Oregon:Rescuers bringing body down from Mt. Hood

<blockquote class="tr_bq">A body that may be that of a Salem,Ore.,climber who has been missing since June 22 was being brought down Oregon's Mount Hood on Sunday.</blockquote><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDpVdrk8SgHiUK9onF36lZjGOtE_8_wXUVmhS15IKMsAQL0QFP5eR40gvCk6I0hjkkMkfdy1iri8Rhd9A5-u5rtyzxBeYSJ3z_p_FeLeOp_MuFczohozDgNqgLrgBNJxt6eVT8ORM-BYI/s645/BG1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDpVdrk8SgHiUK9onF36lZjGOtE_8_wXUVmhS15IKMsAQL0QFP5eR40gvCk6I0hjkkMkfdy1iri8Rhd9A5-u5rtyzxBeYSJ3z_p_FeLeOp_MuFczohozDgNqgLrgBNJxt6eVT8ORM-BYI/s645/BG1.jpg" width="640" /></a>PORTLAND, Ore. — Searchers are carrying a body down Mount Hood from the glacier where it was spotted by a helicopter crew looking for a missing climber.<br /><br />Sgt. Dan Kraus of the Clackamas County Sheriff's office says the recovery team set out around 3 a.m. Sunday and reached the body around 11 a.m.<br /><br />He expects them to complete their climb by 9 p.m.<br /><br />Officials believe the body is likely Kinley Adams, a 59-year-old Salem dentist who failed to return June 22 from a climb on the west side of Oregon's tallest mountain.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_PUM6I1SPPz1UtT3byCVNExXt4zBpptzHd6XHtcuPNRUooeiCrZFaGGBkJL59_F8BhOmatKg7_mLYhn32zrkHPguwNYavbCgXFmPDd_i6_UfhlE_tjFqUXuesiisHv2v1-zECK_11P8/s220/1qz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_PUM6I1SPPz1UtT3byCVNExXt4zBpptzHd6XHtcuPNRUooeiCrZFaGGBkJL59_F8BhOmatKg7_mLYhn32zrkHPguwNYavbCgXFmPDd_i6_UfhlE_tjFqUXuesiisHv2v1-zECK_11P8/s220/1qz.jpg" /></a>Kraus says they won't be able to identify him until the body is transferred to the medical examiner.<br /><br />The recovery operation included 30 climbers and a few dozen support personnel.<br /><br />The body had to be pulled down the mountain on a stretcher, through snow, ice and rapidly changing weather.<br /><br />Kraus says it was a very challenging operation.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Adams was an experienced climber who had been making frequent trips to Mount Hood in preparation for a trip to Nepal. </blockquote><br />He was reported missing June 22. His vehicle was found on the mountain at Timberline Lodge.<img alt="AP" class="image" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/e3/12e7ff08bf55a6d7449b766b4e23c/_h17_w0_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" /><br /><div><br /></div>

Oregon:Rescuers bringing body down from Mt. Hood

A body that may be that of a Salem,Ore.,climber who has been missing since June 22 was being brought down Oregon's Mount Hood on Sunday....

