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The U.S. government on Monday proposed removing most of the world's humpback whale population from the endangered species list, saying they have rebounded after 45 years of protections. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries wants to reclassify humpbacks into 14 distinct populations, and remove 10 of those from the list. "As we learn more about the species — and realize the populations are largely independent of each other — managing them separately allows us to focus protection on the animals that need it the most," Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries, said in a statement.

 Humpbacks were listed as endangered in 1970, four years after the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling. The whales, which weigh 25 to 40 tons and can grow up to 60 feet long, have rebounded in the North Pacific since the listing, which requires federal approval for federally funded or authorized activities that could harm whales or their habitat. Last year, the state of Alaska filed a petition to remove some North Pacific humpback whales from protection under the Endangered Species Act. That population, estimated at more than 5,800, feeds in Alaska in the summer and breeds in Hawaii in winter.

 Environmental groups have said North Pacific whales continue to be vulnerable to factors including increased shipping, climate change and ocean acidification, which affects the prey stock. The NOAA said in a release announcing its proposal that protection and restoration efforts have led to an increase in humpbacks in many areas. Under the plan, two of the populations would be listed as threatened, in Central America and the Western North Pacific. The agency said these whales at times enter U.S. waters. The other two populations — in the Arabian Sea and off Cape Verde and northwest Africa — would remain listed as endangered. The public has 90 days to comment on the recommended changes.

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 Humpback population growth, scientific review suggests change to their listing status under ESA. Your comments sought http://t.co/jusjyNSeOU — NOAA Fisheries (@NOAAFisheries) April 20, 2015

 — The Associated Press ||||| NOAA devises 14 population segments to allow them to protect those that need help most but activists say the whales are too ‘complicated’ for such judgment

 Humpback whales, endangered no more? Most may be removed from list

 Most of the world’s humpback whales could soon be taken off the endangered species list.

 On Monday, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) proposed that humpbacks be split into 14 population segments, allowing for 10 populations to be removed from the endangered list.

 Two of the other four populations would be listed as threatened, and only the humpbacks of the Arabian Sea and north-west Africa would remain listed as endangered.

 The other 10 populations would still be protected under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act. Currently, all humpback whales are listed as endangered.

 “As we learn more about the species – and realize the populations are largely independent of each other – managing them separately allows us to focus protection on the animals that need it the most,” Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries, said in a statement.

 The proposal is likely to face opposition from conservationists. One, Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director and senior biologist for Whale and Dolphin Conservation North America, said the proposal was premature.

 “Humpbacks are a really complicated species to really review for declaring these distinct population segments,” she told the Guardian on Monday. “They are highly migratory in most places, but not everywhere.”

 According to Jennifer Kennedy, executive director of Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, even if a particular population seems to be doing well, there are other problems to consider, including entanglement and boat accidents.

 “We could be having as many if not more animals getting entangled each year than can reproduce,” said Asmutis-Silvia, who said the humpback population off the coast of New England could be losing 3% a year to entanglement, while about 15% of such whales had been hit by a boat.

 “It’s not so simple as drawing a line and saying: ‘They belong to this population and there’s a lot of them so we are going to take them off the list’,” Asmutis-Silvia said.

 A humpback whale dives. Photograph: Alamy

 The proposal is now open to a 90-day public comment period.

 “They are certainly going to get a lot of feedback from us,” said Asmutis-Silvia, adding that the public should be interested in this issue as humpback whales play an important role in both the ecosystem and the local economy.

 “They have an economic value. Internationally, they are probably the No 1 species targeted by whale watching,” she said. “So, there’s a vested interest in making sure that these populations are maintained and healthy.” ||||| The U.S. government proposed removing most of the world’s humpback whale populations from the federal endangered species list today, saying that many of the marine mammals have recovered in the 45 years since they were first listed. “We’re happy to announce a conservation success story,” said Donna Wieting, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, in a telephone press conference today. She explained that efforts to bring the species back from the brink of extinction worked.

 “This is good news for whales and whale conservation and should be cause for celebration, not a reason to run screaming from the room,” says Patrick Ramage, whale program director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. “It shows that when we take appropriate steps to protect whales, they can recover.”

 The proposal will reclassify the world’s humpback populations—the most iconic of whale species—into 14 distinct segments based on scientists’ recommendations. If the proposal is approved (which is expected to happen next year), only two of these populations will remain on the endangered list; another two will be considered threatened. The threatened populations—the Central American and the Western North Pacific humpbacks—enter U.S. waters during their migrations. But the two that will keep their endangered status—Arabian Sea and Cape Verde Islands—do not.

 Humpbacks no longer protected by the federal Endangered Species Act will continue to be guarded by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which offers many of the same protections, Wieting says.

 Humpback whales were placed on the endangered species list in 1970 after the whaling industry severely depleted their numbers around the world. Indeed, the humpback numbers were so low the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned hunting them in 1966. Only in 1982 did the IWC enact a ban on the commercial whaling of all whale species.

 The new proposal stems from a 2010 NOAA Fisheries review of humpback whales, which number about 100,000 today. Using morphological, genetic, and biogeographical data, the agency determined that humpback whales are not a single global population, but are instead 14 distinct segments that rarely intermingle. For instance, the Arabian Sea population migrates laterally between the shores of Yemen and India; the 13 other humpback populations make similar seasonal migrations, but do so longitudinally. Some travel about 6400 kilometers between their breeding and feeding grounds. “As we learn more about the species—and realize the populations are largely independent of each other—managing them separately allows us to focus protection on the animals that need it most,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries, in a press release.

 The new population classification should be seen as a “sign of progress in our understanding and recognition of biological populations,” says Scott Baker, a conservation geneticist at Oregon State University, Corvallis, whose lab provided some of the data for the reclassification. Each population, he explains, “has an independent history of whaling and recovery. Some have done very well, and others have lagged behind.”

 Scientists say that some humpback whale populations were hunted more than others, and for longer periods of time, which explains why certain populations remain low. There are perhaps 500 in the Arabian Sea, whereas 10,000 come to Hawaiian waters to breed, and another 21,800 travel between Western Australia and Antarctica. A previous study suggests that prior to whaling, humpbacks numbered about 125,000.

 Conservationists generally agree with NOAA Fisheries’ recommendations, while warning that humpbacks—and all whale species—continue to face threats from such things as fishing gear entanglement, ship strikes, energy development, pollution, climate change, and ocean acidification. “While the proposal is positive news on some fronts, it’s important to understand that some populations are still recovering and under risk of extinction,” says Howard Rosenbaum, a marine biologist and director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s oceans giants program. “And the U.S. is not removing [those population segments] from the endangered list.”

 NOAA Fisheries’ proposal will be available for public comment for the next 90 days. ||||| By giving us your feedback, you can help improve your www.NOAA.gov experience. This short, anonymous survey only takes just a few minutes to complete 11 questions. Thank you for your input!

 Successful conservation efforts recognized in revised ESA Humpback Whale listing

 Reclassification into 14 distinct population segments will provide more tailored management approach

 NOAA's proposal to reclassify humpback whales into 14 distinct population segments will offer fisheries managers a more tailored conservation approach. (Credit: NOAA)

 NOAA Fisheries proposed today to reclassify the humpback whale into 14 distinct population segments under the Endangered Species Act, providing a more tailored conservation approach for U.S. fisheries managers. Protection and restoration efforts over the past 40 years have led to an increase in numbers and growth rates for humpback whales in many areas.

 The humpback whale is currently listed as endangered throughout its range. The proposed rule finds that ten of those 14 populations do not warrant ESA listing.

 While commercial whaling severely depleted humpback whale numbers, population rebounds in many areas result in today’s larger numbers, with steady rates of population growth since the United States first listed the animal as endangered in 1970.

 Also under the proposal, two of the other four populations would be listed as endangered and the remaining two would be listed as threatened. If the proposal is finalized, the humpback whale populations that would no longer be listed under the ESA would remain protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

 NOAA Fisheries initiated an extensive review of the status of humpback whales in 2010, the results of which support separating the species into distinct population segments. The review also finds that many of the populations are not in danger of extinction (endangered) or likely to become so in the foreseeable future (threatened).

