Latest news with #Christian-themed
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Yahoo
The long road to tragedy at the Texas girls camp where floods claimed 27 lives
Investigators of the catastrophic Hill Country flooding in Texas may never be able to pinpoint a precise moment that sealed the fate of 27 young girls, teenage counselors and staff who perished after a wall of water surged through Camp Mystic on the banks of the Guadalupe River. But perhaps no bigger clue can be found than the account of an otherwise unremarkable and sparsely attended meeting of Kerr county commissioners in March 2018. Members waited with anticipation for news of an application they submitted the previous year for a grant from the state of Texas to help pay for a comprehensive new flood warning system along the Guadalupe. The county's unreliable old network of gauges and sensors, installed following flooding in 1987 that killed 10 children trying to flee a waterside church camp, had been inactive since 1999. Commissioners were chasing a $1m slice of federal funding made newly available to the state after a succession of flood disasters, including Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. Now-retired commissioner Tom Moser brought bad news, noting 'about eight different counties' were selected, but 'they didn't select us,' according to minutes of the meeting still viewable online. Tom Pollard, the county judge at the time, was incredulous. 'They prioritized us lower?' he asked, the county's many low-lying and therefore vulnerable youth summer camps immediately adjacent to the Guadalupe uppermost in his mind. 'They did,' Moser replied solemnly. Without that funding from the state, the project foundered. No widespread gauge system was ever set up that would have given early warning of a life-threatening torrent of water further up the river; no sirens ever installed that would have warned Camp Mystic residents that their lives were in peril and they needed to get out immediately. The investigation will look at other missteps and lost opportunities along the way that might have brought a different outcome at the 99-year-old Christian-themed, all-girls camp that served as a joyous rite of passage for generations of young Texans. Prominent among them will be this week's revelation that the camp owner and director Dick Eastland, who lost his own life trying to ferry a group of his youngest campers to safety as the river rose towards a peak height of 37.5ft, waited more than an hour to issue an evacuation order after receiving a severe flood warning on his phone at 1.14am on 4 July. Yet it is to the eternal regret of Moser, a former senior Nasa engineer who had studied flood monitoring and alert systems installed in other nearby counties, that money was never found or spent, either then or later, to replace or upgrade a broken mechanism born from a near-identical tragedy for the sole purpose of saving lives in the future. 'Not having the funds to accomplish it was not very satisfying to me but we tried,' Moser told NPR. 'That's all we could do. We didn't have the resources in the county operating budget to do that.' Moser, who did not return a message from the Guardian seeking further comment, had advocated for sirens, a proposal dropped from the state grant application when it became clear some residents and commissioners opposed them. 'If sirens were there, clearly people would have known about it. Would it have saved everybody? I don't think so. This was an event that's probably one chance in a million,' he told the radio network. At Camp Mystic, like elsewhere in the county, residents were reliant on an outdated and patchwork early warning system of alerts. Some were from the National Weather Service (NWS), which Eastland's family concedes he did receive. Other messages came from local authorities, some sent only after an inexplicable delay, which others along the Guadalupe's banks say they did not see in any case. Inside the camp, with water rising fast, especially around dormitories closest to the river where the youngest campers, mostly aged eight and nine, were sleeping, there was chaos. Many of the teenage counselors left in charge of the dormitories were left to make instant life-or-death decisions on their own, having lost contact with adult supervisors. According to two counselors interviewed in the days following the disaster, campers were not allowed to bring mobile phones, and the counselors were made to surrender theirs, leaving them cut off from any emergency alerts. Eastland, who had run the camp with his family since the 1980s and was a past director of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority that pressed for the original warning and alert system, was familiar with the danger of flash flooding from heavy rain. 'I'm sure there will be other drownings,' Eastland told the Austin American-Statesman in 1990, reported by CNN. 'People don't heed the warnings.' In a Washington Post report that contained harrowing first-hand testimony from girls who were there, parents of some who were rescued from Camp Mystic said it was Eastland and his staff who ignored warnings on the morning of the disaster. Also under scrutiny will be why Eastland made, and was granted, repeated applications to remove dozens of Camp Mystic buildings from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 100-year flood map, which allowed the camp to operate and expand in a known risk area. A review by the Associated Press found that 15 of at least 30 exempted buildings were at the Camp Mystic Guadalupe site where most, if not all of the campers and counselors lost their lives. Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications at First Street, a climate risk assessment and modelling company, said the dormitories were in a known flood zone, which records show had been swamped numerous times in the camp's near century of existence. 'People that ran the camp had the ability to understand that the risk was close by, the risk was in the area, and maybe adapt the buildings. And there was no action there,' he said. 'In fact there were letters of map amendments that were submitted instead.' But Porter said it was hard to place blame on any single person or entity: 'A lot of that is just our overall risk psyche and understanding of what risk looks like, our expectation that these really rare events aren't going to affect us and they're not going to be as bad as we think they're going to be. 