Teen accused of planning to bomb school in Columbine-style attack

<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-xlDj9C3crH88xSxMGb6-SUvA93eCl9bl52K4zuEvlXEMmb0RmIb_53nSaGxRN333SlwxeoOHiG6S8WLdZRlrrIC0gd0iDTcalx8Lc2aw3j3HgoH5OcYvPvDUzAlnoVE0obGXowQiZCMk/s1600/grant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-xlDj9C3crH88xSxMGb6-SUvA93eCl9bl52K4zuEvlXEMmb0RmIb_53nSaGxRN333SlwxeoOHiG6S8WLdZRlrrIC0gd0iDTcalx8Lc2aw3j3HgoH5OcYvPvDUzAlnoVE0obGXowQiZCMk/s1600/grant.jpg" /></a>CORVALLIS, Ore. – A 17-year-old West Albany High School student will be charged with attempted aggravated murder after the Benton County District Attorney said he planned to attack his school with bombs.<br /><br />Grant Acord will be charged as an adult. Attempted aggravated murder is a Measure 11 crime.<br /><br />Acord was taken into custody on Thursday at his Albany home after police received a tip that Acord had built a device and targeted his high school.<br /><br />Saturday, District Attorney John Haroldson said Acord’s attack plan was patterned after the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999.<br /><br />“The charge of attempted aggravated murder requires that we prove that a substantial step was taken toward the completion of the crime. In this case, we would be relying upon evidence of plan. Diagrams, checklists, a plan to use explosive devices and firearms to carry out a plan specifically modeled after the Columbine shootings,” Haroldson said.<br /><br />Haroldson would not say when Acord allegedly planned to carry out the attack because that’s part of the evidence in the case. He said police found a timeline that included a specific date for the alleged attack to take place.<br /><br />Charges will be formally filed Tuesday morning. Monday is Memorial Day.<br /><br />“This is a case of a planned assault on a target-rich environment. And that target-rich environment is the West Albany High School.”<br /><br />Officers found already-built devices and bomb-making materials under the floorboards of Acord’s bedroom at his mother’s house, said Haroldson. On Friday, the Oregon State Police’s explosive unit removed the materials and at least six devices.<br /><br />The bombs included pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, napalm bombs and and explosives made from drain cleaner, Haroldson said.<br /><br />The school was swept twice as a precaution, but nothing suspicious was found, Haroldson said.<br /><br />“The Albany Police Department has placed a lot of attention on insuring that West Albany High School is safe and secure,” he said. “The same is true for the neighborhoods that have been involved in the searches in this case.”<br /><br />Acord will also face charges of manufacturing a destructive device and unlawful possession of a deadly weapon with intent to use against another person.<br /><br /><b>He is tentatively scheduled to appear in court Tuesday at 3 p.m.</b><br /><br /><h3>Murder charge in bomb plot; motive unclear</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTOm7Vh_fH002qr729zFFqGgh6H59NuKpENM8cdmare2RMS7ldc8OUzdCK0sJ62S0liwXplcsC1_CmNZf7yDE6v_7ZTyEWFki4_LhJKXvk0RkPETZdHGurEQrTDwNiivHBeOd0jHT9uPWv/s1600/oregon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTOm7Vh_fH002qr729zFFqGgh6H59NuKpENM8cdmare2RMS7ldc8OUzdCK0sJ62S0liwXplcsC1_CmNZf7yDE6v_7ZTyEWFki4_LhJKXvk0RkPETZdHGurEQrTDwNiivHBeOd0jHT9uPWv/s1600/oregon.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><br /><br />Explosive devices found under floorboards of student's bedroom; plan ‘modeled after Columbine’ attack<br /><br />A 911 call that tipped off police that a 17-year-old West Albany High School student was planning to blow up his school may have prevented a mass murder, according to Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson.<br /><br />Haroldson spoke Saturday at a press conference at the Benton County Courthouse. Suspect Grant Alan Acord is a Benton County resident living in North Albany. West Albany High is in Linn County.<br /><br />Albany police found six homemade bombs hidden under the floorboards of Acord’s bedroom at his mother’s residence in North Albany after his arrest on Thursday.<br /><br />Investigators also seized a detailed plan, checklists, a diagram of his school and a date in which he allegedly planned to carry out a mass murder using bombs and gunfire that was “specifically modeled after Columbine,” Haroldson said, referring the 1999 school shooting in Littleton, Colo., that left 13 dead and 21 wounded.<br /><br />“This is a case of a planned assault on a target-rich environment and that target-rich environment is the West Albany High School,” Haroldson added.<br /><br />Investigators also searched the residence of Acord’s father, who also lives in North Albany. Pipe bombs, napalm bombs, Drano bombs and Molotov cocktails were discovered, Haroldson said.<br /><br />No explosives were found at the school after extensive searches, he added.<br /><br />Acord is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Benton County Circuit Court as an adult. He will face one count of aggravated attempted murder and six counts each of manufacturing a destructive device, possession of a destructive device and possession of a weapon with intent to use it against another person.<br /><br />The investigation so far has not identified a clear motive, Haroldson said, such as being angry at a particular classmate or teacher.<br /><br />Acord’s alleged plans revealed “inspirations and a focus of recreating a model of Columbine with some adjustments that would make it more successful,” Haroldson said.<br /><br />Two Columbine High School students carried out an attack at their school using bombs and firearms.<br /><br />Responding to questions about Acord’s mental condition, Haroldson replied, “Anytime you have a mass killing that is being planned or carried out by a youth, that is something that is looked into.”<br />

