Gun Shy, Pleading the Fourth, Cleaning Up | Hits & Misses | Salt Lake City Weekly
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Gun Shy, Pleading the Fourth, Cleaning Up

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Gun Shy

Thank you, KSL, for reviewing whether to allow gun listings in your classified section on KSL.com. No, KSL isn’t anti-Second Amendment; it’s just good stewardship. Law enforcement agencies are concerned that gun transactions done there might skirt the ever-changing state or federal laws. Especially in Utah, gun laws seem to change every year. And, according to the Deseret News, Utah’s freewheeling gun laws attract attention from throughout the nation. Some three-fourths of the applications for concealed weapons permits came from out of state. One Grantsville seller on KSL.com advertising a Ruger M77 7MM Rem Mag and Tasco 6x24 Mag IV scope says, “Bunnies to Elk you will love this gun.” Priced at $525, it didn’t sell. But even if KSL.com thinks better of gun sales, there’s still eBay.

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Pleading the Fourth

We know you’re getting weary of the open-records debate, even after the now-infamous HB477 was repealed. But it’s worth mentioning that lawmakers are hanging on to their “reasons “ to close off their communications from the public. Take the Fourth Amendment, for example—the one that guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. Sen. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, brought this up, maybe thinking that legislators’ e-mails and text messages would be seized illegally. Senate President Michael Waddoups was right with him. Maybe they forgot that these communications are to, and from, representatives of government.

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Cleaning Up

The Geneva Steel Mill property has had its ups and downs, much of it during the ownership of the Cannon brothers—Chris and Joe. Besides the mill being run into the ground economically, a lot of other bad stuff got run into the ground. The site required some $42 million for environmental cleanup. Now everything’s rosy because of a great and wonderful $900 million planned makeover—residential, office, industrial. The only problem is funding. Somehow, taxing entities approved the site as a redevelopment project so Anderson Development could move ahead. That means the Alpine School District will forgo tax-increment funding for many years. The Utah Taxpayers Association has railed against the plan, and the school district was perplexed about why their representative voted for it. Now we can look forward to the highest-priced RDA in Utah history, according to the taxpayer association.