Tomorrow night (Friday the 8th) we’ve got guest speaker Dr. Kathie Allen, the Democratic challenger for the congressional district 3 seat vacated by Jason Chaffetz. If you’ve seen her in the news or on social media but haven’t heard her in person, now is your chance. http://utahdemocrats.org/our-dems/kathie-allen/

We’ll be in the back room of the Piper Down starting at 6pm, with Dr. Allen speaking closer to 7-7:15. Be there early for reasonable parking (it’s all street parking, in case you haven’t been to Piper Down before) and to secure a seat.

There’s plenty in the news to talk about, including nurse Wubbels who was manhandled and arrested by a SLC police officer, the video of which made national and international news. Speaking of national news, we’ve got Facebook revealing that they sold ads to a Russian troll farm during the presidential campaign, with the ads mostly amplifying divisive issues. Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr maintains there was no collusion with the Russians, that he merely met with the lawyer of a foreign, adversarial government to discuss Hillary’s “fitness” for office.

Trump announced his administration would be ending DACA for no good apparent reason. At least 16 attorneys general have filed suits around this. Nancy Pelosi(!) apparently got him to tweet some reassurance to Dreamers this morning. In other slightly weird news, Trump and Schumer have agreed to work together to repeal the debt ceiling.

And then there’s Harvey and Irma (and no, I’m not talking about the cute couple in Spokane married 75 years), along with the fires darkening our skies. It’s an increasingly chaotic world, and we need camaraderie now more than ever, so grab a friend or neighbor and join us this Friday!

Join us as we welcome guest speaker Dr Kathie Allen, Democratic candidate for Utah’s 3rd congressional district! Read about where she stands on the issues here https://www.drkathieforcongress.com/issues/

When: Friday, Sept 8th from 6-9pm

Where: The back room of the Piper Down, 1492 S State St. (Street parking only – don’t park at the restaurant next door)

The ACLU of Utah is the lucky charity selected to benefit from the monthly Drag Queen Bingo fundraiser in April. Since it sounds like a lot of fun and it’s for a good cause, we thought we’d let our fellow liberal drinkers know about it. Hopefully you can come out and participate.

Doors open at 6:15 with the show starting at 7, and it will be held at the First Baptist Church at 777 S and 1300 E. See you there!

A lot of people are asking about the Santa Pub Crawl this year, and like the last couple years there’s some confusion about when it is. So we’ll help clarify:

On Saturday, December 12th, the Salt Lake City Beer Drinkers Club is doing Santacon (Click for the Meetup.com event page). Here’s the schedule:

7:00-8:00 Lumpy’s – 125 Piedmont
8:00-9:00 O’ Shucks – 22E 100 South
9:00-10:00 Keys on Main – 242 S Main
10:00-11:00 Green Pig – 31 E. 400 South
11:00-??? Gracies – 326 S West Temple

And then on Friday, December 18th, there’s the Santa Pub Crawl (Click for the Facebook event page) started by Babs Delay. Here’s the tentative schedule:

6:00-7:30: O’Shucks – 22 East 100 South (downstairs)
7:30-8:30: The Beer Hive – 128 South Main Street
8:30-10:00: Murphy’s Bar and Grill – 160 South Main Street
10:00-10:30: KUTV News Live Broadcast
10:00-11:00 Cheers to you
10:30-11:00: Crawl through downtown…
11:00-Last Call: TBD

UPDATE: The Santa Pub Crawl on the 18th has another site besides Facebook here: http://sites.google.com/site/slcsantapubcrawl/ The route already differs from what’s above, so check the google site to get the most current info.

This Pioneer Day, Drinking Liberally will be celebrating in true Utah style. Our party/fundraiser will feature the hilarious quintessential Utahn Sister Dottie S. Dixon (http://www.sisterdottie.com)!

$15 dollars will get you in the door (or $10 if you bring a casserole for the casserole contest that ‘casserole connoisseur’ Sister Dottie will be judging), which includes potent punch, or if punch isn’t your thing we’ll have other drinks available. And we can’t forget the jello – we’ll have some little cups of jello for you to try.

There will be a haiku contest as well, so start thinking of your Utah-themed haikus. We’ll also have a great view of the fireworks at the baseball stadium.

We highly encourage you to take Trax!

What: Party/fundraiser celebrating Utah in Drinking Liberally style

Who: You and your liberal friends + Sister Dottie S. Dixon

Cost: $15 per person, or $10 per person with a casserole (entrance includes drinks)

When: July 24th at 6pm (We’re trying to beat the crowds for parking since it’s so close to the baseball stadium)

Where: Get onto 1300 South, then turn North onto West Temple. Turn East into parking lot of Associated General Contractors and continue back toward the warehouse.

Parking: Take Trax if possible, but if you’re driving there’s an adult corrections building just north of the warehouse that usually has some parking. The baseball game starts at 7:05, so if you’re driving try to get there early.

DLer Alice forwarded along some information regarding the public hearing about bars in residential mixed-use zoning districts. Voice your support for neighborhood bars:

The bad bill just keep stacking up whenever the legislature is in session, don’t they? The most comprehensive commentary on this years’ bills are over on Curtis’ Blue in Red Zion.

I’ve been hearing quite a bit about HB 187, which is of interest to the Utah Rivers Council and users of Utah’s rivers. This bill could mean 1000’s of miles of Utah rivers could be open to development. This bill is going to hearing and Utah Rivers Council could use your support by showing up Friday, February 20 at 2:00 pm in Room 445 of the Utah Legislature. See more about this on the Utah Rivers Council website.

A group of us met 2 weeks ago to discuss the possibility of creating a Utah chapter of Marriage Equality USA. So far, we are organizing through the Facebook group for the most part. Our first meeting was at the Marmelade Cafe, and we had about 25 people attend. This might seem like a lot for a first meeting, but it really seems like a lot when you realize the meeting started at 7 am!

We came up with a lot of questions that Michael Mueller, the guy who is heading up this effort, is going to answer for us at the next meeting. Some of those questions are about whether we would benefit from joining with the national group, and what sort of expenses we would be looking at. Some of the attendees volunteered to reach out to public figures like Mayor Corroon, or to local gay-friendly churches. We were all asked to write letters to the editor, which will be shared with the group.

Our next meeting is Monday, November 24 at 8:00 pm at the Utah Pride Center. Anyone wanting to participate, but cannot make it in person can call in to the conference call at 1-218-486-8700, with the passcode: 72403. We will be following up on the action items from the first meeting, as well as finalizing our mission statement.

There seems to be a lot of interest, and our Facebook group has already grown to over 900 people. If you would like to join the Facebook group, find us under “Utahns for Marriage Equality”. We will be expanding our online presence soon, but for now that’s where it’s at.