More Discussion Concerning Utah's Wacky and Weird "Zion's Curtain" Liquor Law Provision - Updated

Fascinating information concerning the battle royal being waged between Utah liquor law reformers and the highly moralistic throwbacks of the Sutherland Institute

"Pay No Attention to That Woman
Behind The Curtain"

Perhaps the timing's a mite off now that the Utah legislature's out of session, but the frantic discussion of Utah's wacky and weird "Zion's Curtain" liquor law provision continues unabated in the Utah webosphere, with dang near as much intensity as if our Utah legislative critters were even now making their mischief up on Utah's Capitol Hill.

Just to keep the discussion going, we'll accordingly link a couple of interesting editorial pieces appearing on the web over the past couple of days, one from Utah Political Capitol and another from the Salt Lake Tribunes' Paul Rolly:

• EDITORIAL: The Zion Curtain – Tear Down this Wall
• Paul Rolly: Studies debunk need for Zion Curtain to hide Utah bartenders

Sutherland Institute

The Sutherland Institute blog post referenced in both above editorial items also deserves a link, we suppose:

• Children and the culture of drinking

Fascinating information concerning the battle royal being waged between Utah liquor law reformers and the highly moralistic throwbacks of the Sutherland Institute, don'tcha think?

So who will be the first to throw in their own 2¢?

Update 4/18/13 9:20 a.m.: More rubbish from the nanny-state scolds of the Sutherland Institute:

• Nothing silly or embarrassing about Utah’s liquor laws

And the beat goes on...

Utah A. G. John Swallow-topical WCF Podcast Special: Maryann Martindale Interview

A Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat to the folks at Utah Political Capitol, for making this audio material available online

"Honest" John Swallow

In connection of our ongoing WCF article series concerning the ethical and legal troubles of Utah Attorney General John Swallow, we'll put the spotlight on an item appearing yesterday on the Utah Political Capitol website, featuring, among other things, the audio track of a recent 15-munite interview with the Alliance for a Better Utah's Maryann Martindale, who is one of the two complainants in a legal battle against Attorney General John Swallow.

We believe that our readers with a little extra time on their hands will find this will find the full podcast to be most interesting, inasmuch as it broaches a broad array of topics which are always of interest to our Weber County Forum readers, if you know what we mean (and we think you do):

• UPC Show #21! Booze.. Swallow’s Scandal.. STD’s.. and Sutherland Institute

For those readers however who'd just like to cut to the chase, we've taken the liberty of editing it all down to a brief twelve minutes.  So for the listening pleasure of our ever-gentle WCF readers, here's UPC's complete Martindale interview segment, which clearly sets forth, wethinks, the facts, issues, rationale and motivation behind ALB's pending legal action:


Certainly welcome relief from yesterday's heart-rending story, innit?

A Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat to the folks at Utah Political Capitol, for making this audio material available online.

Don't forget to throw in your own 2¢.

Breaking: Explosions and Injuries Reported at the Boston Marathon Finish Line - Updated

Three reported killed; one-hundred or more injured

Via Fox News13 2:26 p.m.: "We have live streaming coverage of the incident at the Boston Marathon, where 2 explosions rocked the finish line" (Updated):

• Terrorism strikes Boston Marathon as bombs kill 2, wound dozens

The Standard is already front-and-center with this 2:24 p.m. Associated Press story:

• Explosions rock finish of Boston Marathon; 2 dead, scores injured

Update 7:30 p.m.: The Boston Globe is all over this story, of course, since this is all occurring in the Globe's own backyard.  Here's the Globe's  Boston.Com online front page, which presents their own ever-growing and home-grown series of text, photo and video pieces:

• Boston Globe Online

What a messed-up world we live in, eh?

Official story "unravelling"

Update 4/16/13 10:00 a.m.: As per normal, the usual government conspiracy theorists are coming out of the woodwork:

• Official story unraveling for Boston marathon bombing; clear evidence points to bomb squad's prior knowledge
• The New World Order Formula for False Flag Attacks

Just because you're a paranoid crackpot, it doesn't mean they're not out to getcha, right?

Also, there's relevant and interesting coverage of the "local angle" this morning from the Standard-Examiner:

• Top of Utahns share stories of Boston Marathon horror, sadness
• Willard woman in first Boston Marathon happy family wasn't at finish line
• Ogden Marathon officials to study security following Boston attack

That's it for now, folks.

Standard-Examiner: Officials Peddle Ogden As New Cycling Center

When it comes to adding the slightly less pompous tout-phrase "North American cycling cluster" to our Ogden City resume, we ask: "So why the hell not?"

Just like clockwork, and as a followup to our March 22, 2013 WCF story reporting that "our beloved Mayor Mike was enjoying the gracious hospitality of Taiwan bicycle factory owners and bike manufacturers, together with the the cheerful camaraderie of other fellow Taipei Cycle Show attendees," in the interest of "developing a 'sister city' [relationship] with Ogden and establishing it as the North American cycling cluster," we find  the inevitable post-mayoral junket puff piece plastered right up there on the top of the Standard-Examiner front page this morning:

• Officials peddle Ogden as new cycling center

Aerospace Industry View

Mayor Mike sez "the city’s aim is to turn Ogden into a North American cycling cluster, bringing an interconnected concentration of cycling businesses to the city — similar to the thriving Northern Utah aerospace industry," which has something of a eerie and familiar ring to it, dunnit?

In point of fact, the beleaguered citizens of Ogden City have heard variations of this tired old theme song many times before, come to think of it, in circumstances which, sadly, never even came close to living up to the public relations-hype.

It'll be fascinating to stand back and watch how this all pans out down the road, once it's been subjected to a proper cost/benefit analysis, don'tcha think?

And we'll all be keeping our collective lumpentaxpayer fingers crossed; right, O Gentle Ones?

