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"They wouldn't come," sighs Unger, who says his workers were made uneasy by the Utah Legislature's publicized stands this year against abortion, gay marriage, child-welfare laws and the United . Nations. ImaRx Therapeutics Inc., which is developing gas bubbles to dissolve bkxxl clots, isnt the only company wincing at Utah's mostly self-inflicted image problem. The slate s moral conservatism was in full display during a February debate when two Republicans argued for forcing women to carry to term any fetus conceived of rape. That "disrespectful" debate and concerns that Utah is Ux backward for raising children prompted executives execu-tives of two other companies to separately sep-arately back off tentative plans to move some operations to Utah, says Deni(x;ratic state Sen. Ron Allen. Allen wont identify the companies, compa-nies, which fear product boycotts in Utah, but says they would have brought 2,(XK) jobs with a corporate headquarters for one and a technology technolo-gy and engineering center for the other. "I'm not trying to make trouble for Utah. I'm saying we have an image problem. How can we ignore it?" Allen asked. "We need to brand ourselves, and part of that branding is all of us being on the same sheet of music and promoting Utah in a posi tive way. The state's own business leaders and recruiters say they have a tough time overcoming Utah's image, which at best boils down in government-funded surveys to two points: Mormons and mountains. Second-term U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, a Republican, last week volunteered yet another example of a company that decided against moving mov-ing to'Utah. Without naming names, he said the chief executive of a New York publishing company told him that the company's mostly single employees balked at relocating to Utah. Bennett calls the Utah Legislature "a very yeasty place for debate" and its majority Republicans "quite colorful." Asked whether the Legislature too often gets bogged down in ideological passions, he said he "was not going to venture further into that particular swamp" because "I got in enough trouble with the legislators" leg-islators" two years ago blasting GOl'-crafted gerrymandering. "When companies look at relocation, reloca-tion, they look at a lot of factors," including state taxes and a region's quality of life, said Fraser Bullock, a venture capitalist and Olympic organizer who helped Utah squeeze a $100 million profit out of the 2002 Winter Gaines. Bullock said the games projected a positive image of Utah, "a sense that we're not that different" from others. But he "s worried those gains are being eroded by the Legislature's so-called moral message bills. Business recruiters say companies are mostly satisfied once they move here, but that wasn't enough to per suade UtahTs largest information technology company to stay put Three years ago, Iomega chief executive officer Bruce Albertson moved his company's headquarters from Roy, Utah, to San Diego after complaining that Utah's "absurd" liquor laws made recruiting technology technol-ogy workers more difficult by signaling signal-ing that Utah isnt open to intellectual intellectu-al or social diversity. Rather than backing off, the Legislature since then has passed a bill prohibiting restaurants and bars from serving mugs containing more than a liter of beer. When it comes to luring business, perceptions can be as important as reality, says David Harmer, Utah top business recruiter and head of ' the state Department of Community and Economic Development. "It definitely is a challenge," Harmer said of his job. "One of the perceptions is many people outside Utah view our society as being very monolithic and ultraconservative. So they worry about how they and their employees would fit into that environment." envi-ronment." Marty Stephens, speaker of the Utah House of Representatives and a champion of its most conservative causes, doesnt accept that politics can turn off business. Stephens, who is running for Utah governor, claims Allen was bluffing about the two reluctant companies, suggesting they never were serious about moving to Utah. Told that another company had come forward to disclose why it wouldnt move to Utah, Stephens dismissed it by declaring, "This debate is absurd. "I have no doubt that if stome-body stome-body wants to find companies who wouldnt move to Utah, they can find those companies. You can say that about any state in the nation," Stephens said. "Certainly we always have to be interested in the