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Show Vernal Few turn out to picket local stores There was a sparse turnout to picket Vemd convenience stores for selling what participants believe to be pornographic por-nographic material, but Stan Arias, organizer, said he thought his efforts were successful and plans to continue the activity. Arias contends that the 7-11 convenience conve-nience stores nationally are the largest distributors of "Playboy" and "Penthouse" magazines which he contends are pornographic. Four participants Saturday picketed the east side 7-11 Store and later moved mov-ed to the south side of the street to picket the Circle K store. The picketers urged those passing by to telephone John Thomson, chairman chair-man of the board, Southland Corporation, Cor-poration, requesting that such magazines be taken out of the stores. Arias said that the stores are ad-, vised that the picketers are coming, and they do not mean to impede traffic traf-fic to the establishments. "If a manager asks us to leave we will go peacefully," he said. "The Supreme Court has ruled that patently offensive material can be stopped based on ordinances passed by the community," he said. "A community can set its own standard stan-dard of pornography," he said. Arias said he had not approached the Vernal City Council to determine if there is an anti-pornography ordinance. or-dinance. City Manager Kenneth Bassett said there is a city pornography ordinance or-dinance which prohibits the sale or display of pornographic materials to minors, under 18 years. However, the city ordinance labels pornographic material as any material that "the average -person" applying contemporary community standards finds that as a whole it appeals ap-peals to purient interest in sex, it is patently offensive in the description or depiction of nudity or sexual conduct, con-duct, and if taken as a whole, it does not have serious literacy, artistic, political or scientific value. Tribe mix-bloods allowed federal court justice rules The Interior Department cannot exclude 23 mixed-blood descendant of Ute Indians from tribal membership, member-ship, ruled a federal judge last week. The decision was praised as an important im-portant step in preventing tribal genocide. U.S. District Judge David K. Winder ruled that the Interior Department, overseer of Indian affairs, af-fairs, cannot impose provisions of a 1954 federal law requiring tribal members to have 50 percent or more of Ute blood. The controversy arose in 1983 when then Interior Secretary James Watt, holding to the 1954 statute, refused to admit children of Ute Indians In-dians to the tribe because other children did not have the requisite blood quantum levels. Judge Winder ruled that the 1937 tribal constitution, which requires only that children be born to tribe members living on the reservation, takes precedence over the 1954 law. "This court finds that the secretary's interpretation of (the 1954 act) is clearly and plainly contrary con-trary to Congress' intent," Winder wrote. "Consequently, the secretary's action cannot stand." econcil provides The second annual Uintah Basin Health and Safety Fair has provided Basin area residents with unique health education and screening services. ser-vices. Health care professionals from almost every occupation in the Basin spent Saturday, April 27 evaluating and counseling people in a number of health and safety booths. All of the screening services available ai the health fair were offered free of charge. .tCK u i a K ..... rz Tsr-rr t TTl r : 1'' PICKET ERS request the removal of magazines, which they view o f objectionable, from Vernal convenience stores. The group Spearheaded by Stan Arias plans to continue their activ.ty next Saturday. Under the ordinance, Bassett said, it would be difficult to prove that some of the magazines in question would be pornographic. Police Chief Robert T. Downard said that most of the convenience stores in question comply with the requirement re-quirement to not expose such material to minors. "It is difficult to put a definition on pornography that would satisfy a broad sector of the community," Downard said. The city ordinance requires that an obscenity committee be formed of "There are dozens of tribes watching wat-ching this decision because they have membership questions, too," George Mangum said. He said the plaintiffs in the case are basically the children of enrolled tribe members and have lived their lives with other tribe members on the UintahOuray Reservation. He said the blood quantum requirement re-quirement was a bad policy because it makes tribal membership static and leads inevitably to intermarriage. intermar-riage. "This procedure actually fosters tribal genocide because you either marry a cousin or you don't marry at all," said Mangum. "So you end up marrying closer and closer cousins." In 1954, Congress divided the Ute tribe into mixed bloods and full bloods. The mixed bloods were terminated ter-minated