Nuclear waste storage a slam dunk for Utah

No one likes garbage, unless your name is Oscar. If the garbage truck didn’t come every week, we’d be swimming in a pool of disease and filth. Some items are harder than others to dispose of, such as glow-in-the-dark watches, smoke detectors, wiping rags, mops and injection needles. These items earn the special designation of low-level waste and typically need to be disposed of at a specialty site approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Enter EnergySolutions, which specializes in the disposal of class A material—the lowest category of nuclear waste. If you’ve been to a Jazz game, you know the old Delta Center has been changed and renamed by the Larry H. Miller Group as EnergySolutions.

Earlier this month, the state continued its stalemate of prohibiting EnergySolutions from importing low-level waste from Italy. Wanting to build a track record and expand its business into international markets, EnergySolutions wants to bring 1,600 tons of foreign nuclear waste to dispose in Utah. A federal judge has ruled that the foreign nuclear waste can come to the state. However, Utah is appealing the ruling. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, millions of tons of radioactive waste needs to be disposed of every year. The federal government relies on three facilities to complete this job. The Italian waste deal represents a miniscule part of this task, less than 1 percent.

“This is nothing new,” EnergySolutions said in a statement. “We made a proposal at the beginning of the year that we discussed in television ads as well as with government and community leaders. We believe that it is in the best interest of the state, the citizens of Utah and EnergySolutions to settle this matter and we hope the state considers this proposal.”

The company said it is offering Utah 50 percent of its net revenues from the disposal of foreign nuclear waste if it agrees to let the waste in the state. This means the state is expected to get $100 million a year for 10 years, just for signing a contract to let a company do what it’s in business to do.

According to the governor’s office, the state’s $3 billion budget for education was cut by 6 percent this year because of a bad economy. With the EnergySolutions proposal to split revenues, a third of the mandatory budget cut on education would be reconciled. EnergySolutions projects revenues for this project would be about $200 million a year for 10 years and the state would be given half those revenues should it allow the transaction to take place.

This should be a no-brainer, slam-dunk decision to proceed and the state should stop dragging its feet in this political tap dance. Unfortunately, the business issue has been intercepted by environmental lobbyist groups and politicians prohibiting a relatively small transaction that will propel a Utah company into an international business. The state needs to give up on playing politics and let a tax-paying, revenue-sharing company move forward with its business operations.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/opinion/nuclear-waste-storage-a-slam-dunk-for-utah-1.1881852

Herbert’s flip on stimulus is unwise

Gov. Gary Herbert says it’s time to hit a second home run in the housing industry. The successful program started by former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to allocate $10 million in stimulus funds to give first-time home buyers a $6,000 down payment is being copied by the new governor. Herbert’s plan is to give $2,000 to $4,000 to Utahns who buy a new home before the money runs out.

This comes as no surprise because Herbert is a real estate guy. Shortly after leaving the National Guard, he created a successful real estate firm, Herbert and Associates Realtors, and served as president of the Utah Association of Realtors.

“We know from experience that the creation of new homes does more than just benefit developers and contractors,” Herbert said. “It revitalizes broad sectors of the economy, from painters and plumbers and electricians to decorators and furniture shops and specialty stores. Programs like Home Run are the best use of our economic stimulus dollars because they put people back to work.”

I thought people were already back to work from the last government spending spree. The saddest part of this package, besides the governor’s impaired ability to look beyond the housing market, is that he doesn’t have a backbone.

Angie Welling, the governor’s spokeswoman, said Herbert is “against the federal stimulus package in theory, but it happened and it would be foolish at this point to turn that money away. He might as well make the best of it for purely stimulus projects, creating and saving jobs.”

If the governor is truly against federal stimulus money, he shouldn’t spend it. This is no different than saying you are against adultery, yet still sleep around (no, I’m not implying anything). His political maneuvering is scary because it clearly shows he is comfortable saying one thing and then doing another—whatever it takes to keep the votes coming in or padding the pockets of old friends in the real estate market. This is every politician’s plague.

