AIDS advocates
rally in Salt Lake City

About 100 AIDS activists in Salt Lake City on Saturday displayed 8,500 shoes in the city's Library Square, each one representing a person who dies of AIDS each day worldwide, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. "This display is a brilliant, powerful, and sobering symbol" that the global and domestic AIDS pandemics continue to spread, said state senator Scott McCoy, who spoke at the rally. "We cannot let up for one second the fight to end HIV/AIDS."

The activists called on Utah lawmakers to approve $500,000 to provide anti-HIV drugs to an estimated 1,600 HIV patients in Utah and to boost spending for HIV-prevention efforts in the state. The rally was held by local AIDS groups in conjunction with the national Campaign to End AIDS, an organization sponsoring several caravans across the United States that will converge in Washington, D.C., on November 5 for five days of rallies, meetings, and lobbying events with lawmakers and Bush administration officials. (Advocate.com)