and given their share of the tribal assets, while the full bloods continued as tribe members. But the law was ambiguous, and a dispute arose as to whether it overrode over-rode the tribal constitution in the event of a conflict. In 1956, Congress responded to the annual Giealttfr fair testing The optional blood screening was provided by the Utah State Health Fair and allowed participants to obtain ob-tain blood screening information at a minimal charge. The charges for the tests, which are normally between $50 to $80, were only $10 to $15 at the her.lth fair. Ovr 400 people chose to participate par-ticipate in the blood chemistry screening and according to the State Health Fair Office, the Vernal site nine residents, who will review potentially pornographic materials. The committee has never been formed. Arias contends that 70 percent of all pornography ends up in the hands of juveniles. He is of the opinion that 7-11 and other convenience stores are not carrying car-rying such material to make a moral statement, but rather it is a marketing decision. "I would like to see stores boost with signs outside their establishments saying, 'We do not sell pornographic materials.'" solicitor general's opinion and amended the 1954 act to state explicitly ex-plicitly that the act did not supercede the tribal constitution. At that point, the Interior secretary took the position that the amended act did not mandate a particular blood quantum level and allowed the tribe to determine deter-mine its own membership requirements. re-quirements. The tribal business committee institutes in-stitutes its own blood quantum requirements re-quirements and raised the necessary level to five-eighths Ute blood. But that requirement meant that many children of enrolled members were not allowed to enroll themselves. A legal battle arose within the Indian In-dian court system, and in 1978, the trial appeals court ruled that the business committee could not amend the tribal constitution's provision that any child of an enrolled member living on the reservation is also a member. Thus, the court ruled, the children had to be admitted. But when the tribe submitted the new members for approval, the Interior In-terior Department refused, claiming the 1954 act supercedes the tribal constitution. con-stitution. service was the largest in terms of blood chemistry participants in the entire state. Ashley Valley Medical Center staff estimate that over 1000 residents took part in the health and safety fair. This year approximately 500 residents preregistered for the fair which is 100 more than attended the fair last year. continued on page 3 WEDNESDAY, May 1, 1985 Vernal, Utah 84078 93rd Year No. 35 40 Pages Single Copy 25' on siMkr pirj The Synthetic Fuels Board deferred defer-red further action on the Seep Ridge oil shale project in southeastern Uintah Uin-tah County last week placing the project pro-ject in mothballs while partners on the project determine if the condition is temporary or permanent. At the April 23 meeting of the SFC Board a status report on the Seep Ridge project was reviewed and the board determined to defer further action ac-tion on the project for approximately three months, or until such time as either the corporation has more completely com-pletely resolved its overall shale program, pro-gram, or the project can develop more advantageous marketing alternatives. alter-natives. The Seep Ridge Project is a joint venture by Geokinetics, Inc., which holds the patents on technology for extracting oil from shale, and Gilbert Shale Oil Company, a subsidiary of Peter Kiewit Sons, Inc. Kiewit is a major construction company, based in Omaha, Neb. with extensive experience ex-perience in construction of oil shale facilities. The Seep Ridge project would produce pro-duce about 1,000 barrels of shale oil per day, and has a letter of intent from the SFC board backing the project pro-ject with loan and price guarantees, totalling $45 million. The project is planning to use the LOFRECO in-situ shale oil extraction process. Hopes that the project would get off the ground this year have been dashed by the SFC's denial to act on their original letter of intent, seeing problems with the project. . Senator Glade Sowards, who was recently appointed to the National-Energy National-Energy Association board, said that it is now his feeling and others share his opinion that if the SFC board does not allocate the money that it should be used for other purposes. The Utah Congressional Delegation Delega-tion were "very disappointed" with the SFC's decision to defer action on the Seep Ridge Project, Sowards said. Critics of the SFC say that Congress should "cut our losses before it's too late" by voting to abolish the SFC, which was created in 1980 to encourage en-courage development of alternative fuel sources. . The quasi-government corporation "threatens not only to squander $7.9 billion on the senseless commercialization commer-cialization of uneconomic