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TexasTowelie's JournalUtah GOP lawmakers pushing legislation targeting abortion
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Utah are pushing several measures targeting abortions as other states also look to put more restrictions on the procedure.
Legislation that would make biological fathers responsible for paying half of the mother's out-of-pocket pregnancy costs passed a House committee Wednesday. Republican Rep. Brady Brammer, the bill's sponsor, said he hopes this "pro-life" legislation increases "the responsibility for men in the bringing of life into the world."
It would apply to a pregnant woman's health insurance premiums and any pregnancy-related medical costs, Brammer said. The father wouldn't be financially responsible for the cost of an abortion received without his consent unless it's necessary to prevent the death of the mother or if the pregnancy was the result of rape.
Democratic Rep. Brian King said he supported increasing accountability for men but feared the bill could tie women to abusive partners. King was the only one who voted against it.
Read more: https://www.hjnews.com/news/local/utah-gop-lawmakers-pushing-legislation-targeting-abortion/article_341cd472-94c9-5e38-8a88-6f166e8740ba.html
(Logan Herald Journal)
Utah Senate committee gives nod to bill that would revise state's price-gouging law
The Utah Senate Business and Labor Committee unanimously voted on Thursday to give a favorable recommendation to a bill that would drastically revise Utah’s price gouging law, including increasing the evidentiary standard required to prove a violation.
Senate Bill 85, sponsored by Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, seeks to amend the Price Controls During Emergencies Act, a chapter of state code approved by the Utah State Legislature in 2005.
“And from that time, for 15 years, it had never once been used. But in 2020, we got our first experience of having legislation drafted in anticipation of an emergency come up against an actual emergency,” Fillmore said on Thursday. “And based on that reality, this section of code could use some amendments to make sure that we are striking the right balance between making sure that consumers are not gouged by unsavory retailers or individuals during emergency, but also we’re protecting the innocent from false claims.”
One of the four “targeted changes” the bill would make to Utah’s price gouging law would be setting “a higher evidentiary standard” and changing “the standard for what you might call a conviction under this law from just ‘substantial evidence’ to ‘clear and convincing evidence,’” Lincoln told his colleagues.
Read more: https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/utah-senate-committee-gives-nod-to-bill-that-would-revise-state-s-price-gouging-law/article_b3deab57-00ff-53be-b8ab-b746a408e7a6.html
(Provo Daily Herald)
Utah lawmaker opens impeachment probe of attorney general
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Democratic lawmaker in Utah said Tuesday he is launching an impeachment probe against Attorney General Sean Reyes following his support of President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election.
State Rep. Andrew Stoddard said he is pursuing impeachment because of his ties to a GOP organization that issued robocalls urging people to go to the U.S. Capitol the day it was stormed. Reyes has denied any involvement in the robocalls and condemned the violence in Washington.
Stoddard's primary goal is to investigate Reyes for his actions, but said he has few options besides sponsoring an impeachment resolution. The measure would need a two-thirds majority in the House to pass, which is highly unlikely in the state's politically conservative legislature.
“This is not a move I am taking lightly,” Stoddard wrote in a statement. “And in spite of assumptions that this is a partisan or political move, it is not."
Read more: https://www.heraldextra.com/news/state-and-regional/utah-lawmaker-opens-impeachment-probe-of-attorney-general/article_f6dc11a5-8cba-5b07-831f-cdd148bd2629.html
(Provo Daily Herald)
Utah cosmetologists push back against Provo senator's licensing exemption bill
Utah cosmetologists are pushing back against a licensing exemption bill being considered by the Utah State Legislature that they say would hurt the cosmetology industry and pose public health risks.
Senate Bill 87, sponsored by Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, would modify the state Cosmetology and Associated Professions Licensing Act to create a licensure exemption for a cosmetologist who “dries, styles, arranges, dresses, curls, hot irons, shampoos, or conditions hair” but does not cut the hair or apply dye or reactive chemicals.
The bill, which received a favorable recommendation from the Senate Business and Labor Committee on Jan. 20, is supported by libertarian advocacy groups that argue that the licensure requirements are burdensome and non-essential. Many cosmetologists and beauty schools, meanwhile, say Utah’s licensing requirements are necessary to keep the public safe.
“Our biggest concern is public safety,” Christina Thomas, who operates 19 salons in Utah, told the committee. “Sanitation and cleanliness is taught in the schools. And during COVID, I was so thankful that my employees were licensed and they had the education that they had received in school to keep the public safe.”
Read more: https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/utah-cosmetologists-push-back-against-provo-senator-s-licensing-exemption-bill/article_8db22401-e182-5dd2-8996-8511dff5f8f0.html
(Provo Daily Herald)
Utah House votes to allow concealed guns without a permit
The Utah House voted Tuesday to allow adults to carry concealed weapons without a permit, despite some GOP dissent.
Republican Rep. Merrill Nelson worried the idea would bring Utah one step closer to the “wild West,” the Deseret News reported. Nelson said he was a gun owner and supporter of the Second Amendment, but argued that every amendment has limitations.
“Removing this permit requirement will make our society less safe,” he said. “We have nothing to gain by passing this law. It solves no problem. But we have much to lose.”
He and one other Republican, Rep. Jim Dunnigan of Taylorsville, joined Democrats in voting against the bill. It would drop requirements for adults to take a weapons class and pass a background check before carrying a concealed gun in public.
