Paul Mero

A few weeks ago I mentioned that the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council was coming to Salt Lake City. Well, it’s here and it’s time to get to work. Sutherland Institute is a proud sponsor of the conference and as a sponsor I have a few insights I can share given the controversies surrounding it.

ALEC, as it’s called, is a lot like Sutherland Institute, except its operating model is a bit different. Instead of being a state-based think tank like Sutherland, it’s a national think tank comprised of delegate members. It’s like a mini-Congress in function. Center-right state legislators from across the nation are ALEC’s primary targets and non-politician supporters make up the rest of its membership because, frankly, somebody’s got to pay the bills for its meetings. read more

My first day working for Congress as a young man was January 5, 1987. That same year the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for the purpose of prolonging the lives of AIDS patients, a medicine called AZT. That was 25 years ago. Yesterday the FDA approved another drug, this time taken by healthy people at high-risk for HIV infection. The drug, Truvada, is supposed to be able to reduce the risk of contracting the disease. The FDA’s decision comes less than two weeks after it approved an at-home test for HIV. read more

When my sister, Leslie, was born in 1950 there was no such thing as autism. Back then she was “mentally retarded.” She was born with a few physical defects as well, not major, but you could tell she was different. Leslie played with all of the other kids in the neighborhood and was their relative equal until sixth grade or so when her differences began to become more apparent.

Although Leslie is my only sibling, I grew up mostly as an only child. In her teen years and well into her young adulthood my parents had Leslie in a variety of special schools. read more

A few years ago I commented here on the problems of bullying and addressed whether or not the state Legislature should act to stem its tide. I mentioned how, for whatever personal reasons, I’m like a one-man, heat-seeking anti-bully defense system. I mentioned briefly how I’ve seen my disabled sister treated by school kids and how that there’s just something about bullies that sets me off – so much so, in fact, that my reactions to bullies are often mistaken that I’ve become the bully.

The legislation I addressed on this subject back in 2009 remains with us. Representative Carol Spackman-Moss continues to champion the victims of bullying and would like to see penalties in place to try and mitigate its awful influences. This year there’s an indication that this legislation would include a provision on bullying against kids who are seen as, or self-identify as, homosexuals. A conservative Republican state senator, Howard Stephenson, has expressed his support for that provision. read more

The American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC, has been around as long as I’ve been in politics. ALEC is a non-profit membership organization comprised mostly of state legislators from around the country. It’s philosophy is center-right and, like other organizations serving state legislators, such as the National Conference of State Legislators, or NCSL, ALEC focuses on helping legislators craft model legislation – usually involving the protection of free markets. ALEC rarely gets involved with social issues. read more

This week I want to talk about the importance of marriage to society.  Colleagues at the Institute for American Values in New York City have published an updated edition of their excellent research on marriage and family titled, Why Marriage Matters.

The publication is like a Cliff Notes version of mountains of research on marriage and its effects on men, women and children.  Some of the most prominent family scholars in the nation are co-authors of this report – scholars such as Brad Wilcox at the University of Virginia, David Popenoe at Rutgers University and the grand dame of research regarding the negative effects of divorce on children, Judith Wallerstein at the University of California at Berkeley. read more

This week I want to talk about law and morality.  Is the United States Declaration of Independence illegal?  This was the question before a panel of British and American lawyers at a recent debate in Philadelphia just a few blocks from where the document was originally drafted.

The American lawyers argued that “The English had used their own Declaration of Rights to depose King James II and these acts were deemed completely lawful and justified.”  The British barristers responded that secession isn’t legal and what the English did centuries ago was different than what the American colonists had done.  They asked, “What if Texas decided today it wanted to secede from the Union?” read more

Utah has been one of the four states most flattened by the mortgage crunch, exceeded on a proportional basis only by California, Florida, and Nevada. It is true that in recent months the pace of foreclosures has slowed, although this seems due mainly to legal and accounting delays in the foreclosure process. Ten percent of Utah’s households – some 50,000 – are still either at least 30 days late on their payments or in some stage of foreclosure.

How would George Bailey, the fictional saint of the old mortgage industry, view the ongoing crisis and governmental response? Do you remember this movie dialogue? read more

In Mormon-heavy Utah, is there only one way to think about politics? Now that Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, Jr. are running for president of the United States, I think it’s fair to discuss the circumstances surrounding Mormons and politics ideas.  I’d like to know if there’s such as thing as Mormon political philosophy?  Is there one true way for the one true religion to express itself philosophically and politically?

Of course, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is both clear and adamant that it does not endorse political candidates and that every member of the LDS Church is free to exercise their civic franchise how they see fit.  But such reminders seem desperate when the obvious so often dangles in front of the spoken word.  What’s obvious is that the LDS Church is value-driven; its doctrines have temporal as well as spiritual meanings, and it can get pretty confusing after a while. read more

Utah seems to be the multi-level marketing capital of the world and I wonder why. A story the other day in the Salt Lake Tribune caught my eye.  The picture with the story had a confident-looking, middle-aged, man standing by a beautiful Rolls-Royce with the name of his company on its side.  That struck me as peculiar – a Rolls-Royce with a commercial logo on it.  The only other thing I can compare it to are those pink Cadillacs that Mary Kay cosmetics hands out to its top performers.

The fellow in the picture says that he’s made $600,000 a month – yes, a month – working for his MLM.  The product, made here in Utah, is another one of those miracle fruit juices that seems to fix whatever ails you. read more