ST. GEORGE — With a partial shutdown of the federal government having become a reality Friday, Gov. Gary Herbert’s office issued a statement that Utah is taking “all necessary precautions to ensure continuity of services.”
The result of an impasse among the country’s leaders over funding for a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the shutdown will affect approximately 25 percent of federal agencies and services, and some 800,000 workers nationwide.
Among the agencies affected that will impact Utah the most is the Department of the Interior, which oversees management of the National Park Service in such areas in Southern Utah as Zion National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
In past shutdowns, such as the weekslong impasse in 2013, this has resulted in the closure of national parks and forests and the furlough of the federal employees who manage those lands, disrupting travel, tourism and outdoor recreation.
According to a contingency plan, the National Park Service intends to “suspend all activities except for those that are essential to respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.” Most other visitor services will not be available, including restrooms, trash collection, facilities and roads maintenance, campground reservation services and issuance of permits, among other services.
“The State of Utah, however, has been working proactively with the National Park Service and other federal agencies to keep Utah’s federal public lands, including National Parks, as accessible as possible even if there is a shutdown,” the governor’s office said in the statement.
During the 2013 shutdown, the state provided nearly $1 million to the federal government to keep the state’s national parks operational. Since then, the governor’s office says “proactive planning leads us to believe that the state can assist in keeping the National Parks open during this holiday season at less than a tenth that cost.”
Besides the state government, local agencies have also stepped up in the past to ensure federal lands are still accessible to visitors. Such was the case in Southern Utah in January of this year during a three-day shutdown when Garfield County officials and businesses pitched in to provide Bryce Canyon National Park with staffing and snowplow services.
Read more: Despite government shutdown, local officials work together to keep Bryce Canyon open
Since the beginning of this week, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget has also been preparing contingency funding plans for all other state agencies that rely on federal funding. The office’s executive director, Kris Cox, has instructed officials heading these agencies to prepare for the likelihood of a “temporary” shutdown.
However, the shutdown may not end up being temporary, with President Donald Trump saying earlier Friday that a closure could drag on “for a very long time.”
The governor’s office says a long-term federal government shutdown “creates greater challenge and risk for everyone.” Nonetheless, the state’s Division of Finance and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget are assessing limited cash flow options that “might be available” in the event of a prolonged shutdown.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.
Trump’s a real friend of Utah!
This is a difficult, but necessary part of draining the swamp, and building the wall! All praise to Trump!
Will you just stop it with the lame campaign rally rhetoric?
All praise to Trump??? What kind of Satanic crap is that? That’s the same kind of dangerous rhetoric that convinced the Germans to give their country over to the Nazis. Get out of here with that noise.
This is NOT good. Not good for anyone. And all you can do is incite more anger with your flippant remarks in support of this madman. Disgusting. There’s no swamp draining going on here. This is the result of electing an unhinged moron to lead a nation.
Yes praise Trump, and you should! Trump has accomplished many great things, and behold the best is yet to come, including the wall! Trump has:
-moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalrm
-pulled the US out of the Iranian nuclear deal
-stood up to NATO countries for not paying their fair share of the organization’s expenses
-taken on the news media and not backed down
-put intense focus on immigration, the importance of border security, including US citizens killed by the undocumented
-targeted the ruthless ms-13 gang
-began dialogue with North Korea about ending its nuclear weapons program
-created millions of new jobs, and brought employment down to 3.9 %, the lowest since 2000
-focused national attention on the opioid crisis
-nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court
-has passed tax cuts and cut federal regulations
-pulled out of the Paris Agreement and defied global warming alarmists
-renegotiated unfair trade deals
Don’t underestimate Trump! The swamp will continue to drain, and we will build the wall!
That’s the weakest list of accomplishments I could imagine. Moved the US embassy to Jerusalem? Wow. Taken on the news media? He’s going to lose that battle because the truth will prevail. North Korea? Are you kidding me? Trump is doing lasting damage to this country.
You might entertain us with a list of your life’s accomplishments, not just the last 3 years. Now for a real coup, grab icehole by his hair and ask him to to the same. Who knows, you might appear on comedy central as a team.