Teen accused of planning to bomb school in Columbine-style attack

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A 17-year-old West Albany High School student will be charged with attempted aggravated murder after the Benton County Dis...

Police searching Oregon property for Susan Cox Powell

<br /><h4>UPDATE: Police have said they are calling off the search for Susan Cox Powell’s remains for the night.</h4><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8CHsJbMRLp1_5iuwQsH3RHvjSVj2dtDfg6gE2K9pkxTbxecA9eWtAmSkW_q5cPBgqsdfPi6rH_LbPInmOkd7QXPPaKt00NfgcwKX1UcbiGzeCs6KQ1olmKp_-ryvXFYW89UbCZ26Q-8G/s1600/1136197.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8CHsJbMRLp1_5iuwQsH3RHvjSVj2dtDfg6gE2K9pkxTbxecA9eWtAmSkW_q5cPBgqsdfPi6rH_LbPInmOkd7QXPPaKt00NfgcwKX1UcbiGzeCs6KQ1olmKp_-ryvXFYW89UbCZ26Q-8G/s1600/1136197.jpg" width="400" /></a>SALEM, Oregon — Police are searching a rural property near here for missing West Valley City mom Susan Cox Powell, FOX 13 News has learned.<br /><br />Investigators gathered at the property on Tuesday, focusing in a heavily wooded area. FOX 13 observed numerous cadaver dogs searching the property in an effort to pick up the scent of human remains.<br />Susan Cox Powell’s father, Chuck Cox, was also here to observe the dig effort. Cox told FOX 13′s Scott McKane that he had received a tip about the area earlier this year that he had passed on to West Valley City police.<br />“This could be a place where they could have dumped Susan’s body,” he said.<br />West Valley City police had a search warrant for the property, but refused to divulge its contents.<br />“We are looking for anything that might lead us to find Susan,” deputy West Valley City Police Chief Mike Powell said.<br />Asked if it is possibly where Susan Cox Powell may be buried, he told FOX 13′s Ben Winslow: “Every tip we follow up on is a possibility of finding more evidence or even an additional tip to lead us to where Susan is.”<br />Cox said this latest lead appears to fit in with what detectives have previously told him about the progress of the missing persons case.<br />“Josh said he went south, I’m going to look north. But where north?” Cox said. “He said he went southwest, but this is northwest and a far distance from anywhere in Utah and even around where he lived. It’s an opportune spot.”<br />Cox said relatives of Steven Powell, Josh Powell’s father, had lived on the property at one time.<br />“He was aware of this place,” Cox said of his son-in-law.<br />The site, nearly 800 miles away from Salt Lake City, does not seem to match up with a mysterious trip Josh Powell took in a rental car shortly after his wife vanished in 2009. At that time, police noted, Powell apparently took an 800-mile round trip.<br />Cox said detectives told him they were exhausting leads in the case.<br />“They were straightforward with me that if this doesn’t come through, they do not have any really good leads right now beyond this,” Cox told FOX 13. “This is probably it as far as leads go.”<br />Mike Powell said they have chased many leads in the three-and-a-half-year-old case.<br />“We have left no stone unturned. We have done everything that we can possibly think of. Every tip that has been sent in, every lead that has been given to us, every little bit of information has been looked at closely with great detail,” he told FOX 13. “We have done everything we possibly can to follow up on those and conduct any additional investigation that may lead us to knowing and discovering where Susan is.”