Note: Our View published in the 1-3-09 Standard Journal.

The Standard Journal editorial board members have been hard at work looking into their crystal balls for a few predictions for the coming year.

• The recession limbo will end. This will happen within the first half of the year. The recession isn’t leading into a depression but is simply a bloated market righting itself.
• Another recall effort will happen in Fremont County. We had two in the past year. This year, how will people react to officials whose hands are tied with slashed budgets?
• The Rexburg pool will make little headway, if any. People will continue to moan about the Spray Park.
• Gay rights movement will become less antagonizing and more persuasive.
• Our overly protective society will become more so. Good luck finding a root beer at any public school in the country by December. Now, if only coleslaw got the same attention! Meanwhile, people will get fatter anyway. Also, some common medicine will be banned or highly discouraged for children while the number of required vaccinations goes up.
• Federal and state lawmakers will try to contain the Internet Renaissance. In 2008, we already saw one Idaho lawmaker who wants people to leave their real names with online comments. But whether laws like this pass (we doubt it), computer users will be more innovative than legislators. We also predict China’s restrictions (or ability to enforce) on the Internet will weaken. 
• Growth on the Internet: LDS presence will grow — church leaders were pushing this a lot this year. Republicans will also gain a better footing — one reason Obama did so well was that Democrats were able to use the Internet effectively while the GOP could only rant from talk radio. However, minority groups and parties thrive on the Internet, and this is the Republicans’ chance to regroup.
• 2009 will be a key year for newspapers. You will see more fold (knock on wood). Those that remain will be stronger than they were before the recession and even the Internet. We will see alternate ways of presenting the news, both on the Web and electronic paper.
• At least one pedestrian fatality in the Rexburg area. There has been little change in the way people drive here, despite a recent tragedy.
• More lawsuits filed against local governments as the area struggles with growth.
• Fortune cookies will still have proverbs instead of actual fortunes inside.
— Robert Patten

• Aliens will land in a remote part of Fremont County, near Chester.
• Madison Bobcats will take state in boys basketball.
• The best quarterback of all time (Brett Favre) will retire for good.
• The Atlanta Braves will win the World Series.
• The price of gas will remain under $2.00 per gallon.
• Idaho will feel the effects of earthquakes in Yellowstone.
• Home prices will improve near the end of 2009.
­— Anita Olson


• I will go to a high school football game next fall.
• I will never watch prime time network television again.
• After the shameful Las Vegas Bowl loss, BYU-Provo will drop its athletic department.
• The New York Yankees won’t win the World Series this year, despite all the money they spent on free agents.
• And finally, the Cubs will never win the World Series as long as I live. And I’m surprisingly calm as I write this. (Probably because I’m not a Cubs fan.)
­— Matt Eichner

• More babies will be born at Madison Memorial Hospital in 2009 than 2008, and the new maternity expansion at Madison Memorial Hospital will be a huge success throughout eastern Idaho.
• Jon Weber, Madison County’s newest Commissioner will be extremely efficient and a great asset because he’s “ready to roll.”
• St. Anthony’s new mayor, Garth Rose, will reunite the residents and businesses of St. Anthony in the spring and work together with the city council to bring business back to St. Anthony’s downtown district.
• Construction/groundbreaking on a public pool for the City of Rexburg, will start in the summer of 2009, if not before. Because of the public pool facility, Rexburg will one day produce an Olympic gold medalist.
• The long awaited Burton Elementary School will open first quarter of 2009. Principal Busby will oversee a smooth transition for the opening (he is prepared) and the addition of 100 students from Kennedy Elementary in the fall will be a huge success.
• The Yankees will win the pennant in 2009 (although Matt Eichner says they won’t), because my grandma always said, “So goes the Yankees, so goes the nation.” And we need a good “so goes.”
• Sugar City will be given a beautification award because they made a good choice to preserve and paint the water tower.
• Madison County School District’s Lincoln’s Legacy celebration on Feb. 12, will draw standing room only crowds and unite a community in the phrase “with charity for all.”
• Sugar City’s Tuscano housing project will be a sellout among students and locals giving Mayor Glenn Dalling and the Sugar City Council much needed future budget funds while providing additional jobs, retail space and revenue for the upper valley.
• The Standard Journal will grow subscribers by 10 percent as we continue to provided the most news and information for Madison and Fremont Counties, compared to any other local medium. Thanks for reading us and tell a friend or neighbor what they’re missing.
— Tod Young