The Salt Lake Tribune ; UTAH MFOR THE RECORD, B-2 ROBERTKIRBY STATE OF THE STATE, B-3. BY JOE BAIRD 2 TRIBUNE © 1999, The Salt Lake Tribune Like all investigative journalists, I have a nose for what makes a good SEPTEMBER 7, 1999 Wall-to-Wall Cities Plan: It’s Baaack! Incorporation proponents rush to revive defunctbill Is a Caffeinated Cola Pick-Me-Up Too Much to Ask? TUESDAY ll OBITUARIES, B-5 of proponents, led by Salt Lake County whimof annexations andincorporations, to be presented to mayors and other county's unincorporatedarea has shriv- studyis being drafted, andis scheduled community leaders by November. The issue remains the same, says Cal- THESALT LAI gues, the countyno longerwill beat the Commission Chairwoman Mary Calla: ghan. A new wall-to-wall sibility laghan. “The county has evolved from being very rural and unincorporated to Salt Lake County's wall-to-wall cities initiative isn't gone. It’s on hiatus — and will be returning soon to a political front-burner near you. very urban with the unincorporated ar- A_ wall-to-wall cities bill — which that are widelydispersed, and providing would have smoothed the way for the county’s remaining unincorporated areas to be absorbed by neighboring cities — failed in the Legislature earlier this year. But that hardly has dented the zeal services to those areas has becomeincreasingly expensive. We can ignore the problem until it gets worse, or we can do eas becoming a small minority. We now have pockets of [unincorporated] areas something aboutit.” With wall-to-wall cities, Callaghanar- which dwindlethe county's tax base and makedelivering services difficult. The eled from 40 percent to 20 percent in just three years, andresidentsin the1nborne thebrunt of the etn a incre It's how to removethose unincorporatedpatches that has raisedall the hackles. The original wall-to-wall cities vill would have allowedcities to launch an. nexations, prompting cries from unin- corporatedresidents that they werebeingcutoutof the process(residents must petition cities under the current law R-Riverton, says his measure was intend ed to help, not hurt, unincorporatedres dents, notingthat they had to cough the most cash in the county’s latest tax hike ‘The people who would havebenefit ed the most were the ones who fought against it the hardest.” But county employeesalsoraiseda red flag. fearing for their jobs if the remain ing unincorporated areas were gobbled up. Thoseconcernsessentially killed the bill in the 1999 Legislature “The big hang-up was that peopl didn’t wantto proceed without some idea See INCORPORATION, 6-2 Thebill’s sponsor, Sen. R. Mont newsstory. With all the government Now We Know Her History corruption andsocial ills in the world,it’s nice to know that I canstill write about what ticks me off person- ally. Last week, I stopped at Burger Bucket for lunch. When the time came to order a drink with my meal, I was faced with four choices ofsize: small, medium,large and extralarge. Being already ahead of the gamein mydaily consumption ofcaffeine, I Contentious Smith biographer, ordered a medium. Whenit arrived,it looked like a contact lens with a strawstuck a Utahn,is topic of new book through the middle. I didn’t know they madeplastic drink lids that BY HANNAH WOLFSON small. THEASSOCIATED PRESS A complaintto “Hi, I'm Travis,” the assistant manager in charge of fries, got me nowhere. Traitor. Liar. Snake-in-the-grass Fawn McKay Brodie has borne all the labels since she wroteherfirst book, Travis pointed at the sign and said medium soft drinks at Burger Bucket had always been “6 ounces of the popular beverage of your choice for only 89 cents!” I tried explaining to Travis that a soft drink by its very name was in- The Salt LakeTribune tionship with t Biographer’s Life. ‘It’s really amazing. Here she’s been [dead] now for almost 30 years and people still get emotional about her. Not surprising. since Brodie’s book, No Man head? Theretail method of drink measurementis part of the problem. Under a judge's watchful eye, Matt Ivers of Park City, above, is inches away from finishing drilling his second 3-foot hole during the mucking and drilling contest, part of the Miners Day festivities in Park City. At left, Rosie the Riveter — knowntolocals as Pristy Marshall — wheels along Main Street in Payson during its Onion Daysfestival, touted as the largest annual Labor Day celebration in Utah. During World War ll, “Rosie” graced posters