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Show Free Press Wednesday, March 29, 1995 Page 2 The marginal benefits of vacations Commission ruling The threatens paper carriers Daly Planet Editorial Recent action by the Utah State Industrial Commission and the Workers Compensation Fund of Utah poses a real threat to Utah's weekly newspapers and to the young men and women who make money delivering those newspapers. Following a recent audit by the Industrial Commission, the Orem Geneva Times was billed for a quarter's back workers' compensation for the newspaper's young news carriers. The decision to regard these young carriers as employees of the newspaper, rather than as independent contractors, has sent tremors throughout Utah's newspapers. Daily newspapers have relied on young carriers for delivery of their product for decades. For many it is their first job and it provides them with an opportunity to learn responsibility, to learn some of the skills of managing a business, and to make some money of their own. There are few other jobs around for 11 and 12 year olds. As postal rates for second class mail have continued to increase, many weekly newspaper have turned to local carriers to see that the community news finds its way to subscribers' doorsteps providing hundreds more jobs for young- However, the Industrial Commission's ruling in the Orem Geneva Times audit places that relationship in jeopardy by defining the young newspaper carriers as employees, rather than independent contractors. In so doing, they place a burden on these young carriers that was originally designed for working men and women with families to support. It's not fair. Most weekly newspapers work on a pretty tight profit margin. They can't afford to pay Workman's Compensation for 10-t- o newspaper carriers. Instead, they will find another way to deliver their newspapers and hundreds of boys and girls will lose one of the last opportunities available to them to learn responsibility and make some money with their paper route. It doesn't help the weekly newspapers' plight that the Newspaper Agency Corporation, which handles carrier distribution for the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune, as well as the daily Standard Examiner in Ogden, voluntarily pay workers compensation for their carriers - many of whom are adults and deliver several newspaper routes for various publications as a form of gainful employment. And an even greater threat is that once newspaper carriers have been reclassified by the State Industrial Commission, reclassifi- cation by the IRS will follow. This is big government at its worst applying what look like sensible rules in an illogical fashion for an undesirable result. It makes sense to exempt young newspaper carriers from workers compensation requirements. If the State Industrial Commission can't figure that out, then the State Legislature should. - - - - sters. But most newspapers have always considered these carriers independent contractors, rather than employees. It is a definition which holds true in most states. The distinction has relieved these small businesses of the burden of doing the paper - work and paying workman's compensation premiums on the small amount a carrier makes each month: It has been a winning combination for both the newspapers and the young carriers. Religion is in the eye of the beholder It was Sunday and I usually do, I was pages I caught the heading of one of them. It said: "Attend the church ofyour choice." Below was listed the names of the various denominations and the times oftheir meetings. Out of curiosity I counted them. There were 2 1. These were in addition to the LDS chapels. It got me thinking. I realize that many people have their own personal philosophy when it comes to religion and worship of God, but here were 21 churches offering their services to those who cannot make up their mind how to worship. Of course, there are many versions of what constitutes religion and pure worship of God. At one revival meeting, one man jumped to his feet and said, 1 am willing and ready to do anythingthe Lord asks of me so long, of course, as it is honorable." You can depend upon children to give their version of religion. Little Johnny, being told to pray for his absent father, for his small brother who was ill, and the servant who had sprained her ankle, did so. But to his mother's astonishment he concluded as follows: "And now, Change is a constant in all. Through the past 12 years, this newspaper has worked hard to keep up with the technological breakthroughs that have marked the publishingbusiness. And while computers have become pervasive, in few businesses have they had as great an impact as we have seen in the newspaper industry. Over the past decade we have replaced rt what was once (and expensive) typesetting equipment with relatively inexpensive PCs and laser printers. Not long ago, we used a photographic process to create our type and that meant developing long roles of paper. The paper was expensive, the chemicals used to develop the paper was expensive and the process was time consuming. The day we switched to laser printers r and designed for newspaper use meant a real savings in chemical and photographic paper costs. But we always maintained our dark room, since we need the space and the process to develop and print cur pictures and to make negatives of our pages that are then sent on their way to the printing press. Technology hasnt stood still. But we are joining many smaller newspapers as we start transforming our photo darkroom from a wet process to a digital one. Digital photography offers many of the same advand tages as type it saves money on expensive paper and chemicals. state-of-the-a- - laser-pape- - The 'J Revo- lution." One of the wonderful features of is that we can blcodlessly overthrow our government every two years if we want to. And, in this most recent election, you voted to get government out of your pocket, off your back and out of your bedroom. For the Chicago Tribune, Lisa