FirstCircle

A Kootenai County magistrate judge with numerous reprimands who appeared in court dressed as Darth Vader on Halloween is up for re-election in November. A campaign led by a former litigant of a divorce and custody case he oversaw in 2012 hopes to remove him.

Judge Clark A. Peterson, 57, was appointed to the bench in 2010 and has faced complaints over the years that his fantasy role-playing hobby interfered with his judicial work.

Campaign fliers call Peterson “Demon Lord” in reference to his former avatar: the demon prince Orcus, Lord of the Undead. He posted hundreds of comments on online fantasy message boards while at work, according to a 2013 Spokesman-Review story.

The judicial council’s investigation also looked into other allegations of misconduct by Peterson. On Halloween, he appeared in court dressed as Darth Vader, walking out from his chambers with Star Wars music playing on his cell phone.

Televisions that can stream platforms like Hulu or Max usually come loaded with technology that collects information on what viewers are watching, and buyers consent to have their viewing tracked when they open their new TV and click through terms of service agreements. Sometimes, data firms can connect those viewing habits to a voter’s phone or laptop via their IP address, promising a trove of information about an individual and the ability to track them across screens.

Other times, firms focus on dividing households into groups based on what they’re watching, how they use their TVs and how many campaign ads they’re seeing, which is a boon to political campaigns eager to target specific groups of voters. Connecting this data to voter files is increasingly a focus — a move that adds individual voting habits into the mix.

See TFA for the Infuriating details.

Scientific research shows that chlorpyrifos, a widely used insecticide, is strongly linked to brain damage in children. These and other health concerns led several countries and some U.S. states to ban chlorpyrifos years ago, but the chemical was still allowed for use by farmers in the U.S. after successful lobbying by its manufacturer.

In August 2021, the Biden Administration acknowledged the danger to children and announced it would ban chlorpyrifos from agricultural use. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revoked all tolerances for the chemical, which effectively stopped its use on all food and animal feed. That decision came a few months after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals directed the EPA to ban farm use unless safety for the chemical could be proven. However, in November 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit overturned the EPA’s ban, and directed the agency to evaluate whether chlorpyrifos can be safely used on some foods.

Despite trying to ban chlorpyrifos here, the U.S. EPA has interfered with efforts to reduce exposures to the neurotoxic insecticide globally, according to reporting by Sharon Lerner in ProPublica.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, which represents more than 66,000 pediatricians and pediatric surgeons, has warned that continued use of chlorpyrifos puts developing fetuses, infants, children and pregnant women at great risk.

Scientists have found that prenatal exposures to chlorpyrifos are associated with lower birth weight, reduced IQ, the loss of working memory, attention disorders, and delayed motor development.

Chlorpyrifos is also linked to acute pesticide poisoning and can cause convulsions, respiratory paralysis, and sometimes, death.

Say you’re on a yacht with your principal and they had a few tequilas, and then they’re like, “Oh, come on. Join us.” Ultimately, you have to remember that you are there because they’re paying you. It’s a job. They’re not your friend. Obviously, you need to share compassion and empathy. Sometimes your boss needs you to be a shoulder to cry on.

Officer Kevin Dave hit and killed Kandula with his police cruiser while the 23-year-old student was crossing the street in a marked crosswalk on Jan. 23, 2023.

Dave was driving 74 miles an hour without continuously running his siren while responding to a drug overdose call, on a street with a speed limit of 25 miles an hour.

Months later, footage was released of Seattle Police Officers Guild Vice President Daniel Auderer joking about Kandula’s death over the phone with SPOG President Mike Solan.

In that recording, Auderer can be heard laughing as he referred to Kandula as “a regular person,” going on to say, “Just write a check -- $11,000, she was 26 anyway, she had limited value.”

No time behind bars. $100 fine.

A former deputy with the Caledonia County Sheriff’s Department has been permanently banned from working in law enforcement in Vermont, nearly two years after he pleaded guilty to charges related to soliciting sex and nude photos from women he encountered while on duty.

Bunnell pleaded guilty in March 2022 in Caledonia County Superior criminal court in St. Johnsbury to misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct by phone and prohibited conduct.

The plea deal called for a $100 fine on the disorderly conduct charge and a two-year deferred sentence on the prohibited conduct charge.

The prohibited conduct charge stated that Bunnell offered money to a woman in exchange for nude photos. The disorderly charge stated that Bunnell repeatedly contacted a different woman “to harass” her into providing him with nude photos.

As part of the plea agreement, two other charges of committing prohibited acts were dismissed.

Providence has fallen far since the Sisters of Providence incorporated in 1859 with the Washington territorial government for “the relief of needy and suffering humanity, in the care of orphans, invalids, the sick and poor. "

The decay of ethical leadership is endemic in the corporate world. It is all the more troublesome in health care systems, particularly those that are faith-based. Government regulators must continue to be vigilant, but what’s really needed is a more enlightened generation of business leaders who understand that cutting corners, cheating customers and flouting rules only lead to organizational rot and an eventual comeuppance.

Earlier this month, the state Attorney General’s Office announced an agreement with Renton-based Providence to resolve a lawsuit that alleged the health care giant trained its staff to aggressively ask for payment from patients with low incomes who were likely eligible for financial assistance or billed them without determining if they qualified. In thousands of cases, Providence knowingly sent low-income patients — including Medicaid enrollees — to debt collectors.

Providence must forgive more than $137 million in medical debt and refund more than $20 million to patients the company billed for services despite knowing they likely qualified for free or reduced-cost health care. The refunds and debt relief will help nearly 100,000 people.

In a statement, Providence said it “recognizes the tough challenges many members of our community face that result in them not completing the financial assistance application process and we are also making improvements to our processes to encourage more individuals to apply for such assistance, which we are happy to offer.”

The phrase “we are happy to offer” seems incongruent with information gleaned in the legal action. One of Providence’s own employees warned leadership that the health system’s practices were “sending the poor to bad debt.”

The gouging of patients with low incomes is all the more galling considering Providence CEO Rod Hochman is the state’s highest-paid health care executive, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. Hochman received a total compensation package of $9.5 million in 2021, per the most recent data available for the system. In years prior, his pay reached nearly $11 million.