Salt Lake Tribune | 2003-10-09 | Page 25

| ; PERSONALIZED PLATES:What if a car owner's own nameis deemed offensive? B4 UTAH The Halt Lake Tribune THURSDAY Ocroser 9, 2003 For the Record B2 Lottery B2 Obituarivs B6 Weather B8 WWW.SLTRIB.COM Jensens are offered new deal Judge would havefinal say on Parker's treatment By Matr CanHAM TheSalt Lake Tribune Barbara and Daren Jensen arrive at The “circus” surrounding Parker Jensen’s cancer treatment inched closer to conclusion Wednesday after Utah officials offered the boy’s parents a proposal to end the four-month-long medical neglect case. That proposal — still being reviewed by the Jensens’ attorney — would halt all court hearings, leaving 3rd District Juvenile Court Judge Robert Yeates to issue a final ruling on what type of treatment, if any, Parker must receive the Matheson Courthouse in downtown Sait Lake City for their and what ongoing oversight the state would have in his medical care. Trent Newson/TheSalt Lake Tribune hearing in juvenite court Wednesday. State attorneys and the Jensens hope to negotiate a resolution by Oct. 24, the next scheduled court appearance.ifthey cannot reach an agreement, the case will go to trial in mid-November. Yeates also scheduled a meeting to talk with Parker on Oct. 17. The attorneys involved in the case, including the Jensens’, will be present, but his parents eee eee Pe ee ee Daren Jensen said. “They want to continue to persecute a family that has proved them wrong and they want a way out.” “It is a circus,” Barbara Jensen said. day’s hearing. After the hearing, Daren and Barbara Jensen, Parker’s parents, expressed frustration that state officials Parker had a small tumor removed from the soft tissue under his tongue May2. Their physician at Primary Children’s Medical Center made a medical neglect claim after the family continually refused chemotherapy. Four other doctors have confirmed that the tumor has tested positive for Ewing's sarcoma. These doctors and the state have tried have refused to drop the juvenile court case. to convince the family to start Parker on 49 weeks of multidrug chemotherapy to ree 12, did not attend Wednes- “They want to continue this game,” See JENSENS, BS Driver pinned by Jeep frees self Smashed leg: He uses a jack to raise the vehiclé, then tends to the torn and bleedinglimb By Mark HAvNES The Sait Lake Tribune MINERSVILLE — Clancy Wright was on the mend Wednesday, casually recounting how he used a jackto lift his Jeep off his left leg after he was pinned under the vehicle whenit rolled in the hills east of Minersville. The 18-year-old former wrestler was driving alone Oct. 2 at a popular offroad riding area about a quarter-mile from the southwestern Utah town in Beaver County when his open-air CJ-7 rolled, pinning his leg under a corner of WInp RIDERS the windshield andpart ofa roll bar. “The first thing I thought about was that I didn’t want to cut myleg off like the guy who cut off his arm,” said Wright. He was referring to climber Aron Ralston, who was found May 2 in the desert of southeastern Utah. He had cutoff his arm five days after it became pinned by a boulder in a remote slot canyon. He was hiking and climbing alone. Wright said the accident occurred while he wa$ going up a hill in twowheel drive. His Jeep stopped and be- gan to roll backward. “The front tires got caught in some See DRIVER, B4 newspaper seeks Price resignation By Dan Harrie Sreve Gairrtn/The Salt Lake Tribune PARAGLIDERS sail along the ridgelines of Point of the Mountain near Draper on Wednesday, which was another near-perfect fall day. The unseasonably warm weather is expected to tail off this weekend, with highs dropping to a more autumnlike upper 60s. SEE WEATHER ON PAGE 83. The Salt Lake Tribune U.S. Ambassador John Price, a Salt Lake City resident, is having a rough week. First, the Utah Supreme Court ruled Friday that he owes more than $8 mil- More poweris desired for ‘ethnic offices’ Minority affairs appointees: Advocates would like to see the positions elevated to Cabinet-level executive directorjobs By Jacos SANTINI The Salt Lake Tribune Yvette Diaz, a former chairwoman for the state's Hispanic Affairs Advisory Committee, said the move would Several community advocates proposed Wednesday that Utah’s four governor-appointed officials of the state’s “ethnic offices” be elevated to a Cabinet level, giving them power to set policy. make the four directors equivalent to the executive directors who manage such state agencies as the Department of Health and the Department of Public Safety. The proposal was made to the legislative Minority Affairs Subcommittee. The directors — over the offices of Hispanic, Pacific Island, Black and Asian affairs — have “no teeth” when it comes to change in Utah, Diaz