News Highlights
Gov. Jon Huntsman delivers State of the State
address in Fillmore (Deseret
Morning News, Standard-Examiner,
Daily
Herald, and Salt
Lake Tribune).
Former Gov. Mike Leavitt aces Senate confirmation
hearing for HHS post (Morning
News and Tribune).
Salt Lake City Council tries to patch things up with
Davis County (Tribune).
Utahn Nancy Jane Woodside seeks post on national
Demo committee (Morning
News and Tribune).
Quote of the Day
“In his inaugural and elsewhere, Huntsman pledged that he would
expend whatever political capital he held in the service of Utah.
He didn't mention that Tuesday. He didn't spend any of that capital,
either.”
-- Salt Lake Tribune editorial
commenting on Gov. Huntsman’s state-of-the-state speech.
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Wednesday Buzz
Compiled and
Written by LaVarr Webb |
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For my comments on Gov. Huntsman’s state-of-the-state speech,
see this Sunday’s Pignanelli & Webb column in the
Deseret
Morning News.
Direct From Banda Aceh
KSL Radio 1160 News Director Russ Hill is having one of
the biggest adventures in some time for a Utah journalist. His reports
have been very compelling. Hill is currently on the scene in Banda
Aceh in Sumatra, Indonesia, filing eyewitness accounts on the devastation
from the tsunami in southern Asia and the relief efforts. If you’ve
missed his reporting, you’ve missed some very good journalism.
He is accompanying "Mothers Without Borders," a relief
group.
I spent two years as a young man as a church representative in
Indonesia, although I was far to the southeast on the island of
Java, so I have a special interest in the enormous tragedy that
is unfolding. Listen to his regular reports and check them
out on KSL Radio’s Web
site. Hill has also filed a lot of photos.
Blogger Insights
Check out the Utah political blogs listed at the top left hand
column at www.utahpolicy.com.
Some good reading on political topics.
Reporters Discuss Top Stories
Kimball Thomson, a senior consultant at The Exoro
Group and founder and editor of Digital iQ Magazine, participated
Tuesday in a panel of journalists sponsored by the Salt Lake Chamber
discussing the top stories of 2004 and forecasting the top stories
of 2005. Here is his report:
At this fifth annual event, the panelists’ news outlets represented
print, radio and television. Topics ranged across the gamut, from
Utah football to local, state and national politics, industry, human
(and animal) interest.
I found the variance in interest and perspective among the panelists
to be striking: Michael DeGroote of the Chamber tells
me that in the past several years, no two journalists have submitted
the same story.
When MC Bob Hendricks of Clear Channel asked panelists at
the conclusion of the event to predict the top stories of 2005,
four of us predicted that weather-related occurrences (which have
received nary a mention for the past two years) would upstage all
human actors and other events.
Here are the panelists and their 2004 top story picks:
- Jennifer Napier-Pearce, Morning Host, KCPW 88.3/105.3
FM, "Amendment 3"
- Mark Koelbel, News Anchor, KUTV 2 News, "Lori Hacking"
- Kimball Thomson, Senior Editor, Wasatch Digital iQ, "Utah's
Burgeoning Nutraceutical Industry"
- Max Roth, Reporter, KSTU Fox 13, "Utah Troops in Iraq"
- Rick Hall, Managing Editor, Deseret Morning News, "Urban
Meyer and the Utes"
- Randall Carlisle, Anchor, ABC 4 News, KTVX-TV, "Salt
Lake County Government"
- Rod Arquette, Vice President of News & Programming,
KSL Newsradio 1160, "Hannity/Moore Brouhaha"
- Jaqueline Hurtado, News Reporter, KUTH-Univision, "Fraud
Among the Latino Community"
- Peg McEntee, Assistant Managing Editor for Projects,
The Salt Lake Tribune, "Polygamy"
- Keith McCord, Weekend Anchor, KSL TV 5, "Mini Horses"
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Sponsored Article
R&D Will Create Businesses and Jobs
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By LaVarr Webb
The most important and exciting economic development proposal before
the Legislature this year is the Strategic Research & Development
Initiative being promoted by the Salt Lake Chamber and Utah’s
top business leaders.
