Utah: Heavy early-season snowfall closes roads (Video)

Utah – Heavy early-season snowfall closes roads – Video:

Not something we see too often just two days into fall, says meteorologist.

Autumn cancelled – Straight to winter – Snowplows deployed

Heavy early-season snowfall forced closure of state Route 190 and Route 224 at Guardsman Pass, according to the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).
.

UDOT also reported that state Route 224 just past Park City Hall in Summit County was closed along with Albion Basin Road, above Alta Ski Resort.

Officials in Alta reported 8 inches of snow on the ground in places.

Read moreUtah: Heavy early-season snowfall closes roads (Video)

Shocking Climate Change Update

GOT FOOD?


polar-bear

“Megablizzard” forecast for eastern Australia (Ice Age Now, June 23, 2014):

“Best snowfalls in a decade.” Maybe the “storm of the century.”

Aleutian volcanoes waking up (Ice Age Now, June 23, 2014):

Five volcanoes now simultaneously active, the most activity in 26 years.

Record snowfall in Norway (Ice Age Now, June 23, 2014):

First time since records began that snow has been recorded in June.

Surprise Snowstorm Clobbers Rockies (Ice Age Now, June 23, 2014):

June 20, 2014 – “A bizarre June snowstorm hit Glacier National Park in Montana and parts of Utah and Idaho this week,

Confirmed – Earth’s protective magnetic shield is weakening (Ice Age Now, June 22, 2014):

The most dramatic declines are occurring over the Western Hemisphere, says European Space Agency.

Read moreShocking Climate Change Update

Wild Horses Targeted For Roundup In Utah Rangeland Clash

Two of a band of wild horses graze in the Nephi Wash area outside Enterprise, Utah

Wild horses targeted for roundup in Utah rangeland clash (Reuters, April 12, 2014):

A Utah county, angry over the destruction of federal rangeland that ranchers use to graze cattle, has started a bid to round up federally protected wild horses it blames for the problem in the latest dustup over land management in the U.S. West.

Close to 2,000 wild horses are roaming southern Utah’s Iron County, well over the 300 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has dubbed as appropriate for the rural area’s nine designated herd management zones, County Commissioner David Miller said.

County officials complain the burgeoning herd is destroying vegetation crucial to ranchers who pay to graze their cattle on the land, and who have already been asked to reduce their herds to cope with an anticipated drought.

Wild horse preservation groups say any attempt to remove the horses would be a federal crime.

Read moreWild Horses Targeted For Roundup In Utah Rangeland Clash

60 Bald Eagles Dead In Utah Since December (Not From West Nile Virus)

Bald-Eagle

TV: Bald eagles dying at rate “much higher than normal” and it’s not from West Nile virus as previously claimed — Now around 60 dead in Utah since December — “We feel helpless, we don’t have a lot of answers” (VIDEO) (ENENews, Feb 18, 2014):

KSL, Feb. 18, 2014: Lead blamed for latest bald eagle deaths in Utah […] not West Nile virus […] “It’s frustrating and it’s scary,” [Buz Marthaler] said. “Typically, we get eagles in this time of year for fractures.” […] The center has lost eight bald eagles to lead poisoning since December, which is much higher than normal, Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah officials said. The center averages maybe three deaths from lead poisoning a year. “It seems like it’s increasing year after year,” Marthaler said,” and it’s not just eagles.” […] Charles Hardy, public policy director for Gun Owners of Utah […] believes the tests on eagles that found signs of lead poisoning are not conclusive […] lead in its solid form does not spread and contaminate very easily […]

KSL, Feb. 18, 2014:

Read more60 Bald Eagles Dead In Utah Since December (Not From West Nile Virus)

Highest Worldwide Radiation Levels Were Directly Over Salt Lake City And Surrounding Area On March 20, 2011 (Incl. Fukushima)

Gov’t map shows highest radiation levels were directly over Salt Lake City, Utah and surrounding area on March 20, 2011 — Most intense concentration of anywhere in world, including Fukushima (GRAPHIC) ENENews, Feb 18, 2014):

