Newspaper Page Text
6A Friday, December 14, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
NATION
Boy Scouts’ money struggles: Is bankruptcy an option?
TONY GUTIERREZ I Associated Press
A close up detail of a Boy Scout uniform is shown. The Boy Scouts
of America says it is exploring “all options” to address serious financial
challenges, but is declining to confirm or deny a report that it may seek
bankruptcy protection in the face of declining membership and sex-
abuse litigation.
BY DAVID CRARY
Associated Press
NEW YORK - The Boy Scouts
of America deflected questions
about a report suggesting it is con
sidering seeking bankruptcy pro
tection, though the head of the
organization said it is exploring
“all options” as it tries to stay afloat
while facing sexual abuse lawsuits
and dwindling membership.
“I want to assure you that our
daily mission will continue and that
there are no imminent actions or
immediate decisions expected,”
Chief Scout Executive Mike Sur-
baugh said in a statement issued
Wednesday evening.
Surbaugh was responding to a
Wall Street Journal report that the
BSA, founded in 1910, had hired
a law firm to assist in a possible
Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. He
described the report as “news spec
ulation,” but he acknowledged that
the group is “working with experts
to explore all options available” as
well as the pressures arising from
multiple lawsuits related to past
instances of sexual abuse.
“We have a social and moral
responsibility to fairly compensate
victims who suffered abuse during
their time in Scouting, and we also
have an obligation to carry out our
mission to serve youth, families and
local communities through our pro
grams,” Surbaugh said.
Other institutions facing mul
tifaceted sexual abuse scandals
have sought bankruptcy protection
recently. USA Gymnastics took the
step last week as it attempts to settle
dozens of lawsuits related to abuse
by now-imprisoned gymnastics doc
tor Larry Nassar. About 20 Roman
Catholic dioceses and other reli
gious orders around the U.S. have
previously filed for bankruptcy pro
tection as a result of clergy sexual
abuse claims.
Surbaugh apologized on behalf of
the BSA to those abused during their
time in the Boy Scouts.
“We have always taken care of
victims — we believe them, we
believe in fairly compensating
them and we have paid for unlim
ited counseling, by a provider of
their choice, regardless of the
amount of time that has passed
since an instance of abuse,” he said.
“Throughout our history we have
taken proactive steps to help victims
heal and prevent future abuse. ”
In addition to abuse-related liti
gation, the Boy Scouts have been
trying to reverse a decline in mem
bership. The organizations’ current
youth participation is about 2.3 mil
lion, down from 2.6 million in 2013
and more than 4 million in peak
years of the past.
In a major step toward revitaliza
tion, the BSA is moving to open all its
programs to girls, but even that has
caused problems.
Last month, the Girl Scouts of the
USA filed a trademark infringement
lawsuit against the BSA for dropping
the word “boy” from its flagship
program in an effort to attract girls.
That suit was in response to the
BSA’s decision to rename its pro
gram for 11- to 17-year-olds; it will
be called Scouts BSA rather than the
Boy Scouts, though the parent orga
nization will remain the Boy Scouts
of America.
Paul Mones, a Los Angeles-based
lawyer who has handled many sex-
abuse lawsuits targeting the BSA,
said the organization has assets of
more than $1 billion, but has been
under increasing pressure from liti
gation as public awareness of sexual
abuse intensifies.
Mones was co-counsel in a 2010
sexual abuse case in Portland,
Oregon, that led to a nearly $20
million judgment against the BSA
on behalf of a man molested by
a Scout leader in the 1980s. As
a result of that case, the Oregon
Supreme Court ordered the BSA
to release previously confidential
files on suspected abusers.
Serial killer, 78, pleads guilty
in Texas woman’s 1994 death
BY DAVID WARREN
Associated Press
DALLAS — A 78-year-old prisoner who
says he killed about 90 people over nearly
four decades as he moved around
the country pleaded guilty to mur
der Thursday in the 1994 strangula
tion of a Texas woman.
Samuel Little entered his plea
in the West Texas city of Odessa,
where the body of Denise Christie
Brothers was discovered in a vacant
lot about a month after she disap
peared. He received another life
prison term, Ector County District
Attorney Bobby Bland said in a statement.
“Due to the efforts of law enforcement
agencies from around the country, dozens of
victims’ families now have answers,” Bland
said. “Although this is a conviction in Ector
County, Texas, I hope it will serve as justice
for all those atrocious murders committed
across this nation in this unprecedented era
of terror and mayhem caused by Samuel
Little.”
Little was convicted in 2014 of killing
three Los Angeles-area women in separate
attacks in the late 1980s and was serving life
sentences when authorities say he confessed
this year to killing dozens more people in 20
states since 1970.
Those confessions, which often included
a level of detail and recall that authorities
say was uncanny, spurred investigators from
Florida to California to review old mur
der cases. An FBI spokesman said thus far,
investigators have concluded that Little was
the killer in 36 cases, including the killing of
Brothers and the three in the Los Angeles-
area that landed him in prison. But Bland
said in his statement more than 40 cases have
been confirmed. He later explained that he
received that number from Texas Rangers,
an elite investigative agency that has relayed
details of Little’s confessions to law officers
in other states. Little detailed the killings in
a series of conversations with Ranger James
Holland.
Most recently, police in Tennessee linked
Little to the death of Martha Cunningham, a
Knoxville woman whose body was
found in a wooded area by a road
in 1975. Even though Cunningham
was bruised and nude from the waist
down when her body was found,
detectives attributed her death to
natural causes, according to the
Knoxville News Sentinel.
