News

Juniper Inn wants Hyde Park to alter law, allow beer and wine permit
12/17/01 City administrator Curt Gordon said the Hyde Park liquor license ordinance states a venue must be at least 2,500 feet from a public school. Hoth's restaurant is about 2,300 feet from the middle school, which means he cannot receive a liquor license, Gordon said. / By Kari Gray

Liquor laws become permanent in time for Olympics
12/13/01 With the Olympics approaching in February, some have expressed concern about accommodating the international visitors who have come from more liberal locations. The commission has openly stated ot will not be changing the laws to accommodate this. / By Natalie Larsen

Request for water hookup stirs up a murky issue from 1919
12/10/01 PARADISE -- When Charlieville resident Merv Weeks asked the Town Council for permission to hook up to the town's water last July, he didn't know what he was getting into. His request prompted town officials to look more closely at the area and even suspect some illegal hook-ups. / By Joe Rowley

Law on water rights could affect annexation, attorney tells Wellsville
12/10/01 WELLSVILLE -- An attorney spoke to the City Council about water rights at last week's meeting. Wellsville is facing many water issues regarding the proposed annexation of Cache County land and further planning issues. / By Melissa Dymock

Wellsville delays plan for business-sponsored calendar
12/10/01 Councilman J. Thomas Smith, who was in charge of the project, said he has collected only about $500 from businesses so far and the calendar's projected cost was $5,200. / By Melissa Dymock

Cold-carving: Landscape architecture students Kris Kuarforget of Pocatello, foreground, and Lisa Ogden of Richfield make ice sculptures outside the TSC. They are members of the Ice Carving Club. / Photo by Steve Barfuss

Nibley adjusts plan for new subdivision, then approves it
12/10/01 NIBLEY -- There was a big surprise at the City Council meeting Dec. 7. Another developer was there to get approval for another subdivision. / By Julie Sulunga

Planning and zoning panel says Paradise council not being open with citizens; chairman threatens to quit
12/10/01 PARADISE -- A meeting that began with barely a quorum eventually became a whirlwind of confusion and frustration, along with several threats of resignation, in a tightly packed town council chamber Wednesday night. / By Joe Rowley

Professor accused of mistreating horses
12/10/01 A Utah State University professor of animal science was issued a citation alleging inhumane animal treatment last week. His horses were found to be suffering from malnourishment and neglect. / By Marie Griffin

New power lines upset some in Smithfield, but council satisfied
12/10/01 SMITHFIELD -- The City Council was informed at last week's meeting about projected upgrades to electrical service lines in the city. According to Steve Rush of Utah Power and Light, the upgrades should be finished by June. / By Marie Griffin

English professor helping Hispanic students with Mexican-American War play
12/05/01 Dr. Andrea Tinnemeyer, assistant professor of English at USU, is working with Mount Logan Middle students on a History Fair project highlighting Hispanic heritage in the United States.

USU English students to show off multimedia talents Friday
12/05/01 The English department is sponsoring a Multimedia Showcase featuring works by undergraduate technical writing students. The event is free and will be from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Friday in Room 101 of the Ray B. West Building on the USU campus.

Beautiful, beautiful snow. A steady snowfall blanketed this back yard in the Island neighborhood of Logan Friday. / Photo by Nancy Williams

Marijuana found at The Junction
12/05/01 A Junction employee found about one ounce of marijuana in a plastic bag under a beverage counter after Thanksgiving and notified campus police, Lt. Joe Izatt of the USU Police Department said. / By Hilary Ingoldsby

Company donates $1,000, 'Earbags' to JCOM department
12/03/01 Earbags of Sweden, the "official ear warmer of the 2001 Winter Olympics," has donated $1,000 and dozens of sample Earbags to the department of journalism and communication at Utah State University. / By the USU department of journalism and communication

Features

Barry Kort enjoys brain-teasing puzzles such as the Tower of Hanoi, on the desk in front of him. / Photo by Leon D'souza

A journey through the mind of Barry Kort, prime mover of MicroMuse
12/18/01 Barry Kort seems to have six brains, and each is bigger than most people's. He's inventive, ingenious, and inspired. Not quite the socially deprived deskbound mastermind you might expect a famous techie to be, Kort is a social technocrat. He enjoys company, and loves to get on his soapbox about issues from Artificial Intelligence to the ineffectiveness of rule-based societies and institutions. / By Leon D'souza

Feeling bah-humbuggy? You're not alone
12/12/01 Fa la la la la -- blah blah blah blah." Christmas for most people means parties and carolers, lights and presents. But for some, the holiday season is one of dread and denial, stress and way too many people. / By Ruth Turner

