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Your Opinion Sought
United Way and the Salt Lake Chamber are seeking public input on a major health care reform proposal designed to make it easier for all Utahns to obtain affordable health insurance coverage. Elements of the proposal will be presented to the Utah Legislature in the 2008 session. Click here for more information and a link to make your opinion known.
CPPA Newsletter, Policy Report
The University of Utah's Center for Public Policy & Administration has posted its latest Policy Perspectives newsletter. This month's edition analyzes Utah students' 2007 ACT scores, among other things. CPPA has also released a new Policy In-depth Report, which looks at the growing number of concurrent enrollment programs across the nation and in Utah and the rising concerns about the programs' access and quality.
Fed Rate Cut Was Right Move
Utah economist Jeff Thredgold’s Tea Leaf economic update this week says that the Federal Reserve’s “somewhat surprising” one-half percent cut in the federal funds rate on Sept. 18 “was the right move delivered at a critical time. Stock markets around the world loved the aggressive Fed action, with the Dow recording its best two-week rise since 2004. We currently expect another cut, most likely one-quarter percent, all dressed up on Halloween.”
Thredgold says, “The national media’s focus on all things negative has only heightened market and investor emotions. We remain strong believers in the Fed’s inflation-fighting credibility. We also respect the fact that unusual times can warrant unusual monetary moves…this is one of those times.”
Public Policy Job Opportunity
Frank Pignanelli passed along this job opening, saying, “This is really a great job for someone who both likes to lobby and enjoys public policy.” The successful applicant will replace Jennifer Cannaday, who has been promoted to a Regence national position.
Job Opening: Assistant Director for Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah
Description: Serves as a resource to the local Plan regarding State and Federal legislative and regulatory policy positions that will advance Regence's goals. Responsible for developing and promoting Regence's legislative and regulatory issues at the State level. Responsible for coordinating with other Regence staff in developing and promoting Regence's legislative and regulatory issues at the Federal level. May serve on local boards of community agencies or other non-profit organizations that support Regence's goals. Develops and maintains appropriate lines of communication with major regulators.
Apply online at: http://www.regence.com/careers
Sierra Club Highlights Utah Lands
The Sierra Club has released a new report, America's Wild Legacy, "which highlights fifty-two special lands and the Club's ongoing efforts to protect them." The 56-page report includes a section on Utah's Red Rock country.
Washington Watch
Bishop: No to SCHIP Bill
Rep. Rob Bishop says of the Democrats' proposal to re-authorize and extensively expand the SCHIP program: "I'm still waiting for a major issue to come along where the Democratic leadership doesn't take a nice idea and really mess it up. This program needs to be re-authorized, but it needs to be done correctly and in a way that gets help to those who need it most" (see press release).
Today in Political History
Sept. 27, 1979: The U.S. Department of Education is created.
Sept. 27, 1964: The Warren Commission releases its report, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President John F. Kennedy. (Source: Perspicuity)
Wise Words
“In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will now and then peek out and show itself.”
-- Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (Source: Patriot Post)
Political Trivia
Utah House Districts
The Utah House of Representatives is comprised of 75 men and women elected to two-year terms. House districts are reapportioned every 10 years, after the Census is taken, to ensure that each legislator represents as nearly as possible the same number of constituents. The ideal population for each of the 75 House districts after reapportionment was 22,971. The legislature adopted an allowable deviation of +/- 4.00%. In the Legislature's plan, the actual district populations ranged from 22,064 in House District 67 to 23,888 in House District 52. (Source: Utah House)
National Politics
Best Stories From …
-- The Politico: "The rise of the baby bundlers -- people who ask friends and family to donate for a candidate and then direct the money to the campaign -- is adding a face-to-face dimension to [the 2008 presidential race]. ... The surprising end result could be that the Democratic nominee will buck historic trends and have a significant financial edge in a cycle when the nominees alone are expected to spend an unprecedented $1 billion."
-- USA Today: Columnist Larry Sabato the presidential selection process "is badly broken" and calls for "a constitutional amendment that establishes a rational schedule of primaries."
-- Washington Post: Columnist George Will says the recent New York Times/MoveOn.org ad decacle "confirms an axiom: There can be unseemly exposure of mind as well as of body."
-- The Hill: "Idaho Sen. Larry Craig (R) will get an answer next week on his bid to overturn his guilty plea in Minnesota court, leaving his political future in limbo and GOP leaders with little choice but to accept his presence in the chamber."
Blog Watch
At Out of Context, Thomas Burr reports: "Vice President Dick Cheney will drop into Salt Lake City on Friday to speak to the Council for National Policy, a group so private even its members are encouraged not to mention the name. Ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will also address the group as will the Czech Republic president and Congressman Chris Cannon. But don't expect to see any coverage of the event as the meeting of hundreds of the nation's most powerful conservative activists is confidential. The council is a 'private membership group whose meetings are closed to the media,' director Steve Baldwin informed me this morning. But there is a bright side. Several readers have asked me why taxpayers should be footing the bill for Cheney to give what would be a political speech to a private group -- and the answer is, they aren't. 'Taxpayers do not cover political activity costs,' Cheney's office said this morning. Federal law restricts taxpayers from paying for any event held by a candidate for the Senate or House or political events unrelated to official business. So while you may see television images of Air Force Two on Friday, your tax dollars won't be paying for it to fly. Of course, there are ancillary costs which Joe and Jane Taxpayer ARE paying. Those include Secret Service protection, the Air Force 2 crew and personal staff of the VEEP."
Lighter Side
Best of Late Night Humor
Conan O’Brien: The president of Iran gave a speech in New York City... and thousands of New Yorkers are really upset about it. The New Yorkers said, ‘If we want to hear a short-tempered Iranian man yell at us, we’ll take a cab’.
David Letterman: “Top Ten Contest” for the “Top Ten Television Shows in Iraq”: “Extremist Makeover”; “Sects And The City”; “So, You Want To Be A Martyr”; “Sponge Bob Square Burka”; “Wives Swap”; “Sunni & Cher”; “Kurd Your Enthusiasm”; “Are You Smarter Than a Goat Herder?”; “How I Met Your Mullah”; “Desperate Cavewives.”
Jay Leno: The president of Iran, Mahmud Ahma-nut job, came to New York to address the United Nations. Why isn’t his name on the no-fly list? You don’t want to get stuck behind him in the security line. How long would that take? Actually, you know he’d go through the line in two minutes, but they’d strip search the 85-year-old grandmother standing behind him. ... According to a new report out of Cuba, Fidel Castro is near death, but is clinging to life and he is determined to outlive the Bush presidency. Wow, just like Dan Rather. ... At a John Kerry speech at the University of Florida, a student was asking the senator so many annoying questions that police tasered him. Of course, people in Washington were stunned by this. What? John Kerry’s still giving speeches? ... Another person was tasered today during a John Kerry speech. Not for being disruptive—I guess while listening to Kerry, the guy slipped into a coma. |
