BishopAccountability.org
	Diocese of Bridgeport Drops Its Lawsuit The Hartford Courant July 3, 2009 http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-statebrfs0703.artjul03,0,2214694.story The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport announced Thursday that it has dropped its lawsuit against the Office of State Ethics, now that the office has decided not to pursue an ethics investigation of the diocese. Church officials announced the action on their diocesan website Thursday. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had advised against the inquiry, saying it probably would have been seen as illegally intrusive and was probably unconstitutional.In March, more than 4,000 Catholics descended on the Capitol to protest a bill that would have radically changed the way churches handle their internal finances. Church officials had organized the rally and, on their website, asked parishioners to contact their local legislators to protest the plan. About a month later, they received a letter from the ethics office saying they were the "subject of an ... evaluation" to determine whether the diocese had violated state statutes by failing to register as a lobbyist before the rally. A Connecticut partnership has bought six nursing homes in the state that have been operating in receivership because of Marathon Healthcare's bankruptcy filing. Paradigm Healthcare Development paid $350,000 on Wednesday for the six Marathon facilities in Waterbury, Torrington, Prospect, New Haven, West Haven and Norwalk. The homes have nearly 730 skilled-nursing beds. The partnership is getting some help from union workers who agreed to a one-year pay freeze, and the state, which is promising more than $1 million in temporary Medicaid reimbursement increases. The partnership includes Dr. Charles Bizilj, director of emergency medicine at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, and veteran health care administrators Stephen LeGault and Scott Ziskin.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.