Taking a page from Herbert’s book, this money could have been well spent in several other productive ways. Housing already had a shot in the arm with the first stimulus check. How about taking a look at improving health care options or extending unemployment health insurance benefits, road and transportation projects, or better yet, education.

There is a saturation of new homes. That’s why builders are struggling. There are a lot of people with older homes that want to sell. Perhaps builders should adjust to market conditions rather than further saturation.

In February, the Legislative Education Budget Committee was talking about a 17.6 percent recommended cut to Utah’s education budget for the 2009-2010 school year. Because of a separate federal stimulus bailout of $298 million for public education in Utah, the 2010 budget now only faces a 6 percent cut. Thanks, Uncle Sam.

Spending federal stimulus money is going to hit us hard across the head in the form of higher property taxes, income taxes and inflation because the government will have to do something to tackle the expected $9 trillion deficit. Rather than burdening value producing businesses and individuals with heavy taxes, the incentive should be to let them keep their money. The best way to stimulate the economy and create jobs will be through the efforts and innovation of hard-working individuals without government interference.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/opinion/herbert-s-flip-on-stimulus-is-unwise-1.1872226

Online textbooks hurt students in the end

After spending a sweaty summer going door to door selling pest control, you were able to put away $3,500. With school starting, it’s time to hit the stores so you are ready to study chemistry, English, physics and calculus.

New school clothes: $300. New backpack: $35. Pencils, erasers, paper: $15. This week’s grocery bill, stocking up on Top Ramen and Dr. Pepper: $150. Fall Semester tuition: $3,000. University Campus Store: there’s no money left.

The Utah Student Association has just the thing to solve your short-term crisis. They want to make textbooks available online—as a service provided to students for free.

You haven’t heard of the Utah Student Association, your new best friend? It is composed of student body officers from every Utah college. According to USA, the Make Textbooks Available initiative will save students $4.7 million annually. This is coupled with House Resolution 4137, a bill being presented to Congress that would require more transparency from publishers putting out revised editions that typically cost more even though the content isn’t substantially different.

Sadly, in forming the initiative, the USA didn’t bother checking with textbook publishers, authors of those textbooks or the stores that sell those books. They only considered student complaints about high prices.

Frankly, should the initiative pan out, students are just going to get dumber in the long run, and here’s the extreme reason why: If professors want to write textbooks but don’t have the incentive to do so, they will market their knowledge via another format. Instead of getting books written by leaders in the field, texts would often be authored by second-class sources. Therefore, the online textbook will have no valuable content and the reader won’t gain the knowledge intended.

Although I agree that textbooks are an incredibly expensive burden on students, the solution is not to make the content free. There are a lot of low-price options that can be found through online bookstores, e-books and book rentals. To curb a student’s hesitation to spend money on a textbook, the campus store guarantees a 50 percent buy-back deal. Rather than thinking about one-sided solutions for students, the USA would better invest its time by lobbying President Barack Obama to fund its program using federal stimulus money. He seems pretty open-minded to funding programs that produce short-term solutions.

Textbooks are part of the price for a student’s education. Take out a student loan, work part-time, whatever you need to do, but don’t ask for freebies when it comes to education. You’ll get a job and make the money back after graduation.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/opinion/online-textbooks-hurt-students-in-the-end-1.1864514

Pit bulls have gained an inaccurate reputation

Michael Vick recently signed with the Philadelphia Eagles after serving a prison sentence for dog fighting. The deadly gambling ring was organized to see who will be “the last dog standing.” The Vick incident fanned animal torture flames in the media just as Utah’s senate pushed for stricter laws against torturing domestic animals.

Pit bulls, the breed Vick used for dog fighting, have a bad rap and it didn’t improve during the weekend, when two pit bulls attacked a man in South Salt Lake. The man reacted to the approaching dogs by kicking at them. They responded by biting his arm and face. This is the fourth such attack in Utah this summer.

