The winners and the losers

Winner: Utah Lt. Gov. Greg Bell issued an interim rule this week allowing the use of electronic signatures for initiative or referendum signature gatherers. This change of heart was prompted by a recent Utah Supreme Court ruling. It makes sense, and a permanent rule to this effect should have been instituted long ago. Whether this will be enough to help petitions that are currently circulating remains to be seen. But if state lawmakers do the next logical step and pass a law making this interim move permanent, it should make petition-gathering a little easier in the future.

Winner: Being 130 years old must be a lonely thing. Antisa Khvichava, from the nation of Georgia, lays claim to being born on July 8, 1880. If true, it beats the officially recognized oldest person in the world by 16 years. Unfortunately, Georgia has been through a lot of political upheaval since 1880, including years of Soviet occupation, and so records are a little sketchy. But there is no denying that Khvichava has lived a long time and deserves some recognition for that.

Loser: A city attorney is supposed to defend the law, not thumb his nose at it. And yet a recent police sting near Pioneer Park netted a pretty big fish — D. Michael Nielsen, who is city attorney in North Salt Lake. To make matters worse, Nielsen returned to work after the arrest as if nothing had happened. If not for the prying questions of a KSL reporter, his employers might never have known he was suspected of trying to buy cocaine.

Loser: Not to be outdone by the North Salt Lake city attorney, the second in command in Farmington's police force, Lt. Shane Whitaker, was arrested this week in connection with the solicitation of a prostitute. The good news in all this is that America is still a land in which no one is above the law. The bad news? There is plenty, but mainly this: If all these allegations are true, at least a couple of trusted public servants have tried to make a mockery of those laws.

Loser: If LeBron James had hired someone to deliberately make him look arrogant and self-absorbed, he couldn't have done any better than his prime-time ESPN "announcement" of where he plans to play basketball next season. Jazz fans knew he wasn't coming here. But now they, and the rest of the league, have an extra reason to cheer against the team from Miami.