Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is still awaiting his confirmation as U.S. ambassador to China, but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy some good Chinese food. POLITICO's Playbook noted that Huntsman was spotted Sunday night in a Upenn sweatshirt (his alma mater and that of his dad) eating at Meiwah, one of the best Chinese food locales in Washington.

Former Republican Party Chairman and now Deseret News editor Joe Cannon also liked to dine at the restaurant near Georgetown when he was a Washington lobbyist.


-- Thomas Burr

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, made an odd comparison Thursday on Fox Business channel, saying that passage of the climate change/cap-and-trade legislation was akin to the death of pop icon Michael Jackson.

Fox Business had just reported on Jackson's death when Bishop appeared to complain about the House fast-tracking the energy legislation, reports climateprogress.org:

Host David ASMAN: Congressman Bishop is there any chance at all that this thing won't pass tomorrow?

BISHOP: Well there's hope, we'll see if -- I mean you guys covered a national tragedy today, let's hope we don't give you a tragedy tomorrow as well.
(Asman chuckles)

The House passed the legislation Friday night.

-- Thomas Burr

A crocheting competition would have proved more action packed than the Salt Lake County Council's recent public hearing on raising property taxes.

No one -- aside from a smattering of staffers, county department heads and beat reporters -- showed up.

So without a word from the public, the council ratified an earlier vote to increase taxes by $5.5 million a year to cover debt payments on Zoo, Arts and Parks projects, municipal building bonds and golf courses. That's about $10 annually for the owner of a $250,000 home.

But even without a crowd, council members took several minutes apiece -- and sometimes more -- to defend their decision. Democrats favored the tax hike. Republicans opposed it.

Democratic Councilwoman Jenny Wilson called the Dems' vote a "profile of courage." Despite the potential for political consequences, she said, the new majority had shored up a county budget that couldn’t be cut much deeper.

Her colleague, Democratic Councilman Joe Hatch, proved more combative. Without any specific alternatives from the Mayor’s Office or council Republicans, he said, Democrats had to act.

Letting the possibility of a tax bump pass by, Hatch explained, without knowing where the next cuts might come from isn't "fiscally conservative, it is fiscally irresponsible."

But Republicans wouldn't budge. In fact, GOP Councilman Max Burdick defended his position by aligning with another county Democrat: Peter Corroon. The mayor has opposed higher taxes.

Time will tell whether Corroon, who isn't saying if he will veto the tax hike, will fall into Hatch's "fiscally irresponsible" category, too.

-- Jeremiah Stettler

Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson angered Utah Democrats when he did it. But Mayor Ralph Becker slipped across a union picket line to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Providence, R.I., last weekend with little notice.

"We were doing our best to not cross the picket line and only cross it when absolutely necessary," Becker spokeswoman Marla Kennedy said. A firefighter union, in a labor dispute with the Providence mayor, picketed outside the conference.

While there, Becker sponsored a successful resolution to speed federal funding of streetcars (the city plans to get a line to Sugar House). He also was elected to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Advisory Board.

In 2004, Anderson attended a mayoral conference in Boston, crossing a police-union picket line and arranging for Mitt Romney to speak at the event as a replacement for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who refused to violate the union boundary.

The next month, Anderson sparked a squabble among Utah's delegation to the Democratic National Convention.

-- Rosemary Winters

Just hours after Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon announced that his administration would have to cut expenses even further to survive the nation's recession, the lights went out at the County Government Center.

Computers went blank, escalators halted and traffic snarled at the bustling intersection of State Street and 2100 South as the signals lost power.

The outage Tuesday was so severe, in fact, that the County Council was forced to cancel its afternoon meetings. The move delayed, for a week, the council's deliberations about whether to approve nearly $5 million in mayor-recommended budget cuts.

The mayor's chief administrative officer, Doug Willmore, joked outside the darkened council chambers that the blackout was among those cost-shaving measures.

"This is the extent of our budget cuts," he mused.

Willmore better hope the council doesn't get any ideas.

-- Jeremiah Stettler

Dance lovers in Utah County can make state Senate President Michael Waddoups part of their world in an unexpected way.

The Taylorsville politician is starring as King Triton in today's free performances of The Little Mermaid at 4 and 7 p.m. put on by The Dance Makers Studio at The Covey Center for the Arts in Provo.

The production will incorporate music from the Disney film and stage productions, and showcases several styles of dance.

Waddoups, though, won't be dancing, but he likely will have the crown and trident.

Audience members will have to wait to see if he will truly get into the character and appear topless as the overprotective merking does in Disney's cartoon depiction of the classic fairytale.

-- Sheena McFarland

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, poked fun at fellow House Republican Phil Gingrey of Georgia on Tuesday, taking aim at his drawl.

"I, unfortunately, don't have the wonderful accent that my good friend from Georgia has, but I will try and slur some words together to see if I can emulate that in some small way," Bishop said on the House floor.

Gingrey, showing a bit of southern charm, did not fire back.

-- Thomas Burr

There's little love lost between Provo's mayor and its Municipal Council.

Some of the jabs have been good-natured, such as Mayor Lewis Billings' remarks that his budget for awards to outgoing council members was paltry compared with the council's, to more hard-edged, such as when the council hired its own financial policy adviser to get around what it said was "filtered" information from Billings' staff.

The tension flared up again recently when the council voted on an ordinance redefining the term "booted" in a parking ordinance. The change was needed because of a new device that a towing company can clamp on to the hood or trunk of an illegally parked car. Unlike a boot, which leaves the car immobile until the owner pays the fee, this device would allow the driver to get on his way while a GPS device tracks his whereabouts. Billings said it would let people who park in the wrong spots still get to appointments while paying their fine at a more convenient time.

"You'll all have firsthand experience with this," Billings joked, "as each of your cars is being fitted with it tonight."

-- Donald W. Meyers