When I was young, one of the first lessons my parents taught me was that words have meaning. If you make a promise, you keep it. The one thing you don’t do is break your promise because doing so is a betrayal of trust. Throughout my life I made promises and took oaths: on becoming…
Utah’s landscape is among the most iconic in the country. We boast having three of the top 10 ski resorts in North America. Utah was awarded the best state for business and careers by Forbes three straight years in a row and is one of the few states maintaining a AAA rating. The Beehive State…
The stonewalling on immigration exemplifies the political dysfunction and grandstanding in Washington that is tying our government up in knots. In June 2013, the U.S. Senate passed SB 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, a comprehensive bill reforming the immigration system. The bill passed 68 to 32 with Sen. Orrin Hatch supporting it and Sen. Mike Lee opposed. While the bill has good and bad points (it’s a compromise!), it is a step in the right direction. But, while the Senate acted, the House dithered. I repeat: the House dithered.
The Utah Compact, signed in November 2010, established Utah as an immigration leader and should serve as a national model. Most undocumented workers are hard workers who contribute to our economy. They are here for the most noble of reasons: to seek a better quality of life for their families. Their path to residence and citizenship should be simple, straightforward and direct.
We Utahns are proud of our economic growth, and rightly so. Nationally we rank as the “Best State for Business and Careers” by Forbes Magazine, three years running; the Kauffman Foundation acknowledges Utah number one for “Economic Dynamism,” Pollina Corporate lists Utah as the top pro-business state, and the US Chamber of Enterprising States ranks Utah 3rd in STEM job growth and business birth rate and 1st in high tech business economy.
But, and here’s the embarrassing paradox, according to a recent 24/7 Wall Street article when it comes to equal pay in the state, women are paid an average of 70 percent of what men are paid. What’s most embarrassing is that Provo-Orem and Ogden-Clearfield rank #1 and #2 respectively as the worst-paying cities for women.
While Colorado leads the nation with 41% of that state’s 100-seat legislature comprised of women, Utah’s state legislature has only 18 women elected to its 104 seats, and nationally ranks near the bottom at 43rd with 17%. An anomaly among western states, Utah is bucking the trend of female leadership in the political process. The…