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Show T Waldholtz hearings partially open BIKE PATH PROJECT ALLOWS TIMES TO BE SERVED AND FREES UP BEDS: Utah County Jail's weekend work release program not only is benefiting a long· delayed construction project, but making itself some money needed to expand. The Utah County Commission has granted the program salvage rights for rail ties and tracks from a stretch of the old Heber Creeper railroad line. Jail inmates have been removing wooden rail ties and steel tracks as part of a bicycle path construction project in Provo Canyon. Sheriff Dave Bateman isn't sure how much money the salvaged rails and ties will yield, but be said the program is relieving overcrowding at the jail. DEFENSE DEPOT OGDEN BEGINS TENT SHIPMENTS TO BOSNIA: Defense Depot Ogden workers have shipped 460 tents to help prepare housing for the peacekeeping military force beaded for Bosnia. Col. Russell LeBarron, DDO commander, said the 20-person tents were trucked from DDO to Salt Lake City International Airport. They will be flown to Frankfurt, Germany, and then shipped to Bosnia. The tents, complete with heaters and all the gear to set them up, can be used for leeping troops, or for offices, medical clinics or similar uses. MAN CHARGED AFTER FATAL HEAD-ON COLLISION: The driver of a pickup truck that allegedly crossed the center line and fatally collided with an Ogden social worker's car has been charged with automobile homicide. Along with the second-degree felony, Ryan Boman faces to two class A misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence of alcohol. Killed in the Tuesday afternoon crash was John Obrigewitscb, a 31-year-old newlywed who worked for the Weber Department of Human Services. He died of multiple injuries at the scene. .. SALT LAKE CITY IAP) - Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz said yesterday she wants to partially open her divorce proceedings to public view, but keep under court-ordered seal al1 matters involving custody of her 3-month-old daughter. In a statement &om her Washington office, Waldholtz said she had hoped her divorce &om her husband, Joe Waldholtz, would be a private matter. But she said she later realized tha cenam issues should be open to the same scrutiny as other transactions handled by her estranged husband. Joe Waldholtz is the subject of a federal investigation into a $1.7 million check-kiting cheme. Over the pa t several weeks, the congresswoman has blamed him for problems surrounding her personal and campaign finances. Her divorce file already has been closed at the request of the congresswoman's attorneys. The Associated Press. The Salt Lake Tribune. the Deseret News and KTVX-TV are challenging Rep. Waldholtz's request that issues involving child custody be sealed. "The fact that Elizabeth may grow up and read the truth about her parents' divorce should not be used to force the voters of the 2nd District to rely only on pres releases &om Enid concerning Joe's character -or Enid's," said attorney Sharon Sonnenreich, who represent The Salt Lake Tribune. Leaders unveil state growth plans SALT LAKE CITY IAP) - Legislative and local government leaders unveiled their plans Wednesday for managing unprecedented statewide growth by taking advantage of a "golden era" of record revenue surpluses. None of the proposals rules out a gasoline tax hike, although it wouldn't come for at least two years. And the Republican plan calls for an offsetting tax cut next year. "We are in extraordinary economic times right now," Gov. Mike Leavitt said. "We will be able to take care of education, crime and other needs as well as build highways." Projections for next year reportedly will exceed this year's $250 million growth in state tax revenue. The Republican, Democratic and local government proposals unveiled at a Capilol news conference will be the framework for the governor's growth summit next week. The summit will be outlined in weekend newspaper inserts and broadcast on local television and radio stations. The plans drafted over the past three months deal with transportation, water and open lands development - while the Democrats added education, crime and housing to their list of growth-related problems. Specifics in the plans include giving local governments more taxing authority, leasing Utah's share of Colorado River water and creating a state commission to deal with preserving the state's shrinking undeveloped land. THE • I ET POST OFFICE KICKS OFF CHRISTMAS MAIL SEASON: The Postal Service is "readier than ever" for a holiday mail season expected to break last year's record 4.4 billion cards, letters and packages, Postmaster General Marvin Runyon says. Runyon toured the Postal Service's 24-hour-a· day operations center yesterday, the hub that tracks mail movement and transportation problems across the country and works to keep the mail moving. "When all is said and done, we expect the final tally on holiday cards, letters and parcels to come to 4.5 billion, an increase of 100 million pieces over the record holiday volume of 1994," Runyon said. _...-=:-, BOSNIA COST RISES TO $2 BILLION· 32,000 U.S. TROOPS INVOLVED: Defense Secretary William Perry raised the price tag yesterday for the Bosnia deployment to $2 billion and said the mission will require 32,000 American troops in and around the former Yugoslavia. Congress peppered Perry and other top officials with questions about dangers as well William Perry as the cost. Expressing the mix of skepticism and resignation felt by opponents, Rep. Floyd Spence, chairman of the House National Security Committee, opened a hearing on the plan by saying, "The proverbial train has left the station and our troops are already on board." PEROT BACKERS SAY THEY HAVE SIGNATURES FOR MAINE BALLOT: Supporters of Ross Perot's new Reform Party said yesterday they have gathered enough signatures to get the party on the 1996 presidential ballot in Maine, the third stop in their SO-state drive. But leaders of the state's Democratic and Republican parties and Maine's secretary of state were questioning the way the petition drive has been conducted. I ATION Washington floods cause residents to evacuate TOLEDO, Wash. IAP) - Rainfall eased yesterday after three days of heavy downpours that triggered floods along every major river in western Washington and fOiced Volunteers work to enl_arge a sandbag wafl holding back hundreds to evacuate. Some rivers the Skagit River in downtown Mount Vernon, Wash., began receding in the southwestern yesterday. Flooding may exceed the record levels. part of the state, but they which had helped swell area waterways. continued to ri e in the northwest. On Wednesday, Gov. Mike Lowry declared a In northwestern Oregon, rainstorms accompanied by winds of up to 75 mph state of emergency in 14 counties, including loosened mudslides that closed sections of Cowlitz and Lewis counties, where the rising waters of the Cowlitz River caused the worst U.S. Highway 101 on Wednesday night. Flood flooding in southwestern Washington in more warnings were issued near four rivers in the than 100 years. The Red Cross opened shelters region. in eight counties. The tiny northwestern Washington farming Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who community of Fir Island was completely previously wa scheduled to visit the state evacuated yesterday as the Skagit River was forecast to overflow the dikes that surround it, today, planned to fly over the region. The Cowlitz River inundated homes and and a broken dike along another nearby river £anus and covered cars and trucks before prompted authorities to issue an emergency cresting this morning at 31 feet, 8 feet above request for sandbaggers. For the first time in several days, though, the flood stage. The dikes managed to hold weather was cooperating. A cold front moved overnight, officials said. Officials did not have into the region overnight, reducing rainfall and estimates of how many people were slowing the rate of mountain snowmelt, evacuated. |