Headlines in No Time

MAY 24, 2013

Mom has son arrested for eating Pop-Tarts

A Charlotte, North Carolina woman had her son arrested for stealing her Pop-Tarts earlier this week.

According to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police report, the mother called investigators on Monday to report her Pop-Tarts had been stolen.

She fingered her own son, who is a juvenile, as the culprit.

Neighbor Fred Patrick could not stop laughing when he first learned an arrest had been made over Pop-Tarts. He knows the young boy.

"He seems real nice to me. I mean, he is real respectful," Patrick said.

The report said that the boy was placed under juvenile arrest and was charged with larceny/misdemeanor.

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/22405514/mom-has-son-arrested-for-eating-pop-tarts#.UZ8yqtLMDSg

Boy Scouts approve plan to accept openly gay boys

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) - The Boy Scouts of America threw open its ranks Thursday to gay Scouts but not gay Scout leaders - a fiercely contested compromise that some warned could fracture the organization and lead to mass defections of members and donors.

Of the roughly 1,400 voting members of the BSA's National Council who cast ballots, 61 percent supported the proposal drafted by the governing Executive Committee. The policy change takes effect Jan. 1.

"This has been a challenging chapter in our history," the BSA chief executive, Wayne Brock, said after the vote. "While people have differing opinions on this policy, kids are better off when they're in Scouting."

However, the outcome will not end the bitter debate over the Scouts' membership policy.

Liberal Scout leaders - while supporting the proposal to accept gay youth - have made clear they want the ban on gay adults lifted as well.

In contrast, conservatives with the Scouts - including some churches that sponsor Scout units - wanted to continue excluding gay youths, in some cases threatening to defect if the ban were lifted.

"We are deeply saddened," said Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee after learning of the result. "Homosexual behavior is incompatible with the principles enshrined in the Scout oath and Scout law."

The Assemblies of God, another conservative denomination, said the policy change "will lead to a mass exodus from the Boy Scout program." It also warned that the change would make the BSA vulnerable to lawsuits seeking to end the ban on gay adults.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also expressed dismay.

"While I will always cherish my time as a Scout and the life lessons I learned, I am greatly disappointed with this decision," he said.

The result was welcomed by many liberal members of the Scouting community and by gay-rights activists, though most of the praise was coupled with calls for ending the ban on gay adults.

"I'm so proud of how far we've come, but until there's a place for everyone in Scouting, my work will continue," said Jennifer Tyrrell, whose ouster as a Cub Scout den leader in Ohio because she is lesbian launched a national protest movement.

Pascal Tessier, a 16-year-old Boy Scout from Maryland, was elated by the outcome.

Tessier, who is openly gay, is on track to earn his Eagle Scout award and was concerned that his goal would be thwarted if the proposed change had been rejected.

"I was thinking that today could be my last day as a Boy Scout," Tessier said. "Obviously, for gay Scouts like me, this vote is life-changing."

The vote followed what the BSA described as "the most comprehensive listening exercise in Scouting's history" to gauge opinions.

Back in January, the BSA executive committee had suggested a plan to give sponsors of local Scout units the option of admitting gays as both youth members and adult leaders or continuing to exclude them. However, the plan won little praise, and the BSA changed course after assessing responses to surveys sent out starting in February to members of the Scouting community.

Of the more than 200,000 leaders, parents and youth members who responded, 61 percent supported the current policy of excluding gays, while 34 percent opposed it. Most parents of young Scouts, as well as youth members themselves, opposed the ban.

The proposal approved Thursday was seen as a compromise, and the Scouts stressed that they would not condone sexual conduct by any Scout - gay or straight.

"The Boy Scouts of America will not sacrifice its mission, or the youth served by the movement, by allowing the organization to be consumed by a single, divisive and unresolved societal issue," the BSA said in a statement.

Since the executive committee just completed a lengthy review process, there were "no plans for further review on this matter," the group added, indicating it would not be revisiting the ban on gay adults anytime soon.

