update 4:30 p.m. 3/8/10: This has been revealed as a hoax. Read more here: Punk a Bull, You Get the Horns

A group calling itself Patriots for a Moral Utah will announce legislation at a 1 p.m. press conference today that would bring an "effective end to the tribulation in our blessed state." Hopefully not too good to be true--who doesn't want to end tribulation?--the press release states the legislation will deal with homosexuals who "continually force their choices and behaviors on us."

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update 4:30 p.m. 3/8/10: This has been revealed as a hoax. Read more here: Punk a Bull, You Get the Horns

I'm most interested to see how gay-rights critics respond to a--joke?--draft initiative sent to the media this morning that, if approved by voters and the courts, would give homosexual Utahns three options: move out-of-state on your own, take state-provided transportation out of state, or enter homo-rehab.

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Note to readers,

I apologize.

As I reported first via my Twitter feed, the press conference calling for a ballot initiative to remove homosexuals from Utah was fake. At best, the organizers put together improv theater that punked the Utah press corps and maybe got people to think about gay rights for a moment. It's fashionable to make fools of news media folk such as myself, so, touche. But at its worst, it was an offensive attention-grabbing play on Holocaust-like imagery and language that does little to advance the argument for gay rights in Utah.

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One thing I've learned as a crime/court reporter over the years is the Legislature shouldn't give prosecutors a power that they don't want them to use. For example, if you don't want prosecutors to file felony sex-crime charges against a 13-year-old pregnant girl and a 12-year-old boy who knocked her up, then don't write laws that allow them to do so. No matter how absurd (pdf) the application of the law may be, some prosecutor, some where, at some time, will probably do it.

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Just a few months ago, Utah had three openly gay or lesbian state legislators, but within a few more months, there will be just one.

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The Legislature is again debating what level of transparency will inoculate them from accusations that they are mere patrons to their corporate donors. I have a better idea. Let's logo the lawmakers.

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The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office has filed charges against individuals alleged to have attacked DJ Bell and Dan Fair on July 5, 2008. The case gained a lot of attention almost immediately after it occurred because the apparent victims of an attack--Bell and boyfriend Dan Fair, then of South Salt Lake--had to wait until Bell could defend himself against sketchy kidnapping charges before the obvious assault was charged by prosecutors. The charges include at least one first-degree felony.

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Right now, literally, (audio , video) Rep. Christopher Herrod is arguing on the House floor that Utah was not admitted to the union (the United States) on an "equal footing" of the original states because Utah has more land owned by the federal government than other states. Is Herrod aware that Tooele County alone is bigger than three other states?

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One of these days reminders that Jon Huntsman Jr. was one of Utah's greatest politicians will wane, but that day is not today. New (to me) today is a study that cites Utah's four-day work week for state employees, praising the state for skipping ahead a few steps in work-life trends that are already happening anyway.

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