Fans of a certain nearsighted boy wizard will have a field day picking out the similarities between the "Harry Potter" movies and Disney’s "Sky High," a tale of parental expectations and teen cliquery set in a high school for fledgling superheroes.

For hundreds of years the banks have made a profit by loaning money. Where does the money come from? They are allowed to “leverage” their assets and create money out of thin air with the touch of a keyboard.

Salt Lake City this week became the first city in Utah to pass gay rights legislation. The ordinance, which prohibits discrimation in housing and hiring based on sexual orientation, came after it won the backing of the Mormon Church. Local backers of a more modest first step might derive some lessons from the Salt Lake City story.

For a “Napoleon Dynamite”-derived exercise in geek chic, “Eagle vs. Shark” does all right for itself. Never mind that writer-director Taika Cohen is one “liger” reference short of outright plagiarism. With its lively cast, infectious deadpan humor and decidedly daft vision of romance, this low-budget import from the land of Peter Jackson and kiwi fruit disarmingly franchises the “Dynamite” aesthetic.

The choice of words can be used to frame a point of view and currently supporters and opponents alike generally use the term states' rights as opposed to states' sovereignty.

It was only 15 years ago. Not quite a generation. The federal budget was nearly balanced, jobs were aplenty, homes were appreciating at about 5 percent a year, there were no wars and people were generally happy with their lives. The good times were rolling!

Jon Beydler

July 28, 2004

Not to be outdone by another in the Tribune’s long parade of Mesa teapublicans, I too have created a modified document, as did Bruce Jacobs, called the Declaration of Subjugation.

Over this past July 4th, I was thinking about the founding of this country and the documents that made it great. Some people may not be aware of the Supreme Court’s modifications of the original documents, so, as a public service, here is one of those documents, the Declaration of Dependence:

Chris Tucker hasn’t been on the big screen since 2007’s “Rush Hour 3,” but he has been honing the craft that brought him to Hollywood in the first place: stand-up comedy.

Some boobs are complaining about local weather stations using the term "haboob" to refer to our not-so-infrequent dust storms. Apparently they are objecting to the use of words derived from Arabic. Where such are objecting to the incorporation of Arabic words into English, perhaps a list of a few others would be useful, you know, to help focus their rage!

“I find it laughable that Bill Clinton will co-chair the National Institute on Civility. We are to be guided on proper political decorum by the man who was disbarred by the state of Arkansas for committing perjury. Will civility apply to both sides of the political spectrum? If so, they ought to step up to their first challenge from Wisconsin unions.”

The Arizona tourism industry is suffering its lowest level of activity since 2006, according to an index compiled by the Megapolitan Tourism Research Center at Arizona State University in downtown Phoenix.

LOS ANGELES - Yvonne De Carlo, the beautiful star who played Moses' wife in "The Ten Commandments" but achieved her greatest popularity on TV's slapstick comedy "The Munsters," has died. She was 84.

LOS ANGELES - Howard Stern has settled a lawsuit against the producers of the television series "Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People," which he claimed was based on an idea stolen from his radio show.

To frame the current local discussion over how much of Christmas’ religious aspects should flow into everything from individual holiday greetings to what activities government should fund, it would be easy to say the debate is not over the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth, how large a role Santa Claus has come to play and how much it all means to the fourth-quarter economy.