“A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.” — Alexander Hamilton

Last year was Utah’s driest year on record. As commissioner of the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDF) and a rancher, I am concerned about the drought. But, I am also filled with optimism.

I love baseball, and I loathe the Senate’s filibuster rule. Please humor an old history teacher and let me tell you what one has to do with the other.

The number of ballot initiatives seen in Utah in recent elections is historically high. Some have divided communities (e.g., medical marijuana), while others created legal conflicts and left state legislators to clean up the mess (e.g., Medicaid expansion).

This past summer, my wife and I were blessed to visit Atlanta, Georgia. There are many great sights to see in that metropolitan city. It was our goal to see the sights referring to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We were blessed to go to his birth house where we heard stories of how he did not l…

We enter 2019 holding our breath. As the federal shutdown continues, I am watching friends, neighbors, students and others struggle to make ends meet. While we anxiously await elected leaders to effectively do their jobs and find workable solutions to our nation’s budget problems, we might f…

This message is to communicate to the Weber County public that I have served of the successful completion of our year-long property/evidence room audit, review and inspection.

Very soon end-of-year festivities will be put aside in favor of new year resolutions. Before we reach the rush of a new year, I would like to reflect on the progress over the previous one.

Editor’s note: The following is the most reprinted newspaper editorial in history. Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun and the response by newsman Francis Pharcellus Church was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897.

I recently saw a list of the 10 most common New Year’s resolutions. The majority of the list were goals aimed at improving health in some way or time management (such as spending more time with family and friends). These are great goals, but for someone struggling with various health concern…

Following a special legislative session called by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert Dec. 3, the Utah Legislature passed HB 3001, and the Utah Medical Cannabis Act was signed into law. The Act will allow the cultivation, harvest, and processing of Cannabis plants in Utah for Cannabis-based medicine. The…

If one lesson came out of the 2018 elections it is that elections have messages. Indeed, voters use elections to send messages because it is one of their few opportunities to do so. While politicians and candidates spend two or four (or occasionally six) years talking at voters, voters get o…

Recently, President Trump highlighted the importance of our nation’s veteran entrepreneurs and provided the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) with the donation of his second-quarter salary that will go toward helping our nation’s veterans transition from military service to small busi…

Ever had a traffic ticket? Divorce? Issue with your kids? If so, the next step that you likely faced was to appear before a judge. The decisions judges make affect individuals, families and our communities. But many of us don’t realize we have a voice in who judges us.

The power of the press rests in the ability of journalists to hold government accountable, to mobilize public opinion on matters that are important to individuals, communities or the nation, and to provide necessary information of value.

As the campaign manager for Evan McMullin in 2016 I got to see up-close how incredible the people of Utah are. Even though we did not win Utah, we got a quarter of a million votes — 21 percent of the electorate — which was the highest share of any state’s vote for a non-major party candidate…

This month is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in America, and this provides an important opportunity to reflect on how we can influence change and help prevent tragedies of self-harm.

In 2011 an attempt was made in the Utah senate to increase the gasoline tax, but it was voted down. Ballotpedia reports that in 2018 state tax on gasoline is 29.41 cents and federal tax is 18.4 cents, for a total tax of 47.81 cents per gallon. Since this tax started in 1923, it has grown at …

As a farewell salute to Senator John McCain, I would like to write about two things he stood for among many - our democracy and public education.

There are several items from Tuesday’s Weber County Commission meeting regarding the “Retirement Incentive Policy” discussions that anyone should find troubling. Most retirement incentive programs are temporary and are used as a tool for adjusting employee headcount and avoiding forced layof…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien

In January 2018, it was discovered that a civilian member of the Sheriff’s Office had violated the trust that you, the public, have given and expect. This particular employee had been a member of this office for 16 years and was assigned to a critical position within the office as the eviden…

I just returned from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and, boy, do I have some exciting news: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has a new launch date.

The great Utah teacher, writer and humanitarian, Lowell L. Bennion, once wrote a book with the simple title, “How Can I Help?”

Each year, Weber State University’s College of Engineering, Applied Science & Technology helps sponsor FyreCon, a convention dedicated to the creative side of fantasy and science fiction.

As a local business owner and resident, I would like to express my appreciation to Weber County for implementing some of the best practices that make the private sector thrive. One of these practices is the use of external contractors. Sound crazy? Hear me out.

Could the golden rule be the common denominator among those who believe the United States was founded as a Christian nation and those who believe in strict separation of church and state?

Scientists ask questions. It’s what we do. It’s a hallmark of the scientific method.

In a recent guest commentary, the author details his opinion on the difference between “transactional” and “devotional” politicians. Like many of the recent articles published in the Standard Examiner, it included a lot of criticism from one elected officials camp to the next. It had accusat…

I noticed the woman sitting next to me wipe her eyes a couple of times. I finally turned and asked, “Why does this make us cry?” She laughed through her tears. “I don’t know. I just can’t listen to this without crying.”

Weber County has a wonderful opportunity to advance prosperity and the common good by re-electing Commissioner James Ebert. Nothing against his primary challenger, Gage Froerer, but there is one singular and remarkable contrast between these candidates – one perhaps you have only felt but ne…

Consider any of the following circumstances and ask yourself what you would do.

Possibly dozens of criminal prosecutions have been compromised or ruined by the tampering and destruction of evidence, according to an internal investigation report into the January firing of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office evidence custodian.

Big changes are coming for Utah’s Boy Scouts. 

Depression doesn’t care.

As we contemplate our personal thinking, many of us realize that our minds are often filled with chatter. We are constantly having conversations with ourselves. We often wish we could clear our minds and throw out the unwanted noise in our brains. But creating a vacuum in our heads cannot be…