From ESPN Blog Network:

LAS VEGAS — While junior quarterback Max Hall might be the biggest name coming out of Provo, Utah, this football season, the BYU athletic department isn’t exactly championing him for the Heisman — yet.

Jeff Reynolds from BYU athletics communications acknowledged that Hall’s name might be out there, but he said the bulk of the promotion would start toward the end of the year in order to promote Hall’s senior season.

Meanwhile, BYU is hoping to promote several players for All-American status as the year progresses. This promotion will include video profiles and stories about BYU’s All-American candidates as well as a separate web site documenting their achievements and providing fans (and voters) with an in-depth look at each player.

The school will also have in-depth features in the game day programs and hand out posters and other promotional items at games this season.

Currently, BYU has tabbed five players as potential All-Americans: Hall, offensive lineman Ray Feinga, running back Harvey Unga, tight end Dennis Pitta, and wide receiver Austin Collie.

Hall was already named to the Davey O’Brien watch list, which honors the nation’s best collegiate quarterbacks, and is considered a contender for the Heisman Trophy. Feinga and Pitta were named to the Outland Trophy watch list, which honors the best down linemen in the country. The Biletnikoff and Doak Walker watch lists, which highlight the nation’s best receiver and running back, are released later in the year.

Link here

From People Magazine:

You can’t believe everything you see – or don’t see – on MySpace, says American Idol’s Brooke White, who blames a technical glitch for the absence of David Archuleta as a “friend” on her page.

“Don’t fret, my dears, David is one of my favorite people on the planet!!!” she writes. “Rest assured, we all are all super-duper friends, like family, actually, enjoying this tour together.”

The 25-year-old fifth-place finalist on last season’s show says only a technical issue has kept 17-year-old runner-up “Archie” from showing up on her “top friends” box. Both are now on an American Idol tour of the U.S. with the other contestants.

“It’s been driving me crazy … and so after going on a search through hundreds of pages of friends … I still can’t find Archie’s official page … along with a few other Idol contestant friends of mine!” White writes. “In time, I will work it out, when I have few spare moments while on the road!”

White says she’s amazed it even became an issue among some fans.

“It’s kinda funny, and/or interesting how seriously people take this MySpace thing,” she writes. “I can’t believe I’m even writing a blog about this, LOL!!!”

Link here

From HeraldNet.com:

With soaring food prices, it’s critical to know how to manage the shelf life of your food.

It’s a lot more painful these days to toss a limp head of broccoli or dump a tub of fresh salsa.

These guidelines aren’t just relevant when you’re cleaning out your fridge. Consider them when shopping and cooking so that less food winds up in the garbage.

THE REFRIGERATOR

The door is is the warmest place in the fridge, so keep items here that are less at risk for spoilage.

Best in the door:

Condiments such as mustard, soy sauce, ketchup and salad dressings.

Salsa, tomato sauce, once opened, finish within a week.

DON’T STORE IN THE DOOR:

Milk

Cheese

Cold cuts

BEST FOR THE TOP SHELF

This is the spot for prepared foods.

Chicken salad, egg salad, use within a day.

Soups, casseroles, use within a week or freeze.

Cooked meat and poultry, use within three days.

Best in crisper drawers:

This is the best place for vegetables and fruits that should be refrigerated, such as apples. Line drawers with paper towels to absorb condensation. Fruits and vegetables that don’t fit or are too delicate can be placed in plastic bags or in covered containers inside the fridge for the same effect.

BEST ON BOTTOM, IN THE BACK:

Keep foods that need to stay the coldest in the back, such as raw meat, seafood and milk. Fish and shellfish should always be used within a day. Meat and poultry should be used within two days or placed in the freezer.

Cold cuts: If open, use within four days. Discard at “use by” date.

Eggs: If properly refrigerated can maintain quality up to five weeks past expiration date. But as they get older, the membranes thin and weaken, so they’re best used for cookies, cakes and scrambled eggs rather than souffles or poached eggs.  (cont.)

Link to article here

From The Arizona Republic:

Julia Park Tracey, right, air dries clothes on a line with her daughters Anna Rodrigues, left, and Simone Rodrigues in Alameda, Calif.

