Call the Plastic Surgeon: There's going to be a "Face Off" at Tomorrow's Weber County GOP Convention

Today's Tribune article focuses on the Legislative District 7 race

Informative Cathy McKitrick piece in the morning's Salt Lake Tribune, regarding the House District 7 state representative race, within tomorrow's Weber County GOP nominating convention. Four-term incumbent state representative Glenn Donnelson faces an intra-party convention challenge from Ryan Wilcox, a GOP political newcomer. We incorporate the article's opening paragraphs below:

Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, is passionate about cracking down on illegal immigration, so much so that some consider him a one-issue legislator.
"There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed in our district" - education and property taxes among them, says challenger Ryan Wilcox. "Rep. Donnelson has focused on immigration - that's a concern."
Wilcox, 30, hopes to unseat the four-term incumbent this Saturday at Weber County's Republican Convention.
Any candidate garnering over 60 percent of the delegate vote at the convention emerges as the party's nominee. If no one reaches the 60 percent mark, they face off in a June 24 primary.
"In principle, I agree with his stance on immigration," Wilcox says. "There are all sorts of consequences throughout our society because of the problem."
However, Wilcox believes that state immigration reform should strike a balance between law enforcement, moral principles and economic vitality.
"We need to be reasonable about solving the problem," Wilcox says.
Donnelson points to legislation he sponsored during the recent session as proof that he carried water on several issues, as only six of his 15 bills dealt with immigration.
Facing an intra-party challenge is nothing new - he's faced one in every convention, Donnelson adds. However, this year's could present more of a fight . [...].

Read the full article here.

Although the article distinguishes the two candidates mainly on the basis of their philosophies re immigration reform, we think the differences in the candidates are far more palpable than that. On Tuesday we mentioned the battle currently brewing between incumbent right-wing Republicans, and the political moderates of the Utah GOP. We believe tomorrow's GOP convention challenge is all about that -- with a little voucher blow-back possibly thrown in for good measure.

This intra-party contest is one that we'll carefully watch. If the challenger Wilcox manages to knock off a heretofore popular Legislative District 7 state representative like Donnelson in convention, we believe it could likely signal an across-the-board shift toward GOP moderation for the state legislative races in November.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Civil Libertarians Warn of 'Patriot Act Lite'

The US Congress seems to be "brain-dead," as per normal (both parties)

More crap from our Sack of Shite federal legislators. Propelled by the fearmongers in the Bush administration, federal legislators are considering peeling back even more more of the "natural law" liberties protected by the US Constitution:

11/28/07 "IPS" -- -- NEW YORK, 27 Nov (IPS) - Civil libertarians are worried that a little-known anti-terrorism bill now making its way through the U.S. Congress with virtually no debate could be planting the seeds of another USA Patriot Act, which was hurriedly enacted into law after the al Qaeda attacks of Sep. 11, 2001.
The Violent Radicalisation and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, co-authored by the former chair of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Jane Harmon, a California Democrat, passed the House by an overwhelming 400-6 vote last month, and will soon be considered by the Senate.
The bill's co-author is Republican Congressman David Reichert of Washington State. The Senate version is being drafted by Susan Collins of Maine, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is chaired by the hawkish Connecticut independent, Sen. Joe Lieberman. Harmon is chair of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee.
Civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), say the measure could herald a new government crackdown on dissident activity and infiltration of universities under the guise of fighting terrorism.
The CCR's Kamau Franklin, a Racial Justice Fellow, told IPS, 'This measure looks benign enough, but we should be concerned about where it will lead. It may well result in recommendations for new laws that criminalise radical thought and peaceful dissent, posing as academic study.'
Franklin added, 'Crimes such as conspiracy or incitement to violence are already covered by both state and federal statute. There is no need for additional criminal laws.'

We can't in this context, fail to refer to one of the most influential founders of this (perhaps formerly) great nation -- namely "Benjamin Franklin." Here's what he said about nations who react to threats like frightened rabbits:

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -Ben Franklin

Food for thought.

Comments?

Ogden City: Cronytown USA

A few questions about the Windsor Hotel renovation project

By Wendy

After reading today's Standard Examiner article about the Windsor Hotel renovation, I'm a bit miffed. From the article:

The city council has granted $288,000 to Ogden Properties to help fund the renovations, with $100,000 coming from the city’s sale of foreclosed HUD homes.
In addition, $111,500 will be derived from tax increments generated by the 25th Street redevelopment project area, while $76,500 has been earmarked from the city’s Business Information Center reserve account.

