Missy also had some interesting statistics that illustrated the need for comprehensive sex education, like:

• Every day in Utah 12 teenage girls aged 15-19 become pregnant. In 2007, 4356 young girls in Utah, ages 15-19, became pregnant. (According to the Utah Department of Health – 2007)
• In 2007, 62% of births to unmarried mothers were to those under the age of 24. 2747 of those births were to unmarried mothers under the age of 19 (again according to the Utah Department of Health, 2007)
• In a 2006 national survey, 26% of high school students who dropped out of school said that they did so because they became parents. (The Silent Epidemic, Civic Enterprises, Peter D. Hart Research Associates, produces for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)
• In 2007, 72% of 15-17 year old girls who give birth reported that their pregnancy was unintended. Of 18-19 year old girls, the number was 67%. (Utah Department of Health, 2007)
• Roughly 57% of new chlamydia infections and 42% of new gonorrhea infections occur among youth ages 15-24. (Utah Department of Health, 2007)
• In Utah, you’re more likely to get chlamydia than you are H1N1 flu.

Of course there’s going to be a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) spread about the bill, so here’s the gist what Representative Lynn Hemingway (D-Holladay) is proposing (from PPAC’s website):

• Rep. Hemingway’s bill provides parents a choice of two tracks for reproductive health education for their kids. Parents CHOOSE the track in which their child will be enrolled. Both tracks teach that abstinence is the only 100% effective means of preventing pregnancy and STDs, but the comprehensive option includes medically accurate information about contraception, avoiding pregnancy and STDs, and preventing sexual assault through the teaching of healthy relationship skills.
• Rep. Hemingway is trying to address serious health issues that our teens are dealing with in Utah. This bill offers one more tool that parents, educators, and health care professionals can use to address Utah’s rising teen pregnancy and STD rates. Chlamydia is the #1 communicable disease in Utah and 12 teenage girls a day get pregnant. Parents deserve to have a choice in their children’s reproductive health education.
• Studies show that teens who receive comprehensive reproductive health information have lower rates of teenage pregnancy and STD’s than those receiving abstinence-only education. Comprehensive reproductive health education does NOT increase rates of sexual activity; rather, it helps delay initial onset of sexual activity and increases rates of protection among those who are already sexually active.
• Rep. Hemingway’s bill addresses the fear that teachers experience because of current law. While the current law allows for comprehensive information to be given, local school districts across the state have widely varying health curricula and kids are receiving very different information based on where they live. Teachers are afraid of serious penalties if they fun afoul of strict local guidelines that often restrict them from answering kids’ questions or using precise, medically accurate language.
• Will kids be exposed to sexually explicit material? NO The information that will be presented will be age-appropriate and medically accurate. This is not a class that teaches “how to have sex,” nor does it encourage sexual activity. We simply want kids, whose parents approve, to have access to the information they need to make smart decisions about their health and know the possible consequences of those decisions.
• Will the two education choices result in two “extremes”? NO The abstinence-only track simply reiterates current law and would still contain some limited discussion of contraception and STDs, while the comprehensive track would cover these subjects more in depth. Because parents would also have the choice of opting out of any reproductive health education altogether, the options they have clearly cover the vast majority of possibilities of parents’ wishes.
• Will some kids from the comprehensive class “talk”? NO The truth is that all kids are talking, but mostly in myths in half-truths. Despite even the most vigilant parents’ best efforts, every child is hearing things in the hallways and the locker rooms that would surprise most of us. We simply want to provide a resource for those who want it that can combat these untruths and provide accurate information in its place.

It seems to be pretty clear from the stats that what we’re doing now isn’t working. Many of these kids try to live up to their religious obligation to not have sex prior to marriage, but then look for ‘loopholes’ like oral or anal sex (There’s even a saying: if it’s anal or oral, it’s moral). This reduces the risk of pregnancy, but not necessarily STD’s. Floating (penetration but then no movement) is a new ‘loophole’ that doesn’t really reduce either risk. Don’t ask me what you do to pass the time while you’re floating – the whole concept seems pretty asinine to me.

