Seems like Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman can't keep his name out of the papers these days.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich dropped Huntsman's name on Sunday, praising him for endorsing same-sex civil unions - and noting that such a stance has not hurt the governor's popularity in the reddest of red states.

Rich concludes that Huntsman's altogether agreeable stance, at odds with the loonier factions of his Republican Party, may eventually save the G.O.P. - and be good for the nation:

As marital equality haltingly but inexorably spreads state by state for gay Americans in the years to come, Utah will hardly be in the lead to follow Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont. But the fact that it too is taking its first steps down that road is extraordinary. It is justice, not a storm, that is gathering. Only those who have spread the poisons of bigotry and fear have any reason to be afraid.

Labels: Jon Huntsman

It's official - Gov. Jon Huntsman signed the massive revision of Utah's liquor laws on Monday, in a ceremony at the New Yorker restaurant/bar that was notable for a lack of alcohol being served.

As of July 1 - just three months and a day from now - Utah will be not quite so weird when it comes to getting a drink. The byzantine "private club" rules will be abolished (except for clubs that want to keep them), the "Zion Curtain" that separates restaurants from the liquor will come down (although, in the law's idiotic two-steps-forward, one-step-back fashion, new restaurants will have the alcohol preparation will be moved to a hidden room), and anyone who looks under 35 will have their driver's license electronically scanned before entering a bar.

So start the countdown: 92 days until we have (comparative) freedom to drink in Utah!

Labels: alcohol, alcohol laws, Jon Huntsman, Utah Legislature

"Color me surprised," says the writer of GamePolitics.com. "I did not think that Huntsman would buck the legislature on this one."

"This one" is HB353, a bill that was intended to punish businesses who sold M-rated videogames to youngsters - but, because of its vague wording, could have applied to theaters playing R-rated movies, bookstores and all manner of media.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman vetoed HB353 on Wednesday. In a statement notifying the legislature of the veto, Huntsman wrote: "While protecting children from inappropriate materials is a laudable goal, the language of this bill is so broad that it likely will be struck down by the courts as unconstitutional."

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Michael Morley, R-Spanish Fork, blamed the veto on an e-mail lobbying campaign by "a lot of gamers that misrepresent the bill."

But it wasn't just gamers - who have followed the legislation closely (here, here and here, for example) - who thought the bill was stupid. The Salt Lake Tribune's editorial writers today called the vetoed bill "a bullet dodged" that would have had the unintended consequence of forcing stores to throw out industry ratings systems - making it harder for parents to filter out age-inappropriate games, DVDs and movies.

A tip to Rep. Morley and other legislators: Next time, don't let a disbarred Florida lawyer write your bill for you.

Labels: Jon Huntsman, Utah Legislature, videogames

The pressure is on Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman from video gamers, who are urging the Guv to veto a bill aimed at retailers who get caught selling violent games to minors.

A group called the Video Game Voters Network has launched an e-mail campaign, asking people to send letters to Huntsman in opposition to HB353 - saying the bill "will unfairly expose Utah video game stores to frivolous lawsuits."

The bill, if signed by Huntsman, would raise the possible fines to retailers who establish policies to prevent selling M-rated games to underage customers and then sell such games to minors - under the state's "false advertising" statutes.

HB353 is widely hated in the gaming community. Here are some examples:

• Macworld.com writer Peter Cohen opines that such laws are usually tossed out in court - and hopes "that some day legislators finally get the message and start working with the industry instead of pointlessly railing against it."
• Ben Kuchera, writing on the Ars Technica site, says the legislation won't stop retailers (it may, in fact, work against efforts to educate parents about the rating system for video games), and may end up costing state governments in court costs.
• On the site PS3 Informer, writer Kris Erickson calls out the bill's author - anti-gamer crusader and disbarred Florida lawyer Jack Thompson - by saying the HB353 will destroy the video-game ratings system, and "help push a conservative agenda of stirring up moral panic and building support for an eventual ban of mature games entirely, something that Thompson has publicly stated he would like to see happen."

Labels: Jon Huntsman, videogames

Rachel Maddow, on her MSNBC show Tuesday, took a swing at an impossible task: Explaining Utah's liquor laws to the nation.