 “The return of the iconic humpback whale is an ESA success story,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries. “As we learn more about the species -- and realize the populations are largely independent of each other -- managing them separately allows us to focus protection on the animals that need it the most.”

 Approximate locations of proposed humpback whale distinct population segments: 1. West Indies, 2. Cape Verde Islands/Northwest Africa, 3. Western North Pacific, 4. Hawaii, 5. Mexico, 6. Central America, 7. Brazil, 8. Gabon/Southwest Africa, 9. Southeast Africa/Madagascar, 10. West Australia, 11. East Australia, 12. Oceania, 13. Southeastern Pacific, 14. Arabian Sea. (Credit: NOAA)

 The two populations proposed as threatened – the Central America and the Western North Pacific – at times enter U.S. waters. Two other populations that do not enter U.S. waters – in the Arabian Sea and off Cape Verde Islands/Northwest Africa – would remain listed as endangered.

 NOAA Fisheries is opening up a 90-day public comment period for this proposed rule. During this time, NOAA Fisheries welcomes public comments and any new information to ensure that our final determination is based on the best available scientific and commercial information.

 You may submit comments, information, or data on this document, identified by the code NOAA-NMFS-2015-0035, by any of the following methods:

 Electronic Submissions : Submit all electronic comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D= NOAA-NMFS-2015-0035, click the “Comment Now!” icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments.

 Mail: Submit written comments to Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

 For general information on humpback whales, go to: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/whales/humpback-whale.html

 To read the the proposal’s Federal Register notice, go to: https://federalregister.gov/a/2015-09010

 Humpback Whale Images Slideshow and Facts vs. Fiction Information: http://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/stories/2015/02/02_11_14humpback_fact_vs_fiction.html

 Humpback whale B-roll: https://vimeo.com/111689294

 NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and our other social media channels.

  |||||

– NOAA says it's a whale of a success story: Most of the world's humpback whale populations, including all those that enter US waters, are no longer endangered, according to the agency. NOAA, which says 45 years of protection have helped whale populations rebound, wants to reclassify the species into 14 populations, only two of which would be classed as endangered, NBC News reports. The Central America and western North Pacific populations, which sometimes enter US waters, would be classed as threatened under the NOAA proposal, while the Arabian Sea and Cape Verde Islands populations would still be considered endangered. All 14 populations would remain protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. "This is good news for whales and whale conservation and should be cause for celebration, not a reason to run screaming from the room," the whale program director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare tells Science. "It shows that when we take appropriate steps to protect whales, they can recover." A senior biologist for Whale and Dolphin Conservation North America, however, tells the Guardian that the proposal seems premature. The species is too complicated to split into just 14 populations, she says, and they still face multiple threats, including boat strikes and entanglement. (A daring crew from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary used a knife on a pole to free a 45-ton whale entangled in fishing line.)


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FILE - This April 1, 2017, file photo shows Thomas M. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the two-day Mormon church conference in Salt Lake City. Monson, the 16th... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This April 1, 2017, file photo shows Thomas M. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the two-day Mormon church conference in Salt Lake City. Monson, the 16th president of the Mormon church, has died after nine years in office. He was 90. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer,... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This April 1, 2017, file photo shows Thomas M. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the two-day Mormon church conference in Salt Lake City. Monson, the 16th president of the Mormon church, has died after nine years in office. He was 90. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer,... (Associated Press) FILE - This April 1, 2017, file photo shows Thomas M. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the two-day Mormon church conference in Salt Lake City. Monson, the 16th... (Associated Press)

 SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Thomas S. Monson, the 16th president of the Mormon church, has died after overseeing the religion for nine years. He was 90.

 Monson died Tuesday night at his home in Salt Lake City, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins.

 Monson spent more than five decades serving in top church leadership councils — making him a well-known face and personality to multiple generations of Mormons.

 A church bishop at the age of 22, the Salt Lake City native became the youngest church apostle ever in 1963 at the age of 36. He served as a counselor for three church presidents before assuming the role of the top leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2008.

 The next president was not immediately named, but the job is expected to go to next longest-tenured member of the church's governing Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Russell M. Nelson, per church protocol.

 Monson's presidency was marked by his noticeably low profile during a time of intense publicity for the church, including the 2008 and 2012 campaigns of Mormon Mitt Romney for President. Monson's most public acts were appearances at church conferences and devotionals as well as dedications of church temples.

 Monson will also be remembered for his emphasis on humanitarian work; leading the faith's involvement in the passage of gay marriage ban in California in 2008; continuing the religion's push to be more transparent about its past; and lowering the minimum age for missionaries.

 Mormons considered Monson a warm, caring, endearing and approachable leader, said Patrick Mason, associate professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University in California. He was known for dropping everything to make hospital visits to people in need. His speeches at the faith's twice-yearly conferences often focused on parables of human struggles resolved through faith.

 He put an emphasis on the humanitarian ethic of Mormons, evidenced by his expansion of the church's disaster relief programs around the world, said Armand Mauss, a retired professor of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University.

 "President Monson always seemed more interested in what we do with our religion rather than in what we believe," Mauss said.

 A World War II veteran, Monson served in the Navy and spent a year overseas before returning to get a business degree at the University of Utah and a master's degree in business administration from the church-owned Brigham Young University.

 Before being tabbed to join the faith's church's governing Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Monson worked for the church's secular businesses, primarily in advertising, printing and publishing including the Deseret Morning News.

 Monson married Frances Beverly Johnson in 1948. The couple had three children, eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Frances died in 2013 at the age of 85.

 Throughout his life, Monson was an avid fisherman who also raised homing pigeons, specifically, roller pigeons who twirled as they flew. He was known for his love of show tunes, Boy Scouts and the Utah Jazz.

 Monson's legacy will be tied to the religion's efforts to hold tight to its opposition of same-sex marriage while encouraging members to be more open and compassionate toward gays and lesbians as acceptance for LGBT people increased across the county.

 One of the most memorable moments of Monson's tenure came in October 2012, when he announced at church conference that the minimum age to depart on missions was being lowered to 19 from 21 for women; and to 18 from 19 for men. The change triggered a historic influx of missionaries, and proved a milestone change for women by allowing many more to serve.

 The man expected to take Monson's seat, the 93-year-old Nelson, has been a church apostle since April 1970. Out of respect for Monson, his appointment will not be officially named until after his funeral services.

 The Mormon church was founded in 1830 in upstate New York by Joseph Smith, who claimed he was visited by God and Jesus while praying in a grove of trees and was called to found the church. Members are known as Mormons because of the religion's keystone scripture, the Book of Mormon.

 ___

 AP writer Michelle A. Monroe in Phoenix contributed to this report. ||||| Even as he ascended to the pinnacle of a worldwide faith, Thomas S. Monson never stopped being a Mormon bishop.

 He was the same affable leader, folksy preacher and care-taking friend after becoming the LDS Church’s 16th president in 2008 as he was during his more than five decades as one of the faith’s 12 apostles.

 During Monson’s nearly 10-year presidential tenure, which ended with his death Tuesday night at age 90 of causes incident to age, Mormonism faced some of the most intense public scrutiny in its history — from a divisive vote over gay marriage to high-profile Mormon candidacies for president, and a hotly debated policy for same-sex couples and their children. Still, the private prophet stayed largely behind the scenes, showing up unexpectedly at funerals, comforting the bereaved, visiting the sick and, before her death, caring for his wife, Frances.

 “With tender feelings we announce that Thomas S. Monson, president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died this evening at 10:01 p.m. in his home in Salt Lake City,” church spokesman Eric Hawkins wrote in an email Tuesday at 11:39 p.m. “He was with family at the time of his passing.”

 A public viewing is scheduled for Jan. 11 at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City. The funeral will be Jan. 12 in the center followed by a private burial at the historic Salt Lake City Cemetery.

 A bear-hugging kind of guy, Monson — considered a “prophet, seer and revelator” by nearly 16 million Mormons worldwide — drew heavily on his experiences of six decades earlier as a 22-year-old bishop of a needy LDS congregation (with more than 80 widows) on Salt Lake City’s west side.

 “He doesn’t act as if he is an administrator who has to get through all of the issues,” Mormon apostle Neil L. Andersen told Monson biographer Heidi Swinton. “He acts more like a shepherd. That’s who he is, someone whose impact on people is more important than are his calculations or strategies for the church.”

