Slow-cooker killing; ghost churches; inked Wolverine fan

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Archbishop John Nienstedt's leadership of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis unraveled over a painful two years.

A church archivist accused him of leaving abusive clergy in parishes and church jobs without warning parents or police. A task force he appointed to investigate confirmed the archdiocese had been negligent. Around the same time, he faced allegations of his own inappropriate sexual conduct, but he didn't reveal specifics.

Through it all, Nienstedt rejected calls for his resignation. Then, less than two weeks ago, a prosecutor brought child-endangerment charges against the archdiocese, and on Monday, he stepped down.

"I leave with a clear conscience knowing that my team and I have put in place solid protocols to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults," Nienstedt wrote in the announcement.

But the Rev. Michael Tegeder, a Minneapolis priest and frequent Nienstedt critic, said the archbishop "came into this diocese without really any empathy" and "undermined so many of the good things that were going on here."

"He had to go," Tegeder said.

When the crisis erupted, Nienstedt had his defenders, but he couldn't bank on widespread support in the archdiocese. Appointed in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI, Nienstedt took a much harder line than his predecessor, Archbishop Harry Flynn, on upholding Catholic orthodoxy.

As bishop of nearby New Ulm, Nienstedt had chided a priest who worshipped with Lutherans after a tornado destroyed a Catholic church. In his diocesan newspaper, Nienstedt warned parishioners not to attend the movie "Brokeback Mountain" because it showed sex between two men.

As Minneapolis archbishop in 2010, he made a high-profile drive for a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman by appearing in a DVD that was mailed to several hundred thousand Minnesota Catholic families. Many local Catholics and clergy felt alienated by his style and emphasis.

"He was out of step with the archdiocese. He did not respect the people, did not respect his priests, did not engage in dialogue," said Charles Reid, a professor in canon law at the University of St. Thomas. "He was an autocrat."

Then in May 2013, Minnesota lawmakers lifted time limits for lawsuits brought by child sex-abuse victims. Dioceses in other states, such as California, that opened a window for such suits faced a deluge of claims that forced them to pay millions of dollars and release thousands of incriminating files.

As attorneys started filing lawsuits, the archdiocese took a hit from within: the archivist, canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger, who had worked for the archdiocese for five years, went public with accusations that church leaders covered up for an abuser and kept him on assignment.

She made a stream of allegations over the next year, accusing bishops and top archdiocesan staff of lying to the public and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, using a chaotic record-keeping system that helped conceal the backgrounds of guilty priests still in ministry and failing to monitor abusive clergy as promised.

Haselberger's allegations hit especially hard since they came nearly a dozen years after U.S. bishops, at the height of the national clergy sex-abuse crisis, pledged to remove all guilty clergy from church work.

The archdiocese insisted child safety was its highest priority and Nienstedt pledged to prove it, with a renewed focus on preventing abuse. He appointed the task force that looked into the archdiocese's record on abuse cases and promised to implement the committee's recommendations. But he was working in the shadow of allegations of his own misconduct. A boy accused him of inappropriate touching in a public setting, which police concluded was unlikely.

Then, Nienstedt revealed he had hired a law firm to conduct another investigation into his conduct, this time over allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior with seminarians and priests. The archdiocese has not released the findings.

Nienstedt said he was innocent and would press on as archbishop despite demands he step down.

"A bishop is not just a CEO of a company. A bishop is really a father of a family of faith," Nienstedt told the AP in a 2014 interview. "When problems arise, he doesn't run away, but he stays and confronts the situation."

However, the scandal only intensified. This past January, the archdiocese became the 12th in the country to seek bankruptcy protection in the face of clergy sex-abuse claims. Then earlier this month, prosecutors brought criminal child-endangerment charges against the archdiocese over its handling of Curtis Wehmeyer, a former St. Paul priest who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two boys and is facing prosecution involving a third in Wisconsin.

Prosecutors say church leaders failed to respond to "numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct" by Wehmeyer from the time he entered seminary until he was removed from the priesthood in 2015.

"I think there were a lot of people who could have supported him until they read the criminal complaint," Haselberger said Monday in a phone interview with the AP. She called the resignation of Nienstedt and his top aide, Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche, "a necessary and prudent step."

Leaving early morning Mass on Monday at the Cathedral of St. Paul, parishioner Leslie Ahlers of Eagan considered the archbishop a dedicated and thoughtful church leader, but said a change may be best.

"It's been such a trial," Ahlers said. "I'm just hopeful this will help us through this time and bring the archdiocese to a new chapter."

LANSING, Mich. — A loan and grant fund announced Monday in Lansing is designed to address the lack of access to healthy food in underserved communities across the state.