She ran through some of the stranger aspects of Utah's alcohol policy over the years - private clubs, mini-bottles, etc. - before describing Monday's announcement that the Utah Legislature is doing away with the private club law, but adding a few other wrinkles.

Maddow enlisted the aid of Rocky Anderson, Salt Lake City's former mayor, to go over the new bill. Anderson praised Gov. Jon Huntsman's efforts to bring Utah's liquor laws into the 20th century (almost into the 21st century), but also remarked on how a big step forward - like eliminating the private clubs - doesn't come without a small step backward.

Maddow talked about that step backward - how new restaurants will have to mix drinks in a separate room, away from patrons' view - by quoting (blush) my Culture Vulture column. Here's the whole clip:

Labels: alcohol, alcohol laws, Jon Huntsman, Rocky Anderson, Utah Legislature

The Utah Legislature delights in teasing us, holding out hope that some progressive bit of legislation might make it through to becoming a law - only to pull it away, like Lucy Van Pelt's football just before Charlie Brown is about to kick it.

So the news Monday that the House Business and Labor Committee voted 8-5 to approve HB347, which would put an end to Utah's idiotic system of "private clubs" selling hard liquor, should be met with a bit of hope and a whole lot of skepticism.

For one thing, the anti-alcohol crusaders aren't going to stop fighting - and their allies could easily block the bill on the House floor or in the Senate. For another, the idea that club memberships would be replaced by electronic scanners that read your driver's licence (and then store the information for a week) borders on the Orwellian.

The move has the backing of Gov. Jon Huntsman, who on his recent trip to D.C. became quite the media star - appearing on MSNBC to talk about his fellow Republicans' resistance to President Barack Obama's stimulus plan, dissing GOP congressional leaders to both The Washington Times and Politico. (Between these remarks and his recent endorsement of civil unions for gay couples, Huntsman soon may become more popular outside the Utah Republican Party than in it.)

Apparently being a reasonable-sounding Republican is sort of like a talking dog - so unusual it's newsworthy.

Labels: alcohol, alcohol laws, Jon Huntsman, politics, Utah Legislature

From Tuesday night's open house at the Governor's mansion:


That's Gov. Jon Huntsman and his wife Mary Kaye on the left, Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert and his wife Jeanette on the right, and yours truly in the middle (and dressed a bit too casually for the occasion).

Labels: government, Jon Huntsman

Before last night, I had only set foot in the old Kearns Mansion - the official residence of Utah's governor - once, and that was in the midst of the house's restoration after the 1993 Christmas tree fire that gutted the Grand Hall and nearly destroyed the dome over the three-story staircase.

Last night, Gov. Jon Huntsman - in a holiday tradition going back longer than my tenure in Utah - opened up the mansion for invited guests, including pretty much every reporter in the state. (There's an old joke, unfortunately true, about how they call it a free press because we always show up for the free food.)

Seeing the mansion dolled up in its Christmas finery was a treat, though. I counted four Christmas trees on the first floor alone, with the biggest one (pictured) in the Grand Hall - decorated with badges from police and fire departments from across Utah, as well as a Utah Highway Patrolman's hat, a dalmatian plush toy and other symbols of first responders.

The mansion staff conducts free public tours - but there's only one left before Christmas, on Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. The mansion is at 603 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City.

Labels: government, Jon Huntsman

You walk into the lavish lobby of the Grand America hotel, and you have to look around to find the party going on.

Of course, the Utah Republican Party doesn't have as much to celebrate as the Democrats a few blocks away.

The Utah Republicans defended their two congressional seats, and got Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and attorney general Mark Shurtleff re-elected. But with Utah going for John McCain, while the majority of the nation went to Barack Obama, there wasn't the same cheering and exuberance that the Democrats were feeling.

There was plenty of hand-shaking, like when Huntsman ran into Utah's newest congressman, Jason Chaffetz. But seldom have a group that have won so much acted like they lost.

The vibe was also less gracious. While the Utah Democrats listened - and largely applauded - McCain's concession speech, the Utah Republicans missed a large chunk of Obama's victory speech a half-hour later. Instead, they heard from Utah's newest congressman, Jason Chaffetz, who prefunctorily acknowledged Obama's victory and then made this promise: "I will fight tooth and nail to reject socialism."

That's reaching across the aisle for you.

Labels: Barack Obama, Jason Chaffetz, John McCain, Jon Huntsman, politics