This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Walk the plank, matey!
Pirate-themed parties, vacations, dinners and drinks are the rage in Utah thanks to the influence of the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."
THE NEWS IN BRIEF
Sunday
10,000 attend
Utah Pride parade
Sunday's Utah Pride parade offered the all-American excitement one would expect from any mid-sized city - maybe just a bit more flirty and rainbow-colored. And this year's Pride parade was bigger than ever, with 10,000 people converging downtown, according to the Salt Lake City Police Department. The parade is a celebration of gay pride.
Monday
Conjoined twins
to be separated
Conjoined twins Allyson and Avery Clark, just 7 months old, will be separated at Primary Children's Medical Center in two weeks. During an estimated five-hour surgery, doctors will pull apart the cartilage and nerves that bind the chubby-cheeked girls at the base of their spines. ''It's going to be nice to have one-on-one time" with each twin, said their mother, Anna Clark, on Monday during a news conference.
Monday
1-800-Contacts
to be sold
1-800-Contacts Inc., which has lost money for five years, has agreed to be bought by private equity firm Fenway Partners Inc. for $340 million in cash. 1-800-Contacts' headquarters and management will stay in Draper. The company employs 680 people in the Salt Lake City area and 220 people in Asia. The sale comes as 1-800-Contacts continues a long struggle to return to profitability.
Tuesday
Violent crime rises in Salt Lake City
Violent crime in Salt Lake City reached a seven-year high in 2006, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Justice. The numbers were better in West Valley City and Provo, the other two Utah cities for which 2006 data is available. Violent crime decreased there. Property crime decreased in all three cities.
Wednesday
Air Quality Board supports doctors
The state Air Quality Board voted unanimously Wednesday to support the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment's request to make sure state air-quality laws are as tough as the science suggests they should be. The work will begin with appointment of a panel of health and science experts who can review current research on the health damage caused by air pollution, which will advise the state about the adequacy of those laws.
Story of the week: Chilly, wet weather
2-day storm doesn't faze drought
The two-day storm that began clearing out Thursday afternoon drenched northern Utah with more than an inch of rain in spots around the Wasatch Front, and the upper elevations of the Wasatch Mountains gained more than a foot of snow.
The precipitation was more than welcome, but National Weather Service forecasters say the cold Pacific storm barely dented water needs in what has so far been a year of drought. In fact, the Salt Lake Valley is about 7 inches short of what it would need to be normal.
"We've had a below-average snowpack and below-average precipitation," said Brian McInerney, a hydrologist with the weather service's Salt Lake City bureau. "Now we're at the very end of the melting season. This storm is too little, too late."
By Thursday morning, the north Ogden bench had received 2.86 inches of rain, and the Farmington Bench, 2.66 inches. In the Salt Lake Valley, Upper Millcreek got 2.02 inches, the upper Avenues 1.63 inches and Sugar House, 1.06 inches.
Alta and Snowbird received 14 inches of new snow. Jamie Stockham was working the Alta Lodge front desk Thursday, the summer season's opening day, and could see some fresh tracks on the resort's slopes. "We have some guests who are out sledding right now," he said.
McInerney said the snow equaled about 2 inches of rain and did little to help what he called "an inefficient and low runoff season."
A low snowpack combined with persistent high pressure cells and three months of above-normal temperatures meant snowmelt was lost to soils, evaporated into the air through vegetation and even "sublimated" - that is, went straight from solid to vapor. The effect is similar to what happens when your ice cubes shrink in a frost-free freezer, said Salt Lake City-based National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Struthwolf.
Snow falls on a horse as it grazes on spring vegetation in Summit Park on Wednesday.
More than 9,500 students failed to pass at least one portion of the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test, according to data released Tuesday by the Utah State Office of Education. Last year 10 percent of students failed the UBSCT.
The increase is partially related to a new student tracking system that now includes seniors who may have dropped out or skipped test day, said Deborah Swensen, state director of assessment. Last year's numbers reflected only students who took the test and failed, she said.
"It is a concern," she said. "It says to us, 'Boy, we need to make sure we get this information to each of the districts to make sure they can better meet the needs of their students.' ''
This year's seniors were the second class that received conditional diplomas if they didn't pass the math, reading and writing exit exams. Utah lawmakers passed a law creating the exit exams to make sure the state's students leave high school competent in basic skills.
Students get five chances to take the tests, starting in their sophomore year. Those who don't pass all three sections get diplomas noting that they didn't complete all portions of the test.
SARATOGA SPRINGS - A fire fanned by heavy winds forced the evacuation of about 25 homes Tuesday night.
No known homes were in any danger, said Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon.
The blaze began about 9:30 p.m. on the southeast side of the city in a development known as Lake Mountain Estates. Winds in the area were blowing about 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph, Cannon said.
About 100 people were evacuated to an LDS wardhouse near 4000 South and 140 West.
Mayor Tim Parker said the blaze had consumed about 10 acres.
All the evacuated residents live in homes on Cafi Way, said Cannon. Some residents in a nearby area known as Pelican Point also went to the church for safety.
