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A grey-haired lady recently knocked on the door of a Halifax home seeking a donation to a group that supposedly helps find missing children.

The man who answered the door gave the lady $5, but after having a quick glance at the brochure he was handed and doing a Google search on his computer, he caught up with her down the street and asked for his money back.

The resident, who asked his name not be used, at first gave the pleasant woman "the benefit of the doubt" despite her "hokey" ID tag and a receipt that clearly wasn’t for a taxation purposes, but quickly changed his mind.

"In my mind this is a private company operating as a profit centre through our community donations," he said.

The organization in question is called the North American Missing Children Association, whose history includes defections to other groups and having its charitable status revoked by Revenue Canada in 2007 because of annual reports "lacking in content pertaining to the activities of the charity."

John Hughes, who lives in New Brunswick and is listed as the group’s president, said they have abided by the government ruling on their charitable status and do not tell people they are a charity, nor do they hand out tax receipts.

He said they now operate as a small business with five or six people who fundraise for the cause.

"Even though we don’t fit the criteria for a charity, we wanted to keep putting out information to people," Mr. Hughes said in an interview from his home in South Esk, N.B. "It’s mostly retired people who care about the cause."

He said most of the money raised by door-to-door canvassing covers the cost of printing brochures and that their main role is to direct those seeking help to the proper police agency.

"We’re no big corporation," he said. "It’s not a terrible amount of money."

The president said he doesn’t know how much money the group raises as Ted Harris of Dartmouth, whose address is on the brochure for mailed donations, handles the finances.

A call made to Mr. Harris was directed to the president.

The brochure, signed by Mr. Hughes, said the group is "nationally recognized" and "provides assistance to families, friends and relatives in search for their missing loved ones."

The pamphlet also said they work "closely with police agencies by passing on information that helps locate missing individuals."

The group’s name appears on the RCMP’s list of non-recognized agencies working in the field of child protection and missing or abducted children.

The brochure, which lists tips on how to identify strange vehicles or people, also points readers to a dismantled website.

The president said he took the site down when their charitable status was revoked, but at one time it included photos of missing children.

Mr. Hughes, a retired corrections officer, said he only acts in an advisory role these days as he’s in New Brunswick and the once national organization now only operates in Nova Scotia.

The North American Missing Children Association was started in 1995 by the late Linda Davis of Nine Mile River, who eventually left the group to start the competing Garden of Missing Children.

Mr. Hughes said their main role back then was to go into schools to fingerprint children for identification purposes, maintain a website with information on missing children and as work with families whose child had been lost or abducted.

The president said he suggested they dissolve the group when it was stripped of their charitable status, but a dedicated few were determined to continue.

Dianna Cann, executive director for Child Find Nova Scotia, a charitable organization that is recognized by the RCMP, said the public sometimes confuses the North American Missing Children Association for Child Find, but Child Find does not do door-to-door canvassing because it does not advocate opening the door to strangers.

The Halifax man who asked for his donation back said that while the group may be operating legally, he questions giving money to an organization that appears to offer no real service and is not obligated to account for the money it collects.

ATLAS TOWNSHIP, Michigan -- Searchers are looking for a pair of Ukrainian boys who went missing about 12:30 p.m. today.

Mark Wood, 9, and Daniel Wood, 11, left home early Wednesday to pick wild strawberries on an 11-acre llama farm on Gale Road, near Green Road.

Barrie Lynn Wood, the boys' adoptive mother, said her sons had never left the property before without permission and called their disappearance "completely out of character."

The boys came to the U.S. from the Ukraine in 2007.

Their adoptive mother became concerned when the boys didn't return home early this afternoon and called police to report them missing at about 3:15 p.m. They were dressed in gym shorts and T-shirts.

One boy was dressed in a bright orange T-shirt, said Genesee County Undersheriff James S. Gage.

Mark Wood is 4-feet, 2-inches tall and weighs 54 pounds, Barrie Lynn Wood said.

Daniel Wood is 4-feet, 7-inches tall and weighs 68 pounds.

Both boys have hazel eyes and both have short, light-colored hair.

Police have called for assistance from an Oakland County Sheriff's Office helicopter and deputies were searching the farm on foot late at about 5:30 p.m.

"It's tedious," Gage said of the search of the swampy farm.

Police also did a reverse 911 call throughtout the township, asking residents to call them if they have spotted the boys.

Police said they were also investigating a report that the boys were seen near a pond in Goodrich.

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Native Americans who lived in the area in Miami and Lenape (or Delaware) tribe, who were removed from the area in early 1820.

