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When the six Boy Scouts from suburban Maplewood, N.J., went camping in the Grand Canyon, they expected an adventure they would long talk about, but they did not expect to be clinging to treetops and praying to survive a flash flood. The six Scouts and three adult leaders were eventually guided to safety by American Indians who live in the area, and plucked out of the wilderness by a Black Hawk helicopter. By the time they flew away, the 10-yard-wide canyon next to a stream where they had been camping had become a 300-yard-wide raging river. The scouts and their...

At Qualcomm Stadium, to which thousands of evacuees fled throughout the day Monday to escape approaching fires, the hazy and acrid air pinched the throat. Despite those reminders of the nearby inferno, the stadium seemed an oasis of order.  Hundreds of volunteers and city workers stacked up towers of pizza boxes, water bottles and blankets. Steaming cups of coffee were on offer as well as free massages and reflexology sessions.  A clown twisted balloons for children, several autism specialists were available to give parents of disabled children a break, and an electric guitarist jammed with his speaker turned low. -snip-Carl...

Prompted by opposition to the Boy Scouts' rule disqualifying homosexuals as troop leaders, Philadelphia has forced the city's local chapter to pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters. As WND reported in June, Philadelphia's city council voted to renege on a 1928 ordinance allowing the Cradle of Liberty Council to have its headquarters in a building on a parcel of public land "in perpetuity" for $1 a year. The city argues it can't rent public property for a nominal sum to any group that discriminates. City officials in San Francisco and Boston have made similar decisions...

For almost 70 years, Scouts and Guides have savoured their place of peaceful worship under the trees. But no longer. The woodland chapel has been demolished - its wooden pews and rudimentary cross and altar removed. In its place is a campfire circle. The change has been imposed by the Scout Association, which believes the chapel excludes non-Christian Scouts. Locals are dismayed, but the association says it is simply "moving forward". The basic open-air structure in woodland surrounding Belchamps Scout Centre in Hockley, Essex, was built between the wars by volunteers. They used old telegraph poles for pews and built...

THE LOS ANGELES City Council recently paid $593,000 for a report on how to end the city's rising gang violence. The taxpayers didn't get their money's worth. The much-ballyhooed study, directed by civil rights attorney Connie Rice, makes a whopping 100 recommendations yet can't bring itself to mention the most important driver of gang involvement — family breakdown.  "A Call to Action: A Case for a Comprehensive Solution to L.A.'s Gang Violence Epidemic" recycles all the failed nostrums from the war on poverty, such as government-created jobs, "life-skills training," "parenting education and support" and "crisis intervention." Since the 1960s,...

September 11, 2006 House Judiciary Committee Passes Public Expression of Religion ActWashington D.C. - On Friday the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee passed the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), also known as HR 2679. This bill will go to the full House for a vote. The bill's intent is to eliminate the chilling effect on the constitutionally protected expression of religion by state and local officials that results from the threat that a plaintiff may seek damages and attorney's fees. If the bill passes, advocacy groups like the ACLU would no longer be able to use...

BLACKSBURG, Va. — The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre was a sullen loner who alarmed professors and classmates with his twisted, blood-drenched creative writing and left a rambling note in his dorm room raging against women and rich kids.  A chilling picture emerged Tuesday of Cho Seung-Hui — a 23-year-old senior majoring in English — a day after the bloodbath that left 33 people dead, including Cho, who killed himself as police closed in. News reports said that he may have been taking medication for depression and that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic. Despite the many warning...

PORTLAND - Two grown brothers sued the Mormon Church and the Boy Scouts of America Monday, claiming they were sexually molested as children by a man who served as a Scout leader and church teacher. The brothers, who are in their early 30s and are identified only by initials in the $6.5 million lawsuit, say they have suffered "severe debilitating physical, mental and emotional injury." The suit, filed in the Oregon state circuit court in Multnomah County, claims the men were molested as boys in the early 1980s by Timur Dykes, a home teacher for the Church of Jesus Christ...

IN MEMORIAMGerald R. Ford38th President of the United StatesJuly 14, 1913 - December 26, 2006 The Boy Scouts of America joins the Ford family and our country in mourning the loss of President Gerald R. Ford. His presidential term coincided with a very difficult time in American history, but he served with grace and dignity. President Ford achieved Eagle Scout, Scouting's highest rank, which is accomplished by only about 4 percent of all Boy Scouts. By dedicating himself to serving the youth and families of his country throughout his life, he left each of us with a shining example...

