Free Republic

At a town-hall meeting in Grand Junction this week, President Obama backed down from his proposal for a government-run health insurance company after CU-Boulder student Zach Lahn asked him how private insurance companies would realistically be able to compete. In his reply, Obama pretty much pussied out: “All I’m saying is…that the public option, whether we have it or don’t have it, is not the entirety of health care reform.” Fair enough, it isn’t, but it’s pretty central to it. And with weak rhetoric like that, it’s pretty clear that the “public option” is not going to be on the...

"After months of haggling over every period, definition, connotation and allusion, the state's Safety Net Committee has released a revised guide to understanding so-called fundamentalist Mormon communities in Utah, Arizona and as far away as Missouri and Canada. The Pri mer , as the booklet is known, now has a neutral tone that no longer promotes the idea that fundamentalist Mormons, many of whom practice polygamy, are "victims" of groups who experience more domestic violence or abuse than other populations, said Pat Merkley, Safety Net Committee director. "I think we have produced the best dialogue we possibly could," Merkley said....

A man who crashed his car into the restraining barricades at Hill Air Force Base's south gate early Wednesday morning managed to elude the base's security forces for six hours before he was caught. Hill officials said the man drove up to the gate at about 4 a.m., but was told by guards that he could not enter without identification. When the man gunned through the checkpoint, guards activated a set of emergency barriers, which rise out of the ground a short way from the gate. The barriers stopped the car, but the man fled on foot. Base spokesman Rich...

Texas' identity as a solid "red" state is unlikely to change any time soon. According to a new Gallup Poll, 43 percent of Lone Star State residents identify as "conservatives" while just 16 percent identify as "liberals." Thirty-six percent of respondents described themselves as "moderates," in the poll of more than 9,100 Texans. The most conservative state is Alabama, where 49 percent of residents are solidly conservative, followed by Mississippi, Utah and Louisiana. The most liberal state is Massachusetts where 29 percent of people identify as liberal, followed by Vermont, Oregon and Washington. In Washington D.C., 37 percent of respondents...

<p>OGDEN, Aug 15, 2009 (Standard-Examiner - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Formal charges have been filed against the bicyclists arrested in a recent Critical Mass confrontation with police.</p> <p>About 35 or more members of the cyclist advocacy group were on an Aug. 7 ride in downtown Ogden when members became unruly, police say. Four cyclists were arrested.</p>

Utah told it can’t count missionaries in census Bureau says there’s no way to reliably count those overseas in 2010 Aug 16, 2009 SALT LAKE CITY - The U.S. Census Bureau has told Utah's elected leaders it won't count Mormon missionaries serving overseas in the nation's next head count. Census Bureau officials, rejecting Utah's lobbying efforts for the better part of a decade, say there's no way to reliably count the overseas missionaries. Utah leaders say the omission cost the state an extra congressional seat in 2000, when the state fell just 857 people short of receiving the last available...

SALT LAKE CITY -- People in Utah's 2nd Congressional District won't be seeing any town hall meetings on health care during the August break. Congressman Jim Matheson's spokeswoman Allison Heyrend said the congressman has opted instead to continue to use a telephone town-meeting approach. She said they've had five such meetings since the first of the year. "We had about 46,000 Utahns participate, and I would say 90 percent of the questions and the discussion was about health care," she said. Heyrend said the call-outs for the telephone meetings were based on voter registrations and involved members of all parties....

On a particular fall day in 1889, the members of the Ogden Rifle Club of Ogden, Utah, were out in force. The men were target shooting, but doubtless found the brilliant fall colors of aspens and oaks on the high peaks of the Wasatch Range a distraction. Enticing too were the flocks of migratory waterfowl wheeling overhead and grouse calling in the brush. But all rifles that day were trained on paper targets, although one of the competitors, an unusually tall man with stern but handsome features, was having trouble concentrating on hitting the mark. As his good friend Will...

VERNAL -- Authorities are crediting an alert driver in Vernal for foiling the attempted kidnapping of an 8-year-old boy. Shalyn Searle says she never thought twice about stopping to help the boy. "He was screaming out, ‘Help me! Help me!' I could hear him from in my car with the windows rolled up," Searle said. Kid Canal, where boy was fishing She was on her way home Sunday morning when she saw a man, later identified as 22-year-old Joseph Yump, grabbing a little boy who was fishing at Kid's Canal. "He was kicking and screaming. The guy had him by...

