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The Boy Scouts of America settled a sex abuse case Thursday involving a 20-year-old California man who was molested by a Scout volunteer in 2007 — a decision that will keep years’ worth of “perversion” files detailing sex abuse allegations secret from the public. The announcement of the settlement in the Santa Barbara case came after three days of trial. The terms were confidential at the Boy Scouts’ request, said Tim Hale, the plaintiff’s attorney. “I can’t go into details about the number, but it was a great result,” Hale said. Hale had won the right to use the “perversion”...

Does this sound right to you at all?  It sounds almost like a parody story, something from The Onion.  But… it isn’t.From Todd Starnes: Troop leader: Customs and Border agent held Boy Scout at gunpointA Boy Scout troop from the nation’s heartland is demanding answers and a U.S. senator is expressing outrage after a group of scouts was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, with one child allegedly held at gunpoint.Jim Fox, the leader of the Mid-Iowa Boy Scout Troop 111, said the incident occurred earlier this month at a checkpoint along the Alaska – Canada border. The...

PARK CITY — A teacher at Parley's Park Elementary and area Boy Scout leader is accused of possessing child pornography. Jose Maria Ardanaz Ezcurdia, 31, was charged Monday in Summit County's 3rd District Court with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.

DES MOINES, Iowa —A central Iowa Boy Scout troop just returned from a three-week trip they will likely never forget About 10 days into the trip, an innocent action by one of the nearly two dozen Scouts at the Canadian border into Alaska set off a chain of events that lead to a U.S. border official pointing a gun at a scout’s head. Boy Scout Troop 111 Leader Jim Fox spelled out what happened to him and the Mid-Iowa Boy Scout Troop 111 as four van-loads of Scouts and adult volunteers tried to drive from Canada into Alaska. Fox said...

LYCOMING COUNTY— Matthew Manning, 38, of Hughesville is accused of having and disseminating child porn. He was arrested Thursday. Manning is a science teacher at Muncy Junior/Senior High School in Lycoming County. “Very uncomfortable, considering I just had him, like a month ago in school and he was teaching these kids. I think he had a 7th grade class and anyone under 17, just to hear it is weird,” said Muncy High School senior Maurice Brown. Parents with students in the district were concerned by the news, too. “You know you see people every day and you just never know...

Garrett McKay dipped his brush in a bucket of water and began scrubbing the dirt from another bright white headstone, this one from a second lieutenant who served in World War I, dying in 1963. “I know in the winter the headstones do get very weathered,” he said, as the bristles removed grime caked into the engraved letters. “The ones under the trees are really pretty dirty.” Despite the Saturday morning drizzle, McKay and 20 friends and family members spent the morning at Fort Snelling National Cemetery cleaning the limestone graves of hundreds of soldiers, their wives and the occasional...

The Attorney General of the United States told a homosexual advocacy group on Tuesday night that the Boy Scouts of America "preserves and perpetuates the worst kind of stereotypes" by refusing to allow homosexuals to serve as Boy Scout troop leaders. "Today, courageous lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals routinely put their lives on the line as members of America's armed services," Holder told Lambda Legal Tuesday night. "And if these men and women are fit for military service, then surely they are fit to mentor, to teach, and to serve as role models for the leaders of future generations." In...

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Irving-based Boy Scouts of America perpetuates “the worst stereotypes” by barring gay people from becoming Scout leaders. “The continuation of a policy that discriminates against gay adult leaders — by an iconic American institution — only preserves and perpetuates the worst kind of stereotypes,” Holder said in a speech to the gay civil rights group Lambda Legal in Washington. Holder did not announce any legal action against the Boy Scouts. A Supreme Court decision 14 years ago said the Scouts, as a private entity, had a right to discriminate against...

The Boy Scouts of America held its national annual meeting in Nashville last week, one year after announcing the inclusion of openly-gay members, and despite a decline in membership over the past 10 years, the organization says it continues to serve nearly 2.5 million youth. "The BSA has seen, in its past 10 years, some years with a decline of 2 to 4 percent in members each year with some years being flat. At the end of December, we had served nearly 2.5 million youth members and close to 960,000 adult members. This is a decrease of approximately 6 percent...

IRVING, TX, May 27, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who led the military to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell, says that he would have allowed homosexual leaders for Boy Scouts of America. Gates, who was elected to head the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) for a two-year term last week, said that he "would have supported having gay Scoutmasters, but at the same time, I fully accept the decision that was democratically arrived at by 1,500 volunteers from across the entire country." A year ago, BSA allowed openly homosexual scouts for the first time. The policy reads...

Millions this weekend celebrated the unofficial start of summer honoring those who gave their lives in war, and Memorial Day transcended generations at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. That’s where Joseph Brunson, 7, bypassed barbecues and swimming pools and took time out of his weekend to place flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes. The nonprofit group “Remember Heroes” places floral arrangements at the grave sites of local war dead each year. Joseph heard about a volunteer project at his Cub Scout meeting. The boy told the CBS Dallas affiliate that he wanted to volunteer his time alongside his...

