Provo High School art teacher given national recognition (Feb. 16)

There are so many teachers who work a lifetime and never get the recognition they deserve. I am so happy for him that his good job is being recognized and shared.– Josh Jones

Congratulations to Mr. Rees! Well done!

The students at Provo High School are very lucky to have him and his talents to guide them to unlock the window of joy and fulfilment that can be found in the arts. — The Professor

Reich: Trump is history; it’s Biden who’s changing America (Feb. 17)

Even before the pandemic, Trump blew up the federal deficit to gift billions to billionaires and huge tax breaks to giant corporations that spent on bonuses for bosses and on stock buybacks that spiked the stock market. Even before the pandemic, over 60% of the American workers did not earn a living wage. The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009; it should be $24 per hour had it kept up with inflation. After the pandemic, Trump has the worst jobs record of any U.S. president since Herbert Hoover. President Joe Biden is well on his way to healing America from Trump’s failures, by taking the pandemic seriously and by focusing on infrastructure, strengthening U.S. manufacturing and creating living-wage jobs. — ADP

The middle class had a $6,000 raise in the Trump economy. All classes gained. Fewer on welfare and food stamps and that is hard to do. The stock market is doing well now, but if business earnings do not match up it must go down. I hope (people) are willing to admit when the time comes that the Biden economy is failing. That is a bridge to cross in the future. We did very well during the pandemic — 18th in the world in mortality rate, better than UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, France. Moreover we have vaccinated 7% or so now and Europe only 3.5%. Kamala said we were starting from scratch when we were giving 1 million doses a day. I believe Joe has ordered another 100 million doses as he should. The best minimum wage is no minimum wage. As for deals with billionaires, I think Joe is making most of those. You can’t wish for higher wages if you put firms out of business. Yes I would love everyone to earn a million a year too. The Green New Deal, whose motive is to establish socialism, is likely to make the economy go down. How are you liking that the president of China got a grand award? You guessed it, biggest hypocrite on earth putting in 120 or more coal plants in Africa plus another 100 in China. — What in Tucket Google

While the U.S. president is powerful, the U.S. economy is much bigger. Presidents have little influence on the economy unless they do things like tariffs, which cost the U.S. many jobs, and Trump didn’t come through to support those that lost income.

The U.S. economy under Trump was the worst performance under any president since WWII. But, Trump is only partially to blame. Now that Trump has doubled the U.S. debt load and Biden will add another 1.9 trillion, how in the world do you think the U.S. economy will do well with those kind of debt payments?

The U.S. should borrow in times of trouble and pay off that debt in good times, but the U.S. just keeps increasing the debt load. It doesn’t even matter who the president is, the politicians and people they represent always have their hands out. — Talon Jensen

UTOPIA dials up funding to build out all 11 original cities with fiber optics (Feb. 19)

It would still be more innovative, efficient, and effective in private hands. I’m glad that Provo sold iProvo to Google Fiber. I’d love to see something similar with UTOPIA. Politicians should focus on defending rights, not on running an “alphabet soup” of monopolistic business ventures. — David Edward Garber

Utah governor says he won’t sign transgender athlete bill in its current form (Feb. 18)

This bill is nothing but legislated fear and bias. If a child sees themselves as a girl, then that child IS a girl. And if that child is feminized their physicality has the equal to their peers. Nobody believes the real reason for this bill is athletic equality. — Lana Creer-Harris

Utah should just follow the IOC policy. And, with so few transgender female athletes the state should pay the cost of the testosterone tests. — Talon Jensen

This is an interesting problem. I think the American Academy of Pediatrics condemns surgery or hormones before age 18. That is my recollection. What would you think of a (running) race for transgenders? Some might think they should have their own category? A boy of the same size as a girl is 50% stronger. — What in Tucket Google