Audio Recording St. George

The book, Please Forgive Me, I Forgive You by Mary Elizabeth Taylor is one of the most difficult stories I have ever read. Liz's traumatic tale begins with her being brutally raped and beaten when she was just five years old. From there, things just get worse. As a teenager, Liz turns to drugs as a way to cope with the difficulties in her life. She gets into a lot of trouble and at one point is put in a facility where she is molested by the person who is her care taker. Once released from that situation, Liz continues to do drugs as a way to escape the hell that her life has become. Liz turns to crime as a way to support her drug habit. She is arrested and thrown in jail and then prison countless times. In the book, Liz posts all the mug shots taken during her numerous incarcerations. The progression of her drug use is horrifyingly depicted in these photos as she steadily gets worse. None of the jails Liz is incarcerated in offer much in the way of reh...

June is Pride month, a time to celebrate diversity and embrace members of the LGBT Community.  In St. George, a Pride Festival was staged at Vernon Worthen Park. I was happy to meet up with so many loving friends and neighbors who came out for unity. Despite the warm temperatures, festival goers found plenty of ways to stay cool. Josh Warburton, owner of the Independent Newspaper and a candidate for Washington County Commissioner, used the event as a way to spread a message of diversity. Dorothy Engelman, a candidate for Utah Senate Seat 29 and Executive Director at the Erin Kimball Memorial Foundation, talks about her inclusive platform with St. George News Online. I'm so proud of all the Utah residents who use their voice to speak out for equality.  Love Wins!

They say you should never judge a book by it's cover, but that's exactly what I did when it came to The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg. And why not? The cover was done up in bright colors featuring a pleasant, old time drawing of cute girls on roller skates pumping gas. And with Fannie Flagg as the author, what could possibly go wrong? Things started well enough with this novel which opened with Mrs. Sookie Poole trying to deal with her insufferable, domineering mother. Nicked named “The Winged Victory,” Sookie's mother, Lenore, should have been hysterical. Unfortunately, that's where the good times ended for me. Lenore turned out to be more annoying than funny, so I was happy when the story revealed that Sookie had secretly been adopted. The plot then shifts back to 1939 when the Jurdabralinski family opened Wink's Phillip's 66 in Pulaski, Wisconsin. When the U.S. Enters World War 11 after the bombing at Pearl...

I've long been familiar with the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his infamous character, Sherlock Holmes. What caught me off guard is learning this British author had penned a mystery called A Study in Scarlet which made numerous references to the LDS Church and Brigham Young https://www.amazon.com/Study-Scarlet-Arthur-Conan-Doyle/dp/1599866749 I did a little research and learned this short story was the first Sherlock Holmes mystery. My initial interest was related to the author's references to the Salt Lake Valley and the LDS Church. I was astounded to discover that Brigham Young was named in this story, and portrayed as a bit of a dictator who would smite any opponent or apostate who he viewed as a threat to the community he established in Utah. The actual plot of A Study in Scarlet involved a man who was seeking revenge against the LDS Church for forcing a young woman into a marriage against her will, and murdering the man who raised her when he tried ...