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The city is in the original east-west national highway. The first rail service to Indianapolis, Madison and Indianapolis, began operation on October 1, 1847, rail connections and its subsequent expansive growth made possible. Indianapolis was the home of the first season of the Union, or common rail passenger terminal in the United States. By the turn of the century, Indianapolis has become a major automobile manufacturer, rivaling the likes of Detroit. With roads leading out of town in all directions, Indianapolis became a major center of regional transport connecting to Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, Cleveland and St. Louis, according to the capital of a state whose nickname is “The Crossroads of America.” This same network of roads that allow quick and easy access to suburban areas in the coming years.

The city’s population grew rapidly during the first half of the 20th century. While rapid urbanization began to take place in the second half of the century, race relations deteriorated. Still, the night that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, Indianapolis was the only major city where there are no riots. Many credit the speech of Robert F. Kennedy, who was in town campaigning for President that night, to help calm tensions. Rising racial tensions in 1970 with the passage of Unigov, more isolated than the middle class growing Indianapolis African American community. Court ordered school segregation by Judge S. Hugh Wanted Dillon was also a controversial change.

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MCCLEARY, Wash. - The National Guard has joined the FBI, search and rescue teams and dozens of volunteers in looking for a 10-year-old girl who vanished Friday while walking home from a friend's house.

Meanwhile, friends and family members have planned a prayer vigil for Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. at Beerbauer Park.

Lindsey J. Baum was last seen between 9 and 10 p.m. Friday when she left her friend's home on Maple Street, where she had been visiting, said Dave Pimentel of the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office.

Lindsey was going to walk the four blocks to her home on Mommsen Road, which is roughly a 10-minute walk. But something happened in that short distance - Lindsey never arrived home.

Her mysterious disappearance has left police, family - along with the whole town - affled and concerned at the girl's disappearance in a town of 1,550 where everyone knows their neighbors.

The search is going national online as Lindsey's information is now on the front page of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children web site.

A wide-ranging search was launched early Saturday in the town and the surrounding forests. The town was criss-crossed three times, but not a trace of Lindsey has been found. Even bloodhounds failed to pick up her scent.

Three times as many people joined the search on Sunday and many more were expected Monday, as they scour areas that weren't checked earlier.

"We searched all of the outlying area of the logging roads... and up the highway, and along the railroad tracks," said volunteer Stephanie Ross.

Deputies are asking for tips or any information anyone might have about Lindsey.

"Call us up. It may mean nothing to you; it may be very, very important to this investigation," said Rick Scott, Grays Harbor County Undersheriff.

They've established a new tip line at 1-866-915-8299.

Police are hesitant to call the girl's disappearance a case of foul play just yet, but the girl's family fears the worst.

"I've tried to keep the thought of somebody grabbing her out of my mind," her mother, Melissa Baum, said Sunday.

She says Lindsey argued with her brother on her way to a friend's house Friday night. She talked to her friend for a bit, then started for home as darkness fell.

The friend's father, Scott Williams, said he asked Lindsey to go home before it got too dark.

"She was here 10, 15 minutes, and then, you know, we said, 'You should probably get going before it gets dark,' and that was the last we heard of her," he said.

Witnesses say Lindsey seemed normal as she headed out around 9:15. Another friend even walked her part of the way, but Lindsey never showed up at her home.


Searchers fan out to search for Lindsey Baum, 10.
"I want to think that everything's OK, but there's a part of me that thinks the worst," Williams says.

Now hope has turned to anxiety and alarm among frustrated search teams. The mother is also at a loss.

She says her daughter is upset about her recent divorce, but doesn't have money to run away - and has never tried to run away before. Her mom

doubts at this point that Lindsey is trying to hide.

"If somebody does have her, I wish they would just drop her off somewhere where she can get to a pay phone and call 911 or call home, so that we can come and get her," she says, sobbing.

Lindsey's father lives in Tennessee. Police have contacted him, and he's not suspected of any involvement in Lindsey's disappearance.

Pimentel said it's strange that nobody saw anything unusual.

"Such a small community like this - you can't do much in a town this size without everybody knowing about it," he said. "Everybody in town knows she's unaccounted for."

Lindsey was last seen wearing a gray or blue hooded pullover sweatshirt, with blue jeans and black shoes. She has brown eyes, brown hair, and stands about 4-feet-9-inches and weighs about 80 pounds.

FRANKFORT — Now the special session is over attention begins to turn toward fundraising in the 2010 U.S. Senate race and Fancy Farm.