We're hearing from the family of a young boy, who died after falling off a float at a New Hampshire Christmas Parade. On Monday, Thomas Fogarty's family spoke for the first time about the 9-year-old boy who was celebrating Christmas with his fellow Cub Scouts. The float -- being pulled by a trailer through downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire -- pulled Thomas Fogarty to his tragic death. "At this time, we believe that Thomas somehow fell from the float and was run over by the trailer's double-axle wheels," said Chief Michael Magnant of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Police Department. Thomas' family...

Six years after the Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts could ban gay leaders, the group is fighting and losing legal battles with state and local governments over its discriminatory policies. The latest setback came Monday when the high court without comment refused to take a case out of Berkeley, Calif., in which a Scouts sailing group lost free use of a public marina because the Boy Scouts bar atheists and gays. The action let stand a unanimous California Supreme Court ruling that the city of Berkeley may treat the Berkeley Sea Scouts differently from other nonprofit organizations because of...

Via BSALegal.Org An atheist mother represented by the ACLU complained that allowing Boy Scouts to recruit in public schools on the same basis as other groups discriminated against her atheist son who attends Portland public schools. In today's decision reversing a lower court decision, the Oregon Supreme Court emphatically concluded that "nothing that occurred in any public school program, service, or activity was discriminatory at all." "Giving Boy Scouts equal access is not discrimination," said Scouting spokesperson Robert H. Bork, Jr. "It is the law." "The First Amendment and two federal statues require that Boy Scouts be given the same...

(CNSNews.com) - Frustrated by an unsuccessful campaign to achieve religious recognition from the Boy Scouts of America, a Seattle-based Wicca church has launched its own youth program, which is based on tolerance for different beliefs, including differences in sexual orientation. SpiralScouts founder Pete 'Pathfinder' Davis believes that many of the things the Boy Scouts are doing are "socially inappropriate." He said he created to the SpiralScouts to "fill the void left by prejudicial treatment of other established children's programs." Davis, who serves as the Archpriest of the Wiccan Aquarian Tabernacle Church, said his main argument with the BSA is that...

BOWLING GREEN, Va. -- Four adult Boy Scout leaders were killed Monday afternoon in an electrical accident during the opening day of the organization's 2005 Jamboree. Jamboree spokesman Gregg Shields said the accident occurred between 4:30 and 5 p.m. while the leaders were setting up camp. One other leader and a contract worker were injured, and were hospitalized in stable condition, Shields said. No youth Scouts were seriously hurt, he said. He did not say how many might have sustained minor injuries. Shields did not have additional details about the accident, including the victims' names. "We have an investigation under...

Springville, Utah -- A black bear that bit a sleeping Boy Scout through the wall of his tent was shot after it later returned to the camp, authorities said. Colton Stewart, 14, woke up early Wednesday to a burning sensation in his upper arm, then realized it was a bear biting his arm through the tent, state wildlife officials said. He pulled away and heard the bear run off through the brush. "It wasn't biting viciously. They put their mouth on things to see what they taste like," said Anis Aoude, regional wildlife manager for the state Division of Wildlife...

San Francisco,CA; March 09, 2006: The California Supreme Court today ruled against the Berkeley Sea Scouts in Evans v. Berkeley, and upheld the City of Berkeley’s discriminatory campaign to force the local nonprofit youth group to end its lifelong affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America. "The California Supreme Court’s decision today unfortunately has given the green light to activist city officials to discriminate against groups they disagree with politically," said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Harold Johnson, co-counsel in the case. Johnson also represents Sea Scout Tonatiuh Alvarez, one of the plaintiffs and petitioners before the state Supreme Court. "The...

N.Y. teen performs Heimlich on nurse who gave him CPR years earlier Call it a simple twist of fate — times two: A teenager in western New York state has saved the life of the same woman who years ago saved his life.

Monmouth Boy Scouts to Charge Annual Fee(MARLBORO, N.J.) The Monmouth Council of Boy Scouts will start charging a $52 annual membership fee, beginning March 15. Previously, parents paid a one-time registration fee. The group says it needs the money to help erase more than $1 million in debt that was caused by expenses and professional fees. The group also is asking parents to match the fee with a voluntary donation. Families with more than one Boy Scout will get a 25 percent discount on each additional child. Membership in the Scouts has been on the decline in recent years. Monmouth...

MAHWAH - The hill was steep, rocky and muddy. And members of Boy Scout Troop 334 of Montvale on Saturday had to figure out how they would guide their 100-pound-plus homemade sled down the slope to a paved road. They tied rope around their waists, they pulled hard, but a series of rocks and logs didn't make their challenge any easier. Instead, it caused one of the sled's skis to snap. "These old skis couldn't take the stress," said Anthony Dobbs, 14. After about 15 minutes of trudging through water, mud and fallen trees, the team emerged, wet and tired,...

