Free Republic

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—Scott Allan Herrick, 40, of Twin Lakes, Michigan, was sentenced to serve 95 years in prison, U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis announced today. Herrick surreptitiously videotaped boys as they were dressing in the boys’ locker room in the YMCA in Muskegon and kept a massive collection of 100,000 images of child pornography with him at the Gerber Boy Scout Camp in Twin Lakes, Michigan. He was convicted at trial of three counts of attempting to produce child pornography. On the first day of trial, Herrick pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing child pornography and one count of...

I can’t make this up. Inspired by the YMCA when it was founded in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has been under a ban since 1948, and its real size is difficult to gauge. The group was brutally repressed by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, it has at times been propped up as a foil – especially for Western audiences – with periodic crackdowns that have sent many of its members to prison. In what way was the Muslim Brotherhood “inspired by” the YMCA?

The YWCA, which was set up in 1855 to help young women going to London for the first time, has now become "Platform 51". The name was chosen because 51 per cent of people are female and "women use us as a platform for having their say and for helping them into the next stage of their lives". The rebranding is likely to raise questions among the charity's donors, many of whom give to it because of the organisation's Christian links. However, officials at the World YWCA headquarters in Geneva told the Daily Mail that none of the 124 branches...

YMCA puppet performance.

He's a lost Claus. A politically correct West Village YMCA has fired Ol' St. Nick in favor of Frosty. Kids who once thrilled at sitting on Santa's lap at the 14th Street McBurney YMCA's wildly popular annual holiday luncheon will now suffer the icy embrace of a talking snowman and his sidekick, an anonymous penguin, at today's event. Forget about bringing a list or checking it twice -- Frosty doesn't take gift requests, and doesn't care if you're naughty or nice. YMCA officials, who say they are in the midst of "rebranding" the Young Men's Christian Association to "The Y,"...

MSNBC 9 PM host Rachel Maddow will host her eponymous show live from the 92nd Street Y in New York December 20-22, according to the non-profit’s website. 92Y has been home to critical public discussion of the most important issues for nearly 140 years. We’ve come together to create a unique series of exciting live conversations about where we are today and where we are headed as a country. Each night, Rachel covers a different topic, which she will discuss with a very special guest. MSNBC is still trying to line up the guests for that week, although tickets are...

"...Imam Rauf’s project is better known here now as the “Ground Zero mosque,” after the term for the World Trade Center site. Families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and conservative politicians have mounted an emotional campaign to block it, claiming that locating it only two blocks north of the site was a provocation. “We repeatedly say we are neither a mosque nor within Ground Zero, but they just shout back ‘Ground Zero mosque,’ ‘Ground Zero mosque,’” Imam Rauf, 61, told Reuters in an interview. The planned building will have a prayer room for Muslims, he said, but...

In a move described as a new “branding strategy,” the YMCA recently decided to change its name to simply the “Y,” which prompted Conan O’Brien to comment that “You know times are tough when even letters are getting laid off.” When YMCA CEO Neil Nicholl rolled out the new name this past summer, he noted that the organization’s goal, “changing lives for the better” . . . “will only come about if we work together to improve our health, stress, then our families and support our neighbors. Our hope is that more people will choose to engage in the Y.”...

Last month, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) unveiled a new brand strategy to address America's needs, as well as a name change to "the Y." After surveying "a cross section of Americans to learn more about the most pressing issues and challenges facing their communities today," the Y had found that only 51% of Americans were optimistic about the future while 49% were not. "This is a very important, exciting time for the Y," said Neil Nicoll, president and CEO of YMCA of the USA. "For 160 years, we've focused on changing lives for the better… . People are...

Wednesday August 11, 2010 Newly Identified Corporate Supporters of Planned Parenthood Named FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, August 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Life Decisions International (LDI) has released a revised edition of The Boycott List identifying corporations that support of Planned Parenthood, the world's primary abortion-advocacy group."As a direct result of the commitment, action and prayers of pro-family people, at least 256 corporations have stopped funding Planned Parenthood," said Kenneth C. Garvey, LDI's Director of Communications. It is estimated that the boycott has cost Planned Parenthood more than $40 million since the Corporate Funding Project (CFP) began nearly 18 years ago....

The YMCA has decided to change it's name and it's company logo. It will no longer be known as the YMCA as evidenced in the statement released July 12, 2010. Here is an excerpt from that statement for you to read, then you can vote on whether you think the name and logo change is a good idea ... Switching the name to "The Y", even though it is easier (same number of letters but two less syllables) and already in common use as street slang for the YMCA, provokes the question: What does it stand for? "The Young"? Or...

