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Show Thursday, July 10, 2008 Utahns Dr. Kevin Bunnell MAMMALS PROGRAM COORDINATOR DIVISION OF WILDLIFE RESOURCES If you enjoy camping in Utah, the following scene probably sickens you as much as it does me. You pull into your favorite favor-ite camping spot, ready to enjoy a day or two in Utah's backcountry. But what you find is anything any-thing but enjoyable. Pop and beer cans are strewn around the campsite. Uneaten Un-eaten food and plastic food containers are scattered everywhere. For many of us, the effects ef-fects of irresponsible camping in Utah are simply sim-ply an eyesore and a jolt to what we were hoping to find. After our initial disgust, dis-gust, we start cleaning up the area. Once it's clean, we settle back and begin to enjoy . the beauty and solitude we came to Utah's backcountry backcoun-try to find. But what many of us don't realize is that the effects of irresponsible camping can be much worse than an eyesore and the 30 minutes it takes to get rid of it - it can cost a life, either your life or the life of a bear. Between 2,000 and 4,000 black bears live in Utah. Anytime you camp in a A mid-year economic status report Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson Economic growth in the United States is sluggish, slug-gish, and there are several reasons to be pessimistic about macroeconomic performance per-formance in the balance of 2008, if not beyond. The adjective "macroeconomic" "macroeconom-ic" is crucial. We should never forget that, even when major sectors of a country's economy are experiencing ex-periencing hard times and macroeconomic statistics are gloomy, there are always al-ways great opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors in-vestors to.be found in various vari-ous microeconomic niches. Another point to understand un-derstand is that markets know far more than any mere economist. Inevitably, Inevita-bly, the next bull market in stocks will be born and economic activity will improve, im-prove, even while economists, econo-mists, with our foggy crystal balls, continue issuing is-suing dismal prognostications. prognostica-tions. That being said, it seems to me that the piper now needs to be paid for Family Owned & opera tea i "s i m s4 37. University Flc.vyJ WW 220-1170 i Slsirrs tJcn-C5t 10 0 savinsB &se3 on rrmvtag com prices -i Fths J I MAYTAG (New In A j tiieBoxJ I yjmjfflirift. i - It's time to camp responsibly VI t; Dr. Kevin Bunnell, Mamals Program Coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources, is shown here with a bear cub. He offers adivce on how to camp reasonable and get along with the bears. forested area in the state, daily from food and items there's a good chance a such as deodorants and black bear isn't far away, perfumes - are what at- Smells and odors - espe- tract bears to people. Once decades of economic mistakes mis-takes and that painful economic corrections and adjustments will continue for the foreseeable future. Here are some of the economic chickens now coming home to roost: 1) The housing bubble bust may weigh on us for years. While housing prices pric-es rose from 1998 through 2005, between 1.25 percent and 3.25 percent of GDP consisted of spending financed fi-nanced by homeowners withdrawing equity from their houses. This debt-financed spending spend-ing splurge was painless as long as prices of houses continued to soar. However, Howev-er, now that home prices are deflating, home equity credit has contracted. It was 3.125 percent of GDP in 2005, 2 percent in 2006 (the most recent year for which I have figures) but certainly far lower today. Housing prices, on average, aver-age, have fallen 15 percent from their peak already, but in spite of lower prices, the inventory of unsold new homes has continued to rise, now standing at an 11-month inventory. The mortgage delinquency delin-quency rate rose to 6.35 percent in the first quarter of this year, the foreclosure foreclo-sure rate doubled in one year to almost 2.5 percent, and according to the Census Cen-sus Bureau, approximately 10 percent of nouses built since 2000 remain unoccupied. unoccu-pied. To give some historical perspective on the size of the housing bubble, residential property in the United States hovered around the same real value for the century spanning 1890 to 1990. After 1990, however, housing prices doubled in real terms. If those prices return to anywhere any-where near their historical "Slipped, Herniated, Or Bulging Disc Pain? " UTAH- A new free report has recently been released that reveals how break- f . through medical medi-cal technology is offering surgery free new hope for disc pain sufferers. suffer-ers. Research has proven that FDA approved nonsurgical non-surgical spinal decompression has high success rate for treating debilitating de-bilitating back pain including sciatica and multiple herniated herni-ated discs. It looks like this breakthrough in medical I M f ln SPRINGVILLE HERALD s' . r . - j I t ' 'A i. ' 1 If average, then the 15-percent decline so far is just the beginning. One enormous effect of the shaky housing market mar-ket is that the mortgage-backed mortgage-backed securities derivative deriva-tive crisis in the financial finan-cial industry (archives, 122707 (part 1), 122707 (part 2), 31708) continues contin-ues unabated. In fact, the financial crisis has gotten got-ten worse. Investment analyst Porter Stansberry asserts that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant federal mortgage ' agencies, already have negative equity (i.e, are technically bankrupt) and that their stocks will fall to zero. ' 2) Decades of Congress obstructing the development develop-ment of domestic energy resources has produced $4 per-gallon gasoline. Among the casualties: Ford and General Motors may be mortally wounded, and prices of many products prod-ucts are rising to cover increased transportation costs. These higher costs are likely to eat into corporate profits and lead to lower stock prices. Thus, Americans Ameri-cans have been put in the uncomfortable position of watching the prices of their primary assets (homes and stocks) fall while the prices pric-es of the things they need to buy (food, fuel, miscellaneous miscella-neous consumer products) rise. 3) The cost of the Iraq war. This isn't a comment about the ethics or geopolitics geopoli-tics of the war. The economic eco-nomic fact is that the huge spending on this war has weakened and will continue con-tinue to weaken the dollar, just