Latest news with #SB150
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Animal abusers will face harsher penalties under newly signed bills
DeSantis signed Trooper's Law on May 28, 2025. (Photo via via Leon County Humane Society Facebook) Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills Wednesday that will increase fines and sentences for people convicted of abusing pets or restraining them outside during natural disasters. Lawmakers passed the bills, HB 255 and SB 150, in honor of Dexter, a bulldog mix found decapitated and dumped in St. Petersburg, and Trooper, a bull terrier a Florida Highway Patrol officer found tied to a fence along Interstate 75 as Hurricane Milton approached. 'Current sentencing guidelines don't match the gravity of these crimes, and it was evident that Florida law needed to do more to protect dogs from senseless violence,' DeSantis said during the bill signing ceremony in Loxahatchee. Dexter's Law, which will go into effect July 1, creates a sentencing multiplier for people convicted of intentionally torturing, mutilating, or killing a pet, meaning that they could serve a longer sentence. Under the bill, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement must create, by the beginning of 2026, a database of people who plead guilty or no contest or who have been convicted of animal cruelty. At least seven counties and Tallahassee have a registry of animal abusers, according to a legislative bill analysis. A judge sentenced the 66-year-old who decapitated Dexter days after adopting him last year and dumped his body in Fort De Soto Park to a year and 60 days in jail, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Trooper's Law will go into effect on Oct. 1 and will make it a third-degree felony to restrain and abandon a dog outside during a natural disaster. Third-degree felonies are punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and imprisonment for up to five years. Trooper Orlando Morales said he'd responded to a report of an animal in distress 'It took several loops, but I thank God that He gave me the right time and right place of where to be, and after the second or third loop, I was able to find a dog clearly in water, in distress,' Morales said. 'And it was a horrific moment to be in.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Montana lawmakers, please don't bring back smoking indoors
Cigar in ashtray (Martin Vorel/Common Creative license) Some ideas are so bad that they're ridiculous. Like bringing back smoking rooms to Montana businesses. This is what Senate Bill 150, now being debated by the Montana Legislature, stands to do. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Wylie Galt of Martinsdale, would weaken Montana's 20-year-old Clean Indoor Air Act and allow so-called 'cigar rooms' to operate in our state. If the idea sounds familiar, that's because lawmakers have rejected it time after time in past legislative sessions. But those who put profits ahead of our health keep trying. SB 150 will subject employees and non-smoking patrons to secondhand cigar smoke, which can cause lung cancer and heart disease and stroke, and which contains all the same toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke. Every worker deserves a safe place to work – free of toxic air pollutants. If passed, Galt's bill as proposed with amendments will irreparably weaken our Clean Indoor Air Act, which, as stated in Montana law, is intended to 'protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places and places of employment; to recognize the right of nonsmokers to breathe smoke-free air; and to recognize that the need to breathe smoke-free air has priority over the desire to smoke.' There is no way to contain cigar smoke within a room or building. Smoke filters through cracks in windows and walls, through air ducts and even through electrical outlets. And there is no safe level of secondhand smoke exposure. If bars or brewpubs have 'cigar rooms,' everyone inside the building, not just the smoking area itself, will be at risk, just as they were back in the bad old days when smoking was allowed in restaurants and on board airplanes. Say 'so long' to the family environment many establishments have cultivated during the past two decades. Many Montanans may see their favorite spots opting in to allow smoking. There is no ventilation system that can effectively protect against secondhand smoke. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, which sets engineering standards for ventilation systems, says that 'the only means of effectively eliminating health risks associated with indoor exposure is to ban smoking activity' from a building. Ventilation may reduce odor, but it won't protect people's health. In fact, people who go inside a cigar bar or room will be at risk even when smoking isn't taking place. Toxins from cigar smoke seep into carpet, furniture and walls and can be absorbed through the skin or by breathing in contaminated dust or by eating contaminated food. Employees charged with cleaning or otherwise maintaining a cigar bar or room will be at risk. Cigar bars or rooms can even pose a hazard for neighboring businesses. Not only are backers of SB 150 and its amendment undermining our health and the Clean Indoor Air Act, but they also are breaking a promise made to the people of Montana. When the Clean Indoor Air Act was adopted 20 years ago, it included a four-year phase-in period for Montana's tavern owners to make their bars and casinos smokefree. The phase-in was agreed upon by the tavern industry, legislators and some health groups. SB 150 breaks this promise, which has been held for 16 years. The bill also runs counter to public opinion in our state. A 2021 poll by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the American Heart Association showed that 89% of Montana voters from across the political spectrum support the Clean Indoor Air Act, and 77% (3-in-4) of Montana voters oppose allowing cigar smoking in bars. SB 150 breaks a promise made to Montana citizens and hospitality workers, and it undermines our Clean Indoor Air Act, which prevents disease and saves lives. We've had 20 years of smokefree workplaces and 16 years of smokefree bars and casinos. Why bring back the days of smoke-filled air and coming home with your clothes, skin and hair stinking of smoke? We've come to expect clean, healthy air in our public spaces. Let's not go back to the days of smoking rooms.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The first-of-its-kind case putting Utah's new religious freedom law to the test
One year ago, Utah lawmakers unanimously enacted new religious liberty protections, bucking the national trend toward skepticism that's led some legislators to put 'religious freedom' in scare quotes. SB150, called the Exercise of Religion Amendments, created a state-level Religious Freedom Restoration Act that gives Utahns more power to challenge government actions that interfere with their religious beliefs. 'In a world that's increasingly hostile to religion, these amendments are an important expression of Utah's long-established commitment to religious freedom,' said Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, the bill's house floor sponsor, in February 2024. SB150 was signed into law the next month. Eight months after that, in November, it was cited in a case that's testing the limits of that long-established commitment by asking whether religious freedom protections extend to a new faith group using psychedelic mushrooms in its ceremonies. The faith group, Singularism, claims government officials in Provo, Utah, and Utah County violated Utah's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act, among other laws, when they seized the group's psilocybin and scriptures in November. The officials, on the other hand, say Singularism is motivated by a desire to sell illegal drugs, not to practice and promote a religious faith. In late February, almost exactly one year after Teuscher reflected on the value of robust religious freedom protections, a federal judge granted Singularism's request for a preliminary injunction, ruling that government officials in Utah cannot claim to support religious freedom if they prevent Singularism's practitioners from living according to their beliefs. 'For that guarantee of religious liberty to mean anything, the laws must protect unfamiliar religions equally with familiar ones, both in design and in practice,' wrote District Court Judge Jill N. Parrish. The ruling caught the attention of religious freedom experts nationwide, who say the first-of-its-kind Utah case raises familiar but still hotly debated questions about the purpose and scope of religious liberty laws. Singularism's founder, Bridger Lee Jensen, says he didn't set out to test the limits of Utah's religious freedom protections. He says his goal was to share his spiritual beliefs with others and enable them to deepen their faith through psilocybin tea ceremonies, just as he has. In late 2023, Jensen, who grew up in Provo and previously worked as a mental health therapist, opened Singularism's spiritual center, which is located in an office park near Utah Valley Hospital. He said he invited local officials to visit and learn more, but no one took him up on the offer. Jensen describes Singularism as a 'nondogmatic, spirituality-based religion' that doesn't have members in a traditional sense. Potential practitioners are screened before they take part in ceremonies. Insights shared by the people who take part, called 'voyagers,' are added to the group's scriptures. In November 2024, about a year after the spiritual center opened, Provo Police obtained and served a search warrant, and confiscated the group's psilocybin and scriptures. Officials claimed the group was violating the Utah Controlled Substances Act. Citing religious freedom protections, Jensen challenged officials' actions in state court, arguing that Singularism has a right to a faith-based exemption to the controlled substances law. Officials rejected that claim, arguing