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."

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.

Utah has a diverse technology sector, featuring operations such as IM Flash Technologies in Lehi, a quality lifestyle and low relative costs, said Kevin Klowden, an economist and director of the Milken Center in California. When it comes to measuring how well cities nationally and in the region are functioning in today’s challenging economy, Utah metro areas are among the tops, two new reports show.

The Ogden-to-Provo metropolitan corridor placed three cities in the Top 15 in economic activity among a list of the nation’s “Best Performing” metro areas, and Logan was the No. 1 small city.

Salt Lake City was No. 6, Provo-Orem No. 9 and Ogden-Clearfield No. 15 on the Milken Institute’s 2011 index released Thursday.

SALT LAKE CITY – For the second consecutive year, Forbes has awarded Utah the top spot on its annual “Best States for Business and Careers” list.  
 
“Being again recognized by Forbes as the country’s best state for business and careers is certainly an outstanding honor,” said Governor Gary R. Herbert. “But it is no accident; it is the result of deliberate efforts to make Utah the most business-friendly state.  While accolades are gratifying, the ultimate fruits of our labors are accelerated economic growth for our state and more jobs for Utah’s citizens.”
 
A leading publication for business leaders across America and the world, Forbes chose Utah in part because of its economic consistency. According to the magazine, Utah was the only state that ranked among the top 15 states in each of the list’s six criteria: Business Costs, Labor Supply, Regulatory Environment, Economic Climate, Growth Prospects and Quality of Life.
 
“Because Utah is able to consistently hit the lofty goals that are the hallmark of a high-performing economy, we have continued to grow over the past year,” said Spencer Eccles, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED). “We have consistently added jobs to the Utah economy, while simultaneously training current and next-generation workers to fill new and in-demand positions. Our focus on jobs is a large part of why Utah is still the best state in the nation for business.”

Please watch your mailboxes for your 2012 membership application.

Or you can download an application and mail it in with your payment.

 We hope to have YOU with us again in 2012!

As we approach the 2011-2012 Winter Season, it's appropriate to celebrate the great ski resorts we have here. Utah is host to 14 world-class ski resorts. Each one of them is a little different and attracts local, as well as international skiers. This week, Ski Magazine ranked Utah Ski resorts at the top of important categories.

Park City Ski Resort was named #1 family vacation by the magazine. It was also named the No. 6 resort in North America. The resort has spent a couple of years developing their family-friendly programs. Their new website www.snowmamas.com is an  online resource for families planning winter vacations. They also have great winter and summer attractions that include  Adventure Alleys, Alpine Coaster and the new Flying Eagle Zip Line. Park City Ski Resort also guarantees a smaller class size of five children or less for skiing and snowboarding lessons.

Deer Valley Resort has been rated the top ski resort in North America by Ski Magazine for the fifth straight year.  Three other Utah resorts were also listed in the top 20: Park City at No. 6, Canyons at No. 16 and Snowbird at No. 20. Deer Valley's customer service, quality dining, great snow and "ski" only hills makes it a favorite of the magazine readers.

Ski Magazine also rates the quality of snow at the nation's resorts. In this category, Utah captured six of the 10 spots, with Alta taking the top honor. The other five resorts with the superb snow were: Powder Mountain at No. 3, Snowbird at No. 4, Brighton at No. 6, Solitude at No. 7 and Deer Valley at No. 10.

Now's the time to make reservations to take advantage of Utah's skiing superiority. For information on all 14 resorts, visit Ski Utah.

Pictured, Deer Valley Mountain host supervisor Tate Shaw, Salt Lake Tribune photo.

 The Salt Lake Tribune Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was on hand for the Grand Opening of the new Dinosaur National Monument Visitors Center near Jensen on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. Dinosaur National Monument • The bones are the attraction, but the payoff of a new visitor center and a revamped fossil quarry ismeasured not in prehistoric creatures, but in present-day humans.

A member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet came to eastern Utah on Wednesday to tout the renewed paleontology exhibit here as proof of the administration’s focus on jobs.

It adds up to a likely return in the next five years of more than a half-million tourists, the number who didn’t visit the region while Dinosaur’s most famous boneyard has been off-limits, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in dedicating the new building Wednesday.

The Ogden metropolitan area added jobs faster than virtually all other major metropolitan areas in the nation during the second quarter of 2011, according to a new national report released today.

The report was produced by Brookings Mountain West, a partnership between the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

The Ogden-Clearfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Weber, Morgan and Davis counties, ranked second among the nation's major metros, posting a quarterly job gain of 1.8 percent during the second quarter.

On Sept. 29, business and community leaders and entrepreneurs from Cache, Rich and Box Elder Counties will learn how to "zig zag" their way to business success. They'll also have opportunities to network and learn about northern Utah-specific activities in business recruitment and business retention and expansion, hear about USU's commercial enterprises, and receive an update on the Utah Science, Technology and Research (USTAR) Initiative.