 Under Monson’s leadership, “the threefold mission of the church was modified to include a fourth element, emphasizing outreach to the poor and less fortunate,” noted Stuart Reid, a former state legislator from Ogden. “More than anything else during a lifetime of ministry, President Monson will be known for his charitable acts.”

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 With his inimitable style, Monson as president once told Mormons young and old all he wanted for his birthday was an act of kindness — and they gave it to him by the millions year after year.

 Pamela Atkinson, an advocate for the homeless, called Monson “a great humanitarian.”

 “In some of his talks I’ve heard or read, he emphasizes again and again reaching out to others,” Atkinson said in 2009, “not just to members but to every single person in need.”

 Such emphasis and style came to be seen as Monson’s calling card — one identified with a time when Mormonism had fewer than a million members and an individual could phone an apostle.

 The church felt comfortable in an America that was “largely white, Protestant, premised on monogamy and Victorian sexual norms,” historian Matthew Bowman said Wednesday. “It’s a world that Monson talked about, but one that no longer exists.”

 Monson tried to keep it alive with his sweet-toned rhetoric and inspirational stories, even as he was instrumental in building a global faith that relied more on policies and procedures than on personal connections.

 The late president was the first Mormon apostle to earn a master of business administration degree, Bowman noted, and the last one to be present when then-President Spencer W. Kimball announced an end to the church’s long-standing ban on black men being ordained to the all-male priesthood and on black women attending a Mormon temple.

 The bridge to the past Monson exemplified is gone.

 Conflicting causes

 In some ways, Bowman said, the late Mormon prophet resembled Ronald Reagan, a figure who had a definite tone and a clear message, but who was not personally branded with the controversies that happened while he was in charge.

 Monson, the historian observed on The Salt Lake Tribune’s “Mormon Land” podcast, “floated above the fray.”

 That fray included questions of equality, gay rights and race.

 The most significant change that Monson introduced as the top LDS leader was lowering the age of full-time missionaries, from 19 to 18 for young men and from 21 to 19 for young women. The historic October 2012 announcement shook up the social dynamic between the sexes, dramatically boosted the number of missionaries (especially among young Mormon women), altered college enrollments throughout Utah and spawned nearly 60 new missions across the globe.

 Though the younger age galvanized Mormon women everywhere to sign up for missionary service, the issue of gender equality in the LDS Church continued to divide the faithful throughout the Monson era.

 In spring 2013, a group of LDS believers formed Ordain Women to push for opening the faith’s priesthood to both sexes. Hundreds peacefully marched on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, asking to be seated at the church’s priesthood session of LDS General Conference. They were rebuffed.

 Barely a year later, Ordain Women co-founder Kate Kelly was excommunicated from the church.

 “Like nearly everything Mormon-related, I have such bittersweet feelings about the passing of President Monson. It’s strange to think that, though distant, he knew my name and he was the one who ultimately denied my excommunication appeal,” Kelly said Wednesday. “That ordeal was so incredibly painful for me on a personal level, but holding him accountable for the information that many Mormon women do want the priesthood made it worth it. The men in the highest echelons of the Mormon hierarchy could no longer pretend that all women were satisfied with their second-class status.”

 At the same time, Kelly said, she has “fond memories of growing up with him as an apostle and then prophet. I remember his comical, simple stories of service.”

 Under Monson, the church took steps to include women on top decision-making committees, enhanced their visibility at General Conference, added their photos to the charts of top LDS leaders and invited them to pray during the twice-yearly conferences.

 Health struggles

 In May 2015, the LDS Church announced that its prophet-president was "feeling the effects of advancing age,” and he began cutting back on his public appearances and addresses.

 A month before, the gregarious LDS authority skipped a Salt Lake City meeting with then-President Barack Obama, saying he was preserving his energy for the General Conference due to begin the next day.

 In October of that year, though, Monson called three new apostles to the faith’s Quorum of the Twelve — the first time since 1906 that body had seen so many new faces at once.

 But a slow, physical decline had begun for the once-ebullient Monson, who reduced the number and length of his conference addresses.

 In September 2016, the smiling but frail leader joined hundreds of dignitaries as the University of Utah named a recently renovated historic building at the former LDS Business College in his honor.

 A U. alumnus, Monson did not speak at the Salt Lake City event, but, as he exited, he waved to the crowd and, in an ode to the U. fight song, said to all within earshot: “I am a Utah man, sir.”

 During the April 2017 General Conference, he delivered two short sermons (announcing plans to build a handful of Mormon temples, including one in Saratoga Springs) but did not attend half the sessions.

 At the time, a spokesman said Monson was “weary but well.” A day later, the aging LDS leader ended up being admitted to a hospital for a couple of nights complaining of fatigue. On his release, the church stated that he planned to “resume his normal schedule and duties.”

 Those day-to-day duties did not continue for long. In May, the church announced that, due to “limitations incident to his age,” Monson no longer went to the office or attended meetings regularly but rather conferred and communicated with his counselors “as needed.”

 He did not appear at any sessions of the fall 2017 General Conference — a first in his 54 years of full-time church service.

 When current U.S. President Donald Trump came to Utah last month, Monson was not among the Mormon leaders to greet him.

 Yet, Trump offered kind words Wednesday about the man and his legacy.

 “While serving for over half a century in the leadership of his church, President Monson demonstrated wisdom, inspired leadership and great compassion,” Trump said in a statement. “ … His message was one of optimism, forgiveness and faith.”

 Even during Monson’s silence in the public arena, however, his church made significant policy changes, particularly in the realm of gay rights.

 In November 2015, he and other Mormon authorities unveiled a new policy labeling same-sex LDS couples “apostates” worthy of possible excommunication and generally forbidding their children from baptism and other religious rites until age 18. The edict unleashed a firestorm of criticism not only from gay-rights advocates and progressive Mormons but also from lay leaders and conservative Latter-day Saints who viewed the stance, especially with the children, as mean-spirited and un-Christlike.

 For their part, church leaders called the change compassionate. D. Todd Christofferson, the first apostle appointed by Monson as president, explained in a 10-minute video interview that “it originates from a desire to protect children in their innocence and in their minority years.”

 LDS leaders “don’t want the child to have to deal with issues that might arise where the parents feel one way and the expectations of the church are very different,” he said, noting that “nothing is lost to them in the end” if these children join the faith when they become adults.

 Russell M. Nelson, 93 and next in line to lead the church, said in a speech in January 2016 that Monson had proclaimed the policy was “the mind of the Lord and the will of the Lord.”

 A real trooper

 In May 2017, the LDS Church took a major step toward ending its longtime alliance with the Boys Scouts of America by dropping the Varsity and Venturing programs for boys ages 14 to 18. The faith already had announced that it was developing its own program to serve all the faith’s young people — girls and boys — around the world.

 These moves came even though Monson was a lifelong Scout. He earned Silver Beaver, Silver Buffalo, Silver Fox and Bronze Wolf honors, and a national state-of-the-art Scouting leadership complex under construction in West Virginia will bear his name. A 23,000-square-foot Scout lodge in eastern Utah’s Uinta Mountains is also named after Monson.

 The Mormon president’s commitment to Scouting reflected “his views on masculinity and what men in the church should be like,” Bowman said. “The ideal Mormon man is one who would have walked across the Plains. Scouting is an attempt to offer that proxy pioneer experience.”

 Monson embraced that model and desired it for other Mormon men.

 All the while, racial tensions simmered beneath the surface and then erupted in the past few years.

 Though the LDS Church rarely speaks out on civil rights, it did issue a stern condemnation in 2017, pointedly disavowing groups that promote white supremacy.

 After citing verses from the Bible and the faith’s foundational scripture, the Book of Mormon, the church said in a statement, “White supremacist attitudes are morally wrong and sinful, and we condemn them.”

 Mormons who “promote or pursue a ‘white culture’ or white supremacy agenda,” it warned, “are not in harmony with the teachings of the church.”

 Black Latter-day Saints, including some Monson admirers. celebrated the forceful statement.