As for the minor detail of Mayor Mike's proposed  "North American Cycling Cluster" motto, we'll pose a question to you all:

Why, we're already the "High-advenure Recreation Capital" of the whole danged planet after all, not to mention the "Disneyland for Adrenalized Adults." So when it comes to adding the slightly less pompous tout-phrase "North American Cycling Cluster" to our Ogden City resume, we ask, "Why the hell not?"

Top of Utah Courthouse News Roundup

Serial scammer Wayne Ogden "rolls over" and Utah A.G. John Swallow shows Alliance for a Better Utah "who's boss"

Just to provoke a little bit of online discussion, we'll highlight a couple of interesting news court-related news stories this morning, which dovetail nicely with topics previously discussed here at Weber County Forum, which items we'll now submit to our readers in no particular order of importance:

1) As a followup to our last article on the subject, and true to our earlier prediction, it seems that "serial scammer" Wayne Ogden will soon indeed be enjoying an extended meet-up with his soon-to-be new cellmate "Bubba," as the Salt Lake Tribune reports that Ogden City's second most-notorious home-boy con man (Val Southwick being the first) has voluntary "taken a fall" in his latest "ponzi" rip-off criminal case, entering a guilty plea to "two charges of wire and securities fraud, as part of a plea deal with the U.S. attorney’s office." In exchange for rolling over on the federal charges, Wayne will serve an agreed 10-year prison sentence, along with taking on another multi-million dollar restitution order, Trib reporter Tom Harvey reports:

• Serial scammer Wayne Ogden pleads guilty to new fraud charges

Sad outcome for this once-promising "former South Ogden Eagle Scout," wethinks.  Looking at the bright side, however, Ogden's forthcoming 10-year "hard-time" stretch will no doubt afford plenty of time for Wayne to brush up on his Boy Scout Oath, we suppose, a chore which Wayne has plainly neglected in recent years, que no?

"Honest" John Swallow

2) On the civil litigation front, the Standard-Examiner reports on the latest development concerning ethically-challenged Utah Attorney General John Swallow, whose high-priced defense attorneys have filed a routine "Motion for Dismissal" in Swallow's pending election fraud civil case:

• Utah AG says election complaint against him should be dismissed

For those readers who may be unfamiliar with this ubiquitous procedural device, which some legal scholars characterize as a "reaction of some litigators to make a motion to dismiss in virtually every case," amounting to "a bad habit".  Such such motions do generally serve three chief tactical purposes nevertheless:

1. Resolving a case on its own legal merits;
2. Demonstrating to the opposition that they're in for a long and expensive fight; and,
3. Running up everybody's legal bill, thereby promoting a full-employment economy for "Big Time" civil "litigation mills."

We'll take a wild guess at this point and guess that that the motivation behind Swallow's counsels' motion lies behind doors number 2 and 3, folks, but we''l have to wait to see what the District Court has to say about this, we suppose.

Needless to say, we'll be closely following future developments in both cases as they progress...

So who'd like to throw in their own 2¢?

Standard-Examiner Housekeeping Notes: Charlie Trentelman’s Departure Opens Way for Two New Columnists

Added bonus: A little bit of consolation for devoted  Charlie Trentelman fans who are "going cold turkey" after Charlie's "retirement"

Standard-Examiner managing editor Andy Howell provides an interesting column this morning concerning certain "readjustments" which S-E management is making upon the departure of the "irreplaceable" "Wasatch Rambler" warhorse Charles Trentelman from the Standard's "blue ribbon" journalistic stable.

Here's the new S-E player roster, in bullet-point form:

• Beginning next week, Mark Saal will take over Charlie's slot; and his new column will run on Tuesdays and Sundays in the Top of Utah/Davis local section, where his contributions will no longer be confined to his trademark gut-busting humor.
• The venerable former Editorial Page Editor Don Porter will be dragged out of  retirement to replace Saul with a Sunday feature column in the Life section, although it's unclear from the story whether he'll be trying his hand at Saal-style boffo humor.

Here's Andy's full column, for those who'd like to read up:

• Charlie Trentelman’s departure opens way for two new columnists

Andy says that "Mark has built his reputation on his humorous take on subjects, but he won’t be limited to that approach." It'll be therefore interesting, wethinks, to see if Saul, who's even funnier than Dave Berry, wethinks, will succeed at "straight" journalism... even once. 

As for Mr. Porter, who's publicly demonstrated little in the way of rib-tickling humor over the years, your blogmeister, (just like all the rest of those faithful S-E readers who pore over the Standard-Examiner every day from the front page to the back every morning) will be sitting on the edge of  his seat eagerly awaiting a first glimpse of the style and tone of Mr. Porter's upcoming S-E columns. And howbout you?

Added bonus: And here's the part the Standard left out... a little bit of consolation for the many devoted  Charlie Trentelman fans who are surely  "going cold turkey" after Charlie's newspaper "game changing" retirement:  Charlie hasn't put himself out to pasture; nor will he spend his "golden" retirement years tilting back and forth in a squeaky rocking chair.  In that connection, we're pleased to publicly announce that Charlie has just this week entered the field of post-retirement citizen journalism with a nifty new blog, where he's been posting in something of a frenzy over the past day or two, in classic Trentelman form:

• The Retired Rambler

For our readers" convenience, by the way, we've also added a  link to Charlie's blog within our right sidebar.

That's it for now, O Gentle Ones.

We'll soon find out, whether these housekeeping moves on the S-E's part represent a stabilization or improvement in the S-E's existing journalistic product, or merely amount to "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," we guess.

Standard-Examiner: Ogden Transit Project Talk Revving Up - Updated

The city needs to step forward and commit.” “That’s an important move.” - Council Director Bill Cook

In the aftermath of this encouraging 3/15/13 Standard-Examiner story, and notwithstanding the Standard's nay-saying 3/27/13 thumbs-down, the Standard again carries another timely Ogden Streetcar project-related story which might rekindle the time-dimmed hopes of Ogden City street car advocates, on the heels of  Tuesday's (4/9/13) Ogden City Council work session:

"After a long period of inactivity, discussion on the possible Ogden streetcar is heating up again. Officials from Utah Transit Authority, Wasatch Front Regional Council and Utah Department of Transportation participated in an Ogden City Council work session Tuesday night, discussing the future of the Ogden Transit Project," reports S-E reporter Mitch Shaw, in yesterday's online story.

