- Driver training: Leave existing law alone - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Americans believe that driving a car is a birthright. Maybe that’s why the Legislature seems ready to eliminate the requirement that people over the age of 19 complete a driver training course before they can get a li...

Above: Citizens United explained.

[And we use the term fallout advisedly.]

- Move to amend: Standing up to big money - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

So far, all it is is a suggestion to make a suggestion. But it could be among the seeds of a movement that has the potential to revolutionize democracy in America. For the better.
The newly formed ...

Above: Gov. Gary Herbert's 1/31/12 presser announcing his voluntary air quality initiative.

- Enviro boards: SB21 dilutes citizens' voice - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

The only possible reason Republicans in the Legislature have to change

Above: Orrin puts his foot in it.

When the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When the law is on your side, argue the law.

When neither the facts nor the law is on your side, start picking on low-income women who don’t/didn’t want to get pregnant.

Utah’s way-senior senator, Orrin Hatch, fearing for his political life, le...

Above: Maybe it would help if they all sang.

- Autism care: Legislators dance with mandate - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Oh, the hypocrisy.
Members of Utah’s Republican-dominated Legislature are in a race to bash, subvert, attack in court or get out from under the federal Affordable Care Act, known pe...

Above: Just to be clear, this is NOT a Utah Republican caucus meeting. Though more people might come if it were.

- Gatherings in Zion: LDS leaders have some good advice - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Somebody out there is probably, at this very minute, holding last Thursday’s letter from the

- Education funding: SB54 full of good ideas - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Sen. Ben McAdams’ bill to change the funding mechanisms for public education is a proposal with good ideas, of both substance and whimsy.
First, the whimsy. McAdam...

Anybody who believes in anything likely has some of their tax money put to some use that they object to, or would if they thought about it. Weapons or welfare. Death row or day care. And the fact that all employer-provided health insurance gets a tax break means all taxpayers, even the ones who don't believe in contraception, have been paying for it for a long time.

- Modern medicine: Basic health includes contraceptives - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Universal a...

- Abortion waiting: Proposal insults Utah women - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, is leading an effort in the Legislature to extend the waiting period prior to an abortion from 24 hours to 72. The ...

Above: Anybody want to see a movie called "How to Register a Domestic Partnership with a Millionaire"? Didn't think so.

Two gay guys walk into a newspaper editor’s office. (Stop me if you’ve heard this one.)

Their names are Skip and Steve [not this Skip and Steve], and they want to know if I will publish their engagement and wedding announcements.

When I say, “Sure,” they almost look disappoin...

Above: Mrs. May tells us how to take tests.

- Show your work: Public bodies must meet in the open - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

When a math teacher wants to know that a student really understood how to solve a complex problem, and didn’t just make a lucky guess or crib off the student at the next desk, they put this direction at the top of the test: “Show your work.”
That is what the

Above: The great man votes. Or tries to.

- Nonpersons: Bill is voter suppression lite - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

The Utah House last week passed a bill with the stated goal of making Utah look marginally more democratic than it really is, by actually making it slightly less democratic.
Call it voter suppression lite.
S...

Probably Gov. Herbert didn't read our editorial this morning suggeting Salt Lake City go for another hitch as host of the Olympic Winter Games. If he knew we were for it, he'd probably be against it.

But ...

- Olympics again: S.L. should bid for 2022 games - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

It’s time to rekindle the fire within. Salt Lake City should make a bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
After all,

- Magical thinking: Oil from shale, sands still imaginary - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

It’s appropriate that Gov. Gary Herbert, in attacking a federal proposal to restrict the amount of public land available for

Huge news. Not a lot of commentary so far. Just too hard to get your head around.

- Just evil: Blame for tragedy lies with father - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Sunday morning, there were more than a few people who suspected that Josh Powell was a murderer. Sunday evening, there was no longer any doubt.
In between, Powell us...

Above: A walkthrough of an online textbook.

Who says the folks who run state government in Utah don't have any good ideas:

- Online textbooks: State education office's great idea - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

As any parent of a Utah secondary-school student knows, “free” public education is far from free, despite a constitutional mandate<...

Above: They haven't made a movie about Justice Scalia yet. Maybe Danny DeVito would be interested.

Last month, distinguished Harvard Law graduate Antonin Scalia convinced eight of his closest friends to

There. Sex and teens in one headline. That ought to drive some web traffic.