that Singularism should not be seen as a religion and that the government has a compelling interest in preventing the group from distributing drugs. After government officials had the case moved to federal court, Judge Parrish issued a temporary restraining order requiring officials to return what they'd taken. But five days later, officials charged Jensen with possession of psilocybin with the intent to distribute, possession of THC and use or possession of drug paraphernalia. As Jensen fought for the criminal case to be put on hold, the federal religious freedom case moved forward. On Feb. 20, Parrish granted Singularism's request for a preliminary injunction, which allows the group to continue holding its ceremonies while the case plays out. Although Singularism is a new religious group and Utah's Religious Freedom Restoration Act is a new law, the current legal battle has much in common with two cases that remade the federal religious freedom landscape in the 1990s and early 2000s. The first, Employment Division v. Smith, centered on the religious use of peyote. The Native Americans who brought the case were fighting for a faith-based exemption from employment laws prohibiting drug use. In rejecting their religious freedom claims, the Supreme Court in 1990 weakened the legal protections offered by the First Amendment's free exercise clause, prompting Congress to pass the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act three years later. During a signing ceremony for the law in November 1993, President Bill Clinton said the country is stronger when people of all faiths and no faith are free to live according to their beliefs. 'Let us never believe that the freedom of religion imposes on any of us some responsibility to run from our convictions. Let us instead respect one another's faiths (and) fight to the death to preserve the right of every American to practice whatever convictions he or she has,' he said. The power of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act was on display in 2006 when the Supreme Court ruled for a little-known religious group in a case called Gonzales v. O Centro. The government had sought to prevent the group from using a controlled substance called hoasca in its religious ceremonies, arguing that the drug posed health risks and was susceptible to abuse. But the justices unanimously ruled in favor of O Centro, rejecting the government's claim that the Controlled Substances Act would fail if faith-based exemptions were available. The O Centro case showed you don't have to be a large, mainstream faith group to win a case under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act or laws like it — and that's still true today, said Josh McDaniel, faculty director of Harvard Law School's Religious Freedom Clinic. In cases involving a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, judges typically consider four key questions: Are the religious claims sincere? Are religious practices or beliefs being substantially burdened by government interference? Does the government have a compelling interest driving the interference? Is there some other, less restrictive way for the government to satisfy its compelling interest? In general, rulings in these types of cases center on the final two questions. The court either accepts the government's explanation for its actions or determines that officials haven't done enough to accommodate the religious group or individual involved. But in cases involving the use of psilocybin, marijuana or other mind-altering substances, the judge or judges often spend more time than usual analyzing the sincerity of the faith group and may even base their ruling on that question, said McDaniel, who recently spoke at a symposium on religion and psychedelics. That's especially true when the faith group involved was only recently founded, he added. 'In some marijuana cases, courts have said this is not a legitimate religious practice, that it appears this is essentially a drug-distribution enterprise that's cloaked in religion,' he said. But in the Singularism case, Judge Parrish said the opposite, writing that she had no difficulty concluding that Singularism's leaders and 'voyagers' sincerely believe psilocybin tea ceremonies help them deepen their faith. 