Dear Lee,

It's been about a year since you wrote a complimentary article about the SkyBox Sports Grille and basketball fever in Salt Lake City and particularly at the Gateway.

We did appreciate the article you wrote and want to invite you back to check out the atmosphere a year later during the NBA Playoffs. We do not expect another article to appear in The Tribune but hope your experience matches favorably with last year's experience. ...

... Granted, the Sky Box is not EnergySolutions Arena, although you can see -- and hear -- the home of the Jazz, since it's right across the street.

With 70 TVs hanging from the beams and in the bathrooms it's the next best thing to being there. Plus there's instant replay.

A lot of Jazz fans have figured this out, much to the delight of Tiffany Price, the Sky Box's manager, who sums up the prevailing playoff mood in five words:

"This has been like insane."

Insane in a good way.

Oppal says he'll decide "soon" what to do about the polygamous community of Bountiful. It may be up to the B.C. Court of Appeal to decide whether Canada’s anti-polygamy laws could endure a court challenge. Says Oppal:

There’s been no shortage of advice, gratuitous advice, from across the country, with law professors writing in and other people asking why we haven’t gone ahead. There’s a small matter of witnesses. There are none.

Bountiful's polygamous chieftain, Winston Blackmore, who has more wives than most men have neckties, told reporters:

I understand that Wally Oppal has selected a couple of the best legal minds in the country to give him an opinion. And if he was wise, I think that he would just follow their opinion. But I’m not Wally Oppal.

• The Salt Lake Tribune's daily circulation down 5.1 percent, to 121,699. Sunday circulation down 4 percent, to 143,296.
• D-News: down 1.6 percent daily, to 73,817. Sunday down 3.2 percent, to 77,488.

My God! My God! They have missed!

The Nevada Republican Party was just ripe for this. Nevada doesn't have any strong leadership. And now, you've got this very vocal and fervent minority group, and there's nobody stepping up and saying 'McCain's our guy.'

In a final tribute to loopiness, Paul's success forced party leaders to abruptly recess the convention until an unknown date.

Many of the items sold on RomneyShop.com didn't have a date attached to them. So instead of designing a T-shirt with "Romney for President 2008," it simply said "Romney for President." With Mr. Romney rumored to be considering a run in 2012 or 2016, the merchandise retains its value. "This all can be used again," Mr. Harlin said.

Four weeks after Mr. Romney withdrew from the presidential race, Mr. Harlin sent out an email blast declaring "Romney Shop Sale Begins Today!" The message read: "This is a great opportunity to stock up for future campaigns."

To at least claim a tax credit, Statman gave the clothing to homeless shelters:

[Homeless people] may be seen on the street wearing hoodies that say 'Fred,' but hey, it's brand-new clothing."

Just like the world is full of mountains and then there is Everest, there are many loud, intimidating venues throughout the NBA.

Then there is Utah.

The sound alone can be the difference between listening to drumming fingers on a tabletop and standing next to a jet engine.

...it is a jarring juxtaposition between the clean, wholesome atmosphere on the streets of Salt Lake City and the down-and-dirty meat grinder that awaits visiting teams on the floor at EnergySolutions Arena.

I'd say it's the toughest place to play in the league. Definitely.

I am a missionary to the polygamous people. God called me to the FLDS. ... Not only did he save me, but he brought me to a point where I fell in love with my (FLDS) people and their need for the Lord.

Last night we told you of a plan by state officials to remove millions of carp from Utah Lake and possibly send them to Iraq to benefit starving people. But Eyewitness News discovered today that part of that plan has suddenly run into two big problems.

First of all, it turns out the man who wanted to market the harvested carp out of the lake and sell them overseas is under federal investigation in Minnesota for operating a similar plan that has been called a scam by prosecutors...

At 22, Price is 20 years younger and considerably taller than 4-foot, 8-inch Coleman, but at the wedding, she cooed, "He was 10 feet tall to me because he was sweet."

If you want to be creeped out along with TV Judge Lynn Toler you can hear the couple discuss Coleman's anger and intimacy issues. Count me out. I prefer to remember them in happier days, right.

People call it different things. Sometimes they call it inventing, sometimes they call it engineering. Sometimes they call it being a mad scientist or whatever. To us, it's the process of getting together, understanding the problems, goals and then designing something to satisfy the need.

Just what the world needs, even bigger, more deadly jarheads.

Jacobsen says he'll probably buy a ticket to "Ironman."

I go to see all those movies. They're fun. They stimulate your imagination.

Shurtleff's office finished in January an investigation into complaints Miller illegally ran businesses out of her home and hosted raucous late-night parties. The AG "found no basis for criminal charges." You've got to wonder if Maese delivered the keg.

Accusations of political hackery have been building for weeks against Utah County's Gang of Four — Bramble and his wife Susan, who is party secretary, and state GOP chairman Stan Lockhart and his mate, the merciless Rep. Becky Lockhart — who are trying to crush all opposition to their regime.

This all wouldn't be so bad if there were another party in Utah County. Though a few Democrats, like wolves in Daggett County, recently have been sighted in the Provo area, they have been trapped and returned to the Salt Lake Valley.

We've had a lot of success convincing these closed and secretive societies that they can trust us, that we're not the beast, that I am not the anti-Christ as some believe me to be.

What you see in Texas — in small part — is a look back at some of the behavior of Mormonism’s founding fathers.

