ROLLY AND WELLS: MEXICAN TOOK DEAL TO GO HOME TO MOM

Since we wrote Nov. 26 of Breton Baranda, the Mexican national whose $2,400
was confiscated by Salt Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Darin Carr because it
smelled like marijuana, we apparently left some readers confused.

We noted that Baranda did not get a receipt and was told nothing about his
money until attorney Joseph Jardine filed a complaint against Carr with the
sheriff's Internal Affairs Division several weeks later. The office finally
filed a motion in federal court to officially confiscate the money, even
though Baranda was never charged with a crime.

We noted Baranda returned to Mexico and agreed to split the money with the
Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office. Readers wondered: If he was
innocent, why didn't he stay and fight for all the money?

Baranda's mother was on her deathbed in Mexico. He agreed to the deal so he
could afford the trip while she was still alive.

Mixed Messages

After the Salt Lake Organizing Committee recruited families in Heber Valley
to play host to relatives of Olympic athletes, a SLOC trainer unwittingly
scared 15 volunteer families away by telling them they needed supplemental
insurance.

Gary Lloyd, an LDS Church liaison between SLOC and the volunteer program,
called the SLOC trainer later and learned she had been overzealous in her
remarks. Homeowners insurance is adequate. But the damage was done.

Lloyd, who says various church denominations supplied 95 percent of the
volunteers, has 70 volunteer families, but needs 50 more before Friday's
deadline.

Everybody's Nervous

When employees at the Utah Office of Education in Salt Lake City noticed
white powder in the women's restroom recently, the building supervisor
panicked. He called the Salt Lake City police and fire departments and the
Salt Lake County Health Department. Thinking it might be anthrax, emergency
workers showed up in hazmat suits and blocked off half the building.

It turned out to be Ajax the janitor forgot to sweep up the night before.

Looks Are Deceiving

Recently, when Hinckley residents Don and Cherie Morris of Great Basin
Tours took a group from Millard County to Branson, Mo., Don stood at the
front of the bus after dinner on a Saturday night and asked who wanted to
attend church services the next day. Some, in jest, raised both hands in
the air.

Later, Branson police officers pulled the bus over. A driver in a car
behind the lighted bus saw all the hands up and thought passengers were
being robbed.