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Show LAWMAKER OUSTED | JAZZ GET SPURRED San Antonio wins at home 106-83 C-1 Democrats toss out one oftheir own B-1 | FATHER OF CELL PHONE Now, he wants to revamp the Internet E-1 Che Salt LakeCribiinie Utah’s Independent Voice Since 1871 vm 2 Volume 280 Number M43 South Main Street, Salt LakeCity, Utah 64111 SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 2000 ‘Telephone numbers listed on A-2 Trial Testimony Spotlights Seamy Underbelly of Political Campaigns BY DAN HARRIE politics primarily as sport. (© 2000, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Rep. Merrill Cook’s two-week civil trial did more than resolve bitter | f+ a ~ the inner workings of an election cam- paign. It turns outto be a disturbing view. U Inder the flag-waving veneer of cheery idealism lurk sinkholes of slimy opportunism, cynicism and greed. The 3rd District Court trial called forth a phalanx of mercenaries who aoe living at politics — consultind campaign operatives whose jovalty follows the money. Or who see The case also interest donations, manipltonsof ae federal = rules and even possiFinally,Pe ia caeibAade the commodity being peddled in the campaign, or, as some of the consultants referred to it, “the project.” It is difficult to say whether the stark, under-oath intensity of the courtroom rendered the candidateless inscrutable than before. The exposure was a thousand times greater than the carefully manicured 30-second TV spots which are the main medium of politics. Cook’s bombast ane at full watt- governors. “I really love political involvement and public service.” Cook’s quest for voter affirmation Rep. Merrill Cook began in 1984 when he ran for the state testifies in his civil scribing the 1996 final election against Democrat Rocky Anderson. Yet witnesses described a nervous candidate whopestered pollsters with latenight calls demanding the latest numbers. Attrial’s end, Cook emerged as the same befuddling — and at times befuddied — figure as before. lowed in quick succession by losses in jury ordered Cook to pay his ex- itics has been in myblood all of _he tried again for the governor’s office trial last week. A school board. That failed bid was fol- theraces for Salt Lake City mayor (1985) and for the Salt Lake County Commission (1986% Then the supposedly staunch Republican bolted the GOP and ‘ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for governor in 1988. After forming the IndependentParty of Utah, mylife,” 53-year-old Cook told jurors. _in 1992,failing once more, and then two As a young man courting Camille, his years later ran as an Independent for wife, Cook would recite from memory the names of all the U.S. senators and UTAH’S BOUNTY-HUNTER SCHOOL See COOK, Page A-7 IRS Audits Target Poor,. Report Says Tax agencycallscriticism unfair, says it is following directives of Congress COMBINEDNE! Bounty hunters-in-training practice their vindieiahip and gun-handling skills during a Bail Enforcement Agentclass at a shooting range. Utah has someof the Bost stringent,regulations for outlaw-hunters in the United States, including-completion of such courses, ‘CHASING OUTLAWS For some,the job beats mundanealternatives BY DAN EGAN © 2000, THE SALT LAKETRIBUNE They are mostly men, and mostly bored with theirjobs as rock crushers,iron workers,janitors and bar bouncers. They would rather be hunting — outlaws. “T’ve always seen those wanted posters at the post office, and I got to thinking about bounty hunting a couple of years ago,” says Conrad Miniear, a 32-year-old waiter and martial-arts enthusiast who was one. of about two dozen enrolled in a two-day Bail EnforcementAgent class at Salt Lake Community College earlier this month.“I would be naturally good atit.” Three years ago, Miniear could havetested his hunchthatheis a natural for the potentially vio- lent job simply by hooking upwith a bail-bond company and hoppingonthetrail of a bail jumper. Bounty hunters needed nolicense,no training and virtually no cooperation with lawenforcementagencies. “Underthe old federal statutes, they didn’t have to cooperate with [law enforcement]at all,” BY STEVE DOUGLASS POPULAR SCIENCE Even before the U.S. Air Force finret ech Nirte i stealth bombers, aircraft Grumman, has already unveiled some of its ideas. Designers at the company are covering all bases by submitting concepts for three classes of future heavy bombers: subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic. The ambitious hypersonic concept proposed by Northrop Grumman would launch weapons at tremendous speeds of Mach § and above, equivalent to about 1 mile per second atsea level. says Jim Hoffman,director of SLCC’s Institute of Public Safety. “All they had to do was have a warrant in hand and, without