With four days left in the legislative session, lawmakers will be talking numbers, finalizing a budget for 2012 that will likely have minimal cuts and leave the state’s reserve fund mostly untouched. And as KCPW’s Jessica Gail reports, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seem to be on board.
A “dirty” label has been attached to Salt Lake City by Forbes magazine. The publication ranked Utah’s capital city as the ninth most toxic metro area in the country. But as KCPW’s Jessica Gail reports, air quality hasn’t been a focus of Utah lawmakers during this legislative session.
Chris Bleak, President of the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, talked with us about what’s at stake for charter schools up at the Utah Legislature.
After two years of delays, Tim DeChristopher was just convicted on two federal charges for disrupting an oil and gas lease auction in December, 2008. We talked with Ashley Anderson, who co-founded the group Peaceful Uprising with Dechristopher after his actions.
Some immigration bills in the Utah legislature this year have been incredibly divisive. Others, however, are earning broad, bipartisan support. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is backing a plan to create a migrant worker program that would be a direct collaboration with Mexico. It just passed the house of Representatives. We asked the AG how this is different from all the other immigration bills out there.
The immigration bills passed by the legislature this session could set the stage for what several other states aim to do in the future. Republican Senator Curt Bramble, the sponsor of what is being called the comprehensive approach to immigration, says national immigration panels, conferences, and media outlets have been reaching out to see what Utah is working on.
Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher told a crowd of supporters he’s prepared to go to prison, after being found guilty Thursday in federal court. KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports.
Flavored e-cigarettes and other nicotine products aimed at ex-smokers are the target of State Representative Paul Ray, who’s trying to ban them to protect children from getting their hands on them. But two local ex-smokers say the products have changed their lives – and the lives of their children — for the better.
Utah Senator Orrin Hatch helped Utah State University’s student newspaper get a lot of attention this week. The senator was recently quoted in the Utah Statesman calling the federal health reform law a “dumb-ass program” and “an awful piece of crap” when speaking to students. Every Friday, we speak with Thomas Burr, Washington Correspondent for the Salt Lake Tribune and author of Political Cornflakes, a daily, online round-up of Utah politics.
A bill that has gotten stuck in the Utah legislature is causing a conflict between two lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle. Democratic Representative Janice Fisher’s HB 146 seeks to prevent Utah Transit Authority board members from being financially involved in the agency’s transactions. But it’s opposed by House Majority Whip Greg Hughes, chairman of the UTA Board of Trustees. Now, as KCPW’s Jessica Gail reports, Fisher is calling on the Attorney General to get involved.
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