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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah lawmakers wants to send people to jail for harassing livestock with drones, the Senate passed a runoff election bill with more changes being sought and the Legislature attempts to outline clean air initiatives in today's roundup of what's happening on the Hill.
Chasing a cow with a drone? Utah bill would put you in jail
A Utah lawmaker wants to send people to jail for harassing farm animals with drones, all-terrain vehicles and even dogs under a proposal that is unique in the U.S. but has gained an unlikely opponent.
Rep. Scott Chew, R-Jensen, who is also a rancher, said Tuesday that he introduced the bill last month because farmers incur significant costs and hardships when livestock are injured.
The measure is the first of its kind in the country, said Lora Dunn, an attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a national animal rights organization.
The Humane Society of the United States said the plan was redundant and may discourage members of the public from getting close enough to livestock to expose farmers' mistreatment of their animals. Utah already has a law against injuring or killing farm animals.
"The biggest concern for us is that it eliminates any kind of possibility of documenting the problems that are taking place on that property," said Sundays Hunt, the organization's director in Utah.
Runoff elections bill passed by Senate, but changes being sought
The Senate unanimously passed a bill Thursday that would require runoff elections in primary races with more than three candidates where no one gets at least 35 percent of the vote.
The sponsor of SB114, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said concerns have been raised recently by county clerks about the timeline for a potential extra election between the June primary and November general elections.
Bramble told senators he was aware they were being "inundated" with emails about the issue but urged them to pass the bill on to the House while a solution was being worked out with the state elections office.
Later, he said there's a push to move up the state's primary from the fourth to the first Tuesday in June, a date he believes may be too soon. Bramble said there are other changes to the election timeline that could be made.
Mark Thomas, head of the Utah State Elections Office, said clerks are concerned with the quick turnaround to get a runoff election done properly. The bill calls for an August runoff, if needed, done by mail to save time and money.
Amid nasty inversion, Utah Legislature outlines clean air initiatives
Sen. Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Heights, said the Utah Legislature's clean air caucus couldn't have picked a better, or worse, day Thursday to announce a number of clean air initiatives — a day when the state was struggling through one of its worst inversions.
Shiozawa said he is running a resolution to encourage Utah consumers to purchase cars with the highest smog rating possible to reduce emissions — one of multiple ways lawmakers plan to push forward in the battle for clean air.
"It's a simple resolution, it makes sense, and it is something I hope we embrace as a state," he said.
The caucus, said founder and co-chairwoman Rep. Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, was established nearly four years ago, and lawmakers in that time have passed more clean air legislation than at any other point in the state's history.
Contributing: Amy Joi O'Donoghue, Hallie Golden, Lisa Riley Roche