extradition papers or anything, they could come and .snateh any! No more. “The reason we're here is because there was a bounty hunterout there that wentand ruined it for the rest of us,” class instructor Jim Phelps, a 13-year veteran of the business and now a U.S. marshal,tells the budding huntersat the outset of theclass. Indeed, Utah’s tolerance for bounty hunting violence has plummeted since the fall of 1997, when two bounty hunters — one of whom had been on thejob only for three days — opened fire on a wanted womanand herboyfriend. The boyfriend was struck in the head by a ricocheting bullet while backing out of his driveway. One hunter then charged his truck and blasted the wounded man with pepper spray and handcuffed him. ERVICES IBeatingtithetax deadine the IRS has nothing better to do lately, the nation’s poorest taxpayers have faced a greaterlikelihood said law professor Edward McCaffery, executive director of the Uni of being audited, acgordingtoa reLow-incometaxpayers last year faced IRS audits at a higher rate than high-incomefilers forthe first time in, recent history, raising troubling questionsoffairness and sparking new concerns that IRS reforms mighthavegonetoofar. Figures released Saturday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan data research organization at Syracuse University, showed a reversal ef a longtime trend that than hassle the working poor,” versity of SouthernCalifornia Tax Institute and a frequent commen- port released Saturday: once had wealthy taxpayers audited at more than 10 timesthe rate of the working poor.Lastyear, the IRS audited 1.36 percent of taxpayers with in- comes under $25,000, compared with 1.15 percentof taxpayers with incomes over $100,000. The clear- tator on issuesoftax justice. A Treasury Department spokes: man said the IRS is pot unfairly targeting low-incom®taxpayers and that the majority ofthe agen. cy’s time andresources is spent reviewing returns of higherincomefilers. i IRSofficials say they have been following the directives of Con gress, which has ordered—flie agencyto crack downon abuse of a popularlow-incometax break, the earned-income—tax credit.,’ The earned-income credit is refundable, which means low-income taxpayers can get money back from the government even if they paid little or no taxes during the year. More than 70 percent ofthe inghouse’s data generally are regarded as the most complete on IRS low-incomeaudits wererelated to misuseofthis credit, designed to audit rates. “It’s outrageous. It’s almostasif See LOW-INCOME, Page A-6 STARTII Pact Protocols MayGet Stuck in Senate ‘The hunters figured it was all part oftheir job See BOUNTY HUNTING,Page A-11 EVEN MUFSON col would clarify the differencebe- THE WASHINGTON POST short-range tactical weapons, an WASHINGTON Two protocols attached to the STARTIl arms reduction treaty throw the issue backto a recalcitrant U.S. Senate, and could accelerateefforts by the Clinton administration to conclude a grand bargain with Russia combining national missile defense and a new round ofcuts in nuclear weapons. The twoprotocols agreed to by President Clinton and thenRussianPresident Boris Yeltsin in 1997 — must be approved by the Senate before the STARTII treaty is formally adopted. Most experts believe that early Senate approval is unlikely. The more controversial proto- tween long-range strategic and issue that falls under the Anti Ballistic M! can senato) the ABM Treaty, which they view as an obstacté to deploying a na tional missile-defense system. The other treaty amendment would extend the time frame for meeting STARTII goals from2003 to 2007, to compensate for delays in ratification. “We are pleased the Dumafi nally acted and welook forward to, seeing the language ofthe proto- Cawartacki, See SENATE,Page A-6 Mostly sunny skies statewide; highs in Grumman — look out to the year 2030 and developing concepts for future stealth bombers that will meet the anticipatedneedsoftheAir Force. ‘Theseconcepts will guideCongress in a tacit dollars in future. competitors, Northrop Sce BOMBERS,Page A-10 C-12 zl THE ARTS Shakespeare's “A MidsummerNight's Dream” the ballet opens Thursdayin Kingsbury Hall at the U. of U. le Treaty. Republi: e approval of that protocol as implicit recognition of WEATHER 60s north, 70s south. Boccadoro, FSA program manager for Air Combat Systems, a research arm of Northrop Grumman based in El Segundo, Calif. An aircraft with supercruise capability can travel at supersonic speeds without burner; hypersonic Seees be 10, ‘The’Air Force currently relies on B+? It used to be wealthy Americans whohadthe mostto fear from the Internal Revenue Service. But AnnLanders Book Reviews Classifieds D4 Fo Crossword D-8, F-19 Lottery Movies Obituaries Puzzles a, F-2 Astrology Real Estate B2 |