Allison Barlow Hess

Utah legislators decided since there wasn't much money to spend, they would send messages instead. The irony is the messages are themselves expensive and have little chance of persuading either the federal government or fellow U.S. citizens, as most of them don't care what Utahns think.

Following the canal collapse in Logan, which killed three people last year, the governor's office asked Rep. Fred Hunsaker R-Logan, to take some action to prevent another tragedy in the future. As a result, he is proposing legislation that would require canal companies seeking state funding to create management plans, identify hazards and outline steps for canal improvement and safety. However the public would never get to review the plans as the bill specifically exempts them from Utah's open records law.

It's better to give than receive. Everyone knows that, but it sounds so eloquent and sincere when it comes from the lips of Duncan Martinez, 13, and Marco Melendrez, 14 of Odgen.

The boys are two of the 200 participants in Youth Impact, an after-school, community program for at-risk youth in the inner-city Ogden area. Center employees and volunteers pick up the kids from school, help them with home work, provide dinner, offer recreation and activities and drive them back home around 8 p.m.

Another piece of Layton City history just became a memory: King's Department Store closed its doors on Sept. 24. Long-time employees spent the following week cleaning up, shipping out merchandise to a new store in Driggs, Idaho, and selling whatever remained of the shelves and fixtures.

All that's left now is the dust and the ghosts of customers past. "The only way I can describe this closing is it is like the week I lost my mother," said former manager JoAnn Pollett. It's a death."

This column is dedicated to the woman who sat in the parking lot just south and east of the New American Symphony Orchestra during the annual pops concert at Weber State University on July 19, 2009. Specifically it's for that woman who talked to her companion non-stop during the entire orchestral performance.
Common courtesy can turn an ordinary event into something special. Conversely, the lack of common courtesy can suck the soul right out of something that could have been extraordinary.