Performance Audit of Tooele County’s Sale of the Utah Motorsports Campus
SALT LAKE CITY – Speaker Brad Wilson released the following statement in response to the performance audit of Tooele County’s sale of the Utah Motorsports Campus:
“I appreciate Representative Sagers for his dedication to public service, being a watchdog for the taxpayers of his district, expressing concerns around this issue, and requesting this audit. I think that everyone agrees that what was discovered, related to how Tooele County handled the sale of the Utah Motorsports Campus, should never happen again. However, our auditors have also provided some good recommendations on how Tooele County can improve in the future, and I trust they will take the proper steps to implement them. Finally, I appreciate the work of our legislative auditors who always operate with integrity and are solely focused on helping entities identify areas for improving their performance.”
The Performance Audit of Tooele County’s Sale of the Utah Motorsports Campus was heard in the Utah Legislative Audit Subcommittee on May 14, 2019. A copy of the audit can be found here: https://le.utah.gov/audit/19_04rpt.pdf
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Baiting Iran
by Mel Gurtov
470 words
Ever since Donald Trump became president, regime change in Iran has been a prominent US aim. Trump began by backing out of the nuclear deal and imposing harsh sanctions, setting the stage for a confrontational policy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton followed Trump’s lead, repeatedly denouncing Iran’s leadership, calling for Iranians to rise up against it, and issuing vague warnings of US punishment.
This US policy is absolutely inexcusable: It is aggressive and baseless, oblivious to diplomacy, and guaranteed to cause untold hardship and chaos for the people of the region.
I have argued a number of times that Iran, not North Korea, is Trump’s principal national security target. Trump’s extraordinary patience with Kim Jong-un, and willingness to go to two summits with him that have gotten nowhere, can be understood as having given him time to focus on “maximum pressure” on Iran. In his mind, the North Korea “threat” has been deterred; let South Korea deal with it. US interests in the Middle East are far more important anyway, and with Iran Trump has the firm backing of two “great friends”: Saudi Arabia’s criminal crown prince and Israel’s newly reelected prime minister, who is as much a militaristic far-right hawk as Bolton and Pompeo. If war broke out, the Saudis and Israelis would be expected to provide on-the-ground personnel, permitting the US to rely on air and naval power.
What Trump is now doing is baiting Iran with war talk and deployments of overwhelming military power. Bolton, well known for having wanted to attack Iran years ago, and defeated in his attempts to lure Trump into using force against Venezuela, is looking for a way to sucker Tehran into creating a “provocation” that would provide a pretext for a US “counterattack.” The public US position is not credible: “The president has been clear, the United States does not seek military conflict with Iran, and he is open to talks with Iranian leadership,” Garrett Marquis, a National Security Council spokesman, said Monday in an email. “However, Iran’s default option for 40 years has been violence, and we are ready to defend U.S. personnel and interests in the region.”
Talks, really? Trump “open to talks” after tearing up a negotiated deal with Iran that took many years to conclude—a deal that is working? Defend US personnel from what? Defend what interests, other than those of the Saudis and the Israelis who have been itching to eliminate the rule of Iran’s Shia clergy for decades? If there is a “default option,” it is the US preference under Trump for resolving international disputes by threats rather than engagement. The US Congress, the European Union, Russia, and China must act fast to isolate Trump and insist that their interests lie in continued trade with Iran and respect for its sovereignty.
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Mel Gurtov, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University.
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The most dangerous countries for females
“We have an abundance of rape and violence against women in this country and on this Earth, though it's almost never treated as a civil rights or human rights issue, or a crisis, or even a pattern. Violence doesn't have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, but it does have a gender,” penned Rebecca Solnit in her book, Men Explain Things to Me.
India, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Nigeria, and the United States. What did these 10 countries share in common in 2018?
Sexual violence, sexual slavery, forced marriage, human trafficking, and non-sexual violence among other risks (healthcare, access to economic resources, customary practices). That’s according to the 2018 survey from the Thomson Reuters Foundation (195 countries were included) www.reuters.com.
Sexual Violence included rape as a weapon of war; domestic rape; rape by a stranger; the lack of access to justice in rape cases; sexual harassment and coercion into sex as a form of corruption. Non-Sexual Violence included conflict-related violence and forms of domestic physical and mental abuse.
