General News

Supreme Court Ruling Keeps LDS Scouting Intact In a 5-4 decision the US Supreme Court ruled today that the Boy Scouts of America can exclude homosexuals from serving as troop leaders, in effect preserving the LDS Church's relationship with Scouting. The Church, which had supported the Boy Scouts of America in the lawsuit, had told the Court that it would withdraw from the Scouting program if homosexual leaders were permitted, taking 400,000 scouts with it.

Controversial LDS Congressman Merrill Cook Loses Primary Controversial two-term LDS Congressman Merrill Cook was defeated in yesterday's Utah primary, losing his bid to represent the Republicans in the US Congress for a third term. Cook lost to political newcomer and LDS Church member Derek Smith, an Internet entrepreneur. Smith will face a tough challenge from well-connected Democrat Jim Matheson, also an LDS Church member, which could become more difficult if Cook tries an independent run for his seat in the US Congress as he hinted at following his concession speech last night.

Local News

LDS Church Member Shurtleff Wins Utah AG Nomination LDS Church member Mark Shurtleff defeated Frank Mylar for the Republican nomination for Utah Attorney General in the Utah primary yesterda. Both men were profiled in the Salt Lake Tribune last week ahead of the June 27 election. The two men show some similarities. Mylar, an attorney from Salt Lake City, and Shurtleff, a Salt Lake County Commissioner, stress a tough stance on crime, and both men have experience in the state attorney's general office. They also agree that they would not seek to prosecute polygamists unless other serious crimes were involved.

Boy Charged in Drugging of 17 at LDS Missionary Luncheon Prosecutors in Wood County, Ohio filed charges yesterday against a 15-year-old boy who drugged 17 LDS missionaries and Church members at a luncheon put on for the missionaries June 22nd. The boy was charged in Juvenile Court with 'delinquency in connection with corrupting another with drugs.'

BYU-Idaho Announcement Leads to Rexburg Land Boom The announcement that the renamed Ricks College will be a four-year institution has touched off a scramble among developers for land near the college. In the week since the announcement, city and county offices have been flooded with calls from Utah, Colorado and Idaho real estate developers trying to provide housing for an expanding student body.

Sports

Madsen Drafted by Lakers Stanford Basketball star Mark Madsen, an LDS returned missionary known as "Mad Dog" for his unrelenting competitiveness on-court, was chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers in the1st round of yesterday's NBA draft. The Lakers picked Madsen as an eventual replacement for long-time Lakers star A.C. Green.

Has Steve Young Found His New Career? In a move that may indicate the career path he will now follow, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young is forming a venture capital firm. FirstLight Venture Partners includes Young and former Novell Inc. senior vice president David Bradford as partners, along with others that have not yet been named. The firm, headquartered in Salt Lake City, will invest in technology companies in the western US.

People

Anti-Mormon Denies Rumor He Is Joining LDS Church Ed Decker, the controversial anti-Mormon who created the film "The Godmakers" denied on Friday a rumor that he was returning to the LDS Church and would speak at the August 24th Mormon Apologetics Symposium in Alta, Utah. While Decker did offer to give a paper at the symposium, he says that he didn't intend to give the impression he was returning to the Church, "No, I haven't gone insane. I'm not going back to the Mormon Church," he said.

Arts & Entertainment

LDS Church Member Bachman Back With 'Guess Who' Randy Bachman along with the original lineup of Guess Who, minus bassist Jim Kale, has returned to perform at the Skyreach Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The amazing, inexplicable, against all odds group returned with thanks in part to "our new best friend Lenny Kravitz," who made American Woman hip again. "It's incredible," Bachman said. "This is the American Woman tour of 1970 that we didn't do because I left the band. It's 30 years late to the month."

God's Army Opens on the East Coast God's Army, the breakthrough film about Mormon missionaries, will play for a limited run in Rochester, New York. The movie will open on Friday, July 7 at the Henrietta Cinema 18 on 525 Marketplace Drive in Rochester.

Business

Utah Couple's Website Becomes History Curriculum Jon and Kim Mott created their nonpartisan website ThisNation.com to educate Americans about their country and about politics in the US. The site uses Jon Mott's BYU political science degree to explain politics. Now their site has been picked-up by private Utah county-based school Liahona, which caters to LDS students, as part of the curriculum for the next school year. The site was also recently named "Incredibly Useful Site of the Day" by ZDNet-Yahoo Internet Life, and was named "Site of the Week" by Britannica.com and "Cool Site of the Day" by Netscape.

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