The American flag on the grounds of the Matheson Courts Building, which is under the control of Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., flew at half-staff in accordance with President Bush's call for the observance at all public buildings to honor the victims of Katrina and commemorate the death of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Right across the street, at Salt Lake City Hall, which houses the government of Democratic Mayor Rocky Anderson, the flag was at full-staff all week.

Anderson's spokesperson Cliff Lyon, the replacement for Deeda Seed who was fired for what Anderson deemed as incompetence, never got back to me with the answer to these simple questions: Who made the call to keep the flag at full staff and what was the reason?

But Friday, the day after I talked to Lyon, the flag was lowered to half-staff.

Not paying attention: A couple of years ago, after receiving a number of complaints from horseback enthusiasts and backcountry hikers that ATV drivers were violating numerous laws, state Parks and Recreation officials got Sen. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, to sponsor a bill requiring numbered stickers on the vehicles so violators could be identified.

The bill passed, but the resulting I.D. tags were too small to make out the numbers and, because of the design of ATVs, proved difficult to attach to the vehicle.

So when the Parks and Recreation Division sponsored an educational backcountry tour for state legislators in Box Elder, Cache and Rich counties recently, several lawmakers complained about the policy requiring the I.D. tags and how impractical they were.

That's when they were told that they voted for it.

Hatch is now in the process of sponsoring a bill to repeal the law. Let's hope his colleagues pay attention to what they are voting for this time.

Man-made flooding: One resident of the University of Utah married student housing complex noticed the sprinklers running on the lawn east of the complex's parking lot at 11 a.m. Monday. When he returned home at 8:30 p.m., the sprinklers were still running. When he walked his sister to her car at 11 p.m., they were still running and a flood was running down the parking lot.

A good first impression: At the recent Republican State Convention, state Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, who has announced he will challenge Sen. Orrin Hatch for the GOP nomination next year, passed out cards to delegates that promised "focused, responsive" representation.

Representation, however, was spelled "respresentation," raising questions about the focus.

Kudos: The Utah Peace Officers' Association (UPOA) and all law enforcement agencies received a request from the Madison County Sheriff's Office in Canton, Miss., for clothing, uniforms and hygiene kits for the police officers in the coastal cities that did not have a change of clothes since the assault of Hurricane Katrina.

Boxes of clothing and cash donations were collected from Utah peace officers and a plea went out through Johnson and Johnson's morning program on K-BULL 93.3 FM for a truck to transport the donations.

Within minutes, Double K Trucking in Ogden, contracting through Legacy Transportation Systems, donated the truck necessary to do the job.