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MISS: Trust Us
nA Utah man is on a mission to have “In God We Trust” posted in every Utah classroom next to the American flag. Some Utah lawmakers and school officials have reportedly signed on. Backers say it’s not about forcing religion down Johnny’s throat. But the effort follows the lead of a national campaign promoted by the American Family Association'a group that backs using the Bible as a public-school textbook and is currently protesting Ford because of the automaker’s “support for the homosexual agenda.” Before Jerry Falwell is declared a Founding Father, it might be worth noting “In God We Trust” didn’t come along until the Red scare of the 1950s. The Founders chose the more inclusive “E pluribus unumâ€'â€out of many, one.”
HIT: Mexican Aid
nQuick. Alert the Minutemen: Mexicans are … educating our children. A group of visiting Mexican teachers due to show up at a public-school classroom near you in August speak English, have work visas and are being begged to cross the border by Utah public-education officials desperate to find workers who will do the low-paying jobs Utahns don’t want. The imports are made possible through the Utah State Office of Education and an agreement Utah’s Governor’s Office hashed out with the government of Mexico two years ago. The Mexican teachers bring skills rare in Utah'the ability to teach math, physics and chemistry, not to mention Spanish'and will help put a small dent in the Beehive State’s alarming teacher shortage.
MISS: Gasbags
nttnPublic participation in government is all well and good, in theory. But letting the public participate in something called the Public Service Commission is just going too far. That, it seems, is the view of Questar Gas, Utah’s main natural-gas utility, which has asked the PSC to stop individual gas consumers from interfering in hearings about whether Questar should be able to hike gas rates. The gas company has good reason for wanting the rule change; his name is Roger Ball. Fired from his job representing consumers in utility-rate disputes after he did too good a job, Ball obstinately keeps showing up at PSC hearings'now as an unpaid gadfly and, until the rules change, consumers’ only bulwark against rate-hike-hungry utilities.
More by Ted McDonough
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Stimulated
If you don´t like the federal stimulus yet, wait a few months.
- Jul 15, 2009
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Chaffetz's Constitution, Health Care Reform, Utah's Economy & Claire Geddes' Return
Congressman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is cosponsoring legislation that would deny citizenship to children born in the United States to noncitizen parents, reversing long-standing law that everyone born in America is a citizen.
- Jul 15, 2009
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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.
- Jul 8, 2009
- More »
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