Danny Ainge enjoys life about as much as a person can. That’s why Ainge, promoted by the Celtics [team stats] yesterday to president of basketball operations and given a three-year contract extension, has never been anyone’s idea of a basketball lifer.
But after engineering the trades that brought the Celtics their league-record 17th NBA title last season, he clearly enjoys the job enough to guarantee he’ll be around for another four years, the last year on his current deal included.
“I have a good relationship with the owners, and I still enjoy the experience,” he said yesterday. “This doesn’t change what we’re trying to accomplish, but I’ve enjoyed the support that they’ve shown me all along. But there’s a lot of people who have had a hand in it.”
Ainge then cited his basketball operations staff.
“Leo (Papile), Ryan (McDonough), Dave Wohl and Mike Zarins have all played a part,” he said.
Ainge, however, pulled the trigger on the surge that culminated in last night’s ring ceremony and banner raising before an opening 90-85 win over the Cavaliers.
So does this extension, which matches the three-year extension signed in August by coach Doc Rivers, build the argument that Ainge might be a basketball lifer after all?
“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. “I enjoy what I do, and as long as it’s still challenging, and as long as I enjoy the work, not that I’m going to enjoy it every day, then I can see myself doing it. I wasn’t sure when I took the job of how long I would do it, but I don’t go through life with that kind of a game plan, anyway.”
The drama on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” – you wouldn’t believe it. Professional dancer Julianne Hough is currently the center of attention, as she undergoes an appendectomy on Tuesday only to return heroically within days. Or so she hopes.
Julianne Hough, 20, was hospitalized last week after she suffered mild stomach pains and considered it wise to consult a doctor. She went to Cedars-SinaiMedicalCenter in Los Angeles. It was well she made such a decision, because she was diagnosed with endometriosis and told she needed an appendix removal.
Hough, a two-time champion on “Dancing with the Stars,” was on the show Monday, performing a samba with celebrity partner Cody Linley, of “Hannah Montana” fame. She told everyone she would have the surgery Tuesday and that she hoped to return by next week, making host Tom Bergeron joke that only she would take surgery so lightly, passionate as she is about dancing.
While Hough is hospitalized, Linley will continue to dance with professional partner Edyta Sliwinska, that is, unless he is eliminated Tuesday. Sliwinska was previously partnered with comedian Jeffrey Ross, the first celebrity eliminated this season.
Hough’s condition is not particularly dangerous; it is quite common among women and consists in the development of tissue from the uterus lining on the surfaces of other organs in the pelvis or abdomen. Endometriosis can be quite painful and may cause infertility if not treated.
The 20-year-old pro dancer has helped two celebrity participants take the ‘Dancing” crown in previous seasons: Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno and race car driver Helio Castroneves. Hough is also a recording country music artist.
ST. GEORGE - Dixie State College announced plans to build a new building named after alumnus Jeffrey R. Holland at the Centennial Grand Gala Concert at the Burns Arena on Saturday.
Holland graduated from Dixie State College in 1961 and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
“This is a milestone event in the college’s history,” said Stephen Nadauld, interim president of Dixie State College.
Nadauld said naming the new building the Jeffrey R. Holland Centennial Commons is a “symbol of the success” students can achieve at Dixie State College.
The crowd erupted in cheers and applause at the announcement.
“I am thrilled with the growth and destiny of Dixie State,” Holland said in a taped video message. “A centennial commons building is a wonderfully fitting addition to a school that has always featured its students and has always put them first.”
Holland said he was in Africa, and thus could not come to the event.
He said the Nadaulds are “close friends.”
“Let’s see what we can do to get them to stay as long as possible,” Holland said.
Nadauld said he hopes to break ground on the building by the college’s centennial in 2011.
The 110,000 square-foot facility is estimated to cost $45 million and will host the services currently at the Whitehead building, in addition to classrooms and other services.
The commons building is eleventh on the State’s Building Board list, Nadauld said.
The college recently received a $10 million donation for the building by an anonymous donor, the largest donation in Dixie State’s history, Nadauld said.
Advisement offices, the registrar, financial aid, and library services will all be located in the building, Schultz said.