Anderson has developed a litany of supplemental evidence that Americans would like to "the good old days." On the Nickelodeon channel, "I Love Lucy" is a hit again. "The Andy Griffith Show" and May berry are gaining audiences in On fashion runways, women are wearing white gloves and sheer hosiery again. And on the concert stage and in the Grammy Awards, the big hit singer is Tony Bennett. America in the 1990s is looking more than ever theAmericaofthe 1950s. Americans are showing a growing yearning for a safer, more orderly world. Women's Wear Daily, the bible of the ic - point?' Paul Harvey w J News Sm m fashion industry, calls it "the return of the lady." Newt Gingrich calls it "the return of values." Everything old is new again. Historian Arthur Schelesinger is surprised. He writes, "No intellectual phenomenon has been more surprising in recentyears than there vival in theUni ted States of conservation as a respectable social philosophy." He says, Taahionable intellectual circles now dismiss liberalism as naive, ritualistic, sentimental, shallow." Americans - 1 Thetripwas,toourdelightandsurpn8e, a very pleasant, rewarding and relaxing experience, and might be described as perfect except for one thing: that we had to come home. Returning home from vacation is as bad as preparing and packing and going on the trip itself. Although you are usually tired andready for bed, there is a certain amount of unpacking thatmustbe done, along with theobliga-torphone calls that you must make to the relatives who will want tohear all about the trip. Fortunately, the feel and comfort of one's own bed is sure to make up for any of the inconveniences of disembarking. But don't feel complacent about the feeling of that bed,: because the cold, harsh reality of returning to work the next day will only serve to slap you in the face. So how do you win with vacations? Accept the fact that you cant live with them and you can't live without them. y nipulating the images there to get the desired result. Dust spots can be cleaned, pictures hopefully improved and photos can be sized more accurately as images s are sharpened. We hope the difference is subtle, but we think our pictures will get better. And we won't only be changing the way we do photos. But we plan oncomputerizing our page layout as well. We have been paginating (designing our newspaper pages on the computer) some of our news pages for a couple of years. For example the front page, and this editorial page, have been created entirely on the computer, except for the photographs Within the next month or two, we hope to be paginatingmost ofour newspaper pages, .with the photos included. That will mean some extra layout work on our part, and a learning curve that may be a bit painful. But the end result, we feel, will be a better product, and a newspaper production facility positioned to take us into the next phase of our newspapers' growth. One thing we have learned most definitely in this business is that if you lag behind.youlosegroundrapidly.WithNorth Utah County poised to grow faster than ever before, we are making plans now to grow with you. Watch for the changes. We think youH be pleased. Column By MARC HADDOCK It also gives us greater control over our photographic output and provides more opportunities for us to use color. Needless to say, we are excited. At the heart ofour digital darkroom is a Power Macintosh computer. Wespentmany hours looking at other systems and examining options before adding a Macintosh to office. Most of us have our little or no experience with Macs, having e peropted for the more popular sonal computers years ago. We've upgraded several times since, but always within this comfortable framework. What we learned in our studies was that while the PC is making inroads, when it comes to graphic arts, the Macintosh still ed IBM-styl- rules. And the advent of the Power Mac makes the transition a lot easier. While the computers remain quite distinct, many of the formats we use are now interchangeable between the two machines. And our network will allow us to work with word and photo files on both types of machines. We are excited about the possibilities. The biggest change should be for our Letters to the editor Kids sent home for having criminal hair 'stomach-turnin- g 01995 Paul Harvey Product Inc. -- poorly-expose- d are frustrated with social disorder and are determined to reimpose behavioral standards and punish those who trespass against them from smoking bans to the death penalty to drunk driving and to parents who fail to pay child support. Now, will enough members of Congress follow through? And will Americans reward those who do? Or will all the steam blow off in the whistle? Some of us want to believe that Americans have reached what Jenks Jones called "The stomach-turnin- g point." It happened in Victorian England. Things had to get so bad corruption in public office.crime in the streets, misuse of drugs, amorality reaching even into the church - that the people in wrath demanded a return to righteousness. They began again to call junk what it is, junk, and dirt what it is, dirt, and sin what it - -- is... This continued until, under Victoria, Britain went from the gutter to an un- precedented peak of power, prestige and prosperity. Thus was spawned "The Golden Age of England. Is this the dawn of ours? told them to enjoy their day off. (And I silently prayed that the green hairspray would come out of her beautiful blonde hair!) -- Chris Worthen Roten Poor planning for city streets four-lan- Republicans are calling their recent " doors. As it turned out, we had completed all of the home things, and we only forgot a few packables - socks for one child, underwear for another but we were able to fix that in St. George. darkroom staff, who will now have to learn to work in the light. Instead of printing pictures on the enlarger, they will be scanning negatives into the computer and ma- four-lan- Have we reached then lay down, sleepless for a time, wondering if we had included everything in