• Ogden Transit Project talk revving up

$745,000 Study

Despite the daunting estimated $745,000 cost of yet another UTA-sponsored study, which would intricately delve into projected cost, ridership, alignment and mode parameters, we're hearing noises from some in Ogden City government that it's time to get moving on this project:

“The city needs to step forward and commit.” “That’s an important move,” says Council Director Bill Cook.

"Whatever the outcome may be, the need to develop a transit corridor to WSU is not just an Ogden city need, it’s a regional need." “There so many people tied to Weber State,“and they aren’t all just living in Ogden," says Ogden Mayor mike Caldwell, who also hedges a bit, street-car-wise, with the cautionary proviso that "the city is [also] looking to find out the cost-per-mile difference between a streetcar and a modified Bus Rapid Transit system, which has also been discussed as a potential outcome."

Cook adds that "a joint resolution between the city administration and the council, indicating the city’s intention to move forward with the study, would need to be adopted by May 21," in which connection we'll be keeping a close eye out in the event that such a proposed resolution agenda item does suddenly pop up.

Meanwhile, Mr. Cook and others will be apparently doing some frantic deep dredging of possible "Ogden Streetcar White-Knight donors," such as the Wasatch Front Regional Council, the Utah Department of Transportation and the ever-cash-flush Weber Area Council of Governments (WACOG), to find out who might be willing to help raise another measly 745 thousand bucks, we guess.

Update 4/12/13 12:10 p.m.: There's more on this story from ABC Channel 4, emphasizing Weber State University student passenger demand:


Don't let the cat get your tongues..

Dan Schroeder Files Appeal in His Ongoing GRAMA Water Utilities Record Production Request

Grab some Orville Redenbackers and pull up your barcaloungers, folks, as Ogden's numero uno Ogden City government watchdog is unleashed upon bumbling Ogden City bureaucrats once again

Unleashed once again

In the wake of all the hoopla over Dan Schroeder's interim success in obtaining Ogden City's line item budget through his Ogden Budget/Water Utility GRAMA Requests, we'll reveal this morning that Ogden's most tireless Ogden City government watchdog now gears up for battle in a second leg of his ongoing government transparency quest.

As Weber County Forum readers who are following this story will recall, Ogden City officials had initially  refused to grant Dan access to two collections of city records: 1) Ogden City’s line-item budget, and the 2) the City’s utility customers' water use data. Upon receiving these materials according to terms of a stipulated agreement with Chief Deputy City Attorney Mara Brown, Dr. Schroeder has now however carefully examined these materials and found that while the City's line item budget record record production apparently conformed to the parties' "settlement" agreement, production of the City's utility customers' water use data did not.  In this connection we'll link a copy of a letter transmitted to Ogden City Recorder Tracy Hansen yesterday, enumerating the defects in Ogden City's utility customers' water use data record production, and formally appealing  the "city’s inadequate response" to his "records request dated 10 January 2013":

• Letter: Appeal of inadequate response to GRAMA request of 10 January 2013

Grab some Orville Redenbackers and pull up your barcaloungers, folks, as Ogden's numero uno Ogden City government watchdog is unleashed upon bumbling Ogden City bureaucrats once again.

Salt Lake Tribune Editorial: Lawyer up

What about a centralized State of Utah Public Defender's Office?

Top-notch editorial in yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune, applauding the prospective efforts of a judicial task force as it attempts to dodge the threat of an expensive lawsuit and initiates examination of the state’s patchwork system for providing attorneys to poor accused of crimes. The Utah Judicial Council’s committee — composed of 25 lawmakers, lawyers, judges and experts — will begin to gather data from across the state as soon as June. Hopefully their "corrective" recommendations will come soon thereafter.

"Utah is one of only two states in the country that provides neither funding nor oversight to counties charged with organizing and implementing a system for defending poor people in criminal court.

What results is a 'disastrously inconsistent system' that may take aggressive action to remedy," says Aric Cramer, who lives in Washington County and sits on the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) board of directors.

"If Utah doesn’t start doing a better job of providing legal defense to poor people, the state could have a lawsuit on its hands" according to local and national experts.

Here's the lede from yesterday's opinion piece, which provides the editorial gist:

It is very much to the credit of the Utah judicial system that court administrators are not just sitting around waiting to be sued over the deficiencies in our state’s approach to providing defense attorneys for people who cannot afford to pay for their own, but gathering information about the best way to improve the system.
And it is very much to the credit of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers that those two groups stand ready to sue the state if those efforts fall short.
Because spending money to help people who are not only poor, but also stand accused of crimes, is not always something the Utah political system would be eager to do without the incentive of a lawsuit breathing down its neck.

Check out the full editorial here:

• Lawyer up

"Spending money to help people who are not only poor, but also stand accused of crimes, is not always something the Utah political system would be eager to do without the incentive of a lawsuit breathing down its neck," the Trib editorial board wisely intones.

Northern Utah civil libertarians of course caught a painful glimpse into the sheer dysfunction of the existing Utah public defender "system" during the past year, as indigent defendant Matthew Stewart was forced to jump through hoops to engage competent trial counsel in his pending death penalty homicide case.

Utah's public defender system clearly needs to be fixed, to eliminate, at the very least, the conflict of interest-laden problem which allows public defenders to be appointed by the County Attorney's Office, the very same office which which prosecutes any given indigent defendant.

