UTAH’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1871 DEC. 19, 2010010 « SUNSUNDAYDAY » SLTRIB.COM New Mexico Bowl • Cougs roar > S11 UTES NEXT BYU WINS Las Vegas Bowl • Special section > C1 ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ repealed Senate • Vote ends ban on gay military members forced thousandS of AmericanS from the military and caused The U.S. Senate on Saturday: serving openly; Dream Act fails to make it to floor. others to keep secret their sex- ual orientation. Struck down the ban on openly gay men and By CARL HULSE military and also blocked the By a vote of 65-31, with eight lesbians from serving in the military. Utahns’ re- and JULIA PRESTON Dream Act, which would have RepublicanS joining Democrats, actions > A16 The New York Times granted legal status to hundredS the Senate approved and sent Blocked efforts to pass the Dream Act, which of thousandS of undocumented to President Barack Obama a would grant legal status to undocumented im- Washington • The Senate immigrant students. repeal of the Clinton-era law migrant students. Utahns’ reactions > A16 on Saturday struck down the The vote on gay service mem- known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Sen. Bob Sen. Orrin Pentagon ban on gay men and bers brings to a close a 17-year- a policy criticS said amounted to Bennett • Hatch • R-Utah Beat back a Republican effort to block approval lesbians serving openly in the old struggle over a policy that Please see SENATE, A16 R-Utah of a new arms control treaty with Russia. > A3 Heavy snow halts travel across Europe World • Blizzards ’ and freezing tem- A.J. S MISSION peratures shut down runways, Survivor of 2007’s Trolley Square shooting rampage finds his calling in the hearts of Ugandan children. train tracks and highways across Eu- rope on Saturday, disrupting flights and leaving shiver- ing drivers strand- ed on roadsides. Airports in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, the Nether- lands and Denmark reported cancella- tions or delays of flights. > A14 The Associated Press U.S. ‘very ready’ to counter Iran JEREMIAH STETTLER | The Salt Lake Tribune A.J. Walker won the hearts of dozens of schoolchildren in the remote village of Namatu. There, the Trolley Square survivor found an unusual connection to Ugandan nukes youngsters who crowded around him, chased after him and joined him in finger games punctuated by words such as “peace,” “snap” and “pound it.” World • In a meet- ing with Bahrain’s king, Adm. Mike By JEREMIAH STETTLER hardly piece together sentenc- of whom live in thatched-roof Mullen, chairman of The Salt Lake Tribune es after being shot in the head huts — previously had only The Trolley Square the Joint Chiefs of during 2007’s Trolley Square two English titles. shootings revisited Staff, sought to re- Kampala, rampage, helped erect swings The young man, who lost assure Persian Gulf Uganda • Not at Ugandan schoolS that had some vision in hiS right eye, Sulejman Talovic opened fire in nations by saying long ago, A.J. nothing more than bicycle-rim gave sight to Ugandan young- the Trolley Square shopping mall the United States Walker waS the basketball hoopS and dried- sterS by installing solar panels in February 2007. Within min- is “very ready” to victim. leaf soccer balls. that provided their school with utes, five shoppers were dead counter Iran should But beneath the tropical The young man, who had to itS first-ever light bulbS so they and four others wounded. Police it try to build a nu- canopy of thiS African na- relearn how to read after the could study at night. killed the 18-year-old gunman, clear bomb and in- tion, where breathtaking nat- shooting spree, which also “ThiS is the stuff I want to but not before he killed Kirsten timidate its neigh- ural beauty collideS with Third killed hiS father, handed out be doing,” said 20-year-old Tribune file photo Hinckley, 15; Vanessa Quinn, 29; bors. > A4 World squalor, that changed. storybooks at a remote school A.J., pausing near the village A.J. Walker was shot in the Teresa Ellis, 29; Brad Frantz, 24; A.J. became the rescuer. along the shores of Lake Vic- of Namatu, where teachers head during the rampage and A.J. Walker’s dad, Jeffrey The young man, who could toria, where children — many Please see UGANDA, A6 at Trolley Square. Walker, 52. [ Deadly POLITICS • UTAH LEGISLATURE weekend HI across state 45 Utah immigration bill alleged 32 SUGAR HOUSE• Police are LO looking into the discovery of Today • Rain a woman’S body in a park. > B4 to have ties to extremist groups with p.m. snow. VEHICLE DEATHS • There were > B12 five fatal motor vehicle deaths acroSS the state. > B3, B5, B7 But