I have had the opportunity to sit through many court hearings and am amazed at the number of civil right violations that take place. I have watched evidence in trials that should have been suppressed, due to illegal police investigations, allowed in trials that have ultimately convicted a person.
Does the article about immigrant LDS members against Romney In Alberqueque, New Mexico, really rate the front page in Ogden Utah? (Feb. 21, "LDS Latinos: Keep Mitt out"). Plus the negative blogs by Charles Trentelman, Feb. 7, "Mitt: Put up your sons or shut up," and Jan. 25, "Poor dumb Mitt." Enough is enough!
Rick Santorum was the longest of long shots when, five years after losing his bid for reelection to the Senate by 18 points, he spent much of 2011 campaigning for president in three early-primary states. But he campaigned longer and harder -- albeit with less media attention, money, and staff -- than any other Republican candidate. By the time Santorum barely won Iowa (as we belatedly learned), he had held nearly 400 town-hall meetings.
The rise of Santorum can be attributed to several key factors:
We are amenable to changes in Utah's electoral college that would assign presidential electors based on the percentage of votes a candidate garnered. However, a legislative proposal from state Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, that pledges Utah's six electoral votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote is a bad idea.
An "all or nothing" strategy, that Stephenson and his supporters envision, disrespects the voters of Utah, or any other state that disagrees with a national tally. Stephenson's Senate Bill 63 would join a group of states that pledge their electoral votes to the national winner. The group's goal is to gather 270 electoral votes over time, thus assuring the top national vote-getter becomes U.S. president regardless of the electoral tally.
However, SB63 ignores the need to amend the Constitution to pick a president via electoral votes. If Stephenson is planning to completely destroy the impact of the electoral vote -- used for more than 200 years -- it needs to be done in a constitutional manner.
After Christmas, I took my dog Cassie for a walk in the marshes outside Logan on land open to public use. Just ahead, my dog started to jump and try to get away from something. I found her in a snare set by a trapper (a loop of wire that tightens around the neck of an animal as it struggles to free itself).
Normally an animal chokes to death, but in this case my dog died instantly from a broken neck. Needless to say, I cried uncontrollably. At least nine snares were set around some bait, all within 200-300 yards of the parking lot. There were no warnings that these deadly devices were in the area.
The petro piranhas and speculators have won again. When closing and mothballing domestic refineries didn't stop the downward trend of gasoline prices, the petro giants went international with their stories and rumors of gloom and doom, blocking shipping lanes, cutting off supplies to various customers etc., all with rousing success. Of course all these propaganda stories and hype were perpetuated and embellished by the news media until the American public considers itself lucky to be able to buy gas at any cost.
I am writing this letter because I am upset and concerned about the way our tax dollars and resources are being used at Heritage Elementary School in Layton. This year the school has started a Chinese immersion program in kindergarten and I have heard many mixed reviews about this program; yet it seems it is going to continue, and at what expense?
I must credit the outdoor billboard advertising industry for recognizing a bargain when they see one. For a mere $2,000 donation to Senator Neiderhauser (R-Sandy) they are receiving his sponsorship of SB 136, which is currently moving through the Senate. This bill essentially allows billboard companies to convert standard billboards to the enormous "TV-like" displays that are sprouting up in our pretty, great state. Wait, there's no connection between the industry donation and the good senator's support for SB 136. My mistake.
It's hard to fathom why the Republicans would want to launch a sustained assault on birth control, align themselves with the most conservative voices in the Catholic Church, and thereby risk alienating women voters in November. But, hey, if that's how they want to play it, Barack Obama is only too happy to reap the benefits.
I couldn't help being curious about the contents of the Feb. 19 article, "Greed a lot like sex?" However, I was disappointed with the explication of greed (I think the paper got the sex part right). Greed can be good or bad? Really? My dictionary defines greed as, "Inordinate or insatiate longing, especially for wealth; avaricious or covetous desire." I don't know about you, but I don't consider anything good that is "inordinate" or "insatiate" or "avaricious" or "covetous." Anything!
Maybe there is something I don't understand but since the 2008 election, I've been wondering why the uprising of "fiscal discipline" when the bottom of the economy was dropping at a fast rate. How scary if it's only about politics! I think conservative Republican journalist and former economic speech writer for President Bush, David Frum, explains my question better than I can.
He wrote, "The bottom of a bad recession is a bad time to worry about deficits. The recession makes the deficit problem look bigger than it really is.
