Odds and Ends

LOGAN, Utah - The fight over a woman's desire to run a colon cleansing service out of her home has gotten down and dirty.

Colette Yates says she has invested two years and roughly $40,000 on her home business, which focuses on removing waste from the large intestine by injecting water into the colon, where it loosens and softens waste.

But while colon hydrotherapy is a licensed procedure in other states, it is considered only a homeopathic method in Utah.

The Providence Planning Commission recently recommended denial of Yates' request for a permit. Commissioners said they wanted to avoid setting a precedent of allowing medically oriented businesses in residential neighborhoods.

Yates said last week that commissioners are wary because they're not familiar with the procedure, though she provided them with detailed videos and literature.

But commissioners questioned Yates on how she would safely monitor the water pressure and how she would dispose of waste.

"I haven't heard anything negative about it - and I've been asking - but I think it belongs in a chiropractic office," said Commissioner Kristina Lamborn, who voted to recommend denying the permit. "I feel very strongly about that."

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ALBION, Ind. - Republican Diann Bortner and Democrat Bonnie Summe were once notorious office swappers. Those days have now ended.

Bortner and Summe traded treasurer and clerk jobs in Noble County every eight years to skirt a state law on term limits. But Summe, 73, retired last year after 33½ years in government.

Summe and Bortner, who now takes over as treasurer after eight years as clerk, were elected for years with and without opponents.

Because state law limits treasurers and clerks to eight years of continuous tenure in each elected position, they informally arranged to switch offices every eight years.

From 1981 to 1988, Bortner served as Noble County clerk, Summe served as county treasurer. For the next two terms, Bortner served as treasurer while Summe served as clerk. In 1996, they swapped again.

Although Summe and Bortner aren't really friends and are from different political parties, they said their office-swapping arrangement just sort of worked out.

"It's a compliment that the people think enough of you to re-elect you," Bortner said.

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DENVER - Alex Oshmyansky may be in his second year of medical school, but he still can't buy a drink.

He is 20.

Oshmyansky, who took only a whole year to graduate college, is on his way to becoming a brain surgeon so he can study the mathematical modeling of the brain's pathways. The possibilities include finding ways for paraplegics or quadriplegics to move prosthetic devices using brain waves.

Oshmyansky graduated from high school in 2002 and from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2003. He is in his second year of medical school at Duke University. This fall, he'll pursue a doctorate in mathematical biology at Oxford University as one of 40 Americans awarded a Marshall Scholarship from the British government.

"In terms of sheer intellectual horsepower, Alex Oshmyansky is probably the brightest student I have ever known," CU honors professor Ron Billingsley said.

"But what is so absolutely wonderful about him is that his intelligence is incredibly versatile and that it is directed by a deeply humanistic values system," he said.