The DWR immediately designated Beaver Creek in the LaSal mountains east of Moab fly-only fishing, with the requirement that cutthroats be released. This is the first time greenback cutthroats have been discovered in Utah, said Trout Unlimited's Paul Dremann,

We very excited and pleasantly surprised that greenbacks have been located in Utah.

We want Utahns to be alert, but we dont want people to be alarmed. . . . We don't want hysteria to prevail.

Let's take relatively minor precautions and get on with life.

If an 84 percent approval rating for a Republican governor in Utah doesn’t qualify you as a “real Republican” — what does? . . .

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, regarded as one of the GOP’s brightest rising stars, has been kicked off the schedule at a Michigan County Republican Party event.

I know it has been a torturous decision for him, but he is going to have my friendship regardless.

I'm not mad at him or anything. I'm just honoring the wishes of the people who gave that money to help elect Republicans.

Not only did they provide the legal architecture, they provided the "scientific" patina for the plunge into the barbaric business of torture.

Bybee issued official legal opinions that redefined the crime of torture to make it all but impossible to commit. Barbarity was not torture unless it created pain equal to death or organ failure. . . . Bybee seems to have been unaware that the United States had prosecuted waterboarding as a war crime after World War II.

I think what he's done with the Somali pirates, that's very positive. I like that. To build the F-35 (Joint Strike Fighter), is good. But cutting the crap out of the rest of the military doesn't help.

I've had some issue about trying to drive some of the big issues of the day in a more partisan way than I'd like … On the big issues of the day, you've got to have bipartisanship.

The response has been overwhelming. It's been the single greatest stimulus that the local homebuilders have had.

Is that the best use of public funds? Obviously the Legislature and the governor felt it was. I focus on affordable housing, so certainly we would have loved to see that kind of funding go to low- and moderate-income homes.

I have the medicine for what ails us all. It's so simple, I can't believe no one thought of it until I did, just now. Ready?

We build more houses.

There. That's it. It's so obvious, maybe that's why I'm the first one to come up with it. Houses got us into this mess, and by God, it's houses that are going to get us out!

But what if—what if—the banks made a whole lot of loans really quickly, put a bunch of them together in a big package, or bundle, and then sold them to investors for some quick cash? They'd be turning a profit right away, so they wouldn't have to worry so much about whether people could pay back what they borrowed. And they could give loans to anybody—homeless people, kids, immigrants...it wouldn't matter!

You can't lose with this!

He knows that we are watching him. He knows he can't pull the wool over our eyes.

LeJeune: Billions in Middle East oil profits have helped fund the
same terrorists we're fighting. By building an American clean
energy economy, we can lower energy costs, create thousands of jobs,
cut our dependence on foreign oil, and keep America safe. You can
help protect America.

Call Congressman Matheson, and tell him to support the
American Clean Energy and Security Act. Because, our national
security starts at home.

They are trying to scare all of you. The are trying to discourage you from resisting this path we are on. That's pretty niave, thinking that we are going to back down because there are consequences involved.

I'm not going to back down. ... I need to know that you guys are not going to back down either.

You knew it wouldn't take long.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. ... was also supposed to make a fourth appearance [in Michigan], but Kent County Chairwoman Joanne Voorhees canceled the event on Monday.

"After conducting further research on the Governor and his change in position on issues, we feel it is best to cancel our event," wrote Vorhees in an email obtained by the Fix. She added that "voters want and expect us to stand on principle and return to our roots . . . unfortunately, by holding an event with Governor Huntsman, we would be doing the exact opposite."

Cillizza points out that Republicans in Kent County may be political throwbacks: "former president George W. Bush carried it by 55,000 votes in 2004 but last November President Barack Obama won it by 1,600 votes."

"It was the perfect secret weapon," he says as a makeup artist dusts the male models' flab-free abs. "It's friendly. It doesn't tear down the beliefs of the church at all. Underneath, it makes people realize, 'Oh, they're sexy Mormons. They're real.' "

I don't believe in perpetuating myths or stereotypes. I believe in breaking them, overcoming them and yes — even parodying them. That's what is so great about this calendar! It parodies that square, asexual box of what a 'Mormon' is supposed to be.

Missions are fundamental to the Mormons and a top church official, apostle Jeffrey R. Holland, told McFarland that the church has been grappling with its stance toward illegal-immigrant missionaries for more than a decade:

With the known realization that those risks exist, then we want to do better, or at least learn more. We want to be more precise, if we can, about how to help, how to make [a mission] the calmest, most spiritually rewarding experience for everybody.

We're always trying to do, always and forever, exactly what's legal, and in the spirit of that, be fair to everyone on the religious side, on the spiritual side, to have the spiritual benefits of [serving a mission].