Worse, the actions a government might take to reduce its deficit--cutting spending, raising taxes--can prolong the recession. In which case, premature deficit-cutting can make worse the very deficits the deficit-cutters are trying to shrink.
This morning, Feb. 20, I was reading the Standard-Examiner's front page, "Billboards: City or private control?" If our state government only has to deal with getting into our cities' and communities' business, do we really need them to be getting paid with our taxes?
Last week when Scott Jenkins stated that the National Guard did not need any more benefits I was amazed! (Feb. 16, "Plain City legislator: Deployed soldiers get enough aid"). Does this man have any clue as to what the military has done for this country? If the military was not there and ready for the call of duty, this great country would not be the country it is today. He must not have someone in the military who is close to him, or he is putting on blinders!
I went to get my drivers license renewed today and was told I needed a legal status document. I am clearly not a Mexican, but I was born there. I explained to the rude lady at the front desk that my parents are both citizens of the U.S. and were down there on business when I was born. She had no empathy or concern for my situation at all. Just unemotionally stated again that I needed to get legal status documentation. I asked her how I would do that, and she simply said "I don't know, how do you do that?" I left in a fit of rage. I had never had a problem in my 31 years (correction 29 years) living in the U.S.
On July 23, 2011 my 17-year-old daughter was the victim of a serious criminal act and I had been called by her to the scene. When I got there, I went to go up the stairs to where she was. I noticed yellow police tape that said not to cross but it was on the ground, so I started up the stairs. When I got to the top, a Weber County officer stopped me and asked me what the (expletive) I was doing.
It seems that State Senator Scott Jenkins thinks that we pay too much already for the military reservists and National Guard members who get deployed to overseas, frequently to combat locations (Feb. 16, "Plain City legislator: Deployed soldiers get enough aid"). His take that we already pay them enough, buy their meals, buy their clothes, etc., seems rather ridiculous and his true colors are now coming out for his constituents and the rest of the state population. He doesn't seem to have a problem accepting, for his work at the public owned and very safe state capitol building as part of the Utah Senate, the $117 per day in compensation, plus the $61 per day he receives for meals and incidentals, plus the $95 per day he receives for lodging, plus the $0.51 per mile for mileage to and from the state capitol building He receives this money, even though he most likely does not stay in a hotel in Salt Lake City during the legislative session and may even allow lobbyists to pay for some or all of his meals. Plus he is allowed certain amounts in gifts and gratuities from lobbyists. Plus, he may be entitled to state funded health insurance (the state pays for 95 percent of his insurance premium).
Wake up everybody! How much is too much government interference? Do we want the government telling us what to feed our children? Does the government have a right to tell religions and insurance companies they have to cover contraception? I think not. The government is beholden to the people, not the other way round. We were born with a brain, so we can think for ourselves. We may not always make the right choices in our lives, but we have that right.
I would like to applaud Mayor Steve Hiatt and the city council members concerning the announcement of the new "government transparency" tagline on the Kaysville city Web site, as reported in the newspaper, as well as the live video feed of the city council meetings over the Internet (Feb. 18, "Kaysville honored for public access of info"). It is not often that we see a government entity respond so well to the ideas proposed by the platform of opposing candidates during a recent election in Kaysville last November.
The Utah Legislature is mulling over House Bill 140, which would prohibit law enforcement from setting up DUI checkpoints across the state. Pressure from law enforcement agencies and interest groups may stifle that effort, but it's the correct move.
There's no evidence that law enforcement officers, stopping drivers without cause for random checks, saves lives. According to the National Transportation Safety Administration, there's no change in alcohol-related traffic deaths between states that have the checkpoints and states that do not. A far better -- and more constitutionally correct -- solution is to have law enforcement officers conduct more saturation patrols, which involves a heavy police presence on roads with officers specifically searching for drivers using a vehicle under the influence. According to Rep. David Butterfield, R-Logan, who shepherded HB140 through the Utah House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee, saturation patrols are effective deterrences against drunken driving.
One of the hallmarks of the free enterprise system is failure.
Less than half of the businesses that are started in the United States will be operating four years later; the majority will have failed.
Records for the performance of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index over a 50-year period indicate that, on a given day, the stock market has a 53 percent chance of being up and a 47 percent chance of being down.
Quick: What are those oblong yellow pills you take? What dosage? Are your children's shots up to date?
In an emergency, few of us could rattle off this vital information. But Utahns have access to a powerful tool that can help health professionals anywhere in the state to save their life, improve their health care and potentially reduce medical spending.
It's easy to use - all we have to do is sign up. The rest is automatic.
