The winners and the losers

• Loser: Constituents of former Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, can decide for themselves if it was presumptuous for the 11-term congressman to ask the Farmington City Council if he could have a larger-than-normal headstone in the city cemetery. But for Hansen to blame the news media for the flap is silly. As a former member of Congress and the Utah Legislature, Hansen remains a public figure. It's one thing for a family member or friend to make such a request on behalf of the congressman, yet quite another for Hansen to request it on his own behalf.

• Winner: Two Utahns survived unusual and brutal accidents this past week. The first involved a 36-year-old woman whose face was pierced by an 8-foot-long steel pipe that crashed through her windshield while she was driving along I-15 near Kaysville. The pipe, which had been lying in the road, became airborne after another vehicle ran over it. It struck the woman in the face and exited through her neck, missing her spinal cord. She is expected to make a full recovery. The second incident involved an 87-year-old Vernal rancher who was charged by two cows, resulting in internal injuries and broken bones. The rancher was flown by medical helicopter to a Salt Lake hospital. Family members have declined to release an update of the man's condition.