'The way we treat climate risk and flood risk in the country is really that, you know, if it happens, it'll be something we'll be able to rebuild, recover, and then it won't happen again for 100 years.' The Guardian was unable to reach anybody at Camp Mystic for comment. Donna Gable Hatch, a writer and former staff editor at the Kerrville Daily Times, said she believed lives would have been saved at Camp Mystic with an early warning system, but city and county officials were not responsible for its absence. 'If the funds had been made available in a timely and adequate manner, this catastrophe might have unfolded differently. But too often, those at the helm of small towns must wait for permission, wait for funding, wait for bureaucracy to catch up to reality,' she wrote in a guest editorial for her former employer. 'To accuse local leaders of negligence is to completely misunderstand who they are and what this place means. In Kerr county, heartbreak isn't abstract. It has a name. A face. It's a neighbor, a classmate, a church member or a childhood friend. 'The truth will come out. In time, we'll trace the chain of failure back to where it truly began – not in Kerrville, but in the halls of distant agencies who failed to act with the urgency that rural lives deserved.' Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
31-05-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Manager fired after wearing religious T-shirts to oppose Pride Month gets settlement
Manager fired after wearing religious T-shirts to oppose Pride Month gets settlement Show Caption Hide Caption San Francisco Pride faces shortfall as corporate sponsors pull out Several major companies have opted out of donating to San Francisco Pride this year, such as Anheuser-Busch, Diageo, Nissan, and Comcast. An Iowa man reached a settlement with Eaton Corp., the company that fired him after he wore Christian-themed T-shirts during Pride Month. The lawsuit claimed the shirts were in response to the company's promotion of Pride Month and expressed the employee's religious beliefs. The company argued the firing was based on legitimate business reasons and not discriminatory. An Iowa man has reached an out-of-court settlement with the former employer he accused of firing him for wearing Christian-themed T-shirts to work in response to the company's endorsement of Pride Month. In June 2024, Cosby 'Corey' Cunningham sued Eaton Corp., a global power management company with an office in Davenport, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, alleging violations of his civil rights. Cunningham, a self-described born-again, churchgoing Christian, was hired by Eaton in 2019 as a quality manager with responsibilities for product development related to military and aerospace activity. According to his lawsuit, Eaton initiated a Pride Month ceremony on June 2, 2023, by raising a pride flag in front of its main building and encouraging employees to wear specific colors in support of the effort. Management also sent emails to the staff offering pride-themed T-shirts for workers to purchase, the lawsuit claims. That day, Cunningham alleges, he began wearing T-shirts at work that displayed or referred to Bible verses. According to the lawsuit, he wanted to 'express his sincerely held religious belief in Jesus Christ and the Bible.' Over the next eight weeks, Eaton managers allegedly held a series of meetings with Cunningham to express their concern that his actions were perceived by others as inflammatory and that they might violate company policy. According to the lawsuit, management refused Cunningham's requests for a religious accommodation to wear the T-shirts, threatened him with dismissal, and sent him home on at least two occasions for refusing to stop wearing the shirts. On Aug. 23, 2023, the company fired Cunningham, the lawsuit alleges. Conservative institute provides legal representation In his lawsuit, Cunningham stated that he believes 'homosexual conduct is sinful' and that he had been called upon to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. Doing so, he claimed, required him to share with others even those biblical teachings that are offensive to those who don't share such beliefs. In its response to those claims, lawyers for the Eaton Corp. argued Cunningham was not entitled to any damages because any actions taken by the company against him 'were legitimate and non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory,' and were based on legitimate business reasons. Representing Cunningham in his lawsuit was Robert Anderson of Atlantic, Iowa, an attorney for the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative organization that said it works to promote religious freedom and parental rights. The Southern Poverty Law Center has characterized the Pacific Justice Institute as 'an anti-LGBT hate group' whose founder has 'compared legalized gay marriage to Hitler and the Nazis' ascent in Germany.' Anderson said on May 22 that he's not at liberty to comment on the specifics of the settlement that was reached in April. Attorneys for Eaton Corp. did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Find this story at The Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network and at Iowa Capital Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
American Military News
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- American Military News
Classic rock guitarist, ‘Real American' singer Rick Derringer dies at 77
