LIVING IN RECESSION ‘ Panel: Downturn bégan in March C-4 BURNED BY/THE SUNS Utahloses to Phoenix 111-104 in OT D-1 Ghe Salt LakeGri http://www.sltrib.com une *Utah’s Independent Voice Since 1871 Volume263 Number 44 ©2001, The Salt Lake Tribune PLACES Digital Age Killed Stamps Oncethe Rage BY JJUSTIN POPE "THE ASSOCIATEDPRE:SS SALEM, Mass. — Once upon a time, there was money, and there were S&H Green Stamps. Green Stamps werethe alterna- tive currency of the boomingpostwar consumersociety of the 1950s, ; T felephone numbers listed on A-2 Bush: Saddam May President discusses future goals as Marinesgointo action KNIGHTRIDDER NEWS SERVICE KABUL,Afghanistan — U.S. Marines saw their first action in Afghanistan, some Taliban troops fled their last base and President Bush signaled Monday that America soot id turn to face ‘another obstinate foe: Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. The presidentsaid Saddam,defeated but not deposed during the Persian Gulf War, must allow U.N. inspection ofsites that could produce chemicalor nuclear weapons. What wouldhappen if Saddam refused? “He'll find out,” Bush *60s and "70s. Millions of Ameri families received them with every said. In Afghanistan, more than 500 Marines se- grocery store or gas station purchase. They faithfully pasted the stamps into booklets and, when they had enough of them, redeemed them for appliances, furni- cured “a-forward base of operations” at an airfield near Kandahar. The vanguardof a larger U.S. combat force, they called their campaign Operation Swift Freedom, and the operation rapidlyflew into action. Marine Cobra helicopter gunships joined ture and other merchandise. Attheir peak, Green Stamps 143 South Main Street, Salt LakeCity, Utah 84111 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER27,2001 | m Bin Laden’s Hide-Out? | The main terrorism suspect may be | holedup in aformidablefortress in Afghan | mountainscalled Tora Bora. See A-5. More ontheanti-terror campaign, A-4. NavyF-14 Tomcatjets ina strike on an armored column Mondaynight and destroyed manyof the 15 tanks and other vehicles, U.S. officers said. It was unclearif the helicopters actually fired on the convoy, andthere wasno immediate word about casualties oneitherside, Military spokesmen refused to confirm that, the convoy belonged tothe Taliban orthat it was heading toward the Marines’ newbase. Butthe See BUSH,Page A-4 ko Bandic The Associated Press U.S. special operation troops greet a Northern Alliance commanderwhile his soldiers fight pro-Taliban forces at a fortress near Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, on Monday. were in 60 percent of American households and were the nation’s largest supplier of durable consumer goods.C ities pooled them to buy school buses, _BLANKET COVERAGE firetrucks, even a gorilla and an elephantfor a zoo. Theyeven in- spired an Andy Warholpainting. Now, the stamps have given * way to swipe-throughdigital cards,offered by thelatest incarnation of the company, S&H Greenpoints. But S&H Greenpoints is strugglingto gain its footing ata time whencredit card companies, airlines and other businessesare all offering the digital equivalent of trading stamps. Green Stamps began fading in the 1970s,just as the Arab oil embargo wiped outthe lucrative gas station business for S&H and dozensoflesser-known stamp competitors. The company had more than $1 billion in revenuebut was past its prime whenit wassold in 1981. Theold stampbusiness never quite died, and in 1999, Walter Beinecke, the great-grandson of founder Thomas Sperry(the “S” in “S&H”) boughtback the company, hoping to rebuild it witha digital kick. The company set up a Website where people could buy from merchants, track their accounts and page through the Greenpoints rewardscatalog. But the Web site never drew a big crowd. S&H Greenpoints hassince reworked its Internet operation to makeit more convenient to participate. Customersearn points instead of stampsfor purchases made onoroffline. They can redeem the points at a store or overtheInter- net. The core business involves three grocery chains — in North Carolina, Michigan and the mid- Atlantic — encompassing180 stores. That's a far cry from the 20 per- centof U.S. grocery stores that once handed out Green Stamps. But the company says it has Steve Griffin/The Salt LakeTribune AUS.Forest Service crewclears fallen and sagging treesfrom the unmaintainedportion of a road nearthe top of Mill Creek Canyon on Monday. More than 30treesfell from the weight of the snow after the weekend snowstorms. Crewswill be working the next several daysto clear the area. Moisture-Laden Storms Put a Dent in Drought Pileups, blackouts are gear for chest-deep powder at theresorts this week. The National Weather orderof the day, but resorts are not griping Service was forecasting another big passed 1 million accounts andwill be profitable by the endof next BY JUDYF. were the most popular Green Stamp redemptionitem. Todayit’s George Foreman grills, which cost 40,800 points, or $4,080 worth of groceries at the going rate of 10 points to the dollar. Thebiggest change is the competition: Credit card companies and other businesses are running their own loyalty programs, and the new alternative currency is frequent-flier miles, which can be bought, sold andtraded. But S&H Greenpoints