Opinion - The Salt Lake Tribune

Voter access trumps threat of fraud

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Voter access trumps threat of fraud

by Xxxxxx The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Jun 19, 2013 01:01AM MDT

In 2004, Arizona voters approved a measure demanding proof of citizenship from those who seek to register to vote in the state. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled the measure invalid. The court looked to the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, also known as the motor voter law, which was supposed to streamline voter registration across the country. Among other things, it empowered a commission to develop a common registration form that all states have to “accept and use” to populate federal el...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Ghost wolves

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Ghost wolves

Published Jun 19, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Re “Value of wolves: Feds must maintain some oversight” (Our View, June 11): Big Game Forever, Wildlife Resources and creative attorney Ryan Benson convinced the Utah Legislature they should get $300,000 to “pursue legal and legislative solutions” regarding gray wolves, which have not been reintroduced in Utah. In other words, Benson gets paid by the Legislature to contact legislators and others to exercise authority over a non-existent gray wolf. I really wonder how Benson spent the $300,000 t...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Keep Coach Mike

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Keep Coach Mike

Published Jun 19, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Re “Coach Mike debacle a ‘teaching moment’” (Tribune, June 9): Something is sadly wrong in Salt Lake City government when the elected members of the City Council are prohibited from taking action to correct a mistake made my a non-elected city bureaucrat. One can only hope that a way will be found for Mike Martines to continue operating the successful Coach Mike’s Tennis Academy at the city’s Dee Smith Tennis Center. Boyer Jarvis Salt Lake City

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Debunking DeBry

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Debunking DeBry

Published Jun 19, 2013 01:01AM MDT

I am currently visiting Salt Lake City. It is a sad state of affairs when an elected official suggests, as Salt Lake County Council Chairmen Steve DeBry did, that carrying a banner advocating equal protection of the law is a partisan political activity (“Did Salt Lake County show too much pride?” Tribune, June 12). DeBry should be thanked, though, for inadvertently exposing the dishonesty behind the oft-repeated claim that opponents of same-sex marriage only object to “redefining” marriage. De...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Disgusting cartoon

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Disgusting cartoon

Published Jun 19, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Disgusting? Shameful? Appalling? There are simply no adjectives negative enough to describe the content and timing of the Bill Shorr “cartoon” published on June 6. As I sit here with the same eagle, globe and anchor bracelet on my wrist that my father wore in the Pacific during World War II, I am outraged. The raising of the flag by the U.S. Marines on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima is one of the most heroic and iconic moments in American history. To parody that legacy and sacri...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Find arch home

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Find arch home

Published Jun 19, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Re “Wanted: New home for Salt Lake City’s Olympic arch” (Tribune, June 15): With the twilight concerts a success, it’s obvious where the Olympic arch should go — on a permanent outdoor stage to host the concerts. Possibly in Pioneer Park, but with the popularity of the concerts maybe the larger Liberty Park, or even Sugar House Park (if we could just run the soon-to-be-completed streetcar a few blocks east across 1300 East to the park). I’ve been to outdoor concerts in many city parks that have ...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Love will conquer

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Love will conquer

Published Jun 19, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The issues today surrounding guns in America remind me of the controversies around gay and lesbian rights about 15 years ago. At that time, I went to a symposium at the University of Utah that was presented by parents of gay and lesbian children. Not only did these parents love and accept their children, but what struck me the most was their understanding of other people’s fears surrounding rights for gays and lesbians. Their main goal was to embrace those fears lovingly, to help others move to...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Swallow’s poor excuse

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Swallow’s poor excuse

Published Jun 19, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Re “Swallow took in $105,000 from donors in trouble with regulators” (Tribune, June 15): In light of the clear, mounting and convincing evidence about his conduct, the repeated and continuing claim of Utah Attorney General John Swallow that he has done nothing wrong proves quite simply that the attorney general of the state of Utah does not know the difference between right and wrong. The citizens of Utah deserve a top legal officer who understands the difference. James P. Cowley Salt Lake Ci...