@mesaman, it’s a long list of accomplishments. Some of them will amaze you! Here are just a few:
– I moved Christmas from grandma’s house to the in-laws.
– I too have targeted the ruthless ms-13 gang
– I don’t have any associates who have been investigated or prosecuted by the FBI
– I have never paid hush money to cover up indiscretions
– I have never cheated on my wife
– I treat women with respect
– I have never had a special counsel investigate me
– I have never had business dealings with Russian oligarchs
– I have never colluded with Russia
– no collusion of any kind
– no collusion
– there are so many generally bad things I have been able to avoid in my life, I am a fairly accomplished human; the list is way too long to post here, but I’m happy to detail it for a chance to be on TV. I would love to be on comedy central, so if your clownshow can hook me up I would appreciate it.
I just threw up in my mouth a little. 😛
Those “accomplishments” only matter to Trump’s infantile base. The rest of us know better.
Trump polishing a pile of turds doesn’t exactly make smart people come running.
Thanks for playing. “You lose.”
Trump is doing what he said he’s going to do, stop being so bitter. He’s accomplished far more than what Hillary would have done had she won. We are all winners because Trump is our president, and he will continue to drain the swamp, and do great things for this country. Remember too, he is also cleaning up Obama’s mess left for him. Trump will be reelected in 2020. You are jealous of Trump’s mental fortitude and unwavering strength as a great leader.
Every single time I read your comments, I hear a person speaking broken English with a Russian accent.
That’s the impression you leave. You come across as a servant of another country who uses a sly approach to his comments in the way he chooses his words. It’s like a propaganda piece straight out of the former Soviet Union.
How long before you tell us all how great and wonderful your beloved Vladimir is? Eh, comrade?
Do you live in Moscow or are you chained to a desk in some Siberian gulag? Does Putin take you out behind the Kremlin for “talking to” if you don’t do your job?
Even if you’re not a Russian, this is how you come off. You should NOT be okay with that, comrade.
The name redbud would make sense if he was a soviet. LOL
Be proud of yourselves, Trump supporters.
You all elected to drop a massive deuce on this country. And boy does it stink.
Gov’t shutdown, Mattis resigning, pulling troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, stock market tanking… and on and on and on. And that’s just in the last week. HA!
Anyone else tired of all this winning yet?
20 years in Afghanistan and the US has accomplished what?
And arming and supporting “moderate” Islamic rebels(terrorists) in syria accomplished what? What does the US even hope to accomplish in syria. Support Israel’s agenda of totally destroying the country? Basically an Iraq v2.0? Not a big fan of Russia, but their backing of the regime there is the only reason that country hasn’t descended into a total failed state Islamic hell hole. ISIS moved in as soon as the gov’t was destabilized in much of syria. The turks, israel, and saudi were all arming ISIS, possibly even the US under obama. I’m not sure why US wanted ISIS to take over that country, but the russians foiled it and the US warmongers pouted and shed a lot of tears.
Boy, you really should educate yourself a bit. It’s not as black and white as your NPR talking heads would have you believe.
I should say MSM has been blatantly lying about syria from the get go. MSM (including your cnn, abc, nbc, nrp, et al) is owned by war profiteers. So it’s no wonder.
Love how you cherry-pick through my words for the ones that anger you the most.
We’re not talking about Syria/Afghanistan. I only mentioned those because that’s what happened this week. And you’re the last person to be telling me to “educate” myself. I already know they’ve accomplished nothing. America’s work in the Middle East has been a disaster. That doesn’t change the fact that Trump is doing it without even consulting his military leaders. Why the hell do you think Mattis stepped down?
And your rant against MSM falls on deaf ears. I don’t watch major news channels anymore. Too much drama from angry talking heads. I do listen to NPR but it’s because NPR actually speaks my language. Intelligence. Any time I turn on right-wing talk radio all I hear is propagandist lie after lie after lie and I feel like my intelligence is being insulted. So don’t preach to me, pal. I’m not interested in what you’re peddling and your door approach could use a lot of work.
