Nation in brief: Third person from sweat lodge dies

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The family of a Minnesota woman who died more than a week after being overcome in an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony said Sunday that she prided herself on leading a healthy and active life.

Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, suffered multiple organ damage and was in a coma before she died Saturday at a Flagstaff hospital. She was among dozens crowded into the sweat lodge on Oct. 8 at a resort just outside Sedona.

Louis Diesel, an attorney for her family, said that he was planning a lawsuit on their behalf.

Self-help expert and author James Arthur Ray had rented the Angel Valley Retreat Center for his five-day “Spiritual Warrior” event that culminated in a sweat lodge ceremony.

Twenty-one people were taken to area hospitals with illnesses ranging from dehydration to kidney failure. Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee, died upon arrival at a hospital. No one else remains hospitalized.

Sheriff’s investigators in Arizona’s Yavapai County are treating the deaths as homicides but have yet to determine the cause.

Catholic Diocese files bankruptcy

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Delaware’s Catholic Diocese of Wilmington filed for federal bankruptcy protection on Sunday night, on the eve of a civil trial in a high-profile sex abuse case against the diocese and a former priest.

The bankruptcy filing automatically delays the case in Kent County Superior Court, the first of eight consecutive abuse trials scheduled in Delaware.

“This is a painful decision, one that I had hoped and prayed I would never have to make,” said the Rev. W. Francis Malooly, the bishop of the diocese, on the diocese’s Web site.

Malooly said the decision was made “after careful consideration and after consultation with my close advisers and counselors” and that he believed “we have no other choice.” He said “filing for Chapter 11 offers the best opportunity, given finite resources, to provide the fairest possible treatment of all victims of sexual abuse by priests of our Diocese.”

Thomas Neuberger, an attorney representing 88 alleged victims, described the bankruptcy filing as a “desperate effort to hide the truth from the public and conceal the thousands of pages of scandalous documents” from being made public in court.

The Diocese of Wilmington is the seventh U.S. Catholic diocese to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since the church abuse scandal erupted seven years ago in the Archdiocese of Boston. Dioceses in Spokane; Davenport, Iowa; Fairbanks, Alaska; Portland; San Diego and Tucson, Ariz., also sought bankruptcy protection. The San Diego case was dismissed.

Female chimp, 49, dies at zoo

TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo Zoo said one of the oldest female chimpanzees in the North American zoo population has died.

Fifi, a 49-year-old chimp, died Friday. Fifi came to the Toledo Zoo in 1963 at the age of three and was easily identified by a small white toy alligator she carried for nine years.

The zoo said Sunday that Fifi’s keepers noticed Thursday morning that she seemed stiff and tired. After improving early Friday, she then appeared disoriented in the afternoon and then deteriorated rapidly until she died.

A necropsy revealed possible blood vessel abnormalities in her brain. Further tests will be done.