Editorial

State Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville, is one of the more sensible pols in the Top of Utah. He has attempted more than once to undo legislative damage created by his colleagues in the majority party. Froerer's latest cleanup attempt is House Bill 270, which would significantly increase the number of liquor licenses provided to Utah restaurants.

We urge the Legislature to pass HB270 quickly and hope Gov. Gary Herbert signs it into law. It's always been a source of embarrassment and shame that members of the dominant political party have set the quota of liquor licenses allowed to Utah restaurants so low. The number of licenses is based on state population. Froerer's bill changes that so more licenses can be issued.

Because so few licenses are issued, there are many businesses that can't get licenses. This decreases the number of new restaurants that might be initiated in areas outside of Salt Lake City. Entrepreneurs are less likely to start restaurants here if they can't have a liquor license so persons enjoying a meal can have the right to enjoy an alcoholic drink.

Like a chicken with its head sliced off, Utah's junior senator is charging in opposition to President Barack Obama's presidential nominations. Mike Lee has vowed to oppose every nominee that Obama presents before the U.S. Senate for approval.

Lee is angry that the president has bypassed accepted Senate custom by appointing nominees when the Senate is in "pro forma" sessions three days apart to stop presidents from appointing nominees that the Senate has blocked. What this means is that Republicans in the Senate are using filibusters to prevent Obama from getting his nominees through.

This is all a technical and legal argument. It needs to be worked out either between the opposing sides -- Democrats and Republicans -- or through the courts. And that latter option will likely come soon. Republicans are challenging Obama's recent appointments.

Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo, is using his position in the state Legislature to waste everyone's time with an immigration bill, HB300, that would stop funding and end the Peace Officers Standards and Training certification for Utah police chiefs who choose not to enforce immigration statutes.

Herrod is running for the U.S. Senate, where a malicious folly such as House Bill 300 might appeal to a few ultra-conservative state delegates who regard illegal immigration as the most important issue in the U.S. today. The rest of us see Herrod's proposal for what it is -- another example of a groveling pol wasting time and money on an issue that for now is in the hand of the courts.

One person Herrod is obviously targeting is Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank, who is opposed to having local police enforce immigration laws. Herrod's shot at Burbank and other chiefs will have little chance of being sensible until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on states' efforts to enforce immigration laws. There are several working their way through judicial channels, including laws in Utah, Arizona and Alabama. So we urge the Legislature to ignore HB300 for now. There are more important issues to deal with.

State Rep. Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, wants applicants who file for financial assistance from the Division of Workforce Services to be required to submit to a written test to determine if they have a substance abuse problem. It's a bad idea and shouldn't progress in the Legislature.

We regard the test as an intrusion into applicants' privacy, and also an unfair insinuation that a significant percentage of persons who need economic assistance are in that situation due to personal bad habits. We'd advise Wilson and other legislators to take a look at developments in Florida, where a judge has blocked efforts to drug-test welfare applicants in that state. A judge agreed that forcing a drug test on applicant, Luis W. Lebron, 35, a veteran, was unconstitutional.

In an amusing episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa Simpson, playing the bad girl, steals all the teachers' editions of the school books. Mass chaos and panic ensues, with one teacher wailing, "WHO KNOWS THE MULTIPLICATION TABLES??" It's a funny line, and could be repeated today if the Internet ceased to exist. One imagines students digging for long-discarded encyclopedias or simply curling up in a fetal-like ball if deprived of technological research tools such as Google or even Wikipedia.

We can do research and communicate today in ways that only 20 to 30 years ago would have been portrayed in science fiction. With the Internet technology era, we can expand the length and depth of knowledge more easily; but can that same technology stunt our intellectual growth? In other words, "Are Machines Making Us Stupid?" That's the title of a new class at Weber State University, and it's a fascinating question. In the class, students are observed and tested for how they gather information with total Internet access, with limited online access, and no Web access.

Thumbs up: To the destruction of chemical weapons that had been stored in the Utah desert for decades. At the Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, Deseret Chemical Depot, near Tooele, employees recently finished the task by destroying the blister agent, lewisite.

Thumbs down: To our expanding girths in America. More than one-third of adults are considered obese, a disturbing statistic that has not changed since 2003. About 17 percent of children are obese.