After 34 years on the air, Melanie's husband, Tom Barberi, and KALL Radio have abruptly parted ways.

The departure was as sudden as you can get. Barberi, a former Tribune columnist, was his typical jovial self on his morning show Tuesday. He is gone today.

Another Jimmy Hoffa-like disappearance from KALL is longtime sports-talk host Brad Stone.

The Clear Channel station, apparently, is going in a new direction.

Wiser voices: Here's an example for those fighting over Michael Moore's visit this month to Utah Valley State College.

In the early 1970s, student leaders contemplated inviting Jerry Rubin to speak at the University of Utah. Rubin, a leader in the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), was one of the Chicago Seven arrested during anti-Vietnam War demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Jim Davis, who eventually would become mayor of South Salt Lake and at the time was a member of student government, ran the idea past the late Neal Maxwell.

Maxwell was a U. vice president and Davis' political science professor. He later would become a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

Maxwell told Davis that bringing in Rubin could hurt fund raising at the U. and have negative consequences at the Legislature, which sets the U.'s budget. But, he added, he would never try to stop nor would he discourage bringing anyone in to speak whom students wanted to hear because of the sacred principle of the free marketplace of ideas.

Rubin came to the U. and gave an offensive speech with little substance but replete with obscene language and gestures. He generally turned off most of his student audience and the SDS movement at the U. quickly faded away.

On second thought: Before the Utah Valley State College Student Council invited Michael Moore to speak, several others were contacted first. One was Sean Hannity, but his price, as quoted by his agency to the council, was more than $80,000, nearly twice what the council could afford.

So, said student President Jim Bassi, the council settled on Moore. It was then that Hannity offered to speak for free and save Utah County from the voice of a liberal.

Campaign expenditures? A Salt Lake County Sanitation Department surplus, built up over the years from garbage collection fees, sparked Mayor Nancy Workman and colleagues to send refunds to 67,000 residents in the unincorporated county this election year.

Several county officials suggested the refund - typically $75 - be given in the form of a credit on this year's annual bill, scheduled to be mailed out later this month. But Workman insisted on sending the physical checks because that would make the savings more prominent in voters' minds.

It cost the county $42,000 to mail the checks as opposed to virtually no cost had it been credited in the upcoming bills. The Republican-dominated County Council approved the mayor's request for the mailed-out checks on a strict party-line vote.

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Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells welcome e-mail at rolly_wells@sltrib.com.