Modélisation par Météo France de la dispersion des rejets radioactifs dans l’atmosphère à l’échelle globale suite à l’accident nucléaire de Fukushima – Situation le dimanche 20 mars 2011 à 12h UTC, Published Jan. 29, 2012:

(Translation: ‘France Weather’ modeling of the dispersion of radioactive releases into the atmosphere on a global scale due to the Fukushima nuclear accident – Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 12h UTC)

Highest Worldwide Radiation Levels Were Directly Over Salt Lake City And Surrounding Area On March 20, 2011 (Incl. Fukushima)

More from the Salt Lake City-area: TV: Bald eagles dying at rate “much higher than normal” and it’s not from West Nile virus as previously claimed — Now around 60 dead in Utah since December — “We feel helpless, we don’t have a lot of answers” (VIDEO)

Utah Is Ending Homelessness By Giving People Homes

From the article:

“In eight years, Utah has quietly reduced homelessness by 78 percent, and is on track to end homelessness by 2015.

How did Utah accomplish this? Simple. Utah solved homelessness by giving people homes. In 2005, Utah figured out that the annual cost of E.R. visits and jail says for homeless people was about $16,670 per person, compared to $11,000 to provide each homeless person with an apartment and a social worker. So, the state began giving away apartments, with no strings attached. Each participant in Utah’s Housing First program also gets a caseworker to help them become self-sufficient, but the keep the apartment even if they fail. The program has been so successful that other states are hoping to achieve similar results with programs modeled on Utah’s.”

Utah is Ending Homelessness by Giving People Homes (Nation Of Change, Jan 18, 2014):

Earlier this month, Hawaii State representative Tom Bower (D) began walking the streets of his Waikiki district with a sledgehammer, and smashing shopping carts used by homeless people. “Disgusted” by the city’s chronic homelessness problem, Bower decided to take matters into his own hands — literally. He also took to rousing homeless people if he saw them sleeping at bus stops during the day.

Read moreUtah Is Ending Homelessness By Giving People Homes

U.S. Congress Pushes To Sell Off Our NATIONAL PARKS To Reduce Deficit (Video)


YouTube Added: 23.10.2013

Description:

Congress held discussions to sell the National Parks during the government shutdown through the Disposal of Excess Federal Lands Act, spearheaded by Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).

The sale would cover national parks in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, & Wyoming as a measure to “reduce the federal deficit.” We discuss the proposal on this Buzzsaw news clip with Tyrel Ventura and Tabetha Wallace.

Watch the full episode here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8_FGH…

Federal Framework Being Set Up Enabling The U.S. Secret Service To Arrest Sheriffs

Related info:

Utah Sheriffs Association To Obama: From Our Cold Dead Hands


 

Federal Framework Being Set Up To Arrest Sheriffs (Modern Survival Blog, March 30, 2013):

Colorado, and apparently Texas (next) are being targeted with an attempt to set up a federal authority framework that will enable Secret Service agents (not just those guarding the president), and others of the U.S. Secret Service including uniformed division officers, physical security technicians and specialists, and other ‘special officers’, to arrest and remove an elected sheriff for refusing to enforce the law (or anyone breaking the law).The bills being introduced defines law as including any rule, regulation, executive order, court order, statute or constitutional provision.

Why are they doing this? Here’s why…

It would establish federal authority police powers in a State, enabling an enforcement arm reporting directly to the president (the Secret Service).

It would potentially lead to enabling the president / executive branch to theoretically override the actions and preventative measures that are now being taken by many States throughout the country who are trying to preserve 2nd Amendment gun rights and who are prohibiting the enforcement of unconstitutional law passed by Congress or pushed by executive order.

As some of you may know, a growing list of sheriffs (more than 340 so far) across the country have expressed that they will not enforce a Washington mandate that clearly violates the Second Amendment.

Many State laws to preserve gun rights are gaining momentum. States include Montana, Ohio, Kentucky, Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Michigan, Utah, and New Mexico.

