News Highlights

Article: "The Utah Board of Education is poised to adopt the rule dictating how it will implement a school voucher program, even though the program faces two major challenges" (Salt Lake Tribune).  

Article: "The Energy Department is not going to consider an alternative to storing nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain until Congress allows it, the head of the project said Tuesday. That leaves any interim storage plan off the table -- at least for now -- but Utah still could see nuclear waste shipments come across the state en route to Nevada if the storage site ever opens" (Morning News).

Article: "The head of the nation's nuclear weapons programs reiterated Tuesday the Bush administration's promise not to conduct any new nuclear weapons tests in its effort to build the Reliable Replacement Warhead, a new generation of nuclear weapon. ... Some, including Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, had expressed concerns that the new warhead design, announced last Friday, would lead the nation to its first nuclear test since a moratorium on testing was put in place in 1992" (Tribune) (see also related Tribune editorial).

Washington Watch

Hatch: TSA Bill 'Gift to Al-Qaeda'

Sen. Orrin Hatch speaks on the Senate floor against a bill that would allow TSA officers to engage in collective bargaining, saying the legislation would hamper efforts to combat terrorism and "be a true gift to al-Qaeda" (see press release).

Today in Political History
March 7th 1995: The U.S. dollar plunged to a record low since World War II against the Japanese yen and the German mark, due in part to the loan made to help with the Mexican economic crisis.
(Source: perspicuity.net)

Wise Words
Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right! -- Henry Ford
(Source: motivation-abc.com)

Campaign Tip
Why are you running?

Be sure you answer “Why are you running?” by focusing on the voters, not you.
There are two reasons to run for office. The first is to be somebody. The second is to do something. Voters have an uncanny knack for uncovering which of those motivates a candidate. One BIG signal is how you answer the fundamental question “Why are you running?” If your answer focuses on you and your qualifications, voters will assume you’re running to be somebody. If your answer focuses on how you want to solve problems, voters will assume you’re running to do something. What’s your answer to that question say about your motivation?
(Source: campaigntips.com)

Blog Watch

• Paul Rolly reports: "The election isn't for another 20 months, but you can expect that after the general election in 2008, the first Utah State Treasurer not named Ed Alter in 28 years will be a man named Richard Ellis. Ellis, who has an impressive background, is already being pushed among Republican movers and shakers by Alter, who has said he will not run for re-election after he finishes his seventh four-year term next year. So if Ellis is being paraded around as the chosen heir-apparent by the Republican incumbent -- this is Utah, remember -- he should be a shoo-in."
• Gary Shumway calls for "fewer bills and more ethics" in future Utah legislative sessions.
• Mark Steyn says of Alex Beam's assertion that America will reject Mitt Romney in '08 because of his Mormonism: "Maybe [Beam's] right, but I would be surprised if anybody's writing that kind of column in ten years' time. As a world-champion Demography Bore, I have an interest in the numbers. From the official records, it's long been clear Utah is a statistical outlier: at the bottom of the hit parade for abortion, unwed mothers, single-parent families, etc. It has one of the highest fertility rates in the western world. ... Proportionately, the America of 2020 will have fewer Jews, fewer blacks but more Mormons. So if they are creepy-freaky then America will be significantly creepy-freakier. So too will be Alex Beam's Massachusetts, which (in contrast to Utah) has one of the lowest fertility rates in the country. In a civilized nation, it's harder for yawneroo broadsheets to run columns arguing that a group that makes up 15 or 20 per cent of the citizenry are a bunch of weirdsmobiles. And who's 'weird' is often little more than a reflection of who's got the numbers and the energy. Alex Beam may think Boston and New York are hip happening burgs where all the cool cats hang, but, in fact, the 'youngest' state in the nation with the lowest median age is Utah. As for the politics of it all, one notes that that's also the only state where Bush got over 70 per cent of the vote" (hat tip: UNCoRRELATED) (for more on Romney, see Reach Upward and Out of Context).

Elected Officials Birthday List

Utah Policy Daily is a service
of Utah Policy.com

Publisher: LaVarr Webb
Editor: Paul Hollingshead
News: Golden Webb
Calendar and Subscriptions: Luci Hollingshead

Utah Policy Daily
Crandall Building, Suite 300
10 West 100 South
Salt Lake City UT 84101
801.537.0900 Office
801.537.0901 Fax

Special E-Mail Messages: Utah Policy Daily may send subscribers e-mails with information about new features, special offers, or messages on public policy issues from clients and advertisers. If you do not wish to ever receive these e-mails, please let us know by e-mail at daily@utahpolicy.com.

Utah in the National News

Columnist Dimitri Vassilaros says of Utah's new school voucher system: "It's difficult to overemphasize how groundbreaking this is because Utah has done what public education reformers have been trying to do for decades in other states. Empowering parents to move their kids to better schools not only helps the students but also motivates inferior schools to improve or risk closing" (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) (see also Orange County Register editorial).

