| Updated: 7:43 p.m.
Utah students would no longer need to get a doctorâs note to have an absence excused at school when theyâre out sick under a new bill passed in committee this week.
Instead, the measure â HB116 â would only require a parent to call in to their kidâs school to validate the missed day was for an illness. And that could include mental health, with a second bill running alongside it.
Rep. Adam Robertson, R-Provo, said his proposal is largely meant to help families avoid unnecessary medical expenses.
If a kid has a stomachache or a migraine, thereâs likely no reason to take them to the doctor and they just need a day to rest, Robertson said. But if a school requires a note for the absence, a family might have to decide if itâs worth spending $100 to go in to their physician. And some, he added, canât afford that.
Robert Kirby: Riding a bike in traffic can be risky, so it may surprise you why I back a plan to change Utah law
But cyclists need to be alert, because motorists often aren’t.
Robert Kirby
| Jan. 29, 2021, 2:00 p.m.
I understand there are plenty of legitimate reasons to ride a bicycle in vehicle traffic personal fitness, environmental concerns, cost, insanity, etc.
While I wouldn’t do it myself, because I’m old, fat and not very smart, the fact remains that cyclists have a right to be on the roadways. Yeah, every bit as much as motor vehicles.
But there are several things a cyclist needs before venturing out into Utah traffic, an adventure that amounts to riding a spindly contraption in the middle of a stampeding herd of crazed steel buffalo.
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Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY A House committee debated whether it is safer for cyclists to come to a complete halt at stop signs or be allowed to just slow down as if it were a yield, ultimately agreeing to let the issue move on to the full chamber for a vote.
Sponsored by Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, HB142 would let cyclists treat a stop sign as a yield sign if there is no danger to themselves or others in the intersection that have the right of way.
“Cyclists know well, when they’re riding in the streets with other vehicles, that they will be the loser if they are reckless or dash out in front of the car and try to beat a car,” Spackman Moss said during Wednesday’s meeting of the House Transportation Committee.
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Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY As one of their first acts of the 2021 session, Utah lawmakers approved a resolution honoring the late Rep. LaWanna “Lou” Shurtliff, who died in December after a three-week battle with pneumonia.
“Her loss is a great loss for all of us. A loss of somebody who was a revered educator,” Senate Majority Whip Ann Millner, R-Ogden, said on the Senate floor. Shurtliff’s popularity in District 10 was fueled by love and support from students and parents.
Weber County’s lone Democrat, Shurtliff, who was just reelected to represent House District 10, had been hospitalized for three weeks after becoming sick on Dec. 6. Her family told the media she’d tested negative for COVID-19 “and several other viruses.”