the suitcase. That unease also extended to some of the tripaswequestionedwhetherwehadturned offtheiron.fedthehamstersandlockedthe news business Things are changing fast around the newsroom, as we get ready to move into the 21st Century. In fact, things are changing so fast, it's getting hard to keep up with it - four-year-o- ld our-republ- - Editor: attended school every day with green hair Being a former resident of Lehi, where I and was doing what was expected of them, grew up, attended school, and had some of and not interfering with the rights of oththe best times of my life, I was shocked ers, they should be allowed to do so. when I heard that my niece and three ofher As for my niece and her friends, I just friends had been sent home from school for participating in Green Day at the Junior High in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Their crime besides having green earV rings, shirts, socks, etc. they had put Editor: By TOM GRIFFITHS green hair spray in their hair! You know, I would like to express my opinion about it's sad when kids are not even allowed to and Lehi City. planning God, please take good care of yourself for if have good clean fun. In the troubled world Recently there is talk about widening e road. New homes anything happens to you we will certainly they are growing up in, how could having 1200 East to a be up against it for fair." green hair on Green Day be a crime worth that were built on this street are situated so This can come close to home. When my being sent home for? close to the street that pursuing the e I'm sure running a school is not an easy daughter was little she came home from road intention seems anything but Primary and told us "that man will be job, and I admire those people who do, but ideal. punished for his own sins, not for Adam's come on, let's not take things too far! As far homes to be Why does Lehi City as rights go, I truly believe that ifa student built with such small permit This seems transfusions." frontage? - landslide election "The November canceled-forthehot- laser-printe- Browsing perusing the Sunday paper. As I turned the Is it just me, or are vacations strange activities for everyone? Starting with the planning, continuing through the execution, and not even stopping with the culmination thereof, vacations can be stressful events. During the "thinking about it" stage, I always worry about the time and money By RUSS DALY involved in the process and struggle to justify both. I think back to an economics class I took and try to evaluate whether the marginal el; unfortunately, they benefits (the potential fun, bonding and filled the room intended for us in our origrelaxation) outweigh the marginal costs inal plans. (the bottom line in creative funding). ' Even though we were a little apprehenSometimes those potential benefits turn sive about not having a reservation, we out to be much less than anticipated, and knew we could always stay with family when the marginal costs turn around and members in Cedar City, so we continued exceed the marginal benefits, it can really with the efforts to prepare for the trip. put a damper on one's fun. My 12 year old was helping me get the Next comes the actual "preparation" tools ready for the car, and in the process, stage, where you have to go out and buy the we got out a spotlight that plugs into the treats, get the car serviced, make the reser- cigarette lighter. , vations, go shopping for clothes where necHe rolled down the window to hand me essary, and look forward to packing. the light for the engine compartment; what Last weekend, when we were planning he didn't do was roll the window back up our trip to St. George for the Press Associaafter he was through. tion convention, we found a coupon for a Early the next morning, about 4 o'clock, discount at one of the hotels. wenotonlyhadsnowonthegroundbutalso We also called family members to see a couple of inches in the car. As it melted, we about spending some time with them dur- weren't sure ifthe seats were drying out or ing the weekend. We changed our reservaif we were becoming numb. tions to reflect our plans with them. Either way, it was certainly a journal The night before we were to leave, their entry for "Funny Things that Happen in plans changed and we suddenly needed an Life." extra night an earlier one that we had Weeompleted the packing around 1a.m., like poor vision from those who decide zoning and also when they must have known from industrial growth that 1200 East would need to be widened. Who has to contribute the most land to make the street accessible? I would suggest that the city ofLehi think aheadbefore they allow homes to be built so close to city streets. -- MahlonPeck Not everyone wants Micron Editor As a resident ofNorth Utah County I am very interested in what has happened with the Micron site selection and have some major concerns that you, the media, are not covering both sides of the issue. This is evidenced by the lack of information on the project itself and on the reactions ofthe residents and elected officials of northern Utah County. Most of what I have heard is how great Micron will be for Utah but I have heard very little about the concerns of the residents of northern Utah County. Why? I - believe if you ask the elected officials and especially the residents of northern Utah County you will get a whole different view. Micron has made it clear they are in control and set the priorities of this project not Utah. Do they also set the priorities of what will and will not be reported? Please involve us! Find out what your readership wants! And report both sides of - I may be the only one who feels as I do, but it is your job to find out. Please do so. Policy on letters to the editor We welcome letters to the editor. All letters should be typewritten and double spaced. Letters must also be signed, and must include the writer's name and telephone number. Please send letters to Editor, Newtah News Group, P.O.Box 7, American Fork, Utah, 84003. - Allen F.Thomason Highland ; |