Note to the Village People: The lyrics in your biggest hit need an update. The organization previously known as the Y.M.C.A. is henceforth to be called “the Y.” One of the nation’s most iconic nonprofit organizations, founded 166 years ago in England as the Young Men’s Christian Association, is undergoing a major rebranding, adopting as its name the nickname everyone has used for generations. “It’s a way of being warmer, more genuine, more welcoming, when you call yourself what everyone else calls you,” said Kate Coleman, the organization’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer.

IPSWICH (MA)— An apparent effort to avoid controversy over the current health care debate led employees at the Ipswich YMCA to stop showing Fox News Channel on televisions in the gym this week, after several members complained that it was promoting "hate speech." But the decision, made while the director of the County Road facility was on vacation, has been reversed, said Jack Meany, executive director of the YMCA of the North Shore, which includes six facilities in Essex County. "We're very careful as an organization to be apolitical," Meany said yesterday, shortly after learning of the situation. "The Y,...

Chittenden County State's Attorney Thomas Donovan said the allegation that Flanagan was seen masturbating in a men's fitness area at the Y has been referred to a police sex-crimes unit. Sources inside the YMCA told Totten of several instances that concerned them, including one incident where Flanagan allegedly was running on a YMCA treadmill wearing only shoes, socks and a watch. Totten also outlines a previous story published by Seven Days in December. That story outlined some of Flanagan's statehouse behavior

1. In 2001, Kevin Allen Ake was living at a YMCA in Illinois, apparently "so that he could assist an elderly member of his church who lived there." Several months after moving in, he was evicted, in his view because of his "efforts to begin a bible study program at the YMCA." As a result, he left a bunch of messages on the voice-mail of the YMCA's executive director, who was a lesbian; he denies that the messages contained explicit threats, but says he "basically shared what the Bible talked about was -- with that kind of unnatural lifestyle --...

A longtime state lawmaker and current candidate for Vermont lieutenant governor has been accused of masturbating in the locker room at the Burlington YMCA. Archambeau said he and another patron saw Flanagan masturbating Friday on a bench between the YMCA sauna and nearby showers. According to Flanagan, the accusation is completely false and on Wednesday, he dismissed the claim but did offer an apology. "If I did anything to offend anybody, I'm very sorry," said Flanagan. The Chittenden County Democrat denies the allegations and told NewsChannel 5 he will not be returning to the YMCA. YMCA President Mary Burns would...

The YMCA is offering up a free week of summer camp for the first 150 kids whose parents are unemployed or serving in the military. The children would be treated to a free week at Camp Nissokone in Oscoda. It's a $500 value, per child, being offered at no cost to qualified families on a first come, first-served basis. Parents and guardians are encouraged to follow the guidelines and register on the YMCA Web site at www.ymcadetroit.org Children must be 9 to 16-years-old. Camping sessions begin the week of June 28 and go through August 15. You can also get...

Washington, DC -- The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) may have been a Christian group at one point, but the organization has abandoned that view by supporting abortion. Now, the YWCA is going further and says it would be fine if Barack Obama signed the so-called Freedom of Choice Act. That's the Congressional legislation that would make unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy for any reason the national law. Full story: http://www.LifeNews.com/nat4620.html ACTION: Contact the YWCA with your complaints about its pro-abortion position at YWCA, 1015 18th Street, NW, Suite 1100 - Washington, DC 20036, call 202-467-0801, fax 202-467-0802, or email info@ywca.org

'Peace partner' accused in YMCA attack Muslim gunmen crushed gates, set Christian building ablaze Posted: October 14, 2008 8:23 pm Eastern © 2008 WorldNetDaily JAFFA, Israel – Members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization were arrested yesterday for allegedly leading a 2006 anti-Christian attack in which gunmen set fire to the Young Men's Christian Association in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya, WND has learned. Following the arrest of four militants in conjunction with the attack, Rabih Elkhangy, the Fatah mayor of Qalqiliya, held a press conference yesterday in which he claimed the arrested attackers were from the...

A former youth director accused of playing a "shower game" with an 11-year-old boy failed to persuade a judge yesterday to dismiss an indictment charging him with sexual assault and child endangerment. Police accused Donald Hertel, 42, of Dover of dousing the boy's private parts during a Nov. 18, 2006, outing at the West Morris YMCA in Randolph. At the time, Hertel was volunteer director of the Lenape Valley Municipal Alliance, which offered recreational programs for youngsters from Stanhope, Byram and Netcong. When his mother picked him up, the Byram boy proudly told his mother he had broken a record...

