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My Page: John Yewell

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Spare the Rod, Spoil the State

Once again Utah takes a bow on the national stage, as The New York Times today takes on the state for its opposition to the No Child Left Behind Act. Here’s an extended quote: "Utah wants to dump the law's accountability system in favor of the state's own system, which is one of the weakest in the country. The Utah system as a whole does not collect student data based on race and ethnicity, something that is required by federal law and is crucial for determining whether state schools are closing the achievement gap. This is especially troubling because Utah's Hispanic fourth graders rank near the bottom among such students nationwide. The white-Hispanic gap in Utah is among the widest in the nation - a grim disparity, given that the state's white fourth graders also lag behind the national average in reading. If any state needs federal prodding to achieve better results, Utah does."

The Gentleman from Utah

Sen. Orrin Hatch is quoted in today’s Tribune saying that he really likes the idea of the producers of nuclear waste storing at in their own backyards, but he also is not willing to drop his support for a permanent waste storage site at Yucca Mountain. He should make up his mind. [more]

New West Grid

The governors of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California yesterday announced the formation of partnership to promote the construction of the "Frontier Line," an electrical transmission system to move power from the coal and wind generators of Wyoming to energy-hungry California. Although the new grid system will transit Nevada and Utah, those states will also have "on-ramps" and "off-ramps" to the system so that they may pull power from it and contribute power to it. The partnership will serve as an information conduit for attracting private investment to the project, which could cost up to $5 billion. The announcement was made at a conference in San Diego sponsored by the "Center for the New West," a conservative Denver think tank not affiliated with New West magazine.

Garments in A Bunch

The Crazy Goat, a fairly tame strip club in downtown Salt Lake that is just a little too close for comfort to the LDS Temple, has won the first round in a lawsuit brought by the church. Stay tuned.

ET in Utah?

How can you not just LOVE speculation like this? The Army wants to expand the Dugway Proving Ground, in the western desert of Utah, because, some believe, it is hiding UFOs there and wants to keep prying eyes at a distance. The Army don’t got to show no stinking badges, and they don’t got to answer FOIA requests to that might explain what they’re up to. So the rumor mill spins wildly. New West is throwing down the gauntlet to bloggers. Anybody want to get us the scoop here?

Rob Bishop, Environmentalist?

Utah Republican Congressman Rob Bishop, not known as a friend of the environment, has found religion -- but in this church, it’s a marriage of convenience. Environmentalists and lawmakers may have found a way to stop the Skull Valley band of Goshute Inidans from leasing a portion of their reservation for the storage of nuclear waste. Bishop has introduced legislation that would create the Cedar Mountain Wilderness area. The undisguised purpose of the legislation is to give the federal government rule-making power over land use. This could then be used to block construction of a rail spur necessary for transporting the waste to the reservation site. We applaud the result and abhor the cynical manipulation of environmental law.

Implications for Utah

As Western Governors meet in Denver to discuss the Indian gambling industry, the question is posed in Utah: If Indian gambling were allowed here, would we be fighting the Goshutes over the storage of nuclear waste at Skull Valley? Maybe the state of Utah should offer them a deal. Watch the casino operators in Wendover go nuts over that idea. [more]

Even As New Testing Is Planned

A copyrighted story in today’s Deseret Morning News is reporting that the Centers for Disease Control has discontinued funding for a study on thyroid disorders among residents of southern Utah during a period of intense fallout from nuclear weapons testing in Nevada decades ago. The astonishing decision seems to betray a complete lack of appreciation of the renewed sensitivity to nuclear issues in the Intermountain West. [more]

If Michael Schiavo Lived Here

Charley Foster, a local attorney with his own blog site, says that if Michael Schiavo, the husband of Terri Schiavo, were living in Utah, he could be prosecuted under the state’s anti-bigamy law. Michael Schiavo is still married to Terri, but he has been living with another woman for 10 years and has two children by her. Here’s the quote from the Utah law: "A person is guilty of bigamy when, knowing he has a husband or wife or knowing the other person has a husband or wife, the person purports to marry another person or cohabits with another person." According to Foster, the corresponding Florida law does not put him in jeopardy, although that state’s "'Living in Open Adultery" law does. Given the high profile of the case, it’s curious that the state, which has openly sided with Terri Schiavo’s parents in trying to keep her alive, has not gone after her husband Michael on a morals rap. Even more amazing that Utah, of all places, has the tougher bigamy law. Go figure....

Turning R Into PG

The Deseret Morning News reports today that legislation creating an exception in copyright law to allow consumers to individually tailor videos for home viewing is moving forward in Congress. The proposal is championed by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, because a Salt Lake City company, ClearPlay, is a leader in developing auto-censor technology for home use. The bill has attracted bi-partisan support because it also makes illegal the use of small video cameras to record first-run movies in theaters that are then bootlegged. The film industry is unhappy over the bill, which was prompted after ClearPlay and others were threatened with lawsuits over copyrights.

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