Not surprisingly, I didn’t see anything in the two largest Utah papers about Marshall Thompson’s first day on the road in his 500 mile walk across Utah which began yesterday.
There were some news items about it in other news sources, however:
Marshall has a journal on his website that I anticipate will be updated soon.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged anti-war, iraq, military industrial complex, politics, Utah
Last week I wrote a post on Utah’s 4th House Seat possibility. (Thanks to coltakashi for the comment on that post.)
The discussion continues today in the Deseret News,4th seat faces lots of hurdles.
Continue reading
Today I submitted my candidate’s bio and statement to the Valley Journals. Here is what I submitted. I was limited to 150 words:
Deanna “Dee” L. Taylor (47)is a first time candidate, running for Salt Lake
County Council in District 5.
Deanna is a member and Co-Coordinator of the Desert Greens Green Party of
Utah. She is an Alternate Delegate to the Green Party of the United States.
Deanna has been a public school educator for 23 years, holding degrees in
Music Education and Curriculum and Instruction and teaching licenses in
Secondary Music and Special Education. She currently teaches grades 7-12 in a
Salt Lake City public charter school.
Deanna also participates with People for Peace and Justice of Utah as an
advocate for peace and justice issues.
Deanna sees transportation as one of the biggest issues facing our community.
She feels that revenues need to be used to build more bus routes and TRAX
lines so that constituents feel more compelled to use mass transit more and
cars less.
Today I was a guest speaker for an undergraduate education class at the University of Utah. I was on a panel with two other women. The topic: Being a parent of a disabled child.
It was not easy for me or my two colleagues to talk about our children’s disabilities. We all became emotional as we recounted our children’s bouts with their disabilities. But we did it. We did it because we care. We did it because we want these prospective teachers to look at children as humans first and disabled second. I spoke as a person of a child (now grown) who suffers from the symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome, ADHD, Obsessive-Compulsive and Panic (Anxiety) Disorders. The other two panelists spoke as parents of children who have Dysgraphia/Dyslexia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. We all spoke of the impact on our children, our families and ourselves as women and mothers.
A recurring theme I heard was that by the time kids hit jr. high and high school, the system stops caring. What is wrong with this picture? Our schools are too big. Our class sizes are too big. There is not enough money in this state to adequately educate our children. Our teachers are taxed. That is what is wrong.
This needs to be repaired.
In today’s Salt Lake Tribune, the article Transit plan sends TRAX to the back:
Salt Lake County voters’ OK of a sales tax hike would aid Utah County commuter rail readers are being told that TRAX lines in the works (for years now) may again be delayed.
….only Salt Lake County is asking voters to approve a measure the Legislature passed in a special session Sept. 19.
If the county’s voters approve, the vote will raise sales taxes by a quarter-cent, bringing the portion dedicated to transit to three-quarters of a cent. But a good portion of the increase will be dedicated to linking Utah County commuter rail with the rest of the Wasatch Front. As a result, some of the new planned TRAX lines might have to wait.
That’s because Utah County has for six years declined to tax itself for commuter rail. Now, for the system to be complete, Salt Lake County needs to build its section, too. Those in Salt Lake County who question the fairness of the situation ought to just look at the county as a progressive leader working toward a needed regional mass-transit system, said County Councilman Joe Hatch.
Read the rest of the article to find out how SL County Council members fared in this discussion.
As a voter and user of mass transportation, and as one who voted to implement new rail lines in SL County, I am becoming tired of this game.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged development, environment, mass transportation, politics, Utah
Earlier this month I wrote a post on the Proposal to the GPUS by California and Texas to “objectively” investigate the 2004 debacle in Utah’s Green Party. The proposal was far from objective or impartial, with an erroneous background (setting the tone for the proposal) and with the portion that would form a “settlement” committee, in part made up of representatives from the two Utah groups.
The proposal failed. Voting ended last night.
It was tough because the other Utah group lobbied heavily to all the delegates. I received copies of emails from delegates from other states to that effect. The emails contained false information. Luckily, some of those recipients of the emails were smart enough to call me and others to find out for themselves the facts.
While Texas will likely generate another proposal (again) to conduct an independent investigation (without the formation of an internal settelement committee), I hope the GPUS can now continue to work on real issues and not continue to generate proposals that interfere in the affairs of state parties and stall the important work at the national level.
Today’s Deseret News has a piece on Candidates Spending.
Sometimes candidates do unusual things with the hard-earned donations that they often say are needed desperately to get out their message.
That includes paying for the candidate’s cable TV at home.
Or for hiring the candidate’s relatives.
Or paying to fix the candidate’s car.
Or buying gifts. Or a lot of food.
Or even for giving large chunks of money away to others.
Utah candidates for Congress have done all of that and more this election cycle, according to disclosure forms. Such spending comes as some candidates try to economize even by declaring that paid workers are contractors to avoid payroll taxes.
You can see financial disclosures at these sites:
Electronic voting increases demand for poll volunteers
Due to the demands of new electronic voting equipment and a heavy expected turnout for November’s general election, Salt Lake County is recruiting volunteer poll workers for Election Day. County Clerk Sherrie Swensen, dubbing the effort the Partners in Democracy program, is calling on businesses and corporations to allow their employees to spend Nov. 7 helping shepherd voters through the new process.
Swensen wants 1,000 additional volunteers to staff voting locations on Election Day.
Anyone wishing to serve as a poll worker must be a registered voter in Salt Lake County. Training sessions will be required during a three-week stint at various spots across the county.
Volunteers may have totake vacation time to work Election Day, but workers will be eligible for stipends ranging between $120 and $220, depending on the position.
There is talk of Utah getting a 4th House Seat due to a potential redistricting plan. If this happens a new election would take place in 2007 and everyone would have to run again.
But I don’t think Utah should get that seat.
I’d like to see Washington D.C. residents get priority for representation first. That’s right. Citizens of D.C. are not represented. They have no senators, no representatives.
Give them representaion first, then we’ll talk 4 seats in Utah.
According to an article in today’s Salt Lake Tribune, more and more children in the U.S. are uninsured. The Deseret News, in its article today on the same issue, has a chart on the statistics.
More than half of America’s 9 million uninsured children live in two-parent families, a new analysis of 2005 U.S. census data show. And in most of these two-parent families, both parents work. In Utah, a whopping 91 percent of an estimated 88,458 uninsured kids have at least one working parent.
Low-income families – those with incomes at twice the federal poverty level, or up to $33,200 for a family of three – are still most at risk. In Utah, 65 percent of uninsured kids fall in this category, the report shows. But “increasingly, this is a problem for the middle-class,” said Judi Hilman, executive director of the Utah Health Policy Project.
The Governor of Utah is proposing a mandate that all children in Utah have health insurance.
Under the plan, parents would be required to enroll their kids in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) if they qualify. This would take a big bite out of Utah’s uninsured, at least 52,000 youth.
But mandated coverage won’t work for everyone until private insurers offer affordable plans for middle-income families, says Hilman. “How can you mandate something that’s not affordable?”
My point exactly. Having been in uninsured situations before (with small children) I can attest first hand at how discriminatory and sometimes unattainable our current system is with regards to health care. Families either go without insurance or go in debt if health care is needed.
What’s wrong with this picture? Health care is a basic need. As are food, water, and education. When these needs are not provided or made unattainable a dominoe effect occurs. Lack of health care and food affect young people’s ability to concentrate in school. And we know what happens then (see my article below on No Child Left Behind and Utah’s schools). The “greatest country on earth” is failing to provide these basic human needs to a siginicantly large portion of our population.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 