One savvy Salt Lake Tribune reader proposes a system wherein the constitutionally-mandated public defender function would be run through a centralized State Public defender's Office, which would not only avoid the above-noted conflict of interest problem, but also more efficiently and effectively distribute specialized public defense resources among Utah counties according to their varying needs:

Due to the never, or barely rising incomes for so many years more and more people will qualify for public defenders should the need arise...
Rural counties with small populations have smaller tax bases and likely fewer cases. A full time defender probably isn't needed. Whereas the more populated counties tend to be understaffed due to case load and budget restraints.
What about a state Public Defender's department? The PD office would establish uniform policies and standards, reporting requirements , set the qualifications and salaries of Defenders, and etc. Each county courthouse would have the Defender's offices within the courthouse..
The state Defender's office would attorneys and staff and assign them to the various counties. Because some counties have larger populations and thus more cases needing a PD and some counties use part time contract attorneys. By having a centralized "distribution" system for attorneys some could be floaters sent to a county when needed or to counties with high case loads.
Rural counties usually can't afford to provide all the resources a PD needs. As a state department that problem would be eliminated.
I'm just brainstorming here.

With little bit of luck, once the Judicial Council's select committee emerges from its investigation and deliberations, a new Utah public defender system reform proposal will look something like the above, wethinks.

So whadda do youthinks, O Gentle Ones?

Cuts Ground Blue Angels, Hill Air Force Base Squadron, Other Navy, Air Force Aircraft

"You get what you're willing to pay for," as the old saying goes

Troubling news this morning from both the Standard-Examiner and Salt Lake Tribune, whose below-linked stories both painfully demonstrate that civil aviation buffs at Ogden-Hinkley Field aren't the only Utah airport devotees whose interests are threatened by impending, meat cleaver-style 2013 federal sequestration budget cuts.  "The U.S. Air Force plans to ground about a third of its active-duty force of combat planes — including a squadron based at Hill Air Force Base — and the U.S. Navy cancelled the rest of the popular Blue Angels’ aerobatic team’s season because of automatic federal budget cuts," according to the Tribune's AP wire story.

• Hill F-16 squadron grounded in budget cuts
• Cuts ground Blue Angels, Hill Air Force Base squadron, other Navy, Air Force aircraft

Bad news for our nation's air combat capability, and even worse news for the wildly popular Hill AFB-situated Utah Air Show, for sure.

"For affected units, the Air Force says it will shift its focus to ground training," according to yesterday's Trib story.

"You get what you're willing to pay for," as the old saying goes.

SLC-Weekly: Activist Talks About Bringing Ogden Budget Out of the Shadows

Sodden question: When (if ever) will our home-town newspaper, the Standard-Examiner, get off its derriere and devote some ink to this story?

We have more news this morning concerning Ogden City political watchdog Dan Schroeder's herculean effort to pry Ogden City's line-item budget by means of Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) statutes this morning, as Salt Lake City Weekly provides additional public information about the details of Schroeders' several months-long government transparency quest:

• Activist Talks About Bringing Ogden Budget Out of the Shadows

For the first time during the public reporting of this story, SL-Weekly reporter Eric Peterson sheds light upon the question of why Ogden City at first refused to provide an electronic PDF copy (or alternatively an original database data file) of the originally-requested document, but then later "insisted on printing out the document and charging Schroeder 25 cents a page, for $169 in total printing costs," even though such an electronic copy could have been easily generated from the electronic "source" of the "printed" text version which was already "maintained by a city comptroller":

Ogden city administrator and spokesman Mark Johnson, however, said that the city resisted releasing the budget at first because they were unaware that there was a complete, printed-out version of the line-item budget in their possession. In researching the appeal, they discovered there was one maintained by a city comptroller. Johnson says the city was still reviewing the legality of the document when Schroeder sought to bring in the state records ombudsman to the discussion and so they decided not to participate in mediation.

As for why they chose to print the record out and charge $169, Johnson writes via e-mail that that decision was made “so that the city could keep track of the record provided and reduce the chance that the document could be manipulated.”

Paranoid?

That's right, folks, Ogden City Administrator Mark Johnson's level of paranoia has ascended to the point where he (says he) believes (with a perfectly straight face) that Dan Schroeder, the very founder of the Ogden Ethics Project (and we are not making this up), might be capable of unethically "jiggering" the data.

Professor Schroeder has his own views on the city's ham-handed document production strategy, of course:

“I think it’s important if you are requesting documents from the government not to take up inordinate amounts of public employees’ time,” Schroeder says. “But when they insist on doing extra work so as to charge extra for it, that’s when I think something’s wrong.”

Notably, this story, which has all the makings of a David v. Goliath allegory, has been reported not once, but twice by the Salt Lake Tribune, and now, of course by SLC-Weekly.  Likewise, we've covered this story in depth on Weber County Forum from nearly day one. There's been not a peep, however from the Standard-Examiner, even though this locally-important story has been unfolding, as it were, right under the Standard's very journalistic nose.

It's in this context that we ask the sodden question:

When (if ever) will our home-town newspaper, the Standard-Examiner (which has been creepily silent on this story), get off its derriere and devote some ink to this story?

Given the Standard's careful inattention to this story, a cynic would conclude that the Standard (and Ogden City) may still have something to hide, yes?

Added Bonus Query: Ainnit about time that Ogden City issued Dan a full refund, along with a contrite mea culpa apology?

Salt Lake Tribune Guest Commentary: Van Dam: Utah’s Land Grab Ripoff

Are there any armchair "legal eagles" out there in Weber County Forum Land who can produce some legal authority to refute Mr. Van Dam sensible admonition?

Early Utahns accepted this deal with the disclaimer clearly stated twice in the Enabling Act, in Section 3 and again in Section 12. The latter specifically gave Utah over a million acres, and then again stated, "The said State of Utah shall not be entitled to any further or other grants of land for any purpose than as expressly provided in the Act."

Salt Lake Tribune - Paul Van Dam
Van Dam: Utah’s land grab ripoff
April 6, 2013

Section 3. "...the people inhabiting said proposed State [Utah] do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof; and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States..."
Section 12. "The said State of Utah shall not be entitled to any further or other grants of land for any purpose than as expressly provided in this act; and the lands granted by this section shall be held, appropriated, and disposed of exclusively for the purposes herein mentioned, in such manner as the Legislature of the State may provide."

