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.
Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher has been found guilty of disrupting a federal oil and gas lease auction in December, 2008. DeChristopher bid on $1.8 million in parcels but didn’t intend to pay for them as a way of protesting the auction.
State leaders celebrated last year when Forbes ranked Utah number one in the country for business. But they won’t be celebrating a new ranking from that magazine.
Fred Krupp, President of the Environmental Defense Fund, delivered the keynote lecture of the 2011 Nature of Things series on March 2 at Kingsbury Hall. The lecture was titled “The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming.”
A bill that gives Utah students more options for taking online courses cleared the Senate yesterday. But as KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, some people are opposed to the price tag, and others say it’s a voucher program in disguise.
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