So, we made it to the end of another week. Happy April Fool’s Day. It will be busy, busy downtown with all the General Conference visitors. Good weekend to get away.
Heard any good April Fool’s Day hoaxes? Jon Huntsman resigns governorship to play in a rock band . . . Dean Singleton gives Tribune back to McCarthey family . . . LDS Church encourages missionaries to date . . . Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance bulldozes road across Kaiparowits Plateau for faster access to Kanab Wal-Mart . . . Utah Legislature passes country’s toughest ethics and hate crimes legislation.
Here’s a cool Web site featuring the 100 top April Fool’s Day hoaxes of all time, including this one:
The Taco Liberty Bell
In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought the Liberty Bell from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called up the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell is housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed that it was all a practical joke a few hours later. The best line inspired by the affair came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale, and he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold, though to a different corporation, and would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial. (Here’s more info about the joke.)
Harry Reid at Hinckley Institute
Today at 5 p.m. the highest ranking Democrat in Washington, D.C., Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, speaks at the Hinckley Institute of Politics, 255 Orson Spencer Hall. The topic of high-level nuclear waste storage is sure to come up, highlighting the split between Reid and the Utah Republican congressional delegation, which supports the Bush administration’s plan to dispose of the waste at Yucca Mountain.
However, Utah Republicans aren’t exactly solid on the issue. Gov. Jon Huntsman and Rep. Stephen Urquhart (see blog) agree with Reid that it’s a better strategy to oppose waste storage both at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and the Goshute Reservation in Utah, and make the case that the waste should be stored where it is, rather than move it out West.
States are Addicted to Gambling
Interesting story in the Morning News about states that are becoming highly dependent on gaming. “We’re drunk on gambling revenue,” said a Delaware legislator. “The biggest addict turns out to be the state government that becomes dependent on it," said a South Dakota legislator. In a number of states, gaming taxes make up 10 percent of all state revenue.
As more and more states legalize all forms of gambling, the revenue is threatened because casinos don’t attract people from out-of-state. Utah and Hawaii are the only two states that don’t allow gambling of any form. It used to be Nevada was the anomaly with widespread gambling and Utah was like every other state. Now Utah is the anomaly and more and more states are like Nevada.
For economic development purposes, states need to find niches. And being the only non-gambling state in the lower 48 might not be a bad differentiator. Utah ought to capitalize on the difference. There are plenty of people and businesses out there who prefer a safe, clean, wholesome, well-educated, hard-working environment. Don’t run away from Utah's image; embrace it.
Casual Friday
Strawberry Reservoir Fishing
We’re still a few weeks away from ice-off at Strawberry, but when the ice starts to pull back from the shore it’s the best time of the year to fish the big reservoir. The fish are hungry, the crowds are thin, and it’s a lot of fun to bounce a fly or lure off the retreating ice and into the water where a feisty rainbow awaits. Here’s a good story about early spring fishing at Strawberry, from the Red Rock Adventure site.
Best of the Week’s Late Night Humor
David Letterman.... "Top Ten Things Overheard At The White House Easter Egg Hunt": "Doctor needs to know how much egg dye the President drank"; "Instead of eggs, shouldn't we be looking for Osama?"; "The CIA is picking up a lot of yolk-related chatter"; "Unfortunately the Easter Bunny's been detained at Gitmo"; "Cheney's eating ham? Better fire up the defibrillator"; "No eggs, but here are thousands of votes for John Kerry"; "Should we get a Kosher bunny for the Jewish kids?"
Jay Leno.... Vice President Dick Cheney got a big pay raise. Last week he was only making $53 a barrel, this week he's making $57 a barrel. .... Yesterday, President Bush said he would further loosen the immigration laws. And of course, people are shocked: "What, we have immigration laws? When did that start?" .... President Bush met with Mexican President Vicente Fox [last week]. They were trying to decide where they should meet and eventually the Mexican president said "Look, it is easier for me to come to you. I know where the hole in the fence is." .... Researchers at an Austrian university are facing ethics charges for using human corpses as crash test dummies. See, that's what happens if you don't have a good Social Security system -- you have to keep working even after you're dead. .... But think about it. You know hard it is for a corpse to find work? Look at Al Gore, he's been out of work for what, about six years? .... Condoleezza Rice made her last stop in her foreign trip, she was in Beijing. They went nuts for her. From their reaction you would think people in China had never seen Rice before.
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