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., listens to Dorothy Johnson-Speight as she hold photos of her son Khaalia Johnson, 24, left, and Justin Donnelly, 19, who both died from gun violence in Philadelphia as Clinton makes a campaign stop at the Westside YMCA in Philadelphia, Friday, April 11, 2008. Barack Obama and Clinton are gingerly threading their way between two of the most politically charged numbers in Pennsylvania: the state's almost 1 million licensed hunters and Philadelphia's nearly one-a-day rate of gun murders. Gun control arouses deep emotions in the state. US Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama...

INDIANAPOLIS, March 31, 2008 – The Greater Indianapolis YMCA is offering family members of state National Guardsmen an affordable way to stay active and healthy while their loved ones are deployed. Jaxon Curtis, 3, entertains Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman (left) and Army Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, Indiana National Guard adjutant general, while they wait to address spectators and media at the YMCA in Noblesville, Ind., on March 11, 2008. Jaxon and his sister, Chloe, 1, are the children of Capt. Maurice Curtis, who is deployed to Iraq with 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Brigade Combat...

Palestinian Christians live in constant fear National Post, Canada ... The problem is not their behaviour but, in the eyes of the violent Islamist jihadists, their very presence. They must simply live in hope that some faraway event does not inflame the anti-Christian wrath of their neighbours. Is it any wonder that Christians in such situations desire to emigrate? Could anyone judge harshly the few thousand Christians in Gaza if they were to leave entirely?... and the fact that it [the YMCA attack] was not big news, illustrates the dire situation faced by many Christians living in the Palestinian territories....

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

Gunmen destroy Gaza Strip's YMCA library, kidnap guards Jerusalem Post, Israel - Feb 16, 2008 Hamas policemen who rushed to the scene discovered another bomb in the library that had not exploded. Although no group claimed responsibility, ...

ISTANBUL/JABALYA, Gaza Strip — The Organization of the Islamic Conference denounced yesterday the reprinting of a blasphemous Danish cartoon, warning it could lead to confrontations between Muslims and Christians. “By reprinting these cartoons we are heading toward a bigger conflict and that shows that both sides will be hostages of their radicals,” OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told AFP in Istanbul. “It is not a way of improving your rights and exercising your freedoms when you use these rights for insulting the most sacred values and symbols of others and inciting hatred,” he said. “This is a very wrong, provocative way...

In the latest attack on Christians in Gaza, 16 Palestinians forced their way into the YMCA library, stole everything but Christian books and then burned down the building. According to Palestinian terrorist sources in Gaza, the attack was carried out by Hamas and its ally, the Popular Resistance Committees. Israeli security sources said Hamas knows exactly who was behind the attack. Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza, told WND the YMCA had Muslim children in its nursery program. "Gaza is...

In the latest attack on Christians in Gaza, 16 Palestinians forced their way into the YMCA library, stole everything but Christian books and then burned down the building. According to Palestinian terrorist sources in Gaza, the attack was carried out by Hamas and its ally, the Popular Resistance Committees. Israeli security sources said Hamas knows exactly who was behind the attack. Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza, told WND the YMCA had Muslim children in its nursery program. "Gaza is...

A former ymca worker is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a child. Wake Forest, NC -- 27-year-old, Justin Taylor faces one charge of Indecent Liberties with a Child. Investigators say the abuse happened last month during a YMCA after-school program at an elementary school in Wake Forest. Taylor was suspended from the YMCA and the seminary in Wake Forest, where he is studying to be a minister. related video   Watch  

Thirty-five years after she straddled an enemy cannon in defiance of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda has vets in a frenzy about a visit to Palm Beach for a fund-raiser next week. Some of the 7,000-plus members of the American Legion in Palm Beach, Martin and Okeechobee counties were expecting to be called to picket Tuesday's luncheon of the YWCA at The Breakers. The silver-screen legend is scheduled to speak before 300-plus, who plunked down 300 bucks each for the Y's shelter for battered women, Harmony House. Cops and hotel honchos were preparing. But just...

An alligator was found swimming in a Central Florida YMCA on Friday morning. The gator, which was about 4 feet long, was discovered by a swimmer in the pool, which is located on the campus of Brevard Community College on Clearlake Road in Cocoa. It is not known how the alligator got into the facility. A YMCA worker joked that the alligator was targeting her because she was wearing an Auburn Tigers sweatshirt. The Florida Gators play Auburn on Saturday. Officials who removed the alligator said it will be released into the wild.

