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Avoid Parking Hassles at Capitol
The biggest complaint about the Utah Legislature has nothing to do with public policy or the character of lawmakers. It’s all about parking. Finding a parking spot near the Capitol complex is simply horrendous, especially with the cold weather. People are walking long distances and filling up side roads.
But there is an alternative to driving and hunting for a parking spot. The Capitol Preservation Board and Utah Transit Authority have collaborated to provide a circulator shuttle bus that runs about ever 15 minutes. Route 23 winds through most of downtown and to the Capitol, starting around 6 a.m. and ending about 6:30 p.m.
On the UTA Web site is found a route map and schedule for Route 23. TRAX riders can pick up the Route 23 bus near the Courthouse TRAX station between 4th and 5th South on Main Street. There are bus stops in various locations downtown.
Drivers can park free all day in the parking lot across from the Triad Building downtown (300 West South Temple) and catch the Route 23 shuttle there. It is the site of the 2002 Olympics Medal Plaza. You should communicate your intention to visit the Capitol to the parking lot attendant.
CPPA Newsletter
The University of Utah's Center for Public Policy & Administration has posted its latest Policy Perspectives newsletter. This month's edition features articles on Utah population growth, charter schools, and Utah minimum wage workers, and spotlights several "issues to watch" in the '07 Legislature.
How to Give it Away
This week's "Taking Care of Business" e-newsletter, published by the Zions Bank Business Resource Center, focuses on small business philanthropy and says "giving back to the community is a privilege and a responsibility." The newsletter looks beyond financial donations to offer small businesses 12 strategies for charitable giving.
New Sutherland Website
The Sutherland Institute has revamped its web site.
Innovative Economic Development
Utah economist Jeff Thredgold’s Tea Leaf economic update this week features the “Kalamazoo Promise,” an innovative city revitalization program in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a city in decline. Wealthy donors have promised every Kalamazoo public school student a college education. Besides the obvious benefit to young people who might not otherwise go to college, the program is reaping economic benefits with new growth and business development.
Washington Watch
Bishop Pans Student Loan Bill
Rep. Rob Bishop says of the Democrat-controlled House's approval of legislation that cuts interest rates on need-based student loans: "It is a whoop-de-doo bill. ... [W]hat it does for my kids in college is nothing. What it does for the friends of my kids in college is nothing. What it does for the students I taught in high school and are still in college is basically nothing when it could have done so much more" (Associated Press).
Hatch: Reforms Aid Small Businesses
Senate committee passes legislation that includes Sen. Orrin Hatch-authored tax reform provisions designed to help Utah's small businesses and community banks. Says Hatch: "Small businesses are the engines of economic growth and these reforms will help them to do what they do best -- create jobs. We're targeting existing onerous rules and restrictions that thwart many small businesses in Utah from selecting tax advantages that will improve their viability" (see press release).
Bennett Defends Lobbying
Sen. Bob Bennett's Senate homepage has posted an MP3 audio clip of Bennett defending grassroots lobbying on the Senate floor.
National Politics
Chuck Todd outlines a scenario in his NationalJournal.com column in which the fight for the Democratic 2008 presidential nomination between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could drag on until the Democratic convention. That thinking runs against the conventional wisdom that both parties will have their nominees selected by around the Feb. 6, 2008, Super Tuesday.
Wise Words
"Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today."
--Lord Chesterfield
“Once you get people laughing, they're listening and you can tell them almost anything.
-- Herbert Gardner
Blog Watch
At the Senate Site, Sen. Scott Jenkins says: "I am sponsoring a traffic bill (SB17) that has two primary elements: increasing the speed limit and discouraging careless driving. I want to raise the speed limit on Utah's highways to the speed drivers are already traveling. Studies have shown people drive at a level that is comfortable and reasonable and prudent. In Utah, that seems to be about 70 mph along the Wasatch front and 80 mph along rural highways. I think we also need to enhance the penalty for distracted drivers. I am being very careful not to restrict talking on cell phones or any other activity; this bill simply makes driving the first priority" (see also here) (for more posts on the Legislature, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).... Part of the Plan discusses "some of the various dichotomies associated with living in Utah".... David Rodeback describes a couple of his recent close encounters with local government.... ULCT lobbyist Lincoln Shurtz shares "a few critical points from the lobbyist 'creed'".... Education in Utah says: "The results are in (again) and all-day kindergarten has shown to have tremendous benefits for at-risk students. If we want to close the achievement gap, this is a great place to start! Thanks to Governor Huntsman and Senator Lyle Hillyard for their leadership on this issue".... Paul Rolly reports: "Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., in his state of the state address Tuesday, proudly proclaimed that he would initiate several ethics reform measures in the executive branch, setting an example for the legislative branch to follow. But the ethics reform example he is setting for legislators may be a bit confusing. One measure is that he will bar state employees, when they leave government, from lobbying their former colleagues for two years. The confusion: Huntsman has appointed at least four legislators to high level positions in the executive branch, meaning those legislators, who took jobs with Huntsman right after leaving the Legislature, will be lobbying their former colleagues in the Legislature on behalf of their departments in the executive branch".... At Out of Context, Rebecca Walsh reports: "After Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. delivered his State of the State speech outlining an ambitious education funding package, Utah Democrats countered ... er chimed in ... with their own plan calling for even more money for education -- 10 percent each year for the next five years. The minority party's slick video presentation featured Holladay Democratic Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, a retired schoolteacher, and TV furniture salesman/former news anchor Phil Riesen. But the effect was lost on many newspaper readers. Democratic press officers apparently forgot the rest of the media -- the ones who deal in the written word. Some newspaper reporters got the transcript. But Salt Lake City's two daily newspapers, The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News, did not. 'In my focus on the video, I neglected print media,' a contrite House Minority Spokesman Lee Martinez wrote in an email Wednesday morning. 'For what it's worth at this time, here you go.' Too late".... jspot.org says: "As presidential campaigns get off the ground, each will hire a Jewish outreach staffer, whose job it will be to meander the institutional circus that is the American Jewish community and successfully sell the candidate to American Jews. Along the way, candidates from across the political spectrum will be seeking to access the Jewish purse as much as the Jewish vote. It will be interesting to watch just who are these Jewish outreach staffers, where they come from, and what they are doing. We begin with the most jarring -- Mitt Romney, the former Republican governor of Massachussets and an avowed Mormon. According to The Phoenix, Romney is actively moving to court the Jewish vote, and more importantly Jewish gelt.... As goes the old saying, 'Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans' and Republican outreach to Jews will revolve heavily around the Israel issue and outreach to wealthy, conservative Jews. So far, Romney's mitzvah list includes Sam Fox, Lewis Eisenberg, Marc Lipschultz, Fred Zeidman, Sheldon Adelson, Dawn Arnall, Eric Tanenblatt, and Theodore Cutler" (see also here, here, and here).
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