BYU graduate Charles Kuck, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, says the incident is just another reason federal immigration reform is needed:

You have kids who just have spent the two most important years in their lives now having to worry about being thrown in jail for not having proper documentation to get on a plane.

This could become Satan's playground.

Utah's Highway 12 is one of the most scenic roads in the U.S., although few people know about it. And prices in south-central Utah are relatively low for just about everything. Put it together and you get a great, affordable Wild West vacation that can include visits to nearby national parks.

• Utah County Republican Party Convention debated a whether liberal Democrats are behind a "satanic" campaign to encourage illegitimate births and illegal immigration. Delegate Don Larsen proposed the "Resolution opposing the Hate America anti-Christian Open Borders Cabal."

Larsen says the Democrats, who benefit from the illegal-immigrant/dysfunctional-family vote, are tools of the Prince of Darkness:

Satan's ultimate goal is to destroy the family and these people are playing a leading part in it.

The Republicans actually discussed Larsen's proposal before voting it down. The comments on Trib reporter Don Meyers' article are definitely worth the read.

• It turns out that America's original juniper hugger, California hippy poet Everett Ruess was likely murdered in 1934 just off Highway 12 near Escalante, according to evidence uncovered by National Geographic.

• An EnergySolutions contractor made headlines by spewing toxic waste on Utah highways out of a tanker truck repaired with duct tape, a timely reminder to would-be visitors that Utah may soon become the world's radioactive waste dumping ground.

We bring in an influx of 80,000 people over four days into the downtown area. There needs to be a little bit of a middle ground and recognizing what makes a community vibrant and alive.

Whether it be champion snowboarder Torah Bright, a master circus man, a Canadian politician, a standout high school senior, LDS students in the Ivy League or two brothers who have excelled at Scouting and football, recent news is chock full of LDS up-close-and-personal stories.

• Federal Judge Jay Bybee who as a White House legal counsel wrote the infamous torture memos. No less than The New York Times is calling for his impeachment. "To read the four newly released memos on prisoner interrogation is to take a journey into depravity."
• Psychologists James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, known in the CIA as the "Mormon Mafia," developed state-of-the-art torture techniques.

The Turkish Coalition of America and the University of Utah have announced a class soon to be taught titled, “The Origins of Modern Ethnic Cleansing: Collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Emergence of Nation States in the Balkans and Caucasus”. In this class they will be using a text book titled, “The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide”.

Not using the word “genocide” in regards to what the Ottoman Turks did to the Armenians is akin to not using the word “holocaust” when referring to what happened to millions of Jews during World War II.

Genocide deniers like to substitute the words “massacres” or “disappearances”, rather than say “genocide”. How about we stop calling the “Jewish Holocaust”, “Holocaust”? How about we call it, “The Jewish Massacres”?

Schanze has been prosecuted in the past for gun-brandishing and flying his ultra-light aircraft too close to an interstate highway (separate incidnets). The only thing new this time is that Saratoga prosecutors also charged him with three counts of child seat-belt violations.

The officer, who stopped Schanze for weaving in and out of traffic, says he found a loaded gun in a fanny pack Schanze was wearing— Super Dell's concealed-carry permit had expired — and no one in the car was wearing a seat belt.

• BYU grad federal Judge Jay Bybee, who as a Justice Department Legal Counsel wrote the "torture memos" that allowed it to begin.

• Psychologists James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, the CIA's "Mormon Mafia" who designed the "Clockwork Orange" interrogation methods.

• Olympic savior and wanna-be-president Mitt Romney who says torturing suspected terrorist is hunky-dory and investigating those who ordered it is "the lowest form of partisianship."

• Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch defends Bybee as "one of the most honorable people you'll ever meet."

Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed.

Peterson was reprimanded for showing "empathy" for torture victims. In the official report into her death reports:

She said that she did not know how to be two people; she ... could not be one person in the cage and another outside the wire.

Matheson is one of about 10 moderate committee Democrats who are less than thrilled with the Waxman climate extravaganza, and who may yet stymie one of Barack Obama's signature issues.

[Matheson] has made a political career championing energy diversity and his state's fossil fuels, and who understands Utah is mostly reliant on coal for its electricity needs. He says he sees several ways this bill could result in a huge "income transfer" from his state to those less fossil-fuel dependent.

The real risk to the president is that his bill goes down at the hands of his own party -- with nary a Republican to blame.

Had I known about it, I wouldn't have appointed him in the first place.

That consideration is well down the road.

One day Aneth Nez saw the young man down in the riverbed, only this time he was yelling and riding fast. Nez scanned the wash below and saw three Utes chasing the boy. "They caught up with him and hit him on the head and knocked him off his mule," she recounted. "They left him there and took off with the mules and whatever else the guy had."

