SALT LAKE CITY A bill originally seen as a way to push the Salt Lake City School District into returning all students to the classroom is now focusing on testing for students after its sponsor made major changes Friday.
The language of SB107, sponsored by Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, was substantially altered to focus instead on requirements surrounding Test to Stay protocols and thresholds.
The bill would require the Utah Department of Health to provide support to schools that initiate widespread COVID-19 testing under the Test to Stay program. It also establishes a 2% case threshold, up from 1% of the school population when schools must take steps to mitigate further spread of the virus, which often includes shifting to online learning.
While the health department currently recommends that schools shut down when they meet certain coronavirus positivity thresholds, a new bill under consideration in the Utah Senate would raise those requirements and create a presumption of openness allowing students who test negative for COVID-19 during an outbreak to return to class and requiring those who test positive to stay home.
SALT LAKE CITY After a heated debate on Thursday, the Utah Senate is poised to pass a bill to drop the permit requirement for Utahns to carry a concealed firearm.
HB60 co-sponsor Sen. David Hinkins, R-Orangeville, emphasized that the concealed carry permit does not include extensive gun safety training, but simply requires someone to take a three-hour class, submit an application and pay a fee. But for people that say this somehow qualifies me to carry around my firearm with any sort of training is ludicrous. I can get this without having one minute of training with a firearm. That s the law today. So going from this to the constitutional carry provision is not going to increase or decrease safety one iota. This is going to, I think, restore quite literally what the Founding Fathers had originally intended, Hinkins said.
The Utah Senate on Thursday passed two bills in the effort to reform how police and emergency medical services respond to those suffering mental health emergencies.