Georgia: More charges filed in crematory case

Authorities filed another 102 criminal charges Tuesday against the operator of a crematory where hundreds of corpses have been discovered.

Ray Brent Marsh already faced 16 counts of theft by deception for allegedly taking money for cremations he never performed at Tri-State Crematory in Noble.

The 102 theft by deception charges were filed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and issued in a warrant by Walker County Magistrate Judge Shelia Thompson.

The new counts were connected to 51 of the corpses found at Tri-State. For each body, one count was filed for taking money from the families and another for failing to give the ashes to the families, officials said.

So far, 339 corpses have been found on the crematory grounds, including eight found in a pit on Tuesday. Only 74 have been identified.

Virginia: Drugstore group plans prescription network

Having medical prescriptions filled over the Internet may soon be as common as online banking under a national pharmacy computer network that will be launched in spring.

The changes could save consumers many hours of waiting in line at drugstores and could eliminate confusion and errors that have stemmed from pharmacists’ struggling to read illegible prescriptions.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores, based in Alexandria, is in the final stages of developing a computer network that would allow physicians to transmit prescriptions electronically to thousands of pharmacies, eliminating the need for handwritten orders, Crystal Wright, vice president of communications, said Monday.

Some prescriptions are processed electronically now, but the practice is not widespread, according to Wright.

Wisconsin: Priest sentenced for sexual assault

A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to 18 months in jail and 20 years’ probation after pleading guilty to molesting and exposing himself to teen-age boys under his care at two churches.

The Rev. Timothy E. Svea, 39, was convicted Monday of second-degree sexual assault of a child under 16 and several counts of exposing himself to a child. Svea also pleaded guilty to charges of false imprisonment.

Dist. Atty. Jill Falstad said Svea had shown remorse and cooperated with authorities, but he abused his position as a religious leader, abusing the boys and giving them sleeping pills and alcohol.

“Father Svea’s crimes quite simply are reprehensible,” she said.

According to court records, the victims were boys as young as 15.

Svea has spent 11 months in treatment at St. Luke Institute near Washington, D.C., authorities said.

Washington, D.C.: Processed meats linked to type of diabetes

A diet packed with hot dogs, bologna and bacon can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes by about 50 percent in men, researchers reported Tuesday.

In a study appearing in the journal Diabetes Care, a group of Harvard School of Public Health researchers analyzed the dietary habits of thousands of men and found that those who frequently ate processed meats had a 46 percent greater probability of developing type 2 diabetes than men who ate less of the food.

“We not proposing to ban hot dogs. It is just a matter of moderation,” said Dr. Frank Hu, the study’s senior author. “People should reduce the frequency of eating processed meats.”

Hu said the big increase in risk for diabetes 2 came among those who ate processed meats five times or more per week.