"It seems that our party is the party with the big tent only during election time, but after our candidates get elected the tent door is zipped shut for black folk," Styles wrote in an e-mail. Former Hispanic Democratic Caucus chairman James Yapias resigned last year for the same reason, claiming Democrats give lip service, but no real support, to the Hispanic community.

Going for the big one: Former Utah governor and current Health and Human Services appointee Mike Leavitt told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that he plans to "dramatically improve" the country's health care system, noting: "We won't do it by futzing around the edges. We will have to be bold."

According to Webster's New World Dictionary, futz comes from a Yiddish phrase that means "fart around."

Probably won't get it: One of the candidates to replace Democratic Rep. Ty McCartney, who resigned to take a job with Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, is Helen Peters.

But Peters was a prominent supporter of Kaylin Loveland, McCartney's Republican opponent. When Peters called Democratic delegates this week for their support, some noticed on their caller IDs that she was calling from Loveland's home.

Only in Utah: Representatives of the various religious organizations in Utah, including a Jewish congregation, received an invitation from the Governor's Commission on Marriage to attend a conference on Building Utah Marriages.

It's on Saturday morning.

Catch-22: The developer hired to build Cottonwood Heights' new city offices discovered last week he could not get a building permit from Salt Lake County because it is a city responsibility.

But there is nowhere to get one from the city because the offices haven't been built yet.

Communicable disease? The minutes of a recent Salt Lake County Fire Authority board meeting include an item about Fire Chief Don Berry receiving a plaque from Salt Lake County. A misspelling, however, has Berry actually receiving a "plague" from Salt Lake County.

Getting the bugs out: State senators were miffed Wednesday after learning the microphones on the Senate floor were turning themselves on and airing senators' private gossip (and a few cuss words) over the Internet.

Crying in their beer? The College Democrats at Brigham Young University sent an e-mail this week advising the members that Thursday's regularly scheduled meeting was being canceled because the group considered the day (President Bush's inauguration) a day of mourning.

They went thata way: The Senate adjourned early on Wednesday. So when Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. delivered his official State of the State address to the House and tried to do so at the Senate, he couldn't. The guv will try it again today.

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Paul Rolly welcomes e-mail at prolly@sltrib.com.