<br />Susan Cox Powell disappeared from her West Valley City home on December 6, 2009. Her husband, Josh Powell, has always been considered a “person of interest” in her disappearance.<br />In search warrants unsealed by a Utah court, police revealed that in interviews conducted shortly after Susan’s disappearance, they learned the couple had marital problems and that she feared Josh would “destroy her” if she divorced him. Inside a safe-deposit box, police wrote in search warrants that they had recovered a sealed, handwritten letter entitled “Last Will & Testament of Susan Powell.”<br />Susan had suggested that if she were to die, it may not be an accident, police said at the time.<br />In court documents filed in Washington, police there characterized Josh Powell as the “prime suspect” in Susan’s kidnapping and murder. Those documents revealed police had questioned Josh Powell twice shortly after this wife’s disappearance.<br />While Josh Powell insisted he was innocent, police said there were “inconsistencies” with his statement. He had told police he had taken the couple’s two children, Charlie and Braden (ages 2 and 4, respectively), camping near Simpson Springs in Utah’s West Desert the night she disappeared.<br />Police claimed that when they looked at Josh Powell’s cell phone, the SIM cards had been removed. Police also found Susan’s cell phone in his possession, along with a generator, blankets, a gas can, tarps and a shovel.<br />A couple days after Susan was reported missing, police said that Josh Powell rented a car (police had seized the family’s minivan) and put more than 800 miles on the vehicle in two days. Where exactly he went has been unknown, but police claimed in search warrants that Josh activated a cell phone near Tremonton, Utah, at the time.<br />The Washington state search warrant claimed that family friends told police that Josh had made comments about how to “kill someone, dispose of the body and not get caught and that Utah’s West Desert is full of mine shafts, tunnels that are very unstable so that a person can be disposed of an no one would search for the body.”<br />Police also claimed in court documents that Susan’s children had spoken about their mother, referencing her disappearance. Charlie Powell reportedly told investigators his mommy went camping with them and she did not come back with them and he did not know why.<br />Police claimed that several weeks later, Charlie told a primary teacher “with no emotion and no hesitation, ‘my mom is dead.’ “<br />Police have conducted numerous searches for Susan Cox Powell over the years. They searched the area around Simpson Springs, as well as an area near Ely, Nevada.<br />In September 2011, police searched a site near Topaz Mountain in Millard County, where cadaver dogs hit on what might have been human remains. After days of searching that site in September 2011, police abruptly left and refused to say if they found anything.<br />An August 2011 search by West Valley City police of a home Powell was living at in Puyallup, Wash., for evidence related to Susan’s disappearance led to the arrest of Josh’s father, Steven Powell. He was accused of surreptitiously taking photographs of neighbor children.<br />Among the thousands of images police claim they found in the home were pictures of Susan Cox Powell that prosecutors alleged were taken without her knowledge. Police also seized Steven’s diaries, that detailed an infatuation he had with his son’s wife.<br />It was the arrest of Steven Powell that led to Josh losing custody of the couple’s children. He was then involved in a custody battle with Susan’s parents.