Who is the Scarlet Pimpernel? In 1790s France, the revolution for a visionary new government takes a dark turn as the Reign of Terror demands the blood of its enemies, real and imagined. Royal sympathizers, aristocrats, entire families, critics of the new order – they all face death beneath the blade of Madame la Guillotine. In England, the monarchy is safe, and it appears that the lords and ladies cared more for fashion than politics. But one bold group of Englishmen led by the Scarlet Pimpernel, a brave and mysterious adventurer, dares to snatch these French prisoners away from the guillotine. France sends Citizen Chauvelin to England to unmask the Scarlet Pimpernel, and thus begins a battle of wits between a driven spy and Sir Percy Blakeney, the richest, best-dressed, much admired, and yet, seemingly, the most foolish man in England. Between the two men stands clever, beautiful, tortured Marguerite. Marguerite’s loyalty and honor will be tested in the face of blackmail and deceit. One wrong choice and someone she loves will die.
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WWII soldier’s remains returned home to Utah 74 years after his death
Army Air Forces 2nd. Lt. Lynn Hadfield was only 25 when he died toward the end of World War II. His remains have finally been brought home.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (KUTV/CNN) – A world war two soldier is back home 74 years after he died in a plane crash in Germany.
The family of Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Lynn W. Hadfield gathered at Salt Lake International Airport to receive the casket Tuesday.
“Three years ago, we had no idea this could happen, and today it’s happening,” said Chris Turner, Hadfield’s grandson.
Turner said he is amazed that people his family has never met in another part of the world brought his grandfather back home 74 years after he died in Germany.
“People that didn’t know him, people that didn’t know us, … they spent the effort, time, their skills, the money, to bring him home,” he said.
It was near the end of World War II when 25-year-old Hadfield was piloting a plane that was hit by enemy fire.
Hadfield and two others on board died in the crash.
“It was near the end of the war. I think he helped bring the end of the war closer. Within about three months of his crash, the war was pretty much over,” Turner said.
Decades later, a German man, Adolf Hagedorn, found the crash site, and the digging began to find the plane.
“We have the pilot wings. We have the fountain pen cap that has his name on it, and there’s a fragment of shirt tied to that fountain cap. And we also have his dog tags,” he said.
Turner said his mother, who was only 17 months old when her father died, was at the airport to receive the casket.
WWII soldier’s remains returned home to Utah 74 years after his death
Army Air Forces 2nd. Lt. Lynn Hadfield was only 25 when he died toward the end of World War II. His remains have finally been brought home.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (KUTV/CNN) – A world war two soldier is back home 74 years after he died in a plane crash in Germany.
The family of Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Lynn W. Hadfield gathered at Salt Lake International Airport to receive the casket Tuesday.
“Three years ago, we had no idea this could happen, and today it’s happening,” said Chris Turner, Hadfield’s grandson.
Turner said he is amazed that people his family has never met in another part of the world brought his grandfather back home 74 years after he died in Germany.
“People that didn’t know him, people that didn’t know us, … they spent the effort, time, their skills, the money, to bring him home,” he said.
It was near the end of World War II when 25-year-old Hadfield was piloting a plane that was hit by enemy fire.
Hadfield and two others on board died in the crash.
“It was near the end of the war. I think he helped bring the end of the war closer. Within about three months of his crash, the war was pretty much over,” Turner said.
Decades later, a German man, Adolf Hagedorn, found the crash site, and the digging began to find the plane.
“We have the pilot wings. We have the fountain pen cap that has his name on it, and there’s a fragment of shirt tied to that fountain cap. And we also have his dog tags,” he said.
Turner said his mother, who was only 17 months old when her father died, was at the airport to receive the casket.
WWII soldier’s remains returned home to Utah 74 years after his death
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (KUTV/CNN) – A world war two soldier is back home 74 years after he died in a plane crash in Germany.
The family of Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Lynn W. Hadfield gathered at Salt Lake International Airport to receive the casket Tuesday.
“Three years ago, we had no idea this could happen, and today it’s happening,” said Chris Turner, Hadfield’s grandson.
Turner said he is amazed that people his family has never met in another part of the world brought his grandfather back home 74 years after he died in Germany.
“People that didn’t know him, people that didn’t know us, … they spent the effort, time, their skills, the money, to bring him home,” he said.
It was near the end of World War II when 25-year-old Hadfield was piloting a plane that was hit by enemy fire.
Hadfield and two others on board died in the crash.
“It was near the end of the war. I think he helped bring the end of the war closer. Within about three months of his crash, the war was pretty much over,” Turner said.
Decades later, a German man, Adolf Hagedorn, found the crash site, and the digging began to find the plane.
“We have the pilot wings. We have the fountain pen cap that has his name on it, and there’s a fragment of shirt tied to that fountain cap. And we also have his dog tags,” he said.
Turner said his mother, who was only 17 months old when her father died, was at the airport to receive the casket.
Bluffdale rebuilds housing plan
BLUFFDALE — Compelled by court order and a fast-approaching deadline, city officials unveiled a rough draft of a revised plan to conform with the state’s affordable housing laws.
