I’m moving!  I’ve come up with a new blog space that was a little more up to date and, well, more reliable.

 

http://crazyutah-plang.blogspot.com/

The Salt Lake City Marathon was run this morning.  My place sits along the course, so I got to see a few thousand run by.  I used to run a lot, so one might think that I would enjoy watching all of these people go by my place.  I don’t mind watching the front runners, those professional marathoners that the race officials bring in to give their event some credence.  It is pretty much once the first couple of hundred go by that you get to the joggers and plodders.  I can’t watch them.  Its mile 5, and they look like they have already run a full marathon.  No thanks.  I’m also a little sick of having people jog over and use the car port of my complex as a port-o-john.  Good thing my parking spot isn’t close enough to the street that I have people peeing on my tires.  There are a lot of nervous bladders out there…

Judge Barbara “Ito” Walther has ordered that the 416 kids from the FLDS cult will stay in Texas state custody for the immediate future.  Okay, that will strain not only the county’s resources but the Child Protection Service resources of the state.  The judge has ordered genetic testing as well.  That should be a hoot – those people are so inbred by now that it will look like alphabet soup.  I’m sure that multiple kids will be related to multiple parents and some of them will not have a clear line.  Well, that’s a guess on my part, but I think it is an educated guess since the practice of polygamy has let to some interesting genetic disease patterns in the Salt Lake Valley – and polygamy “officially” ended here about 100 years ago, give or take. 

 

Now, let’s muddy the water a little more.  Texas Rangers and Colorado authorities are investigating a woman from Colorado Springs that seems to have some connection to the FLDS.  The lady has a history of false reporting, and now the rumor is that she is connected with the calls that triggered the raid of the Texas compound.  Currently, this is speculation, but the Associated Press is saying that there is evidence connecting the lady to calls made regarding the FLDS compounds in Arizona and Utah.  So, if it was a “prank” call that sent the authorities into the Texas compound, what does that do to all of this court time?  I’ll have to ask a lawyer friend of mine what happens when the authorities find something that may be prosecuted, but the reason for gathering the evidence turns out to be nothing.  Can the authorities still use the evidence they found, or is that evidence then inadmissible?  All I know is that it is currently a shark feeding frenzy in Eldorado, Texas.

I said it yesterday, and it turned out to be true: the FLDS court hearing today turned into a three ring circus.  Hundreds of lawyers in one room make for a recipe for disaster.  Texas District Judge Barbara Walther (way to close to Barbara Walters) should keep one name planted firmly in the back of her mind: Lance Ito.  Seriously, this was a joke today.  The state of Texas wants to put 400+ kids in foster care?  Most of the family members and kids have their own lawyers?  All we are missing is the white Bronco.

 

Roger Von Bergendorff was arrested this morning after being released from a Las Vegas hospital.  Bergendorff was the guy that had the ricin in his extended stay hotel room and spent a month in the hospital recovering from the toxin’s effects.  Detectives found castor beans, chemicals used to make ricin, a respirator, glassware, syringes, and a notebook with ricin production notes in it when they searched a storage unit in Salt Lake City rented by Bergendorff.  Bergendorff has allegedly talked to investigators and has admitted to making the ricin.  It is being reported by the Associated Press that he was thinking about using it against people that had pissed him off.  It was not intended for a terrorist act or some mass mayhem.  That seems to make sense.  This guy was a loner that that had problems holding down jobs.  Loosing touch with reality seems plausible, if that is indeed the case.

 

When I left last week, I noted on the mess that was brewing in Texas with the FLDS compound there.  Well, now more than 400 kids are in temporary state custody and the state is preparing for a large court hearing to determine what will happen with these kids.  Here is the problem – this whole thing was prompted by a call to Child Protective Services from a 16-year-old girl by the name of Sarah claiming that she had been beaten and was forced to have sex at the age of 15.  The have yet to identify this “Sarah” from the 400+ kids.  Oops.  I’m not supporting the FDLS cult members here (and yes, I believe they are a cult), but it really looks like the state of Texas is about the royally screw this thing up.  The state claims that they have plenty of evidence to keep the kids from going back to the families at the compound, but the lynchpin is “Sarah” and without her I have a feeling this will turn into a huge circus (not that it isn’t already marching in that direction). 

 

Tiger Woods, the world’s greatest golfer, just had surgery on his knee to repair some cartilage damage, the same knee he had surgery on about 5 years ago.  So what?  Well, he had the surgery done in Park City, Utah.  Dr. Thomas Rosenberg, the same doctor who worked on Tiger’s knee before, did the surgery.  Tiger will be out of action for 4 to 6 weeks.  All the other golfers going to the Players Championship are sighing in relief.  I would feel sorry for Tiger, except for all the money he makes from golf, endorsements, and selling his image.  A lot of athletes come to Utah to get worked on.  I’ve also been told that a lot of strippers from Vegas come to Utah for breast implants.  Seems we have some pretty good surgeons here.