For someone with a taste for either Utah history or 19th-century handguns, the October auction of a personal revolver belonging to a key Utah War figure might be tantalizing. The .41-caliber Colt revolver represents more of its one-time owner, Maj. Gen. Stewart Van Vliet, rather than his Utah War involvement, since it was given to him more than two decades later and Van Vliet's role in the 1857-58 conflict didn't really require a weapon. Rather, Van Vliet, the first U.S. military or government official to enter the Salt Lake Valley after the declaration of war, was a key player both...

Some good news on the "birther" front: a Deseret News/KSL-TV poll finds that only 9 percent of Utahns (13 percent of Republicans) "don't believe the president was born in the United States." The biggest population of Obama doubters in the Beehive state? Conservatives, 18 percent of whom believe Obama was born outside the United States, having not been informed by James Kirchick that this whole conspiracy theory is being pushed by liberals. So why does rock-solid Republican Utah have fewer "birthers" than, the deep South, or even fewer than blue Virginia and North Carolina? A lack of racial polarization has...

OGDEN -- Was it a friendly group bicycle ride through downtown Ogden or a confrontational melee that included obstructing traffic, assault, obscenities and alcohol? Depends on who you talk to. Numbers vary from 35 to 70, but a large group of cyclists, referred to as Critical Mass, was taking a monthly ride to celebrate cycling and assert their rights to the road on Friday when Ogden police say things got out of hand. Four individuals were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, failure to disperse and public intoxication. Matt Hasenyager, owner of Skyline Cycle and one of the bicyclists, said...

White House officials have confirmed that President Obama has scheduled a visit to the Grand Valley for Saturday, Aug, 15.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A gap between the possible loss of F-16s and the arrival newer planes to be serviced could jeopardize jobs and future missions at Hill Air Force Base, according to U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. “It’s a little bit fluid as to the impact on Hill AFB,” he said, speaking to the Clipper and other media from across the state Friday morning. “One concern is the phase-out of the F-16s that have been flying there” and maintained there, the Republican senator said. “They (F-16s) won’t be completely gone, but then comes the impact – what are they going...

A Colt Model 1877 Thunderer in .41 caliber owned by General Stewart Van Vliet will be auctioned by J.C. Devine, Inc. on October 11. In 1857 Van Vliet served with Col. Albert Sidney Johnston in the Utah War against the Mormons. Van Vliet's obituary stated that during the open revolt against the United States headed by the Mormons, he led a group of 150 men into Salt Lake City to communicate with Brigham Young. In order not to endanger the lives of his troops, he proceeded to ride alone to the hostile Mormon stronghold, where he was greeted courteously and...

The Library of Congress > THOMAS Home > Congressional Record EXECUTIVE SESSION -- (Senate - August 04, 2009) [Page: S8745] GPO's PDF The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah is recognized. Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I enjoyed my colleague's remarks. I don't agree with him, but he is certainly a great colleague and we appreciate him. Mr. President, I rise today to explain why I cannot support the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. I do so with regret because the prospect of a woman of Puerto Rican heritage serving on the...

Energy: Will oil hit $250 a barrel? The Russians think so, as crude prices climb to an eight-month high. Meantime, House Republicans advance a plan to help the administration keep a domestic energy promise.The cost of July deliveries of crude bounced over $73 Thursday as the American Petroleum Institute reported shrinking U.S. inventories as the dollar weakens against the euro. Alexei Miller, chairman of the Russian energy giant Gazprom, is repeating his prediction of a year ago that oil may eventually reach the $250 mark.

Energy Policy: The chief economist of the International Energy Agency says the world is running out of oil. We've been told that for the last 150 years. The only thing we're running out of is the will to drill.Ever since the first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pa., in 1859, experts have been predicting we would soon run out of oil. The latest is Dr. Fatih Birol, chief economist for the International Energy Agency in Paris, whose job it is to assess future energy supplies by OECD countries. In an interview with the Independent, Dr. Birol says that based...

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who has a long history of teaming up with Democrats on healthcare legislation, says Democratic healthcare reform plans now under consideration are “out of this world.” Hatch also told The Hill in a Friday interview he would be “shocked” if Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) sign onto a healthcare deal with Democrats given the current trajectory of the legislation. Hatch’s strong opposition to the Democrats’ healthcare plans suggests that Democrats will have a very difficult time convincing any Republicans aside from centrist Sens. Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Susan Collins (Maine) to support a...

PLAIN CITY, Utah -- Police in Utah say a 7-year-old boy led officers on a car chase in an effort to avoid going to church. VIDEO: Little boy steals car Dispatchers received reports of a child driving recklessly on Sunday morning. Weber County Sheriff's Capt. Klint Anderson says one witness said the boy drove through a stop sign.

