In what might be the best Rush Limbaugh parody ever, John Edwards sings with the Bee Gees. Check it out.  (I really like Ted Kennedy singing “I’m a Philanderer” too, though).
Craig

Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…

The media has provided the pitch forks and torches, does self proclaimed pedophile Jack McLellan deserve vigalante justice? Should it be illegal for pedophiles to observe children in public for their own pleasure?

The Cache Valley Gardeners Market will now be open Wednesday nights at the Historic Cache County Courthouse in addition to Saturday mornings at Pioneer Park. KVNU’s news director Jennie Christensen interviews Amy Hochberg who has all the details.

Two executive producer selected topics: At the request of executive producer Kurth we’ll talk with State Senator Fred Fife about the possibility of a new state air quality tax. And at the request of executive producer Keith we’ll also talk with Rich Stehmeier of the Logan-Cache Airport about a new height restriction to be put on 4600 North to facilitate a runway and possible impact on agriculture vehicles.

KVNU’s Craig Hislop interviews Logan City Council candidate Brian Nielson.

Criticize the coach and get sued? According to the Utah Supreme court that’s the way it goes.

All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• 7/28 UPI: Parents furious over pedophile blogger
• 7/30 USA Today: This man says he’s a law-abiding pedophile
• Cache Valley Gardener’s Market official website
• Logan-Cache Airport official website
• 7/28 Salt Lake Tribune: Drivers may pay for their polluting ways

He’s a creep.  To fully appreciate how creepy, you need to see his pictures:

I recently heard on the radio that the State of Utah is considering a
new tax increase to be put on either car registrations, or gas
purchases.  The short explanation is that it will go towards funding
air quality research and “cleaning up the air”.  First, how would
raising a tax help clean up the air?  All new vehicles (apparently
vehicles are the main culprit) come with emissions control equipment
that’s supposed to reduce emissions.  Emission equipment has been in
use since the 80′s, so even older cars have some form of emissions
controls.  I fail to see the connection between raising a tax and
cleaning the air.  If this tax were to become a bank roll toward some
grand machine that actually takes in polluted air and filters it into
clean air, then I could possibly see the benefit of such a tax.
However, even such a machine would probably be considered a polluter
since it would operate on some “form of power”, and produce toxic
byproducts since the filters would have to be cleaned every once in a
while.  I guess what I’d like to know is, why is it considered okay to
take money from the people to pay for an un-realistic, or non-existent
solution that in the end does nothing more than spend money (ie. pad
somebodies pockets)?  We don’t need another (or increased) tax!

So the topic is: How does a tax increase actually clean the air?

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6486441

Kurt Chaffin

The Cache Chamber of Commerce is going to decide whether to sponsor one or both of the sales tax increases on August 22. Tracking the developments on this blog and other sources you will, with the rest of us, enjoy a good laugh as the proponents of the CVTD tax try and justify doubling their cost while “increasing the service”. Increasing the service by adding longer routes with fewer riders makes little sense in the context of decreasing pollution. Adding a Main Street shuttle makes little sense in trying to revitalize downtown. We should be asking “How did we arrive at this point”.  As our expensive council trio of incumbents continues to tout their “miracle” of coming from a deficit to a reserve with excess, we should ask them why they are re-entering the same course that created the previous deficit.  Peter Brunson

Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…

Did you read yesterday’s article in the paper on who rides the bus in Logan? How does this figure into the proposed bus tax hike? How expensive is the bus for riders, taxpayers and community members? Are you in support of the bus tax?

The Senate is the debating the 2007 Farm Bill, which would have broad implications in the national economy, national security, international trade, subsidies and more. Some are alleging that farm subsidies go disproportionately to the rich and large corporations. With us to discuss the bill is Tom Bieus, President of the National Farmers Union, and Arthur Douglas President of the Farmers Union of Utah.

Senator Orrin Hatch proffered a very Clinton-esque definition of perjury yesterday on ABC’s This Week in defense of beleagured Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• Reason Magazine: Six Reasons to Kill Farm Subsidies and Trade Barriers

Here’s a great article in today’s Deseret News on Scott Wyatt’s commitment to keep Snow College a four year school that feeds students to Utah State.

Scott will do a great job at Snow College.

