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Float Follies
We thought Utah college teachers were teaching college students. Turns out they are busy making floats for the Utah County Republican Party. An internal audit of Utah County’s Mountain Applied Technology College found a welding instructor spent 29 hours building the GOP’s Freedom Festival float, which was illegally paid for out of college funds. A college administrator has been placed on leave over the scandal but, according to the state auditor’s report, he didn’t have much choice. The administrator first said he was heavily pressured by the Utah County GOP and state lawmakers to build the float, but later recanted after a phone call from legislative leaders. Meanwhile, legislative leaders say they may, or may not, call for an internal investigation—to clear the Legislature’s good name.
School Board Retreat
Hooray for the Jordan School Board who collectively have demonstrated that even elected school officials can learn, given enough time. In a 6-1 vote, the board reversed an earlier decision to give themselves automatic cost-of-living adjustments, and an option to more than double their salaries to $30,000, by dipping into a district insurance fund. The reverse only took a few weeks of getting yelled at by school-district patrons. While they gave up parts of the benefits package they awarded themselves in July, Jordan board members left intact a quadrupling of their base salary from last year’s $3,000 to today’s $12,000. Hooray. Maybe someone should make them a float.
Romney’s Reverse
How quick Mitt is to desert a friend—at least now that he’s “evolved” from the guy who once claimed to be more gay-friendly than Ted Kennedy. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was honorary co-chairman for the Romney campaign, as well as Romney’s Idaho campaign chair and U.S. Senate liaison. But news had barely broken about Craig’s arrest in a men’s airport bathroom by an undercover vice investigator when Craig “volunteered” to step down. The Romney campaign yanked Craig’s YouTube testimonial from its Website, and a Romney son canceled a trip to Idaho because of a “schedule change.” On the YouTube video—now resurrected by bloggers—Craig is seen praising Romney’s “strong family values.” Like, for example, tossing a man in trouble overboard?
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Chaffetz's Constitution, Health Care Reform, Utah's Economy & Claire Geddes' Return
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Stimulated
If you don´t like the federal stimulus yet, wait a few months.
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Skinny Utahns, Camp Williams' Data Center & BCS Busters
Utahns are the eighth skinniest people in the country, according to new statistics from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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