Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, was on KUER's "Radio West" with host Doug Fabrizio on Thursday defending the bill he sponsored in the 2004 session that put Amendment 3 on the ballot. The amendment, which passed Nov. 2, defines marriage as between a man and a woman and disavows the legitimacy of any other domestic union not bound by an official government marriage certificate.
Buttars stated on the KUER program that there is no such thing as common-law marriage recognized in Utah law.
Oops.
The Legislature, Buttars' own stomping grounds, passed a bill in 1987 recognizing common-law marriage as an enforceable bond when considering property rights and other privileges between married spouses.
It has been in the Utah Code for 17 years as Statute 30-1-4.5.
Overtime? If you notice a Salt Lake County employee clandestinely doing something to the door of a county-owned building, don't worry. It's legit.
County officials have put the word out to maintenance workers that when they have a free moment during the day they should scrape off the stickers plastered all over the county stating that Mayor Nancy Workman welcomes visitors.
There are 130 county-owned facilities in the Salt Lake Valley and Workman had her name plastered to all the entrances of each and every one of them.
Never mind: When Mason Risher called the KUTV-2News Tipline on Friday to report a helicopter landing so close to the trees at the Harmon Baseball Park in South Salt Lake that it was breaking off branches, the 2 News person who answered the phone said: "That sounds really dumb. We'll get a news team over there right away."
Then the man asked if Risher knew whose helicopter it was. Risher says that when he told the man it belonged to Channel 2, the interest in sending out a news team quickly waned.
Utahns to the rescue: We noted in Monday's column that Brian Kessler, area director for Quiznos subs, offered to pay the $350 assessment for food inspection the Salt Lake Valley Health Department charged the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake.
When Kessler went to the Health Department on Friday afternoon, the fee had already been paid by Ken Rose, owner of the Tiburon restaurant in Sandy.
Instead, Kessler will donate the $350 to the mission on behalf of Utah Quiznos Sub franchises. Four other individuals also made $350 donations after reading our column.
The Rescue Mission plans to serve Thanksgiving dinner to 800 to 1,000 needy individuals Nov. 24, the day before the holiday.
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Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells welcome e-mail at rolly_wells@sltrib.com.