I agree that the preservation of 25th Street buildings is extremely important, but why is the City forking over so much dough to this one enterprise? What about all of the other business and building owners along 25th Street who can use free money to improve their businesses and buildings? It seems completely unfair to me. If I had a building or business on 25th Street I would be irate! Has anybody from the City explained why this one entity is receiving such a large subsidy and others have not? If the City is granting this much money maybe they should take ownership and do it themselves. I dunno. Does anybody know how much money the private investors are putting towards the project?

Beware of Boosters

Troubled Telluride hotel development serves as a reminder that there is no such thing as a "can't lose" proposition

By Curmudgeon

This from today's New York Times. A major Telluride ski resort development is in trouble... yet again. [Wasn't Telluride offered up as an example of how gondolas are a can't lose proposition for building ski resort business?].

Now, that noted, I'm not saying that because this monster development at Telluride has failed repeatedly that the proposed Malan's basin mini-resort must fail as well. The point I want to make is that there are, in such matters, no sure things. There are no "can't lose" propositions. And what Ogden city ought to be doing, when it's asked to participate in something the golf course/gondola/Malan's Basin project, to devote public assets to supporting such, is to take a long, hard look at the evidence, and to decide if city involvement is or would be a prudent risk for the city government to take with public property and resources. And there is always risk. And when three separate projects -- golf course real estate development, gondola/gondola systems, Malan's ski resort --- must succeed for it all to work out, the risks are multiplied significantly.

What I guess it all boils down to is: "Beware of boosters." When a Mayor and his pet Chamber of Commerce and crony developers are screaming "this can't lose!" and "Ogden will be the new Aspen if you just give us what we want" and that those who refuse to meekly roll over are "against progress" or "idiots" --- recall Lift Ogden's Mr. Ed Allen saying at Mr. Peterson's first gondola/resort "panel show" at WSU when Allen realized people were asking questions and looking skeptical about the practicality of the plans, "they're all idiots up here" --- well, when all that starts to gear up and the bandwagon begins to roll and the Chamber's tub-thumpers begin thumping tubs, the smart thing to do is get a tight hold on the city's wallet, and start asking hard questions, and demanding that assertions be backed with fact, illustration and example [aka evidence] so that a reasonable judgment about the risk involved can be made, and the city can then make a reasoned judgment about whether committing city resources would be a prudent thing to do. I suspect the original investors in the Telluride white elephant, and subsequent ones, were all promised "this can't lose." But it did. Even with a gondola....

Fox Guarding the Henhouse Redux

Man who helped develop the mortgage backed security mess has been put in charge of same

How sweet it is! Next time you visit the henhouse and notice that their are chicken feathers scattered all over the grounds, and most of the chickens are missing, don't even believe you're lying eyes when you see the fox, lying on his back, with a swollen stomach, while he's gnawing on a chicken bone, don't even believe for one moment that the fox had anything to do with the theft of your chickens.

Greg Bacon's Blog
Man who helped develop the mortgage backed
security mess has been put in charge of same
April 8, 2008

Good stuff from Greg Bacon's Blog:

It's official, the brain trust responsible for creating the toxic mess known as mortgage-backed securities has now been put in charge of the recent implosion at Bear Stearns.
Larry Fink, as shown here,was instrumental in developing this ticking time bomb and now that it's exploding in our hands, its time to let the original bunch of financial sharpies who helped push this country off the cliff to be put back in charge.
Of course, their will be the usual "investigations' on Capital Hill, by the none too curious Henry Waxman. Waxman was last seen grilling baseball pitcher Roger Clemens. Afterwards, several of the committee members asked Roger for his autograph.
Yes, no one's going to put anything past Mr. Waxman and his posse of well trained hound dogs.
How sweet it is! Imagine if you had robbed a bank and when the cops got a little too close to your trail, up pops the District Attorney who puts you--the head mobster--in charge of the investigation into the robbery.

Read the full article here.

Comments?

Rolly: Utah GOP Battles for its Political Soul

Will the 2008 election signal a shift toward political moderation in Utah?