 “Long before he was the president of the church, President Monson was everyone’s grand ol’ grandpa.” said Tamu Smith, one of the “Sistas in Zion” writers. “His stories seem to transcend time and race. He drew me in with his ability to tell a story. I was so caught up in the tale that I accidentally got taught a lesson.”

 Smith, co-author with Zandra Vranes of “Diary of Two Mad Black Mormons,” felt a kinship with the man she revered as a prophet.

 “His personality was much like my grandfather’s, and his teachings were fun and gentle reminders of eternal truths,” she said. “He will be remembered by me and my journal writings as the ‘no pressure prophet.’”

 Extending Hinckley’s legacy

 Beyond these actions and the landmark missionary-age shift, Monson extended the efforts of his immediate predecessor, Gordon B. Hinckley, building and dedicating temples, expanding the Perpetual Education Fund and Temple Patron Fund for needy members, celebrating the faith’s welfare program and continuing to promote LDS youth activities.

 Hinckley was “such a towering figure,” said Bowman, who teaches at Henderson State University in Arkansas, that the charismatic Monson will be viewed as a “caretaker of Hinckley’s legacy.”

 More than Hinckley, though, Monson faced a new era of doubt as Mormons, especially young people, increasingly came across troubling tidbits on the internet about their religion’s past. Partly to counter the flood of information — and sometimes misinformation — the church published online essays that confront and explain some of the stickiest theological and historical issues surrounding Mormonism, including early LDS polygamy, the faith’s former racial ban and the belief in a Heavenly Mother.

 In addition, the church expanded its flagship Missionary Training Center, in Provo, and similar facilities around the globe. It unveiled new standardized interview questions for prospective missionaries, and widened temple service opportunities for older single men, recently divorced members and teenage boys and girls. It also loosened the dress code and bolstered parental leave benefits for church employees. LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University even began selling caffeinated colas on campus.

 One of the most notable decisions Monson made was among his first — choosing German apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf as his second counselor in the governing First Presidency. The charismatic Uchtdorf — dubbed the Mormon Pope Francis — represented the church at Obama’s inauguration, discussed immigration with the U.S. president at the White House and soon became the face of Mormonism in many quarters.

 By choosing Uchtdorf, Monson clearly signaled his interest in making the church seem less American and more global (though the three apostles he selected in October 2015 all were white Utahns with multigenerational LDS roots). Monson maintained friendships across countries, churches, ages and political parties.

 “When I look at his life, he was a member of the church everyone could relate to and everyone could feel comfortable in his presence,” Uchtdorf said in a news release.“At the same time, when he walked with kings, with prime ministers, with presidents, with representatives of nations, it was the same way. They all felt that he was their friend.”

 Under his leadership, Monson directed numerous collaborations with other faiths on causes such as homeless shelters, food banks, nursing homes and disaster-relief efforts in the United States and abroad. He sent his first counselor, Henry B. Eyring, to the Vatican for an interfaith meeting on families and for a historic encounter with Pope Francis.

 Monson once urged the LDS Church to give its outdated 25th Ward meetinghouse in Salt Lake City to the Salvation Army, Swinton reported, then organized members to reroof and paint the interior. The church supplied an organ, piano, pews, chairs, silverware, dishes and tables from the former Hotel Utah.

 Such connections with those of others faiths were legion.

 On the Saturday in April 2008, when Monson was sustained as president, Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald of Salt Lake City’s Catholic Diocese took some newly ordained priests to lunch at Little America in downtown Salt Lake City. As they were eating, a hand reached over the side of the booth to tap the monsignor on the shoulder — it was Monson’s.

 “My goodness, President Monson,” Fitzgerald said in amazement. “What are you doing here?”

 The newly sustained church president simply grinned and exchanged pleasantries with the surprised cleric.

 It’s important, Monson said the following Monday, that Mormons “eliminate the weakness of one standing alone and substitute for it the strength of people working together.”

 A divided flock

 Controversy during Monson’s presidency stretched beyond the faith’s policy on gays.

 In his first year, the new president formed an alliance with other faiths to push California’s Proposition 8, a ballot measure defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. Monson signed a letter to all California Mormons, urging them to donate time and money to the effort. Latter-day Saints overwhelmingly responded, eventually raising about $20 million and helping the measure pass. But it left many Mormons divided and alienated from their church and triggered a national backlash by gay activists, including widespread protests at LDS temples.

 Eventually, the church supported trailblazing Salt Lake City laws protecting gays from housing and employment discrimination, but the scars to church unity prompted some mending. LDS leaders unveiled a mormonandgay.org website — reaching out to same-sex attracted members and their loved ones. They successfully lobbied for a landmark nondiscrimination law protecting the rights of gay and transgender individuals in housing and the workplace throughout Utah while safeguarding some religious freedoms. And this past summer, the church endorsed a rock concert in Orem to raise funds for at-risk LGBTQ youths.

 Perhaps more divisive was the LDS Church’s support for undocumented immigrants.

 The Utah-based faith has been baptizing such immigrants for decades, allowing them full access to the rites and responsibilities of all Mormons. During Monson’s administration, though, immigration debates erupted across the country and within the faith.

 The church endorsed the so-called Utah Compact, calling for more humane immigration policies, keeping families together and finding a path to citizenship. It also supported a Utah guest-worker law that would allow undocumented immigrants to live and work in the Beehive State.

 Some politically conservative members found themselves on the opposite side of their church on the issue. They asserted that the statements came from LDS public-relations personnel, not Monson, even though the church’s positions were “approved at the highest level.”

 The Mormon president remained silent; the immigration battles raged on.

 That happened at the same time as the LDS Church stepped into the national limelight like never before — even during the 2002 Winter Olympics in the heart of Mormondom.

 Television shows such HBO’s “Big Love” and TBS’ “Sister Wives” created confusion about Mormonism and polygamy, a practice the faith abandoned more than a century ago. That was exacerbated when the offshoot Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ran afoul of the law, and its leader, Warren Jeffs, was convicted of child sex abuse.

 A Tony-winning Broadway musical, “The Book of Mormon,” mocked LDS teachings and its missionary efforts, and two members of the faith, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr., ran for president — the former becoming the Republican nominee and then losing to Obama — while the LDS Church launched a nationwide media campaign, “I’m a Mormon,” to combat misconceptions and to say, essentially, “We are not weird.”

 Neither the publicity nor the controversies seemed to touch the Mormon president, who maintained his focus on enriching members’ lives, temple-building and missionary outreach.

 After all, he had years of preparation for the office.

 Prophet in training

 Long before he became a counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley, Monson was well-schooled in the way of Mormon prophets and well-known to the LDS faithful.

 Monson spent his entire career in the service of the LDS Church, working alongside every president since 1963, when he was named one of the 12 apostles at age 36.

 Tall with a big grin, Monson was “a robust, buoyant, whirlwind of a man who might have been a superb basketball player in his youth had it not been required of him ... [to] forgo the pleasure of extracurricular school activities in order to work at his father’s side in the printing business,” fellow apostle Jeffrey R. Holland wrote in a biographical essay.

 Soon after college, Monson joined the church-owned Deseret News in 1948, where he worked as an advertising executive at the Newspaper Agency Corp. Later, he became general manager of the Deseret News Press, a commercial printing firm.

 At age 22, he was called as bishop of Salt Lake City’s Sixth-Seventh Ward and became noted for visiting elderly widows — a practice he never gave up.

 Five years after being named a bishop, Monson became a counselor in the three-man presidency of Salt Lake City’s Temple View Stake, followed by a stint as head of the church’s Canadian Mission.

 In 1963, then-President David O. McKay elevated him to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, making him one of the youngest men in the 20th century to join that powerful body.

 During the ensuing decades, Monson worked in every area of the vast LDS bureaucracy, from missionary work to welfare services, education to genealogy. He represented the church on the boards of KSL, Mountain Bell, Commercial Security Bank, Beneficial Life Insurance Co., the Boy Scouts of America and President Ronald Reagan’s Task Force for Private Sector Initiatives.

 Monson often acted as a Mormon envoy, dealing with governments wary of the LDS presence in their nations and the legal tussles involved. His two decades of quiet diplomacy in Eastern Europe culminated in the announcement of an LDS temple in Freiberg, Germany, then behind the Iron Curtain.