Above: The official theme song of Utah's sex education laws.

- Clueless teens: Utah youths need sex education - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

If Utah teenagers said they believe the Nile River is in southern Utah and that the

Above: Every get the feeling you've done this before?

Today is Groundhog Day. So the International Brotherhood of Hack Writers commands that we come up with something that has to do with the feeling that we've already lived through this day before. (If Harold Ramis got a residual for every time somebody used that metaphor, h...

Above: Gov. Herbert's air quality policy. Complete with Ronald Reagan's first wife.

- Seeking leadership: Herbert should act on air pollution - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Gov. Gary Herbert wants to go on record as be...

Above: Here's life with everybody carrying guns.

If someone says they want to be able to openly carry a firearm in a modern city without being considered a public safety hazard, tell them that openly carrying a firearm in a modern city - unless you are a uniformed police officer - IS a public safety hazard, whether the law says so or not. It might as well say so.

- Guns in the open: State should not pre-empt cities - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

The mythical ti...

Above: Brother, can you spare a dime?

- Protect jobless fund: Unemployment is still a threat - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

A bill now hurtling through the Utah Legislature has an odor of

Above: Or we could just watch this video on the Fourth of July.

- Dousing the flames: Lawmakers willing to admit error - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

When a firecracker fizzles or a skyrocket flops, as they sometimes do, the only sensible thing to do is make absolutely sure the fire is out and move on to something else.
That is what the Utah Legislature is sensibly moving tow...

Above: Now, here's a State of the Union for you.

Gary Herbert couldn’t take credit for killing Osama bin Laden.

But, like Barack Obama the night before, the governor of Utah made the politically astute decision to open his

Above: Supreme Court opinions too dry? Go to the movies.

- CSI: 1791: GPS ruling leaves too much doubt - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

The good news is, all nine justices of the United States Supreme Court agree that the police need a proper search warrant if they are going to secretly attach a GPS tracking device to your c...

January, the season for State of the State addresses:

- State of the State: Gary Herbert runs to the right - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

On Tuesday night, President Obama kicked off his re-election campaign with one of the most baldly political State of the Union speeches in memory. On Wednesday night, Utah

Above: It gets better.

In an editorial this morning calling for the Utah Legislature to pass a statewide version of the anti-discrimination ordinances that protect gay, lesbian and trangendered* people, we said there were 13 cities and counties in the state that had already passed similar laws and were suffering no known ill effects.

Make that 14.

-

Above: State of the Union Address, White House Enhanced Version.

- State of the Union: Restoring the American dream - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

The defining issue of the 2012 presidential campaign is the American dream. For Americans who are unemployed or underemployed, it is dead or on life support. President Obama spent his

"Man, it was weird, like being back in the '50s or something. They didn't even have any Internet."

How time flies.

The Utah Legislative Session, also known as The Editorial Writers Full Employment Act, begins ...

- Express-lane speed: Keep it the same as other lanes - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Rep. Kenneth Sumsion wants more people to use the express lanes on freeways. He would give them

Above: Clay Shirky explains why SOPA and PIPA are really bad ideas.

The upcoming opening of the Utah Legislature recalls the flurry of activity that attended the closing of the last session. It was a great day for democracy and for the traditional media, as The Salt Lake Tribune and ot...

- Flaming hypocrisy: Giant pipelines don't wash - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert would probably like to take a firm stand against the cockamamie idea of building a

Above: The part of the Huntsman campaign that might win. A TV show, that is.

- Huntsman out: Candidate was right to pull the plug - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Jon Huntsman’s wit...

Above: Jon Huntsman bows out.

The online punditry still likes Jon Huntsman, even as he bows out of his run for the White House.

[The State, South Carolina's largest newspaper, even endorsed him in its Sunday editorial. Oops.]

His point that the campaign is a nasty place is underlined by the fact that a lot of what's being said is that Hunts...

Above: Reason TV and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

The names we give things have a great power over how we think about them. Ever since Richard Nixon declared a “War on drugs” in 1971, the United States has gone ever further down the road of applying a military solution to a public health problem.

Above: Even under the Clinton health care plan, we'd all still die. (The really good part starts at about 2:18.)