You really don’t understand what you are saying do you? For example, you might want to actually educate yourself on both the structure and funding of NPR.
b&f and iceplant both in need of diversity lessons. One way ticket to the congo for both of you.
But besides that:
NPR and pbs both have become war mongering propagandist garbage. Saw a bit last night and they had some psychopathic war monger piece of garbage from “Council on Foreign Relations” prattling on about how he’s so sad to see the US pulling out of the wars in syria and afghanistan. That was the pbs news hour. They aren’t as bad as some MSM, but they still keep a war mongering agenda going and don’t report the truth on international events. Npr and pbs are quite open in their support of neo-leftist agendas and open borders globalist agendas. I’m quite aware how they are funded and much of is large corporate donors and advertising. You can’t escape agendas no matter where you source your news. Reporting in a non-biased, agenda-free way simply does not bring in the $$$. b&f and iceplant, you are both naive little children if you can’t recognize that. And plant, I figured you for an npr listener from the get go. Did I call it or did I call it?
You called squat, boyo. I listen to everything and not just NPR. I’m not quite sure what your angle is here but you’re failing miserably at making a point. Try harder.
That was a useless rant.
Seems to me you just have a misconception of journalism and want media to support your own bubble.
I’m about as anti-war as they get but calling NPR and its affiliates “war mongering propagandist garbage” and “war profiteers” is laughable at best. But I’ll give you a chance to support your claim. Show me examples of how NPR made money off of war. Not from reporting on it, but actually from the act of war itself, ie what the term “war profiteer” means.
Actually support your ideas for once instead of just lashing out with more petty insults and odd fascinations with the Congo.
No point really. I still say trump is garbage until he actually comes thru with something productive, and not just blah blah. I know the warmongering bloodthirsty psychopaths that are used to calling the shots as far as US militarism were sulking and pouting when trump announced the plans for syria and Afghanistan. It’s a step in the right direction, but we’ll see if he actually comes thru with it. I’m extremely skeptical and no fan of trump.
What has the US accomplished in Afghanistan? That’s easy: we dismantled terrorist training grounds and have prevented more 9/11 style attacks. By taking the fight to them, we are making it so we don’t have to fight those battles within the US.
Our involvement in Syria is more geopolitical in nature — keeping Russia and Iran and to some extent Turkey from wielding their influence and having their way. What do you think will happen now? The Turks will kill the Kurds, who have been US allies and a moderate force in the Middle East. Russia and Iran, who are allies, will install the government of their liking. The US is ceding Syria to our enemies. You are buying the Russian propaganda. There is little support for Trump’s action outside Russia, Iran and Turkey — most people that know anything about foreign policy are dismayed, and Mattis’ immediate resignation is telling. Really this is a major Christmas gift to Putin. I would not be surprised at all if Putin somehow persuaded Trump to do this, because it fits Putin’s goals perfectly. All signs point to this, and the MSM isn’t even reporting that. Trump is Putin’s puppet, and under Trump the stature of the US has declined. And we still hear “No Collusion” daily, because if Trump repeats it often enough it must be true.
Kind of cutely ironic your name there. This will shut you down quick: I’m a “9/11 conspiracy theorist”. So all your blah blah about saving the world from terrorism… meh
As far as US policy in the mideast: Baby Bush Iraq invasion and occupation of 2003 (“weapons of mass destruction”). If you still trust that MSM and the warmongering bloodthirsty psychopaths that are used to calling the shots as far as US militarism have nice little noble intentions… then you… are a dupe. cheers 😉
Well the Iraq invasion is another story, that was a bad decision. And I do believe the MSM, as well as alternative media, should be scrutinized. There is warmongering from the media, and I believe that US militarism and US policies in general have not treated some parts of the world well. This is part of the reason we have an immigration problem today. But I do not buy into the 9/11 conspiracies, sorry. I would put 9/11 in the ‘failed US policy’ category — we helped create Osama bin Laden and we helped create the conditions for radical Islam to flourish.
