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A Civil War monument in Petersburg was vandalized at some point early Saturday morning. The Monument to Union Soldiers stands on Wakefield Street and is across from Walnut Hill Elementary School. Petersburg police and the National Parks Service are working together to investigate the damage. If you have any information that could help investigators, call Petersburg police at 804-732-4222 or Crime Stoppers at 804-861-1212.

President Obama announced on Friday that he was designating new national monuments covering more than a million acres in California, Texas and Nevada, his latest use of executive power to preserve public land. The designations, made under the Antiquities Act of 1906, bring to 19 the number of national monuments that Mr. Obama has established or expanded. They cover more than 260 million acres of public lands and waters. Republicans have criticized Mr. Obama, who has turned to that law more than any other president, for his expansive use of his authority to preserve sites of ecological, historical or cultural...

President Obama announced on Friday that he was designating new national monuments covering more than a million acres in California, Texas and Nevada, his latest use of executive power to preserve public land. Mr. Obama designated Berryessa Snow Mountain in California; a paleontological site in Texas known as Waco Mammoth; and the Basin and Range in Nevada, which includes rock art dating back 4,000 years, theWhite House said in a statement. The designations, made under the Antiquities Act of 1906, bring to 19 the number of national monuments that Mr. Obama has established or expanded. They cover more than 260...

A veterans group wants to complete the Veterans Memorial in Milford's Central Park with a fallen soldier monument, but the Village Council isn't sure the piece — which features a pair of boots and a helmet atop an M-16 rife — is an appropriate focal point for the park. Bear Hall, founder and chairman of the local Friends of American Veterans (FAV), approached the council earlier this month hoping for approval of the plan. The group wants to place a fallen solder memorial – also known as a battle field cross – at the end of the brick paver walkway...

When I first heard of Nathan Cirillo being shot at Ottowa's unknown-soldier monument, I just assumed he never saw it coming and couldn't resist simply due to the element of surprise... Then I heard on Fox yesterday that he was 'unarmed because the posting was ceremonial'... really? Turns out the gun slung-over his shoulder wasn't even loaded. Anybody out there know if our monument guards are armed with live ammo here in the US? After a bit of research, I've yet to find the answer. If not, seems insane- such a public target, just a sitting duck standing there on...

The Devil’s Due: Satanic monument is inevitable by Daniel Clark In Oklahoma City, a group calling itself The Satanic Temple is proposing to erect a statue of Satan in front of the State Capitol. A design they’ve submitted depicts him as a goat-headed figure with wings, seated on a throne marked with a pentagram, and ministering to two small children. The Satanic Temple claims a right to do this, based on the presence of a monument of the Ten Commandments on Capitol grounds, which the ACLU is now suing to have removed. It’s not hard to see where this is...

WASHINGTON – The leader of a Christian organization that had a Ten Commandments display vandalized has offered to not press charges against the unknown perpetrators. The Rev. Rob Schenck, president of Faith And Action, announced Tuesday afternoon at a press conference that he would not file charges provided the perpetrators agree to meet with him. "If you will come forward and confess your crime we will not press charges or pursue prosecution against you," said Schenck.............. Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-leader-offers-to-not-press-charges-against-vandals-who-toppled-decalogue-display-105240/#LltkOgW5F5lH4adY.99

<p>A stone monument of the Ten Commandments that sits on a street behind the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington and was the subject of controversy in the past has been toppled by vandals.</p> <p>The 3-foot-by-3-foot granite monument weighs 850 pounds and sits out front of the headquarters of Faith and Action, a Christian outreach ministry. The group installed the tablets in a garden outside its offices in 2006, and the group's president said the tablets were angled so that justices arriving at the high court would see them.</p>

{fsubscribe}America now has its first monument to atheism...I've never understood atheism. I mean, I get that they don't believe in God (a belief that is ironic in that it's way more irrational than their perspective people who do believe in something).What I don't get is this pathological need to spread their non-belief. Isn't trying to convert people to your way of thinking a...I don't know, what's the word....RELIGION?!?Anyway, here's what it looks like...

REX, Ga. — Police are trying to figure out who knocked over a monument dedicated to an ancestor of first lady Michelle Obama. “When I saw it, I shed a few tears,” Vicki Smith told Channel 2’s Linda Stouffer. Smith helped get the monument to Rex. It’s a tribute to Melvinia Shields, the great-great-great grandmother of Obama. Shields was born into slavery in 1844 and later moved to Georgia. Clayton County Commissioner Sonna Singleton said the monument company will have to lift the heavy stone to check for cracks after someone pushed it off the foundation block. “It was our...

