Ben Lomond Hotel Heads for the Auction Block

Ambitious hotel development project hits a slight snag... i.e, Foreclosure

It was a mere six months ago that the Standard-Examiner delivered optimistic Emerald City economic development news, with the announcement that a Las Vegas investor had acquired the venerable Ben Lomond Hotel. Ian Dixon, president of UIG Resorts reportedly intended to renovate the Ben Lomond’s lobby, install an upscale restaurant, convert existing commercial space into 147 condominiums, and ultimately build a 200-room tower near the hotel’s parking garage.

What a difference six months (and an economic recession) make. The Std-Ex reports this morning that Dixon's ambitious project, or at least a portion of it, is headed for the auction block:

OGDEN — A notice of default on a $5.3 million bank loan has been filed against a corporation that owns condominiums and suites within the historic Ben Lomond Hotel.
The notice filed with the Weber County Recorder’s Office indicates 2510 Washington LLC is in default because it has failed to make monthly installment payments to Financial Freedom Loans Inc.
Information was unavailable Wednesday regarding whether foreclosure on the Ben Lomond is imminent. Timothy W. Blackburn, an Ogden attorney representing Financial Freedom Loans, was out of the office.
The notice doesn’t detail whether the default involves all of the hotel and doesn’t list the principal owners of 2510 Washington LLC.
It’s unclear whether the entire Ben Lomond is owned by a single corporation or multiple individuals, said Tom Christopulos, the city’s business development manager

We had a fairly robust discussion on the this topic back in January, in which a number of our gentle readers expressed reservations about the wisdom of launching another hotel project in the Ogden market, where existing hotels already seemed to be struggling with low occupancy rates. On top of that, a few of our readers expressed concerns about the financial capacity of UIG, whose sole apparant assets appeared to be limited to a website, some undeveloped acreage in Paraguay and the Phillippines, and a vague business plan emphasising mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and... get this... web design.

According to this morning's story, this is one of the few downtown development projects that hasn't been on the public dole, so this doesn't appear to be a project where taxpayer dollars are at risk. Nevertheless, the apparent failure of this project piques our curiosity, and we're curious about what happened here, as a highly ambitious privately-financed developer seems to have hit the terminal skids.

Was Mr. Dixon and his company simply hamstrung by the tight credit market, which has existed since at least March of 2007? Did Mr. Dixon make the original puchase on the basis of flawed due diligence, learning only after acquiring the property that The Godfrey Vision wasn't quite the "hot real estate ticket" that had been portrayed by the administration? Did Mr. Dixon lack the financial capacity to pull off such an ambitious project in the first place, as several of our readers suggested? Did Mr. Dixon acquire his ownership interest in the property merely as a short-term play, with the intention of "flipping" it for a quick profit, once the newly-sworn in Boss Godfrey, secure in his third four year mayoral term of office, set forth to work his high adventure destination magic? Does this latest story development have anything to do with gondolas... or lack of gondolas?

We realize these questions all call for plenty of speculation, since today's story is a mite thin on the facts. And in the next few days, time permitting, we plan to mosey on down to the County Recorder's office to find out who's really in title... and whose property interests are truly at stake.

In the meantime however, we invite you all to put on your thinking caps, and offer your own insights at to what may be happening at the Ben Lomond Hotel.

And if any of you are privy to additional facts to add to the discussion, we'd love to hear about them.

Comments, anyone?

Larry Myler Update: Contractors and Lenders Fight Over Who'll Be the First to Be Paid

Friend of Matt (FOM) Myler adds new meaning to the phrase "going for broke"

Just for the sake of archival consistency, we'll post the latest news in the deteriorating Larry Mylar multi-county Mid-town Development situation. For the full history, check out our blog archive here.

The Provo Herald published an article on Larry's latest travails with respect to his Orem "Midtown" project yesterday; and the Deseret News followed it up with its own revealing article early this morning.

As all our regular gentle readers will recall, Larry Myler was the bigshot developer who trumpeted a 14-story hotel development here in Ogden in January of this year, (complete with a gondola portal and fancy water park,) only to put the project on hold in February, under the pretext that Boss Godfrey and his A-Team "had misplaced 275 parking slots" -- or so was the transparently lame explanation.

What's fairly obvious from each of the above stories is that Mr. Myler is broke, and that his next publicity will no doubt involve the U.S. Bankrupcty Courts.

So what about it, gentle readers?

Did Ogden City dodge a bullet, or not, with regard to this typically insolvent Friend of Matt?

Just for fun, can any of our gentle readers name one single FOM who IS NOT broke, these days?

The G.S.E. Bailout Plan Redux

More blowback from the U.S. mortgage industry meltdown

On Monday we commented about the proposed G.S.E. bailout plan, which was hastily cobbled together over the the last weekend by officials of the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department, with an object of expanding FED authority to provide rescue taxpayer funding, to prevent the twin public/private hybrid mortgage industry entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, from further sliding into financial oblivion.

We watched FED Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday, during which he made his first pitch to congress for expanded FED financial and regulatory authority.

We've been scouring the web for one particular video segment of yesterday's committee hearing, and the one we were searching for finally popped up on YouTube about an hour ago. We hope you'll share our delight, as Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning tears FED Chairman Bernanke "a new one." (WCF Disclosure: We have no idea who the Arab guy is who rattles on in the left frame, or why he chose to mug and comment on camera. Fast forward to 1:42, and you can skip most of the guy's blathering, and get to the real red meat):

As an added bonus to those political wonks among us whose eyes don't glaze over when presented with discussions involving economics issues, we'll also link two highly instructiive articles on the topic of the government's percipient intervention in this matter, and what it all possibly means for the U.S. economy: The Financial Tsunami: The Next Big Wave is Breaking Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and US Mortgage Debt Freddie, Fannie, and Curses on FDR
Don't let the cat get your tongues.

Southwick Parole Hearing Set For December... What???

Not to worry folks -- the Std-Ex editorial pranksters were just having a little fun with a "crafty" teaser headline
Our prediction? Val Southwick won't be coming home for Christmas

By Curmudgeon

Sometimes, I have to wonder about news judgment at the Standard-Examiner. It's running this morning, front page of the Top of Utah section, big bold black letter headline, this story: Southwick Parole Hearing Set --- "Man Convicted of Fraud to Go Before State Board in December".

I reacted as, I suspect, the Std-Ex intended its readers to react: What? The man convicted of the biggest fraud in the history of Utah is up for parole after only six months? After being sentenced to nine consecutive 1-15 year terms? What the hell?

So I read the story. Here's the first paragraph:

The state Board of Pardons has set a December parole hearing for imprisoned Ogden financier Val Southwick, but he’s not going anywhere. Setting the hearing is the policy norm for all inmates whose cases do not involve a death, said Jim Hatch, board spokesman. “All inmates, except those with a homicide, automatically have an original hearing after serving six months,” he said. “The fact he’s having this hearing doesn’t mean there’s been any review done or any kind of quick release anticipated. It doesn’t portend a release at all.”

So I have to wonder... where's the story? He's up for a mandated first hearing six months after being incarcerated, as all who have committed non-lethal crimes or crimes not involving children undergo. That's it. The lead paragraph and more further down makes it clear he is not going home for Christmas. So, where's the news? Why did this essentially nothing story lead the Top of Utah section with a bold all-across-the-page headline? Or was tricking people into reading the story the goal all along?

I don't know. Maybe putting "Southwick" in the headlines as often as possible works as well as putting "gondola" in the headlines to sell papers. But there seems, really, to have been no real story here, and certainly not one justifying banner headline treatment on the front page of the local news section.

Powder Mountain Update: The Developer's First Proposed Developer-agreement Draft Is At Last Revealed!

The Powder Mountain initial written developer proposal lands in the Weber County Commission's lap

We got an email from Justin Morris, of the Weber County planning staff a few minutes ago, regarding the "Powder Mountain Development situation".