Utah Government Archives
Statehood Enabling Act
July 16, 1894

We'd like to belatedly put the spotlight on Saturday's most-excellent Salt Lake Tribune guest editorial, in which Utah's former State Attorney General makes mincemeat of the persistent but knuckle-headed argument of some in Utah State and Federal Government, who assert at the top of their lungs that the State of Utah has some legitimate claim of right, title or interest to some 20 million acres of federal lands which were retained and withheld from Utah state ownership by the federal government as a condition for  Utah statehood, pursuant to terms of the Utah Territorial Government's 1894 Enabling Act:

• Van Dam: Utah’s land grab ripoff

Read The Act yourselves, O Gentle Ones, and you be the judge of whether it contains any promises to convey to Utah these retained federal lands, either express or implied (or written in tea leaves):

• 1894 Enabling Act

2012 Sagebrush Rebellion

During the 2012 General Session the state legislature passed Rep. Ken Ivory's "2012 Sagebrush Rebellion-style" H.B. 148, which, among other things, sets a drop-dead federal deadline, "requiring" "the United States to extinguish title to public lands and transfer title to  those public lands to the state on or before December 31, 2014." Presumably, assuming that this isn't merely "idle talk," this would possibly trigger the filing of a lawsuit at some future date, once the federal government predictably ignores this childish, frivolous and (yes) idiotic and Utah legislatively-imposed "crisis point."

As Mr. Van Dam says, "Utah taxpayers have just been scammed, and a lot of money is about to be wasted."

So what about it, WCF readers?  Are there any armchair "legal eagles" out there in Weber County Forum Land who can produce some legal authority to refute Mr. Van Dam fact-based and sensible admonition?

Standard-Examiner: Ogden Airport Tower Closure Delayed

Airport Manager Royal Eccles: "Believe me, we’re doing everything we can to keep it open"

Worry much?

The tension builds among Ogden-Hinkley Airport boosters in re the simmering airport tower closure cliff-hanger, as the Standard-Examiner reports this morning that "Officials at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport now have a little more time to plead their case for keeping their air traffic control tower open."

Looks like the fates, along with a a flurry of old fashioned federal lawsuits,  have delivered our harried O-H Airport officials a little much-needed breathing room, according to this morning's Mitch Shaw story:

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that it will delay the closure of 149 federal contract air traffic control towers until June 15. The Ogden-Hinckley tower was set to close on May 5.

“This just gives us more time,” said Airport Manager Royal Eccles said. “Our senators and congressman now have some additional time to interface with the FAA to try and keep our tower open. Believe me, we’re doing everything we can to keep it open.” 

For our readers' edification, here's the full S-E story:

• Ogden airport tower closure delayed

Meanwhile back in Washington, "members of Congress are preparing to push legislation that could overtake the lawsuits. Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., are expected next week to file a bill that prohibits closing or slashing funding to any of the towers on the closure list," according to this morning's S-E story.

For some added background, here's an informative press release from the good Kansas Senator Moran's website, explaining in greater detail the tactics behind these eleventh hour federal legislative maneuverings:

• Sen. Moran Statement on Delay of FAA Control Tower Closures

Call your Congresscritters

O-H Airport Manager Royal Eccles "said area citizens who are concerned about Ogden’s tower [not to mention Eccles's cushy six-figure featherbed job] should contact their legislators," of course.

Here's a handy "Congresscritter contact link," for Utah residents who'd like to "obey" Airport Manager Eccles and do just that:

• Federal Legislative Contact Links - Utah

And here's a useful congressional contact online utility, for WCF readers residing outside of the Beehive State:

• Online Congressional Directory - U.S.

The scuttlebutt among the macho A-H Airport civil aviation crowd, by the way?  The Ogden City Council is standing by to toss out a $260k/year life raft... if all else fails, which is all the more reason for Ogden City residents to contact your Senators and House Representatives immediately, no?

Friday Morning News Northern Utah News Roundup - Updated

Four local news items, plus a "treasure" hunt

In our never ending effort to keep our readers abreast of danged near everything of importance in our Northern Utah journalistic bailiwick, we once again present a few more local news items to provoke  a little typically-spirited lumpenicitizen dialogue. These folks, are a few choice selected stories which we stumbled upon this morning whilst Googling:

Ogden "Hood" Infill Project

1) Central City Infill Project. We learn from the Standard-Examiner this morning that the Ogden City Residential Development Company, formerly know as the Ogden City Council, on Tuesday embarked on another ambitious real estate development project, i.e., the construction 23 new $170,00 single-family homes in the central part of Ogden City, affectionately know around these parts as "the hood"

• Ogden OKs CDBG funds for new homes, new hopes

Although the subject no-man's land "target area" is "currently populated with homes around its perimeter but is virtually vacant through the center," City Council real estate development expert "Neil Garner said similar council-approved housing projects in Ogden have done well." So this economically suspect project is now "off and running," we guess, in which connection we'll invite any WCF readers who might question the wisdom of plopping down a couple of dozen $170,000 "Arts and Crafts style spec homes" in the heart of Ogden's Central City to helpfully utilize our handy lower comments section to "chime in" with their own views on this subject.

2) Wall Avenue Crosswalk. In an notable exception to the usual bureaucratic dawdling, and in the wake of at least one tragic Wall Avenue auto-pedestrian fatality, "tear-jerking public protests, together with a plaintive plea from the Ogden City Council, it seems that Utah's vaunted state-level Utah Roads Bureaucracy has quickly arrived at a "no-brainer" decision which, frankly, ought to have been made long ago:

• UDOT says Wall Ave. needs crossing system near St. Anne's

We won't be holding our breaths however to see this much-need project to reach early fruition however, as it'll no doubt take a few more months for UDOT to requisition the paint and schedule the crews to "paint" a couple of crosswalk stripes. Moreover, this project will at least be temporarily put on further hold, while UDOT bureaucrats confer with Ogden City bureaucrats to decide, as Fox 13 News reports, 1) exactly where the crosswalk will be painted, and 2) which of these government entities will pick up the tab. But what's whats the hurry? UDOT's immune from road defect related legal liabilty, in any event, right?

