Laced brownies sicken teachers; prayer ban; advice from 106-year-old

WADENA, Minn. (AP) — The response to the threat of a lawsuit that forced a central Minnesota city to keep its Nativity scene off city property has similar displays popping up all around town.

For four decades, the community's Nativity scene was set up in a downtown park during the holidays. But the threat of legal action over the separation of church and state from the Freedom From Religion Foundation led the City Council to give the replicas of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus to a group of local ministers this year.

Mayor George Deiss handled a flood of angry calls over the matter. Soon, Nativity scenes began showing up in shop windows, on front yards and other places around the community. Deiss estimated there are now at least a thousand Nativity displays around Wadena, the Star Tribune (http://bit.ly/1OX3qfP ) reported.

"The whole community has come out to support this," said Gillette Kempf, owner of An Open Book store, who also sits on the City Council. "It's an expression of who we are as a community and what we believe. We believe in the Nativity."

Patrick Elliott, the attorney for the Madison, Wisconsin, based nonprofit group said its concern is not about expressions of faith.

"I think their response has been perfectly fine," Elliott said. The concern was with a local government owning religious icons and displaying them on public property, he said.

The city's old Nativity display was sold to the Wadena Ministerial Association for $25 and now sits on the lawn of the old hospital on city's main thoroughfare.

By RICHARD CHIN

St. Paul Pioneer Press

WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. (AP) — Christ said, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger."

He didn't mention pizza, but a handful of churches in Minnesota are building outdoor community brick ovens to serve the faithful with fresh bread and wood-fired pizzas.

The idea was introduced about five years ago by White Bear Lake United Methodist Church, which since has become sort of a missionary for communal brick ovens as a way to build community and feed physical and spiritual hungers.

The church has helped or inspired about nine other organizations in oven-building efforts around the state, mainly at churches, but also with neighborhood associations and a theological seminary.

The person who started it all is Bryce Johnson, the pastor of White Bear Lake United Methodist Church, who has been baking bread since he was in high school.

About 13 years ago, Johnson, 61, took a class at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais to learn how to build a brick bread oven. He ended up building one in his own backyard.

In 2009, he went on a sabbatical funded by the Lily Endowment to spend two months in Italy and France to study bread baking and the history of ancient community ovens there.

Johnson said the communal ovens were a key part of village life between the 14th and 19th centuries. They brought villagers together to gossip and talk while waiting for their daily bread to bake.

Before Johnson left on the sabbatical, a church member said, "When you come back, we ought to build a brick oven on the church grounds," according to the church's website. And in 2010, that's what they did.

"We had a group of 40 volunteers," Johnson said of the three-month project.

Johnson said the oven gets fired up about twice a month. The church bakes up to 100 loaves of bread in a day, which it sells to raise money for a local food shelf. The oven also has been the centerpiece of bread baking classes, and has been used to help teach homeless students enrolled in a culinary job program run by Catholic Charities.

Another church, Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis, got interested in the concept.

"They came to our church to see the oven and came to a pizza and bread event," said Mike Faust, a retired mechanical engineer from 3M who organized the White Bear Lake United Methodist oven-building project.

When Our Saviour's decided to build its own oven, "I said, 'Do you want some help?'" Faust said. He ended up working on that project, too.

Redeemer Lutheran Church in Minneapolis also decided to build an oven in conjunction with the Harrison Neighborhood Association.

White Bear Lake United Methodist wanted to encourage another Methodist church in Minnesota to build an oven, so it offered a $4,500 grant as a catalyst.

The grant was awarded to Hamline Church United Methodist in St. Paul, which used the money to build an oven this summer. A couple of churches that applied but didn't get the grant decided to raise money to go ahead with oven projects on their own.

Rick Ellis, a member of the First United Methodist Church of Sartell, said a fellow church member who had terminal cancer donated $6,000 to buy materials for an oven project there. Volunteers pitched in at an "oven raising event," and got the oven built by August.

Racine United Methodist Church in Racine, Minnesota, is building an oven with member donations and a GoFundMe campaign.

United Theological Seminary in New Brighton built a community bread oven last summer to go along with its beekeeping and beer brewing community outreach programs.

"People are just utterly fascinated by it," Brian Braskich, director of community programs for the seminary, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press (http://bit.ly/1OTVQmd ).

"All these people came to us to learn how to build them," said Faust, a 68-year-old Hugo resident who acted as an adviser on several projects. "A church in Milwaukee, that pastor came over here to learn about our oven."

"I've built five of these ovens from the ground up," Faust added. "That all came out of Bryce Johnson's vision."