Here's the prefacatory information provided by Mr. Morris: "The proposed development agreement in linked under Pending Projects at the County Planning Website."

And here's the link to that site:

Proposed Powder Mountain Development Agreement page

Embedded within the page is the following pdf document, which appears to be to be the first publicly-available draft of the Developers's (Western America Holdings, LLC and Eden Heights II, LLC) written proposal.

In releasing this proposed developer-proposed agreement, the Weber County Commission also issues this caveat:

In accordance with our commitment at the close of the public hearing we are making the proposal of Powder Mountain available for public review. Please note that the County Commission has not agreed to the terms and provisions of this agreement. Each Commissioner finds certain terms of the agreement unacceptable and will not approve the agreement as presently constituted. The Commission is appreciative of Powder Mountain’s willingness to discuss a development agreement in lieu of incorporation but Powder Mountain and the County remain far apart on certain major terms of the agreement.

We haven't had time to review the document ourselves. We thus throw it out for the comments of our gentle readers as a matter of first impression, just as it is for the Weber County Commission.

Our special compliments to Weber County Commissioner Dearden, who promised us he'd send the draft agreement to us for public inspection, as soon as it would be available. And here it is... one day earlier than the Developers promised.

The time has come to start digging into this document, gentle readers. The Weber County Commission obviously seeks the lumpencitizens' input.

Let's NOT let them down.

A Gentle Reader Asks: Shouldn't Five Utah Legislators be Recognised For Their Political Courage?

A great question originally posed by the Deseret News

One of our gentle readers lodged a comment in a lower article comments section today, upon which we've decided to put the WCF spotlight this afternoon. Here's what our sharp-eyed reader said:

"Hey Rudi, What would you say of this article?":

Deseret News: Applaud 5 Utah lawmakers for their courage

We have good news this afternoon for one gentle reader, whom we'll identify as Where's the Beef.

The mighty Glen Warchol has assembled that, and several other recent topical articles in his most-excellent Salt Lake Tribune blog article of today.

(Amazing what a blogger can contibute when he's actually paid for blogging, innit? Some of the rest of us in the Utah blogosphere eke enough out barely enough, from google ads and such, to pay for our ISP connection -- if that. )

Indeed there are many questions to be asked of the ethically-challenged BYU Law school graduates who run our Utah Legislature.

The bigger question, we believe, is whether docile Utah Republicans will show up to vote this pack of GOP crooks in yet again in November.

Calendar-maker Earns His Fifteen Minutes

Las Vegas man pays the ultimate ecclesiastical price for stepping "outside the image"

Well, under the circumstances of the situation, we suppose it was inevitable that this would happen:

Excommunicated: LDS Church boots creator of 'Men on a Mission' calendar

And we know the "The Lord moves in mysterious ways"... but nevertheless can't help but wonder if the penalty of being eternally banned from heaven might not be a mite harsh for publishing and schlepping a few cheesy beefcake calendars. This seems particularly incongruous, we think, when scoundrels like this still apparently enjoy full church fellowship.

Who knows? Its all a mystery, as we said.

On the bright side, we learn from the story that Mr. Hardy has already managed to bank a cool $150 thousand consolation prize... and gotten his fifteen minutes of fame. A fair trade off? We don't know.

So what say our gentle readers about all this?

The Federal Reserve Crosses the Rubicon

US taxpayers to increase their stake in the 2008 banking industry meltdown

As the world economy continues its inexorable slide into recession, we receive news this morning which, once the situation plays out, will likely make the March 2008 Bear Sterns bailout look like small potatoes. In this connection, we'll spotlight a couple of news items from bloomberg.com this morning.

First, from Paulson Puts Treasury's Weight Behind Fannie, Freddie:

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson put the weight of the federal government behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the beleaguered companies that buy or finance almost half of the $12 trillion of U.S. mortgages.
Paulson, speaking yesterday on the steps of the Treasury facing the White House, asked Congress for authority to buy unlimited stakes in the companies and lend to them, aiming to stem a collapse in confidence. The Federal Reserve separately authorized the firms to borrow directly from the central bank. Fannie and Freddie shares rose in New York trading.
The steps would bring the U.S. closer to giving an explicit guarantee for the debt sold by the shareholder-owned, federally chartered companies. That reflects a need for the government to bail out an economy that's been rocked by the worst housing recession in 25 years, the credit crisis, and soaring energy costs.
"They appear to be crossing the Rubicon," Sean Egan, president of Egan-Jones Ratings Co., a credit-rating company based in Haverford, Pennsylvania, said, referring to Caesar's invasion of Rome to set up a dictatorship.

Next, we get something from commodities investment hawk Jim Rogers: Fannie Mae, Freddie Rescue a `Disaster,' Rogers Says:

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department's plan to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is an "unmitigated disaster'' and the largest U.S. mortgage lenders are "basically insolvent,'' according to investor Jim Rogers.
Taxpayers will be saddled with debt if Congress approves U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's request for the authority to buy unlimited stakes in and lend to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Rogers said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Daniel Zimmerman predicted the mortgage finance companies' shares may fall another 35 percent.
"I don't know where these guys get the audacity to take our money, taxpayer money, and buy stock in Fannie Mae,'' Rogers, 65, said in an interview from Singapore. "So we're going to bail out everybody else in the world. And it ruins the Federal Reserve's balance sheet and it makes the dollar more vulnerable and it increases inflation.''
The chairman of Rogers Holdings, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, also said the commodities bull market has a "long way to go'' and advised buying agricultural commodities. [...]
"These companies were going to go bankrupt if they hadn't stepped in to do something, and they should've gone bankrupt with all of the mistakes they've made,'' Rogers said. "What's going to happen when you Band-Aid and put some Band-Aids on it for another year or two or three? What's going to happen three years from now when the situation's much, much, much worse?'' [...]
The U.S. economy is in a recession, possibly the worst since World War II, Rogers said.
"They're ruining what has been one of the greatest economies in the world,'' Rogers said. Bernanke and Paulson "are bailing out their friends on Wall Street but there are 300 million Americans that are going to have to pay for this."

US taxpayers can surely thank their lucky stars that the kindly folks at the FED and the US Treasury Department have the foresight to rescue the banking industry from the results of their own recklessness and perfidy. And as continuing infusions of hundreds of billions of US dollars continue to stream into our already inflationary economy, and the purchasing power of the our currency continues to descend into the realm of "play money," remember... they're doing it all for us.

Comments???

Standard-Examiner: What's Vacant; What's Not

A summary of trends in occupancy rates in Weber and Davis counties

By Curmudgeon

There's an interesting piece respecting development in today's Standard-Examiner. It's headlined "What's Vacant" and it summarizes trends in occupancy rates in Weber and Davis counties for office space, multi family housing and industrial space.

Interesting results. Vacant office space in Ogden jumped from 14.5% to 23.5% over the past year. Retail space vacancies up about 1%. But there's been a significant drop in available industrial space, and in vacancies at BDO. And vacant multi-family unit vacancies dropped from 5% a year ago to 1% now. And yet apartment rents have not risen.

Very chewy story, well worth perusing.

Farmer's Market Season Kickoff Draws Thousands of Visitors

An invitation to attendees to chime in with their own impressions and observations

The Standard-Examiner carries a short Top of Utah section article this morning, reporting on yesterday's 25th Street Farmer's Market season opening, where 5,000 visitors were expected to be in attendance.

Read Mitch Shaw's full story here.

If any Weber County Forum readers happened to attend yesterday's summer kickoff event, we invite you to chime in with your impressions and observations. We think it would be interesting to hear how it all went.

Boatload of Federal Cash to Clean Up the Ogden River?