perception of our state. However, there will always be companies that wouldnt want to move to Utah. But there always will be companies that dont want to move to Idaho, Wyoming or Colorado. To think we're unique in that way, that's what we were calling Democrats on," he said. Utah is "a very hard sell" especially espe-cially for the foreign scientists Unger says he recruited for. ImaRx Therapeutics. It's Unger's second company; he sold the first, a medical imaging company, to Bristol Myers-Squibb, Myers-Squibb, and has plans to create a third company, which Unger says he may try to base in Utah. But for now, Unger cant get a majority of his employees, who include a. lesbian who has a partner and two children, to move from Tucson, which he calls "culturally diverse and fairly liberal." In Utah, the Legislature passed a law to ban gay marriages and, to make doubly certain, sent voters a constitutional amendment doing the same. "There's a perception that Mormons are a closed society, and when you put very conservative things on top of that denying gay rights there's a perception of being less tolerant," he said. Kmart reports profitable quarter McnnfT mail 369 West 1030 South SLC (Juet South of Costco) Utah's newest craft wall IS NOW OPEN! Come In & browoe over ZOO booths of handcrafted gifts, collectibles, candles, furniture, seasonal Items & home decor, How open Inside the craft mall Is Heartland Paper Co. & The Wildflower Cafe & Dell "Where our creations become your Treasures (AP) Kmart Holding Corp. announced its first profitable quarter since emerging from bankruptcy, but the discount retailer's same-store sales continued to fall. 'Hie Troy-based company, which had earlier announced a profitable holiday season, said Thursday it earned $276 million, or $2.78 per share in the fourth quarter. For the same quarter a year ago, while it was in bankruptcy and before its reorganization, reor-ganization, it reported a loss of $1.1 billion. Fourth-quarter sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, declined 13.5 percent, while total sales dropped 25.8 percent. Same-store sales comparisons take new stores and store closings out of the mix and are 'considered the best measure of a retailers health. Kmart said it earned $248 million, or $2.52 per share, for the 39-week period beginning with its emergence from bankruptcy May 1 to the end of its fiscal year Jan. 28. Its predecessor company had a net loss of $1.8 billion for the same period a year earlier. Kmart attributed its better performance per-formance to improvements in inventory inven-tory management and pricing. "By giving careful thought to the processes of sourcing, logistics, pricing, pric-ing, inventory management and in-store in-store presentation, we have significantly signifi-cantly improved the profitability of our market basket," chief executive Julian Day said in a statement. Day said Kmart ended the year with inventory of $3.3 billion, a reduction of 25 percent over last year on a comparable store basis. Kmart said the decline in same-store same-store sales was due to several promotional promo-tional events 'held the' previous year ! and a reduction in advertising in fiscal fis-cal 2003. The decrease in total sales was compounded by the closure of 316 stores during the first quarter of 2003, it said. Kmart faces new challenges after Martha Stewart was convicted this month of lying to the government about a stock transaction. The retailer retail-er staked much of its turnaround on its partnership with the domestic maven's company. It touted its exclusive exclu-sive Martha Stewart Everyday home products brand as a main distinguishing distinguish-ing factor between Kmart and its competitors. While it is unclear to what extent the conviction will damage the brand's popularity in the short-term, Stewart's ability to promote her products and dominate the field has been compromised. Analysts have praised Kmart's financial turnaround, but many are pessimistic ,; ' ' about ; long-term prospects, 'given the'tPugh competi-tion. competi-tion. Critics say' tfie company has failed to find a niche between Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Target Corp. Sl 0 CF IF fall IB 1 IB) S ? ! , ( 'I i -1 Ki t I HT JX l II i i a,. W rm. 1 1 i I -Wft , . ?, W mmhlf, --jJ -xo--- Ifflfcr - k sffiSgtir;. .: V--: tfr- - (Ms r y- f Hamilton Park y 1 HENREDON RALPH LAUREN BERNHARDT ' 106 East Winchester Murray, Utah Phone 801-891-0165 j I Hi I E B 0 j m r ' ' , ouniain AIDS ram uiys Finest Cleaning Service! 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