NEW YORK - Give up worldly goods and help save the Earth.

Oh, and save lots of money.

As the economy worsens, one group of Americans is turning to an Earth-friendly way of life as a hardline strategy for saving. The Compact started a few years ago in San Francisco as a group of people who vowed to shun consumer culture for a year in the name of conservation. Now it has over 9,000 members and spinoff groups are sprouting up across the country.

It seems what’s good for the Earth is good for the wallet.

“You don’t just go out and needlessly shop as a hobby. It’s really kind of an eye opener,” said Julia Park Tracey, a mother of five in Alameda, Calif. who swears she isn’t a “crunchy granola hippie.”

Since joining in January, The Compact has turned a flood light on her family’s frivolous spending - scented lotions, flavored lattes, iPod accessories. Now they no longer dry clean their clothes and even make their own cat food.

“All that was money out the window. We could not keep going like that and make ends meet,” said Tracey, whose budget is being stretched thin by escalating food and gas prices.

What makes The Compact compelling for average Americans is that there are no hard-and-fast rules; you won’t be ostracized for buying a designer handbag or any other slips in consumerism. Members simply try to conserve the best they can. When necessary, they borrow, barter or buy second hand. Food and hygienic purchases are OK, but the idea is to cut back there too.

The goals sound a lot like those of a growing population of Americans squeezed by inflation.

Food prices in April took their biggest one-month leap in 18 years and are rising at a rate well above last year’s increase. Milk costs 10.2 percent more than it did a year ago.

A gallon of regular unleaded gas, meanwhile, reached an average of $4.105 Friday.

On Wednesday, the Labor Department said consumer prices rose 1.1 percent in June, nearly the fastest pace in a generation.

The conservation movement has moved into the mainstream too, making the principles behind The Compact an easier sell for those looking to save.

“People are coming for all different reasons, with credit card debt or others who say my kids are so materialistic and out of control’,” said John Perry, founder of The Compact.

In just the last year, more than 3,000 people have joined The Compact. That doesn’t include the two dozen local groups that have sprung up across the country.

Perry didn’t start The Compact to save money, but it’s one of the lifestyle’s intrinsic perks. He saves at least a couple of hundred dollars a month, which leaves more cash for his mortgage, charity and children’s savings accounts.

Cutting out dry-cleaning and Starbucks alone is saving Tracey’s family $250 a month. Biking and walking conserves not just oil, but piles of gas money.

Gone too are the mindless drug store sprees where Tracey would blow $100 or more on cosmetics and snacks.

“The real surprise is that it’s so much easier than you would think,” Perry said. “If you hang on, it’s like dieting - the hunger goes away.” (cont.)

Link to article here

From The China Post:

Built in 1984, the Mormon temple is an imposing building located right across the street from the papal nunciature in Taipei. (Staff photo/Chen Mei-ling)

TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Ma Ying-jeou lauded the contributions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, to Taiwanese society yesterday, saying that its missionaries have helped instill positive values and spirit in the public. Ma made the remarks while meeting with a Mormon delegation headed by Chung Kuo-chiang, leader of the Taiwan Mormon Church.

Over the past decades, Ma said, the Mormon Church has taken root in Taiwan because the sight of young Mormons spreading their faith — two young men, sporting crewcuts and wearing white shirts with black ties on bicycles — has become an important part of Taiwan’s urban landscape.

“Their clean image elicits good feelings,” Ma said, adding that he admires the Mormons’ pioneering efforts to “promote energy conservation by using bicycles as their main mode of transport.”

Noting that his administration has made energy conservation and carbon reduction part of its major policy goals, Ma said he hopes Mormons will uphold their tradition.

Ma said he has read about the development of the Mormon Church: “I was moved by church founder Joseph Smith striving to spread his faith despite opposition and persecution in the early days of the church development.”

Ma went on, religious freedom should be upheld as much of modern society holds religion in high regard.

For his part, Chung noted that the Mormon Church has become a worldwide presence, with branches in 162 countries and areas around the world, or totalling more than 13 million. (cont.)

Link to article

From InsideBayArea.com:

WALNUT CREEK native John Knecht has built a compelling career in sports broadcasting that will soon take him to his fifth Summer Olympics, this time in Beijing.

