When the College Republicans at the University of Utah sponsored "Conservative Day" at the University of Utah, participants were unaware that conservative values apparently don't include First Amendment principles.
Several candidates and institutions had booths at the event, and one candidate invited the Fair Boundaries Coalition, the group circulating petitions to get a redistricting reform on the ballot, to set up a booth.
Fair Boundaries member Mark Nelson, a University of Utah graduate and a former intern to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., explained to the College Republicans why he was there and they set him up.
Within a few minutes, Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, was in Nelson's face, asking him if he was letting folks know that the reform idea that would set up an independent redistricting advisory commission would cost taxpayers $2 million (actually, legislative staff has put a $1 million fiscal note on the initiative). Nelson explained the fiscal note information certainly was available, but a few minutes later, an official with the College Republicans told Nelson that Republican legislators were upset with his presence and he would have to leave.
The legislators are a bit protective of their current ability to draw their own district boundaries to make themselves as electable as possible. Apparently, that is a core conservative value.
And to add insult to injury, this was on the University of Utah campus. Most of the legislators complaining were from Utah County -- BYU territory .
Educational priorities » Students at Oakdale Elementary School in the Canyons School District were not able to watch President Obama's speech to schoolchildren Tuesday -- not because of paranoid parents, but because they were in the middle of taking a statewide standardized test, which lasted several days.
Thursday, a karate instructor from a private martial arts studio came to talk to each class about how karate teaches kids to be more obedient and listen in class.
He also made a pitch for his martial arts studio.
The kicker? You guessed it. The school worked around its testing schedule to accommodate the karate pitchman, something they couldn't do for the president's speech.
One-stop shopping » I wrote recently about the Division of Motor Vehicles office in Draper, where someone arrested for DUI must go to pay the fine to retrieve his or her impounded vehicle, and how it is right next door to a liquor store.
A reader points out that just across the interstate from there is the Utah State Prison.
