The winners and the losers

• Winner: It is only fitting that the governor's board room at the newly refurbished Utah State Capitol be named for the state's only three-term governor, Democrat Gov. Cal Rampton. Although Rampton left public life in 1977, his influence is still felt in state government. His "Little Hoover Commission" developed recommendations that, with legislative approval, reorganized and streamlined state government. He also called for the first statewide bond to improve state college and university buildings, and his administration bolstered the state role in economic development. Rampton, 93, has been in hospice care for inoperative cancer since July and recently, he suffered a stroke.

• Loser: Considering the caring and giving nature of most Utahns, one has to wonder how something like this can happen in one of Salt Lake County's busiest suburbs: A 28-year-old man sat dead in his Lexus for about 10 hours before anyone noticed him at a busy gas station in Sandy this past week. Police were hesitant to scold the public, but as Sandy Police Sgt. Victor Quezada noted, had anyone noticed the man, it would have taken a matter of seconds to summon help.

• Winner: Spare hay, anyone? A northern Utah rancher has issued a challenge to fellow ranchers in Rich and Cache counties to assist livestock producers in central Utah whose range was devastated by the Milford Flat fire. Joe Fuhriman, president of the Cache Cattleman's Association, has pledged one ton of hay to a donation effort. He wants 99 other ranchers to contribute, too, so a total of 100 tons of hay can be delivered to ranchers in Beaver and Millard counties this fall. Some 300 cattle and calves were killed and 90 injured in the fire, which was the state's largest wildfire. Another 1,300 cattle are missing. Although these ranchers may be eligible for federal assistance, credit Fuhriman for his initiative to lend a hand one rancher to another.

• Loser: A Fairbanks, Alaska, father was sentenced to 15 days in jail and ordered to take parenting classes after he had his 11-year-old son attempt to drive him home when he was too drunk to drive himself. The father, Frank Neff, 35, told authorities he had been teaching the boy to drive since he was 8 years old. Turning over the car keys to a child not only endangered the boy but the public, to say nothing of the humiliation the boy likely experienced. Perhaps the only good choice Neff made was not to get behind the wheel of the car himself.