Cardinal Blase Cupich offers a distinctively Catholic response to the church's renewed abuse crisis: the Pope "has a bigger agenda" than going down the "rabbit hole" of allegations. "He's got to get on with other things."

In a bizarre interview with a Chicago NBC affiliate, Cardinal Blaise Cupich, head of the Archdiocese of Chicago, suggested recent claims made by a former apostolic nuncio — the Vatican's envoy to the United States — that Pope Francis not only disregarded sexual abuse allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, but promoted McCarrick and sought his counsel, were going down a "rabbit hole."

The Pope, Cupich told NBC, has more important things to attend to than sex abuse scandals, like climate change and immigration.

The video of his statements is essential viewing.

If you want them held responsible, you're going to have to stop caring how. Read the rest

ProPublica's Michael Grabell and Topher Sanders obtained police reports and call logs from more than 70 of the 100 shelters housing immigrant children.

What the documents reveal: “If you're a predator, it's a gold mine.” Read the rest

A 6-year old girl separated from her mom under Trump's "zero tolerance" policy was sexually abused inside a Southwest Key shelter in Arizona, reports The Nation. Read the rest

Don't despair. Take action. Read the rest

John Oliver is in very good form in this 18-minute explainer on America's ghastly immigration courts, where "we try death penalty cases like it was traffic court," forcing refugee claimants (even children as young as three years old) to represent themselves in deportation proceedings where their very lives are at stake. Read the rest

After an outbreak of measles at Disneyland, California lawmakers had enough and passed SB277, banning kids from attending the state's schools unless they were fully vaccinated, and eliminating the waiver that let parents put their kids and others' in danger by signing a form stating that "immunization is contrary to my beliefs." Read the rest

This Danish boys choir attempts to plow through "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" after each downing a whole (ghost?) pepper. A sadistic YouTuber and "chilienthusiast" by the name of Chili Klaus gave each one of the members of the Herning Boys Choir a super-hot pepper to eat before trying to sing the Christmas carol over again.

One of the camera operators for the shoot, redditor YetACleverUsername reports:

[Chili Klaus] had a selection of different peppers for the participants, from which the kids could choose themselves. This is also why it varies greatly in how affected they happen to be. I don't know how spicy the lower end was, but the strongest chilis he brought, I believe, were these https://www.pepperscale.com/bhut-jolokia-chocolate/. However these were mainly meant as an option for the older guys, unless they were really insistent.

Then...

You see how they storm off in the end? There was milk prepared in the chamber off to the side. How quickly they recovered also varied a bit. I believe one or two of them puked, and a few definitely were dry-heaving. But honestly, they handled it far better than I was expecting.

There were a select few who needed a longer break, but in general they were quickly back to being excited/getting pictures taken with Chili Klaus. He also brought a big crate filled with chilis which they were allowed to take some from. So I imagine their friends and family suffered quite a bit over the next couple of days as well.

Before we knew him as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's blockbuster Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Elijah Wood was a child actor. In a recent interview with Britain's Sunday Times, Wood spoke out on sexual abuse of young actors in Hollywood, and says “a lot of vipers” roam the upper echelons of the entertainment biz, preying on naïvete and eagerness for fame.

“Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood. It was all organized. There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind,” he told the Times.

“There is darkness in the underbelly. What bums me about these situations is that the victims can’t speak as loudly as the people in power. That’s the tragedy of attempting to reveal what is happening to innocent people: they can be squashed, but their lives have been irreparably damaged.”

“If you’re innocent, you have very little knowledge of the world and you want to succeed,” he added. “People with parasitic interests will see you as their prey. What upsets me about these situations is that the victims can’t speak as loudly as the people in power.”

Wood is now 35. As a child, he performed with fellow child star alongside Macaulay Culkin in “The Good Son,” and had a part in the “Flipper” remake. He said his mother, Debra, protected him from predators back then, and he “never went to parties where that kind of thing was going on.”

Here's a non-paywalled report that quotes extensively from the Times: Elijah Wood Calls Out Hollywood's Pedophile Problem [the daily beast]

The paywalled Sunday Times interview was booked to promote his latest film The Trust, which tells the tale of corrupt cops who plan to steal drug money. Read the rest

A subsitute high school teacher in Easton, Pennsylvania was taken into police custody Tuesday and charged with institutional sexual assault after admitting to a judge that she had been having sex with a student since 2015. Read the rest

The popular television series “Law & Order: SVU” will present its semifictionalized spin on the Duggar family of “19 Kids and Counting” and pedophilia impunity fame. Read the rest

It's not just about child pornography found on his computer, possession of which he reportedly will admit to in court.

From the AP wire:

Federal prosecutors have released documents accusing longtime Subway pitchman Jared Fogle of engaging in sex acts with minors and receiving child pornography. Documents released Wednesday by the U.S. attorney's office in Indianapolis say the 37-year-old Fogle faces one count of travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and one count of distribution and receipt of child pornography.… Among the allegations in the document are that Fogle traveled to New York City to pay for sex acts with minors while he stayed in upscale hotels…

Fogle's computers and other gear were snatched by prosecutors on a recent raid at his home in Zionsville, Indiana. The raid followed the arrest of Russell Taylor, the director of The Jared Foundation, Fogle's childhood obesity charity, on child pornography charges. Fogle fired Taylor and said he was shocked by the allegations.

Subway, for whom Fogle became a spokesman after losing 200 pounds eating their sandwiches, confirmed Tuesday that he is no longer employed by them. No mention of the 15-year relationship can be found on their website.

We no longer have a relationship with Jared and have no further comment.

— SUBWAY® (@SUBWAY) August 18, 2015

Business Insider obtained an affidavit detailing the charges. Hayley Peterson:

According to the affidavit obtained by Business Insider, Fogle asked the former Subway franchisee in May 2008 to set up a meeting for him with her cousin.