Bowling Green eye surgeon Rand Paul sent out an email announcement that he’s topped the $100,000 mark in just one month and without any fundraisers, collecting most of it on-line. Rand, a libertarian Republican, has said he will make the race if incumbent Jim Bunning doesn’t run. So has Secretary of State Trey Grayson who is raising money through his own exploratory committee. He has reported somewhere in the neighborhood of $600,000 so far.

The big question is how much Bunning will report. He previously has said he doesn’t intend to be outspent, but his first quarter total was about only $263,000. He recently said fundraising was going better, but there are signs it’s not going well enough. A Monday night event sponsored by coal, oil and gas interests was cancelled. And some names associated in the past with Bunning campaigns showed up on invitations to Grayson fundraisers in northern Kentucky. In Republican strongholds in the Fifth District, key Republican names again sponsored Grayson fundraisers – people who might have been expected to side with an incumbent Republican whose voting record reflects their conservative positions.

If Grayson out raises Bunning, what will Bunning do? Adding to the pressure on Bunning will be Democratic candidates’ fundraising. Talk in political circles is that Attorney General Jack Conway will report over $1 million in the second quarter, the only quarter in which he has openly been raising money. Critics and opponents will say his fundraising was front loaded, much of the money lined up during the first quarter before he announced. But it’s a lot of money either way.

Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo outraised Bunning in the first quarter and he might do it again in the second, although it’s unlikely he’ll come anywhere close to the numbers Conway is expected to report. But there’s no indication that Mongiardo will be scared out of the race by Conway’s numbers any more than Bunning can be driven out by the lack of support from Republicans like Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Everyone will be waiting to see those Federal Election Commission reports which are due in the mail by July 15.

People are also beginning to talk about Fancy Farm, the political free-for-all and barbecue in far western Kentucky on Aug. 1. It’s not Bunning’s favorite venue. He famously complains about the treatment he and his wife got there in 2004 from Mongiardo supporters and reporters. But he was there last year and says he’s going this year. Mongiardo and Grayson are scheduled to speak. (Conway’s wife is expecting a child around that time which could complicate his schedule but he has said he’d like to be there.) It’s shaping up to be fairly interesting, especially for a non-election year.

It’s always hot and it’s always fun at Fancy Farm. The food is great. The hospitality of organizers and the festiveness of the event are difficult to top. And usually the political rhetoric matches the temperature and humidity. Bunning, Conway and Grayson aren’t at their best in those settings.
Mongiardo is no Alben Barkley or Wendell Ford, although he’s better on the stump and at retail politics than the other three.

Those who love politics and political theater – especially those who’ve never been to Fancy Farm – could find worse ways to spend the first weekend in August.

The Community Foundation of Acadiana is open to the idea of taking over nonprofit or “external agency” funding from city-parish government. CFA Director Raymond Hebert says the organization has been in talks with several city officials about the idea over the past year. Councilmen William Theriot and Jared Bellard are introducing an ordinance at tonight’s council meeting to zero out LCG’s supplemental funding of local nonprofits. The ordinance would phase out funding for external agencies over the next three years; reducing it by 33.3 percent each year. The ordinance also redirects the remaining three years of funding to the Community Foundation of Acadiana, which would then decide how the funds get distributed among the agencies. The hope is that the Community Foundation may, after three years, be able to build up private donations to continue some funding for the nonprofits on an annual basis. LCG has a total of $452,000 budgeted this year for nonprofits. The money is spread among 23 local agencies, including Festival International ($72,000), the Lafayette Council on Aging ($38,722), the Lafayette Community Health Care Clinic ($31,461) and the Acadiana Arts Council ($69,409).

Hebert stopped short of endorsing the Theriot-Bellard ordinance, but says the CFA is open to assisting LCG. “We’re not endorsing or opposing this proposal,” he says. “There are a lot of different ideas out there. And this is not something we sought out. We’ve been called to the table.” Hebert acknowledged another idea being discussed is for LCG to continue funding nonprofits, but that the grants be awarded through the CFA, as a means of removing politics from the process. The CFA is itself a nonprofit, specializing in setting up donor-based grants that go to nonprofits, schools and faith-based organizations. The CFA currently distributes more than $3.5 million a year.

“We’re only promoting that if there’s an opportunity for us to enhance this process, if there’s an opportunity for us to enhance the good nonprofits that do such good work, then we want to participate somehow, someway,” Hebert says. “Ideally, we would like to be in a position to have
discretionary dollars that we can grant on a competitive basis. We’re interested in enhancing quality of life in our community and if our experience, if our expertise can offer some value to the process, then we want to participate. If it can’t offer any value, we really don’t want to participate.”