The fear of lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union has driven 216 Boy Scout, Cub Scout and related troops across the state - including 35 in North Jersey - to sever their charters with public institutions. Many of them, including Troop 124 in Northvale, have enjoyed a long friendship with municipalities that have sponsored the Scouts, provided them with funding and offered a comfortable meeting space. But an ACLU threat has sent troops scrambling for new sponsors. The Boy Scouts of America issued a directive last April for all troops to transfer their sponsorship by the end of the...

Golf Manor, a subdivision in Commerce Township, Mich., some 25 miles outside of Detroit, is the kind of place where nothing unusual is supposed to happen, where the only thing lurking around the corner is an ice-cream truck. But June 26, 1995, was not a typical day. Ask Dottie Pease. Cruising down Pinto Drive, Pease saw half a dozen men crossing her neighbor's lawn. Three, in respirators and white moon suits, were dismantling her next-door neighbor's shed with electric saws, stuffing the pieces into large steel drums emblazoned with radioactive warning signs. Huddled with a group of neighbors, Pease was...

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. (R-TN) today praised the pending passage of the “Support Our Scouts Act of 2005,” which is included in the Department of Defense Authorization bill and the Defense Appropriations bill. Sen. Frist authored the legislation, which was co-sponsored by over 50 other senators, "to ensure that the Boy Scouts of America receives equal access to public facilities, programs, and forums and that the Defense Department will continue its support of Scouts and their Jamborees." “The passage of this legislation is a victory for the Boy Scouts of America and the many other organizations that...

(KUTV) An incredible and un-suspecting accident leaves a Utah Boy Scout just inches from death when he was stabbed right between his eyes. Jeff Jaeger spoke to Kevin Coulter and tells 2News how this was a truly freak accident. While raking leaves for a Boy Scout event, one of the leaders flung a knife from his hand while trying to catch another scout who had tripped. “It was dark, it was like 8:30 and there was a light and I saw it flash before it hit me,” said Kevin. The blade landed in between his frontal lobes. It was 2...

The bird-watching hiking trip that the boys from Boy Scout Troop 44 in Pennington took Nov. 19 to Pennsylvania's Hawk Mountain didn't include plans for a life-and-death rescue mission. Plans changed when the boys encountered fire-and-rescue personnel scrambling on foot up the mountain with their emergency gear. The boys of Troop 44 didn't hesitate to lend a hand to the emergency crews after learning they were rushing to a hiker who had been pinned and badly injured by a massive boulder in an area that could not be reached by vehicle. "We were on the last part of our hike,"...

Poison Ivy Basics Poison ivy is a red, itchy rash caused by the plant that bears its name. Many people get it when they are hiking or working in their garden and accidentally come into direct contact with the plant's leaves, roots, or stems. The poison ivy rash often looks like red lines, and sometimes it forms blisters. The culprit behind the rash is a chemical in the sap of poison ivy plants called urushiol (oo-roo-shee-ohl). Its name comes from the Japanese word "urushi," meaning lacquer. Urushiol is the same substance that triggers an allergic reaction when people touch...

 ANTONIN SCALIA, US SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, NAMED GRAND MARSHAL OF NEW YORK’S COLUMBUS DAY PARADEJustice Celebrated In Pageant of Italian-American AchievementNew York, NY, September 23, 2005 - Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, will be Grand Marshal of Manhattan’s 2005 Columbus Day Parade, Lawrence Auriana, president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, announced today. The parade, which is produced by the non-profit Foundation, is the largest Columbus Day event in the world and will be held on New York’s Fifth Avenue on October 10, 2005.  "We are honored that Justice Scalia has accepted our invitation to be...

Following on the heels of a major pedophile scandal this past July during the San Diego Gay Pride Festival, radical gay activists have now targeted the San Diego Boy Scouts for atheism, homosexual and transsexual infiltration. Scouting For All, which recently participated in San Diego Gay Pride, was also involved in the same festival that featured pedophile Martin Ramirez, better known as Marty the Clown, who worked in the Gay Pride's Children's Garden. Scouting For All exists for the purpose of forcing the Boy Scouts of America to change its current policies and allow homosexuality into the organization. Additionally, it...