Read moreFederal Framework Being Set Up Enabling The U.S. Secret Service To Arrest Sheriffs

What Does It Mean that Residents in All 50 States Have Filed Petitions to Secede?

What Does It Mean that Residents in All 50 States Have Filed Petitions to Secede? (ZeroHedge, Nov 16, 2012):

A lot of attention is being given to the fact that residents in all 50 states have filed petitions to secede from the United States.

Daily Caller reports:

By 6:00 a.m. EST Wednesday, more than 675,000 digital signatures appeared on 69 separate secession petitions covering all 50 states, according to a Daily Caller analysis of requests lodged with the White House’s “We the People” online petition system.

***

Petitions from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North CarolinaTennessee and Texas residents have accrued at least 25,000 signatures, the number the Obama administration says it will reward with a staff review of online proposals. (RELATEDWill Texas secede? Petition triggers White House review)

The Texas petition leads all others by a wide margin.

***

States whose active petitions have not yet reached the 25,000 signature threshold include Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

***

Fourteen states are represented by at least two competing petitions. The extra efforts from two states — Missouri and South Carolina — would add enough petitions to warrant reviews by the Obama administration if they were combined into petitions launched earlier.

Other states with multiple efforts include Alaska, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

As Google notes, web searches for the term “secession” are being run in a number of states:

Read moreWhat Does It Mean that Residents in All 50 States Have Filed Petitions to Secede?

Leave Your Cellphone At Home (Interview With Jacob Appelbaum)

Related info:

The Program: A 32-Year NSA Veteran Speaks Out On Top Secret Domestic Spying Program ‘Stellar Wind’ (Video)

National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney On Growing Orwellian State Surveillance (Video)



NSA headquarters, Ft. Meade, MD.

Leave Your Cellphone at Home (n+1):

Interview with Jacob Appelbaum

From OCCUPY Gazette 4, out May 1.

Earlier this year in Wired, writer and intelligence expert James Bamford described the National Security Agency’s plans for the Utah Data Center. A nondescript name, but it has another: the First Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Center. The $2 billion facility, scheduled to open in September 2013, will be used to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store the agency’s intercepted communications—everything from emails, cell phone calls, Google searches, and Tweets, to retail transactions. How will all this data be stored? Imagine, if you can, 100,000 square-feet filled with row upon row of servers, stacked neatly on racks. Bamford projects that its processing-capacity may aspire to yottabytes, or 1024 bytes, and for which no neologism of higher magnitude has yet been coined.

To store the data, the NSA must first collect it, and here Bamford relies on a man named William Binney, a former NSA crypto-mathematician, as his main source. For the first time, since leaving the NSA in 2001, Binney went on the record to discuss Stellar Wind, which we all know by now as the warrantless wiretapping program, first approved by George Bush after the 2001 attacks on the twin towers. The program allowed the NSA to bypass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in charge of authorizing eavesdropping on domestic targets, permitting the wholesale monitoring of millions of American phone calls and emails. In his thirty years at the NSA, Binney helped to engineer its automated system of networked data collection which, until 2001, was exclusively directed at foreign targets. Binney left when the organization started to use this same technology to spy on American citizens. He tells of secret electronic monitoring rooms in major US telecom facilities, controlled by the NSA, and powered by complex software programs examining Internet traffic as it passes through fiber-optic cables. (At a local event last week, Binney circulated a list of possible interception points, including 811 10th Avenue, between 53rd & 54th St., which houses the largest New York exchange of AT&T Long Lines.) He tells of software, created by a company called Narus, that parses US data sources: any communication arousing suspicion is automatically copied and sent to the NSA. Once a name enters the Narus database, all phone calls, emails and other communications are automatically routed to the NSA’s recorders.

Read moreLeave Your Cellphone At Home (Interview With Jacob Appelbaum)

The Program: A 32-Year NSA Veteran Speaks Out On Top Secret Domestic Spying Program ‘Stellar Wind’ (Video)

Watch the video HERE.

