Immigrants

I enjoyed hearing Lt. Gov. Greg Bell talk last week to a Bank of Utah gathering about Utah’s improving economy. Because there’s always more in such a talk than can fit into a news story, I thought I’d ponder a few leftovers:

• Someone asked if illegal immigration is costing Utah taxpayers a lot of money for schools. It is illegal for schools to ask for a child’s documentation, Bell said, adding that illegals are only about 4 percent of Utah’s population.

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the potentially powerful Hispanic vote in the upcoming presidential election remains “up for grabs” because neither President Barack Obama nor Republicans have convinced these voters that they are on their side.

OGDEN -- Officials are filing a criminal charge against the man who shocked his neighbors, and Internet readers, by slaughtering a cow in his driveway. But the charge is not over the public rendering of the beef. It's the execution that's in question.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Ecuador will have a mobile consulate offering help with such services as passports, authorization of travel for children and registration of child birth in Salt Lake City today.

HONEYVILLE -- In a few weeks, a group of 25 children from migrant families will start kindergarten. Thanks to a Head Start program, the children will have the necessary tools to help them get a firm foothold in their education.

SEATTLE -- Some Washington farmers are worried their work force is dwindling.

Most of the farmers rely on seasonal workers, and more than half of those workers in Washington are illegal immigrants. Some farmers say their once-loyal workers are staying in Mexico because of the dangers of crossing the border with the stronger enforcement of border laws.

SOUTH OGDEN -- Raphael Arruda would have been 22 years old on Saturday. His family and friends remember him as a man who was quick with a joke, the kind of man who could walk into a room and turn any situation into a good time.

It was a quality that served him well as a U.S. Army corporal in the Bar Kunar District of Afghanistan, where he kept his fellow soldiers laughing.