Salt Lake City: Utah residents hold bankruptcy record

Utah residents are more likely to file for bankruptcy than residents of any other state, according to a financial research organization.

During the year ending March 31, roughly one of every 35 Utah households filed for bankruptcy, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, a Virginia-based research organization. That far outpaced the national average of one for every 69 households.

And the numbers aren’t improving: July saw a record 1,915 filings and 2002 is on pace to set a state record with more than 20,000 filings.

There’s no simple explanation, financial experts say.

Some point to obvious factors: Utah’s per-capita income ranks 45th in the nation. Its families, many of them part of the Mormon faith, are larger than those in other states. The job market is weak, and the cost of living is relatively high.

Florida: Report says doctor targeted mosques

A podiatrist arrested after authorities found guns and explosives in his home planned to destroy an Islamic education center and dozens of mosques, court documents alleged Friday.

Deputies searching Dr. Robert J. Goldstein’s home near St. Petersburg found up to 40 weapons, 30 explosive devices, a list of about 50 Islamic worship centers in Florida and detailed plans to bomb an Islamic education center, according to a complaint filed Friday.

Goldstein, 37, was charged Friday with possession of a nonregistered destructive device and attempting to use an explosive to damage and destroy Islamic centers. He was being held without bond Friday night at Hillsborough County jail.

Authorities did not offer a motive.

Georgia: Mother faces charges in ‘mercy killings’

Despite community pleas for mercy, a Georgia grand jury handed up murder charges Friday against a woman who fatally shot two adult sons as they lay in a nursing home in advanced stages of Huntington’s disease.

Carol Carr, 63, faces the possibility of life in prison if she is convicted of the killings, which friends insist she carried out in a desperate bid to end her sons’ suffering. The case has generated nationwide attention, winning Carr expressions of support from those who know the ravages of Huntington’s, a hereditary brain disorder that leaves patients unable to walk, speak or think clearly and is ultimately fatal.

Carr’s husband died of Huntington’s and a third son, James Scott, 38, is in the early stages of the disease. The disorder also struck the husband’s mother, along with a sister and brother.

Kentucky: Two children slain in knife attack

A young brother and sister died Friday of knife wounds in an attack that injured a sibling and left their mother in critical condition.

Police arrested an acquaintance of the mother hours later in a West Virginia town 270 miles away.

Police offered no immediate motive for the early-morning attack that killed Cody Sharon, 6, and Chelbi Sharon, 7. Authorities charged Marco Chapman, 30, of Warsaw, with murder, assault and burglary.

The mother, Carolyn Marksberry, was in critical but stable condition. Ten-year-old Courtney Sharon was in fair condition.