Did you see Adam Benson’s article on the bus tax in yesterday’s Herald Journal?   If not, go read it.   Even better, read the print version which has an interesting table of statistics about who rides the bus.   It’s pretty much the demographic that Ryan and I have believed for quite some time.   59% of riders are under 24 years old, 57% have a household income of less than $20,000 a year and only 23% are employed full time.

So who rides the bus?   The Herald Journal staff rode the bus and made a very blunt assessment:

…the demographics Herald Journal reporters observed most frequently — the disabled, the elderly and Hispanics.

Given their own statistics, it’s hard to understand why mass transit proponents could possibly believe that the free service is under utilized because people are unaware of it.  We hear endless preaching during winter inversions that we all ought to ride the bus.  CVTD has engaged in public awareness and “education” campaigns through all local media outlets.   Politicians urge the citizenry to ride the bus as a mitigation to pollution and congestion. 

Every man, woman, child, horse and cow in Cache Valley is aware of the services offered by CVTD and has been for years.  And even after all the education and cajoling, somewhere between 1.5-3% of the population rides the bus.    It’s ridiculous to argue that people don’t use the bus because they are unaware of the service.   We’re all very aware.
In the same Herald Journal article, we see the real reason people don’t ride the bus:

That’s why people like 42-year-old Nibley resident Chad Shoop are so important to public transit advocates.

He began taking the bus to work about a year and a half ago, when gas prices hovered around $3 a gallon, and it cost him $72 to fill up his truck.

Shoop relies on his motorcycle to get to and from work during the summer, but uses the bus about once a week during the winter months. It takes him almost 50 minutes to get to work using public transit instead of the 15 minutes it takes him in his own vehicle.

Still, it’s a trade-off he’s willing to pay for.

“It benefits everyone whether you ride the bus or not,” he said. “I think it’s under-utilized because people just aren’t informed about it (the CVTD), and it’s not even entering their thought process.”

Mr. Shoop spends an extra 35 minutes coming and going each day to ride the bus.   That’s 70 minutes a day.    Were he to ride the bus 5 days a week, that would come out to 350 minutes or nearly 6 hours.  Over the course of a work year with 2 weeks vacation, that’s 300 hours.
What’s six hours of your time worth?

According to the U.S. census, the average income of a working male in Cache County is $32,397.   If we break that down to a 40 hour work week that’s $15.58 an hour.   So, if you were to ride the bus to Logan from Nibley to work each day, the opportunity cost is $15.58 x 6 hours = $93.45.    Over the course of a year, the opportunity cost of Mr. Shoop riding the bus to work is an astronomical $4,672.64.
I don’t care if gas is $5 a gallon.  It’s still cheaper to drive to work than it is to ride the bus.

Of course, my numbers are all dependant upon the assumption that your leisure time, which riding the bus costs into, is of equal worth to your time at work.  I’m guessing that time with family, at a ball game and watching movies in the evening is something most people aren’t willing to sell for the same rate they are paid during the day.   If they were, they would be working during that time.

The numbers I have given and the demographics in the Herald Journal explain who rides the bus and why they ride it.

• The poor, who constitute 60% of ridership, ride the bus not out of altruism for the environment or because they want to alleviate congestion, but because their financial situation is so tight that they gain from the relatively high opportunity cost that most turn down.   Many don’t have a car.
• Students at USU ride the bus for a number of reasons.  Many are foreign students who don’t have a car.   Some, when I was going to USU, would rather ride the warm bus for 10 minutes than walk in the extreme cold for 5 minutes.   Others find parking on campus burdensome.
• The disabled ride the bus because they don’t have a car or can’t drive.   This is one of the most valuable services CVTD provides.   It allows persons with disabilities to have mobility, employment, socialization and independence.   The quality of life for persons with disabilities is inestimably impoved by CVTD.    It is also quite likely that this autonomy and independence saves tax payers money through an alleviation on demands for other government services.
• Minors ride the bus with their friends.   They go to the mall.  Many ride the CVTD home instead of traditional school buses.
• The elderly ride the bus because they often cannot afford their own vehicle or can no longer safely operate one.    The CVTD does a great job of giving our senior citizens mobility and autonomy.