By a unanimous vote, the city’s six-member Planning Commission put its stamp of approval Tuesday on the 25-page plan, which is now headed before the City Council.
Bluffdale officials are under pressure to update the plan by March 31 after a 3rd District Court judge ruled last month that the city’s previous moderate-income housing plan did not meet the requirements of a 1996 state law mandating all Utah communities to provide a variety of housing types.
Bluffdale City Attorney Kevin Watkins and another adviser told Planning Commission members at Tuesday’s public hearing that they are confident the latest plan now passes legal muster. But Mike Hutchings, the attorney who successfully sued the city last year on behalf of Anderson Development to win the court order, told commissioners and about 20 residents that the updated plan is no better than the previously rejected one.
"It seems to me that it really does nothing," said Hutchings, a former district court judge of 16 years. "It would not produce an appreciable difference in moderate housing in Bluffdale city. There’s a lot of talk in there but no real commitment. I submit the plan you have before you does nothing more than maintain the status quo that has existed in the city for the last 21 years."
Under state law, Bluffdale immediately needs 175 moderate-income housing units — defined as a house that costs no more than $117,318 or a two-bedroom apartment whose rent could not exceed $818. The city of approximately 4,280 residents then would have to add 200 more affordable housing units by 2005.
To remedy Bluffdale’s moderate-income housing scarcity, Sorensen prescribed that the City Council approve more high-density and accessory apartment zoning in the future. Yet rather than explicitly put such recommendations in his plan, Sorensen said he would defer to the City Council and Planning Commission on such changes.
And as of Tuesday, there were no substantive or concrete zoning changes in the city’s plan, although commission member Steve Levesque indicated there could be some in the future.
Hutchings, however, is skeptical of such promises.
"They can say a lot of things," Hutchings said, "but will they do them? So far they have not."
Historically, Bluffdale has been predominantly homogenous in its demographics and housing types. More than 82 percent of Bluffdale’s residentially zoned areas sit on either one- or five-acre lots. What’s more, no racial minorities lived among the more than 2,152 residents who lived in Bluffdale as of the 1990 Census.
Hutchings said that even if the city should allow moderate-income housing units on 10,000-square-foot lots — a quarter of an acre — the land would almost certainly prove far too expensive for lower-income families to afford. By Sorensen’s estimate, 10,000-square-foot lots typically support homes in the $256,000 and $320,000 range, which would price out the very clients Bluffdale is now forced to accommodate.
Bluffdale’s residents overwhelmingly oppose the state-ordered housing reform in their neighborhood. There also remains a strong undercurrent of discontent by some of the city’s politicians with 3rd District Judge Matthew B. Durrant’s ruling last month. When Bluffdale’s commissioners deliberated Tuesday over whether to go back to drawing board, planning commission member Blake Waters implied Durrant had made the wrong decision, saying the city’s earlier moderate-income housing plan "met the (state) requirements."
"District court decisions are not always right, that’s why we have a Supreme Court," Watkins told him. "If it takes going that far, my understanding is we’re prepared to go that far."
Durrant was appointed to the Utah Supreme Court last month. Bluffdale city officials say they will soon show their plan to the Utah Department of Economic Development for feedback. Sorensen said if state officials with that agency propose changes, "then we should make changes."
Watkins, meanwhile, said that Bluffdale’s affordable housing plan will likely be tinkered with even more and assured that "by the time this gets to the City Council it will be something that comports with the (state) requirements."
A Couple Things That You Should Do In Utah
Will you be traveling through the state of Utah this year? You might want to consider stopping by in some of the more popular cities. It is possible that you may need to find a place to stay, and also activities that you can do while you are there. It’s a state that has many different possibilities, some of which are some of the nicest national treasures that we have. Here are a couple of things that you can do in Utah while you are there. One of these locations is going to direct you to an area of Utah that is a national Park with amazing sites that you will see. The other is a religious center, and wonderful structure that is actually world-famous because of its architectural beauty.
Facebook’s data center deal with Eagle Mountain includes a $5 million sweetener from the state
(Benjamin Wood | Tribune file photo) A rendering of the planned Facebook data center to be built in Eagle Mountain. The center was announced by Gov. Gary Herbert on Wednesday, May 30, 2018.
Facebook will save up to $5.8 million in sales taxes at its planned Eagle Mountain data center, in addition to the roughly $150 million in property tax incentives offered to the social media giant.
The sales tax exemption was acknowledged, but largely de-emphasized, by government representatives involved in the data center negotiations. And specific estimates based on Facebook’s planned data storage facility were not publicly available.
“We don’t generally quantify the state policy stuff, just because it’s so dynamic,” said Theresa Foxley, president of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah.
The $5.8 million figure is based on analysis by the Legislative Fiscal Analyst’s Office of SB3002. That bill, approved during a special session of the 2016 Legislature, expanded sales tax exemptions to include data centers with the aim of luring Facebook back to the Beehive State after a failed negotiation with West Jordan City.
