Blog Archives - Jay Evensen

Timing is everything when raising taxes

1/27/2016

Timing may not be everything, but it doesn’t hurt when you’re a Utah lawmaker raising taxes.

With the price of oil hovering around $30 per barrel, people hardly noticed when the state began collecting another 5 cents per gallon on New Year’s Day. And, while the price of gas, as I write this, averages $1.93 per gallon in Utah, which is a full 10 cents higher than the national average, hardly anyone notices. Once it drops below $2, who quibbles over cents?

A public that tends not to pay attention unless bad things become obvious isn’t likely to make those 2015 decisions an issue this November.

But you can’t count on timing always being so good, especially when you’re doing something that directly affects the economy.

Last year’s legislative session was unusual in that

Utah land-use disputes aren't going away

1/26/2016

So, are we close now to settling the feud between Utah and Washington over all that land the feds own? Does the new “grand bargain” make it less likely the president will wake up one morning and say, “I think I’ll declare a new national monument out there in that state where no one likes me”?

Not hardly.

The only thing different about the likely outcome of the “bargain” announced last week by Utah Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz and the armed

What if you knew your baby would be born with defects?

1/20/2016

The best way to understand the value of someone who has what the world considers a disability is to listen to his or her parents.

Yvonne Pierre, a woman who overcame many of her own obstacles to obtain a higher education and to author books, has said about her son with Downs Syndrome, “My outlook on life has forever changed. I see my own challenges differently. He's always showing me that life is so much bigger than self.”

The question is, will the world welcome this kind of wisdom in the future if it doesn’t have to confront the challenge?

Writing in Britain’s The Telegraph, columnist Tim Stanley reports that 90 percent of the mothers in Britain who learn, through a simple blood test, that their unborn child has Down’s Syndrome elect to abort the child.

We all have a responsibility for law enforcement

1/20/2016

Years ago, as a cub police reporter in Las Vegas, I rode along in a squad car to get a feel for the raw realities of law enforcement.

Las Vegas may be a unique place for someone in a uniform that symbolizes limits and authority. A lot of people come there to escape that stuff. But the lessons of that night apply fairly equally anywhere in the country.

Political parties can't handle Trump or Sanders

1/13/2016

Politics always has been rough. It’s a safe bet Thomas Jefferson would feel right at home in today’s Twitterized climate, although his opponents’ claims in 1800 that “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed …” if he were elected might not fit the 140 character limit.

He won two terms, but I’m guessing today Jefferson might have had a harder time dealing with that kind of negativity — unless he had people like Diamond and Silk behind him.

You're better off avoiding Powerball completely

1/12/2016

If the lottery is, as some call it, a tax on the stupid, Powerball proves the adage that fools and their money aren’t tethered for long.

And Utahns certainly are not immune from such foolishness.

This is one of only seven states without a lottery, but that doesn’t mean people here don’t buy lottery tickets.

Recent news reports have documented the long lines outside convenience stores, bars and grocery stores in the normally sleepy border towns just across state lines. These are mostly people from Utah, locals say. They aren’t there for Big Gulps and beef jerky. They come with their money and their dreams — of owning a business, paying off debts or giving to charity.

Don't make BYU-Utah the annual 'Nanny State Classic'

1/8/2016

When you wield a hammer, it must be such a temptation to start whacking away at all kinds of things that annoy you.

Greg Hughes has a hammer, figuratively. He has a literal gavel as speaker of the House in the Utah Legislature. The hammer he wields is the political clout to shape the direction of lawmaking in the state.

Hughes told reporters this week he has heard from constituents who want him to do something about the University of Utah’s decision to back out of

Parents, get ready to tackle the challenge of virtual reality

1/6/2016

Last night I toured two cities in Latvia and stood on a sidewalk in Sao Paulo, Brazil, watching people walk by on a sunny afternoon. I turned around at one point to notice several people coming behind me. I hadn’t heard them. After they passed, I stared into the deep blue sky, then looked down to examine cracks in the concrete.

And I did it all in my Living Room using a cheap pair of cardboard virtual reality glasses and my smart phone. Despite feeling a little queasy after

Oregon's pathetic rebels won't solve Western lands issues

1/5/2016

Back in 1980, former Utah Gov. Scott Matheson told U.S. News and World Report, “The sagebrush rebellion is an extremely complex, controversial and emotional bundle of issues.”

You think?

Thirty-six years hasn’t moved the needle much toward simplicity.

But if there is one truism about conflict, it is that complexities unbundle the moment a gun appears and people take over federal buildings — even remote ones in a bleak, snow-covered section of Oregon where, it may be safe to assume, few people had planned to visit in January.

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