THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2013
PAGE 3
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A statue of a Boy Scout stands in front of the National Scouting Museum yesterday in Irving, Texas. The Boy Scouts of America announced it is considering a dramatic retreat from its controversial policy of excluding gays as leaders and youth members.
Boy Scouts petition to include gay members
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — The Boy Scouts of America is considering a dramatic retreat from its controversial policy of excluding gays as leaders and youth members.
Under the change now being discussed, the different religious and civic groups that sponsor Scout units would be able to decide for themselves how to address the issue — either maintaining an exclusion of gays or opening up their membership.
Monday's announcement of the possible change comes after years of protests over the policy - including petition campaigns that have prompted some corporations to suspend donations to the Boy Scouts.
Under the proposed change, said BSA spokesman Deron Smith, "the Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members, or parents."
The Boys Scouts, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010, has long excluded both gays and atheists. Smith said a change in the policy toward atheists was not being considered, and that the BSA continued to view "Duty to God" as one of its basic principles.
Protests over the no-gays policy gained momentum in 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the BSA's right to exclude gays. Scout units lost sponsorships by public
schools and other entities that adhered to nondiscrimination policies, and several local Scout councils made public their displeasure with the policy.
More recently, amid petition campaigns, shipping giant UPS Inc. and drug-manufacturer Merck announced that they were halting donations from their charitable foundations to the Boy Scouts as long as the no-gays policy was in force.
Also, local Scout officials drew widespread criticism in recent months for ousting Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian mom, as a den leader of her son's Cub Scout pack in Ohio and for refusing to approve an Eagle Scout application by Ryan Andresen, a California teen who came out as gay last fall.
"An end to this ban will restore dignity to countless families across the country, my own included, who simply wanted to take part in all scouting has to offer," Tyrrell said. "My family loved participating in scouting, and I look forward to the day when we might once again be able to take part."
Many of the protest campaigns, including one seeking Tyrrell's restatement, had been waged with help from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
"The Boy Scouts of America have heard from scouts, corporations and millions of Americans that discriminating against gay scouts and scout leaders is wrong."
said Herndon Graddick, GLAAD's president. "Scouting is a valuable institution, and this change will only strengthen its core principles of fairness and respect."
The Scouts had reaffirmed the no-gays policy as recently as last year, and appeared to have strong backing from conservative religious denominations — notably the
An end to this ban will restore dignity to countless families across the country, my own included [...]
JENNIFER TYRELL
Cub Scouts Den Leader
Mormons, Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists — which sponsor large numbers of Scout units. Under the proposed change, they could continue excluding gays.
Smith said the change could be announced as early as next week, after BSA's national board concludes a regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 6. The meeting will be closed to the public.
Were the change adopted, Smith said, "there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, and the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with each organization's mission, principles, or religious beliefs.
"BSA members and parents would be able to choose a local unit that best meets the needs of their families," he said. "Under this proposed policy, the BSA would not require any chartered organization to act in ways inconsistent with that organization's mission, principles, or religious beliefs."
The announcement came shortly after new data showed that membership in the Cub Scouts — the BSA's biggest division — dropped sharply last year, and was down nearly 30 percent over the past 14 years.
According to figures provided by the organization, Cub Scout ranks dwindled by 3.4 percent, from 1,583,166 in 2011 to 1,528,673 in 2012. That's down from 2.17 million in 1998.
The Boy Scouts attribute the decline largely to broad social changes, including the allure of video games and the proliferation of youth sports leagues and other options for after-school activities.
However, critics of the Scouts suggest that its recruitment efforts have been hampered by high-profile controversies — notably the court-ordered release of files dealing with sex abuse allegations and persistent protests over the no-gays policy.
al youth membership" — Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturers — totaled 2,658,794 in 2012, compared to more than 4 million in peak years of the past. There were 910,668 Boy Scouts last year, a tiny increase from 2011, while the ranks of Venturers — a program for youths 14 and older— declined by 5.5 percent.
In addition to flak over the nogays policy, the Scouts have been buffeted by multiple court cases related to past allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders, including those chronicled in long-confidential records that are widely known as the "perversion files."
The BSA's overall "tradition-
Through various cases, the Scouts have been forced to reveal files dating from the 1960s to 1991. They detailed numerous cases where abuse claims were made and Boy Scout officials never alerted authorities and sometimes actively sought to protect the accused.
