This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
When Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups completes this life — I hope not for many, many years — his brain ought to be donated for research.
The logic it produces is stunning.
Waddoups was a main force in legislation requiring new restaurants with liquor licenses to build a separate, barricaded bar area where drinks are mixed away from the view of diners.
That has discouraged restaurant chains from opening new establishments in Utah. In fact only two alcohol-serving chains have applied for liquor licenses in Utah since the law went into effect, causing one industry representative to accuse lawmakers of hurting business in the state.
But Waddoups is unmoved.
He told The Salt Lake Tribune: "We need some polling or scientific research before we change anything as sensitive as this. We will need much more information other than anecdotal stories."
Really?
Waddoups justified the Legislature's refusal to accept $100 million in federal funds to extend 20,000 Utahns' unemployment benefits, telling The Tribune in April that the benefits make people lazy.
He knows that, he said, because his LDS bishop told him about a young man who said he wouldn't even start looking for a job until his unemployment benefits ran out.
That, of course, is setting public policy on the basis of (drum roll please) an anecdotal story.
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Let 'em eat cake • The latest fallout from east-side residents breaking off from their poorer sister, Jordan School District, to form Canyons School District: Little kids living on the forgotten west side have to dodge whizzing cars as they scamper across busy 9000 South to get to school.
The parents at Westvale Elementary School, at about 2300 West and 8600 South, received a memo the last day of school telling them that school bus service would no longer be available.
Many of the students who live on the other side of 9000 South, a major rush hour commuter route, will now have to maneuver across that busy road.
Jordan District spokesman Steve Dunham says the district had a $29 million shortfall the past year and had to come up with various cost-cutting measures. One was to do away with nonrequired bus routes, which are any routes less than 1½ miles from the school. That, he said, will save about $2 million.
The district's financial woes have become worse since residents on the east side of the valley voted to break off and form their own Canyons District, which has a wealthier tax base.
The ability to break off was made possible by legislation sponsored by lawmakers representing — big surprise — the Canyons District area.
One parent said he was told by West Jordan officials they might not even be able to put a crossing guard at the treacherous 9000 South and Redwood Road intersection.
But West Jordan spokeswoman Kim Wells told me that while a crossing guard is not currently budgeted for that location, officials are seeking ways to make it happen before the beginning of the new school year.
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And then there was one • In paying tribute to Ray Casaday, who died May 27 at the age of 90, I mentioned he was believed to be the last Marine from the bloody World War II invasion of the strategic island of Tarawa.
It turns out, there is at least one left.
Bob Freeman, 91, of Sandy, was also in that battle that claimed 3,166 American lives.
According to Michael Tester, Freeman is a "great neighbor, still strong and alert," who until recently would frequently drive himself to the Sandy Senior Citizen Center to socialize.