There won’t be any hot tubs in the Olympic Village during the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games. An IOC panel of athletes rejected organizers’ plans for the hot tubs because it could encourage late-night parties. IOC member Bob Ctvrtlik, a member of the athletes’ commission, called it a distraction. “There are some athletes who are finished earlier than other athletes”. Last summer’s Sydney Games drew complaints about loud parties in the athletes’ village. “You know, whatever is going to go on between men and women, or whoever, is going to go on. That’s not what we’re saying”, said Ctvrtlik. He said the Salt Lake tubs would have been set up too close to dorm rooms.
Salt Lake City leaders are urging landlords to treat tenants fairly during the Salt Lake Games. A resolution says that landlords should not raise rents before and during the Games, should not evict tenants in the months leading up to the Olympics and should allow renters to renew long-term leases expiring this year and next. Crossroads Urban Center Director Glenn Bailey has heard of landlords refusing to renew leases for February and March, 2002, the time of the Games. Others have raised rents leading up to the Games. But renters are afraid to talk openly for fear they will be evicted, said Bailey. Although he knows the resolution cannot be enforced, Bailey says it puts pressure on Olympic organizers and property owners to do the right thing. City leaders encouraged the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to endorse a similar resolution. Copies of the resolution will be sent to the Salt Lake Apartment Association, the Northern Utah Apartment Association and the SLOC.
A court has rejected a request by archaelogical and nature groups to suspend construction of an Olympic rowing centre near the ancient battleground of Marathon, for the 2004 Athens Summer Games. Greece’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled it was in the “public interest” to build the site at Schinias, about 25 miles north of Athens. It refused claims by Athens’ Archaeological Society and three environmental groups that the venue would damage wetland wildlife and the site of the 490 B.C. Battle of Marathon against Persian invaders. A separate request to stop the rowing site will be considered by the Council of State on Nov. 2.
Federal prosecutors in the Salt Lake City bribery case have served notice they may appeal U.S. District Judge David Sam’s dismissal of the most serous charges in the case. The notice preserves the government’s right to file an appeal seeking to reinstate four travel-in-aid-of-racketeering charges, but doesn’t say whether prosecutors will try. In a previous filing, Justice Department trial attorneys Richard Wiedis and John Scott said they might be satisfied trying the Salt Lake bid leaders on the remaining charges of fraud and conspiracy if Sam does no further damage to the case. Meanwhile, any federal trial is certain to be delayed until after the Feb. 8-24 Winter Games. And since Appeals court generally sets aside two months for argument-by-briefs and several more months for a hearing and decision, the case could now be delayed several more months.
And finally, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, said he may have talked to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft about the Salt Lake bribery case, but he doesn’t remember. But Hatch said he definitely was not trying to interfere with an ongoing prosecution. He also said that he has not discussed the case with U.S. Judge David Sam, who is in charge of the case. Hatch has said that Welch and Johnson should not have been indicted. “It (the gift-giving) wasn’t right. It shouldn’t have happened. I certainly don’t believe it was criminal conduct”.