Well, I’m back from my trip.  Let me just say this – I had the Atlanta airport.  It is too big and not as well organized as people like to think.  That, and going through customs, then through security there, is crazy.  Walt Disney would be proud of the way they wrap the lines around there.  So, when I saw a story in the Salt Lake Tribune today about the use of “Clear Lanes”, I almost wish I had it for this past trip.

The Salt Lake City International Airport will have a new "Clear Lanes" operated by Verified Identity Pass Inc.  Passes are issued to pre-approved travelers to go through lines that use fingerprint and iris scans to determine identities.  The catch is that the pass costs $100 per year, and a $28 Transportation Security Administration fee.  This really is for the business people out there that travel a lot, like my cousin. 

 

http://www. flyclear.com.

It appears as if the standoff last night ended and the FLDS leaders let police into their temple to search for a 16 year-old-girl.  Now the Associated Press is reporting that the Texas officials don’t know if they have the girl that called in reporting the abuse.  They are questioning a number of women and girls that have already been taken from the compound, but a number of them have the same name (polygamists – didn’t see that coming) and they aren’t sure which one she is.  So far, 180 have been removed from the compound. 

 

The big push from the Texas authorities is to find the girl and any document or piece of evidence that shows she was married and had a baby before she was 16 years of age.  Texas law states that girls under the age of 16 cannot marry, not even with the approval of the parents.  The husband/father in question is Dale Barlow.  Dale is 50 years old, currently under probation for pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor, and a registered sex offender.  Oh, and he currently lives in Arizona.  So, this guy either broke probation, the girl was brought to Utah-Arizona for the wedding and consummation, or somebody called the authorities and lied.  Either way, this isn’t going to be resolved easily.  There is a good chance that the Texas authorities jumped the gun, looking for any excuse to go in there and shut them down. 

 

I’m traveling for work over the next week.  Have fun watching this unfold without me. 

Well, it looks like there is a little stand-off going on in Eldorado, Texas.  The leaders of the FLDS church there are not letting authorities take all of the kids off the compound.  It is being reported that they have a few of them in their temple.  The temple is considered desecrated, or at least violated, if someone not of the faith enters.  So, they’ve got themselves in a Catch 22.  They won’t let the child, or children, out of the temple and they won’t let anyone else in.  Hopefully, whoever is running things for the state is a little less trigger happy than those that were at Waco.

 

It appears that so far 127 kids and 46 women have been taken from the compound.  How many people do they have there? 

Warren Jeffs and his Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) cult just can’t stay out of the news.  Now his ranch (read “compound” because that what cults always have) has been raided by Texas Child Protective Services officials, taking 52 girls from the group to be put in temporary foster homes on Friday.  That’s right – find some good Southern Texas Baptist homes to put these girls in – that won’t screw them up further.  The whole thing was triggered by a 16-year-old from the cult complaining about being physically abused.  I’m pretty sure that ever since the FLDS came under fire a few years ago, and Jeffs was arrested, the state of Texas has been looking for any excuse to go into that compound.  At least there was no repeat of Waco. 

 

18 girls were put into state custody.  These were the girls that were believed to be in trouble or in some sort of danger.  Here is where it starts looking familiar from what we saw with the proceedings in Utah:

• Search warrants sought records for the birth of children to a 16-year-old
• Search warrant for a marriage between a 50-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl
• Arrest warrant for abuse

 

A judge ordered early Saturday that all children, including boys, under the age of 18 be taken from the compound. 

 

In addition to that, Flora Jessop, a former member who now is an advocate for the abused and helps those that want out of the FLDS cult, has publicly called the actions by the state of Texas a “colossal mistake.”  She states that those who were trying to seek help (like the girl that complained about abuse) will now be terrorized back into the group because they don’t know anything else.  Jessop, and others that support women trying to get out of polygamy groups, fear that the government has overstepped its bounds and that the people they are trying to help will now fear them and stay where they are.

 

I’m calling the FDLS a cult, but it is an established cult that dates back to the late 1800s, after the LDS church denounced polygamy.  It seems that some people just couldn’t do without it.  Evidently, the FLDS teachings do not condone sexual abuse of children as well. Sure, there are still those that practice polygamy around here, as depicted in the HBO show Big Love (not that far from the truth – but still Hollywood spun).  The compound in Texas covers 1,700 acres – plenty of space to hide mistakes.  It is very self sufficient, with its own facilities for water and food processing.  Most of the members live in large communal homes.  It is estimated that there are 150 there, but that number probably fluctuates as people come and go from the Utah-Arizona border towns.  At the center of the compound is a large, white temple.  It doesn’t look as nice as the ones around here, but it was built on a shoestring budget and in half the time.