It takes extra work to bake bread in a wood-fired brick oven. The night before, someone has to build and tend a fire in the oven's hearth, which will burn a couple wheelbarrows full of hardwood.

But that gets the oven hot enough — up to 1,000 degrees — to bake for hours, producing dozens of loaves of bread with the shatteringly crisp crust and "oven spring" that artisan bread makers love.

"It's a traditional art," Johnson said. "It's not convenient, but it's delightful."

The bread ovens fit well with the tradition of churches.

From the "Lord's Prayer" to the feeding of the multitudes to the Last Supper, bread has played an important role in the story of Jesus.

"There's something really spiritual about breaking bread," said Peter Kruger, a Hamline Church member and Hamline law school student who helped build and bakes in the oven there. "When you look at the Bible, the time that people are most in the community are when they are sharing a meal, and kind of the code word for sharing meals is breaking bread."

"I think the Twin Cities area is a hotbed of church-based community ovens," said David Cargo, vice president of the St. Paul Bread Club.

"Basically, we call it an oven ministry," Faust said.

When it comes to bringing together diverse groups and attracting people from outside of the church, wood-fired pizza baked in one of the community ovens has proven to be a winner.

Hamline Church, for example, has used its oven to bake pizza for students of nearby Hamline University.

"We were thinking the bread would be the draw. It's a good draw, but not as strong as pizza," said Braskich of the community pizza bakes held at United Theological Seminary.

White Bear Lake United Methodist has used its oven to serve about 900 pieces of pizza at the Manitou Days festival.

"We've learned bread alone does not draw multitudes. But pizza can," said Johnson in a TEDxMahtomedi talk about his church's oven.

Faust said he is developing a website to list oven locations and events and provide information on how to start other projects.

Church members with bread ovens say that bringing volunteers together to build an oven is as much a community-building event as baking and eating the bread and pizza.

Racine United Methodist Church only has about 100 people, said church member Jeff Goeldi. But he said contractors and suppliers in town have donated materials and services to help them build their oven. Goeldi said the city even offered space in a park as a location for the oven.

"I think it's an opportunity for everybody to slow down and look at a way of doing things that's new to us, but very old," Goeldi said.

Hamline Church member Caleb Schultz, 16, has baked cinnamon bread in the oven there and can point to the bricks he laid to help build it.

"It was cool. I'd never done that before," he said.

Football players from the Hamline University team also helped the church, hauling construction materials used to build the oven.

"We were looking for a way to provide a place for the community to gather and really slow down," said Mark Ireland, a Ramsey County District Court judge and a member of Hamline Church.

"The food that's come out of it has been really good. The bread that's come out of it has been really good, and the community will be only getting better," Ireland said.

"The bread is wonderful. It's great bread. But it's not about the bread. It's about the people," said Ross Safford, a former chef and baker and a friend of Johnson's who has taught bakers how to use the ovens. "It's been a singular blessing in my life, and I've been playing with food for probably 40 years."

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri Planned Parenthood branch will not comply with a subpoena to give abortion-related records to Republican state lawmakers, the women's health group said Friday.

In a letter provided to AP and sent to Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, who issued the subpoena, an attorney for Planned Parenthood questioned the Senate's authority to subpoena private organizations and raised patient privacy and other concerns.

Republican Sen. Kurt Schaefer, who is running for Missouri attorney general in 2016, said he pushed for the subpoena to provide information to a committee he's leading that is reviewing abortion practices in the state. He said Planned Parenthood is in contempt.

GOP leaders launched the Senate Interim Committee on the Sanctity of Life in response to the release of undercover videos by anti-abortion activists that they said showed Planned Parenthood personnel discussing the sale of fetal tissue.

Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri President and CEO Mary Kogut in a Friday statement said the St. Louis clinic — currently the only center providing abortions in the state — does not participate in a fetal tissue donation program.

"We have been clear about this fact from the very beginning," Kogut said, citing a review by Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster that found no evidence of wrongdoing. She said the organization stands on Koster's conclusion "and believe the issue has been resolved."

Planned Parenthood's letter to Richard said answering a request for documents of any incidents where an ambulance was called would violate a federal patient privacy law. It went on to say that there's an "increased concern over the sensitivity of abortion-related records," particularly after a November fatal shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood.

Schaefer said the committee wasn't asking for private health records and said Planned Parenthood could have redacted personally identifiable information from documents. He said the goal was to find out more information on the St. Louis clinic's abortion policies and procedures.

"I guess there's something they don't want us to find out," Schaefer said.