Austrian-Indian student studying America -- with its foods and freedoms (including choice of mate)
12/12/01 Maria Braganza is typical European -- Catholic, talks precise English, knows four languages, and travels a lot. She's at USU studying American studies in exchange with the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Quite typical, until you hear her say, "The first 'love marriage' in my family was last year." / By Tamma Burningham

Japanese roommates: 'Beverly Hills 90210,' strip clubs and boys not meant for crushing
12/11/01 "I should be careful when speaking of boys with love," says Mayumi. "Yes," I reply. "You probably mean you have a crush on someone. That's when you see a boy and you automatically think he is good looking and like him. You can have a crush on a movie star like Brad Pitt or a crush on a boy in class." "I crush the boy?" Mayumi asks. This is how cultures learn about each other. / By Kari Gray

Snowfall a blessing to dry Mendon
12/11/01 MENDON -- The recent snowfall in Cache Valley may be cold and annoying to some, but to Mendon residents and officials the precipitation is a long-awaited blessing. The last year found Mendon water levels at an all-time low with the spring that provides most of the city's water running at about 40 percent of normal, Mayor Sydney Larsen said. / By Hilary Ingoldsby

Lewiston First Responders among best at handling emergencies
12/11/01 LEWISTON -- "Ring, ring . . . " The call comes in. The First Responder volunteer from Lewiston slips on his shoes and heads out to the scene of an accident in Logan to assist other professional rescue workers. / By Jennifer Brennan

Richmond retooling Neighborhood Watch
12/10/01 RICHMOND -- The Neighborhood Watch is undergoing changes to make Richmond a safer place to live by guarding against the threats of violence. The group is being reformulated as the current president, Dallen Smith, is stepping down. / By Nicole Grubbs

The Main Street window suggests the Peacock is not your typical Utah store. / Photo by Julie Sulunga

Persian Peacock succeeds by daring to be different
12/10/01 Persian Peacock has had the main goal of wanting to stay unique -- carrying hip clothing lines, good natural body care, aromatherapy products, unique jewelry, an exclusive 18-and-older section and a chance to get body piercing done. / By Julie Sulunga

JCOM grad to run (on a prosthetic leg, no less) with Olympic torch
12/07/01 In junior high, Erin Taylor Guenter was on the school basketball team without even her coaches knowing she had a prosthetic limb until they saw her wearing a knee brace. She's come miles, figuratively and literally. / By Steve Barfuss

Grenoble native had easy choice when picking USU, thanks to ski slopes
12/05/01 Nathalie Moulinier is excited about the upcoming ski season. "I want to sign up for a snowboarding class at Beaver Mountain next semester and snowboard as much as I can," she says. Along with snowboarding, she follows Le Bourse, the French stock exchange, daily. / By Adrianne Bergs

Wenlan Xu is new to the JCOM program.

After a long, strange trip, Chinese grad student no longer 'a frog at the bottom of a well' 12/05/01 When Wenlan Xu left her family in China and boarded a plane Sept. 10, she had no idea it would take her five days to get to Logan. She was sleeping at her brother's house in San Francisco when terrorists attacked. / By Curtis McInelly

Mendon Historical Society aims to expand preservation list
12/05/01 The new Mendon Historical Society is busy making plans to restore and preserve buildings that have played a part in the area's rich heritage. / By Hilary Ingoldsby

Smithfield parade rings in Christmas season
12/03/01 The 15 or so total entries included a wrecker, complete with reindeer, a train, and a tricycle. McDonald's, among other businesses, joined the parade as well. / By Marie Griffin

Sports

Duke has good chance to repeat; Aggies surprisingly strong
12/17/01 Duke University won the men's college basketball championship in 2001. According to most experts, the Blue Devils will repeat as champions in 2002. / By Mike Grubbs

Art or sport? A gold medal in figure skating may depend on the answer
12/17/01 The focus is on athleticism rather than artistry this year. Here's a primer on what to look for in figure skating at the Winter Olympics. / By Jen Burnett

It's un-American: BCS eliminates teams (like BYU) even before the season starts
12/12/01 The Brigham Young University football program never had a chance for the national title this year as far as the Bowl Championship Series officials are concerned. / By Kendall Schafer

Hundreds of miles per week on a bike . . . for the fun of it
12/06/01 You're never too old (or young) to go road biking. Take Tom Dyson for example. At age 71, he has biked more than 300,000 miles since he became "over the hill" at age 50. Or Shane Larsen, a 23-year-old senior at Utah State University who began riding this year to stay active and in shape. / By Dan Crane

