| Obesity-surgery bill is pulled for lack of support
The 23-year-old Midvale woman, who now weighs 150 pounds, implored legislators Wednesday to pass a bill requiring insurance companies to cover the surgery for morbidly obese Utahns. Before her operation, she endured sleep apnea, acid reflux, a diseased gall bladder and joint pain.
"Without this tool, I would not be alive today," she said.
But people rallying for the legislation will have to wait until next year.
Sensing the bill would fail to garner enough support, Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, asked a House committee to send his bill back for study this summer. The panel agreed.
Salt Lake City surgeon Steven Simper said the gastric bypass procedures cost less than treating heart attacks, strokes and other health problems related to obesity.
B-Sides: Deployed Hoosiers do whatever it takes to watch football
Mitch Hunt, a fellow product of Prairieton Elementary School, was mentioned along with several other Wabash Valley folks serving in Iraq with Task Force Indy 38th DISCOM, an Indianapolis-based unit of the Indiana Army National Guard. That unit of 130-plus Indiana Guard men and women supplies life support services to more than 50,000 multinational soldiers, U.S. Department of Defense civilians and contractors around Baghdad International Airport.The release then explained how the soldiers have tried to follow the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl through the Armed Forces Network television broadcasts. Soldiers wanting to see the playoff games live had to stay up all night, thanks to the eight-hour time difference between Iraq and the U.S. Eastern time zone.The line in the press release that caught my eye, though, explained that many of the Task Force Indy soldiers — Indianapolis Colts fans — "slept through the NFC [Championship] game and set their alarms for 2:30 a.m.
No malfunction as Prince rocks halftime
Phew! CBS got through the halftime show without a "wardrobe malfunction." The Artist Formerly Known as a Munchkin of Wardrobe Dysfunction began by singing "Let's Go Crazy," but he didn't. Prince, who became a Jehovah's Witness in the mid-1990s, no longer wears yellow, butt-baring pants as he did at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards (prompting Howard Stern's send-up at the '92 VMAs). The closest thing to a fashion statement Sunday night was an odd kerchief on his head. So the NFL had no repeat of the 2004 Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake show, which happened the last time CBS broadcast the game. The 48-year-old Prince, who rose to stardom in the '80s with his distinctive fusion of R&B, funk, soul and rock, once looked androgynous and produced songs that (lest we forget) drove Tipper Gore nuts (and made her a fat target for anti-censorship types like Frank Zappa).
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