It's all part of the annual "What's Goin' Down Up North" business summit, which will be held at the USU Innovation Campus, Calibration Building, 489 East 1650 North, North Logan. Rich Christiansen, serial entrepreneur and author of the "Zig Zag Principle," will keynote the event. The tag line for his latest book is "the road to success is never a straight line." Hence, Christiansen will instruct summit attendees about his Zig Zag Principle, which he describes as a revolutionary goal setting strategy.

"The business world teaches that you should go directly for your goals, but that sets you up to fail," Christiansen says. "When you charge directly at a business goal you often run out of resources and die. Chasing directly toward a business goal doesn't work -- nine out of 10 businesses will fail that way. In business you have to methodically identify detours and go around them."

The largest biodiesel producer in Utah, Washakie Renewable Energy, held an open house in Plymouth on Thursday to showcase its new production facility. Brothers Jacob and Isaiah Kingston on Thursday showed off their biodiesel production plant, the largest facility of its kind in Utah.

Workers at Washakie Renewable Energy spent a year building a system known as the green line process, which was showcased at an open house and will facilitate the production of up to 10 million gallons of renewable fuel annually. About 100 elected officials, industry representatives and guests toured the facility.

The plant uses feedstock, such as yellow and brown grease, animal fats and wastewater pond scum, to produce biodiesel, which is sold to local companies and fuel distributors.

The plant is in Plymouth, population 328, about 100 miles north of Salt Lake City. Fields are dominated by alfalfa, which the Kingston family hopes will one day be planted in oil-seed crops to be processed at the plant as biofuel.

The development pace at Station Park in Farmington has picked up, with new stores coming online on almost a weekly basis and Phase 1 of the project scheduled for completion by Thanksgiving.

"You can expect to see even more new names as we continue to build our exciting retail center," said Fred Bruning, chief executive officer of CenterCal Properties, the project developer.

CenterCal is one of only five retail development joint venture partners of the California State Teachers Retirement System.

Last week, Home Goods, Marshalls and ULTA Cosmetics opened stores in the $250 million development on the city's west side. Bruning said Sally Beauty Supply, Famous Footwear and Chase Bank are expected to open in September. He also said Tilly's, a surf and skate clothing retailer, is expected to open its first store in Utah in October.

The Salt Lake Tribune Guests get a close look at a giant autoclave during grand opening at ATK's Aircraft Commercial Center of Excellence facility in Clearfield, Utah Monday, August 29, 2011. The autoclave cure the composite parts. Alliant Techsystems Inc. unveiled its $100 million manufacturing plant for aircraft components in Clearfield Monday, projecting that the 615,000-square-foot facility will increase its capacity to produce composite-fiber parts tenfold.

Production at the center, which will serve as the headquarters for ATK Aerospace Structures, is expected to create 800 high-paying jobs over the next 20 years and generate almost $1 billion in wages along the way.

“We’ve received over $1 billion in orders over the past few years, and this new commercial composite facility will allow us to go well beyond that,” said Joy de Lisser, vice president and general manager of ATK Aerospace Structures.

eBay Inc. and the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development
(GOED) announced plans to build a new state-of-the-art facility in Utah, currently proposed at a site in Draper.

“eBay has been a valuable, visible Utah company for more than a decade,” said Governor Gary R. Herbert. “This agreement will bring new operating units and new jobs to the State. When world-class companies like eBay pledge partnership with Utah, it is a vote of confidence in the economic growth and stability that we are currently enjoying.”

eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace, announced plans to create up to 2,200 new jobs in Utah over the next 20 years. All of the incented jobs will exceed 125% of the county’s average wage including full benefits.

“eBay’s new facility will be designed to high environmental standards and provide a great place to work for our teammates,” said Steve Boehm, Senior Vice President, Marketplaces, Global Customer Services. “We express our appreciation to the State of Utah, Draper City, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the Economic Development Corporation of Utah for the outstanding support they’ve provided that makes this project possible.”

Train operators have spent weeks testing and training in preparation for the Sunday opening of new TRAX lines in West Valley City and the Mid-Jordan line that terminates in South Jordan's Daybreak community. Raquel Lubbers is excited about the new TRAX lines opening on Sunday. She says they will make it much easier to travel from her home in the Daybreak area of South Jordan to distant downtown Salt Lake City to take her children to museums or to meet her husband there for an after-work date.

“The new TRAX line will give us more freedom to enjoy our lives,” she said. “We’re looking forward to skipping the traffic jams and getting around more by rail” from her suburb that suddenly is much more convenient to the rest of the Wasatch Front.

