Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…
Utah State University political science professor Dr. Mike Lyons offers analysis on the Iraq War funding showdown
Gossner Foods was denied the right to bid on providing milk to U.S. troops stationed in the Persian Gulf. The reasons given by the government are suspect. Gossner Foods CEO Delores Wheeler joins us live.
All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Covering a broad topic like Mormonism is quite a challenge. As if the breadth, depth and complexity of Mormonism’s history, culture and doctrine weren’t a challenge enough, it’s an emotionally charged topic. What one man considers objectivity on the subject another considers blatant propaganda and vice versa.
We want your reaction to the documentary. We’ll take your calls tomorrow and read responses left to it on this post on the KVNU For the People blog.
The first part of the documentary airs tonight at 8 PM on KUED channel 7. Part 2 airs tomorrow night at 8 PM. Tune in tomorrow to KVNU’s For the People for a discussion on the documentary.
I’m sure glad we gave the Presidents escalation plan “a chance”.
When are we going to get it? The Iraqis don’t want democracy. They want to kill each other. President Bush continues to operate an open ended war without an end game strategy.
We can’t make them want democracy. And we shouldn’t be sacraficing the lives of our heroic soldiers and our treasure to force an unwanted and unappreciated democracy on the Iraqis.
Well spoken words felt by many Aggie fans, as found in today’s Herald Journal:
To the editor:
I love basketball. I love watching the Utah State Aggies play basketball. I love to watch Jaycee Carroll work his magic on the court. When I heard that Jaycee Carroll was declaring for the NBA ’07 draft, I was excited and bummed all at the same time.
I was excited because I would love to see him play in the NBA and watch him on TV. I also know that he would get better in the NBA. His coaches and trainers would help him get stronger and better at basketball.
I was bummed because I was surprised that he didn’t want to finish college and get his degree. I think a college education and degree are very important because after his basketball career is over he would have the degree to get another job. A lot of people, especially kids, need a role model to show them what they should really do in their life. Jaycee Carroll is one of those role models. So I kind of want him to finish college.
Whatever happens I will always like Jaycee Carroll and his magic on the court. I hope that he makes the right decision and does what he feels is right.
Cody Lindley
Mt. Sterling
Tonight on KVNU’s For the People 1st Anniversary Spectacular
State Senator Lyle Hillyard responds to inaccurate media reports that he was held in contempt of court.
Dr. Mike Lyons of Utah State University’s political science department offers analysis on the war funding showdown and it’s implications for the 2008 elections
And we’ll play the Friday News Quiz. As always, you’re playing for a $25 gift certificate to the Bel Monte Restaurant at Sherwood Hills. And because it’s KVNU’s For the People 1st year anniversary spectacular we’ll be giving away Lagoon Passes, Work & the Glory DVD, Mark Russell tickets and more,
All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People 1st year anniversary spectacular!
You may have seen yesterday’s Herald Journal article that reported State Senator Lyle Hillyard (R-Logan) was held in contempt of court for failing to appear for jury duty. As it turns out, the central assertion of the article wasn’t true.
The Herald Journal printed a retraction today indicating that Senator Hillyard was not held in contempt, but rather was given an order to show cause as to why he had not appeared. It is standard procedure to exempt practicing attorneys from jury duty.
The problem is that while the Herald Journal ran a retraction today, the original story was left on the AP wire and picked today by the Provo Daily Herald and the Casper Star-Tribune. The Tribune ran a similar story yesterday based in part on the Herald Journal piece, making the important distinction that,”A Logan judge has asked state Sen. Lyle Hillyard to show why he sould not be held in contempt of court after the Republican lawmaker failed to appear for a jury selection.”
I am a big fan of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. I have always admired the way he takes well reasoned, principled and often unpopular stances. Which is why I was surprised to see this quote attributed to him in today’s Tribune:
“Free speech ends where the enemy benefits from your free speech,” Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told the library crowd.
That kind of thoughtless comment is something I would expect from Gayle Ruzicka, not Mark Shurtleff.
Good greif. I can’t believe 4 years into this fiasco in Iraq, we’re still debating the value of pluralism in a democracy. Our ubiquitous enemies are opposed to democracy. Democracy’s strength is derived from pluralism. Pluralism is gauranteed by the first amendment and strengthened by a robust debate.