In March 2008, the Utah Senate passed Senate Bill 297, which makes animal torture a felony. They didn’t touch on what should happen when an animal tortures a person. Typically, police will either quarantine the dog or put it to sleep.

According to a 20-year study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pit bull attacks have accounted for nearly a third of the 238 fatal dog attacks in the United States. According to the study, pit bulls were the most deadly dog, with 32 percent of fatal attacks. South Jordan, for one, is apparently afraid of pit bulls, having banned their sale, residence or breeding within city limits.

Please keep in mind, your odds of being hit by a bus are better than being killed by a dog, all variables considered. In the United States, less than 5 million people are bitten every year, resulting in only 12 fatalities a year, according to federal statistics.

When Vick’s case hit, PETA and the Humane Society said the pit bulls, like all dogs saved from similar fight rings, were beyond rehabilitation and they should be put down. Ultimately, thanks to a letter-writing campaign, 47 of the dogs were saved and effectively rehabilitated; 10 were even relocated to Utah.

Veterinarian Frank McMillan, the director of Best Friends Animal Society in Southern Utah, said that of all dogs, pit bulls possess the single greatest ability to bond with people.

The bottom line is that dogs bite for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, fear, pain or just plain surprise. Any dog can bite, not just pit bulls. People should take care when they are around unfamiliar animals, even if they don’t do anything to provoke an attack. Should a “tame” dog start biting, it is the owner’s fault for not properly training the animal. Rather than condemning a breed, maybe the answer is to just spay and neuter bad pit bull owners.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/opinion/pit-bulls-have-gained-an-inaccurate-reputation-1.1823301

Respectful protests are more effective

On July 9, Matt Aune, 28, and his partner, Derek Jones, 25, were asked to leave the Main Street Plaza, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for “engaging in behavior deemed inappropriate for any couple on the Plaza.”

The LDS Church’s statement read: “They engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd language, and had obviously been using alcohol. They were politely told that the Plaza was not the place for such behavior and were asked to stop. When they became belligerent, the two individuals were asked to leave church property.”

According to Aune, both he and Jones had been drinking and per the police report, refused to adhere to multiple requests from church security when asked to stop their inappropriate behavior and leave. Even after Salt Lake City police officers arrived, they initially refused to supply their names and were cited for trespassing.

However, the next day, Aune and Jones told the media a different story. They said they had been “targeted” because they were gay, and the headlines read, “Gay couple detained after kiss near LDS temple.” That is a misrepresentation of the facts.

Unfortunately, because of festering grievances over Proposition 8 in California, time and time again the LDS Church has become a scapegoat for its unchangeable view on the traditional definition of marriage.

To the pro-gay movement’s credit, they downplayed the incident but have since demonstrated with several “kiss-in” protests near the Salt Lake Temple, a place LDS Church members hold sacred. The goal of such protests, one would assume, is to gain acceptance, tolerance and open minds from the LDS community.

There is no other organization that should be more open-minded than the LDS Church. Having experienced extreme persecution in its early days, from a governor’s extermination order applicable to all members, to the assassination of the LDS Church’s founder, the LDS Church has experienced a good deal of intolerance and rejection. However, the church has rightly refused to be goaded into a “Mormons versus gays” battle and simply restated its position more respectfully than holding a “kiss-in” equivalent.

A pamphlet titled God Loveth His Children, that was released recently by the LDS Church reads “some people with same-gender attraction have felt rejected because members of the church did not always show love. No member of the church should ever be intolerant.”

If gay-rights activists truly want to further their position in gaining more civil rights (a fair and reasonable appeal), the forum is not on the footsteps of a place considered sacred by any religion and unleashing lewd, drunken profanity. The correct forum is working through legislative channels where the issues are eventually presented to the voters for ratification.

