Todd Jenson Preaches a Mass Transit Sermon While Blasting the Utah Legislature and UDOT

(EnviroNews Utah) – “I have a question for our legislators, and that is: Are you smarter than a 5th grader?” That was the inquiry posed by Todd Jenson to the Utah State Legislature in front of a crowd of demonstrators outside of a contentious town-hall featuring freshman Utah Congressman Chris Stewart, who also just happens to be the chair of the congressional environmental subcommittee already.

If you think Utah has too much road construction and not enough mass transit then catch this must see video that exposes the true guts of the relationship between the Utah State Legislature and the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).

It does leave one to wonder just what the local scene would look like if the legislature took even a fraction of the tens of millions of dollars in road construction subsidies handed out every year, and put that money into more public transportation.

2 thoughts on “Todd Jenson Preaches a Mass Transit Sermon While Blasting the Utah Legislature and UDOT”

Dr. Abe Singh says:

February 21, 2014 at 4:45 pm

I lived in SLC and was employed as a Psychologist for two school districts in the 80’s, and I was determining at that time or distinguishing the nature of autistic problems through a diagnostic analysis diagnosing, and found a rather rate of children having the diagnosis of ASD even at that time. I pointed out to school officials to environmental reasons for high rates of autism in the SLC area but to no avail.

Some common causes of autism that Utah Public Health system should already have known but did not report in their research findings.

Problems with a key group of enzymes called topoisomerases can have profound effects on the genetic machinery behind brain development and potentially lead to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to research published in the journal Nature. Scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have described a finding that represents a significant advance in the hunt for environmental factors behind autism and lends new insights into the disorder’s genetic causes.

The study showed the magnitude of what can happen if topoisomerases are impaired. Inhibiting these enzymes has the potential to profoundly affect neurodevelopment — perhaps even more so than having a mutation in any one of the genes that have been linked to autism.

This could point to an environmental component to autism. A temporary exposure to a topoisomerase inhibitor in utero has the potential to have a long-lasting effect on the brain, by affecting critical periods of brain development.

This study could also explain why some people with mutations in topoisomerases develop autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Topiosomerases are enzymes found in all human cells. Their main function is to untangle DNA when it becomes overwound, a common occurrence that can interfere with key biological processes.

Most of the known topoisomerase-inhibiting chemicals are used as chemotherapy drugs. If there are additional compounds like this in the environment, then it becomes important to identify them. Utah Public Health needs to move quickly to identify other drugs or environmental compounds that have similar effects — so that pregnant women can avoid being exposed to these compounds.

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1. Jackie GreenThumb says:
  
  February 24, 2014 at 6:28 pm
  
  This is also a must see EnviroNews that covers the environmental factors on autism!
  
  Dr. Scott Hurst MD at the Stericycle Town-hall Meeting: “Studies suggest that 2/3 of this epidemic of autism is environmentally caused” https://environews.tv/dr-scott-hurst-md-at-the-stericycle-town-hall-meeting-studies-suggest-that-23-of-this-epedemic-of-autism-is-environmentally-caused/
  
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