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Show Saturday, March 4, 2006 DAILY HERALD as EDITORIAL IN OUR VIEW EDITORIAL BOARD Albert J. Manzi, President & Publisher Randy Wright, Executive Editor Donald W. Meyers, Editorial page editor Nancy Hale, Public adviser | letthem | ||| eee eat whatever orget no good deed going unpunished. In madetotrack food donated to a food bank.Besides, the stores could just run the donated goods reaucratic society, no through a checkout stand before giving them away, andhavea nice receipt showing the amountfor today’s litigious, bu- deed ever seems to get done. Sam's Club in Provo, the member's-only shopping center run by Wal- tax purposes. The health concernis a stretch. In 1996, Con- a Mart, used to donate Wal-Mart food to the Food and is alread Care Coalition, as well as to Community Action in Provo.The food usually gress passed the Good Samaritan Food Donation Y Act which protects food erceived pec consisted of items that donorsfrom lawsuits. The only way Wal-Mart or by many weregoing to be discard- . ed because they were on eee passingthee ‘sell-by” dates but st as being heartless A edible | | | anygroup could be sued | is if they were grossly | negligent. We wouldn't ret ava to nowingly give away | and putting rancid orrotting food. : tons of food PI rofits ahead knows, yfood is stilloop donated 32.5 safe Tn 2004, Wal-Mart As anyone whosho} valued at $100,000, ac- of people. cording to the coalition’s We ledont di expiration date. It simply - toneedy families is a far cannot be sold. Offering it ally beneficial arrange- think this ment:the store was able to put unsellable food to ; is true, but better way to disposeofit ‘than dumpingit. families were abieto put trashing a eames leaders, espe- ‘ood use andmany Utah : meals on their tables. community- grinding halt this year. ee * » Wal-Mart's corporate office in Bentonville, Ark., announcedthatit would no longer donate food tocharitable groups. Z The companysays that it does not wantto be liable should someone | andedible well afterits 1 i It was a mutuWebsite. Butthatcametoa The problemis that cially at large companies aa like Wal-Mart, seem to rogram prog doesn't make the- lawyers and accountants more than totheir collective conscience, which should suggest helping those in need. From a company may makebettersense to ? | zi | THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR ~ | wert al | | | | "spirited food listen to overly cautious look friendly. get sick from eatingit. Moreover, a spokes- reinforces a stereotype. tracking system to bet- trash good food than to the greater good. ; Herald, the company also wanted to have a lawyer's perspective. it take very small risk for Itonly woman told the Daily typ ter account for what Wal-Martis already perceived by many as being heartless andput- ting profits ahead of people. We don't think this is true, but trashing a community-spirited was being donated to the food banks. These excuses seem pretty lame. Wal-Mart did not get to whereit is today without a means oftracking inventory. It is hard to imagine that the system cannoteasily be < ‘i : “The wayto forming the govern- Relaycpnage mentis difficult and planted with beat Ieninoim political bombs. Weaskthe Iraqi peopleto bepatient, and we expect forming the governmentwill take a food program doesn’t make the companylookfriendly. It only reinforces a stereotype. few months.” — Mouwofak al-Rubaie, Iraqi national security adviser, on the Martis also throwingout some great public relations. ment amid the Shia-Sunni divide challengesof forming a govern- By throwingout the food, Wal- in Iraq. Sectarian violenceflared up recently when Sunnis set off bombsat the Askarlyashrine in Sammara, a shrine revered by Iraq's Shiite majority. Beehives & Buffalo Chips Buffalo Chip to U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett for making an ethical faux pas while talking about ethics. Bennett, speaking about the evolution of ethics in Washingtonto an audience at Utah Valley State College, madethe remarkthat former U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn was notorious for taking cash from lobbyists. He said that Rayburn, for whom’a congressionaloffice building is named, kept ajar on his desk for lobbyists’ payments.Problemis, the story is false. Historians and Rayburn’s staff said the Texas Democrat never accepted any money from lobbyists, or speaking fees for that matter. Bennett said he heard the story years ago and did _ not have any “academic source” forit. Perhaps it's time to enroll in one of UVSC'sethicsclasses. ‘@. Beehive to the volunteers who makestuffed bears for the Children’s Justice Center in Provo. For 14 years Ruth Stringham and others have made the animals to provide a measureof comfort and security for abused children.The friendly critters are made from donated material and the designs are as varied as their creators.So far, the group has made more than 11,000 bears for the center. This week,the center honored the bear makers with a pizza party, a small reward for helping somany children regain some peace. We hope fewer bearswillbe needed in the future. ® “Wedon't know whythis is happeningto us. There is no point. There is no difference between Sunnis and Shiites. The politicians have created Buffalo Chip to Utah State €—™ Sen. Howard A.Stephen® son for taking hypocrisy these divisions. Let them takeIraq's wealth; that's what they want. But let the peoplelive in peace.” — Abbasal-Saiedi, a 68-year- to new lows. The Draper Re- publican berated the media‘for “creating” the perception that legislators were unduly influ- encedby lobbyist gifts. By the “Weneed to keepthis from degeneratin’ into anall-out civil war. ‘Sit down andshutup while | sing ‘Kumbaya.’” way, Stephensonis a registered lobbyist with the Utah Taxpayers Association,andits president. Heis the one who drafted thebill allowing the Legislature to override a governor's veto of nuclear waste dumpapplicationsfiled by companieslike the former Envirocare of Utah. And — oh, yes — weshould mention that the companyis a memberof the Utah Taxpayers Association. Maybe Stephensoncould join Sen. Bennett in an ethics class at UVSC. ) juffalo Chip to the Utah Legislature forfrittering awayits time and getting little of value done.In 45 days, it failed to pass importanttax reforms while needlessly arguing about such things as whether youth soccer league rosters shouldbe public records.It put off importantbusinessto the last minute while arguing about how to changeperfectly good rules on school clubs and whetherletting a child see a violent video game should be a crime.Theinefficiency mayactually be a blessing in disguise, however. We very nearly awarded a Beehivefor the oneof the morefruitless sessions in memory. After all, the Legisla- ture could do serious damage to Utahns’livesif it ever got its act together. DOONESBURY: Garry Trudeau CNIL WAR DEMaCaACY old Sunni Muslim, after being driven from his home in the pre- dominantly Shiite north Baghdad neighborhoodof Shula. | |