Twelve years into the Private Eye Weekly's run, Utah was experiencing massive population and economic growth and housing affordability was a looming concern. State leaders were drooling over the prospect of a Micron computer chip plant, white supremacist groups were festering, and Utah was criticized for its 1996 execution of John Taylor by a firing squad.
There were profiles of Sima Vaghti, a tutor to low-income children, and of James Moore Jr. (1977-2006), who educated young people about gangs and violence. Reporter Ben Fulton's story of Louis Coray's (1862-1949) quest to locate Utah's original constitution—which had been misplaced for 20 years—was another highlight of this year.
Nationally, prices within the telecommunications industry were going up after deregulation, and a government shutdown occurred over a proposed Republican budget plan that slashed social program funding and cut taxes on the wealthy.
As for the paper itself, Private Eye introduced a new section for mind, body and spiritual needs called "Soul Survival." The office relocated two doors east to 60 W. 400 South, and its staff won three first-place awards from the Utah Press Association.
Remembering Vol. 12: In the wild
Environmental concerns surfaced often. From air to animals to trees, there was much going on that was of concern to our readers and writers.
A "Hits & Misses" column for June 29, 1995, noted that Utah had received a high liveability ranking, to the delight of Gov. Mike Leavitt. "But when the American Lung Association says Salt Lake County has the 13th worst particulate air pollution, Leavitt finds it hard to believe."
Forests and wildlife were at the center of other controversies, as seen in an Oct. 5 cover story by Kristen Rogers about the actions of state managers during the hunting season. But the most frequent figure in these conflicts was Jim Hansen (1932-2018), who represented the state's First Congressional District from 1981 to 2003.
"Hansen," noted Katharine Biele on Sept. 7, "has become inextricably enmeshed in bills to decrease Utah's wilderness acreage, to hand over to the state all lands belonging to the Bureau of Land Management, and to close or privatize the nation's parks."
As chairman of the subcommittee on Parks, Forests and Public Lands, Hansen sought to assemble a National Parks Closure Commission. Working with U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, he successfully gave 1,320 acres of National Forest land to developer Earl Holding—a regular campaign donor—on the pretext of the 2002 Olympics for Holding's Snowbasin Resort. Hansen's Utah Wilderness Act proposed to unlock millions of acres of protected area to mining, oil, gas, ranching and timber interests.
Speaking of timber, another controversial action was taken this year by means of an amendment to the lengthy Rescissions Act of 1995, ostensibly devoted to disaster relief and anti-terrorism initiatives. Known as the Salvage Rider, the amendment created an "emergency salvage timber sale" program that allowed federal agencies to turn over forest land to timber companies without regard for the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act or the National Forest Management Act.
"As long as the logging operation is labeled a 'salvage sale,' it is exempt from public review or any prognosis of environmental impact," wrote Ben Fulton.
Claimed to be a means of preventing fires and bark beetles, the Salvage Rider defined "salvage sale" so broadly that any national forest could potentially be open for logging operations at taxpayer's expense. As Fulton reported, the Forest Service would not only pay for costs of administering sales to the companies but also for cleanup and road construction for greater logging access.
"Sidney Valley isn't the only Utah forest on schedule for salvage logging," Fulton concluded. "Forest officials have scheduled logging next summer of more than 6,000 acres of conifer and aspens in Dixie National Forest near St. George. Fish Lake National Forest and forests near Manti, Price and LaSalle aren't far behind."
In their words
Through their respective columns, Katherine Biele and Ron Yengich provided lively commentary on the political happenings of 1995 and 1996. What follows are samplings of their observations:
Biele: "[1995] came to a close on a conflicted note as men and women alike tried to sort out the personal and political violations of the Enid Greene Waldholtz campaign. Enid held a press conference unparalleled in emotion and exhaustion, ostensibly to explain just how husband Joe had duped her into believing he was a millionaire and was handling the complicated finances of her campaign legitimately. Truth or consequences aside, the public was left wondering at the apparent contrast between Enid, a capable attorney taking Congress by storm, and Enid, the willingly submissive wife who never questioned the red flags surrounding her husband's activities." (Jan. 4, 1996)
Yengich: "It seems that we here at the Private Eye Weekly have offended the sensibilities of Utah's Walter Winchell and Ann Landers. I am speaking, of course, of [Salt Lake Tribune columnists] Paul Rolly and Joann Jacobsen-Wells ... . In recent columns, Rolly and Wells have referred to the Private Eye Weekly as a 'tabloid' paper. For those unaware of newspaper-speak, this would be the journalistic equivalent of the playground taunt 'yo momma.' It was also suggested that the 'writers' at the Private Eye Weekly might 'get real jobs.'" (Jan. 11, 1996)
Biele: "In 1996, the pollsters have not only shaped the character of the campaign, but they've influenced who's campaigning as well. Politics in Utah is focusing less on a candidate's message than on his or her profile. To the voter, it's a little like a computer dating service." (March 28, 1996)
In the schools
"I'd hoped all along that this would be quiet and anonymous," said Kelli Peterson in Ben Fulton's cover story for Feb. 15, 1996. "Then somebody had to go ask [Utah Eagle Forum's] Gayle Ruzicka what she thinks. I thought to myself, 'Oh God, why now?"
Peterson—founder of East High School's Gay-Straight Alliance—had been launched into a media frenzy when Ruzicka's legal threats and the proceedings of an illegal closed-door meeting at the State Capitol were shown to public view. During that meeting—at which Utah Democrats were silent—Republican senators Howard Stephenson, Charles Stewart and Leonard Blackham summoned state education officials to castigate them for supposedly "promoting" homosexuality in schools.
"Flush with concern," Fulton wrote, "Stephenson displayed the children's book 'Heather Has Two Mommies.' Stewart treated those in attendance to the anti-gay film Gay Rights/Special Rights, but apparently not until toying with the idea that all non-curricular high school clubs be sacrificed in order to stop groups like East High's Gay-Straight Alliance dead in their tracks." This all-out club ban was indeed the tack undertaken by the Salt Lake City School District to avoid violating the federal Equal Access Act.
Peterson and her friends received support from groups like the ACLU and the state's LGBTQ community, but the experience remained nerve-wracking and stressful. "I formed this organization to end the misery and isolation of being gay in high school," she said at a Capitol rally. "We're going to be 18 pretty soon and voting, so don't think we're going to forget what you [lawmakers] did to us."
Fulton reported that Peterson's home was barraged by crank calls, and she took to wearing a whistle and carrying pepper spray. And yet, through it all, she retained her sense of humor as well as a conviction that her opponents have just as much a right to protest as she does.
"I'm tired of this idea that I need help. Help with what?" she asked. "I'm not the one with the problem. My problem is not being gay, it's how I'm treated."
After a years-long legal battle, a landmark 1999 court ruling declared that banning all non-curricular school clubs did in fact violate the Equal Access Act. The following year, the Salt Lake City School Board reinstated the clubs.