New federal appropriations bill could yield Ogden $6.5 million

This morning's Standard-Examiner announces that the City of Ogden may well become the beneficiary of a boatload of federal cash to clean up the Ogden River. We incorporate below the lead paragraphs of this morning's Scott Schwebke story, which provide the gist:

OGDEN — Millions of dollars in federal funding may flow to the city to clean up the Ogden River.
A Senate committee has approved a federal appropriations bill that seeks funding for restoration of the entire five-mile stretch of the river that passes through the city.
The project could cost as much as $10 million, Jason Carey an engineer with RiverRestoration.org based in Glenwood Springs, Colo., estimated.
The federal government could contribute up to $6.5 million for the project and local funding sources would likely provide $3.5 million in cash, land or materials, he said.
At the city’s request, U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, succeeded in adding language to the 2009 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill that makes the river restoration project a priority, said his spokeswoman, Tara Hendershott.
The bill has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and is awaiting consideration by the full Senate.

Now we know that some of our fiscally conservative readers are bound to complain that this prospective financial windfall is just another example of Senator Bennett's propensity for pork-barrel politics; but please remember this:

"Appropriations such as these are only considered pork when they go to the other 49 states. Monies coming to Ogden are always well deserved!"

Reading between the lines, we suppose Ogden's high-priced Washington lobbyist probably had a hand in this too, so perhaps that 100 grand we pay him each year is well spent.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Boss Godfrey KCPX Radio Interview

The latest public propaganda regarding Boss Godfrey's high adventure vision

One of our readers sent us a link to this KCPW radio article, containing a link to an on air interview with Ogden City Mayor Matthew Godfrey, which was live broadcasted on Friday morning. We've edited it down to Godfrey's live segment... and for those readers who'd like to listen to the latest public propaganda regarding the Boss Godfrey high adventure vision, it's available at the link below. It's a fairly large mp3 file, so it will take a few seconds to load:

Boss Godfrey 7/11/08 KCPW Interview

We're posting this "on the fly," and will thus refrain from offering our own crabby editorial comments. We will however incorporate a few text snippets submitted by our alert reader in the email accompanying the KCPW article link:

Who is funding the free downtown bicycle program (it has not even been mentioned to the Council yet)? What about a replacement program for when they disappear?

"...Recreation is a foreign idea to the mostly blue collar population of Ogden and they look at you like you have three eyes when you talk about mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, rock climbing..."

Maybe they just look at the Mayor this way. I see plenty of blue-collar Ogdenites while enjoying the trails and rivers. They don't look at me like I'm nuts for being on a mountain bike or in a kayak. Hiking above town to escape the heat of the city is one of the best free family activities in town.

Indoor Velodrome- funding??? Taxpayers? When are we going to let private business take some risks?

At least the words "high adventure recreation" were not inserted into every sentence. What the hell is that anyway? Google it... every hit somehow links back to Ogden's Mayor or something originating within the city. I'd like to hear him "define" it some time.

We don't know about the rest of you... but speaking for ourself... we can never get enough of Boss Godfrey's droning on... with that totally annoying nasal munchkin voice.

Consider this the kickstart to a Saturday open thread.

You know what to do. Do it here.

Powder Mountain Update: Open Letter to the Weber County Commission

An enlightening graphic comparison of Utah ski area access roads

We received some informative material from gentle reader Dan S. this morning, something which we believe will be of interest to those of you who are closely following the Powder Mountain Development situation. We incorporate below a letter sent by Professor Schroeder to the Weber County Commission, on behalf of the Ogden Sierra Club:

-oOo-
To: Weber County Commission
From: Dan Schroeder, Conservation Chair, Ogden Sierra Club
Re: Powder Mountain road
Date: 11 July 2008

Dear Commissioners:

At Tuesday’s public hearing regarding the proposed Powder Mountain rezone, a couple of speakers made comparisons between the Powder Mountain access road and the roads leading to some of Utah’s other ski areas, specifically the Cottonwood Canyons and Brian Head. So you won’t have to rely on qualitative impressions, I’ve plotted the elevation of each of these four roads vs. horizontal distance:

As you can see, none of the other three roads is as steep as the Powder Mountain road, whether one compares grades over long stretches or shorter segments. For example, the steepest 1000-foot-vertical portion of the Powder Mountain road has an average grade of approximately 14.0%, while the steepest 1000-foot-vertical portions of the other roads are approximately 7.0% for Big Cottonwood Canyon, 9.4% for Little Cottonwood Canyon, and 10.6% for Brian Head. The comparison for 2000-foot segments or 500-foot segments is similar: Powder Mountain always “wins” by a substantial margin. Therefore it is invalid for proponents to imply that the Powder Mountain road would present no more access and safety problems than these others.
I obtained this data from rasterized copies of the standard USGS 7.5-minute topographic maps, sampled at each point where the road in question crossed a 40-foot contour line. This method over-estimates all the slopes very slightly, but is more than accurate enough for making these types of comparisons. The graph above, of course, uses a great deal of vertical exaggeration in order to fit all the data in a convenient space—but again this does not affect the comparison of one road to another.

In case you would like to check my work or calculate other average slopes, I have attached a spreadsheet of the raw data and all my calculations. I’m sure that your GIS Department could also verify the raw data itself, by starting with the maps and going through a similar process.
-----
As an added bonus, we hereby unveil the latest Powder Mountain illustration, from the highly talented Devon Hoxer.

Do you see those kids, downhill from a careening truck, with failing brakes, on a "kid killing" general trajectory?

This topical political cartoon, we believe, provides the ideal finishing touch to Dan's most excellent submission:



And what say our gentle readers about all this?

More Good Ink For Ogden: Emerald City to Host Archery's Elite

Boss Godfrey seizes the opportunity to pitch another "visionary" pet project

By Curmudgeon

More good ink for Ogden. Ogden city has landed the first-ever Archery World Cup competition. The Standard-Examiner reports it is expected to bring hundreds of competitors from up to 30 foreign nations to Ogden in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Full story here. The city will also host a Youth World Cup Archery competition in 2009.

This is all good news. It will bring visitors to Junction City, fill some hotel rooms, create business for eateries. Just flat good news, and active pursuit and cooperation by the Administration played an important part in landing the competition for Ogden, the Std-Ex reports.

But... late in the article, Hizzonah appears, saying that "a facility like a velodrome, which is a specialized arena that would feature indoor tennis, cycling and archery, would likely have to be built if the city intends to host the World Cup on a continual basis...."

You know, it would be nice if just occasionally, when Ogden scores a coup, (and getting the archery world cup competitions staged here is one), if the Mayor could announce the event, celebrate the coup, and take some deserved bows, without giving the impression that he has another agenda at work, without straight out of the gate trying to use one success to leverage another project he's going to present to the Council at some point.

When he makes his case for the multi-sports velodrome, it would be perfectly appropriate to refer to the Archery World Cup and the options for future competition the multi-sports facility would open up. But does the pitch for more have to come instantly, as part and parcel of the same story announcing that Ogden landed the competition for three years?

SL Trib: Utah is No. 10 in Foreclosures

Utah: Top ten finish in the "going broke" sweepstakes

By Curmudgeon

Since economic and quality of life top ten lists seem to be all the rage at the moment in these parts, I thought I'd point out the latest one, reported on line tonight by the Salt Lake Trib:

Welcome to Utah, one of the new foreclosure capitals of the United States. After years of economic prosperity, Utah now has the country's 10th highest home foreclosure rate. One in 600 households in the state is in some stage of losing a home because the homeowner is behind on loan payments, according to RealtyTrac, a service that tracks foreclosure filings nationally.

The full story, with considerably more detail, can be found here. Unless of course all those foreclosure notices are really imaginary and the people losing their homes are nothing but whiners....