The most compelling part, though, is that one-time A’s third baseman Sal Bando indirectly punched his ticket.

Knecht, a 1984 Northgate High School graduate, says he owes his career as NBC’s overseeing graphics coordinator to his sports memorabilia collection, his teenaged zeal for ballplayer autographs and a missed signature opportunity that turned into something much bigger starting in 1984.

“One day, I really will write a book called ‘From Baseball Cards to Broadcasting,’” Knecht said by phone from Karlskrona, Sweden, where he now lives with his wife and five children.

Consider this the condensed version until then. Growing up in Walnut Creek, where he once delivered the Contra Costa Times, Knecht was an avid card collector who regularly hopped on BART starting at age 11 to get them signed by the A’s and their opponents at the Coliseum.

As his pursuit of signatures grew more serious, he gravitated to the players’ parking lots, and ultimately, the lobby of the now-extinct Edgewater Hyatt. In 1984, with the Milwaukee Brewers in town to play the A’s and NBC scheduled to air the game with Bando in the broadcast booth, Knecht made his way to the Hyatt lobby.

“I was hoping to get my ‘72-’73-’74 World Series programs signed by Captain Sal because I had most everyone else on it — Reggie (Jackson), Vida Blue, on down the list,” Knecht said.His hopes were dashed when he approached a man wearing a sweater with an NBC logo and was told Bando wasn’t in town to do the game. Fifteen minutes later, the man reappeared and asked if Knecht “knew how to run.”

“I have two legs,” Knecht replied.

Little did he know the man was John Kuhn, NBC Sports’ West Coast production manager. He needed an errand boy — a “runner” as they are most commonly known in the business. They perform jobs as wide-ranging as fetching food, driving limousines or going out to buy electronic parts at the nearest Radio Shack.

It didn’t matter to Knecht. He was getting paid $40 to “run.” He did such a good job the network invited him back a few weeks later. While in the broadcast truck, he made a couple of astute observations, including pointing out a graphic mistake that had gone out over the air. Knecht was immediately dispatched to the broadcast booth manned by Tony Kubek and a young Bob Costas, where he replaced the asleep-at-the-wheel statistician relaying flawed information to the graphics coordination crew.

“They still only paid me $40 because they said they’d already paid the guy I replaced,” Knecht said. “But I was getting paid to sit in the booth and watch a game … every kid’s dream.”

Knecht worked for NBC the rest of that summer and also for local companies as a graphics coordinator, which was performed manually in those days. He thought it might end there when he departed on a two-year Mormon mission in Brazil, but when he returned in 1987, the All-Star Game was being played in Oakland and he called Kuhn to see if help was needed.

Knecht was hired as “lead runner” at the event and impressed again, to the degree that he was hired to work other jobs, including his first Olympic assignment as part of NBC’s track and field production team in Seoul in 1988.

While Knecht was attending BYU from 1989 to 1993, he continued to work a number of odd jobs. At the 1994 World Basketball Championships, he met a statistical crew from Assistant Coach Software, which had written an interface to drive the character generator that revolutionized graphics operations.

He subsequently was hired as a liaison between NBC and IBM, the technology provider for the 1996 Games in Atlanta. For the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, Knecht actually owned the development and support for the graphics interface, as well as the Commentator Information System (CIS), which relays up-to-date information instantaneously to commentators in myriad languages through touch screens.  (cont.)

Entire article here

From DallasNews.com:

The prospect of hell, for the nonbeliever as well as the sinner, has been of particular importance for evangelizing faiths – that is, those that place a major emphasis on the conversion of new members – and missionaries often cited the avoidance of hell as one of the enticements to conversion to a faith such as Christianity or Islam.

But in a large multicultural society, such as the United States, people are likely to encounter others whose faiths are different from their own, and that, scholars say, has led to a decreasing willingness to accept the notion that a particular faith offers an exclusive ticket to heaven. The Pew poll found that large majorities now say they do not believe their religions provide the only path to salvation, regardless of what their religious leaders tell them.

“People are increasingly less willing to say, ‘I have the truth, and you either have my truth, or you’re going to hell,’ ” said Nancy Ammerman, a professor of the sociology of religion at Boston University.

