Category Archives: News

In commemoration of City Weekly’s 40th anniversary, we are digging into our archives to celebrate. Each week, we FLASHBACK to a story or column from our past in honor of four decades of local alt-journalism. Whether the names and issues are familiar or new, we are grateful to have this unique newspaper to contain them all.

Title: Children as Cookies?
Author: Louis Godfrey
Date: Nov. 1, 2007

When Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, recognized Rep. Brad Last during one tense moment in the 2007 Legislature, the typically bustling chamber fell dead silent. All eyes were fixed squarely on the St. George Republican. “I have great affection for public schools,” Last began, “and I have been struggling with this issue for years … but I have come to the conclusion that this is the right way to implement school choice.” read more

For decades, Latter-day Saint Paul Mero fought the good fight, as he sees it, as a “professional culture warrior,” first in Washington as a congressional aide in the 1980s and 1990s and later in Utah as the president of the conservative Sutherland Institute think tank from 2000 to 2014.

Immigration, education, liquor laws — Mero waged war in all these arenas but none for as long and as hard as the issue of LGBTQ rights and acceptance.

And he’ll be the first to tell you: His team lost.

Salt Lake Tribune read more

In The Salt Lake Tribune’s latest “Mormon Land” podcast, Mero and Reid explain their belief that the Utah-based church should stay out of politics and the so-called culture wars. Here are excerpts:

What was your initial reaction when you heard about the church’s support of the Respect for Marriage Act?

Mero • It certainly surprised me because it’s in total contradiction to church doctrine. You know, we oppose same-sex marriage for doctrinal reasons and you would think that any church would make any move that would support its doctrine. read more

When The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced its support of the Respect for Marriage Act, which is designed to codify same-sex marriage while safeguarding religions from embracing such unions in their policies and practices, many members, especially LGBTQ allies, rejoiced.

Not all of the faithful, however, agreed with the historic decision.

Paul Mero, former president of the conservative Sutherland Institute think tank, for one, says the Utah-based faith’s backing of LGBTQ rights in recent years led to this unwise and unnecessary move. And Stuart Reid, a former Army chaplain, state senator, and public affairs representative for the church, says it’s misguided to tacitly endorse civil same-sex marriage when the practice is viewed doctrinally as an “abomination” to God. read more

If you are involved at all in Utah politics, you most likely have heard about the “Utah way” of doing things. But what exactly is the “Utah way?”

The New York Times referred to the firing squad as “a Utah way of death.” The arrival of Frontrunner ahead of schedule and under budget was described as being “kind of the Utah way.” Gov. Gary Herbert declared that “turning a blind eye and doing nothing” to help “our neighbors, our friends, and our family members” was not the Utah way, shortly before the House of Representatives rejected his Healthy Utah proposal. The phrase was used by political commentator Paul Mero to describe the Utah Compact and by Keith McMullin, CEO of Deseret Management, when referring to Utah’s business-friendly policies. Most recently, the Utah way has been trotted out when discussing the ballot initiatives during last year’s November election. read more

While most of the comments on Lee’s post were sympathetic to his opposition of SB54, some questioned the purpose of a U.S. senator communicating with the state’s governor through social media.

Paul Mero, president of Next Generation Freedom Fund and former president of the conservative Sutherland Institute, wrote that the question of SB54′s constitutionality should be settled by the courts. But Lee’s post, Mero said, was “stirring up the crazies” who have made support or opposition to SB54 a litmus test. read more

Robert Gehrke column on Trump nomination of Utahn Ron Mortensen to a federal post.

“I know he has experience working with refugees outside of the country. I don’t know about his experience with refugees inside the country,” said Paul Mero, who hired Mortensen when Mero was president of the conservative Sutherland Institute. “In fact, the only thing I really do know is that he’s very anti-immigration and anti-refugee.”

Salt Lake Tribune

It hasn’t been business as usual at the Sutherland Institute in hopes of upending politics as usual in Utah.

Those words appeared in the Deseret News 12 years ago as Sutherland’s then-President Paul Mero overhauled the conservative, free-market think tank to make it more relevant. Mero accomplished that task in his 14 years at the helm.

But the outspoken political advocate and Sutherland parted ways nearly two years ago, leaving the 21-year-old organization without a visible leader. Though it lobbies state legislators as usual, it seemed headed for obscurity without a strong community voice. read more

Paul Mero, who had served as the Sutherland Institute’s chief executive officer for 14 years, is out after being asked to step down by the conservative think tank’s board.

“It is what it is. There were just disagreements between me and the board and the board chairman about the organization and about how we execute our plans in the future,” Mero said.

Those disagreements surfaced earlier this year and were “insurmountable,” he said, declining to be more specific.

Deseret News

“Paul has served faithfully and effectively as he has led Sutherland Institute from its infancy to becoming the most influential conservative voice in Utah,” Swim said. “While the board feels this change is necessary as we move into the future, we are grateful for his dedicated service. We will continue to be guided by our seven governing principles that allow faith, family and freedom to flourish in Utah.”

Fox 13 Salt Lake City