Katharine Biele

Miss: Background Checks Let’s not talk about Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner or anyone elected despite a troubled background. Instead, we’ll focus on how we do not vet candidates for public sector jobs. Kai Schwemmer is emblematic of how it’s done. Schwemmer was hired by Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson as a deputy clerk to help reach young voters. That’s not odd in itself, since young voters tend to turn out at lower rates than older voters. But Davidson, long known for distrusting the voting system, chose “true conservative” influencer Schwemmer despite questions about antisemitic and white supremacist posts. Davidson said he found Schwemmer after a Utah Republican Convention, because the party “trusted him enough” to speak. That’s nothing. The Pentagon recently hired a convicted January 6 rioter to work in the irregular warfare and counterterrorism section. In this partisan environment, what could possibly go wrong?

Hit: Brick by Brick You either love LEGOs or hate them, particularly if they’re left around the house and you step on them. But now coming to Utah is a new way to think about the childhood toys. It’s a $200,000 scandal over ownership of a LEGO Star Wars collection—and it’s ending up in American Fork. The Bricks & Minifigs story broke on Business Wire

Miss: Smoke and Mirrors It is never enough that people can’t breathe, people get sick, people lose their homes or—worst yet—people die. Conservative lawmakers are convinced that the wildfires decimating the west are just weather; wait a while and all will change. To underscore that conviction, Gov. Spencer Cox has “temporarily” issued a fireworks ban until after July 4, even while he praised fire crews for “several miraculous stops and saves.” Did we mention that three federal firefighters have recently died during the infernos? You might think the fireworks ban is a common-sense move, but not Kai Schwemmer, the young right-wing political influencer tasked with Utah County’s voter engagement. To Schwemmer, the governor’s actions are “the kind of thing a cartoonish parody of a Democrat governor would do,” he said on X. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment aren’t playing it safe. They know who to blame—“the people who for 30 years voted for politicians that ignored the climate crisis.”

Miss: Press Play Let’s just say it would be awkward for The Salt Lake Tribune to note former staffer Bryan Schott’s big win. Schott was apparently fired—according to the Utah Legislature, at least—because he offered to buy banned books for kids. I mean, who wouldn’t? But that’s beside the point. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has revived Schott’s lawsuit against the Legislature over its refusal to grant him a press credential. So no, it isn’t over, but this is one more notch in the belt of MAGA’s effort to suppress free thinking and, of course, a free press. Schott, publisher of Utah Political Watch, doesn’t have a big organization behind him. He’s on his own, making him vulnerable financially and professionally. The fact that he was denied press credentials—after covering the Legislature for years with other media—has been called “viewpoint discrimination.” They don’t like what he’s saying, and very few local outlets have covered the issue. Meanwhile, The Pentagon has barred journalists from its press office for similar reasons and an historic ship bearing the message “Save the Clean Water Act” was taken out of the New York Harbor parade. In America, we shouldn’t be sanitizing everything according to one point of view.

Miss: Arch Rivals Let’s talk about Donald Trump’s Triumphal Arch and the bad taste it leaves for America. We know the president envies the French and their historically golden vision of life. That has been a main motivator in his push to build a bigger and better arch in Washington, D.C. So why is another arch reportedly coming to Utah, a state where gold is less important than coal and where premium open space is revered? No doubt the sculptor, Sabin Howard, was dumbstruck by the pushback from the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and perhaps the larger Salt Lake community. The proposed Grand Liberty Arch and its companion tomahawk-waving statue have just given Howard grief, in the way the Box Elder data center did for officials there. Not that the two projects are the same—except that both lacked significant public input. With the emphasis on autocracy, public input is anathema—even as the sculptor himself insists that people just don’t understand art. That may be true, but it’s also condescending.

Hit: Me, Myself and I The best part about Sen. Todd Weiler’s new position with the Sutherland Institute is all the Monday morning quarterbacking. Sutherland Institute has been around since 1995 as a conservative think tank that focuses on family and limited government. On one hand, it supports school vouchers. On another, it decries partisan gerrymandering. The institute has run through as many presidents as it has policies, and Weiler—R, Woods Cross—will now have to navigate the think tank’s politics while working as a Utah senator. “A sitting senator should not be paid to lead an organization whose purpose is to influence public policy,” said patient advocate Christine Stenquist. Maybe, but it’s happened several times before. Former Sen. Howard Stephenson ran the Utah Taxpayers Association, and the late Sen. Ed Mayne also ran the Utah AFL-CIO. One internet commenter who “likes” Weiler, asked if he would give up “snarky Twitter Todd,” and Stephenson wondered if Weiler is really aligned with Sutherland’s values. We’ll see who influences what when Weiler’s center-right politics meets Sutherland’s far-right.

Hits & Misses

Miss: In the Zone There’s no question that Salt Lake needs more housing. The issue is how, where and when. The latest is a 15-story midrise building across from Trolley Square. And when they say “midrise,” they mean something smaller than the Empire State Building. The building would house condos, which apparently has created great glee from the City Council. The problem is what exactly that means. One housing advocate, Cindy Cromer, was disgusted, partly because the city would have to change both zoning and the master plan. “There’s no sense to work on a master plan if the language is just completely ignored,” she said. An Instagram comment noted the “increasingly frequent habit of developers asking for zoning exemptions and master plan changes for individual owners and specific... parcel zoning.” And while the Council seems thrilled with the tower’s ownership component, for-sale units often go to buyers who then rent them out to other tenants. “The city is naïve,” Cromer said, adding that, in her opinion, there’s no predictability, no protection for view corridors and no assurance of affordability.

Hits & Misses

Miss: Church and State If you are a longtime Utahn, you probably remember the Deseret News’ Church News, a special edition that came with the newspaper. Now that so much has gone digital, you need a special subscription to get the official LDS word. So it has been up to other news organizations to cover The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in more secular ways. The Salt Lake Tribune has taken this mission to the max and offers up church news that, frankly, most people don’t care about. Remember a front-page story on Mormon underwear changes? This week, the Trib featured a lengthy story about which LDS are the most devout in the world. Another story talked about an LDS graphic novel and another, with wider interest, on Utah County prosecutors not alerting church lawyers if bishops back defendants. LDS author Carol Lynn Pearson got front-page coverage while the death of a well-known Latino businesswoman was relegated to an inside page. Utahns are interested in religion news, but might find more interest in how it affects state and local politics.