UTAH

Mormons to let missionaries phone home more often

SALT LAKE CITY – Parents of Mormon missionaries will be able to hear their children’s voices a lot more often under new rules that allow the proselytizing youngsters to call home every week instead of only twice a year.

The move is aimed at encouraging families to be more involved in the missionary experience, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said. Missionaries can call, text or do video chats once a week on a designated day called preparation day.

Previously, they were only allowed to call home on Christmas and Mother’s Day. They could email or send letters once a week.

The immediate change affects 65,000 Mormons serving on worldwide missions that are considered rites of passage. They are designed to strengthen their faith, broaden their perspective on the world and prepare many of them for future leadership positions in congregations.

The change triggered a slew of reaction among Mormons on social media, with some applauding the move and others expressing concern the faith was getting too soft with missionaries. Others joked that some youngsters may not want to talk with their parents every week.

Mormon scholar Matthew Bowman said he suspects the change is related to the 2012 church decision to lower the age for missionaries from 21 to 19 for women and from 19 to 18 for men. There have been reports of more missionaries experiencing anxiety and wanting to come home.

MONTANA

Thousands sign petition to ‘sell’ state to Canada

More than 9,000 people have signed a petition to “sell” Montana to Canada for $1 trillion and use the proceeds to pay down the national debt – and it seems our northern neighbors would gladly welcome this bite out of the 49th Parallel.

“We have too much debt and Montana is useless,” says the text of the Change.org petition launched last week.

Commenters sing the praises of beavers, welcome Montanans to Canada, and offer them free health care, coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons, and, of course, Canada’s legalized pot.

“It would be an easy way to become a Canadian citizen without having to move,” said a signer.

Some offered to throw more states into the bargain, or begged to have theirs added.

“Can Texas be sold too? Asking for a friend,” said one, and then there was, “Can Texas come too? Asking for Texas.”

Montana’s Great Falls Tribune had some questions of its own – including, “Would Montana still be named Montana or would we be Southern Alberta? Better Saskatchewan?” and “Does the universal health care start right away or is there a waiting period?”

The original poster, incongruously, is someone listed as Ian Hammond from Alabama, who submitted the tongue-in-cheek petition under the name “Christian moms against private education.”

It would not make much of a dent in the national debt even if it were true. Currently the number is a staggering $22 trillion.

WYOMING

Murder case dismissed under ‘stand your ground’ law

In the first judicial test of Wyoming’s new “stand your ground” law, a Natrona County judge has dismissed a first-degree murder case but implored prosecutors to appeal to the state’s highest court.

Judge Catherine Wilking handed down the ruling following a hearing she ruled was required by the new law. Under the law, a person who is attacked at a place where he is legally allowed to be has no obligation to retreat, so long as he is not the initial aggressor or breaking any laws.

Jason T. John had faced a single count of murder after he shot Wesley Willow Jr., who was entering John’s north Casper trailer home at around 4 a.m. on Aug. 3 – about a month after the law took effect.

The judge decided to rule against prosecutors, concluding they needed to show beyond a reasonable doubt that John was not immune from prosecution. She then made her second of many admonishments to appeal the matter to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

According to testimony, John shot Willow nine times with an AR-15 after exchanging cell phone messages with a woman who had dated John before taking up again with Willow.

Multiple rounds hit Willow in the back, the detective said, and John fired one into the back of Willow’s head. A medical examiner ruled that John had likely fired the gun into Willow as he lay face down on the ground.

The prosecutor said John lured Willow to his house in order to kill him, and the statute did not protect him.

John’s defense attorney argued that Willow tried to enter John’s house uninvited and looking to fight, so John was entitled to protect himself.

NEBRASKA

Omaha on trial in shooting death of ‘Cops’ crew member

OMAHA – City police used justifiable force when firing dozens of bullets at an armed robbery suspect in a fast-food restaurant and had no duty to protect a reality television show crew member who was inadvertently shot and killed, the police chief said.

Bryce Dion, 38, who was a sound technician on the TV series “Cops,” was on a ride-along with Omaha police officers in August 2014 when he was killed, The Omaha World-Herald reported.

His family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the City of Omaha, accusing the police of negligence and using excessive deadly force.

In court last week, a lawyer for Dion’s family said the suspect, Cortez Washington, was clearly a threat to officers when they fired on him as many as 39 times.

But, the lawyer said, officers fired around two dozen additional shots even as Washington was running from the restaurant, and one of those bullets inadvertently hit Dion, who was standing in the entrance to the restaurant.

Washington was also shot and killed.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer testified that the police response was justified and that Washington “never stopped” being a danger to responding officers, even when he was running away.

Officers later learned that Washington’s weapon was a pellet gun.

The police department’s internal affairs unit and a Douglas County grand jury cleared the three officers who fired their weapons of any wrongdoing.

Dion was the first crew member to be killed in more than 30 seasons of “Cops.”

NEW MEXICO

State GOP clowns Dem bill pushing for ‘circus arts’

SANTA FE – A Democratic proposal that seeks to allocate $100,000 for “circus arts” education in New Mexico is drawing ridicule from Republicans.

The Albuquerque Journal reports Republicans are attacking a bill sponsored by state Sen. Nancy Rodriguez that would educate children in circus arts such as trapeze, aerial fabrics, unicycling, juggling, clowning and giant puppetry.

House Republicans chided Rodriguez and Democrats for proposing to spend $100,000 on “clowning” while voting for a proposal that would exclude private schools from receiving state funding for textbooks.

Rodriguez says circus arts are effective with children and she didn’t think the idea was unusual.