Kelly Clark, Lawyer Who Won Boy Scouts Abuse Case, Dies at 56

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Photo Credit: O'Donnell Clark & Crew LLP.

Photo Credit: O’Donnell Clark & Crew LLP.

Kelly Clark, a lawyer whose successful child molestation lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America in Oregon led to the release of a trove of documents containing thousands of accusations of sexual abuse, died on Tuesday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He was 56.

The cause of death had not been determined, said Paul Mones, his co-counsel on the suit against the Boy Scouts.

Mr. Clark argued child molestation cases before the Oregon Supreme Court more than a decade before his 2010 lawsuit against the Boy Scouts. Two of those cases resulted in decisions that established a far longer statute of limitations for molestation and allowed for institutions to be held liable when individuals under their authority commit abuse.

The plaintiff in the 2010 lawsuit was Kerry Lewis, who said he had been molested by an assistant scoutmaster, Timur Dykes, in the early 1980s. Mr. Dykes, who had served time for child abuse, had admitted to a Mormon bishop that he had molested several scouts. The bishop alerted the families of Mr. Dykes’s victims but did not warn the other boys in the troop or the authorities. Mr. Dykes was soon able to volunteer with the Scouts again.

“They knew that their charismatic assistant scout leader Timur Dykes, to whom kids flocked like bees to honey, had admitted to molesting 17 scouts, including Cub Scouts,” Mr. Clark told NPR shortly after his closing arguments in the case.

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Coming in 2014: Extremely Smart Watches and Wearable TVs

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Photo Credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

Photo Credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

For technological innovation, 2013 was a remarkably boring year. Apple, often the hotbed of “new,” mostly just updated familiar devices in different colors and with crisper screens. Social media companies fought over who had better photo filters. And Silicon Valley start-ups offered more of less, with slight iterations on existing products.

But 2014 has a lot of promise.

Predicting the future is a lot more difficult than evaluating the past, but you could wake up on Jan. 1, 2015, in a different digital winter wonderland.

No, you won’t lie in bed while your humanoid robot helper makes you bacon and eggs and walks the dog — which is also possibly a robot, made by Google. That’s more of a 2035 prediction. But you might wake up to the call of a watch on your wrist — not your cellphone on your night table. This year we’ve seen some efforts at smartwatches, like those made by Pebble; next year, these gadgets could look a lot better.

“Smartwatches, which connect to your smartphone, are going to create an entirely new category of computing in the coming year,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, a former Forrester analyst who specializes in wearable computing. She noted that the long-awaited Apple smartwatch, which is expected to be announced in 2014, could change the way we engage with our wrist in the same way Apple changed the cellphone industry in 2007.

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Wall Street Tycoon Robert Wilson Gives Away $800 Million Fortune Before Jumping to his Death

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A renowned Wall Street tycoon gave away his entire $800 million fortune before falling to his death in a suicide jump this week. Hedge fund multi-millionaire Robert W. Wilson, 87, leapt from the 16th floor of his luxury San Remo apartment building, a prestigious address in New York’s Upper East Side which has been the residence of Steven Spielberg, Demi Moore, Glenn Close, Dustin Hoffman, Bono, Steve Martin, Bruce Willis and Steve Jobs in the past.

According to the New York Police Department, he left a note at the scene. He had suffered from a stroke just a few months before.

“He always said he didn’t want to suffer and when the time came, he would be ready,” close friend Stephen Viscusi told the New York Post.

“His plan was to give all his money away. He told me recently, ‘I only have about $100 million to go.'”

He has since been praised as a “legend” by his peers, after pledging his entire worth to charity some years before he ended his life.

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Karl Rove’s Crossroads Reloading Against Tea Party

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Even though Karl Rove’s American Crossroads brand has been damaged after the group declared war against conservative candidates, the group will reportedly try to influence the 2014 midterm elections by bullying campaigns and creating groups that, on the surface, do not seem to be affiliated with them.

According to the New York Times, Crossroads “appears to be testing” its “new approach” in Kentucky. The Conservative Victory Project, the group formed to take on conservative candidates, has stayed out of Kentucky’s Senate primary between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Tea Party challenger Matt Bevin. Instead, a group called “Kentuckians for Strong Leadership” is curiously backing McConnell while getting most of its cash from Crossroads donors. It is “legally separate from Crossroads;” but Stephen Law, the president of Crossroads, sits on its board, and the two groups share a treasurer.

Crossroads may set up “similar groups in races in which its brand may be less appealing to voters or donors.” The Times notes that this is an approach Crossroads may have to take because Rove’s organization has been so tarnished among the conservative base that candidates fear donors will not contribute to any group associated with him.

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Silence of the Lambs: GOP Establishment Remained Neutral on ‘Duck Dynasty’ Controversy

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Sen.Ted Cruz (R-TX) emphatically defended Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson from the moment he was suspended by A&E for supposedly anti-gay remarks. The suspension provoked a relentless outpouring of support online, which pressured A&E to reinstate Robertson on Friday.

