Free Republic

The Boy Scouts of America's chief executive took a medical leave of absence as the youth organization faces financial difficulties related to sex-abuse litigation. The ailing official, Mike Surbaugh, has held the BSA's top post for four years. The chairman of the BSA's executive committee, James Turley, conveyed the news of Surbaugh's departure to members of the Boy Scout's national staff in an email sent Monday. In the note, Turley referred to the BSA's ongoing "financial challenges." ~snip~ Surbaugh's departure comes at a critical time for the Boy Scouts, which for years have been entangled in costly litigation with plaintiffs...

An assistant scoutmaster on Long Island has been charged with sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy at Boy Scout retreats and meetings over an 11-month period last year.

With hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits piling up like logs on a campfire, it will soon cost nearly twice as much to become a Boy Scout of America. The once-storied organization sent out a notice to leaders that the registration fee will nearly double from $33 to $60 on Jan. 1, blaming the increase on the rising “cost of insurance.” “Everybody knows what this is really all about,” fumed Charles Greinsky, vice president of the Staten Island Council Boy Scouts of America, who has been involved in scouting since 1963. “This is about the pedophiles and the insurance we have to...

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu skillfully “played” US President Donald Trump by plying him with inaccurate information, former secretary of state Rex Tillerson said. Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political life after close elections, was “a bit Machiavellian” and would share “misinformation” with the United States, according to Trump’s former top diplomat. […] “They did that with the president on a couple of occasions, to persuade him that ‘We’re the good guys, they’re the bad guys.’ We later exposed it to the president so he understood, ‘You’ve been played,’” Tillerson said, according to the newspaper. […] Tillerson said he...

For my followers: my recent tweets are less for you than they are fir my pursuers. They are shots across the bow .. https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1137799476507217921

Boy Scouts Of America Release The Names Of Over 7600 Scout Leaders Who Violated Kids!

The lawyers’ ads on the internet aggressively seeking clients to file sexual abuse lawsuits give a taste of what lies ahead this year for the Boy Scouts of America: potentially the most fateful chapter in its 109-year history. Sexual abuse settlements have already strained the Boy Scouts’ finances to the point where the organization is exploring “all available options,” including Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But now the financial threats have intensified. The reason: States have been moving in recent months to adjust their statute-of-limitations laws so that victims of long-ago sexual abuse can sue for damages. New York state has passed...

...Face Child Sex AllegationsAlarming new details have surfaced about how many people were listed in the Boy Scouts of America’s “perversion files,” according to lawyers who demand the full release of thousands of names of alleged offenders in the files. Nearly 200 of them are from New York and New Jersey.

Is Trail Life USA Immune from the Fate of BSA? No - but mostly yes... Since Trail Life USA is a human organization, there is always a possibility that the left will infiltrate, destroy, and they wear it's corpse - like it did with the Scouts, BSA (much to consternation of the blindly loyal former scouts - I remind them there is no Boy Scouts). Where are just a few reasons I believe Trail Life USA will not fall under a similar fate. 1. The Core Values of Trail life are in part largely in place to ensure this doesn't...

Girls at Pinewood Derby: The new face of Boy Scouting

I wrote the following in 1995, and decided to post it because I've been told that yesterday was the anniversary of the sinking of the USS Dorchester taking with it the Four Chaplains, and the Boy Scouts have been getting some attention lately. If I have posted incorrectly, I apologize. I'm not very tech savvy: I wrote the following about my father, and his ideals, two years ago. I am up-dating, because Monday, April 3, 1995,at 11:50 PM, my father's soul was taken into the arms of the Lord. He wore size 6 ½ shoes, but he left giant footprints....

A group of girls in Guam made history today as the first official all-girl troop to join Scouts BSA, the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America. Starting February 1, all girls in the U.S. can officially join the Scouts. "We wanted to land on something that evokes the past but also conveys the inclusive nature of the program going forward," Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh said of the new name. "We're trying to find the right way to say we're here for both young men and young women." Girls who join Scouts BSA will "learn from the...