When Mitt Romney, in his December speech about his religion, said, “My faith is the faith of my fathers — I will be true to them and to my beliefs,” he was taking on a load of historical baggage.

His faith was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith Jr., an itinerant treasure-seeker from upstate New York who used a set of magic glasses to translate a lost scripture from God. ...

It would have been just another Christian faith had not Smith let his libido lead him into trouble. Before he died at the hands of a mob, he married at least 33 women and girls; the youngest was 14, and was told she had to become Smith’s bedmate or risk eternal damnation.

Smith was fortunate to find a religious cover for his desire. His polygamy “revelation” was put into The Doctrine and Covenants, one of three sacred texts of Mormonism. It’s still there – the word of God. And that’s why, to the people in the compound at Eldorado, the real heretics are in Salt Lake City.

Egan says despite the LDS Church's rejection of polygamy, many mainstream Mormons feel a connection with the Texas polygamists' defiance. He quotes Guy Murray, a Mormon lawyer and blogger:

Back then, we were the ones in the compound.

As I have always emphatically declared, Utah should not be the world's dumping ground. Our country has limited space to store even domestic waste and it would be most appropriate to have a federal policy against the importation of foreign nuclear waste. However, as the federal government is slow to adopt such a policy, Utah will lead the way.

Governor Huntsman's action today speaks volumes for his integrity, strength, and passion for protecting what we cherish about our state. If EnergySolutions wants to pick a fight with our Governor, the people of Utah will be standing behind him every step of the way.

A team of archeologists led by Weber State University professor LeGrand Davies failed to find the controversial Mormon leaders bones or even a tooth. They expected to find the remains at less than a yard below ground.

Ground-penetrating radar had found evidence of a road and tree near which the grave was supposed to lie.

Robert Grow, Pratt's great-great-great-grandson, says:

The passage of time and the shallowness of the grave have left no specific identifiable human remains. This was a possibility and the family always understood that.

What I learned was there were people here who were good to Parley and folks who treated him well. They saw that he got a good burial.

• Expect FLDS members to be fearful, self-destructive and distrustful of government. (Sounds like half the people I know.)
• Members believe other religions are doing "Satan's work." (So do most Baptists — and you can add Democrats to the list.)
  
• FLDS mothers display "learned and enforced helplessness" that prevents them from making competent decisions for their children.
• FLDS Children are embarrassed by their mothers. (What kid isn't?)
• FLDS women travel with "two spies" and believe they are not going to be accepted by the "gentile world." (The primer, itself, is evidence they won't be accepted by the outside world.)
  

It is completely one-sided. It is the propaganda of the anti-polygamy spin written down as though it's cultural sensitivity.

• Screamed, "F*ck you!" at Texas Sen. John Cornyn
• Called N.M. Sen. Pete Domenici an "a**hole."
• Called Sen. Charles Grassley a "F*cking Jerk."
• Scuffled with Sen. Strom Thurmond, 92, on the Senate floor.
• Accused Sen. Mitch McConnell of the "Most egregious incident" of corruption he had seen in the Senate.
• Attacked Christian leaders And Republicans a 2000 campaign speech.
• Attacked Vice President Cheney.
• Screamed at a Young Republican volunteer after McCain won his first Senate election.
• "Publicly abused" Sen. Richard Shelby.

Kamas rancher John Blazzard says:

I'm pretty sure that we saw some tracks last summer up in the woods. There is a place for them, but it sure is not where people have tried to civilize and are trying to make a living on the ground. ...
My ancestors spent an awful lot of time and effort trying to wipe them out.

Bruce Johnson, a state Division of Wildlife Resources conservation officer, says the situation will never make both ranchers and environmentalists happy:

There doesn't seem to be much in-between ground. There are ideas and myths that are created, and people have an image in their head, and right or wrong, that's their image.

• The couple tried to start a business to offer certified nursing assistant training. Booth, a lawyer with the Auditor's office, didn't get a whiff of the Doll House?
• During the past legislative session, Booth had a lawyer contact lobbyist to push for a repeal of the "stripper tax," a 10 percent tax on escorts and strip clubs. (The effort failed.)

Hans Klingler, spokesman for the state party, said McCain and Romney were both invited when they were competing presidential candidates. Romney, who subsequently quit the race, RSVP’d to the Texas GOP first (unsaid: he foresaw more free time all of a sudden).

Perhaps Romney will deliver a sequel to the religious address he made while still a presidential candidate. He managed to sidestep the "Mormon question" that time. But the FLDS raid in Eldorado Texas is likely to be on every convention delegate's mind. It would provide a "teachable moment" for Mitt to explain the difference between the FLDS and his own LDS tribe.

Well I Have Heard The L.D.S. Church Has Said we need to Talk About our religion on The Web so here it Goes. Here Is The Truth About L.D.S. People in General.

1. We Are not Polygamist's? I Myself Like This Because Having one Wife is Just to much to deal with as is.
2. We do Drink Cola? even I enjoy a Pepsi now and then.
3. BYU is da Bomb.
4. Brigham Young Did Brigham to Utah.
5. Yes Aaron Eckart, Orson scott Card, and Gladys Knight are all Mormon too. and finally...
6. We Mormons Can Rock too!!!!!

