This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Columnist George Will once said that football combines the two worst aspects of American culture - violence and committee meetings. Add gluttony and you have the deplorable brawl that broke out at Wednesday's Main Street sandwich-eating contest between the Hunter and Bingham high school football teams. While four Hunter players were suspended from Friday's season opener, more disciplinary action by both schools may be necessary to make the point that, off the field, violence is not an acceptable way to solve problems.

Read the label: Sen. Chris Buttars offered the most feeble of all the unworthy excuses from backers of the anti-gay marriage Amendment 3 for their failure to bring the matter before the Utah Constitutional Revision Commission before sending it to the voters. To wit: “If you try to run every bill through the Constitutional Revision Commission every year, you'd never get anything done.” Nobody's suggesting that every legislative matter go to that body. Just the ones involving “constitutional revision.” Is it that Amendment 3's sponsors can't read, or that they think the rest of Utah can't?

Greyhound is gone: Blaming the post-9-11 traveling blues, Greyhound has cut bus service to 260 locations, including the eastern Utah communities of Vernal, Roosevelt, Duchesne and Heber. This is one business decision that can't be blamed on globalization or outsourcing, but it is an undeserved blow to the affected communities and to people, especially the old and low-income, who will now find it difficult to get anywhere. Here's hoping a smaller, locally oriented bus service steps in.

Who ordered fish?: The Salt Lake County Council finally pulled the plug on a ballot issue to sink $30 million into a bond for the Living Planet Aquarium. It's tough to say no, but this community already has a full plate of education and recreation projects with claims on taxpayer funds, including the Leonardo and Children's Museum. Salt Lake County also has to come up with $50 million to expand the Salt Palace. A fish tank in the desert was a good place to draw the line.