Boy Scouts

Aiming to boost their sagging numbers, the Boy Scouts are launching a million-dollar campaign to draw more Latinos, a group that has long resisted Scouting's appeal. But the Scouts' national officials acknowledge that it may be a tough sell. Only three of every 100 Scouts are Latino, and some immigrant families see such groups as an indulgence of the well-to-do in their home countries. Some also bristle at the uniforms.

Rescuers found a missing 12-year-old Boy Scout on Tuesday, dehydrated and disoriented from four days in the wooded mountains of North Carolina. A rescue dog picked up Michael Auberry's scent less than a mile from the campsite where he had wandered away from his troop Saturday. The boy's father speculated that he was homesick and wanted to hitchhike home. The disappearance touched off an intensive search involving bloodhounds, heat-seeking helicopters and dozens of volunteers on foot.

The 12-year-old Boy Scout rescued after spending four days lost in the mountains remained hospitalized in Greensboro, recovering from severe dehydration and exposure to cold. Michael Auberry had lost feeling in his fingers and toes by the time rescue workers found him Tuesday morning. But his father said the boy was expected to recover from "frost nip."

A totem pole fell on a 9-year-old boy, killing him on the first day of Boy Scout camp, police said. The boy was waiting outside the health lodge at the camp near Harrisburg to have his health records reviewed when he was hit by the 13-foot pole.

Lightning struck a mountaintop, injuring a group of Boy Scouts as they were hiking down from the summit. None of the nine boys or two adults with them on Baldy Mountain was seriously injured, though one was later airlifted to a Santa Fe hospital for treatment, authorities said.

Cub Scouts across the country are being asked to hand in some of their badges after the Boy Scouts of America announced Friday that more than a million of the Chinese-made items contained potentially hazardous levels of lead paint. "No illness related to the product has been reported to us," said Gregg Shields, the Boy Scouts' national spokesman. "We're just trying to be prepared and keep everyone safe."

. -- Years before civil rights activist Cleveland Sellers got caught up in the deadly 1968 protest known as the Orangeburg Massacre, he was on the path to the elite rank of Eagle Scout -- until his paperwork was lost. Next month, the 64-year-old, who called himself a black militant in his autobiography, will formally collect the honor in a ceremony in his hometown.

The forecast was ugly the day Matthew Tresca died. The National Weather Service had warned throughout the afternoon that severe weather was coming to the area in the Pocono Mountains where the 16-year-old and more than 300 other Boy Scouts were attending a one-week camp. As lightning flashed in the distance, Scout leaders dismissed the boys from the dining hall right after supper and sent them to their tented campsites in the woods. Around 7 p.m.

The California Supreme Court appeared inclined Tuesday to back the city of Berkeley's decision to deny an affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America a financial break because the group excludes gays. In 1997, Berkeley ended a long tradition of giving the Sea Scouts a free berth at the city marina after the youth group, which teaches boys seamanship, refused to formally repudiate the anti-gay policies of its parent organization.