Department of Human Resources Director Jeff Herring told me last week, and is quoted on KCPW's Web site, that things have changed enough to make the language in the constitution outdated.
Herring said government lawyers read the minutes of the constitutional convention and determined it doesn't apply now because it relates to work conditions in 1895, when manual laborers worked for the state's public works department to build dams and mines. Back then, he said, employees were working 10 or 11 hour days five or six days a week. Huntsman's initiative fits the 40-hour week that was envisioned by that article anyway.
So, if we don't need to strictly abide by constitutional provisions because the language is outdated, does that mean strict gun control laws do not really violate the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?
After all, were the Founding Fathers pretty much talking about muskets? I don't think semi-automatic handguns were around when that amendment was written. Do you?
A timing problem? Bountiful City, doing its part to conserve landfills and diminish litter, for years has had a recycling center next to the city street department where residents could take newspapers, cardboard, plastic and certain kinds of glass.
The program will get even better in December when mandatory recycling begins. Residents will be getting large recycling cans with instructions on what type of waste they can contain and city trucks will come by every two weeks to pick up the recyclable items.
In the meantime, residents are on their own.
They discovered last week that the recycling center was abruptly closed and will not reopen.
When asked what residents should do between now and December, a street department employee said they could take the stuff to the Davis County landfill in Layton, "or just keep it until December."
That makes sense. They could just pile it up in their front yards. They could build a garbage castle.
Speaking of recycling: Rocky Mountain Power trucks showed up Thursday at a condominium building being built at 500 South near 500 East to install meters on the new building.
The workers were there for several hours.
Friday morning, tenants of the office building next door, at 466 E. 500 South, discovered their building's private Dumpster was filled with about 40 old meter boxes. The boxes were all labeled "Pacificorp."
Ironically, there is a recycling bin on the same lot. The Rocky Mountain Power workers didn't have permission to use that bin either, but at least it would be been a nice gesture.