Interesting article this morning from the Salt Lake Tribune's Paul Rolly. We incorporate the pertinent paragraphs below:

The Utah Republican Party seems to be in a battle for its political soul.
Fifteen Republican incumbents in the state House of Representatives are facing stiff challenges from within their own party. Of the nine Republican incumbents who are up for re-election in the State Senate, five are being challenged by fellow Republicans.
For the first time in memory, all 75 House seats are contested, while in the Senate, only President John Valentine, R-Provo, escaped with no challenger at all.
The obvious impetus behind the assault on the Republican establishment - from within and outside the GOP - is the voucher fight of 2007, when GOP legislative leaders crammed tuition tax credits for private schools down the throats of a reluctant public, then vigorously fought the successful populist movement to repeal that legislation.
But it goes deeper than that. The voucher debacle was a symptom of a greater problem: a Legislature in the grip of an ultraconservative clique that is intolerant of moderate points of view, especially within its own party, and excludes anyone who doesn't play along.
Another troubling symptom of GOP unrest on Capitol Hill is the absolute resistance from most of the Republican leadership to any ethics reform that would attempt to reign in the current culture of favoritism and cronyism between legislators and their gift-bearing lobbyist buddies.
What is intriguing about this counter-establishment uprising is that it's coming from other Republicans, not just the marginalized Democrats. [...]
One telling feature of this year's political climate is that while many Republicans have GOP opponents, the most outspoken anti-voucher Republicans - Reps. Sheryl Allen, Kory Holdaway, Steve Mascaro, Mel Brown and Kay McIff - have no Republican opponent. That is a shift from past years when moderate Republicans were the ones being targeted in GOP conventions by the armies of the right.

Does the foregoing signal a genuine shift of the Utah Republican Party from the far right wing toward the center? Will current GOP leadership pay the ultimate political price for the voucher debacle, and for their stubborn resistance to all forms of ethics reform? Will Utah Democrats finally emerge from their stupor, and extract their long overdue pound of flesh?

The cyber-world awaits the comments of our gentle readers.

Why the US Economy is in Serious Trouble

The Short Explanation: The US dollar is dropping like a rock

Feeling a little pinched when you gas up the old Suburban lately? Does a trip to the grocery store suddenly deprive you of your appetite? Your whole family needs to go on a diet anyway, right? We found this great video tutorial over the weekend whilst googling, which explains what's happening to the rapidly decling purchasing power of your personal pocketbook.

Don't be like the Standard-Examiner editors, and blame across-the-board "price increases" (it's not just oil prices that are going up) on greedy commodity producers. The chief problem is the falling (fiat) dollar, which is being intentionally "devalued" by the privately-operated U.S. monetary authority -- The Federal Reserve Bank -- as it dumps trainloads of cheap printing press dollars on the sagging world economy. The video:




As an added bonus, we link this fine Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis blog post, which deals in detail with the history of debased currency and fiat money.

We already know some of our readers' eyes glaze over, every time we discuss the subject of economics. In that context we ask: Shouldn't you all learn a little more about economics, while your purchasing power is being flagrantly ripped off by the banking establishment and our compliant government?

Just because it's a slow Emerald City news day, it doesn't mean we can't all learn something new.

Right?

Comments, anyone?

Survey: "19% Say USA on Right Track." Who ARE These People?

Query: Who are these Pollyanna People?

Interesting weekend comments from John Tepper Martin of the Huffington Post:

The lead NY Times story yesterday is headlined: "81 Percent in Poll Say Nation Is Headed on Wrong Track" and the first paragraph tells us this is the highest number since 1992 poll (this Times/CBS News poll was first conducted in 1991) and way up from the 35 percent figure in 2002.

Hmmm...
1. The last time four-fifths of the nation was so negative about the future of the United States was in the last year of the presidency of Bush 41.
2. The percentage of people generally happy with the direction of the country has been steadily declining during the presidency of Bush 43.

The surprising thing to me is not that 81 percent are depressed and say that "things in the country have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track" but that 19 percent are not. It means that out of 233 million noninstitutionalized American adults, 44 million believe the country is "generally going in the right direction."

Think about it - 44 million noninstitutionalized adult Americans with continuing faith that our ship of state is sailing on the right course.

A puzzler is that 28 percent of those surveyed think Dubya is doing a great job, i.e., 65 million Americans. So 21 million Americans (65 million minus 44 million) think the United States is on the wrong track but Dubya does a great job. The ship is heading in the wrong direction, but the captain is a heckuva helmsman. [...].

And now for the fun part (the query.)

Exactly who are these people who comprise "the satisfied 19%?" WHO THE HELL ARE THESE POLLYANNA PEOPLE?

