Blog Posts - Jay Evensen

Utah Supreme Court stands up for initiatives

7/12/2024

Somewhere in the great beyond, Sherman S. Smith is smiling.
Smith was a populist, which was just as rare in the Utah Legislature at the dawn of the 20th century, when he served as a representative of Ogden, as it is today. Yet he somehow got lawmakers to pass an amendment in 1899 to the state constitution allowing the people to pass or modify laws directly through initiatives or referendums.
Voters then ratified this at the ballot box in 1900, and generations of Utah lawmakers have been fighting it ever since.

Trump and Biden enacted high tax increases on U.S.

7/5/2024

When it comes to understanding the impact of tariffs on American consumers, CNN recently offered a powerful example.
Deer Stags, an American company that imports shoes from China, has to pay the tariffs that Donald Trump put in place and President Biden decided to continue when the shoes are accepted at port. That adds 7.5% to the cost.

Should there be an age limit for presidential candidates?

7/1/2024

Thursday’s presidential debate was the perfect capstone to a roughly 12-month period that has given us former Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell zoning out in press conferences, and the late Diane Feinstein, who was a Democratic senator from California, being confused as to what to do in a committee meeting.
McConnell, still in the Senate, is 82. Feinstein was 90.
But then, the average age of a senator is 64.

Why we need to hear concession speeches

7/1/2024

In retrospect, the biggest news story from 1960 may have been one that got buried in many newspapers. It was a joint statement from Richard Nixon’s press secretary and presidential campaign manager, saying Nixon would not challenge John F. Kennedy’s election to the White House.
Yes, it’s hard to win arguments by appealing to Nixon’s virtues, but his eventual resignation many years later after the Watergate scandal makes his actions on that Nov. 11, three days after Election Day, all the more powerful. If even Nixon could put the needs of the country ahead of his own ambitions and the urgings of many supporters, what does that say about a subset of Republican candidates today who have trouble answering whether they will accept election results?

How to convince people elections are fair and honest

6/26/2024

Audits have shown that Utah’s elections are clean. No counting system is perfect, and an audit of the ‘22 election found some counties with a few more votes than ballots, but no systemic errors or significant fraud were uncovered.
Many people may not realize it, but Utah’s counting system is not connected to the internet. Only the voter database and a website that, among other things, posts election results, are web based. And each election is administered separately by local jurisdictions, mainly counties.
Which is why it’s hard to understand why Lockhart and Josh Daniels, the former Utah County clerk, have found it necessary to start a website — trustutahelections.org — with the stated aim of reassuring voters and building trust in Utah elections.

How gambling could ruin Salt Lake's new sports teams

6/7/2024

Salt Lake City is contemplating a sales tax increase to fund part of a new entertainment and cultural district, housing, retail and renovation of the Delta Center to accommodate a new NHL team. Meanwhile, another effort is underway to attract a major league baseball team and build a new stadium, also financed in part by taxpayers.
It’s a heady time for the Wasatch Front, with a growing city hoping to catch the wave of sports fanaticism that seems to be surging ever higher in the United States each year.

D-Day's heroics: May we never forget

6/6/2024

I’ve tried to put myself in the place of those who listened to radio reports 80 years ago.
If you search enough on the internet, you can find a recording of the complete CBS radio broadcast from D-Day, June 6, 1944, beginning about an hour after the network’s news team came on the air shortly after midnight to share German radio reports about an invasion by U.S. and British soldiers.
The commentators caution again and again that these reports may be nothing but a ploy by Nazi leaders to lure local underground fighters from their hiding places and into the open, where they could be destroyed. And yet their voices carry a hint of hope and excitement. They seem happy to go without sleep for this.

Would you hop on an air taxi without a pilot?

6/3/2024

Which of these would give you more anxiety: Hopping into a driverless, fully autonomous car that takes you through downtown traffic, or climbing aboard a pilotless, fully autonomous air taxi designed to fly you over downtown skyscrapers to a nearby destination?
This could be more than a hypothetical question in about 10 years — about the time Utah may be hosting the Olympics again. A public-private partnership that includes industry leaders, a former congressman and the Utah Inland Port, just unveiled “Project Alta,” which has, as its mission, to set up an “air mobility” system in Utah that eventually will allow air taxis.
Pilotless air taxis. This, officials say, could lead the nation into the next phase of transportation.
A tourist could fly into Salt Lake International, grab his or her luggage, hop on a contraption that looks something like a giant drone, and in about 10 minutes land at a “vertiport” at a hotel in Park City. Forget about waiting for a hotel shuttle that struggles through rush-hour traffic or up icy roads through Parley’s Canyon.
Would you do it?

Is a four-day workweek inevitable?

5/29/2024

Is a four-day workweek inevitable?
The answer, probably, is maybe. How’s that for a hedge? But one thing is sure, if it happens, it won’t be in the way Bernie Sanders would like.
Sanders, the senator from Vermont, is sponsoring legislation that would mandate a four-day, 32 hour workweek by making that the new threshold for overtime pay.
Did you hear that? He’s not talking about four 10-hour days, as some professions offer. Eight hours would be cut from everyone’s work schedule.

What good is an audience at a debate?

5/20/2024

What good is a live audience at a debate?
On Oct. 5, 1988, Lloyd Bentsen, then a senator from Texas, launched a zinger at Dan Quayle, a senator from Indiana, during a televised debate between candidates for vice president.
Quayle, a Republican, had just made the point that he had as much congressional experience as former President John F. Kennedy had before moving to the White House. Bentsen responded:
“Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.”

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