technologies but it likewise diverts limited taxpayers' dollars away from the kinds of programs that offer the greatest promise for enhancing the prospects of synfuels development," said Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla. "We can and should cut our losses before it's too late," Synar, a sponsor of legislation to abolish the agency, told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Wednesday. Synfuels Corp. Chairman Edward Noble defended the agency, saying, "The country has made a great deal more progress in synthetic fuels than is generally recognized. "The corporation is now in a posi IVAN AND DWAYNE Gardiner (in cart) are surprised sur-prised at the amount of impact experienced in an accident traveling at only eight miles per 1 INSIDE this week's Express Woman honored for volunteer work 4 Ranger district to relocate 12 Come alive through the arts 13 Kindergarten roundups set 20 Youth raise funds for animal care 22 Fun Run 25 Editorial 2,3 Classified Ads Obituaries 4 Expressions Public Notices .8 Sports tion to assist a few more projects, which together with those already under contract, will.. .give the country coun-try this synthetic fuels option," he said. It is not a matter of "throwing money out the door." Rep. Daniel Schaefer, R-Colo., a state that has benefited immensely by SFC funds, asked his colleagues, "Why should we play Russian roulette from an energy standpoint?" The Seep Ridge office in Salt Lake City has been closed and five Retraction This publication retracts a recent re-cent article characterizing the Danny Davis Foundation a "sham." The article was based on information provided to the Vernal Express by the Vernal City Ci-ty Police Department. The article printed on April 3, 1985 stated that the Salt Lake County Police verified that the Foundation was requesting money under false pretenses. The Danny Davis Foundation is Cost estimates of moving the Uintah County fairgrounds complex to a new site were reviewed Monday by Uintah County commissioners. Rough sketches sket-ches and ball-park price estimates were presented for a new fairgrounds complex on land owned by the Vernal Racing Association east of the entrance en-trance into Steinaker Reservoir State Park. The Racing Association has agreed to give the property to Uintah County if it will be used for a new fairgrounds and race track. Making the presentation Monday was Larry Wegkamp, USU Extension Community Development Specialist. Four different configurations were presented including race track, bleachers, indoor arena, outdoor arena, restrooms, concession and ticket offices, roads and parking area. A price of $3.7 million was given for constructing the complex excluding outdoor lights, sewer and water. Wegkamp explained that the complete com-plete fairgrounds complex in Moab will cost about $5 million and the one Estimatos given for new fairaounds ,v - 711 1 lr Sf J n , ill1 1 1 f P - T ALA. VS j 7--i ijr- 10-11 13-24 25-32 TV Guide 5-6 Scout Section .... IS 8S Three Adv. Inserts employees were furloughed last week after an SFC announcement. Officials are now determining whether the present situation is permanent per-manent or temporary, a spokesperson spokesper-son for Geokinetics said. The SFC Board also continued the waiver for the Paraho-Ute project, another Uintah Basin project, to allow SFC staff time to analyze information infor-mation only recently provided by the project's sponsors. in fact a tax-exempt charity, duly registered with the State of Utah and licensed in Salt Lake City where it is based. The purposes of the Foundation are to provide assistance and support for the parents of Utah's missing children. This newspaper expresses its regrets to the Foundation and the Danny Davis family for any unfavorable un-favorable consequences which the publication of this information informa-tion may have caused. in Evanston, Wyo., will run about $7 million. The estimated costs for construction were very preliminary and could vary a lot, but were based on previous projects, pro-jects, said Wegkamp. It is estimated that the race track will cost $650,000 to grade and cut, bleachers not covered to seat 3500 would cost $140,000, a 250 by 250 foot inside arena with bleachers and facilities will cost about $625,000, parking was estimated at $300,000 and fencing the area $84,000, were some of the major projects listed. The costs could be lowered by volunteer help and local contractors, Wegkamp said. This is the first time the commissioners commis-sioners have been given any actual cost figures for providing a new fairgrounds facility. The commission has visited other areas with new fairground complexes for ideas of what can be done. Some money for the fairgrounds project may be available from the community development impact board using mineral lease money taken from this area. hour. The seat belt convincer was one of the displays at the second annual health fair in Vernal. Ver-nal. John Dame operated the display. I Mi m i M |