Exxon and Halliburton shareholders? Fans of TeeVee "Reality Shows?" Paris Hilton groupies? Soccer moms on Prozac?

We await our gentle readers' ever-thoughtful suggestions.

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

Skybus Ends Service, Third Airline to Fold This Week

$100 million in investments and government incentives stand in jeopardy

Per Bloomberg.com:

By Nancy Kercheval

April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Skybus Airlines Inc., a U.S. low- fare carrier that started operations less than a year ago, stopped service today, the third airline to shut down this week as fuel costs soared and the economy slowed.

The closely held, Columbus, Ohio-based airline began offering service May 22 with some tickets as low as $10 for a four-hour flight. It will seek bankruptcy protection next week.

Aloha Airgroup Inc., a closely held Hawaiian airline that filed for bankruptcy protection, ended service April 1 when it couldn't find a buyer or financing to stay in business. ATA Airlines Inc., a Midwest carrier based in Indianapolis, shut down the following day when it sought bankruptcy protection, blaming its demise on high fuel prices and the loss of a contract for military charter flights.

"Nobody has a long-term viable business plan that can be sustained at these jet-fuel prices," said Darryl Jenkins, an airline consultant. "This is a killer category. We're probably going to see some more casualties out there."

About 90 percent of airline routes probably aren't profitable, Jenkins said. ``What do you do in a situation like that?'' [...].

Read the full article here.

Skybus's collapse leaves financial stake-holders, (including Wall Street investment banking house Morgan Stanley,) holding the bag for a cool $100 million, including state and city funding and incentives.

And there's even more chirpy economic news from Bloomberg:

Bankruptcies Jump 30% in March, Led by Housing-Bust States

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

"Ruthlessness Gene" Discovered

Dictatorial behaviour may be partly genetic, study suggests

Selfish dictators may owe their behaviour partly to their genes, according to a study that claims to have found a genetic link to ruthlessness. The study might help to explain the money-grabbing tendencies of those with a Machiavellian streak — from national dictators down to 'little Hitlers' found in workplaces the world over.

Researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem found a link between a gene called AVPR1a and ruthless behaviour in an economic exercise called the 'Dictator Game'. The exercise allows players to behave selflessly, or like money-grabbing dictators such as former Zaire President Mobutu, who plundered the mineral wealth of his country to become one of the world's richest men while its citizens suffered in poverty.

The researchers don't know the mechanism by which the gene influences behaviour. It may mean that for some, the old adage that "it is better to give than to receive" simply isn't true, says team leader Richard Ebstein. The reward centres in those brains may derive less pleasure from altruistic acts, he suggests, perhaps causing them to behave more selfishly.

Read the full article here.

Scientists at Hebrew University continue to work on unraveling the Boss Godfrey Genome:

Weekend Kickoff Open Thead

You know what to do; do it here

It's something of a sl-o-o-o-w newsday in Emerald City. We thus thought it might be a good idea to set up an open thread. We haven't done that for quite a while; we think this is a good idea as we move into the weekend.

Before we open the floodgates to our reader comments, however, here are a couple of today's Utah news items that caught our eye this morning:

First, to our absolute astonishment, it seems that the Mayor of Salt Lake City is stuck in a rut, and doesn't recognize some of the new transportation technologies that can move people from point A to Point B in Utah. Here's a link to SLC Mayor Becker's entirely non-visionary thinking:

Becker makes big push to speed up streetcar project

Streetcars? We pity the poor fools in Salt Lake City, who still don't realize the "wonderfulness of gondolas." Sad... VERY sad.

"Back to the future" is right, Mayor Becker! Some day you may get a clue! Do yourself a favor and talk to Boss Godfrey and the Geigers.

Secondly: Here's another possible open thread discussion topic:

Investment in future takes seed in northern Utah

We're big fans of Grow Utah Ventures here at Weber County Forum. We wrote a glowing paen of praise to these smart, dedicated and community minded venture capitalists in one of our earliest WCF posts, and we haven't changed our minds since then. These are people who don't suck up to the public trough. These are real venture capitalists, who invest in business start-ups with their own money.

The floor is open. Consider this an open thread. Talk about whatever lifts your skirt.

Powder Mountain Update: A Guest Editorial and a View of the "Powderville" Incorporation Petition

The "Powderville" problem returns to the public forefront

News has been a mite slow concerning the "Powderville" town brouhaha during the last month, ever since the Weber County Commission took the town incorporation matter off-calender and began direct negotiations with the Powder Mountain developer.

