News Highlights

A national transportation advocate's proposal to replace faltering gas tax revenues with congestion pricing finds support among some Utah lawmakers (Salt Lake Tribune, KCPW, and Deseret News).

The Colorado River Compact becomes a presidential campaign issue as John McCain and Gov. Jon Huntsman, say the law could be reviewed (Tribune).

Quote of the Day

"There is nothing wrong with creativity, except for some reason they don't like it back there. They really don't understand education. The state's creativity will not be rewarded, it will be penalized."

-- Rep. Rob Bishop, telling state legislators that Washington may not like a new proposed student testing plan (Deseret News).

Encounter the Grizz

As you’re sitting in your office, buried in paperwork on a beautiful day, consider this quote:

"Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am -- a reluctant enthusiast.... a part time crusader, a half hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards."

-- Edward Abbey (1927-1989) from an address at a 1987 Earth First! Rally at the Grand Canyon (Thanks to Sandstone Trails)

West Side Priorities

The Western Growth Coalition (WGC) has issued a position paper dealing with highways, tolling, mass transit and the Mountain View Corridor. WGC is a group of concerned citizens, elected and appointed officials, business leaders and others, dedicated to addressing major growth issues on the west side of Salt Lake County. Read the position paper on the WGC website under Public Policy.

Utah Priorities Project

How to Improve Teacher Quality

By Steve Kroes, President, Utah Foundation

Today, Utah Foundation will release a research brief on improving teacher quality in public schools. K-12 education ranked second on the list of top 10 issues for 2008 in our Utah Priorities Project, and this is our second and final report on education for the project.

Teacher quality tied with four other education issues as the top concern about education in our 2008 Utah Priorities Survey. The other four were funding, how students are prepared for college or careers, class size, and teacher pay. This brief explains why teacher quality improvement is such an important issue, how it can be measured, some strategies attempted around the nation for improving teacher quality, and a review of research showing what tactics are most likely or unlikely to work.

The brief concludes that there is some consensus that teaching experience (up to 5 years), subject matter mastery for secondary subjects (particularly science and math), academic ability (teacher scores on achievement tests, quality of undergraduate institution), and well-designed professional development positively impact teacher quality.  Surprisingly, there is little evidence that teaching experience beyond five years and graduate courses, the two determinants of teacher salary schedules, affect student achievement.  The brief will be online by 10 am today.

We also want to be sure you know that we’re having an online Town Hall discussion with Robin Riggs from the Salt Lake Chamber about transportation investment. The Utah Foundation Town Hall is similar to a blog, and you can post comments or questions after reading Robin’s article. Robin will respond to comments through next Monday, Aug. 25.

Economic News Not So Hot

In this week’s Tea Leaf economic update http://www.thredgold.com/html/leaf080820.html Utah economist Jeff Thredgold doesn’t have a lot of good news. On the international front, Thredgold says, “One economic viewpoint voiced frequently during the past 12 to 18 months was that of the ‘global disconnect’…the idea that, perhaps for the first time, a sharp slowing (or likely recession) of the American economy would have little impact upon the global economy.  The idea was that economic growth was strong enough in China and India and Japan and Europe that a slowing U.S. economy was almost irrelevant…whoops…. Today’s reality suggests that economic slowing is indeed occurring around and across the global community…from the U.S. to the U.K. to Asia and to Europe.”

On another economic front, “U.S. inflation data for the month of July can only be described one way…alarming, worrisome, ugly, and disturbing (maybe that was more than one).  The good news is that inflation pressures are close to peaking. Why? The sharp decline in commodity prices, including oil (should it continue), will have a major impact on unwinding inflation pressures later this year and early next year. While August and possibly September inflation data could actually be worse when viewed over a 12-month time horizon, better inflation news is on the way.” See also Deseret News story on Utah’s poor housing market.

Scowcroft to be Hinckley Inductee

Lt. General Brent Scowcroft will be inducted into the Hinckley Institute of Politics Hall of Fame  on Oct. 23, noon, in the Hinckley Caucus Room (OSH 255). Scowcroft served as National Security Advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush and is one of the country's leading experts on international policy. He will be the ninth person to be inducted into Utah’s only political Hall of Fame joining Governors Matheson, Rampton, Bangerter and Walker, Senators Moss, Wallace and Bennett, and Congressmen Hansen and Owens. To read more about the Hinckley Institute of Politics Hall of Fame, click here. 

Dew Tours Energy Sites

Bill Dew, Republican candidate in the 2nd Congressional District, is promoting his energy plan on a tour of the district’s important energy sites.  A press release (not yet posted on the candidate’s web site www.billdew.com) says Dew “promises to fight for ‘all of the above’ energy solutions, including offshore drilling, drilling in ANWR, wind and solar power, and renewable energies.”  Dew will be in Vernal on Friday touring Temple Mountain , the Bonanza Power Plant, and Oil Shale Mines.  Saturday he will tour natural gas fields and the Moon Lake hydro-electric plant in Roosevelt.

