House passes DNA collection bill

The House passed a bill Wednesday mandating DNA collection from people convicted of class A misdemeanors.

Samples are currently collected from felons.

Sponsor Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said expanding state and national DNA databases will help law enforcement trying to match data from a crime scene.

"Not only are we making sure we find those who are committing the crimes, but we are also protecting the innocent," Adams said.

The bill next goes to the Senate.

--Standard Examiner

House supports memorial crosses bill

Using crosses as memorials for fallen Utah Highway Patrol troopers gained the support of the state House of Representatives Wednesday.

Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clinton, sponsored a resolution in support of the practice, which is being challenged in court by an atheist group.

The resolution received a diversity-friendly amendment on the floor, allowing the families of troopers to select another religious or secular symbol in place of the cross.

The crosses, which are placed alongside Utah highways near where a trooper died, are paid for through private donations.

"This is a memorial to these 14 men who made the ultimate sacrifice," Ray said.

--Standard Examiner

Bill supports public defenders for poor

Utah counties could set up public defender's offices rather than contracting with private attorneys for representation of indigent people charged with crimes under a bill that passed the Senate.

Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, the bill's sponsor, said the Utah Constitution requires counties to provide representation for indigent defendants

The bill, which Bell said has the support of the Utah Association of Counties, would allow county commissions and councils to create departments called legal defender's offices.

The bill also would require judges to refer cases involving indigent people to the departments. Counties with legal defender's offices could contract with other counties to provide services.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously and now goes to the House.

--Standard Examiner

Senate supports aid to disability list

One of several measures to address the backlog of people on a state disability waiting list sailed through a Senate committee on Wednesday.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ronda Rudd Menlove, R-Garland, would appropriate $150,000 to establish a two-year pilot program to provide supported employment services to people with disabilities. Already approved by the House, the bill received a unanimous favorable recommendation from the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. It now goes to the full Senate.

"Many of these people on the waiting list could successfully be employed with a small amount of support," Menlove told the committee.

She said an estimated 300 to 400 of the nearly 2,000 people on the waiting list potentially could be employed. The $150,000 would allow the program to serve 100 people.

State Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, is sponsoring a bill that would require the state to spend up to $5 million annually on goods and services produced by people with disabilities. Rep. Steven Mascaro, R-West Jordan, is sponsoring a bill that would establish a task force on services for people with disabilities.

--Standard Examiner

Bill looks to legitimize seat belt requirement

If a police officer ever ticketed you for not wearing your seat belt while riding as a passenger, the officer didn't have the right, according to Rep. Joseph Murray, R-Ogden.

That would change if House Bill 234 -- which passed the House 40-25 Wednesday -- finds approval with the Senate and the governor.

Murray said hundreds of tickets have been given to passengers who didn't have their seat belts on when the driver was pulled over, even though it doesn't exist in the code, and is therefore not illegal.

If the bill passes, officers could give the citations "without going eeny, meeny, miny, moe," Murray said.

--Daily Herald

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A9.