Legislatures provoke editorial writers around the region ...

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

- False pretenses: Reasons for HB477 fall apart - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial, 03.31.11It isn't the things we don't know that give us trouble, Will Rogers said, it's the things we do know that just aren't so.As more digging is done into the reasons why leaders of the Utah Legislature found it necessary to make their nearly successful attempt to gut the state's open records law, it becomes more apparent that many of the offered justifications for the action were just not so. ...

- Public records fight should go further - Ladd Brubaker, University of Utah Daily Chronicle... If to enter Zion National Park, we had to submit an application, wait 10 days, pay several hundred dollars and then only get to see Weeping Rock—we would all be up in arms. Yet, this is analogous to many of our public records and information. Some legislators, to justify limiting access, have decried "fishing" expeditions in public records—but how better to catch the bottom feeders? ...

- Lessons of HB 477 will stay after bad taste fades - Tooele Transcript Bulletin EditorialA backward, inbred piece of legislation that should never have seen the light of day was mercifully put down last Friday when HB 477 was repealed by the Legislature. ...

- ACLU joins e-signature fight - Ogden Standard-Examiner Editorial... SB165, which Gov. Gary Herbert signed, was a deliberate snub to grassroots politics and citizen initiatives by the Legislature. Utah Lt. Gov. Greg Bell will surely use SB165, unless it is overturned in court, to deny e-signatures gathered by the group, Utahns for Ethical Government, to put an ethics reform initiative on the ballot in 2012. ...

- Liquor store closures - Provo Daily Herald EditorialAdd this to the questionable legislative moves recently: the proposal to close profitable state liquor stores in Provo and Orem. ...... It's like a family realizing that it's too deeply in debt, so dad quits his second job that brings in more cash. ...

- State should close at least one prison - Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial... We will never do away with the need for prisons, but let's be careful to never confuse a prison as something other than a cost. Prisons bring jobs and wealth to localities that host them, but the money is taken from other regions. This is necessary, but should not be confused as economic gain. ...

- Brown still has options for getting budget passed - San Jose Mercury News EditorialAs lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown scramble to figure out what's next following the collapse of budget talks with Republicans, there's one unsettling fact that should guide them: An all-cuts budget for next year would destroy California's future. ...

- Democrats have dented deficit - Sacramento Bee Editorial... But as bad California's financial situation is, Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrats should not panic. Instead, they should exercise the power of the majority party. ...