Saturday Afternoon News Roundup

Invitation to embark upon yet another Saturday open topic thread

Lacking any bonafide red-meat news this weekend, we thought it might be useful to set up an open topic thread. Before we turn the floor over to our gentle readers however, we'll lay out a few topical discussion ideas. Here are several items that either caught our eye in this morning's news, or which we bookmarked earlier in the week:

1) As the U.S. economy plunges deeper into recession, we find two Deseret News articles this morning, demonstrating that the Utah economy is by no means immune to the recessionary market forces which currently plague the national economy:

• Utah records $100 million in red ink
• Foreclosure rate in Utah jumps more than 113%

2) With respect to the ongoing political debate concerning the propriety of Utah public employee retirement "double dipping," the Utah Court of Appeals has issued a pro taxpayer ruling regarding Utah public employees who simultaneously hold down multiple state jobs:

• State employees can't double dip on retirement

3) City Weekly's Salt Blog hammers bicyclists who fail to obey the rules of the road:

• Stupid, stupid bicyclists

4) The KUTV website has a heartwarming story about how one ex-gangsta turned his life around, and became a proud and productive member of Ogden's Finest:

• Former gang member is now an Ogden cop

Feel free to chime in on any of these selected topics; or start up a conversation all your own.

Consider this our Saturday open topic thread. Last one out, don't forget to turn out the lights and lock up.