<br />On February 5, 2012, Josh Powell killed himself and their children, Charlie and Braden, in an explosion and fire at a home he rented in Graham, Wash. A social worker had dropped off the children for court-ordered visitation. She told authorities Josh Powell grabbed the children and slammed the door in her face shortly before the home exploded and was consumed by fire.<br />Steven Powell was ultimately tried on voyeurism charges and convicted. He is scheduled to be released from prison as soon as the end of this month. The two neighbor girls Powell is accused of photographing have filed a civil lawsuit against him.<br />Susan’s family is also considering a series of lawsuits against Washington child welfare authorities over the deaths of Charlie and Braden.<br />Susan’s family has also been involved in a long-running legal dispute with Josh’s family over the payout of life insurance premiums. Josh Powell had named his brother, Michael, as the one to inherit the bulk of a multi-million dollar policy for Josh, Charlie and Braden.<br />Michael Powell had been a defender of his brother and father, creating a website that accused the police of overlooking leads in the case and Susan’s family of mistreating Charlie and Braden.<br />Michael Powell, 30, committed suicide in February 2013 by jumping from a building in downtown Minneapolis, where he lived..<br /><br />Police search rural Oregon for Susan Powell’s remains<br /><br />Missing woman » Her family gave West Valley City police a tip about the Oregon location.<br />Police have been searching rural Oregon for the remains of Susan Cox Powell.<br /><br />The missing West Valley City woman’s father Chuck Cox gave police a tip that her remains may be in a heavily wooded area of Oregon, near Salem, said city manager Wayne Pyle. A handful of West Valley City detectives, as well as local law enforcement and volunteers, have been searching the heavily wooded area with cadaver dogs since Tuesday, but so far nothing has turned up.<br />Cox said that an aunt and uncle of Susan Powell’s husband Josh Powell used to live on the property — a single house on about 180 acres — at the time of the woman’s disappearance.<br /><br />"We were very optimistic when [police] went down there," Cox said. "This could really be the place. Then the dogs failed to find anything, so the cadaver dog search part of it is over. That’s disappointing."<br /><br />If they don’t find anything amid the rural area’s rough terrain, Pyle does not expect the search will continue for more than another two days.<br /><br />"I’m feeling fairly depressed," said Kiirsi Hellewell, a close friend of Susan Powell, who had been getting updates about the search throughout the day from Cox. Every time a new search begins and ends without closure, Hellewell feels like she’s on an emotional rollercoaster.<br /><br />"We hope and we pray that we find her finally," Hellewell said.<br /><br />WVCPD have also searched the desert near Ely, Nev., for the woman’s remains, and they’ve told Cox that if they get a tip even 20 years from now, they’re still going to follow it. "You couldn’t ask more from a police department," he said.<br /><br />Susan Powell was last seen Dec. 6, 2009, at her West Valley City home. Josh Powell claimed he left about midnight and went camping in the West Desert with his sons, then ages 4 and 2.<br /><br />Josh Powell remained a person of interest in the disappearance until Feb. 5, 2012, when he murdered the boys, Charlie and Braden, at his rental home in Graham, Wash., and set the house on fire, killing himself.<br /><br />

