Drug Maker Pfizer Had 69 Wisconsin Doctors On Its Payroll

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Posted on 9th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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It turns out that 69 Wisconsin physicians were on Pfizer’s payroll during the last half of last year, collecting just over $200,000 from the world’s biggest drug company, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Friday. http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/90323677.html

 Pfizer last week released a list of doctors across the nation that it had paid as speakers, researchers and consultants. The group included Pamela Wilson, a retired Madison doctor who got paid $42,000 as a Pfizer speaker, and Daniel Duffy, a Cedarburg family practitioner who received $17,000.

 According to the Journal Sentinel, Pfizer speakers averaged $3,400 for that period, the last six months of 2009.

 Duffy was also on Eli Lilly’s payroll, getting $50,000 as a speaker for that drug maker last year.

 Drug companies hire doctor speakers to help convince their fellow physicians to write more prescriptions for brand-name drugs.

 So far five big drug companies, including Pfizer and Eli Lilly, in the past few months have revealed lists of the doctors who they pay as speakers and consultants.

 The 69 Wisconsin doctors being paid by Pfizer received from $1,000 to $42,000.

 Almost 200 Wisconsin doctors, and 15,000 nationally, appear on the lists the five drug makers have so far made public.     

Wisconsin District Attorney Tells Teachers They Will Teach Sex Education At Their Own Peril, Risking Prosecution

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Posted on 8th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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It’s a ridiculous case that reminds us of the Scopes trial, when a teacher was prosecuted for schooling students on Darwin’s theory of evolution. In the 2010 version, a Wisconsin district attorney is warning teachers that they could charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor if they teach the sex education classes that are mandated by state law next fall. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/90020507.html

That’s right: Teachers will be prosecuted for following Wisconsin law.

Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth has mailed letters to five school districts warning them that teaching kids sex education it tantamount to contributing to the delinquency of a minor it a teacher knows students are sexually active.  http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/06/us/AP-US-Sex-Ed-Wisconsin.html

Southworth also told the school districts that they should not abide by the new state law — which mandates that this fall schools offer sex ed programs that that teach students about to use condoms and about other kinds of contraceptives – which he expects will be repealed.

The DA in his letters claims that the sex education law “promotes the sexualization – and sexual assault – of our children,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“Forcing our schools to instruct children on how to utilize contraceptives encourages our children to engage in sexual behavior, whether as a victim or an offender,” Southworth, a Republican, wrote. “It is akin to teaching children about alcohol use, then instructing them on how to make mixed alcoholic drinks.”

The two legislators who helped write the sex education law, Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, and Rep. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, basically scoffed at Southworth’s anti-sex education crusade.

Roys told the Journal Sentinel that the district attorney’s letter and threat was irresponsible.

“Using condoms isn’t a crime for anyone,” she said.

Grigsby told the Associated Press that Southworth’s March 24 letter to schools was “beyond ridiculous.”       

 

Judge In Wisconsin Pedophile Priest Case Denies He Was Ordered to Drop Case

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Posted on 6th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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The cleric who was the judge in a Catholic Church trial of a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting 200 deaf boys on Thursday denied that he was ordered to drop the proceeding, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/89747067.html

The judge, the Rev. Thomas Brundage, is a canon lawyer who was told by then-Archbishop Rembert Weakland to handle the trial of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy in 1996. Father Brundage is now in the Diocese of Anchorage.

In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Father Brundage disputed some of the reporting and interpretation of documents uncovered by The New York Times in a story about why Father Murphy was never defrocked.

Father Brundage denied that the Vatican office led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, blocked the trial of Father Murphy. Father Brundage also insisted that Weakland never told him to abandon the trial, and maintained that the tribunal was proceeding Father Murphy died in 1998.

“I would have directly appealed the case to the Supreme Court of the church,” Father Brundage told the Journal Sentinal. “I would have tried to get it to Pope John Paul II.”