as previous wars had inflationary consequences. The stock market, which tends to discount (anticipate) (antici-pate) the future, is floun technology has lead to the most promising non-surgical disc treatment today. For your free report entitled, "New Breakthrough in Medical Technology" Tech-nology" call 1-800-893-7644 and listen to the toll-free 24 hr recorded message mes-sage for all the details or go to www.91 lbackpaininfo.com. These free reports are available avail-able for a limited time. Maple Ridge Spinal Pain Center David Cook, DC a bear begins to associate a campsite as a place to go for a free and easy meal, the outcome usually isn't good for the bear. And sometimes it isn't good for those who camp in the area. ; One of the biggest challenges chal-lenges we face as campers camp-ers and cabin owners is complacency. Most years, plenty of natural food is available, and bears don't need to look for food around people. In those years, even a dirty campsite camp-site may not attract a bear. But when a poor food year hits - like it did last summer sum-mer -- this complacency can quickly turn into a dangerous situation for both people and bears. Every year, the Division of Wildlife Resources has to euthanize bears to protect pro-tect the public. In some of the worst years, we've euthanized as many as 20 bears. It's not something our biologists and officers like to do. One of the most frustrating frustrat-ing things I've dealt with is the knowledge that the trouble the euthanized bear got into probably wasn't its fault. The past or current actions ac-tions of someone camping camp-ing in the area are usually part of the reason the bear dering now. Besides the economic conditions just described (none of which, alas, is amenable to a quick fix), the market may be foreshadowing political problems. Monetary policy is paralyzed. para-lyzed. The Fed has been checkmated. It can't raise interest rates to defend the dollar, because higher rates would aggravate the housing decline and related financial crisis. Nor can it lower rates to stimulate activity, ac-tivity, thereby weakening the dollar and causing the dollar-denominated prices of oil and other essential commodities to rise. The outlook for fiscal policy is also discouraging. The next Congress may be controlled by a veto-proof veto-proof majority of radical anticapitalist redistribu-tionists. redistribu-tionists. Neither presidential presiden-tial candidate has a plan to rein in the rapid growth of federal spending, which has been cannibalizing the private sector. Both candidates pay homage to global-warming mythology and advocate advo-cate imposing cap-and-trade ceilings on fossil-fuel fossil-fuel consumption a folly that can only raise energy prices even higher. Neither Nei-ther candidate seems willing will-ing to let free markets make the painful adjustments adjust-ments needed to correct past mistakes. In sum, the economic outlook for the coming months is dicey. Appropriate Appro-priate advice for most Americans would be Warren War-ren Buffett's two rules of investing: 1) don't lose the money; and 2) pay special attention to rule 1. Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is a faculty member, economist, and contributing scholar with the Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. INDEPENDENT One area on the real estate landscape that points to the potential value of owning a home is the "reverse "re-verse mortgage." This type of loan helps seniors (62 and older) enjoy a degree of financial independence by enabling them to convert part of their home equity equ-ity into tax-free income without having to sell their homes or make monthly mortgage payments. With a reverse mortgage, homeowners receive money from the lender as long as they live in their homes. The loan is repaid only when the house is sold, the owner no longer uses it as a principal residence, or the owner dies. This arrangement allows house-rich cash-poor homeowners to remain in their homes and still meet their financial obligations. 11 XrZm VMtoyj T-fiLRealtyJ ended up in the situation it did. You can avoid putting a bear in that situation - and protect yourself and others oth-ers who will camp in your spot after you - by f oUow-ing oUow-ing the simple rules found at www.wildlife.utah.gov bearsafety. The following are among the tips you'll find at the Web site: Don't leave food out. Don't scatter food scraps and other litter around your campsite or cabin area. Don't keep food in the area where you're sleeping. sleep-ing. Don't bring items with you that have a strong odor. Bears have extremely sensitive noses. Anything that has a strong smell, including deodorant, perfume and certain soaps, could draw a bear to your campsite. Never feed a bear. As another camping season gets underway in Utah, I encourage each of us to clean up after ourselves our-selves and to be responsible respon-sible campers. The safety of Utah's black bears - and our safety - depend on it. 0 One Year No Interest Utah toll free 888-201-7135 if 1 iff- 1 M SS Tues-Sat12-5p.m. Lerron Little: 801.592.4320 222 West 2280 North, Provo trellisinfo.com iverything Dog! GgGgC' Presented by Mke and THINKERS VALUE HOMEOWNERSHIP If you are over "fY kd 8 Utari4lleyReal: I Estate 15 No movie this week at the city's arts park Due to the Springville World Folkfest this coming week, there will be no movie mov-ie at the Arts Park Monday. Citizens are invited to attend at-tend the Folkfest any night, Saturday. July 12, through Saturday, July 19, except Sunday and Wednesday. The World Folkfesrt Street Dance will be held Wednesday, July 16, in the parking lot at the Springville Spring-ville Museum of Art. This is a free event and is lots of fun for all ages. Come and bring your lawn chairs or blankets and watch or get up and learn the dances being be-ing performed. Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end, you lose at the other. It's like feeding feed-ing a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog. -Mark Twain LIMITED TIME OFFER as low as $290000 10 Windows Installed Low E, Vinyl Frames, up ro 15 sq. ft each Upgrade Options: Swing in for Easy Cleaning Hidden Screens, More Light Secure Multi-point Locks Easy to Operate Energy Efficient, Save $'s Showroom 505 N 1200 West, Orem Julie Pierte age 62, have a small mortgage or no mortgage, want to stay in your existing home, and need a' surefire monthly income; a Reverse Mortgage may be a good alternative for you. 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