Valley Citizens for Responsible Development's Larry Zini stirs the pot again this morning however, with a fine Standard-Examiner guest commentary, thereby bringing the Powderville town incorporation discussion back to the public forefront. Among other things, Mr. Zini reiterates these important points:

Decisions of the proposed town council and planning commission will be in control of the Powder Mountain ownership and large town landowners in and around the resort for at least the first two to four years.
Most residents in the valley are aware of the identities of the main property owners who currently have considerable land holdings within the proposed town boundaries. The town incorporation will be a financial windfall for most of them. Despite the repeated denials of these property owners, it is apparent this was their goal (in concert with the Powder Mountain ownership) from the beginning when the initial rezone and subsequent incorporation petitions were filed.
Finally, the town incorporation will do nothing to resolve the single-road-access issue with its inherent safety and traffic-load problems from an eight- to tenfold increase in vehicle numbers calculated from Powder Mountain's own traffic study. In addition, incorporation will not address the numerous issues which were the subject of the other conditions attached to the grant of the rezone by the Ogden Valley Planning Commission. It will be as if those issues and the concerns surrounding them do not exist.

Regarding the identities of the property owners who filed the incorporation petition, Ogden Valley Forum has done some fancy footwork, obtained copies of the original petition, and posted it in this article on their blogsite. And having done that, the OVF blogmaster "Valley" makes some very interesting observations:

Pay particular attention to the status of several of the LLC's or corporations. Some are delinquent according to state records and should at least wave a small red flag with Mr. Bischoff and company at the County Commission offices.
Also, we find the personal addresses of the Petitioners to be quite interesting - Hawaii, San Diego, Las Vegas, Colorado, Park City....
And we have mentioned fishy ties before with Western America Holding, LLC (Mark Arnold and Lee Daniels) being the "new" owners of Powder Mountain, while Western America Development Corporation, Inc. owns adjacent property and consists of Cobabe's daughters as principals.
According to State records, the former has a "status date" 5/14/04 while the later has a "status date" of 5/13/04. Is it just a coincidence that both companies were created within a day of each other? Cobabe's (and their Planning Commissioner granddaughter Jamie Lythgoe) have claimed to have sold the resort with no ties except a small adjacent property, but they are BIG players in the "Powderville" incorporation scheme. Why?
And according to our informal poll, only two petitioners actually:
1) Have an Ogden Valley residence
2) Are not related to the Cobabe's
That would be Rulon and Kathy Jones and Ricky and Theresa Stearman.

Although OVF has posted the original petition documents on its own storage site, OVF's host server is tediously slow, so we've taken the liberty of uploading them to our own storage site, which usually runs smooth as silk.

For those readers interested in taking a close look at the original Powderville town incorporation petition (actually a series of petitions) the 13MB PDF document can be viewed here. It's still a slow upload; but we do believe our site is faster. Nevertheless, we don't recommend that you click this link unless you're hooked up with a broadband connection.

That's it on the Powderville situation for now. We'll of course keep you posted on further developments, in future updates.

La-Z-Boy Lays off 630 Tremonton Employees

More signs of recession in the Northern Utah economy

Another shock to the Northern Utah economy was announced today, according to this morning's Standard-Examiner story. La-Z-Boy, which has operated a factory in Box Elder County for the last thirty years, has suddenly decided to call it quits. The company is reportedly moving many of its Box Elder County jobs to Mexico -- where else? We incorporate Std-Ex reporter Jeff DeMoss's key paragraphs below:

TREMONTON — Officials here were shocked to learn late Wednesday that the La-Z-Boy plant that has been in town for 30 years will close this summer, leaving 630 people out of work.
“All I know is I came into the office at about a quarter to four, and I was handed a letter that said they were leaving the community,” Tremonton Mayor Max Weese said. “It just totally caught me off guard.”
La-Z-Boy Inc. said Wednesday it is closing the Utah plant as part of a companywide push to improve efficiency.
The Monroe, Mich.-based manufacturer of the famous reclining chairs is also moving sewing and cutting operations from its five other domestic facilities to a single plant in Mexico, which will eliminate another 1,050 jobs in the United States.

“My heart is broken to see them leave,” says Mayor Weeks. We're going to bet he's not lyin' about that.