What’s left of the Boy Scouts of America (now operating as Scouts BSA) is on the brink of declaring bankruptcy, according to recent news reports. With estimated assets of more than $1 billion, Scouting’s problems go beyond the financial, deep into the problems with America’s civil culture today. The U.S. Boy Scout movement reached its numerical height in 1969 with 6 million members, in a year with President Richard M. Nixon as honorary head of the Scouts and Eagle Scout astronaut Neil Armstrong stepping out on the moon. I was a Cub Scout that year, once a week proudly wearing...

The erosion of what many Americans once believed were the foundations of our country continues apace. They include, but are not limited to, overspending and debt (personal and national), never-ending wars, uncontrolled borders leading to massive immigration with no time for or expectation of assimilation and political divisions that grow wider by the day. It's now the Boy Scouts of America's turn to join the parade. The organization, which began in 1910 to, according to its website, "...train youth in responsible citizenship, character development and self-reliance" so they become honest men, worthy of admiration and respect, is now in danger...

By now, everyone who is paying attention knows the depths to which the Boy Scouts of America have fallen, culminating in their very recent consideration of filing bankruptcy. In it's wake a new boy leadership development organization has risen: Trail Life USA. Trail Life is purportedly a grounded Christian organization which bills itself as an alternative to the now compromised and hemorrhaging BSA. But is its structure really steeled against the same attacks which brought down the BSA? I was somewhat confused, if not shocked, to learn that Trail Life does NOT explicitly address the presence of "gay" young men...

The Boy scouts of America, the 108-year-old organization synonymous with traditional values in the US, is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, according to the Wall Street Journal.The report comes amid news of sinking membership and various controversies surrounding the traditional organization, including its decision to change its program name from Boy Scouts to 'gender natural' Scouts BSA allowing girls to enter the program.

The Boy Scouts of America is weighing filing for bankruptcy protection, according to a new report. The group’s leaders have brought on the Sidley Austin law firm to provide support in the event of a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, sources familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal. The potential move coincides with a decline in membership and mounting legal fees connected to a series of lawsuits related to the organization’s management of sexual abuse allegations. For example, four men sued the Boy Scouts in July, accusing the group of not taking appropriate action to prevent an accused serial...

The Boy Scouts of America is mulling declaring bankruptcy amid flagging membership and an avalanche of costly sex abuse allegations, according to the Wall Street Journal. Leaders have hired Chicago law firm Sidley Austin for help in a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, sources told the outlet. The organization has been fending off lawsuits over alleged abuse, including one filed by four former scouts who called the club a “pedophile magnet” and alleged that they were molested by scoutmaster Waldron Ackerman between 1974 and 1976. The organization has reportedly lost two-thirds of its members — some 4 million boys —...

Full Title: Boy Scouts call leader arrested in SC online predator sting operation 'abhorrent', ban him from programs RICHLAND COUNTY, SC (WIS) - A former Midlands Boy Scout leader has been called "abhorrent" by the organization after he was named as one of 38 people arrested in an online predator operation led by the Richland County Sheriff's Department. Heath Mills was arrested on two counts of solicitation of minor during "Operation Full Armor," Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott announced Thursday. Mills was identified as a troop leader in Lexington County. David Angle, assistant south executive/CEO of the Indan Waters Council...

A Secaucus woman whose son made national headlines in 2017 has been charged with stealing a donation jar from a town business, authorities said. Police say Kristie Maldonado, 44, walked into Hudson Bread, a cafe that specializes in artisan breads, on May 29 and left with the jar that was estimated to contain $200. Carla Campos, manager of the cafe, said Thursday that Maldonado had been a regular customer and then all of sudden stopped coming into the store on Riverside Station Boulevard. After watching the surveillance video from that day, Campos knows why, she said. While the theft occurred...