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Show -- r gr( I i 4A Emery County Progress Wednesday, November 16, 1983 perspective Education system needs your input by Governor Scott M. Matheson Educating the youth of this state has been a priority for Utahns since the early settlements. This year, however, has produced an unprecedented amount of interest in education, both in Utah and in the nation. Over 100 reports have swept the nation this year bringing with them hundreds of recommendations for improving the quality of education. Although these reports have merit, the final decision on whether and how education will be improved must come from those who will be effected the most the public. The Utah Education Reform Steering Committee, which appointed in June, 1983, has just completed their report: "Education in Utah: A Call to Action." Their report, released on Friday, outlines problems unique to Utah and proposes solutions to those problems. Along with changes in the system itself, the report recommends a major tax increase to support both education reform and the needs created by unparalleled growth in student enrollment. Although money alone is not the answer to the shortcomings of our educational system, we must assume that additional money is a necessary component in the solution. The challenge will be to convince the majority of Utahns that the recommended reforms will ensure high quality education and that those reforms are worth the price. Because this issue will touch virtually every citizen in Utah, hope as many people as possible will take the opportunity to comment on the recommendations and make their own suggestions. In order to facilitate public comment, town meetings have been scheduled in nine locations throughout the state for Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. Meetings will be held simultaneously in Salt Lake, Ogden, Logan, Provo, Vernal, Price, Moab, Cedar City and Richfield. I hope that citizens of Utah will actively participate in the Committee's hearings throughout the state and make their own assessment of this prescription for improving education. The Committee is actively soliciting those views for possible revision of its own proposals and for transmission to the Legislature for the January budget session. Copies of the report will be available at your public library or local school district office. encourage you to read the report and attend the meeting in your area. If you are unable to attend a public meeting, please send your comments to the Education Reform Steering Committee, 6136 State Office Building, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114, or call The cornerstone of Utah's economic growth is a quality education system. We've found that businesses place a Work1 force and a quality premium on a public school system. Reformation of our present school system will take time, money and cooperation from every sector of the state. This report is just a beginning. It is now up to you to add your suggestions and comments so that Utah's educational system can more effectively prepare our citizens to fully participate in tomorrow's economy. I Pentagon spending Has it come to this? Football fanatics I Vl "Rise and shout the Cougars are out la la la la la laaa la." Thus begins the BYU Cougar fight song, and if you go to BYU football games, you hear the tune an average of 27 times per game; at the beginning of the game, at the half, and after each BYU touchdown. BYU graduates who attend the games go wild when the number is played, but for USU graduates, like me, who attend BYU games, it gets old. I love to watch BYU football, and most of the time cheer for the Cougs. I've been a season ticket holder for 10 years and have seen some of the best football played in the collegiate ranks. But, along the way, I've seen some I I strange things too. d . Years ago, would go to the BYU games just to cheer for whomever the Cougars were playing, I hated the Y that much. It's not like that now, but I'm usually a fan club of one when Utah State or Utah comes to Provo. I 533-467- well-educate- W. Davis by Larry Utah State played BYU a couple of weeks ago, I 'got pretty cocky when the Ags took the lead in the final minutes. I felt confident enough to leave early. Wrong! By the time I got to the parking lot, BYU had gotten the ball, moved inside the USU 20, and scored. It wasn't a pleasant trip home. For most of the 10 years as a season ticket holder I've been going to the games with my dad who, over the years, has evolved into a diehard Cougar fan. It's almost to sit next to him at the games. He wears a BYU baseball cap and a blue BYU sweater and matching pants. He looks like a member of the coaching staff except for the transistor radio hugging his ear. Just last week he started to get up for the fight song, leaving me the only one sitting amongst thousands standing. I had to get frank with him recently. I told him if he ever got one of those KSL caps which are designed to look like a BYU football helmet, I would move to Arizona and change my name to Kranski. He hasn't gone that far, yet. There was one thing even he didn't like about the BYU games, but that's changed thanks to recent advances in soda pop. Church standards dictate that only drinks with no caffeine can be sold at the stadium. My dad loves Coke. He used to bring his own Coke to every game. This year, Coke is sold, and the Davis cooler however, Caffeine-Freremains in the basement. A friend of mine tested the BYU caffeine rule a few years ago. He somehow managed to sneak a thermos full of vodka Into every BYU game, something frowned upon by school officials and certainly not something easy to get away with. When asked him If the stadium guards ever checked his thermos, he said that almost every game they checked the jug out. "How did you ever get vodka into the game then?" I asked. "It was easy," he replied. "I told them it was decaffeinated." When J - em-barassi- Progress Poll QUESTION: Do you agree or taken there. People were disagree with the US invasion of anxious about the outcome when Grenada? the invasion began, but when they realized that American by Angie Fillmore The majority of Emery citizens were being rescued, County residents polled this they felt that it was necessary. week agree with President People are, however, still very Reagans decision to invade skeptical about US involvement Grenada and support the action in other countries. e I You've got to love it though. capacity crowd, 65,000 fans, yelling