Tag Archives: Utah

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. This year’s theme is “Paint the Town Red”.
Here is a list of events happening around the Salt Lake Valley today:

  • Art exchibition and ocumentaries in memory of DeWayne Sessions, a
    renowned artist and AIDS victim.
    Continue reading
  • Cottonwood Mobile Home Residents Story – continued

    I’ve been following the saga of Cottonwood Heights Mobile Home Residents facing eviction from their homes due to development of the land on which their homes sit.

    KUER Radio’s site has this piece from September that I imagine is still relevant (for donations)to help displaced residents with the costs of having to move:
    Mobile Home Owners Move to Make Way for Development

    COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, UT (2006-09-18) Children, the elderly, and the working poor – all residents of the 50-year-old Meadows Mobile Home Estates in Cottonwood Heights are faced with moving out of their mobile homes to make way for a new upscale development. But most of the families don’t have the money to move.
    Tax deductible donations to the Meadows Relocation Fund can be made to the Community Action Program in Salt Lake City or deposits can be made at any JP Morgan Chase Bank in the Meadows Relocation Fund account.

    Salt Lake Community Action Program
    764 S 200 West Salt Lake City, Ut 84101 (801)359-2444 (801)355-1798 (f)

    Protesting the Center Formerly Known as “Delta”

    People unhappy with the new name for the Delta Center, home of Utah’s Jazz Basketball Team, gathered in front of the building tonight to protest the recent name change. “Energy Solutions Arena” is the new name of the facility. Many Utahns are unhappy with a Utah icon being named after a nuclear waste facility.

    Is this what Utah really wants to be known for?

    HEAL Utah organized tonight’s event. Durign the press conference, a boycott was been called against all enterprises of Larry H. Miller, Jazz owner and supposed pillar of the community.

    Here is a list of Miller’s holdings: Continue reading

    “Energy Solutions Arena”

    The Delta Center has a new name: Energy Solutions Arena.
    EnergySolutions Arena — Former Envirocare provides new name for Delta Center
    Arena’s new name a winner, Miller says:Critics have no shortage of nicknames

    This came to my desk from HEAL Utah:

    EnergySolutions is no longer just an eyesore in the West Desert. As of this afternoon, the sports arena you’ve known for 15 years as the Delta Center will be known as the “EnergySolutions Arena.”

    Now every time you take your kids to a Jazz game, see a concert, or simply drive through downtown Salt Lake, you can be reminded that your state is home to the largest commercial nuclear waste dump in the nation. Dan Patrick on ESPN sports radio is already calling the renamed arena “The Dump.”

    In its latest attempt at rebranding, EnergySolutions has branded Utah, for the world to see, as the nation’s nuclear waste dump.

    EnergySolutions can spend how it wants the untold millions it makes off dumping the nation’s unwanted waste in Utah, but this is a slap in the face to Utahns who are uneasy about their state being known as the nation’s dumping ground. And Larry Miller, who admitted he was in “nuclear kindergarten” before being educated by EnergySolutions, could certainly have sold out to a company with a better image for the state of Utah.

    But don’t be uneasy, Larry Miller says, because his company and EnergySolutions share a lot of the same ideals. And EnergySolutions’ president Steve Creamer is only looking forward to the day when his company’s name is on the lips of every fourth grader in Utah. Continue reading

    Poll Says Utahns Favor War as Priority

    This is scary……

    Deseret Morning News

          A majority of Utahns say the war in Iraq should be the top priority for President Bush and Congress, according to a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll.
         

    Sixty-three percent of 416 residents in the statewide poll ranked the war in Iraq as a “very high priority,” pushing it ahead of four other issues, including the economy, Social Security, health care and immigration reform.
          The poll, which has a margin of error of 5 percent, asked respondents to rank the five issues on a 1-5 scale, with 1 meaning a very low priority and 5 being a very high priority for Bush to pursue.
          While Social Security had the lowest percentage of respondents ranking it as very high priority — 35 percent — it squeezed past immigration reform in overall importance. Immigration reform’s overall ranking dipped slightly because of the higher number of respondents — 7 percent — who ranked it as a very low priority.
          Economy and health-care reform ranked slightly higher on the priority list, with 40 percent of respondents listing health care as a very high priority and 37 percent ranking the economy very high.
          Only 4 percent of respondents gave the war in Iraq a very low priority.

    Photo
    Deseret Morning News graphic

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    Here we go again……

    Looks like its time to revive the “Beavers and Buttars” comic:

    Duo take aim at gay-straight alliances

    By Jennifer Toomer-Cook
    Deseret Morning News

          At least one bill targeting gay-straight alliances in Utah public schools is expected to reappear in the 2007 Legislature.

    Image

    Chris Buttars
    Image

    Aaron Tilton

          Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, who carried a bill last year, says another clubs bill will appear and, from his perspective, be “pretty much the same.”
          Meanwhile, Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, also says he’s working on a bill that would be similar to the legislation he carried last year.
          It was not immediately clear whether the two would work together.
          “There will be a bill run,” Tilton said. “It’s likely I will be the House sponsor.”
          Utah Pride Center executive director Valerie Larabee says the bills attack gay students but also could open a dialogue about the difficulties gay students may face in Utah public schools.
          “Teachers, administrators and counselors are dealing with a lot of different youth,” Larabee said. “In my view, there is a lack of understanding about the different populations they serve. Because of that, the school environment is not safe for many youths.”
          Tilton’s bill last year sought to warn parents that certain clubs could, if state law is violated, expose students to concepts including homosexual, heterosexual, transgender and transsexual themes, adult sexual molestation and abuse. A House committee debate centered on gay-straight alliances, of which there were believed to be 14 in Utah public schools.
          Buttars’ bill had attempted to let school boards deny club status to gay-straight alliances or others to “protect the physical, emotional, psychological or moral well-being of students and faculty” and other provisions.
          The clubs issue is touchy in Utah. In the mid-1990s, Salt Lake City School District banned all student clubs after a petition to form a gay-straight alliance at East High. It went through a federal lawsuit and ended up reinstating clubs before the dust settled years later.
          Federal law requires school boards to allow gay-straight alliances if they’re going to open the doors to other non-curriculum clubs.