And if and when President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (known to many of us as the axis of evil), have their final victory over Liberty, it is only from our 'cold dead hands' that they'll finally confiscate that most precious instrument of Freedom -- our guns."

A radioactive waste tanker repaired with duct-tape dribbled an unspeakable ooze cocktail (benzene, thorium, tritium, technetium and uranium isotopes) on Utah highways from Tooele County to Carbon County where the leak was discovered near Price. The truck was carrying waste from the EnergySolutions landfill in Tooele County to a U.S. Energy Department facility in Tennessee.

Congressman Jim Matheson, of course, says the accident (If using duct-tape to repair a hose on a hazardous-waste tanker can be considered an "accident") shows why Utah shouldn't be the world's nuclear dumpster.

It just highlights that we are talking about materials that are dangerous and they are on our roads.

You've got to involve the Legislature. They've got to be invested in the process as well. I think we have to recognize the steps they've taken.

I did not bow to legislative pressure. In the spirit of bringing everybody together moving toward a compromise, you've got to make sure everybody plays their respective role.

I believe we choose the sort of people we fall in love with. We envision a type, or we pursue an idea of how we see ourselves or want to be seen. Maybe we are defining ourselves out of rebellion. Of course, I realized this about myself only in hindsight, the fact that I was looking to break with convention, to not be bound by my parents’ expectations.

So, yes, maybe I was looking for someone like Tyrone, but not consciously — we just met and fell in love. Among the things that attracted me to him were his cotton shirts, his sense of style and quality, which carried through to his cooking. . . .

The use of psychologists was also considered a way for CIA officials to skirt such measures as the Convention Against Torture. The former adviser to the intelligence community said, “Clearly, some senior people felt they needed a theory to justify what they were doing. You can’t just say, ‘We want to do what Egypt’s doing.’ When the lawyers asked what their basis was, they could say, ‘We have Ph.D.s who have these theories.’

Mitchell and Jessen’s methods were so controversial that, among colleagues, the reaction to their names alone became a litmus test of one’s attitude toward coercion and human rights.

Their critics called them the “Mormon mafia” (a reference to their shared religion) and the “poster boys” (referring to the FBI’s “most wanted” posters, which are where some thought their activities would land them).

He has never had to defend his conduct. It is an understatement to say that he has kept a low profile since becoming a judge. . . .

Bybee is generally the forgotten man in torture studies of the Bush era.

I want to make it clear that I had no previous knowledge of his intention to send the images, and I apologize to each of you who received his e-mail and were offended as I was. Mr. Thompson is a national advocate for this cause, but he doesn't speak for me nor do I condone or appreciate his actions nor some of his tactics.

I understand that Mike Morley apologized to you all for the shocking image I sent you of two women in bikinis in a strip club. Sorry, Utahns, but you can see that on a beach. To see more explicit material as to what is in the GTA IV game, you had to click on the two links I provided, and that was your choice. I warned you what you would see if you chose to do so.

Mike Morley's apology is ridiculous. I didn't scandalous [sic] anyone with an image of two clad women. What is really going on here is that I upset the Republican club that runs Utah, and those in that club are seizing upon this harmless image as a ruse to scold the outsider who unfortunately showed that some in Utah aren't serious about protecting children. Your Governor isn't serious, and we sure as heck know your AG [Mark Shurtleff] is not. Heck, he takes money from the video game industry to say how well the ratings are working... Incredible.

The only apology that is owed is by each of you for not insisting upon an override session [of Gov. Huntsman's HB 353 veto]... Your family values stance is a sham.

I get really upset about it. It troubled me and my family to the point where we were fairly dysfunctional for awhile.

My stomach is in knots. I'm sick over this, but I've been out voted. . . . I need to ask you to resign.

Even Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner, right, who as a state senator voted for the new law, is balking on cross-deputization.

Adam Leffler, president of the anti-illegal immigration group Save Utah, sees the cops as blatantly shirking their duty to enforce the law:

Opting out sends the message that if there's a loophole, we're going to take it.

NOM's petition was widely touted by a Mormon media that invariably failed to mention [Matthew] Holland's involvement* in the organization.

• Jeffrey Holland's talk "An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ" got 441,530 views, 4.5 stars and 434 fawning comments

• NOM's "Gathering Storm" got 478,140 views, 1 star and 8,700 mocking comments.

*Yes, TPM seems to see The Salt Lake Tribune as "Mormon media."

She would lock herself in her room and play the records over and over again singing along as loud as possible. ... Our mum would say, 'Leave her alone. It's all she's got.'

