Blog Archives - Jay Evensen

Will the twice-yearly time change ever go away?

10/30/2019

Let’s look at the list of chores Congress has given itself before the end of the year.

Make sure inaction on the budget doesn’t lead to a shutdown.
Impeachment

That’s about it, and they wouldn’t worry about the budget if not for the looming shutdown, which might actually end up being a weapon in the battle against impeachment.
So … no room for Daylight Saving Time — the one thing that will be on most of the nation’s minds this weekend.

Halloween crazy — have we lost our minds?

10/29/2019

I make a point of staying away from banks on Halloween. Something about handing a deposit to Little Bo Peep or the Big Bad Wolf or, heaven forbid, Al Capone, just doesn’t seem right.

But clearly, I’m in a minority. Those associated with the Halloween industry are making bank in a big way these days.

The National Retail Federation estimates Americans will spend $8.8 billion this year on the holiday, or $86.27 for every shopper. If that doesn’t spook you, consider this: Writing for Theconversation.com, Jay L. Zagorsky put this figure in perspective by noting it far outstrips the entire yearly budget for the National Park Service, which, according to my research, is a requested $2.7 billion for 2020.

Are you ready to try term limits again?

10/23/2019

Would term limits energize politics in Utah, restore trust in government and make legislative races more competitive?

If you think you’ve unwittingly gone through a time warp and returned to the mid-90s, that’s understandable, but wake up, Rip Van Winkle, the issue is suddenly relevant again.

However, before you answer with your heart, consider this: Only 10 of the 104 people currently serving in the Utah Legislature have been there 12 years or more (four in the Senate and six in the House), and while the governor will have served 11 years by next fall, he has voluntarily decided not to run for re-election.

A tooting whistle may get attention, but it's not an argument

10/22/2019

The First Amendment never was intended to be pretty.

Mark Sanford, South Carolina’s former governor and, most recently, Republican congressional representative, remembers a particularly raucous town hall meeting years ago that was dominated by a left-leaning group intent on pressing a point about health care.

As he recalled it for the Deseret News/KSL editorial board on Monday, the meeting lasted 4½ hours which, he said, was about as long as it took to begin getting somewhere.

“The first hour was horribly unproductive, second hour more productive, third hour actually quite productive, fourth hour you’re in the golden hour,” he said.

Would you want a sales tax added to the price of gas?

10/16/2019

Those of you who voted against the idea of a 10-cent per gallon gas tax hike for education last year (and that was roughly 65% of voters who cast ballots) may not be too happy to hear that some Republicans lawmakers are talking about adding about 12 cents to each gallon as a part of the ever-stirring Utah tax reform effort.

As the Deseret News reported Wednesday, Senate President Stuart Adams said adding the state’s sales tax to gas purchases — amounting to about 12 cents per gallon on top of the already 30 cents per gallon state gas tax (and the 18.4 cent federal tax) might be a temporary way to increase funding for transportation. At least, it could be for “the next little while,” until something better comes along.

Why are new homeless shelters too small?

10/15/2019

From the start, the math didn’t work. Add up all the beds at three new homeless shelters — 300 at a men’s facility and 200 each at separate ones for women and mixed genders — and you still fall several hundred short of the 1,000 or so the Road Home shelter currently holds.

That’s in one of the nation’s fastest growing metro areas, where the need is sure to grow.

Whenever I asked officials about it, whenever I wondered what would happen on a bitter, cold night when even the most reluctant vagabond knew to come inside, the answers had to do with finding room here and there, with granting motel vouchers or with vague promises that the homeless would be quickly transitioned out of shelters and into more permanent housing.

Are we really tired of endless wars and foreign aid?

10/9/2019

Are Americans really weary over the “endless wars” President Trump spoke about before pulling troops out of Northern Syria and opening the way for Turkey to attack long-time U.S. Kurdish allies? Or do Americans really believe the U.S. has a lot to gain by remaining engaged in global affairs?

Those are two vastly different questions that cover two ways of looking at the same thing.

Quit whining; your tax burden is getting lighter

10/9/2019

File this under, “quit your whining.”

Of all the truisms in politics, this one has held steady throughout my years of observation: No one notices when their tax burden falls. People don’t party in the streets or throw confetti from tall buildings when they get to keep more of their hard-earned money gradually, over a period of years. We typically don’t notice anything that happens gradually, except maybe weight gain and hair loss.

How old is too old to run for president?

10/2/2019

Bernie Sanders has inadvertently raised a question a lot of Americans were reluctant to ask.
How old is too old to run for president?

When he entered a hospital Wednesday with chest discomfort and needed two stents to combat a blocked artery, the 78-year-old Sanders also put a new spotlight on the candidacies of Joe Biden, 76, Elizabeth Warren, 70, and even President Donald Trump, 73. At the moment, those four are the frontrunners in the 2020 race for the White House.

Vape flavors aren't the only problem

10/1/2019

Utah soon may join states that have banned flavored e-cigarettes. As the Deseret News reported this week, you can expect to see some bills at the Capitol in January.

But if lawmakers think that alone is the answer to the vaping crisis, they haven’t looked closely at the statistics.

Of the 805 lung disease cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of last week, only 16% of the patients are under 18. Nearly two-thirds, 62%, are between 18 and 34. The rest, presumably, are older. Adults make up the largest share of those getting sick. It isn’t even close.

weebly statistics

weebly reliable statistics

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