Boy Scouts to allow transgender children

Boy Scouts to allow transgender children

DAllas

The Boy Scouts of America announced Monday that it will allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in its boys-only programs.

The organization said it had made the decision to begin basing enrollment in its boys-only programs on the gender a child or parent lists on the application to become a scout. The Boy Scouts had previously held a policy that relied on the gender listed on a child’s birth certificate for those programs.

The organization’s leadership had considered a recent case in Secaucus, N.J., where an 8-year-old transgender child had been asked to leave his Scout troop after parents and leaders found out he is transgender. But the statement issued Monday said the change was made because of the larger conversation about gender identity going on around the country.

George HW Bush released from hospital

HOUSTON

Former President George H.W. Bush was released Monday from Houston Methodist Hospital where he received treatment for pneumonia for more than two weeks.

Bush, 92, was experiencing breathing difficulties when he was admitted Jan. 14. During his treatment, which included a stay in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said Monday thatBush has been allowed to return to his Houston home.

The nation’s 41st president was joined at the hospital by his 91-year-old wife, Barbara, who spent five days there for treatment of bronchitis until her release a week ago.

Legalized marijuana takes hold in Maine

PORTLAND, MAINE

It was a green Monday in Maine.

The first tangible results of state voters’ decision to legalize marijuana were felt as possession and home growth of marijuana became legal. Voters narrowly passed the ballot question in November, and the waiting period between the vote and legalization has expired.

Contentious aspects linger, including what rules should govern businesses that will sell marijuana, such as retail stores and social clubs. The Legislature has been hammering out those details, and they will take months to fully craft, meaning it will be months before marijuana businesses open in the state.

But it’s legal to smoke it as of Monday. It’s also legal to gift it, grow it and possess up to 2.5 ounces of it.

Garland’s remains moved from NY to LA

LOS ANGELES

Judy Garland’s remains were moved cross-country to a mausoleum intended as the resting place for daughters Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft and other family members.

The transfer from a crypt in New York’s Ferncliff Cemetery to Hollywood Forever Cemetery was completed last Friday, Noelle Berman, a Hollywood Forever spokeswoman, told The Associated Press.

Art-heist defendant: I destroyed paintings

PARIS

A co-defendant in one of the world’s biggest art heists testified in court Monday that he destroyed and threw away five art masterpieces worth more than $100 million that were stolen by a thief nicknamed “the spider-man.”

Yonathan Birn was among three people who went on trial in the case Monday. The five paintings stolen in 2010 from the French capital’s city Museum of Modern Art – a Picasso, a Matisse, a Modigliani, a Braque and a Fernand Leger – have never been found.

Neither the investigating judge nor other defendants at the trial believe Birn’s claims.

Associated Press