The 2013 Strategy Meeting we had Jan. 4th and 5th in Sandy, UT was well attended and very well received by state representatives and county commissioners from throughout the mountain states, including Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Colorado,Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico.  Utah Lt. Gov. Bell and Attorney General Swallow, among others from various states presented at the event.Transfer of Public Lands Act bills are being prepared in most of the mountain states for this coming session.

Progress in the States  

Speaker Bedke in Idaho is strongly supportive and has invited us to present to a joint committee on Natural Resources there next week and we are working with other states in the preparation of their bills.  We have met with Gov. Martinez last month and have people on the ground in NV working with their governor in anticipation of his state of the state address.  

Utah's governor has been supportive but can use regular doses of encouragement and support from all sources as he is the "team of one" best suited to lead out on this with other states and nationally.

At the legislative briefing with the Utah courts this week, members of the Supreme Court, the Appellate Court and the District Court commented that they had recently read the op-eds by Overtstock.com President Jonathan Johnson (here  and here) and didn't realize that this had already been done before and that the promises in our enabling acts are the same.  They commented how strongly these points make our case.

Additionally, a White Paper commissioned by the Federalist Society is being released this coming week.  I am working on a 1 and 3-4 page executive summary and a press release.  I will share that to you as soon as I have it.