Appeals court reinstates lawsuit against LDS church
A federal appeals court has reinstated part of a high-profile lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The case was brought by James Huntsman. He accused the church of using tithing dollars to finance the City Creek Center mall project in Salt Lake City and to prop up Beneficial Life Insurance, contrary to what the church claimed.
After the case was dismissed by a lower court in California, Huntsman appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has reinstated it. In the ruling, Judge Fletcher said there were multiple points of evidence a reasonable juror could use to conclude the church had fraudulently misrepresented the use of tithing for the City Creek Center mall project.
This means Huntsman will have another chance to take his case against the church to court. He claims if he wins, he’ll donate the financial proceeds to charities supporting LGBTQ, Black and women’s rights.
The church continues to claim there was no fraud or wrongdoing in their handling of funds for the project.
University of Utah and SLCC celebrate new shared campus in Herriman
The University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College celebrated a new shared campus in Herriman Monday. Rather than doing a ribbon cutting, they did a “ribbon joining” where the president of each institution held a ribbon and attached them together.
Salt Lake Community College President Deneece Huftalin said the goal of the shared campus is to increase access to higher education both financially and geographically. She said Herriman was chosen because the area has a higher-than-average high school graduation rate but a lower-than-average college attendance rate.
Right now, the campus is only one building, but they plan to add more. When classes start on Aug. 22, there will be about 2,000 students in the first year.
