POSTED // Jan 21,2009 - Alone in a car, doing 80 on 80—west of the airport where the dark, smooth slope of the Kennecott tailings mesa looms—I am half listening to Morning Edition on KUER 90.1 as my mind wanders in free association: my days on the Kennecott payroll, reading On the Road, and, unavoidably, the Donner Party. nOn a beeline to Donner Pass, I am timed to beat an approaching storm, 550 miles with ga...

POSTED // Jan 21,2009 - This year, Utah is in store for some painful budget cuts. If you were in charge—at any level of government—how would you cut government expenditures? n nLia Pretorius: I’d start by eliminating tax shelters for religious organizations that use their funds to influence public policy through political activism. Think how nice it would be to have all those additional funds—you...

POSTED // Jan 21,2009 - Three million people on the Washington Mall. CNN talking heads keep telling us this, during the final minutes leading up to the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th president of the United States. How do you get your arms around that number? The 1963 March on Washington, for the cause of civil rights on this same site, brought out 250,000 people. Nothing in the history of this national gathering p...

POSTED // Jan 21,2009 - HDrill DelaynPlugging Arches and Canyonlands full of holes for oil and gas rigs will have to wait. A federal judge foiled the Bush administrations last-minute auction of Utah’s redrock country by postponing the sales while he considers environmentalist arguments for additional study. The move should keep the drillers at bay until Bush is back in Crawford, Texas, and may give Obama a window o...

POSTED // Jan 21,2009 - I am exhausted. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in my life. I think I can speak for all my fellow public servants just back from our study of streetcars in six European cities when I say that riding streetcars is the hardest work I’ve ever done, not just ever, but in my entire life. In my opinion, The Salt Lake Tribune was unfair to a bunch of hard-working public servants w...

POSTED // Jan 21,2009 - Ted McDonough’s Hits & Misses column Jan. 15 made mention of the TV antics of Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Chaffetz’ sponsorship of a bill to prevent reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine—but neglected to lavish the freshman Congressman with unbridled praise, drawing much ire from members of Chaffetz’s personality cult. But it was a reader named “Typical Libe...

POSTED // Jan 21,2009 - nEight features and columns that didn’t make the final cut in the City Weekly redesign: n8. Transgender Pet of the Week n7. Goth Fashion Corner With Aasagarth n6. I Saw You ... and I’m Watching You Right Now n5. Guess Who Lost Their Liquor License? n4. Last Week’s Weather in Review n3. Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Sudoku n2. Notes From the Drunk Tank n1. The Nueve...

POSTED // Jan 21,2009 - Mike Thompson, right, is executive director for Equality Utah, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBT statewide and local civil rights. He and his staff (L-R) Stephanie Pappas, Lauren Little, Keri Jones and Will Carlson are looking for common ground with this year’s Legislature.nWhat was your personal reaction to California’s Prop 8 passage?nIt was like I got kicked in the gut. Bara...

POSTED // Jan 14,2009 - That a black guy is moving into the White House has got me thinking in color. n(pause) nI pause to fiddle with that opening sentence. I keep changing “in color” to “about color.” The latter is as pedestrian as buying a can of paint at Home Depot. The former seems the province of a novel, not an essay. What’s a simple scribbler to do? nCredit Ellen Meloy for putting me...

POSTED // Jan 14,2009 - Barack Obama's presidential term begins Jan. 20. Do you have any advice for him?nHolly Mullen: Be big, be brave, be radical. And count the silverware before the Bushes leave! nJeremiah Smith: Yeah—seriously, don't fuck up. Everyone is watching. nLarry Carter: Yeah. Run, Barack, run. nMatt Engle: He should start using smokeless tobacco instead of smoking. Then he could get his nicotine fix in...