3) Ogden Community Pools. Big decisions are looming for Ogdenites, as the Standard announces that "the Ogden School Board on Thursday voted unanimously to stop subsidizing the maintenance and operation of pools at Ogden and Ben Lomond high schools"

"A June 25 election will let Ogden voters decide if they’ll approve a property tax increase, amounting to $24 annually on an average home valued at $120,200, that would fund repairs and maintenance to save the pools," the Standard further reports:

• Fate of community pools now rests with Ogden voters

Cooling off the old-fashioned way

So what about it folks?  If faced with a $24 annual property tax increase what would you choose?

• Cough up the dough to provide Ogden City's High School swimmers proper training facilities and Ogden lumpencitizens convenient local swimming venues, or:
• Go along with the School Board decision, send the high school swimmers packing and cool off in the summer the old fashioned way.

What would be your choices, people?
 
4) Star Noodle Dragon Treasure Hunt. Long time Ogdenites will of course fondly remember the old Star Noodle "Dragon," the iconic Ogden architectural sign which adorned Ogden's 25th Street landmark Star Noodle Parlor, until a political "Friend of Matt Godfrey",  Thaine Fischer, acquired that property and thereafter unsuccessfully attempted to develop it. We won't go into a long historical narrative on this subject, but we do believe that those Ogden residents who do still fondly remember this eye-popping downtown steel/porcelain,neon work of art sorely missed it, once Mr. Fischer removed it from the building, and "disposed" of it in a manner that's still a mystery to many.  Having said that, we're pleased to announce an effort by a group of devoted Ogden citizens to locate and "save" this remarkable downtown Ogden icon.  Check out their "headquarters," which are lodged on Facebook, (of all places):

• Save the Dragon

In that connection, these nice folks of the SOD Facebook Community have enlisted WCF's support.  So we'll accordingly start with first things first, and pose this question to our relatively broad WCF reading audience:

Click to enlarge

Is there anybody out there in Weber County Forum-land who's recently seen, or otherwise knows the present whereabouts of the sign displayed to the immediate right side of this page? 

The "Save the Dragon Group" references various "sightings" in recent years; and the differing theories of its present location and condition abound. In the final analysis however, nobody seems to know where the sign is at the present time; so were asking our Gentle Readers to give us the word publicly in our lower comments section or privately via our WCF blog email. And if you don't know where the Star Noodle Dragon is right now, we hope you'll all take a vow to keep your "eyes peeled" and blow the whistle if you do stumble upon it.

It'd be great to see this wonderful Ogden sign-art piece back onto the road to full restoration, don'tcha think?

Thanks in advance, folks.

5) WNIT Championship Tournament. Attention Utah Utes basketball fans and hard-core college basketball fans in general. Looks like WSU's not the only B-ball squad who will have had a crack at a national tournament championship this year, as the Standard provides the news that the University of Utah Women's Basketball Team has risen to the top of a field of 64 teams and qualified to play in the 2013 Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), the single-elimination tournament of 64 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2013 Women's NCAA Tournament:

• Utes top Kansas State, reach finals of WNIT

The Utes will square off against the Drexel University Dragons in a game scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET, tomorrow (Saturday, April 6).  You can catch live audio and video broadcasts at ESPN 700 and the CBS Sports Network, so we're sure you'll all want to join us in cheering on our Utah Utes.

That's it for today, folks, barring any late-breaking red meat news.

The world-wide webosphere eagerly awaits your ever-savvy utterances, of course.

Update 4/5/13 1:15 pm.: Looks like we can already call off the dogs on the "Dragon treasure hunt," in view of this item, just now received via the "Save the Dragon Group":

from Thaine Fischer:
Bryan J. Smith with Only In Ogden notified me people were inquiring about the Star Noodle neon dragon sign. The sign is safe and in storage. Upon the restoration of the Star Noodle builiding the sign will be reinstalled. Thank you for your interest.

That, folks, is what we call results!

Thursday Morning Northern Utah News Roundup

There's so much happening on our local "red meat" political news front, we hardly know where to start

As luck has it, our "usual" Northern Utah news sources are over-brimming with red meat political news this morning.  There's so much happening on our local news front, we hardly know where to start.  Here's our short list however, which we'll throw out in no particular logical order:

1) Matthew Stewart Pretrial Motions. There's more news this morning concerning the Matthew Stewart death penalty case, as the Salt Lake Tribune reports that "2nd District Judge Noel Hyde on Tuesday denied a previous motion from defense attorney Randy Richards declaring the death penalty was  unconstitutional," additionally holding that "the Utah Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the death penalty was constitutional."  This ruling does not however dispose of a second pending defense team motion in which, according to the SL-Trib, counsel assert that the Court should "toss evidence related to marijuana cultivation" because Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force agent Vanderwarf allegedly 1) asked for the search warrant based on "stale information," and that this officer 2) "lied" in his foundational search warrant affidavit, under circumstances which Richards characterizes as a "blatant fabrication":

• Matthew David Stewart says police lied on search warrant

Oh my! Is it concivable that an Ogden City police officer might actually lie in a search warrant affidavit? "Say it ain't so, Joe!"

2) Governor Herbert - Snake Valley Pipeline Agreement. Both the Standard and the Tribune gleefully report that "Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has rejected an agreement with Nevada that would allow Las Vegas to pump massive amounts of groundwater from the states' shared border," in an apparent effort to spare Utah's Snake Valley residents, (and "downwind" Wasatch Front residents ) from the potentially devastating effects of a Nevada water-grab which might mimic the disastrous environmental results which happened decades ago in California's once agriculturally-productive Owens Valley following a similar Los Angeles, CA water grab:

• Herbert won't sign water deal for Vegas
• Herbert rejects Snake Valley water pact with Nevada

We're scratching our heads wondering what's happened to Governor Herbert lately. With last week's veto of HB76, and Wednesday's rejection of the proposed Snake Valley intra-state groundwater pact, Herbert's suddenly become a "Man of the People," one of those rare birds in Utah politics who don't necessarily serve as obediant lapdogs to economic development interests, but actually listen to to their lumpen constituents. Seems that "Governor Gary" is transforming himself from a political zero to a gubernatorial hero, right before our very eyes.