Let me get this straight: You want some well-heeled for-profit corporation to pay potentially billions for the privilege of hastily launching a network that it can't charge money for, and let competitors provide devices for it, again for no extra money? I don't think so. I'm not pro-corporation, so much as I am pro-reality. ...

Sometimes I wish politicians needed higher-ed degrees in order to serve. This scheme could have used expertise in econ, psych, engineering, maybe even a little history.

The U.S. Geological Survey published new, nationwide hazard maps Monday which show that the worst-case earthquake has been elevated to a magnitude 7.4 on the 240-mile Wasatch Fault that runs from Malad, Idaho, through the state's population centers to Gunnison, and that the devastation could span several Wasatch Fault segments all at once. ... And new faults have been discovered, including one south of Tooele, one under Utah Lake and one in the Cache Valley.

This was no ordinary gay wedding, if any gay wedding could be construed as ordinary. It took place recently in my hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah, which doesn't have a reputation for being exceptionally progressive or tolerant.

We may be small and ineffective but, by God, we have our pride. ... If anything, SUPERDELL is an anti-libertarian. He’s a bully, a bigot and a homophobe who has fired employees because they were gay or non-LDS... .

Oh, and one additional thing. I was also elected State Chair of the Libertarian Party today, for the next year. Mostly, I think, because nobody else wanted it. And yes, "Super Dell" Schanze is our candidate for governor. Give him a chance, he grows on you.

I’m sure that calling me a pimp and calling Kelly Ann Booth stupid, or dishonest, or both passes as witty banter in your circles; but even someone as ridiculed as I am is revolted by such classless and disparaging remarks.

I bet it’s nice to be the smartest person in the room, never having erred. The “diehard reporter” in you should realize that this is a smear story with no probative value. As stated “Kelly Ann Booth is not accused of any wrongdoing.”

So the third option that you should be voicing is: She’s a caring and trusting individual, not jaded enough to be a legislator. I’m sure you complain just like everyone else that we can’t get decent and selfless people to represent the public interest. You’re right, the state would be much better served by a Johnny-come-lately trial lawyers association president that wants to line the pockets of his profession.

It would be nice if you used your blog to illuminate instead of just to snipe.

I don't think Utahns understand how momentous it is — the Episcopal presiding bishop and Utah's bishop together, and they are both woman. How extraordinary this is — in Utah of all places. You couldn't make that up.

Hey, John
Say, John
They're gonna hit you hard with
ev'rything they've got.

Hey, John
Come on
They'll be calling you
Everything you're not!

Jen and dogs moved to Utah from Santa Cruz California and, apparently, the weather and librarians have taken their toll:

...my little ibook that could just decided it can't anymore because it, too, thinks the winters in salt lake are completely and utterly unbearable! the kind and generous folks at the apple store informed me that no amount of life support would ever make its heart beat again. quel dommage!!

meanwhile, i'm banished to the salt lake city public library. using their pc's. it's a very precarious thing. and they're not being so kind about accessing a blog called nakedjen! um, it's not a porn site. i promise!! i'm sure all of you can vouch for that, right?? silly librarians. they're supposed to be subversive, aren't they?

You'll be glad to know Jen has gotten a new MacBook and has emerged alive and naked with her divorce angst intact.

• Lockhart used party money and clout to raise money for the incumbent "Fab Five" most of whom are opposed within the party.
• E-mail addresses of GOP delegates were selectively released to candidates. Susan Bramble has access to them and Bramble has GOP opposition to his re-election. Bramble says he would never use his conjugal connections for an advantage.
  
• Chance Williams, who is challenging Rep. Mike Morley, was told to shut up about Big Mike's $2 million entanglement in a SEC lawsuit.
  
• Bramble GOP challengers are complaining about the high proportion of semi-secret "superdelegates" in Utah County that tips the odds in favor of party insiders.
  
• Lockharts' daughter was elected a delegate in a district that at the time she was not residing.

Says Bernick:

Note to a likely re-elected Huntsman, who is the nominal head of the party: In 2009 get involved in who the new GOP state chairman is and lead an effort to clean up the Utah Republican Party.

That looks like the wrong side of the Cold War. It's not just bad to look at, it's probably bad to look out from."

It's like fourth-rate modernism. It's terrible.

They feel "distinctively Western and offer mountain views" but destroy any intimacy.

BYU issued a "academic freedom" policy in 1992 that prohibits professors from contradicting church positions (no-brainer there). For instance, a BYU prof, the DNews explains, "couldn't say in class they believe the church should practice polygamy."

The DNews neglects to mention BYU's purge of faculty who were deemed critical of church policy outside the classroom. The most recent controversy erupted around part-time prof Jeffrey Nielsen, who got the ax after he wrote an op-ed piece in The Tribune questioning church's position on same-sex marriage.

Daniel Peterson, BYU professor of Islamic studies and Arabic, tells the DNews that BYU profs don't fear LDS Church leadership would clamp down on BYU because, he says:

We haven't been allowed to get off the path that far.

Voters defeated vouchers by a statewide margin of almost 2-1 in November, and those members of the Legislature who supported vouchers have since said they will not attempt such wholesale voucher legislation again. But they are, perhaps, counting on getting their way via another avenue: changing the composition of the State Board of Education.

