Your home: Ogden lawmaker proposes a big change - Salt Lake Tribune.

Very interesting proposal from Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden:

Outrage over skyrocketing property taxes in some counties have fueled months of discussion over how to improve the current valuation system.

While several fix-it bills are on the table, Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, proposes a major change: basing property assessments on purchase price instead of the assessor-determined fair market value.

“I’ve always felt the price you pay for the home is its actual value,” Hansen said.

While some say such a change would require a constitutional amendment, Hansen believes the bill could be worded to avoid it.

His yet-to-be-drafted proposal would signal a significant shift. So far, it has gained little traction on Capitol Hill.

“I know there will be entities that come out against it, but I feel the discussion needs to happen,” added Hansen, recently elected to his sixth term in the House. “We see people being taxed out of their homes.”

Think about your home. Would this make a big impact on you? Most homes, I assume, would pay less property taxes based on their purchase price rather than appraised value. I like less taxes, but of course, there’d be consequences (decrease in revenues.) Maybe that’s what we want though?

I’m working on getting Rep. Hansen booked on the show to talk about this, then it’d be interesting to hear from Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan, as he’s an appraiser and a legislator.

Share/Save

USU has no plans to increase oversight of Greeks - Salt Lake Tribune.

One of the big questions in the wake of Michael Starks’ alcohol related death at the Sigma Nu fraternity house was what it would mean for the other fraternity and sorority houses on campus.

According to this article, the answer is: Not much.

USU’s legal counsel, Craig Simper, says it best.

“Why would we want to assume that kind of responsibility? We don’t act as parents. We impose rules on them and we expect people to follow the student code.”

He brings up a great point. Why WOULD the university want to increase its liability in these types of situations?

The bottom line is, drinking takes place at fraternities and sororities. A lot of it takes place. The best play for the university is to set up a set of rules and say that as long as they don’t get violated too badly, say, resulting in someone’s death, their hands are clean.

Works great, right?

Share/Save

Wow. This one went under the radar.

Federal prosecutors and the attorney for a Logan City employee are reportedly close to reaching a deal over a charge that the employee dumped polluted water into a ditch that drains into a Cache County reservoir.

“We’ve worked through this,” said Ken Brown, representing former Logan City landfill manager Randall Rex Cook, “the prosecutor, myself and Mr. Cook.”

Now a truck driver for the city, Cook was charged last month with a misdemeanor violation of discharging pollutants into the water without a permit.

The case stems from a May, 2005, incident, in which Cook pumped thousands of gallons of leachate-contaminated spring runoff into a roadside ditch east of the landfill.

The ditch drains into Cutler Reservoir, which has had trouble in the past with fertilizer and other pollutants. Brown said there was no evidence the reservoir was contaminated because of Cook’s actions.

Share/Save

Click here to view the probable cause statement regarding the charges filed against Sigma Nu and Chi Omega in relation to the November death of Michael Starks

Share/Save

Sunday’s edition of The Herald Journal indicated that the Logan Municipal Council will nix pubic prayer at its meetings this year.

The decision, mirroring one the Providence City Council previously made, will delete the “opening ceremonies” item from each agenda, thus preventing any chance of conflict coming at the hands of a group who wants to pray, and, as incoming council chair Laraine Swenson says, get the city on with its business quicker.

I’m sure there are some varied opinions on this topic, strong on both sides, and I’d like to hear them. Personally, I am on the fence. I don’t like religion having an overt rule in government, but the prayer, especially in the way outgoing council chair Tami Pyfer had it set up, was harmless. Pyfer would invite people of different faiths to give the prayer (or opening ceremony) once a month, and then at the other meeting each month, time was devoted to a “spiritual thought.” This practice enhanced the diversity of the meetings.

While I don’t personally disagree with the removal of the opening ceremony from meeting agendas, I feel that it is being done while giving up a bit of collateral that could’ve been built with the religious types who will be outraged that the prayer is being removed. There are certainly going to be issues in the future (alcohol, perhaps?) where the council makes a decision in the best interests of the community and free trade and religious types will cry out that the city is being “godless” in their decisions, citing the removal of prayer from meetings as evidence in support. Leaving a two minute prayer at the start of each meeting, even if it’s just “throwing a bone” to those who want it there, seems pretty harmless in the grand scheme of things.