630 jobs lost in Tremonton; 1,050 jobs lost in the US. Tell the people of Box Elder County that the economy isn't in recession.

Sorry we can't provide a story link. The Std-Ex pay website is on the blink, for the second time today. We're still scratching our heads wondering why the Standard-Examiner continues to hide most of its news stories behind a regularly dysfunctional pay firewall. Maybe it has something to do with the failing economy.

Mt. Ogden Golf Course Update: Boss Godfrey Defends His Attack on the Golf Course

Added bonus: a couple of fine letters to the editor

Three interesting items on the Standard-Examiner editorial page today, all dealing with one of our favorite red-meat topics, Emerald City's crown jewel Mt. Ogden Golf Course.

Just as we predicted, Boss Godfrey has finally responded to the recent flurry of Std-Ex letters to the editor, all of which have been critical of Godfrey and his recent four-option plan to forever drastically change Emerald City's treatment of our hillside gem. This morning's guest commentary consists of Godfrey's bullet point rant, slamming the golf course yet again, and once again illustrating Godfrey's penchant for cavalierly dismissing any ideas which aren't his own:

• Ogden mayor defends Mount Ogden Golf Course scrutiny

As an added bonus, we find a fine broadside letter to the editor from Weber County Forum reader Jason Wood, peppered with various signature euphemisms which will be familiar to long-time readers of this blog.

And don't miss this morning's Matthew McGarry Campbell letter, which, among other things mentions anecdotally an event which we hadn't heard about previously:

"Matthew Godfrey has a personal vendetta against the golf course. Eight years ago he was chastised for his selfish practice of jogging on the fairways of Mount Ogden golf course."

This was indeed a new one for us, and we thus invite any readers who have knowledge of this event to expand on it a little bit, and offer more particular details for our further enlightenment.

In this connection, we'll also suggest that the Mt. Ogden Golf Course would no doubt increase its patronage, and log MANY more rounds played, if Boss Godfrey would simply involve himself more personally in the golf course's promotion, and promise to jog regularly on the MOGC fairways.

We're running a busy calender today, and we're posting this on the fly. We'll thus leave the deep microanalysis to our ever-gentle readers.

Well.....?

Update 4/3/08 10:10 a.m. MT: As a further added bonus we post below a photo of Boss Godfrey's preferred option, the $10 million course redesign (click to enlarge image). As you peruse this graphic, ask yourselves what the little dotted line running diagonally from the roadway in the southwest corner to the mountain ridge on the east represents. Egad... A GONDOLA? We thank gentle reader Dan S. for this intriguing submission.

Promontory Ranch Achieves Chapter 11 Status

Court allows upside-down gated community developer to "keep the lights on"

By Curmudgeon

It's getting tough out there. The Salt Lake Tribune reports a judge granted Promontory Ranch Club Chapter 11 status so it could borrow enough money to "keep the lights on." The resort was planned to include 1900 upscale mansions. To date, 200 lots have been sold and built on. From the story:

A federal bankruptcy judge has granted Chapter 11 status to the ritzy Promontory Ranch Club near Park City.
The action cleared the way for the resort to borrow money so it can make payroll and keep the lights on.
An order signed by Judge Judith Boulden on Tuesday allows Promontory's parent, Pivotal Promontory LLC, to immediately borrow up to $1.4 million to keep the resort operating.
It's a temporary solution that will buy time for two lending groups to find a long-term solution to Promontory's financial problems that have been blamed on the national credit crises, Salt Lake City-based attorney Kenneth L. Cannon said Wednesday
The Promontory Ranch Club, located east of U.S. Highway 40 in Summit County, covers some 7,000 acres and includes two 18-hole golf courses, a riding academy, club houses, restaurants and lounges.
The development is made up of more than 1,900 large home sites for upscale vacation homes. Only 200 have been built upon. The endeavor makes money primarily through the sale of its real estate.
In 2005, Promontory borrowed $275 million from a group headed by the Swiss bank, Credit Suisse. It also borrowed $75 million from a second group, now headed by Wells Fargo.

Full story here.

As our gentle readers will recall, we also discussed the Promontory Ranch problem in an earlier article.

