General News

Temple Arguments Boil Down to Religious Necessity of Steeple Lawyers for the LDS Church and for neighbors of the Boston Temple argued before the Massachusetts Supreme Court Friday over the Temple's steeple, with the Church claiming that a steeple is a religious necessity while the neighbors argue that the Church is trying to use the state's Dover Amendment to get around zoning laws. It is not known when the court will issue a ruling in the case.

Local News

DNA Will Show Kleasen Murdered LDS Missionaries, Prosecutors Hope Prosecutors in Travis county, Texas have contacted the families of murdered LDS missionaries Mark Fischer and Gary Darley and collected DNA samples from them in the hope that the DNA will help convict Robert Elmer Kleasen of their 1974 murder. The lawyers are trying to have their case ready by June, when Kleasen, who is serving a prison sentence in England, is expected to be released and deported to the US.

Former LDS Missionary Charged with Molesting 11 Girls While on Mission A North Carolina grand jury has indicted a 27-year-old former LDS missionary for 20 counts of felony sex offenses allegedly committed while he was serving there on an LDS mission. Matthew Nash was indicted on Tuesday for the crimes, allegedly committed during a four-month period in 1999.

LDS RM Claims Supervisor Raped Him An LDS returned missionary in Salt Lake City has filed a lawsuit claiming that his former supervisor at Discover Financial Services, Inc. got him drunk and raped him, saying she wanted to corrupt a "young returned missionary." Jason A. Gammell, who went to work for Discover in September 1997 after returning from his mission, sued Angela Martellaro, his team supervisor, and Discover for sexual harassment, religious discrimination and constructive discharge, saying that Martellaro threatened him with losing his job if he didn't "give her what she wanted."

Sports

Murphy Misses Hall of Fame for Third Time As expected, baseball writers once again declined to add LDS baseball star Dale Murphy to the Hall of Fame, but left him with enough votes to continue consideration again next year. Instead, the writers chose baseball greats Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett, both in their first year of eligibility, for the Hall. The voting makes it increasingly clear that it is highly unlikely that Murphy will be inducted.

Politics

US Army Gives Up Effort to Kick-Out Gay ex-LDS Arizona Legislator Steve May, a gay former LDS Church member serving in the Arizona state legislature, learned Monday that the US Army has dropped its attempt to kick May out of the Army Reserves under its "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The decision ends a 21-month-long effort by the Army to remove May after his sexual orientation came to light.

Redistricting Puts Istook's House Seat At Risk While Utah fights to gain an additional seat in the US House of Representatives, one that would likely be filled by a Mormon, the same redistricting process may put the seat of an LDS congressman at risk. As a result of low population growth compared to other states, Oklahoma has lost a seat in the US House of Representatives. At least one of its current six congressmen, which includes LDS Church member Ernest Istook, will not be in the US Congress in 2002.

Internet

Former LDS Bishop Used LDS Chat Room to Lure Teenager Former LDS Bishop Gordon Brent Bodily plead guilty Friday to a charge of enticement for illegal sexual activity, arising from his posing as a teenager in an LDS-oriented chat room and luring a 17-year-old North Carolina girl to a Utah motel room. Bodily, 51, faces up to 10 years in prison for the charge, which happened while he was an LDS Bishop. He has since been released from his calling and excommunicated, according to an LDS Church spokesperson.

People

LDS Missionary Tells Modesto Bee About El Salvador Quake The Modesto Bee today carried an account of the El Salvador earthquake from Elder Peter Stone, 21, who is currently serving an LDS mission there. The earthquake, which hit the Central American country Saturday morning, killed at least 600 people, including two LDS Church members, according to an LDS Church press release. The quake measured 7.6 on the Ricter scale.

Arts & Entertainment

Lawsuit Over 'Children of the Promise' Dismissed The memoir of an LDS soldier who survived a Japanese POW camp during World War II is historical fact, and can't be copyrighted, ruled US District Judge Dale A. Kimball last week. Kimball's ruling threw out the lawsuit filed by the former soldier, Gene Jacobsen, against LDS author Dean Hughes and his publisher, LDS Church-owned Deseret Book.

MoTab's Float is Largest Hargrove, Inc., the company that is building the floats for George W. Bush's inaugural parade, has had to scramble to put together the floats for this year's parade. The delayed election results left the company with little time to design and build the floats, as well as prepare for the inauguration's nine balls, two dinners and two luncheons. But in spite of the delay, owner Earl C. Hargrove says he has the biggest float ever built for people to carry the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Business

Franklin Covey Founder Hyrum Smith Struggles Back From Excommunication In Saturday's Salt Lake Tribune, Franklin Covey co-founder Hyrum Smith talked about his new book, "What Matters Most" and about his struggle back from his 1998 excommunication from the LDS Church. While he refused to talk about the excommunication itself or much about the events that led to it, he did say that the process has been a very painful experience.

Doing Business in an LDS World The public radio business program Marketplace was in Salt Lake City today, and took a 10-minute-long look at the cultural factors of doing business in a Mormon-dominated society: Salt Lake City. Marketplace's Bob Moon reported that some members of the dominant religion often behaves in a way that wouldn't be expected elsewhere.

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