Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • 2

JG-TC www.Jg-te.eom ACCIDENT IN LERNA Vatican: 848 priests defrocked for abuse since '04 A2 WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 201 4 credible cases of abuse had been referred to the Vatican, including 401 cases in 2013 alone. He said that over the last decade, 848 priests had been defrocked, or returned to the lay state by the pope. Another 2,572 were sentenced to a lifetime of penance and prayer or some other lesser sanction, which is often used when the accused priest is elderly or infirm. Acknowledging the high number of priests sanctioned with the lesser punishment, Tomasi said it still amounted to disciplinary action and that the abuser is "just put in a place where he doesn't have any contact with the children." The Associated Press in January reported that then-Pope Benedict XVI had defrocked 384 priests in the final two years of his pontificate, citing documentation Tomasi's delegation had prepared for another U.N. committee hearing that matched data contained in the Vatican's statistical yearbooks.

JOHN HEILPRIN NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press GENEVA The Vatican released comprehensive statistics for the first time Tuesday on how it has disciplined priests accused of raping and molesting children, saying 848 priests have been defrocked and another 2,572 given lesser sanctions over the past decade. The Vatican's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, revealed the figures during a second day of grilling by a U.N. committee monitoring implementation of the U.N. treaty against torture.

Tomasi insisted the convention applied only inside the tiny Vatican City state. But he nevertheless released statistics about how the Holy See has adjudicated sex abuse cases globally, and significantly, he didn't dispute the committee's contention that sexual violence against children can be considered torture. Tomasi said that since 2004, more than 3,400 I Kwf' tL pf 7 i 1 i j- I w- 1 i Emergency responders handle a two-vehicle wreck In front of the on the accident was not available by press time Tuesday night. Ken Trevannan, Journal Gazene7imes-Couner Lerna Post Office on Tuesday afternoon. Information from authorities COUNCIL the fire department's total staff increases from 33 to 35 and there will now be three department captains and six lieutenants instead of six captains and three lieutenants.

The council also conducted a public hearing on and then approved changes to the property at 111 N. 14th and nearby lots. Public Works Director Curt Buescher said the three owners of the total of six tracts of property requested the change, mostly vacating rights of way for streets no longer in use. He said the rights of way divide the lots and the owners want to be able to treat their properties as single lots. Buescher also said the city will maintain easements to the property that would allow access to an underground sanitary sewer line in case repairs to the line are needed.

The council's votes Tuesday were all 5-0 and also included approval of: City tourism funds for the Illinois High School state track and badminton tournaments, Eastern Illinois University's the preliminary engineering services for work on the intersection of Dettro Drive and Illinois Route 16, according to the agenda. The engineering plan will serve as the preliminary steps in constructing a right turn lane on eastbound Route 16, west of Dettro Drive, and a new street on the west and south sides of Walmart to connect Route 16 to Dettro Drive near the southeast corner of the Walmart site, city record says. Public Works Director Dean Barber said the design work would begin immediately; however, the city department plans to work for several years on the Illinois Department of Transportation documentation and negotiations with adjacent property owners before construction will begin. "It's a long-term investment," Barber added. The council also: Approved a $410,054.94 bid from AJ Walker Construction Company for the South Ninth Street Drainage Project.

The project includes ditch grading and entrance culverts on Ninth Street from Old State Road to Williams Elementary School, according to city record. Approved a $219,881 bid TIF From A1 and Williams Rentals, 124 and 126 Sixth St. Mayor Larry Rennels said the group of grants represent all the TIF funding applications the city received for the year. Rennels said the city usually receives about $160,000 in TIF tax revenue during a year. Most of the money then goes to business grants but some is used to repaya loan to the city general fund while other local taxing districts receive refunds, he explained.

Also Tuesday, the council approved a new contract with the union representing the city's firefighters. Rennels said the three-year contract includes a 3 -percent salary increase for each year of the agreement along with some health insurance and other changes. It also features a command structure change which the council approved separately. With the change, REPORT From A1 a Texas Tech University climate scientist. Extreme weather like droughts, storms and heat waves hit us in the pocketbooks and can be seen by our own eyes, she said.

The report says the intensity, frequency and duration of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes have increased since the early 1980s, but it is still uncertain how much of that is from man-made warming. Winter storms have increased in frequency and intensity and have shifted northward since the 1950s, it says. Also, heavy downpours are increasing by 71 percent in the Northeast. Heat waves, such as those in Texas in 2011 and the Midwest in 2012, are projected to intensify nationwide. Droughts in the Southwest are expected to Celebration: A Festival of the Arts, the Charleston Chill softball invitational, the Coles County Fair, the Charleston Baseball Association-hosted state tournaments and WEIU Kids Day.