History is full of examples of governments abusing and revoking civil liberties in the well-intentioned guise of protecting its citizens from themselves. And as we have seen from history, it’s not the citizens of dissent that are the threat- it’s the government itself.
From today’s Herald Journal:
Following the game, which eliminated the Grizzlies from title contention, Brimhall criticized one of the officials and his comments appeared in The Herald Journal.
Brimhall was suspended for the first two games of the 2007-08 season — against West and Roy — placed on a year’s probation and fined $300. He will also receive a letter of reprimand and must review the UHSAA’s sportsmanship manual. Northridge’s coach received the same punishment.
Before KVNU’s For the People, I was cohost on KVNU’s Full Court Press. I had a chance to meet and interact with all of the basketball and football coaches from the high schools in the valley and I can tell you that Coach Brimhall is among the most dignified and upstanding of them all. But a good character doesn’t absolve one of a specific incident. Even good guys do bad things sometimes.
Even so, this is excessive. UHSSA should allow some lattitude for criticism of officials. $300 is a lot for a school teacher and the requirement to review the sportsmanship manual is patronizing and implies Brimhall has a broader problem (which he doesn’t).
Utah is a divided state.
Mormon v. Non-Mormon
BYU v. Utah
Utah State Aggies v. Everybody
Liberal v. Conservative
Republican v. Democrat
Rocky v. Hannity
Whether it’s religion, politics or sports Utah is too often fractured and divided. These divisions were here before we came and will fester on long after the worms have their way with us. But there’s one thing that brings us all together- the Utah Jazz. Tonight I sat with 19,911 blue clad, loud obnoxious friends. Religion didn’t matter. Politics didn’t matter. We were all united, high fiving and having ourselves a hell of a time as the Jazz took it to the Rockets.
GO JAZZ!
Last night John from Logan called in to discuss the war in Iraq. The discussion included a question about whether or not the troops support the way the President has handled Iraq. I mentioned that recent polling indicates that a majority of troops do not approve of the job the President is doing in Iraq. The assertion was challenged, and I promised to post the information on the blog. I did mistakenly attribute the poll to Stars and Stripes, when in actuality it is from the Military Times:
Only 35 percent of the military members polled this year said they approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, while 42 percent said they disapproved. The president’s approval rating among the military is only slight ly higher than for the population as a whole. In 2004, when his popularity peaked, 63 percent of the military approved of Bush’s handling of the war. While ap proval of the president’s war lead ership has slumped, his overall approval remains high among the military.
Just as telling, in this year’s poll only 41 percent of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place, down from 65 percent in 2003. That closely reflects the beliefs of the general population today — 45 percent agreed in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll.
Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…
The Cache County Democrats recently held their organizing convention. At that convention they passed resolutions dealing with transporation, open space, the war in Iraq, healthy living and health care. With us tonight is Suzanne Marychild and Kathy Snyder with the Cache County Democrats to discuss the local party and issues.
The Cache Democrats, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Subscribe to KVNU’s For the People with iTunes!
From today’s Deseret News:
Five Utah schools made The Princeton Review’s 2008 edition of “America’s Best Value Colleges.”
The report, released Tuesday, rated more than 4,500 schools nationwide and names the University of Utah, Utah State University and Southern Utah University among its top 90 public schools and Brigham Young University and Westminster College among its top 75 private schools in terms of value.
Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s vice president of publishing, said rankings were compiled by reviewing more than 30 factors that include academics, tuition, grade-point average, scholarships and grants, financial aid and student borrowing.
It’s good to see that relative to other schools USU is remaining competitive, even though USU is not in the top 10 as in years past. I was a bit surprised by the incoming freshman GPA for USU. First, that it was so high – 3.54 and that it was slightly higher than the University of Utah at 3.52. Maybe some of that is our nations tendency to inflate grades, especially in high schools.
Rising tuition and exclusivity is a double edged sword for USU. Any school should want to raise the prestige of it’s reputation. For example, USU’s College of Business adds a surcharge to students in business classes to attract better professors. At the same time, USU’s mission isn’t to join the Ivy League. It’s Utah’s land grant research institution intended to be accesssible to the working and middle class.
