Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Deficient Bridges Each year, the Federal Highway Administration produces a report on deficient bridges across the country - bridges that do not meet a rather complicated series of criteria.FHWA Bridge Programs Deficient Bridges by State and Highway System In 2002, Utah had a total of 2781 bridges. Of these, 546 were labeled deficient. 11:32:18 AM

Feds to Lift Natural Gas Drilling Restrictions? Industry lobbyists have urged Congress to lift natural gas drilling restrictions on federal lands in Utah and elsewhere due to shrinking supplies and rising prices. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified today before a Congressional Committee that the natural gas shortage is creating problems for the economy. Environmentalists say there are other ways to deal with the shortage, including better management of consumption. [Washington Post] 2:31:35 PM

	Wednesday, June 04, 2003

Utah Medicine and Medicare The organization Public Citizen will hold a news conference tomorrow to discuss a new study showiing that most Medicare doctors in Utah do not participate with the private managed care plans that are envisioned in the Bush Administration's Medicare reform proposal. Meanwhile a look at the Public Citizen website has some interesting information about Utah doctors.  The Public Citizen site compiles information on disciplined doctors and reveals these facts: Utah ranks 10th in the nation in number of serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 MDs in 2001. Utah's access to disciplinary information was rated B for content and C for user-friendliness. The largest single offense for which doctors were disciplined from 1992  to 2001 was disciplinary action by another state or agency (24%) and overprescribing or misprescribing drugs (11%). [Public Citizen / Questionable Doctors] [Utah Disciplinary Actions] 1:35:50 PM

	Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Halliburton, Asbestos Texas corporate giant Halliburton, recently awarded a no-bid contract to do reconstruction work on postwar Iraq is also being watched carefully by investors because of the impending settlement and limits to asbestos litigation, a problem dogging its subsidiary, Dresser Industries. Sen. Orrin Hatch is prepared to introduce legislation in Congress calling for the creation of a universal asbestos trust fund of $108 billion dollars, to be financed by insurers and companies facing asbestos claims, that would be the sole source for future liability claims. The bill would move thousands of pending asbestos-related claims out of state courts and into a five-judge federal court. The AFL-CIO has denounced the proposal as a corporate bailout. [Business Week] 9:42:31 AM

	Tuesday, May 06, 2003

Utah Spam Law spawning host of class action lawsuits, According to E-mail Marketing Association General Counsel Steven Richter, Utah's anti-spam law has resulted in nearly 1600 class action lawsuits. Richter says Half the plaintiffs are employees or family of the law firms. utah might have to call a special legislative session to repeal the law. [Class Action against Sprint] [Utah Code 13-36-103] 10:30:14 AM

	Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Utah leads Goldman Sachs investigation Utah securities regulators have proven pivotal in the investigation into conflict of interest by a number of companies, including Goldman, Sachs. The company is accused of compromising investment advice by skewing it in favor of investment banks. [Division of Securities] 9:40:11 AM

	Friday, April 25, 2003

Pentagon pushes exemption from environmental laws The Pentagon has urged congressional exemption to Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act restrictions in a blanket fashion, rather than case by case. The Department of Defense is asking Congress to use the current DOD reauthorizaion bill to restrict the reach of these laws. Former House Resources Committee chair James Hansen last year waived his committee's jurisdictional claims. A group of State Attorneys General, including Utah, have expressed concern that these exemption would likely affect cleanups of unexploded ornance at thousands of sites nationwide. [The Hill] 11:37:23 AM

	Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Freddie Mac, Bob Bennett announce low-cost housing opportunity Freddie Mac issued a press release yesterday announcing a new effort to make it easier for the Hispanic population of Utah to own homes. Sen. Robert Bennett, Far West Bank, and the Community Development Corporation of Utah joined in the announcement. The program includes aggressive outreach and borrower education along with homeownership initiatives from Salt Lake City and flexible lending from Far West Bank.  Freddie Mac has agreed to purchase the mortages. [Community Development Corporation of Utah] 11:19:08 AM

	Monday, April 21, 2003

Public Service Commission to be elected? This year the State Legislature passed a resolution calling for a study of whether the Public Service Commission should be an elected body. Last Wednesday, the Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee met to discuss the issue. Opponents said that the plan would politicize the process. Supporters that election would ensure there was public discussion of utility regulation policy every two years. Thirty Seven states have appointed commissioners, 13 have elected members. Opponents feared election would inject utility money into PSC campaigns. Supporters cited a recent poll showing 3/4 of voters favored changing to an elected body. Full hearings will follow this fall with a final report due by year's end. [Utah Legislature Website] [Salt Lake Tribune] 10:28:57 AM

