We’re talking about children. That makes all the difference in the latest border war to the south. It colors how we react, and it sets a high bar for anyone trying to argue for sending the kids back. It also makes its easy to call Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, heartless and cruel for proposing a bill that would, in some cases, expedite their deportation — a thing of which he is aware. |
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Perhaps the biggest issue facing Massachusetts’ voters this November will have nothing to do with candidates for public office. It will be a citizens’ initiative to repeal the state’s 2011 casino gambling law before it has a chance to lay roots. Only two states, Hawaii and Utah, do not allow gambling in any form, and full-scale non-reservation casino gambling has been growing, spreading to almost half of all states, and particularly in the Northeast. One sentence out of an 846-page law passed in 1965. That’s what President Obama is relying on to impose tough new regulations on for-profit colleges and programs — rules that could soon shut down Corinthian Colleges, a chain that includes 107 centers and serves 72,000 students — without any input from Congress. That sentence says the federal government has the power to grant financial aid to people who attend higher education programs Even a nation as cynical as ours shouldn’t be too shocked to learn that a financial contribution of the correct amount can earn you an ambassadorship to some cushy country — Norway, for instance. We would like to believe otherwise. I’ve listened to my share of politicians and their donors through the years insisting that the money that changes hands during campaign season is a mere token of support, not a payment attached to any sort of expectation. But they over-estimate my gullibility, let alone that of many Americans. We know what it means to slip the maître d a little extra for a nice table. Why should politics be different? Besides, what harm could it do to put an ambassadorship to a peaceful and mostly quiet ally up for sale? Well … listen to the snippets NPR recently broadcast of the confirmation hearing last January of George Tsunis, nominated What’s more embarrassing than President George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003? Try this: “We’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people.” That’s what President Obama said in December of 2011 as he announced that troops had been withdrawn and the U.S. war in Iraq was over. If the media gets a federal law making it harder for the government to force reporters to rat on their confidential sources, they may have President Obama to thank. But in the same sort of way you can credit many air safety regulations on horrible disasters. Many of you don’t like the way reporters behave themselves. You You just dodged a bullet, Salt Lake. Some may think the real question is how Utah’s capital city made it on the list in the first place of cities the Democratic Party asked to bid on the 2016 national convention. This isn’t exactly a hotbed for Democrats. Hillary Clinton might even have to wait in line for a cab when she arrived. But the better question is what the local economy would Kiss your low electricity rates goodbye, Utah. A quick look at a map provided by the Edison Electric Institute shows Utahns, on average, paid 9.98 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2012, among the nation’s lowest rates. But then, the map also shows that other states with coal are in the same company. A narrow swath from Louisiana through Kentucky has lower rates than Utah. They can kiss it goodbye, too. As is the case with many Americans of a certain age, I have memories of a public school cafeteria that included dour workers in hair nets scooping organic material of some sort onto plates we took to long tables, after tossing a nickel at the “milk lady” for a small carton. Still, lunch period was a coveted part of the day. If politics entered into it at all, it might have been between my friend Tommy and me. His parents were Humphrey supporters. Mine First there was the threat from the president: “I’ve preserved more than 3 million acres of public lands for future generations. “And I am not finished.” Then there was the tentative reassurance from Utah’s governor, who last week said of the president, “I would expect that he’s not” going to “blindside” the state by declaring another national monument. |
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The author
Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has nearly 40 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities. Archives
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