George Will: Survival of the Sudsiest

Beer: a driver of the species-strengthening natural selection process

By Curmudgeon

In these parlous times, when every morning's headlines seem to bring new accounts of Republican skullduggery, it is refreshing to come across a Republican pundit with a healthy grip on common sense and his feet planted firmly in reality. And so let me recommend a column today by Republican/Conservative pundit George Will. An excerpt:

The story asserted: "The [alcoholic beverage] industry's continued growth, however slight, has been a surprise to those who figured that when the economy turned south, consumers would cut back on nonessential items like beer."
"Non what"? Do not try to peddle that proposition in the bleachers or at the beaches in July. It is closer to the truth to say: No beer, no civilization.
The development of civilization depended on urbanization, which depended on beer. To understand why, consult Steven Johnson's marvelous 2006 book, "The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic -- and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World...."
Often the most pure fluid available was alcohol -- in beer and, later, wine -- which has antibacterial properties. Sure, alcohol has its hazards, but as Johnson breezily observes, "Dying of cirrhosis of the liver in your forties was better than dying of dysentery in your twenties." Besides, alcohol, although it is a poison, and an addictive one, became, especially in beer, a driver of a species-strengthening selection process....
The gene pools of human settlements became progressively dominated by the survivors -- by those genetically disposed to, well, drink beer. "Most of the world's population today," Johnson writes, "is made up of descendants of those early beer drinkers, and we have largely inherited their genetic tolerance for alcohol...."
So let there be no more loose talk -- especially not now, with summer arriving -- about beer not being essential. Benjamin Franklin was, as usual, on to something when he said, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Or, less judgmentally, and for secular people who favor a wall of separation between church and tavern, beer is evidence that nature wants us to be.

A sane conservative Republican! Who'da thunk it? Somebody call the Guinness Book of World Records.

Will's full column, well worth a read, can be found here.

Rank Smell Eminates From Capitol Hill

Time for Weber County Attorney Decaria to break out the trusty Nasal Ranger Olfactometer?

Fine editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner on the Walker Bribery Probe topic, under the headline, "A cloud over House leadership." The editorial starts out with this:

Rather than be hauled up on ethics charges within the Utah House of Representatives, Rep. Mark Walker opted for political seppuku -- suicide -- via resignation from his elective office.
His surrender stops the ethics investigation resulting from a complaint filed against the Sandy Republican by a bipartisan group of five House colleagues, including two from the Top of Utah.
But it will not -- or at least should not -- blunt the ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of bribery.

The editorial makes a strong pitch for Weber and Davis County attorneys Decaria and Rawlings to get on with their investigation, and to "be thorough and swift." We couldn't be more in agreement with the Std-Ex about this:

It will be important not only to confirm or reject allegations about Walker's behavior, but to resolve the questions now swirling about the possible involvement of House leadership. Voters in various House districts are currently wondering if they have cause to worry about backroom dealing by powerful incumbents who will be on their ballots this fall.

Perhaps Mark Decaria could speed up the process by borrowing Ogden City's Nasal Ranger Olfactometer, and taking it for a walk around Capitol Hill.

Powder Mountain Update: A Public Hearing Post-mortem

A collection of media reports, together with a couple of blogmeister observations

For those carefully following the developments at Powder Mountain resort, we've found three informative articles this morning, reporting on last night's Weber County Commission public hearing agenda.

The Salt Lake Tribune's Kristen Moulton provides her writeup here.

The Standard-Examiner's Brooke Nelson story can be viewed here.

During last night's meeting, both the Commission and the Developer's representative framed the discussion as if there were only two alternatives on the table, i.e., 1) Approval of a County Commission/Powder Mountain development agreement, or alternatively, 2) Completion of Powderville town incorporation under the terms of the original SB 466.

Ogden Valley Forum has a thoughtful article on the subject this morning too, which delves into a discussion of a third alternative which goes beyond the two options listed above -- litigation in federal court. From this morning's OVF article:

You have to admire the chutzpah of the Powder Mountain people. They are trying to hold a gun to the head of the Weber County Commission and Weber County citizens by threatening to go forward with the incorporation petition if they don't get everything they want, including the additional units beyond what they asked for originally.
We in the Valley have news for Powder Mountain and Weber County. Bring on the Incorporation! It is very likely that a Federal Court will see things differently on the incorporation and the denial of the civil rights of Weber County citizens due to the ill advised HB466. A Federal Court case could tie up the process for years and during that time, Powder Mountain can sit on its assets.

Read Ogden Valley Forum's full morning article here. It's short but sweet, with a flavor resembling a citizen manifesto. Yes, litigation remains a viable alternate -- perhaps the most viable alternative of all. Moreover, this "hanging alternative," (a "wildcard alternative" if you will), is just the kind of option that's likely to keep both the County and the Developer at the bargaining table.

Your blogmeister also attended last night's meeting, and had originally intended to write his own article on the topic. Thanks to the hard work of the authors above however, all of the important issues arising at last night's hearing are embodied within one of the above articles or another.

We'll nevertheless throw in our own two bits, with a couple of observations we made during last night's two hour meeting:

1) Last night's hearing was a wonderful demonstration of openness, transparency and democracy in government, we believe. No fewer than 25 concerned citizens made their way to the podium last night to make their comments, and lodge their objections to the skeletal draft proposal which was presented by the developer. One of these citizens actually made a second trip to the microphone, without any objection from Commissioner Zogmeister, Commission Chair. Although an electronic 3-minute clock prominently ticked away in one corner of the commission chamber, it was quite clear that nobody was watching the clock. Our County Commissioners listened intently to the sometimes long-winded citizens, leaving your blogmeister with the distinct impression that the commissioners were quite interested in all citizen input which was offered. We believe this impression was shared by most hearing attendees. After the hearing, scores of citizens remained in the chamber and hallways for an impromptu post-mortem; and it seemed to us that everyone was "all smiles." Everyone got to "speak their minds;" nobody got shut down in mid-sentence upon the running of the three-minute clock. There are lessons in this for other local government officials, we think (wink-wink).

2) Commissioner Dearden performed with particular distinction, we believe. Upon the conclusion of the meeting he pressed the Developer's representative for a "date certain" by which a complete written copy of the Developer's proposed agreement could be furnished to the commission, for posting on the Weber County government website. After some hemming and hawing, the Developer's representative agreed to furnish such a document "within a week."

Not only that, Dearden closed the meeting with this final comment (and parting shot) to the Developer: "I'd suggest that you take another look at density." Project density, of course, was one of the two prime objections (along with inadeqate roads) raised by many of the concerned citizens last night. With Commissioner Dearden's pointed admonition, it was clear to most in attendance, we think, that Commissioner Dearden is carefully looking after the citizens' interests.

We'll now open the floor for reader comments. Let's hear from other meeting attendees who might want to throw in their own two cents.

It’s No Wonder That Voters in Utah Are Disillusioned

Don Gale Opines on the failures of Utah's "dominant political party"

By Curmudgeon

The Standard-Examiner this morning has a very interesting op ed piece by Mr. Don Gale, an editorial writer for KSL radio and TV.

Mr. Gale begins thusly:

July is the month we celebrate citizenship and patriotism and pioneers and other soul-stirring recollections of our great heritage. But Utah held an election not long ago, and fewer citizens showed up to vote than show up at college football games on a typical Saturday afternoon in September. It’s another indication of how badly broken the political system is in Utah ....

He then goes on to catalog the reasons he thinks the "political system in Utah" is "badly broken." It's a very interesting list.

One note: when Mr. Gale mentions "the dominant political party" in his list of particulars... and he uses that phrase a lot... he means Utah Republicans. Just in case you were wondering.

Chewy article. Worth a look.

Powder Mountain Update: Important Public Hearing Tonight

An opportunity for public comment on the as yet un-revealed Powder Mountain developer proposal

Just a quick reminder of tonight's public hearing, before the Weber County Commission, wherein the public is invited to comment upon the terms of the development agreement proposal in re the Powder Mountain development matter:

Date: July 8, 2008
Time: 6 p.m.
Place: Commission Chambers, 1st Floor, Weber Center, 2380 Washington Blvd., Ogden

Those readers who need to bone up on the history of this matter may review our archived Powder Mountain articles here.