In spite of this trendy era when it’s tolerated to label someone as a “homophobe” these unwarranted, generalized accusations against the LDS Church and its members are not right or fair. Tolerance does not require one to embrace another’s position or lifestyle, but both sides can be more understanding and accepting of those who hold a different opinion and refrain from public behavior designed to be offensive. Let’s all resist being carried away by the emotional tirades of those who scream the loudest.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/openings/respectful-protests-are-more-effective-1.1816416

U research enters realm of Hogwarts

This week on the big screen, the world will be watching the latest adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s bestselling Harry Potter series. Defying reality, Harry dons a magic invisibility cloak to disappear and sneak around Hogwarts undetected. The dream of making objects invisible has always crossed the imaginations of humanity and is seen throughout works of fiction.

Researchers around the world are chasing down the invisibility theory and developing models to create a technology that makes an object become invisible. Several of these building blocks have come from the work of Graeme Milton, a professor of mathematics at the U. In 1994, Milton began his cloaking research using applied mathematics in Australia.

His concept is simple, assuming you know biology, calculus, engineering and physics. Milton’s superlens research describes the ability to hide or “cloak” an object through the manipulation of light. Rather than the cloaking region being contained within the device, Milton suggests that ability lies outside the device.

According to the National Science Foundation, the superlens theory “cloaks a nearby object by making light behave in an unusual way. Instead of having a positive refractive index that makes light bend in the same way as it does when passing from air into a medium like glass or water, the superlens has a negative refractive index that in essence causes light to reverse and travel backwards. When an object is placed next to the superlens, the light bouncing off the object is canceled out by the light reflecting off the superlens, rendering the object invisible. Milton said the phenomenon is somewhat analogous to the noise cancellation headphones passengers wear on airplanes.”

Although the research has a long way to go before invisibility devices can be applied in real-world situations, scientists are now testing the theory. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed optical-camouflage technology while scientists at the University of California-Berkeley have created a “carpet cloak” from nanostructured silicon that conceals the presence of objects placed under it from optical detection.

Technology will continue to surprise us and achieve things we never thought possible. We won’t need to be a wizard to become invisible. The invisibility application and other creations from science fiction novels will continue to come increasingly faster as we continue dreaming and developing the technologies to make them a reality. It’s nice to know there are people at the U doing such interesting work. Bravo to those at the university, such as Milton, who put the U on the map.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/opinion/u-research-enters-realm-of-hogwarts-1.1774115

A degree isn't worth much without ambition

Most people who go to college do so not because they enjoy sitting in stuffy lecture halls while listening to monotone-voiced professors, but so they can carve out a better place for themselves in the world when they graduate. Or at least, that is what most expect.

Still, there are plenty of indifferent college students floating through the motions. This same indifference will continue after graduation as they wonder why no employer calls after submitting résumés to the Monster.com or CareerBuilder black holes.

A new study from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston found that college graduates who take jobs below their education level not only earn less, but also trail the earnings of other graduates who were able to secure career-track employment upon graduation.

Students who settle are the ones simply going through the motions of taking classes without a clear focus of where they want to end up after graduation. Some even go to school blindly with no major and hope that eventually they’ll fall into a cushy job just because they went to college. What a stupidly expensive and risky proposition on your future—the world doesn’t work that way.

Take just a few unscientific examples of individuals I have encountered. One student just finished her associates degree at the local community college. She says she wants to be a nurse, but none of her classes fulfilled the nursing pre-requisites. Now she’s discouraged that she wasted two years pursuing a degree that isn’t quite what she needs.

A communication student is currently looking for an internship. He said the bad economy is preventing him from getting any work, but the truth is, he hasn’t been networking or really taking ownership to secure an internship. He has the secret hope that someone will just call and offer a job.

My point in all of this is that you have to plan ahead and take responsibility. You can’t leave your future up to fate or naive wishing that things will simply turn out because you showed up. Find a mentor, a career counselor, a professional who can help coach and guide you through the logistics and obstacles of ending up where you want to be.

In the end, there is no one to blame for your failures and disappointments except yourself. Too many people are trapped in a state of indifference and lack the ambition to develop the necessary problem solving skills to compete in the world.

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/opinion/a-degree-isn-t-worth-much-without-ambition-1.1771537