Tag Archives: Utah

Early Voting in Salt Lake County – June Primaries

Posted on June 10, 2006 | Leave a comment

The Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office provides voters the option of voting prior to Election Day at an Early Voting Location. Voters do not need an excuse to utilize this convenient voting method. Registered voters may visit an Early Voting Location and cast a ballot in person using a touch screen voting device.

Early voting aims to maximize the opportunity to vote by allowing the County Clerk to designate Early Voting Locations and hours beginning 14 days before Election Day, ending the Friday before Election Day. In order to be eligible to participate in Early Voting, voters must be registered to vote at least
30 days prior to the election and provide photo identification.

Salt Lake County Government Center – 2001 South State Street, Suite #S1100
* June 13 – June 16 (8:00 am – 5:00 pm)
* June 19 – June 23 (8:00 am – 5:00 pm)

South Jordan Library – 10673 South Redwood Road (1700 West)
* June 13, 14, 15 (3:00 pm – 7:00 pm)

Hunter Library – 4740 West 4100 South
* June 16 (1:30 pm – 5:30 pm)
* June 19, 20 (3:00 pm – 7:00 pm)

Whitmore Library – 2197 Fort Union Boulevard
* June 21, 22 (3:00 pm – 7:00 pm)
* June 23 (1:00 pm – 5:00 pm)

More info: Salt Lake County Clerk’s office

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

I was on Midday Metro Today

Posted on June 8, 2006 | Leave a comment

I was on Midday Metro today on the show that Rocky Anderson, Salt Lake City Mayor, hosted. I represented the Desert Greens Green Party of Utah and other guests represented other parties in Utah. I appear about halfway through the program.

Tom was supposed to be in the studio today but he got the same bug I did and with all of our household being ill it totally threw our schedule off and we both completely forgot about it. So I ended up calling in.

I was overwhelmed by the fact that I was the only woman on the program and had a hard time expressing myself without being interrupted, with all due respect to the other guests. Therefore I wrote to the staff member at KCPW who handles that program to suggest a woman’s form of female candidates and politicians and she loved it and will start working on it!

Here is a link to the audio file from today’s program with me appearting halfway through:

Midday Metro June 8.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged ,

Money supercedes human needs -AGAIN

Posted on June 8, 2006 | Leave a comment

Senior Citizens are being evicted from their homes of more than 50 years, according to a Deseret News article today.

Residents of a well established mobile home park in Cottonwood Heights, most of whom are elderly and low/fixed income and who had planned on living out their lives in the park, are being forced to move as a result of the sale of land upon which their homes sit. Many of the residents will be unable to move their mobile homes because of the aged style of the structures.

The developers who purchased the land plan to build more luxury homes (Cottonwood Heights is an area for million dollar homes)and 150 trailers will have to be moved or destroyed.

For those with newer mobile homes who can move to another park, the cost to relocate is anywhere from $7,000 to $12,000. The incoming developer has offered to offset some of those costs, but “it’s not going to be painless,” Cullimore[Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore Jr.] said. “And there’s going to be some human costs as this unfolds.”

There is talk of hiring lawyers to fight this.
Some residents want to hire attorneys to fight the landowners and developers. Shearrer[one of the long time residents] said she feels helpless: “How can you fight people with money? You just can’t.”

The Salt Lake Community Action Program is stepping in the help the displaced residents, but this scenario is very disruptive to these peoples’ lives.

“These people that are truly, truly in need, and how do they survive?” Martinez[Salt Lake Community Action Program’s Virginia Marrufo Martinez ] said. “I always say I believe in miracles. So, we’ll see what happens.”

The mayor is portrayed in the article as having empathy and compassion for these folks and is quoted as stating that the land owners “had the right” to sell their property. That may be but where has the mayor and its council been? Can’t they re-zone the land? It’s not too late.

This is yet another case where money and greed is superceding human needs. With our aging population increasing significantly, we just cannot allow these things to happen. Goliath must be confronted by the Daveys here and fight for what is right. Kicking seniors out of their homes just isn’t right.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

Surprise, surprise – marriage amendment issue creates diversion

Posted on June 8, 2006 | Leave a comment

As stated by many and understood by few the recent marriage amendment issue created a diversion away from the really important issues, like the Iraq War, wire-tapping, and human needs issues.

The Salt Lake Tribune today reports that Republicans may have accomplished their political goal: energizing their base in a tough election year.
Paired with debate scheduled next week on prohibiting desecration of the flag, the two proposed constitutional amendments could change the subject – at least temporarily – as many members of Congress face voters after a spate of Washington scandals. Republicans, fearing a Democratic takeover of one or both houses, brought up the marriage amendment to stoke their base, observers say.

The Senate voted yesterday on whether or not to take the marriage amendment to a vote. It failed. Senator Orrin Hatch insists that Americans demand that there be a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Proponents had said they had four more votes for ending debate than they did in 2004, but only picked up one. Forty-eight senators voted to continue debate.
Hatch said in a statement that the Senate will again bring up the issue “because the American people demand it.”
“For millions of people in Utah and throughout country, no issue is more important than this one,” said Hatch, who co-sponsored the proposed amendment. “As we see it, marriage and family life are the bedrock of American society.”
But he added, “We aren’t going to fall back and cry about today’s vote.”

