The original article:

— Elizabeth Smart speaks about abstinence education - AP/Salt Lake Tribune

BALTIMORE - Rescued kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart said Wednesday she understands why some human trafficking victims don’t run.
Smart said she "felt so dirty and so filthy" after she was raped by her captor, and she understands why someone wouldn’t run "because of that alone."
Smart spoke at a Johns Hopkins human trafficking forum, saying she was raised in a re...

If you have read this (of course you have):

— Engaged or detached? — David Brooks | New York Times/sltrib.com
Let’s say you are a young person beginning to write about politics and policy. You probably have some idea of what you believe, but have you thought about how you believe it? That is to say, have you thought about where you will sit on the continuum that stretches from writers who are engaged to those who are detached? ...

— And/or this:

—

— The rule of law: Boston case belongs in civilian court - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
A young man is lying in a hospital in Boston, now formally accused of planting the bombs that killed three and injured more than 180 others at the finish line of last week’s Boston Marathon. Federal prosecutors have charged Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with the bombing, and investigators are reportedly now communicating...

This editorial was posted on the Opinion section of sltrib.com about 1:15 p.m. today. A few minutes later, tweets started flowing with the news that Utah Gov. Gary Herbert had just done what this editorial was telling him he should do: Reject the Snake Valley water deal with Nevada.

The updated editorial is here

But it's still a good editorial. So, here's to...

The Tribune wants to get with the program already:
— After DOMA: Time to recognize same-sex unions — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
While the nine members of the United States Supreme Court ponder what will likely prove to be two of their more historic decisions, the leaders and citizens of Utah can start thinking about some choices they will need to make, too.
Just how far behind the rest of the nation, behind the march of history, do we want to be? And for how long? ...

...

— Veto on target: Herbert’s veto should be upheld — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
An act of common sense becomes an act of great courage when common sense is in short supply.
Gov. Gary Herbert’s decision to veto HB76, the bill that would have added Utah to a short list of states that allow people to carry concealed fire...

The Utah Legislature is done for the year, at least in its regular session. But its results are still being reviewed and the fate of most bills is still up to Gov. Gary Herbert.

— The root of evil: Seeing that money poisons politics — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Utahns have not, so far, heard any of John Swallow’s fellow Republicans calling upon him to resign or take a leave of absence while state and federal officials continue their look into allegations of ethics and campaign law violations ...

Utah's Legislature has wrapped up its business for the 2013 regular session. Other states' lawmakers are still at it.

— Slippery slope: Nothing to stop slide of education — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Gov. Gary Herbert and legislative leaders were effusive over funding granted by the Legislature for public education in the legislative session just ended. It’s the biggest infusion of new money for schools i...

— The charity fairy: Charity care won’t solve the problem — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
For years, those opposed to any real overhaul of the American health care system have liked to say that anyone can get free health care at their nearest emergency room. It was a lie then, and it’s a lie now.
But because that fairy tale has lost much of its effectiveness, some dead-ender Obamacare opponents have come up with another whopper: Charity care can do the job better than Medicaid.

— Medicaid options: Don’t tie the governor’s hands — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Utah should be among the states that will accept the federal money to expand Medicaid medical coverage to many thousands of our lower-income friends and neighbors. It is the right thing to do from both a fiscal and a humanitarian point of view. Still, it is hard to fault Gov. Gary Herbert, on whose shoulders this significant decision rests, for wanting to take his time and review the options carefully.
Which is why a bill ...

— Expand Medicaid: Step is both logical and humane — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Both mathematics and humanity are on the side of Utah joining

— Guns in schools: Bill would protect parents’ rights — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Most Utah legislators are great champions of parental rights: the right to teach your children about sex or, indeed, hold school in your home; the right to decide what medical treatment your children will receive; the right to at least be notified when your child wants an abortion.
But a bill being...

Instead of constantly arguing about how to pay the skyrocketing cost of health care, maybe it's time to resolve that we just won't pay so much.

— Stop paying medical ransoms — George Pyle | The Salt Lake Tribune

Phone rings.
"911. What is your emergency?"
"My wife has been kidnapped. I found a note saying that I have to pay $500,000 by midnight tonight. Can you help me? Please!"
"Yes, sir. Just tell me how the ransom is to be delivered ...

Above: A Bagley blast from the past. Dec. 5, 2011, to be exact.

A pedagogical tone to today's editorial round-up:

— Early education: SB71 should be a beginning — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Opponents of a bill in the Utah Senate that would pay for a few more at-risk children to attend pre-kindergarten classes are living ...