The St. Regis at Deer Valley luxury hotel was ranked as the 10th best resort in the United States and Canada by readers of Travel + Leisure magazine. Courtesy St. Regis at Deer Valley. Much to the delight of state tourism officials, four Utah resorts and hotels have been ranked among the best in the United States and Canada by Travel + Leisure magazine.

The highest reader accolades went to Deer Valley’s Stein Eriksen Lodge, which was rated the second-best resort property in the two countries in the magazine’s 16th annual reader survey by the magazine, according to the August issue of the magazine.

As Nu Skin broke ground on its new $85 million Innovation Center on Monday, business leaders and local officials expressed hope the development will have a global effect.

The project expands the corporate headquarters in downtown Provo and includes research and development space. Some of Nu Skin's elite team were on hand, as were the Nu Skin president of Greater China, the board of directors and other dignitaries from the global Nu Skin family.

"This will not only impact Provo and the state, but throughout the world," Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said. He went on to say the way Utah is growing is by producing economic opportunities.

"We'd like to be the No. 1 global business destination in Utah," Herbert said. "We've added 8,000 jobs just recently in Utah. This $85 million building is just another part of that effort."

Alliant Techsystems has received a $77 million, three-year contract to proceed with the second phase of a project to develop new ammunition rounds for the U.S. Army’s Abrams battle tank.

The round is expected to enter full-rate production once this phase is completed.

Minneapolis-based ATK, whose ammunition division has headquarters in Clearfield, had the Army contract to develop the first phase of the “advanced kinetic energy” 120 mm tank round. It secured the phase-two contract after an industry competition that involved a ballistic demonstration test and a shoot-off.

This 120 mm tank round is now entering its fifth generation. The round will be more effective against heavy armor, such as an enemy’s main battle tanks, and is designed to work well in urban terrain, mountains and other nontraditional battlefields, said Bruce DeWitt, vice president and general manager of ATK’s Advanced Weapons Division.

Since 1980, ATK has delivered more than 4 million rounds of 120mm tactical and training tank ammunition to the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and allied militaries. “We look forward to working with the Army to maintain the Abrams’ standing as the world’s dominant tank,” DeWitt added.

SL Tribune 7/11/2011
 

Today's final Space Shuttle lift-off is a mixed bag for many in Utah. Workers at ATK and other aerospace companies have seen employment drop and an unsure future. There have been 135 flights of the shuttles since it's beginnings. As part of the program, Utah has contributed technology in many pieces and parts of the actual shuttle and rockets, science experiments from our universities and high schools, and Utahns such as Jake Garn who participated as a crew member. We salute the space shuttle program and the many Utahns who made it successful and interesting.

Read more about the shuttle from the Ogden Standard Examiner here and here.

From the New York Times here and here.

We all remember the new kids in school. They would awkwardly stand in front of the class, often meagerly introduced by the teacher, and we’d give them the once-over.
 
They stood there looking intimidated and lost. Where do they sit? Who do they talk to? How are they going to mingle with their new peers?
 
It’s not easy being the new kid and that’s exactly how Utah and its fans feel right now. They’re standing in front of the class with all the eyes inspecting their every move so intensely.
 
Who are these guys? Better yet, what makes them think they belong here?
 
If college football is anything, it is a group of cliques. And as we found out in high school, it ain’t easy nudging your way into an already established circle of friends.
 
So it’s understandable some fans of the old Pac-10 are skeptical of this change – or at least uncertain of the Utah athletic program. After all, the Utes arrived here from the Mountain West Conference.
 
How good are they really?
 
What I do know is that Utah has been building toward this day for at least twenty years. It’s not something that happened over night and certainly not due to luck – but something far greater.
 
You see, the unknown part of this story is the journey itself. We think of the last few seasons of football success as the clearest reason why the Utes are in this position, and that would be a bit shortsighted on all our parts. It’s more than that. It’s deeper than that.
 
That success was a direct result of something built out of the 1990s. If you’re a Ute fan, you know exactly what I’m talking about. But for many outsiders, those who aren’t entirely familiar with Utah football, you may see 2004, the year the Utes went undefeated and beat Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl, as the starting point.
 
It wasn’t.
 
This journey really began in 1989 when Utah hired Ron McBride. Prior to his arrival, the football program was pretty much a wasteland. Ute fans measured success not by conference titles or bowl games, but by winning seasons – even if just barely. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, success was hard to come by and even more difficult to sustain.
 
McBride changed that. It was only in his third season that Utah finally reached a bowl game after a 28-year drought. There they would face the Drew Bledsoe-led, and now conference companion, Washington State Cougars.
 
At first, the Utes proved little match for the established and successful Cougars. Wazzu jumped out to an impressive and seemingly insurmountable 21-0 lead in the first quarter and held a 28-14 advantage at the half. 
 
Utah’s first bowl game in two decades was not going well. But in the second half, they would turn it around and tie the game 28-all heading into the fourth quarter. Even though the Utes would eventually lose the game late in the fourth on a missed field goal, it was far from a disappointing finish.
 