Organizers with the Michigan Good Food Fund are seeking potential borrowers, investors and others to get involved.

The fund will provide financing and business assistance to entrepreneurs involved in food production, distribution, processing, marketing and retail projects. The goal is to raise $30 million.

"The fund will also be an incredible opportunity for food entrepreneurs, harnessing capital and growing strong, local economies," said Oran Hesterman, Fair Food Network president and Chief Executive.

Partners include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Fair Food Network, Michigan State University's Center for Regional Food Systems, and Capital Impact Partners.

"One in five Michigan residents live in lower-income communities with limited access to the nutritious fruits and vegetables they need to thrive," said La June Montgomery Tabron, W.K. Kellogg Foundation president and Chief Executive. "The Michigan Good Food Fund is fueling our state's good food economy and increasing access to healthy food with direct benefits for our most vulnerable children and families."

Other community events will be held Thursday in Grand Rapids, June 22 in Detroit and June 29 in Traverse City.

FARGO, N.D. — Two Fargo radio personalities who for the past decade have been documenting ghost towns and abandoned places in North Dakota say the most popular photos on their website have been those of old churches.

So Terry Hinnenkamp and Troy Larson decided to make their fourth coffee table book about churches in the Dakotas and elsewhere, some of which are still standing after more than 150 years. There's a church in Deisem, in southeastern North Dakota, which the two photographers expected to crumble 10 years ago.

"It's that church that every year we see it, it is not going to last much longer. And every year it continues to hold on and amaze you," Hinnenkamp said. "It kind of makes you feel there's a special power to these churches that lets them hold on as long as they do."

Hinnenkamp and Larson met in the radio business and became ghost town biographers through a failed promotion to document nights spent in haunted houses. They've sold three "Ghost of North Dakota" books and have made enough money to move on to the next project and once in a while stay in a hotel rather than a tent.

"We would love to make a bunch of money, but history still is our main focus," Hinnenkamp said. "Getting a lot of pictures of these places before they're gone is basically our No. 1 goal."

"Churches of the High Plains" is a 120-page hardcover book that features buildings and cemeteries from North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Manitoba. Although the first three books feature a handful of churches, the duo decided to dedicate an entire book to them because traffic on ghostsofnorthdakota.com picks up every time they post a church.

"The church is that iconic structure," Hinnenkamp said. "When you see it, no matter what, there's a church in there that is going to remind you of your past."

Larson said his favorite photos are from the Brown Earth Church and Cemetery in Grant County, South Dakota, a log cabin that was built by Native Americans in 1877 and still has the old pump organ. The organ doesn't work, but the church bell does.

"It's so remote. Just this peaceful spot on the prairie," Larson said.

In addition to the Deisem church, Hinnenkamp is partial to the massive St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church in Lefor, partly because regulars on the website still marvel about the congregation's cookbook.

"All these years later that cookbook is still being utilized by people and remembered,' Hinnenkamp said.

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — State wildlife biologists believe the first wild black bear confirmed in Indiana since the 1870s is continuing to wander around the state line with Michigan.

The Department of Natural Resources said Monday evidence found over the weekend shows that the bear traveled from northern Indiana's St. Joseph County into a rural area of neighboring LaPorte County near Michigan City.

Biologists believe the young male bear walked into the area from Michigan, which has an estimated black bear population topping 15,000.

Black bears are listed as an exotic mammal and are protected under Indiana law. Wildlife officials say black bears are typically shy and tend to avoid humans.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A recent court filing raises anew allegations a Turkish religious movement is wielding influence inside a chain of Ohio charter schools targeted in federal raids last year, claims the schools' operator maintains are false.

An ex-employee of Horizon Science Academy Denison Middle School made the allegations in a May affidavit filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in an ongoing discrimination lawsuit brought by his wife, a fired teacher.

Mustafa Emanet, who worked at the school from August 2006 to May 2009, says followers of the moderate Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen brought him to the U.S. from Turkey without a job interview, demanded cash kickbacks to the Gulen movement from his pay and pension and repeatedly deceived the U.S. government.

Emanet, of Elyria, says the school's Turkish teachers and administrators were called to exclusive staff meetings, attended religious retreats and made regular visits to the Poconos compound where Gulen lives in exile. Emanet says he saw a man who was with him on a 2007 trip to the compound deny any connection to Gulen in a 2012 television interview.

The Chicago-based Concept Schools, which operates the Horizon and Noble academies in Ohio, continues to deny formal ties to the Gulen movement. Officials there have said many of them admire the teachings of Gulen, a promoter of universal education, but he doesn't run their schools or benefit from the public money they collect.