There you go. “no issue is as important as this one”. That’s the diversion folks. Yup. There’s no more important issues to our world and our health and our lives than who and what defines marriage. Not even hunger issues or survival issues for the elderly, or health care issues.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Breaking News: Marriage Amendment Defeated

Posted on June 7, 2006 | Leave a comment

This just in fromt he GLBT Center in Utah:

Massive campaign by right wing fails to move single senator, GLBT community’s phone calls and letters made a difference.

By a vote of 49 to 48, the U.S. Senate today rejected an effort to end debate and proceed to a vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage federally and for every state as only between a man and a woman. Sixty votes were required to proceed, and 67 votes would have been required on a vote on the merits. Two years ago, a similar amendment failed at the same stage by a vote of 48 to 50. No senator who voted against a similar cloture motion in 2004 changed his or her vote today. (The other tally difference is explained being due to new senators elected in 2004 and other absences.) While Republicans gained four seats in 2004, the number of pro-amendment votes went up by only one today.
For further information, visit our partner, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

BUT IT’S NOT OVER!
Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Utah’s Hunger Problem

Posted on June 7, 2006 | Leave a comment

I’ve made posts here in the past year about Utah’s human needs issues and how our tax dollars are spent on those. While the U.S. government is spending tax dollars on building apartheid walls, illegally occupying other countries,confiscating people’s phone records in the name of national security and arguing over the definition of marriage, people in America, the United States of America, are suffering from poverty-stricken conditions and are going hungry.

Yesterday was the 5th National Hunger Awareness Day, a grassroots movement to raise awareness about the solvable problem of hunger in America. According to the National Hunger Awareness Day website, 38 million Americans aren’t even sure where they will get their next meal.

There is an article in today’s Deseret News about a creative display at the Gallivan Center, in conjunction with National Hunger Awareness Day, that portrayed the number of hungry people in Utah:


Michael Brandy, Deseret Morning News
Jeff Golden of the Food Development Office sets up 218 plates at the Gallivan Center during the rally for National Hunger Awareness Day.

The 218 empty dinner plates standing on the Gallivan Center lawn each represented 1,000 Utahns who live at or below the federal poverty level, joining more than 38 million people — including 14 million children — living in poverty across the country.

Gina Cornia of Utahns Against Hunger pointed out that there is plenty of food for people but that poverty creates condidtions whereby people do not have access to food.

Utah has the fifth highest rate of food insecurity in the nation and the 10th highest hunger rate.

Local organizations and activists are encouraging people to up their donations to local food banks this summer. Summer is a time when donations drop off and the demand for emergency food supplies increase.

As a person who has been represented by one of those plates above at various times in life with small children, I can speak from personal experience to this issue.

Please donate to your local food bank. Your neighbors may be depending on it.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Hatch calls marriage issue “critical”

Posted on June 7, 2006 | 2 comments

Proposed amendment to define marriage

The resolution is S.J. Res. 1 ”Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”

Today is the day that U.S. Senators are expected to vote on ending the debate on the constitutional amendmnent defining marriage or taking it to a vote. U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch is a co-sponsor of the amendment. Both Hatch and Bennett say they are opposed gay marriage.
In today’s Salt Lake Tribune, Hatch is quoted as citing the constitutional amendment as “critical”:

Hatch also is outspoken on the amendment, calling it a “critical issue” for the country.
He took to the Senate floor Tuesday saying that while the Senate may not be able to agree to adopt the change, Americans have already “arrived at consensus” to ban gay marriages. He bashed “renegade judges” that have allowed such unions.

I concur with Senator Harry Reid’s (Nevada) comments:

“It is clear the reason for this debate is to divide our society, to pit one against another,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said this week on the Senate floor. “This is another one of the president’s efforts to frighten, to distort, to distract, and to confuse America.” Reid said it was a distraction from real issues of high gas prices, the war in Iraq and the national debt.

(However, it is important, and perhaps even puzzling, to note that Reid did vote for a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in his state but is against amending the U.S. Constitution.)

I would like to add to that list, poverty and hunger issues, homelessness, and lack of health care for millions of Americans.

2 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

News on Apartheid Wall: U.S./Mexican Border

Posted on June 7, 2006 | Leave a comment

There is an article in today’s Deseret News on Utahns building the border wall along the U.S./Mexican border in Arizona. The article pretty much glorifies the whole project and soldiers are quoted as “following Bush’s orders”.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

Divine Strake Action featured in Indian Times

Posted on June 6, 2006 | Leave a comment

A photo I took at the Stop the Divine Strake action was featured in Monday’s Indian Country Today.


Photo courtesy Deanna Taylor — Western Shoshone and members of the American Indian Movement of Colorado, Tonatierra and the Indigenous Environmental Network, joined by other supporters, continued their protest of the ”Divine Strake” detonation at the Nevada Test Site over Memorial Day weekend. The detonation has been halted. Some 45 people were arrested after they crossed the boundary onto the test site. The group is calling for a return to the sacred on aboriginal Western Shoshone land at the Nevada Test Site.
Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

Pride 2006 photos

Posted on June 6, 2006 | Leave a comment

Sunday was the annual PRIDE Festival in Salt Lake City. Because I and other folks who normally take photos were involved as participants, we weren’t able to take too many photos, but below are the ones I did take.

I was part of the Peace ‘N’ Diversity Contingent in the parade as a Radical Cheerleader.

There are plenty of good photos at One Utah.

There were articles on PRIDE in Monday’s
Desert News
and Salt Lake Tribune.

Broadcasts and web articles can be found at:
KUER Public Radio.


Tom King carries the giant dove for the Peace ‘N’ Diversity Contingent.
Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,