The Southern Utah Heritage Choir will also have space in the facility.
Nadauld also publicly announced the Bridging a New Century of Service campaign, the largest fundraising campaign in the college’s history, at the Centennial Grand Gala Concert.
Officials hope to raise $100 million by 2011, said Christina Schultz, Vice President of Institutional Advancement for Dixie State.
“We continually strive to improve the quality of education for you, your children, and your children’s children,” Nadauld said at the gala. (cont.)
Rochelle and Dwight Stokes of Phenix City, Ala., have both lost their jobs recently.
As the financial crisis crimps demand for American goods and services, the workers who produce them are losing their jobs by the tens of thousands.
Layoffs have arrived in force, like a wrenching second act in the unfolding crisis. In just the last two weeks, the list of companies announcing their intention to cut workers has read like a Who’s Who of corporate America: Merck, Yahoo, General Electric, Xerox, Pratt & Whitney, Goldman Sachs, Whirlpool, Bank of America, Alcoa, Coca-Cola, the Detroit automakers and nearly all the airlines.
When October’s job losses are announced on Nov. 7, three days after the presidential election, many economists expect the number to exceed 200,000. The current unemployment rate of 6.1 percent is likely to rise, perhaps significantly.
“My view is that it will be near 8 or 8.5 percent by the end of next year,” said Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at Global Insight, offering a forecast others share. That would be the highest unemployment rate since the deep recession of the early 1980s.
Companies are laying off workers to cut production as consumers, struggling with their own finances, scale back spending. Employers had tried for months to cut expenses through hiring freezes and by cutting back hours. That has turned out not to be enough, and with earnings down sharply in the third quarter, corporate America has turned to layoffs.
“People have grown very nervous,” said Harry Holzer, a labor economist at Georgetown University and the Urban Institute, tracing cause and effect. “They have seen a lot of their wealth wiped out and as they cut back their spending, companies are responding with layoffs, which hurts consumption even more.”
The unemployment is widespread, with Rhode Island the hardest hit.
For Dwight and Rochelle Stokes of Phenix City, Ala., the layoffs are a family event. He lost his job two weeks ago as an aviation mechanic at the Pratt & Whitney jet engine facility near his home — a few days after his wife lost hers as a cosmetologist at Great Clips, a family-owned barbershop and beauty salon.
“It got really slow in July and August,” Ms. Stokes said. “I would sit there for two hours, and some days we had only 10 clients, four of us for 10 clients.”
It has been 27 years since the punky QB known as McMahon threw the last forward pass of his senior year for BYU, after which, depending on whom you talk to, he either was immediately kicked out of school or left just as soon as he could.
“Happiness was Provo in the rearview mirror,” McMahon said in his autobiography.
That was in 1986. That was a long time ago. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge. Some of it may even may have wound up in a certain beverage that McMahon likes to drink when he’s playing golf.
So many years have passed, so many beverages consumed on the golf course, that a person very close to Jim McMahon said it’s time the quarterback and his alma mater patch their differences, extend an olive branch, share a beverage on the golf course — even if it’s a 7-Up.
That person lives on the No. 3 hole at the Oasis golf course in Mesquite. His name is James F. McMahon — Jim McMahon Sr.
The punky QB’s old man.
Jim McMahon Sr. forwarded to the Sun a copy of a letter he wrote to Tom Holmoe, the BYU athletic director, asking the school to induct his son into its Hall of Fame and to retire his jersey. Because he is generally considered the greatest among all the great quarterbacks who have played at BYU — sorry, Ty Detmer — that seems only fitting.
Fitting, regardless of how many beers Jimmy — which is what his dad still calls him — might have consumed on the golf course, how many times he put a pinch of smokeless tobacco between his cheek and gum, and the one time he looked at Provo in the rearview mirror with glee.
Regardless of how many credits he lacks to graduate.
That last one seems to be the biggest obstacle. Jim McMahon never graduated from BYU. Wasn’t allowed to. Or didn’t want to. One of the criteria for Hall of Fame consideration at BYU is that athlete-students graduate. That’s right, athlete-students. To refer to them in the other order would be as hypocritical as looking the other way while your star QB commits Honor Code violations because damn — er, darn — he sure can throw the football on Saturday afternoon.