Among those voting for the proposal to accept openly gay youth was Thomas Roberts, of Dawsonville, Ga., who serves on the board of a Scout council in northeast Georgia.

"It was a very hard decision for this organization," he said. "I think ultimately it will be viewed as the right thing."

The BSA's overall "traditional youth membership" - Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturers - is now about 2.6 million, compared with more than 4 million in peak years of the past. It also has about 1 million adult leaders and volunteers.

Of the more than 100,000 Scouting units in the U.S., 70 percent are chartered by religious institutions.

Those include liberal churches opposed to any ban on gays, but some of the largest sponsors are relatively conservative denominations that have previously supported the broad ban - notably the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Southern Baptist churches.

While the Southern Baptists were clearly upset by the vote to accept openly gay youth, the Mormon church reacted positively.

"We trust that BSA will implement and administer the approved policy in an appropriate and effective manner," an official LDS statement said.

The National Catholic Committee on Scouting responded cautiously, saying it would assess the possible impact of the change on Catholic-sponsored Scout units.

The BSA, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010, has long excluded both gays and atheists.

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.

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/22403178/fhp-hits-gator-in-the-road#.UZ8zRdLMDSg

MURDER PLOT REVEALED AFTER MAN BUT-DIALS 911

Tip: If you’re plotting to kill somebody, try not to “pocket dial” 911 and have your plans recorded.

That’s exactly what Scott Simon did after getting into a fight with another man at a Waffle House in the early hours of May 5, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.

On a recorded line, Simon can be heard telling someone else that he’s going to follow the victim home and kill him. Minutes later, 33-year-old Nicholas Walker was shot and killed while driving his car onto Interstate 95 in Oakland Park.

“This is a first for me,” said BSO spokeswoman Dani Moschella. “Criminals say crazy things all the time, but I’ve never seen anyone call a recorded line.”

Homicide detectives arrested Simon, 24, of Pompano Beach Tuesday night. He is charged with first-degree murder. Moschella said while detectives do not believe Simon was the triggerman, he did coordinate the shooting.

When deputies arrived at the shooting scene shortly after 6:40 a.m. May 5, they found Walker’s silver Buick crashed into a guard rail. Deputies and Oakland Park Fire-Rescue put out a fire in the engine compartment, but Walker had already died of gunshot wounds.

The investigation prompted a three-hour closure of all southbound lanes of I-95.

Detectives are now seeking two other suspects: the person who pulled the trigger, and another man, who was seen in the 2012 black Buick GS with him the morning of the shooting.

BSO has released two surveillance tapes, one showing the men arguing outside the Waffle House with several witnesses watching, and another of the black Buick and a silver car leaving the restaurant.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Bryan Tutler at 954-321-4281. Anonymous tips can be reported to Crime Stoppers of Broward County at 954-493-8477 or online at www.browardcrimestoppers.org. Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest.

The errant 911 call, BSO said, will not be released.

Scott remains in Broward’s main jail with no bond.

As for the call, Moschella said Simon’s apparent butt-dial helped police.

“He had no idea he called 911,” Moschella said. “He basically told on himself.”

http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/23/4537411/murder-plot-recorded-on-phone.html#storylink=cpy

Woman accused of etching image of male genitalia

on stranger's SUV at Publix, left note

It was high noon in this Publix parking lot in Wesley Chapel as a woman allegedly keyed a Kia SUV belonging to a 63-year-old female customer, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

The woman, later identified as Natasha Myers, 23, is also accused of etching a sketch of male genitalia on the Kia's hood.

Was it just another random act of vandalism?

Hardly.

Myers is then captured on surveillance video entering the Publix, then going to the customer service desk where the clerk handed her a yellow Post-it note -- which she placed on the SUV's windshield after writing something on it, according to the report.

You won't believe what she wrote.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/strange/floriduh-blog/sfl-flduh-genitalia-on-the-hood-20130523,0,6938457.story