Classic rock guitarist and 'Real American' singer Rick Derringer has died. He was 77 years old. His longtime wife, Jenda Derringer, told TMZ he died 'peacefully' at a hospital in Ormond Beach, Florida, after being taken off life support following a medical emergency involving his heart. He reportedly underwent triple bypass surgery two months ago. The Ohio native first gained fame with his band the McCoys, whose 'Hang on Sloopy' was a No. 1 hit in 1965. He went on to work with Edgar and Johnny Winters in their bands, playing on classic rock radio staples like 'Frankenstein,' another No. 1 hit. He also collaborated with Steely Dan, 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Todd Rundgren, Alice Cooper, Barbara Streisand and toured several times with Cyndi Lauper. He played the guitar solo on Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart,' written by frequent partner Jim Steinman. Derringer had a solo hit of his own with 'Real American,' a song recorded for a soundtrack for the World Wrestling Federation that became Hulk Hogan's theme music for several years. Lauper provided backing vocals on the tune. Richard Dean Zehringer was born in Celina, Ohio, on Aug. 5, 1947. He began playing music with his brother Randy in the late 1950s. Their band the McCoys was chosen by a set of record producers to record 'Hang on Sloopy,' which has since become a popular in-stadium anthem at Ohio State football games and Cleveland Guardians games. Later in his career, he joined star-studded lineups on tours with Ringo Starr and Peter Frampton while ultimately releasing more than 25 albums, including several blues and jazz LPs. Following a late-in-life conversion, he and his wife produced several Christian-themed albums. ___ © 2025 New York Daily News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Classic rock guitarist, ‘Real American' singer Rick Derringer dies at 77
NEW YORK — Classic rock guitarist and 'Real American' singer Rick Derringer has died. He was 77 years old. His longtime wife, Jenda Derringer, told TMZ he died 'peacefully' at a hospital in Ormond Beach, Florida, after being taken off life support following a medical emergency involving his heart. He reportedly underwent triple bypass surgery two months ago. The Ohio native first gained fame with his band the McCoys, whose 'Hang on Sloopy' was a No. 1 hit in 1965. He went on to work with Edgar and Johnny Winters in their bands, playing on classic rock radio staples like 'Frankenstein,' another No. 1 hit. He also collaborated with Steely Dan, 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Todd Rundgren, Alice Cooper, Barbara Streisand and toured several times with Cyndi Lauper. He played the guitar solo on Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart,' written by frequent partner Jim Steinman. Derringer had a solo hit of his own with 'Real American,' a song recorded for a soundtrack for the World Wrestling Federation that became Hulk Hogan's theme music for several years. Lauper provided backing vocals on the tune. Richard Dean Zehringer was born in Celina, Ohio, on Aug. 5, 1947. He began playing music with his brother Randy in the late 1950s. Their band the McCoys was chosen by a set of record producers to record 'Hang on Sloopy,' which has since become a popular in-stadium anthem at Ohio State football games and Cleveland Guardians games. Later in his career, he joined star-studded lineups on tours with Ringo Starr and Peter Frampton while ultimately releasing more than 25 albums, including several blues and jazz LPs. Following a late-in-life conversion, he and his wife produced several Christian-themed albums.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Iowan settles lawsuit with former employer over his Christian-themed shirts
The rainbow flag of the gay pride movement and the flag of the United States. (Photo by Getty Images) A Scott County man has reached an out-of-court settlement with the former employer he accused of firing him for wearing Christian-themed T-shirts to work in response to the company's endorsement of Pride Month. In June 2024, Cosby 'Corey' Cunningham sued Eaton Corp., a global power management company with a Davenport office, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, alleging violations of his civil rights. Cunningham, a self-described born-again, church-going Christian, was hired by Eaton in 2019 as a quality manager with responsibilities for product development related to military and aerospace activity. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX According to his lawsuit, Eaton initiated a 'Pride Month ceremony' on June 2, 2023, by raising a pride flag in front of its main building and encouraging employees to wear specific colors in support of the effort. Management also sent out emails to the staff offering pride-themed T-shirts for workers to purchase, the lawsuit claims. That day, Cunningham alleges, he began wearing T-shirts at work that displayed or referred to Bible verses. According to the lawsuit, he did this to 'express his sincerely held religious belief in Jesus Christ and the Bible.' One shirt read, 'Pride goes before destruction, an arrogant spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18.' Another shirt read, 'Taking back the rainbow. Genesis 9:13.' A third read, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. James 4:6.' Over the next eight weeks, Eaton managers allegedly held a series of meetings with Cunningham to express their concern that his actions were perceived by others as inflammatory and that they might violate company policy. According to the lawsuit, management refused Cunningham's requests for a religious accommodation to wear the T-shirts, threatened him with dismissal, and sent him home on at least two occasions for refusing to stop wearing the shirts. On Aug. 23, 2023, the company fired Cunningham, the lawsuit alleges. In his lawsuit, Cunningham stated that he believes 'homosexual conduct is sinful' and that he had been called upon to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. Doing so, he claimed, required him to share with others even those biblical teachings that are offensive to those who don't share such beliefs. In its response to those claims, lawyers for the Eaton Corp. argued Cunningham was not entitled to any damages because any actions taken by the company against him 'were legitimate and non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory,' and were based on legitimate business reasons. In his lawsuit, Cunningham was represented by Robert Anderson of Atlantic, an attorney for the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative organization that said it works to promote religious freedom and parental rights. The Southern Poverty Law Center has characterized the Pacific Justice Institute as 'an anti-LGBT hate group' whose founder has 'compared legalized gay marriage to Hitler and the Nazis' ascent in Germany.' Anderson said Thursday he's not at liberty to comment on the specifics of the settlement that was reached last month. Attorneys for the Eaton Corp. did not respond immediately to requests for comment on the matter. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