Our DL crowd has a fair amount of educators and people in the medical service field, and they know exactly how bad the problem is. People like me who have very little interaction with kids are always surprised to hear the stories and statistics. It’s an awareness issue, so if you have some insight into the reality of our current failing system, write a letter to the editor. If you’re a parent, urge your congress people to support the bill. And if you’re neither of these or either of these, support health care groups like Planned Parenthood.

Some you God fearing folks such as myself may not be aware that sin is soon upon our fair state. You see, effective midnight tonight, our great state of Deseret will soon be barraged by unseemly individuals who want nothing more than to take down the very fabric of our society. They claim that they are just trying to improve our image to the outside world – but I know the facts.

You see, at midnight tonight, people would be able to simply walk into a bar and get a drink! Yes, a BAR, not a Private Club for Members (an already intolerable institution); this fine state will be flooded with drunkards who want nothing more than to rob our homes and kill our children – I just know it.

Before we were at least protected thanks to the “private club” aspect of these dens of inequity. The $5 membership fee made would-be criminals think twice before picking up that first drink. Now, they can spend that $5 on what I can only assume is 5 shots of the hardest alcohol you can get, stumbling out much sooner and wandering our gated communities.

But now, now, they can just pony up to the devil and order a drink! These so called “adults” will loose all control without the fine guidance of our very reasonable laws.

What is even worse is that children (I presume) will be able to walk in with out people so much as batting an eye. Where is the control people? Where is the duty to protect our children from reality? Where does it end?

I hear these same sinners want them to put two or more ounces (what users call “shots”) or more of alcohol into their drinks – claiming that some drinks can’t be made because of a recipe. Boy, howdy, sounds like they are cooking up hard-core drugs.

But, alas, the users have won. I, for one, will be having a tall cool glass of water tonight as I sit out on my porch and watch the world inevitably come to an end.

Original post can be found at Blue in Red Zion.

There are numerous factors that create power on Capitol Hill: how well you are able to talk to people to get what you want, your position within your own party, your ability to rally troops for a particular issue, and what committees you sit on. The first three are somewhat obvious – but committees are a tricky thing – some are more powerful than others, and all have the potential to make you new friends or enemies.

Committees act as a sort of halfway house for bills and are generally the only place that most bills will ever see proper debate – furthermore this is the only time that the public can provide direct input on any particular bill. Committees are specialized into various fields such as rules (the most powerful) to ethics (the least used); this specialization allows the hundreds of bills to be heard at any given time. What makes committees so important is that anywhere from 5-15 legislators sit on a panel and decide if the bill should even be heard by the full legislature – if it does not make it out of committee, the bill is dead.

Within committees, certain positions are more important than others. The most important position in any committee is the chairperson; they control the agenda and what bills will be discussed in the first place – if the chair does not like a bill, guess what, it ain’t going anywhere.

So now we come to Senator Buttars, former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee – a relatively powerful committee because it is in charge of confirming judges after they have been suggested by the governor. This committee is one of the few places where all three branches of government intertwine and where the legislature has a distinct advantage. With removal from the committee, Buttars continues to hemorrhage political power; the downward slide started in earnest this time last year with his infamous “black baby” comment.

To put it perspective, my Senator, Luz Robles (a freshman, female, Hispanic, non-native English speaking, Democrat, whom I think is fantastic, by the way) now has more political power than Buttars if only because she is the Minority Caucus Manager in the Senate. I have more powerful representation on the Hill when compared it to West Jordan; and this is not due to simple luck of the draw, but because Buttars made statements that compromised his position.

And so here we are, West Jordan is represented by someone who made their district weaker. But don’t cry for them, it is not as if they did not know what they were getting themselves into when they chose to reelect Buttars in the first place; they took a gamble and they lost. Congratulations West Jordan, you have now become politically muted over the next three years, and you had the power to prevent it.

I’ve been hearing quite a bit about HB 187, which is of interest to the Utah Rivers Council and users of Utah’s rivers. This bill could mean 1000’s of miles of Utah rivers could be open to development. This bill is going to hearing and Utah Rivers Council could use your support by showing up Friday, February 20 at 2:00 pm in Room 445 of the Utah Legislature. See more about this on the Utah Rivers Council website.

