If nothing else, the past few days have shown that Utah’s Republican Party probably should rethink the way it lets people vote over the Internet during presidential primaries.

Might as well just set up a Wiki-election and let everyone change things as they please. It would save everyone a lot of trouble.
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You can’t trust the Internet. You can’t trust Washington. Heck, you can barely trust yourself. 

Fall may not yet be in the air along the Wasatch Front, but footballs are, and that brings to mind some anniversaries.

Forty years have passed since I last laced up shoulder pads as a high school senior. My football career was mostly forgettable, as I detailed in a column several years ago.

The older I get, the more sympathy I have for our perennially grumpy coach. I appreciate today what I didn’t understand in 1976, which is that he relied

With the price of the EpiPen jumping by leaps and bounds, I took advantage of Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s visit to the combined Deseret News/KSL editorial boards on Monday to ask what he thought.
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Lee, a strong believer in the free market and in limited government, said the government “certainly has an interest in making sure there is competition” in the pharmaceutical market. He then turned the conversation toward a bill he is co-sponsoring, called the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples Act, or CREATES, for short. 

The act would keep drug manufacturers from delaying the time when they make samples available to other manufacturers in order to create cheaper generic versions.

Not satisfied, I pressed him about where the balance lies between manufacturers, who have only a limited time to recoup the cost of research and development before their patent runs out, and the need to provide life-saving drugs to people who need them.

“The Hatch-Waxman Act actually deals with that balance pretty well,” he said.

Hatch-Waxman was passed in 1984. “Hatch,” is Lee’s Utah colleague, Sen. Orrin Hatch. The act allows companies to create generic versions of drugs without having to go through all the clinic and non-clinical trials required by the original manufacturer. It also sets a five-year time limit during which a new drug cannot be duplicated, protecting the manufacturer’s investment.

Lee said it’s important to make sure “people aren’t manipulating the system so as to engage in anti-competitive behavior that thwarts the development of generic drugs…” He didn’t indicate any other action was necessary to confront the EpiPen issue.

The CREATES Act would indeed punish companies for using certain delaying tactics when it comes to sharing information that allows competition through generic drugs. However, Mylan, the maker of EpiPen, seems to be using more sophisticated methods.
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An opinion piece in the Boston Globe on Monday said the company’s new decision to make a $300 generic version of the drug “may also be low enough to deter others from taking on the risk and expense of developing their own generics.”
Regardless, the EpiPen saga has exposed what many ordinary people with serious allergies would call a glaring weakness in the federal regulatory system – one that is costing insurance companies and families a lot of money.

​Below is an audio recording of this exchange. I apologize for the poor quality. You ought to be able to make out what is being said, however.

Few things scare me more than the thought of being trapped beneath the rubble of my own house after an earthquake strikes at 3:36 a.m.
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The darkness, the weight of whatever debris is crushing you, the pain and, worst of all, the terrifying thought you may never be found or that no one else is alive to find you — it’s enough to make you hysterical even though the sun is shining and the earth, for the moment, is rock solid and still — at least here.

Back-to-school night with my 14-year-old this week reminded me that the beginning of a marathon is always more pleasant than the 15th mile, when you’re struggling up a hill, trying to keep focused on a distant goal.

As a veteran of both real marathons and the mid-year struggles that involve discovering your child’s massive research project is due tomorrow, I appreciated the reassuring smiles of friendly teachers and the resolve that comes with a fresh 

Is the current Libertarian presidential candidate trying to change what it means to be a Libertarian? Or is he just making the party’s rougher edges a bit more palatable in a year when the party has a real chance to make inroads?

Gary Johnson says he isn’t changing a thing, but he sounds a bit different than other Libertarians I’ve met.

In a meeting last Friday between the combined KSL-Deseret News editorial board and the Libertarian presidential ticket — Gary Johnson and William Weld — the topic somehow turned to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I was astounded to hear Weld say the two of them would have signed that act were they in the White House back then.

Why was I astounded? Because I’ve met with many Libertarian presidential candidates through the years. They always have assured me that the Civil 

Is this what it feels like to be in play? A couple of op-eds and an off-hand remark during a campaign speech?

It may be worth noting that it’s early yet. If polls show Utah tightening in October, people in these distant parts could be getting a lot more attention than they’re used to getting. Attention is a good thing in presidential politics, especially if we get promises in exchange for votes.

So far, all we have are op-eds Hillary Clinton and 

A delegation from the Jordan School District met with the editorial board last week to lob a pitch for a $240 million bond. Three years ago district officials pitched a no-hitter — a bond proposal twice as large that went down to an inglorious defeat at the polls.

A little while later, Sydnee Dickson, the new state superintendent of public schools, paid a visit to the combined editorial boards of KSL and the Deseret News. When I asked her about taxes, she

The crime rate is down. Violent crimes are off 45 percent nationally since 1995 and 34 percent in Utah. Property crimes are off 43 percent nationally and 50 percent in Utah during the same period.
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Those are cold, hard FBI crime statistics. And yes, Utah’s homicide rate is up a bit in recent years, but in real numbers there aren’t many murders in the Beehive State. The homicide rate here remains lower than at any time in the 1990s. The Utah Foundation laid this all out in a recently published paper.

Last week could be exhibit A in the case to prove 2016 is the most abnormal presidential election year in modern history.

The Democrat, Hillary Clinton, was dealt another body blow — the release of 44 previously unseen emails that seemed to show an inappropriate relationship between her former position at the State Department and the Clinton Foundation.

The Republican, Donald Trump, was hit by