Monday, September 29, 2003

Government Agency Spotlight: Utah Sentencing Commission The Utah Sentencing Commission is a body created by the legislature and charged with establishing sentence guidelines and developing policy recommendations regarding sentencing and release of adult and juvenile offenders. The commission has 27 members representing the legal community, law enforcement, treatment specialists, ethnic minorities, correction officials, and parole authorities. Recent topics of interest to the Commission have been the recently passed initiative to revise the Forfeiture law, and the elimination of the firing squad in Utah. Sentencing Frequently Asked Questions 4:45:38 PM

	Thursday, June 12, 2003

New Federal Law Spurs Creation of Funds for Defrauded Investors A new federal securities law has resulted in the creation of numerous funds designed to repay defrauded investors. Victims will be visiting Utahs Securities site for information on recent Utah settlements with Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Bear, Stearns. 2:05:50 PM

Guns in Schools OK, But Who's Liable? The Granite and Jordan School districts in Salt Lake County are wrestling with a dilemma. Teachers can now carry concealed weapons into the classroom, but the state insurance provider probably won't cover the consequences of their use. This past year, the Utah Legislature passed a law that allows the weapons in school. [Wyoming News] 2:01:53 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

	Friday, May 23, 2003

Federalized National Guard Worrisome to States The Nation highlights a tension between Federal deployment of troops on the domestic front and state governments. According to Commision of Public Safety Bob Flowers, Utah officials fought to keep the state's National Guard under state control but the White House authorized deployment of regular armed forces to utah. Flowers says the issue goes to the essence of our constitution. The National Governors Association has issued a policy paper stating its preference that the Guard be kept under state control. [National Governors Association] 12:14:53 PM

	Thursday, May 22, 2003

Utah Constitution moving to gender neutrality Utah is among several states moving to gender neutrality in their constitutions. Michigan is considering a resolution which would immediately take out the male pronouns. Utah is doing a gradual overhaul as it updates sections. Legal experts say the changes are more cosmetic than legally necessary. [New York Times - registration required] 10:07:40 AM

	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

	Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Utah's Share of DOJ Funding Totals Over 59 million for 2002 Utah received $59,486,370 in Justice Department grants in 2002. This included funds for substance abuse prevention, juvenile justice, counter-terrorism, and community policing. [Office of Justice Programs Press Release] [Community Policing Funding Breakdown for Utah (and other states) PDF] 9:39:19 AM

	Monday, April 21, 2003

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