 He also took on ecumenical and welfare issues. He enjoyed regular meetings with leaders of Utah’s other faiths and developed friendships with then-Bishop George H. Niederauer and his direct predecessor in the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, Bishop William K. Weigand.

 Monson had an “impact on the nonmember world and especially the Catholic Church in really telling them we are Christians and want to cooperate with them,” wrote LDS general authority Gene R. Cook, as quoted by Swinton, “and yet still firmly hold to what we believe and know to be true.”

 The future Mormon prophet worked hard to maintain that balance.

 Steady but stern

 Monson was no pushover.

 During an earlier decade, when the Boy Scouts were embroiled in a lawsuit for refusing to allow gay leaders, Monson, as the church’s Scouting point man, spoke unequivocally for the organization.

 He was “not shaken by the confrontations, nor did he step back when the arguments were taken to the press and bitter public attacks ensued,” Swinton writes. “His steady position ... kept the discussions focused on principles and preserved the purpose of Scouting.”

 Eventually, the Boy Scouts of America opened its ranks to girls and openly gay boys. The LDS Church, the BSA’s largest sponsor, is sticking with the group for its younger boys and is keeping its current programs for girls.

 The BSA also did an about-face and allowed openly gay men to serve as leaders. Gay men are allowed to serve in some Mormon leadership roles, including working with a congregation’s Scouting troop, if they do not act on their same-sex attractions.

 Monson also took on the inertia of young single men. Stop dawdling and get married, he admonished young Mormon men during the April 2011 General Conference. He then directed a massive overhaul of worship services for young single adults.

 Even as president, Monson continued to enjoy the occasional fishing trip with his longtime pal Jon Huntsman Sr. and remained an avid sports fan, showing up at Utah Jazz basketball games, even if, as one LDS blogger affectionately put it, he was “dressed like an undertaker.” He also visited the Utah State Fair with his daughter, checking out the pigeons.

 Charming and personable, Monson emphasized the personal over the programmatic. In the 1990s, he was assigned to review the church’s new instruction manual, called “Preach My Gospel,” for use by would-be missionaries. His criticism: It needs more personal stories of faith and successful conversion.

 From his earliest church service, Monson was a homespun orator known for his compassion and fondness for modern-day parables of struggle and spiritual triumph.

 The veteran storyteller was also playful — in one of his sermons to young men, Monson wiggled his ears to make a point — often using irony or understatement as a punchline, or drawing on quotes from playwrights, lyricists and novelists.

 The talks grew naturally from his own relationship style.

 A band of brothers

 As a member of the LDS First Presidency under Hinckley, Monson divided up the task of appointing new mission presidents with the other counselor, James E. Faust. Faust finished the assignment in half the time, Swinton writes, while Monson took more than an hour visiting with each couple.

 “He [was] never too busy to pick up the phone to call a friend from high school who just lost her husband, never too busy to sit by the side of a friend as he passes on, never too busy to write a letter of encouragement to one of his friends with a note at the bottom, ‘It’s time to come back’ [to church activity],” Swinton writes. “President Monson is never too busy to reach out to rescue.”

 He treated associates and members as treasured friends. When Holland was named an apostle, Monson, then a counselor in the First Presidency, gave the newcomer a “special flint marble” he had won in a fifth-grade marble championship. It was a cherished memento he had not even been willing to loan to friends who asked, but he willingly handed it over to his new colleague.

 Among the apostles, Holland wrote, Monson was “an eager and quick learner.”

 Swinton notes that he once asked Howard W. Hunter why his shoes always remained tied, when Monson’s routinely came undone as the two sat together in meetings.

 Easy, replied Hunter, LDS president at the time. Hunter used a square knot, and Monson tied a granny. Hunter then reached down and tied Monson’s shoes for him, showing him how to navigate a square knot. From that day on, Monson followed Hunter’s knot-tying habit.

 Then-President Spencer W. Kimball referred to Monson as “truly a ‘do it’ man,” Holland wrote. Late apostle Bruce R. McConkie called him “a genius in church government.”

 The late senior apostle Boyd K. Packer, who sat at Monson’s side through their years in the Quorum of the Twelve, had said, “If I needed someone to steer a sensitive matter carefully through the councils of the church, Thomas S. Monson is the man I would pick for the task.”

 Humble, happy beginnings

 Monson was born Aug. 21, 1927, to G. Spencer and Gladys Condie Monson, who lived in a tiny house on Salt Lake City’s west side. The family would eventually include six children.

 It was his childhood during the grips of the Depression that helped forge his twin virtues — relentless optimism and the desire to help others.

 “I remember that time and time again those who were riding the rails came to our home. I think they had it marked,” Monson told The Tribune in 1998. “I can see [a hobo] now, holding his cap in his hand. He asks, ‘Is there something I can do to earn a sandwich?’ My mother would say, ‘You come right in and sit down; wash your hands over there in the sink.’ And then she’d make a sandwich.”

 Monson would never say, however, that he suffered great deprivations, but rather that he enjoyed the typical pleasures of youth, including sports, fishing, hiking, reading, pranks and pets.

 During his first year at the University of Utah in 1944, the loquacious and charming Monson met Frances Beverly Johnson, a slender beauty who loved big bands and the outdoors. He was smitten.

 It was during World War II that Frances told the future LDS leader, “You are tall and skinny, and I think you’d look better in a Navy uniform.”

 So he promptly enlisted in the Naval Reserve.

 After a couple of years, he was back at the U., where he graduated with honors in 1948 with a business degree. That same year, on Oct. 7, he married Johnson in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. They had three children and eight grandchildren.

 Throughout his church career, Monson never neglected his family members, daughter Ann Dibb told The Tribune in 2008. But he did keep them waiting.

 He was the last one out at church every week, had to shake every hand and greet every missionary. Once, he went to Primary Children’s Hospital to give a blessing to one child, Dibb said, and ended up visiting nearly every sickbed on the floor.

 Sometime in the mid-2000s, Frances Monson fell and hit her head. She was in a coma for three weeks. Monson moved his office to the hospital so he could keep up with his work. He never left her side as she recovered. She died in May 2013.

 “His life seems something of a sacred manuscript upon which the Holy Ghost has written ... ” Holland wrote, “one remarkable message after another.” ||||| Leer en español

 SALT LAKE CITY — More than half a century before he became the 16th president of the LDS Church, Thomas S. Monson, who died at 10:01 p.m. Tuesday in his Salt Lake City home at age 90, was an inexperienced, 23-year-old Mormon bishop with a distressing problem that would define his life.

 He had the distinct spiritual prompting to leave a priesthood leadership meeting as his stake president was speaking and visit an elderly member of his congregation in the hospital. It seemed rude to stand, shuffle over 20 people and exit as his presiding leader spoke. Instead, he sat uncomfortably until the talk ended, then bolted for the door before the closing prayer.

 At the hospital, he ran down the corridor. He stopped when he saw commotion outside the room of the man he was to visit. A nurse told him the man had died, calling Bishop Monson's name as he passed away. Shattered, the fledgling bishop went outside and wept, sobbing. He vowed then, in the parking lot of the old Veterans Hospital in Salt Lake City's Avenues, that he would never turn a deaf ear to another prompting.

 "It's the most impressive story I know from him about his ministry to the one," said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. "As far as I know he kept that promise ever since. It became fundamentally characteristic of his life and what sets him apart from others, that he committed to this idea of following a prompting, and the focus almost always was a single person."

 Deseret News archives President Thomas S. Monson, center, First Counselor Henry B. Eyring, left, and Second Counselor Dieter F. Uchtdorf comprise the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They speak at a news conference in the LDS Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Monday, Feb. 4, 2008.

 President Monson's death, after nearly 10 years as prophet-leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, closes a distinctive era in church leadership. During his time as one of the longest-serving apostles in Mormon history, church membership expanded from 2.1 million members to 15.9 million. The number of temples grew from 12 to 159.

 Still, he will be most remembered for his individual ministry, a relentless drive to go to the rescue. President Monson's biographer described his lifelong, tender ministry to widows, the lost, the obscure, the dying and the downtrodden as a portable pool of Bethesda, the New Testament place of mercy and grace where waters made the lame whole and Jesus Christ healed a paralyzed man. President Monson carried what he himself termed "Bethesda’s blessing" of heartfelt ministry to a grease pit, countless hospitals and behind the Iron Curtain.