The Scouts are now under a California court order, affirmed this month by the state Supreme Court, to turn over sex-abuse files from 1991 through 2011 to the lawyers for a former Scout who claims a leader molested him in 2007, when he was 13. It's not clear how soon the files might become public.
Happy 152nd birthday, Kansas! Kansas became a state in 1861 and created the coolest university in the country just four years later.
POLICE REPORTS
Information based on the Douglas County Sheriff's Office booking recap.
- A 20-year-old male was arrested yesterday on the 2400 block of 24th Terrace under suspicion of violating parole. Bond was set at $12,000.
- A 19-year-old male was arrested Sunday on the 1300 block of 24th Street under suspicion of criminal trespassing. He was released on a $100 bond.
●A 32-year-old female was arrested Sunday on the 2200 block of Iowa Street under suspicion of aggravated robbery, robbery, theft of property estimated at $500 and battery. No bond was set.
CRIME
$\bullet$ A 31-year-old male was arrested yesterday on the 300 block of Main Street under suspicion of domestic battery. No bond was set.
● A 26-year-old female was arrested Sunday on the 1000 block of 23rd Street under suspicion of no proof of liability insurance, refusal of testing and driving while intoxicated, second offense. She was released on a $1,250 bond.
Emily Donovan
HEALTH
DENVER (AP) — Whole Foods Market says it is voluntarily recalling some 4-ounce Whole Catch Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon, cold-smoked and sliced, after a sample tested positive for listeria.
The lot code for the recalled smoked salmon is 7425A2298B.
The UPC code is 0 99482 40880 0.
Whole Foods says the recalled items were sold in stores in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Utah.
Texas executes first woman in 8 years
Colorado health officials say no illnesses had been reported as of Monday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Dallas County jury already found former nursing home therapist Kimberly McCarthy guilty of the 1997 killing when evidence at the punishment phase of her trial tied her to two similar murders a decade earlier.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Texas woman convicted of the grusome slaying and robbery of her neighbor, a retired 71-year-old college psychology professor, is set to be the first woman put to death in the United States since 2010.
"Once the jury heard about those other two, we were certainly in a deep hole," recalled McCarthy's lead trial attorney, Doug Parks. Jurors decided McCarthy should die.
Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics compiled from 1980 through 2008 show women make up about 10 percent of homicide offenders nationwide. According to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 3,146 people were on the nation's death rows as of last Oct. 1, and only 63 — 2 percent — were
Her execution, set for Tuesday evening, would be the first since a Virginia inmate, Teresa Lewis, became the 12th woman put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume. In that same time, 1,309 men have been executed.
women.
McCarthy exhausted her court appeals, as the U.S. Supreme Court three weeks ago declined
McCarthy, who is black, was condemned for the July 1997 killing of neighbor Dorothy Borthy in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas. All but one of McCarthy's jurors were white.
The 51-year-old McCarthy also would be the first woman executed in Texas in more than eight years and the fourth overall in the state, which executes the most people in the nation — 492 prisoners since capital punishment resumed 30 years ago.
to review her case and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paslores last week turned down a clemency petition. On Friday, her attorneys asked Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins to delay the lethal injection, citing his interest in Texas adopting a law to allow death-row prisoners to base appeals on race. Watkins has not responded.
"It certainly doesn't make me happy," Parks said. "It's a fact of life ... The reality is, with some exceptions, they're going to execute your client."
Evidence showed McCarthy phoned Booth to borrow a cup of
sugar, then attacked Booth when she went to retrieve it. Booth was stabbed with a butcher knife, beaten with a large candle holder and robbed of a diamond wedding ring.
McCarthy declined to speak with reporters as her execution date neared. She's one of 10 women on death row in Texas but the only one with an execution date.
Prosecutors showed McCarthy stole Booth's Mercedes and drove to Dallas, pawned the ring for $200 and then went to a crack house to buy some cocaine.
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DEFINE ac.count.ing [uh-koun-ting]
2. Prepare yourself for a job in public accounting, auditing, forensic accounting small business management and many others.
-noun
3. Talk business in six classes. Enroll in the Business Minor.
1. Learn about financial and managerial accounting, business and measurement systems, product costing systems and management planning.
KU SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
The University of Kansas
ACCT 205: Survey of Accounting business.ku.edu/bminor
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