Sports
Jazz's Okur keeps Shaq in check
Mehmet Okur scored only four points in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game. But the Jazz center held ground against Shaquille O'Neal. "I didn't go nowhere," Okur said defiantly. "I just made him shoot over me."
Health
Found gene could encourage autism
An international team that includes two University of Utah researchers has identified a gene that may predispose people to autism. ''Neurexin 1'' is in a family of genes thought to be important in developing contact and communication between neurons, the nerve endings that let parts of the brain send and receive signals, according to a study by the Autism Genome Project.
New Year
Lions dance in honor of the pig
The Lion Dance was celebrated in West Valley City on Sunday. The Sil Lum Kung Fu Club performed the Lion Dance in honor of Lunar New Year festivities. This is the Year of the Pig. People born in the Year of the Pig are said to be lucky, honest and loyal.
Politics
Mitt back in Utah for more money
Since January, Mitt Romney has raised $2 million from Utahns, and on Tuesday he was in town asking for more. At a fundraising meet-and-greet at the Grand America Hotel, the former head of the 2002 Winter Games said Utah is among his top 10 states for financial contributions. The minimum cost to attend was $1,000; those who paid another $1,300 got a special reception with the GOP hopeful.
Health
Utah's teen birth rate rises slightly
Births to Utah teens rose for the first time in six years in 2005, according to the 2007 Kids Count survey released Thursday. Teen births increased about 1 percent. In 2004, there were 854 births - 14.9 per 1,000 - to teens ages 15 to 17. In 2005, that increased to 917 births, or 16 per 1,000 girls in that age group.
'Strake' stricken from agenda
'Oh my gosh. We matter'
Divine Strake was promised to blow a hole in the earth and create a mushroom cloud over the Nevada desert.
Instead, it blew open old wounds for Utahns who had been promised Cold War atomic tests would be safe, and the hurt, betrayal and rage that poured out left the Pentagon with little choice but to announce Thursday it was scrapping the test.
Michelle Thomas spent the day in tears.
"I've cried all day long. I just can't yet grasp it," said Thomas, a St. George Downwinder who opposed Divine Strake. She has had cancer and suffers an immune deficiency she blames on exposure to radiation.
"I just felt such an overwhelming relief," she said. "You just think, 'Oh my gosh. We matter.' "
The memories of Utahns helped fuel an unprecedented flood of resistance to the test, the ignition of 700 tons of explosives planned for the Nevada Test Site from which radiation spread from atomic tests into Utah and other states downwind.
"This wasn't run-of-the-mill public opposition. This was a heartfelt and broad-based public expression, so much so that it would have been impossible for anyone to neglect," said Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
More than 500 people turned out to public meetings by federal agencies in Salt Lake City and St. George. More than 10,000 submitted comments regarding the test, the overwhelming majority in opposition. Hundreds more attended public hearings sponsored by the governor, and the Utah Legislature and members of the state's congressional delegation joined the opposition.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which was to conduct the blast, assured in repeated studies that the test was safe; that if wind did carry radioactive material off the test site, it would be in such small doses that it would not pose a risk to the public.
For Utahns, it was a familiar refrain, and one not to be trusted.
"How do you convince people who have been through the hell of the radiation exposure cases that they can rely on the government? I'm not sure you could," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who wrote legislation years ago to compensate Downwinders for their illnesses.
To date, the government has paid 10,696 Downwinder claims.
Legislators heeded the calls for higher teacher salaries Thursday by passing a bill that gives a $2,500 raise and a $1,000 bonus to all teachers. Ironically, the educators in the group were most leery of the bill. It passed the House with only two dissenting votes and now heads to the Senate.
"The special interest groups we need to listen to today are our constituents," said Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, who sponsored the bill. "I've heard the call: Pay teachers more. Let's do that."
EnergySolutions
Governor pressured to oppose veto-proof waste oversight bill
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s office has been inundated with calls from people who want him to veto the so-called EnergySolutions bill.