Police searching Oregon property for Susan Cox Powell

UPDATE: Police have said they are calling off the search for Susan Cox Powell’s remains for the night. SALEM, Oregon — Police are searching ...

Portland airport stripper fights $1K federal fine

<br /><h4>A Portland ordinance forbids indecent exposure in a public place that is open to the opposite sex.</h4><h4> A man, in protest of TSA screening, stripped down at PDX airport anyway.</h4><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" Portland airport stripper: In this July 18, 2012, file photo, John Brennan, the man who stripped at Portland International Airport to protest TSA screeners, testifies during his trial in Portland, Ore. " class="image" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/4c/8448b3419289252689e7857f8a4213/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title=" Portland airport stripper: In this July 18, 2012, file photo, John Brennan, the man who stripped at Portland International Airport to protest TSA screeners, testifies during his trial in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo: Rick Bowmer)" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h4>AP Photo: Rick Bowmer. Portland airport stripper<br /> John Brennan faces a $1,000 federal fine after an administrative<br /> hearing next week, and he expects to lose. </h4></td></tr></tbody></table><br />PORTLAND, Ore. — John Brennan, who stripped naked last year to protest a security check at Portland's airport, said he expects to lose the first round of his legal fight against a $1,000 fine.<br /><br />Still, he plans to press his free-speech argument in an appeal and push for effective security checks that aren't as invasive.<br /><div><div>"I totally support airport screening," Brennan told <a href="http://bit.ly/10xrXBK" target="_blank">The Oregonian</a>  newspaper in a story Thursday. "I just don't want it to be at the expense of my constitutional rights."</div><div><br /></div><div>Brennan has a court date on Tuesday before an administrative law judge. His attorney, Robert Callahan, said the free-speech argument won't be allowed as Brennan fights the fine, but an appeal in the federal court system would present an opportunity to make it.</div><div><br /></div><div>A call to the Transportation Security Administration for comment wasn't immediately returned.</div><div><br /></div><div>In April 2012, as Brennan started a business trip to California, he declined to step into a TSA body scanner.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="media"></span></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/d7/4e57815d6cba7033a644cd406c/_h0_w295_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Portland airport stripper: In this April 17, 2012, file photo, John Brennan stands naked after he stripped down while going through a security screening area at Portland International Airport, as a protest against airport security procedures." border="0" class="image articleimage" data-class="img1" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/d7/4e57815d6cba7033a644cd406c/_h0_w295_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" title="Portland airport stripper: In this April 17, 2012, file photo, John Brennan stands naked after he stripped down while going through a security screening area at Portland International Airport, as a protest against airport security procedures. (AP Photo: Brian Reilly, file)" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AP Photo: Brian Reilly, file. Portland airport stripper <br />John Brennan plans to press his free-speech <br />argument in federal court. </td></tr></tbody></table><div>He was asked to walk through a metal detector and submit to a pat-down. A screener said traces of nitrates, which could indicate an explosive, were detected.</div><div><br /></div><div>Brennan took off his clothes to show he wasn't carrying anything explosive and to get the security check over quickly, he said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Video broadcast Friday on <a href="http://bit.ly/17QSQRL" target="_blank">KATU-TV</a> shows TSA workers building a screen of plastic bins around him.</div><div><br /></div><div>In July, a judge in Multnomah County found Brennan not guilty of violating a Portland ordinance that forbids exposing genitals in public and in the presence of the opposite sex.</div><div><br /></div><div>The judge said that Brennan was acting in protest and that his strip was protected speech.</div><div><br /></div><div>A few weeks later, Brennan said, he was told he'd be fined for violating a rule that forbids passengers to interfere with, assault, threaten or intimidate the screeners.</div></div><div><br /></div>

Portland airport stripper fights $1K federal fine

A Portland ordinance forbids indecent exposure in a public place that is open to the opposite sex.  A man, in protest of TSA screening, stri...