The survey found that about three-quarters of Americans – 74 percent – believe in life after death. This belief is most pronounced among Mormons, 98 percent of whom believe that there is life after death – a stunningly high number for any survey, but reflective of Mormon teaching that the bodies and spirits of its adherents will be reunited – resurrected – sometime after their physical death. Atheists, not surprisingly, are the least likely to believe in life after death, followed by agnostics, Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses. (cont.)

Entire article here

From RedOrbit.com:

For McCain, who likes to surround himself with friends on the campaign trail, the personal is known to be an important factor. To that end, a social weekend McCain held for the Romneys and other supporters at his ranch near Sedona, Arizona, this spring was seen as a turning point in their relationship, and a moment when the McCains and the Romneys seemed to decide that they could get along after all.

The former rivals spoke the lingua franca of men who are unsure of what to talk about - sports - and also talked about their families, politics and some of the funniest moments of the campaign, including the many gustatory delights of the Iowa State Fair, according to several people who were either at the gathering or were later told about it and who were granted anonymity to describe the private get-together.

At one point, when McCain offered drinks to his guests, he went out of his way to offer coffee to Romney, a Mormon who does not drink alcohol. McCain apparently did not realize that Mormons eschew caffeine as well. An aide who was told of the encounter later said that the gesture seemed appreciated nonetheless.

McCain - who eagerly tallies the varieties of birds on his property and likes to show visitors a hawk’s nest - also talked ornithology with Romney. Romney later joked at a fund-raiser for McCain that McCain had identified 57 varieties of birds on his ranch, but that after a weekend of barbecuing it was down to 47.

“He knows how to identify birds, how to shoot birds and how to cook birds!” Romney said at the fund-raiser last month in Boston, according to a pool report.

Recently, on the back of the McCain campaign bus - a setting similar to the one where McCain and his aides once watched, with apparent relish, television news footage of a reporter challenging Romney’s honesty during the South Carolina primary - McCain said that he and Romney had truly buried the hatchet.   (cont.)

Entire article here

Press Release:

Mormon scholars to gather for 10th annual conference on defending Mormon beliefs.

Redding, California, 16 July 2008-Mormons-members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-have received a lot of attention lately; some of it unwanted such as the mistaken association with the FLDS polygamous groups that have made recent headlines. A group of Mormon scholars, however, hope to focus positive attention on unique LDS issues in an upcoming conference sponsored by the grassroots, volunteer organization FAIR.

FAIR-the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research-is an all-volunteer grassroots organization that was created to dispel myths about the Church, to answer criticisms about Mormon beliefs and scriptures, and to help Mormons who struggle with their religious convictions because of critical material. The word “apologetics” means to defend one’s faith or beliefs.

Among the topics being presented at this year’s conference are: Book of Mormon Geography, Philosophy and Mormonism, Joseph Smith’s DNA Revealed, The White Horse Prophecy, the Book of Abraham, the Joseph Smith Papers, and Shaken Faith Syndrome (based on the newly released book of the same title).

This two day event-on August 7-8-will be held again at the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy, Utah and is open to the public. More information can be found at http://www.fairlds.org.

FAIR, or the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (http://www.fairlds.org) is a tax exempt 501 (C) 3 Corporation staffed by faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seeking to defend the Mormon Church, its leaders, teachings, and practices from inaccurate or deceitful claims of critics. Staffed almost exclusively by unpaid volunteers, FAIR seeks to provide scholarly researched answers in an easily understandable way.

Contact: Scott Gordon (FAIR President)
Phone: 530-356-2070

From RussiaProfile.org:

Mormons fall victim to new Russian laws

One of the world’s fastest growing churches has never managed to establish a solid presence in Russia, acquiring just 19,000 members over the past 17 years of its official operations in this country. Now the Mormon Church has decided to stop sending North American missionaries to Russia altogether citing the new visa restrictions which have made it very hard for missionaries to stay in the country and do their work. Despite the Church’s official position denouncing any discrimination by the Russian government, concerns about the strong religious intolerance have been voiced by the public, putting into question Russia’s willingness to accept a different sermon.

