Utah County Republican Party

After all the flap about e-mail lists and candidates, County Party Chair Marian Monnahan has agreed to give the e-mail list to ALL the candidates. That is very broad-minded of the party, or shall I say fair? At my precinct caucus, I never once heard the precinct chair say that the delegate e-mail addresses were to be kept for internal party use only. Marian feels that her honor is being compromised by allowing these lists to be circulated, yet when and how did she promise the lists would be kept private? Since delegates were just elected on 25 March, she would have had to distribute this promise to the delegates via mail, phone, or e-mail after the 25th. Otherwise, she would have been telling the previous delegates. And sources on the Utah County Republican Central Committee say that this issue was never mentioned at Central Committee meetings.

I hate to think that leaders in my Republican party are pre-disposed towards incumbents, but it sure seems that way. Susan Bramble, Utah County Party Secretary, controls the lists which is a conflict of interest that can benefit her candidate husband. The Utah Republican Party sent out a flyer soliciting donations for "The Fabulous Five", a group of freshman legislators, some of which have intra-party challenges, and that is against party rules. Chairman Lockhart says it was mistakenly sent out late, but hopefully the state party workers are not that inept.

The Republican Party has always been my party of choice and I don't want to bash the party. I want to see the party be transparent and fair.

Hser Nay Moo

With the abduction and murder of 7-year-old Hser Nay Moo in Salt Lake City, it is a good reminder that April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Prevent Child Abuse Utah has several great resources to help all of us protect children. Check there for tips on how to prevent child abuse and here is something from their website that we can all do.

What YOU can do: Reach Out
Anything you do to support kids and parents can help reduce the stress that often leads to abuse and neglect.

• Be a friend to a parent you know. Ask how their children are doing. Draw on your own experiences to provide reassurance and support. If a parent seems to be struggling, offer to baby-sit or run errands, or just lend a friendly ear. Show you understand.
• Be a friend to a child you know. Remember their names. Smile when you talk with them. Ask them about their day at school. Send them a card in the mail. Show you care.
• Talk to your neighbors about looking out for one another's children. Encourage a supportive spirit among parents in your apartment building or on your block. Show that you are involved.
• Give your used clothing, furniture and toys for use by another family. This can help relieve the stress of financial burdens that parents sometimes take out on their kids.
• Volunteer your time and money for programs in your community that support children and families, like parent support groups or day care centers.

Beehive Bulletin listed as one of Utah's Most Influential Political Blogs

The Beehive Bulletin was recently listed on Blognetnews.com as one of Utah's most influential political blogs. Thanks to all who read and give us feedback. If you have a website, adding our link to your site will help us become more visible and will be greatly appreciated!

State Treasurer candidate

Rep. Mark Walker from Sandy is running for State Treasurer. There are serious questions about his qualifications for this very important state-wide office. In fact, what are his qualifications? We'd like to know. Having observed his performance at the Legislature during his time in office, it seems that he was put on the House Rules Committee to give the chair and vice-chair another vote in their favor and to make him seem important for his latest run for office. The Deseret News ran an article today talking about vote-skippers in the Legislature. It came as no surprise to this observer that Rep. Walker "had the worst voting record in committees during this year's 45-day general session". His excuse is that he was busy running for State Treasurer and meeting with people about bills in the Rules Committee. Perhaps he should have been taking care of his current business rather than running for a new job.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695266072,00.html

Phrases You are Searching For

I happened to looking at some of the statistics for this blog and saw some interesting things in the phrases that people were searching for when they found this blog.

Here are some of the interesting phrases:

• utah private school waiting list
• math investigations
• math investigations bad
• math investigations utah
• math investigations 2007
• math investigations and higher math
• math investigsations are bad
• math investigations for parents
• math investigations method
• math investigations opinion
• math investigations protest
• middle school math investigations
• investigations math
• utah vouchers
• utah heroes
• albion basin flowers
• are charter schools and vouchers detrimental to public education
• beehive background checks
• beehive math
• beehive terrorist attack
• beehives math
• bulletin for utah state heroes
• dougall school videos
• larry h miller salesmen
• lists of states with laws against ticket quotas
• making a referendum
• memory loss with oreo cookies
• old face
• senator stephenson
• rep sandstrom
• sandstrom utah county vouchers
• sen madsen
• tarsal coalition
• to run against rep. carl wimmer

Some interesting notes:

1. There is a lot of interest in math investigations
2. Do oreo cookies cause memory loss? Why are people searching for that?
3. Ditto for the phrase 'old face'. Why are people searching for that?
4. Albion Basin is a beautiful area. If you haven't visited this area, make sure you do.
5. It's interesting to enter these phrases into Google and see what pops up.

Technology not the best idea for preschoolers

HB 200 Early Childhood Learning and Evaluation is a well-meaning idea from a great lawmaker, Rep. Brad Last. But it's not as good as it looks and is being opposed by many in the early childhood community because computer-based learning is not a replacement for developmentally appropriate learning environments that contain cooperative play, blocks, art, etc. Reading daily with an adult increases literacy skills as the child and adult converse back and forth about the story. Currently, there is limited funding for the WPU and existing educational programs. This bill creates an expensive test pilot when we have evidence-based programs already in existence that have no state funding. In addition, the Governor’s Early Childhood Commission is developing early childhood policy priorities for the state that will be announced at a Summit in April. Hopefully, this bill will stay in the Rules Committee and not be debated in the House this session.

This bill creates a pilot project, known as UPSTART, using a home-based educational technology program to develop school readiness skills of preschool children ages 4-5 not enrolled in kindergarten. One third of the funds can be used to provide families with a computer and internet access if they don’t have it. The bill asks for funding of $9.6 million, but has only been prioritezed for $5 million in ongoing and $2 million one-time from the Uniform School Fund to support the pilot. The money will be appropriated to the State Board of Education.

UPSTART is created to evaluate the effectiveness of giving preschool children access, at home, to interactive individualized instruction delivered by computers to prepare them for future school success, and to test the feasibility of scaling a home-based curriculum in reading, math and science to be delivered by computers and the internet to all preschool children in Utah.
The bill directs the State Board of Education to:
1. Contract with an education technology provider, selected through an RFP, for the delivery of a home-based educational technology program for preschool children.
2. Contract with an independent evaluator to evaluate the program.

The bill:
1. Specifies standards for the technology
2. Provides for school district participation in the pilot project
3. Requires an annual audit of the contractor’s use of funds; and
4. Requires an annual audit on UPSTART to the legislature; and repeals the pilot project on July 1, 2014.

To view the full text: http://le.utah.gov/~2008/bills/hbillint/hb0200.htm

It Must be a Cold Day in You-Know-Where

I'm running some errands last Saturday, listening to KSL, which happened to have Enid Green's talk show on. Enid, who is a former congresswoman from Utah, a former chairperson of the Utah Republican Party, and a current member of the central committee for the Utah Republican Party, was discussing the Presidential race and her concerns about Mike Huckabee.

Enid said that she would not give one dime to John McCain's campaign until she knew that he would not select Mike Huckabee as running mate.

And then she said what I thought I would never hear her say. Enid Green said that if John McCain selected Mike Huckabee as his running mate, she would seriously have to consider which party she would vote for.

My jaw dropped.