Mitt Romney Watch
Columnist Thomas Sowell: "A new low has already been struck [in the '08 presidential race] with an exploitation of the religious issue with claims that some of Governor Mitt Romney's Mormon ancestors had multiple wives. Are Governor Romney's ancestors going to be on the ballot? The fields are so crowded that I hadn't noticed" (National Review Online) (for more Romney coverage, see Reason Magazine, Boston Globe, The Politico, and Human Events stories).

Local Headlines

Deseret Morning News

- Sugar House shops forced out

- Yucca the only nuclear storage plan for now, energy officials say

- Sandy limits payday lenders

- Eagle Mtn. OKs administrator

- Bus routes blasted

- American Fork creates traffic panel

- Oil firm's Glen Canyon bid denied

- CUP to get funding boost in '08

- Petition drive kicks off over stadium funds

- Suit over high school boundaries is dismissed

- Revenue loss hits county

- Real ID may not equate to national card

Standard-Examiner

- Official blasts council members

- Editorial: Riding the rails

Tooele Transcript Bulletin

- Wind turbine operator hopes to tap Stockton breezes

- UTA won't add busses for Tooele

- County deemed too big for 'fast track'

- Editorial: Now is the time to address school nursing shortage

Park Record

- 'Watershed' pipeline agreement is signed

- Senator handicaps White House campaign

- Editorial: Teachers' salaries: Good news first

KCPW

- Both Sides of Voucher Debate Continue Battle for "Choice"

- Next Step in Gov's Plan to Cover Uninsured Utahns

- Coal Mine to Double Heavy Truck Traffic on Hwy 89

- New EnergySolutions Lobbyist Well-Connected Nuclear Regulator

- Citizen Activists Hope to Stop Soccer Stadium with Petition

- Dugway May Increase Testing Of Biological Equipment

Davis County Clipper

- Gardner blames N. Salt Lake for wall woes

- UTA getting earful on bus changes

- Funding heralded as big boost to Balloon Stampede

- Plaintiffs force city to restore Mayor as Syracuse CEO

- March 16 Expo to 'pack heat'

- Panel has 'pull' with legislators

- Richard J. Watson: Legislative session not exactly a home run

- Todd Weiler: Legislative session not exactly a home run

- Rolf Koecher: Thumbs down for UTA; thumbs up for LCA

Daily Herald

- Anti-gay club bill under fire

- Eagle Mountain investigates councilman

- Eagle Mountain gets new administrator

Salt Lake Tribune

- SLC Council makes non-bias policy the law

- Despite challenges, board set to adopt voucher rules

- Hub rail portion to be Salt Lake Central Station

- Paul Rolly: Crossed wires shock a listener

- New Huntsman appointee loves taking on challenges

- S.L. County: Could be worse

- Eagle Mountain hires administrator

- Satellite voter sign-ups casualty at the Capitol

- Parent group still leery of Davis schools open-meetings approach

- Sandy draws up restrictions on new payday loan outlets

- SLC to seek limits on payday loan companies

- Ogden council treated to city officer's tirade

- Park City closer to Air Force land deal

- White House reaffirms pledge of no nuke tests

- Editorial: New nukes: Congress should not allow testing to resume

- Editorial: Clearing the air: Legislature passed three good bills, dropped a fourth

Please submit calendar items to Daily@UtahPolicy.com

- Mar 7: RadioWest on KUER FM 90: "HB 236 - Gay Clubs in Utah Schools," 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.

- Mar 7: 11th Annual Legislative Appreciation Luncheon hosted by the Davis County Republican Women, 12 p.m., Centerville City Offices Building, 250 North Main Street, Centerville. A $12 donation is requested to cover the cost of lunch. All Davis Senators and Representatives attending will give a brief overview of the 2007 Legislative Session. For more info contact Trudie Biggers at 801-546-6835 or trudimus@msn.com.
- Mar 7: Gov. Huntsman to give welcoming remarks at the Speedskating World Single Distance Championships, 7 p.m., Rice Eccles Stadium Tower.
- Mar 8: Gov. Huntsman to give brief remarks at Volunteers of America Event, 5 p.m., Utah's Center for Women & Children, 697 West 4170 South, Murray.
- Mar 8: Gov. Huntsman to attend the "Power in Parents" Conference, 7 p.m., Cottonwood High School.
- Mar 9: Hinckley Forum "Putin's Russia: A View from the Inside," 10:45 a.m., Hinckley Caucus Room, Orson Spencer Hall, room 255. Ludmilla Selezneva, Professor of History and Politics, Humanitarian University of Television and Broadcasting, Russian State Economic Academy (Moscow).

- See the entire calendar