Read more: https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2021/01/27/utah-house-votes-allow-concealed-weapon-carry-without-permit/4280397001/
(St. George The Spectrum)
Oklahoma lawmaker proposes 'Bigfoot' hunting season
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A mythical, ape-like creature that has captured the imagination of adventurers for decades has now become the target of a state lawmaker in Oklahoma.
A Republican House member has introduced a bill that would create a Bigfoot hunting season. Rep. Justin Humphrey’s district includes the heavily forested Ouachita Mountains in southeast Oklahoma, where a Bigfoot festival is held each year near the Arkansas border. He says issuing a state hunting license and tag could help boost tourism.
“Establishing an actual hunting season and issuing licenses for people who want to hunt Bigfoot will just draw more people to our already beautiful part of the state,” Humphrey said in a statement.
Humphrey says his bill would only allow trapping and that he also hopes to secure $25,000 to be offered as a bounty.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildlife-oklahoma-5433bc22df3a87efa08c2b52838a2dd7
State Senator Kelly Townsend Wants to Invalidate Mailed-In Ballots
Another day, another bill pushed by Republican Arizona lawmakers that would restrict early voting in the state.
State Senator Kelly Townsend, who represents Arizona's 16th Legislative District, has introduced a bill mandating that voters who receive their ballot by mail must return it in person.
The bill, SB 1503, requires that voters who receive an early ballot by mail may only return it by "delivering it by hand to a designated voting location." It would also mandate that any "early ballots that are received by mail are invalid and may not be processed" by election officials.
Townsend, the bill's sponsor, did not respond to New Times' request for comment. But the east Valley lawmaker has routinely given voice to the conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from former Republican President Donald Trump. In early December, she asked Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to investigate allegations of voter fraud, but he ultimately declined.
Read more: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-lawmaker-kelly-townsend-wants-to-invalidate-mailed-in-ballots-11528419
Polygamous sect's South Dakota compound in foreclosure
PRINGLE, S.D. (AP) — A compound in South Dakota's Black Hills held by a secretive polygamous sect is for sale after the group defaulted on a $1.6 million loan, according to a local sheriff.
Court documents show the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' property near Pringle in Custer County is in foreclosure, KELO-TV reported.
The 140-acre (57-hectare) property includes nine parcels of land. It will be sold as one during an auction Feb. 25 at the Custer County Courthouse, said Sheriff Marty Mechaley. The compound sits along a gravel road and is shielded from view by tall pine trees, a privacy fence and a guard tower.
The FLDS is an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the faith abandoned the practice in 1890 and prohibits it today.
Read more: https://www.pinalcentral.com/religion/polygamous-sects-south-dakota-compound-in-foreclosure/article_e9ab0100-50ac-5d09-b7da-1e58b6fe8115.html
Insurance companies got the Arizona Legislature to pass a 265-page bill; 2 sentences of it cut funds
Insurance companies got the Arizona Legislature to pass a 265-page bill; 2 sentences of it cut funds for consumer protectionA bill backed by the insurance industry and rushed through the Arizona Legislature last year will cut a source of funding for the consumer protection agency tasked with policing insurance companies, state officials have warned.
While the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions routinely inspects insurers’ finances, new legislation means it can no longer pass on all the costs of those inspections to insurance companies, as it has in the past.
That change in policy may save those companies money but comes even as the department's director describes the department as operating with “bare-bones staffing.”
“If the Department lacks the resources to identify systemic violations in insurer conduct, or problems with insurer financial conditions, all Arizonans suffer the consequences,” Evan G. Daniels, director of the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions, wrote in a budget request to Gov. Doug Ducey.
Read more: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/legislature/2021/01/28/arizona-law-insurance-industry-skip-costs-inspections/4010306001/
Mitch McConnell Threatens To Burn Down The Senate If Democrats Take Away His 'Precious'
Not since John C. Calhoun, the fiercely pro-slavery senator states’ rights advocate for state interposition, nullification and secession (he nearly precipitated a civil war with the nullification crisis over tariffs in 1832-33, and his political doctrines did serve as the doctrinal foundation of the Confederacy in the Civl War almost 30 years later), has there been a senator as destructive and malevolent as Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
As Adam Jentleson explained about his new book “Kill Switch,” the filibuster “was shepherded into existence by John C. Calhoun, who was a father of the Confederacy and the leading advocate for the slave power in the Senate during his time there. And it has always existed and been wielded primarily by senators who were interested in overriding progress against slavery and then overriding progress on civil rights. The filibuster is inextricably linked to the drive to oppress Black Americans. And today, it continues to primarily empower reactionary, conservative and predominantly white minority in Congress who benefit far more from its use than anybody else.”
On Tuesday, Mitch McConnell threatened to burn down the Senate (figuratively one hopes, but who knows in light of recent events), if Democrats dare to take away “my precious,” his weapon of mass destruction, the Senate filibuster.
Jake Johnson reports, McConnell Threatens to Sabotage Senate If Democrats Scrap Filibuster:
In a speech on the Senate floor just hours after he dropped his demand that Democrats commit to leaving the legislative filibuster intact as part of a must-pass organizing resolution, McConnell cautioned that “destroying the filibuster would drain comity and consent from this body to a degree that would be unparalleled in living memory.”
Read more: https://blogforarizona.net/mitch-mcconnell-threatens-to-burn-down-the-senate-if-democrats-take-away-his-precious/
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
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