— Prison break: State must consider all the costs — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
The unseemly haste with which lawmakers seem to be moving toward the relocation of Utah State Prison seems to suggest that our elected leaders have forgotten just what a such a facility is for.
Prisons serve many purposes. First, of course, is that they separate us from people w...

Our editorial about a bad bill that has been proposed in Utah:

— Nuclear speculation: SB199 would shift risk to ratepayers — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
When the ink isn’t even dry before the sponsoring lawmaker starts distancing himself from a bill he just introduced, the possibility of that bill becoming law seems remote indeed.
Which is good, because ...

— ‘They deserve a vote’: Obama’s ideas also require scrutiny — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Most of President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address was

— Air solution: Cleaner air requires leadership — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
If this winter’s air-pollution crisis serves any purpose other than to make every Wasatch Front resident less healthy, it may be this: From the governor on down, Utahns are beginning to understand that dramatic changes in behavior and public policy are all that will keep the problem from getting worse. Make that much worse. ...

—

The Tribune is not the only newspaper disappointed in the conduct of the Utah Legislature:

— Target shooting: Pulling SB120 was a bad idea — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
There’s devoted. There’s extreme. And there’s utterly absurd. And the idea that the Second Amendment would in any way be infringed by a bill that would have allowed the Utah state forester to restrict target shooting in times and places where it would create a wildfire hazard is absurd, to say the least.
Such a bill —

A year ago, Utah was leading with humane immigration reform ideas, and Arizona, while active, was more retrograde. Today, at least as measured by their U.S. senators, the roles of the two states seem reversed.

— Out of the shadows: Utah’s Lee on the wrong side — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Marco Rubio is right. And

One Utah legislator recognizing the risks of climate change. And some under-the-influence editorial writers:

— Fire battle plan: Bill recognizes threat of warming — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
One Utah legislator is finally trying to bring a state land-management policy in line with science and the pressing concerns of the 21st century. ...
... Rep. Kraig Powell, R-Heber City, is

— Sheriffs vs feds: Grandstanding is useless exercise — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
In light of the Utah Sheriffs Association’s recent rant, there are a few clarifications to make concerning the changes in federal gun-control laws being proposed by President Obama...

— Obama II: The president sets a new tone — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
President Obama set the theme for his second inaugural address by quoting from the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by thei...

Win one:

Editorial, Jan. 11 (Second item): You want some fries with that? » The idea that a state’s law should prohibit patrons in a restaurant from being served a nice glass of wine or a cocktail as they peruse the menu is silly. The idea that said state should expend its limited money and manpower trying to entrap wait staff into violating that law is absurd. Yet that’s just what is happening in Utah. ...

News article, Jan. 15:

— Jeremy Johnson’s influence over the AG — Jim Wightman, former director of internal audit for Salt Lake County | For The Salt Lake Tribune

— Swallow scandal a cesspool — Ogden Standard-Examiner Editorial
We have no idea if Utah’s new attorney general, John Swallow, should resign amid charges from a suspected swindler that he sought a $600,...

— Now is the time: Obama poses no threat to Utah — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
President Obama’s list of executive orders and legislative proposals intended to reduce firearms deaths in the United States is reasonable, balanced and worthy of support. The program, entitled "Now Is the Time," does not, and...

— Raise the limit: Dispute over debt limit irresponsible — Salt Lake Tribune
It is a measure of just how upside down our nation is when the Democrat in the White House is the fiscal conservative and the Republicans in Congress are the financial radicals. But that is the pass we have come to.
President Obama is nothing but correct when he points out that the reason the federal debt limit of $16....

— Swallow should go: A.G.’s version of events bad enough — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial/sltrib.com, Jan. 14
Not even a full week after he was sworn in as Utah’s new attorney general, John Swallow was hit by stunning allegations from a man who is facing federal fraud charges, who claims that, while on the state payroll, Swallow helped him cook up an attempt to bribe a United States senator.
S...

Apparently, allusions to dialog from the original Star Wars are in these days for pundits.

There's mine: — More Jedi, fewer stormtroopers

And Paul Krugman's: — Japan steps out

But, as a Timesman, academic and Nobel winner, Krugman's is a little more subtle.

Can you spot it?

Above: The family of Brian Cardall, who died in 2009 after a Hurricane police officer shocked him with a Taser, has settled its wrongful death lawsuit against the officer, police chief and the city.

— More Jedi, fewer stormtroopers — George Pyle | The Salt Lake Tribune
A sheriff I used to know preferred talking to shooting.
And it was a good thing, too, because one of the few times he was face-to-face with an armed fugitive, he held out his left hand in a "halt" gesture an...

Above: 2012: The year climate change got real.