CAMP WILLIAMS, Utah, July 28, 2009 – When it comes to fighting wildfires, most people immediately think of water or fire retardant dropped from helicopters and other aircraft, or soot-covered firefighters using hoses and foam to battle back towering blazes. Jason Garn checks on his goats, which the Utah Army National Guard is using to create a firebreak on Camp Williams, near Salt Lake City. The goats have proven their worth during more than one fire season by consuming brush that would fuel wildfires. U.S. Army photo by Lt. Col. Hank McIntire  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Few people,...

Beyond shutting off all of Obama's initiatives, the party harbours deniers of everything from climate change to his citizenship. Last Friday, Orrin Hatch, the veteran Republican senator from Utah, announced that he would vote against the confirmation to our supreme court of judge Sonia Sotomayor. Hatch is a devout conservative, and Sotomayor seems pretty liberal, so on the face of it, you might say, so what? Here's what. Hatch has been in the Senate for 32_years and has never voted against any president's high court nominee. True, most of the nominations in that time have been made by Republican presidents....

Washington - For the first time in his 33-year Senate career, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch will vote against a Supreme Court nominee. Hatch decided Friday to oppose Sonia Sotomayor when her nomination comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee next Tuesday. Sotomayor, who would become the high court's first Hispanic justice, is widely expected to easily win confirmation in the next few weeks. "I reluctantly, and with a heavy heart, have found that I cannot support her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court," Hatch said in a statement. "Although Judge Sotomayor has a compelling life story and dedication to public service,...

Energy: New drilling techniques may open up a 14-year supply of natural gas trapped in porous rock in the Northeast. That is, if environmentalists in New York and elsewhere don't keep it trapped in the ground.Natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels, so clean that it is a key part of oilman T. Boone Pickens' plan to wean us off foreign sources of energy. Natural gas can fuel a new generation of automobiles that would help us achieve energy independence and at the same time contribute to a cleaner planet. In the northeastern U.S., there is a massive...

Energy: With a media wind at his back, Barack Obama regularly gets away with false and distorted statements. He repeated one Tuesday that seems superficially plausible but should not go unchallenged.ust as he said during the Sept. 26 University of Mississippi debate with John McCain, the Illinois Democrat claimed during the Nashville town hall setting that "we have 3% of the world's oil reserves and we use 25% of the world's oil. So what that means is that we can't simply drill our way out of the problem." It's disappointing that McCain failed to call out Obama on his figures,...

Energy: While members of Congress take vacations their constituents can no longer afford, a country prepares to end its dependence on foreign oil by extracting supplies from shale rock. It's not the U.S. It's in the Middle East.Jordan imports 95% of its oil. Unlike the U.S., the desert kingdom plans on doing something about it. It does not, however, plan to cover its flat open spaces with solar panels or wind farms. It's going to do something the Democratic Congress has refused to do — get oil from its abundant shale rock. On Sunday, Maher Hjazin, head of the Jordanian...

Checking the legal status of workers through an electronic system will be the norm for Utah employers seeking local and federal government contracts. As of July 1, Utah employers who have contracts with state or local government agencies are required to use an electronic system to check the legal status of workers. The requirement became law July 1 because of Senate Bill 81. In September, employers who want to work with federal agencies will also have to use the E-Verify system, as the Obama administration recently announced its mandatory use. The administration had thrice delayed implementation of the rule. The...

BLUE DOG DEMS CAN KILL OBAMA HEALTH CARE REFORM There are EIGHT "Blue Dog Democrats" who sit on the Energy and Commerce Committee. If these eight Democrats do not support the legislation, passage would likely not succeed. It is CRITICAL to contact them TODAY and make your voice heard. John Barrow (GA-12) p: (202) 225-2823, f: (202) 225-3377, email. Bart Gordon (TN-06) p: (202) 225-4231, f: (202) 225-6887, email. Baron Hill (IN-09) p: (202) 225-5315, f: (202) 226-6866, email. Jane Harman (CA-36) p: (202) 225-8220, f: (202) 226-7290, email. Jim Matheson (UT-02) p: (202) 225-3011, f: (202) 225-5638, email. Charlie...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Concerns about the creditworthiness of CIT Group Inc. (CIT) are seeping into broader markets after the commercial lender Friday confirmed that the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has yet to approve its application to issue government-backed debt. The worries about the lender are touching markets from stocks to Treasurys, underscoring how broader credit concerns may be resurfacing after a period of relative calm. Shares of CIT were off nearly 30% Friday before closing down 18%, while most CIT bonds fell, indicating worries about the lender's ability to meet its obligations in the long run. Treasury prices, meanwhile,...

