PHILADELPHIA — The city of Philadelphia is being sued in federal court for its ban on feeding the homeless in city parks.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday on behalf of a group of community and church organizations that have distributed meals for years in parks along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The area is also home to many Philadelphia museums and tourist attractions. The city moved in March to ban the feedings.
Homeless advocates say the city wants to keep the homeless hidden. But businesses in the area complain about health hazards and crime in the feeding areas.
Signs have been posted prohibiting outdoor feeding. Repeat violators are subject to $150 fines.
Missionary couple die in Zambia crash
SPOKANE, Wash. - A Spokane couple doing missionary work in Africa were killed in a plane crash recently in Zambia.
Jay and Katrina Erickson, evangelicals who met at Moody Bible Institute, had been in Zambia since February, working at a hospital on the Zambezi River about 400 miles upstream from Victoria Falls.
The Chitokoloki Mission Hospital said Jay Erickson was flying a six-seat Cessna on Saturday with his wife on board after transporting a nurse. The plane hit an electrical pole and crashed into the Zambezi River near the town of Zambezi.
The Spokesman-Review reported that the Ericksons will be buried at the mission.
Their daughters, 2-year-old Marina and 1-year-old Coral, had stayed behind at the hospital.
U.S. says preacher misspent $500,000
COVINGTON, Ky. - Federal prosecutors say an Internet evangelist based south of Cincinnati lived a lavish lifestyle off donations from followers from around the world and didn’t pay taxes on much of the money.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBride told jurors in federal court in Covington on Monday that Ronald Weinland used credit cards to have his ministry, the Church of God-Preparing for the Kingdom of God, pay for more than $500,000 in personal expenses.
The Kentucky Enquirer reported that Weinland’s attorney, Robert Webb, said the group believes that society is in its “final days” and the U.S. financial system will collapse before Jesus Christ returns.
Weinland is charged with not paying $357,065 in taxes from 2004 through 2008.
10 Muslims killed by mob in Burma
YANGON, Burma - Ten Muslims were beaten to death Sunday in an area known for sectarian conflict.
The killings took place in Rakhine state in northwestern Burma, a nation with a large Buddhist majority but also sizable Hindu and Muslim minorities.
State television reported that 300 people in Taunggup stopped a bus carrying Muslims from a religious gathering, dragged out the 10 occupants, beat them to death and burned the vehicle.
It said some anti-Muslim pamphlets had been distributed in Taunggup relating to the rape and slaying of a young Rakhine girl last month, allegedly by three Muslim youths.
Religion, Pages 27 on 06/07/2012