Governor Herbert is holding a string of public hearings ahead of his planned “Energy Summit.”  We’ll dedicate hour one of our show today to giving Cache Valley a chance to weigh in first.  What should the future of Utah’s energy needs and supply look like?  Nuclear?  Wind?  Natural gas?  We’ll be taking your calls, and making sure your ideas make it to the right ears.

DNew’s Lee Davidson (in one of his final contributions to the paper, as you know it) reports that some employers may be taking advantage of those in desperate need of a job by employing them quickly… then not paying them.  We’ll find out what you can do to protect yourself.

Thanks to the holiday, we’re kicking off our week with the Mero Moment.  This week, Sutherland Institute President Paul Mero serves up his thoughts on divorce and custody battles here in Utah.  Listen in at 5, and share your thoughts with us afterward.

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5PM: KVNU Movie Show with Andy and Dan of AndyattheMovies.com.  I haven’t heard yet what they’ve seen this week, but as usual the conversation will be loads of fun.

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We’ll speak with long time friend of the show Rob Miller, former Vice-Chair of Utah Democrats, currrent Davis County Chair about the “tribe mentality” evident in BYU’s announcement, and even in Utah politics.

We’ll hear from organizers of the LOTOJA event — happening next weekend, not this — about how quickly the event has grown, and what the future holds.

Glenn Beck, Christians and Mormons. Discussion ensues.

Finally, we’ll spend time with Sundee Ware, Wilson School Principal, about the school’s standing in the Pepsi Refresh $250,000 challenge.  They need your help: Text 102480 to 73774 or visit http://www.refresheverything.com/pursuingacademicswithsuccess and search for the High School Students / PAWS to vote before the end of the month.   We’ll find out how they got there, and how they plan to win.

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Starting your week out right with Left, Right and Libertarian: your chance to weigh in with Jonathan, Michael, and me on all the weekend headlines you didn’t, weren’t supposed to, and probably need to see.  What did we miss?

Peak Oil?  No.  Peak EVERYTHING! We’ll discuss the idea posed by some that we’re running out of  lithium, peak neodymium, and phosphorus, and the effects could be economically devastating.

Something funky in Rep. Paul Ray’s water?

And Ogden City has filed an injunction against a local gang. The policy would ban gang members from associating with each other, being anywhere near a gun or a drug, and possibly even impose a curfew on known gang members.  Effective way to fight gang violence?  Pointless, unenforceable grandstanding?  More evidence Ogden “solving” problems by driving those problems to other (Roy) cities.

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We all know about the former Logan fire chief case where Kyle Lindsay was arrested on multiple felony charges including burglary and drug counts. But although this is a high-profile case involving a (former) high-level public official, the Smithfield Police Department, namely police chief Johnny McCoy, has refused to release any information as to the basis for his agency’s allegations. That silence has been echoed by the Cache County Attorney’s Office, and the publicly available court documents are also scant with information.

This raises a red flag because, generally, police release information about people who are arrested, the who, what, where and when of the crime. In the Kyle Lindsay case, Johnny McCoy and friends are saying public records laws protect them from giving the information, but they lose that defense because they regularly release the information. McCoy et al also can’t hide behind the statement “we want to preserve the suspect’s right to a fair trial” because the courts have an extensive process to ensure that a defendant is given a fair trial. Johnny McCoy is not the person who is responsible for ensuring someone receives a fair trial, the courts will handle that. McCoy needs to focus on his own agency (you know, the agency that regularly has three-plus squad cars at the Smithfield 7-Eleven late at night) and not how the court process is going to proceed.

That’s the first red flag. The next comes in Sunday’s edition of The Herald Journal with this letter to the editor about Smithfield Justice Court Judge Terry Moore.

If these allegations from the letter writer are true (and I tend to believe they are based on several similar stories of disrespect from people I know, from the comments on that letter to the editor, and from the HJ’s own printed response from what they got when they called the judge himself,) then Terry Moore should not be retained as a judge by the residents of Smithfield (and Wellsville, for that matter, where I’ve heard stories of Moore wreaking havoc and arrogance as well.)

I’ve long had a problem with the fact that people without law degrees are allowed to serve as judges. I’d like to hear some of the arguments for and against allowing “lay” people to serve decades (Terry Moore has been Smithfield’s judge since 1992) as justice court judges.