things like "Kill 'em brethern" and "the ref's a dirty flipper!". The ushers keep things under control at all times however. Last week I saw the usher in the section where I sit politely telling a young lad that throwing paper airplanes In Cougar Stadium is unacceptable behavior. In the same game, it was announced that the budding tradition of taking the ball, after It had been kicked, into the end zone seats on extra points and field goals, and throwing it around the stadium is not only unacceptable behavior but dangerous as well and that the person who retrieves the ball should return It to the ushers. Doing so carries the reward of an autographed football, signed by Coach Edwards himself. It could be this wholesome atmosphere which has kept BYU off television this season. The networks want high ratings. They want to be able to pan the cameras around the stadium and show millions of viewers students going berserk In the stands. They want painted faces, suggestive signs, weird masks, and anything else which will capture the American audience. A Frank Warner, Cleveland: I to want I Because didnt agree. I think that Communism agree. needs to be stopped and see another Iran. Grenada is about as good a place as any. never give up my season tickets though. I love football too much and BYU Is a good place to see the best of that sport. It also gives me a chance to see USU every other year and see all of USU's great players from I'll Loretta Larsen, Cleveland: I think thats about the only thing Marvin Jensen, Cleveland: I they could have done. There agree. I think weve got to wasnt much choice. protect our coast lines. California. The United States faces a budget deficit of $200 billion. This huge fiscal shortage is not healthy for the economy and is causing serious concern in Congress and financial circles. There are many ways in which the shortage can be reduced. Some, such as raising taxes, are politically unpopular. But one step can be taken that would save a lot of money. It is to crack down on government waste. A good place to start is with the Pentagon. Its purchasing methods would put any private corporation out of business. It fails to get bids on many items and often pays outrageous prices for material that can be purchased at a fraction of the cost in any hardware store. At the end of the last fiscal year, the Pentagon went on a midnight spending spree. Unspent money reverts to the Treasury at the end of the year, and the Defense Department spent $4.2 billion before midnight on the last day of the 1983 budget year. In order to wipe out its surplus the Pentagon awarded 234 contracts in one day. Normally it awards two dozen to four dozen contracts in a single day. Among the contracts was $3.45 million to the J.W. Mitchell Co. to build railroad tracks at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. The largest award was a $450 million contract to Honeywell for torpedoes. Most of the awards were "sole source" contracts. These are contracts that are negotiated with a single firm. They do not require bids. President Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger keep telling us that we must spend more -money for defense. Their pleas would be more acceptable if they cracked down on Pentagon waste and failure to obtain bids. The midnight spending spree should show the administration that it can cut the budget deficit if it has the will to crack down on purchases. (Reprinted by permission of the Scottsdale (Ariz.) Daily Progress) Background on charges To the editor, I wish to correct some misimpressions which may have arisen regarding the charges filed recently against a number of local individuals of distributing controlled substances for value. These charges arose from the activities of state undercover narcotics officers and a confidential informant, operating in this area approximately from March through June of this year. I am afraid that their methods have led to the impression in the local community that these defendants were all big-tim- e drug dealers or "pushers when they were not. The officers reports disclose a typical scenario as follows: The confidential informant or undercover officer befriends a local person who uses marijuana. The informant begins to ask the defendant if he knows where he can get him some drugs. At this stage there may or may not be some entrapment depending on the or degree of persuasion to the get pressure applied defendants consent to obtain the illegal substances, but, once there has been an agreement, the defendant either goes to a dealer and buys a small amount, or takes some of the material he has for his own use, and then delivers it to the officer or informant and gets his money back. Typically there is no profit to the defendant, who thought he was doing a favor for his "friend. The net result is that the defendant is charged with being a pusher, a felony charge, and the actual dealers, who bring these substances into our area and distribute them, are not touched. After reviewing the reports on most of these cases, I am convinced that only one or two of them involve sales with a profit motive and that of those I have examined, none are hardcore drug dealers. It should be noted also that a number of those charged were not users of illegal substances themselves and are being charged based upon nothing more than their association with another defendant who may be a user. I hope that the community will not jump to conclusions about the people whose names were printed in the newspaper on Nov. 2, or deprive them of their right to a presumption of innocence. As always, the fact that the state charges a crime does not always mean it can prove it. Allen S. Thorpe Emery County Public Defenders Office Sun Progress Inc All rights reserved property of Sun Progress Inc No pari hereof may be reproduced without prior written consent 19B3 AM Emery County Progress weekly newspaper, established in 1199, and published every Wednesday. A Postmaster send cnanqes ol address to Castle Oale, UtahB4Sl P O Box 589, USPS 174 960 Editorial & Classified Display Advertising 381-243- 1 381-243- 1 Dan Stockburger General Manager Larry Davis, Editor Advertising Mary Bentley In E mery and Carbon Counties YeaIn r- 2 Years-i- U $10 Utah, outside area 50 $11 Out of $tate- - $13 (includes APO. FPOl Postal Regulations require that all subscrip lions by paid in advance Entered as second class matter at the posl office in Castle Oale, Utah f ' Mnmbnr nd N ill tUh Pifss ronil Newspaper , AwrtMliOft Asvx ation , |