Former Utah Congressman Howard Nielson dies

Howard Nielson, described by one associate as “the smartest man on the planet,” had already established himself as a mathematical wizard as a professor at Brigham Young University when he jumped into a successful political career at both the state and federal levels.Nielson, a conservative Republican who was elected in 1982 as the first representative of Utah’s new 3rd Congressional District and served four terms, died Wednesday at the age of 95, his son Jim Nielson wrote in a