At the end of the day, I’m frankly scared for the people of Smithfield. All indications are that even though it is 2010, there is a early-20th Century form of good ole’ boys justice taking place in Smithfield with people like Terry Moore having no respect for patrons of his court and Johnny McCoy incompetently running an agency, ignoring public records laws and having officers that seemingly are constantly “on break.”

Where’s the justice? Not Smithfield, it seems.

It may also reign true that humans come out of the womb as non-sexual beings. Yes, it’s possible that we are ALL born with a mind for molding on the matter and, thus, choices to make accordingly.

Perhaps parenting causes certain reactions among children to the opposite gender later in life. Being abused might cause gender identity confusion. Treatments on the playground may cause one to believe he/she must be gay because ‘I just can’t identify with the opposite gender’. Maybe it’s simple shyness that causes it sometimes. Sometimes imprisonment or isolation with extended time exposed only to the same gender might cause homosexuality. Drug habits might lead to a tendency to ‘get off one’s rocks’ anyway one can. I’m not laying claim to any specific scientific proof, yet I believe theoretically some of this probably happens.

Likewise I’d bet sometimes we ARE talking about born tendency. Geneticists claim to have isolated some evidence for this among homosexuals … even alcoholics.

So, two things:

First, being ‘born gay’ is at least similar to being ‘born an alcoholic’. In the future, some parents, given such information at or before the birth of their children, might choose to affect the fruition of certain tendencies through environmental nudging or nurturing. Perhaps someday genetic solutions will be made available and some parents will choose to medically eliminate such tendencies altogether. And, on the other hand some of these parents might choose to put beer in their children’s lunch box.

Second, often Prop 8 opposers represent a hypocritical stance that gay is ALWAYS a born trait and NEVER choice. Of course that is the norm among the Prop 8 opposition because it’s the only way to lay claim to a MLK style Civil Rights piggyback ride. So, sometimes the argument is made (because I for one often argue a link to governmental interest in marriage intended to affect responsible child rearing) that only people who intend to or even CAN make babies should be afforded a marriage license. Fine then. Since the ‘Gay Marriage’ movement is pushed solely as a Civil Rights issue, ONLY gays who are proven BORN ‘that way’ should get marriage certs. Bi’s and Trannies are out lest they choose opposite gender commitments.

Join us for the KVNU Movie Show at 5pm with Andy and Dan of AndyattheMovies.com.  I haven’t heard yet what they’ve seen this week, but as usual the conversation will be loads of fun.

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The Herbert/Corroon race for Governor has heated up this week with the two candidates exchanging blows over education plans.  Corroon: More requirements for a high school diploma.  Herbert: I’ll let you know when my commission tells me what my ed plan is.  We’ll discuss the two approaches, and get your feedback.

We’ll speak to Doug Stephenson of the United Way about their “Day of Caring” event Sept 8th.  They need your help!  We’ll get you all the info to get involved.

A topic we’ve now bumped three times this week: Wasteful school spending.  The CATO Institute tells a story of the “Taj Mahal of Public Schools” recently built in California. The final price tag will shock you.  Justified costs, or a sign of a need for spending reform in the public school system?  You decide (and let us know.

Finally, the Pentagon is entering the Reality TV fray with a new show called Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan.  Some are outraged, calling the show — pieced together with real footage from real soldiers — a glorification of war, and producers are saying the show may actually show casualties.  Would you watch?  Is this turning war into entertainment?

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Last night was (again) primary night in various places (Arizona, Florida, more).  Who won?  Well, it depends on who you’re listening to. McCain survived, but the tea parties took a big chunk out of his war chest.  The biggest names on the AG suit against the Democrat’s health care reform bill all lost.  What does it all mean?  We’ll try to sort that out.

We’ll hear from County Clerk Jill Zollinger on the results of Cache Valley’s own primary election experiment: Direct-Mail-Balloting, and what the future of voting in Utah might look like.

Next week, the President will give his “Iraq Speech,” announcing the de facto end of the war.  We’ll speculate (widely) about what might be said, and whether or not the war there is really ending, considering recent news of violent outburst.

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Rulon!

Tonight:

We’ll speak with co-owner of the family operated Oakdell and Ritewood Farms — local egg producers right here in Northern Utah — on the details of the national egg recall, and the importance of buying local.