The people who ride the bus are those who would not otherwise drive a car or those whose financial situation is so dire that it makes sense to pay high opportunity costs to ride mass transit.
Of course riding CVTD isn’t just expensive for the prospective riders CVTD hopes to recruit, it’s expensive for taxpayers.    If the bus tax is passed, CVTD’s $3 million budget will double, but ridership will only increase by 20%.    That’s $9 per additional ride.   That’s ride, not rider.  So for each additional rider that takes two buses to work and two home, that comes out to $36 per day per rider.   If that person rides the bus every day, s/he will cost taxpayers $9,000.    It may be cheaper to purchase that person a quality used vehicle than to double the budget of CVTD.

“But CVTD wants public input into how to better serve the public!” you say.   You are correct, the CVTD will be at the Cache County Fair next week soliciting input.
I stumbled upon an interesting article by Ben O’Neill at mises.org regarding this process of public input that addresses the CVTD booth at the Cache County Fair:

For more major decisions, in addition to contacting the large stakeholders, the government may also feel obliged to hold a more general community consultation. Again, the government does not appeal to the scientific methodology of random sampling in selecting those community members who are to participate in this process. For this method would mean that members of the community would be excluded from participation by the roll of the dice; a most undemocratic result. Instead, the government simply invites the public at large to make submissions or attend some form of community forum. This process is self-selective: the respondents are those who themselves choose to take the time to write a submission, attend a forum, or otherwise make their views heard.

The result of this sampling mechanism is that both the stakeholders who are contacted by the government and the members of the public who self-selectively take the time to participate in the process are those who have a large stake in the proposed decision. And since the costs of any particular government service are spread diffusely through the population, whereas the benefits are concentrated among a much smaller group of rent seekers, it is precisely these rent seekers who will be the participants in the government’s consultation process.

…In each case “the community” that is consulted is composed of the rent seekers who benefit from this service at taxpayer expense. And so, in all such cases, those in the government who are desirous of greater statism — and they are many — have themselves a neat little set of loaded dice. For they may argue that they have “the community” on their side; that “the community” has spoken; that all those “with an interest in the decision” have been consulted. They may argue that democracy demands that the government abide by the views of this community and that it would be an affront to the democratic process to ignore these views.

The following letter is a complaint filed with Logan City by Lanny & Colleen Ballard. They also provided the city with pictures of the problems described. They have provided the letter and the pictures to KVNU’s For the People so others could have a better understanding of the problem. -Tom
We own property at 676 N 600 E. We filed a complaint about the property to the south of us with Logan City in 2006. The problems we have encountered are listed below.

Thank you for your concern.
Lanny & Colleen Ballard

1. We have owned the property north of said property since 1973.

2. In 1973, I believe there were either 2 families or 1 family and some girls living in the house. This was the arrangement until the new owner took over.

No, the 2 units have not always been occupied by six unrelated adults in the upstairs unit and four unrelated adults in the basement unit.

3. I am not sure when the house started being occupied by six unrelated adults in the upstairs unit and four unrelated adults in the basement unit because I believe there are more than that living there now.

4. They park 2 cars in the garage, 2 cars in the driveway behind the cars in the garage and 6 in front of the house between the sidewalk and the road. This is not adequate parking for the number of people and vehicles they are renting to, which I believe are more than 10!
a. They are at times parking and driving on our lawn to the north. I have knocked on their door and politely asked them not to drive on our lawn, it is good for a few weeks, and then it starts up again. I called the police once, and was told they couldn’t do anything about it because it is on private property. Therefore, being a property owner, I can’t do anything about it, the police can’t do anything about it, but their tenants can do anything they want to and get away with it.
b. They have parked in front of our garbage dumpster before, making it impossible for the garbage to be picked up. I got called early one morning, went up there and found it wasn’t one of our tenants.
c. They have parked in our parking lot. Our tenants have come home late at night and have no place to park. Our tenants then park on the street and get a ticket. I have even cleared snow from in front of this house so they will have a place to park and stay out of my parking lot.
d. They are constantly driving over our lawn, the sidewalk and the curb and gutter in order to get out of their driveway because there are cars parked behind each other in the driveway. In the winter we pile snow in this area to keep them from driving on our lawn. But this year, with very little snow, we have this problem constantly. They have pulled up over a curb and gutter and parked on the lawn in front of the house.
e. We have had them dump their garbage in our dumpster because they only have 2 black beauties for all of those people. Then our tenants complain that the dumpster is full.
f. I question if the 6 parking spots in front of the house are legal spots. When pulling out of our driveway, it is very difficult to see other vehicles coming from the south, due to the vehicles sticking out in to the street so far. And if they pull further in, they are blocking the sidewalk. This is the only place on 600 East that parking is like this!