Pedophile Priest Used Boulder Junction Cottage As Lair To Abuse Boys

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Posted on 5th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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A Roman Catholic priest who admitted to molesting more than 200 deaf boys at a school near Milwaukee continued to sexually abuse youths when he was transferred to far northern Wisconsin, according to a story in The New York Times Saturday. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/us/03wisconsin.html?hp

In the latest chapter in the outrageous case of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, The Times wrote that the pedophile priest used his family’s cottage in Boulder Junction, on Trout Lake in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, as the setting to lure and abuse youths.

The tragedy, and shame, is that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee had sent Father Murphy to northern Wisconsin after learning that he was abusing boys at St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, outside Milwaukee. The priest was transferred in 1974 to the Diocese of Superior, when he was 48, supposedly to retire.

But based on documents cited by The Times, Father Murphy didn’t retire from being a pedophile. He used his family’s quaint rural lakefront home as the bait to attract boys, where he could then be with them alone and make his sexual advances.

The story quotes Donald Marshall, who said he was in his early teens when he met Father Murphy in the late 1970s. Marshall was in a juvenile detention center, the Lincoln Hills School for Boys, where Father Murphy sometimes acted as a chaplain.

Marshall alleges that the priest molested him, and the now 45-year-old West Allis, Wis., resident has filed suit against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Marshall has served an eight-year term in prison for drunken driving, and has a history of problems with anger and alcohol.

Other men who alleged they were molested by Father Murphy in northern Wisconsin are also quoted in The Times’ piece.

The Times caused a stir last week when it first wrote about Father Murphy’s case. It reported that the bishops in Milwaukee and Superior had tried to get the priest defrocked, but that there efforts were derailed after the Vatican got a letter from Father Murphy seeking leniency.

The Church wasn’t the only one to fail Father Murphy’s victims. Police in Milwaukee were brought allegations about the priest. In Sunday’s story, then-District Attorney E. Michael McCann said that the charges were beyond the Wisconsin’s statute of limitations.

Wisconsin Bill Would Revamp State Election Laws

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Posted on 4th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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A Wisconsin bill that would bring huge change to the state election laws is progressing through the Legislature. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303601504575154163023746980.html?KEYWORDS=aviation+regulators

Under the proposed law, the Government Accountability Board would have to automatically register people to vote when they get their driver’s licenses. The bill is also seeking to encourage absentee voting, and make it less difficult for the military members who are stationed outside the United States to vote.

The proposed voting bill was the topic of a joint public hearings Wednesday, which lead to the Senate and Assembly committees to vote in favor of it Thursday.

Wisconsin Democrats are fighting for the bill, while Republicans, including the Republican Party of Wisconsin, blasting it. The legislation’s lead sponsors are Rep. Jeff Smith, D-Eau Claire, and Sen. Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee. They argue that the bill will lead to larger voter turnouts.

The bill limits who can challenge a vote’s qualifications. That will promote fraud, according to Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend.

Larger turnouts mean Democratic wins. The positions on this bill are just that political.

Wisconsin Archbishop Stands Up for Pope, And Reaches Out To Sex Abuse Victims

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Posted on 1st April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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It’s Lent, the time for the forgiveness of sins. And Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Lisecki this week defended, and absolved Pope Benedict XVI, of any blame regarding the handling of pedophile priest Lawrence Murphy. http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/89519542.html

During a Holy Week service, the Chrism Mass, the archbishop referred to the press coverage over the Vatican’s halting of a church trial of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who allegedly admitted sexually assaulting 200 boys at St. John’s School for the Deaf beginning in the 1950s.

“The Holy Father has been firm in his commitment to combat clergy sexual abuse, root it out of the church, reach out to those who have been harmed and hold perpetrators accountable,” Lisecki told parishioners.

The New York Times broke a story that said that a top Vatican office, led by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now the pope, had opted not to defrock Father Murphy.

Lisecki reached out to sex abuse victims in Wisconsin, and said that a number of parties were responsible for the way the Father Murphy cases was botched.

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