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The Week Ahead
Legislators will stay busy this last week of September with eight committee, commission and task force meetings. See the legislative calendar for meeting notices and agendas. For all the week’s political events, see the Utah Policy.com calendar.
Global Utah Newsletter
Want to do business internationally? Check out the latest Global Utah newsletter, sponsored by the World Trade Center Utah, for the latest international business news and features.
Washington Watch
Hatch: Agreement on CHIP
A bipartisan coalition of Senate and House leaders, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, announce a bicameral agreement to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for an additional five years (see press release);
the Senate approves comprehensive gang legislation sponsored by Sens. Hatch and Dianne Feinstein (press release); Sens. Hatch, Hillary Clinton, and Harry Reid introduce legislation that would "establish a national public-health tracking network that enables researchers to better identify connections between adverse health effects and pollution, and would increase funding for locally based pilot projects to address environmental health concerns" (press release).
$2 Million Grant for Provo
Rep. Chris Cannon has announced a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce/Economic Development Administration for infrastructure improvements necessary for the expansion of the 300-acre Mt. Vista Business Center, a former brownfields site in Provo. “The Department estimates that this investment will create 1567 private sector jobs and lead to $55 million in private investment,” said Cannon. (press release)
Today in Political History
Sept. 24, 1789: The Federal Judiciary Act organizes the Supreme Court with 6 members. (Source: Perspicuity)
Sept. 24, 1996: The United States and the world's other major nuclear powers sign a treaty to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons. (New York Times)
Wise Words
“Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.”
-- James Bryce (Source: Quote Garden)
Leadership Tip
Leaders Establish the Courage Level
It is the leader who establishes the tone and the work environment in which people choose – or choose not – to exercise personal courage and freedom of expression. If the leader has traditionally proved to be genuinely open to comments and criticism, people are willing to agree, disagree, and express opinions.
If the leader has not been open to disagreement or debate, his or her actions speak loudly and clearly to staff. And, unfortunately, it only takes one exhibition of closed mindedness, or worse, punishing the speaker, for staff to learn whether their opinions are actually wanted.
The good leader, who wants to take advantage of the experience, knowledge, and thoughtfulness of talented staff, remembers this. The good leader is aware of their power to encourage or stifle opinions and debate. They use this power to genuinely appreciate and encourage input, debate, and differing opinions. (Source: Human Resources)
National Politics
Best Stories From …
-- Des Moines Register: The leading Democratic presidential candidates promised at a debate in Iowa on Thursday to provide universal health care and save Medicare and Social Security, "but they disagreed on which of them would be most qualified to do it."
-- Washington Post: "Rudy Giuliani has adopted a creative strategy for his presidential campaign. By acting like a president, he hopes to turn himself into the presumptive Republican nominee. His rivals have other ideas but so far lack the will to stop him."
-- RealClearPolitics: Columnist Blake Dvorak explains why John McCain still has a slim chance to get back into the presidential race.
-- Los Angeles Times editorial ridicules Dan Rather, who's filed a lawsuit against CBS over the 2004 National Guard memo scandal.
Blog Watch
-- At The Senate Site, Sen. Wayne Niederhauser discusses "[t]wo significant problems with our current property tax system [that] became apparent in the Revenue and Tax Interim committee on Wednesday."
-- At Out of Context, Glen Warchol notes the propaganda emanating from both sides of the voucher debate. (For more on the voucher issue, see Simple Utah Mormon Politics.)
-- Paul Rolly says: "Jon Hunstman Jr., Utah's 16th governor, was four years old when Calvin Rampton, Utah's 11th governor, was first elected in 1964. But as the youthful state chief executive sat in a hospice room to visit his predecessor in what was to be one of the last days of Rampton's long and brilliant life, the elder statesman passed on a gem that hopefully Huntsman can use for the good of all Utahns. 'What is the greatest problem facing public service today?' the young Republican governor asked the old Democrat. Without a pause, Rampton replied: 'The lack of civility. People don't dare cross the political divide. The system has become too darn mean.' Huntsman related that story to a packed LDS stake center audience attending Rampton's funeral Friday. He delivered that message with such enthusiasm and such passion, one hopes Rampton's words struck a chord with the sitting governor nearly half his age."
Lighter Side
(Source: James Taranto’s Best of the Web on OpinionJournal.com)
Fancy Meeting You Here--II
They met online, where he called himself "Prince of Joy," and she called herself "Sweetie." Their real names were Sana and Adnan. "The pair [each] thought they had found a soulmate with whom to spend the rest of their lives," reports Metro.co.uk:
[They] poured their hearts out to each other over their marriage troubles. . . . Sana, 27, said: "I was suddenly in love. It was amazing, we seemed to be stuck in the same kind of miserable marriages. How right that turned out to be."
Finally they decided to meet in person, and they discovered that they were married to each other:
When it dawned on her what had happened, she said: "I felt so betrayed."
Adnan, 32, said: "I still find it hard to believe that Sweetie, who wrote such wonderful things, is actually the same woman I married and who has not said a nice word to me for years."
Too bad they didn't like piña coladas. |