For the convenience of those who plan to attend tonight's meeting, you can view the Ogden Valley Planning Commission's December 10, 2007 Planning Staff Report here. In this connection we'll suggest that it might be useful to print out a copy of this report (which includes the original Staff Recommendations), for review prior to the hearing, and for comparison with the developer proposal which will be revealed at tonight's hearing.

We'll add parenthetically that we've been trying, without avail, to get our hands on a written version of this proposal since early this week, but that even the County Commissioners had not received a written copy from the developer even as late as yesterday afternoon. We're thus presented with a situation where the public will apparently be flying blind, without any opportunity to review the relevant documents prior to the hearing.

We hope all interested Weber County Forum readers will attend tonight's hearing; and we'll be keeping our fingers crossed that we aren't about to be blind-sided.

Comments, anyone?

Hottest City Council Woman in Utah Contest - Per The Experts in the Field

Council chair Amy Wicks continues to run on the inside track on the subject of the "hottest" city council members in Utah

Great article today from one of our very most favorite political blogs, Elected Hotties. We bring this article to our Weber County Forum readers' attention, because one of our Emerald City's own" is a contestant in this contest. From the EH 4/7/08 post:

After slaving away at their regular jobs all day, the brave men and women of Utah's city councils gather to debate projects, property taxes and zoning. Occasionally, they have a spat or two with the mayor. Sometimes, they go until the wee hours of the morning with these discussions.
But this group of women manages to keep looking hot through the heaviest of discussions in council chambers. Check 'em out.

Here's a link to the Elected Hotties city council article, where you'll properly conclude that our cerebral and athletic Council-chair Amy Wicks is obviously the best of choice among the nominated Utah council "hotties."

Of course the EH hotties nomination leaves a few things out. Not only is Amy "drop dead gorgeous," but her athleticism and intellect eclipse every fat-ass empty suit in the entire Boss Godfrey administration.

You can vote for Amy in the right sidebar of the article linked above.

We could go on and on, but we're now getting the psychic feeling that we need to elicit reader comments.

Don't let the cat get yer tongues, gentle readers.

Next....?

Breaking: Representative Mark Walker "Cuts and Runs"

Walker turns tail, and resigns from Utah Legislature

Startling news from this morning's Deseret News. Hours before the Utah House of Representatives ethics committee was set to bring down the opening gavel, Walker jumps ship. According to House Counsel, Walker's resignation deprives the committee of further jurisdiction in the matter. From the D-News article:

Rep. Mark Walker, R-Sandy, resigned his seat in the Legislature, his campaign manager in his unsuccessful run for state treasurer said Monday morning.
The confirmation came just moments before the House Ethics Committee was scheduled to convene to consider allegations that Walker tried to bribe his GOP primary opponent in the treasurer's race, Richard Ellis.
"He said, 'I just can't do this to my family anymore. I know I should stay and fight….I'm done,' " said Steve Hunter, who ran Walker's campaign.
Hunter said Walker turned in a letter of resignations Sunday night to House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, and plans to spend a few weeks with his family in a secluded cabin.

And this is very interesting, we think:

"He feels like if he resigns, everyone's going to say he's covering for the unnamed legislator. There's no one to cover for," Hunter said, a reference to suggestions another lawmaker was involved in the alleged bribe.

Remarkable political insight for a poor guy (Walker) who's likely to wind up as "Utah's Political Patsy of the Year."

And so much for the concept of using the ethics committee investigation as a vehicle to clear his name.

Of course the criminal investigation remains pending, and unfortunately, Mr. Walker can't "resign" from that.

Perhaps Walker will "draw his line in the sand" there.

Well....?

Behind the City Council Scenes

A not-so-robust Standard-Examiner glimpse upon the the inner workings of the Ogden City Council

Just to get the discussion rolling this morning, we'll put the focus on this politically soothing Scott Schwebke story appearing in the Standard-Examiner, under the headline, "Behind the scenes, behind the city council." The article touts the performance of our city council staff; and for our money could have easily been subtitled "Ode to Council Director Bill Cook." We'll resist the temptation to label this story a "puff piece;" but we will nevertheless suggest that this story represents another instance where the sometimes uninquisitive Scott Schwebe failed to ask obvious follow-up questions, thereby missing a golden opportunity to produce a journalistic work which might otherwise have been truly informative for the lumpencitizens of Emerald City. We'll provide a few examples (and some suggested follow-up questions,) starting with this excerpt from this morning's story:

OGDEN — City council offices at the end of a terrazzo-tiled hallway on the third floor of the Municipal Building are deceptively quiet.
It’s there, out of the public spotlight, that the council’s staff screens proposed policies, initiatives and ordinances that may ultimately affect Ogden residents.
“There are always a million things happening,” said Bill Cook, the city council’s executive director.
“There are no calm moments.”
Nothing gets by Cook or his policy analysts, Alan Franke and Sue Zampedri.

Suggested follow-up questions:

• What about the Bootjack stealth transaction, wherein the Council/RDA Board approved the sale of a critical downtown property to Godfrey crony Chris Peterson, notwithstanding the administration's wilful refusal to identify the buyer in the transaction?
• What about the St. Anne's Shelter matter, in which the council approved a legislative request for a $1 million dollar grant to move the St. Anne's Center, based on the false assurance of administration staff that The St. Anne's Board had agreed to embark upon such a move?
• How about the Shupe-Williams property sale resolution, wherein the Council approved the sale of an important downtown property to a purported buyer who had absolutely no intention of buying it?

In each of these instances the council suffered public embarrassment due to a failure to do its due diligence -- due diligence which was the responsibility of council staff. These are instances, we believe, where important details most certainly "got by" Cook and his policy analysts. We accordingly believe that these are questions a truly diligent reporter would have asked.

And then this morning's story provides this delightful gem: "The city council’s budget for fiscal 2009 is $845,725, compared with $482,525 budgeted for the mayor’s office." And the graphic accompanying the story contains a misleading numeric reference, comparing the council's staff of five, with the Mayor's staff of three.

Gentle reader Dan S. has of course already latched onto this misleading comparison in his comment in a lower thread:

There's a highly misleading front-page article in today's S-E, comparing the Ogden City Couincil staff and budget to those of the mayor's office. Nowhere does the article point out that the city's 700 other employees also report to the mayor. How many times have the mayor's department heads given the council incorrect information, or withheld information, forcing the council and its staff to do their own research? The mayor has his own personal legal office, planning staff, accountants, map makers, business liasons, and even police statisticians.
I was also struck by this sentence from near the end of the article: "Cook also encourages council members to develop initiatives so the city isn't constantly reacting to proposals from the city's administration." In fact the system is set up to make it almost impossible for a council member to introduce a piece of legislation. Individual council members have no staff support; the council staff don't want to work on anything until after the whole council is behind it; and again, everyone else reports to the mayor.

We believe Mr. Schwebke ought to have asked something about the actual Council/Mayor staffing discrepancy.

And we loved the part where Boss Godfrey says, with a completely straight face (and after 8-1/2 years of "service" in the Mayor's office,) that he has absolutely no idea what the city council staff does.

This called for an appropriate follow-up question we think, such as: "Well, Mr. Mayor, what exactly have you've learned about Ogden City government these past 8-1/2 years?"

We'll also note in closing, that we're not altogether displeased with our council staff's performance. We merely believe there's room for improvement in the area of due diligence. As the article notes, they're well-liked and work very hard. And Bill Cook is right: The council has done especially well of late, with its own self-motivated initiatives, such as the Water Horizons project.

As for this morning's article, we believe Schwebke has produced far better work.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Foul Odor Update: Boss Godfrey's Sniff Detectives Ready to Deploy

The Emerald City Mayoral administration finally comes clean about the real reason Boss Godfrey is having trouble bringing businesses and tourists to town

Bad-smelling air runs afoul of the city’s efforts to promote Ogden as a great place for tourists and new businesses, Patterson said. “It’s really tough for us to attract people to the community when stench is wafting through the air.”

