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News Highlights Gov. Jon Huntsman says gay-straight alliance clubs a local, not a state issue (Deseret Morning News). Tooele High School students complete week-long civics education program in Washington, D.C. with Rep. Rob Bishop as their personal teacher and tour guide (Tooele Transcript Bulletin). Biggest challenge in upcoming Legislature session will be how to deal with the $1 billion state revenue surplus (Salt Lake Tribune). Higher education retirement could be short $979 million over 35 years (Tribune). Political editor Bob Bernick says much work is ahead before tax cuts are finalized (Morning News). |
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Quote of the Day “The fight is far from over, but recent events suggest an encouraging shift in momentum.” -- Morning News editorial supporting legislation backed by Utah and Nevada delegations to store high-level nuclear waste where it is generated. |
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| Friday Buzz Written by LaVarr Webb & Associates |
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Romney Sparks Interest From Afar
Washington Watch Matheson: No to Patriot Act Reauthorization Wind Energy Production Podcast Watch Blog Watch Wise Words —John Milton (Source: The Federalist Patriot) Casual Friday It was the summer of 1941, and Europe was at war. Events would soon occur to draw America into a vast world conflict. My old fishing partner, Jake Amundsen, and I would later become part of it. But that summer war wasn’t our main concern. Finding a new place to fish was. We weren’t having much luck at East Canyon or Chalk Creek, so we went exploring. We had heard about a lake high up in the mountains north of Soapstone in the Uintas. Jake had an old Model A Ford that was the Jeep of its day. We had outfitted it with "balloon tires," that provided a lot more traction than the standard narrow tires that the car had been equipped with. We found the old dirt road that went up the side of the mountain in a series of very rocky and very rough switchbacks. Jake put the old Model A into low gear, and up we went, bouncing and scraping over the rocks. When we had climbed up and over the first ridge, we came to a more gradual slope that skirted around the mountain, high above a valley and small stream below. There were very few trees in the area, but the valley floor and the slopes of the mountain were covered with low brush and luxuriant grass. When I looked down into the meadow-like bottom land, I could see a long series of pools, each connected by the small stream, and in each of the pools, I could see the circular ripple marks that indicated, in my mind, that great big fish were jumping. I told Jake to find a wide spot on that narrow dirt road, because I wanted to go fishing. After he parked the car, we slipped, slid, and trudged at least a half a mile down the side of that mountain, and there we found that the pools in that grassy, park-like area, were formed by beaver dams, and the fish that I thought I had seen were no longer jumping. Anyway, we went fly fishing, we caught fish on almost every cast, but they were small brooks, about six to ten inches long. We decided that the large ripple marks that I had observed from high above were made by beaver slapping their broad tails on the surface of the water. Along about mid-morning, when we had nearly caught all of the fish we wanted, Jake developed a toothache. To help him ignore the pain, he decided to go exploring. There was a stand of fir or pine to the east of us, high on the slope of the mountain. He told me he was going to hike up to it. I watched him as he made his way up, and up. I saw him cut to the left, and start to make his way around a sharp hogs back. Then above him, and behind the hogs back, I saw a black something moving. I thought it was a bear, but I wasn't sure. I yelled, "Jake, Jake, there's a bear above you," but I couldn't make him hear. I watched; very soon, the black spot turned into a bear, a big one. The bear was coming down a trail, skirting around the hogs back. Jake was climbing up the trail, also skirting around the hogs back. They were on a collision course. There was nothing I could do but watch them come bear-face-to-man-face, and I saw the bear rear up on his hind legs, and I thought, "Poor Jake, my old fishing buddy is going to get mauled." But Jake scared the bear as badly as the bear scared Jake. There was an explosion of sound as the surprised bear turned on his two rear legs, and pounded back up the mountain. Jake turned on his suddenly weak legs, and with longer and longer leaps, bounced down the mountain. And I, suddenly somewhat hysterical, thought I had seldom seen anything so funny, and I rolled in the grass down by the stream, and laughed and laughed. |
Friday
December 16, 2005
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Dec 16: Wasatch County Democratic Party Phone Network.
To help contact Lisa Teifke at 435-785-7850 or lisa_f_teifke@fanniemae.com.
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