3)  FBI investigates West Valley City Police. "The FBI has agreed to investigate allegations of  corruption within the West Valley City police department's disbanded  drug unit amid reports of a cover-up involving the officer-involved  shooting death of an unarmed woman," the Standard reports this morning:

• FBI to investigate West Valley police allegations

Sodden question: Now that the FBI is poking around in WVPD's affairs, would it be good idea  for these federal law enforcement authorities to take the short drive  north to Ogden City, to take a quick peek under the Ogden Police Department "hood"? We know that there are at least a few folks round town who might think so; but even more importantly, howbout you?

4) Ogden Hinkley Tower Closure Lawsuit. Looks like it'll be a full employment economy for Northern Utah lawyers, as the Standard-Examiner breathlessly reports that "The Ogden-Hinckley Airport is joining a lawsuit to try to stop the federal government from shutting down 149 air traffic control towers across the nation in an effort to cut spending":

• Ogden-Hinckley Airport joins lawsuit against FAA to keep towers open

Will Ogden-Hinkley airport officials, along with a whole potload of other hopeful plaintiffs succeed in compelling the Federal Aviation Administration to spend monies that have been denied by the U.S Congress? Will a  U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. have the audacity to rule that "public safety" trumps the our federal Congresscritters' tightfisted, and ideologically-driven "push toward U.S. fiscal austerity"? Will Congressman Rob Bishop, and the rest of the Utah federal legislative delegation continue to embrace massive across-the-board, meat cleaver-style spending cuts, except of course when negative consequences are felt in their own backyard?

5) Women's Legislative Council Event.  In connection with the above story, we'll also take the opportunity to alert you all of a Weber County Women's Legislative Council (WCWLC) special event, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9.  The featured speaker will be Utah Speaker of the House Brad Dee.  This might be a grand time to ask Rep. Dee what (if anything) the State Legislature has in mind concerning possible assistance which the legislature might have planned for the Ogden Hinkley sequestration problem, wethinks, in the event that the FAA lawsuit plaintiffs fail to succeed with their lawsuit, inasmuch as the meeting agenda calls for "discussion of sequestration is affecting Utah," and further provides for "questions from the audience." Check out our link below for the full "skinny," including time, date and location coordinates:

• Women's Legislative Council - April 9, 2013 Event

We've eagerly followed on WCF similar WCWLC events in the past, which graciously hosted events are always open to the general public.  So we encourage all Ogden-Hinkley Airport boosters to put this event on their calenders and plan to be in attendance.

That's it for now folks.  So who wants to throw in their own 2¢?

Ogden City Line-Item Budget Released to Public - Updated

Caldwell Administration relents: Document finally obtained after two-month delay and $169 fee

The following news release appeared yesterday on the Ogden Ethics Blog, which we'll cross-post here as a follow-up to Dan Schroeder's earlier reports on his recent Ogden Line-item Budget/Water Utility GRAMA requests:

Ogden City Line-Item Budget Released to Public

In an effort to promote greater transparency in Ogden City’s finances, the Ogden Ethics Project has obtained and posted a copy of the city’s detailed line-item budget. Interested citizens can now download a copy of this document from the OEC website's Resources and Document Access page.

As far as we can determine, no such document has ever before been released to the public. According to Assistant City Attorney Mara Brown, the line-item budget was not widely disseminated even within the city administration, and was not shared with the city council or its staff.

Ogden’s official budget document is posted on the city’s web site but is far less detailed. To give just one example, whereas the official budget breaks down the city’s golf-course-related expenditures into just ten major categories, the line-item budget breaks these down further into more than 100 sub-categories, with staffing, supplies, utilities, and other expenses assigned to either El Monte or Mt. Ogden Golf Course and further broken down between the grounds and pro shops.

For reasons that remain unclear, the city administration was reluctant to release the line-item budget document. A formal request for it, filed pursuant to the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act, was denied on January 9. The city then rejected repeated attempts to discuss or negotiate the denial. Finally, during a formal appeal hearing before the city’s Records Review Board, the administration agreed to release a copy of the document—but only in printed form, at a total cost of $169 (25 cents per page). The administration refused to provide an electronic copy of the document because, in Brown’s words, “we are able to track it as a record if it’s in print format” and because an electronic copy “can be manipulated.”

In total, obtaining a copy of the line-item budget required about a dozen hours of personal time spent over a period of two months. The printed pages have, of course, now been scanned and processed with optical character recognition software to facilitate searching.
The present version of the line-item budget includes actual revenue and expense information from fiscal years 2011 and 2012, plus budget numbers for fiscal years 2012 and 2013. Soon the Ogden City Council will begin its consideration of the FY 2014 budget. We hope that the council will demand to see line-item detail during that process, and that the administration will provide that detail promptly upon request.

We believe that everyone will agree that it's quite encouraging to learn that the Ogden City Mayoral Administration has now finally backed off on what seemed to be knee-jerk opposition to these very basic public document requests; and we'll of course continue to follow this story as it continues to develop.

"Bottom line," of course, we'll be looking forward to some ultimate reconciliation between those revenues which are being generated by Ogden City's 2012 "upside down" water rates revisions, as compared to the dollars which are actually being applied, or NOT being applied (as the case may be), to legitimate Ogden City water utility "overhead," (which would include but not be limited to underlying and currently existing water utility bond payments), of course.

Update 4/4/13 11:43 a.m.:  We've now learned this morning that the Salt Lake Tribune's Cathy McKitrick is all over this story too:

• Ogden records battle finally yields 676 pages of results

Spot-on comment from Councilwoman Wicks: "Councilwoman Amy Wicks said that she and other Council members do not receive the budget digitally, adding that citizens shouldn’t have to file a GRAMA request and pay a lot of money to get those documents." 

