SALT LAKE CITY?Federal courts in Salt Lake City may curtail operations during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

U.S. District Court clerk Markus Zimmer said the tentative plan is for the courts to be open four hours per day Feb. 7-25.

One federal magistrate and one federal judge will be available to handle cases. “The judges do not plan at this time to schedule any normal proceedings” during the Olympics, Zimmer said. “But both a magistrate judge and a district judge will be available for anything that comes up.”

State courts throughout Utah will stay open, but administrators are urging judges to keep business to a minimum.