Show I Sports Enterprise Aggie gymnasts host Big West tournament See page 13 Vfol 87 No 78 Sunday March 31 1996 Job opportunities for seniors See page 30 Logan Utah © 1996 Bridgeriand's Daily Newspaper $125 Local experts fear beef scare blown out of proportion By Genae Stevenson this kind of publicity doesn’t help staff writer any” Local beef industry analysts and participants said they are not anticipating any fiscal advantage from Britain’s “mad cow” misfortune In fact local cattle owners are concerned about the bad press “We’re damn worried” Leroy Dell Holmgren of the er Smithfield Livestock Auction said “With cattle prices so low Holmgren said there have been no noticeable decreases in cattle sales since Britain’s scare but he is concerned the issue is being blown out of proportion “When the public hears something like this it’s like talk in a coffee shop: It gets bigger and bigger until there’s really no truth to it” he said And although Britain’s problem has forced the slaughter of a slew of cows the likelihood that the US will benefit slim from it is said one analyst Utah State University Exten- sion Agricultural Economist DeeVon Bailey said more than likely Britain will look to purchase cattle elsewhere in the European Union which is a major producer of beef Eng- land’s McDonald’s which recently destroyed its whole herd has decided to purchase beef from the Netherlands American consumers unfazed — PagelO “One has to assume that with any shortage of meat (Britain) will go to the EU first” Bailey said Holmgren agrees that local beef producers don’t anticipate an increase in beef prices or export Bailey said buying US beef is not only more expensive for Europe but there is also a European Union ban placed on e-implanted US beef Yet not all is hopeless “One thing that this will hopefully do is have them reconsider the ban” Bailey said “There is really no documented evidence that implanted animals are a hormon- health-risk- ” Another possibility is that there may be an increased demand for used to produce offspring USU Extension veterinary specialist Gcll Baglcy said if such demand occurs it is not likely to happen in the near future For concerned consumers the appearance of the disease is unlikely in Cache Valley and the US According to Baglcy there has never been a case of mad cow disease ever detected in the US Bans of cattle imported from breeding stock — cows and bulls See BEEF on Page 12 Sunday spotlight l?lrhnrl nimn Jl1 1UUU nf Ui ClltO I'JLrJuie Grand Cany°n ProJect close to Cache scientists’ hearts By Cindy Yurth staff writer 12000 cubic feet of water out of the Glen Canyon Tuesday a Logan man was with more than a little satisfaction After all John C “Jack” Schmidt was in his words “one of the guys who dreamed this up” Schmidt a gcomorphologist and Utah Stale University professor has been researching sedimentation of the Colorado River for 12 years and is a member of a scientific advisory panel that helps the Bureau of Reclamation manage the river “This is something I’ve worked on for a decade" Schmidt said in a telephone interview Thursday “I've written many flood proposals in the past 10 years” Schmidt described the experience of watching Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt open the jet tubes as “thrilling and satisfying” “It's thrilling and satisfying to think we can manage this river with a view toward restoring one of the most spectacular places on Earth” he elaborated While Schmidt and some of the other scientists involved would have preferred to sec a larger flood (50 (XX) to 55(XX) cubic feel per second rather than the 45 (XX) flowing through When the canyon now) he’s not complaining “Changing the management of the Colorado River — the lifeblood of the West — is not a simple thing” the researcher explained “We've had to compromise our intentions all over the place just to get it done” Another USU researcher water engineer Trevor Hughes was on the committee that recommended the 45(XX) figure He explained that the committee decided to err on the side of caution “We don't know if this is the size (we need) whether it should be smaller or larger” he said “That’s one of the reasons for the exper- iment” The flood will more closely approximate the water level of the Colorado at this time of year before it was dammed in 1963 Although the natural spring runoff would have been about twice the volume of the experimental flood it would have been counterproductive to try to recreate a flood of that magnitude because there’s less sediment coming into the channel now Hughes explained A larger flood could actually scour out the sediment instead of suspending and redepositing it which is what the Bureau of Reclamation hopes to accomplish Four days before Tuesday’s flood the Bureau first lowered the water volume flowing through the dam to 8000 cubic feet per second the See CANYON on Page 12 T SK Imitating nature's course Photo courtesy of The US Bureau of Reclamation is releasing an experimental flood through the Grand Canyon in an effort to restore the historic ecosystem including the endangered humpback chub by simulating spring runoff conditions that ceased with the construction of Glen Canyon Dam The graph shows the volume of flow through the canyon Bio-w- employees Erika Prats and Bi Leibfried check a hoop net for juvenile and adult humpback chubs research preliminary to last week's experimental flooding of the Grand Canyon For the past five years the Logan scientific company has been capturing humpback chubs in the Grand Canyon area then tracking them with the help of radio transmitters Bio-We- in ’ SALT LAKE CITY — Ask Utah Gov Mike Leavitt how he arrived on the leading edge of national issues like states rights and welfare reform and he still responds with wide-eye- d wonder Gee he has said more than once what’s a kid from Cedar City doing at the same table as the movers and shakers in Ameri- can politics — Newt Gingrich Bob Dole Bill Ginton? routine But the is wearing thin as Leavitt a shoo-i- n for a second term solidifies a position of leadership among the head-scratchi- nation's governors and on issues that resonate with many disgruntled voters — states' rights welfare reform and education via cyberspace The sheen on Leavitt's iw-s- h ucks demeanor further dimmed last week when two governors mentioned as potential running-mate- s for Dole — Michigan's John Engler and Wisconsin's Tommy Thompson — responded by asking what about Mike Leavitt? True both were trying to deflect attention from themselves hut the question is a good one given Leavitt's risirg profile: What is Leavitt about? Does be he want to be vice president? Is Carter translates: “Any political figure who has achieved the status of governor or perhaps US senator at least once in a while sits back in his chair turns his gaze toward the White House and says ‘Hey 1 can do i - drug-induc- ed eyeing the Oval Office in four years? Leavitt himself says only that he’ll continue down whatever path allows him to make a contribution Cecil Andrus a former Democratic Idaho governor and the secretary of Interior under Jimmy Sec LEAVITT on Page - Controversial abortions to be offered soon Leavitt looking vice presidential By Mike Carter The Associated Press a Herald Journal graphic 12 NEW YORK (AP) — Abortion providers arc stepping up the push to get doctors around the country trained to perform drug-induc- abortions ed method Planned Parenthood expects to Leavitt It ia very easy to ovwstare my position In tens tf rfl jeoc 1 a begin using w ithin months “We anticipate that some time it will be made avaithis year lable" Jane Johnson president of the Planned Parenthood Federation said Friday of the two-dru- g technique to end pregnancies Planned Parenthood of New York hopes by June to begin offering nonsu'gicil abortions method involves The two-dru- g a single injection of methotrex ate which the Food and Drug Administration has not approvr 1 for abortions but which has long been approved for treating arthritis cancer and other conditions Methotrexate which interferes with cell division kills the fetus A second drug misoprostol brings on uterine contractions and causes the fetus to be expelled usually within a day groups oppose all Anti-aborti- on methods of abortion including this drug treatment and the French abortion pill 6 which has gone through clinical trials but is far from formal RU-4S- approval in this country |