When Utah's legislative session rolls around, anyone could need that refresher course in how to find, follow and discuss important issues as they unfold on the Hill. Whether it's who your legislator is or how to stream a Senate Floor discussion online, one important tool to stay on top of is the recent developments to the legislative website: http://le.utah.gov."It takes a lot of collaboration between legislators, the Senate staff, the House staff, and other legislative staff, specifically IT staff," said Shelley Day, the webmaster to the legislative website."I think one thing that is so nice about our website is that no matter what you're looking for, it's easy to find," she added. "You don't have to dig deep. Usually it's right there on the home page."Right at the top, the 2012 Legislative Session link will bring visitors to the session's main page and weekly schedules so that anyone can follow a bill as it passes from committee to the floor.Users can have committee agendas and bill statuses emailed to them directly, by signing up for the RSS Feed feature or by streamin committee meetings live.

The big "new feature" this year is a streaming feature, which shows the agenda and minutes along with streaming audio or video. The resolution has been significantly upgraded, Day said."The really nice feature about new streaming media is the high quality resolution," she said. "With the new streaming media, everything is right there on our home page. There are hyperlinks to agendas, so when you do click on meeting in progress, the agenda is right there with hyperlinks to bills. That's all an option available to use while you're listening."From archived histories, to attaching relevant information, to a more inclusive home page, Day said the legislative staff is constantly upgrading to make the experience on the website more user-friendly.With the changes, a few features have been lost, including the popular calendar feature that shows a calendar view of all upcoming events Legislative IT staff is working on ways to restore or replicate plans on restoring a calendar option, but has substituted it for the time being with links to weekly scheduled events and upcoming events listed on the home page."We now have a technical hotline for session users, so when people can't find something they can simply call or email us," Day said.The changes this year have caused the odd hiccup or two, a fact Day attributed to people needing to retrain their brain. But for the most part, the updated site has better features that are easier to find, with a goal of bringing in more features soon."For restoring or replicating features, the calendar was a feature many users relied on.," Day said. "So was bill tracking, which included links for upcoming agendas, and we've restored that already."Visit http://le.utah.gov  for more information.

Gina Barker, The Park RecordPosted:   01/31/2012 04:20:05 PM MST

SALT LAKE CITY — Mayor Ralph Becker announced Tuesday plans to demolish and completely rebuild the Salt Lake City International Airport to address seismic risks and accommodate its emergence as a regional hub.

"The Salt Lake City International Airport was not built to be a hub," Becker said during his State of the City address at the Salt Lake City-County Building. "Today, as the number of passengers has increased annually to (more than) 21 million, it is by all measures a large hub airport, and it must be redeveloped to meet the needs of our region."

The Living Planet Aquarium board of trustees selected Beecher Walker Architects and Layton Construction for the development, design and construction of the new Living Planet Aquarium, to be built in Draper City.

The Living Planet Aquarium solicited statements of interest and qualifications from top design teams and commercial contractors recognized for strong experience to develop a complete design and structure for the 130,000-square-foot building off Interstate 15 near 12300 South which will be the permanent home for the popular non-profit attraction. 
“The new Board, consisting of seasoned executives, is excited with the tremendous progress made by the aquarium in the last two years, including fund raising, state appropriations and land acquisition,” said Ragula Bhaskar, Ph.D., chairman of the Board. “The aquarium has raised nearly $7 million and has obtained the support of the City of Draper to bond $11.7 million to complete the Aquarium. It is expected to be one of the best aquariums in the Intermountain West.”

The Aquarium has continued to grow since opening in a small space in 2004 at The Gateway and, since 2006, in Sandy at 725 E. 10600 South. The current 43,000-square-foot aquarium in Sandy lands over 375,000 visitors each year, and provides science education to elementary schools statewide. With the tremendous growth, donor support and a strong leadership team, the aquarium has grown more than 50 percent during the recession, confirming its popularity with local visitors and out of state tourists.

“We are thrilled to be moving to the next phase in the creation of a 130,000-square-foot world class aquarium for the residents of Utah,” said Brent Andersen, founder & CEO. “We have a remarkable board of trustees who have led the way in making the new, larger aquarium possible, and a dedicated team of staff, volunteers and donors working to build what is sure to become a renowned educational, family friendly attraction.” 

The $18 million project will support 317 construction jobs in Utah and generate $1.7 million in tax revenues for the State.

An economic think tank has ranked Logan first among small cities in the U.S. for being a good business community.

The Milken Institute, founded in 1991 and based in California, has released a new list of best performing cities for the year. Salt Lake City, Provo and Ogden ranked in the Top 25 among large metro cities, while Logan ranked No. 1 among small cities.

Logan skyrocketed from its No. 19 ranking in last year's list.