Standard-Examiner
Sniff squad waiting in the wings
July 6, 2008

It's been a little over a year since the Standard-Examiner gave us the first heads-up on Boss Godfrey's plan to remove the foremost impediment to the recuitment of new business investment and tourism in Ogden. We don't know how to say this delicately, although it's something about which all Emerald City lumpencitizens are painfully aware.

We'll just come out and say it, without mincing words, since we're all familiar with the problem: Something in downtown Ogden reeks.

The Standard-Examiner provides more information in this morning's edition, which we'll label a Std-Ex stink patrol update, under the Top of Utah section headline: "Sniff squad waiting in the wings -- Ogden's odor patrol to be called to duty."

According to this morning's story, the Godfrey administration has already acquired its high-tech Nasal Ranger Olfactometer, and has deputized a highly-trained anonymous committee of five, to sniff out the source of Ogden's malevolent downtown malodors. And surprise of surprises, the problem doesn't seem to eminate from the American Nutrition dog food factory, as many of us earlier suspected. According to this morning's story, Godfrey's Stink Patrol already checked that site out; and it passed the electronic "sniff test" with flying colors.

Undaunted, Boss Godfrey's sniff detectives stand ready to further deploy, collecting air samples from a wide array of suspected sources "...including landfills, wastewater treatment plants, composting operations and factories."

Weber County Forum readers had a little fun with this story when it fist came out in the Std-Ex last year. Several of our gentle readers had their own theories about the true source of Ogden's downtown stench.

Perhaps a good sniff on the ninth floor of City Hall would be a good place to start. Just a helpful hint from gentle reader Ozboy.

And one more thing. This is what 1400 bucks will get you in the high-tech olfactory electronics department:

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

High Fuel Costs Tax Northern Utah Police Budgets

One gentle reader raises questions re Boss Godfrey priorities

By Concerned About Safety

Interesting article in the Standard Examiner this morning regarding the high fuel costs and the challenges police departments are faced with in budget over runs.

It would seem to me that Boss Godfrey would have budgeted some of the one time monies to allow for the budget over runs, rather than piss it away on popsicles, and other shaky business deals.

Ogden Police is $130,000 over for this last budget year alone just on fuel costs.

The other unnerving part is the Chief Greiner blames the council for not budgeting more money for fuel costs.

The last time I checked, the Mayor is the clown who puts together a budget and presents it to the council. They can add money to certain areas of the budget, but the Boss doesn’t have to spend it on the areas designated by the Council. I would think that the budget presented by Godfrey is his baby, not the Council's.

It shows me where the Godfrey Administrations priorities are as far as funding necessary items in the budget, popsicles, or public safety. Which would you prefer?

I would choose public safety, but I'm not Godfrey.

Per the Standard-Examiner: Name Calling at the Capitol

A glimpse into "sausage-making activities" within the Utah GOP legislative inner circle

The Standard-Examiner editorial board finally jumps aboard the bandwagon this morning, demonstrating that they, like we, are closely watching the spectacle surrounding this year's Utah State Treasurers' race, an election contest which has been considerably spiced up, by the sideshow which we've now taken to calling the Walker Bribery Probe.

This morning's strong Std-Ex editorial provides a tidy fact summary for those in the Std-Ex's general readership who were not heretofore aware of the story, and then goes on to focus further on the past week's "meltdown" by Rep. Stephen Urquhart, (R-St. George), during the past week on his blog:

Even more entertaining: Rep. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, chairman of the House Rules Committee and a candidate for vacated Senate District 29, used his personal blog to savage Reps. Hansen’s, Allen’s and Mascaro’s reputations within the House. Here’s what he wrote about them complaining that their legislation wasn’t getting out of the Rules Committee: “When Hansen, Allen and Mascaro complained that their legislation wasn’t moving, I candidly told them that they were perceived on both sides of the aisle to be grandstanding hacks who brought little of value to the process, and that the perception probably wasn’t helping their cause” (www.steveu.com/blog/).
If anyone ever tells you Utah politics are polite, point them in Urquhart’s direction — he’ll disabuse them of that notion in a hurry.

This morning's editorial was apparently drafted before the revelation of the latest plot twist, of course -- the rolling out of the neoCON slime machine -- in re GOP House Representative Mascaro. But that's OK. The Std-Ex editors can always catch up on the story here at WCF.

We welcome the Std-Ex editors to join us as we all sit back to watch this clownish sideshow from the "cheap seats" -- while certain blockheads in the Utah GOP continue the process of public pre-general election self-cannibalization.

The Std-Ex editors make a good point with this, we believe:

There’s that old saying about how watching laws get made is a little like watching the doings at a sausage-making business. Arguments over alleged ethics violations are the same thing, but nevertheless they give us an indication what sorts of people we routinely elect to powerful positions.

Special thanks to Rep. Urquhart, among others, for giving us a public glimpse of that.

Why 'Atheists' are Praying

An important query for the gentle readers of Weber County Forum

From Thursaday's Washington Post: A new Pew Forum survey surprisingly found that 1 in 10 American atheists pray at least once a week. Here are 10 possible explanations. Are there others?

1. Notice that lately even Red Sox fans get their prayers answered.
2. Jamie Lynn Spears' immaculate conception.
3. 7+ years of the Bush Administration.
4. They are homeowners.
5. Notice that lately even Democrats get their prayers answered.
6. Flooding of biblical proportions in land-locked Iowa.
7. Worry about impact of global warming on the afterlife.
8. Putting in a good word for George Carlin.
9. At least 10% misread the survey and ID'd themselves as 'a theist'.
10. Better safe than sorry.

Well...?

Put the "Independence" Back in Independence Day

Jefferson and Washington fought a war for the principle of independence, meaning the moral right of an individual to live his own life as he sees fit

By Michael S. Berliner
Via: Ayn Rand Institute

America's cities and towns will soon fill with parades, fireworks, and barbecues in celebration of the Fourth of July, the 232nd birthday of America. But one hopes that the speeches will contain fewer bromides and more attention to exactly what is being celebrated. The Fourth of July is Independence Day, but America's leaders and intellectuals have been trying to move us further and further away from the meaning of Independence Day, away from the philosophy that created this country.

What we hear is that independence is outdated, that we've reached a new age of "interdependence." Our presidential candidates call for more and more sacrifice--sacrifice to the needy, sacrifice to the nation, sacrifice to the world community, sacrifice to the environment. But this message of sacrifice is the direct opposite of what America stands for, of why America became a beacon of hope for the oppressed throughout the world. They have come here to escape poverty and dictatorship; they have come here to live their own lives, where they can exist by right and not by permission of the government, the community or any collective.

"Independence Day" is a critically important name for a holiday. It signifies the fundamental meaning of this nation. The American Revolution remains unique in human history: a revolution founded on a moral principle, the principle of individual rights. Jefferson at Philadelphia and Washington at Valley Forge pledged their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor." For what? Not for mere separation from England, not--like most rebels throughout history--for the "freedom" to set up their own tyranny. In fact, Britain's tyranny over the colonists was mild compared to what most current governments do to their citizens.

Jefferson and Washington fought a war for the principle of independence, meaning the moral right of an individual to live his own life as he sees fit. Independence was proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence as the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." What are these rights?

The right to life means that every individual has a right to his own independent life, that your life and property belong to you, not to others to use as they see fit.

The right to liberty means the right to freedom of action, to act on your own judgment, the right not to have a gun pointed at your head, forcing you to obey another’s commands.

And the right to the pursuit of happiness means that an individual may properly pursue his own happiness, e.g., his own career, his own friends, and his own hobbies. It means that he does not exist as a mere tool to serve the goals of others. The Founding Fathers did not proclaim a right to the attainment of happiness, knowing that such a policy would carry with it the obligation of others to make one happy and result in the enslavement of all to all. The Declaration of Independence was a declaration against servitude, not just servitude to the Crown but servitude to anyone. (That some signers of the Declaration still owned slaves does not negate the fact that they established the philosophy that doomed slavery.)

