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The Boy Scouts of America experienced a modest dip in membership in 2013, but not the mass exodus that some social conservatives predicted while it was considering changing its membership policy on gays. Boy Scouts membership fell by 6 percent last year, leaving it with nearly 2.5 million youth members and 960,000 adult members. Reasons for the attrition, which is slightly greater than the 4 percent losses in 2012 and similar-sized declines in several previous years, are not fully understood but are likely related to the divisive vote on admitting openly gay youths to Scouts as well as a 60...

A 17-year-old Maryland boy has become one of the first openly gay Boy Scouts to achieve the Boy Scouts of America's highest rank since the organization reversed its ban on gay youth nearly six weeks ago. Pascal Tessier, who publicly voiced his opposition to the ban on gay members, started with the group a decade ago as a Cub Scout and earned 21 merit badges before being named an Eagle Scout on Monday, said his father, Oliver Tessier, a consultant in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

An ex-scoutmaster who admitted to molesting his son’s teenage friends and fellow troop members for years at his Keswick home pleaded guilty to 36 felony sex crimes Wednesday in Albemarle County Circuit Court. David Brian Watkins, now 50, entered into an agreement with prosecutors that shields him from additional local or federal charges and calls for an active term of 30 years and five months in prison. The agreement “provides closure for … very promising young men who can now get on with their lives,” Assistant Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Darby Lowe said after the hearing. “The young men would have...

Ross Ulbricht’s last moments as a free man were noisy enough to draw a crowd. Employees at the Glen Park branch of the San Francisco library heard a crashing sound and rushed to the science fiction section, expecting to find a patron had hit the floor. Instead, they found a handful of federal agents surrounding a slender 29-year-old man with light brown hair and wearing a T-shirt and jeans. The goal of the arrest, at 3:15 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2013, was not simply to apprehend Mr. Ulbricht, but also to prevent him from performing the most mundane of tasks:...

A new Christian-focused scouting group formed as an alternative to the Boy Scouts of America has gotten off to a rousing start since its launch on Jan. 1. Trail Life USA has seen an "explosion" of interest, forming more than 500 troops in 44 states, the group's founder John Stemberger, an attorney and president of the Florida Family Policy Council, told Newsmax. Stemberger said a new group for boys was needed after the Boy Scouts of America decided to allow gay members to remain in its ranks. "We see this as more than just a boys' program. We see it...

[T]he BSA, which is based in Irving, announced last week that it is raising annual membership dues from $15 to $24 per Scout — a 60 percent increase — beginning Jan. 1, 2014. Chief Scout Executive Wayne Brock . . . and BSA staff did not mention how much revenue might be lost from the defection of conservative families that leave the organization because of recent membership changes that allow [homosexual] youth to be Scouts. . . . The BSA once boasted of five million members back in the 1950s when the United States’ population was about half of what...

Would you allow your 10-year-old son to share a tent with a 17-year-old homosexual? Yes. I don't know. No.

FULL TITLE: Boy Scouts of America will officially welcome gay members on New Year's Day as they grapple with questions about group showers and tentmates The Boy Scouts of America will accept openly gay youths starting New Year's Day, marking a historic shift that spells major changes to policies on tentmates and showers. Yet despite their be-prepared approach, BSA leaders are rooting for the change to be a non-event, comparable to another New Year's Day in 2000 when widespread fears of digital-clock chaos to start the new millennium proved unfounded. ‘My hope is there will be the same effect this...

The Boy Scouts of America will accept openly gay youths starting on New Year’s Day, a historic change that has prompted the BSA to ponder a host of potential complications—ranging from policies on tentmates and showers to whether Scouts can march in gay pride parades. Yet despite their be-prepared approach, BSA leaders are rooting for the change to be a non-event, comparable to another New Year’s Day in 2000 when widespread fears of digital-clock chaos to start the new millennium proved unfounded. “My hope is there will be the same effect this Jan. 1 as the Y2K scare,” said Brad...

Earlier this year, when the Boy Scouts of America changed its policy to allow openly gay members, a local council braced for repercussions. "We knew back in May that it might be a challenge, but we didn't know how great a challenge," said Bill Davis, executive with the Scouts' West Central Florida Council, serving Pinellas and West Pasco counties. "So far, the biggest fallout is the financial loss. We need about $75,000 to balance our budget this year." Also feeling the wrath of those who disapprove of the Boy Scouts' decision is the Gulf Ridge Council, which serves eight counties,...

