Two big court cases in UT

One involves a medicially brain-dead child and his parents who want to still care for him. The court ruled that the parents can have the kid, or as the hospital terms it "the body" and the parents can care for the child. I feel sad for the parents, but eventually they will have to let go. Maybe they are right that he is recovering and can blink, but I don't think they are neutral arbitors of medical facts there. I agree with the court here.

The second case is a political one. The Democratic Party sued over Ellis Ivory being allow to replace Nancy Workman on the ballot. Beehive gives us the full statute. I say a plain reading of the statute makes it pretty clear that Nancy's Doctor's note didn't meet the test. The district court judge agreed with me and took Ivory's name off the ballot. Tomorrow morning, the Utah Supreme Court will hear the case. I expect them to affirm the lower state court ruling.

In any case, I feel bad for the poor people at the Secretary of State's office. Nancy should have withdrawn and had her doctor say the "magic words." Now those poor clerks had to make 3 versions of the ballot (old one with Workman, one for Ivory, one with his name cut out).

In other local political news, Jim Matheson's race must have tightened because the DTrip is running a nasty polital ad basically saying John Swallow hates children. Matheson himself has a mailer with the same charges (Swallow voted to cut health care for children, etc.) They seem factual on their face (I am too lazy to read the citations right now) but it shows Matheson must have some information that he is not up by 32 points any more, otherwise, why bother?