Unfunctioning $uses in AppController (2.0)

Need Help
1

I have an AppController that should be loading models that every controller can use, but for some reason I can only access these models when I use LoadModel->(‘Model’);

2

more info here, I posted this earlier:

class AppController extends Controller {
public $components = array('Acl', 'Auth', 'Security', 'AntiXss', 'Cookie', 'Session');
public $helpers = array('Javascript', 'Html', 'Form', 'Number', 'DateFormat', 'Currency', 'Acl', 'Whitelabel', 'Session');
public $uses = array('Language', 'Administrator', 'Setting');

var $loggedAdministratorId = null;
var $loggedAdministratorData = null;

function beforeFilter(){    
//Configure AuthComponent

    $this->Auth->userModel = 'Administrator';
    $this->Auth->fields = array('username' => 'username', 'password' => 'password');
        $this->Auth->loginAction = array('controller' => 'administrators', 'action' => 'login');
        $this->Auth->logoutRedirect = array('controller' => 'administrators', 'action' => 'login');
        $this->Auth->loginRedirect = '/';
    $this->Auth->authError = __("Please log in to continue.");

    $this->loggedAdministratorId = $this->Auth->user('id');
    if ($this->loggedAdministratorId != null) {
        $this->Administrator->recursive = 0;
        $this->loggedAdministratorData = $this->Administrator->findById($this->loggedAdministratorId);
    }
    $this->set('administratorId', $this->loggedAdministratorId);

    //this is where it breaks   
    $this->Setting->PrintValue("SiteDown");
    echo("<BR>========================<BR>");

    // Check if the site is down
    if ($this->Setting->GetValue("SiteDown") == 1) { 
        if ($this->loggedAdministratorId != 1) {
            if (($this->params['controller'] != "pages" || $this->params['action'] != "display" || $this->params['pass'][0] != "sitedown") && // Allow showing the sitedown page
                ($this->params['controller'] != "administrators" || !in_array($this->params['action'], array('login', 'logout')))) { // And the login, so that master CAN login
                $this->redirect("/pages/sitedown");
            }
        }
    } else { 
        // If the site is NOT down, and the customer is in the sitedown page, send him back
        if ($this->params['controller'] == "pages" && $this->params['action'] == "display" && $this->params['pass'][0] == "sitedown"){
            $this->redirect("/");
        }
    }

It says “Call to a member function PrintValue() on null”, however this has worked in the past, pre upgrade. For posterity, heres Setting.php

<?php
 App::uses('AppModel', 'Model');
class Setting extends AppModel {

public $name = 'Setting';
public $useTable = "settings";
var $validate = array(
    'key' => array('rule' => 'notEmpty', 'required' => true),
    'value' => array('rule' => 'notEmpty', 'required' => true)
);

function afterFind($results) {

    foreach ($results as $key => $val) {
        if (is_array($val)) {
            if (isset($val['Setting']) && isset($val['Setting']['description'])) {
                $results[$key]['Setting']['description'] = __var($results[$key]['Setting']['description']);
            }
        }

    }
    return $results;
}

function afterSave($created) {
    if (isset($this->data['Setting']['system']) && $this->data['Setting']['system'] == 1) {
        return; // Do not clear cache if this is a System setting
    }
    $this->_ClearAllCache();
}
public function PrintValue($value){ echo $value;}
function GetValue($key) {
    $settings = Cache::read("settings");