Falling tree kills girl, 8, at Scout camp OCEAN TOWNSHIP - An 8-year-old girl was killed and three others injured Wednesday when an oak tree crashed down on them during a first-aid class at a Boy Scout camp, authorities said. The girls were participating in a class being taught as part of an overnight camp when the 31-foot tree suddenly snapped, falling on the picnic table at which they were sitting, Police Chief Kenneth Flatt said. The tree broke about three feet from its base and crashed through a tarp over the picnic table, landing on the girl's head. She...

While growing up I was a proud member of an organization that emphasized the importance of honesty and "being clean in thought, word and deed." We vowed to serve God and our country. If you think that this organization's philosophy is non-controversial, you are sadly mistaken. We live in an era of Political Correctness. The beliefs and values that our society broadly embraced when I was a member of Boy Scout Troop 77, chartered by Holy Trinity Catholic Church of Racine, Wisconsin, are now endangered.Unfortunately, our federal courts often make decisions that assault our country's most cherished beliefs and values....

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Lightning struck a group of Boy Scouts taking shelter from a storm, killing the troop leader and leaving a 13-year-old boy brain-dead in the latest tragedy to befall the organization this week, authorities and the teen's grandfather said. Six others were injured when the lightning bolt made a direct strike on a tarp the Scouts had set up in a meadow in Sequoia National Park on Thursday. Ryan Collins, 13, was being kept on a ventilator so that his organs could be donated, the boy's grandfather said Friday. Collins was listed in critical condition at the...

Boy Scouts 'All Started Screaming' Jul 26, 9:28 PM (ET) By LARRY O'DELL and JEANNETTE J. LEE (AP) A day following the deaths of four Boy Scout leaders at the National Jamboree, Boy Scouts line up...Full Image BOWLING GREEN, Va. (AP) - They were deeply devoted to the Boy Scouts, traveling thousands of miles to the woods of northern Virginia for 10 fun-filled days of fishing, archery and storytelling beside the campfire. One of their first tasks: Set up a large tent. But the task went terribly awry when they lost control of a giant tent pole and it hit...

Grizzly mauls boy in Alaska Sunday, July 24, 2005 Associated Press Anchorage, Alaska — A 15-year-old boy from Texas who was attacked by a grizzly bear was recovering at an Anchorage hospital from bites to his legs and arms. The attack occurred Friday while Alex Benson and his Boy Scout troop were wrapping up a 42-kilometre hike. Alex apparently startled the bear on the trail, just half an hour from the end of the hike. He was bitten at least twice before the bear ran off. The boy was left with a shredded arm and puncture wounds in his leg....

Food Network Reneges on Boy Scout Troop by Aaron Atwood, assistant editorTV's Food Network takes Boy Scout idea off the table.When the Food Network asked "How do you Iron Chef?" on its Web site, Boy Scout Troop 99 of Colorado Springs responded. They were accepted—then rejected because they pledge to "being morally straight."The troop had been doing Iron Chef competitions at campouts and Scoutmaster Dave Maher thought a vignette of his troop cooking up a storm would make a great promo for the company. The competition gives two chefs an identical cache of food and challenges each to outdo the...

The year 2007 would have marked the 100th birthday of Boy Scouting in England. Unfortunately, the British Boy Scouts, founded by Lord Robert Baden-Powell as the first Scouting group in the world, is now a dead organization. The recent decision by U.K. Scout Association executives to make chaos of the Scout Oath mangles the program far beyond anything Baden-Powell might recognize. Instead of being required to pledge their loyalty to "God and the Queen," members of the Scout Association can now opt to swear allegiance to any combination of things. Muslims can pledge to Allah, Hindus to Dharma, and atheists...

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.

ATLANTA - An independent investigation of the Atlanta-area Boy Scouts found that the organization inflated its number of black Scouts by more than 5,000 in a program for inner-city youth. The executive director of the Atlanta Boy Scouts resigned after the report was released.Auditors said Scout officials assigned to inner-city areas may have felt pressure to demonstrate membership growth, which is a part of their performance evaluations. Membership numbers also are used to help determined funding from the United Way, a major Scouts donor.The audit found that former Scouts too old to participate remained on the memberships lists and that...

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...

'To support and defend... So help me God' Mark Alexander May 27, 2005 "I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means...." --John Adams Monday is Memorial Day, set aside to honor our fallen Patriots -- generations of American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coastguardsmen -- who served their country with honor from 1776 to this...

ACLU threat causes Boy Scouts to drop public school ties; churches urged to fill void NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The Boy Scouts of America is removing the charters of thousands of scouting units from public schools after an American Civil Liberties Union threat to sue taxpayer-funded institutions that charter BSA units. The ACLU sent a letter to the Boy Scouts of America in February threatening legal action against public schools and other governmental agencies that charter Boy Scout groups on grounds that their sponsorship amounts to religious discrimination and violates the separation of church and state. Boy Scouts open their meetings by...