Spokesman Mark Weaver said claims in the affidavit have been previously raised and disproved. He said Emanet and his wife, Mary Addi, have a longstanding vendetta against the school because of her firing and because it's non-union and are spreading falsehoods. He produced a letter in which Concept's attorney says Addi was terminated for reasons including "breach of contract, fraud, dishonesty, (and) insubordination."

"The school fired this disgruntled former employee because she was caught lying and caught working another job when she had promised taxpayers she would work full time," he said. "Later, she destroyed numerous public records to cover her tracks."

According to the affidavit, Murat Sagnak, then-director of the Horizon Academy, instructed Emanet to tell officials at the U.S. Embassy in Istanbul if they asked "that he (Sagnak) had conducted several phone interviews with me, which never actually happened."

Emanet says employees also were told to hand over the usernames and passwords to their State Teachers Retirement System accounts with the expectation they would "give the Gulen Movement our STRS retirement funds if we left the school." Further, he alleges Concept raised his pay from $28,000 to $42,000 and he "was instructed to give the money back in cash to the Gulen Movement every pay period." Federal labor officials settled an earlier claim between Emanet and Concept on his back pay.

Weaver said Addi's claims surrounding Horizon were dismissed as unsubstantiated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission five years ago. He said fewer than 10 percent of Concept Schools teachers are Turkish and money they donate to any cause is up to them.

Emanet did not return a call seeking additional information on Monday.

OMAHA, Neb. — Around $3,500 was raised this weekend for veterans with the help of two Omaha girls operating a lemonade stand.

Jadyn Horst, 10, and her 6-year-old sister Kalyn wanted to help support veterans to honor a former kindergarten teacher who died after serving in Iraq, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

The money from the sisters' lemonade stand and sales by food vendors at the Sunday fundraiser went toward the Wounded Warriors Family Support and Moving Veterans Forward organizations.

"I look at those two little girls and I think, 'This is awesome,' " said Wendy Tatro of Wounded Warriors Family Support. "It shows a lot about their characters and their upbringing."

Tatro said helping injured veterans takes many forms. More than 400 families benefit from a program that helps caregivers of veterans.

"Right now we have two women with children at St. Jude's Hospital in Memphis," Tatro said. "While they're away, we help care for the veteran and any other family members. We do whatever is needed, from cleaning house to running errands."

Founder Ron Hernandez of Moving Veterans Forward said his organization works with homeless veterans in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. He helps round up necessary household items for whenever a home has been found for a veteran.

"What these two young ladies are doing is great," he said. "They're finding a passion for taking care of our vets, and that's important, because vets step up to take care of the citizens of the United States, not just in war but in times of natural disasters."

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A fungal disease is responsible for decimating Ohio's bat population in recent years, and wildlife officials say hikers are partly to blame.

White-nose syndrome first appeared in 2011 and is now confirmed in 19 counties, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

One infected bat can carry the deadly disease back to its den and infect an entire colony. The fungus produces billions of spores that live in the soil and walls of caves or other habitats.

Ohio Division of Wildlife bat biologist Jennifer Norris said white-nose syndrome is so widespread because humans transmit spores from site to site. Hikers and nature enthusiasts exploring caves or abandoned mines often unknowingly pick up white-nose syndrome spores on their clothing and spread the disease.

Ohio is home to 11 species of bats, which are active from early spring through fall. In the winter, with no insect food supply, some bats migrate to warmer regions while others hibernate in mass colonies.

Norris said bats can contract white-nose syndrome any time of the year, but winter is its deadliest time.

Large numbers of bats gather in close proximity during the colder months, making them more susceptible to the disease.

Norris said losing millions of bats, and the valuable insect control they provide, could have huge consequences for forests and agriculture.

The U.S. Forest Service extended an order last week prohibiting anyone from entering underground mines or tunnels in Wayne National Forest in an effort to minimize risks to the state's bat population. Violators can be punished by fines up to $5,000 and six months in prison.

Forest spokesman Gary Chancey said no citations have been issued since the order went into effect in May 2010.

OMAHA, Neb. — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha announced Monday that it has completed its investigation into the life and virtue of the Rev. Edward Flanagan, another step in efforts to have sainthood declared for the founder of Boys Town.

Flanagan, who was depicted in the Academy Award-winning 1938 movie "Boys Town," was named a "servant of God" more than three years ago by Omaha Archbishop George Lucas. A diocesan tribunal then officially began what was required to be a neutral examination of Flanagan. That review will officially end Thursday with a Mass of celebration and a public declaration of the closing.

