Editorial Board

We praise the good examples of Alissa and Robbie Parker — as well as several other parents who lost children to the Newtown school shooter Adam Lanza — for initiating an effort that will focus on improving security in schools.

The Parkers, and the other parents, are excellent spokespersons for the Safe and Sound at Sandy Hook Initiative, which will focus on assisting communities to improve safety plans at their schools. The Parker’s 6-year-old daughter, Emilie, was one of 20 first-graders murdered by Lanza on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Both Alissa and Robbie are graduates of Ben Lomond High School in Ogden.

A recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board to lower the blood alcohol content level for DUI arrests from .08 to .05 percent is an unneeded change to current law. 

In Ogden and other parts of Utah, DUI arrests have been trending downward. That is a consequence of residents being more aware of the dangers of drinking and driving, as well as the criminal consequences.

Utah Republican delegates again rejected any reform proposals to the party’s current nominating rules, which allow a candidate to avoid a primary battle if he or she can garner 60 percent of delegates. 

A common-sense proposal that would have required more than two-thirds of delegates’ votes to avoid a primary was defeated. According to news reports, many delegates felt that they were pressured by “moderate” party elites to change the system.

Thumbs up: To having the name of the late Ogden police officer Jared Francom memorialized on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C. Francom was killed on Jan. 4, 2012 in Ogden.

It’s a bad idea — floated by state Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross — to change Utah’s Constitution to make the attorney general job an appointed post. Weiler suggests that the job be handled like a judicial appointment, with a bipartisan committee selecting five finalists and having the governor select one. Besides the unpleasant scenario of a few top pols, along with the governor’s OK, “selecting” Utah’s top law enforcement official, voters of Utah have the right to make the call on who becomes our attorney general.

It’s a heart-wrenching story. In Kentucky, a five-year-old boy accidentally shot and kills his two-year-old sister with a rifle he received as a birthday gift. The tragedy has led to a debate over how young a child should be before he or she is exposed to firearms. We don’t regard that as the main dilemma from this sad story. It is inexcusable for any adult to allow a child near a firearm that has not been secured. It’s more than a mistake to be that careless, it should always be regarded as a criminal offense.

Thumbs up: To Emery Young, an eighth-grade student at Mount Ogden Junior High. Emery’s efforts to save the jobs of Ogden School District media specialists netted her an interview with Superintendent Brad Smith, the man who plans to fire the teachers.