Not that he wants in, but those nine credits — three classes — are what is keeping Jim McMahon out. That, and the beers he drank on the golf course when people made excuses for him — I mean, weren’t looking.
“Like I said in the letter, I’ve been biting my tongue for 27 years,” Jim McMahon Sr. said in a telephone conversation on Monday, five days before UNLV will visit BYU in a game that probably won’t be anywhere near as interesting as this one-man campaign he’s mounting on behalf of his son.
He says Jim doesn’t want him to lose any sleep over it, that he should just let it go. But he can’t let it go. He’s stubborn, just like his son was in the 1980 Holiday Bowl. BYU trailed SMU’s Pony Express 38-19 midway through the fourth quarter when LaVell Edwards, the venerable BYU coach, gave up. He wanted to punt the ball back to Eric Dickerson and Craig James. But his son wouldn’t allow it. He literally refused to leave the field.
If you get ESPN Classic, you know the rest of the story. How BYU trailed 45-25 with 4:09 to go, before Jim McMahon engineered arguably the greatest comeback in bowl game history, completing a 46-yard Hail Mary pass on the last play of the game to provide the Cougars with a thrilling 46-45 victory that still resonates today.
Jim McMahon Sr. is 72. He’s in good health, but he’s not getting any younger. There’s 4:19 to go, and he’s down by three touchdowns. That’s why he’s writing letters to Holmoe and sports writers. It’s getting late, but there’s still time.
Holmoe, believe it or not, is sympathetic. Maybe it’s because he can read the record book, too. More likely, it’s because he played alongside McMahon at BYU. He knows how great he truly was.
“He played a big part in what BYU is doing today,” Holmoe told the Deseret News of Salt Lake City. “Rules are rules, and I didn’t make them, but it’s a hard thing not to see him in there. I love the guy. He’s a great friend.”
When this story hit the Salt Lake City papers, it attracted hundreds of e-mail responses, the majority of which seemed to side with McMahon. He should take a couple of correspondence courses, finish his degree online, like a lot of people do, wrote fans and foes alike.
Or, considering all of his charitable work over the years — Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Hands Across America, Special Olympics, POW-MIA, Children’s Hospitals, Cystic Fibrosis, Children’s Miracle Network (national sports chairman), Society to Prevent Blindness … the list, like a BYU rout of Wyoming, goes on and on — others believe the school would be justified in awarding McMahon an honorary degree. (cont.)
Why Utah’s Economy is Soaring over its Neighbours
NOBODY knows quite how the contagion that broke out in Wall Street will affect the rest of America, nor how deep or how long the likely recession will be. What is certain is that some places will suffer more than others. So far Utah, a state best-known for Mormonism and pretty rocks, is looking unusually healthy. “We’ve got a lot to be proud of,” says Jon Huntsman, the governor. “Certainly more than many of our neighbours.”
Indeed, Utah has more to be proud of than any other state in the West. In September its unemployment rate was just 3.5%—less than half of California’s and the second-lowest rate in the region after oil- and gas-rich Wyoming. Last month the Milken Institute declared Provo, a sprawling settlement south of Salt Lake City, America’s best-performing city for technology output and job and wage growth. Salt Lake City itself came third.
Hardly a month goes by without Utah announcing a corporate relocation or a new factory. The state has experienced a minor semiconductor boom in part because of its cheap, coal-fired power. Ogden, until recently a decaying railway town north of Salt Lake City, has quietly become the world centre of winter sports equipment. Mike Dowse, who oversees brands such as Atomic and Salomon for Amer Sports, gives three reasons: “the mountains, the mayor and the money”.The mountains are the Rockies, which lure young workers who like to go skiing. The mayor is Matthew Godfrey, a business-minded man who has aggressively recruited several companies to Ogden (Mr Huntsman, a former chemicals executive, likes to work the phones, too). The money, which comes partly from the city and partly from the state, is a mixture of relocation grants and tax breaks tied to the creation of well-paying jobs. (cont.)
