Winner: It's hard to overstate the importance of an agreement that will be signed soon among a half-dozen agencies concerned with Utah's Nine Mile Canyon. It will allow companies to drill for gas in the area while protecting the ancient rock art and other valuable features of the canyon. The state historic preservation officer said this shows that issues do not have to be polarizing. Compromises can be found among people willing to talk. In addition to the six agencies, nine more are named as concurring signatories, meaning they can monitor progress although not necessarily supporters of the agreement. If this works, it could become a template for other conflicts in Utah between extraction efforts and environmental preservation.
Loser: A recent legislative audit found that recent efforts to save money at the Department of Workforce Services has instead added to the department's ongoing deficit. While department officials say their efforts haven't had time to work yet, the audit recommends several improvements that could save money. One of these is to move quickly to a one-stop-shop so that people who need unemployment or other benefits can deal with one person, rather than several spread out over different locations. Admittedly, Workforce Services has a difficult task during an economic downturn. We can all hope that a robust recovery in 2010 reduces the department's load.
Winner: Just when you thought the world was going to heck in a shopping cart, along comes word that two Safeway stores in Roseville, Calif., were either left unlocked or had their doors pried open on Christmas, but that no one stole anything. Police speculate that shoppers, who expect the stores to be open 24 hours, may have pried open doors thinking they were broken. Once inside, however, some people took items and simply left money at the cash register before calling police to say no one was running the store. News reports said Safeway officials reported nothing stolen.