Walmart Update: Supercenter Plans Put on Hold

A "soils problem" is the ostensible culprit

More bad economic news for Emerald City. Boss Godfrey's much ballyhooed downtown Wal-Mart Super Center project has hit a snag. According to this morning's Standard-Examiner story, groundbreaking has been delayed for at least a year. We incorporate the lead paragraphs from this morning's Ace Reporter Schwebke's story:

OGDEN — The construction of a downtown Wal-Mart Supercenter will be delayed a year because soil at the site will have to undergo environmental cleanup, a city official said Tuesday.
Greg Montgomery, the city’s planning manager, said he was told by a Wal-Mart engineer the cleanup will be necessary, but he hasn’t seen a report detailing what was found in the soil.
Work on the Wal-Mart at the northwest corner of 20th Street and Wall Avenue was initially slated to begin later this summer and be completed in late 2009 or early 2010.
However, the start of construction has been pushed back to October 2009 to accommodate the soil cleanup, Montgomery said.

Although Emerald City and Wal-Mart spokemen attribute the delay to an unspecified "soils problem," we wonder whether more fundamental market forces may be at work. On March 5, the Wall Street Journal reported on a slump in commercial real estate development, specifically noting that Wal-Mart, among other US retailers, have "pared expansion plans" -- and worse. From the WSJ article:

Retail is one of the more vulnerable sectors of commercial real estate, tied to the housing market and consumer spending. As the economy lists toward recession, retail property stands to suffer higher vacancy rates, constrained rent growth and declining values. Results for publicly traded retail landlords look healthy. After several years of rapid expansion by retail tenants and strong spending by shoppers, real-estate investment trusts that own and develop retail properties boast occupancy rates in the low- to mid-90% range. Many claim little trouble so far in replacing bankrupt or otherwise failing retailers that have vacated their stores.

The outlook is souring. Retailers have reported a slowdown in sales. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and J.C. Penney Co., among others, have pared expansion plans. Electronics seller Best Buy Co. has reined in its quarterly earnings forecast. Talbots Inc., Movie Gallery Inc.'s Hollywood Video and numerous home-furnishings retailers have announced store closings. Others, including Bombay Co., have liquidated under bankruptcy protection.

It's been a couple of months of bad economic news in Emerald City, with recent disappointments such as Adam Aircraft, Midtown Village at the Junction and now Wal-Mart.

We swear it's got to be driving our can-do Mayor nuts.

And what say our gentle readers? Will it actually take a full year for Wal-Mart's contractor to haul off and replace 16 acres of contaminated dirt? Or are Wal-Mart officials playing it cagey, drawing in their horns and preparing to ride out the percipient world recession?

WSU Special Event: 2nd Annual Physics Open House

More fun than an evening of Watch Mr. Wizard re-runs

We don't want another moment to slip by without highlighting yesterday's Standard-Examiner Guest commentary, in which one eminent Weber State University professor makes a pitch for prospective students to enroll in science and technology courses at Emerald City's WSU. Starting out with praise of the "problem solving" engineers and technologists who are putting the finishing touches on the FrontRunner Transit System, Physics Department Assistant Professor Dr. John Armstrong segues into a discussion of the current shortage of home-grown scientists and engineers, and then invites everybody to attend an upcoming WSU special event: "The WSU 2nd Annual Physics Open House".

We've perused the detailed online Schedule of Events, and found several tantalizing presentations that definitely caught our jaded eye:

LL121 - Circus of Physics - Physics professors Adam Johnston and Colin Inglefield risk their lives for your amusement.

LL123 - Ask a Physicist - Think you are smarter than Einstein? A panel of physicists will answer your questions. Stump the Chumps!

LL121 - Spinning Objects, Electricity, and Cats! - Live experiments involving miniature lightning, jumping wires, rotating objects, and the falling, twisting, mechanical cat.

Whoa!

Check out the detailed events list here.

Frankly, we look at this event as one of those important "can't miss" events that crops up on the WSU campus from time to time. Your blogmeister intends to calender and attend this event; and he hopes that many of our WCF readers will do the same. With luck, we might even be able to hook up with gentle reader Dan S. for a brief explanation of the secrets of the universe.

Looks to be even more fun than even an evening of Watch Mr. Wizard reruns, we think.

And who will be the first to comment?

The "Dilbert Strategy"

An Eminent US economist dissects the latest Bush administration "plan" to rescue a failing banking system

Fine op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times, entitled "The Dilbert Strategy," by Times columnist Paul Krugman. We incorporate Krugman's lead paragraphs below:

Anyone who has worked in a large organization — or, for that matter, reads the comic strip “Dilbert” — is familiar with the “org chart” strategy. To hide their lack of any actual ideas about what to do, managers sometimes make a big show of rearranging the boxes and lines that say who reports to whom.
You now understand the principle behind the Bush administration’s new proposal for financial reform, which will be formally announced today: it’s all about creating the appearance of responding to the current crisis, without actually doing anything substantive.