And, beyond that, if Steve Thompson ever brought in an Indian tribe to do a smoke signals blessing as he said he’d like to do in the paper, that’d just be cool to watch.

Share/Save

Washington Independent live blogs the event.

The first question: if the GOP’s the small government party, how does it fight the new Democratic hegemony. Ken Blackwell says, mysteriously, that “we have candidates who run like Jimmy Carter and govern like Jimmy Carter and candidates who run like Ronald Reagan and govern… like Jimmy Carter.” Anuzis says that the party needs to be out front in tough fights, like the fight Michigan Republicans fought to stop a tax increase. Steele suggests that the RNC “check some of that bad acting we see out there” by local officials who weren’t elected working with the national GOP. 

Second question: How do you get young people involved? Saltsman bristles at the idea that young people are merely the “future” of the party. “They are not the future of the party. They are the heart and soul of this party.” When he was in high school, Ronald Reagan was president, “and we knew that we were a shining city on a hill.” Duncan suggests bringing in young people with social networking “and the twittering.”

Steele doesn’t like that. Young people need to be put “out front,” and given decisions to make and power to wield. They can’t just be displayed, like potted plants, to show how diverse the party is, “like we do with black folks and a whole lot of other people out here.”

More here and here.

This is an important decision for the GOP. It’s not just the choice of a new committee leader, but an effort to avoid a regional lock-down, and a redefinition of what it means to be Republican post George W. Bush and the “War on Terror.” And from the tone I’m reading so far, Duncan has his hands full. The Twittering? Potted plants? C’mon.

See the circus yourself at RNCdebate.org.

Share/Save

Considering the concept of privacy and intimacy in the iPod/Facebook generation.

Is privacy dead? Can journalism survive in the digital age? Watch the entire diavlog here.

Share/Save

Why G.W. Bush should be frogmarched before the Hague | Crooks and Liars.

Yes or no. Should George W. Bush be tried for war crimes?

Share/Save

MormonTimes - Reflections: Can avatars be Mormon?.

Molly Farmer at The Mormon Times has a fun little reflection on the growing LDS community in the online world, Second Life, today.

Apparently, Keith Thompson of Oregon created this community more than a year ago and it has grown tremendously since. Second Life has a lot of seedy areas, but Thompson, who goes by the name Skyler Goode online, has helped create “Mormon Island”, an area of the world that features lifelike replicas of the Tabernacle in Salt Lake and other LDS landmarks.

Have any of you ventured into the Second Life world? Thompson will join us at 5:10 tonight to talk about his experiences in Second Life.

Share/Save

Child-porn cartoon conviction upheld - Crime & courts- msnbc.com.

Dwight Whorley of Richmond is serving 20 years in prison, convicted in 2005 of using a public computer for job-seekers at the Virginia Employment Commission to receive 20 Japanese cartoons, called anime, illustrating young girls being forced to have sex with men. Whorley also received digital photographs of actual children engaging in sexual conduct and sent and received e-mails graphically describing parents sexually molesting their children.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld his conviction.

This is a tough one.

On one hand, I think, almost any sensible person would agree that the content of the cartoons this man possessed is disgusting and, to many, disturbing.

However, where is the crime? Child pornography is an evil, evil thing, only surpassed in evil by the evil in the person who subjects a child to such an experience. That’s where the crime is, however, isn’t it? Isn’t the base of wrongdoing in the crime of child porn in subjecting an innocent child to be a part of such a process? The child is a victim and is exploited, but that’s not present in this case involving cartoons.

Emotionally, it’s easy to say that this guy with the cartoons should be sent to jail, because we don’t agree with what he’s doing. But is this a case of where he’s not hurting anyone, he should be left alone?

For me, it’s not such a clear cut case.

h/t: Jonathan Merchant

Share/Save

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the decline in the newspaper industry,but now with 2009 getting started, it seems some newspaper publishers are starting to consider doing something very dangerous to stay alive.

Reuters reports that some publishers, namely in Connecticut at the Bristole Press and New Britain Herald (the Bristol Press being Adam Benson’s newspaper) are considering accepting a bailout of sorts from their local governments.