I admire how he dresses. He is one of the sharpest dressers in the Senate.

More and more, it has this reputation for being a great starting place for American films. Before, there was Sundance. Now people are paying more attention to Tribeca.

He can shape and bring a more distinct personality to the festival, Having a guy like Geoff on board makes a statement about your movies. It's a progression.

Forget diamonds. Guns are a girl's best friend.

Because the commission isn't working on it doesn't mean that the efforts, and that the legislative process, which includes a very important public component and comment period, isn't going forward. We're just saying that we're going to do this in the manner in which we typically do legislation. We're going to bring that forth and we're going to continue to work on these efforts.

OK Clark, you can't just tease me — holding it [Heckler & Kock machine gun] there. Let me play with it.

Huntsman is not some left-coast Hollywood Republican. He’s a Mormon presiding over what Gallup ranks as the reddest state in the country.

Huntsman tells Rich:

We must embrace all citizens as equals. I’ve always stood tall on this.

We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) established the National Organization for Marriage as its front group in order to qualify Proposition 8 for ballot last year in California. After spending several million dollars in California, NOM recently moved into seven Northeast States considering marriage equality.

Paid for by generous donations from an anonymous group that may or may not be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Photoshop something “bizarre” I could do to live up to the expectations of whoever is whispering in Wayne’s ear.

I just though it was great to have those tea parties and have the American people excited about something and saying, 'We've had it up to here with federal spending.'

Reality doesn’t fit Hollywood’s narrative — or left-wing academia’s. Must be lovely to live life immunized from the truth.

These are the types of leaders and luminaries within the Republican party. The party must move forward and regardless of where you are in the conservative spectrum, you definitely can be conservative and an openly gay Republican in this political climate.

We don't just talk the talk but we actually are providing the boots on the ground, we're making those calls, and we're loyal Republicans.

Lt. Lee Perry of the Utah Highway Patrol says Neo is dehydrated but otherwise in excellent condition, adding:

To make something positive out of a fatal car crash, that's about as good as it gets.

A volunteer was going to take care of the dog until Moore's sister Deborah could pick him up. Family friend Barbara Teasdale told a reporter:

There's so much riding on Deb retrieving Neo, emotionally speaking. This is a piece of Joyce coming home.

The constant call of “Democrats don’t win in Utah,” has been transformed from a GOP punch line into a Democratic Party mantra; it’s embarrassing and it needs to stop. The Democratic Party in Utah is hurting. We have consistently conceded the debate in the battle of ideas.

Chairman Wayne Holland says he isn't surprised that Bell, a former communications director for the Democrats, is coming after his job. But he describes the party's approach as patience, not defeatism. Then he immediately went ugly all over Bell in the Tribune:

I expect Jeff to do bizarre things. I was warned about that. I didn't have a problem with him running. Him not being truthful, that's a whole other matter."

Sunstone's tongue-in-cheek essays range from blacks and the Mormon priesthood, Mormons and first-time sex (titled "When Virgins Collide"), reviews of a new film about Joseph Smith, and divorce, spouse abuse and child abuse in the church. I'd call it the Christianity Today of the Mormon world.

They looked horrified. "Sunstone is hardly representative of Mormon thought," one apostle told me.

When they do, they get poetry, fiction, cartoons and news clips along with offbeat essays such as "Cross-Dressing and the LDS Church." . . .

Sunstone is a view into an alternate world where Mormon doctrines are taken seriously. Beliefs — such as a Mother God or the pre-existence of the human soul before birth in a "pre-mortal world" — are woven into the narrative as fact.

A top-line defensive player is something that has escaped us.

Weis snagged five-star linebacker out of [Hawaii], beating USC and BYU among others for what is believed to be the first Mormon in the program. A Mormon at a Catholic school is far less of a talking point than getting the defense shored up. Manti Teo could start from the jump.

Thou Fount also earned the No. 1 spot on the classical crossover chart, No. 8 on the contemporary Christian chart, and hit No. 126 overall.

Bob Ahlander, managing director for Deseret Book's music division, congradulated the choir for its broad appeal:

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has proven once again why it is America's choir.

Jeezy Creezies, who would have guessed that our little shruggy bear of a hiring whoopsit would grow up to become one of the most pervasive pieces of internet crapiana since the gif. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before someone buys up the rights to kariferrell.com to start hucking t-shirts that say "I can haz hotdog?" over a picture of Kareem-Adbul Jabar being shot at by the Death Star.

Four and a half years ago, Kari Ferrell was just another 17-year-old girl hanging out in Salt Lake City’s straight-edge scene. She lived with her dad—her parents were divorced, and her mom had remarried and moved to Arizona—and spent a lot of time on MySpace. That was where she met Casey Hansen, now 24. “She just kind of messaged me out of nowhere, commenting on my profile picture,” Mr. Hansen said. “It was of Santa Claus holding a sign that said, ‘I don’t exist.’” The two started dating.