Omar Gutierrez, Lucas' assistant, would not say Monday what the diocesan investigation concluded, but did say, "the fact that we are having a celebration suggests that we didn't find anything to bar him."

Flanagan founded the Boys Town orphanage in a downtown Omaha home in 1917. Boys Town moved to its current west Omaha location several years later and serves as a center for troubled youth in the area while running campuses and programs for thousands of other boys and girls across the country. Flanagan died of a heart attack in 1948 at age 61 while visiting Germany.

The next step in the sainthood effort is submitting the findings to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, a Vatican entity, Gutierrez said. If approved, Flanagan would be named "venerable."

Then, the next two Vatican-approved declarations for someone on the path toward sainthood would be beatification and canonization. Two miracles must be attributed to a candidate for sainthood, Gutierrez said, including one that must be verified as occurring after he or she was beatified.

The Omaha-based Father Flanagan League Society of Devotion is behind the sainthood effort and already has collected testimony from people who said Flanagan was responsible for miracles involving the curing of illnesses.

Gutierrez couldn't say how long the remaining process could take, citing the volume of work at the Vatican.

"It could take a year. It could take 10 years," he said.

MINNEAPOLIS — Changes in the penalties for drunken driving could affect thousands of motorists in Minnesota who get behind the wheel while heavily intoxicated beginning in August.

The threshold for a gross misdemeanor driving offense was lowered this year by the Legislature to a blood-alcohol concentration of .16 percent. The decision to drop that threshold by .04 percentage point could result in nearly 3,000 more gross misdemeanor DWI offenses each year, the Star Tribune reported.

The change also carries maximum one-year jail terms, up from 90 days under the misdemeanor standard, and triples the current $1,000 maximum fine. It also authorizes stiffer bail of up to $12,000, which could result higher auto insurance rates and heftier legal bills, as well as stiffer penalties for subsequent DWI offenses.

Some lawyers representing DWI offenders say the lower threshold is too punitive, while supporters say it will help save lives.

Research shows that the likelihood getting into a car accident increases significantly above a blood-alcohol concentration of 1.15 percent, according to state Sen. Ron Latz of St. Louis Park, the chief sponsor of the bill in the Senate. The threshold of .16 percent was used in the legislation because it's "twice the legal limit" for a misdemeanor DWI, making it easier to grasp, he said.

"Hopefully, you'll have fewer people take the serious chance of those extra few drinks," Latz said.

On average, more than 5,000 people each year for the past three years were charged in Minnesota for driving with blood-alcohol levels between .16 and .19 percent.

One out of every seven drivers licensed in Minnesota has at least one DWI. And the state has the highest DWI recidivism rate in the nation, at over 40 percent.

MADISON, Wis. — New 70 mph speed limit signs are being posted this week on interstates and highways in Wisconsin this week.

The state Department of Transportation said Monday that crews will start installing about 470 updated speed limit signs on Tuesday.

About 810 miles of Wisconsin interstates and highways will have speed limits increased to 70 mph from the current 65 mph. The DOT says drivers can start accelerating on designated roads once the signs are posted. All signs are expected to be in place Wednesday.

A DOT spokesman said more freeway segments could be signed for 70 mph speeds in the future.

Gov. Scott Walker signed into law last month the measure that allows the DOT to decide which highways can post increased speeds.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It's no secret that Jay Rhadigan loves his wife. He's got a portrait of her — wearing a red dress, holding a hockey stick — tattooed on his upper right arm, and he talks about how great she is to anyone who will listen.

But if his love is measured by how much ink he has on his body and by how much he talks about a subject, his wife should be a bit jealous of his relationship with the Michigan Wolverines, according to The Ann Arbor News.

Rhadigan, a 40-year-old factory worker from Windsor, Ontario, has 12 University of Michigan-themed tattoos etched on his body.

Even tucked away inside the tattooed portrait of his wife are two tributes to his love affair with the maize and blue.

"If you look closely you can see the word 'Michigan' right here in the shaft of the hockey stick, and the Block M up at the top."

His obsession with U-M began about 27 years ago when he became a fan of the team as a 13-year-old growing up in eastern Canada.

Hockey was the king in his neck of the woods, but he also was exposed to a lot of Detroit-area television because it's what his hometown would broadcast.

"I saw a Michigan football game on TV, and I can't lie: I just fell in love with the winged helmet. It just blossomed from there," he said.

He moved from the east coast of Canada to Windsor, just a few miles from Detroit, and being closer to Ann Arbor made it easier for him to follow the team. It intensified his attraction.