USU has played an important role in the history of the Grover family. In the direct line of Grovers, I am the 10th generation to live in the New World since our family emigrated from England. Despite eight white males that came before him, my Dad is the first college graduate in the line Grovers. And that was made possible in party by Utah State University- where he was able to fund his own education by working. He eventually obtained an accounting degree. Today he has his own successful accounting firm. And now all of his kids have graduated from, are attending or will attend USU in pursuit of the American dream, financial security and a broad education. To be a Grover is to be an Aggie. Utah State University has permanantly altered the course of history of the Grover family more than any other institution except for the LDS Church.
That’s the story of Utah State University that’s been told, retold and lived tens of thousands of times. It’s a story of individual empowerment and upward mobility through working your ass off to get through school and making your dreams come true. I hope USU will always remain true to that story.
If he weren’t such a successful coach, he would be charged with a crime for physical contact with not only referees, but police after Nevada-Reno lost to Utah State in the WAC tournament. Instead, Fox gets a meaningless reprimand from the WAC.
I’m glad we never have to worry about Stew losing control like this.
Photo Credit: TrueAggies.com
Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…
A burgler has been breaking into residences in Logan and watching females sleep. Logan City Police Chief Russ Roper joins KVNU’s For the People with all the details on the ongoing investigation.
USU has been offering Bachelors and Masters degrees to inmates in the Utah State Prison, that program is out of money and will end in August. The question, Is this
a Waste of Taxpayer dollars or an important program that rehabilitates offenders?
Documentary filmmaker Steven Greenstreet joins us to discuss how he was able to raise $12,000 for BYU’s alternative commencement in a single afternoon of blogging…
All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!
INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS:
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Subscribe to KVNU’s For the People with iTunes!
In light of the recent 60%-40% vote at the Cache County GOP Convention in favor of a pro-voucher resolution, I wondered to myself, “Why do so many Republicans here oppose vouchers?”. One woman at the convention argued, “As a Republican, I’ve been taught not to be pro-choice”. While that may be cute, it is nonsensical, since Republicans are strong believers in competition and the free market. I come to the conclusion that local Republicans are departing from conservative principles on this issue. I’ll take this opportunity to highlight a few of these principles, and apply them to the voucher debate.
Furthermore, one consistently finds Republican politicians on the side of school vouchers, and Democrats against them. I hope that anti-voucher Republicans will take these points into consideration as they prepare to vote on this issue.
Craig Limesand
The debate will never happen. Documentary filmmakers are the excuse now, but if another needs to be conjured up to prevent the event, either side will be willing. They don’t want to debate. Both Rocky and Hannity are hacks who only feel safe throwing barbs and cheap shots at each other from a distance. If the debate were to happen it would be to political discourse what professional wrestling is to major league sports.
LOGAN, Utah ‹ Utah State’s Jaycee Carroll announced on Monday he
will declare as an underclassman for eligibility in the 2007 National
Basketball Association draft selection process.
Carroll, a 6-2 junior guard from Evanston, Wyo., finished the
2006-07 season first in the Western Athletic Conference and 10th in the
nation in scoring with 21.3 points per game as he earned Associated Press
Honorable Mention All-America honors along with being named first-team
all-WAC. Carroll also led the WAC and finished 12th in the nation in free
throw shooting at 88.8 percent, was first in the conference in three-point
shooting (.432), fifth in overall shooting (.527), and 12th in rebounding
(6.3).
“It has always been a dream of mine to play in the NBA and I owe
it to myself and my family to do whatever I can to make that dream come
true,” said Carroll. ”I think it is important for the development of my
game to see how I compare against the best collegiate basketball players in
the country.”
Carroll will not hire an agent which means he can withdraw from
the draft by June 18 and retain his intercollegiate eligibility. If Carroll
does return to Utah State he will be one of three starters returning from
USU’s National Invitation Tournament team that went 23-12 during the 2006-07
season.
