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Show t alley joins Deseret Power " 1 1 mm i i.ii mi pin i wiiiwg.iii.iijpi.. ii i,w,uitiiwi'ii!wgi ' 'A - - 1 .- ii ' J &ir r-n "Mini Robert R. Dalley As part of health system reform, the 2008 Legislature has made it easier for Utah's uninsured to enroll in their work-sponsored work-sponsored health plan. As of . today, uninsured individuals and families who qualify and sign up for Utah's Premium Partnership for Health Insurance (UPP) can enroll in their employer's health plan anytime during the year. Previously, employees could enroll or make changes to their insurance only during open enrollment en-rollment if they had a 'qualifying lifetime event' like marriage State makes it easier to get health insurance UBAOG holds groundbreaking at new self-help housing project TheUintahBasinAssociation of Governments and U.S. Department Depart-ment of Agriculture, Rural Development Devel-opment hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the Self-Help Housing Hous-ing Homeownership Program on Thursday in Roosevelt. Ground was broken for nine Self-Help homes. The ceremony coincided with June"'s designation designa-tion as National Home-Ownership Month. The new homes will be built in Pole Line Estates, which is two miles south of U.S. Highway 40 on State Street. Rocky Mountain Power gives you the muscle to save energy and money Whether there are 20 members working out or 200, the Life Time Fitness South Valley facility in South Jordan, Utah, runs 247. And that can lead to some weighty energy bills. To lighten the load, Life Time Fitness took advantage of our FinAnswer Express program, which gives businesses cash incentives for installing energy-saving energy-saving equipment, when they upgraded to high-efficiency high-efficiency air conditioners. The company received nearly $13,800 in incentives and now enjoys $4,IOO.in electricity cost savings annually. Cash incentives from Rocky Mountain Power Most Rocky Mountain Tower business customers are eligible for cash incentives when installing high-efficiency cooling systems and equipment. All you need to do is purchase and install qualifying cooling equipment and submit an application to receive your incentive. Incentives for other energy-efficient measures and equipment are also available. Start your cool down For an application and list of participating vendors, visit www.rockymountainpower.netutsave. You can also contact your cooling equipment dealer, call us toll free at 1-800-222-4335 or e-mail energy.cxpertpacificorp.com. Deseret Power has welcomed Robert R. "Bob" Dalley as its chief financial officer and vice president. Formerly with Beneficial Financial Group, based in Salt Lake City, Dalley has 30 years of experience in finance-related functions and management. In addition to his recent seven-year seven-year experience with Beneficial Financial, Dalley also has a 23 year tenure with PacifiCorp, the holding company of Rocky Mountain Power, where his last role was controller. During his PacifiCorp career, Dalley managed accounting functions, played significant roles in regulatory and public policy management, SEC accounting and reporting, or the birth of a child. Now, qualifying for UPP is included as an eligible event, making it possible for individuals to enroll in work-sponsored coverage year-round. year-round. UPP helps working Utahns pay their monthly health insurance insur-ance premiums. If an employee's company offers health insurance, qualified individuals and families fami-lies may receive up to $150 per person each month from UPP to help cover their portion of the premium. Current UPP enrollment Under the Self-Help program, applicants who meet income and credit guidelines are eligible for low-interest loans through Rural Development. Instead of making a down payment, the families each spend at least 30 hours a week working as a team with UBAOG construction supervisors supervi-sors to build their homes. The families save money by pooling their resources and labor. They then pay off their loans over a specified number of years. .Several Self-Help homes have been built under the Our FinAnswer Express program gave Life Time Fitness $13,800 in incentives for installing high-efficiency air conditioners in its South Jordan, Utah facility. David Dotlich, general manager, is pictured here. Vernal mergers and acquisitions and re-engineering. Dalley is a CPA and a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU). He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and has chaired a national CFO insurance association committee and is a member of the American Institute and Utah Association of Certified Public Accountants. Dalley is the volunteer vice president-treasurer of the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He loves to read, camp, fish and ski. He and his wife, Sharon, have five children and live in Centerville. Dalley succeeds long-time Deseret Power CFO Soren Sorenson, who retired in May. stands at 20 1 adults and 350 children chil-dren and the program has