Soldier’s memorial to get Wiccan sign

The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan won state approval Wednesday to place a Wiccan religious symbol on his memorial plaque, something the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had refused.

“I’m honored and ecstatic. I’ve been waiting a year for this,” Roberta Stewart said from her home in Fernley, about 30 miles east of Reno.

Sgt. Patrick Stewart, 34, was killed in Afghanistan last September when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his helicopter.

He was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not recognize and therefore prohibits on veterans’ headstones in national cemeteries.

But state officials said they had received a legal opinion from the Nevada attorney general’s office that concluded federal officials have no authority over state veterans’ cemeteries. They plan to have a contractor construct a plaque with the Wiccan pentacle to be added to the Veterans’ Memorial Wall in Fernley.

Detroit

Teachers vote to return to class

Teachers voted Wednesday to end their more than two-week strike and pave the way for Detroit’s 130,000 students to return to their classrooms today, seven school days late.

The union’s executive board approved a tentative three-year contract Tuesday, and teachers voted Wednesday to return to work while the ratification vote takes place by mail.

The walkout began Aug. 28 after teachers rejected a two-year contract proposal. The financially struggling district initially sought a 5.5 percent pay cut over two years.

The union wanted raises after years without them. The two sides eventually agreed on a one-year pay freeze, followed by increases of 1 percent the second year and 2.5 percent the third.

Norfolk, Va.

Chaplain guilty of disobeying order

A military jury found a Navy chaplain guilty Wednesday of disobeying an order by appearing in uniform at a White House protest.

A jury of five officers deliberated for an hour and 20 minutes before deciding Lt. Gordon J. Klingenschmitt disobeyed a superior officer’s order.

The penalty phase began immediately after the verdict. Klingenschmitt could be docked two-thirds pay per month for a year and reprimanded.

Klingenschmitt said he will appeal and fight to remain chaplain. “If I am guilty of worshipping in public, praise be to God,” he said.

A superior officer had told Klingenschmitt he could appear in uniform at media appearances only if conducting a “bona fide worship service.”

Klingenschmitt contended that his appearance at a March 30 news conference, held at the White House to protest a Navy policy requiring nondenominational prayers outside of religious services, qualified as a worship service.