I'm eavesdropping on a locker room conversation, one guy showing another his girlfriend's picture on a cell phone, a younger man talking about how he struggles to find reliable help for his restaurant, another talking about his nephew playing in a big all-star game in Las Vegas, three others piping about woman trouble, an older man cautioning against contradicting an officer of the law. And I'm lost. Everybody in the locker room in this YMCA is speaking English, and, at times, I feel as if I can't understand them. "I'm telling ya, bruh, both y'all's messed up." "Turn up the...

Health advocates wrote to the governor, lobbied legislators and worked closely with the New Jersey League of Municipalities. And their efforts have paid off. Earlier this summer, a 7 percent state tax on gym memberships and health clubs was repealed by the state Legislature -- giving a sigh of relief to health clubs around the state. Rick Gorab, president and CEO of the Metropolitan YMCAs of the Oranges -- which has branches in Livingston, Maplewood, East Orange and Sussex County -- said 44 YMCAs banded together statewide to repeal the tax, which was passed last October. "We are a charitably-based...

Manchester, NH (LifeNews.com) -- A YMCA official who took students at a public middle school to an abortion center has been forced to resign by the community agency. The students were part of an at-risk program YMCA coordinates with the Manchester school district and they were taken to Planned Parenthood without their parents knowing. Harold Jordan, the YMCA's president, told the Associated Press that employee Joyce Palmer, the group's community outreach director, has admitted she was wrong to take the students to an abortion business. Palmer "takes full responsibility for the decision and realizes it was inappropriate to include Planned...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - The city school board ordered an investigation into an after-school program run by the YMCA in which some middle school students were taken to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic. New Hampshire Right to Life, an abortion opponent, is now asking for equal time with the seventh and eighth grade students, as well. The visit was part of the YMCA's STAY program, for students considered at risk of dropping out of school, abusing drugs or getting into trouble with the law. The trip, a week ago, was part of a tour of several social service agencies in the...

Manchester, NH (LifeNews.com) -- Parents in New Hampshire are outraged after learning that the YMCA, in partnership with a local school district, took a group of junior high school students to a Planned Parenthood abortion business. The Manchester school district has come under fire for the trip and promises students will never go there again.The Manchester school district has partnered with the YMCA to put together a program for at-risk students who are in danger of dropping out of school. YMCA took the students to various places around town to show them summer programs and places to get involved in...

(IsraelNN.com) Muslim fundamentalists, aligned with Al Qaeda, bombed a Christian bookstore and two Internet cafes in Gaza on Saturday following previous attacks on churches as part of its religious crusade to replace the secular Fatah faction. The "Sword of Islam" terrorist group took responsibility for the bombings of Internet cafes and music stores, which they consider an offense to the Muslim religion because they represent Western society. The same group has issued warnings to Gaza women not to hang out in Internet cafes. The Swords of Islam has bombed more than a dozen Internet cafes in several weeks and destroyed...

Prior to attack, Christian groups warned to vacate Hamas-controlled West Bank town; identities of attackers known to local government, but no repercussions likely Palestinian gunmen Saturday attacked and set fire to the Young Men's Christian Association headquarters in Qalqiliya, a large West Bank city controlled by Hamas. Local government sources identified the attackers as members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups, saying the identities of the gunmen are "well known" to Qalqiliya's security forces, which are controlled by the Hamas government. Saturday's arson follows a series of warnings by the Muslim leadership of Qalqilya accusing the city's YMCA...

Do you know what the C in YMCA stands for? You may know it stands for “Christian,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t. The YMCA has come far from its founders’ intent when it was organized in 1844—so far that many people have forgotten its roots as a Christian organization established to disciple young men. Today, as John Alexander of the Danville, Illinois, YMCA says, “Unfortunately, people look at us and just see a swim and gym.”

Do you know what the C in YMCA stands for? You may know it stands for “Christian,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t. The YMCA has come far from its founders’ intent when it was organized in 1844 — so far that many people have forgotten its roots as a Christian organization established to disciple young men. Today, as John Alexander of the Danville, Illinois, YMCA says, “Unfortunately, people look at us and just see a swim and gym.” Sadly, over the years the YMCA has redefined its original mission right out of existence. At first, the YMCA’s...

