Free Republic

PARK CITY, Utah — Search and rescue crews are looking for an 11-year-old boy who hasn't been seen since last night at a Summit County (search) scout camp. Few details are available. The Summit County Sheriff's office says the search is still going on this morning. The boy was last seen yesterday at the camp near the east fork of the Bear Lake River (search). The sprawling, eastern Utah county includes the rugged Uinta Mountains, where 12-year-old Boy Scout Garrett Bardsley (search) was lost last summer.

A school resource officer arrested an 11-year-old Rawlinson Road Middle School student Wednesday after the boy went to school with 10 nails in his pocket. The boy produced the three-and-a-half-inch-long nails after Dianne McCray, the school's assistant principal, asked about a jingling sound in his right pocket. McCray asked to see what was in his pocket, and he gave her the nails. The boy first said the nails were from a project about 10 days before, according to the police report. He then said the nails were for self-defense because a suspicious man had been seen in his neighborhood. He...

N.J. Rescue teams planned to resume their search Monday morning for the body of a boy scout who fell off a whale watching boat this weekend and is presumed drowned. Nicholas Johs, 14, of Boy Scout Troop 26 of Staten Island, N.Y., fell off the Whale Watcher II at about 2 p.m. Saturday. At the time, the 90-foot boat was about 200 yards off Cape May Point, and the crew encountered some rough seas. Witnesses told police that despite several warnings, Johs and some other troop members were jumping up and down in the front of the boat in time...

DALLAS - A former high-ranking Boy Scouts of America official has been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography. Douglas Sovereign Smith Jr., 61, who as program director coordinated scouting programs with schools and churches, was accused of receiving images over the Internet in February of children engaging in oral sex, intercourse and other sexually explicit conduct. The charges were filed by federal prosecutors March 21. "We're shocked and dismayed to learn of this," said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts, based in the Dallas suburb of Irving. "Smith was employed by the Boy Scouts for 39...

When I was a boy, yep, I was a Scout, And whole time I was, no Scoutmasters came out. Nope, they stayed in the closet, if any were there, And no parents protested our Scout meeting prayer. We believed in our creed, truly honored our oath, Our duty to God in those years was not loathe. No, we pledged our young lives that we’d do our best, To honor traditions behind our Scout crest.

Disability barely slowed Sam Roe's march to his dream EVERETT -- When asked which Scouting accomplishment he was most proud of -- rock climbing, swimming, 20-mile bike rides, lashing ropes -- Sam Roe's answer shot out of his mouth like a bullet. "Being here." "Here" was aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln yesterday, in a cavernous hangar of the aircraft carrier surrounded by friends, family, sailors and Gov. Gary Locke -- all of whom helped make his improbable dream of becoming an Eagle Scout come true. The 15-year-old, who suffered a stroke before birth and has cerebral palsy, completed all the...

MEMPHIS - The Memphis-based Chickasaw Council of the Boy Scouts has ended a 78-year camping tradition by selling Camp Tallaha, a 173-acre property just outside Charleston, to DMI Fine Timber and Hunting Properties in Lyon. Doug Mauldin, president of DMI, said the property would be developed into an upscale hunting and recreational resort. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. "This certainly was a bittersweet occasion," said Roy Rhodes, scout executive of the Chickasaw Council, the largest youth service organization in the Mid-South, serving West Tennessee, North Mississippi and East Arkansas. "Our scouts have been going there for summer camp...

BISBEE - Fourteen years after the last Bisbee area Boy Scout won the scout's highest honor, an Elfrida high school student is seeking to become the area's next Eagle Scout. Aaron Oertel, a scout for the last 11 years, said he has been working on the Eagle Scout project for the last six months. Oertel is not suppose to do the work. He is in charge of supervising the project, as well as being the primary organizer. The monument Oertel is working on will revolve around true heroes such as police officers, teachers, firefighters and people in the military. Kerry...

These days, the phrase "nuclear ambitions" is applied ominously to countries or heads of state. Yet it aptly describes an ordinary teenager in suburban Detroit named David Hahn. His experience is a frightening indication of how easily dangerous materials can be acquired - and hidden. Despite growing up in an era of no-nukes activism, David wanted nothing more than to join the Curies in the annals of atomic history. That the radium they discovered eventually killed the Curies doesn't seem to have muted his enthusiasm.David's aptitude for science was phenomenal. From a 1960s-era book of chemistry experiments, he quickly gleaned...

