Blog Archives - Jay Evensen

Why gambling would ruin professional sports

12/30/2014

One hundred years ago Thursday, the Salt Lake Telegram welcomed 1915 but cautioned that whether it was a big year in the city, “all depends on baseball success.”

Forget about that war in Europe. The city was trying to get a team in the Pacific Coast League, for heaven’s sake, and it all depended on the city’s wealthy people subscribing generously for stock in the team. The effort, the paper assured its readers “is vital to the city’s future,” and, “If it should fail, there would be no cause for boasting about this city’s reputation when 1915 had gone very far.”

New Years can make people unreasonably giddy. Ours obviously is not the first generation to overstate the importance of bragging rights related

Cyber attacks offer an ominous welcome to 2015

12/24/2014

“So long mom, I’m off to drop the bomb, so don’t wait up for me. … I’ll look for you when the war is over, an hour and a half from now.” — Lyrics by Tom Lehrer, to the song, “So long, mom.”

Fifty years ago, when Tom Lehrer’s hilarious topical humor was being set to music, the notion of World War III was imagined as one consisting of nuclear warheads that could attack any target in about 30 minutes.

After that, it was anybody’s guess. As a guide told my family during a tour of an old missile silo in the Arizona desert, once the command was given to launch, the men in charge of a silo were to subsist on available food storage for a month or so. Then, if they had heard nothing, they were to venture aboveground to see what was left of the world.

Make no mistake, such a threat still exists, although many of the old Cold War missile silos dotting the land have been

Why this effort to change Pioneer Park might work

12/23/2014

Efforts to rehabilitate Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Park seem about as frequent around here as winter inversions, and about as easy to tackle.

This time could be different, not just because successful business owners are involved, but because they seem genuinely interested in understanding what it means to be homeless and what it would take to help them.

The Pioneer Park Coalition, formed earlier this year with the aim of bringing all stakeholders together

Change in U.S. policy would change Cuba's dictators

12/17/2014

Whenever I attend State Department briefings for editorial writers in Washington, this question inevitably comes up: Why does the United States feel the best way to influence democratic change in China is to maintain diplomatic relations and trade, while the best way to do the same in Cuba is through embargoes and no official relations?

Through the years, the answers haven’t varied much. First, as a Bush administration official told us years ago, you shouldn’t expect those kinds of consistencies in foreign policy. Each nation presents a different set of circumstances and history. Second, Cuba is 90 miles from our shore, which makes the presence of a communist dictatorship a special case.

Raise Utah's gas tax? No, it simply doesn't work

12/16/2014

Utah is projecting a budget surplus of $638 million as lawmakers convene in January. That means the state has collected a lot more money from you in 2014 than it really needed.

So how would you feel about a tax increase?

As absurd as that might sound, it is where Gov. Gary Herbert is trying to nudge the Legislature. And although the thought may raise your blood pressure, there are good reasons behind this.

Prison's value can't be measured in money alone

12/11/2014

Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker says no way. His city may have housed the state penitentiary in Sugarhouse for many years, but it has no desire to see history repeat itself.

“Wholly inappropriate,” was how he described a state commission’s suggestion that two of six possible sites for relocating the state prison from Draper are in the city. One site is north of the international airport; the other is northeast of I-80 and 7200 West.

Higher speed limits don't lead to death and carnage

12/10/2014

At the dawn of Utah’s new claim to the title of commuter speedway capital of America, I decided to do some dangerous field research.

It was mere coincidence that this coincided with the release in the Senate, that very morning, of a report on the CIA’s torture of alleged terrorists. Thus, the radio spewed descriptions of mutilations and unspeakable horrors as I headed toward I-15 only hours after workers had posted new 70 mph speed limit signs for the Wasatch Front.

Utahns are the humblest people on the Internet

12/8/2014

Here’s something Utahns can brag about: They are the most humble people in the nation.

Only 22 percent of people from Utah who use social media fill their Facebook pages, Instagram posts and Tweets with reminders about how wonderful they are. These include endless photos from their vacations to exotic places, boasts about a memorable event they attended or an encounter with someone famous, or other “brag-ommendations.” (I’m not sure whether wedding or delivery room photos count.)

Line between pop culture and violent threats is getting thin

12/4/2014

Separating real threats from mere amusements becomes difficult the more society frolics in the mire.

On Monday, there was no mistaking intent as a student at Fremont High in Weber County noticed a classmate with a gun in the waistband of his pants. The weapon clearly was in the wrong place and in the wrong hands. Given the strange recurring Columbine nightmare of the nation’s youth, the student who saw the gun wasted little time in telling authorities.

'Marketplace Fairness' would make you pay more online

12/3/2014

If you find yourself one of these days paying local sales taxes on something you buy from your favorite craft site in Maine, you may have Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker to at least partially blame.

Or to praise, whichever is your preference.

Of course, I’ve seldom known many real folks who appreciate having to pay more for a thing. My vote is for blame.

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