“The only Western nation in the top 10 and joint third with Syria for the risks women face in terms of sexual violence, including rape, sexual harassment, coercion into sex and a lack of access to justice in rape cases. The survey came after the #MeToo campaign went viral last year, with thousands of women using the social media movement to share stories of sexual harassment or abuse,” according to the foundation.
India was named as the most dangerous country for women in the 2018 survey. “Violence against women in India has caused national and international outrage and protests since the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a student on a bus in New Delhi.” www.poll2018.trust.org/.
Nigeria was named the fourth most dangerous country along with Russia when it came to human trafficking.
In 2011, a survey from the same foundation identified the five most dangerous countries for women: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India, and Somalia.
According to the 2019 Global Study on Homicide (gender-related killing of women and girls), it is estimated that of the 87,000 women who were intentionally killed in 2017 globally, more than half were killed by intimate partners or family members, meaning that 137 women across the world are killed by a member of their own family every day.
“If we are to fight discrimination and injustice against women we must start from the home for if a woman cannot be safe in her own house then she cannot be expected to feel safe anywhere,” proclaimed Aysha Taryam.
A global study from the United Nations Population Fund revealed that girls and young women with disabilities face up to 10 times more gender-based violence than those without disabilities. Girls with intellectual disabilities are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence. www.unfpa.org.
“From Pakistan to the US, it is still very difficult for military women to speak of sexual assault and seek justice,” according to a 2018 article at www.aljazeera.com. “Countries like the US, France, UK, Israel and Canada have made some efforts to reform reporting and response mechanisms for sexual violence crimes to ensure protection for the victims and a higher likelihood for the perpetrators to be held accountable. None of these efforts has been enough, however.”
“There are two kinds of males - men who stand up for women’s rights and cowards. The choice is yours.” ―Abaida Mahmood
Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is an author, columnist, educator, and therapist. She lives in Ohio.
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RELEASE NEW DOUBLE SINGLE
GIVE YOURSELF A HELL
FEATURING THE COVER SONGS "GIVE
YOURSELF A TRY"AND "GIVES YOU HELL"
PERFORMING AT SLAM DUNK FESTIVAL MAY 25 - 26
MAY 15, 2019 - Liverpool, UK - WSTR have shared the new double single, Give Yourself A Try, featuring the covers "Give Yourself A Try" (originally made famous by The 1975) and "Gives You Hell" (originally made famous by The All-American Rejects). "Gives You Hell" had its exclusive premiere via Rock Sound's Worship and Tributes: Volume II compilation in Rock Sound issue 250 and is now available for the first time on digital and streaming. Fans can purchase and stream the single here: smarturl.it/giveyourselfahell
Working with long-time friend and producer, Seb Barlow (Neck Deep, As It Is), and feeling inspired to push boundaries stylistically, WSTR frontman and vocalist, Sammy Clifford started exploring some of his favorite songs and why he loved them. Speaking to covering "Give Yourself A Try," Sammy admitted that the decision to cover the song was a personal journey. "I was in a bit of a strange place when this song came out and I instantly fell in love with it as I'm sure a lot of people did. I was a little scared that it was a bit personal to cover, but I knew that I couldn't leave it out,"Sammy shared.
Similarly, Sammy admired the second cover "Gives You Hell," albeit with a bit more of a competitive slant. "Recording this song bummed us out so hard because we just wished we had written it, "Sammy recalls, "I'm so happy that I finally got to cover the song, it's gonna give you hell."
After a brilliant 2018 that saw the release of Identity Crisis, their debut Hopeless Records full-length, touring with Neck Deep, The Faim, and Stand Atlantic, WSTR has no plans of stopping. The band will be performing on the Monster Stage (main stage) at UK's acclaimed rock festival Slam Dunk Festival on May 25th and 26th. Tickets can be purchased here: https://slamdunk.seetickets.com/tour/slam-dunk-festival-2019
Identity Crisis is available now via Hopeless Records. Fans can purchase or stream the album here: smarturl.it/wstridentitycrisis.
WSTR is Sammy Clifford (vocals), Alex Tobijanski (bass), Tom Hawkes (guitar), and Kurtis Maiden (drums).
For more information, visit http://www.hopelessrecords.com
Follow WSTR
https://www.facebook.com/wstrband/
https://www.instagram.com/wstrband/