Well, I’ll just tell you that the world is a lot darker place than you imagine. So many of our rulers do not have good intentions in the least. They are actually psychopaths. The deaths of thousands or millions of people really means nothing to them. My life might be a little brighter to not believe 9/11 was orchestrated by bush/cheney & co +Israel + other elements which can only be speculated about. It is what it is. The official version of 9/11 is a mass delusion. They repeat a story enough times and it just becomes the official version of events. It’s taken as truth bc people don’t like to believe their own gov’t would do that to them. After all, our US gov’t are always “the good guys”, right?
That’s all I’ll say about it. I don’t dedicate any time in my life to looking up “conspiracy stuff” these days.
@Comment “Well, I’ll just tell you that the world is a lot darker place than you imagine. So many of our rulers do not have good intentions in the least. They are actually psychopaths.” We have some common ground here.
Missed these comment my first time through.
I side with comment. 9.11 was a false flag to enslave the people by the government and take away your rights.
It will soon be proven in Federal Court watch CNN to get the updates … ya right.
Good, shut it the hell down….the Greed Machine of Utah as to the National parks? We as locals used to be able to enjoy the parks after the swarm of tourists left for the winter, but now they are promoting the “Mighty 5 Winter” and Zion is mandating the park shuttles until Dec 31, so Yippie, even less time to enjoy the parks…enjoy the shutdown folks, we’re getting the wall funded to keep out the damn illegals
Not a fan of a wall. But something has to be done about the invasion. At least the issue is finally being discussed after all these years. I’m just tired of them. They get in and they take over. I don’t want spanish to become a second official language. Just tired of it all.
Good for you president trump! I support you
The only reason many liberals hate trump is that he is finally doing what no other President in recent years (of either party) had the courage to do. He is forcing important issues to be considered thast past presidents continually swept under the carpet. Whether we agree with him or not, he is allowing issues such as the border invasion to be addressed.
The only reason I hate the pospotus and his supporters, is because they are all Russia traitors to this country and also trying to dissolve our democracy.
First off tcrider this a Democratic REPUBLIC, not a democracy, the difference is BIGGLY.
My next question would be “What Did Russia Do?” I really want to know so please explain it to me like I’m a 5 year old.
RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! so tired of hearing that.
If RUSSIA is so Bad why did the United States “State Department” Under Obama and Hillary sell 20% of our uranium to them through a Canadian company Uranium One and have Robert Mueller (You know Mueller by his 2 year investigation of President Trump’s COLLUSION with RUSSIA) hand deliver samples to RUSSIA. That concerns Me, how about you. Uranium … the same stuff they make Nuclear weapons out of but you new that right.
you really need to loosen the strap on your red baseball cap, you sound
like your hard drive is stuck.
Typical answer from someone that isn’t Informed cupcake.
Not even a stab at trying to answer the questions posed to this poster.
You may wake up someday but not anytime soon by your response.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
BTW I don’t wear a red cap or a blue cape… with the propeller on the top
WHAT BORDER INVASION??? THERE IS NO INVASION!!!
Dumb, just dumb and flat-out false. Stop listening to Fox News and knuckleheads like Hannity and Carlson.
Stop being a sheeple.
It’s been an invasion for 30 years or more. That’s why SoCal now just feels like an extension of mexico (and so do parts of our own cute little st george). Comprende Senor?
You do understand the history of the region, correct? Southern California is an annexation from Mexico. Its always had strong and concentrated populations of Hispanics.
In fact, this region should be noticeably more Hispanic if we hadn’t unconstitutionally deported legal citizens in the mid-20th Century. But we fell to the same type of ethno-nationalist racism then as many are now. Though its clear some folks aren’t the ones falling for anything but the ones creating the racist environment instead.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/americas-brutal-forgotten-history-of-illegal-deportations/517971/
Oh, I comprehend your bigotry quite clearly. No room for others in this country, right?
I was born and raised in SoCal and lived there for nearly 30 years. I can trace my ancestry back to the time when Southern California was known as Alta California. In other words, Northern Mexico. And just who invaded who here? Like I said before, it’s not an invasion. So stop with drama queen semantics. Nobody is buying your crap.
