The Utah Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Conatser v. Johnson that fishermen have an easement to walk up and down privately owned streambeds, so long as it is reasonable under the circumstances. The Utah House recently passed HB 141, which would overturn the 2008 court decision if the Senate also passes it.

The Supreme Court got it right. The rivers and streams are public property and the public should have reasonable access to them. Private property rights must allow for reasonable access and egress for proper public uses of the rivers and streams.

The main argument in the House for passing HB141 was that allowing a fishermen’s easement on private property violates the Utah Constitution by taking property rights without compensation. This argument appears valid on the surface, but it falsely characterizes the Conatser decision Continue reading…

By Matt Canham

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 03/02/2010 07:59:57 PM MST

Washington » Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called his colleague “gutsy” for repeatedly blocking a vote on a short extension of unemployment benefits, Medicare payments and transportation funding.

A few hours later Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning relented, striking a deal that allowed the Senate to quickly pass the $10 billion bill late Tuesday on a vote of 78 to 19.

Democrats had painted Bunning and the Republicans as obstructionists who hurt those already suffering in an economic recession. Bunning’s use of a procedural block had already resulted in at least 2,000 federal workers being temporarily furloughed and could have impact unemployment payments in some states.

Bunning defended his actions, saying the bill would add to the national debt and that Democrats should have found a way to pay for it. In the deal, Senate leaders allowed Bunning to offer an amendment that would close a tax loophole for the paper industry to pay for the bill. That amendment failed.

Before a deal was struck, Hatch backed Bunning’s rationale.

“Senator Bunning’s making a point — a valid point,” he said. “The fact is we’ve been living for too many years on borrowed money.”

The fact is, Senator Hatch, Senator Bennett, and Senator Bunning, you were loudly supportive and voted for the tax breaks for the wealthy, the unfunded war in Iraq, and increased payments in prescription drugs on your watch. You hypocrites that are now screaming to balance the budget are the ones who broke it. You are phonies. You and your George Bush enlarged the national debt greater than any other president since your own Ronald Reagan.

The time for you to bemoan our deficits was then, not in support of the ridiculous senate rule that allows one person to hold up the democratic process.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, declined to comment about Continue reading…

by Matt Canham

Salt Lake Tribune

Washington » The question from the counselor was simple and straightforward: Did anyone need help dealing with the violence they encountered on the front lines in Iraq?

No one in the Marine unit raised their hand, especially not Daniel Hanson, who thought he didn’t even have the “right” to ask for a therapist’s help since he experienced far less death and destruction than did his friends in the infantry.

But he did need help — and after a two-year struggle with depression, drugs and alcohol Hanson received it in an intense in-patient treatment center. But not before his marriage ended and he became estranged from his kids. Not before he attempted to end his own life.

“I was pretty much a monster,” he said. “I thought I had to kill myself before my kids learned what a loser their dad is.”

Hanson, from Minnesota, shared his experiences with a Senate panel on Wednesday that explored the alarming rate of suicide among the nation’s newest veterans. Among the other panelists was David Rudd, a suicide expert from the University of Utah who advocated for a change in military culture and Continue reading…

Rep. Christine Johnson is stepping down from her seat in the Utah House at year’s end. But she’s not backing away from her role as a gay-rights advocate.

“I’m not leaving because I’m giving up on the fight in Utah,” the two-term Salt Lake City Democrat said Thursday after announcing she won’t seek re-election. “We have so many budding leaders [in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community] that I’m anxious to see who’s going to step up next.”

As a single mom and a surrogate for a gay couple — the baby is due in June — Johnson expressed some displeasure at what she sees as hypocrisy in the Legislature.

“For the past four years, I have stood with my colleagues each morning of the session, placed my hand over my heart and pledged ‘liberty and justice for all,’ ” she said in a statement, “and yet repeatedly witnessed blatant disregard of those so in need of equal protections in the name of ‘family values.’ ”

Christine Johnson has been an outstanding legislator and she will be missed, both for her steady, attentive focus on her job, but also as a necessary societal example of the values and community spirit of gays and lesbians.

Johnson — one of two openly gay legislators (a third resigned in December) — said that nontraditional families often are the most devoted partners and parents. It is “reprehensible that we continue to ignore Continue reading…

While shopping for health insurance last year, 26-year-old Hillary McCormack was rejected because she had, for two months in 2007, taken a fertility drug. The Salt Lake City lawyer’s older husband, though, was approved.

