Winner: Too bad it would be illegal for Tooele County to cash in on the street value of the pot it found this week. Officials reported finding $9 million worth of marijuana growing on a "farm" in Ophir Canyon. They spotted a man who might have been at least partly responsible for the stuff, but he managed to escape up the mountain. Investigators said this could be part of a drug network that operates in the Western United States — one no doubt intended to make some now-angry person quite rich.
Loser: Beware of diplomats bearing moon rocks. That seems to be the hard-earned lesson the Dutch are giving the world, thanks, unfortunately, to the Americans. Back in 1969 a U.S. ambassador gave a "moon rock" to a former Dutch prime minister as a souvenir of the first moon landing. The Dutch put it in a museum and insured it for approximately $72,000 in today's dollars. Unfortunately, it turns out the matchbox-sized artifact is just a piece of petrified wood — definitely from Earth (no word on whether it came from a gift shop near the Petrified Forest). This may rank as a diplomatic faux pas that is out of this world.
Winner: Say goodbye to "robo-calls" telling you the warranty has expired on your car. A federal judge this week slapped two temporary restraining orders on companies believed responsible for as many as 1 billion such automated, random calls that target even people who don't drive. In addition, the judge froze the assets of the two companies. May their executives spend their lives in jail cells where every meal is interrupted by a mechanical sales pitch.
Loser? Winner? Home prices in Utah dropped by 11.6 percent during the second quarter of the year, ranking the state 46th in terms of home appreciation. We were tempted to make this a loser. If you are selling a house, or if you took out loans against it before the current tumble, you could be upside down and frowning. However, if you are a first-time homebuyer looking for a deal, that frown itself could turn upside down into a smile, and you would feel like a winner. It's all a matter of perspective. And as Utah seems to be lagging the market trends of other states, it may only be a matter of time before prices inch up again.