    E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com

    Whose Land Is It? Update

    Earlier this week I wrote a post on a southern Utah family facing eviction from their land that the BLM claimed it “owned”.

    Today’s Salt Lake Tribune reports that the motion for eviction has been stayed.

    Months after filing a request in U.S. District Court that law enforcement officials remove structures off the 2.5 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Salt Lake City on Thursday filed a motion to stay the order. The stay was prompted by news that a new owner has acquired the mobile home inadvertently placed on the property in 1976.
    “The new owner has expressed an interest in settling this matter amicably that would not require the execution of a writ of assistance,” reads the motion.

    Transgender Awareness

    I am surprised and pleased to see these articles in this week’s local news on Transgender inviduals in Utah here and here. The articles chronicle the live of transgender citizens and provide awareness of transgender issues.

    November is Transgender Awareness month and the articles give a timeline of events:

    There are several scheduled events in celebration of Transgender Awareness Month. For information, go to http://www.glccu.com or call Jennifer Nuttall at 539-8800 ext. 13.
    All the following events are free:
    SATURDAY
    Building Trans Communities: A Day with Jamison Green
    Where: City and County Building, 451 S. State St., Room 315
    What to expect: Green is an internationally known author, educator and transgender activist. He will lead three sessions about empowering transgender communities. Refreshments will be provided.
    10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: “Connecting across Divides”
    2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.: “Effective Leadership”
    7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: “Becoming Visible!”: Green reads from his award-winning book “Becoming a Visible Man,” followed by a question and answer session.
    RSVP: E-mail teaofutahevents@yahoo.com

    MONDAY
    National Day of Remembrance & TEA Party
    Where: Utah Pride Center, 361 N. 300 West
    When: 7 p.m.
    What to expect: A candlelight vigil to honor late transgender individuals and gathering to celebrate those still living

    TUESDAY
    Movie and Popcorn
    Where: Utah Pride Center, 361 N. 300 West
    When: 7 p.m.
    What to expect: Films about transgender issues

    WEDNESDAY
    Where: Salt Lake Main Library Downtown, 210 E. 400 South
    When: 7 p.m.
    What to expect: Showings of “Home Is Where the Heart Is” and “Transamerica”

    Divine Strake – Back to the Nevada Test Site

    I participated in a conference call today with the Stop the Divine Strake Coalition today. The Coalition is strategizing a variety of actions to implement.

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: CHRIS GALLEGOS
    NOVEMBER 15, 2006
    (202) 224-7082

    DOMENICI: PENTAGON TO FOREGO
    ³DIVINE STRAKE² TESTS AT WSMR

    WASHINGTON ­ U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, today reported that the Defense Department has decided that it will not conduct conventional Divine Strake
    ³bunker busting² tests at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico.

    Domenici was informed of the decision today by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Pentagon organization that was considering the possibility of moving Divine Strake testing to New Mexico because of opposition to the testing in Nevada. DTRA indicated to Domenici that the testing will remain at the Nevada Test Site and not be moved elsewhere.

    ³I believe the Pentagon has made a good decision. While I look forward to full utilization of our assets at WSMR, I understand that keeping these tests in Nevada is the best choice from a technical perspective,² Domenici said.

    ³Moving the test to White Sands would have taken years and delayed development of an ability to predict damage to deeply buried targets like tunnels and bunker busters. Both are increasingly being used by our potential adversaries,² he continued.

    DTRA prefers the NTS, a DOE National Nuclear Security Administration facility, for Divine Strake testing. NTS has been used for many low-yield tunnel characterization tests and is already in the process
    of updating an environmental assessment related to possible high-yield Divine Strake tests. Divine Strake testing could occur in FY2007.

    Choosing WSMR would have required a full environmental impact statement which could have taken several years.

    Domenici supported a $1.95 million appropriation in the FY2007 Defense Appropriations Act to develop a non-nuclear, deep-penetrating munition. As chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, Domenici elected to allow the Defense Department to focus on conventional bunker busting weapons and discontinue funding for the NNSA-led Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) project.

    CANCEL THE DIVINE STRAKE! STOP WEAPONS TESTING ON ANY LAND! END NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION!

    2007 Utah Legislative Session

    2007 Utah Legislature News
    2007 General Session (January 15 – March 1)

    News Articles and Blog Posts

    April
    May

    2007 Utah Legislative Session

    2007 General Session Bill Documents Lists
    By number
    By sponsor, subject, or committee (Search Page)
    Passed Bills

    Calendars and Schedules
    Significant Dates
    Floor Calendars
    Weekly Schedules

    Etc.
    League of Women Voters of Utah
    House and Senate Journals
    Key Issues
    Equality Utah

    Links to daily newspaper Articles, after Session
    (in order of most recent)