A member of a Christian organization that posted a Decalogue outside a Florida courthouse said an atheist group posting a monument in the same location has the right to do so. American Atheists will soon be posting what is believed to be the United States' first atheist monument on public property outside of the Bradford County Courthouse later this month. Ken Weaver, member of the Starke, Fla.-based group Community Men's Fellowship, told The Christian Post about how he feels regarding the atheist monument bench. "Simply put, while we do not agree with the 'faith' of the American Atheists that disregards...

THE ARIZONA BILL OF RIGHTS CELEBRATION WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE ARIZONA STATE CAPITAL Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, starting at 10 a.m. [There will be no formal evening event as previously announced] 10:00 a.m. - Dedication of the Bill of Rights Monument at the Arizona State Capital THE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN THE NATION THE BILL OF RIGHTS -- CARVED IN STONE -- UNVEILED THIS SATURDAY The complete Bill Of Rights will be read aloud from Stone Tablets! The monument will be unwrapped and unveiled Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, Bill of Rights Day, at 10 a.m. Do not miss...

<p>An Irvine resident representing the group requests that the city place the sign recognizing the suffering of hundreds of saltwater bass that died at the spot.</p> <p>An Irvine resident is requesting that the city install a sign to memorialize the hundreds of fish killed in a traffic crash in early October as they were being taken to Irvine Ranch Market.</p>

The planned unveiling in London of a memorial to the 55,573 Royal Air Force Bomber Command airmen killed in World War II has sparked muted criticism in Germany, where many regard the Allied air raids that destroyed entire cities and killed over 500,000 civilians as unjustified and criminal. Helma Orosz, the mayor of Dresden, which was devastated in an Allied attack in February 1945, criticized the plans for the monument when they first became public in 2010, and spoke to London Mayor Boris Johnson about it. "The planned memorial triggered astonishment in Dresden and was judged critically by us in...

WOONSOCKET, R.I. (FOX 25) - “The Firefighter’s Prayer” is a creed dear to firefighters all over the United States; however, that prayer and a monument in Woonsocket, R.I. are under fire by a national group which says the department is blurring the lines of religion. Tom Poole, a disabled veteran, is one of many in Woonsocket trying to protect a cross that stands on top of a monument located in the parking lot of the city’s fire station on Cumberland Hill Road. The monument was erected 91 years ago to honor Woonsocket war veterans, including the three brothers killed in...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama saluted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday as a man who "stirred our conscience" and made the Union "more perfect," rejoicing in the dedication of a monument memorializing the slain civil rights leader's life and work. "I know we will overcome," Obama proclaimed, standing the 30-foot (9-meter) granite monument to King on the National Mall. "I know this," the president said, "because of the man towering over us." Obama and his wife, Michelle, and Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, joined a host of civil rights figures for the dedication on the sun-splashed...

Will work for national honor. We don’t know if the Chinese stonemasons who built the new Martin Luther King memorial got the job by shoving a sign bearing that message into the faces of its overseers. We know only that unpaid, nonunion, foreign nationals built the massive shrine on the Mall. They toiled for “national honor” and “to bring glory to the Chinese people,” one of them explained to an investigator hired by the DC-area stonemasons promised the job. Happy Labor Day! Martin Luther King died in Memphis supporting a strike by the city’s garbagemen. So it’s not a stretch...

The sculpture that is creating so much controversy is a memorial made out of steel from the World Trade Center. The original plan was to place the sculpture at the Saratoga Springs City Center. But as it was built it became clear that area wouldn't be big enough to display it. Some people suggested it be placed at the fire house instead. "I have a public safety concern because I don't want visitors in the driveway," said Mayor Scott Johnson. Safety concerns were raised by some, size concerns were raised by others. The visitor center lawn was brought to the...

Confederate soldier stands his groundBy: Danielle Battaglia Published: August 14, 2011 Despite the Reidsville Confederate Monument officially departing his post on Scales Street, another soldier is taking his place and standing up for what he believes is right. On Friday morning, Jamie Funkhouser, the confederate soldier who came to Reidsville in June to raise awareness for the city council meeting discussing the future of the monument, returned to bring awareness to the fact that the soldier will soon be moved. The Reidsville Monument stood at the intersection of Scales Street and West Morehead Street for 101 years until Mark Anthony...

Chicago attorneys and activists are planning a monument to memorialize the victims of police torture. The group is asking artists to submit proposals for the monument. Group members say their goal is "to honor the survivors of torture, their family members, and the African American communities affected by the torture."