Schaefer said it's up to the full Senate how to proceed, but said jail time or fines are an option in cases of contempt. Senate Republican spokeswoman Lauren Hieger said Richard is waiting to review a committee report due at the end of the month that will include recommendations from members.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa's new president has hired a consultant with business ties to Board of Regents president Bruce Rastetter to improve his public communication skills.

UI President Bruce Harreld is paying for the services of Eileen Wixted, a crisis communications consultant known for making people look good on television and in public presentations, out of his own pocket. The arrangement bypasses the open records law and the school's communications staff, which is being overseen by a $20,000-per-month consultant.

The relationship came as Harreld sought to get past the controversy surrounding his September hiring, which was condemned by groups representing faculty and students. Critics argued that Rastetter and other members of the school's governing board gave Harreld, a former IBM executive, favorable treatment throughout the search.

Colleagues in similar positions recommended media training to Harreld and he didn't believe the university should cover the cost since it was a personal skill he needed, university spokeswoman Jeneane Beck said. The private arrangement wasn't meant to conceal Wixted's role, Beck said.

Harreld picked Wixted on the recommendation of more than one person, Beck said.

Harreld released a statement Friday saying, "I felt it was important to work with an Iowa firm and heard from several people that Wixted & Company had a strong reputation and good sense of the Iowa media landscape."

Wixted said she isn't sure who recommended her, and a Board of Regents spokesman said Rastetter was traveling and unavailable to say whether he was one.

"I really admire the fact that he self-identified, 'this is an area that I don't have a lot of experience in and I need to improve,'" Wixted said.

Media training is a necessary exercise for government agencies, but it's "very strange" for one executive to pay for it out of his own pocket for himself, said communications consultant Claire Celsi.

"To not disclose how much they are paying for that or not have the process vetted or bid on is unusual," said Celsi, a Democrat who called Wixted "top-notch."

Wixted works for clients in nuclear power, health care and agribusiness, including Rastetter's corporation, Summit Farms.

Wixted helped Summit Farms respond to questions last year about $480,000 in no-interest loans it had received from a program based at Iowa State University, which critics called a conflict of interest for Rastetter. Her West Des Moines-based firm was a sponsor of Rastetter's Iowa Agriculture Summit this year that brought presidential candidates to Iowa for interviews with him.

She's also done some work for regents' institutions. She was hired for behind-the-scenes communications advice for University of Northern Iowa when regents approved the closure of its teaching laboratory school and numerous academic programs in 2012.

Wixted initially denied that she'd been doing any UI-related work when asked by the AP. But when asked about her arrangement with Harreld, she confirmed that she had been working with him as a "private client" after he gave her permission to discuss it. She declined to disclose her fee.

Wixted said she conducted "on-camera media coaching sessions" for Harreld before he assumed the presidency Nov. 2, focusing on the "mechanics of being interviewed by broadcast media." She hopes to do more.

Wixted said she didn't advise Harreld on strategy and messaging, leaving those functions to UI. Since July, the university has been paying Terri Goren of Atlanta-based Goren and Associates $20,000 a month to oversee its Office of Strategic Communication on a part-time basis. Goren's contract, which called for her to develop a communications plan for the new president, ends Dec. 31.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Planned Parenthood says it follows Ohio law for the disposal of fetal tissue and calls a report by the Ohio Attorney General alleging the agency of wrongdoing inflammatory.

Stephanie Kight, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, says the agency handles medical tissue disposal in line with other health care providers.

Kight says the agency's agreements with waste disposal vendors requires them to follow state law and dispose of tissue accordingly.

Attorney General Mike DeWine on Friday criticized the agency for disposing of fetal remains in landfills.

DeWine calls such disposal callous and says it violates Ohio rules calling for humane disposal of fetal tissue.

DeWine says his office will sue next week to stop Planned Parenthood's three Ohio affiliates from landfill disposal of aborted fetuses.

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This story has been changed to correct headlines to say Planned Parenthood follows Ohio law for fetus disposal.

HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say three suburban Detroit teachers got sick after eating marijuana-laced brownies put out in a school lounge.

Oakland County sheriff's officials said Friday that deputies were called on Wednesday to Spring Hills Elementary School in Highland Township on a tainted food complaint. A teacher became ill the day before and she later tested positive for marijuana at a hospital.

Police say two other teachers felt sick but didn't seek medical treatment.

The deputies recovered the remaining brownies, and tests revealed they contained the active ingredient in marijuana.

Huron Valley Schools officials say they are working with law enforcement to determine who brought the brownies to school. District officials say they don't know whether they were put out intentionally or brought by mistake.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri state senator is proposing a bill that would prevent abortions solely because a test indicated the baby has or could develop Down syndrome.

