By the time the Senate and House gaveled in shortly after 9 a.m., legislators had already passed 365 bills and resolutions this year. The session must end by midnight Friday.
Bail reform repeal passes Utah Legislature just months after kicking in
Reforms were meant to stop kicking defendants locked up before trial simply because they couldn’t afford bail. Prosecutors say the new system has worked.
(Francisco Kjolseth | Tribune file photo) Salt Lake County Jail on Friday, March 20, 2020.
| March 3, 2021, 11:36 p.m.
A Utah bill that would dismantle key pieces of last year’s bail reform package is heading to the governor’s desk, with several state senators on Wednesday signing off on the proposal despite their reservations.
State legislators have spent weeks wrestling over whether to repeal or modify the 2020 law that sought to overhaul Utah’s wealth-based system for jailing or freeing people ahead of their trial. Now, they’re moving forward with a hybrid approach that retains some aspects of last year’s law, scraps others and proponents say sets the state up to continue improving the law in the months to come.
Over concerns about gambling, a Utah Senate committee declines vote on bill to allow ‘skill-based games’
Lawmakers worried a favorable recommendation would be a ‘slippery slope’ that would open the door to gambling in the state.
(Wayne Parry | AP file photo) In this July 2, 2020, photo, a man plays a slot machine at the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City N.J. Utah lawmakers voted down a proposal that would allow skill-based games in the state on Tuesday over concerns that it would open the door to forms of gambling, like slot machines.
| March 2, 2021, 11:52 p.m.
Sen. Keith Grover, R-Provo, swears up and down that “skill-based games” aren’t a form of gambling a protestation that’s included even in the text of his bill seeking to allow such games in Utah.
After debates at the Capitol in Salt Lake City, the Utah Legislature passed a bill that will allow physician assistants to work without doctor supervision after a certain amount of hours in training.