"At the end, right before I left my home, the smoke was getting really thick, so I just had to high tail it out of there," resident Allen Childs said. "I left my lights on so [firefighters] would know there's a home there."
The fire was less than a mile away from Dyno Noble, a mine blasting and explosives company, but the wind was blowing the fire away from the factory, Cannon said.
Dozens of fire crews were working to contain the fire at midnight and were making progress, he said.
The blaze capped off a busy day for Northern Utah fire agencies.
Early this morning, Salt Lake City Fire Department and the Unified Fire Authority were fighting a grass fire almost a mile up Emigration Canyon. Firefighters were alerted around 11 p.m. Tuesday, and, as of midnight, roads in the area were still open.
A 24,000-acre fire fueled by heavy winds and cheat grass also was burning in the desert of Tooele County and caused the closure of the Aragonite exit on Interstate 80.
The Quincy blaze started about 1 p.m. on the west side of the Cedar Mountains, about 75 miles west of Salt Lake City. It moved within 10 miles of I-80 before winds blew it east again, said Northern Utah Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman Erin Darboven.
Darboven said the Quincy fire burned a 10-mile area near the Dugway Proving Ground on Tuesday afternoon. Winds were reportedly gusting up to 50 mph. The fire wasn't expected to be fully contained until Saturday around 3 p.m.
No structures are threatened, no evacuations were ordered and no injuries were reported.
EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said the company was keeping an eye on the blaze, but that it was 10 miles from the radioactive-waste disposal facility.
Also Tuesday, firefighters contained a 27-acre wildfire east of Ogden, the U.S. Forest Service said.
At 6:30 a.m., about 60 firefighters from area agencies began battling the brush and grass fire in a small canyon about a mile outside the city. By 1 p.m., they had created a fire line all the way around the fire and were dousing the flames as a helicopter dumped water from above.
A fire near two 12,000-gallon propane tanks threatened the closure of the Salt Lake City International Airport on Wednesday night.
The two massive propane tanks were in danger of exploding at a firefighting training facility at the airport, said Dennis McKone, spokesman for the Salt Lake City Fire Department.
The airport tower and a SkyWest facility were evacuated around 11:40 p.m. There were still six arrivals and one departure scheduled at the airport between 11:30 p.m. and 2 a.m., said Barbara Gann, airport spokeswoman. None of those flights were affected by the fire, she said.
One of three runways was closed because of the situation, Gann said. The airport was still operating with tower personnel working in another building.
Firefighters issued a 1.5-mile evacuation area around the tanks, but were letting the fire burn, hoping the propane exhausts itself, McKone said.
After consulting with the propane experts around midnight, fire crews sent in a Hazmat team that was able to shut off the main gas feed.
Roy
Hill airman killed as family prepared for return
With a little more than a week to go before her husband's scheduled homecoming from Iraq, Danielle Balmer set to work making posters, buttons and banners and gathering flags to line the road leading to their house.
She even had a special shirt made for their infant daughter. "My daddy's finally home," it read. "It's about time."
There was no question in Balmer's mind that her husband would safely return. Five-and-a-half months into a 6-month tour of duty in a relatively peaceful stretch of the war-torn nation, Ryan Balmer had not experienced anything that would make him doubt he would be coming home.
Balmer, 33, was killed alongside fellow Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent Matthew Kuglics on Tuesday by an improvised bomb planted in the road in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
"It's basically a very immoral thing to do," Utah rancher Cecil Garland said Monday. "Those of us in agriculture know there isn't that kind of water in these desert valleys."
Earlier this year, Nevada State Water Engineer Tracy Taylor ruled that the water authority could pump 40,000 acre feet of water yearly from aquifers in Spring Valley, Nev. That area lies directly west of Snake Valley, which straddles the Utah/Nevada border.
On the 'White Horse Prophecy' that claims a Mormon will save the U.S. Constitution:
"That's not official church doctrine. . . . I don't put that at the heart of my religious belief."
-Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Mitt Romney told The Salt Lake Tribune during an interview earlier this year.
In the latter days, the story goes, the U.S. Constitution will hang by a thread and a Mormon will ride in on a metaphorical white horse to save it. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not accept the legend - commonly referred to as the "White Horse Prophecy" - as doctrine.
On state pension programs with international investments that include terrorist nations:
"We are not in business to conduct foreign policy."
-Bob Newman, executive director of Utah Retirement Systems, which manages the state's $23 billion pension program.
Individual Americans can't do business in Iran, North Korea, Syria and Sudan because the federal government says those countries support terrorists.
But states can, at least indirectly.
Public money is funneled to those countries through international investments held by pension programs in every state.
Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman is leading a national "terror-free investing" effort that she hopes will shame major companies from doing business with the countries on the State Department's list.
"I decided I did not want an I-love-me wall," Bennett says. "I have an I-love-me closet."
WASHINGTON - Some politicians plaster their walls with tributes to themselves: plaques, portraits of themselves and photos of them posing with famous people.
Not Sen. Bob Bennett.
Besides the ubiquitous pictures with presidents, Bennett adorns his office with a collection of art he has amassed during his career. Watercolors, oils, tapestries Ð some modern and abstract, some landscapes.