'High-roller' gets prison for Y theft Susan Miller's charges from embezzling $20,000 from the YMCA is prefaced by a 17-year criminal history that brought her more than $300,000 in financial gain. By Juliette Rule rep9@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Because she didn't learn her lesson the first time, the woman convicted of stealing money from the Cheyenne Family YMCA to support her high-roller gambler status will spend six to nine years in prison. Susan J. Miller, 42, heard those words from Laramie County District Judge Nicholas Kalokathis at her Tuesday morning sentencing hearing. In a fairly complicated...

No wait, not six. To hell with that. Make it 10. Ten bucks a gallon, no matter what the going rate for a barrel of light sweet crude. That would so completely, violently, brilliantly do it. Revolutionize the country. Firebomb our pungent stasis. Change everything. Don't you agree? Here's what we could do: Give gas discounts to cab drivers (at least initially) and metro transit systems and low-income folks, those who have to drive their busted-up '78 Honda Civics to their jobs scrubbing restaurant toilets and flipping burgers and vacuuming the residual cocaine from the seat cushions of numb SUV...

Think sex and drugs destroy America? Try naive chastity. Oh, and "Purity Balls" There are these things. These unholy events called "Purity Balls" and you should probably fall to your knees right this minute and thank a merciful and lubricious and happily polyamorous God that you do not know what they are and that you have access right this minute to vast quantities of wine to deflect their nasty karmic arrows because, you know, oh my God. But hey, free country. Purity Balls. No, not some sort of newfangled spherical chastity device to be inserted using vacuum tubes and pulleys,...

It's a shockingly eco-friendly plan from the world's most toxic retailer. Did hell just freeze over? Sometimes you just have to let the possibility breathe. Sometimes you just have to allow that something grand and good and healthy might actually be born from the bowels of the dank and ravenous megacorporate world, like flowers from a dung heap, like vodka from old potatoes, even if it comes right alongside the nastiest, most abusive federal environmental policy you will see in your lifetime. Take Wal-Mart, the most famously offensive, town-destroying, junk-purveying, labor-abusing, sweatshop-supporting, American-job-killing, soul-numbing, seizure-inducing, hope-curdling retailer in the known...

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2006 – The Armed Services YMCA honored individuals and organizations for their support of military families in 2005 at its 19th Annual Recognition Luncheon here today. Bryce Moorehouse, 11, shows Navy Force Master Chief Dave Pennington his art contest entry that earned first place during the Armed Services YMCA 19th Annual Recognition Luncheon in Washington. Bryce's mother, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Andrea Palermo, is stationed at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The ASYMCA provides social and support services for military families, organization officials said. Last...

A Christian organization betrays its mission and early beliefs and sides with Muslim terrorists. Then this organization finds out the truth about the Muslim terrorists too late. The group then becomes the target of the Muslim terrorists' wrath only because of its empty "Christian" name...YMCA gets its just deserts

JERUSALEM -- The leadership of a West Bank Palestinian city now controlled by Hamas has warned a local Young Men's Christian Association to close its offices and leave town or face likely Muslim violence, WorldNetDaily has learned. The move highlighted long-standing fears Hamas would use its win in last January's Palestinian parliamentary elections to impose an anti-Christian, anti-Jewish hard-line Islamist regime in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Flushing YMCA said four people were killed in an accident on the New York State Thruway at 7 a.m. en route to a swimming meet in Buffalo, N.Y. The victims included a 47-year-old woman, her two sons and a 14-year-old girl, who died when a tanker truck slammed into their minivan, New York 1 reported. Two other passengers in the vehicle were removed from the battered minivan and taken to a local area hospital, New York 1 reported. In addition, the driver of the tanker truck was taken to the hospital, according to New York 1. Neither the Flushing...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The lifeguards find bare breasts distracting. That's one of the reasons officials at the Ann Arbor, Mich., YMCA said they've banned breast-feeding at the pool. But nursing moms counter that's no excuse. The breast-feeding mothers plan a nurse-in at the Y Saturday to protest the ban. However, Krista Dragun, one of the protest organizers, said they'll be nursing their babies in the lobby, not the pool area. She said they want the Y to adopt a more mother-baby friendly policy for the pool. Y officials note there's no eating or drinking allowed at the pool for...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The lifeguards find bare breasts distracting. It's News that Dares to be News! Click here for more Bizarre Bazaar. That's one of the reasons officials at the Ann Arbor, Michigan, Y-M-C-A say they've banned breast-feeding at the pool. But nursing moms counter that's no excuse. The breast-feeding mothers plan a nurse-in at the Y tomorrow to protest the ban. However, Krista Dragun, one of the protest organizers, says they'll be nursing their babies in the lobby, not the pool area. She says they want the Y to adopt a more mother-baby friendly policy for the pool....