A columnist who predicts the future treads on dangerous soil. But by the time events prove me wrong, this piece could be buried under so many electronic archives no one but a doctoral student desperate for an obscure thesis would even think to look for it. So here goes:

The day is coming when anyone who actually, physically drives his or her own car will be considered a reckless endangerment to the general public. (Motorcycles may be an exception, as I have yet to figure out how they could drive themselves, but bear with me here.)

Utahns have plenty of reasons to be skeptical of the budget decisions state lawmakers made this year. Despite a surplus of about $700 million, they made sure you will pay more in property and gas taxes, and quite possibly sales tax, depending on what your local government wants to do.

Who knew prosperity could be so expensive?


And yet, it’s hard to find fault with the big picture. The surplus, at least, is an indication that someone has been making good decisions.

I’ve been imagining the looks on the faces of recruits as they were handed the three-page application for membership in al Qaida; their pensive expressions as they reached for newly sharpened No. 2 pencils.

Had they escaped the Western world and made it this far into forbidden territory only to be stymied by the lack of proper references?

“List your previous occupations:”

Did they consult a phone book for addresses or have to go through the mental process of remembering approximate hire dates and reasons for leaving?

“Have you been ever convicted by any court? When, and who convicted you? What was the offense?”

Did they wonder whether to include traffic 

When it comes to regulating taxis and ride-sharing companies, local governments are learning lessons a lot of private businesses have had to learn in the age of technology. You must be nimble, and there are few hard and fast rules.

Fortunately for consumers — and unfortunately for governments that like to interfere with the free market in the name of “fairness” — this creates an almost impossible situation for regulators.

With spring busting out all over in Utah, this seems as good a time as any to lie in the grass a contemplate the shapes of clouds. Here are a few things to ponder:

•Be honest, how many of you looked around at the beginning of the year and said, “I think we need 528 new laws in this state”? I doubt many of us can think of 528 of anything the world needs, let alone the state of Utah, and yet here we are with 528 new rules and new ways to get into trouble.

Life is full of contradictions, but here is one to which Utah lawmakers should pay close attention:

Odd as it may seem, the less we are charged for the water we get from the tap, the more we will have to pay.

Or, as a newly released audit from the Legislative Auditor General’s office put it, “Unless water demand is reduced, new sources of supply will need to be developed and delivered from greater distances, resulting in increased costs.” Those new water projects may cost in the billions.

And, as the report makes abundantly clear, cheap water leads people to use more of it. The Irvine Ranch Water Conservancy District in California provides a ready example. After it imposed an aggressive pricing structure — users were given cheap water up to a point, then had to pay dearly for using any excess — per capita water usage fell by

When Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker, a Democrat, talks about his city, he sounds a lot like Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, talking about the state.

Success, as the saying goes, has a million fathers. And both the city and state are swimming in it.

Gallup recently ranked Salt Lake City No. 1 in the nation for job creation. Forbes pointed to the quality of life, economic diversity and access to nearby mountains when it called the city, “the next national hotspot.” Google brought its fiber network 

If you’re at work right now, you’re probably part of the roughly 70 percent of Americans who qualify as disengaged employees. The exception would be if your job description specifically includes reading blogs on news sites, in which case, you have a great job.

For a long time, Gallup has been tracking workplace engagement. Since 2000, the results barely have budged. About 30 percent of Americans are engaged in their jobs. Of the rest, about 50 percent or so are not engaged, meaning they are going through the motions or looking for ways to goof off.

And about 20 percent are actively disengaged. These are the ones who steal from the till, call in sick when they just want to lounge around the pool or take in an afternoon ballgame, and, worse yet, tend to spread their negative influences among other workers.