Sandstrom insists a red flag for those who see the Sandstrom met with the [Classified Ads W1 SALT LAKE CITY • A card game measure as racist. law institute’S general counsel, his bill is free of racist Puzzles H2 erupted in gunfire Saturday The Immigration Reform Law Michael Hethmon, on at least Editorials O1 and one man died. > B6 intent or provisions. Institute is the legal arm of the two occasionS in the spring, but Lottery A2 Federation for American Immi- the Orem Republican said he Money E1 By DAVID MONTERO gration Reform — commonly re- had never heard of Tanton, nev- Movies D10 The Salt Lake Tribune ferred to as FAIR. er heard anything racist coming Obituaries B8 FAIR waS listed as a hate from Hethmon in their conver- Sports S1 The legal affiliate of a des- group by the Southern Poverty sationS and said he knew noth- Television D6 hent ignated “hate group” provid- Law Center three yearS ago on ing of the hate-group designa- Rep. Stephen W heg gets VOL. 281 | NO. 65 oing help. tough,thetoughget ed assistance for Rep. Stephen the strength of writings, quotes tion slapped on FAIR. Sandstrom • Sandstrom’S enforcement-only and correspondence made by “I have to look at my own per- R-Orem H4 Arizona-style immigration bill FAIR’s founder and board mem- sonal motivations, and I think — a partnership that haS raised ber, John Tanton. Please see BILL, A17 A6 > UTAH ≥ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010 THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE UGANDA • A DAY-BY-DAY IMMERSION A journal by Jeremiah Stettler Toting an unusually Mabel. More books clogged Minutes before changed hellos, tied down Traffic was almost the SEEE Institute previous- DAY heavy backpack, I my carry-on and the backpack DAY midnight, my flight our suitcases and began the DAY cartoonish in Kam- ly had installed solar-powered stepped aboard an beneath my seat. landed under a hourlong drive to the capital pala. Honking. lights. 1 airplane that would The books — given to me 2 starless sky in En- of Kampala, where we would 3 Weaving. Lurching. Sitting on mats and wood- take me halfway around the by a humanitarian group tebbe. Unlike Salt Lake City, spend the night. All to get through a city of 1.2 en benches outside a mud- globe to an African nation I known as the SEEE Institute the Ugandan air was sticky Beneath a mosquito net, million people where motor- brick building, a handful of knew only by name. — were meant for children in hot as I descended the rolla- sleep came near 3 a.m. In the cycles, taxi vans and delivery women urged the SEEE In- Somewhere in the cargo some of Uganda’s most im- way stairs onto the tarmac. corner of the room, a fan clat- trucks appeared unrestricted stitute to help them acquire hold of my American Airlines poverished regions. A white van with a safa- tered, failing to alleviate the by traffic rules. a small-business loan to buy flight was my suitcase, stuffed ri top was waiting with the heat. At last, we escaped Ugan- chickens and, perhaps, sewing with children’s books that told SEEE Institute volunteers I da’s capital and headed east machines. SEEE’s founder, Bill of Dalmatians, parades, sled- would be accompanying for to a tiny school known as the Grenney, told them to prepare ding hills and a whale named the next two weeks. We ex- Hope Children’s Center, where a business plan. Trolley Square survivor A.J. Walker forged an uncommon connection with Uganda’s children, tossing Frisbees, teach- ing songs and playing finger games at remote schools where bicycle-rim basketball hoops and dried-leaf soccer balls provided the only recreation. count (six dead, including the from neighboring nations. excursion served as the “mis- The Salt Lake Tribune that he paved; where typhoid fever Uganda gunman, and four wounded) “As a victim of violent crime, sion” he might never get to fill wanted to travel to Africa to and dysentery rage because of ≥ Continued from A1 — multiply it by the thousands I can kind of relate to them,” for The Church of Jesus Christ do humanitarian work — per- contaminated drinking water; and you get Uganda. said A.J., who returned home of Latter-day Saints. But his haps to build an orphanage. where mass murder, rape and offered Christian and Muslim It’s a lush land that sees Thursday night. “It is just sad journey also proved to be a It was late when Peters read kidnapping remain not-so-dis- prayers to thank God for the thousands die every year from to hear what they have had to coming-of-age experience and a those words. But they stuck tant memories of war. new swings. “After you help malaria, dysentery, tubercu- go through, on top of every- nagging reminder of the health with him.