chiefexecutive Rod Parkersaid the premise still holds: “Getting rewarded for everyday stuff is meaningful,and it really adds up.” INSIDE Shred Heads:Alpine snowboarding languishes in the United States, where boarders prefer the flash offreestyle. ‘oad to the Games, C-1 Asimov ....D-12 Landers .... B4 Comics .....B-8 Telev Weather: Highs mostly in 30s.C-10 a 01234 i, HYS planning to open for the season Wed- THE SALT LAKE year or early 2003. The companystill does about$1 million of business a year with a few scattered stores thatstill use the old stamps. But most people just won't lick and stick anymore. The catalogs are still packed with consumer goods. Toasters stormfor Thursdayand Fri ay. ‘id Mark “It’s a skier’s dream. dette of the Alta Ski Area, hich had been closed for lack of snow but was Record rain and snow battered drivers andleft thousands of residents withoutelectricity along the Wasatch Front on Monday, but the blustery weather had skiers and watér managers bouncing with glee. Most roads had been cleared of snow and traffic accidents bylate Monday, and skiers were dusting off nesdayafter almost9 feet of snowblanketedtheslopes by nn evening. st its biggest snowfall inafivedaypel since April 25, 1991, whenthe ski heaped 91 inches onAlta. Back-to-back storms beginning Thursday left Salt Lake County and Davis County valleys with 10 inches and the benches with 24. Utah County received between 3 and 5 inches in It Lake County. The Mon: three recordsat the National Weather Service's Salt LakeCity office nearthe day morning commute added another 20 minoraccidentsto the tally, which included an overturned Utah Depart- airport: @ Thanksgiving wasthe rainiest ment of 1 theeast-si falling in 24 hours. @Sunday was the snowiest-ever Theplow w: ie£8900South at 7:25 a.m. when it hit anice patch, swerved, then rolled into the median, said Amanda Covington, a UDOT spokes- November day, with 10.4 inches of snowfallin 24 hours. @ The month has been the wettest in history, with3.15 inches ofprecipi tation recordedalready and another storm predicted before December. The storms created border-toborder chaos for holiday travelers in Utah. On Sunday alone, the Utah woman. No one wasinjured, but traffic was backedupfor about 90 minutes. As Monday evening came, road conditions worsened. Dispatchers Lake the Salt numerous | 1 of 2 Utah CensusSuits BY JOE BAIRD THESALTLAKETRIBUNE © 2001, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE \ reported | BY BRENT ISRAELSEN te. throughout WEATHER,Page A-6 Utah has been fighting a losing battle for the past year It is the largest buyoutof a grazing allotment since the politically embattled region was designated a national monumentin 1996. Bill Hedden, who runs the Grand Canyon ‘Trust's Moaboffice, said he will ask the U.S. Valley ||| Supreme Court Rejects In GrandStaircase An environmental group on Monday boughtoutthelast large grazing allotment — 256,000 acres — in the controversial Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. To reduce the damage caused by cows traipsing about the canyon country of southern Utah, the Grand Canyon Trust purchased grazing rights in the “Last Chance”allotment, which represents about 15 percent of the monument. ‘The Flagstaff, Ariz.-based environmental group wrote out a check for an undisclosed sum to a Salina rancherto acquire the allotment, located on the Kaiparowits Plateau, a major feature of the 1.6 million-acre Grand ron ragael ae on ever Novemberday, with 1.27 inches te h) rol respondedto 220 inci- valleylocations. The weekend precipitation broke ~ Tribune file photo Sale of the last large allotment on the Kaiparowits Plateau to an environmental group mayend cattle grazing on a big piece of Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument land. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages the monument,to let the trust end most of the grazing in-the “Last Chance” grazing allotment, thus allowingit to return toits pre-cow condition. “It's a way of preserving a big representative swath of the canyon country,” Hedden said. , ‘The rancher selling the permits could not See GREEN GROUP,Page A-9 *% in its bid for a fourth U.S. Houseseat. Nowthestate is downtoits final card. The U.S, Supreme Court dismissed on Mondaythefirst of suits against the CommerceDepart: ment about the 2000 census, The justices rejected, without comment,the state’s argument that the Census Bureau violated the Constitution and denied Utah another congressional seat when it counted federal employees working overseas, but not “similarly situated” individuals such as the state’s 11,000 LDS mis. sionaries serving abroad, Utah’s second suit, alleging the Census Bureau illegally used estimates to determine * MORE COURT, CENSUS In other Supreme Court action A-12 Census: Homeownershiprises 8-5 the size of households where residents could not be contacted,still sits before the Supreme Court. But given the numberofdefeats thestate has absorbedin this fight three counting Monday's decision andtwoearlier district court rejections a trend is emerging. “We're severely disappointed,” Utah Chief Deputy Attorney General Ray Hintze said. “We had the [overseas] case briefed extremely well. Thesearecritical issues. We thoughtthe court would allow us to presentit. So this caught us off guard.” See CENSUS,Page A-12