After trashing Hansen's life, Ferrell moved on to New York where she preyed on young hipsters, who were charmed by her frank sexuality and claims of music-scene contacts. When that failed, she told them she was dying of cancer.

It’s likely that when Kari Ferrell walked into the Vice magazine offices in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last month to interview for an administrative assistant job, they thought they’d hit the jackpot. Ms. Ferrell—petite, 22 years old, of Korean heritage—had a huge tattoo of a dragon across her chest and a cute pixie haircut. She was talkative, funny, charming, adorable. She had a tattoo on her back that read “I Love Beards.” She told them she’d been working for the New York office of the concert promotion company GoldenVoice, which puts on huge rock festivals like Coachella near Palm Springs, Calif., and that she’d moved to New York from Utah just a few months earlier. They hired her on the spot.

Salt Lake Police Sergeant Fred Ross told the Observer that his department is looking for Ferrell and will fly to New York or Philadelphia or where ever she has landed to retrieve her.

On Friday Sen. A.G. Crowe will introduce SB 152, which, with the addition of a few bells and whistles, is essentially the same truth-in-advertising bill that passed the Utah legislature, only to be vetoed by Gov. Jon Huntsman.

The larger question is: Didn’t Louisiana learn its lesson in 2006?

Three years ago, with the help of Louisiana lawmakers, who must be even more docile tools than those in Utah, Thompson got video game regulation approved. But a federal judge familiar with the Constitution later shot it down. Before it was over, Thompson got into an ugly dispute with the Louisiana Attorney General.

If you recall, Thomspon's most-recent Utah experience climaxed with Senate President threatening to turn him over to the Attorney General for harassment prosecution after Thompson spammed lawmakers with erotic video-game images.

Good guys:
Rep. Jason Chafettz
Rep. Rob Bishop
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff
Founding Fathers
Paul Revere
Minutemen
Guys dressed like Indians
Glen Beck

Bad guys (not necessarily in this order):
Barack Obama
Sen. Bob Bennett (common jeer: "He's useless!")
Gov. Jon Huntsman
Sen. Orrin Hatch
Rep. Jim Matheson
Liberals
Environmentalists
People who pay too much in taxes
18th Century British Army

I'm just exercising my Second Amendment right.

This is the way I dressed to go to work today.

My first reaction was: ‘Why would you do something so stupid?' Then, I'm like, ‘How? How did you do this? How was this able to be accessed when I send you to school and there's supposed to be a filtration system?

I asked you before to remove me from your mailing list. I supported your bill, but because of the harassment will not again. If I am not removed, I will turn you over to the AG for legal action.

• Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka brings Thompson to Utah to write a law regulating video games.
• Jack and Gayle, using Rep. Mike Morely, Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert and Sen. Chris Buttars as tools, push a constitutionally questionable bill through the Legislature.
• Gov. Jon Huntsman, on the advice of A.G. Mark Shurtleff, vetoes Thompson's bill.
• Thompson, for lack of a better term, loses his s*** and demands that the Lege override the veto.
• The rest, as they say, is history.

It appears to me that Mr. Waddoups would have Paul Revere arrested because his Midnight Ride was “disturbing the peace.” I look forward to my criminal prosecution in Utah.

Waddoups has given me a gift here. … This guy is upset that I’ve upset the cozy GOP applecart in Utah. I pray to God that Shurtleff will prosecute me…

He has the Snake River and the Columbia River to cross. I think he's going to need some help.

The struggle to block importation of foreign nuclear waste into Utah, led by U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson and Gov. Jon Huntsman is far from over.

At present, Idaho Lottery sales approximately up 1.5 percent for the current fiscal year over last year.

This corner of the southern Utah has since been immortalized by the painter Maynard Dixon, the novelist Zane Grey, the photographer Ansel Adams and countless Hollywood westerns. And yet, it still qualifies as the best-kept secret in the West. While millions of travelers are drawn every year to Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks, Grand Staircase-Escalante and its surrounding area offer a seemingly endless choice of natural wonders that lie blissfully forgotten and empty. It’s America’s Outback.

James Thurber, director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, says even Utah natives seldom return to the Beehive:

Nobody ever wants to leave Washington. You can't sell what they've learned in Washington back in Utah, in Provo or wherever.

Thurber says that the revolving door is like gravity, a law that cannot be changed. It's a cynical but accurate appraisal that I'll accept over the baloney spouted by the likes of Utah Sen. Bob Bennett.