We’ll hear from a representative of Daughters of the American Revolution to learn what their organization is all about, and how you can get involved.

Friend of the show and Olympic Gold Medalist Rulon Gardener will be in studio at 5 to talk about his Elite Training Center and we’ll of course be asking him for his thoughts on conference realignments, USU football, immigration reform, health care, egg recalls, and…

The Mero Moment.  We’ll invite Rulon to stick around for the discussion around this week’s installment.  Today, Sutherland Institute President Paul Mero tackles corrupting influences in politics, centering around the recent dust-up over taking federal money for Utah schools.

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We’ll serve up the second ever installment of “Left, Right and Libertarian,” a chance for us to recap and wax ideological over the weekend headlines, including, this week, an airport security check that went a little too far.  We also want to hear from you.  What did we miss?

Logan City Council is holding a public hearing tomorrow night on “Spice.” We’ll go one better and let our listeners weigh in first. How should the county, law enforcement, and the courts respond to the problems this incense-turned-drug and the public health risks it creates?

We’ll hear from Doug Thompson on the upcoming IHC Health Fair, and what you can expect.

And finally, we’ll discuss a recent report unearthed by AP (via CATO Institute) showing an inexplicable growth in acquisition and construction costs for public schools. Is there a justification for these K-12 “Taj Mahals”, or is this an area in need of reform in our public school system?

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In 2007, when he was running for the Republican nomination for president, Romney gave a speech that I described at the time as “an instant classic in American civil religion.” In “Faith in America,” he spoke glowingly of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. He also said he had himself learned much not only from Catholics, evangelicals and Jews but also from “the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims.” [...]

I thought that Romney, as a Mormon, might speak out passionately for the First Amendment. I thought he might remember how the founder of his religion, Joseph Smith Jr., was murdered by an anti-Mormon mob. I thought he might recall how the U.S. government brought down much of its coercive power against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

Apparently not.  According to a statement released on August 10 by his spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom, “Governor Romney opposes the construction of the mosque at Ground Zero. The wishes of the families of the deceased and the potential for extremists to use the mosque for global recruiting and propaganda compel rejection of this site.”

More recently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, also a Mormon, opened the floodgates for what will likely be a steady stream of Democratic equivocation on this important issue. “The First Amendment protects freedom of religion,” Reid’s spokesman Jim Manley said in an August 16 statement. “Sen. Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else.”

One of the realities of robust religious liberty in the United States is that members of minority religions grow complacent over the years. [...]

Perhaps I am wrong for holding Mormons to some higher standard, but I do. I believe that members of a religious group that has been persecuted almost to extinction should stand up and speak out when Newt Gingrich starts likening Muslims to Nazis and Tea Party advocates start referring to Islam as a cult. At a minimum, religious minorities should not fall into the Puritan trap of demanding religious freedom for themselves while denying it to others.

UPDATE: Bob Aagard beat me to the punch on this one. His take.

Carl Paladino (R), a candidate for governor in New York, said he would transform some empty state prisons into housing for welfare recipients, where they would work in state-sponsored jobs like the military or “in some cases park service.” People living in the facility would also get employment training and take lessons in “personal hygiene,” the AP reports.

Said Paladino: “Instead of handing out the welfare checks, we’ll teach people how to earn their check. We’ll teach them personal hygiene … the personal things they don’t get when they come from dysfunctional homes.”

Wow.  It must be nice, living in this guy’s simple little world where all recipients of welfare suffer only from not knowing how to earn a paycheck and shower correctly.

And after a brief hiatus, the FTP Movie Show returns today at 5pm with Andy and Dan of AndyattheMovies.com.  I’ve been told they will be serving up a gigantic hour of fall movie preview love, just for you.

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Podcasts of this and previous shows are available here.

Often talk I hear of online education leads to joking about certain web based “universities” and online “degrees” that may not help you find the job you’re seeking quite as well as a “paper” degree.

But online education is, and should be part of the future of both private and public education.

So how would it work?  That’s an interesting thing to consider, and Patrick’s comments via the video above get the discussion rolling.

For parent’s out there, would you object to your children receiving at least a portion of their education online, or prefer a traditional classroom?  How much money could this save states?  How many more avenues of learning could an online “classroom” offer in addition to, instead of replacement for a traditional classroom?

I’m looking forward to seeing the future of this one.