5. I don’t know how many people are living in this structure, but there are a lot more than there used to be. At times, I have seen 12 to 17 cars parked wherever they can at this house. And as of this date, they have a “For Rent” sign up, so they are trying to put more in there.

6. More information:
a. As of January 10, 2006, the Cache County Assessor has this house listed as 3 bedrooms upstairs and 3 bedrooms downstairs. Where do they put all of the unrelated people who drive all of these vehicles?
b. With the inadequate parking and the problems we have with them, I believe there are more than 10 people living in that house. On January 10, 2006 at 11:00 AM there were 12 cars parked there with 1 empty parking spot and 1 car parked up over a curb, not in a parking spot. I am sure some of these people work and/or drive to school. So, where do the rest of them park when they come home?
c. At 11:20 PM on the same day, there were 17 cars parked. 2 in the garage, 2 behind the ones in the garage, 8 in front of the house, 3 on the lawn and 2 on the street. The cars parked on the lawn had been driven on our lawn and the neighbor’s lawn to the south in order to park. Also, one of the cars parked on the lawn was partially parked on the neighbor’s lawn to the south.
d. Have some rooms been made in to bedrooms to accommodate more people with the same amount of parking, but the city is unaware of it?
e. On the northeast corner of the house, an open patio has been closed off with plywood. Is there an additional bedroom there?
f. We own 12 units to the north. Four are two bedroom units and eight are one bedroom units. We are required to have 16 parking spots. We have adequate parking for our tenants. All of our parking is off the street. We were required to put in curb and gutter. We are not allowed to park on the street at all! All of our tenants and their visitors must park in our lot. If they park on the street, they get a ticket. However, next door, there is a whole string of cars parked partially on the street.
g. We try to maintain the lawn and keep our property looking the best we can. But, when they drive on our lawn they have broken sprinkler heads off, they make ruts in the lawn when the ground isn’t frozen, and kill the lawn when driving on it when it is frozen.
h. These people have no regard for other people’s property!
i. If the owners of this house want this to be an apartment complex, they should have to comply with the same rules and regulations the rest of us must comply to.
j. I suggest they should put in curb and gutter and only park in the garage and driveway.
k. See enclosed pictures.
Click to see pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24

Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…

Republican Presidential candidates including Utah’s Favorite Son Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have criticized the CNN/YouTube debate and said they may not participate. Is the format a dignified and fair one? Are the Republican candidates simply avoiding an unscripted and perhaps strategically unsafe environment?

We’ve got clips from a speech entitled “The Yellow Pages Test” given by Providence Mayor Randy Simmons to the Utah Taxpayers Association last month. What services do you think government should provide? By what criteria? What services should be provided by the private sector?

And of course we’ll play the Friday News Quiz, your chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Belle Monte Restaurant at Sherwood Hills- tonight with a twist- there will be Simpsons trivia thrown into the mix.

All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• Entire “Yellow Pages Test” speech given by Mayor Randy Simmons to the Utah Taxpayers Association (audio * text)
• 7/27 Seattle Times: YouTube debate for GOP looks uncertain

As always, you’re playing for a $25 gift certificate to the Belle Monte Restaurant at Sherwood Hills!

In addition to local, state and national questions, there will be Simpsons trivia thrown into the mix!  Check out the Simpsons pages at Wikipedia for a head start. that’s wherre all the questions will come from!   We’ll start the Quiz tonight at about 5:30 PM!

The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) is a Bozeman-based think tank that studies free market solutions to environmental problems. I attended their week-long student seminar in 2005. It was a good time.

Anyway, PERC has come out with an article discussing eight recycling myths. Among them:

• OUR GARBAGE WILL BURY US – We are not running out of landfill space.

• WE SQUANDER IRREPLACEABLE RESOURCES WHEN WE DON’T RECYCLE – Available stocks of most natural resources are growing, not shrinking.

• RECYCLING ALWAYS PROTECTS THE ENVIRONMENT – Curbside recycling burns extra fuel, because more trucks are required.

