Durango churches to host financial courses
Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University will be held at these locations:
Beginning at 6 p.m. Sept. 3 at First United Methodist Church, 2917 Aspen Drive. For more information or to register, call Debbie Smith at 247-4213.
Beginning at 6 p.m. Sept. 15 at The River Church, 860 Plymouth Drive. For more information or to register, call Brooke Peterson at 247-7777.
The nine-week course provides families and individuals with practical tools to gain control of their finances and set themselves up for long-term financial success.
The course will meet once a week, where a different lesson is taught by Ramsey on DVD. This will be followed by a small-group discussion.
Lessons include budgeting, relationships and money, getting out of debt, saving for emergencies and investing.
After purchasing a membership, each participant receives a workbook, Dave Ramsey’s Complete Guide to Money, an envelope system and an audio-CD library. Participants also will have access to budgeting forms and MP3s of all the lessons.
For more information, visit www.daveramsey.com.
Gay coach will keep job at private school
DELL RAPIDS, S.D. – A volleyball coach at a private Catholic school in South Dakota who has publicly announced he’s gay says he’s being allowed to keep his job.
Nate Alfson announced he was gay last week on the website www.outsports.com and later said he was concerned about his future with St. Mary High School. He is believed to be the first openly gay high school coach in South Dakota.
Alfson met with school officials Tuesday and later said in an email to Outsports and on his Facebook page that he will not lose his job.
“The meeting with the school went great,” he said in his email. “We talked about being on the same page as each other and that they were willing to walk through this with me and support me.”
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls issued a statement Tuesday night saying “all persons, whatever their attraction, are to be treated with respect, compassion and justice,” the Argus Leader newspaper reported.
India sets age limit for Krishna birthday pyramids
NEW DELHI – India’s top court said Thursday that children as young as 12 can climb atop towering human pyramids in a popular Hindu celebration that has seen deaths and injuries in past years.
Devotees celebrate the birthday of the child-god Krishna each August by forming a pyramid with the last climber, usually a child, clambering to the top to break the “dahi handi,” an earthen pot filled with curd. It honors Krishna’s effort to steal butter.
Hundreds of thousands of cheering people join the ceremony every year, but several children are killed, injured or disabled in falls from pyramids that can reach 40 feet high.
A court in Mumbai last week set the country’s first age limit for participants at 18. The Mumbai court also said the pyramids must not exceed 20 feet.
But the Supreme Court put that ruling on hold Thursday and said children who’ve reached their 12th birthday can participate. It will give its final verdict in the case after hearing arguments of the petitioners, rights activists and the government.
Va. mosque vandalized; hate-crime probe sought
MANASSAS, Va. – A Muslim-rights group is asking the FBI and local police to investigate whether vandalism at a Virginia mosque was a hate crime.
The Manassas Mosque on Center Entrance Drive was vandalized some time between late Monday night and early Tuesday morning. Vandals sprayed orange paint on the windows and wrote an obscenity. A window and door were also damaged.
Prince William County Police say the damage itself does not indicate a hate crime, but an investigation could uncover a hate crime if the intent of the vandals can be determined.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked police and the FBI to investigate whether a hate crime occurred.
Prince William County Police were offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.
Herald Staff & Associated Press
