Thoughts and Prayers
Everyone breathing air in the Salt Lake Valley can be hopeful that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reads and heeds The Salt Lake Tribune. Yes, the LDS Church is the church whose major effort once was rebranding itself as not-the-Mormons, so you might wonder if saving the Great Salt Lake would pass muster. Still, the Tribune made a forceful case for the church overlords to offer something more than prayer as the lake fades into toxic dust. The Trib points out that the church has a lot to lose—and not just its history. While the church doesn't like to talk much about its land holdings, it has to be considered a big player. It owns a lot in the GSL watershed, but what's under the earth is more important. The Trib found that the church has water rights to at least 75,000 acre feet of water. While the article delved too much on LDS scripture, it made a point that there are many good reasons to both conserve and take action. We'll see if our LDS governor can make the case with his church.
Controlling the Courts
What is it they say about absolute power? Now that the Legislature has it, it appears they want more, and Draper Republican Sen. Kirk Cullimore is like a kid in a candy shop—he just can't wait to get his hands on the ring called "my precious." The Trib's Robert Gehrke wrote about how Cullimore is "proposing a sweeping restructuring of the Utah court system, stripping away long-standing guardrails intended to ensure the courts' independence and partisan neutrality." Cullimore and other pissy lawmakers are upset that they're getting sued by the public and that the courts sometimes don't let them get away with their schemes. Judicial applicants are already appointed by the governor after they've been vetted by a bipartisan nominating commission. Cullimore doesn't want any of those socialist lawyers moving into judgeships, although he says he just wants to give the governor more discretion. Yeah, we all buy that, don't we?
Baby on Board
What could possibly go wrong? You're pregnant and using the carpool lane and get pulled over by a cop. Simple—you just produce documentation that you are indeed pregnant even if the fetus isn't yet showing. Not unlike the rape-friendly abortion law, you just have to make sure you have all the documents with you, all the time, and for anyone who might ask. The Legislature is on a crash course in fetal law, telling a woman she has to not only prove she's been raped for getting an abortion, but also that the embryo inside her is a person with rights and privileges—you know, the ones we don't give kids later in life if they're trans or maybe want to read about Black history. HB256, Carpool Lane Usage Modifications, allows a pregnant woman to use the HOV lane, but with conditions. The best argument against the bill said that a fetus doesn't reduce emissions, which is the point of having more than one person use an HOV lane.
