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Lessons learned from the big winds

Deseret News - Most people go to the Bishop’s Storehouse for food. I went there to sleep. When our hotel lost power, and we were evicted during Hurricane Ike two years ago, heading to the storehouse seemed like the logical thing to do. After all, it had become the hurricane command center for the LDS Church in Houston, and I was there to document disaster relief. It’s hurricane season again on the east coast of North America, and this year is forecast to be an active one. So I thought I’d share two lessons learned from big winds in the gulf — Hurricane Katrina,...

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BYU prepares to feed the masses during Education Week

Deseret News - The flour is flying and the smell of brownies lingers in the air at the BYU Culinary Support Center where food production is in high gear. Inside various coolers and freezers, giant crates of soup and towers of ice cream await the Education Week masses, then the student onslaught a few days later. "For us, Education Week is a great opportunity to get everything open and get geared up and ready for fall," said Dean Wright, director of BYU Dining Services. Over the next five days, Dining Services will serve 60,000 meals in its eateries, 6,000 meals in the concession spaces...

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Could an iconic public market transform SLC?

Salt Lake Tribune - A developer who stirred Salt Lake City’s east bench into a frenzy about the relocation of the Blue Boutique now wants to transfigure downtown’s southwest tip with an eye-popping year-round public market. Rinaldo Hunt and his property group are pitching a $30 million to $50 million plan to create a San Francisco-style Ferry Building galleria in a cavernous steel foundry alongside 600 South and 500 West. The vision calls for produce vendors, eateries, an urban agriculture education center, and a tree-lined promenade beneath an iconic “public market” sign visible from Interstate 15’s City Center exit. At 14 acres, covering nearly two...

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Ward of Difference: Graveyard Shift

Sarah Montgomery - When Hurricane Katrina tore through the South, both the living and the dead were impacted. The flooding and winds caused many cemeteries' above-ground vaults to become damaged and dislodged. Though cranes returned displaced tombs to their respective cemeteries shortly after the hurricane hit, many of the tombs were left cracked and in desperate need of repainting. "It's been five years since Katrina, and there's still a lot of work that needs to be done," says New Orleans 1st Ward member Sarah Broussard. "If my family were buried there, I would have been very sad to see their resting place in such...

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Date Night: Get Your Blood Flowing

LDS Living Staff - Active date nights are popular, but sometimes it can be hard to think of all the options. Read through these common and obscure activities and see if any could make a fun (and new) summer date night for you and your sweetheart. Swinging at the park Biking Skateboarding Hiking Kayaking Canoeing Tubing Rappelling Rock climbing Walking Running Skating Jumping on a trampoline Playing at a water park Surfing Body boarding Wakeboarding Parasailing Paragliding Golfing or hitting golf balls Playing tennis ...

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A Fresh Look to the Los Angeles Temple Visitors' Center

Mormon Newsroom - For decades visitors to the Los Angeles Temple have learned about the Mormon faith through a series of displays and exhibits. The center has now been updated with a full renovation two years in the making. The renovation of the Los Angeles Temple Visitors’ Center brings together bright, vibrant colors appropriate for the Southern California location, with the latest technology in interactive multimedia. The center was expanded by about 20 percent to 12,817 square feet. The renovation includes a 180-seat theater, complete with a multipurpose space for films, cultural performances and traveling exhibits. “Several new exhibits highlight simple principles and doctrines...

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Mormon chat on getting frequently trolled

Westword - As they often do, a call went up once again today on the infamous 4chan to "troll" Mormon chat. Famous for being the origin of almost every internet prank -- they invented Rick-rolling, for example -- the anonymous folks over at 4chan's /b/ board (who call themselves /b/tards) have taken to essentially prank-calling the Mormon.org's chat feature, where you can instant message with a real-live Mormon missionary. Just out of curiosity, we popped over ourselves to chat with such a missionary and find out how the church feels about being repeatedly asked if its refrigerator is running. But first, here's a...

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BYU summer grads told to seek the Promised Land

LDS Church News - After sitting in the audience and watching four of his eight children graduate from college, 58-year-old Erick Wadsworth finally knows how it feels to wear a cap and gown on graduation day. "I thought the opportunity to finish college was gone," Wadsworth said. "Then I saw an advertisement that said 'finish what you didn't finish' and started from there. You have a dream and then you work at it. This is awesome." For Wadsworth, Aug. 12 will always be a significant day. Not only is it the day he graduated from BYU with a bachelor of general studies — a journey...

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BYU QB greats coming together for a common cause

Deseret News - It's an eclectic mix of men, but they share at least one thing in common — each was an All-American quarterback at BYU. The group, whose collegiate playing days span more than 30 years, includes an Area Authority Seventy of the LDS Church who was dubbed "The Mormon Rifle" during his days in Provo (Gifford Nielsen) and one who once graced the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine and was known in the NFL as "the punky QB" (Jim McMahon). It includes an ESPN commentator (Steve Young), a high school head coach (Ty Detmer) and a college head coach (Steve Sarkisian). One...

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Debunking a Mormon/Romney conspiracy theory

Deseret News - It is a truism of modern media that few subjects draw more attention than politics. If you're a savvy journalist or blogger looking to attract page views in today's 24-hour news cycle, the shortcut to success requires slapping some political "analysis" on to whatever story you're covering, like so: "University releases groundbreaking cancer study: What does it mean for Obama?" Of course, I've been guilty of this to some extent in my (young) journalism career. And having spent the past few months interning at a national news outlet with a website that has scores of competitors, I understand all too well...