Bennett, a powerful member of the Senate Banking Committee, has seen at least eight staffers become lobbyists, including three key aides who left to lobby against federal regulation for Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac. Bennett who has gotten $108,000 in donations — more than any other Republican — from the mortgage giants sees no problem.

Bennett argues with a straight face that having congressional staffers work for financial companies saves "everyone a lot of time and trouble by pointing out the realities of the way the government is structured."

Those structural "realities," we can presume, include giving Bob fat donations.

Bennett says being lobbied by old pals has another advantage:

I know them well enough to be able to say no to them without having to worry about it.

We are seeing some good results from a: the examples set by Jon Huntsman in Utah, Charlie Crist in Florida and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana head the list.

As to b, however, the results are not so good. On the $800 billion stimulus and now on the multi-trillion-budget, Republicans have made clear what they oppose, but not what they favour.

Rather than offer a grab bag of tax measures as our substitute stimulus, we should have rallied to a payroll tax holiday: a clear and powerful single alternative idea. Instead of fighting the science on climate change, we should champion nuclear power against the Obama administration's preference for costly, subsidized wind and solar power.

If you have two Mormons in the race, one could imagine you're diluting whatever religious opposition there might be. On the other hand, it could magnify that.

Ammunition is hard to come by, and the demand isn't getting smaller. Even with production increases, it is extremely difficult to get ammo.

Blue Light Special: The Sherman tank parked by S&E's entrance is still available to mow down those Democrat human-wave assaults. (You thought zombies were bad?)

Jeff Spencer of Kent Shooters Supply in Ogden says he hasn't seen demand as high in his three decades behind the counter. It's the (choose an expletive) Democrats, he says:

That party is very anti-gun and anti-Second Amendment. All you have to do is look at what they've said and done in the past and you know what they're gonna do again.

Retailers all over the state say that guns with which to burn all that ammo are also flying out the door. And it's not just the fun assault-type weapons that Democrats like to ban, but everything from .17 cal. rimfire on up.

When I reminded a shop owner (who had but one rifle left in his rack) that the Bush-Cheney regime's internal security obsession seemed to have been more of a threat to gun ownership than pinko Democrats, he set me straight:

The Patriot Act was bad, but Democrats just plain hate guns, you can't reason with them.

Because it didn't cover all the Paiute Bands, like the Koosharem and Kanosh, they got up and walked out saying it wasn't worth seeing. It showed a smidge of the Indian Peaks Band but since not all of the Bands were highlighted, some were disappointed.

As for me, I liked it.

Cannon explained "it's hard work" for aides to stick with a lame duck through the sunset of his political life (all that sobbing and teeth gnashing), "and we paid them what was available, consistent with what would enhance their careers."

After losing to Jason Chaffetez, Cannon's nine top employees saw their pay jump by more than a third. Press secretary Omar Rachid had his pay shoot up more than 70 percent, which is odd since no one wanted to talk to Cannon anymore.

Had self-proclaimed fiscal conservative Cannon not handed out the lavish raises and bonuses, the left over staff money would have gone toward paying off the national debt.

I guess I'm a threat to the federal government, but it was certainly unintentional. I think its all part of a grass-roots effort to show our frustration.

It could be worse. Chapter 13 trustee Kevin Anderson says some folks are too hard up to even go bankrupt:

You know it [the economy] is bad when things are so tough that a lot of people can't even file for Chapter 13 [because they don't have jobs].

Unless the weather goes monstrous for the rest of April, most likely we are not even close to any kind of flood scenario.

It's hard to predict. I've heard from other states. They would consider "flat" the new "up."

The police officers of Salt Lake City are not going to be put in the position to violate the human rights of any person.

Several other police departments across the state also are refusing to participate, including Noel's own Kanab P.D. Noel is fuming and has threatened retribution.

If they want to play hardball, we can do that. The first thing that comes to mind is jail reimbursement.

But Legislative leadership balked at any such pay back and Noel later backed away from his threat.

That's what I see. I see a bunch of people who merely want to profess their love for each other and want state law to recognize that. Is that so wrong?

Of course, these attacks don’t always work out. Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, a veteran of party politics, quickly turned a Chaffetz challenge against his attacker. The Utah freshman also appeared flustered when Kilroy left the floor recently as he launched another line of questioning about her AIG vote.

Thus far he has been pretty good at listening to the generals. I just hope that continues. My advice to the president is don't let politics drive the timeline.

Chaffetz (in all of his worldly experience) thinks he’s finally got a chance to advice President Obama about something (yeah, right) and he tells him not to let politics drive him? I mean, because we all know Chaffetz never gave a moment’s consideration to anything dealing with the budget that wasn’t politically driven. Uh, huh. Ri-i-i-ight.