• WITHOUT FORCED RECYCLING MANDATES, THERE WOULDN’T BE RECYCLING.

Check out the whole list.

Via Instapundit.

Craig

Tonight ON KVNU’s For the People…

Cache County Republican Party Chairman David Butterfield will join us live to discuss the process of finding a replacement for Scott Wyatt in House District 5. We’ll also hear who has thrown their hats into the ring- you might be surprised at the list.

Peter Brunson had a scathing letter in today’s Herald Journal targeted at the three indumbents on the Logan City Council. We’ll offer analysis of the race so far, what it really takes to win in Logan and how the challengers stack up against the incumbents. Is it fair to judge the incumbents on three or four really hot issues?

Rubber necks and lookie loos at the fire in Hyrum. You know who you are! We all do it, but how can it be justified?

Elizabeth Edwards says Hillary isn’t woman enough for the Presidency, but John Edwards is?

All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!

July 26, 2007

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

LOGAN— Chairman David Butterfield of the Cache County Republican Party announced a special caucus meeting will be held to replace Rep. Scott Wyatt, District 5, on Friday, September 7, 2007 at Spring Creek Middle School in Providence at 6:30 p.m.

Utah state law and GOP rules require Republican County Delegates in District 5 to select a nominee to present to Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. who will officially make the appointment.  The replacement will serve the remainder of Rep. Wyatt’s term which ends in January, 2009.

Interested candidates must be registered republicans, 25 years old, and a resident of Utah for three consecutive years immediately before the last date of filing for the office and a resident of District 5 for six months.

Individuals who have interest in being a candidate must file a letter of candidacy with Cache County GOP Chairman David Butterfield in writing by August 31^st at 5 p.m.

Letters of intent can be received by email at: dgb1533@aol.com or through post mail at:

David Butterfield

PO Box 43

Logan UT 84323-0043

Home: 435-750-5023

# # #

Contact:

David Butterfield

Cache County Republican Chairman

Evening: 435-750-5023

Day: 435-713-1808

david@usuccu.org

dgb1533@aol.com

Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…

Cache County Fire Chief Gary Roberts gives an update of the Nibley/Hyrum fire as well as a new fire on Ant Flat Road up Blacksmith Fork Canyon.

Freedom for 8 nurses and 1 doctor that had been condemned to death by libya, should their freedom have been purchased?

There is talk of raising the fuel tax in Utah.  Would you be willing to pay $.025 more per gallon to fund roads?   What about congestion pricing or paying a tax per mile?

We’ll talk with Stephen Kroes of the Utah Foundation

All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!

Two stalwart conservatives of the Utah Bloghive, Rep. Steve Urquhart and Frank Staheli are apparently developing quite a man crush on Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.    While I don’t expect Rep. U and Frank to come out with a YouTube tribute anytime soon, I did find their takes on Obama’s debate performance and book quite interesting:

Rep U:

Either Barack Obama is making sense or I’m developing a man crush on him. Believe me, I’m really scrambling for a third option.

Asked about nuclear power at the YouTube/CNN debate, Obama gave the grown-up response, Edwards gave the pandering simpleton response, and Clinton gave the all-politics-all-the-time-I-didn’t-inhale response.

Though Sen. Obama is too leftist for me, I do greatly appreciate that he is actually willing to tell the people where he stands. Like it or not. Those who criticize Obama for a lack of experience often just show an inside-the-beltway arrogance. As an Illinois Legislator, Obama did what other legislators do across the country – balanced budgets every year and put together comprehensive solutions to difficult problems. He comes from a political setting where people demand results and can actually reach the officeholder. Can Edwards, Clinton, McCain, Thompson, and the other D.C.-insiders say the same?

Frank Staheli:

To be sure, me and Barack Obama disagree on a lot of things. But I was surprised how many times I found myself agreeing with him as I read his new book, The Audacity of Hope. You might be surprised what his political beliefs are. I was.

Almost shockingly to me (after recently accusing Barack Obama of dogpiling on whites at a debate a Howard University; I now suspect the statement I made about him was wrong) there are a plethora of things that I put an “A*” in the margin of my copy of The Audacity of Hope (meaning that I agree substantially with the associated statement in the book). I list here several of those issues that I’ll admit I thought were the exclusive domain of conservatism.

I’m not making any firm commitments, but I might have to read Obama’s book now.