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Show Monday, Nov. 30, 2009 Page 2 World&Nati011 Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com CiarifyCorrect The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at statesmaneditor@aggiemaiLusu.edu Celebs&People NEW YORK (AP) — Much of the prime-time audience lost to NBC when moved into primetime has gone not to its rivals but the digital video recorder. NBC's audience at that hour is down sharply, as many predicted. CBS is up 6 percent over last sea- LEND son, primarily because it moved the hit series "The Mentalist" into that slot; on three of the five nights, its audience is down. ABC is also down slightly at that hour, and it wasn't exactly overwhelmed with hits last year, either. NewsBriefs Smart competency case hearing set SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — For the third time since his arrest in 2003, a court will hold a competency hearing for the man charged in the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart. The 10-day hearing for Brian David Mitchell begins Monday in Utah's U.S. District Court. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball will ultimately decide whether the 56-year-old former street preacher is competent to stand trial. It's unclear how long Kimball will take to issue a ruling. His decision will determine how the case will proceed. LateNiteHumor Body of trapped Utah spelunker won't be recovered SPANISH FORK, Utah (AP) — A Utah cave's narrow crevice that trapped and eventually killed a medical student will become his final resting place, and the dangerous cavern will be permanently sealed. State and county officials said Friday that any effort to recover the body of 26-year-old John Jones from the cramped passage would be too dangerous. Jones, of Stansbury Park, died just before midnight Wednesday — about 28 hours after getting wedged in a tight, unmapped passage with his head at an angle below his feet. Workers had tried feverishly to free him from the shaft about 100 feet below the surface and about 400 feet from the cave's entrance. Jones was trapped in a vertical shaft about 18 inches wide and 10 inches high within the 1,500-foot Nutty Putty cave, located about 80 miles south of Salt Lake City. A "Herculean effort" to free him was limited by the cramped space, leaving one rescuer chipping away rock with a ball-peen hammer just six inches to swing, said Sgt. Tom Hodgson, coordinator for Utah County's search and rescue operations. Sheriff Jim Tracy said Jones' exact cause of death will probably never be known but contributing factors likely included his inverted position for a prolonged period of time and the cave's cold temperatures. "If we put other people in that same location, they could get stuck or get hurt," said Lt. John Valentine, also of the county's search and rescue. Those who met Friday morning — state officials from the agency that owns the land, the cave's operators, Jones' family and law enforcement officials — said they decided unanimously to close the cave as quickly as possible. "We feel like it would be John's will to protect the safety of future cavers," his younger brother, Josh, said at a news conference Friday. Hodgson said "we've suffered a tragedy in this cave that we hope to prevent from happening again." The family will be allowed to place a memorial marker at the cave. For the past two years, the St. George native was attending medical school at the University of Virginia, hoping to pursue a career as a pediatric cardiologist. Jones, his wife Emily and their 13-month-old daughter had come home to Utah for the Thanksgiving holiday and to share the news that another baby is expected in June. Family said they knew Jones fought to survive throughout the rescue effort and was commended by rescue crews for "his remarkable good spirits and resilience to the end." AN UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER RESCUER is shown during a rescue effort in Nutty Putty Cave, near Elberta, Utah,Wednesday Nov. 25. John Jones, 26, of Stansbury Park, died Thursday Nov. 26, nearly 28 hours after he became stuck upside-down in Nutty Putty Cave, a popular spelunking site about 80 miles south of Salt Lake City. His death is the first known fatality at the cave, according to the Utah County sheriff's office. AP photo Although Jones' death is the first known fatality since cavers began exploring Nutty Putty's narrow passageways in the 1960s, rescuers have been called to the cave five times in the last 10 years. The last time was in 2004 when a teenage boy had to be pulled out of an area not far from where Jones got stuck. The cave hosted 5,000 to 10,000 visitors per year until 2006, when it was temporarily closed while managers an outing with 11 friends and family Tuesday night and was unable to get out. "This particular area is very, very difficult ... where the cave peters out to virtually nothing," said Valentine, who said he'd been in Nutty Putty some 25 times over the years. Funeral services for Jones are planned for Saturday. Josh Jones said the family is considering a fund to help educate young people