According to Russia’s new laws, humanitarian workers will be able to stay for no longer than 90 days without going out of the country and renewing their visa, and be in Russia for no more than 180 days a year. Mormon missionaries have to spend two years on a mission, usually going to a foreign country to take their best effort to spread the religion and get as many people as possible to convert and join the Church. The changes to the legislation effectively make it impossible for Mormons to serve their missions.

“This has been a tradition in the Church for over 150 years,” said head of the public relations department of the church in Eastern Europe Elena Nechiporova. “The missionaries use their own money to travel overseas to serve, and trips back and forth to renew their visas could be very costly. They save up for their missions their whole lives, and their families usually have five or six children, which stretches their budgets thin.”

“We’re going to abide by the laws as we always do, this new legislation is not directed against us,” added Nechiporova.

Proceed with caution

Even before the legislation came into effect, Mormons, along with other religious missionaries representing religions that have been perceived as non-traditional and treated with caution in Russia, had enough on their hands to deal with. “We’ve had to face certain problems in Russia,” said LDS outside legal counsel Lev Simkin. “Our missionaries have been accused of implementing some mind-control practices, which is not what we do. What harm could these boys do other than cleaning parks and doing other humanitarian work?”

The harassment goes further than just these accusations. “Down in Novocherkassk, our missionaries which are predominantly American were helping the locals practice English just by holding different discussions with them,” continued Simkin. “It wasn’t even about faith. Those who wanted to learn more had the choice to stay and talk about the real purpose why these men came over to Russia.” These missionaries ended up getting accused of teaching without a license and faced visa revocation. “It was ridiculous as they weren’t really teaching anybody anything,” said Simkin. “Then there was another case in Shakhty where local immigration put forward accusations that our missionaries weren’t staying where they were registered and made them leave the country. We had to go to court to overturn this decision and get them back.”

“All of these were prejudicial and mostly initiated by the local authorities and we encounter this kind of treatment mostly in Southern cities such as Novocherkassk, Krasnodar and Rostov,” Simkin said. “The courts, however, were very objective.”

Not just some of the local authorities, but also the public hasn’t always been very friendly and willing to accept the foreign preachers. “We’ve encountered various forms of harassment over the years,” Nechiporova said. “People were throwing anti-Mormon leaflets at our meeting house in Tomsk; there were other cases when they threw stones at our windows. We could do little but just clean up the mess and keep on doing our thing.”

Compared to the start of the church’s operations in Russia, the nature of the protests has been changing. “Back in the day, we had the so-called anticultists protesting against the church; however, most of the public rage was directed at Protestant minorities such as Baptists, Pentecostals and Seventh Day Adventists,” Simkin explained. “Today any such protests are politically motivated. In Lipetsk, youths from the Young Guard all of a sudden decided to fight against cults and sent people to hold demonstrations and acts of protest against the Mormon Church. I guess they were doing it just because they had nothing else to protest against at the moment.”

“Generally, the public has been more or less tolerable to the church; it’s growing friendlier and is not usually prejudiced against non-traditional religions,” Simkin added.

Preaching a different sermon

The first reports of the news in Utahan newspapers sparked discussions of whether Russia deliberately imposed the restrictions to prevent Mormons from coming and if the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the country’s dominating religious organization known for its mostly critical approach toward religious minorities, could be behind this.

“The state doesn’t impose any official religion,” Nechiporova said. “The Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t intrude into our operations or place any hurdles on our way.”

Despite its lack of open criticism, the Russian Orthodox Church isn’t very welcoming of the Latter-Day Saints, as shunning seems to be the policy it employs in its relations with this religion. The LDS tried sending letters to the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill with proposals of specific charity projects that the two churches could jointly carry out. However, no response was received. “We were told we’d never get a response,” Nechiporova said.

Religious tolerance has been an issue in Russia, where people are perceived to be conservative and, in a way, religiously and culturally isolationist. So, any new religions are treated with apprehension and skepticism. Recent studies show, however, that the situation isn’t radically different from that in other countries, and is sometimes even better.

According to the latest European Social Survey, only 0.6 percent of Russians consider themselves discriminated against religiously, while over 60 percent say that they tolerate other religions.