Bayles’ discovery of Jason McVean's bones wrapped up the murder case of Cortez officer Dale Claxton, who was gunned down nearly 10 years ago. The FBI paid full rewards to hunters who found the body of another suspect in the Claxton shooting case. The third fugitive was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound 1998. Bayles says:

It’s upsetting because they (the FBI) told me right up ‘til the last minute I would get the whole thing. Everybody we’ve talked to can’t believe they done this to us.

Such expressions continue to pop up like dandelions. ...

So, where's all this going?

Well, it's not going to end.

For centuries, smart people have said dumb things. As human beings, that's what we do.

Clampett could have manned up a little more, like Skousen did.

Let's be honest about it. ... I was asked how long I thought we'd be in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I said at least 10 years. ...
If we allow al-Qaida to flourish, these terrorists will take over the world and are willing to kill anyone who doesn't believe the way they do. Because of that, (the war is) not easy to walk away from. They will use oil revenues to spread terrorism and to destroy Israel that we can't walk out on because we have commitments to Israel."

To meet the definition, a church needs only a small group of people meeting to share religion and some sort of chain of command.

Douglas Laycock, constitutional law expert at the University of Michigan, says church — but that alone won't make the raid on the ranch unlawful:

If there’s probable cause, the government can search churches like anyplace else.

And Schleicher County, Texas, says Eldorado Ranch has not requested an exemption from its $1 million in property taxes on the grounds it's a religious organization.

So, Mitt, riddle me this: Is McCain a Washington hack with a lick-spittle relationship with lobbyists — or is he a seasoned conservative like the Gipper?

Mitt on Jan. 25:

Now [McCain's] engaging in "Washington talk." "Washington talk" says that somehow, because you’ve been in Washington, and you’ve been on a committee, that you somehow know about how the jobs of this country have been created.

Mitt on McCain this week:

I can tell you that for a person who’s spent over 25 years in Washington, D.C., working on economic policies from the days of (Ronald) Reagan and throughout the current time, Senator McCain is very well aware of the spending programs in Washington, which ones need to be cut back, which ones need to be grown. He understands also how to relieve the pressure on the American taxpayer.

Does this guy want to be McCain's veep or what?

UPDATE:Romney says that while he considers being asked highly unlikely, he “absolutely” would accept an offer from McCain to be his running mate.

He’s a fine man. We like each other. We campaigned together more than once and I will campaign with him all the way through November ...

Boffins* working at the University of Utah say they have one-upped London-based researchers in the race to perfect "T-ray" powered computers. Terahertz radiation, or T-rays, could drive powerful circuitry in a similar fashion to photonic optical machines seen by some as a likely successor to current (cough) electronic kit.

"We have taken a first step to making circuits that can harness or guide terahertz radiation," said Ajay Nahata, Utah associate prof. "Eventually - in a minimum of 10 years - this will allow the development of superfast circuits, computers and communications."

[Barlow] just wanted us to be able to look at the property and assure his neighbors that he doesn't have any type of criminal activity going on there and it's just him and his family and hired hands that are working on the property at this time.

The company, which already pretty much owns Utah's Congressman Rob Bishop, needs to buy more friends in Washington to kill a bill that would ban the importation foreign radioactive waste — hot waste that would end up in EnergySolution's Utah dump. (Fun quiz: Which photo at right is the waste dump?)

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a champion of nuclear energy, has been the biggest recipient of EnergySolution's largess.

EnergySolutions manages a South Carolina site through which Italian waste could be imported. After processing, 1,600 tons of the nastiest N-garbage would be shipped to EnergySolutions' Utah dump west of Salt Lake City.

A Canadian-based oil exploration company wants to drill near the jetty, and could begin in a few weeks in an area where it already has a lease with the state.

The sense of ruined and abandoned hopes interested him. He didn’t look for beautiful places, but rather despoiled landscapes where industry and the wild overlap.

One animal, says the article, datelined from Denver, may become a martyr for the pro-wolf movement. Wolf 253M was shot in western Wyoming.

The killing made headlines as far away as Utah, where 253M had wandered in 2002, before being transported back to Wyoming.

Recent criticism has given many the erroneous impression that since I am a member of the Public Utilities and Technology Committee of the Utah House of Representatives, somehow I have a conflict of interest with a business that I partly own that is seeking to build a nuclear power plant in Utah. ...

The allegation simply is not true.

What a crock...! You are pulling a Clinton in that you are bold faced enough to just climb in everyone's face and demand we concede to your "innocence." You "own" a company that has business before the very legislative committee that you serve as vice chair. ....

When you first got into office you ran a little non-descript bill that dealt with online pharmacies. Did you bother to tell anyone that you sell viagra online? No! You got elected to serve yourself! Period. ...

You and Al Gore are full of it! And you need to resign!

DEAN SINGLETON: Can you imagine shifting a substantial number of Afghanistan — a substantial number to Afghanistan? For the Taliban has been gaining strength and Obama bin Laden is still at large.

OBAMA: I think that was Osama bin Laden. (Laughter from the audience, Obama grins.)

DEAN: If I did that, I’m so sorry. (Smacks forehead and sheepishly smiles.)

OBAMA: No, no, no. This is part of — part of the — part of the exercise that I’ve been going through over the last 15 months, which is why it’s pretty impressive I’m still standing here.

No, that is not us. Let me send you our press packet."

• Does the Army routinely rent SUVs to drive on the bombing range?
• Does Avis know that the military is renting its vehicles for combat training? ("Could I interest you in an upgrade to a half-track?")
  