 Place in history

 Elder Holland believes that President Monson, born on Aug. 21, 1927, in Salt Lake City, had a special gift for personal, one-on-one ministration that he honed throughout his life.

 "I think," Elder Holland said, "that is probably the single-most startling and admirable characteristic in a very admirable life."

 A large, faithful, energetic, gregarious, intelligent man with a prodigious recall that allowed him to memorize talks and remember everyone he met, President Monson shot through the ranks of church leadership, as a bishop at age 22 and president of the faith's Canadian Mission at 31. He was unthinkably young, just 36, when he was ordained a modern apostle of Jesus Christ on Oct. 4, 1963. No one younger has been called as an LDS apostle in more than a century. The last younger apostle, Joseph Fielding Smith, was ordained at age 33 in 1910; he also lived to become church president.

 The senior quorums of the LDS Church are vaults of institutional memory. New apostles are trained by the quorum's senior apostles. As a new apostle in 1963, President Monson joined a quorum with a handful of men who knew or were raised by Latter-day Saint pioneers who crossed the plains in 1847. They could speak from experience about the church before the Manifesto that ended polygamy in 1890.

 By the time of his death, his past relationships in the quorum made President Monson unique among living LDS senior leadership. He was the final prophet to have served in the Twelve with church leaders who had known men who knew the first, Joseph Smith.

 President Monson also was the final living apostle called to the Twelve by late church President David O. McKay. He was the last apostle alive who had served with President McKay's immediate successors at the head of the church, Joseph Fielding Smith and Harold B. Lee. The man expected to succeed President Monson, President Russell M. Nelson, is 93, but he was ordained an apostle more than 20 years after President Monson, in 1984.

 President Monson spent more than three decades in the First Presidency. He spent a total of 54 years as an apostle. Only four men in LDS history served longer in the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve — President McKay, Heber J. Grant, Joseph Fielding Smith and Wilford Woodruff.

 "History and feeling a part of that continuity is a wonderful part of this ministry," said Elder Holland, who knew President Monson for 49 years, in a 2015 Deseret News interview that has not been published before.

 To the rescue

 One Sunday while still a young bishop, President Monson noticed a teenage boy missing from priesthood meeting. This time, he left his meeting. He went to the boy's home. His mother said her son was working at the West Temple Garage in Salt Lake City. President Monson drove to the garage and searched until he noticed two eyes shining up out of a grease pit.

 "You found me, Bishop!" said the boy, who later said he decided that Sunday morning, as he looked up at his bishop from a grease pit, that he would serve a church mission.

 "There was a bishop on a rescue mission for someone who it would be easy to see as a nameless, faceless young man," Elder Holland said, "but he wasn't nameless or faceless to Thomas Monson. It's a great story. We've all loved it."

 President Monson shared that experience in a 1997 general conference talk about what he called "the importance of building a bridge to the heart of a person."

 He was the final bridge to a vital moment in church history, as the last man alive who was present in June 1978 when church leaders received the revelation giving the priesthood to all worthy men.

 Seven years earlier, he and then-Elders Gordon B. Hinckley and Boyd K. Packer set apart three black men to lead the Genesis Group for African-American Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. In March 1972 he wrote in his journal: "I am very impressed with these three black brethren who comprise the presidency of this group. Certainly they have been subjected to a lot of injustice and long for the day when they may be able to hold the priesthood. I can honestly say that I have no racial prejudice whatsoever toward such individuals and join with them in a desire that their request might one day be granted by the Lord."

 In 1978, he gave President Spencer W. Kimball a written opinion that favored petitioning the Lord again with a plea to extend the priesthood to all worthy men. He called the announcement of the revelation "a moment of exultation." As chairman of the Missionary Executive Committee, he assigned the first black missionary. He performed the first sealing for a black family in an LDS temple. And he attended the first Genesis Group meeting where the sacrament was served, administered and passed by black members with the priesthood.

 Three pools

 Elder Holland said President Monson was an example of someone who refined and magnified a spiritual gift. He did not simply remember the lesson learned as a 23-year-old bishop; he developed it.

 "He's pursued that gift," Elder Holland said, "and he's been conscientious about it."

 One afternoon while still a young apostle, President Monson gazed at the ceiling of the old Deseret Gym, where the church's Conference Center now sits, as he swam the first of what were to be several laps of backstrokes. Again came a spiritual prompting. This time he felt he should go visit a seriously ill friend experiencing paralysis.

 President Monson cut short his exercise, dressed and hurried to bring that figurative pool of Bethesda imagined by his biographer Heidi Swinton in "To the Rescue" with him to University Hospital in Salt Lake City. He found his friend slumped in a wheelchair at the far end of the facility's therapy pool. He walked down and greeted the man, wheeled the chair around and took him back to his room. He didn't know the man had been contemplating a way to propel the wheelchair into the pool.

 "President Monson didn't know that," Elder Holland said. "He just went down and greeted him with that enthusiastic, hail-fellow-well-met attitude of his. For the rest of his life, that brother testified of that crucial moment. Who's to say if President Monson had finished another 10 laps and taken his time to get up to the hospital or waited until after work that night to go up, I don't know, but there might not have been a friend there to receive him. All history will say is: He was there at the right time, at the right moment, for the right reason, and that again is so characteristic of his life."

 "Never," President Monson said when telling the story, "never, never postpone following a prompting."

 He also reminded church members that it wasn't the waters of Bethesda’s pool that healed the man in the New Testament. "Rather," President Monson said, "his blessing came through the touch of the Master’s hand."

 Stories that matter

 Another prompting led him to fly abruptly to East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain, to give a blessing to a woman with pneumonia. He also was famous for giving away his suits. Elder Holland emotionally described one such instance during an October 2014 general conference talk.

 "The image of him I will cherish until I die is of him flying home from then–economically devastated East Germany in his house slippers because he had given away not only his second suit and his extra shirts but the very shoes from off his feet."

 President Monson shuffled in those slippers through a terminal in Chicago's famed O'Hare Airport.

 "It seemed so characteristic," Elder Holland told the Deseret News. "I confess I probably would have been a little self-conscious about that, but there's absolutely no evidence in the telling of the story that he was. It's just so uniquely him."

 Ann Monson Dibb, one of three children born to President Monson and his wife, Frances — who died in May 2013 after 64 years of marriage — once said her father lived three scriptures from the Book of James.

 "First, James 1:22: 'Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.' Second, James 1:25: 'A doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.' And third, James 1:27: 'Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.' No matter what their trial or sorrow may be, (my father) extends his hand. He lifts them, steadies them and supports them as they apply their own faith and trust in their Savior, Jesus Christ."

 The humanity of the story of the 23-year-old bishop who failed to promptly follow a prompting but learned a life lesson illustrates the reason President Monson was such a powerful and popular speaker, Elder Holland said. Stories from his personal ministry resonate with people.

 "We either identify with being the recipient of such a gift," Elder Holland said, "or we might hope and dream that some day we might be good enough to do that ourselves. The church is large, a lot of things about the church can be institutional, congregations are massive, we put 21,000 in that Conference Center. Everything's big now, and so be it. I'm glad. We need a lot more people, and we need to go to a lot more places. But somehow we all respond — I think every one of us identifies — when a story comes down that cuts through all the institutional framework and all the numbers of the congregations and all the complexity of structure and gets down to, 'That could have been my wife or my daughter in that hospital or my son or my nephew in that grease pit or my dad at that swimming pool.'" |||||

– The 15th man to succeed Joseph Smith as chief of the Mormon church has died. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says 90-year-old church president Thomas Monson died at his Salt Lake City home Tuesday evening, the AP reports. Monson—who was ordained as a bishop at the age of 22 and became one of the church's apostles at 36—had led the church for almost a decade and largely remained behind the scenes during a tumultuous 10 years for the church, though he was well-known for helping the needy and often turned up unannounced at funerals or at the bedsides of the ill, reports the Salt Lake Tribune, which describes him as an "affable leader" and a "folksy preacher." Monson, who was born in Salt Lake City and served in the Navy during World War II, was president of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for 13 years before becoming church leader. The AP reports that he's likely to be remembered for his humanitarian work, for lowering the minimum age for missionaries to 18 for men and 19 for women—and for leading his church's support of California's same-sex marriage ban in 2008. The Deseret News notes that Monson also, as chairman of the Missionary Executive Committee, assigned the first black Mormon missionary. No successor has been named yet, but under church protocol, the next president will be 93-year-old Russell Nelson, who is now the longest-serving member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.