said. Neither do the advisory committees that work under the directors. “Tt’s very difficult to force a state agency to work” with the directors and advisory committees if the state agency doesn’t want to, Diaz said. Wednesday's was the second meet- ing since the five-member subcommittee was authorized by the Judiciary Interim Committee at the request of Sen. James Evans, R-Salt Lake City. The four offices now are under the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development. Each office is made up of a director and secretary, except for the Office of Hispanic Affairs, which has an additional employee. The Office of Black Affairs was the See ADVOCATES, B5 lion in civil penalties and fees because his } | real estate develop- ment company cheated two former business partners. Now,critics in Mauritius, off the eastern coast of Africa, are questioning his eth- ics and fitness as U.S. Jehn Price ambassador. Le Mauricien, the largest newspaper in Mauritius, has goneso far as to call for Price’s resignation. In an editorial published Tuesday, editor Gilbert Ahnee accused Price of essentially buying his ambassadorship with generous contributions to the See MEWSPAPER, B6 See noevil, hear no evil, but not own noevil? same Saturday morning address, he canning tonight’s prime-time lineup on NBC makes it tough to noted: “The most basic way to protest negative-impact media is simply not to watch it, see it, read it or play it.” argue with the counsel imparted last weekend by Elder M. Russell Ballard at the LDS Church'sfall general To which Ballard noticeably did not add “or own it,” but that would present conference. To paraphrase: Just don’t watch it. First, we have “Friends,” which I quite a sticky scenario. As is wellknown, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns KSL Channel 5, sg nh cna mgs emer4 | tion. I know little of its current -toweek plots, except that the show does feature a baby born to Ross and Rachel without benefit of marriage. Then we have “Will and Grace,” a little romp through the minefields of gay relationships with a few ha-ha moments of substance abuse thrown infor good measure. And finally, we top off the night with “ER,” which I watched faithfully for five seasons, while George Clooney ruled. But I have since drifted as the ‘Volume of squirting blood and splatter- heme R COP LLEN Houty Mu ing viscera increased in the OR, and as the same old handful of docs and nurses kept trying one another out in bed. No need to stop the presses with this pronouncement: Commercial television can be one big cultural and moral dung heap. Most thinking people, regardless of their religious background, can agree with Ballard’s advice: “Our biggest challenge is to choose wisely what we listen to and what we watch.” In the Salt Lake City’s NBC affiliate. Ballard was followed the next day by church President Gordon B. Hinckley, who congratulated KSL for last month dumping the new sitcom “Coupling,” which centers on six young, eye-candy adults sitting in a bar and discussing Sex. Salt Lake Tribune TV columnist Vince Horiuchi called the series “selfabsorbed and boorish,” but somehow| can’t help thinking the show’s catchy title fairly screamed “pull us off the air” to KSL. Far better to have a nice, safe title for equally provocative stuff Hey, how about something like “Friends”? Any night of the week, NBCoffers the fare that LDS leaders castigated last weekend: partial nudity, sexual innu endo, sex outside marriage, gay unions and a heaping helpingof gore in police dramas and reality shows. It is the right and duty of church authorities to guide their members to- ward uplifting behavior. But it seems to beg the question: If network TV is such a tool of evil, why does the church own a local station? Whynot just get out ofthe television business altogether? I sought an answer through the church media-relations office, where spokesman Dale Bills candidly told me no church authority would address the topic of media ownership. Instead, he sent me to Bruce Chris tensen, president of KSL Channel 5. A straight-up guy, Christensen told me he felt LDS leaders’ advice was “right on point.” Fine. But he does not make policy decisions. “Church members,” he said, “can al ways exercise the ultimate option. Just turn it off.” Besides, in a church that “deals with [free] agencyas a fundamental tenet,it is difficult to do more than to suggest pushing the ‘off button.” Whichstill does not answer the question: Why would the church keep taking a nice profit from owning a medium that every season churns out con tent it asks its members not to watch? For one thing, the news, says Chris tensen. “Owning KSL allows us to pro Guce the No. 1 TV news in the market.’ Whichstill does not answer the question [e-mail]