“The purpose of the energy tour is to demonstrate the extensive the energy solutions and alternatives available here in Utah , as well as to listen to Utah families who are being hurt by the energy crisis.  They need to know that I can help them, and that my vote will make a difference in their lives,” said Dew.  “I have heard their personal stories.  Gas prices are hitting hard in Utah , and Congress has not responded to them.”  He criticized incumbent Rep. Jim Matheson for voting  “to take a 5 week vacation, as well as to block discussion on multiple energy bills proposed to resolve and lower energy prices. If I was in Congress, I wouldn’t be voting to give myself a vacation when my own constituents can no longer afford theirs.” 

Today in Political History

Aug. 21, 1878:  The American Bar Association is founded in Saratoga, N.Y.

Aug. 21, 1940:  Exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky dies in Mexico City from wounds inflicted by an assassin.

Aug. 21, 1959:  President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union.  (Source:  NY Times) 

Wise Words

“Remember, there is such a thing as good and evil.”

-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Patriot Post) 

Utah Political History

The 1956 Election

A Republican-dominated election through and through, the 1956 campaign in Utah was one of the most colorful in Utah history as three men contended for the position of governor -- George Dewey Clyde, L.C. Romney and J. Bracken Lee. Lee, described by some as the most colorful and controversial public figure in Utah politics since statehood, had served two terms as governor, having been elected on a Republican ticket in 1948 and 1952. He led a field of four candidates at the Republican nominating convention, but in a direct primary runoff, Lee finished second to George Dewey Clyde, an engineer and director of Utah's Water and Power Board, who had come in second at the nominating convention. Despite his earlier statements eschewing a third term, Lee decided to enter the race as an independent, claiming there was no real difference between the Republican Clyde and the Democrat Romney. As an independent, Lee finished a strong third with 94,438 votes (which was 28.3 percent of the vote) to 111,297 for Romney (33.4 percent) and 127,164 (38.2 percent) for Clyde.  (Source:  Utah.edu) 

National Politics

Best Stories From . . .

-- Reuters: "In a sharp turnaround, Republican John McCain has opened a 5-point lead on Democrat Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race and is seen as a stronger manager of the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday."

-- FOX News: Columnist Susan Estrich says of the Reuters/Zogby poll results: "[T]here's certainly reason for Democrats to worry that polls that show this race being too close to call mean that McCain is actually ahead, that he would win if the election were held today. Of course, it's not being held today. That's the problem with these horse race polls. And it's not being held at the end of next week, at the conclusion of the Democratic Convention, or at the end of the following week, at the end of the Republican Convention. It's still two debates, and countless ads and events, away. And the people who will most likely decide it are watching the Olympics right now."

-- Politico: "In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton's staff is creating a 40-member 'whip team' at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don't engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination, according to people familiar with the planning."

-- The Hill: Columnist Dick Morris: "For the first time in memory, the two parties are holding their conventions right after one another. ... How will it work? What will be the impact of these nearly simultaneous events? Nobody really knows, but the answer is critical. Usually, the post-convention polling sets a pattern that lasts at least until the candidates debate."

Blog Watch

At Taking the Initiative, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope reports: "'Churchill's blunder' is how Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. characterizes our dependence and addiction to oil, tracing it back to Winston Churchill's decision before the First World War to convert the British navy to petroleum, thereby making Britain dependent on foreign sources of fuel such as Iran. Huntsman made the analogy at the National Clean Energy Summit convened by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Center for American Progress at the University of Nevada. The overarching message from the Summit was one of boldness and a palpable excitement that we have not one but many pathways to reverse Churchill's mistake and build a clean energy future. ... While bipartisan voices as diverse as Jon Huntsman and Van Jones, T. Boone Pickens and Harry Reid were laying out big ideas for a bright American future at the Clean Energy Summit, America's mainstream media were allowing the issue of how many dry holes we should drill off the Atlantic Coast to dominate the political dialogue. That's exactly where Big Carbon wants the focus, and it's exactly where anyone who's serious knows that the American future cannot lie. And what about Churchill? He at least had a big idea that broke boldly with the past (even if we've clung to it for far too long). We need the same kind of leadership today."

Lighter Side

“Nancy Pelosi threatened to strip Joe Lieberman of his Homeland Security chairmanship if he doesn’t stop criticizing Barack Obama. She’s in the House and he’s in the Senate. The only power Nancy Pelosi has to strip Joe Lieberman is if she decides to moonlight as an airport screener and he comes through her checkpoint.”

—Argus Hamilton (Patriot Post)

Elected Officials Birthday List

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