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(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Doug Owens shakes hands with Mia Love before the 4th District candidates answered questions separately at the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, Thursday, September 25, 2014

4th District Owens endorses full Medicaid expansion; Love wants states to have the reins.

The top candidates in Utahs 4th Congressional District tackled questions about government dysfunction, immigration reform and transportation funding in separate appearances before the states business leaders Thursday.

The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce planned on hosting a debate between Republican Mia Love and Democrat Doug Owens, but Love balked. She declined to participate in a joint event and asked to appear first.

Owens made light of the situation. "I would have liked to have been together with my opponent for you today, so you could have seen us side by side," he told the 40 business executives on hand. "Apparently, they seem to think we are matter and anti-matter and if we ever meet, there is going to be some kind of cosmic explosion."

The two candidates, who did shake hands at the event held in the Salt Lake Chambers board room, have had just one joint public appearance sponsored by the Utah Taxpayers Association, where Owens sought to paint Love as an extreme partisan and she decried what she considered a personal attack.

The 4th District contest appears to be one of the closest races in the state and is the only House campaign without an incumbent.

Love, who lost to Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in 2012, is the front-runner in recent polls.

She has agreed to only one debate, a head-to-head showdown Oct. 14 in KUEDs University of Utah studios that will have a small, select live audience and air live on seven television stations and be live-streamed by The Salt Lake Tribune.

Love argued that any debates should be open to voters.

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Love, Owens split on health care, immigration in non-debate

Conservative Libertarianism the Transformation of First Amendment Jurisprudence
In observance of Constitution Day 2014, Professor Steven Heyman presented a lecture on the impact of conservative libertarian ideology on the First Amendment. A brief response by Professor...

By: IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law

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Conservative Libertarianism & the Transformation of First Amendment Jurisprudence - Video

Arizona #39;s New "Revenge Porn" Law Draws a Lawsuit on First Amendment Grounds
Arizona #39;s New "Revenge Porn" Law Draws a Lawsuit on First Amendment Grounds.

By: Nu78ikl

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Arizona's New "Revenge Porn" Law Draws a Lawsuit on First Amendment Grounds - Video

A view of the 1,234-square-mile Joshua Tree National Park is seen April 7, 2008, in southeastern California. A large part of the park is designated to wilderness area. Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

SEATTLE -- The U.S. Forest Service is proposing permanent new rules that would require media organizations to obtain a permit to film and shoot photographs in more than 100 million acres of the nation's wilderness.

Under the plan, the Forest Service would consider the nature of a proposed project before approving a special use permit then charge fees of up to $1,500 for commercial filming and photography in federally designated wilderness areas.

Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, said such rules would be a clear violation of the First Amendment and raises concerns about press freedom, including whether denying a permit would amount to prior restraint.

"What if they deny you a permit because they don't like the story you're working on?" he asked.

Liz Close, the Forest Service's acting wilderness director, said the Wilderness Act of 1964 prohibits commercial enterprise in wilderness.

The rules exclude breaking news situations, defined as "an event or incident that arises suddenly, evolves quickly, and rapidly ceases to be newsworthy."

But Osterreicher said the agency ignores big distinctions between editorial and commercial use and also should not be allowed to define what constitutes breaking news.

"We're headed down a really slippery slope if we allowed the government to include editorial and news gathering activities in commercial use," he said.

Close said the current rules have been in place for 48 months, and the proposal released this month would make those guidelines permanent. Public comments are due by Nov. 3.

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Wilderness proposal sparks First Amendment fight

Sunset in the Boundary Waters. Sean Collins

A picture in a national forest might cost you $1,000 if you snap it without a permit. Is this a threat to First Amendment rights?

The U.S. Forest Service is finalizing rules that will require journalists and photographers to have permission before taking a picture or shooting a video in a wilderness like the BWCA,the Oregonian reports.

Its pretty clearly unconstitutional, said Gregg Leslie, legal defense director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Alexandria, Va. They would have to show an important need to justify these limits, and they just cant.

The rules appear to apply only to reporters and photographers who are working on stories that may not be friendly to practices in the wilderness. They would still allow for breaking news coverage of fires and rescues.

With smartphones blurring the lines between reporters and camera crews, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said the agency should tread more carefully.

The Forest Service needs to rethink any policy that subjects noncommercial photographs and recordings to a burdensome permitting process for something as simple as taking a picture with a cell phone, Wyden said. Especially where reporters and bloggers are concerned, this policy raises troubling questions about inappropriate government limits on activity clearly protected by the First Amendment.

Most of the countrys wilderness is in the West. Nearly 50 wilderness areas have been designated in Oregon, including wide stretches of land around Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson and Mount Washington.

The rules allow exceptions only for breaking news coverage of events like fires and rescues. Theyre more stringent than similar policies on wilderness areas managed by a different federal agency, the Bureau of Land Management.

The BLM does not require any special permit for newsgathering in wilderness areas.

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Forest Service clamps down on photography in wilderness