The only people who see things the way you do are angry old white men or young ignorant fools who buy into right-wing fear tactics and propaganda.
Which one are you?
There you both go again, prattling on. The best you can do is squeal “RACIST! RACIST! RACIST”. We’re tired of being invaded and colonized by foreign intruders. They’re turning this country into a dump. It’s as simple as that. And saying “Well, your european ancestors did it to native americans” is not justification and does not make it ok. It’s time we push back.
Merry Christmas Bob!
No, “racism” is just one element of the analysis of your simplistic comments. You just ignore the rest if its inconvenient to your narrow worldview. You clearly don’t understand the history and demographics of this region and you expose no interest in learning those complexities.
Creating radical immigration policy simply because you dislike/hate Hispanic people and culture is beyond problematic. And no one who thinks rationally or logically is buying the xenophobic garbage that America is experiencing an invasion on the southern border.
haha (or HoHo!), you too, LBA! 😉
b&F, it’s been a slow, creeping invasion over decades. And again, all you can do is squeal RACIST! and accuse me of hatred, even after I explained to you how I have no problem with hispanics. This is why we’ll never be able to have a rational discussion about this stuff.
Comment,
You don’t have a problem with Hispanics? Ha. Do you believe your own words even?
“We’re tired of being invaded and colonized by foreign intruders. They’re turning this country into a dump.”
That was just one comment before. You constantly demonize Hispanics on this forum. At some point you are simply a liar, either to us or to yourself. Maybe both.
If you wanted a rational conversation you wouldn’t rely on lazy tropes about an entire people and region and would talk with complexity and honesty.
Trump definitely found a safe harbor for his fear mongering with you.
You go ahead and sit around on your self-congratulatory deluded moral highground and call everybody you disagree with hateful and racist all you like. It’s a typical strategy of loony open borders advocates. Illegals have been an issue that’s bothered me looooooong before trump.
Comment,
You are going to make accusations about moral high ground? You are being ironic, right?
And by the way, never called you racist. I’ve made the distinction between racists and ideas that are racist. They aren’t the same. Stop lying about my comments. Lack of reading comprehension isn’t an excuse.
Also you expose your lies again by lumping me in as some sort of “loony open borders advocate”. I’ve already clarified that multiple times as well.
When you can justify your ideas with racist stereotypes than you might have a leg to stand on this forum. But you only ever rely on junk science and prejudicial rants to explain yourself. Time and Time again you expose your intellectual dishonesty.
*w/out racist stereotypes
Bike, you’ve got me so confused now. Do our opinions on immigration even differ? And, if so, where?
I’m not even sure where you’re at on it.
Immigration laws for the last 30 years have been either, A. not enforced at all, or B. enforced to such a lax degree as to be useless/ineffective. Decades of non-enforcement has got us tens of millions of people living in this country in blatant violation of very clear laws. Do you say we not enforce these clear laws against those who sneaked in and are living here illegally “because it’s too mean to deport people”? Where do you even stand of this stuff. The birthrates of illegals also cause massive drains on social welfare safety nets. And it makes it so incredibly difficult to deport them after they’ve birthed citizen children here, and the illegals know this, and they take full advantage. What do you suggest is to be done about all this, b&f?
B&F doesn’t stand on anything. He’s like a ship in the ocean being tossed to and fro.
And you don’t stand on anything either. Other than blind ignorance or doing what you’re told.
(Don Lemon) Breaking!!!!! in the CNN newsroom is reported “iceplant”
go ahead iceplant … iceplant are you there?
(iceplant) Yes Don…WHAT BORDER INVASION??? THERE IS NO INVASION!!!
(DON) There you go folks you just got the truth from iceplant up in St. George Utah.
(iceplant) No need to listen to, or read anything else. If you do you are just dumb SHEEPLE.
Over and Out
you cant make this crud up and the sad part is they believe it.
“If you do you are just dumb SHEEPLE.”
Hey, you said it. Not me.
