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Muhammad Yunus wants to change business models

7/31/2015

WASHINGTON — Just a few days shy of his 75th birthday, Muhammad Yunus talked last week about how “Poverty should be in a museum,” and how he intends to put it there by 2030.

It was the kind of rhetoric Americans are used to hearing from politicians looking for just the right sound bite to make the 6 o’clock news. And it didn’t help that he said it as part of a speech in Washington, just a few blocks from the Capitol.

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A Utah monument would destroy democratic process

7/28/2015

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A collective shudder came over the state earlier this week when the Deseret News reported on a recent secret meeting between Native American tribal leaders and top federal officials.

There was good reason for that. The fear among many (and the hope of others) is that President Obama, who already has created 19 monuments, six this year alone, is on the verge of designating another large one in the Bears Ears areas of San Juan County. Many of us are old enough to

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Soccer is booming, but don't expect economic benefits

7/27/2015

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If you’re reading this from somewhere along the Wasatch Front, you’re part of the hottest spot for soccer in the United States.

That’s according to Wallethub.com, which just released its rankings for 2015’s best and worst cities for soccer fans. Salt Lake City (which obviously includes the metro area) ranked No. 1, followed by Mansfield, Conn., and Conway, S.C. Cities were ranked if they had any college or professional team. Surprisingly, Seattle, perhaps the hottest market in Major League Soccer, came in sixth.

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Will Pluto rekindle the nation's imagination?

7/15/2015

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More than five years have passed since former astronaut Capt. James Lovell delivered a note of pessimism at a speech to BYU students.

“I’m not sure what the future of manned flight for this country is,” he said. “I think we’re going to be losing a lot of prestige and be sort of considered as a second-rate space country, but that’s my opinion.”

Indeed, that was the mood back then as the space shuttle program came to an end and U.S.

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Did cameras hurt teacher's sex abuse trial? No

7/14/2015

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It’s a sad truth — perhaps one of the saddest of all the truths of modern life — that teachers having sex with their students is not an uncommon story. All it takes is a simple Google search to verify this in graphic detail. You can even find stories recalling the 50 most notorious female teacher sex scandals.

Notice the operative word there — female. Search for the most notorious male teacher scandals and you find not so much.

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Our never-ending obsession with sports

7/8/2015

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When a news story confirms our worst fears about how the worship of college sports has our priorities in a knot, it’s hardly time to stop the presses. This isn’t “man bites dog.” It’s more like the umpteenth chapter in a long book whose plot never seems to resolve itself.

Call me Ishmael … as in, perhaps, Kemal Ishmael, former defensive back at Central Florida (and now in the NFL), not the guy narrating Moby Dick.

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This tax hike would be a bad idea

7/7/2015

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Few politicians win by promising higher taxes. Walter Mondale proved that so eloquently in 1984.

So it was a little counter-intuitive to see so many mayors along the Wasatch Front lobby their county leaders this week to raise the sales tax. Lobby may not be the word. They were practically begging.

Kids don’t volunteer to be grounded, just as adults don’t ask to be audited. Just what is going on here?

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Sales taxes on the Internet is still a tough sell

7/1/2015

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Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz says he wants to move beyond the “bumper sticker” slogans that are lobbed against his bill allowing states to collect sales taxes off everything their residents buy online.

But along the way he throws out an argument of his own that, while perhaps a bit large for a bumper sticker, is nevertheless far more complicated than he makes it seem. It goes like this: People today walk into a retail establishment, test a product, then whip out their smart phones and order it online so they won’t have to pay sales tax, which is unfair to the retailer.

Chaffetz, who visited the combined editorial boards of the Deseret News and KSL recently, is carrying on a fight that has raged for at least two decades. At its heart, it concerns how you have learned to shop online and how much you’re going to pay.

It is a fight in which Utah long has been at the forefront.

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Muhammad Yunus wants to change business models

A Utah monument would destroy democratic process

Soccer is booming, but don't expect economic benefits

Will Pluto rekindle the nation's imagination?

Did cameras hurt teacher's sex abuse trial? No

Our never-ending obsession with sports

This tax hike would be a bad idea

Sales taxes on the Internet is still a tough sell

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