message on the bunker's main screen reported that four more missiles had been launched, he said. Petrov had 15 minutes to determine whether the threat was real and report to his commanders.
Petrov, thinking that any U.S. attack should have involved even more missiles to limit the chance of Soviet retaliation, told his Kremlin bosses the alert must have been caused by a malfunction. He persuaded Moscow not to shoot back. It was later determined that Russian satellites must have mistaken sunlight reflecting off clouds for nuclear missiles.
The incident remained classified for 15 years, before a Kremlin colonel publicly discussed the incident.
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/soviet-soldier-credited-with-averting-nuclear-war-dies/ar-AAs8jOr?OCID=ansmsnnews11
Stanislav Petrov, 1939-2017.
Trump lawyers spill beans, thanks to terrible choice of restaurant
Source: Washington Post
Sitting at the next table from Ty Cobb and John Dowd, lawyers for President Trump, according to the Times, was Kenneth Vogel, one of Washington’s most skillful investigative reporters. Vogel is a former reporter for Politico, which is based in Virginia, who arrived at the Times just in time for the Russia investigation and, as it turned out, just in time for lunch.
Vogel overheard the lawyers talking about White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II and Jared Kushner, president Trump’s son-in-law, as well as the infamous Trump Tower meeting. Here’s a sample from the article bearing the bylines of Vogel and Peter Baker:
Mr. Cobb was heard talking about a White House lawyer he deemed “a McGahn spy” and saying Mr. McGahn had “a couple documents locked in a safe” that he seemed to suggest he wanted access to. He also mentioned a colleague whom he blamed for “some of these earlier leaks,” and who he said “tried to push Jared out …”
“The White House Counsel’s Office is being very conservative with this stuff,” Mr. Cobb told Mr. Dowd. “Our view is we’re not hiding anything.” Referring to Mr. McGahn, he added, “He’s got a couple documents locked in a safe.”
… Mr. Cobb also discussed the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting — and the White House’s response to it — saying that “there was no perception that there was an exchange.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/09/18/trump-lawyers-spill-beans-after-terrible-restaurant-choice-next-to-nyt/?utm_term=.09a24415547a
Six Argentines sentenced to life for 'Dirty War' role
Six former Argentine officers have been sentenced to life after being convicted of committing crimes against humanity during the early stages of country's "Dirty War" in the mid 1970s.
Judges at a federal court in the northwestern Argentine city of Tucumán jailed 10 of 17 people accused of involvement in the so-called "Operation Independence." Three others who were supposed to go on trial had died.
Operation Independence, enacted by President Isabel Perón on February 5, 1975, gave the Army and local police a blank check to quell leftist guerrilla activity in Tucumán Province. The operation, which resulted in at least 1,000 deaths (including 650 civilians) is considered by many historians as the first chapter in the country's "Dirty War."
Mrs. Perón was deposed a year later by right-wing military dictatorship, which intensified the Dirty War during its rule from 1976 to 1983. According to human rights organisations, 30,000 people were kidnapped or disappeared in that era.
Among the victims' family members in court during the sentencing were women who were pregnant when the military rule began and whose children are still unaccounted for.
Mrs. Perón, now 86, was detained at her home outside Madrid in 2007 pursuant to an international arrest warrant. Her extradition was denied in 2008 by a Madrid court however.
Meanwhile, hundreds of activists and family members demonstrated outside the court, chanting calls for prison sentences for "every genocidal person walking the streets of Argentina."
Some 2,400 former and current officers have been charged with Dirty War-related crimes since amnesty was lifted by former President Néstor Kirchner in 2003, with around 700 convicted thus far.
At: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/argentinians-sentenced-life-dirty-war-role-170916045518804.html
Brazilian President Michel Temer charged with obstruction of justice and racketeering
Brazil’s prosecutor general’s office has filed charges of racketeering against President Michel Temer and six other leading politicians from his party, three of whom are already in jail. Temer and two other men are also accused of obstructing justice.
“They practiced illicit acts in exchange for bribes by way of diverse public organs,” prosecutors said. “Michel Temer is accused of having acted as the leader of the criminal organisation since May 2016.”
Prosecutors said the group, all politicians from Temer’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), pocketed $188m in bribes.
Three of them are already in jail: two former speakers of the lower house, Henrique Alves and Eduardo Cunha; and Geddel Vieira Lima, a former Temer minister arrested for the second time last week after police found $16m in cash in an apartment linked to him.
Temer will now face a vote that could decide his presidency in the lower house of Congress – his second in a little over a month – and if two thirds of lawmakers agree, he will be put on trial by the supreme court.
At: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/14/brazil-president-michel-temer-charged
Frank Vincent, Sopranos and Goodfellas actor, dies at 78
Source: Variety
Frank Vincent, known for portraying Phil Leotard on “The Sopranos,” has died, his “Sopranos” co-star Vincent Pastore announced on Facebook. He was 78.
TMZ reports that he died due to complications of heart surgery after a heart attack. John Gallagher, who directed Vincent in “Street Hunter,” “The Deli,” and “Animal Room,” also posted the news on Facebook.
Vincent began acting in 1976 when he co-starred in the low-budget crime film “The Death Collector” alongside Joe Pesci. Vincent then acted in Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull,” which sparked the first of many collaborations between Vincent, Pesci, and Robert De Niro, including “Goodfellas” and “Casino.”‘
Born in North Adams, Mass., and raised in Jersey City, N.J., Vincent often portrayed gangsters while also starring in two of Spike Lee’s films, “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever.”
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/frank-vincent-%E2%80%98sopranos%E2%80%99-and-%E2%80%98goodfellas%E2%80%99-actor-dies-at-78/ar-AArTarY?OCID=ansmsnnews11
Frank Vincent, 1939-2017.
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