Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, Utah's former governor, started a firestorm recently by hiring a man who opposes birth control to head the nation's family planning program.

Blogs and newspaper editorial pages are blasting the Bush administration and, more specifically, Leavitt's department for appointing Eric Keroack, a Massachusetts obstetrician-gynecologist, as deputy assistant secretary of population affairs.

Writer Amanda Schaffer noted in the online magazine Slate that Keroack served as medical director of a pregnancy counseling organization that opposes contraception and distributes "scientifically false health information - for instance, that condoms offer virtually no protection against herpes or [the sexually transmitted virus] HPV."

An HHS spokeswoman defended the choice, calling Keroack a respected physician.

A Rocky connection to Utah: Judith Regan, the New York publisher who triggered a public relations disaster by releasing plans to publish a book in which O.J. Simpson gives a hypothetical account of how he would have committed the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, has an interesting connection to Utah.

Regan's HarperCollins Imprint is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdock's News Corp., which is the parent of Fox Network. The company planned to air on Fox an interview Regan would conduct with Simpson to precede the release of the book.

But Murdock, bowing to pressure from critics and advertisers threatening to boycott the network, canceled the book and the program.

Regan sued the Davis County jail in the 1990s after she was arrested for a routine traffic violation and was subjected to a breast and vaginal search by jailers. She was one of a dozen women who sued the jail for inappropriate searches. Those lawsuits cost Davis County taxpayers $240,000.

And who was Regan's attorney?

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson.

Stranger in a strange place: Richard Smith of Lehi didn't know what he was getting himself into when he let it slip while substitute teaching at Orem's North Ridge Elementary School that he was a Ute fan and not too fond of BYU.

Students would sneak up to the blackboard and write "BYU Rocks" when Smith's back was turned. Then, on Tuesday, the orchestra teacher pushed open Smith's classroom door and 42 students armed with cellos, violins, flutes and drums marched in.

Smith thought they were going to play Christmas carols. Instead, they played the BYU fight song.

The orchestra teacher assured Smith they would have played the Utah fight song, but they didn't know it.

Smith says that if anyone has the music to "I Am a Utah Man, Sir," to please send it to North Ridge Elementary in care of Mr. Huish.

prolly@sltrib.com