Ala. Judge Roy Moore Of Ten Commandments Fame: Legal Fund Says Ohio Telemarketer Kept Millions

AKRON (TDB) -- The Foundation For Moral Law fronted by former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has filed a lawsuit in Ohio federal court contending an Akron telemarketing firm improperly solicited potential donors nationwide, The Daily Bellwether has learned. The lawsuit alleges the telemarketer "did not turn any of more than $2.3 million raised" over to the foundation, which supports keeping religious symbols in public places. The lawsuit claims that InfoCision Management Corp. was originally hired to help raise funds for Moore's legal defense fund in 2003.

Moore became nationally notorious after he installed a display of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama Supreme Court and promised to wage a legal battle to keep monument in place. A federal judge ordered the display removed, Moore objected and lost his office in the dispute. He has since become a figure of some import on the religious right.

The case is Foundation for Moral Law Inc. vs InfoCision Management Corp, No. 5:07 cv 3121 U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio. The Foundation, which is headquartered in Montgomery, Al., contends that donors were not supposed to be called more than twice "to avoid 'donor burnout' or otherwise annoying or overzealous 'spoiling of plaintiff's donor base."

Infocision has not yet responded to the lawsuit. Court records show the company was recently served with the complaint. The foundation contends the terms of its contract were violated.

"InfoCision's calling records disclose that out of a total of 63,725 of plaintiff's donors, InfoCision has called 9,602 of those donors more than twice and raised from those recalls $239,031.85. In fact, InfoCisiion called 5,372 donors three times, 3,642 donors were called four times, and 588 donors were called five times. During the weekly updates on InfoCision progress, InfoCision reported amounts pledged and amounts received. The last reported "Acquisition Total" on October 28, 2005, stated amounts pledged at $3,627,477 with $2,333,063 actually collected by InfoCision."

The lawsuit states that the defendants "placed telephone calls to plaintiff's donor base and others for the sole purpose of obtaining money under the guise of benefiting plaintiff when in fact InfoCision had no intention of and did not turn any of more than $2.3 million dollars raised over to plaintiff."

Akron's Hospitals: Shrinking As Cleveland's Expand?

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- An organization that monitors the health care industry sees trouble brewing for Akron's hospitals as rivals The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals move forward with expansion plans. HealthLeaders-InterStudy, a Nashville firm that provides industry market intelligence, said population growth in NE Ohio is stagnant, which opens the door to the likelihood the Cleveland rivals will soon attempt to siphon business away from Akron. In other words, a squeeze appears in the offing. The market intelligence firm uses another description: A disruption in the existing hospital balance.

Its latest Cleveland Market Overview, summarized below by the company, says both the Clinic and University are undertaking billion-dollar-plus campaigns for new hospital facilities and expansion and renovation plans:

"The U.S. Census Bureau has projected that the city of Cleveland's population would fall below 400,000 in 2007," states Mark Cherry, HealthLeaders-InterStudy market analyst and author of the report. "However, both health systems are hoping to make the city a medical destination and attract patients from outside the immediate area."

"The most surprising building announcement was that of University Hospitals' new 200-bed hospital near Beachwood in an area of eastern Cuyahoga County that has been largely undeveloped. Expandable by up to 600 beds, University Hospitals' officials contend that the eastern suburbs need an acute-care hospital to serve the area's aging baby boomer population,and northern Summit County's affluent population growth. Though the two major health systems in the Akron market, Summa HealthSystem and Akron General Medical Center, have had affiliations with their Cleveland Clinic counterparts, they have enjoyed relative anonymity that may be lost if the rivalry between the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals spills into Summit County. University Hospitals' proposed Beachwood facility has the greatest chance of disrupting the boundaries between the Cleveland and Akron areas, and will draw people from the eastern suburbs in greater numbers than the existing small community hospitals in the area."

(Market Overviews provide a detailed analysis of local healthcare markets, allowing healthcare businesses to plan local strategies.)

Ohio Anti-War Rallies: Pentagon Spied In 2005

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A federal appeals court in Cincinnati today will be the site of a legal showdown between Bush Administration and ACLU lawyers over the constitutionality of the NSA's now-abandoned warrantless eavesdropping program. But other government documents reveal the Pentagon monitored recent peace demonstrations, including an Akron protest in 2005 and another at Kent State University.

The ACLU obtained the records under the Freedom of Information Act last year via a U.S. District Court lawsuit in Pennsylvania. The documents contain summarized information about 186 "anti-military protests or demonstrations in the U.S." The Akron rally was described in a Pentagon database as possibly affiliated with terrorism. -- even though the plan was merely to read names of slain American troops.

''Protests against the war in Iraq were a common trigger for TALON reporting," the ACLU said. "For example, a protest entitled 'Stop the War NOW!' was reported as a potential terrorist threat in a March 2005 TALON. The TALON describes the protest, aimed at a military recruiting station and federal building in Akron, Ohio, as including a rally, march and "Reading of Names of War Dead."

A Kent State University event scheduled by Veterans For Peace also was monitored by the Pentagon even though the St. Louis-based organization is described as a "peaceful anti-war/anti-military organization." VFP does believe that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be impeached for the war. Could that have made the group a target of monitoring?

The ACLU considers the government's efforts to track anti-war activities part of a broader infringement on personal liberty. In others words, in a free society it is not the business of the military or spy agencies to poke around gathering data about citizens and lawful activities.

"The Pentagon's misuse of the TALON database must be viewed in the wider context of increased government surveillance," the ACLU said. "With the help of phone companies, the National Security Agency has been tapping phones and reading e-mail without a warrant. The FBI has gathered information about peace activists, and recruited confidential informants inside groups like Greenpeace and PETA. All of these actions are part of a broad pattern of the executive branch using "national security" as an excuse for encroaching on the privacy and free speech rights of Americans without adequate oversight."

A complete version of the ACLU's report is HERE. It is not clear yet how much of an airing the NSA eavesdropping will receive before the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today. Some legal strategists in the Justice Department contend the case in moot, and the government has tried to cloak the dispute in a national security mantle.