The bill, pre-filed by Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, also would require doctors who perform abortions in such cases to certify that they didn't know an abortion was sought because of the Down syndrome diagnosis. A doctor who violates the bill's provisions would face up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Down syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes developmental and intellectual delays.

Sater led efforts in 2014 to pass a bill that requires a woman to wait 72 hours after seeing a doctor before having an abortion.

North Dakota has banned abortions because of a fetal genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome, and Ohio is considering a similar measure.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Rep. Stacey Newman, D-St. Louis, said such decisions should be left to the woman and her doctor.

"It's no one else's business in terms of medical advice that you would have or decisions that you and your partner would need to make getting a diagnosis," she said. "A genetic disorder that has been diagnosed is traumatic enough without someone else interfering and putting another burden on that woman's legal decision."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The list of Missouri cities where police have alerted the FBI of suspicious bulk purchases of prepaid, disposable cellphones from Wal-Mart stores is growing.

Last weekend, two men bought roughly 60 of the phones in Lebanon in southwestern Missouri. Thirty-two cellphones were purchased in Macon, and an unspecified number of the phones were bought in Columbia.

But the Southeast Missourian of Cape Girardeau reports that on Dec. 4, police in Jackson say four dozen of the cellphones were bought at a Wal-Mart there. Several prepaid cellphones also were purchased in Cape Girardeau, and Jefferson City police tell the Columbia Missourian that three people bought more than 50 of the phones at a Wal-Mart there.

Such phones, often called "burners," can be bought and used anonymously, then discarded to avoid detection.

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — At 106 years old, Emma Voss has some advice for those looking for a long life.

Voss tells The Saginaw News people should "take it easy" and be sure to stay "prayered up." The Saginaw woman also suggests cooking food yourself to help stay healthy.

Voss spent her birthday Thursday surrounded by relatives in the intensive care unit of Covenant HealthCare in Saginaw after surgery to have a pacemaker implanted. Hospital staff brought her a bouquet of balloons and a gift to help her celebrate.

Voss moved to Saginaw in the 1950s with her husband, who came to work in one of the city's foundries. She worked in the Saginaw Veteran's Administration hospital.

After her hospital stay she plans to return to her home — and resume cooking.

PILGER, Neb. (AP) — Strong winds have destroyed a northeast Nebraska church that was being rebuilt after a devastating tornado.

The Norfolk Daily News reports that St. John's Lutheran Church was hit by the winds Wednesday evening. The building was under construction after being destroyed in June 2014 by a powerful tornado.

Project Superintendent Don Thiesen says winds estimated at more than 60 mph brought down the building's north and south walls, its rafters and interior walls.

Thiesen and three other workers were in the building around 6:30 p.m. and retreated to safety.

Thiesen says trusses have been reordered, and the project's construction firm is waiting on approval from its insurance company to proceed.

ALPENA, Mich. (AP) — More than 100 animals that were confiscated from a farm in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula will remain at foster homes for now.

The Alpena News reports a hearing to determine whether the animals should be forfeited by owner Deborah Lewandowski or remain temporarily housed until a criminal case is resolved started Thursday and resumes Dec. 23.

Witnesses testified the animals were living in poor conditions, with hooves on several horses overgrown. Among the animals were two dozen cocker spaniels and the dogs had what were described as severe flea infestations.

In questioning one witness, defense lawyer Bill Yahne asked whether Lewandowski may have been taking steps to help the dogs.

A veterinarian says two horses, a dog and a donkey needed to be euthanized because of their poor health.

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Information from: The Alpena News, http://www.thealpenanews.com

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A northern Illinois school district is banning "team prayers" at high school sporting events after a Wisconsin-based organization complained about the practice.

Naperville Community Unit School District 203 Superintendent Dan Bridges said Thursday that he will enact a ban on coach-led prayer at all Naperville Central High School and Naperville North High School student athletic events.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a complaint this week after seeing a photo appearing to show Naperville Central High School kneeling in prayer before a Nov. 14 game against Waubonsie Valley High School.

An attorney for the organization replied Thursday in a letter to Bridges that the ban doesn't "go far enough" to assure religious rituals are kept out of district-sponsored or sanctioned events.

District officials didn't immediately return requests for comment.

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio county councilwoman has pleaded not guilty to charges in a federal indictment accusing her of taking bribes.

Fifty-seven-year-old Tamela Lee, of Akron, entered the pleas Thursday to charges including honest services mail fraud, obstruction of justice and making false statements.

Lee has served on the Summit County Council since 2011 and is the second ranking officer in the county Democratic Party.

Prosecutors say Lee solicited and accepted items, including money, loans, campaign contributions, home improvements, home maintenance and consumer goods in exchange for official actions — including help with court cases, impeding a pending IRS investigation and assistance obtaining a liquor license.

