Slow to React
Did anyone even know that Utah was preparing a lawsuit on opioid abuse? KSTU Channel 13 did. They reported the Legislature passed a resolution calling for the suit after House Speaker Greg Hughes criticized the attorney general for being slow to file one. Poor Sean Reyes. He says he's just trying to save money—and negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies. After all, Utah needs expensive outside counsel on this one. And everyone knows Big Pharma will negotiate in good faith. Sarcasm aside, there is a place for opioids, particularly since medical marijuana is only available if you're dying—and soon. Summit County, The Salt Lake Tribune said, sued 25 companies and individuals because they didn't note the inherent dangers. A couple of letters to the editor, however, pleaded for caution as two physicians fell into the net, and some patients might lose a necessary tool for pain control.
Charming Development
Two names that elicit anxiety in neighborhood communities: Woodbury Corp. and Ivory Homes. That's because they're the big guns in the commercial development industry, building monolithic big-box tracts that subsume local identities. To their credit—and perhaps the activism of neighbors—the long-stalled Cottonwood Mall development is taking a new tack. Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Salt Lake, posted "A New Plan with Enduring Quality" on her Facebook page after a public outcry threatened to halt any development. Reduced building heights, more open space and homes on tree-lined streets are some of their additions. They promise to "maintain Holladay's unique feel and charm." It's not an easy promise to keep, but given that the 57 acres sat vacant for a decade, it's a promise worth exploring.
A March for What?
Think about it: "The March Before Our Lives." What Second Amendment mastermind thought up this one? Before our lives end? Maybe it was a cry for the unborn—or before that, since Right-to-Lifers seem to think that any ol' zygote is "life." The 1,000 gun rights marchers were determined to show up those liberal March For Our Lives wimps. The NRA mocked the "gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites [who] are manipulating and exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second Amendment." That begs the question of why the Salt Lake gun-rights cabal put a little girl carrying a sign "Criminals love gun control" in a truck with a mounted assault weapon. The Deseret News might have been trying to make everyone feel better with a story, "School shootings 'not a raging epidemic,' expert says." That, of course, misses the point.
