November 10, 2008 by Muir Scouter.

Wipunxit Sisilija (Grey Buffalo)

November 9, 2009

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June 12, 2008 by Muir Scouter.

Follow-up from Reuters:

Boy Scouts among dead as tornadoes hit Midwest

 

By Kay Henderson

Tornadoes killed four people at a Boy Scout camp in Iowa and two others in Kansas as more than 30 twisters ripped through the U.S. Midwest, rescue officials said on Thursday.

Thomas White, a scout leader, said he was among a group who flung themselves to the ground as the tornado hit the Little Sioux Scout Ranch at around dinner time on Wednesday.

“It just sucked the air right out of you,” the Eagle Scout told CNN. “It was unbelievable.”

Three of the dead were scouts and one was a youth staff member, said Lloyd Roitstein, head of the Boy Scouts of Mid-America Council.

Roitstein said the scouts had emergency and tornado drills the day before the twister hit.

“That day they were out there practicing first aid, saving their friends, saving other scouters, saving the life of our camp director, who was under his house,” Roitstein told reporters. “They did a tremendous job, they kept cool.”

Four Midwestern states were hit by tornadoes, some accompanied by baseball-sized hail. They compounded the damage from rampant flooding that has forced hundreds of people from their homes in Iowa.

In Kansas, one woman was found dead in her yard in Chapman and one man died outside a mobile home in Soldier, said state emergency management operations spokeswoman Sharon Watson.

The Kansas twisters injured dozens of people and destroyed at least 60 homes.

At the Boy Scout camp, more than 90 children and 25 adults were attending a “Pohuk Pride” weeklong training event, said Tina Potthoff, spokeswoman for the Iowa Emergency Operations Center.

Twenty to 40 people were injured, she said.

White, the Eagle Scout, said he ran to one of the cabins where others had taken shelter.

“It was complete chaos. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. It was injured scouts and dead people,” he said on the CBS “Early Show.”

Roitstein said the shelters were not built to withstand tornado-force winds.

Iowa officials said the state National Guard was helping with the search and rescue effort in the wilderness where the camp is located. Heavy rain was forecast for Thursday in the area.

At least two tornado warnings were issued for Little Sioux before the twister struck.

“We are profoundly saddened,” said Iowa Gov. Chet Culver. ” Our heart goes out to all of the families and the children affected by this horrific tragedy.”

The tornado was one of more than 30 reported across Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.

(Additional reporting by Carey Gillam in Kansas City and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by John O’Callaghan)

Be Prepared!

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June 11, 2008 by Muir Scouter.

DES MOINES, Iowa — A tornado hit a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa Wednesday evening, killing at least four people and injuring between 30 and 40 others.

Courtney Greene, a spokeswoman for Governor Chet Culver, says the tornado hit the Little Sioux scout camp. Speaking from the state Emergency Operations Center, which is mobilized because of flooding across Iowa, Greene said authorities have been told of multiple injuries and the potential loss of life.

The camp is located in western Iowa on the Harrison-Monona county line, north of Council Bluffs.Greene says a large number of state troopers are on scene and that a search and rescue team has been dispatched to the area from Sioux City. She doesn’t know why they are needed, just that local officials asked for the team.

Authorities have asked parents and residents to stay away from the scene so rescuers can work. A hotline for families with children at the camp has been set up at 402-431-9272.

About 100 campers were said to be at the site when the storm hit. Camp officials said they had been warned that a storm was coming. On Sunday, campers were told where to go in case severe weather hit during their stay.

KCCI also learned that DOT crews have been sent to the area with chain saws to help clear a path for rescuers. The tornado downed a large number of trees.

KETV reports that a scout master said there was adequate warning of the approaching tornado, but there was no place to seek shelter in the camp. The scout master says there were 96 campers at the site and they were essentially trapped by the tornado. He says many of the camp buildings were flattened. KETV reports many of those injured had head injuries.

The tornado struck around 7 pm. A line of severe thunderstorms with the threat for tornadoes and heavy rain is sweeping across western Iowa this evening and will enter central Iowa later tonight.

Stay tuned to KCCI-TV and KCCI.com for updates.

http://www.kcci.com/news/16579043/detail.html?rss=des&psp=news

Prayers for the Scouts, Scouters, and their families!

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May 27, 2008 by Muir Scouter.

From KYW Radio:

Boy Scouts File Federal Lawsuit Over Dispute with City of Philadelphia

by KYW’s Mike Dunn

The local Boy Scouts organization has filed a federal lawsuit against the Nutter administration over the mayor’s ultimatum that the scouts renounce the national group’s policy on gays or leave their city-owned headquarters.

Mayor Nutter had told the “Cradle of Liberty” Boy Scout council to renounce the Scouts’ national policy on gays, start paying fair-market-value rent, or vacate its city-owned headquarters — on Winter Street near 22nd, just off the Benjamin Franklin Parkway — by June 1st.

Currently, the scouting group gets the office space from the city for free.

Negotiations between the administration and the scouts have been going on for months (see related story), apparently for naught. The local scouting group has now filed a lawsuit in federal court, basically contending that the Nutter administration is violating the Scouts’ First-Amendment rights by delivering this ultimatum.

Jason Gosselin is an attorney for the Boy Scouts:

“What the city has done is essentially ordered the Boy Scouts, the Cradle of Liberty Council, to repudiate that policy. And when they refused to do that, they’ve now been penalized by the city with the notice to vacate their headquarters.”

