Free Republic

On Tuesday, the International House of Pancakes will celebrate National Pancake Day by offering guests a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes. With every short stack of pancakes served, diners will be invited to make a donation to designated charities, including Shriners Hospitals for Children.The IHOP restaurants that have chosen Shriners Hospitals for Children as the beneficiary of this event are primarily in Texas, with additional locations in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

HOUSTON -- When flames engulfed a small home in Cleveland, Texas earlier this month, a family's nightmare was just beginning. Little Dylan Mills was caught in the firestorm and suffered second and third-degree burns over 80 percent of this body. "You try to rescue him and you grab a hold of him and the skin is coming off," said Heather Davis, the victim's aunt. Before Ike, Dylan would have been taken to the Shriners Burn Hospital in Galveston. But now the closest pediatric burn unit capable of handling his case was in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Out of all of the financial woes stemming from the current economic slump, this one hits me the hardest: Shriners Hospital for Children-Galveston will suspend operations to cope with a $3 billion shortfall in the Shriners International endowment fund, the organization’s president said Tuesday. In 2008, the Galveston hospital had a $33 million operating budget, according to information provided by the hospital. The hospital, which specializes in treating burned children, has been closed since Hurricane Ike struck Galveston Island Sept. 13. The hospital treats about 250 acutely burned children each year and keeps treating them until they are 18. In...

An actor who played prominent roles in a homosexual-themed play paralleling the life of Jesus Christ is on trial this week for allegedly seeking sex with someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy he met on the Internet. Steven Shriner, 42, of Hoboken, N.J., portrayed the characters of both Jesus' mother Mary and the apostle Peter in "Corpus Christi," a production of the Chicago-based Ulysses Theatre Company about a victim of "homophobes" in a Texas high school who eventually performs miracles for his 12 disciples. According to the Trentonian newspaper, Shriner allegedly used his home computer in January of last...