This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
A look ahead
CITY CREEK CANYON CLOSURE
City Creek Canyon will be closed weekdays from Monday to Feb. 28 while workers fill in Pleasant Valley Reservoir and upgrade a water treatment facility. The canyon will be open on weekends and after 5:30 p.m. during the week.
TUESDAY
SANDY TO VOTE ON GRAVEL PIT
The Sandy City Council is scheduled to vote on a proposal that would pave the way for a commercial development, including a Wal-Mart, at a gravel pit near 9400 S. 1000 East.
WHEN: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Sandy City Hall, 10000 S. Centennial Parkway
WEDNESDAY
TAXES AT WORK
Salt Lake County will unveil its 2005 budget Wednesday after six days of workshop meetings.
Any changes to the $743 million operating amount, likely to include a 31 percent cut in the mayor's office, will be on display for the public at the county complex.
Formal adoption of the budget is scheduled for Dec. 7.
FRIDAY
LIGHTS ON!
It's a day-after-Thanksgiving tradition in downtown Salt Lake City -- flipping the switch to Christmas lights. It all starts at 6 p.m. at the Gallivan Plaza with a Mexican holiday party complete with tamales, pi-atas and tree lighting. Santa Claus arrives at 6:30 in front of Meier and Frank, just in time for the lights to be turned on on the street, in the malls and at Temple Square. A tree lighting at The Gateway follows at 7 p.m.
Quotables
I don't speak very clearly. We've got so many foreign players, you know, I guess they don't understand southern Illinois language." -- Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, explaining why players don't always follow his instructions when they're on the floor
"The [prisoner] said, 'I've got a weapon on me.' And before he could finish the sentence, Lloyd had a gun in his ear. . . . Later, I told Lloyd, 'I'm glad you didn't shoot that guy. I don't know how we would have explained it to the rental-car agency.' "-- Former Park City Police Chief Frank Bell, on his road trip to Folsom Prison with current Police Chief Lloyd Evans and a violent prisoner
Transitions
Patricia Bradley, state director for charter schools since last summer, quit last week, citing "the ongoing tension of where the movement will go in Utah. It's a very trying time." Her resignation is effective Nov. 30. Mark Walsh, associate director of the Utah Association of Counties, left his post after being the subject of a probe into the finances of UAC's executive committee. Walsh has hired an attorney for what he characterized as severance negotiations. This page is compiled from The Tribune and news wire services.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Mandatory minimum sentencing
Too much time for the crime?
The U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights says one thing; federal minimum mandatory sentencing laws say another.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell reluctantly went with the mandatory minimums and sentenced a drug dealer to spend the next half-century in prison.
Cassell called the sentence "unjust and cruel and even irrational," then called on President Bush to commute the term to a more just punishment. He also urged Congress to modify the law "so that its harsh provisions for 25-year multiple sentences apply only to true recidivist drug offenders."
Weldon Angelos, 25, who carried a gun while selling drugs to undercover officers, will be 80 years old before he is freed.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah said the sentence is fair and will deter others.
Defense attorney Jerome Mooney plans to appeal Cassell's denial of his request to declare minimum mandatory sentences unconstitutional.
Angelos originally was charged with only one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, but after he refused a plea deal -- and a 16-year sentence -- prosecutors went for the extra charges.
BUSINESS
A match madein heaven
Deseret Book and Excel Entertainment have announced their union to pursue the Mormon media consumer together.
LDS Church-owned Deseret Book sells books, of course, and Excel distributes LDS-oriented films and music, such as "God's Army" and Kenneth Cope albums.
The more serious-minded Deseret Book says it won't stifle Excel's pop-culture sensibilities on LDS themes. "This joining of forces will only propel us down the road," Chief Executive Sheri Dew said. Excel President Jeff Simpson said Deseret Book won't exert any "more control than we exercise on ourselves."
BELLS SILENCED
Have yourself a consistent Christmas
The Salvation Army won't be setting up red kettles and bell ringers outside any Target stores this year. In Utah, Target customers dropped in $60,000, 20 percent of the total holiday take. Target says it isn't being a Grinch, just consistent with a company policy against charitable solicitors.
DONATIONS
Give it up, Utahns
On the other hand, Utahns are the most generous people in the country, as measured by the Urban Institute. The 7.4 percent of their pay that Utahns donate each year is double the national average. Most goes to churches -- one church, actually; for giving to nonreligious groups, Utah is 48th in the country.
SCIENCE
Born to run
Human beings are in the race for the long haul -- and that may be part of what makes us human. University of Utah biologist Dennis Bramble and Harvard University anthropologist Dan Lieberman don't know why early humans started running 2 million years ago, but they say fossil evidence indicates they developed adaptations -- such as the Achilles tendon -- that set them further apart from their primate cousins. Evolving features, such as longer legs and arched feet, also aided in running.
Why did these not-very-fast creatures run? Not to get away from fast animals so much as to catch them when they got tired.
Or maybe they were trying to catch a bus. We may never know.
STUDENT PROTEST
Raising their voices -- and signs
Some Salt Lake City high school students protested the war in Iraq, the gay marriage amendment and No Child Left Behind, by walking out of class and down to the City-County Building. Juan Blanco, a 15-year-old sophomore at East High, said: "People don't think we have opinions, but today everyone can see how we respond to these issues."
Mayor Rocky Anderson met briefly with the students and said afterward, "I don't necessarily think it's the best thing to be skipping school, but they seemed to be aware that when you engage in civil disobedience, there are consequences to pay."
Suspensions are possible, a district official said.
ALLEGED ID THEFT
She said she just wasn't herself
Kimberly Ann Bailey posed as an IHC employee to trick a woman whose name she plucked from a Tribune birth announcement into giving her Social Security number, then got credit in the woman's name and went shopping, police say. She bought an SUV, furniture and even paid her dry-cleaning bill, charges state.
The victim said the lack of sleep that comes with having a newborn made her less careful than she normally would have been.
But she also gave some credit to Bailey, saying: "She's a seriously competent crook. . . . I even asked her a question about billing and she answered it -- she quoted me a variable interest rate."
ELECTIONS
School board victor grateful for power of one
Alama Uluave wants to thank someone -- although it could be anyone.
"One" is the operative word -- that's Uluave's margin of victory in the election for Salt Lake City School Board District 2.
Hearing of his single-vote win, he said, "Well, I'm relieved it's over."
Upon hearing that he lost by a single vote, J. Michael Clara laughed and said, "Yikes," adding that he couldn't help but wonder about a day or two he took off from campaigning.
In brief
Marriage advice
* Supporters of Utah's recently approved Amendment 3 formed a new nonprofit organization to provide legal advice in the national fight to ban same-sex marriage.
Um, never mind
* Forget what they said about a flu vaccine shortage. Now, you want one, you got it. The Utah Department of Health has lifted all restrictions on who can get the shots.
Money well spent
* When Utah food pantries said a new state inspection fee -- from $30 to $350 -- would take food from the mouths of the needy, the state Department of Agriculture and Food listened. The pantries are now exempt from the annual charge.
Mega-meeting
* Rotary Club members will gather in Salt Lake City in 2011 for the largest single convention ever to be held in Utah. City convention officials estimated the 31,000 Rotarians will spend $27 million while in town.
The plot thickens
* U.S. troops in Fallujah, Iraq, found some personal belongings of Utah Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who said he was abducted in June from his base near the city and then, inexplicably, turned up thinner but alive in Lebanon.
Francisco Kjolseth/Tribune file photo