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Podcast Watch
Huntsman Discusses Legislative Session
Gov. Jon Huntsman provides an in-depth legislative recap for Utah Dialogue, a new podcasting service. In this 22-minute podcast, the governor discusses his decision not to sign or veto the EnergySolutions bill, education funding, tax reform, health care, relationships with lawmakers, the Real Salt Lake legislative score and the Western States Presidential Primary. The governor was very candid with hosts Ben McAdams and Charlie Luke, discussing issues not easily captured in ordinary short sound bites.
How to Build a Business
Zions Bank's Business Resource Center has published a series of "Business Builder" booklets aimed at helping small businesses understand how to create balance sheets, profit and loss statements, cash flow statements, cash budgets, and business plans. The free booklets are available from the Zions Business Resource Center, 310 S. Main (2nd floor), Salt Lake City, or from any Zions Bank branch. For more information about the booklets, read this week's Zions Business Resource Center Newsletter.
Stock Market Self-Correction
In his Tea Leaf economic update this week, Utah economist Jeff Thredgold puts the gyrating stock market into perspective, noting that it is “self-correcting.” He remains “optimistic as to stock market performance over the next few years.”
Says Thredgold: “Many financial market historians—particularly those who remain optimistic (bullish) as to expected stock market gains over the next few years—would actually like to see the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as well as other major market indices, decline further in coming weeks.”
Thredgold also writes about Russia’s economy, noting that it is currently vibrant, thanks to enormous production of oil and natural gas. But it also faces many challenges, in particular a very low birth rate. With the population currently declining by about 700,000 people annually, Russian political leadership is providing financial incentives for women to have more than one child. The population dropped from roughly 149 million people in 1992 to 142 million in 2006.
Ogden Transportation Forum
The Ogden City Council is hosting a forum on "the future of Ogden's transportation needs" in the Council Chambers today from 5-8 p.m. The council has invited Ogden residents and representatives from the Wasatch Front Regional Council, Utah Transit Authority, Utah Department of Transportation and the Ogden/Weber Chamber of Commerce to participate. Says Council Chairman Jesse Garcia: "The council feels it's important that everyone understand the transportation needs of the city. This work session should help everyone get a better idea of what kinds of opportunities are before us" (Salt Lake Tribune).
Washington Watch
Hatch Introduces TBI Bill
Sens. Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy introduce "legislation to reauthorize the only federal law specifically addressing issues faced by 5.3 million Americans who live with a long-term disability as a result of traumatic brain injury, or TBI. Hatch and Kennedy were the principal authors of the original TBI law in 1996" (see press release).
Matheson: Libby Actions 'Disturbing'
Rep. Jim Matheson says of the Lewis "Scooter" Libby guilty verdict: "The 'outing' of a covert CIA operative is a grave security breach and misleading investigators trying to get to the truth about how that happened is wrong. It's disturbing when someone at the highest level of government is caught breaking the law and violating the public trust" (see press release).
Today in Political History
March 8, 1965: First US combat forces arrive in Vietnam. Invasion by U.S. Marines commences at DaNang.
March 8, 1995: President Clinton issues Executive Order 12954, authorizing debarment of federal contractors who hire permanent striker replacements. (Source: perspicuity.net )
Wise Words
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (Source: quotations.home)
Political Trivia
Q: Who was the last Pittsburgh native to run for President of the United States?
A: Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. (Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
National Politics
Can Giuliani Win?
Political guru Charlie Cook, in his NationalJournal.com column, asks if Republican voters are “letting out a primal scream for help and (are) willing to embrace a candidate whose social-issue positions are anathema to many of the party's core voters and activists?” He doubts that Rudy Giuliani can’t win the GOP presidential nomination, despite his early lead in the polls and despite the fact that Republicans are more disillusioned today than any time since Watergate.
Lighter Side
A man was sent to Hell for his sins. As he was being processed, he passed a room where an economist he knew was having an intimate conversation with a beautiful woman. "What a crummy deal!" the man complained. "I have to burn for all eternity and that economist spends it with that gorgeous woman." An escorting demon jabs the man with his pitchfork and shouts, "Who are you to question that woman's eternal punishment?" (Source: The Economist Joke Book)
Blog Update
Senate Dems Blog
The Utah Senate Democrats are now producing an active web log and we have added it to UtahPolicy.com’s list of political blogs.
Blog Watch
-- The National School Boards Association's daily weblog BoardBuzz notes: "The big news in the world of school vouchers has been Utah, Utah, Utah. First, the state legislature swiftly approved what amounts to the nation's first 'universal' private school voucher program. That is, when fully implemented, all private school students in the state will be eligible to receive taxpayer dollars to help subsidize their tuition. All other voucher programs that states have experimented with have been targeted to specific cities or certain students. The new program is precisely what voucher advocates have long sought: Vouchers for everyone who can gain admission to selective private schools. In many ways, it unmasks the politically astute rhetoric of the past several years in which voucher advocates claim to be about helping low-income students escape 'lousy schools.' In fact, universal vouchers that will largely benefit wealthier families who may already have sent their children to private schools has always been the primary goal" (for more on the voucher issue, see SLCSpin, Davis County Watch, The Utah Amicus, and HazZzMat).
-- At The Senate Site, Sen. Chris Buttars discusses the Drug Offender Reform Act, which the Legislature passed this year "without a single dissenting vote" and which Buttars describes as "the most exciting, innovative change in law enforcement and corrections philosophy in 100 years" (for more posts on issues related to the '07 Legislature, see CoolestFamilyEver, Simple Utah Mormon Politics, Utah State Democratic Party, New West, and Utah Taxpayer).
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