Traffic lane and parking space closings in conjunction with the farmer's markets on the courthouse square that will begin next month. The farmers markets will take place on Wednesdays and Saturdays from June 4 to Oct. 9. The appropriation of just more than $588,000 from the city's share of state motor fuel tax money for general street maintenance, work Rennels said began at the first the month, the start of the city's fiscal year. Council member Tim Newell for another one-year term as mayor pro-tem, or acting mayor for meetings and other instances when Rennels isn't available.

Contact Fopay at dfopayjg-tc. com or 217-238-6858. monthly records for heat, 33 records for being too wet, 12 for lack of rain and just three for cold, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal weather records. The report also says "climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways." Those include smoke -filled air from wildfires, smoggy air from pollution, and more diseases from tainted food, water, mosquitoes and ticks. And ragweed pollen season has lengthened.

Flooding alone may cost $325 billion by the year 2100 in one of the worst-case scenarios, with $130 billion of that in Florida, the report says. Already the droughts and heat waves of 2011 and 2012 added about $10 billion to farm costs, the report says. Azalea In Mon Fri 9-6 Sat For These Great II rrrfh from Howell Paving, Inc. for the 2014 Federal-Aid Resurfacing Project and approved $46,175 of Motor Fuel Tax Funds for resurfacing. This effort will include work on portions of Dettro Drive, Ninth Street and 43rd Street, according to the council request.

Barber said this project would begin once Mattoon schools let out for the summer. Approved a $4,000 grant from hotelmotel tax funds to Eastern Illinois University and the Illinois High School Association for hosting the MSA Boys and the MSA Girls State Track meets. Approved a $1,775 grant from hotelmotel tax funds to Eastern Illinois University Kinesiology Sports Studies and the Illinois High School Association for hosting the MSA Badminton Final. Approved a $17,500 grant from hotelAnotel tax funds to the Mattoon Cobra's Softball Organization for hosting the Mattoon Cobra's Ninth Annual Mother's Day Tourney USSSA World Series Qualifier, the USSSA State TourneyWorld Series Qualifier, and the USSSA Fall Qualifier 2014. Contact Zyskowski at kzyskowski or 21 7-238-6869.

jtammmtMMum law 6 We had about $4,500 of insulation work completed, and with the savings offered through the ActOnEnergy program we only paid $1,7001 The resulting energy savings is really amazing. Before the improvements, our monthly energy bills were always at least $200. Since we had the work done, our winter energy bills have never exceeded $90! 9 9 Lonnie mi Ken, Springfield II Ameren ILLINOIS Don't forget dessert for Sunday Mother's Day We have Cherry, Apple, Peach, Dutch Apple, Fruits of the Forrest Pie, Lemon Clinch, Cheese Cake. Turtle Cheese Cake! From A1 described as an overtime-causing issue. "I'm just not comfortable with those two things being added after I thought the global package was what it was going to be," he said.

"Again, it's going to sound stupid -1 still think it's a good contract. I would have just liked to have more discussion on those two items and not just have it presented as take it or leave it without discussing those items before. I don't know that it was necessarily the union's fault as it was an internal miscommunica-tion between me and (Gill)." The council approved the contract following a 30 -minute closed session discussion. Typically the contracts are set for three-year cycles; however, this round the council agreed on a four-year agreement because a three-year contract would slate negotiations during an election year, Gill said prior to a special meeting called last month. The city and union representatives are working on the city's final two collective negotiating parties' contracts.

In other business, the council approved an $88,000 appropriation of Motor Fuel Tax funds for Mothers Day Brunch Buffet 10am 2pm Carving Omelet Station Breakfast Items Lunch Entrees, Salad Bar Dessert Table Lots More Make Your Plans Now! Mothers Day Sale $15 off all Week Brown 9-5 Sun 12-4 Dinner Specials! Rte 161-57, Mattoon, IL www.codysroadhouse.net Ameren Illinois customers can save up to $4,400 on insulation and air sealing discounts. Just find a registered. Building Performance Institute (6PI) certified insulation contractor near you at get stronger. Sea level has risen 8 inches since 1880 and is projected to rise between 1 foot and 4 feet by 2100. Climate data center chief Karl highlighted the increase in downpours, which are jumping by 30 percent to 60 percent elsewhere in the country besides the Northeast.

He said last week's drenching, when Pensac-ola, Florida, got up to two feet of rain in one storm and parts of the East had three inches in one day, is what he's talking about. "The projections for these kinds of changes are to continue as the globe continues to warm and the atmosphere is able to hold more water vapor," Karl said. Since January 2010, 43 of the lower 48 states have set at least one monthly record for heat, such as California having its warmest January on record this year. In the past 51 months, states have set 80 Still at lfinoTi i lOUV LillltUlIl I in Charleston 345-3400 KING OM FUST ffllBHHY WIVEUfl Fresh, OldFasMoned, Over The Counter Meats I Please, recycle your newspaper jar JK: $2.89 Spaghetti Special Fvcrv Wed Iiom 4 till 1 Opm. Price Kit hill order ot qwuiicrii JSflic bread is Backyard BBQ Pork Chops $4.59 Lb.

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