• What additional insurance boxes do you initial if you are going to drive a rental car into harms way?
• Finally, what did the G.I.s tell Avis when they turned the SUV back in? "You're kidding — 20mm holes? Huh, it must have been that way when we picked it up."

• In cases where teenage girls have babies, authorities will look closely at how old they were when they conceived, and at the father's age.
• Because polygamous sects do not file marriage certificates of second and third wives, a law allows prosecutors to charge people with bigamy (obtaining more than one marriage license) in situations where the crime appears to exists, such as multiple wives living in one house.
• Another law makes it illegal for children to marry their stepparents.
• The laws also provided for prosecutors to go after parents who allow children younger than 16 to marry.

Shannon Edmonds, of the Texas District and County Attorney's Association, says that because bigamy was a misdemeanor, it was rarely prosecuted. Now that it is punishable with stiff prison terms, prosecutors are more likely to use it, particularly if it is linked to a sex crime.

In British Columbia, Canada, where a splinter FLDS group has settled, The Province is cautioning the attorney general not to blow it if he goes forward with prosecution, like Texas is attempting.

We are entitled to wonder, since the communities in Bountiful and in Texas are satellites of the same sect, whether such activities could be common to both.

Before leaping to conclusions, however, we are reminded that the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] spent two years investigating Bountiful and were unable to recommend charges.

The paper warns that although polygamy is illegal in British Columbia, prosecutors will need to have a rock solid case.

The attorney-general's tenacity is admirable. But the danger is that, if the courts find the polygamists are protected under the Charter, it essentially legalizes their activities.

In a testament to the spirit of change that animates successful business leaders, Mr Marriott recently acquired a new and quite unusual best friend. His latest — improbable — bedfellow is Ian Schrager, the enfant terrible of 1970s New York...

It has been described as one of the strangest pairings in capitalism: the upstanding Mormon who started life as heir to the root beer stand in Washington DC owned by his father, and patiently built one of the world's best-known brands; and the fast-living New York party king, the aging monarch of style and creator of the modern “boutique” hotel, who once spent time in a federal prison for tax evasion.

Though never to be confused with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, Bill told the Times that he and I-man can party:

Earlier this year we announced the new Edition name in LA and we had a big party. It was so noisy you couldn't hear yourself speak. I was asked to say a few words and I said this was the craziest party I've been to since high school.

According to former Romney advisers, the former candidate has budgeted more than a million dollars of his own money, and would tap a number of his financial supporters for more, to set up a new foundation -- perhaps in Michigan -- that would promote conservative policy ideas.

Romney's conservative policy ideas largely paled in comparison to most of the other candidates in the race, including some of John McCain's, Fred Thompson's, and even Mike Huckabee's. Romney's tax plan was not as aggressive as Thompson's or Huckabee's, and his immigration reform plan was closer to the moderate plan put forward by McCain.

Governor Romney saw that that was how Fred Thompson got his jumpstart in the campaign. He's not above borrowing a good idea if it will help him.

You can modify people's behavior just by putting them in a certain kind of dress. It is a uniform. You have nothing about you that's individual. You're just a part of a whole.

The reactor will cost £2.8 billion to build, roughly $6 billion.

EnergySolutions has been active in Britain since June last year, when it bought Reactor Sites Management Co. Through that aquisition, EnergySolutions will oversee the dismantling and clean-up of two dozen UK reactors.

And if the Brits need a place to dump any left-over N-waste, I'll bet EnergySolutions, with some help from Congressman Rob Bishop, could find a site.

What would Mitt do? McCain says he would not attend the opening ceremonies at the Olympics, if he were president.

Unless they change something pretty quickly, I would not go to the opening ceremonies.

I would say right now, this depends on Chinese behavior. Unless there is some progress with the Dalai Lama, including conversations with him, including stopping this brutal crackdown that we’re seeing in Tibet, then I would make the decision not to go. But I would say to the Chinese, "Look, clean up your act here. This is not acceptable."

You can’t have a nation that’s the world’s super power in many respects behave like this, that – an oppressive and brutal fashion. So I think a message needs to be sent to the Chinese, and a pretty strong one. But I would say, ‘Look, I can decide the day before the opening ceremonies,’ but I would certainly keep that option open if I were president.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), $10 million to build a one-mile, 20-lane highway outside of Salt Lake City

It's not so funny when you recall how similar it sounds to earlier plans for the Legacy Highway that opens soon outside SLC.

I don't know if it's fair to go deep into candidates' children's personal lives, because I'm not sure that really affects the way the candidate makes decisions. But if you're willing to put yourself out there, then you need to be able to answer questions.

Chelsea has had to field questions about Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewisnsky and MSNBC's David Shuster said she is being "pimped out" by the campaign

The latest question Chelsea has had to answer: Would her mother make a better president than her father.

I don't take anything for granted, but hopefully with Pennsylvania's help she will be our next president. And yes, I do think she'll be a better president.

Tagg Romney remembers political advisors warning the brothers:

If your dad is going to run, you're the collateral damage.

ViolentAcres.com, posted a parody of a letter from Armstrong to her daughter Leta, saying:

Since your father and I started exploiting you for cash, neither one of us has had to work a real job for a few months now. Score!

"The hate mail will invariably happen, and when it does your entire world will crumble around your ears," she says. In one example, she says a person she thought was a friend posted a comment saying she "wanted to punch me in the face because she hated me so much."