Amen! I hope Trump keeps the government shut down until they reach an agreement. No matter what hardship or inconvenience it causes, keep it shut down! Trump is a very smart man, and a fearless leader! A sharp contrast to the president we had before.
I notice it’s cold and snowy in Moscow, comrade.
Better bundle up on your way to the Kremlin basement. Dasvedanya, comrade! 😉
Why not put a total immigration on the table and see who votes no? The ‘wall’ could be a part of it, but address the core problem which is our current immigration system. I would guess some thought has been put into a realistic plan behind the public stage.
For Christmas I’m going to point y’all to you tube to watch Q-anon.
OH COME OFF IT…!!!
What other conspiracy theories you got for us, Queen of Oklahoma?
You wanna tell us all about the aliens they keep locked up at Area 51 next?
Merry Christmas!
Happy Kwanzaa. 😛
Is this white girl invited to your feast and gift giving?
Nope.
Racist
Comment,
First off, some facts. Your claim is false. In the last decade alone, under Obama especially, we heavily enforced our immigration laws. But we’ve seen a significant increase in policing of immigrants during the decades you made claims to the opposite about. Facts are key to understanding national issues; fallacious claims are counter productive. As we often see, a “culture of fear” often gets citizens scared about issues that really aren’t that major. Your constant statements reflect that reality as we have been taking major strides against illegal immigration for decades. See the stats:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_and_removal_from_the_United_States
Interesting fact, those statistics don’t count the unconstitutional “repatriations” I linked before that you blatantly ignored.
Two, response should be scaled to issue which is why being overly focused on the southern border is counter productive. Immigration reform should include noticeable focus on “visa overstays” from non “shithole countries” that Trump and folks like you ignore. Its a major portion of illegal immigration. Much of that reform is rightfully focused on data collection and tracking.
We are seeing a recent, short-lived spike of immigration on the southern border but the trend line has actually been decreasing for years. In fact, our illegal immigrant peaked in 2007 and has generally decreased since then. Many left after the major recession last decade.
Your other concerns are unsubstantiated and based on racist stereotypes so I won’t engage them. Every 40-50 years we find another ethnic group or race to scapegoat when there is some type of socio-economic shift. And this isn’t the first or last time its been latinos or Hispanics. Its common to dehumanize these groups through talk about their reproduction, generalize their poverty, fear monger about crime and reliance on aid, etc. Its lazy, hateful stereotypes that don’t lead to solutions to any of the real problems.
But keep yelling about “anchor babies” and how our culture and way of life are under an “invasion”.
Nor do we “tens of millions” of illegal immigrants. There you go fabricating lies again. We peaked around 12 million and have been decreasing ever since.
They are called “undocumented” for a reason. These predictions you come up with of 12mil may or may not reflect any kind of reality. Birthrates of hispanic illegal aliens are absolutely enormous. I tell you I’ve liked illegal hispanics on an individual basis, but when hordes of them move into an area en masse and take over (which they do) it changes the entire dynamic of a place and it begins to resemble the hispanic-dominated, spanish-speaking places which these people came from. If you want to live in a neighborhood that resembles honduras or guatemala or mexico, etc then I guess illegal immigration is a fantastic thing for you.
Notoa single shred of truth in anything you just said. Only a bigoted opinion.
“Birthrates of hispanic illegal aliens are absolutely enormous”
This is so laughable. Not only because it isn’t true but the way you worded it. Your fantastical vision of immigration would be sad if it weren’t so pathetic.
Not a*
It always amazes the lengths people will go to demonize and dehumanize minorities. The fascinations and exaggerations of their alleged reproduction rates is telling. And then when you confront them with facts (births by illegal immigrants are down) they double down on their exaggerations or pivot.
12 million is the accepted analysis by most experts. You just fabricate claims to justify your worldview.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/28/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/
And your “undocumented” comment exposes how simplistic your understanding of illegal immigration is in the US. Clear we don’t have an exact number but we can track trends and estimates based on a number of factors, like the number of visa overstays who don’t leave the country when their documents expire. There also ways to track and estimate undocumented immigrants on the southern border.
But please keep commenting as each time you do you make my points for me.