Booze Blunder
Don't hold your breath waiting for the Legislature to admit it was wrong—especially when it concerns alcohol and all the national hoopla surrounding Utah's decision to lower the legal blood alcohol level to near zero—0.05 percent. It was the brainchild of Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, because as a devout member of "the" church, he of course knows all about the scourge of drinking. Problem is, the law doesn't work, notes Robert Gehrke of The Salt Lake Tribune. After four years, DUI deaths have gone up. For most, the answer is simple. "The lower limit targets social, moderate drinkers, not legitimately drunk drivers," a spokesman for the American Beverage Institute told NPR. And nearly 70% of DUI fatalities are due to drivers with a BAC of 0.15 or above. Both former KUTV news anchor Shauna Lake and Salt Lake City Council member Amy Fowler were way over 0.05. Still, Utah likes to be seen as good and pure, even if things aren't working.
Digging Deeper
Good journalism is far from dead, but it does hide out in the fox holes of academia and contract projects. Today, we celebrate the University of Utah and the Utah Investigative Journalism Project in their quests for truth in an increasingly thin media environment. Students in a "cold case" class pored over documents and unearthed historical bias in the 1978 murder case of Doug Coleman. "Out of Salt Lake's three uncleared murders in 1978, two of the victims—Adams and Coleman—were gay men. This in itself was a crime, with 'homosexuality' classified as a sex crime. Police received 27 reports of 'homosexuality' that year," the story, published by The Salt Lake Tribune, said. Evidence was long lost and many of the protagonists dead, but the students persisted, creating a compelling, if troubling, story of discrimination and justice denied.
High on Highways
There seems to be a disconnect between the Utah Department of Transportation and the people it serves. Sure, in our car-centric state, bigger highways are seen as an answer to gridlock—unless, of course, you're talking about the Cottonwood canyons. There, it's all about building a gondola to transport skiers to a private resort, the environment be damned. UDOT has not paid much attention to detractors, but it does have other things on its mind. There's the I-15 and Bangerter Highway expansions, both of which will displace hundreds of homeowners. FrontRunner is still half-built and little expansion is planned in the short term. Mass transit is the Ghost of Christmas Past as traffic, noise and pollution take center stage. CW
About The Author
Katharine Biele
A City Weekly contributor since 1992, Katharine Biele is the informed voice behind our Hits & Misses column. When not writing, you can catch her working to empower voters and defend democracy alongside the League of Women Voters.
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