[The LDS] may have renounced polygamy over a century ago but the breakaway sects which continue to practice plural marriage are the ones that often catch the public eye, leading to the popular misconception that all Mormon men have, or strive to have, more than one (often underage) wife.

As all of this was unfolding my wife happened to mention to a friend of hers in South Africa — a friend who is well-educated, a journalist and a devout Christian — that I was covering the story. Her friend’s response? “Those Mormons, they’re weird. I don’t answer the door when they knock,” she said. My wife said as far as her friend was concerned, Mormons were Mormons and that was that.

... The perception is clearly there: Mormons are the funny fellows taking multiple wives and living in isolated retreats in remote patches of America.

This matter has to come to fruition. All right-thinking Canadians abhor what is said to be going on there -- 50-yearold men married to 15-yearold girls and all the exploitation.

Oppal said he could order his prosecutors to take on the case, but wants a more optimistic prosecutor.

I would like a more aggressive approach, which means you lay the charge and let the defence worry about the constitutionality issue. That's normally the way things are done.

Polygamy historian Ken Driggs told the AP's Jennifer Dobner the raids only have a short-term effect:

It ended up strengthening them in the long run. It's not going to make it go away.

The top 3 reasons SUPERDELL is by far the best choice for Governor are: Love, Wisdom and Passion!!! The purest form of love & wisdom is the spirit of God. SUPERDELL works so hard to follow the commandments of God so completely that he feels the love and wisdom from God pound through his body like Niagara Falls after a storm....

Everybody went there to enjoy the crystal waters and the white sand, and they just messed it up with swag bags and studio deals. I actually said I didn't want any swag, and it was not kindly taken. Someone almost said to me, 'Well, what are you doing here then?'

...Your newspaper has taken every opportunity it could find to twist facts, invent stories and distort events in an effort to berate, vilify and malign [Crandall Canyon mine's management and ownership] and especially Mr. Robert E. Murray. ...

Eyewitness News has found the mining company may be trying to make its point to all of the news media.

Not only did Murray Energy send the letter to the Tribune, but it also sent copies to news organizations throughout the state....But some are questioning if the company is firing a "shot across the bow" to manipulate the coverage.

Take this editorial on scalping tickets for the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana show at the July 4 Stadium of Fire in Provo:

Should Utah ban or restrict a practice that pushes the prices of tickets into the stratosphere? Heck, no. This is free enterprise. It's supply and demand. If a music fan really, really, really, REALLY wants to see a celebrity, he or she is going to cough up the dough. ...

Sure, ticket prices may be exorbitant and inflated -- some say unfair. .... This year's Stadium of Fire show will no doubt give rise to plenty of grumbling that Utah, and Provo in particular, should join the list [regulating scalping]. ...They shouldn't. The free market remains far and away the best regulator.

The editorial goes on to say that if a scalper "has the brains, guts and good luck to get $500 or $1,000 for a ticket purchased for $100, the ticket is worth $500 or $1,000."

That might explain why at least seven Daily Herald employees, including a guy with no kids, stood in the line to buy Miley Cyrus tickets.

UPDATE: Today the Daily Herald officially laments the anguish of disappointed ticket buyers, but says any controls on scalping are impractical: "The more you think about it, the sillier it gets."

There is a rapidly growing separatist movement in the United States that is being fueled by illegal immigration across our Southern Border with Mexico.

While many in the American media try to ignore or play down the threat, this radical movement is much stronger than most Americans know and global companies like Absolut are trying to cash in on it.

"It is fast becoming a permit center with little or no focus on planning."

"...the ineffective process feeds on itself and then continues to degenerate into ever-increasing dysfunction..."

"Sadly . . . in far too many cases, residents are viewed as 'the enemy' by both management and staff."

"There was a general feeling of hopelessness and uneasiness among the planning staff, a malaise due to a failure of leadership."

Says the Mandarin-speaking father of an adopted Chinese daughter:

This is who we are. I think we ought to be totally American about it, in terms of our expressions of outrage and concern and speaking up front and openly as we always do as Americans.

Huntsman says he protested outside the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., when China crushed pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

But Huntsman doesn't call for a boycott of the games.

Our country now has a policy of engagement. And I don't disagree. Because by engaging partners, we bring about change.

They often times mock the guy who tries to warn the general population but when the zombies come, everyone comes flocking to him to save them. Or the zombies are a metaphor, what could be thought of as mindless brain dead humans in Utah?

People joke around about the coming zombie apocalypse, but it's no joke.
I for one have my rifle, my .40 cal pistol and my Lobo handy. I'm prepared. Are you? No?

Just be sure to shoot them in the head, or decapitate them. Oh yeah, salt. You gotta carry salt so you can put a protective ring around you so you can keep shooting.

Trust me on this, it's important.

Well done Mr. "Wyndham-Price," whoever you really are....Wesley Wyndham-Price, I owe you a beer.

They would say 'I really earned this money. I've given up personal time and sacrificed for this office.'

But public service is just that: service.

When the NCAA basketball tournament reaches the Final Four, some of the best players in the game are showing their stuff, seen by millions of fans. This high-caliber play needs a high caliber playing surface, and Connor Sport Court of Salt Lake City is the company the NCAA has turned to for the past four years to manufacture and install it.

