The new information is in an affidavit Ellis submitted to the Utah Supreme Court in support of his appeal to the court to force Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert to investigate the alleged bribe.

Ellis, who defeated Walker in Tuesday's primary, said in the affidavit that "an officer of the Utah State Republican Party" called one of Ellis' campaign consultants and "asked the consultant to inform me that if I withdrew from the race I would be taken care of."

The Republican Party officer who made the call was GOP State Chairman Stan Lockhart, who called longtime Republican strategist Dave Hansen and asked him to convey the message.

Hansen confirmed he received such a call from Lockhart and passed the message on to former Utah Lt. Gov. Val Oveson, who was helping Ellis on his campaign.

Hansen said he didn't take the message as a bribe, but just the chairman asking if Ellis really wanted to go through a tough primary and wondering what it would take for him to withdraw so the party didn't have a divisive fight.

Oveson confirmed he was called by Hansen and passed it on to Ellis, but he didn't remember exactly what was said. He said he believes it was more of a "peace offering" than a bribe.

Lockhart did not return my telephone call or e-mail asking for a response.

Easy come, easy go? Alex Steckel, who lives between 200 and 300 N Street in Salt Lake City, returned from vacation to find a leaking fire hydrant in front of his home that he estimated was spewing more than a gallon of water a minute that was running down the gutter.

He called the Salt Lake City Fire Department which referred him instead to the city water department which said it would get it fixed as soon as it could.

That was on May 12 and the hydrant still is leaking water. Steckel has called several times and was informed the department is short-staffed and will get to it as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, he calculates that close to 91,000 gallons of water have run down the gutter since his first call.

Who's on first? A Salt Lake City man was stopped at the light on Bangerter Highway getting ready to turn onto the I-15 northbound on-ramp about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday when he was rear-ended by the car behind him. He called 911 on his cell phone to report the noninjury accident and got a dispatcher for Valley Emergency Communications (VEC).

Because he said he was preparing to get onto I-15 at the time of the accident, she transferred him to the Utah Highway Patrol. But once he explained to the dispatcher that he was not yet on the freeway, but on the bridge above the freeway that leads to the on-ramp, she transferred him back to VEC.

More explanation landed him back to the UHP, which in turn transferred him back to VEC.

Eventually, a Draper police officer responded and handled the situation "professionally and efficiently," the man said.

prolly@sltrib.com