General News

Gay Mormon hoped suicide would help change church Faithful LDS Church member Stuart Matis was found dead on Friday evening, February 25th, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside an LDS stake center on Grant Avenue in Los Altos, California. Matis, a returned missionary who was gay but who had never acted on his feelings and was in full fellowship in the LDS Church, left a suicide note blaming the suicide on the conflict between his religion and his sexual orientation, a conflict that was accentuated by the battle over California's proposition 22, according to a letter he wrote that is available on the Internet.

100 Million Mark Caps 20-year Explosion In Book of Mormon Printing The news that the LDS Church expected to print its 100 millionth copy of the Book of Mormon comes on the end of nearly 20 years of heavy printing of the book. As recently as 1981, the LDS Church's printing department had estimated that only 27 million copies had been printed and it was then printing about 1 million copies a year. Now, the department is printing more than 5 million copies a year and copies in print have reached more than 3 times what had been printed in 150 years.

Local News

Police Arrest Suspect In Murder of LDS Immigrant Police have arrested Jamie Oliver Boyce and charged him with second-degree murder and possession of an offensive weapon in the death of LDS Church member Bernardo Sanchez-Archila, 27. Sanchez-Archila was found in his downtown Edmonton room on Valentine's Day with a stab wound to the heart.

Suicide Of LDS Doctor Puzzles Friends, Company The apparent suicide of an LDS doctor, entreprenuer and AIDS researcher shocked friends and family and has cast a pall over the company he co-owned, as his co-owner recovers from a gunshot wound to the face. Dr. Larry C. Ford, an LDS Church member an co-owner of Biofem Pharmaceuticals, was called a generous friend, deeply religious man and a 'boy genius' by those who knew and respected him.

Former LDS Stake President and Utah House Speaker In Trouble Utah legislator and former speaker of the State House of Representatives Mel Brown has fallen a long way from his glory days, and now the legislator is simply trying to get back to stability. Just three years ago Brown had a 42-year-old marriage and respect both as a state legislator and former LDS stake president. Now he is leaving his political career this fall, has been excommunicated from the LDS Church, and is facing a bitter divorce which may cost him a farm that has been in his family for four generations.

Sports

Utahn Trying to Break Baseball's Age Barrier After 14 years Tom Wright is still determined to make it in the Big League. At 27, when he first started to make his attempts at a pro career he was already considered too old for the game. Now at the age of 41, Wright is still determined to get a spot on a Big League team.

People

Viacheslav Efimov, First Native Russian Mission President Dies LDS Church members in Russia and the many returned missionaries who served there were saddened to learn of the death last Thursday of Viacheslav I. Efimov, the first native Russian LDS mission president and head of one of the first complete families baptized there. Efimov's commanding personality and talent for dealing with other Russians made him an invaluable asset to the Church in Russia. He was 52.

Arts & Entertainment

Hinckley's Book Rises To 31 On USA Today List LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley's book "Standing for Something" rose 3 spots on USA Today's best seller list this week, reaching #31. It also increased its sales rank on Amazon.com to #61 overall. While it is not possible to determine how much of the book' popularity is due to sales to LDS Church members, Amazon does report that it is #7 among books sold to Utah addresses, implying significant sales among Church members.

Business

No Articles Available.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]