Insurers told Leane Jensen she had three strikes against her. The 33-year-old freelance photographer had been uninsured for some time, had once suffered a minor back injury and was of child-bearing age.

They didn’t know it, but both women fell prey to “gender rating.” It’s a strategy insurers use to charge women higher premiums, or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions such as pregnancy, a previous Caesarean section delivery and domestic violence.

Gender is among many factors, including age and address, that insurers use to predict a consumer’s “healthiness” and medical costs. Industry groups call it smart business. National women’s health advocates call it gender discrimination.

In Utah, the practice has drawn scant attention. A ban on gender rating by companies selling policies to individual consumers was struck last month from House Speaker Dave Clark’s reform bill with hardly a whimper of protest.

If signed by the governor, HB294 will still ban the practice for policies sold to small groups, which advocates say protects companies that tend to employ a lot of women, such as day care centers, dentist offices and nonprofit groups.

It’s a good first step, said Korey Capozza, senior health policy analyst with Voices for Utah Children. But the policy question of “who pays for the cost of procreating” warrants more thorough debate, she added. “Women don’t get pregnant on their own.”

Gender rating is most acutely felt by women who don’t have employer-sponsored coverage: the unemployed or independently employed, such as freelance writers and designers, real estate agents and consultants.

The practice is illegal in 11 states and tightly regulated in two others.

But not in Utah, where a 25-year-old woman will pay up to 17 percent more than a man for the same coverage, according to price quotes obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune from three Continue reading…

by Jennifer Sanchez

Salt Lake Tribune

West Valley City The City Council agreed Tuesday to allow city officials to come up with a draft ordinance to protect gay and transgender people from housing and employment discrimination.

Mayor Mike Winder and most council members seemed to support the measure during their 30-minute discussion at the council study meeting. Councilman Russ Brooks was the only member not at the meeting.

At least three people attended the meeting for the council discussion, but public comment is not allowed at study meetings.

Winder, a Mormon Republican who supports the measure, said he was glad the council was being proactive about the issue.

Some council members said the issue of an anti-discrimination ordinance needs to be addressed Continue reading…

by Dylan Lovan

Associated Press

Louisville, Ky. » Home-school mom Susan Mule wishes she hadn’t taken a friend’s advice and tried a textbook from a popular Christian publisher for her 10-year-old’s biology lessons.

Mule’s precocious daughter Elizabeth excels at science and has been studying tarantulas since she was 5. But she watched Elizabeth’s excitement turn to confusion when they reached the evolution section of the book from Apologia Educational Ministries, which disputed Charles Darwin’s theory.

“I thought she was going to have a coronary,” Mule said of her daughter, who is now 16 and taking college courses in Houston. “She’s like, ‘This is not true!’ ”

Christian-based materials dominate a growing home-school education market that encompasses more than 1.5 million students in the U.S. And for most home-school parents, a Bible-based version of the Earth’s creation is exactly what they want. Federal statistics from 2007 show 83 percent of home-schooling parents want to give their children “religious or moral instruction.”

“The majority of home-schoolers self-identify as evangelical Christians,” said Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association. “Most home-schoolers will definitely have a sort of creationist component to their home-school program.”

Those who don’t, however, often feel isolated and frustrated from trying to find a textbook that fits their beliefs.

Two of the best-selling biology textbooks stack the deck against evolution, said some science educators who reviewed sections of the books at the request of The Associated Press.

“I feel fairly strongly about this. These books are promulgating lies to kids,” said Jerry Coyne, an ecology and evolution professor at the University of Chicago.

The textbook publishers defend their books as well-rounded lessons on evolution and its shortcomings. One of the books doesn’t attempt to mask disdain for Darwin and evolutionary science.

Parents who shield their children from a modern education so as to protect their religious beliefs are not much different than parents who won’t let modern medicine treat their sick children. When taken to an extreme it is sad and serious and borders on child abuse. Parental rights have limits.

What can be done about it? Probably very little, except that we should do everything we can to inform the public about the lack of academic merit these schools have—a warning label so to speak.

“Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God will find many points in this book puzzling,” says the introduction to Biology: Third Edition from Bob Jones University Press. “This book was not written for them.”

The textbook delivers a religious ultimatum to young readers and parents, warning in its “History of Life” chapter that a “Christian worldview … is the only correct view of reality; anyone who rejects it Continue reading…