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Show Sun Advocate PINION 4b Tuesday, October 30, 1090 Protecting identity Many individuals mistakeningly assume that local, state or federal statutes prohibit the print and broadcast media from including the names of minors In news reports. True, the criminal justice system differentiates between the manner in which adult cases are handled and the method used to process juvenile actions through the courts. Criminal complaints involving adults are resolved in open court. All circuit and district court proceedings are a matter of public record. Referrals to juvenile court are adjudicated in closed hearings, and the proceedings are not a matter of public record. However, no law currently exists which forbids the news media from broadcasting or publishing the names of juveniles who are issued traffic citations or who are arrested and charged with criminal offenses. Pursuant to Utah statute, minors who are cited on routine traffic violations are processed via the circuit court. The court follows the same basic procedures in handling all traffic citations. Adults and juveniles share the same legal options. The options include admitting the violations and paying standard fines or appearing in the courts chambers and pleading not guilty to the citations. Persons who enter not guilty pleas on traffic violations are processed via open court proceedings. The Sun Advocate takes the traditional gentlemens agreement" between the news media and the criminal justice system seriously. With considerable assistance from the courts and local law enforcement agencies, the paper makes every effort to screen incident reports, arrest bookings and criminal cases in order to omit the names of juveniles from news articles. The cooperative efforts are successful in the vast majority of cases. The identities of very few juveniles who are charged with, cited for or convicted of minor criminal offenses appear in print. In cases when juveniles names are printed, it is because the reporter has not been made aware the person is under 18, or when the newspaper determines the nature of the crime justifies publication. RituiE cetBus taTfer Anything under the sun Horror stories This time of year, I dont know whether to write about politics or Halloween. By now, politics are getting down and dirty and it all becomes a little terrifying. Consider the Congressional races, which have now boiled down to mudsling- ing. Its particularly scary when the con- servatives of the Republican party are slinging the goo at party candidate Karl Snow, who blames his opponent for the resulting mess. Its all too confusing. Then there are Emery County poli- VfifppQ tllPPP firlfill In nP TYVIfP lLan aPlittfe 990 census heads for a recount :u,t 1 Despite allegations of a massive undercount, have. done a pretty thor1990 U.S. Census-taker- s ough job. There were problems and the preliminary figures are undoubtedly low. But assertions that the number of. people, overlooked in some cities may run as high as the million claimed by New York are hard to credit. Thats especially so since the Census Bureau has rechecked the most likely source of any such count . sweeping discrepancy the housing-un- it and has found that relatively few dwellings were missed in the initial canvass. In New York, for example, the bureaus recheck added only 23,000 additional units. More may turn up. But congrestotals sional auditors doubt that final housing-uni- t its will for New York population justify increasing count by more than 140,000. Even so, pressure is building on the bureau to fudge the figures. The excuse will be to offset the census alleged failure to fully count homeless peopoor. The reason, however, ple and other inner-cit- y will be to enable those cities to keep their levels of federal aid and congrespopulation-base- d sional and legislative representation. More than 5,300 communities have filed challenges to their preliminary census figures some of therh citing horror stories of entire communities or neighborhoods uncounted. And critics point out that the preliminary national population total of 245.8 million is well below the Census Bureaus precensus estimate of 250 million. But most of the horror stories can be corrected. And a discrepancy of 2 million in the national population figure is within what many statisticians consider a reasonable margin of error. The census has never been exact. Some now argue that it is also obsolete that modern sam- pling methods could do it better. But that would be like picking a president or governor on the basis of public-opinio- n polls. Neither result would have much public credibility. Conducting the census by actually counting people is doing it the hard way but still the best way. Letters, guest columns invited In fairness to all, the following rules apply without exception: Writers must include a full signature, address and telephone number for verification. Unless the author can be established, a letter will not be published. Please keep letters short and accurately stated. A desirable length is three hundred (300) words. Preference will be given to letters. short typewritten (double-spaceNo more than one letter per month will be printed from an individual. Letters are subject to editing for space and clarity and should not violate libel laws. Those deemed not in good taste will not be considered. Effort will be made to return letters unacceptable for publication to the author. Letters, columns:, P.O. Box 870, Price, Ut. 84501. d) By comparison, Carbon County politics seem tame right now. With only one parti- - san race on the ballot, voters might ques- y dominance tion whether the little a we talk Couldnt isnt just scary. someone into staging a write-i- n campaign just to shake things up? Its fitting that Halloween falls so close to election day. It