She’s an All-American sweetheart, but “Dancing With the Stars” sensation and country crooner Julianne Hough has reportedly struck up quite the romantic relationship with her touring partner, Chuck Wicks.
We’re told the two have been dating since June and that Julianne ditched her former fiance, “Dance War” contestant Zack Wilson to be with the 29-year-old Delaware native.
“Zack was so upset he went to Thailand for six weeks so he didn’t have to hear about them and their tour,” added our insider.
Wilson and Hough got engaged last year but soon later announced they had postponed their immediate plans to wed and have obviously since swung their separate ways.
On This Week In Schadenfreude we explore the sputtering rage, gibbering condemnation, and resigned ennui of the college football fan who has recently undergone humiliating defeat. Because even in your darkest hour, someone else is suffering too, and probably worse than you. Unless you are a Michigan fan who has just finished watching the Appalachian State game.
Expectations got a little out of hand for BYU when they throttled a UCLA team that had just beaten Tennessee with its eighth string quarterback. It would soon turn out that both UCLA and Tennessee were pretty awful, but by that point BYU was floating in the top ten. No more. The Cougars got stomped by TCU, prompting one Mormon on a mission (HA!) to ask a simple question:
POLL: Do you hate Bronco Mendenhall?
Okay, that might have been tongue in cheek. This, however, is… um:
Subject: Bronco is a communist!
… If a player is gifted at something you should be tailoring plays that allow him to use those gifts. Hiding talents in a system is not the way to go, just ask the communists.
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., Oct 21, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — “A press release dated October 19 from a public relations firm representing ‘No on 8′ is inaccurate and misleading,” says Morris A. Thurston, an LDS lawyer who was erroneously cited as having “debunked” new California Prop 8 ads.
More than a month ago, Thurston wrote a commentary on a document titled “Six Consequences … if Prop 8 Fails.” That document, unsigned and anonymous, had not been approved by the LDS Church, although it was being circulated by some local church members. “It contained certain misstatements about the consequences of Prop 8’s failure,” Thurston said, “so I wrote my commentary to correct these errors. To the best of my knowledge, the church has since discouraged its members from using anonymous documents such as this. It has never been posted on the official LDS Church website.”
“The ‘No on 8′ press release is inaccurate in a number of respects,” said Thurston.
“First, the release implies that I have ‘debunked’ a new television ad recently released by the Prop 8 campaign and that my commentary ‘clearly states the Prop. 8 ads are based entirely on claims that are not true.’ This is incorrect. I have never contended that all claims in television ads released by Prop 8 supporters are untrue or misleading and I have not seen the new ad.
“Second, the release says that I have ‘confirmed that Prop 8 has nothing to do with education.’ This is also untrue. My commentary merely stated what the Los Angeles Times confirmed in its editorial published today — that Prop 8 will not require teachers to promote gay marriage or to make any value judgment regarding the morality of same-sex marriage compared to traditional marriage.
“Third, the release links my commentary to a claim that ‘the Mormon Church has asked its members to fund a campaign based on these lies.’ I have never contended that the LDS Church or its leaders have lied in this campaign. In fact, I took pains to point out that the church had not authored or approved the ‘Six Consequences’ document that my commentary discussed.
“Finally, the release refers to me as a ‘professor at BYU Law School.’ I am not a full professor, as the release implies, but an ‘adjunct’ (or part-time) professor. An early draft of my commentary listed my adjunct professorship among my qualifications, but I subsequently removed that reference from the authorized version of the commentary. The ‘No on 8′ campaign has posted an unauthorized early draft. I want to emphasize that I removed the reference to my BYU Law School affiliation on my own volition and that I have not been asked by the LDS Church or the Law School to do so. I removed it because I considered it irrelevant. What I teach at BYU Law School has nothing to do with equal rights, religious freedom or California education law. In writing my commentary I was doing so as a lawyer who has spent considerable time researching the issues, not as a law professor.
“The primary reason I wrote my commentary was to help keep the campaign honest. I am an active member of the LDS Church and a strong supporter of equal rights for gays and lesbians. It is regrettable that the ‘No on 8′ campaign has issued a release that mischaracterizes my commentary and my views. I assume that the mistakes were inadvertent and that steps will promptly be taken to remove the website posting.”