Some Western editorialists today are focused on national, or even global, issues.

Like climate change:

— The hottest year: Time to end climate change denial — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
One degree Fahrenheit. That’s all. That’s the margin by which the

— In Utah, too, the show must go on — George Pyle | The Salt Lake Tribune

In my senior year of high school, the drama, music and art students worked long and hard to put on a pretty darn good production of “South Pacific.” I had absolutely nothing to do with it. As with most true works of art, controversy ensued. ... That was almost (cough) years ago, and the maddeningly unfounded concerns that art might offend the tender sensibilities of high school students or, much more accurately, their parents, live on. ...

— ‘All Shook Up’ too racy for district; Herriman High show canceled — Salt...

— Avenue H: Utah’s exchange has work to do — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Rather than simply reject Utah’s puny attempt at an online health insurance exchange — which, by law, it had every right to do — the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has graciously offered to work with Gov. Gary Herbert in building the project with the children’s [or not] TV show name into something that will pass statutory, and moral, muster. And it’s going to take some work.

— The White House calls Utah’s Obamacare bluff — Sarah Kliff | The Washington Post/Wonkblog ... many health policy observers [were] expecting that the White Hou...

— Shurtleff’s sad exit: A.G. becomes what he once opposed — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial ... In 2009, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff was laying plans to oust a Washington insider who, arguably, was far too cozy with America’s big banks. Today, he is one. ... Once party to a lawsuit that was pushing Bank of America and its subsidiaries to obey the consumer protections found in Utah law, Shurtleff the other day did a huge favor for that same giant bank, agreeing to a settlement that could let BofA off the hook for much of its alleged wrongdoing in Utah. Shurtleff abandoned the 2010 Senate race for legitimate family reasons, watching as [Sen. Bob] Benn...

“This is a mountain calling to his son, ‘Oh, Cliff!!’” — Red Skelton

— The fiscal cliff vote: Only Hatch was part of the solution — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial As Congress moved late Tuesday to avoid falling over the so-called fiscal cliff, Utah’s Sen. Orrin Hatch was part of the solution. Every other member of the Utah congressional delegation was part of the problem. Sen. Mike Lee was one of only eight members of the upper chamber to vote against the last-minute deal to head off a planned combination of tax hikes and spending cuts that threatened to push the American economy back into recession. And all three of the st...

Pipeline pipe dream: Las Vegas water greed is too much — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Referring to the groundwater found in western Utah and eastern Nevada as a “renewable” resource, as the person in charge of finding ever more water for the fountains and golf courses of Las Vegas does, is like calling the Utah Legislature a Democratic stronghold. It rains in the desert sometimes. And the Democratic Party has not been completely swept from the Utah Capitol. But counting on the strength of either one in the foreseeable future would be a hope devoid of realism. That is why last week’s decision by the Bureau of Land Management to allow construction of a mam...

— The myths of Santa and the NRA — George Pyle | The Salt Lake Tribune ... In the next day or two, this newspaper and newspapers all over America will participate in the annual Christmas tradition of reprinting Francis Pharcellus Church’s editorial of 1897, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” Bah, humbug. Editorial writers, practitioners of a craft dedicated to the search for truth, have been sawing away in this country for a long time. And the only product of ours that most people remember is a piece arguing for a continued belief in a mythical being. Which brings us to the National Rifle Association and its front man, Wayne LaPierre. He held a p...

— Utah State Prison: Be skeptical of relocation scheme — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial ... If someone talked you into an investment that cost you upwards of $400 million, and left you short by more than $300 million of that, then that person’s next address might be at the Utah State Prison in Draper. Unless, of course, the Utah Legislature goes along with a plan to tear down that facility, sell the land and create a new lock-up somewhere further off the beaten path. It is an idea that deserves to be greeted with a great deal of skepticism, a lot of questions and some sharp pencils. ...

— Food stamp numbers alarming — Ogd...

— The Colorado River: Water will become more valuable — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial ...The day may come, in the not too distant future, that holding rights to Colorado River Basin water may be like owning stock in Hostess Brands or Lehman Brothers. Even the most ironclad legal document won’t help you get your share of something that isn’t there. The U.S. Department of the Interior Wednesday released the results of a three-year examination of the past, present and future of the Colorado River Basin. The bottom line should be a surprise to no one: The population of the seven states that draw much of their water from the river and its tributaries is continuin...

— Newtown tragedy: Keep guns out of the wrong hands — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial ... A gun without a madman will not destroy an entire classroom of innocent children. A madman without a gun would be unable to cause anywhere near the level of horror that occurred Friday at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. It is at the intersection of those pathologies — a nation led by politicians forever fearful of the powerful gun lobby and a society that shuns all aspects of mental illness into perpetual shadow — that America too often finds itself standing.