on cave safety. Ski resorts fight global warming; Utah gov unsure SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ski resorts across the country are using the Thanksgiving weekend to jump start their winter seasons, but with every passing year comes a frightening realization: If global temperatures continue to rise, fewer and fewer resorts will be able to open for the traditional beginning of ski season. Warmer temperatures at night are making it more difficult to make snow and the snow that falls naturally is melting earlier in the spring. In few places is this a bigger concern than the American West, where skiing is one of the most lucrative segments of the tourism industry and often the only reason many people visit cash-strapped Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009 — Top 10 Signs You've Eaten Too Much On Thanksgiving 10. Decide to take a little nap after Thanksgiving, you wake up in March. 9. You're mistaken for the Garfield balloon. 8. Dad has to use electric knife to carve you out of your pants. 7. You're sweating ham glaze. 6. Senators knock on your door, tear up health care bill and say, "You're on your own, fatso.” 5. You're in Boston, but your ass is in New Hampshire. 4. You receive personalized "Thank you" note from the president of Butterball. 3. Revenge-seeking turkeys show up on your lawn and try to kill you. 2. GPS units tell local drivers "Turn left at bloated guy." 1. Even Kirstie Alley's saying, "Whoa, pace yourself." implemented a stricter system of access that included a permit system, requirement that cavers be with someone experienced and a locked gate. It reopened in May and had once again become popular, especially among amateur cavers, said Mike Leavitt, who managed access to the cave. Although the cave was popular, it had never been fully mapped. Jones found himself in one of the areas off the cave's main passage during Angeli VanLaanen performs during a final run of the ladies freestyle World Cup ski halfpipe competition in Park City on Jan. 31. Ski resorts across the country are using the Thanksgiving weekend to jump start their winter seasons, but with every passing year comes a frightening realization: If global temperatures continue to rise, fewer and fewer resorts will be able to open for the traditional beginning of ski season. AP photo states like Utah during winter. But even as world leaders descend on Copenhagen next month to figure out a way to reduce carbon emissions blamed in global warming, the industry is still grappling with leaders in some of their own ski-crazy states who refuse to concede that humans have any impact on climate change. Chief among them is Republican Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who says he will host what he calls the first "legitimate debate" about man's role in climate change in the spring. While the world's leading scientific organizations agree the debate was settled long ago, the former Realtor who took office when Jon Huntsman resigned to become U.S. ambassador to China maintains that it wasn't. "He's said to me that the jury is out in his mind whether it's man-caused and he thinks and believes that the public jury is still out," said Herbert's environmental adviser, Democrat Ted Wilson. Herbert's reluctance to acknowledge that greenhouse gases contribute to global warming quietly frustrates Utah ski resorts that depend on state marketing money, but it openly infuriates industry officials elsewhere who liken it to having a debate about whether the world is flat. "That's just kind of raging ignorance," said Auden Schendler, executive director of sustainability for Aspen (Colo.) Skiing Co. "We're not environmentalists, we're business people. We have studied the hell out of the climate science. To have a neighboring governor not believe it ... It's absurd." A climate study by the Aspen Global Change Institute is forecasting that if global emissions continue to rise, Aspen will warm 14 degrees by the end of this century, giving it a similar climate to that of Amarillo, Texas. Many ski companies and the mountain towns they've created have been working to reduce their carbon footprints and advocating for significant policy changes for years. In California, the ski industry was one of the first groups to support legislation requiring the state to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 emission levels by 2020. Aspen Skiing Co. is widely recognized as a national leader, but Schendler readily acknowledges that the nation's ski resorts can do little on their own to affect climate change. He said company resorts like Aspen and Snowmass are at their best when they educate their highly affluent — and politically connected — guests about global warming's effects. "You need federal legislation in the U.S.," he said. "You need it to help drive an international agreement." Herbert and Utah's senior U.S. I See WARMING, page 8 This year passing your most difficult test may have nothing to do with college FREE men's titanium band with engagement ring purchase frelzm,044,d ' f 435.753.4870 • 45 North Main (Next to Persian Peacock & across from Tabernacle) tr, |