urging women to (temporarily)fill the critical positions vacated by men who wereoff fighting for their country. Labor Day in Utah, see stories Pages B-2, B-3. It borders on misleading advertising becauseno soft drink consumer ever measuresthe size of his or her thirst according to ouncesor milliliters. Wehave beenraised onscientific units of measure like Big Gulp, Thirstbuster, Big Juan and the awesome Mad Bladder. When someoneintheoffice says, “I'm going to 7-Eleven. Anyone want anything?” no one ever replies, “Yeah, bring me 128 milliliters of Diet Coke.” Moreoften than notit’s, “I want large soft drink free refill and a complimentary adult diaper. You could havefloated something from a Tom Clancy novelinit Unpredictable drink sizingis only Leah Hogsten/TheSalt LakeTribune BY BOB MIMS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE samething: a work-coping buzz. We drink soda pop less because we helps us dothat. Someretailers water down their soft drinks hoping the general public won't notice. So, what youget is brownandfizzy, less expensive, and secretly known among retailers as “placebo cola,” Caffeine addicts alwaysnotice. Someoneneedsto tell a certain national conveniencestore chain that a single aspirin diluted in it of fizzy brown water is not under any stretch of the imaginationa caffeinated cola beverage. Other conveniencestores set the syrupdispensers onhigh, and you get morecaffeine than you wouldif you ate Juan Valdez's mule, pack andall My person: orite is a watering holein Provothat adds so muchsyrupthe clerks are all required to have medical degrees. 1 don't know if this pieceof serious investigative journalism will change thesoft drink conspiracy 1 do know that the four Diet Cokes 1 drank helped mewrite it veryfast Robert Kirby welcomes e-mail at dark@slekrek,com COPY But Brodie, born in the tiny northern Utah townof Huntsville in 1915, was from one of the most prominent andreligious families in the state. The book set off a tsunami Her father, Thomas McKay, was a counselor to church leaders. Her grandfather turned Brigham Young Academy into the universityit is today. And her uncle, David 0. McKay, becamepresident and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints five years after her excommunication. Brodie, who began to question her faith after heading to graduate school in Ch antagonizedher family evenfurther b 5 and knew her book would make waves ter getting special access to church archives pen name if he wanted. Beforepublication in 1945 they're having, the issues that concern them, like [the future solvency of] Social Security.” Mayne began his Labor Day Most Utahns spent their holiday weekend visiting parks, campgroundsand picnic sites or kicking weekend Saturday, meeting with Teamsters at Murray C later attended a Polyne festival in West Valley City, where back for the quintessential backyard barbecue. For Ed Mayne, Labor Daywasa dayof,well, labor and we'regoing into 2000with opti- mism,” Mayne said, noting AFLCIO membershipin Utah currently stands at 74,000, “near anhistoric high for us.” The umbrella labor union organi: zation had begun the 1990swith just 65,000 members. “The 1980s were a he is an elected Democratic state bad decadefor us,” Mayneacknowl attending various AFL-CIO affiliate with plant closures and| senator. On Sunday, hewasin Price Whenthe president of the Utah 7704's annual picnic at Cottonwood Height's Butler Park shortly after noon Monday, he was amid a whirlwind tour of union festivities throughout the state. “Labor Day is a busy day for me, are thirsty than because we wantto get through the dayfaster. Caffeine Written by an outsider, the book probably would havecaused ripples in Mormon society fromher uncle, she told her father she would use a For AFL-CIO Boss, Labor DayIs Best Kind of Holiday ‘There's also the uncertain issue of varying content. Pepper, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Diet Coke or NeuroZap, we'reall after the man 29-year-old had nightmares of being called be. fore church leaders for denunciation AFL-CIO ambled into Communications Workers of America Local Mosthardcoresoft drinkers are addicted to caffeine. Whetherit’s Dr. Knows MyHistory, sums up Smithas a liar and a con J one of many ways that soft drink re- tailers play with consumers’ heads slave Sally Hemings — a biogrz oi the biographeris due out next month She still raises a loi of hackles.” said Newell Bringhurst, the