The Program (New York Times, Aug 22, 2012):

It took me a few days to work up the nerve to phone William Binney. As someone already a “target” of the United States government, I found it difficult not to worry about the chain of unintended consequences I might unleash by calling Mr. Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency turned whistle-blower. He picked up. I nervously explained I was a documentary filmmaker and wanted to speak to him. To my surprise he replied: “I’m tired of my government harassing me and violating the Constitution. Yes, I’ll talk to you.”

Two weeks later, driving past the headquarters of the N.S.A. in Maryland, outside Washington, Mr. Binney described details about Stellar Wind, the N.S.A.’s top-secret domestic spying program begun after 9/11, which was so controversial that it nearly caused top Justice Department officials to resign in protest, in 2004.

“The decision must have been made in September 2001,” Mr. Binney told me and the cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. “That’s when the equipment started coming in.” In this Op-Doc, Mr. Binney explains how the program he created for foreign intelligence gathering was turned inward on this country. He resigned over this in 2001 and began speaking out publicly in the last year. He is among a group of N.S.A. whistle-blowers, including Thomas A. Drake, who have each risked everything — their freedom, livelihoods and personal relationships — to warn Americans about the dangers of N.S.A. domestic spying.

Read moreThe Program: A 32-Year NSA Veteran Speaks Out On Top Secret Domestic Spying Program ‘Stellar Wind’ (Video)

Collecting Rainwater May Be Considered A Privilege, Not A Right (Video)

Collecting rainwater may be considered a privilege, not a right (End The Lie, May 1, 2012):

If you think you own the right to water that falls on your own property, you could be mistaken.

States such as Utah, Colorado and Washington (more on the various laws later) have had laws on the books limiting property owners from collecting the water falling on their own homes and land since officials say the rain belongs to someone else.

Read moreCollecting Rainwater May Be Considered A Privilege, Not A Right (Video)

‘We Are This Far From A Turnkey Totalitarian State’ – Big Brother Goes Live September 2013 … And Nobody Cares

“We Are This Far From A Turnkey Totalitarian State” – Big Brother Goes Live September 2013 (ZeroHedge, Mar 17, 2012):

George Orwell was right. He was just 30 years early.

In its April cover story, Wired has an exclusive report on the NSA’s Utah Data Center, which is a must read for anyone who believes any privacy is still a possibility in the United States: “A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks…. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.”… The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013.” In other words, in just over 1 year, virtually anything one communicates through any traceable medium, or any record of one’s existence in the electronic medium, which these days is everything, will unofficially be property of the US government to deal with as it sees fit.

The codename of the project: Stellar Wind.

As Wired says, “there is no doubt that it has transformed itself into the largest, most covert, and potentially most intrusive intelligence agency ever created.

And as former NSA operative William Binney who was a senior NSA crypto-mathematician, and is the basis for the Wired article (which we guess makes him merely the latest whistleblower to step up: is America suddenly experiencing an ethical revulsion?), and quit his job only after he realized that the NSA is now openly trampling the constitution, says as he holds his thumb and forefinger close together. “We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state.

There was a time when Americans still cared about matters such as personal privacy. Luckily, they now have iGadgets to keep them distracted as they hand over their last pieces of individuality to the Tzar of conformity. And there are those who wonder just what the purpose of the NDAA is.

In the meantime please continue to pretend that America is democracy


Here are some of the highlights from the Wired article:

The Utah Data Center in a nutshell, and the summary of the current status of the NSA’s eavesdropping on US citizens.

Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”

In the process—and for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens. It has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. It has created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed to look for patterns and unscramble codes. Finally, the agency has begun building a place to store all the trillions of words and thoughts and whispers captured in its electronic net. And, of course, it’s all being done in secret. To those on the inside, the old adage that NSA stands for Never Say Anything applies more than ever.