A heavyweight rock crusher's disability claim is being slammed by critics as more mental than physical. Glenn Taylor — who infamously filmed his ability to knock over an ancient 2,000-pound sandstone with his bare hands — filed a lawsuit claiming "debilitating" physical injury weeks before the stunt's filming, it has been revealed. Taylor, seen destroying a 200 million-year-old goblin sandstone formation in Utah's Goblin Valley State Park last week, filed a personal injury lawsuit last month claiming to have been disabled after a car crash four years ago.

A group of Boy Scouts leaders may face criminal charges after purposely knocking over an ancient Utah desert rock formation and posting a video of the incident online, authorities say The men were leading a group of 14 to 16-year-old Boy Scouts on a trip to Goblin Valley State Park when they said they noticed the top of the rock formation was loose and feared it was dangerous. "This is about saving lives," Dave Hall, who shot the video, told The Associated Press on Friday. "One rock at a time."

Scathing allegations surface that Boy Scouts of America hid sex abuseParents, sons outraged, say they weren't notified09/16/2013 By: Laura Harris Stunning and disturbing revelations about the Boy Scouts of America on Monday morning. According to a Tampa Bay area attorney as well as a former Boy Scout parent, the Boy Scouts of America have been keeping a long standing record of scout on scout sexual abuse, but have at no point shared that information in a way to educate other Boy Scouts, Boy Scout Troops or their communities. The current lawsuit, set to go to trial in 2014, graphically details...

A national coalition launched this weekend a new scouting organization, Trail Life USA, based on Christian values and principles as an alternative to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), which lifted its age-old ban on gay youth in May. Over 1,200 former BSA officials, parents and youth representing 44 U.S. states launched the new Christian-based program at a national convention in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday night, NBC News reported. "Most of us are coming from a highly-structured environment that has 103 years of culture and language and program and symbols … and we are starting from scratch," John Stemberger, a...

The newly announced Trail Life USA expects to become a “premier” Christian organization for boys and young men when it fully launches in the new year. Its goal is to counter the “moral free-fall” of the nation, and “raise a generation of faithful husbands, fathers, citizens and leaders,” organizers told the national inaugural convention in Nashville, Tenn., Friday night. (snip) Trail Life USA’s name, drawn from more than 300 options, was carefully vetted and is intended not to be political or controversial, organizers said. (snip) “Our whole life is about the trail, both in the outdoors and in the journey...

Nashville, TN - More than 1,200 former Scoutmasters, Eagle Scouts, parents, church leaders and former Boy Scout of America (BSA) professionals gathered tonight for the 1st inaugural Leadership Convention of a youth character development organization in Nashville. The convention's theme was "Honoring the Legacy ... Raising the Standard." Forty-four (44) states were represented, including Alaska and Hawaii. The name and visual branding for "Trail Life USA" were unveiled publicly for the 1st time to great applause and excitement by those gathered to launch a Christian alternative to the Boy Scouts of America. Trail Life USA will be an outdoor scouting-like...

A California bill that could strip tax-exempt status from the Boy Scouts of America and other “discriminatory” nonprofit youth-serving groups could come up for a final vote this week. The first-of-its-kind bill, SB 323, passed the California Senate and sailed through Assembly committees to a floor vote, possibly this week. But opponents are taking heart that there might not be enough votes in the state Assembly to pass the bill. The chamber did not consider the bill in its Monday session, but may take it up when it convenes Friday. The bill, introduced by State Sen. Ricardo Lara, names the

(Cionzynski) A Lansdale man is sitting in prison, waiting for extradition to Florida to answer a charge of felony video voyeurism of a child under the age of 16, for allegedly photographing an 8-year-old boy in a bathroom stall at DisneyÂ’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Joseph Cionzynski, 59, of the 300 block of Perkiomen Avenue, was taken into custody Wednesday by Lansdale Police, a day after Orange County SheriffÂ’s issued an arrest warrant, according to The Reporter. He was arraigned before District Judge Harold Borek on Wednesday. According to authorities, Cionzynski allegedly took cell phone photos of...

ALTOONA, WI, August 8, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic parish in Wisconsin has told the Boy Scout troop it has sponsored for the last 20 years that it will have to find a new home in response to the troop’s decision to allow practicing homosexuals to join. The Boy Scouts of America voted in May to overturn its longstanding policy barring openly gay scouts, and instead allowed troops to include gay scouts if they choose. Boy Scout Troop 90, which meets at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Altoona, revised its membership policy to state that no boy could be denied...

My Boy Scout Troop is considering alternatives and possibilities for the future of the Troop - in light of the policy changes that will become effective in January. Really, it is a matter of how we would react to changes that are likely to take place AFTER January. I am looking for competent legal advice about how my Unit's Bylaws could be modified so that two points are clear: