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Show WedTtiursFri, July 24-26, 2002 The Park Record A-7 Radioactive waste petition lands in court - Proponents of a citien initiative aimed at limiting and taxing radioactive radioac-tive waste dumped in the state filed a Petition Tuesday with the Utah Supreme Court. The Petition asks the Court to rule that portions of the slate's initiative statute violates equal protection and free speech guarantees guaran-tees found in the United States and Utah Constitutions. The Petition further fur-ther asks the Court to declare that sponsors of the initiative have gathered gath-ered a sufficient number of signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot and asks the Court to compel the state's elections officer to accept and file the initiative petition. peti-tion. The Petition was filed on behalf of six individuals who are the prime movers behind the Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act initiative campaign. They are John W. (lallivan and Linda Sue Dickey, berth registered voters who signed the initiative; ini-tiative; Michael D. Gallivan, initiative sponsor and chair of Utahns for Radioactive Waste Control; and Susan M. Kuiak, Frank Pignanelli and Phyllis Sorensen, also initiative sponsors. According to Lisa Watts Baskin, one of the attorneys for the initia tive proponents, the Petition challenges chal-lenges Utah's "multi-county requirement" require-ment" that requires initiative sponsors spon-sors to obtain enough petition signatures signa-tures to meet a threshold of 10 percent per-cent of the voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election in 20 of 2( counties. The lieutenant governor office ruled July 5 that despite collecting col-lecting 95,974 signatures, well above the required 76.180 the initiative effort failed because it met the signature signa-ture threshold in only 14 counties. Ms. Baskin said the 14 counties where the initiative qualified represent repre-sent 87.14 percent of the state's population. popu-lation. In six of the counties (Beaver. Daggett, Garfield, Kane, Piute and Wayne) where the sponsors fell short of the 10 percent requirement, a combined com-bined 147 signatures would have been enough to qualify those counties. coun-ties. The Petition notes that the total population of the six counties mentioned men-tioned ha ve a population of 2 1 ,65 1 , or less than one percent of the state's overall population. "Thus," the Petition states, "147 people (l15000th of the state's population) deprived the other 99.9 percent of Utahns of the right to vote" on the Radioactive Waste Restriction Act. "The 10 percent requirement unduly empowers small numbers of rural voters with the ability to defeat proposed initiatives that may be favored by an overwhelming majority majori-ty of urban voters," said Mickey Gallivan. "Sparsely populated counties coun-ties made it very clear that there Ls an extreme difference of the power of one signature over another," he said. "More than 95.000 Utahns signed the petition yet 147 signatures are keeping keep-ing the issue off the ballot." "We are simply asking the Supreme Court to restore the rule of one-person, one vote as assured by the United States Constitution," he added. "There is no doubt that Utah's multi-county requirement imposes severe and discriminatory restrictions on the initiative process and on a petitioner's constitutional rights of free speech and expression." I le said "We are asking the Supreme Court to declare the initiative as 'sufficient' 'suf-ficient' and compel the lieutenant governor to accept and file the initiative initia-tive anil to prepare it for appearance on the 2(K)2 general election ballot." Deno llimonas, an attorney at Jones Waldo Holbrook & McDonough and co-counsel for the Petitioners, stated that "The imposition imposi-tion of the multi-county requirement suggests that Utahns are incapable of governing themselves through the initiative process. The multi-county requirement is an unconstitutional attempt to make it more difficult for Utahns to place initiatives on the ballot" bal-lot" The Petition notes that "Utah's multi-county requirement discriminates discrimi-nates against urban voters by making mak-ing rural voters gatekeepers who can effectively keep initiatives off the ballot." bal-lot." The filing further argues that Utah residents, "living in sparsely populated counties, are empowered by Utah's Election Code to exercise a veto over citien initiatives that are favored by a clear majority of the voters of Utah." Under the "Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act," Utah's school children chil-dren would be the beneficiaries of the revised taxes charged for dumping radioactive waste in Utah. Revenues from the taxes would go to classroom size reduction and the purchase of textbooks. Ilie tax would also fund assistance for the impoverished. The Act would prohibit the disposal of any higher levels of radioactive waste on state lands in Utah. "FREE" IN-HOME ESTIMATES c Mil i'AhH, SprcuJ pricing . . m 5 f Wnrr. MAIS T r Fumed m iMmrdhmll CrWHH Knl Bur I VcflKik l f jhrK r( ItNltm 11 f ;u- .'istJ ) pattern Ml t oUi CRffl I imitcd Mi tunc . SALES END AUGUST 3, 2002 )f 90 DAYS SAME AS CASH www.houMofblindt.coin HOURS: Mim In (:W,Sjt II I ORfcM 225-6977 SALT LAKE SHOWROOM 2412 So. State 487-5662 OGDLN 712-1666 J 1-800-444-6555 j USDA criticized for slow response to E. coli Approximately 19 million pounds of ground beef suspected of being tainted with the potentially deadly E. coli bacteria at a Greeley, Colo., meat processing plant was recalled Friday after federal food safety officials became alarmed that nearly two dozen people in Colorado and five other states had become ill after eating eat-ing the meal. U.S. Agriculture Department officials offi-cials issued a national warning to consumers con-sumers to be on the alert for beef from ConAgra Beef Co. in Greeley as they appealed to the public to question their grocer about any suspected sus-pected meat and to fully cook all ground beef products. The recall is the second largest ever overseen by the USDA. In 1 997, Hudson Foods recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef produced at its Columbus, Neb., plant after 15 L5 JU Tl I I Colorado residents became ill. USDA officials conceded that the public may have difficulty identifying the suspected beef from the Colorado plant because it was sold in bulk to other fcxxl manufacturers and grocery chains. As they processed the meat, they could have removed the Greeley plant's identifying ""Est. 969" code that is part of the USDA's inspection shield, officials said. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman defended her department's response at a hurriedly-called news conference to announce the recall. But Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, and Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Consumer Federation of America's Food Policy Institute, attacked the USDA for failing to move more quickly. Elsa Murano, who is the USDA's top food safety official, told reporters a "there was no delay" in the agency response to the Greeley plant. "What we waited for was confirmation confirma-tion from the Centers for Disease Control" that the illnesses in Colorado could be linked to meat from the plant, said. Once the CDC confirmed that 16 people in Colorado had fallen ill the USDA pressed for the voluntary recall. The 0157:1 17 potentially is one of the most serious forms of E-coli infections, making the young and elderly eld-erly vulnerable to a potentially deadly dead-ly illness. In addition to the Colorado cases, the USDA said six other suspected sus-pected cases of E-coli have been identified in the states of California, Michigan, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. The suspected meat products were produced over 2H days from April 12 to June 29 and could be any where in the country, officials said. They released a six-page release containing con-taining recalled meat lots. Foreman said that USDA has an excellent system for tracking meat once it leaves the processing plant. But recalls typically get "a very low percentage" of the suspect meat returned. Foreman said. Ilie Denver Post disclosed last week that federal meat inspectors had suspected ConAgra ground beef was tainted with E coli two weeks before they asked the company to initiate a much smaller recall of 3542X) pound of fresh and frozen ground beef products on June 30. The USDA investigation at the Greeley plant is continuing. All the meat coming out of the Greeley plant since July 11 has been tested and none of the tests have shown any trace of contamination, said Murano. , Spanish Tapas Restaurant Buy on. Tap At regular price, ajtd rexwb tut- ttpAt tff&ftor Vlu fit . Miut prutnt tkU coupon TafAi Special ViUid, fUtfeiy Ontf 'frt 073 102 Friday, Saturday OJtat Sunday Hiykt Wtutt SattjrU- tk- tjUa 4.99 W 900 Maui Street 56-3030 Open, 7 days a wtek 5 p. w. to MuOujfu Plan your room willi tte flntsf nis from Adib'5 extensive and iruttje c'ollee.tk)ii of hand woven rnasterf )lepe5. 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