No cars allowed: Georgia considers

highway just for trucks

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia transportation officials are exploring the idea of a separate highway for trucks only.

It would be the first highway of its kind in the United States, said John Hibbard, the Georgia Department of Transportation’s operations director.

WABE Radio reports that the toll-free highway would stretch 40 miles (65 kilometers) from metro Atlanta to Macon. It would give trucks their own separate roadway, which would have its own exits and entrances, Hibbard said.

State transportation officials say they expect truck traffic to double by 2040. The truck-only lanes have been proposed as a solution to reducing congestion for drivers of noncommercial vehicles on Georgia interstates.

Gov. Nathan Deal praised the truck-only highway during a recent Georgia Transportation Alliance meeting, calling it “an important part of what our future transportation system should and will look like.”

The project’s estimated cost of $1.8 billion is raising eyebrows, the radio station reported.

Utah billionaire Jon Huntsman

remembered as kind, devoted

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah billionaire and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr. was remembered Saturday inside a basketball arena bearing his name as a generous and kind man devoted to his faith, family and community.

The elder Huntsman was the founder and longtime executive chairman of Huntsman Corp., an $11 billion company that refines raw materials that go into thousands of products. He and his family have given away more than $1.4 billion, including donations to a Salt Lake City cancer institute named for him.

Huntsman died Feb. 2 at age 80.

Peter Huntsman, current president and CEO of Huntsman Corp., said his father always placed family, faith and charity ahead of business.

“His business success was nothing more than a means to an end,” the son said, wiping away tears.

Seven of Huntsman’s children spoke during the service inside the University of Utah arena renamed in his honor 30 years ago. Nearly half of the lower bowl seats of the arena were filled.

“To the end, he remained upbeat and positive — his two favorite character traits,” said son Jon Huntsman Jr., the U.S. ambassador to Russia and formerly a Utah governor, presidential candidate and ambassador to China and Singapore. “He lived a full, bold American life.”

Huntsman Sr. was born in 1937 in Blackfoot, Idaho, and later moved to California, where he met his wife Karen while in junior high school.

The couple later moved to Salt Lake City in the 1970s where they raised nine children, many of whom became involved in the family business. Huntsman is survived by his wife and eight children. One daughter, Kathleen Ann Huntsman, died in 2010 at age 44 after struggling for years with an eating disorder.