This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In the wake of a $1.5 million shortfall in parking revenues, Salt Lake City Parking Enforcement had a heyday during the legislative session writing tickets for faded registration stickers.
The only problem: Many of those who park around the Utah Capitol are connected to power brokers.
So when a few of those in-crowd folks complained to the right folks about their tickets, that revenue stream dried up.
No worries. The day my column ran about the deal forged among the city, the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles and the Capitol Hill folks to stop the ticket barrage, parking enforcers came up with a new way to keep the fine money flowing.
A slew of Avenues dwellers awoke to find tickets on windshields. Many residences in the Avenues do not have off-street parking, so looking for cars parked at curbs in that area is like fishing on the Green River when the cicadas hatch.
And what exactly was the violation that spawned dozens of tickets on the Avenues that day? The cars were parked slightly more than 12 inches from the curb.
So parking cops will go to great lengths — or tiny lengths — to help balance City Hall's books.
Unintended consequences • I recently wrote about Ann Florence, the Wasatch Junior High English teacher who was placed on administrative leave after she told her students she was being disciplined for refusing to grade a Granite District standardized test many instructors don't like.
She was hand-delivered a letter to her home by the Granite police telling her she was not allowed on district properties.
But the discipline went even further, affecting the very people the district is purportedly trying to protect. Besides banning Florence from district properties, the bureaucrats also blocked her district email account.
That was last week, at the end of the school term, when report cards were distributed. It means parents have no way to reach Florence to discuss their children's grades.
Double standard? • While hundreds of Mormon women plan to converge Saturday night on Temple Square to seek entry to the LDS Church's all-male general priesthood meeting, another bit of gender discrimination is occurring under the radar.
Every semiannual General Conference, LDS Church-owned Deseret Book Co. declares "ladies night" on the Saturday evening of the priesthood session.
Only women work in the store that night. The men are excused to attend the priesthood meeting.
But last Saturday, when the church held a historic women's conference combining adult women and girls as young as 8 — and attracting 20,000 participants to the LDS Conference Center — Deseret Book's female employees were required to cover their shifts. No exceptions.
When some women protested that they wanted to attend the meeting with their daughters, they were told to watch a replay or read in the faith's Ensign magazine.
Alzheimer's networking • After I wrote in Wednesday's Tribune about Utah politician Merrill Cook's full-time caregiving of his wife, Camille, who has Alzheimer's, the Alzheimer's Association of Utah sent me a list of services it provides that affected families should know about.
They include:
• Care consultations for families and individuals.
• A 24-hour nationwide emergency-response service.
• A GPS location-management service that helps families monitor a person with Alzheimer's or dementia.
• A 24/7 help line that offers support from care consultants in 170 dialects.
• A program to help caregivers create a customized action plan.
• An online social-networking community where caregivers can share concerns.
• A Dementia & Driving Resources Center that provides tips on how to discuss dementia and driving.
Details can be found at alz.org/utah.