“We can’t label those religious organizations that are officially registered in Russia and operate in accordance with the laws as cults,” said academic secretary of the Center for Study of Religion in Contemporary Society of the Institute for Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Maria Mchedlova. “As for various Protestant denominations such as the Seventh Day Adventists, Baptists and Pentecostals, they’ve been here for over 100 years, and I would say that it’s hard to imagine Russian culture without them. Moreover, Protestant Christians are about the most religiously active and church-going group. I don’t see why anyone would be prejudiced against them.”

The religious intolerance that exists is not reasoned by any considerable danger that could be posed by any foreign religions to the society, but rather shares the underlying cause with racism. “The cautiousness the public expresses toward various religious minorities has to do with ignorance, as it usually does not know what these religions are really about,” said Mchedlova. (cont.)

Entire article here

From The LA Times:

Former Gov. Mitt Romney, who’s increasingly visible on the campaign trail on behalf of the man who beat him for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. John McCain, is about to forgive the $45 million he loaned himself for the primary struggles.

The legal move of filing papers with the Federal Election Commission re-declaring Romney’s loans as contributions is imminent, according to a report by Michael Kranish on the Boston Globe website. It would clear the legal deck for Romney to become a candidate again as, oh, say, the vice presidential Republican running mate of McCain.

Romney, whose personal fortune is estimated north of $190 million, is already marshalling on McCain’s behalf his vast national donor network, which supplied another $65 million to Romney’s unsuccessful campaign.

Although there appeared to be some personal frictions between the two men during primary debates, especially over campaign finance reform, which the senator has championed, McCain has more recently been openly appreciative of Romney’s vigorous campaign grunt work in the months since the Arizonan clinched the GOP nomination.

“I’m appreciative every time I see Mitt on television on my behalf,” McCain said earlier this week. “He does a better job for me than he did for himself, as a matter of fact.”

Romney’s successful career in business and resuscitating the troubled Salt Lake City Olympics plus his economic expertise and non-Washington executive experience as Massachusetts governor could help a McCain ticket.

The 61-year-old father of five boys has been married to Ann for 38 years. He’s also already well-known and heavily vetted, lessening the chance of any embarrassing revelations. And Romney’s family connections to Michigan, where he won the GOP primary, and his Mormon links in the West could help in both places on Nov. 4.  (cont.)

Entire article here

From ABCNews (Australia):

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2008/07/10/2299449.htm

From KUTV.com:

New LDS missionaries from North America will not be serving in Russia any time soon.

The Russian government changed a law to now require people with humanitarian visas to renew them every three months–that includes Mormon missionaries.

However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints isn’t pulling any current missionaries out of the country.

Former missionaries say this shows the church is growing in Russia.

“I don’t think that they would have done this had they not thought that the church can really thrive without American missionaries there,” said former missionary Gavin Wilde.

The church is working to find an alternative solution, but for now new missionary assignments to the country will be limited to nationalities not needing visas.

Link to article

From ESPN:

Is the future in “The Natural”

The doubles team of Dann Battistone, 31, and brother Brian, 28, have grown accustomed to the snickers they receive when they walk onto a court to play, often from their competition.

The chuckles are not because they’re an unknown quantity at their advanced age, having taken time away from the game to embark on a Mormon mission in Rio de Janiero.

It’s not that they look like a Mutt and Jeff tandem, Dann being only 5-foot-8, while Brian stands 6-foot-3.

And it’s not even Brian’s unique volleyball-style jumping serve.

No, it’s their racket — “The Natural” — that divides into two handles down its throat similar to shears. They liked the stability and balance the racket gives to their game so much that they bought into the patent, hoping grassroots players would gravitate to the invention, possibly pro players, too.

“You would think it might be when you first look at it,” said Brian, when asked if it’s awkward to have the extra handle. “But when you get used to it, you adapt, it actually has more feel to it and you can hit a shot either with two hands or one hand off of either side of your body.”

Brian said they received an OK to play with the racket after sending it off to the International Tennis Federation.

The brothers received a doubles wildcard into last week’s Newport draw, their first-ever ATP Tour-level tournament, losing in the first round. Brian said a number of the pros, including Fabrice Santoro and Mardy Fish, showed a curiosity in the racket and asked for a tryout.

Link to article