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Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY The question of whether the government or even your boss should be able to order you to take the COVID-19 vaccine sparked debate on Utah’s Capitol Hill as the Legislature nears the end of its 2021 session.
With one week to go, lawmakers have passed almost 200 bills and resolutions out of more than 700 filed. Of those, three involving nearly $100 million in targeted tax cuts focusing on families and retirees are advancing after legislative leaders detailed plans to help return to Utahns some of the surplus money the state is seeing.
SALT LAKE CITY State lawmakers are considering ways to limit the governor s power in an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening their own hand in declaring when an emergency is over.
The Utah Legislature is also in a brewing firestorm over transgender rights as it wraps up its fifth week of meetings that included the House passing a ban on transgender athletes competing in girls sports in the K-12 public school system.
Vickers bill would limit the duration of a public health order to 30 days. It would also only allow the Legislature to extend or terminate an order and would give lawmakers the power to end an emergency earlier than that 30-day time period. The bill would also ban restrictions on religious gatherings and prohibits a local health department from issuing a restriction without the approval of the county executive, such as the county mayor or commission.
Deseret News
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Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY With the Utah Legislature marking the midpoint of its annual 45-day session, the issue of regulating centers for troubled teens got a high-profile boost when celebrity Paris Hilton testified on Capitol Hill about her time spent in such a facility in Provo.
Sitting in front of a panel of Utah lawmakers on Monday, Hilton said she’s had the same nightmare for the past 20 years in which she’s “kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers, strip searched and locked in a facility.”
Hilton and other “survivors of the troubled-teen industry” gave chilling testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee in support of SB127, sponsored by Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork. The bill would require treatment centers to document instances of physical restraints and involuntary confinement and submit monthly reports to the Utah Office of Licensing. It wou
SALT LAKE CITY With the Utah Legislature marking the midpoint of its annual 45-day session, the issue of regulating centers for troubled teens got a high-profile boost when celebrity Paris Hilton testified on Capitol Hill about her time spent in such a facility in Provo.
Sitting in front of a panel of Utah lawmakers on Monday, Hilton said she s had the same nightmare for the past 20 years in which she s kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers, strip searched and locked in a facility.
Hilton and other survivors of the troubled-teen industry gave chilling testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee in support of SB127, sponsored by Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork. The bill would require treatment centers to document instances of physical restraints and involuntary confinement and submit monthly reports to the Utah Office of Licensing. It would also ban chemical sedation and mechanical restraints unless authorized.
This is the Feb. 4, 2021, edition of Boiling Point, a weekly newsletter about climate change and the environment in California and the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
Over the last two years, 42 California cities and counties have banned or discouraged gas hookups in new buildings. The policies vary from place to place, but the goal is to shift homes and businesses from gas furnaces and stoves which generate planet-warming emissions to electric alternatives such as heat pumps and induction cooktops.
Los Angeles had hoped to be a leader in this area. The sustainability plan released by Mayor Eric Garcetti in April 2019 said all new buildings should be “net-zero carbon” by 2030, with existing buildings converted to zero-emission technologies by 2050.