A still image taken from Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) video footage shows what they say is a small unidentified aircraft shot down in a mid-air interception after it crossed into southern Israel October 6, 2012.

 DUBAI (Reuters) - The incursion by an unmanned aircraft into Israeli airspace at the weekend exposed the weakness of Israeli air defenses, an Iranian military official was quoted as saying on Monday.

 The Israeli air force shot down a drone on Saturday after it crossed into southern Israel, the military said, but it remained unclear where the aircraft had come from.

 Jamaluddin Aberoumand, deputy coordinator for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the incident indicated that Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system "does not work and lacks the necessary capacity", Fars news agency reported.

 The Iron Dome system, jointly funded with the United States, is designed to shoot down short-range guerrilla rockets, not slow-flying aircraft. It intercepted more than 80 percent of the targets it engaged in March when nearly 300 rockets and mortars were fired at southern Israel, the Pentagon said at the time.

 The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean near the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich. An Israeli warplane shot it down above a forest near the occupied West Bank.

 Israeli parliament member Miri Regev, a former chief spokesman of the military, wrote on Twitter it was an "Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah", referring to the Lebanese Shi'ite group that fought a war with Israel in 2006.

 Israeli defense officials have not confirmed this.

 Aberoumand attributed claims the drone was made by Iran to a "psychological operation" by Israel, but did not confirm or deny them. "The Zionist regime (Israel) has many enemies," he added.

 On at least one occasion, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has sent a drone into Israeli airspace. And in 2010, an Israeli warplane shot down an apparently unmanned balloon in the Negev near the country's Dimona nuclear reactor.

 The Israeli military released a 10-second video clip of what it said was Saturday's mid-air interception, showing a small aircraft just before a missile from a fighter jet destroys it.

 Israel has threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear sites if diplomatic efforts fail to stop the nuclear work it believes is aimed at getting weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies.

 Iran has responded with threats to attack U.S. military bases in the region and retaliate against Israel if attacked.

 (Reporting By Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Alistair Lyon) ||||| GAZA Israel said it struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday after Palestinian militants fired rockets at southern Israel, in what they said was a response to an Israeli air strike that killed one militant and wounded a second a day earlier.

 Israel said its air raid targeted 25-year-old Mohammed Makawi whom it linked to a radical group involved in a recent Sinai border attack in which an Israeli was killed. Hospital sources in Gaza said Makawi died of his wounds.

 The armed wing of Hamas, the Islamists who control the Gaza Strip, said it had joined in Monday's rocket attack along with the smaller Islamic Jihad group.

 Gaza has been under the control of Hamas since 2007. The Islamist group rejects permanent peace with Israel and the two sides fought a three-week war in December-January 2008-2009. The border is tense, with frequent clashes.

 The Israeli army says over 470 rockets have been fired from Gaza this year, but it was the first time since June that Hamas had acknowledged launching rockets at Israel. A Hamas spokesman said the movement would not remain passive in the face of what it called "one-sided" Israeli violence.

 The Israeli army said it had targeted "Hamas terror activity sites and terrorist squads responsible for the rocket fire", but gave no details. Israeli forces say they will not tolerate such attacks and will hold Hamas responsible for them.

 Gaza hospital officials said one Islamic Jihad militant thought to have been involved in the rocket attack had been wounded by Israeli tank fire east of the town of Rafah.

 Residents of Khan Younis in southern Gaza said an Israeli tank fired at the suspected launch area, slightly wounding four children and damaging a minaret and a water tower.

 Abu Ubaida, spokesman of the Hamas armed wing Izz El-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, said the rocket firing was a message to Israel that it would not accept "a formula of a one-sided aggression by the occupation on flimsy pretexts".

 With Egyptian mediation, Hamas has made efforts in the past to clamp down on smaller militant groups that persist in mounting attacks on Israel, partly in order to avoid another devastating war. The Israeli offensive in the winter of 2009 killed more than 1,000 Palestinians.

 But on Monday Abu Ubaida said Hamas had displayed a "high level of coordination" with Islamic Jihad in unleashing the latest rocket barrage.

 "Should the enemy continue its aggression against the Gaza Strip the reaction by the resistance will be stronger and broader," he said.

 The homemade weapons fired from Gaza are inaccurate, but potentially lethal. An Israeli spokeswoman said some exploded harmlessly on Monday near the border with the Gaza Strip. But one kibbutz resident said children could have been killed.

 "It was a very powerful barrage," Ilan Yosef of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak near the Gaza border told Israel radio. "The goat pen in the (children's) petting corner was severely hit and a vet is treating the animals still alive and dealing with those that aren't."

 (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Alistair Lyon) |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Israel launched a round of airstrikes on Gaza today, wounding two militants and eight bystanders, including some children. Israel says the attack was retaliation for a round of Palestinian rockets fired yesterday, which Palestinians say were in response to another Israeli airstrike earlier in the day, Reuters reports. More than 470 rockets have been fired from Gaza since June, but this was the first time Hamas acknowledged responsibility. As usual the rockets failed to harm anyone, though one did kill some goats at a petting zoo. The incident comes in the wake of a drone flight into Israeli airspace this weekend, which some have speculated came from Iran. An Iranian military official today boasted that the incident proved that Israel is vulnerable, and that its anti-missile defense system "does not work and lacks the necessary capacity." But he denied that the drone was made by Iran, saying such accusations represented a "psychological operation" on Israel's part. "The Zionist regime has many enemies," he said. Iran, meanwhile, is blaming Israel for a hack attack on its oil rigs.


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– Parkinson's drugs are known for a range of side effects, including hallucinations, psychosis, and extreme drowsiness. But researchers say there's also a clear link between the use of some of these drugs and impulse control issues that result in hypersexuality, compulsive gambling, and uncontrollable spending, reports LiveScience. Looking at 1,580 reports of people in 22 countries, including the US, who'd experienced these abnormal behaviors after taking meds between 2003 and 2012, they identified 710 cases that involve dopamine receptor agonists, drugs often used to treat Parkinson's disease. (The other 870 cases accounted for all other types of drugs combined.) "Physicians have overestimated the benefit and underestimated the risks associated with the use of dopamine receptor agonist drugs in patients with [Parkinson's] disease," the researchers write in JAMA Internal Medicine. One of the writers says three of his patients have lost their homes because they went bankrupt after taking the drugs, reports NPR. The link was strongest for pramipexole (brand name Mirapex) and ropinirole (Requip). Because people taking this type of drug were 277 times more likely to report these impulsive behaviors than those taking other drugs, the researchers are calling for black-box warnings—reserved for the most extreme cautions—detailing the risks involved. (One woman has even reported her Parkinson's meds give her three to five unwanted orgasms daily.)

Pathological gambling, hypersexuality and compulsive shopping are some of the abnormal behaviors that are linked to the use of certain drugs commonly used to treat Parkinson's disease, according to a new study.

 The findings are important because they mean that doctors and patients should be wary of the drugs' side effects, according to the study authors. But they also give researchers a better understanding of how abnormal behaviors develop in general, and how such behaviors may be related to the brain receptor that is targeted by the drug, the authors said.

 "In our view, these medications should be used less frequently and with great caution, paying close attention to possible untoward effects on behavior and impulse control," said Dr. Howard D. Weiss of Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and Dr. Gregory M. Pontone of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, writing in an editorial about the new study.

 In the study, the researchers examined 1,580 reports of people in the United States and 21 other countries experiencing pathological gambling, hypersexuality, compulsive shopping or other abnormal behaviors after taking medication between 2003 and 2012. They found that 710 of the cases occurred in people taking drugs called dopamine receptor agonists, which are used to treat Parkinson's disease, whereas the other 870 cases occurred in people taking all of the other types of drugs combined.