I cannot emphasize how terribly bad of an idea I believe this is.

The idea, however, is propped out by words like this:

“I truly believe that no democracy can remain healthy without an equally healthy press,” said Fiedler, now dean of Boston University’s College of Communication. “Thus it is in democracy’s interest to support the press in the same sense that the human being doesn’t hesitate to take medicine when his or her health is threatened.”

When we start to be told by government that it’s in our best interest for something, we must be wary. Any public government entity giving money to the press would be the start of a very, very dark road, I think. State controlled media, anyone?

Right now, most American press agencies operate completely free of any government intervention, thus giving readers/listeners/users the hope that they are reporting in the interest of the public, not of the government. That immediately would be called into question if a given press agency were receiving government subsidies.

For me, as a consumer of media, I would much rather see struggling media agencies fail and new ones grow in their place than see the current failing agencies get a handout and become beholden to government.

-Tyler

Share/Save

Alert! Alert! Alert!    Attention Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks customers, starting tonight, you will lose your favorite Nickelodeon shows on TV and online because of a dispute with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. You can stop this! Time Warner Cable customers call 1-800-762-3786 and Bright House Networks customers call 1-866-309-3279, AND DEMAND THEY KEEP YOUR CHANNEL! YOU MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD TO CALL. - NickJr.com

This morning when I turned on the electronic baby sitter (TV) for my kids I was greeted with an “Alert” scrolling ominously across the bottom of Sponge Bob Square Pants, simular to the one above that I pulled off the Nick Jr web site.  A little more research on the net took me to the following article at Deadline Hollywood Daily…

WEDNESDAY NOON UPDATE: Viacom has rejected Time Warner Cable’s request for a 15- to 30-day extension on the 12:01 AM January 1st deadline when the cable programmer pulls its 19 channels off the 2nd largest cable system operator. I’m told Viacom and TWC had no contact throughout yesterday until news of the Big Media battle broke. Suddenly, at 8 PM, TWC came to Viacom with an increase offer and the extension request. But Viacom rejected both out of hand. “It was bogus. The low-ball offer was clearly an excuse to ask for an extension and then use that in their press activity today,” a Viacom source claimed to me. “After we’ve been trying to meet with them for several weeks, we won’t consider an extension unless they’re prepared to really negotiate and come across with a reasonable offer.” Insiders say Viacom President/CEO Philippe Dauman stayed in his office most of today waiting to hear from his TWC counterpart Glenn Britt, but the situation remains stalled. This is turning out to be Big Media brinkmanship at its most brutal with 13.3 million cable subscribers caught in the middle. - DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com

Now seriously…  I love how Viacom is playing the victim while plastering this all over their networks and web sites saying “You Can Stop This!”  This is pure marketing genius.  They know everyone is about to get really pissed when they lose 18 channels so they are being sure to blame Time Warner for the debacle up front.  I can’t wait to see what the advertisers who bought time on these networks think when their ads go unaired.  Can you imagine if this had happened to the major networks carrying the Bowl games this coming week?

-

Take a look at what my kids might have missed this morning without Viacom’s amazing programs.

- Richard Okelberry

Share/Save

I love Christmas!  I love Christmas so much that when I proposed to my wife, I surprised her with a Christmas Tree complete with presents and music one early November day.  The ring was hidden in a pocket of a jacket which was one of the presents I gave her.  While I always try to focus on the birth of Christ around Christmas, I must say that I truly do love all the lights and decorations that surround the season.  While even I can be dismayed in late October when certain stores begin decorating for the season, I am always just a little disappointed when people immediately begin removing their decorations and turning off lights just days after the 25th of December.  If you have ever wondered exactly what the traditional time span for decorating over the holidays is, I have the answers for you.

-

In short, Christmas decorations traditionally go up on the 4th Sunday proceeding Christmas and come down 12 days after on “Little Christmas.”  If the 12 days sounds familiar it’s because the famed 12 Days of Christmas doesn’t proceed, but actually follows Christmas.  You see Christmas is part of what is called the Christian Church Calendar or Liturgical Year.