funds to enroll many more families. To qualify for UPP, individuals must: Not currently have health insurance Be able to enroll in an employer's health plan Be a U.S. citizen or legal resident Meet specific household income guidelines To learn more about UPP, visit www.health.utah.govupp or call 1-888-222-2542. UBAOG-Rural Development partnership in Vernal and Roosevelt. Roos-evelt. UBAOG administers the Self-Help Housing Technical Assistance Grant for Rural Development De-velopment in Daggett, Duchesne and Uintah counties. For information about other USDA Rural Development housing, hous-ing, business and community development programs, contact the Rural Development office in Vernal at 789-2 100, or visit www. rurdev.usda.govut. I&aJliUl 4 Wnr ' h t f i S if ' j . ( if n ' t I' Equipment Evaporative cooling - a highly effective, economical and environmentally friendly way to cool your business that can reduce costs by as much as 75 percent. High-efficiency packaged air conditioning $S0ton units and heat pumps - use as much as 20 percent less energy than an older unit while providing the same level of cooling. Models with high SEER or EER ratings and the ENERGY STAR" label offer higher potential for savings. Variable Frequency Drives - can help $65 your HVAC fans or pumps operate more horsepower efficiently.' Incentives for qualifying HVAC fans and pumps I OOhp. Express Experts say bird flu vaccine made from cells could work By Linda A. Johnson Associated Press The first experimental bird flu vaccine made from lab-grown cells instead of chicken eggs shows promise in blocking the highly lethal virus, scientists report. The advance is good news not just for preparations in case of a pandemic, but also because it offers a way to make shots for seasonal sea-sonal flu much faster. That gives health officials crucial extra time to better match annual shots to the flu strains circulating. It also would reduce dependence depen-dence on the antiquated system of using millions of eggs to make flu vaccines and could cut production pro-duction time roughly in half, to as little as 12 weeks, according to maker Baxter International Inc. Results of mid-stage testing of the Baxter vaccine, Celvapan, showed two shots produced an immune response considered strong enough to protect 76 percent of healthy adults from both the H5N1 Vietnam strain it targets and the related Hong Kong strain; it appeared to protect 45 percent from a third, Indonesian strain. "I think it is a big leap forward," for-ward," said Dr. Wilbur Chen, a vaccine researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine not involved in the study. Since the first outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997, more than 240 people in Asia, Europe and Africa have died from bird flu, which kills about two-thirds of people infected. Nearly all had close contact with poultry, but scientists worry bird flu could mutate to a form easily spread among people, who have no natural immunity. Many experts' believe a pandemic will eventually eventu-ally occur. On Wednesday, Hong Kong health officials ordered the Incentive J0.02CFM ROCKY MOUNTAIN POWER. Hi Call 789-3511 Wednesday, slaughter of all live poultry in street markets due to one of the largest outbreaks of the virus in birds in years. The United States has stockpiled stock-piled 23 million doses of egg-based egg-based human bird flu vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Sanofi Pasteur Inc. and Novartis AG. Some European countries also have such stockpiles and are ordering Baxter's cell-based vaccine. Other human vaccines - a few using cells or genetic engineering but most made from eggs - are being tested in dozens of government govern-ment and commercial projects. Baxter officials say theirs is the first produced in cells that's been tested in people, and they expect to get a European Union license for Celvapan around year's end. The results of the company-funded company-funded study were reported in last Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. A total of 275 volunteers in Austria and Singapore got one of four doses. The best results - the 76 percent protection - came from the second-lowest dose. That dose also proved effective ef-fective in a final-stage test last year of 550 volunteers in Austria Aus-tria and Germany, according to Dr. Harmut Ehrlich, head of research and development for Baxter's Vienna-based Bioscience Biosci-ence unit. It protected 73 percent of adults under 60 and 74 percent of those over 60 from the Vietnam Viet-nam strain. It was less effective against the Indonesian strain and wasn't tested against the older Hong Kong one. To measure effectiveness, volunteers' blood is tested to see how well the new antibodies they developed kill the virus. Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious disease specialist, said researchers research-ers need to keep working to make Utah 4-day week introduced for state employees By Brock Versaws Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will order thousands of state employees to stay home on Fridays as part of a four-day week intended to cut energy costs at government buildings. Starting in August, Huntsman Hunts-man expects about 17,000 people will be affected by the yearlong program where employees would work 10 hours a day, four days a week. Thousands more at public universities, the Utah state court system, prisons and other offices that are open seven days a week would be exempt. Huntsman said Utahns would still have adequate access to government services, with longer lon-ger hours during the four days and online options. More than 800 state services are offered online. About 1,000 of 3,000 state Annual powwow begins Thursday The 40th Annual Northern Ute Fourth of July Powwow will begin Thursday in Fort Duchesne and run through Saturday.,This weekend of dance and drum competition com-petition is free to the public. The master of ceremonies for this colorful, cultural experience will be Jack Old Horn from Crow Agency, Mont., and Refell J. Kanip from Indian Bench, Utah. Locals and tourists alike can enjoy the color, music, friendship and food available at this ever expanding event. Dancers and drum groups come from throughout the U.S. and Canada to express a "celebration "cel-ebration of life" while sharing their heritage with thousands of spectators. While visiting the powwow listen carefully for the round dance to be announced and join in the circle of friendship. The steps are simple and the feeling feel-ing of fellowship is abundant. Bring a lawn chair if you expect ex-pect to have a seat. If you want some shade under the arbor get to Fort Duchesne in plenty of time before the events begin daily with two grand entries at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. The grand entries feature representatives from all tribes July 2, 2008 A5 a better vaccine but Baxter's got "pretty darn good results" at low doses. "I'm excited about this, but we have not yet reached the finish line," he said. In the United States, the Department De-partment of Health and Human Services has invested $ 1.5 billion in research on cell-based seasonal and pandemic flu vaccines. In the half-century-old egg method, virus samples are injected in-jected into hundreds of millions of specialized eggs and incubated. The egg fluids are later harvested, har-vested, concentrated and purified into the vaccine. With cell technology, small amounts of virus are put in large fermentingtanks with nutrients and cells derived from monkey kidneys, and the virus multiplies. Then the virus is inactivated, purified and put into vaccine vials. Two cell culture vaccines for seasonal flu are licensed in Europe, said Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the World Health Organization's vaccine research program. But full development of the technology could still take a few years, she said. Experts said Baxter's vaccine appears to work better than egg-based egg-based ones, but cautioned that lab results from different companies com-panies are hard to compare. Linda Lambert, chief of the respiratory diseases branch at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the Baxter vaccine's protection against multiple strains could be important if a pandemic is caused by a strain other than H5N1. "If another pops up, we'll know what to do," based on what Baxter and other researchers have been learning, she said. AP medical writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this story. . buildings would be closed on Fridays, cutting energy costs by about 20 percent, according to Huntsman's staff. In addition to saving money, the governor said the new schedule sched-ule could help recruit younger workers who prefer a three-day weekend and help the environment environ-ment by reducing commutes. Huntsman said Utah needs to be a leader in finding ways to cut costs, help the environment and raise employee morale. He believes Utah is breaking new ground. A message left with the National Association of State Personnel Executives in Lexington, Lexing-ton, Ky, was not immediately returned. "This is something that has been done at a local government level, and there's some examples in our own state, and some examples ex-amples in other states, but has never been done at a statewide level," Huntsman said during his monthly KUED news conference. confer-ence. participating and every day special tributes are announced. Dancers have several different categories they perform in before be-fore judges for a chance to win substantial purse money. Camping space is available as are free showers at the Ute tribal gymnasium. Beside dancing there is a parade, free fishing, a fun run, rodeo, golf tournament, Softball tournament, and many other competitions during the powwow. pow-wow. The powwow grounds, located 7 miles east of Roosevelt next to Ute Plaza, are filled with booths selling authentic Native American crafts and goods, and of course there are concessions. For more information, contact powwow Chair Anotnia Kanip, Jr. at 724-3553 or Dan Cesspooch, vice-chairman, at 724-2451. Call 789-3511 |