 The researchers determined that the proportion of such reports was 277.6 times higher for people taking dopamine agonist receptor drugs than those taking other drugs. [7 Bizarre Drug Side Effects]

 Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that normally helps regulate movement, emotions and the feelings of pleasure. In people with Parkinson's disease, the brain cells that make dopamine die over time. Dopamine receptor agonists are used to mimic the function of the neurotransmitter.

 The important step to take after the new findings is to introduce warnings about the potential side effects of those drugs so that doctors who prescribe them are aware of them, said study author Thomas J. Moore, a senior scientist at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices in Alexandria, Virginia.

 "They [doctors and caregivers of Parkinson's patients] need to be on the lookout for this kind of behavior" and understand it may be linked to the use of medication, Moore told Live Science.

 Of all the cases of abnormal behavior that were observed in the people taking the drugs for Parkinson's disease, the majority (410 cases) occurred in those who had been taking a dopamine receptor agonist drug called pramipexole, which affects a receptor called dopamine D3 receptor. And the drug that was second-most commonly linked to such behaviors was ropinirole, which also has a significant effect on the D3 receptor, according to the study, published today (Oct. 20) in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine

 The researchers noted that in some cases, the people taking these drugs had restless leg syndrome (not Parkinson's disease).

 The new research may allow researchers to better understand how abnormal behaviors develop, and how they may be related to the D3 receptor, Moore said. The D3 receptor has also been investigated as a possible target for treatments for people with addictions, the researchers wrote in the study.

 In another study, published in July 2011 in the journal Physiology & Behavior, other researchers also found a link between behaviors such as hypersexuality or excessive gambling and the use of the two drugs that Moore found to be the most closely related to abnormal behaviors in the new study.

 Drugs for Parkinson's have been down this road before. In the 1960s, the introduction of the Parkinson's drug levodopa enabled Parkinson's patients to “regain function and return to the mainstream of life," Weiss and Pontone wrote.

 Levodopa gets converted into dopamine in the brain, said Weiss and Pontone, who were not involved with the new research.

 However, enthusiasm for that treatment was tempered when patients taking it developed involuntary muscle movements, similar to tics, and in rare cases also developing abnormal behaviors such as hypersexuality, they wrote.

 The newer class of Parkinson's drugs — the dopamine receptor agonist drugs — act differently in the brain, Weiss and Pontone wrote. Levodopa gets converted into dopamine in the brain, the dopamine receptor agonist drugs just mimic the neurotransmitter's effects.

 It was known that the dopamine receptor agonist drugs caused side effects such as hallucinations, psychosis and excessive daytime sleepiness. But despite these effects, the drugs remain widely used, and it is only recently that doctors started recognizing a link between the use of those drugs and the occurrence of impulse control disorders with symptoms such as pathological gambling, hypersexuality and uncontrollable spending, Weiss and Pontone wrote.

 It is not surprising that it took a while for doctors to start recognizing the link between the two, they wrote, as they did not routinely inquire about the potentially behavior-altering effects of the drugs.

 "During an office visit, a patient is unlikely to spontaneously mention, 'By the way, doctor, I lost $250,000 in casinos last year, and I purchase $500 of lottery tickets every week' or 'I spend all night on Internet pornography sites and am soliciting prostitutes,'" Weiss and Pontone noted.

 "In summary, physicians have overestimated the benefit and underestimated the risks associated with the use of dopamine receptor agonist drugs in patients with Parkinson disease," they wrote.

 Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science. ||||| Treatments

 Parkinson's Drugs Can Be A Gateway To Sin

 i itoggle caption ImageZoo/Corbis ImageZoo/Corbis

 Drugs that are commonly prescribed to help people cope with Parkinson's disease have been linked to bizarre changes in behavior that patients and doctors should be on guard against, researchers say.

 The disturbing side effects include compulsive gambling, uncontrollable shopping and a sudden obsession with sex.

 The problems with the drugs, called dopamine agonists, are serious enough that the researchers say the Food and Drug Administration should require the medicines to carry what's called a black-box warning, one of the most prominent and serious cautions used for prescriptions drugs.

 Some of the drugs are also prescribed for restless leg syndrome and hyperprolactinemia, a hormonal condition that can trigger milk production.

 While the problems with the dopamine agonists have been noted in the past, the recommendation for a more prominent warning comes come after researchers sifted through 2.7 million reports of drug reactions submitted to an FDA database between 2003 and 2012.

 The researchers from the Institute for Safe Medicine Practices, Harvard and the University of Ottawa found 1,580 adverse drug events involving impulse control disorders. A little less than half, or 710 reports, were associated with dopamine receptor agonist drugs.

 The link was strongest for pramipexole, brand name Mirapex, and ropinirole, brand name Requip. The instructions for doctors who are thinking about prescribing Mirapex already carry a warning that says patients taking the medicine "may experience compulsive behaviors and other intense urges." Requip, a treatment for restless leg syndrome.

 The results were published online Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine.

 Back in 2005, doctors from the Mayo Clinic reported 11 cases of patients who became compulsive gamblers after taking dopamine agonists. A 52-year-old man lost $100,000 in casinos after previously gambling only once in his life. He also became fixated on pornography and obsessed with sex, carrying on extramarital affairs. A month after stopping the drug, he was his old self.

 Doctors and patients may have overlooked the problems. In a commentary accompanying the latest findings, two Johns Hopkins doctors wrote that nausea, dizziness and other physical side effects are more typical parts of the conversations between doctors and patients about drugs. "During an office visit, a patient is unlikely to spontaneously mention, 'By the way, doctor I lost $250,000 in casinos last week' or 'I spend all night on Internet pornography sites and am soliciting prostitutes,' " they wrote.

 Neurologist Howard Weiss, a co-author of the commentary, tells Shots that these drug-related compulsive behaviors haven't gotten the attention in the medical community that they deserve. A heightened warning in the drugs' instructions could help make the risk clearer, Weiss says. The behavioral problems, he says, "are more important than 99 percent of the other side effects that are being listed."

 Weiss says he's had at least three patients who have lost their homes because of bankruptcy after taking the drugs.

 When he asked an elderly patients taking one of the drugs if she ever gambled, she replied, "Gambling is the work of the devil." But it turned out she had been buying hundreds of dollars' worth of lottery tickets a week, a habit she didn't consider to be gambling.

 Weiss says the behavioral problems usually go away after patients stop taking the medicines. He also says the drug combination carbidopa-levodopa, another Parkinson's treatment, works better and doesn't increase the risk for impulsive behavior. ||||| Importance Severe impulse control disorders involving pathological gambling, hypersexuality, and compulsive shopping have been reported in association with the use of dopamine receptor agonist drugs in case series and retrospective patient surveys. These agents are used to treat Parkinson disease, restless leg syndrome, and hyperprolactinemia.

 Objectives To analyze serious adverse drug event reports about these impulse control disorders received by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and to assess the relationship of these case reports with the 6 FDA-approved dopamine receptor agonist drugs.

 Design, Setting, and Participants We conducted a retrospective disproportionality analysis based on the 2.7 million serious domestic and foreign adverse drug event reports from 2003 to 2012 extracted from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System.

 Main Outcomes and Measures Cases were selected if they contained any of 10 preferred terms in the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) that described the abnormal behaviors. We used the proportional reporting ratio (PRR) to compare the proportion of target events to all serious events for the study drugs with a similar proportion for all other drugs.

 Results We identified 1580 events indicating impulse control disorders from the United States and 21 other countries:710 fordopamine receptor agonist drugs and 870 for other drugs. The dopamine receptor agonist drugs had a strong signal associated with these impulse control disorders (n = 710; PRR = 277.6, P < .001). The association was strongest for the dopamine agonists pramipexole (n = 410; PRR = 455.9, P < .001) and ropinirole (n = 188; PRR = 152.5, P < .001), with preferential affinity for the dopamine D 3 receptor. A signal was also seen for aripiprazole, an antipsychotic classified as a partial agonist of the D 3 receptor (n = 37; PRR = 8.6, P < .001).

 Conclusions and Relevance Our findings confirm and extend the evidence that dopamine receptor agonist drugs are associated with these specific impulse control disorders. At present, none of the dopamine receptor agonist drugs approved by the FDA have boxed warnings as part of their prescribing information. Our data, and data from prior studies, show the need for more prominent warnings. |||||