A bank and a title company have begun the foreclosure process on the Lehi home of David Ragsdale — where his two young children live with extended family.
But the children’s legal representative, guardian ad litem William M. Jeffs, is trying to get an extension for loan payments so he can sell the home and give the money to the children, not the bank.
“(They’re) foreclosing against a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old whose mother was killed and father is in jail and all I’m asking for is a little bit of extra time to sell the house,” Jeffs said. “I’m willing to make partial payments in the interim. I’m not asking for any concessions on the loan, we’ll pay the loan in full. All I’m asking for is a concession on time.”
The house in the Hunter’s Grove subdivision has been up for sale for months but no takers.
Ragsdale can no longer make payments on the home — he’s been in the Utah County Jail since Jan. 6, when police say he fatally shot his wife, Kristy, in the parking lot of an LDS meetinghouse in Lehi.
Under the terms of the guardianship case of the children, both sides of the family have been pooling together to make some house payments, but they’ve fallen behind, Jeffs said. With the recent notice of default, Jeffs said they’re now in a 90-day “cure” period.
“If we can sell (the home) during that 90 days and we pay them in full, they can’t do anything to us,” he said. “The problem is, in today’s market, I’m not sure if I can sell it in the 90 days.”
After the three-month window, the bank and title company can file what’s called a “notice of sale” which means the bank will attempt to sell the home to recover their lost assets.
Jeffs said he has had a difficult time communicating with Wells Fargo.
“My goal, when I tried to contact Wells Fargo, was to basically say, ‘I have the ability to make payments to you, or partial payments. All I’m asking for is additional time so we can sell the home.’”
Yet Jeffs said the bank has declined to speak with him without David Ragsdale’s consent.
Such was impossible until recently, when Jeffs and Ragsdale and Ragsdale’s attorneys settled a wrongful death suit pending between the two.
Without admitting any fault, Ragsdale agreed to deed over the house and let the default judgement of $1 million be entered, so his two young children can have his assets. Not that Ragsdale has $1 million, Jeffs said, but if any additional assets are found, they can unquestionably go to the children.
Now that the parties are working together amicably, Jeffs can approach the bank with Ragsdale’s approval.
Calls to Wells Fargo’s executive office Wednesday afternoon were not immediately returned.
However, it’s very possible this unique situation will merit additional attention, said Tom Cook, foreclosure attorney with Lundberg & Associates, who represents the title company involved with the home loan.
The Five Browns are all about bringing in a younger audience, but their approach might be familiar to the older listeners Wednesday night at E.J. Thomas Hall, when the pianists perform in the Tuesday Musical series.
The Juilliard-trained siblings have been a hit since releasing their first five-piano CD, titled The 5 Browns, in 2005. That release and two subsequent CDs spent time in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Classical chart. International touring ensued.
The key to success for the Five Browns has been keeping things lighter, the way soloists and symphony orchestras programmed their concerts a couple of generations ago. Anyone longing for a concert of recognizable music would be at home with this program, which includes excerpts from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, one of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, selections from The Planets and so on.
Nobody composes for five pianos, so the siblings have had arrangements of orchestral and piano music made especially for them.
The five musicians spoke by phone last week from their parents’ home in Alpine, Utah, where they keep five pianos and meet to rehearse. All of them live within 30 minutes of their parents.
They like to do the interviews together, rather than separately, their father, Keith, explained in an e-mail. While they have professional management, he still helps out with many of the details of the careers he and his wife, Lisa, have supported from the beginning.
During our conversation, Desirae, 29; Deondra, 28; Gregory, 26; Melody, 24; and Ryan, 23, took turns answering questions, identifying themselves each time. Just back from nearly three weeks touring in Japan, they were glad to be reunited with their spouses. (The three sisters are married, and Ryan was married in August.)
With their success, they could be playing more, but they have cut back to about 100 performances a year. They try not to be on the road more than two weeks without being home for at least that amount, Deondra said.