Washington State guard Josh Dunning said after the game that his team had underestimated the Utes.
 
They certainly did. Utah proved something that night in Tucson, even in defeat.
 
That bowl loss was really the launching point for a program that, two years later, would finally have its breakout season. It was in 1994 where Utah managed to upset Oregon in Eugene, the same season the Ducks won the Pac-10 and played in the Rose Bowl, then defeated a ranked Arizona team in the ’94 Freedom Bowl.
 
Those three games early in the McBride era really illustrate how closely linked the Utes are to each Pac-12 member. They are games that every Utah fan remembers and moments that will carry on for generations because, at the time, it was the first real taste of big-time football.
 
For those older fans that endured losing seasons and sparse crowds in a stadium that was falling apart, those early moments made it all worthwhile.
 
After all, in that era, the University of Utah was more known for its basketball program than anything it produced on the football field.
 
That really changed in the 90’s, and that success established a foundation so a guy like Urban Meyer could come in and go 22-2 in his two seasons at Utah. It has allowed a guy like Kyle Whittingham, who has been with the football program since that breakout 1994 season, to not only keep things at a high level, but improve on what the two coaches before him built.
 
To say it’s been an adventure would be an understatement. To say that any Ute fan saw the potential of not only undefeated seasons, but eventual Pac-12 inclusion when McBride stood in front of a few boosters during his introductory press conference, would be an outright lie.
 
No one could have foreseen this day. At least not back in 1989.
 
There have been great moments in Utah athletic history – like playing for the NCAA basketball championship in 1998 or defeating Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl – but this moment, on an overall scale, takes the cake.
 
It is monumental and hard to not understate. I don’t know if I can even begin to express the magnitude, because I believe I would be selling it short in some way. For Ute fans, I guess it’s validation for the program, the University and the state as a whole.
 
But it’s also kind of overwhelming because, as mentioned, we are the new kids on the block. Unlike the first ten, Utah hasn’t proven anything in this conference. They certainly haven’t played in a Rose Bowl or won a conference tournament here.
 
They’re an unknown, untested school from a state many on the west coast might consider as flyover country.
 
Of course, for those of us who live here, we know that isn’t the case. Utah is a beautiful state that has seen exceptional growth over the last twenty years.
 
That growth can be seen not only on the campus of the University of Utah – but within its athletic program. We are witnessing its glory days.
 
So who are these Utes? What is their story?
 
Utah’s athletic program is named after the Ute tribe which occupied the eastern area of the state prior to the arrival of Mexican settlers in the 1800s. Its mascot is a red-tailed hawk named Swoop – which the school adopted in 1996 with permission from the Ute tribal council.
 
The most interesting fact, though, just might be the origins of Utah’s fight song – Utah Man. It originated as a drinking song for the old Sigma Chi and was written back in 1885 to the tune of Solomon Levi. The words are unmistakable, as is the melody – though the school made some obvious adjustments when it adopted the song sometime in the early 1900s.
 
The Mighty Utah Student Section (MUSS) gets its name from one of the lyrics of Utah Man: ‘no other gang of college men dare meet us in the muss’.
 
It is that student section that has become the pride of Utah football. They’re an extraordinary and intimidating group that I think will quickly establish itself as one of the best student sections in the conference.
 
They’re a big reason why Utah football is an impressive 22-2 at home over the last four seasons and the following video perfectly exemplifies what makes them so daunting at times: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9RLptIehMY.
 
Finally, there is the Block U. It was built on the mountainside just behind the university over 100 years ago. It can be seen from all over the valley and after a Utah victory, its lights flash triumphantly.
 
That U has witnessed a lot of change over the last 100 years. There have been three stadiums, countless football coaches, a few perfect seasons, a college basketball championship, BCS wins and now Pac-12 affiliation.
 
It’s fitting the Utes embark on its new journey with Colorado – as the Buffaloes were one of Utah’s main rivals when the Block U was constructed.
 
That rivalry lay dormant the last 50 years and we’re hopeful it will quickly be reignited now that both programs share the same conference for the first time since the 1947 season.
 
But that’s not to say this moment isn’t a bit bittersweet. Utah is leaving behind a lifetime of rivals, programs they grew up around over the last century and created thousands of memories with.
 
You can’t easily replace that familiarity. As much as this program has been self-defining over the years, its history is also closely linked to Air Force, Colorado State, BYU, Wyoming and New Mexico. Each of those teams provided a memorable moment or remarkable play that won’t ever be forgotten – even with the change of affiliation.
 
This is, however, a new era. As much as those memories mean a great deal to Ute fans, it’s time to create new ones with new rivals in a new conference.
 
That new journey is one I think every Ute fan has been waiting a lifetime for and it begins today.

By Sean Reynolds
BlockU.com