Palin, Jindal, and Cruz’s support was in contrast to the silence of the Republican establishment, its leadership, and the Republican National Committee. The latter focused instead on Kwanzaa and promoting amnesty, which the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of working class Americans, many of whom make up the bulk of the Duck Dynasty audience.

Palin took to Twitter on December 18–the night Robertson was suspended–saying A&E had caved to the “‘intolerants’ hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion.” Palin said “free speech is an endangered species,” and those “intolerants” are “taking on all of us.”

The next morning, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said, “I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment.”

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DNC Sends Email Defending Obama from Impeachment Possibility

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) sent out a paranoid email Saturday evening urging supporters to vote for Democrats so that Republicans can’t impeach President Obama.

The email, subject line “Impeachment,” was sent to Obama for America supporters, imploring them to contribute to the DNC’s 2014 efforts. “What do these people all have in common?,” the email asked, featuring quotes from Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Rep. Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan, and Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas discussing the possibility of impeaching Obama for one of his numerous instances of presidential misconduct.

The DNC email discussed the “I-Word” and said that “Republicans are actually excited about the idea.”

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Massachusetts, the Model for Obamacare, has Highest Health Costs in the United States

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Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

On Oct. 30, as President Obama was under fire for the botched rollout of his signature health care law, he visited Boston’s Faneuil Hall. It was in that hall in 2006 that then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, with a smiling Ted Kennedy by his side, signed a sweeping health care overhaul into law that would eventually become the model for Obamacare.

As with Obamacare, the Massachusetts program (also known as Romneycare), expanded Medicaid, mandated that individuals purchase government-approved coverage, and provided subsidies to individuals to purchase government-designed insurance plans on a government-run exchange.

In his October remarks, Obama used the Massachusetts experience to argue that Obamacare could work, despite what the naysayers claimed.

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Republicans Appear to Hold Edge in Senate Races, as Party Fortunes Ebb and Flow

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Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Republicans appear to hold a slight edge in the battle next year to control the Senate. But the wild swings in the political fortunes for both parties in the closing months of 2013 made clear the situation could drastically change.

“The playing field is currently tilted toward Republicans,” Jennifer Duffy, of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, observes in her recent forecast, with several moderate Democrats in serious danger of losing re-election.

Such a scenario seemed hard to imagine in late summer when Tea Party-backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz barnstormed the country to rally support for the essentially impossible task of “defunding” ObamaCare.

However, Republicans’ standing among voters appeared to take an even bigger turn for the worse when Cruz returned to Capitol Hill and led the party’s most conservative wing in a failed effort to shut down the government unless Congress defunded President Obama’s signature health care law.

“There’s a belief that getting the [Senate] majority in 2014 is possible and we don’t want to go down roads that make it harder,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said at the time, adding the Cruz-led tactic was “a bridge too far.”

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Ordinance Challenged for Targeting Pro-Lifers

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

A team of pro-life advocates who like to try to intervene when women head for an abortion business in West Palm Beach say they unfairly are being targeted by police because officers enforce a noise ordinance only against them.

Not passersby. Not Wendy’s. Not a Pollo Tropical restaurant. And not the abortion business itself.

On appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Susan Pine and Marilyn Blackburn are asking that a noise ordinance be struck down, or otherwise changed to make it constitutional.

Right now, Pine and Blackburn, who offer to help women facing crisis pregnancies outside the city’s Presidential Women’s Center abortion business, say the city’s enforcement of an ordinance is selective.

According to officials with Liberty Counsel, which is representing the women, the city ordinance “bans all ‘shouting’ and amplified sound within 100 feet of the [abortionists’] property line, regardless of the volume or whether the sound causes any disturbance.”

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American Legion Outraged Over VA Christmas Censorship

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Photo Credit: THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/ BOB BREIDENBACH

Photo Credit: THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/ BOB BREIDENBACH

The national commander of the American Legion is demanding answers from the Veterans Administration after hospitals in three states placed restrictions on Christian volunteers, including a group of schoolchildren who were told they could only perform Christmas carols from a government-approved list.

“Every Christmas, every religious holiday, Christians are more and more often targeted for censorship and restriction at VA facilities,” American Legion National Commander Daniel Dellinger said. “Veterans in these hospitals fought to protect such freedoms.”

In Iowa City, American Legion members were told they could not hand out presents to veterans if the wrapping paper said Merry Christmas.

In Augusta, Ga., the VA told a group of students from a Christian school that they could not sing religious-themed Christmas carols. Instead, the students were presented with a list of government-approved, secular songs.

And in Dallas, the VA hospital refused to allow children to distribute Christmas cards to patients because the cards included phrases like “Merry Christmas” and “God Bless You.”

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