-

Following in Jewish tradition, the early Christian churches established several seasons for celebration, worship and reflection.  I should note that these seasons may vary slightly from faith to faith but most liturgical faiths follow the core calendar.  If you belong to a liturgical church you are probably very familiar with this calendar.  If not, I should explain that this Christian Church Calendar begins with Advent which leads to Christmas then Epiphany.  The rest of the year may sound failure also; Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost and Ascension with the rest of the year dedicated to what is called Ordinary (Ordinal) Time.  While the labeled seasons each focus on different points in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, Ordinary Time usually focuses primarily on doctrine.

-

For those not failure with the Christian Church Calendar, I will focus on what this essay is primarily about, the Christmas season which includes Advent, Christ’s Mass (Christmas) and the often forgotten Epiphany.  Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas day and ends Christmas Eve day with Christmas Eve beginning at sundown.  It is a time when congregants hear and celebrate the events leading to the birth of Christ.  Christmas Eve and Christmas are easy.  They are the actual celebration of his birth and are traditionally marked by the Feast of the Nativity.  This Christmas dinner is where Christmas seems to end for many people.  But what about Epiphany?

-

Though it has lost much of its luster over the decades, Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas celebration on January 6th which is also known, especially in Europe as Three Kings Day.  In years past the gifts were given on each of the 12 days following Christmas.  Then a second celebration would occur on Epiphany marking the end of the season.  The traditions surrounding this celebration are wide and varied but often culminated in the giving of final gifts, a feast and the baking of The Kings Cake.  The tradition of the Kings Cake to celebrate the birth of Christ is likely the reason we bake birthday cakes today.

-

While the tradition of decorating a home is truly just symbolic of the season, I personally like to maintain some of these older traditions by keeping my decorations up until Epiphany on the 6th of January.  In fact, now that we have small children, my wife and I have decided to give small gifts to our kids in recognition of Epiphany this year as well as help them make a donation to the needy.  Also, we will be baking a cake as a family to say farewell to the Christmas season for another year.

-

On New Year’s Day tomorrow, many people will shut off their lights and begin dismantling their plastic rain deer and blow up Santa’s.  We Okelberry’s will likely be one of the few on our block that still have our lights brightly glowing for a few more days.  So please don’t think we are crazy and just unwilling to let go of Christmas.  We are merely trying to keep some of the traditions of Christmas alive, for it is a season that we truly love and would like to preserve.  I hope that others of all different faiths and beliefs who love as we do the traditions of Christmas would join us in remembering the 12 days of Christmas.

-

- Richard Okelberry

Share/Save

2008 will last one second longer tomorrow night to account for a miniscule slowing in the earth’s rotation, and to keep GMT on the nose.  Interesting enough reason for me to click on this link, but what I found surprised me.  Apparently there is quite a heated battle brewing over GMT vs Atomic Time, pitting nation against nation as bitter rivals in the epic battle to control time!

Although the time will pass in the blink of an eye, Judah Levine, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., predicts the change will make him a very busy man starting about 5 p.m. Mountain Time. As part of the institute’s Time and Frequency Division, he’ll be helping to work out the bugs that follow.

“There’s always somebody who doesn’t get it right,” Levine said. “It never fails.”

Britons seemed less concerned about the remote prospect of having tea at 3 a.m. than the notion of leaving a France-based body in control of the world’s time.

“I think there’s some kind of historical pride we might feel in Britain about Greenwich being the point around which time is measured,” 50-year-old telecoms executive Stephen Mallinson said as he waited to board aEurostar train for Paris at London’s St. Pancras Station.

“But in practice, does it make a difference? No.”

At the Royal Observatory, 53-year-old homemaker Susie Holt was adjusting her wristwatch to match the digital display above the meridian. She said it would be a pity if GMT were made obsolete. Her daughter, 15-year-old Kirsty, was more forthright.

“We don’t want the French to control time,” she said. “They might get it wrong or something.”

So much trouble over just a second?

Read the entire article here.

Share/Save

Senate President Michael Waddoups says yes. Lisa A Marcy of the Utah Hospitality Association will join us tonight to respond.  An invitation has also been extended to Senator Waddoups.

-Tom

Share/Save