If fully funded, the initiative has the potential to spin off dozens
of world-class businesses, create thousands of jobs, and even develop
whole new industries in Utah. It is important enough that the Chamber’s
leadership, made up of Utah’s most prominent business executives,
is encouraging legislators to find ways to finance the initiative.
The long-term impact of the initiative will be more money for education
and other state needs, said Chamber President and CEO Lane Beattie.
The return will be far greater than the cost.
Here’s why it’s so important to Utah’s future: We
live in a period of global competition and many lower-skilled and
manufacturing jobs are going off-shore. That trend will continue.
Meanwhile, rapid advances are occurring in a wide variety of sciences
and technologies that are opening up whole new industries and creating
thousands of high-paying jobs.
But those industries and jobs will go elsewhere unless the research
and development occurs here in Utah and the businesses and jobs
are spun off in Utah. It is a proven fact that high-tech businesses
grow up around research institutions where the basic R&D is
done. Billions of dollars in grants and matching funds are available
for states willing to create large-scale R&D efforts.
Utah is blessed with two top-notch research universities, but new
facilities and laboratories are badly needed to attract top scientists
from around the world in niche disciplines where Utah already has
significant research occurring–such as neuroscience, life sciences
and biotechnology, sensor and prototype development, and informational
technology and informatics.
Utah’s economic competitors are putting hundreds of millions
of dollars into R&D because they know this is the future of
economic development. The exciting, new companies of the future
will come from these efforts.
Utah Sens. Greg Bell and Dan Eastman have agreed to champion legislation
to obtain the funding through a variety of financing options. They
need support and help.
For more information:
(Sponsored by: The
Exoro Group)
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Wednesday
January 19, 2005
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Please submit calendar items to Daily@UtahPolicy.com
- Jan 19: "Left, Right...Which Way
America?" A one-hour discussion between Adrian Wooldridge
(author of The Right Nation) and Robert Reich (author of Reason:
Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America), 6 pm. KCPW is
heard at 88. FM, 105.3 FM and 1010 AM.
- Jan 19: Voices for Moderation, 6 pm to 7:30 pm, Anderson/Foothill
Library, 1135 S 2100 E. Bruce Johnson, a State Tax Commissioner
will be the speaker.
- Jan 20: Presidential Inauguration.
- Jan 20: Live Coverage of President Bush
Inauguration, 9:30 am. KCPW is heard at 88. FM, 105.3 FM and
1010 AM.
- Jan 20: Anti-war inauguration protest, 6 pm to 6:30 pm,
Federal building 125 S State Street, Salt Lake City.
- Jan 27: Last day to request bills (by noon).
- Jan 27: Last day to approve bills for numbering
(by noon).
- Jan 29: Central Committee Meeting.
- Jan 31: Utah Issues 31st Citizen’s Day at the Legislature,
8:30am to 1:30 pm, Prime Hotel, 215 W South Temple, Salt Lake City.
Free event with breakfast and lunch provided. For more information
please visit www.utahissues.org.
- Feb 3: Salt Lake Chamber’s Annual Legislative Reception,
5:30 pm to 8 pm, Grand America Hotel.
- Feb 5: Annual Green Party of Utah Convention,
10 am to 2 pm, Anderson-Foothill Library, 1135 E 2100 S, Salt Lake
City.
- Feb 12: Morgan County Lincoln Day Dinner.
- Feb 12: Utah County Lincoln Day Dinner.
- Feb 18: Last day for legislators to prioritize
bills and other programs with fiscal impact.
- Feb 23: Final meeting for the Executive
Appropriations Committee on all budget matters.
- Feb 25: Massachusetts Gov. and 2008 presidential hopeful
Mitt Romney speaks at Salt Lake County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner,
7 p.m., Little America Hotel. For ticket information see: www.lincolnclub.net.
- Feb 25: Salt Lake County Lincoln Day Dinner.
- Feb 25: Bonding bill available to legislators
by noon and final action taken on it by calendared closing time.
- Feb 25: Last day to pass bills with fiscal note
of $10,000 or more.
- Feb 26: Republican Women Federation Fundraiser.
- Feb 27: Last day to consider bills from
own house.
- Feb 27: Last day for a motion to reconsider.
- Feb 28: General appropriations bill, supplemental
appropriations bill, and school finance bill available to legislators
by calendared floor time and final action taken on each bill by
calendared closing time.
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