This is an excerpt of Dr. Gates' 26 page, 27 minute speech in which he speaks to the membership issue. 20 … FINALLY, LET ME ADDRESS THE MEMBERSHIP ISSUE, AN ISSUE THAT HAS LEFT US DIVIDED, DISTRACTED AND DEFENSIVE. A YEAR AGO, THIS MEETING SAW A RESPECTFUL AND CIVIL DEBATE OVER MEMBERSHIP POLICY. IN A DEMOCRATIC PROCESS, A STRONG MAJORITY OF THE VOLUNTEER LEADERSHIP OF THIS MOVEMENT FROM ALL ACROSS THE NATION VOTED TO WELCOME GAY YOUTH INTO SCOUTING. IN ALL CANDOR, I WOULD HAVE 21 SUPPORTED GOING FURTHER, AS I DID IN OPENING THE WAY FOR GAYS TO SERVE...

NEW YORK (AP) — A slice of the New York City area mainstream — a police officer, a fire department paramedic, a rabbi, a nurse, a Boy Scout leader — used the Internet to anonymously collect and trade child pornography, federal officials said Wednesday. The six were among at least 70 men and one woman charged in a five-week operation by the Homeland Security Investigations arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal officials, who planned to announce the arrests a news conference later Wednesday, call it one of the largest local roundups ever of people who collect images of...

China has built an offshore oil drilling rig, numbered HD-981, specifically for the purpose invalidating other nations’ claims to seabed they thought was theirs. There is no doubt about the purpose of the rig given that a Chinese state oil company official once called it “our mobile national territory.” Its primary purpose isn’t commercial. If China can drill an oil well on some other country’s seabed, they can then claim that it was China’s territory all along. The rig is having its first outing to that purpose off the coast of Vietnam, accompanied by 86 Chinese vessels including a submarine....

Pedophile teacher abused scores as clues missed He was one of the most beloved teachers in the small world of international schools that serve the children of diplomats, well-off American expatriates and local elites. He was often the first to arrive in the morning, and the last to leave each day. He led students on class trips to exotic places, treating them to cookies and milk at bedtime. That was the public persona of William Vahey, carefully crafted over four decades until a maid cleaning his home in Nicaragua stole a 16-gigabyte memory drive. There, in photograph after photograph, was...

RUSH: "Writing in Scouting Magazine, Bryan Wendell says Scouts from Berkeley Heights [New Jersey] encountered Curry on a trail in Harriman State Park in New York. Curry, 57, had broken her ankle. 'We were hiking along, and we came to a trail intersection,' Scouter Rick Jurgens said, 'and a lady was sitting on the ground with her one leg out. "'We didn't think anything of it, but one of the guys asked if everything is OK. She said, 'No, not really. I think I broke my ankle.' She told us to keep going, but the guys refused.' Although Jurgens said...

In her role as NBC journalist, Ann Curry has reported from some of the world’s hot spots, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur. But when she experienced an unexpected injury on a New Jersey hiking trail, Curry found herself assisted by the Boy Scouts of America. Writing in Scouting Magazine, Bryan Wendell says Scouts from Berkeley Heights encountered Curry on a trail in Harriman State Park in New York. Curry, 57, had broken her ankle. “We were hiking along, and we came to a trail intersection,” Scouter Rick Jurgens said, “and a lady was sitting on the ground with her one...

Pascal Tessier is a 17-year-old Eagle Scout in suburban Maryland who says scouting made him who he is today, with its lessons about morality, leadership and responsibility. And those very strengths, this openly gay high school senior said, are what compel and equip him to fight back now against Scout policies on gays that he believes are wrong. After long, anxious debate, the Boy Scouts’ national board voted a year ago to allow openly gay youths to participate in scouting, while continuing to exclude gay leaders age 18 and over. It was promoted as a compromise intended to offer the...

The city council of Louisville has denied a request for funds to help Boy Scouts obtain merit badges, because the group allegedly “discriminates” by refusing to allow homosexual males to act as scoutmasters. Louisville Metro Council rejected a request from Councilwoman Cindi Fowler, D-14th District, to approve $640 in neighborhood development money so that Boy Scouts could earn their swimming badges after the county attorney said the Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) ban on homosexual scout leaders violates the city's anti-discrimination ordinance. The money would have expanded swimming opportunities an additional two hours on two nights for the scouts of...

WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS--With the focus on the possible loss of property held for generations of ranchland owners in north Texas, others who might also be affected by the BLM’s Red River Land Grab could be overlooked. During a meeting with Texas State Senator Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls), Breitbart Texas learned that land owned by the Northwest Texas Council of the Boy Scouts of America is also reportedly being targeted by the BLM land management study. Boy Scout Council President, Wayne Mansur, sat down with Breitbart Texas to explain what his organization and the young people he serves are facing.