Four Utah cities — Orem, Sandy, Lehi and North Salt Lake — made Money Magazine’s new list of the top 100 places to live in the United States, although none made it into the top 10.

The list is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, it is somewhat, as the magazine puts it, contrarian. The editors decided to focus solely on cities with populations between 10,000 and 100,000, which means mainly suburbs. The trend right now is for 

Utah officials seem determined to bring the Winter Olympics back to Salt Lake City, perhaps as early as 2026. Mayor Jackie Biskupski has said, “It makes total sense.”

It’s as if none of them follows the news.

Like many Utahns who were here 15 years ago, I have fond memories of the games, the daily interaction with happy foreigners and the general party atmosphere that enveloped the Wasatch Front for more than two weeks.

But those were the polished surface finishes of the games, the sweet frosting of a cake that, for the host city, can taste bitter, indeed.

Remember the bidding scandal? There is little to suggest that much has changed as far as how the International Olympic Committee goes about its business.

Last week, Brazilian and French law enforcement officials said they had uncovered a vote-buying and 

“We’re going to have to do this together and row the boat in the same direction.” — Utah GOP Chairman Rob Anderson, as quoted in the Deseret News.
 
Nearly 400 years ago, the Swedish Navy set sail on the maiden voyage of the Vasa, its latest and most impressive-looking warship to-date, carrying 64 bronze cannons. It sank 20 minutes later, less than a mile from the dock, after a wind tipped it.

A few years ago, researchers began to better 

Utah has finished second in a WalletHub survey of the happiest states in America, behind Minnesota.
Kind of depressing, isn’t it?

And if you think finishing second is a reason to be happy, consider that Utah is second in a nation that finished 14th in this year’s World Happiness Report. Yeah, that’s right. Do the math. Let that sink in and see if a happy meal still looks good for lunch.

WalletHub used 28 metrics to rank the states, including income growth, the rate at which people participate in sports and, yes, depression.

By the way, Utah was not among the highest states for depression, even though it ranked poorly (46th) for its suicide rate.

Utah finished first in the nation in volunteerism (no surprise there), its divorce and separation rate 

Congress and the president seem to have come to terms with raising the debt limit — the umpteenth chapter of a never-ending cliffhanger series. But the deal, if it holds, would be good only until the end of the year, when more difficult fiscal decisions await.
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But while we sit back to enjoy the fun on television, maybe more of us ought to be considering our own debt ceilings. That is decidedly less fun, I know, but not doing so could prove disastrous, and in much shorter order than it will take Social Security to run out of money.

If the arrest of University of Utah Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels hadn’t been recorded by a video camera, would we know about it?

Would the police chief, the mayor and the chief of the university’s Department of Public Safety have publicly apologized and vowed to make changes? Would the district attorney have launched a criminal investigation? Would the detective involved and his watch commander have been put on leave?

The story of a Houston woman in labor, brought to the safety of a hospital by a human chain her neighbors formed to get her to a truck through pouring rain and rising waters, finally brought me to an insight.

The images of everyday heroism and neighborly sacrifices coming from Texas and surrounding areas in recent days reflect the real America.

Most of what we were fed on news channels before the hurricane reflected something else.

I would not be so insensitive as to say we needed this to remind us who we are. The suffering of others never is needed, and thousands of people have experienced too much of it because of hurricane Harvey. FEMA officials said the number of people needing emergency shelter could surpass 30,000, including people from about 50 counties in Texas and Louisiana. As I write this, at least 20 people are known to have died. Much of the suffering is taking place away from TV cameras, in small towns and hamlets.

Four years ago, Chris Burbank met with the Deseret News editorial board. At the time, he was police chief in Salt Lake City, and he was complaining about how police departments nationwide were becoming too militarized.

Back then, the military routinely gave surplus equipment to local police departments. Burbank said this made many local police look like invading 

In his Phoenix speech Tuesday evening, President Trump sounded a troubling note on the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying he didn’t know whether it could be salvaged.

“I think we'll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point," he said, leaving us all to wonder whether he was just using a bargaining tactic at the start of negotiations or signaling an inevitable policy direction.

Five years have passed since Jestina Clayton, a native of Sierra Leone, won a court case giving her the right to braid hair in her Utah home without undergoing 2,000 hours of mandatory cosmetology training.
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You may have thought this piece of good news, now relegated to the dustbins of narrow Google searches and distant memory, means Utah’s economy is much more friendly toward those who just want to work hard and earn a modest living. You would be wrong.