"Once I started to learn what the school was about based on and philosophies and how the program was looked at, it was cool to see that things there aren't always just about winning, even though Michigan kicks ass," he said.

"It's about traditions. It's about values. I just love it."

Rhadigan didn't attend U-M because the international rates he would have had to pay were too much for him and his family to afford, but when he was 21 years old, he got his first Michigan-themed tattoo on his upper left arm.

It was a simple Block M with the word "Michigan" written through it and a banner reading "Go Blue!" waving underneath.

It took about 13 years for him to get his second U-M tattoo. After going so long between Michigan tattoos, modesty was an afterthought.

Across the outside of his right forearm, in big scripted letters from elbow to wrist, is the word "Michigan," and in the same fashion across his left forearm is the word "Wolverines." When he stacks his arms one on top of the other you know what team he cheers for.

His obsession only grew from there, and over the next few years is when the next 10 would come.

He's also got a skull with the winged helmet with the phrase "Hail to the Victors" inked around it, a shot of his favorite player Charles Woodson surrounded by each date the football program has won the National Championship, and the Bo Schembechler quote: "Those who stay will be champions."

He's got half of a Block M with a heart beating in the background to symbolize that he bleeds maize and blue and a paw print from his recently deceased dog Roxy with an "M'' inside the paw. Next came the tattoo of his wife with the Michigan themes buried inside.

"It's about traditions. It's about values. I just love it."

On his right calf is a partial helmet with a small maize "M," and on his left calf are the words "Go Blue" with a blue Block M in the background. On Rhadigan's chest is the original Michigan Wolverines logo, and his 12th and latest ink job is on his right ribcage — the Michigan drum line.

"For me, I like tattoos, and what better way than to portray your love for something than letting people see it publicly, no matter what it is? It's really a cool icebreaker, too," he said.

"I literally wear my love for my team on my sleeve. Even if people don't like the team, they still respect my passion for it and tell me they think it's cool to show my love and support for Michigan this way."

Adam Hoover, Rhadigan's best friend, is the owner of Electric Elephant Tattoos in Fair Haven, Michigan, just off the waters of Anchor Bay. Electric Elephant is where Hoover does all of Rhadigan's tattoos. He's responsible for 11 of the 12.

"We started hanging out, I had the shop, and it was sort of like, 'Hey, let's do this idea or that one,' and that's how it started," Hoover said.

"We kind of come up with the designs together. We just get to talking and something like this (drum line) comes together and I'm stuck doing it. He won't let anybody other than me tattoo him because I've done all but the first one of his tattoos and he loves them all."

Rhadigan said that other than the occasional "Ohio Bucknut" or "Sparty" fan he doesn't get any ridicule over his ink shrine to Michigan.

He uses his tattoos as conversation starters at times, and people think he gets the work done for attention, but at the core of it is just a simple man's love for the team he chose to support.

"I only do this for my enjoyment. That's what I get out of it. I do it all for me, not for what other people think. It was just my way of showing how big of a fan I am," he said.

"I just enjoy Michigan sports and the program as a whole. I enjoy every season. Obviously it's harder when you lose, but for me it's just about fun and being a fan. Win, lose or draw it's not going to matter to me. I'm going to be there."

Rhadigan's fanhood doesn't stop at tattoos. The super fan has a collection of memorabilia that includes a 1973 Bob Ufer vinyl LP of "Michigan's greatest games," a collection of more than 30 Michigan-themed garden gnomes, a maize and blue Christmas tree, a neon Michigan sign, and a barrage of posters, pictures, apparel and other collectibles.

He said it would be cliche to say his favorite memory as a Michigan fan is the Charles Woodson interception against Michigan State or the 1997 national championship. Instead he said his favorite moment as a Michigan fan came just two seasons ago.

"It's 2013 — the home opener against Western Michigan. Watching Jordan Kovacs lay the smack down on that damn (quarterback Alex Carder) and he popped his helmet right off," he said.

"I really followed his story because of how he got to be on the team, and to be at that game, the home opener, and to have that picture in my house and hear the sound of that hit, it was just so many cool things incorporated in one moment."

He said his Michigan-themed tattoos are far from finished, and he already has two more pieces in the works. One of them will include the Big House, and the other will be a tribute to all of Michigan's Heisman Trophy winners.

He even hopes to make it into the Guinness World Records for having the most tattoos dedicated to a single sports team.

With his wife's understanding of his love for Michigan, she knew she had to set some standards for their wedding, and even though she allowed him to wear a hat — he always wears a hat — she set one strict rule: No maize and blue.

Of course, when a man loves something so much, he has to honor his commitment.

So Rhadigan wore an all-black hat. And it had a black Block M on it.