By Will Coggin
In a case of legislative railroading spurred on by national real estate brokerages, Utah lawmakers cast aside a longstanding consumer protection in passing 2019 Senate Bill 121. The sole purpose of SB 121 is to allow real estate brokers and home builders to own and receive hidden profits fro…
Utah consumers want the freedom to choose. That is what Senate Bill 121 is all about. It repeals the law that grants a monopoly to one class of title and settlement agents. SB 121, which recently passed the House and Senate by comfortable margins, allows consumers the choice of one-stop shop…
" The political equality that is required by democracy is always under threat from economic inequality, and the more extreme the economic inequality, the greater the threat to democracy." — Angus Deaton, 2015 Nobel Prize winner in economics
Martha Hughes Cannon: pioneer, physician, polygamist, suffragette, senator. Any and all of these labels apply to one of Utah’s most accomplished foremothers. As March is Women’s History Month, it is a wonderful excuse to brush up on history and celebrate a woman who is still making news, eve…
Legacy Parkway residents are fighting to protect a cherished Utah roadway. In the face of opposing forces, they’re not giving up.
”Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed.” — Mwai Kibaki
This submission is to encourage everyone to get their own and their child’s measles vaccination. Parents, please make this a priority for your children. I know that my letter will not be well received by those opposed to vaccines, but I feel, because of my personal experience with the measle…
The Daily Herald Editorial Staff
The collapse of our nation's housing market in the summer of 2008 didn't come from out of the blue. Though it surely did seem that way for many, those who were plugged in saw warning signs aplenty before all hell broke loose. One critical red flag: There were people getting home mortgages wh…
“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.
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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…
“Nice people can be found all over the world, But if you can’t find one then always be sure to be one,” said Saint Mother Theresa.
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…
Kelsey Davidson, Taylor Welty and Anne Petersen are current students enrolled at Weber State, working towards degrees in Social Work.
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…
Fall has arrived in Utah with cool temperatures and a heated electoral campaign season. Whether on television, by email, in the mailbox, on a lawn sign or at a public event, candidates and their advocates have made their positions known and implored you to get out and vote.
It is now a little more than five years since new owners purchased Powder Mountain, saving the mountain from the massive development that was to be “Powder Mountain Town”. There is no doubt that the initial interaction between the new owners and local residents got off to a rocky start, prim…
During my years of service in the Utah Legislature, I witnessed the level of dedication and concern my colleagues had for the future of Utah. Nearly every decision we made carried the goal of improving the lives for everyone in our state. Regardless of political party, I witnessed the common…
I’ve never lived anywhere else in the world where Halloween has such an impressive hold on the local imagination. Not just kids trick or treating for chocolates, we have trunk-or-treats, ghost tours, scare factories, corn mazes, Halloween karaoke, haunted hayrides, Halloween love-poem contes…
When I debated him in 2016, Governor Herbert said two notable things about taxes: “We don’t have the success we’re having in Utah by raising taxes,” and taxes are the “economic engine” of the state. He was spot-on right about the first and dead wrong about the second. If anything, taxes are …
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.
We’ve passed the autumn equinox, an event for astronomers that marks the end of summer’s box-office blockbuster season. As such, I’m reminded of a very important piece of advice: Never take a scientist to a movie. Chances are we’ll ruin it for you.
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…
Goats are trending in Utah. Petting zoos are gaining in popularity, and herds of people gather together for “Goga,” a combination of outdoor yoga while goats roam among – and on top of — participants. And now residents are butting heads with city officials over their right to keep goats as pets.
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 …
At the Ogden City Council Meeting on Aug.28, 2018, Salt Lake Chamber representative Brynn Mortenson presented the Chamber’s Housing GAP Coalition Initiative, which aims to address Utah’s housing shortage “before it becomes a crisis.” She reported that the housing shortage, though already acu…
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…
Recently, I chatted with a man who trims my trees. As we talked about nature, I discovered he once believed the earth was flat. True, you can’t easily see the curvature in the earth from atop a tree. While in a tiny minority, he is not the only one to hold that belief.
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…
If you’re like me, August offered another fantastic opportunity to miss the Perseid meteor shower. With the rash of forest fires, I knew the spectacular event was going to be hard to see through smoke-obscured skies. Coupled with a late sunset and my early farm chores, this astronomer chose …
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.