She and her attorney declined to comment after a court hearing, and her attorney didn't respond to messages left at his office.

By CRAIG T. NEISES

The Hawk Eye

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Concepts of mercy are central to observances of the Christian faith. It is regularly spoken of, preached on and sung about in church, and acted out in myriad ways.

In Luke 6:36, Jesus says "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

But in the coming year, after a declaration by Pope Francis in April of what has been dubbed the Holy Year of Mercy, Catholics around the world will give special attention to the role of mercy in their lives and in their parishes.

"It's basically a year that we celebrate God's mercy for us," said the Rev. Marty Goetz, pastor of SS. John and Paul parish in Burlington.

The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy opens with a special Mass to be celebrated Tuesday at the Vatican, and next Sunday in pilgrimage churches throughout the Catholic world.

The Hawk Eye reports that, locally, that church is St. Paul the Apostle in Burlington. A symbolic "holy door," providing a spiritual connection to the Vatican, will be opened there during the 11 a.m. Mass and will remain open throughout the jubilee.

By declaring a special year of jubilee, Pope Francis has set mercy at the heart of Catholic teaching throughout 2016. The jubilee year ends Nov. 20.

"One of the themes of the pope," Goetz said, "is that God is very loving; that God is very merciful. God never tires of forgiving us. We're the ones that get tired of going to God."

Though a central idea of the faith, the added emphasis presents an opportunity to concentrate on forgiveness, receiving God's mercy and sharing that mercy with others, Goetz said. Among the ways to accomplish that goal, he said, will be through homilies centered on the notion "that we are to be a people of mercy."

Each Catholic parish will observe the Holy Year of Mercy in its own way with special events, masses or projects. As a pilgrimage church site, St. Paul will be open for prayer and reflection by visitors from throughout the Keokuk Deanery — a subdivision of the Diocese of Davenport that includes parishes in Des Moines, Lee, Henry and Van Buren counties. There are nine pilgrimage sites across the diocese.

At St. Paul, the sanctuary will be open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays throughout the jubilee year for people to offer prayer and reflection. Special prayer sheets will be available at those times. Expanded confessional hours also will be added.

People who make a pilgrimage to the church, Goetz said, "when they leave, dedicate themselves to be merciful with others. You enter into prayer to ask God for help to be merciful."

Every Catholic is asked to make a pilgrimage during the year. Non-Catholics, many of whom have become interested in the church since Pope Francis began his papacy, also are welcome to come learn more about the Catholic faith.

Welcome as well are those who have drifted from the church and are feeling themselves called by the pope's example to return.

At St. Paul, a weekend of special events, including a special Friday mass led by Bishop Martin Amos, is planned for the beginning of April at St. Paul. The annual Faith Festival sponsored by SS. John and Paul each summer at Crapo Park also is likely to take on mercy as its theme. Other plans for the year still are in the works.

"We're just going to try to bring an attitude of mercy into the parish," Goetz said.

That will mean, he said, living the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Those include feeding the hungry, providing drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, giving shelter to the homeless, visiting the sick and the imprisoned and burying the dead; and also instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, admonishing the sinner, bearing wrongs patiently, granting forgiveness willingly, comforting the afflicted and praying for the living and the dead.

"It's a call to action," Goetz said. "Very, very much so."

That action will take place inside and outside the church, so the church, he said, can "become a face of mercy" in the broader community. The work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, based at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, to provide food to people in Burlington who might otherwise go hungry is one example of how the parish already puts mercy into action.

The Holy Year of Mercy has given the diocese the opportunity to recognize a significant early figure in the development of the Catholic church in the Upper Midwest. The Rev. Samuel Mazzuchelli, whom Goetz described as the "first missionary in our part of Iowa" and who also was a noted church architect, founded several parishes in eastern Iowa, including St. Paul the Apostle in Burlington in 1840.

Four of the seven churches are in the Diocese of Davenport, and each is among the nine pilgrimage sites. The original St. Paul church, according to a parish history, was replaced with the present-day building at Fourth and Columbia streets in 1892.

Mazzuchelli came to the United States from Rome in 1829, settling first in Ohio then being sent on to Galena, Ill., in 1835. From that post, he began a period of church-building that started with St. Raphael's Cathedral in Dubuque and went on to include churches in Iowa City, Muscatine, Davenport and Burlington.

Catholics taking part in the Holy Year of Mercy, Goetz said, are able to continue the missionary legacy of Mazzuchelli.

"We are all missionaries of mercy," he said, "by how we live, by how we speak, by how we act."