gives the world a chance to dro) the1 pretense and let the silliness reign without the mask of issues cloud- ing the nonsense. one-part- The Unforgettable Halloween (a true story) Two Halloweens ago, my friends and I went trick or treating. Pretty soon we cametoanoldbeatuphouse.Whenwegot up on the porch, we saw a dummy dressed like Freddy Kruger holding a bowl of Mike said: I think we take the candy from here," looking at the bowl. When we reached in the bowl, the dummy, went, Waaaa!" We took 6ff. Before you could say, Your shoes untied," we were Dum-Dum- s. dothe bbek He was chasing I like Halloween, really. Nowadays, the n su1demy Mike tripped and I policy that requires county employees to emphasis is on the treating rather than j18, " over him. When the dummy topped take a leave of absence if they run against the tricking. Kids wouldnt dare tip over mto its pocket. We reached it aPProached, their boss. There is the obvious question outhouses and wax windows, evenifthere out would a knffe and kill it thought pull of whether the incumbent should suffer were outhouses. A little toiletpapering is 118 ou he said, iou for- surpnse, as bad as it gets, without becoming real the same handicap. But it gets even more got your candy!! frightening when you consider the dam-- vandalism. You and I might think politics are the effect But would have on the of the it possipening spirit trickery is not dead. I found horror story, but tell that to two little of real the school on following bility qualified, experienced personnel paper my kitchen candidates. table this boys. becoming morning. . . . . Mike royko Duke a fluke? Maybe not Chortling into his beer, course, we must keep in mind Slats Grobnik said: Hey, I see that his strong showing came where this guy David Duke in Louisiana, a state that is has got a lot of the Washington among the nations leaders in politicians and pundits all illiteracy, economic stagna-tioshook up." and overall It isnt funny. Who would backwardness. have thought that someone Yeah, but he did real good with a background in the Klan in the high-clas- s sections. The and the American Nazi Party, people who got big houses, an obvious racist and rabble-rouse- r, money and went to college could get 44 percent of the country club swells they the vote for U.S. senator in went .for him just like the guy Louisiana. . with no front teeth. So that Who would have thought? I shows that if you give denwould have thought. What I tures to everybody who needs dont understand is why its them, there really aint much such a surprise." difference between the guy Its a surprise because this mowing the fairway and the is 1990, not 1890 or even 1960. guy riding the cart." So? I know how to read a Then that election was calendar.", some sort of aberration. Some sort of what?" So it was assumed that the Aberration. Its something days of the redneck were deviates from that the normal. behind us; that we had become Be careful. Youre starting a more tolerant, gentle, caring to sound like George Will." society. Or at least a little Im sorry, it must be the more civil. drink. But you get my point. sort of true. This Thats Yeah, but I dont see why David Duke aint no beady-eyesome kind of whatsis." deputy sher- its Aberration. iff, eating corn pone or Right. Why do you think it ever that chow is. Sure hes a normal for somebody like aint g bigot, but hes a David Duke to get 44 percent bigot. Like somebody wrote, of vote?" the , he comes on like a TV weatherman. So it means were getBecause there cant be that ting better taste in our choice many racists, haters, broodof bigots." ers, loathers and malcontents little in comfort. Of Thats any State, even Louisiana. n. . . . d, ed clean-lookin- "Hey, they could get wider spread Were heading into hard times. The Dow and the Jones are going into the tank. Our loan-shar- k pals, the are pulling their Japanese, money out. Ronald Reagan left us with the tab for the S&Ls. Now George Bush has got us up to our ears in sand fleas and angry Arabs. So when hard times come, what do people do?" ' set-asid- , pot-belli- Hey, where you been hanging out lately, the reading room at the Do Gooder Society? You stop in herd and other joints like this, right?" Every opportunity I get, or that she allows. So what do you hear? You hear them tailring about the plight of the underclass? You hear anybody saying that we got to do something about teenage unemployment in the inner city? You hear anyone saying: Oh, I. just admire e these programs for minorities. And Im a big fan of equal opportunity hiring, and I just cant tell you how much I love quotas. Whenever I pay my income tax, it makes me feel warm and cuddly knowing that I am going to help a welfare mother. You hear people say stuff like that?" Of course not Those arent subjects that people chat about. "Sure they do. Except they say: Hey, (bleep) those programs. And (bleep) those people on those programs. And I dont want them to spend my (bleep) taxes on any of those (bleeps). Youve heard that, aint you?" I suppose words to that effect, although not put' so delicately. But I cant believe that those sentiments are so widespread. - They tighten their belts and . pull together. : What you been reading, The Grapes of Wrath? Nah, what people do when theyve had it real good and figure theyre always going to have it real good, and then times aint so good, is they look around for somebody to get mad at So this David Duke, he might be a louse, but hes a smart : . ' . louse." Yes, but people will see through his mindless appeals to their baser instincts. This is too sophisticated a country to follow so obvious, a demagogue. Yeah, youre probably right. By the way, where was Beethoven from?" Germany, of course. I thought so. And those other guys, Brahms andBach? And lots of others, too, huh? I (Continued on Page 5) I . s k i i |