Boy Scouts surveys membership on whether to keep gay ban

<div class="abs">The Boy Scouts of America has sent a 13-question survey to adult Scouts on homosexuality in its ranks.</div><div class="abs"> </div><section><div class="first" data-class="float1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHoA0eizw4YO0g2xn2CRDQtsuG3QIQZdP2ualcnjmpR4-Pd-J6-Ogqq41kzDKuP8SduPHwNG-qAjQBhyeu_TtfERwBaEQuOJZ6jKfbVQi2jg0bfJGGpx_2zxKhvLvUENul9mJcjjz9KiCG/s1600/scouts.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHoA0eizw4YO0g2xn2CRDQtsuG3QIQZdP2ualcnjmpR4-Pd-J6-Ogqq41kzDKuP8SduPHwNG-qAjQBhyeu_TtfERwBaEQuOJZ6jKfbVQi2jg0bfJGGpx_2zxKhvLvUENul9mJcjjz9KiCG/s1600/scouts.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><br />PORTLAND, Ore.— Faced with a backlash against its ban on gays, the Boy Scouts of America is surveying its members on a potential change in policy.<br />A questionnaire distributed to 1.1 million adult Scouts uses fictional situations to discern where Scouting's membership falls on questions of homosexuality, gays camping with children and gays in church leadership. It allows adult Scouts to indicate a range of feelings, from strong support to strong opposition to the ban on gays.<br />Some questions are direct queries of the respondent's feelings on homosexuality and children.<br />"Bob is 15 years old and the only openly gay Scout in a Boy Scout troop," the survey begins its third question. "Is it acceptable or unacceptable for the troop leader to allow Bob to tent with a heterosexual boy on an overnight camping trip?"<br />But the majority of the 13-question survey is more nuanced, including two open-ended questions about the effect of either banning or allowing gay members. Many of the questions indicate scenarios that probably would arise should the ban on gays be lifted.<br />For instance, should the lesbian mother of a Tiger Cub be allowed to serve as den leader if the pack is chartered to a church that teaches that homosexuality is not wrong? Should a gay youth minister be allowed to serve as a Scoutmaster? Should a boy with the qualifications for Eagle Scout be denied the award if he reveals he's gay at his board review?<br />After the theoretical situations are posed, the survey then again asks respondents about their feelings on gays in Scouting. The Scouts provided the survey by email Tuesday to The Associated Press.<br />Long the province of a strict anti-gay policy that went so far as to put members found to be gay in the organization's secret "perversion" files, Scouting has now generally evolved into a sort of "don't-ask, don't-tell" policy concerning its membership — even if the "don't-tell" aspect means the national leadership has had to ignore news accounts of its troops publicly declaring their refusal to abide by the ban on gays.<br />That's already happening in some branches of the organization, including troops in Minnesota, California and Massachusetts, but few troops are eager to publicize their positions, which could end with the troop losing its charter for breaking with the central Scouts office.<br />The survey introduces the possibility of acknowledging those differences.<br />"Different organizations that charter Boy Scout troops have different positions on the morality of homosexuality," the survey said. "Do you support or oppose allowing charter organizations to follow their own beliefs when selecting Boy Scout members and adult leaders, if that means there will be different standards from one organization to the next?"<br />The survey questions are part of a semiannual survey called The Voice of The Scout. It was distributed by email to registered volunteers and parents of Scouts for whom the organization had email addresses. Scouts alumni will receive the surveys in "the next couple of days," Scouts spokesman Deron Smith said. Current Boy Scouts weren't sent these questions.<br />The questions were developed by North Star Opinion Research, a Virginia research firm that says it serves political, corporate and nonprofit clients.<br />"We are currently in the 'Listening Phase,' where the BSA's committees engage key stakeholders for input and develop a summary report," Smith said in an email. "Part of this process is to survey a variety of key stakeholders."<br />Smith said the organization convened a committee in 2010 made up of professional and volunteer Scouts to review the gay ban. After two years of research, Smith said the committee decided to maintain the policy.<br />In May, that could change. A proposed resolution that will address whether to modify or rescind the policy will be developed for the Scouts' National Council to vote on.<br />Here are some of the questions distributed to adult Scouts:<br />— "Tom started in the program as a Tiger Cub and finished every requirement for the Eagle Scout Award at 16 years of age. At his board of review, Tom reveals that he is gay. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for the review board to deny his Eagle Scout award based on that admission?"<br />— "What is your greatest concern if the policy remains in place, and openly gay youth and adults are prohibited from joining Scouting?"<br />— "David, a Boy Scout, believes that homosexuality is wrong. His troop is chartered to a church where the doctrine of that faith also teaches that homosexuality is wrong. Steve, an openly gay youth, applies to be a member in the troop and is denied membership. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for this troop to deny Steve membership in their troop?"<br />— "A gay male troop leader along with another adult leader is taking a group of boys on a camping trip following the youth protection guidelines of two-deep leadership. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for the gay adult leader to take adolescent boys on an overnight camping trip?"<br />— "If the Boy Scouts of America makes a decision on this policy that disagrees with your own view, will you continue to participate in the Boy Scouts or will you leave the organization?"</section>

Boy Scouts surveys membership on whether to keep gay ban

The Boy Scouts of America has sent a 13-question survey to adult Scouts on homosexuality in its ranks.   PORTLAND, Ore.— Faced with a backla...