The full NYT article is available here.

Just for kicks, we link a powerpoint tutorial transmitted to us a few weeks ago by one of our gentle readers, revealing in a nutshell the chain of causation that resulted in the current investment banking financial mess. As the presentation makes clear, there's plenty of blame to go around, running from the borrowers who signed for the bogus loans, right up to the investment bankers who underwrote the hokey mortgage backed securities (many AAA rated) that have fouled investment portfolios all around the world.

Warning to our gentle readers: The power point presentation contains language which some might deem to be a mite "earthy." No problem, we think. We're all grownups here @ Weber County Forum... right?

So far none of the "players" who participated in this giant world-economy shaking scam are regulated in any meaningful way under the latest Bush administration "plan"; and under the Bush "Dilbert Strategy," the entire investment banking financial edifice depends, even now, upon the continuing “market discipline" which was so woefully lacking in the first place.

In our view, the real gist of the plan is to bail out unregulated investment banks one by one, as the whole house of cards continues to tumble... at taxpayer expense, of course.

Hyper-inflation here we come.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

St. Anne's Shelter Back on the Emerald City Discussion Front-burner

Changes are afoot for the Emerald City homeless, according to this morning's Standard-Examiner

Two interesting Charles Trentelman pieces in this morning's Standard-Examiner, concerning Emerald City's St. Anne's Shelter. The first of these deals with administrative changes enacted by new shelter director, Jennifer Canter, which, in a nutshell, represent an abandonment of the shelter's heretofore "traditional flophouse format." We incorporate Mr. Trentelman's lede paragraphs below:

OGDEN — People who hop off a freight and need a place to spend the night can still do so at St. Anne’s Center, but they shouldn’t be surprised if the reception is a bit more bureaucratic than it used to be.
If they want to hang around for a few days, they have to follow more rules, tolerate procedures that are more strict and face a frostier welcome.
That’s intentional, said Jennifer Canter, the executive director of the center since September.
Canter is the third director in as many years at St. Anne’s — the fourth if you count ReAnne Hart, the interim director for most of last year who is still on staff as a case manager.
Canter, a member of the West Haven City Council, took over at St. Anne’s, which is still trying to recover from the confusion and discord inevitable from so many changes in leadership.
In addition to bureaucratic discord, she’s dealing with a massive change in the way homeless people are helped in Utah. Adoption by Utah of a 10-year plan to do away with homelessness means the end of the traditional “flophouse” format of shelter.

Charlie's second article partly reprises last year's Godfrey administration theme, i.e, moving St. Anne operations out of Ogden's downtown to a 12th Street location. Unlike last year's discussion, however, the administration's "vision" now seems to have been substantially pared-down. Whereas Ogden City CEO John Patterson was wild about moving the entire St. Anne's operation last year, Ogden City administration officals are now merely talking about a 12th Street facility for the "chronic homeless."

Last year we called for a full and open discussion of the St. Anne's Shelter dilemma. It appears that discussion has now finally begun.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Four Out of Five Utahs in Congress Prefer Earmark Secrecy

Only Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson is willing to publicly release his earmark requests

By Curmudgeon

Since politics seems to be in the air of late, thought I'd point out this interesting story in Sunday's Salt Lake Tribune. The paper asked all of Utah's Congressmen and Senators to release to the paper and the public all the earmarks they requested in the recent appropriations bills. Only one agreed: Congressman Matheson, Utah's only congressional Democrat. Hatch, Bennett, Cannon and Bishop all came up with whining reasons why they wouldn't make their earmark requests public.

Republican Senator Bennett said he didn't want to deal with angry calls from people whose requests he did not put into the budget as earmarks. That was Republican Congressman Cannon's excuse too. Republican Senator Hatch said he didn't want to see his earmark requests "appear in a newspaper." Republican Congressman Bishop said he wouldn't tell because the appropriations process was flawed.

But when the Trib asked Democratic Congressman Matheson to reveal his earmark requests to the paper and the public, his reply was "Sure."

The entire article is worth a read. And worth remembering next time Hatch, Bennett, Cannon and Bishop start whining about spendthrift Democrats and fiscal responsibility and open government. Well worth remembering.