The result, as many grateful cancer patients know, is the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. What many Utahns may not know is that Huntsman and his wife, Karen, gave $100 million to establish the institute and another $125 million to fund ongoing research and to build a clinical research hospital adjacent to the institute. For these efforts and others - the benefactor regularly visits with patients at the institute - the American Cancer Society has awarded Huntsman its medal of honor for cancer philanthropy. We add our thanks and congratulations.
Up: Empty Dumpsters; full stomachs: The Dumpsters outside Smith's Marketplace stores in Utah will be bare. And the cupboards at Beehive State food banks will not. And that's a very good thing. Instead of throwing away perishable items, Smith's, a subsidiary of Kroger, will be donating millions of pounds of meat, fruits, vegetables and dairy products on their sell-by dates to Utah food banks. The program, which will start now at Smith's Salt Lake City stores and expand statewide next year, was announced last week. And it couldn't come at a better time.
Demand is up by about 30 percent at food banks, and the "Grocery Rescue" program should help assure that deposits keep pace with withdrawals.
Down: Economic censorship: Hollywood, meet Utah. The culture clash is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the offices of the Utah Film Commission, where an advisory committee vets scripts for "inappropriate content" before forwarding applications for a financial incentive program. Production companies are entitled to a state rebate of up to 15 percent, with a $500,000 cap per project, of the money spent producing movies and television shows in the Modesty State, as long as the script passes muster with the morality committee. Since the program was approved in 2004 to encourage Hollywood rainmakers to shower the state with cash, three applications have been rejected for what was viewed as "excessive nudity and violence." It's not a violation of the free-speech clause in the First Amendment, as some filmmakers claim. They can still make the movie, sans the cash. It's simply censorship of a different sort - economic.
