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Put birthright citizenship issue into historic perspective

8/26/2015

The race for the Republican presidential nomination has, if nothing else, demonstrated that some issues are destined to forever roll round the American political landscape like a steel ball in a bottomless funnel.

The question is whether we will learn from history.

Donald Trump has strengthened his fragile early lead on a large pack of candidates by attacking the part of the Constitution that says babies born on U.S. soil are given automatic citizenship, regardless of their parentage.

The man in second place, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said such so-called “anchor babies” are a growing concern among Asians, rather than Hispanics.

If you’re getting dizzy, it is because we have now come full circle from 1866, when Congress debated passage of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

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The news is that tax fraud, identity theft are not news

8/25/2015

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The news wasn’t that Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz was the victim of tax fraud, although irony like that can be startling. Certainly, when the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee falls victim to something that could have been prevented with a little reform, eyebrows are raised.

No, the news was that this information came to light as an afterthought in an editorial board meeting months after the fact.

You might say identity theft and cyber fraud have

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U.S. needs to stem its troubling slide on freedom index

8/19/2015

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Seattle’s gum wall is an example of how the marketplace of ideas can go in directions no single person could predict.

About 20 years ago, people began sticking chewed gum to the walls of an alleyway below Pike Place Market. Wikipedia says workers at a nearby theater tried to scrape it off, but more just kept coming. Today it is a must-see tourist attraction. A few days ago, while on a family vacation, I joined a steady stream of visitors in examining the colorful blobs of mastication, trying not to think of the germs or what my clothes might look like if I stumbled into the stuff.

I also tried to imagine what the reaction might be at a typical city council meeting if someone proposed creating such a thing as a way to attract visitors, or as an idyllic backdrop for wedding photos. Someone from the health department surely would testify before the unanimous “no” vote.

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Can Salt Lake really support a big convention hotel?

8/18/2015

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If downtown Salt Lake City were a garden, a convention hotel would be the tree that just won’t take root, no matter what the gardener does.

The latest effort to use just the right amount of compost (I’ll refrain from comparing tax incentives to dung) failed last week when Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams decided to walk away from nine-months of negotiations with Omni Hotels and declare the process to be back at the proverbial drawing board.

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A prison in Salt Lake would erase decades of dreams

8/12/2015

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A prison is nobody’s idea of a good time, whether you’re on the inside trying to get out or on the outside trying to get people to build something nearby.

But when it comes to the land Salt Lake City annexed years ago on the west side of the airport, good times always have been easier to imagine than to carry out.

Not that mayors haven’t tried to convince us

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The future of elections is surprisingly low-tech

8/11/2015

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If nothing else, we may have found a way to give the U.S. Postal Service another reason to exist.

The agency may have lost $586 million during the spring quarter alone, but it appears to have a bright future as the carrier of choice for democracy in the 21st century.

Well, that and advertising circulars.

This week, the democracy role became evident in Utah, where the largest cities held primary elections entirely by mail-in ballots. It’s part of a nationwide trend. Citing Census Bureau figures and a report from the Survey of the Performance of American Elections, the Pew Charitable Trusts reports that about 25 percent of American voters cast mail-in ballots in the 2014 mid-term elections, up from about 10 percent in 2000.

The year 2000, you may remember, was when

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Put birthright citizenship issue into historic perspective

The news is that tax fraud, identity theft are not news

U.S. needs to stem its troubling slide on freedom index

Can Salt Lake really support a big convention hotel?

A prison in Salt Lake would erase decades of dreams

The future of elections is surprisingly low-tech

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