author of Fawn McKay Brodie: A ment. What's next, root beer in a squeeze packet? He wouldn't listen. Whatisit about a burnt-orange smock that causes authority to go to a person’s Wrong again. Chang's 99-cent “Big Szech-Juan” wassolarge that it required two grunting clerksto getit up on the counter. It came with a biography of Mormon church founder Joseph Smith that shocked church membersand got her excommunicated. Five decades and as many books later — including a best seller that tackled Thomas Jefferson's r tendedto be a drink, not a condi- one of those things the doctor told me never to try and drink in one day again.” After Burger Bucket, no way was I going to come up shortagain. The next time I stopped for fast food was at Chang's Mexican Deli. I ordered a Evans says They kind of shot themselves in the foot.” functions. Monday's ing the agendahad him start at Park City’s Miners Daycelebration, which included a edged. “It took ar 1 You don't know me; you never knew my heart No man knows myhistory. J cannottellit; I shall never undertakeit. | don't blame anyonefor not hit Despite recent strides, however Utah's union membership remains but I like it. It keeps me in touch with the people and what they are trophy Telethon preceded his stop cent of the state's wage andsalary workers were members in 1998 doing, what CWA members. “We're celebrating thelast Labor to mix with hundreds of picnicking they are thinking,’ AFL-CIO statistics show just 7 per. Onlysix states had lower work force Dayof this century on a good note Deal May Preserve Open Space If funding comes through, Syracuse farm won’t change THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE the first to capitalize on Utah See UNION, PageB-3 — Joseph Smith So begins Brodie’s biography of Smith, with a fu al sermonhegavein 1844. Bringhurst’s book, on the other hand, opens with a confessional of sorts about his fondness for Brodie and the parallels be tweentheir lives See BIOGRAPHER, Page B-4 rR fund approved by the Legislature last year, andis hoping tobefirst in line for a piece of the $3 million open-space fund Quality administered by the state's Growth Commission. BY BRANDON LOOMIS A Syracuse farmer is trying tob mite. believing my history. If | had not experienced what T have, | could not have believed it myself. mining, especially, took a real hard among the lowest in the nation Maynesaid. “I get to hear people {talk about] their jobs, problems The book served for me what an autobiographi cal novel usually does for the young novelist Bringhurst quotes Brodiein his book. She was com pelled, she wrote, “toliberate myself wholly frc Mormonism, and perhapsalso certain family rela tionships She knew she wasplaying with an explosivetop: ic,” said Bringhurst, "She was playing with dyna suffered through Reaganomics parade down theski resort commu nity’s MainStreet jte-morning appearance on the Muscular Dys But at the sametime, she found the biography ing and shrugged off the expulsion that fol ome open-space protection funds to buffer his land from residential development Vegetable farmer Charlie Black teamedupwith The Nature Conservancy Thelandis just a chunk of Black's 500: acre farm, but is vieweda critical buffer to The NatureConserv y's pri vately owned bird refuge, the Layton Wetlands Preserve. ing Black $10,000 for the right to purchaseif it can raise $394,000 within a If therearesubdivisions right to the wetlandsborders, that is not a goodsituation for wildlifeat all,” said Chris Mon tague, conservationdirector for The Na ture Conservancy's Utah chapter, Farms provide water birds a buffer against fluctuating Great Salt Lakelevels, and donot attract as many predatory dogs andcats, hesaid Agriculture Commissioner Cary Pe. tersontold his board membersrecently that this sort of critical-lands presery: a tion is exactly whythe Legislature stab half the $100,000 farmlandpreservation See DEAL, Page B-4 to submit the first farm-preservation proposalto the Utah Department of Ag riculture and Food, ettempting to pool state and private dollars to preserve 40 acres for farming with a conservation easement ‘The Nature Conservancysignedan option to buy the easement last week, givyear, Now the conservancyis tapping Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Teltinne Syracuse vegetable farmer Charlie Black is proposing to place 40 acres of his land near the Great Salt Lake into a new preservation program,