Workman, as you recall, was placed on paid administrative leave in early September after she was charged with felony misuse of public funds. Shaw was put on paid leave of absence the next day. Workman is paid $9,000 a month and Shaw nearly $8,800 a month. So Workman gets $36,000 for her idle time and Shaw $35,000.

That $71,000 would have paid the salaries and benefits for two new heavy-equipment operators for a year.

But, hey, it's not as bad as the $200,000 the county paid to former Republican Salt Lake County Commissioner Mary Callaghan, who took the money and ran after voters changed the form of government, leaving her jobless for the last two years of her term.

Callaghan, if you recall, had said during her re-election campaign that she would not take the money if the government was changed in the middle of her term.

Homeland security: Greg Ellis of Orem was catching a flight to California at Salt Lake City International Airport last week, and went through security in Terminal 1.

After retrieving his shoes, bag and coat, he walked in his socks to the four blue chairs at the security exit. On a big brown desk immediately behind the chairs, he noticed a purple box cutter sitting in a little coffee cup. The cutter came complete with razors used for opening boxes.

No one was at the desk and Ellis noticed four more people who stopped and tied their shoes with the box cutter in plain sight. Anyone, he says, could have pocketed the sharp object after going through security and then taken it onto a plane.

Profile voting? Nineteen-year-old Aijai Johnson stood in line to vote at her polling place in Salt Lake City's Poplar Grove when she noticed one election judge whisper to the other: "She's black."

She then was asked to show her I.D., even though she was a registered voter and had voted in last year's mayoral race. She appeared to be the only voter in the crowded room who was asked for I.D.

When she told the election judge she left her I.D. in the car, she was told to get it.

Her mother, who teaches a diversity class at the University of Utah, complained to the Salt Lake County elections clerk, who said that was unacceptable behavior and the election judges would "be talked to."

Can't escape it: Brett Jewkes, a second-grade teacher at Oakdale Elementary in Sandy, was reading a story about urban rangers with his class. When he asked if anyone in the class knew what an urban ranger is, one boy raised his hand and said, "Do you mean Urban Meyer?"

Jewkes, a diehard BYU fan, replied, "No, this isn't the Ute coach."

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