Facebook will be the first data center to benefit from the sales tax changes, according to the Legislative Fiscal Analyst’s Office, as the National Security Agency’s data center in Bluffdale predates SB3002. And because the tax exemption has not yet been utilized, the $5.8 million figure is a general estimate based on similar facilities in other states.
Foxley said Facebook was aware of the sales tax exemption, and it likely factored into the company’s decision to locate in Utah. But she added that it was not a specific element in Facebook’s negotiations with Eagle Mountain and state leaders for the project, which is expected to employee less than 50 workers when completed.
Gov. Gary Herbert announced last week that Facebook was the company behind “Project Steeplechase,” confirming suspicions that the company was looking to house a data storage facility in Utah county.
The deal includes a $100 million commitment by Facebook to fund road and utility upgrades — expected to jump-start development on Utah’s County’s west side — in exchange for 20 years of rebated property taxes from Eagle Mountain City, Utah County, Alpine School District, Unified Fire Authority and the Central Utah Water Conservancy District.
Foxley said the deal includes a number of positive and comparatively smaller elements, such as $13 million that the data center will generate for affordable housing projects during the life of the tax incentives.
City and county leaders are also looking at ways to maximize the electrical capacities generated by Facebook’s utility upgrades, Foxley said, and to mitigate increased water usage — a key concern among data center critics — by recycling wastewater for municipal landscaping.
Mortgage limits hurt Utah Valley
Utah’s representatives in Washington should push the Federal Housing Authority to make adjustments to loan limits that unfairly impact north Utah County and threaten the sputtering market in local real estate.
The FHA recently raised its limits on home loans in some areas — meaning a buyer can get a larger loan at a lower interest rate. The move is part of the economic stimulus package Congress passed earlier this year. But the agency has denied a request to raise such loan limits in Utah County.
Interest rates from government lending enterprises have long varied by county, and Utah County’s loan limits have been lower than Salt Lake County’s. But it’s time for this to change. There just isn’t any meaningful difference between higher-priced homes in northern Utah County and those of Salt Lake County.
To bolster the nation’s wobbling housing market, Congress this year approved a measure allowing special lower rates for costlier mortgages, but only in more expensive markets. Homes are grouped according to the government’s metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs. The MSAs provide census data that is useful for many things, just not for real estate.
For example, Salt Lake City’s MSA includes not only Tooele County but also Summit County, with its pricey homes. So people in the Salt Lake MSA are eligible for government enterprise loans up to $729,750.
That means qualifying homeowners in Draper or Bluffdale can get relatively low-rate mortgages, but cross the county line a short distance to Alpine or Highland and the approved amount plummets to $323,750. Commercial mortgage rates are a full point or more higher than FHA, for example, which means hundreds of dollars a month in mortgage costs to North County homeowners who, by most measures, are no different from their Salt Lake neighbors.
The domino effect is that uneven limits can hurt home sales more widely in Utah County. Home buyers will naturally tend to look first where the higher-limit government loans are available.
Part of the problem is that Utah County is judged as a whole. Inexpensive housing in Provo and Orem, especially student housing in Provo, drags down median prices. But nobody thinks Alpine fits a lower-price mold.
A deeper problem is how the lines were drawn. Looking back at how the loan limits were raised, it’s apparent the measure was drawn up hastily, as a panicky Congress looked at the slide in home prices and decided it had to act fast.
The economic stimulus measure was grafted onto the existing loan procedures, and — voila! — new guidelines for loans, based on the MSAs.
But MSAs seem to be meant for more general purposes by the Census Bureau, not for the narrow application in the stimulus law. Look at the oddities produced in the Salt Lake MSA. Now a bungalow in South Salt lake or a house in the western part of Tooele county is eligible for the same loans as a ritzy home in Park City. That underlines how arbitrary these numbers are.
Arbitrary numbers can and should be changed. If Park City can be considered a natural part of the Salt Lake City area, so can Alpine and Highland.
The Utah County Realtors organization plans to press its case again in mid-May with U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development officials at the annual convention of the National Association of Realtors. Local realtors will argue that, based on the most up-to-date sales figures for Utah County, the government loan limit should be raised from $323,750 to $729,750.
They have a solid case, and we urge federal lawmakers to grant this request. It’s time for the federal government to follow the spirit of the economic stimulus plan, and not get hung up in the fine print of outmoded regulations when it comes to Utah County.
Utah Fair Housing: 101
Utah Labor Commission.png
(KUTV) Salt Lake City – Do you know the laws around fair housing in Utah? Michael Barrett, Outreach & Education Coordinator with the Anti-Discrimination and Labor Division, stopped by the Fresh Living studio to fill us in on what laws renters, landlords, and home owners need to know.
You can learn more by going to laborcommission.utah.gov.
Utah’s Fair Housing Laws
Utah Labor Commission.png
(KUTV) Salt Lake City – Do you know the laws around fair housing in Utah? Michael Barrett, Outreach & Education Coordinator with the Anti-Discrimination and Labor Division, stopped by the Fresh Living studio to fill us in on what laws renters, landlords, and home owners need to know.
You can learn more by going to laborcommission.utah.gov.