Boo!
Happy Halloween. One week to election day. Dress up like a politician today and frighten everyone. and try to stay away from the candy.
Ambitious New Utah Publication
Utah has a new conservative on-line newspaper, The Utah Ledger. It is patterned after FoxNews.com, according to some who are associated with it.
In the About Us page of the Ledger web site, publisher Phoenix Roberts writes:
"The target audience of this publication is the majority of Utah's population--politically conservative and dedicated to traditional moral and family values. Our primary purpose is to balance the books in the public debate with the more liberal mainstream press, local tabloids and so on. Our political and investigative reporting will present the facts as best we are able to discern them. Our stories will cover individuals, organizations and issues and, perhaps more importantly, how other media outlets cover them."
In its initial on-line edition, the publication endorses several candidates, all of them Republicans, and features several stories on politics, mostly critical of Democrats. To promote the new publication, a printed edition was produced and distributed to politically active households.
It is extremely difficult to create and profitably maintain a new publication, on-line or printed, that attempts to cover the news broadly, instead of focusing on a narrow niche. So it will be interesting to see how The Utah Ledger does in the coming months. Utah Policy Daily welcomes new sources of political information and will link to relevant stories in the Ledger.
Regional News Watch
Dems Hope for Success in the West
Article: "Democrats' hopes for a political resurgence in the Mountain West have soared nearly as high as the region's snow-capped peaks recently. Party officials want not only to increase their tally of governors and members of Congress next month, but also to put some Western states in their column for the 2008 presidential election. But despite all the recent talk about Westerners becoming the new faces of the party, even many Democrats concede they have much work to do in the region to pull off their goals" (Billings Gazette).
Court Watch
Supreme Court Tackles Key Cases
By Chet Loftis
(Court Watch is a periodic feature highlighting appellate level cases with public policy ramifications.)
Here are a couple of cases of note that the Utah Supreme Court will hear in November. Sindt v. Utah Retirement Board is the latest case to touch on the ever-present tension and subtle nuances of government powers and authorities between the various branches of state government. Sindt asks the Court to decide if the State Retirement Board correctly held that a county constable is a not a covered member of the Utah Retirement System and, more importantly, the degree of deference the Court should apply to a decision made by the Board. While it does not appear to be a central matter in this case, it does reference a fascinating issue about whether the Legislature can give a government agency the authority to interpret applicable statutes and rules when deciding cases in its quasi-judicial capacity that would require the Courts to give some degree of deference to that interpretation. The issue is fascinating because, if possible, it would place the legal interpretations of state agencies on a higher plane that those of lower courts--whose legal interpretations do not enjoy any deference when reviewed by a higher court.
Thurnwald v. Eatchel is a case this month that challenges the constitutionality of Utah’s adoption statute, which places specific requirements on unwed biological fathers to timely affirm their legal rights to a child who the mother has consented to be adopted. It also challenges the ruling of a district court that the statutory timeframe for filing a petition cannot be enlarged. (In the interest of disclosure, the defendant is represented by our firm.)
A final case of note is O’Connor v. Burningham. O’Connor was the girls’ basketball coach at Lehi High School. He brought a defamation action against a large group of disgruntled parents who allegedly got him fired by wrongfully accusing him of “emotional and psychological abuse…, financial dishonesty with school funds, illegal recruiting of girls to the team, unethical behavior, favoritism, and discrimination.” The district court granted summary judgment against O’Connor. The key issue before Utah Supreme Court is whether a high school coach is a “public official” or not. What constitutes a “public official” is a critical legal question. Because of the societal interest of maintaining an open and frank dialogue about matters of public importance, a “public official” must overcome a very high legal hurdle when it comes to bringing defamation action. That hurdle requires not only a false statement, but a false statement made with actual malice—that was made knowing that it was false or with a reckless disregard of the truth.
You can find more information about these cases and Kirton & McConkie’s Constitutional, Appellate, and Public Policy Practice section. |
