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Republican activist Mike Ridgway might be the Utah version of Joe Btfsplk, the luckless Li'l Abner character who always traveled with a dark cloud hovering over his head.
Ridgway is opinionated and intense and has made a career out of questioning authority figures when he thinks they run afoul of the rules. He has had numerous run-ins with political party officials and the law.
It happened again earlier this month. This time his confrontation was with four Salt Lake City police officers, and he tape recorded it.
On Nov. 16, Ridgway traveled to his brother's apartment in the Avenues. He stopped in front of the building and was on his cell phone talking to his friend and political ally, former Utah Republican National Committeewoman Nancy Lord. Neighbors apparently found him suspicious after he sat in his car for about 45 minutes, and police were called.
When an officer approached and requested ID, Ridgway asked what he had done wrong and why he was being questioned. He turned over his driver license but continued to question and argue with the officer, who called for backup.
Eventually, four cruisers were on the scene and things heated up. On the tape, when Ridgway insists on his right to talk, a sergeant is heard asking him if he had been beaten up that day and saying that the incident was about to escalate. At that point, Lord, who had remained on the line the whole time, is heard gasping over the speaker phone in Ridgway's
After about a half-hour, the police left without citing Ridgway.
The irony is that the incident occurred at the residence of Ridgway's brother Keith, who a few months ago couldn't get Salt Lake City police to respond when he called on his cell phone to alert them to a drunken driver he was following in the downtown area. The suspected drunken driver eventually ran a red light and broadsided a car going through an intersection.
A Utah paradox » Behrouz Motiee has a problem. She is planning to bake a cake for her grandson's birthday. But the recipe says she should apply the icing liberally.
She is wondering now if she should send the recipe to Utah legislators for their consideration and possible revision.
If she follows the recipe, she says, she wonders if that makes her a bad Utahn. But if she ices the cake conservatively, she may not get the desired result.
Oh, what to do?
A line in the sand » Qwest, it seems, is encouraging its customers to go with the public option.
The company has informed customers that it will start charging them to pay their bills online, stating that it won't be more than a dollar per transaction. That still is more than double the cost for a stamp customers would purchase to pay their bills through the U.S. Postal Service.
Qwest competitor Comcast, on the other hand, has its own online problems. One Draper resident showed me a picture he took of the result of Comcast's installation of his new phone and Internet service. The cable goes from his home, across his driveway, on the ground, and out to the neighborhood hookups.