WEYAUWEGA, Wis. -- Gary Hirte, a high school scholar, star athlete and Eagle Scout whose name seemed to be in the local paper all the time, is accused of committing murder--not for money or revenge, but just to see if he could get away with it. The Weyauwega-Fremont High senior's arrest last month was met with shock and disbelief in this town of 1,800, where Hirte has long been held in high esteem. The 18-year-old was accused of killing 37-year-old Glenn Kopitske. "He wanted to see if he could do this. It was like a challenge for him," sheriff's Capt....

<p>PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — A 12-year-old boy saved his 18-month-old sister from a fire in their home, running through smoke and flames and carrying her out through a second-floor window onto a porch roof.</p> <p>"She's my sister, and I'm supposed to take care of her," said Michael Wedekamm, who suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation in the fire early Tuesday.</p>

Teen says father berated him BUT WHY HE KILLED MOTHER IS A MYSTERY By Tom Lasseter HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER COLUMBIA - At the age of 16, Blake Walker shot his parents to death in their home last year, emptying the clip of a 9mm rifle, because he said he could no longer stand his father's constant criticisms about his life, friends and housework. In Adair Circuit Court yesterday, Walker, crying and shaking a little, apologized for the Dec. 8 murders. He loved his father, Walker said, but they never got along. In a statement he wrote for the court, Walker...

To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33953 Thursday, August 7, 2003 CRIMENETDAILYBoy Scout assaulted at summer camp?Parents claim group leaders responded poorly to incident Posted: August 7, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A 12-year-old Boy Scout was allegedly raped by an older member at a summer camp near Kansas City, and his parents are blaming Scout leaders for handling the incident poorly. On Tuesday, the victim's parents returned to H-Roe Bartle Camp southwest of here in Osceola to file a complaint with authorities about the alleged incident, KMBC-TV News reported. A family member says the boy,...

Boy Scout dies from blast injuries PORTLAND - A 16-year-old boy died Tuesday afternoon from injuries he suffered in a cannon explosion at a Boy Scout camp. Chris Kroker of Aumsville was hit with shrapnel on Friday at Camp Meriwether in Tillamook County. Hundreds of Boy Scouts were there to watch Kroker perform the traditional cannon firing ceremony. But when Kroker tried to fire the cannon the first time, it misfired. The second time he tried the cannon exploded and he was critically injured. This afternoon, the Kroeker's family released this statement. They say, Chris' last days were spent...

<p>MILLVILLE, N.J. (AP) — An 8-year-old boy who safely stopped his aunt's sport utility vehicle after she went into diabetic shock will be recommended for Scouting's top lifesaving award.</p> <p>Cub Scout Brandon DiMatties of Monroe will be nominated for the Honor Medal with Cross Palms by Ron Pierson, assistant executive of the Southern New Jersey Council of the Boys Scouts of America.</p>

Springfield man gets 103-year sentence for sexually abusing children (Eugene-AP) - A former Boy Scout leader from Lane County was sentenced to 103 years in prison Thursday in Eugene after being convicted of 17 counts of sodomizing boys. Prosecutors say Steven Jeremy Freeman sexually abused and sodomized ten young boys. He operated a sports card shop in Springfield. He lived in back, where police say the abuses took place. Assistant District Attorney Alex Gardner pushed for a long sentence, saying that pedophiles typically do not reform. The sentences are covered by Measure eleven, which means that they sentence cannot...

California judges may have to disqualify themselves from certain cases if they are involved with the Boy Scouts of America, according to new rules approved by the state's Supreme Court. Lynn Holton, a spokeswoman for the state Supreme Court, said on Thursday that several California judges are leaders or members of the Boy Scouts, a group that has come under legal fire from gay groups because it bars "avowed homosexuals" from membership. According to the new rules approved on Wednesday for state judges, "A judge should disclose to the parties his or her membership in an organization, in any proceeding...

<p>A Ballwin teenager will receive tonight the highest honor for heroism given by the Boy Scouts of America, the Medal with Crossed Palms. The organization says the medal is very rarely given out; it was last awarded in the St. Louis area about 15 years ago.</p>

<p>Pivoting his body with his right arm and holding a neon-green ruler in his left hand, James Milam, 10, crawled from grave to grave at Nashville National Cemetery yesterday morning, carefully placing an American flag exactly one foot from each gravestone.</p> <p>The energetic fourth-grader took the task seriously.</p>