In performance, the Browns play in a variety of combinations, from solos to all five playing at once. Here’s how a typical Five Browns concert goes, Desirae said: ”We try to kind of chat with the audience in between the pieces and talk about our feelings and impressions and a little bit of the history of the piece. Kind of like at pop concerts: you just get to know each other. Then at the start of the second half, we’ll take just a few minutes and take some questions from the audience. Hopefully, people will be relaxed and have fun.”
Their model for speaking to the audience is Leonard Bernstein and his concerts for children, Desirae said: ”He was speaking to children, but it wasn’t so simplified that the adults weren’t getting something out of it, too.”
Reaching out to people who might not usually go to classical concerts is important to these five musicians, Gregory said.
”A lot of people feel like they can’t go to a classical concert because they don’t understand the etiquette, or they think that people might look down on them for not understanding the music very well. But we understand that even though there are people out there who don’t know classical form, you don’t really have to understand that sort of stuff to get something out of the music,” he said.
”We don’t mind if people come more casually dressed. We on stage are not in tuxes and ball gowns and all that. We’re dressed, like — what is it? — cocktail attire for the first half. The second half, we’ll dress down. Some of us are even in jeans.”
Often the Browns do outreach events when they tour. The event originally planned in conjunction with the Tuesday Musical performance was canceled because it is a testing week for Akron Public Schools and students were not available to participate.
Family supportive
Family and religious faith are at the center of this group’s success. Their parents raised the children in Texas and Utah. Each child started to play the piano at an early age, and when it was time for college, their parents helped Desirae and Deondra set their sights on major conservatories, including Juilliard, the most famous of them all. The younger siblings soon followed, starting in Juilliard’s preparatory program.
The four oldest siblings earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard. Ryan, the youngest, studied at Juilliard’s pre-college program and then at the Manhattan School of Music. He left the school before graduating to start his performing career.
Playing the piano was always the choice of each sibling, Ryan said. ”Our parents helped us through the hard times, where we would threaten to quit here and there, usually during our teenage years. They always left it up to us and asked us, ‘Is this really what you want to do?’ We would say, ‘Yeah.’ Once it came down to really quitting, we couldn’t let the piano go,” he said.
The siblings were lucky to have parents who were so supportive that at one point, piano lessons cost more than the monthly house payment, Ryan said.
Famous for its high standards, Juilliard can be tough on the ego. For Melody, having siblings there, and having Gregory in many of the same classes, was an emotional buffer.
”There were so many times when I’d come back from a lesson that I didn’t think went very well and I’d be crying or something, and my siblings would know exactly how I felt, and they would know exactly what to say to help me from being so down on myself,” she said.
”During the college years, there’s a lot of pressure on you to keep up. Juilliard is such — there are so many high-quality students there, you definitely want to be near the top. You’re always kind of striving to be there.
”But for the most part, you have to do what you are individually doing and you have to block everything else out and be like, ‘This is all about me, and I am going to work my hardest.’ I definitely think we were support for one another.”
Juilliard students are encouraged to learn how to speak to audiences, a trend for some years now at concerts. Public speaking came easier to the Browns because of their religious background as Mormons, said Desirae and Melody. The Mormon church doesn’t use hired clergy; members of the church take turns running the services.
”Even as children, you get up, like as an 8-year-old, you give a little three-minute speech or lesson in your primary class. As you get older, as teenagers and then as adults, every once in a while, it comes around to your turn to teach the class or give the sermons. So it gets you comfortable with preparing what to say and trying to connect with people in that way. It did serve us well,” Desirae said.
When the Five Browns tour, they don’t work on Sundays, and they try to go to church, Melody said. In addition, they’ll often participate in Sunday ”firesides,” religious speaking engagements. ”Usually we’ll open up about our faith and what music means to us on a spiritual level,” she said. (cont.)
A fixture on the Neosho Square for many summers, Bob Foster discussed gardening at the Preparedness Fair, held Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
When disaster strikes, will you know what to do?
Is there enough food in your home to survive a prolonged power outage, or in case of a job loss? Will you be able to safely store and cook food? Will you have access to clean, drinkable water? Do you have emergency cash on hand for emergencies?
