The way selfinterestcanmake the governmentturntricks neverceases to amazeme.In JeremyBeckham’s case,U administratorshave debated,stalled,ignored andfought against him, as theyhave withheld informationabout the hundreds of monkeysliving in the Animal ResearchCenter on campus. Andnow, their most recent trick:pushing a bill through Legislaturethat could make it impossiblefor Beckham to ever findout if the animals are sufferingas much as he fears.The bill’s sponsor, Sen.Gregory Bell, R-Fruit Heights,said the bill was introduced inorder to protect tra de secretsof companies wanting the U todo research for them. Accordingto Bell, U researchers hadalready lost two contracts dueto fear of disclosure, and theydidn’t want to lose any more.Last year, when I wrote newsfor The Chronicle, I coveredstories about Beckham, founderof the Utah Primate FreedomProject, and his struggleto get information about themonkeys by way of records requestsand legal proceedings.This lone college freshmantackled the U’s high-poweredattorneys head-on. He evensucceeded in getting some ofhis requests met. Then cameSenate Bill 179.The timing was interesting.Even though Jeremy and othersin his organizationhadbeen requestinginformationfor morethan a year, Uadministratorscontacted Belljust days beforethe 2005 legislativesessionto ask if he’dsponsor the billthat would make the majorityof the animal research recordsconfidential. On such a shortnotice, I wonder how many, ifany, of the legislators had timeto actually read the bill andconsider its implications.Bell said he worked with otherorganizations that opposedthe bill, such as the Utah PressAssociation, to address theirconcerns. Beckham’s conflictwith the bill, however, was leftunresolved.After being asked if Beckhamwould ever get his handson the records about the animals,Bell said he didn’t actuallyknow what kind of implicationsthe bill would haveon Beckham’s requests, eventhough Beckham had writtenletters to the senator explaininghis opposition. And we allthink those letters we writeto our government officialsshould hold some weight,right?Which leads into my finalpoint: If senators like Bell areprimarily interested in turningtricks for the more powerfulentities in Utah, where doesthat leave the individual constituentswho arguably have asmuch, if not more, at [email protected]