| Show Herald I Vot 88 No 49 Wednesday February 26 1997 Inside Journals Logan Utah Bridgerland’s Daily Newspaper By Miriam Rand Outcome spawns mixed feelings By Miriam Rand Page Update “1 a- - J1' Taxes loom as big issue for Internet Phillips' mental state at the lime nl work by a pair of private investigators hired by defense attorneys to aid in preparing Phillips' defense evaluation of physical evidence by an independent crime lihmi lory and evaluation and analysis o the facts of the case by a pair of iiule pendent crime “profilers” asked to 's give their opinions on whether murder could he considered a hate crime against the LDS Church staff writer last-minu- te The Marie Eccles Caine Foundation — a tribute 13 tense iMnmcv lulin ( ouc ( one pointed In llnee pn ces "I diinigiiig cv iilcncc as kiy ii inis in ihc di'Clsinu In rcgnlMlc ( nil tessu mis Phillips iiiadi lively in a Milicc nllieer and ummil cnnlml nlliccr al I he lnguu City i’nlicc Dcpirtmcnl shortly alici hisaircsi A piir nf hlnud spuiereil pinls vvilli Phillips’ niiuc in ihcni Inund hidden in a dressing rnmn in ( Penney A siore eleik would lesiily ihit Phillips had come min lie sinie t lie morning nl the murder and Imuglit a piii nl slums (hen wore llicm mil nl ihc sinie A single pimil hlnndy Inniprmi found in ihc seniinov Inn Id mg where Harward was kilkd ihil was cmisisieni will Phillips' slme “Many things dun’l support guilt Ini tilt ise do" Caine said Cache County Attorney Semi Wyatt said the slate’s ease would have relied on that evidence as well as: Various witnesses who placed ili Michael Wayne Phillips' March ID murder trial was abruptly called off Tuesday after Phillips accepted a plea bargain with the state and appeared in court to change his plea to guilty and mentally ill The diagnosed schizophrenic faced a charge of aggravated murder punishable by the death penalty or life in prison in the 1992 death of Conrad Harward 64 who was stabbed 40 to 50 times at the LDS Seminary and Institute Administration building in Logan Phillips had previously entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity In exchange for Phillips' guilty plea the state agreed to reduce the charge against him from aggravated murder to murder which removes the possibility that Phillips might be sentenced to death for Harward’s murder The state also agreed not to fight additional treatment for Phillips at the State Mental Hospital Defense and prosecution team members who have had their hands full for the past few weeks preparing for a March 10 trial date for the Michael Wayne Phillips murder trial were breathing a sigh of relief this morning A recent flurry of activity on the liar-ward- case has included preparation of reports by independent mental health experts charged with evaluating See PLEA on Page 12 Hul WASHINGTON — To hear Internet and technology executives talk new state and local taxes rank up there with hackcomputer viruses and 14-- y car-ol- d ers as a threat to the global computer future “It defeats the purpose of seamless interstate commerce" argues Scott Cooper technology director at the American Electronics Association A proliferation of state and local taxes will “degrade and demean the technology” he adds The Clinton administration opposes federal taxation of the Internet where business dealings could rise to as much as $150 billion in the next few years by s me estimates So the battleground is shifting to the state and local level and the industry is working hard to halt piecemeal taxation The emerging market for electronic commerce could be crushed industry leaders say if cities and counties begin approving taxes for telecommunications data processing services or even sales They say Internet service providers could be driven out of business if local governments get the right to tax an electronic transaction that just happens to be routed through a local computer server cn route to its final destination For example someone in Atlanta who's buying clothes from LL Bean over the Internet might have his connection routed through Maryland and Connecticut before reaching Maine Or the connection could be routed overseas Also Internet service providers might use multiple computer servers in different cities so they could stay in business if one crashed — again creating confusion over when taxes should he applied For the estimated 30 million individual Internet users state and local taxes would make it more expensive to use their home computers to buy clothes or check on stock prices as Internet service providers pass these taxes onto the customer’s monthly bill “Gcarly you talking about a potential increase in both the costs and complexity of Internet transactions" said Kenneth Glucck a tax expert Cache tonight The Cache Chamber Orchestra performs at 7:30 tonight in the Kent Concert Hall of the Chase Fine Arts Center at Utah State University The concert is free Hypnotist Jack Lythgoe will perform at 7:30 tonight at Mountain Crest High School Admission is $5 tor students and $7 for adults Page 4 Weather r Snow and more snow Page 12 Index I I hut has asked that he be incarcerated for as long as possible whether at the State Mental I lospital or the Utah State Prison Nearly 20 members of Harward's family were in the courtroom to hear the change of plea which the Cache County Attorney's Office said was negotiated with (he family's approval However an “Alford type" guilty pica was entered which means Phillips did not admit he killed Harward despite the guilty plea “Michael has maintained his innocence and will continue to do so" said See PI 1 1 LI I PS mi Page 12 Tuition likely to go up By Rob Wells AP Tax Writer Other events 50 Cents Phillips pleads guilty to murder staff writer r 1996 SALT IAKL C'll'Y (AP) -Legislators are expecting regents to lund about $3 million of the SI2 million salary and benefits n increase planned lor employees and that may mean a inilion hike of 2 lo 3 percent Students at ihc University ol Utah and Utah Slate already are higher-educatio- VnUtah Legislature schcJulcd to be hit with a 2 cent tuition hike next tall per- l he regents initially designated the $10 million generated by those hikes lor the two schools' AP photo Grammy preparations plan to be reworked Land-us- e By Charles staff writer H Photos of Grammy nominees Babyface Toni Braxton and other music stars are attached to cardboard reserving the stars' seats at Madison Square Garden Tuesday as preparations continue for tonight's 39th Annual Grammy Awards in New York Featherstone — is zoned solely for recreational and lots forestry uses and cabins on not sure all Is lost in Cache County if it (the plan) is not adopted by the first of March” 40-ac- rc “I’m The Cache County Council voted Tuesday to send the county’s land-us- e plan back to the county Planning Commission for three months of rewriting after complaints from Realtors and council members that the plan was “vague” and “unspecific” “The land-us- e element ran about 100 pages Most of that was description” said Councilman Craig Petersen “My concern More than half the county's land is privately owned including huge tracts in the mountains cast and south of Ligan Many landowners are concerned that the plan would forbid building cabins on unimproved roads “A lot of the letters dealt with the green area FR-4- 0 Why not pull that out and deal with it separately?” asked Councilwoman Sarah Ann Skanchy Countywidc Planner Mark Tcuschcr w ho authored the plan and shepherded it along the lengthy public hearing process defended his work Tcuschcr said he w as going to clarify the plan's goals and strategies Hut he also said there was a tremendous misunderstanding of what the plan proposed “As I look through most of the letters there's a lot of confusion about the implementation policies” Tcuschcr said “This is not an ordinance" — Darrel Gibbons Cache County Council chairman was with the implementation plan — there’s no description about what that really means” The council gave the Planning Commis- on the plan and approved it with few the council chambers concerned that the proposed land-us- e plan would restrict their ability to develop forested land in Cache County And they collectively sighed “amen” when Council Chairman Darrel Gibbons said “I'm not sure all is lost in Cache County if it (the plan) is not adopted by the changes While not a public hearing more than a dozen interested landowners were sitting in The majority of Cache County's land — in the mountains surrounding Cache Valley sion three months to review the plan including time for a public hearing The Planning Commission held two poorly attended public hearings late last summer First of March” libraries said Cecelia commissioner of higher educa- tion hut now that money will loused lo help fund the employ ee raises About $15 million still needs to be found and unless legislators change their minds and give the schools more funds that money probably will come from tuition increases al (he state’s other schools Dutch oven measure finds sweet success By Phil Jensen staff writer SALT LAKE CITY — It's all hut official now l he official “cooking pot" for the stale of Utah straight out ol Cache County is the historical Dutch oven While more than 7(1 lobbyists cooked up a storm outside on the Capitol grounds 25 state senators voted unanimously and without discussion today for IIH 203 the cooking pot bill Ilic bill passed the House 51-1- Sec OVEN on Prge 12 Greenspan speech urges caution sparks market upheaval WASHINGTON (AP) — In a pointed warning that sent stock prices tumbling Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress today “caution seems especially warranted” over the extraordinary runup in the market Minutes after the remarks the Dow Jones average of industrial stocks plunged around 100 points but later recovered about half the losses Greenspan who roiled markets Dec 5 with his question about whether “irrational exuberance” was driving the market said “There are reasons in the current environment to keep this question on (he table” ‘History demonstrates that participants in financial markets are susceptible to waves of optimism” he said “Excessive optimism sows the seeds now-famo- of its own reversal in the form of Financial Associates imbalances that tend to grow over time” He also said he could not rule out a increase in interest rates to hold economic growth and prices in check The stock price runup could help feed inflation he said despite a Federal Reserve forecast that inflation would remain at or under 3 percent this year ve Economists said Greenspan was attempting to dampen market enthusiasm now in order to avoid an even sharper pullback later “He's warning that if W'ali Street doesn't correct itself he will correct it And he has the power to do that by interest rates” said raising short-tereconomist Paul Getman of Regional m in West Chester Pa Greenspan balanced his warning bv noting that central hankers by occupation must look for trouble and “even I must admit our economic prospects arc quite favorable” However in his written remarks to the Senate Banking Committee he took pains to emphasize the risks to the stock market where prices have risen about 9 percent since his December warning and the Dow Jones average has broken through the 70im) level Greenspan said there may be reasons — global competition new information technology — to believe something is “fundamentally new" about current stock market conditions At3 photo Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan tesM-eon Capitol Hill today at a Senate Banking Committee Scaring on the economy |
