In New York City, a committee charged with redesigning Children's Zoo in Central Park announced that they would have to remove sculptures such as Noah's Ark and Jonah's Whale, since they're religious and using public funds to renovate them would be a violation of church/state separation. But the New York Times reports that Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern stepped back from the decision. "He said Noah should not be viewed as a biblical character, which the [wildlife] society has called inappropriate for a public park, but as the first conservationist because he saved animals before the flood."

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