Political independence is not a primary. It rests on a more fundamental type of independence: the independence of the human mind. It is the ability of a human being to think for himself and guide his own life that makes political independence possible and necessary. The government as envisaged by the Founding Fathers existed to protect the freedom to think and the freedom to act on one's thinking. If human beings were unable to reason, to think for themselves, there would be no autonomy or independence for a government to protect.

To the Founding Fathers, there was no authority higher than the individual mind, not King George, not God, not society. Reason, wrote Ethan Allen, is "the only oracle of man," and Thomas Jefferson advised us to "fix reason firmly in her seat and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God." That is the meaning of independence: trust in your own judgment, in reason; do not sacrifice your mind to your neighbors, the church, the race, the state, or the nation.

Independence is the foundation of America. Independence is what should be celebrated on Independence Day. That is the legacy our Founding Fathers left us. It is a legacy we should keep, not because it is a tradition, but because it is right and just.

Utah GOP Operatives Roll Out the Trusty Slime Machine

How low will Utah GOP leadership go?

The Deseret News reports additional blowback this morning, stemming from the pending House ethics committee bribery probe which we discussed earlier here. "Somebody" has leaked information to the press, implicating Rep. Steve Mascaro (one of the two Republicans who joined with three House Democrats in initiation of the ethics investigation,) in a purported sexual harassment incident. This curious subplot to the Walker investigation is now developing legs of its own. From this morning's D-News story:

A state legislator who signed a bipartisan ethics complaint against one of his GOP House colleagues is now finding himself in the public eye — and blaming retribution by his own party leaders for it.
Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, says he did nothing wrong when he tried to console an upset female intern during the 2008 Legislature.
"I can't believe that the (leaders of the Republican Party) would stoop this low" as to leak the incident involving him to the news media. The Deseret News is not identifying sources who told the newspaper about the incident, but Mascaro said he believes he knows who has talked about it.
Two different sources, one inside the Legislature, another outside the Legislature, told the Deseret News about an incident involving Mascaro and a female intern, which was reported by the young woman to legislative staffers. Later, legislative staffers met with Mascaro and House leaders to discuss it. No formal action was asked for and none was taken, Mascaro said.
Contacted by the newspaper, the intern said she is angry that her complaint about improper conduct has been made public. The Deseret News is not identifying the intern.
"I never would have made the complaint — I was promised it would never come out," she said.

There's also something on this story in this morning's Salt Lake Tribune.

Mascaro says the accusation is retaliatory; and we believe he's probably right. It should come as no surprise to political wonks, of course, that Utah neoCONS would resort to sliming their critics and intra-party dissidents. It's a basic technique from the top shelf of the neoCON bag of tricks. Ask Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame or Richard A. Clarke about that. Barrack Obama could of course give you an earful too.

For our own part, we have no particular ax to grind re Rep. Mascaro. If he's guilty of ethical misconduct, he ought to face the music, along with his Republican House colleague, Mark Walker. Let the games begin, we say. As long as the the House ethics committee is convening to investigate the Walker matter, why not open up a file on Rep. Mascaro? In a best-case scenario, by the way, ethics committee hearings will present both Walker and Mascaro a golden opportunity to clear their names.

And now that the House is conducting at least one ethics investigation sideshow, how about stirring up something similar in the Senate? The addled Senator Buttars has apparently been arrogantly shooting off his mouth again, and he's not yet been officially called on the carpet for this highly-troubling incident. And if the Senate ethics committee decides to open investigations, who knows what other allegations might fall out of the woodwork.

Gawd do we love Utah politics!

Just a couple of Articles to Send Our readers Into the Holiday Weekend

"What makes this $691 billion loss so special is that 'such losses could jeopardize balance sheets because the US banking system had only $US 1,350 billion of equity capital'. Hahaha! They've lost two-thirds of the banks capital! Hahaha! Morons!"

The Mogambo Guru
Banks are Suffering from their Own Stupidity
July 3, 2008

Consider a different view of cause and effect. If the recession is a correction to an overly pumped economic boom, matters change. The recession, then, is not an aberration crying out for correction; it is itself the correction for the unsustainable economic bubble that preceded it. It should be welcomed in the same way we welcome a sober day after a drunken evening, or the detoxification of an addict after a period of addiction.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Grand Theft Society
7/1/1008

Well here we are again on the cusp of the Fourth of July holiday which, judging from the dearth of red meat news stories this week from ALL news media, seems to indicate that this year's "patriotic" four-day weekend will set a new record for days spent for media goofing off. According to our calculations, the latest indication of news-reporting "softness" began on Monday, and will likely continue until at least Monday next. Of course the US media has been basically goofing off throughout the 7-1/2 years of the Bush administration anyway, so what's another 7 days' "news" information interruption anyway, in the "Big Picture?"

Just to kick off the weekend, we thought we'd link a couple of articles commenting upon the current sickly condition of the US economy, as we launch into another National Holiday, dedicated of course, to burning up as much petro-fuel as we can possibly afford, drinking cases of vile foamy beverages, burning tons of dead meat on the BBQ, and otherwise getting our American ya-yas out, whilst generally ignoring the fact that we, the Mighty USA, are inexorably headed toward Third-world Nation Status.

And in that juncture, here's a little something from one of our very most favorite economics commentators, The Mogombo Guru.

And here's another eye opening piece from Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., of the renowned Ludvig Von Mises Institute, one of the world's foremost economic "think tanks" on the planet.

Just a couple of articles to send you into the weekend with a slightly jaded eye, even in the face of the frenzied holiday celebrations.

Have nice holiday, gentle readers.

And for cripe's sake -- be safe!

Ogden Scores #3 in Yet Another Top Ten List

Another public relations coup for Boss Godfrey's High-adventure meme

The Standard-Examiner breathlessly announces on the front page this morning that Ogden City has again found itself on another of those infernal "top ten" magazine lists. From this morning's Jeff Demoss story:

OGDEN — The city’s efforts to attract young, outdoor-oriented residents are getting a boost from a major magazine geared toward the same crowd.
Outside, which claims to be the leading magazine for active lifestyle enthusiasts, has placed Ogden at No. 3 on its annual list of the “Best 10 Towns in America.”

This should make us all very proud, we think. After all, Ogden finished near the top of the heap, only two clicks down from...

We are not making this up...

Washington, D.C.

What an honor. We swear it doesn't get any better than that.

Don't all chime in at once.

Powder Mountain Update: Public Hearing Set for July 8

Time for public comment on the fruits of 4 months' Commission/Developer negotiations

Short notice we spotted this morning whilst prowling the Weber County government website:

Public Hearing Notices

Notice is hereby given that the Weber County Commission will hold a public hearing on July 8, 2008 at 6 p.m. in the Commission Chambers, 1st Floor, Weber Center, 2380 Washington Blvd., Ogden, Utah, to consider a Powder Mountain Development Agreement and rezone proposal (Zoning Petition # 18-2006) requesting to amend the Zoning Map of Weber County at the Powder Mountain Resort.
Copies of the proposed zoning map amendment may be reviewed prior to the hearing in the Weber County Planning Commission Office, Suite 240, in the Weber Center.

By Board of Commissioners of Weber County
Commissioner Zogmaister, Chair
Attest:
Alan D. McEwan, CPA
Weber County Clerk/Auditor

The ever-sharp-eyed Ogden Valley Forum has already reported on this latest story development earlier this morning, linking also a short sidebar blurb from The Standard-Examiner's June 25 edition, containing this interesting language:

OGDEN -- A public hearing will be held Tuesday, July 8, regarding the Poweder Mountain development agreement. Citizens will be given time to make comments regarding the proposal which will require rezoning.
The Weber County Commission and representatives from Powder Mountain will be present.
"This is a step that needs to be taken," said Commissioner Dearden. "It will bring us closer to a conclusion."