Appeared in The Catholic Virginian February 4, 2002Frank ParaterMost people in our diocese never heard of Frank Parater. If you were around in the late Sixties, you might recall that the diocese sponsored a camp named for him in Caroline County called Camp Parater. On Oct. 25, 2001, I received a letter from Jose Cardinal Saraiva Martins, the Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints authorizing me , with a “ nihil obstat” (“nothing stands in the way”) to initiate a process for the “Cause of Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God, Frank Parater, Seminarian.”...

FBI investigates allegations of false Boy Scout numbers Thursday, December 30, 2004 The FBI is investigating the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America to see if membership numbers have been inflated, board members said Wednesday.Exaggerating membership numbers could lead to greater financial support, board members said.The council is said to serve 50,000 youngsters in 22 counties in central and northern Alabama. This includes 30,000 enrolled in traditional scout units and 20,000 elementary school students receiving in-class character education using resources provided by the Boy Scouts, said Randy Haines, vice chairman of the council, which is led...

Allegiance, with the Boy Scouts and with marriage. The results of the Nov. 2 election tell us the majority of Americans want our laws to reflect the moral values which govern our lives. We live in a nation governed by law. A society governed by law. Our U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of our land, our society. Without law, a bloody riot could have taken place in Dallas that day when something so dear to the heart and soul of all true patriots was spit upon and burned. However, our emotions, no matter how strong and right they are,...

After radio celebrity plugs Chesterfield troop's booth, popcorn orders top $28,000 A friendly jab at the American Civil Liberties Union has turned into a financial bonanza for a tiny nine-member Boy Scout troop from Chesterfield County. Troop 828, with an unexpected boost on Wednesday from nationally syndicated talk show host Glenn Beck, watched its struggling popcorn sales explode. Scouts at a downtown booth had to call for fresh supplies. A Web site was flooded with orders from buyers in 39 states. At last count, sales had topped $28,000. That set a record for the Boy Scouts' Heart of Virginia Council.

Proof of the Boy Scouts Policy [on Homosexuality] By Michelle ParkerAs a practicing Roman Catholic, I cannot write about the advance of the Homosexual Activist Agenda without a look at the current scandal overshadowing the Catholic Church. At first, the news media continually wrote about the “pedophile priest” problem. And then, almost overnight, it became the “sex abuse scandal”. But, when the title changed, no one in the media reported why the issue had become one of “sex” and not “pedophilia.” Why? Frankly, I believe the liberal press didn’t want to have to report that the Boy Scouts of America...

A pro-family organization has issued an alert to those who may be considering giving to one of the nation's largest charities this holiday season. The group's spokesman is warding donors away from United Way, and he also wants shoppers to know a thing or two about Target stores. Bob Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, says the United Way has been crossed off his gift list. That is because the well-known charity refuses to share its money with the Boy Scouts of America while it openly supports numerous pro-homosexual groups with its money. "I don't know why people...

November 23, 2004Bill to Help Scouts Introducedby Steve Jordahl, correspondentBoy Scouts get help in bill that would grant specific protections.With opposition to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) on the rise—from groups like the American Civil Liberities Union (ACLU) and, most recently, from a court ruling requiring the Pentagon to cut the group off from meeting on military bases—the group is getting help from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Frist has introduced the "Save Our Scouts" bill which will offer the beleaguered organization some protection. The bill states that no federal law can be interpreted to limit federal agencies...

The encounter last weekend between three bears and two Boy Scouts at a camp in Warren County was more harrowing than originally reported, as the bears pawed at the teenagers for an hour, bit one of them and attempted to bite the other, according to a report by state wildlife investigators.The boys, who were later vaccinated for rabies, cowered on a rock as they fended off the two 60-pound cubs and the mother bear at the Yards Creek Scout Reservation in Blairstown on Saturday night, wildlife investigators said.One of the boys was bitten twice by a cub. The animal first...

The Democrats win one for a change. Seething about their openly gay constituents being denied access to the Boy Scouts the legal arm of the left wing, the ACLU, has continued to dog the youth organization. In an effort to force the Scouts to put homosexual predators into leadership positions the ACLU has sued Department of Defense, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Chicago Board of Education. It looks like they aren't going to stop until they can get their hands on those kinds. From the Indy Star. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DEFENSE_BOY_SCOUTS?SITE=ININS&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Pentagon to cut off Boy Scouts from bases...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

<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>