In case you don’t get the paper and you need a laugh you can see the ad by clicking the photos below:

A full page of hate in the Salt Lake Tribune

A full page of hate in the Salt Lake Tribune

What I didn’t expect was for the new clown of a Senate President Michael Waddoups to try to make our laws even more regressive. Despite his previous waffling on the issue, Waddoups has recently stated that he wants to start collecting information about drinkers in the state, recording where they go (and in his dream world how much they drink, no doubt) into a central database of sinners. And not just for bar patrons – he also wants to record everyone who has a glass of wine with their dinner in a restaurant. Privacy? Who needs privacy? What’s next, a Ministry of Information?

The Republican party claims to be the party of limited government, don’t they? How is creating a large database of your citizen’s social habits not an intrusion of government? And is this something the state should be spending money on?

To create a database of drinkers is to presume guilt before innocence; assumes the majority of drinkers are reckless and irresponsible. In my experience this is the opposite of reality. Don’t treat us all as potential criminals, Sen. Waddoups.

We begin at the beginning. A legislator (either a Senator or Representative) must propose a law, no one else can. They can either have a bill fully written, have a bill that is written but does not have any way of paying for it, or they could have a bill title alone (this third type is called a “boxcar” as in an empty train boxcar).

Once a bill is written it is read for the first time on the floor of either the House or the Senate, depending on who actually wrote the bill – this consists of saying the bill number and title. This is considered the bills “first reading.” From there the Speaker of the House (for bills written by Representatives) or the President of the Senate (for bills written by Senators) sends every bill to a committee – usually (but not always) to a committee related to a bill. These committees focus on things such has transportation or health care, just to name a few.

The committee is the first place a bill is tested. The bill is heard by anywhere from eight to 18 legislators and they decide if the bill should continue to be heard. As you can imagine this is one of the most critical moments for a bill as four to nine legislators can kill a bill at this moment. These committees are generally stacked in the favor of the ruling party as the leaders of the chambers choose who sits on what committee.

Assuming a bill makes it out it is read for a second time on the floor of whichever chamber. In the House, they simply reread the bill title and name; in the Senate they reread the bill and then vote on the bill for the first time.

In the House the bill is generally allowed to be read for a third time. This third time is when the whole House finally votes on the bill for the first (and last) time. If the bill passes the House, it is sent to the Senate where the bill needs to be picked up by a Senate sponsor – no sponsor? Well the bill dies there.

Going back to the Senate now. Assuming the bill is read for a second time and passes, it is generally allowed to be read for a third time and, again, the Senate will vote on the bill to see if they will pass the bill on to the House. If it does, there needs to be a House sponsor to spearhead the charge there.

Now why would they go through all of this second and third reading nonsense? Well, the reason is simple, a bill can be amended by anyone at anytime. If someone offers an amendment, the body reviewing the bill votes to accept or reject the bill – this can happen in a committee room, on the floor of the House, or the floor of the Senate. Very often legislators will vote for an amendment while voting against a bill; they may vote for an amendment to make the bill less desirable; they may vote for a special type of amendment, called “striking the enacting clause” (the enacting clause is the part of a bill that makes it a bill and not just a bunch of people complaining) that kills a bill on the spot. By discussing the bill three times, legislators are able to adapt to new changes and choose how they wish to proceed.

Whew! Now let us assume that the bill makes it out of one chamber and into the other…well the bill goes through the same process all over again. If no changes are made and the bill passes, it is sent to the governor for either signing into law or a big ‘ol veto.

If changes are made to the bill, but it still passes both chambers a special “conference committee” is put together to make a compromise on the bill – conference committees usually consist of the person who proposed the bill, the sponsor in the other chamber, and two or three other legislators from both chambers who have wildly different points of view on the bill. Once it leaves the conference committee both chambers vote on the compromise (though you are not allowed to make amendments). If it makes it through it goes to the governor.

Of course there are all sorts of legislative procedures that can further slow down or stop a bill (the most common being circling wherein a bill is removed from the list of bills to be considered that day) but this stuff requires the grad school edition.

As you can see, getting a bill passed is actually quite a complicated thing, full of pitfalls and death around any corner. The thing is, it was built that way on purpose. It is designed to be difficult in order to at least make an attempt to kill bad bills before the become bad laws. Frankly we should be happy it is hard for good laws to pass because it ensures that the bad ones (usually) don’t sneak through.