NEWS - HOMELESS MAN CHARGED WITH STALKING MORMON CHURCH PRESIDENT

Homeless man charged with stalking Mormon church president

July 8, 2011 

SALT LAKE CITY — A homeless man was charged Friday with stalking the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Benjamin Tucker Staples, 36, was charged with stalking, a class A misdemeanor.
Salt Lake police officers were called to the LDS Church Office Building, 50 E. North Temple, on July 5 after receiving a report of a trespasser. Officers were told Staples had been to the building about five times since June 25 asking to speak with President Thomas S. Monson.

Benjamin Tucker Staples, 36, was charged Friday with stalking LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson.

From the archive

Staples was "told on every prior appearance that he is not to return to the premises," the charges filed in 3rd District Court state. "Each prior incident, the defendant was arrested and booked into the jail."

Staples, who has the alias of "Jesus Christ" listed in the Salt Lake County Jail booking information, told officers "he intends to keep returning to the offices" until he meets President Monson, the charges state.

Each time, he refused to leave voluntarily, "choosing instead to be arrested by police," according to the charges.

"Church security is concerned for the safety of the president and those employed in the building because of defendant's persistence even after being told not to return and given a written trespass order," the charges state.

Staples is being held in jail on $25,000 bail.
— Brian West

NEWS - ROMNEY TO CAMPAIN IN SC TODAY

Saturday, May. 21, 2011
Romney to campaign in S.C. today
By GINA SMITH

Likely GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney is in South Carolina today, meeting with a small group of business owners.

“It’s a chance for him to hear from real people about the economy and how it’s affecting them,” said state Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Lexington, who set up Romney’s one-stop visit to Meetze Plumbing in Irmo to speak with up to 20 business owners.

Gov. Nikki Haley, who endorsed Romney in the 2008 GOP presidential race, will not attend the event because her schedule does not match up, said Rob Godfrey, Haley’s spokesman. The two did speak on the phone Friday, he added.

“They were just touching base,” Godfrey said. “The governor told Governor Romney she was sorry they couldn’t catch up this time, and he let her know that he’d be back often.”

Haley, who received nearly $59,000 from Romney’s political action committee in her run for governor last year, has said she will endorse a GOP candidate for president but has not done so yet.

Meanwhile on the state’s airwaves, a Democratic group is blasting Romney in the first ad of the 2012 campaign cycle, on the issue of health care.

The TV and Internet ad, airing this weekend across the state, also notes another Republican presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, who recently criticized a GOP plan to convert the federally funded Medicare and Medicaid programs into block grants

Romney spokesman Andrea Saul said the ad – sponsored by a group of former members of President Barack Obama’s campaign team and former S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges – is a “desperate” attempt to change the conversation.

“With 9.6 percent unemployment in South Carolina, voters are looking for a jobs plan not a smear campaign,” Saul said.

Today’s visit marks the former Massachusett governor’s first visit to South Carolina this election cycle, considered a frontrunner for the GOP nomination.

Romney finished fourth in the state’s 2008 GOP presidential primary. That weak showing led to speculation that Romney will all but skip South Carolina despite its prestigious first-in-the-South primary. He, along with several other high-profile candidates, sat out a presidential debate in Greenville earlier this month.

However, more recent polling shows more promise. An April poll of likely S.C. Republican voters put Romney is second place behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who since has said he won’t run.

Asked about campaigning in South Carolina, Saul said, “Governor Romney will be campaigning in South Carolina, as he will other states.”

Ballentine, a Haley ally who also endorsed Romney in 2008, doubts Romney will skip South Carolina. “He’s smart enough to know he has to spend time here.”
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im sorry i missed seeing him in my old home turf. i voted for him (only vote ive ever cast) here, in Oklahoma. but he didnt win.
when he lost, there was a ton of speculation hed run in 2011. i didnt think he would, but im not surprised he is.
im not so sure the world is ready for a MORMON in office, altho allot of the congress personell happen to be , in fact, LDS...
the world thinks we want them all to be like us..we dont, we want you to decide on your own if you want to be among us.
but thats a personal choice.
an we cant change that.

i dont see what the big deal about ROMNEY even being a president is. everytime anyone relishes on the fact they like someone from the past as far any president goes, they always site a conservative president.
so, ROMNEYS pretty conservative, if he holds true to his mormon ways.

hes not the ONLY member of the faith running. i hear theres another contender.
maybe hell squeeze in there. i havnt heard about him much, i do know that glen beck says hes the next president. we shall see glen, we shall see.

MICHELLE