A one-day tally Tuesday counted 320 telephone calls. Meanwhile, Huntsman has until Tuesday to decide whether he will veto the bill, which would eliminate the role of the governor, the Legislature and local elected officials in deciding on major expansions at the nuclear waste company's Utah landfill. He wasn't saying Wednesday what he plans to do.
"I'm reviewing it," said the Republican governor, who vetoed a bill last year that would have taken away the need for his approval on new waste sites and major expansions.
"I want to make sure there are no backdoors in terms of volumes of waste [and] in terms of hotter waste."
The bill passed both the House and the Senate with enough votes to override a Huntsman veto. Opponents need three senators or six House members to change their votes for a Huntsman veto to hold up.
Utah's Huntsman Corp. is completing a major transformation of its industrial chemicals business - one that promises to change the company for years to come.
The Salt Lake City-based conglomerate, founded by Utah entrepreneur and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr., agreed last week to sell its U.S.-based chemicals units to Koch Industries for $456 million.
The sale is part of an initiative Huntsman launched 11 months ago to realign the company's assets to shed its commodity chemicals in order to focus on the more lucrative specialty chemical side of its operations. Since March, the company has sold or agreed to sell $1.8 billion in commodity chemical assets in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
The sales have given rise to plenty of speculation about the company's future, and a presentation earlier this week on the Internet by Huntsman, the firm's 69-year-old chairman, only heightened the conjecturing.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg News, the business wire service, said the company might put itself up for sale after its commodity chemical assets are sold. The company is shedding the assets for cash to repay debt and focus on specialty products less exposed to wide swings in raw-materials costs, Bloomberg said.
"After we clean this up and make this transition, I think the time may be right" to sell the company, Jon Huntsman was quoted as saying Tuesday.
Investors reacted quickly. On Wednesday, the company's stock closed at $21.59 a share, up 4.5 percent. The stock is up nearly 11 percent since the beginning of this year.
Sex-crime bill
Punishments would be upped even for consenting adults
Tucked inside a bill that greatly increases the punishment for sex crimes is a political bombshell.
Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, amended the House-passed bill on Wednesday to make sodomy among consenting adults legal.
McCoy, the state's only openly gay senator, drafted his own bill that would have removed Utah's anti-sodomy law, but conservatives led by West Jordan GOP Sen. Chris Buttars have blocked it from a public hearing.
"I figured I would give it a shot and see what happens," McCoy said.
On Thursday, Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, removed the amendment from the bill.
who was homeless at one time, but now, thanks to the help of mentors, is an assistant professor of education, leadership and policy at the University of Utah.
Lynette Danley Land, who grew up in inner-city Chicago and was homeless at one time, but now, thanks to the help of mentors, is an assistant professor of education, leadership and policy at the University of Utah.
On transportation:
"When he was born, I got a ride to the hospital. No ride since then."
-An interpreter translating for Fatuma Adib, a Somali immigrant, referring to her 3-month-old son, who has not had a checkup since birth.
Fatuma Adib, a Somali immigrant, commenting on transportation, one of many challenges immigrant families face.
OGDEN - Facing down gunman Sulejman Talovic at Trolley Square last week was scary, Ogden police officer Ken Hammond told 50 rapt fourth-graders Wednesday.
But, just as frightening, "I was going to run out of bullets and the chances of me getting shot or killed were good," Hammond told the youngsters at Ogden's Polk Elementary.
"The Salt Lake officers are my true heroes," he said.
On the education crunch:
-Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan, suggesting responses to any teacher complaints about offering higher pay to desperately needed math, science and special education teachers.
"Get over it. Grow up. And welcome to the real world."
Utah's week in review for Feb. 18-24, 2007
"How do you convince people who have been through the hell of the radiation exposure cases that they can rely on the government? I'm not sure you could."
SEN. ORRIN HATCH, R-UTAH