Several of the students had a knee-jerk reaction when gun-rights advocate Clark Aposhian blasted his first pistol round into a target Thursday. But it was physical, not ideological. These students from around America were in Salt Lake City to learn and test their beliefs, not to dismiss opposing views. Roughly 40 Jewish high schoolers traveling the country are hearing from experts on opposing sides of the nation's most politically charged issues. Aposhian was the National Rifle Association's face for the day after the group's stop in Colorado to hear from a gun-control advocate whose child died in the Columbine school...

(snip) "He has the great ability to get people together, and negotiate to get a consensus," said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. (snip) Hatch, who has collaborated with Kennedy on major healthcare bills such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, said that a month ago he had an "extensive, hour-long conversation" by phone with Kennedy. The Massachusetts senator promised to work with him on healthcare, he said, but instead the committee came out with a partisan bill that had “done away with bipartisanship." "If Kennedy had been here," said Hatch, “the first thing he would have done is pick...

They're expanding: The years-in-the-making project, which may cost billions over time, got a $181 million start last week when President Obama signed a war spending bill in which Congress agreed to pay for primary construction, power access and security infrastructure. The enormous building, which will have a footprint about three times the size of the Utah State Capitol building, will be constructed on a 200-acre site near the Utah National Guard facility's runway. Congressional records show that initial construction -- which may begin this year -- will include tens of millions in electrical work and utility construction, a $9.3 million...

Plans for a new coal-fired power plant in central Utah were canceled after the city of Los Angeles -- the plant's biggest power purchaser -- signaled its intention to be "coal free" by 2020. The Intermountain Power Agency -- a political subdivision of the state of Utah co-owned by municipal and rural electric cooperatives -- has dropped plans to build a proposed third 900-megawatt coal-fired generating unit at the Intermountain Power Plant near Delta, Utah. "The project has been abandoned," IPA spokesman John Ward said yesterday. The decision came after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced last week that the...

Plans for a third coal-fired power plant at Delta are dead. The Intermountain Power Agency said Wednesday it will let the air-quality permit for a coal-fired Unit 3 expire. Instead, the company will focus on other options for the central Utah site, said IPA spokesman John Ward. "The understanding within IPA is that if there were ever an attempt to start another third coal-fired power unit at that location, they would have to start over," he said. "This particular permit application would be moot." Environmental groups, who have been fighting Unit 3 since it was first proposed, applauded the move....

Republicans have a choice. Are we going to be the party of political expediency or are we going to be the party driven by principle? Many have argued that if Republicans pacify the Democrats and their liberal ways, Independents will naturally flow to the Republican side of the aisle. This was in part the John McCain strategy. It failed because it demonstrated that the party was rudderless on principle and had nothing unique to offer voters. Sen. McCain’s effort to join Barack Obama in supporting the $700 billion bailout further demonstrated to America and the Republican base that there was...

The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) is planning on spending around $1.8 billion to build itself a new, million square foot data center in Fort Williams, Utah, according to a document on military construction for 2009. This branching out is largely due to the fact that the NSA’s power bill is too much, so the move is in hopes of doing the same work in a place where electricity is cheaper. The initial infrastructure is for 65MW of power distribution, but it seems that the ultimate plan is to build a 5.8 million square foot “campus” at its current...

Psst: The super-secretive National Security Agency is about to build a huge, $1.9 billion data center at Camp Williams, Utah, to help spy on communications worldwide. The planned work there is so sensitive and classified that Utah's congressional delegation is declining to talk about it, saying it doesn't want to accidentally step over any lines about what can and cannot be disclosed. They referred inquiries to the NSA, which provided only a brief statement confirming the center is coming to Utah.

SALT LAKE CITY -- A New York judge sentenced Bernard Madoff today to 150 years in prison. The judge imposed the maximum sentence because he says he wanted to send a message that Madoff's multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme is not just a "bloodless crime that takes place on paper. " Prosecutors say the Madoff case is a perfect example of what they call "affinity fraud." They are scams that prey on members of close knit groups such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional associations. Utah too has seen a slew of affinity-fraud cases. These scams exploit trust...

SALT LAKE CITY - There is more buzz that Kirk Jowers and Josh Romney may share a ticket in the 2010 Utah governor's race. Friday's "Swing State Project Morning Briefing" said the Jowers-Romney ticket is moving closer to reality. The Salt Lake Tribune recently reported the two men were seen together at an ice cream social hosted by Rep. Jason Chaffetz.

Household-products maker Kimberly-Clark Corp. said Thursday it plans to cut 1,600 jobs, or 3 percent of its global work force, as it slims down in the tough economy. The maker of Kleenex tissues, Huggies diapers and scores of other household items employs 53,000 people worldwide, including approximately 450 Utahns at a plant in Ogden, which manufacturers diapers.

