When he announced his favorable vote, Last indicated he was weary of all the pressure-packed lobbying that had been employed on behalf of the bill and didn't want to talk about it again for a while.
Here's a possible reason why. Last, who manages assisted living centers in southern Utah, is sponsoring HB338, which would have made it more difficult to sue emergency room doctors for medical malpractice. The bill had been stuck in the House Rules Committee for two weeks and then, lo and behold, it was passed out of the committee three days after Last voted for the voucher bill.
And who is the chairman of the Rules Committee? Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George.
And who is the sponsor of the voucher bill? Urquhart.
Meanwhile: Another unknown vote prior to the final tally on the vouchers bill last Friday was Rep. Richard Wheeler, R-Ephraim, a vice president at Snow College.
When crunch time came, he voted yes.
And on Wednesday, when the Capital Facilities Appropriations Subcommittee submitted its priority list for capital facilities projects, a proposed library at Snow College made the cut.
The $14.5 million library was seventh on the list. If the top seven projects are selected, the total cost will be about $144 million. The Legislature has discussed spending $150 million on capital facilities projects this year.
Surprise, surprise: Watch for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s office to announce his selection to replace 3rd District Judge Leslie Lewis, who was ousted by voters in a retention election last fall.
And the apparent winner is . . . Huntsman's lawyer.
Michele M. Christiansen, the governor's general counsel, reportedly is the choice. She beats out former Judge Scott Daniels, Assistant Attorney General Carolyn Nichols, Salt Lake County prosecutor Patricia Cassell and Summit County prosecutor Augustus Chin.
Rest of the story: Often I hear about bad behavior by someone representing a certain organization that, upon closer examination, does not fairly reflect the organization itself.
You might recall my recent column item about a certain Subway Sandwiches franchise owner who acted rudely toward a woman, only to have Subway corporate folks read the item and come through as heroes for the woman and her son.
The latest example? I wrote Wednesday about Julie Jakob, who wrote an e-mail to the upscale restaurant La Caille, pointing out a misspelling on its Web site. The response was "Get a life, honey."
But when La Caille owners read that column item, they immediately contacted Jakob, apologized for an employee's behavior, and invited her and her husband to dinner.
prolly@sltrib.com
