Jay Evensen - Opinions

Humans are the enemy when it comes to summer fires

8/15/2018

You don’t need to be a genius to figure out the main cause of large-scale fires that always seem to choke the air this time of year.

Global warming? Hot temperatures certainly are a contributor, but no.

Poor forest management? Yes, even a recent New York Times story on fires said controlled burns would help reduce the severity of wildfires. But that doesn’t explain the cause.

Don't set fire to electric scooters quite yet

8/14/2018

At least Utahns haven’t taken to setting electric scooters on fire, throwing them in trashcans or vandalizing them with dog poop, the way people have in some California cities.

Not yet, anyway.

They haven’t taken to throwing them in rivers by the thousands, the way folks are doing in parts of China — not that the Jordan River hasn’t had some interesting deposits over the years.

Don't let Washington crack down on false news

8/13/2018

Is it illegal to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater?

I haven’t done a scientific analysis, but I’d be willing to wager most people think it is.

A week or so ago, Democrats and anti-gun activists were outraged when Utah Sen. Mike Lee opposed a bill that would have prohibited the publishing of blueprints for plastic guns. A common complaint was that allowing the publication would be like yelling “Fire!” in a theater.

And yet, yelling “Fire!” in a theater is perfectly legal, although perhaps not advisable.

But then, a lot of speech is legal but not advisable.

Salt Lake County strikes a blow for tranparency

8/8/2018

Quick, can you recite some of the tax breaks your local government gave to new businesses over the past several years, and do you know whether the promises those businesses made to get that money came true?

I thought so.

Large families are good, so why aren't we making them?

8/1/2018

Apparently, Americans approach children the way they approach weight loss — great idea, but just not right now, thank you.

A Gallup poll released last month uncovered an interesting trend. As a whole, 41 percent of Americans believe three or more children per family is ideal, up from 38 percent in 2013 and 34 percent in 2011.
Exactly half say up to two children is best. Only 1 percent told pollsters zero children was ideal.

If opponents want to thwart inland port, support trade war

7/31/2018

Sometimes, the best way to spend a warm summer afternoon is to lie on the grass and contemplate the passing scene. The second best way is to do it from an office chair. Here’s what I see as August begins.

Inland port: So now opponents of Utah’s new port seem to be hanging their hopes on an obscure line in the state constitution that says the state can’t give municipal powers to any special commission.

What would Herbert Hoover's ghost tell Trump re: trade?

7/18/2018

If he were still alive, how would Herbert Hoover advise President Trump on trade?

That’s a tough question. At 144 years old, he might have accumulated more wisdom than the rest of us. Whether he would be able to articulate it is another matter.

Robert Litan, a senior fellow in economic studies for the Brookings Institute, has an idea what Hoover, the king of misguided protectionism, would say. In a recent paper titled, “History won’t be kind to politicians who stay silent on Trump’s trade war,” he wrote, “having recognized his huge mistake of pushing similar policies that stirred the trade war in the 1930s and then deepened what would become the Great Depression, he (Hoover) surely would tell the administration to stop this madness.”

The onslaught of attacks on our election systems

7/17/2018

The president may not have a grasp on the extent to which Russian and other outside forces are trying to meddle in U.S. elections, but the people in charge of running elections in each of the 50 states certainly do.

They met this week in Philadelphia for a convention of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Utah is one of only three states without someone with the title of secretary of state, an office that typically oversees elections. But Utah’s Elections Director Justin Lee, who answers to Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, attended. I spoke to him by phone as he was waiting to board his flight home.

More evidence Salt Lake is becoming like the Bay Area

7/11/2018

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google’s sprawling campus fills the landscape like some sort of indigenous ground cover, almost fading into the background of a surrounding community in which it has a mammoth presence.

As I learned during a visit to see my son, who is interning here for the summer, the low-rise buildings belie a mighty force of thousands of workers — mostly young and from far-flung places — who seem happy to ride the company’s free and colorful bicycles between buildings.

What if we saw all humanitarian crises like the Thai boys?

7/10/2018

Of all the things that may be said about the dramatic rescue of a soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand, one may have escaped attention. It was a compelling and ultimately satisfying event to cheer, pray for and watch with rapt attention here in the United States in part because every aspect of it was beyond the grasp of partisan politics.

Didn’t that feel nice for a change?

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