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4728

A Mormon billionaire with distinct ideas of philanthropy and presidential politics

New York Times - Jon M. Huntsman Sr. — billionaire industrialist, father of a presidential hopeful, four-time cancer survivor — has no patience for the Scrooges of the world. Even the philanthropist club of billionaires started by Mr. Huntsman’s friend Warren E. Buffett that is trying to enlist the world’s richest to give away half their wealth seems tight-fisted to him. “I suggested 80 percent,” he said. “A tremendous number of wealthy people haven’t given much of anything.” While protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement camp out across America, excoriating what they see as the greed of the affluent, and Democrats push the idea...

4727

Autistic Boy Scout earns all 132 merit badges

Deseret News - Nate Christensen seems like a typical almost-18-year-old boy. Now in his senior year at Bingham High School in South Jordan, he plays the trumpet in the marching band. He took a longtime friend to the school’s homecoming dance. He loves popular music artists from Justin Bieber to Owl City. He enjoys playing “Just Dance” on his family’s Nintendo Wii and writes a blog in his free time. He admits that his favorite class at school is his sports class. But two things set him apart. One is that he’s earned 132 merit badges — every possible Boy Scout merit badge he...

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Therapy dog goes visiting, home teaching

Deseret News - I was home for the weekend to visit with my parents and sisters in September 2007. This particular Saturday, my sister, Joyce, was helping to do a dog transport for rescued dogs from two counties' dog pounds to go to a rescue shelter in Canada. When my sister had been asked to help with this transport, she told the group no several times. She finally consented to help with the transport from Findlay, Ohio, to Monroe, Mich. She asked me to go along with her, I thought it was OK but could think of things to do that would be more...

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Nominations open Whitney Awards for LDS authors

Deseret News - Nominations are now open for the 2011 Whitney Awards for the best fiction published by an LDS writer in 2011 regardless of publisher or market. The Whitney Awards are named for early Mormon apostle Orson F. Whitney, who gave an inspirational speech that prophesied that one day we would have “Miltons and Shakespeares of our own.” Previous recipients include such bestselling authors as Orson Scott Card, Gerald Lund, Kerry Blair, Dean Hughes, Dave Wolverton, Jamie Ford, Brandon Sanderson and many others. ...

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Utahns give twice as much to Romney than Huntsman

Salt Lake Tribune - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is still king of fundraising in Utah, drawing twice as much for his presidential bid as the state’s ex-governor, Jon Huntsman. Utahns forked over nearly $659,000 for Romney’s White House bid in the past three months while Huntsman, who was twice elected to statewide office, pulled in just under $300,000, according to finance reports filed Saturday. Utah has always been a cash cow for Romney, and his latest report shows residents are still big fans of the man credited with turning the scandal-ridden 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City into a successful venture. ...

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BYU Oregon State second half photo gallery

Salt Lake Tribune - Photographs from the second half of the BYU Oregon State college football game in Corvallis, Washington October 15, 2011. (Click link to see all.) ...

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BYU PhD student creates computer that composes music

Deseret News - When BYU PhD candidate Kristine Monteith was sitting in natural language processing class, it wasn't letter sequences going through her head but music notes. The class was talking about probability in language that helps with speech recognition of knowing what words would come up next. When she did the experiment, "It made me think, oh, you could do the same thing with music," Monteith said. The Utah State graduate in music therapy pursuing her PhD in computer at BYU decided to apply her right and left brain abilities to combine music and computer science. She invented a computer program that can...

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Discovering Jane

Segullah - I remember it like it happened yesterday. I was 5 months into my first pregnancy, a semi-newlywed and carrying a full load of classes, among them English literature. This particular semester I was enjoying my discovery of a somewhat obscure authoress by the name of…….wait for it…….Jane Austen. Yes, this was 22 years ago, at that time Jane Austen for the most part was relegated to the realm of English lit classes, high school honors classes and dedicated Anglophiles. I had spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon on the living room floor reading Pride and Prejudice – perhaps you’ve...

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BYU football: Injuries from Oregon State game will test Cougars’ depth

Salt Lake Tribune - It was a familiar scene for both teams during Saturday’s BYU-Oregon State football game: a player writhing in pain on the synthetic turf at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, surrounded by medical personnel trying to provide comfort and assess the player’s condition. At least six BYU players left the field injured during the game, and it appears that one player ­— tight end Richard Wilson — has been lost for the season with a serious knee injury. ...

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Murdered BYU prof’s family sues over wrongful indictment

Salt Lake Tribune - The son and daughter-in-law of a murdered Brigham Young University professor, who were once charged with the slaying themselves, have filed a civil rights lawsuit against Utah County, alleging police and prosecutors misled a grand jury. ...