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Bagley guest cartoonist: Matt Wuerker

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:25:20 MDT

Bagley guest cartoonist: Matt Wuerker

the Salt Lake Tribune

Published Jun 18, 2013 06:25PM MDT

Cartoonist’s Note: While I take time away from drawing to organize the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention AAEC - Annual Convention, I am featuring the work of some attendees. (By the way, how many at the conference table can you name?). Matt Wuerker, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, does his daily cartoons old school, with ink on paper and watercolor washes, which is ironic, since he works for the web-based newspaper, Politico. Matt is the current President of the Asso...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

GSLC and LGBT

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:34:02 MDT

GSLC and LGBT

Published Jun 18, 2013 05:34PM MDT

“We were very disappointed that you used Scouting to advance the gay agenda at the Utah Pride Parade. ... It has always been BSA’s policy that no person, youth or adult, may use Scouting to promote sexual orientation or any other political or social agenda.” — Bry Davis, president of the BSA’s Great Salt Lake Council, and council executive Rick Barnes. The Great Salt Lake Council’s chastisement of two local Boy Scout adult leaders for marching with a handful of Scouts in the Utah Pride Parade...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Hatch amendments hurt

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:05:02 MDT

Hatch amendments hurt

by John C. Wester

Published Jun 18, 2013 05:05PM MDT

Sen. Orrin Hatch was right to support immigration reform legislation in the Senate Judiciary Committee, legislation now being considered by the U.S. Senate. However, several amendments he plans to offer on the Senate floor could wipe away the chance for millions of immigrants to avail themselves of the bill’s path to citizenship. The amendments, which could be considered this week, would place additional financial burdens on persons attempting to qualify for a path to citizenship. One would disq...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Lowry: The enforcement game

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:05:02 MDT

Lowry: The enforcement game

by Rich Lowry The National Review

Published Jun 18, 2013 05:05PM MDT

Congress is boring. It can’t even make new false promises. On border security, it keeps making the same assurances. The Gang of Eight immigration bill, which could well be the signature legislative accomplishment of President Barack Obama’s second term, travels in the well-worn ruts of past immigration promises. The Gang of Eight is offering this basic deal: “We will pretend to enforce the law, if you pretend to believe us.” The Gang of Eight bill purports to create an exit-entry visa system th...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Robinson: This will not end well

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Robinson: This will not end well

by Eugene Robinson The Washington Post

Published Jun 18, 2013 01:01AM MDT

WASHINGTON — In Syria, the Obama administration seems to be stumbling back to the future: An old-fashioned proxy war, complete with the usual shadowy CIA arms-running operation, the traditional plan to prop up ostensible “moderates” whose prospects are doubtful and, of course, the customary shaky grasp of what the fighting is really about. This will not end well. It is tragic that more than 90,000 people have been killed in the bloody Syrian conflict, with more than a million displaced...

Bloomberg View: What we don’t know about gun violence

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Bloomberg View: What we don’t know about gun violence

by Xxxxxx The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Jun 18, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The following editorial appears on Bloomberg View: How do criminals get their guns? Are there observable patterns to gun crime? Who is at the greatest risk of injury, or causing injury to others, from firearm use? Which gun-safety practices are most effective at preventing accidental injury? The answers to these and other basic questions remain difficult and obscure in part thanks to a senseless ban, on the books for a decade, that limits research on gun violence and denies researchers and ev...

Tackling climate change

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Tackling climate change

by Xxxxxx The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Jun 18, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The International Energy Agency last week warned that global carbon dioxide emissions in 2012 were the highest ever. Yet international climate negotiations have floundered. Many Americans and their representatives in Congress still doubt climate change is a problem worth addressing. And as the developing world advances, its peoples are polluting more to obtain higher standards of living. Forget for a moment the ideal or rational response; what’s the bare minimum global leaders could do? The IEA...

Better investment

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Better investment

Published Jun 18, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Gov. Gary Herbert spent this past winter blaming our notorious inversions on average people driving their stinky cars back and forth to work every day. Now, the state plans to use our tax dollars (which we earn going to work every day) to build a new freeway, the West Davis Corridor. If the state is determined to spend our hard-earned money, it should invest that money in ways that would benefit our health, not contribute to our own demise: • Support the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Ti...

Keep Medicaid

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Keep Medicaid

Published Jun 18, 2013 01:01AM MDT

In “The spite club” (Opinion, June 8), Paul Krugman opines that it is wrong for states to refuse to expand Medicaid coverage to provide “health coverage to very-low-income Americans, at a cost private insurers can’t match.” If you missed it, read his article, because Utah is on the cusp of rejecting Medicaid expansion. See this less as a political issue and more as a humanitarian issue. Our society helps those less fortunate, and a majority of Utahns agree. Even Utah’s majority religion agrees ...

Greedy insurers

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:01:03 MDT

Greedy insurers

Published Jun 18, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Recently, I unexpectedly lost my group health insurance one year shy of qualifying for Medicare. I wasn’t too concerned because I knew I could afford private health insurance as long as the policy carried a high deductible. That way, even though I would have to pay out of pocket for smaller health costs, I would be protected should a major illness or injury strike. My husband is self-employed and depends on my coverage, so we both applied to a well-known insurance company that runs television ad...