Mayor Nutter says simply that the city cannot countenance the national Scouts’ policy on gays:

“We don’t support discrimination by organizations against individuals for any particular reason as they deliver their services. And certainly not on city land. In the cradle of liberty, the City of Philadelphia, that’s just unconscionable.”

Read the entire complaint (Acrobat required)

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May 16, 2008 by Muir Scouter.

From the Associated Press, via the San Francisco Chronicle:

Woman sentenced for having son dress up as Scout

Friday, May 16, 2008

(05-16) 12:42 PDT Easton, Pa. (AP) –

A former Bethlehem woman will serve up to 23 months in prison for having her 7-year-old son dress as a Cub Scout to collect money for a nonexistent cause.

Sally Ann Gombocz, 51, told a Northampton County judge she wanted to apologize to anyone she hurt. She previously pleaded guilty to theft by deception and corruption of a minor.

Gombocz had her son dress as a scout in 2003 and tell people he was raising money for a camping trip. A prosecutor says the family collected $69.

Gombocz was sentenced Friday to six to 23 months in the county jail. She also was fined $2,000, ordered to perform community service, take parenting classes, have psychological counseling and submit to random urine screens. She also must pay restitution.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/16/national/a124244D49.DTL

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April 4, 2008 by Muir Scouter.

Mounted Thai Boy Scouts fire slingshots loaded with tamarind seeds in an effort to reforest open land in Sang Khla buri, Kanchanaburi Province. Their goal is to grow 100,000 new trees.

AP via SFGate

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February 19, 2008 by Muir Scouter.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Philly’s War on the Boy Scouts

By KEVIN FERRIS
February 16, 2008; Page A10

Philadelphia

As Michael Nutter was sworn in as the city’s 98th mayor last month, he called for a new wave of public service to clean up drug-infested neighborhoods. If he is serious about renewing volunteerism, he’ll start by putting an end to the city’s campaign against the Boy Scouts.

On May 31, the Cradle of Liberty Council, the local Boy Scout chapter, will be evicted from its headquarters on 22nd and Winter Streets — a space it has occupied since 1928.

The eviction isn’t for a breach of contract. It comes at the behest of the City Council, which voted 16 to one last year to kick the boy scouts out unless they reverse the national Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gays serving in the ranks or as scoutmasters or start paying “market rent” — about $200,000 a year. Local chapters can’t reverse national scouting policies. So it’s a matter of paying up or moving out.

Throughout the city, there are about 56,000 Boy Scouts who spend countless hours cleaning parks, running food drives, and organizing meals for the needy. And, of course, helping young boys, many without strong male figures in their lives, develop skills that will serve them well in life.

“You think we’d be embraced by city officials,” Scoutmaster J.R. Brockman told me recently. He’s a human-relations consultant and father of twin 14-year-olds who volunteers to lead a troop of about 20 scouts and a dozen Cub Scouts out of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in west Philadelphia. On Fridays he can be found with his scouts at the church as the boys eat pizza and play Xbox. “It’s an activity that keeps them off the streets and lets them spend time with their friends,” he says.

But it’s not all fun and games. Mostly Mr. Brockman focuses on steering kids clear of drugs and violence, which leads many of the city’s youth to a stint in jail. “[T]he kids who have stayed in the program,” he told me, “have stayed out of trouble.” On weekends, his scouts go for hikes or campouts at local parks. In town, they renovate sections of the city’s Fairmount Park, run food drives, and feed the homeless.

Irving Anglin, 16, is leading a renovation project in Fairmount Park. His aim is to become an Eagle Scout, an honor only a handful of scouts ever achieve. He joined the scouts as a first grader and admits he did so reluctantly. Today, however, he can’t imagine life without scouting: “You get to know your limits and your strengths. You get to do different things, like swimming and sports that you otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to do.”

Mr. Brockman says that all of his scouting activities are made possible because he receives administrative support and help with recruitment from the of the Cradle of Liberty headquarters. Take away the scout building and Mr. Brockman loses the professional staff he relies on. As it is, he can’t field all the calls he receives from single mothers looking to place their sons in his troop. . . .

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February 19, 2008 by Muir Scouter.

Very sad news from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Yosemite National Park, Calif. (AP) — A 12-year-old Boy Scout from Modesto died over the weekend after falling from a sheer granite cliff in Yosemite National Park.

A spokeswoman for the park says the boy died Saturday afternoon when he fell about 300 feet after wandering away from his group that was hiking toward Upper Yosemite Fall.

. . . Park spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman says the accident happened when the boy and another Scout started hiking in front of their group and ventured off the trail toward a steep drop above Columbia Rock. . . .

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/19/state/n094740S38.DTL&tsp=1

Rest in Peace, and prayers for the family and the other Scouts and Scouters.

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January 8, 2008 by Muir Scouter.

From the Associated Press:

(01-08) 07:18 PST COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The president of Maldives was saved from assassination Tuesday when a boy scout grabbed the knife of an attacker who had jumped out of a crowd greeting the leader, an official said.

President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was not hurt, but his shirt was ripped when the attacker tried to stab him before the boy and security guards intervened during the event on the small island of Horafushi, said government spokesman Mohammad Shareef.

“This fellow in the crowd with a knife in his hand attempted to stab the president in his stomach,” Shareef said by telephone from Male, the capital of Maldives. “But a 15-year-old boy came in the way, and grabbed the knife. One brave boy saved the president’s life.” . . .

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December 4, 2007 by Muir Scouter.

Berkeley Sea Scout leader accused of molesting teens

Contra Costa Times

Article Launched: 12/04/2007 06:33:08 PM PST

Berkeley values have replaced Scouting values.

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