— Again, a tragedy leaves us mystified — Deseret News Edito...

— Education budget: Too little for struggling kids — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial ... Forbes magazine rates Utah as the best state for business. However, Utah does not fare well in what many believe is an even more important function of state government: educating Utah’s children. Nearly a quarter of Utah children do not graduate from high school. Of those who do, about a third are not ready for college. Gov. Gary Herbert soft-pedaled those realities when he explained his fiscal year 2014 budget recommendations to the Tribune editorial board Wednesday. ...

— Innovative thinking needed to reform education — Deseret News...

— Obamacare in Utah: State should end its resistance — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial ... The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress. It was signed by the president. It was upheld by the Supreme Court. And it was, quite clearly, ratified by a majority of the American electorate just last month. The ongoing attempts by the state of Utah to somehow wriggle out of some of the law’s basic requirements are both embarrassing and counterproductive. ...

— Obamacare protesters dragging feet for naught — Spokane Spokesman-Review Editorial ... The establishment of health care exchanges need not be so bitte...

Motorcycle helmet laws:

— Wearing helmets: Let’s require sensible behavior — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial ... The consequences of irresponsible behavior go beyond the reckless biker. We need to require helmets for everyone riding a motorcycle.

— Mandatory helmet law for Utah? — Provo Daily Herald Editorial ... Unless you’re going to ban motorcycles altogether — along with extra large sodas — you might as well forget about reducing risks to individual riders. Riding itself carries inherent risks, helmet or no helmet. And the state’s interest doesn’t seem compelling. ...

— Sen. Lee, you’re no Bob Dole — George Pyle | The Salt Lake Tribune ... For the rest of my life, I can say I met Bob Dole once or twice and be proud of a very meager connection to a truly great American. None of my fellow Utahns can say that about either of our senators.

— Sen. Hatch joins Lee on the low road — Paul Rolly | The Salt Lake Tribune ... Orrin, you broke my heart. ... I had high hopes for a return to your statesman’s persona. Instead, at least so far, you have chosen to take the low road.

— Anderson Cooper Calls Out GOP Senator: You Have ‘Very Scary Hypotheticals’ But No ...

— Utah’s pride ... : Shurtleff promotes humane reforms — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial... The fact that one of our elected officials, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, is a leader in the move to bring the Republican Party around to the need for immigration reform that is not only comprehensive, but humane, brings honor on the entire state of Utah. ...

— ... Utah’s shame: Lee, Hatch destroy a humane treaty — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial... The fact that one of our elected officials, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, was a leader in the move to block Senate ratification of a United Nations treaty promoting the rights of disabled people world-wi...

What is the one thing that will get the typical American male to criticize the National Football League? Defending the national gun culture. Viz:

— The real threat to football players — Rich Lowry | The National Review via sltrib.com ... There’s a reason that halftime of NFL broadcasts is usually reserved for game analysis and highlights, rather than social science. NBC announcer Bob Costas showed why with a little sermonette during the Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys game Sunday night.

Just a day earlier, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend be...

— Coach Majerus: An appetite for basketball — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Calling Rick Majerus larger than life would be no less apt a description of the former University of Utah basketball coach if he had weighed 125 pounds and craved celery and seaweed instead of pizza and pasta. ...

— Coach Majerus and me — Liddy Huntsman | For The Salt Lake Tribune In life, I believe the moments that change your life are when you meet that one special person. For me, I was lucky and came across this person at a young age. His name was Rick Majerus, whom I call Coach. ...

— There was nobody like Ri...

High school:

— As we keep students from dropping out ... — Seattle Times Editorial... Washington must tackle its pernicious dropout rate. Getting young people into college or careers means first keeping them in high school.

— ... we must continue to Race to the Top — another Seattle Times Editorial

— California graduation rate fails too many — San Francisco Chronicle Editorial

— Dropout rate shames state — Eugene Register-Guard Editorial

— Radical thinking needed to improve Utah’s gr...

A lot of editorializing in the last few days about the real world impact of the money governments raise and spend. Or that they don’t.

— Saving Hill AFB: Facility must prove its value — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial... If Hill is to survive, it must be established to the satisfaction of Congress, the Pentagon brass and whatever Base Realignment and Closure structure is cooked up, that to do so, and to spend the money necessary to do so, amounts to a benefit to national security that is worth the money. ...

— Infrastructure over tax breaks — Ogden Standard-Examiner Editorial... there is one w...