- Plan for the end: Advance health care planning - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Rule No. 1: We’re all going to die.
Rule No. 2: We can’t do anything to change Rule No. 1.
Given Rule No. 1, it would be a good idea to do some advance planning for the end of our lives, particularly how we might want to direct our...

- Explain shooting: Police should tell what happened - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

... The citizens of Ogden deserve to know more than the police department has yet divulged about what happened Jan. 4.
We under...

Photo: If only having the coolest jacket was worth more votes.

- Huntsman in peril: Falls short in New Hampshire - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

The best man did not win the Republican primary in New Hampshire. Jon Huntsman’s t...

Above: Trailer for "King of Bain: When Mitt Romney came to town."

So. Jon Huntsman runs a hard campaign on the issues. Does all the retail marketing that a small state like New Hampshire requires. Comes in a respectable third. And who gets the post-primary ink?

Newt Gingrich. And perhaps for all the wrong reasons.

Are the attacks on Mitt Romney's private equity days fair?...

- High court stood up for disclosure - Helena (Mont.) Independent-Record Editorial

... Money talks, and pretending otherwise isn’t realistic. But it’s not unreasonable to want to temper its voice to some leveling extent — and more importantly, to know who’s really doing the talking. We applaud the Montana Supreme Court for upholding a century-long attempt to give the people the strongest voice in state politics.

-

Above: A Young Turk explains the Montana decision.
------------

He is said to have bought legislatures and judges as other men buy food and raiment. By his example he has so excused and so sweetened corruption that in Montana it no longer has an offensive smell.”

— Mark Twain

The above was quoted by Montana

Above: Words below are Richard Cordray's story. Now he wants to hear yours.

- Power grabs: Obama is right to name Cordray - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Yes, President Obama’s decision to use a recess appointment<...

Above: Mitt to Iowa: "Because the country counts on you."

- Mitt in Iowa: Still the front-runner, barely - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Mitt Romney did not win the Iowa Republican caucuses by much, just a few delegate votes. But ...

Above: Why we should care about air quality, from the Utah Department of Transportation Planning Division

- Pollution report: DEQ data both good, bad - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

The Utah Department of Environmental Quality’s 2011 report on pollution [Trib article] contains some positive developments a...

Above: New York MTA rail safety spot. Please, tell me that's a camera trick at the end.

- TRAX safety: Personal vigilance is key - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Safety around TRAX trains is a two-way contract. The Utah Transit Authority has a responsibility to provide warnings for drivers, train passengers and pedestrians, and operators must maintain proper lookout. But the ultimate responsibility for ...

As usual, our annual request for dream headlines, the headlines people hope to see in the coming year, produced more suggestions than would fit in the space on the New Year's Day Opinion page.

So here, in no particular order, are some of the other submissions we received.

Thanks. And see you next year.

- Bank of America apologizes for wrongful foreclosures, builds homeless shelters in cities nationwide - Afton January

- Astronauts find body of Alice Kramden on the moon - Nancy Bento

- Cancer cured: Huntsman Cancer Hospital becomes day spa - Dave Doepner

- United States united again - Susanne Reeves

- Dec. 12, 2012, a hoax - Molly Baird

Above: Bizarro Seinfeld World. Much nicer.

It wasn’t the first time that Linda Hilton has had her name taken in vain.

An outspoken advocate for the poor, which goes with the job of being the director of Utah’s Coalition of Religious Communities, Hilton already had to have some of her more online-savvy friends hunt down whoever it was who had been creating phony websites that appeared to be run by ...

Above: A Senate confirmation debate, Hollywood style. (Folks laughed when Betty White played a (female) senator from Kansas in this 1962 movie, "Advise and Consent". They hadn't yet heard of Nancy Kassebaum.)

- Confirm U.S. judges: U.S. Senate hobbles court - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Above: Making the case in favor of official secrecy, Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones. "Believe me, it's for your own protection."

- The best defense: Do the public's business in public - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Note to all members of Utah’s public boards, commissions, councils and committees: If it is among your duties to make decisions on public policy, or even to recommend decisions to be made by others, there will come a time when one of those decisions wil...

Above: Time explained. (I first saw this program on a Virgin Atlantic fight across the Atlantic, hurtling through time zones. Appropriate, no?)

- Bad timing: Utah should stick with daylight time - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a nonlinear, nonsubjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey ... stuff.”
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