…Shrouded in secrecy:

Read more‘We Are This Far From A Turnkey Totalitarian State’ – Big Brother Goes Live September 2013 … And Nobody Cares

Utah Rep Leads 11 US States to Recognize Gold as Money

Full article here:

Utah Rep Leads 11 US States to Recognize Gold as Money (King World News, August 22, 2011):

With gold surging to a new all-time high up over $40 in early trading and nearing the $1,900 level, King World News interviewed the man who spearheaded the Utah Legal Tender Act, which recognizes gold and silver as legal tender in the state of Utah.  This has gained worldwide attention, including days ago an interview with state run China TV.  When asked about the interview with China TV Ivory stated, “They were curious as to why?  Curious what we thought the impact would be with respect to the federal government?

Obviously on the why we explained to them the very simple example, a silver dollar in 1960 would buy approximately five gallons of gas.  Well, that dollar today won’t buy you one fourth of a gallon of gas, but the silver will nearly fill your tank.”

“Then with respect to the federal government, we have about eleven states now that are looking at running the same legislation.  And to the extent that we get the states standing in unison, that sends a very strong political message to Washington that the guardians of the liberty of the people in the states are not going to tolerate any longer the unchecked devaluation of our earnings and savings.”

Moody’s let the state of Utah know they were the only state in the US they were not going to review because of the fact that Utah was the only state preparing to move forward without federal funds, for them to just disappear.  When asked about this Ivory replied, “Yes, I ran some legislation called, ‘Federal Receipts & Reporting Requirements’ that requires all state agencies to disclose total federal receipts, the percentage it is of their budget and then the important part, what their contingency plan is in the event that federal funds go away in whole or in part.  Moody’s came in and had that bill in hand and said, ‘You’re the only state in the nation preparing for this.’”

Utah: Gold, Silver Coins Now To Be Legal Currency

Gold, silver coins now to be legal currency in Utah (AP, May 22, 2011):

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah legislators want to see the dollar regain its former glory, back to the days when one could literally bank on it being “as good as gold.”

To make that point, they’ve turned it around, and made gold as good as cash. Utah became the first state in the country this month to legalize gold and silver coins as currency. The law also will exempt the sale of the coins from state capital gains taxes.

Read moreUtah: Gold, Silver Coins Now To Be Legal Currency

Utah House Passes Bill Recognizing Gold And Silver as Legal Tender


The Utah House was to vote as early as Thursday on legislation that would recognize gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal currency in the state. (AP)

Utah took its first step Friday toward bringing back the gold standard when the state House passed a bill that would recognize gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal currency.

The House voted 47-26 in favor of the legislation that would also exempt the sale of gold from the state capital gains tax and calls for a committee to study alternative currencies for the state.

The legislation now heads to the state Senate, where a vote is expected next week.

Under the bill, the coins would not replace the current paper currency but would be used and accepted voluntarily as an alternative.

If the bill passes, Utah would become the first of 13 states that have proposed similar measures. The others states are Colorado, Georgia, Montana, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.

Read moreUtah House Passes Bill Recognizing Gold And Silver as Legal Tender

At Least 10 US States Have Introduced Gold And Silver Coins-As-Currency Bills

Preparing for collapse:

Virginia – HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 557: ‘Establishing a joint subcommittee to study whether the Commonwealth should adopt a currency to serve as an alternative to the currency distributed by the Federal Reserve System in the event of a MAJOR BREAKDOWN of the Federal Reserve System.’


Legislators in at least ten states have introduced bills in the past few years to allow state commerce to be conducted with gold and silver.

As we reported, Georgia state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R) recently reintroduced legislation to force his state to conduct all monetary transactions with U.S. gold or silver coins — including the payment of taxes.

The Georgia bill has a long way to go before become law — but it’s by no means the only state that’s considering a future in gold. Lawmakers in Montana, Missouri, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington have proposed legislation, mostly in 2009, to include gold and silver in its accepted currency forms.

