LDS Expert: Religious Rights in China Declining

Michael Young, Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, wrote U.S. President George W. Bush last week to say that religious freedom has declined in China since the U.S. gave the country full trading rights. Young, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Dean of the George Washington University School of Law, has become a recognized expert in International religious freedom since his appointment to the Commission in 1999 by then-President Bill Clinton. He was made Chairman of the Commission in September.

Utah Laws Require Schools, Maybe Even BYU, to Allow Guns

On January 1, Governor Mike Leavitt's order took effect that all Utah state agencies abolish bans against carrying concealed weapons on state property. The order has brought bans by Utah's universities to the debate floor of the Utah State Legislature and has Mark Shurtleff, the Attorney General for the State of Utah, currently researching whether BYU and other private universities in the state can be required to allow guns on campus. He has already stated that Utah law is clear with regard to state-owned universities and state buildings: they cannot ban guns being carried by those doing so legally.

CD Sent by Hatch Destroyed by Mail Decontaminating Equipment

A CD of Olympics music featuring several LDS performers was destroyed by mail decontaminating equipment last week when Utah Senator Orrin Hatch tried to send the CD to Interior Secretary Gale Norton. The copy of the CD "Light Up the Land" was sent off to be decontaminated, and returned looking like it had been put through a microwave.

Design for "Utah" Quarter May Feature Beehive and Seagull

The design for the "Utah" quarter, one of a series of 50 quarters being issued by the U.S. Mint in order of the state's entrance into the union, will apparently use the traditionally Mormon, but also very Utahn images of a beehive and a seagull.

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