 

 

So, you are welcome, Texas.  Now you too get to enjoy the wackiness that is the FLDS cult.  Have fun trying to get rid of them.  I hear Janet Reno isn’t overly busy these days.

Thomas Tholen, the cousin of the man in Las Vegas that was found with vials of ricin, was indicted yesterday on charges that he lied to authorities about something or another.  Tholen supposedly knew about the ricin but kept his mouth shut about it, or just lied about it.  He could face a maximum penalty of three years and a $250,000 fine. 

 

Authorities search Tholen’s home and some storage units back at the beginning of March.  Investigators are not saying what they found that led them to believe that Roger Von Bergendorff’s cousin lied to them.  Von Bergendorff lived with Tholen for about a year.

 

This story will drag on for some time, I’m sure.

Governor Huntsman has been mentioned as a possible Vice President candidate for John McCain.  Huntsman has been a supporter of McCain for some time now, even before the Romney wave hit Utah.  He is also a western state governor, which puts him in good light with McCain.  From what is being reported from numerous areas, McCain is taking a very long and hard look at who will be his V.P.  In fact, McCain has even stated that because of his age it is important to pick someone he feels will be a good replacement.  That sounds pretty ominous, but at least he is being realistic.  As for Huntsman, I’m not sure I want him running things.  He is very vanilla.  He handles Utah just fine, but the whole country? 

I typically try to stick to the lighter stuff concerning Utah, but there hasn’t been much lately.  Here is one: a woman who was run over by a police truck in 2006 will get $300,000.  So what?  Well, the truck was put into gear by a police dog inside the cab.  The woman was walking to her mailbox and suffered fractures to her pelvis when she couldn’t get out of the way of the slow moving vehicle and it hit her. The amount is less than the $580,000 she originally requested.  The lady says she feels like “police officers get away with hurting people.”  Um, try looking both ways before going to the mailbox. 

 

As far as bad news:

 

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration was called "negligent" in the duty to protect underground miners in the case of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster, the U.S. Department of Labor's inspector general said on Monday.  An audit of the events preceding the accidents last August found that lower-level MSHA officials skipped many of the agency's own protocols in approving a roof control plan for the Crandall Canyon mine.  It goes so far as to say that officials could have been subject to "undue influence" by the mine's operator, Murray Energy Corporation.  The roof-control plan, faulty as it was, wasn’t even followed by the mine operators.  This is just going to get uglier as it goes on.  We’ll get additional legislation when what is really needed are a lot of punishments handed out and stricter control of the laws in effect, which obviously weren’t followed in this case.

 

I’ve stayed away from this one, but I’ll touch on it here for no particular reason.  A new bill is trying to make its way through the statehouse that would require Utah schools to create a policy covering electronic devices in schools.  But don’t many schools across the country have such a thing in place?  Probably, but what is driving this is the fact that a number of teenagers were caught trading nude photos of themselves with their cell phones.  *gasp*  Sounds like something teenagers would be dumb enough to do.  Evidently, sharing such photos can be considered a felony – child porn.  Instead of getting parents involved, hey, lets make new laws.  I’m sure this is nothing new, but this being Utah, it is treated as an earth-shattering event.  

Woke up this morning and what did I see?  Snow.  4 to 5 inches of the stuff on the ground.  I’m not sure how much we got exactly, but it was sticking.  It completely screwed up traffic, but I don’t care since I live so close to work.  I had to fish the scraper out of the back of the car so I could clean off my windshield.  I want a wet spring as much as anyone else around here, but this is too much.  Global warming means Utah cooling?  That’s now what a state report told me a few months ago. 

 

If this means it will still be green around here on my wedding day, then I suppose I can put up with some more of this.  I hope it is better than last year at the same time - 100ºF and everything was brown.

 

So Hillary Clinton is accusing the Obama camp of trying to get people to not vote for her in the upcoming primaries because there are people calling on her to drop out of the presidential race.  Are you kidding me?  People, such as me, have been calling for Hillary to drop out for a year because they just don’t like her.  I personally want to see someone other than a Clinton or a Bush in the White House this time next year.  I’m sure she will take Pennsylvania since the unions are in bed with her (bad mental image), but I have no idea how Indiana or North Carolina will go.  Michigan and Florida don’t count, and the states are too screwed up to fix the problem.  Oh, and Obama got Texas, but for all practical purposes it was a draw.  So, that means the “Superdelegates” will get to decide who runs for the Democrats.  John McCain is laughing his butt off right now because he spend his time and money on positive ads and press and hold back the mud-flinging until it really pays off.  Whoever comes out on the Democrat side may be low on cash (he/she will pick up a decent amount right after the convention though) and will already be covered in mud.  I have to admit, it is keeping me somewhat interested.  That will fade once I realize that it doesn’t matter who we elect, I won’t like them and they won’t be good for the country.