With at least three-dozen con
firmed deaths, Little is already
among the most prolific known serial
killers in American history. Gary Ridgway,
the so-called Green River killer who is serv
ing life in prison, pleaded guilty to killing 49
women and girls, making him the deadli
est serial killer in terms of confirmed kills,
though he has said he likely killed more
than 71 people. Ted Bundy confessed to 30
homicides from about 1974 to 1978 and John
Wayne Gacy killed at least 33 young men
and boys in the 1970s. Both of them were
executed.
Little, who is in poor health and relies on
a wheelchair, offered his confessions as a
bargaining chip to be moved from the Los
Angeles County prison where he was being
held, the FBI said last month. But Bland said
Thursday that Little will return to California
to serve his life term.
Little, who also went by the name Samuel
McDowell, targeted vulnerable women
who were often involved in prostitution and
addicted to drugs, authorities have said.
Once a competitive boxer, he usually stunned
or knocked out his victims with powerful
punches before he strangled them while
masturbating.
“With no stab marks or bullet wounds,
many of these deaths were not classified as
homicides but attributed to drug overdoses,
accidents, or natural causes,” the FBI said.
Little
Anti-gay remark 16 years ago costs
professor appearance before House
In a column that mocked liberal’s
supposed love of taxation, Sabia said
the right wing should respond by
taxing and regulating homosexual acts.
BY GARY ROBBINS
Tribune News Service
SAN DIEGO - Anti-gay
comments that a San Diego
State University economist
made 16 years ago have
sparked a political flap that
led to the postponement of a
congressional hearing on the
minimum wage.
Joseph Sabia had been
scheduled to appear on
Wednesday before the
House Committee on Work
force and Education on the
effects of raising the mini
mum wage to $15. But the
session was postponed after
it was learned that he had
made anti-gay and anti-fem
inist comments on a blog he
wrote when he was a student
at Cornell.
The remarks had been
taken down, but they
remained in an internet
archive and were shared
with committee members,
drawing their ire.
Sabia apologized for the
comments on Tuesday, and
SDSU issued a statement
saying that the old posts do
not represent the univer
sity’s values.
This week’s controversy
largely stems from remarks
Sabia made online in 2002.
In a column that mocked
liberal’s supposed love of
taxation, Sabia said the right
wing should respond by tax
ing and regulating homosex
ual acts.
“But first we have to
mount the assault on Big
Gay (no, I am not talking
about Rosie O’Donnell),”
wrote Sabia.
“We can tax gay night
clubs, websites, personal
ads, sexual paraphernalia,
and so forth. Talk about a
sin tax!!! We can cripple
gay-related industries and
get them right where we
want them. All gay clubs
will have to feature huge,
flashing warning signs like
‘CAUTION: Entering this
nightclub may increase your
chance of contracting STDs
and dying.’”
In a subsequent column,
he said the women’s rights
movement had effectively
encouraged young women
to behave like whores.
“The chant of Gen. Y col
lege babes might as well be
‘We’re here, we’re whores,
get used to it!’ “ wrote Sabia.
“No, most girls are not actu
ally uttering those words,
but the slutty sentiments
are implicit in the stan
dard female college behav
ior — wearing tight shirts
and pants, getting publicly
drunk, hanging on every guy
around, and engaging in ran
dom sex.”
Sabia said a statement
Tuesday, “I regret the hurt
ful and disrespectful lan
guage I used as a satirical
college opinion writer 20
years ago.
“I am a gay man in a long
term, committed relation
ship and these charges of
homophobia deeply hurt
both me and my family.
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Girl accused in Uber driver
killing to move to adult jail
Teen says she
wants to go on
killing spree
BY BRIAN L COX
Tribune News Service
CHICAGO — A girl
accused of killing an Uber
driver last year will be
moved to adult jail when she
turns 18 next week, a judge
ruled Wednesday.
Eliza Wasni’s public
defender fought against
moving the troubled teen
to Cook County Jail. Offi
cials say she has committed
hundreds of rule violations
in juvenile detention and
repeatedly received disci
pline for attempting to harm
herself and others since her
arrest.
Wednesday’s hearing also
revealed that Wasni has
made comments in deten
tion about wanting to com
mit other violent acts.
She still is awaiting trial
on charges she stole a
knife and machete from a
Walmart in Skokie and then
used them to fatally attack
Uber driver Grant Nelson
in Lincolnwood in May 2017.
Authorities have said the
attack was unprovoked and
occurred moments after
Nelson, 34 and from Wil
mette, picked up Wasni, who
was 16 at the time, after she
used the ride-share app to
request a ride.
Wasni’s public defender,
David McMahon, raised
concerns that she would
be unsafe if moved to adult
detention and would not
receive the same level of
treatment for various emo
tional and mental health
issues.
“The best place for Eliza
is the place that keeps her
safe,” he said.
Prosecutors countered
that Wasni should go to adult
jail because she’s a dan
ger to guards and to other
juveniles in detention. They
said she has incurred more
than 450 rule violations in
the juvenile detention facil
ity, including as recently as
Saturday.
Prosecutors said the
incidents range in severity
from “unauthorized move
ments” to attacks on guards
and other prisoners. They
also said Wasni has had to
be taken to Cook County’s
Stroger Hospital at least six
times after harming herself.
Wasni also told another
detainee that she wanted
to go on a “killing spree”
and spoke of how body
parts could be disposed of,
prosecutors said. She also
recently wrote the word
“die” on a detention center
wall using her own blood,
officials said.
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