States, including Utah, turning to taxes on Satellite Dishes Utah has instituted taxes on cable and DBS (Digital Broadcast Satellites). A number of other states are looking at such options, and, according to a DBS group, cable companies are lobbying strongly for taxes on satellite dishes. Cable companies says that exempting cable from sales taxation is fair because cable customers already pay franchise taxes. DBS providers do not, but do pay spectrum allocation fees to the FCC. Twenty-three states currently tax one or both. Utah faced lobbyng from cable companies for an exemption, but in the end, both were taxed. In Ohio, however, the cable lobby was successful in exempting cable from sales tax. [Ohio Cable Telecommunication Association] 10:05:37 AM

Washington Watch: Utah's Congressional Delegation - 4/ 21 Sen. Hatch lauds Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, a potential candidate for Senate Majority should Tennessee's Bill Frist retire in 2006: He tramped on a few toes in those early years - by the way, they were toes, I think, he should have tramped on. Santorum, dubbed a compassionate conservative, has strong views on the importance of families and disputes a constitutional right to privacy for consensual sex outside of marriage. Santorum opposes homosexuality, feminism, and liberalism. [Grand Forks Herald] [Sen. Santorum Web Site] Today, the chief of staff for Sen. Hatch, holds a meeting for major parties involved in the legislation to limit asbestos settlements, in an attempt to resolve differrences. Hatch wants a draft bill to be ready by April 28. [Reuters] The Kiplinger Letter reports that President Bush's political advisor, former Utahn Karl Rover, will target several congressional districts perceived a vulnerable for Democrates, including Jim Matheson in Utah. And, speaking of Matheson, the Congressman is one of the sponsors of a House amendment to allow industrial loan companies to offer interest bearing checking accounts to commercial users. It is about offering two entities...parity in terms of offering the same service. [America's Community Bankers] 9:52:17 AM

Utah Mortgage Company facing Federal / State Investigation Fairbanks Capital Corp. is being investigated by Federal agencies Housing & Urban Development and the Federal Trade Commission, as well as the states of Maryland and Utah. The mortgage company, based in Salt Lake City, is the subject of 12 consumer complaints. Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski asked HUD to get involved after a series of high-profile homeowners' complaints in that state which became the focus of a series of television news stories. The company denies any criminal wrongdoing. [National Mortgage News] [WBAL-TV] [Fairbanks Capital Corporation] 9:41:59 AM

	Thursday, April 17, 2003

Utah's New Life Insurance Law Lauded by Insurance Group The Life Insurance Consumers Alliance (a group largely representing financial advisors and insurance agents) has lauded recent legislation enacted in Utah that offers terminally ill seniors to sell their insurance policies to Viatical Settlement companies who take over the policies and typically collect the benefits. Also, these Viaticals are often offered as investment opportunities. Traditionally disposal of a life insurance policy meant accepting cash value or simply letting the policy lapse. Viatical settlements offer The Viatical Settlements act creates licensing requirements for advisors dealing in viatical settlements. [HB4 - Final Version] [FTC: Viatical Settlements] Non-Governmental websites on Viatical Settlements [http://www.viatical-expert.net/] [Salt Lake Tribune] 10:23:11 AM

Utah Law Permits Walmart Bank Ownership Community banks across the country join small Main Street merchants in seeing doom and gloom in the arrival of a Wal Mart in the area. Wal Mart has been attempting to purchase financial institutions, particularly industrial loan companies, with an eye to offering financial and checking services. So far they have been rebuffed, because only four states do not have laws against such purchases: Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and Utah. Utah is the home of 23 of the nation's 50 industrial loan companies. [American Banker] Reg / $$ 9:23:24 AM

	Wednesday, April 09, 2003

Utah Consumers Enjoy Low Monthly Utility Bills Utah ranks 49th in the annual cost per person for energy ($2042 in 2000, the last year for which figures are available). Louisiana is the highest ($4638). Utah has the lowest average monthly electric bill in the country ($44.94), Hawaii the highest ($102.63). 10:17:36 AM