An F-16 pilot missing after his jet crashed overnight during training at Hill Air Force Base was killed, according to a friend of the pilot's family in Candler, N.C. Hill officials would not release the pilot's name or confirm his death, but Bill Jamison confirmed that Capt. George Bryan Houghton, 28, of Candler, was killed during a nighttime exercise over the Utah Test and Training Range in the massive, rugged and remote west desert around 10:25 p.m. Monday. Col. Scott Dennis, commander of the 388th Fighter Wing, said the pilot's body was recovered near Wendover after a seven-hour search. Houghton,...

TOOELE, Utah — Military officials are trying to locate the pilot of an F-16 that crashed at the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City. Base's 388th Fighter Wing, crashed late Monday night while on a routine training mission.

SALT LAKE CITY – When he realized he'd been separated from his family on a weekend hike in a northern Utah forest, 9-year-old Grayson Wynne's thoughts turned to television. Grayson watches "Man vs. Wild" on the Discovery Channel every week with his brothers and his dad. On the show, host and adventurer Bear Grylls strands himself in the wilderness and then shows viewers how to survive the sticky situations. That's where Grayson says he learned to leave clues behind to help searchers find him...

Utah's industrial banking industry has a new and formidable enemy -- President Barack Obama. As part of the president's plan for regulatory reform of the nation's financial services industry, which was unveiled earlier this week in an 85-page white paper, Obama is calling for the elimination of industrial bank charters and wants them all shut down within five years. If successful, the president's plan could deal a hammer blow to Utah's economy, which is the home of 25 industrial banks that employ thousands of the state's residents and hold assets valued in excess of $168 billion. Utah's industrial banking community...

Easy money, sleepless nights lure users, cultural expert says Western Colorado is far from immune to the looting such as that alleged by federal agents after the arrests last week of 24 people in southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. There’s a modern twist, however, to the looting that western Colorado and other officials have noted of late: methamphetamine. Law enforcement officials declined to elaborate on incidents in which they have noted the connection between looted sites and meth use, but archaeologists and law enforcement officials said they are aware of the connections. Looting and methamphetamine use have more in common...

MIDVALE -- A man with a concealed weapons permit stopped two would-be Midvale robbers from making off with his friend's stuff. Police say the men were coming home from an errand around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning when they spotted the suspects with their things. The suspects took off on foot. One of the men being robbed grabbed a gun from his truck and started running after them. Midvale police Detective Sgt. John Salazar said, "Grabs a loaded .40-caliber handgun and chases with the gun, shooting rounds either into the air or into the ground as they were chasing." The gunfire...

U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, both R-Utah, got polite receptions Saturday at the state GOP convention, but both also recognized that some of the rank-and-file delegates weren't pleased with them. Hatch, at one point in his speech, appeared upset when some delegates applauded as a way of blaming national Republicans, himself included, for the deficit and other problems of the Bush years. "Don't you believe that B.S.," Hatch said loudly. But some of the 1,800 delegates clearly did.

CALIFORNIA ALERT SYSTEMMultiple Organization Alert NRA Members' Councils of California   CAL-ERT  06/12/09 --- Noon ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ CALIFORNIA REGULATORY ALERTThis information is accurate at the time this CAL-ERT was written and originally distributed. The NRA Members' Councils of California and the California Rifle and Pistol Association have issued this alert in a cooperative effort and will keep you informed as issues affect your gun-rights in California. EXPANSION OF THE BAN ON LEAD AMMUNITION MAY BE ATTEMPTED BY FISH & GAME HISTORY: On February 5, 2009, we informed you that the California Fish and Game Commission was considering a state-wide ban...

Midvale » Police officers here will not be cross-deputized as immigration agents under Utah's new anti-immigration law, said Midvale Police Chief Tony Mason. During a City Council work meeting Tuesday, Mason spoke to city leaders about how the Midvale Police Department plans to enforce the new law, known as SB81, that goes into effect July 1. Mason said that after years of building a relationship with the community, he doesn't want Midvale residents to fear officers. He doesn't want victims, witnesses or those who report crimes to think officers are now enforcing federal immigration law, he said. "We don't want...

SALT LAKE CITY — An activist who worked alongside slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk announced plans Sunday for a march on Washington this fall to demand that Congress establish equality and marriage rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Cleve Jones said the march, planned for Oct. 11, will coincide with National Coming Out Day and launch a new chapter in the gay rights movement. He made the announcement during a rally at the annual Utah Pride Festival. "We seek nothing more and nothing less than equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all...