It's thus evident that the ongoing negotiations between the Developer and the Commission have come to a conclusion, and that this July 8 hearing may present the lumpencitizens of Weber County their one and only opportunity to chime in on the terms of whatever tentative agreement Commission negotiators may have reached (entirely behind closed doors) with the developer.

We expressed in an earlier WCF article our hope that our County Commission negotiators were in a strong enough position in this matter that they wouldn't be forced to "give away the store." Next Tuesday's public hearing will no doubt provide the opportunity to find out whether they did.

Before closing, we'll incorporate the text of a reader comment appearing in the comments section of the above-linked Ogden Valley Forum article:

Knight Rider said...
It appears that this meeting will deal with the conditions for approval for the original rezone request that were established by the Ogden Valley Planning Commission late last year. The Valley residents should be aware that the Powder Mountain Road, along with the density numbers that will impact buildings and traffic still are some of the main issues. Water usage for two 18 hole golf courses at our elevation and dry climate is also an serious Issue. If Powder Mountain is not ready to compromise on these issues, we have made no progress and we will be faced with our Valley lifestyle being overwhelmed by this development.

We believe OVF reader Knight Rider frames the issues quite accurately.

We would strongly suggest that those gentle WCF readers who are concerned about this issue put the July 8 date on their calenders, and plan to attend the public hearing.

Don't forget to bring along your torches, pitchforks and steely-eyed stares.

Two Morning Stories on the Emerald City Economic Development Theme

A high adventure recreation invention contest, and an outlier from the IT sector

We find a pair of interesting stories in this morning's Standard-Examiner, which we suppose can be loosely tied together as promoting Ogden City economic development. The first involves a contest designed to provide seed money to local inventors, while simultaneously enhancing Ogden's reputation as an outdoor recreation center. We incorporate Ace Reporter Schwebke's informative paragraphs below:

A $20,000 prize will be awarded in September as part of a contest to attract new product ideas and companies to bolster Ogden’s burgeoning reputation as an outdoor recreation center.
The city is sponsoring the “Concept to Company” contest in connection with primary sponsors Zions Bank, Grow Utah Ventures and Utah Science, Technology and Research.
The winners and two runners-up will be announced Sept. 27 as part of the city’s Mountain to Metro festival.

$10,000 prizes will reportedly be awarded also to runner-ups.

The contest also has a potload of secondary sponsors, including Amer Sports Winter & Outdoor, Backcountry.com, Black Diamond Equipment Ltd., Deer Valley Resort, Descente North America, Goode Skis, Mountain to Metro, Ogden city, Outdoor Industry Association, Ogden Climbing Park, Petzl America, Rossignol Group North America, and Seed Weber Davis Morgan.

We think it's great to see these above companies joining together to promote entrepreneurship in our community. And for a couple of them, it's a relief to see them diverting their attention (however temporarily) from crackpot projects like urban gondolas.

Got an outdoors product design scrawled on a notepad of cocktail napkin somewhere (and what self-respecting Ogden skier or boarder doesn't)? Now's the time to dig it out and sent it in.

Today's second Std-Ex article is a slight outlier, inasmuch as its business model goes against the grain of Boss Godfrey's High Adventure Mecca marketing scheme theme.

Flush with $6 million in newly obtained venture funding, a local internet technology company is planning an expansion at Business Depot Ogden. From today's Jeff DeMoss story:

OGDEN — Armed with a $6 million infusion of venture capital, a young Internet company is embarking on an aggressive expansion that could bring up to 100 new technology jobs to Business Depot Ogden.
TopTenReviews, which tests thousands of products and rates them online, secured the investment from two separate venture capital firms through the Utah Fund of Funds, a state program that matches entrepreneurs with potential funding sources.
The money will allow Top-TenReviews to add as many as 100 positions to its 48-member work force, company President Stan Bassett said.

And yes, we realize that there are some within our readership who will be disappointed that TopTenReviews is an IT company -- and NOT a ski company -- and that it therefore fails to conform to the "visionary" high-recreation theme. And to those readers we say this:

It's never a good idea to put all your economic eggs in one basket... and you caught the part above... about the 100 new jobs... right?

Time to turn it over to our gentle readers.

We know you're out there BTW; we can hear you breathing.

Walker Ethics Probe Moves to Full Committee Inquiry

Ethics committee co-chairs elect to conduct a "full panel preliminary inquiry"

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the House Ethics Committee has taken the first procedural step in the ethics investigation which we discussed on Friday: "Walker Remains in the Hotseat: Criminal and Ethics Investigations Pending." From this morning's Dan Harrie story:

The leaders of the Utah House Ethics Committee have decided to hold a meeting of the full panel to consider allegations of elections-law violations against Rep. Mark Walker.
The Ethics co-chairs will convene a public meeting of the committee next Monday to consider allegations that Walker offered his rival in the state treasurer's race a job and big pay increase if he would withdraw his candidacy.
"The eight members will review the complaint and see if there is enough information to move forward," said Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy.

And for some strange reason, we were not at all surprised by this:

If they [the full 8 member comittee] decide to proceed into a preliminary inquiry, they will go into closed session, in accord with legislative rules, Kiser said.

We spoke this morning however with one of our informed and trusted sources on the hill, who assures us the closed session rule will be confined to the "preliminary inquiry" only, and, assuming that the committee finds sufficient evidence of ethical misconduct on Rep. Walker's part to support further investigation, all subsequent proceedings would occur in full public view, under applicable House rules.

In view of the considerable array of incriminating information in this matter which has already been revealed in the public press, we find it difficult to imagine how the committee could do anything other than to proceed with a full investigation.

We'll be keeping our skeptical eyes peeled on this however, and will post updates and developments here as this matter progresses.

Attorney Barnard Gets Clipped for $10K in Sanctions

Plaintiffs' counsel however vows to appeal

This morning's Standard-Examiner reports that Salt Lake City attorney Brian Barnard has been clipped with $10,000 in sanctions, for his role as counsel for several dozen plainiff's in last year's lawsuit, which challenged the performance of Mayor Matthew Godfrey, City Attorney Gary Williams and City Recorder Cindi Mansell under the provisions of Ogden City Code Section 1-8-1, et seq. This is in addition to the $15,000 in sanctions already imposed earlier by trial court judge Parley Baldwin against the individual plaintiffs.

With all due due respect to Judge Baldwin, we've always contended that his summary judgment of dismissal in this matter was premature and unwarranted, inasmuch as it deprived the plaintiffs in this matter their day in court. There existed substantive factual issues which were never resolved by the trial court, such as those listed by gentle reader Do What Is Right in a WCF comment on October 4, 2007:

Mayor Matthew Godfrey could settle the lawsuit in one day if he would turn over his financial records to the City Recorder to audit as the lawsuit requests.
The first financial statement he filed showed around $80,000.00 left from current donations of $100,000.00.
He failed to list $38,000.00 from his last campaign as being on hand or having been spent. He just can't ignore $38,000.00 although that is what he has done.
He also can't ignore the fact that R&O contributed $10,000.00 to his campaign instead of the $2,500.00 he lists as being received.
This is $45,000.00 more that he has to account for than he listed on his candidate's report the first time around.
For those of you into math, that is over 50% more than he listed on the first signed financial report he filed.
That figure does not include any funds collected by PEOPLE TO ELECT MAYOR MATTHEW GODFREY of an unknown amount which he filed no report on at all.
So how come people on this blog don't care about an accounting of funds which there will not be if the Littrell suit is dropped.
I say it needs to be heard out. Voters have a right to know the truth.

As we've said before, we believe the above inaccuracies and discrepancies on the part of mayoral candidate Godfrey ought to have triggered the production of records and documents sought by the plaintiffs in their lawsuit.

It's been our continuing belief that the plaintiffs would prevail on appeal, if they were willing to devote the necessary effort and resources to overturning Judge Baldwin's decision, notwithstanding the inadequacies of Attorney Barnard's pleadings. Hopefully the matter will be resolved more favorably, now that Attorney Barnard has had his own feet put to the fire.

And what say our gentle readers about this?