It is snowing.  Again.  Stop already.  I can handle rain, but I'm a little sick of the snow.  Sure, it isn't sticking to the ground, but I'm sick of it all the same.

 

The NCAA tournament has been good so far.  I'm interested to see if Davidson will win today.  My bracket is completely screwed up already, so I might as well cheer on the underdog.

I traveled out to our New Jersey offices the other day.  While I was there, some of the folks were describing how security had to crack down on people because someone had let a UPS delivery person in and walk a package to some senior V.P.  Well, the security guys at my site in Salt Lake sent out an email that day that told us to watchful of cougars.  Huh? 

 

I work on the east part of town next to the mountains.  A 10 minute walk and I am literally on Federal Forest land.  Evidently, as report on KSL.com, one of the local news stations, there has been a bit of a cougar problem this spring.

 

“Several sightings have recently been reported. It all has to do with the food chain. Because of the heavy snow this winter, deer moved farther down to find food, and the cougars followed their prey.”

 

Right now, there have only been sightings, no attacks.  That’s not to say some young and dumb cougar won’t mistake a jogger for a deer.  The Division of Wildlife Resources says if you come face-to-face with a cougar, try to make yourself look as big as possible, then slowly back away.  Pick up any kids nearby.  The DWR guys didn’t say what to do with the kids.  Not sure if picking them up makes you look bigger, or if you are supposed to throw the kid at the cougar.  Need to be a little bit more specific folks.  Additionally, don’t go hiking in clothing covered in meat. 

 

So, next time someone starts complaining about how hard their job is, let them know that at least they don’t have to worry about cougars attacking them in the parking lot.

 

 

A study done by a Brigham Young University wildlife biologist shows that using pepper spray works better to stop a charging bear than a gun.  This was done with Alaskan bears.  If they were Mexican bears, that would be a completely different story.  All this hinges on using the pepper spray canister correctly.  It should be pointed out that in two instances the person using the sprayer accidentally got themselves instead of the bear.  Think of normal pepper spray one could get for self defense and multiply that by 5.  Jalapeno versus habanero.  Oh, and the bear spray comes out of that thing at around 70 miles per hour.  If I were a bear and got sprayed with that stuff, I would come back in the middle of the night and poop on the person’s tent, but I wouldn’t try to eat them.

Busy weekend - but nothing really major to report.  Oh sure, crazy things happened, but I was occupied.  Easter and family and whatnot.  Maybe tomorrow...

Don't go too wild and crazy out there as you celebrate the equinox.

This is a topic I’ve tried to stay away from for some time, primarily because I really don’t know enough about musicals or Broadway to properly poke fun at it.  Salt Lake City wants a Broadway theater.  Why?  I really don’t know.  I think it has something to do with an inferiority complex.  It may also have to do with the fact that Utah, though very backwards, is also very much into the arts.  I think it has to do with the Mormon faith, which actively promotes the arts.  For whatever reason, people in the Salt Lake Valley want a mega-theater for Broadway productions.  Here is the rub: both Salt Lake City and the city of Sandy are trying to get a theater and an operator to handle the productions.  If you will recall, Sandy stole away the Real Salt Lake soccer stadium from downtown Salt Lake.  Makes you wonder why the team isn’t called Real Sandy now. 

 

Sandy just got snubbed by two of the bigger production companies last week.  One of the production companies stated the reason for not bidding on the operation because they were waiting for a study that is being done by the county to determine the best location for a mega-theater.  There are plenty of theaters in downtown Salt Lake, but apparently none of them are large enough for what people are envisioning for a mega-theater.  I’ve yet to see a definition of a mega-theater.  It gets better.  No one has yet discussed the financials of this boondoggle.  In fact, one of the “experts” that the new mayor has brought in, namely his brother, concedes that a theater “rarely is the highest and best use for real estate.”  You know what that means?  It means government support.  Have we learned nothing from the soccer stadium?  Nothing at all?  If I didn’t want the city or county to pay for a soccer stadium, why the hell would I want the city or county to pay for a mega-theater?  If someone wants to privately fund the thing, then I’m fine with that.  We can’t even finance a new police station when we desperately need one, and now they start talking about paying for a Broadway theater in Salt Lake.  Makes me wonder why I actually pay my taxes.  Oh, that’s right – they arrest you if you don’t.  Damn.

NCAA Tournament is about to start.  Purdue is in as a 6 seed.  I think that is about right.  They could have been a 5 seed, but I'm okay with 6.  I really want to see them win at least one game.  They play Baylor.  I think that Purdue will have problems with Baylor.  We'll just have to see.

 

This is pretty much my favorite time of the sports year.