We're pressed for time this morning, so we've decided to set up an open topic thread. First however, we'll briefly highlight a few northern Utah news stories which caught our attention this morning:
1) Huntsman: $11.7B Budget. We were delighted to read this morning's Standard-Examiner story, in which Jeff DeMoss reports that governor Huntsman has pencilled-in $19.7 million from his office's proposed 2009 budget, to be applied toward construction of a long-sought Weber County veteran's nursing home. In the mere 5 months since the Utah Department of Veterans' Affairs was upgraded to governor's cabinet status, UDVA Director Terry Schow and his fellow veterans' advocates have made more progress toward realization of this project than in the previous several years combined. State legislative leadership appears also to be on-board with the governor's plan, according to today's story; and we suppose it didn't hurt the cause of Utah veterans to have had Terry Schow's new office relocated to just down the hall from the Governor's office.
2) Powder Mountain Rezone. The Std-Ex also reports on Monday's decision, wherein the Ogden Valley Planning Commission recommended approval of the pending Powder Mountain rezoning proposal -- subject to highly restrictive conditions. According to this morning's story, the commission's decision was tactical in nature:
Notably, Commissioner Lythgoe (who has a property interest in an parcel of property adjacent to the proposed development) abstained from voting on the matter, thus demonstrating ethics of the highest order, we think.Commissioner William Siegel said he wanted to vote against the rezone, but realized if the Ogden Valley Planning Commission voted it down, the proposal would just go to the Weber County Commission, which often votes differently.
“Denying this would be just liking punting the ball into their side of the field,” he said.He said the best option was to approve the rezone with stiff conditions, although the County Commission can still remove any requirements.
The planning commission's recommendation now moves on to the county commission. We'll be standing by watching to see whether the commission approves the planners' recommendation in toto, or rolls over for the developers and rips the conditional recommendation to shreds.
3) Sub-prime Market Meltdown. Charlie Trentelman meanders into a discussion of mortgage finance and real estate market economics this morning, with a fine segue from the plight of an Arizona flower shop, to President Bush's proposed sub-prime interest rate freeze. Trentelman himself properly characterises the situation as "grim", even dropping this gloomy quote from WaPo columnist Steven Perlstein: "How bad could it get? Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein says the coming financial mess won’t be as bad as 1929’s crash, but it will be the worst we’ve had since."
Your blogmeister believes neither Trentelman nor Pearlstein express an appreciation of how truly bad it could get, in which connection we link this "chirpy" article, which was making the rounds within internet investor circles yesterday.
4) Eminent Domain Threatened in the River Project Area? This Ace Reporter Schwebke story comes at us straight out of the blue. We have no idea specifically what Rep. Hansen is worried about. In our view Boss Godfrey has been very successful in nailing down options to River Project Area properties at will, without ever having to resort to the actual use of eminent domain. We'll try to contact Rep. Hansen at some decent hour after sun-up, and hope to fill in the blanks with an update, once we've obtained an interview. In the meantime, we'd be happy to hear from our gentle readers on this. We're quite eager to become informed on this issue.
That's it for now folks. Feel free to take it from here. Discuss any of the above topics, or whatever else lifts your skirts.
Update 12/12/07 6:34 a.m. MT: It would seem that your blogmeister isn't the only one who liked the looks of Gov. Huntsman's proposed 2009 budget. This from this morning's Salt Lake Tribune:
A self-avowed supporter of locking up criminals and "throwing away the key," state Sen. Jon Greiner is pleased with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s suggested Corrections budget.
"It's huge," said Greiner, a Republican who also serves as Ogden's police chief. "He did a great job."