Constitutionaltender.com
, a site dedicated to tracking and promoting these bills, explains:

The United States Constitution declares, in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall… make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts”. But, in fact, EVERY state in the United States of America DOES make some other “Thing” besides gold and silver coin a “Tender in Payment of Debts” — some “Thing” called “Federal Reserve Notes.” Thus the need for the “Constitutional Tender Act” — a bill template that can be introduced in every state legislature in the nation, returning each of them to adherence to the United States Constitution’s actual legal tender provisions.

Read moreAt Least 10 US States Have Introduced Gold And Silver Coins-As-Currency Bills

Utah: $1.5 Billion NSA Cyber-Security Center Under Way


Computer rendering of the first Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) Data Center, at Camp Williams, Utah on display at Camp Williams for the groundbreaking on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. (BDB)

CAMP WILLIAMS — Thursday’s groundbreaking for a $1.5 billion National Security Agency data center is being billed as important in the short term for construction jobs and important in the long term for Utah’s reputation as a technology center.

“This will bring 5,000 to 10,000 new jobs during its construction and development phase,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said on Wednesday. “Once completed, it will support 100 to 200 permanent high-paid employees.”

Officially named the Utah Data Center, the facility’s role in aggregating and verifying dizzying volumes of data for the intelligence community has already earned it the nickname “Spy Center.” Its really long moniker is the Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Center — the first in the nation’s intelligence community.

A White House document identifies the Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative as addressing “one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation, but one that we as a government or as a country are not adequately prepared to counter.” The document details a number of technology-related countermeasures to the security threat.

Hatch said Utah was chosen for the project over 37 other locations. He characterized the cyber-security center as the “largest military construction project in recent memory.”

Read moreUtah: $1.5 Billion NSA Cyber-Security Center Under Way

There Is No Recovery: Utah Proposes Scrapping 12th Grade; Nevada Rations Diapers; Harrisburg Heads For Bankruptcy; NBA Lockouts Loom

Prepare for collapse.


Here is a quick roundup with a general theme of “Hard Times”.

12th Grade Optional

Utah considers cutting 12th grade — altogether

At Utah’s West Jordan High School, the halls have swirled lately with debate over the merits of 12th grade. The sudden buzz over the relative value of senior year stems from a recent proposal by state Sen. Chris Buttars that Utah make a dent in its budget gap by eliminating the 12th grade.

Buttars has since toned down the idea, suggesting instead that senior year become optional for students who complete their required credits early. He estimated the move could save up to $60 million, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The proposal comes as the state faces a $700-million shortfall and reflects the creativity — or desperation — of lawmakers all over.

“You’re looking at these budget gaps where lawmakers have to use everything and anything to try to resolve them,” said Todd Haggerty, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures. “It’s left lawmakers with very unpopular decisions.”

“The bottom line is saving taxpayer dollars while improving options for students,” said state Sen. Howard A. Stephenson, a Republican and co-chairman of the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee. “The more options we give to students to accelerate, the more beneficial it is to students and taxpayers.”

Jordan Utah School District To Lay Off 500

Jordan District to lay off 500 employees because of $30M shortfall

The Jordan School District will lay off 500 employees by July 1 as part of an effort to make up for a $30 million shortfall.

By a 6-1 vote, the Jordan Board of Education approved options to reduce the 2010-11 budget, which include personnel cuts, programs and services cuts, transfer of expenditures to other programs, compensation adjustments, class-size increases, and possible tax increases.

Between now and the end of March, the board will determine which positions and programs will be eliminated. As many as 250 teaching positions and 250 administrative/support staff positions will be cut.

Not a single teacher need be cut. All it takes is unions to lower salary demands and/or pensions. Any cuts are the direct responsibility of the Teachers’ union.

Harrisburg Pennsylvania Heads For Bankruptcy

Harrisburg excludes debt payments from 2010 budget

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, moved a step closer to defaulting on a bond payment when its city council passed a 2010 budget that does not include $68 million in debt repayments on an incinerator.

Read moreThere Is No Recovery: Utah Proposes Scrapping 12th Grade; Nevada Rations Diapers; Harrisburg Heads For Bankruptcy; NBA Lockouts Loom