The answers to these questions could be found Saturday during a preparedness day sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints of Neosho.
The free event was open to the public and covered water sanitation and storage, gardening, canning, solar and other forms of cooking, emergency communication, long term food storage and more.
Kevin Foster, organizer of the event, said the church has been having such events for its members for many years, but decided to open it to the public this year.
“We decided to open it up this year because of the economic situation facing our country,” said Foster. “It’s drawn more exhibitors this year as well as more participants.”
One of the tenants of the Mormon religion is emergency preparedness and self-reliance, with church members urged to keep a year’s supply of basic staples — grains, legumes, sugars, oils, and so forth — on hand for each family member.
“If you’re doing only staples, it’s very inexpensive,” Foster said.
Foster said for his family of eight, a year’s supply of staples was about $2,000. The foods are geared to sustain health as well as life, he said.
Grain can be purchased from feed stores, then milled with a portable grinder into flour, cracked wheat and other products. Whole grain stores well, Foster said, with archeologists discovering grain which was thousands of years old, yet still edible, in the pyramids of Egypt.
Church members are also urged to have a garden and keep a three-month supply of canned goods, pasta and other supplies on hand, as well as a supply of potable water.
It’s easier than it sounds, Foster said.
“Pick up a few extra canned goods each time you go to the store, and set them back,” he said. “Primarily, people need to depend on themselves. A lot of peace comes through preparedness. The more prepared an individual is, the more able he is able to help his neighbor. If all of Neosho and Newton County were prepared, the less they would have to turn to the government when a crisis happens — they can turn to themselves and their neighbors.”
Foster said people should also keep an emergency stash of cash on hand, a lesson which was driven home when he went to help in the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts three years ago.
“There was a gas station that had power and was open,” he said. “They were turning away people who wanted to pay by check or credit card — they were only taking cash. One of the clerks took a check from a woman, and the owner asked her about it. She said she knew the woman, she was a regular customer, came in there about once a week. And the owner asked if the woman would have a job next week to be able to put money into the checking account. The clerk said she didn’t know.
“You have to have a store of cash you can draw on in an emergency. But the more prepared you are, the less cash you’ll need.”
Another exhibit dealt with financial management. Foster said there are only three things which are worth going into debt: a home, an education, and a business. Other purchases should be made in cash, he said.
“All three of these are needed and useful and can be seen as investments,” he said. “You’re not going to get an investment with a car loan. In the long run, it doesn’t matter how much money you make, it’s how much money you spend.” (cont.)
Two formidable forces — the gay rights movement and conservative churches — are colliding in a $50 million ballot measure battle over same-sex marriage, an explosive issue that straddles the line between faith and politics.
Emotions and expenditures are running high over Proposition 8, which would overrule the California Supreme Court’s verdict in May allowing same-sex marriage and restore the prohibition approved by voters eight years ago.
It’s intensely personal, treading on the private lives of gay couples and the religious convictions of Catholics, Mormons and conservative Christians. And it is deeply political, cleaving Democrats from Republicans and possibly affecting the Golden State’s vote for president.
“It’s almost like we have two countries here,” John Schmidt, senior pastor at Santa Rosa Alliance Church, said, reflecting on the schism over same-sex marriage.
For him and other Proposition 8 backers, gay marriage conflicts with their core religious beliefs.
“We cannot back off on our biblical convictions,” said Schmidt, an evangelical Christian pastor, speaking for those who take the Bible as the inerrant word of God. “God has defined marriage in a very specific way. God has asserted that his desire for mankind is to be involved in a relationship that is a covenant between a man and a woman.”
Stu Harrison of Healdsburg, a gay man and anti-Proposition 8 activist, sees the ballot measure as a first step toward dismantling other gay rights, such as adoption, domestic partnerships and anti-discrimination laws.
“For our side, it’s about our life,” Harrison said. He and his partner of 25 years, Dave Ring, were married Friday with Healdsburg Councilman Mike McGuire officiating.
For Californians, the vote on Proposition 8 will measure the state’s cultural climate, a testimonial that could set a national benchmark.