“Our coaching staff understands and supports Jaycee on his
decision to explore the NBA,” said veteran Utah State head coach Stew
Morrill. ”It has become fairly common for underclassmen who have had great
seasons to test the waters and find out information regarding their status
with the NBA. Jaycee understands unless he is guaranteed to be a
first-round pick that the wise decision would be to come back to school.”
The first time underclassmen can have contact with NBA teams is
at the Pre-Draft Camp on May 29 through June 4 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
After that date, underclassmen can work out for teams at their own expense
in order to maintain their collegiate eligibility.
The time-line for early-entry into the NBA Draft is as follows:
April 29 – Deadline for early-entry application into NBA Draft; May 1-15 -
Invitations issued for NBA Pre-Draft camp; May 29-June 4 – Pre-Draft Camp in
Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; June 5 – First date NBA teams can attend and host
workouts involving draft eligible players; June 18 – Early-entry withdrawal
deadline by 3 p.m. (MT); June 28 – NBA Draft in New York City.
From today’s Tribune:
Sitting alone at the edge of the court after the Jazz practiced for Game 2 of their first-round playoff series tonight, the team’s highest-paid player cried.
Forward Andrei Kirilenko used a towel to blot away tears from his red and swollen eyes Sunday while discussing his minimal role in the Jazz’s 84-75 loss to the Rockets in Game 1.
Kirilenko, who played just 16 minutes, came to the bench with five minutes left in the third quarter and didn’t return until the last seven seconds of the fourth, with the game long since decided. He never got the chance to see if he could disrupt Tracy McGrady on defense.
“I want to play 48 minutes,” said Kirilenko, who earned $12.3 million this season in the second year of a six-year, maximum-salary contract. “I want to play and I want to be on the court. All I can provide is effort, no matter how many minutes I’m going to play. . . . I wouldn’t say I did great, but I did something. It’s just hard to explain because it’s been whole year.”
Coach Jerry Sloan said Kirilenko was playing poorly – he finished with two points, one rebound, a steal, an assist and a blocked shot – so “I have to try to play somebody who can keep us in the ballgame.”
I love AK47 as much as the next guy, but Sloan had no choice but to bench him on Saturday night! Andrei, your play SUCKED! It’s playoff basketball and you’re going to have to get more minutes by earning them, not crying for them.
Furthermore, it’s really selfish and distracting for Andrei to be making this stuff public with the press. Has he not seen the first Godfather when Sonny questions his fathers judgment in front of Sollozzo? Keep it in the family, Andrei!
Despite AK47′s emotional instability, Jazz win by 6 tonight.
Our friends in France held the first round of their presidential election today, and the Conservative candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, will face the Socialist candidate, Segolene Royal, in the runoff on May 6.
France, as you may be aware, is not doing so well right now. Their protectionist, socialist, union-dominated economy is in the dumps, and unassimilated immigrant youths are running wild in the suburbs. While I normally don’t put too much stock in individual races or individual politicians, I will say, at the risk of being called misogynist, that it is imperative for France that they elect Sarkozy.
Sarkozy is the only candidate of the two that proposes real economic reform in France, where it is almost impossible to get fired and where strikes are endemic. He proposes a longer workweek and fewer government employees. Royal, on the other hand, wants to raise the minimum wage; hardly what France needs.
Meanwhile, in the Paris suburbs where the 2005 riots took place, Sarkozy is hated for his law-and-order, tough-on-immigrants stance. Royal, on the other hands, reaches out to these “disaffected youths” with platitudes, and seems to be proud that they support her. Imagine an American candidate boasting of his strong support in South Central LA.
France is in desperate need of change, and it appears that only Sarkozy can deliver it. Keep an eye on this one.
Craig Limesand
Tonight on KVNU’s For the People from the Cache County Republican Party Convention…
It’s Friday and we’re playing the Friday News Quiz… this time with a twist. We’re giving away the Work and the Glory III on DVD, which you can’t even buy yet and the $25 gift certificate to the Bel Monte Restaurant at Sherwood Hills. And this week the Friday News Quiz is administered by local celebrity Vic Saunders.
We’ll talk with Cache County Councilman Cory Yeates as well as Cache County Republican Party Chairman David Butterfield.
The Convention will debate vouchers tonight and we’ll open the phone lines to you as well.
All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
The Podcast