Aggies sleepwalk, then wake up to beat Montana State and go to 5-0
12/06/01 The Aggies, who defeated BYU three nights previous in the Spectrum, did not look like the same team that came out to play against a weaker Montana State. Behind Desmond Penigar's 14 points and Brown's 13, USU played just well enough to win, 60-55. / By Doug Layne

Opinion

Scrapbooking a Trojan Horse: Inside the innocent hobby lurks a monster
12/17/01 Christmas is right around the corner, and I again am agonizing over what to get my wife. I tried to make it so that I never had to be in this situation again by asking my wife a couple of years ago to find a hobby. She chose scrapbooking, which if you are not familiar with, takes a paltry startup cost of nothing less than your eternal soul. / By Bryce Casselman

Christmas invitations? Banzai!
12/17/01 Now as a married adult, I find that I would rather have my spleen removed than have to answer the eternal holiday question, "Where we are going for the holidays this year." / By Bryce Casselman

The new fear of flying: Most people are good, but there are few . . .
12/11/01 Mid-November, my wife and three children (one of which was a 7-week-old baby) flew to Los Angeles to visit family and take in Disneyland. We had planned the trip long before Sept. 11 and didn't think twice about whether we'd be safe. Why? Because there was something that motivated us that was far greater than the fear of another terrorist attack: hope. / By Bryce Casselman

Greedy, insenstive, angry . . . the adjectives of the Christmas shopping season
12/05/01 I have been pondering just exactly what the feeling of Christmas is. On the day after Thanksgiving, while part of the 6 a.m. mob at Freddy's, I found out. / By Jennifer Pinnock

Lifestyles

Old Main Hill has tradition of winter sports -- including skiing
12/18/01 Aggie traditions abound on a campus that keeps its roots firmly planted. A longstanding Aggie tradition on campus isn't becoming a "True Aggie," or the "Hello Walk." It is instead, the tradition of students using Utah State University's Old Main Hill for winter sports of all kinds. / By Sarah Timms

Geocaching: Utah treasure hunters use satellites and internet to find . . . a Vermont quarter and pack of gum?
12/12/01 The trail winds up the mountain into a clearing near the top where the sky opens up and the light hits like turning on a switch in a dark room. The hand-held GPS starts to flash a signal informing the McMullins that they are nearing the hidden cache. What will they find? / By Tiffany Erickson

Relaxing in a river with a doodad that looks like a fish's lunch -- that's Rainy Riding's idea of paradise
12/07/01 The fast-growing recreational activity of fly-fishing is spreading like a hungry wildfire in a drought-stricken forest. This is fabulous for fly-fishers in Utah who have access to some of the choicest fisheries in the country. / By Emily Aikele

Hybrid-electric car, now available in Valley, thinks for itself but seldom stops for a drink
12/05/01 It was only a stop sign, a routine pause on their trip through Yellowstone that sparked the attention of a passerby. The man beckoned to Mae Coover, "Oh, what happened to your engine?" She could have said that the car had just shut its engine off, assuring him that as soon as the coast was clear it would start itself again. / By K. Lynn

JUST A LITTLE TRIM: Hayley Nelson, left, and Becky Nudd, right, decorate a tree for the Student Alumni Association Monday in the Taggart Student Center. Various clubs on campus decorated Christmas trees that will be on display through Friday. The trees will then be donated to needy families in the valley. /Photo by Jennifer Pinnock

Arts

What's up with 'Attack of the Clones?'
12/17/01 Attack of the Clones will be darker than Episode One of the Star Wars saga. There are new characters and old friends (and enemies). / By Bryce Casselman

High expectations for the movie about the 'Ring'
12/17/01 J.R.R. Tolkien did not set out to write a masterpiece, but began the story to entertain his children, and it grew into one of the most original and comprehensive works of fantasy ever written. Now, director Peter Jackson (The Frighteners, Forgotten Silver) has taken up the charge of bringing the epic tale to the silver screen in the form of three movies, which he is filming back to back. / By Bryce Casselman

'Harry Potter' a 4-star movie with 2-star special effects
12/13/01 I'm spoiled -- this I know and do not have a problem admitting to. I am spoiled along with millions of moviegoers around the world are spoiled when it comes to incredible special effects in movies. / By Bryce Casselman

Storytelling of 'Spy Game' overcomes some lukewarm acting
12/05/01 Overall, director Tony Scott very carefully set up his pieces in this film to absorb the viewers in beautiful details and well-acted characters that drove the film without the need for high-tech gadgets or extreme violence. / By Bryce Casselman

'Monsters, Inc.' creative and fun, with neat effects from Pixar
12/03/01 The story is creative and funny throughout. The animation is first rate, but some of the scares may be too intense for young children. / By Bryce Casselman