Several Items in the Morning News

Friday morning open topic thread

We find several items in the morning news today, on topics we believe should be of particular interest to our Weber County Forum readers.

The first is a commentary submitted to us by gentle reader Dan S., who highlights two articles from this morning's Standard-Examiner, on the subjects of property taxes, the rising cost of housing, and the declining number of families who can afford to own a home.

Dan makes several thoughtful political points, relevant to the upcoming municipal election. He also raises the inevitable question -- whether rising home values are "necessarily a good thing" for a stable "homeowner"community.

Secondly, the New York Times reports that the U.S. Senate gave final approval yesterday to a package of new ethics and lobbying rules, with an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats agreeing to improve policing of the relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists.

Among other things, the new legislation calls for bans on gifts, meals and travel paid for by lobbyists and makes it more difficult for lawmakers to capitalize quickly on their connections when joining the private sector.

Noticeably absent from this new bill are restrictions on pork-barrel earmarks.

The legislation is reportedly receiving "mixed reviews" on Capitol Hill, even amongst some legislators who voted to aprove it, which make us wonder what our readers "out here in the provinces" think about it.

Please consider these two items suggested topics for today's discussion -- or alternatively treat this space as an open thread.

Whatever you do, however, we hope you won't let the cat get your tongues.

Update 8/5/07 7:44 p.m. MT: The Deseret Morning News ran a very well-documented article on the Utah rising property value/property tax problem in this morning's addition, which we link here for our readers' attention.