Polls are mixed, indicating everything from growing opposition, to a trend in favor, to a steady majority sentiment against the measure.
Proposition 8 shares the Nov. 4 ballot with Proposition 4, which would require parental notification prior to an abortion for underage girls.
“Every voter has a history of baggage on abortion and gay marriage whether they want to acknowledge it or not,” said Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at California State University, Sacramento. “They really are personal, visceral choices.”
Both measures could draw conservatives to the polls, an antidote to the “brand fatigue” of Republicans weary of President Bush, said David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political scientist.
California lawmakers broke cleanly along party lines, with 34 legislators, all Republicans, endorsing Proposition 8 and 42 Democrats supporting the No on 8 campaign.
“This is one front on the cultural war,” said Tim Arensmeier, pastor at the Sonoma Valley Community Church. And like any war provoked by the clash of social and moral values, there is scant middle ground.
“The real question everyone must ask is, ‘Is there a God and are we subject to his laws?’ ” said Brad Hardisty of Windsor, a lifelong Mormon. “If there’s no God then all the laws are political. It’s like taking the wheat out of the bread. There’s nothing there.”
Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called upon their faithful, who number 750,000 in California, to “do all you can” to pass Proposition 8 and “preserve the sacred institution of marriage.”
The response has been monumental. Of the nearly $20 million in donations of $1,000 or more to the Yes on 8 campaign, Mormons have given $9.2 million, or 46 percent, according to the Web site mormonsfor8.com.
Overall, Yes on 8 campaign groups received $27.1 million in donations this year, through Sept. 30, the Secretary of State’s Office reported. (cont.)
Pulling a handcart 25 miles isn’t a typical “How I spent my summer vacation” story for most teenagers, but it became one this summer for members of local congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The students spent four days on a trek that began with assembling handcarts to hold food and other travel supplies and included a walk over a variety of terrain including mud, rocks and hills, designed to recreate, on a small scale, the experiences of Mormon handcart pioneers who traveled 1,300 miles west to the Great Salt Lake Valley from 1846-1860.
Assigned to family groups consisting of adult couples who served as a Ma and Pa, each group worked together to pull their handcart and share in the work required along the way. Some “families,” including that of Adrianna Samudio, from Moscow, carried dolls stuffed with sand to approximate the weight of a real infant, which Adrianna said was no small task.
For Jessica Jones of Taylor, one of the best parts of the trip was when she got to wash her hair with soap in a bucket of water. Xavier Carrera of Dickson City said he appreciated the apples youths were given in the afternoon of the first day and the bread and broth they ate after a long day of pulling.
When asked what they appreciated most as a result of the trek, the students mentioned electricity, plumbing, food, showers, not having to work as hard as the pioneers, their religion and technology.
Xavier summed up the feelings of the youth as they gathered on the last night when he said: “It was a good experience.”
Students from the Scranton congregation who participated along with Adrianna, Jessica and Xavier were: Nicole Underwood of Taylor, Josh Rieder of West Pittston and Carolyn Armstrong of Clarks Summit. Also on the trek were Macy and Mead Hansen from Susquehanna; Marcus and Nathaniel Moyer, Hayden Underwood, Amanda Donnelly from Tunkhannock; Mariah and Zachery Geisler, Rebecca Montonya, Matthew Rucker, Abigail Burt, Josh Burt and Deanna Hansen from Montrose.
ST. GEORGE - Dixie State College announced plans to build a new building named after alumnus Jeffrey R. Holland at the Centennial Grand Gala Concert at the Burns Arena on Saturday.
Rochelle and Dwight Stokes of Phenix City, Ala., have both lost their jobs recently. 
“People have grown very nervous,” said Harry Holzer, a labor economist at 
(Photo courtesy of 
A bank and a title company have begun the foreclosure process on the Lehi home of David Ragsdale — where his two young children live with extended family.
A fixture on the Neosho Square for many summers, Bob Foster discussed gardening at the Preparedness Fair, held Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Two formidable forces — the gay rights movement and conservative churches — are colliding in a $50 million ballot measure battle over same-sex marriage, an explosive issue that straddles the line between faith and politics.
