Shadd Dean Hartman, the man who stole the University Hospital's billing records last summer, will spend a year in prison.

The Utah Legislature hailed the Ute football team for bringing pride and glory to the state with its perfect season and BCS-busting Sugar Bowl victory and called for a national playoff system to replace the controversial Bowl Championship Series.

One provision of House Bill 1378212;Driver License Qualification Amendments8212;requires that all driving privilege cards expire on Dec. 31, 2009. This bill will expose the public to extreme and unnecessary safety concerns.

Textbooks, overdue parking tickets and tuition are enough to burn a hole through anyone's wallet. So for a group that complains so much about being poor, college students can't afford to be the spenders that statistics prove they are. As corporations capitalize on our spending habits, we should exercise a little more self-control, cut up a credit card or two, plan meals better and create a weekly budget to limit buying on impulse.

Ross Solomon is right about House Bill 2388212;Exemption of University Housing from Eviction Laws ("Housing eviction bill takes away students' rights," Feb. 5), but this is not a new bill. It was introduced for the first time last year.

Passing a law that would protect people who are gay or transgendered from being fired from their job or kicked out of their house does not equate to marriage. Utah has a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. The Utah courts can never throw out that amendment. They do not have the power. Only the people and the Legislature do.

There's no doubt we have to seriously scale back our budget. But in an area that so significantly affects the quality of life of Utahns, we cannot afford to penny pinch. We certainly can't make everyone happy with our handling of the budget, but we can help save lives by cutting carefully.

At the Hinckley Institute of Politics forum on Friday, Carlson sparred with Phil Duncan, the director of the Marriage Law Foundation and a former visiting law professor at Brigham Young University, about gay marriage and the legal arguments for and against it.

tudents should be optimistic about the future of journalism. There will never be a time when journalists are extinct. Whether newspapers survive in print or transfer completely to the Internet, there will always be demand for those who report the news.

Drug use is stupid because it impairs judgment and damages society. It is unfortunate when high-profile individuals, who for better or worse serve as role models, are caught engaging in stupid behaviors. It's time for a zero-tolerance precedent to be set8212;yes, even for celebrities. Phelps should go sit in the pokey for a while.