Sadly however, the (Ogden) Standard-Examiner continues to turn an entirely blind eye to this important government transparency story, which, weirdly enough, continues to unfold inexplicably un-noticed right under its very own journalistic nose, so to speak.

Go figure.

WSU Wildcats Play Tuesday For National Post-season Tournament Championship - Updated 3X

Tickets re selling fast, folks, so don't dawdle

There's Big Time Excitement on the Weber State Campus this week, as students and WSU hoops fans get revved up for Tuesday night's commensurately Big Game, where our talented and classy WSU Basketball squad will not only host at home but also play for a first-ever post-season national tournament championship.  To our considerable delight, the Weber State Wildcats will take to the floor in the Dee Events Center (DEC) at  6:00 p.m.on Tuesday night (4/2/13) to tip off against East Carolina University for championship bragging rights in the 2013 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT).

Just to get your juices going in advance of Tuesday's Big Game, here's the pre-game skinny from the Standard-Examiner:

• Weber State wins CIT semifinal game, will host championship
• Wildcats win, bring CIT title game to Ogden
• Wildcat players say wins remove any doubt of motivation

And here's a comprehensive and stats-filled story from the WSU Athletics site:

• Wildcats host East Carolina for CIT title Tuesday

Tickets re selling fast, folks, so don't dawdle, if you'd like to support the Wildcats and see high quality college round ball played in the Purple Palace at lest one more time this year.   If you can't make it to the DEC ticket office, you can reserve and purchase your tickies here:

• Tickets - Championship Game CollegeInsider.com Tournament

As an added bonus for those WSU students among us, we learn from the WSU Athletic Department that, just as during the regular Big Sky Conference season, "each WSU student can present their ID for admission to the student section, and they can also present their WSU Student ID at the Dee Events Center ticket office to receive one complimentary ticket for one guest."

Looks like WSU is the team to beat, if we can rely on the current Vegas line, which shows WSU as an 8.5 point favorite.

In the event that you're still not sufficiently charged up to get out and support our WSU Wildcats on Tuesday night, check out this snazzy WSU video promo piece:


And here's another "good one," just for good measure:


There's been much public hubbub about the worthy goal of  transforming Ogden into a full-fledged college town, whatever that means, but it seems to us that one good way to achieve that lofty ambition would be, for starters, to pack the Dee Events Center house on Tuesday night, folks, don'tcha think?

Watching our WSU team receive a national tournament championship trophy on the DEC floor wouldn't be a half-bad spectator experience either, wethinks.

DEC "mob scene"

Whatever you do, don't sit on your thumbs and wait for the last minute to get your tickets. In that connection, we just spoke with one of our basketball-fanatic WCF readers who reported that the DEC ticket office has been a "mob scene" all morning.

Yes. Snoozers could be losers.

Let's call it for what it is... a once in a lifetime event... something that no self-respecting local sports fan should want to miss.

Your blogmeister already has his game tickets... howbout the rest of our Gentle Readers?

Update 4/2/13 7:00 a.m.: The Standard is all over this "once-in-a lifetime" story this morning, with three (count 'em 3) brand spankin' new pre-game writeups. Needless to say, the Standard's caught the "buzz":

• Wildcats host East Carolina for CIT championship
• Rush on for Weber State basketball tickets
• Lillard not surprised by success of Rahe’s Wildcats this year

The Salt Lake Tribune lends some late-breaking post-season tournament perspective too:

• Weber State basketball: Wildcats benefiting from CIT run

See ya's at the Big Game, fellow WSU B-ball Fan(atic)s.

Update 4/2/13 9:00 p.m.: Via WSU Athletic Department:  Heartbreaker. Wildcats lose 77-74 on a buzzer beating three-pointer by East Carolina. WSU ends the season 30-7."

Your blogmeister watched the whole danged thing from the edge of his seat. What a shame it is that either of these hard-playing and talented teams had to lose this exciting and evenly-matched hoops contest.

Update 4/3/13 6:00 a.m.:  The Standard's Roy Burton provides three post-game stories this morning, chronicling last night's heart-breaking WSU tournament defeat:

• Buzzer-beaten! Weber State loses on last shot
• Wildcats stay classy in defeat
• Crying the purple

The Salt Lake Tribune's Martin Renzhofer also provides his own "unvarnished" writeup:

• Weber State basketball: Wildcats fall at buzzer in CIT finale

So what about it, Wildcats fans? Anyone wanna offer their own BIG GAME and/or 2013 season post-mortem?

Standard-Examiner Editorial: Our View: Militarization Versus Liberties - Updated

Let's have less talk and and more action, please

We'll direct our readers' attention to a strong editorial appearing moments ago on the Standard-Examiner website, expressing extreme and well warranted concern over the growing trend toward police militarization in general, and increasing local occurences of  once-per-week “door-kicking” commando-style, militarized police raids in particular.  Hopefully this same editorial will likewise show up in the S-E hard-copy edition very soon, for the edification of the S-E's print readership:

• Our View: Militarization versus liberties

"Better guidelines need to be established. If that’s done, the number of SWAT-style breaches should decline," says the S-E editorial board, citing the recent Matthew Stewart, Todd Blair, and the Hill Family cases, and the doubling of Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force warrant service operations over the past five years.

We'll be keeping our fingers crossed that Mayor Mike and our Ogden City Council are attentively listening up. What should be clear from the video transcript of Tuesday's (March, 26, 2013) City Council session is that substntial numbers of outraged and liberty-loving Utah lumpencitizens expect less talk... and far more action.

If it's necessary to transform this pressing and still-unattended issue into a 2013 Ogden Municipal Election issue, then so be it, we guess.

So what say our gentle readers about all this?

Update 4/2/13 6:30 a.m.: Just as we'd hoped, this fine editorial has now made its way to the S-E hard-copy edition:

• Our View: Militarization versus liberties

This is an issue which everyone within the Standard's readership needs to chew on, wethinks.