Company president Ron Cerny, says, "There has to be resiliency in the floor, but also it has to be firm enough so that you have a ball bounce that is true."

And that firm, but resilient, floor is manufactured in Utah.

A better story is who put those slippery temporary NCAA logos that tripped up even the Tar Heels?

Several North Carolina players skidded on the logo, along with players at other sites. Coach Roy Williams made a plea to reporters after the Arkansas game:

Let's stop putting those stupid logos on the floor where kids slip and slide around. Somebody is going to get hurt, and I've said that for years and years and years. And every coach here at this site said this is a mistake to have that... it is dangerous.

The people here did everything they could do. They washed it with ammonia, they washed it with Wendy's super-burger-whatever, I mean, they did everything they could. They need to rip the dadgum things up.

Monson offered some hope last week. Jennifer Dobner of the Associated Press reports that representatives from LDS church have accepted an invitation to meet with the gay Mormon group Affirmation. In February, three days after Monson was named president, Affirmation wrote him to again ask the church to meet with them. Dave Melson of Affirmation says:

Affirmation has tried five or six times over the past 31 years to meet with church leaders. This is their second response.

The first response, last year, was to politely blow off the gay group.

But this time, Affirmation leaders have been invited to meet with Fred M. Riley, commissioner of Family Services for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Harold C. Brown, the agency's past commissioner.

Though the men are administrators, not ecclesiastical leaders, the discussion has begun.

Utah County residents gathered at Utah Lake State Park to discuss balancing explosive growth and development against environment protection for the lake. In the broadest terms, it may come down to a choice between a Utah Lake causeway and the endangered June sucker.

Unified zoning laws need to be developed to protect the wetlands that surround the lake from the kind of development seen in Saratoga Springs, he said.

Most environmentalists see an east-west causeway favored by home builders as a ecological disaster. Says Webb:

I don't like the idea of dividing the lake into two. It is an ecosystem. How do you divide it without negative impacts?

But none of these sites has what YouTube does: the chance to post amateur videos, making MormonWebTV the current contender for hosting the growth of amateur LDS film. Given the growth of user-generated content and the enthusiasm shown by LDS filmmakers at the increasingly popular LDS Film Festival, it would be more surprising for a Mormon version of YouTube not to come into being. Enter MormonWebTV.com

• Mini Bike Gymkhana — compete in a course on children's bikes.
• Midnight Mass — Critical mass gone midnight and wild.
• Freakbike Workshop — food and choppers, etc.
  
• Tallie Cat — Alley cat race on tall/freak bikes.
• Ubomb — take Trax up to the UofU, then bomb down on bikes.
• Two dozen short films, collectively titled The Pornography of the Bicycle will be show at Point Six Percent Productions, 1130 South Richards St., Friday at 9 p.m.The Salt Lake Activities Group advises: 18 and over only, please.
  

The DesNews political editor Bob Bernick makes an argument that Utah's GOP candidates are paying for its ill-fated education voucher program. In case you've forgotten, Republican lawmakers last year pushed through the nation's most extensive voucher program — ignoring polls that showed voters did not want a voucher program.

The vouchernistas maintain that a threatened voucher backlash has not materialized in their elections. But Bernick says the numbers show that voucher pushers are being opposed within the party and by Democratics. Interestingly, the few moderate Republicans who stood against vouchers are seeing less opposition from the party's right than they have in the past, he says:

So, while it is true that about the same number of GOP lawmakers are being challenged this year within their own party as in years past, in many of those races it is also true that the lawmakers' votes on vouchers — either for or against them — seems to be reflected in their intra-party challenger status in 2008.

And when you include Democratic challengers to incumbent Republican lawmakers, it becomes even more apparent that Utah Democratic Party leaders did a good job in recruiting Democrats to challenge GOP incumbents in part because of the voucher issue.

Jones' visit coincided with the closing of a La-Z-Boy plant in Tremonton because workers are too difficult to retain in Utah's low-unemployment market. Many of those jobs will go to a Mexican plant. La-Z-Boy spokeswoman Kathy Liebmann told the Standard-Examiner:

When there's a constant need to hire and train new people, it creates inefficiency.

Tremonton Mayor Max Weese told the Standard:

We've got to get some people moving to our part of the state. That's all there is to it.

Remember all the questions never answered in Mitt Romney's speech on religion?

A new LDS mass media proselytizing campaign, drawing on the wonders of modern advertising and marketing, picks up where Mitt left off. The new "Truth Restored" campaign — launched on TV, radio, billboards and Internet in several "markets" — hopes to intrigue non-Mormons enough that they seek answers from LDS members or from the church's website.

As part of the blitz, the church is issuing members wallet-sized cards that have the answers to the questions Mitt ducked — including the LDS conception of God, the Mormon way to keep family and marriage secure and, the juiciest of all, LDS life after death.

Kevin Kelly, a former New York advertising executive and BYU advertising instructor says he developed the campaign with oversight from missionary general authorities.

In surveys or pretesting done before the campaign began in those markets, results showed 63 percent of respondents didn't know the main claims of the LDS Church. So in an all-out media blitz, the team sought to "have people keep bumping into our message," Kelly said.

"The idea was that (our) media would do the heavy lifting, and that church members would then just answer people's questions, and if they couldn't answer then they would pull out their wallets."

