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Posted: 12:58:24 PM- CEDAR CITY - Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt made a surprise appearance at the Utah Rural Summit on Friday.
Leavitt spoke about the need for Americans to get fit and stay fit. He noted that about 75 percent of health-care costs can be blamed on an increasingly overweight and under-exercising populace.
The former Utah governor added that a healthy population makes for a healthy work force and a healthier economy.
Leavitt took questions from the audience at the Southern Utah University summit. But afterward he refused to answer a reporter's questions.
"I'm not doing interviews," he said. "I'm on vacation."
New questions are swirling about charitable contributions the Leavitt family has made to SUU students and how that money eventually wound up back to the Leavitts.