The GOP has to unite and focus on mid-term congressional elections, Romney said:

When you're in the minority, you band together and you work for those races.That's what I'm doing.

About the only thing reasonably certain is that Romney is passing on using his immense popularity in Utah as a route to the Senate. He has sold his Deer Valley home, above, for "a little less" than the $5.25 million asking price to Race-car driver and money manager Hal Prewitt.

With the sale of his Boston home about to close, Romney maintains multi-million-dollar residences in California and New Hampshire.

Oddly, no one seems sure who is supposed to collect the $81,000. The BLM says it's the U.S. Attorney's Office. The U.S. Attorney's office says the bill has nothing to do with its case. And U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman is starting to worry that he'll look like the bad guy for going after DeChristopher, "There's a perception of heavy-handedness," he lamented to the Tribune.

LDS leaders affirm church's devotion to Jesus

Dogs are less trouble, they declared. Dogs don't talk back and we never have to ground them.

Dallin went on to praise LDS baby factory couples as . . .

an unselfish group who are willing to surrender their personal priorities and serve the Lord by bearing and rearing the children our Heavenly Father sends to their care.

Maybe people should be required to have a dog before they have children.

City Councilman Soren Simonsen is proposing to install electric-car recharging stations to encourage the use of non-polluting volt-mobiles within the city. Electro-commuters would juice up with a swipe of a credit card at equipped parking meters.

There are a still a lot of unknowns. What is known is that we have a growing interest — I would say it has become quite large — to look at alternative fuels and alternative transportation.

Mainly these are really short trips. We're going to be taking people from a bar to a restaurant or the symphony to a restaurant.

2009 (now)
Nevada
Washington
Alaska
Oregon

2010
California
Hawaii
Montana
Colorado

2011
Wyoming
Idaho
Arizona

2013
Utah

2014
New Mexico

After all, this is a guy that got 90 percent of the vote in the presidential primary in the state and raised unprecedented amounts of money from Republicans in Utah.

Noel, a Kanab Republican who is also the chief of that area's water district, applied to the state for permission to transfer water rights from Kane County to Emery County to slack the thirst of the two nuclear reactors that Tilton, a former lawmaker from Springville shown at right, hopes to build near Green River. Tilton began pushing for the nukes when he served on the committee that regulates energy development.

By the way, most of the power produced by the Green River-quaffing reactors would go to California.

This shows the deep concern we have on the matter. We don’t think this error is glib or cute or humorous. We understand people will take offense to the error. We ourselves are offended as a department for this error. We have a deep regret that it appeared in today’s paper.

It's a puzzling pattern of deaths: three people found incinerated in their cars, on March 9th, March 20th and April 2nd, in widely separated parts of Utah. Police investigators have suggested suicide, but some relatives insist it's a series of horrific murders.

The relatives have no concrete evidence to back up their suspicions, and they've learned nothing that connects the three victims. The family we spoke with has been at odds with the FLDS polygamy group, but they doubt that's a factor.

1. UFOs ray gunned the cars and occupants to destroy evidence of abduction and anal probing.
2. Flame thrower-armed zombies.
3. Dugway weapons research gone awry.
   
4. A dragon is on the loose.

I haven't heard a single person talk about taking away drivers' licenses or confiscating cars. People ought to know that. That's important.

• Waddoups was snubbed. The Guv didn't invite him to the festive bill signing. Huntsman, Rep. Greg Hughes and Sen. (and ousted Senate prez) John Valentine gathered at the New Yorker club to give each other knuckle bumps in celebration of their "modernizing" Utah's liquor laws. If you remember, the Legislative session opened with Waddoups attacking Huntsman's quest to get rid of clubs.*
• Riley Roche has gotten the DNews' new "tone." The story is tailored to what Editor Joe Cannon thinks Mormons want to read.

Jason Chaffetz has gotten a lot of attention for his use of Twitter since being elected as Congressman for Utah’s 3rd District. I’ve followed him for a while now, and we have had some interesting mini-conversations. I must have offended him recently, because I found out this morning that he unfollowed and blocked me!

Lawmakers bypassed public debate in funneling $100,000 into a Scientology program of sauna, antioxidants and, presumably, vigorous couch jumping. Rep. Eric Hutching, admitted the program was never discussed in committee:

It was just arranged, I guess, through leadership.

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff backs the program and says two, yet-to-be-named, "Hollywood stars" will hold fundraisers to treat more Utah cops. The detoxification treatment was devised by L. Ron Hubbard, science-fiction writer and founder of the Church of Scientology. Scientologist actor Tom Cruise has raised money for the program.

