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Florida artist Maria Alquilar returned to Livermore, California, in August to make some requested changes to a 16-foot circular mosaic–containing the names and likenesses of various cultural and historical figures–she’d created for the city’s public library in 2004. Livermore paid Alquilar $40,000 for the work as originally installed, plus another $6,000 to come back and spell “Shakespere,” “Eistein,” “Van Gough,” and eight other names correctly.
In July a Utah appellate court granted Kaziah Hancock and Cindy Stewart a new trial in their attempt to recover money from a breakaway polygamous Mormon sect headed by Jim Harmston. The two women gave their life savings to Harmston’s church in return for promises of land, financial support, and a face-to-face meeting with Jesus, but were excommunicated from the church before the promises could be redeemed. At a 2002 trial, the defense argued that it was God’s responsibility, not Harmston’s, to make good; the jury awarded Hancock and Stewart $300,000, but the judge threw out the verdict.