After a three-months blitz, follow-up surveys showed an impact. One mission president reported 76 conversions that were in some way attributable to the campaign, Kelly says. "This was thrilling to an advertiser."

More than 20 leading social conservatives signed an open letter to Senator John McCain expressing their displeasure over the prospect of an "M&M" ticket being pushed by Karl Rove, Sean Hannity and others in the economic wing of the Republican Party.

If Governor Romney is on your ticket, many social conservative voters will consider their values repudiated by the Republican Party and will either stay away from the polls this November or only vote down ticket. For the sake of your election, the health of your party, and the future of America you must not allow the obvious electoral consequences of that to occur.

And earlier on CNN, McCain ominously called Romney "a fine man, who has earned himself a large place in our Republican Party."

Paul Weyrich, who endorsed Romney during the primaries, is a part of the Government is Not God PAC, but says he now regrets it.

I think it was Bob Dole that said you don't want to get in a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.

Sound familiar? McCain used the line successfully on his new BFF Mitt Romney before the New Hampshire primary. Of course, way back then, John had only contempt for The Man Who Would Be Veep, saying:

Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty -- and the pig likes it.

In New Hampshire, McCain's official above-the-fray stance with Romney culminated in a key victory that put him on the road to the nomination.

Utah's Republican leaders are all in EnergySolutions' pockets, and vice versa. No doubt the presumptive Republican presidential candidate assured Creamer that all national and international nuclear waste may reside forever in Utah...

McCain is perhaps the nation's premier proponent of nuclear power, as long as the nuclear waste ends up in Utah, not Arizona.

DIAMOND BAR, California (AP) — In what some may consider an unexpected move, rap artist “Snoop Dogg” has reportedly converted to Mormonism after nearly a year of study with the fast-growing, Utah-based faith.

Snoop Dogg says he “can’t get enough of the Book of Mormon.”

Though Snoop Dogg has been hesitant to publicly discuss his recent spiritual journey, he commented on the experience of attending his first “Family Home Evening” in a recent interview with People Magazine.

“I was hooked from the start,” Snoop Dogg said. “We talked about the purpose of life, played Mousetrap, and ate brownies. The kids thought it was off the hook, for real.”

If you care to know if any registered sex offenders live in your neighborhood — along with their ages, crimes, photos and locator maps — you can just go here and scare the crap out of yourself.

But a convicted Utah sex offender — who paid his debt to society — says such long-term public humiliation and embarrassment is more punishment than many of the people on the registry deserve. He wants offenders to have a chance to at least argue for redemption.

Steven Arthur Briggs, who was convicted of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl in 1986, argues in the Utah Supreme Court that the Utah Sex Offender Registry stigmatizes all offenders as sexual predators, even those who go on to lead unblemished lives.

In short, not all sex crimes are equal. Briggs' lawyer Lori Seppi argued to the Supremes that a 17-year-old male convicted for having consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend with no history of repeat abuse, for instance, is not a sexual predator. At the very least, an offender should have the right to argue in court that his or her name be removed from the registry.

Chief Justice Christine Durham agreed that being put in the public registry could be far more damaging than the original offense was to the victim. Steven Arthur Briggs

It seems reasonable that not all sexual offenders should be electronically hounded the rest of their days. But Briggs, photo above from the registry, who abused a grade schooler, might not make the cut.

Crawford County Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell says the family can move Pratt if they can confirm the remains found with ground-penetrating radar is their ancestor. The site holds three or four other people. The judge told Robert Grow, a descendant, “The problem here is, you’d be asking me to possibly disinter bodies that weren’t kin to you."

The estranged husband of Pratt's 12th wife tracked the church leader down and killed him. Archeologists hope to identify the remains later this month by the gunshot and stab wounds. Pratt’s dying wish was for his body to be returned to Utah. He would be buried with four of his 12 wives. Grow told the judge:

We’re here desiring to close a chapter in our family’s history. It’s been a long time.

They typically carry no ID, just the clothes on their back and the dream of a life better than the one they left behind.

This is the Garden of Eden of Utah down here. It's a good place to put him.

At what point does it become harassment?... I could start with freedom of assembly or even the idea that public parks are just that — open to the public. Innocent until proven guilty, as it were.

We put those cards out just to let people know we’re around the area and are keeping an eye on the place. Most people see it and think that’s great, but other people I guess have issue with it for whatever reason. Makes me wonder why they have issue with it. ...

It appears to be a mutual decision to engage in flirtatious behavior . . . but it's raised to a level that makes it a felony.

The editorial page of the Visalia Times-Delta in Southern California is a good example:

Early indications are Mitt Romney is the pick. Karl Rove has been actively promoting Romney at every opportunity. And McCain/Romney photo ops are coming fast and furious. Romney's selection would go a long way to help McCain shore-up the support of conservatives who view him with a jaundiced eye. Finally, Romney, of all the candidates in either party, "looks" the part. Looks do matter. Yes, as a people, we really are that vain.

Back in the Bay State, Romney's former constituents are still seething over governors, like Mitt, who mentally abandon the state mid-term to pursue other ventures. Mitt is one of four recent Massachusetts governors who seemed to get bored with the running the state. Opines the Brockton Enterprise:

Massachusetts has had plenty of recent experience with governors who, once they get to the corner office, decide there are more interesting places to be. So it's not surprising many people think Gov. Deval Patrick may be another short-timer and see the $1.35 million book deal he just signed as proof.