General News

Major Religion Website Includes Mormon Page . . . Under Christianity Former U.S. News & World Report editor Steven Waldman and his partner, founding publisher of the former New England Monthly Robert Nylen saw an opportunity on the Internet, and have attacked it in a big way. In the process they have classified Mormons exactly where most prefer to be -- under Christianity. Last month Waldman's company launched beliefnet.com, a website that seeks to include all the world's principal religions and belief systems in one site.

Local News

Police Investigating LDS Bishops for Failing to Report Abuse Police in Logan, Utah are looking into allegations that three LDS bishops failed to report child sexual abuse they were made aware of. The claims arise in the case of Jay Toombs, 44, of Benson, Utah, who is facing three first-degree counts of aggravated sexual abuse for allegedly fondling a 10-year-old boy in 1993 and 1994.

Sports

BYU Men's Basketball May Play on Monday Evenings None of the teams in the new Mountain West Conference likes the conference's current schedule. But the proposal for next year's schedule may solve most problems -- and get the league more TV time as well. But under the schedule, BYU would have to break its tradition and play on Monday evenings -- and BYU Coach Steve Cleveland is open to the idea.

People

Deborah Laake, Author Of Controversial Temple Tell-All, dies Deborah Laake, a former Phoenix journalist who wrote an expose of her life as an LDS Church member and disclosed in a book information about the LDS Temple ceremony, died on Sunday in South Carolina of an apparent suicide. Laake had battled breast cancer since 1994 and was being treated for depression. She was 47.

Arts & Entertainment

Hinckley Launches 'Standing for Something' LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley launched his book "Standing for Something" on Friday with a news conference for journalists, explaining how and why he wrote the book, published by the Times Books division of the International publishing company Random House. Hinckley told journalists that the book left behind the "churchspeak" that LDS Church members are familiar with, as well as the particular doctrines of the LDS Church, and instead addressed a broader audience, giving a pragmatic approach to values and virtues.

Business

Creators Of New 'NCMO' Site Change Focus In Response To Criticism In response to the criticisms leveled at the new NCMO Home Page, covered by Mormon News last week [See below], the creators of the site have changed its focus to simply helping singles meet on-line. The site, who's acronym stands for "Non-Committal Make-Out" had come under criticism both for what some BYU faculty and clergy saw as an immoral service and for putting its clients at risk for date rape. BYU's police and Honor Code Council launched investigations, putting the site and its creators under threat of legal action.

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