I was struck by the ideological diversity within a faith that often seems to lack much, despite its growth around the world. There was almost no ethnic diversity, but the crowd of students, faculty, and area residents who came to the conference included the publisher of a Mormon anarchist journal (who knew?) as well as a polygamy advocate, and a variety of bloggers and opinion makers who span the political spectrum.

No word on whether Gore turned the tables and asked the No.1 environmental question of the church honchos:

When are you guys going to stop making babies like there's no tomorrow?

It's a good time for any[one] to be hearing this message — and certainly those in charge of 13 million people.

Can't wait until Mormon General Conference to hear the church go green.

Ordering closure before he even had an attorney general to evaluate the legal challenges and obstacles to detainee cases probably was not very prudent. . . .

Closing the only Defense Department Strategic Interrogation facility we have - a facility with a well-trained security force, secure infrastructure and humane conditions — will leave us no options outside U.S. soil.

It is important for leaders not to govern by what is popular now in an effort to appease the polls or those abroad. . . .

I would ask the president to rethink his deadline of closing Guantanamo in less than 12 months. This is a usable facility that has merit and operational worthiness.

I am gone in a remote wilderness where I can return my body and soul to nature.

Ogden-based freelancer Ramin Rahimian.
Djamila Grossman, Ogden Standard-Examiner.
Mike Terry, Deseret News.

I don’t take what Jack Thompson says – give it much credence. This latest demand that I prosecute certain crimes shows me that he knows about as much about criminal law as he does about constitutional law.

If there is anything I can do to help you, as a lifelong Republican, to defeat Mr. Shurtleff should he decide to run against you, please let me know.

Crime: Nicholas T. Murdock, 28, allegedly liked stomping on the gas in his Beemer while taking a corner on Wasatch Boulevard in Holladay. He hit and badly injured a bicyclist. Police say Murdock stopped only long enough to cover his license plate before fleeing the scene of the accident.

Punishment: Murdock is charged with three misdemeanors — including obstructing justice.

Crime: A teenager is accused of tagging three police cars with graffiti — at a West Valley police station. Using investigative skills developed by CSI, a cop arriving at the station notes that a kid is spray painting a police car. The damage is estimated at $900.

Punishment: The cheeky teen is socked with a felony.

Finally, is it just me, or does Murdock, above right, bear a resemblence to Billy "The Kid" Bonney?

Obama during a Utah campaign stop.

Congressman Jim Matheson, who is starting to learn it's can actually be good to be a Democrat, is delighted:

This is good news on two fronts. First, it adds to the Department of Energy's budget to accomplish the long-overdue remediation of the project. Secondly, it means my deadline for completion of the cleanup by 2019 is being backed up by the resources necessary to meet it.

The people of Moab have put up with this problem far too long, and I'm encouraged the Energy Department is now stepping up in a major way to eliminate this menace.

Actually, it’s bizarre. I’m nobody in New York, and I get off the plane in Salt Lake and can get recognized immediately. Not as much with my long hair, though, which is lovely.

Many Mormons recognize Swenson from LDS films, including the faith-promoting ones shown on Temple Square.

I don’t practice Mormonism at all anymore, but I grew up in a Mormon family, and my cousin still is, and he made this comedy and asked if I’d star in it. So my friends and I wrote a screenplay for "Sons of Provo," about a Mormon boy band.

He also has appeared in "testimony-building" films of stories from the Book of Mormon.

I’ve played prophets from the Book of Mormon, I’ve played Jesus. Matter of fact, if you go to Salt Lake to the big Mormon visitors’ center, they play a big movie and I’m the voice of Jesus in that. Of course, they’ll probably shut it down knowing I’m doing "Hair" on Broadway.

A Deseret News-KSL-TV poll shows that nearly two out of three Utahns think it was a good idea to strip Sen. Chris Buttars of leadership positions after he made virulent anti-gay statements to a documentary filmmaker. In a nutshell, Buttars said gay rights supporters are immoral, indulged in "pig sex," compared them to Muslim extremists and proclaimed them "the greatest threat to America."

Senate President Mike Waddoups won his top leadership position for defending Buttars against similar actions taken the previous session by then-President John Valentine after Buttars tried to intimidate a judge who ruled against one of the West Jordan lawmaker's chronies.

Even after reluctantly removing Buttars from one of his power positions, Waddoups, above, continued to defend the man he calls his best friend, saying that Buttars' constituents and many lawmakers agreed with his statements.

Waddoups scolded DNews reporter Lisa Riley Roche for including the Buttars question in the survey:

All you're going to do is make it nasty again for someone who doesn't deserve it. [Buttars is] an intelligent man. He has convictions that he stands up for. He understands his job is to represent his people and he does it the best he can.