'From all the evidence in the record, the court is hard-pressed to find, as Defendants urge, that Singularism is essentially a drug-dealing business cloaked in a minister's robe,' Parrish wrote. Her decision is believed to be one of the first, if not the first, rulings in favor of a group making First Amendment or Religious Freedom Restoration Act claims about psilocybin use, according to Tanner Bean, an attorney at Fabian Vancott who represents Jensen and Singularism. Parrish's February ruling brought relief to Jensen and Singularism, but the legal battle likely won't be over anytime soon. The judge is still considering a variety of motions, including one that could send the case back to the state court system. The government may appeal the preliminary injunction or forthcoming orders. And Jensen is still facing criminal charges related to psilocybin possession. Jensen and others involved with Singularism are also worried about mounting legal bills, and they've launched a legal defense fundraiser in hopes of being able to withstand whatever legal moves come next. No matter how the case turns out, it will be a significant chapter in Utah's religious freedom history, as well as in the national debate over religious liberty in general and religion and psychedelics in particular. Although religious freedom cases involving Christian groups that oppose same-sex marriage or abortion often get more attention, it's cases brought by unfamiliar, non-mainstream groups that often challenge religious freedom advocates most, experts said.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Trooper's Law': Dog abandoned on I-75 during Hurricane Milton evacuations inspires Florida bill
The Brief Florida State Senate Bill 150 would make it a third-degree felony to abandon a restrained animal outside during a natural disaster. The bill, known as "Trooper's Law," is inspired by a rescue dog named Trooper that was rescued along 1-75 in Tampa before Hurricane Milton. The bill aims to stiffen the penalty for similar crimes in the future. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A dog that was rescued in Tampa during Hurricane Milton evacuations is inspiring a new bill. Senate Bill 150, which would be known as "Trooper's Law," is currently in the Florida Senate. The bill would make it a third-degree felony to abandon a restrained animal outside during a natural disaster, like a hurricane. The backstory Trooper was found tied to a fence along I-75 in Tampa before Hurricane Milton hit. PREVIOUS: Video: Dog tied to pole on Tampa interstate rescued as Hurricane Milton draws near He was rescued by the Florida Highway Patrol, which is how he got the name "Trooper." "He would've stood there and as the water rose up and rose up and then hit over his head, he would've drowned," said Sherry Silk, the Human Society of Tampa Bay's executive director. Trooper has since been adopted by a family in Parkland. Dig deeper His story inspired the new bill, which stiffens the penalty for similar crimes. "If Trooper hadn't been tied or tethered to that fence, he could've run down the street and maybe someone would've seen him, driven by, because he was a really friendly dog, gotten him in the car and taken him to safety somewhere," Silk said. Silk said you should never leave your animals under any circumstances, especially if they're not trapped. Why you should care The bill focuses on animals that are restrained. CLICK HERE:>>>Follow FOX 13 on YouTube "It's going to give guidance for law enforcement and my office to enforce the law as far as if people are leaving their animals," Roger Mills, the division director of Hillsborough County Animal Control, said. Mills says they'll handle calls on a case-by-case basis, but he hopes this bill sends a more significant message to the owner. "We'll have to determine: Did they leave it restrained?" Mills said. "Did they leave something to help it survive? That's not what we're looking for. We're looking for you to make an escape plan." Silk urges people to take their pets with them during a natural disaster or go to a pet-friendly evacuation shelter. She says local humane societies and shelters don't have space for more animals under these circumstances. READ: Intuitive Machines' second moon lander touches down but could be on its side – again "Tethered or not, you should never, ever leave your animals," Silk said. "You just shouldn't." What's next SB 150 is moving through the state Senate. The Source FOX 13's Kylie Jones collected the information in this story. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP lawmaker files bill to ensure Kentucky schools have ‘gender-specific' restrooms
Superintendent Demetrius Liggins included this rendering in his presentation to a legislative committee in Frankfort, Aug. 20, 2024. Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, objected to the design. A Republican lawmaker is hoping to close what he calls a 'potential loophole' in a state law governing school restrooms in Kentucky. Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, has introduced House Bill 163, which would require at least 95% of restrooms within a school building to be designated for 'a specific biological sex.' It comes after a few Republican lawmakers, including Lockett, grilled Fayette County Public Schools officials last summer about the new Mary E. Britton Middle School, which is set to open later this year. However, a school district spokesperson said the bill wouldn't apply to the proposed design. The school's restroom design features private stalls with floor-to-ceiling doors and an open communal sink area as a way to allow students to be supervised by adults and potentially curb situations of bad behavior. Lockett's bill has not been assigned to a committee; lawmakers return to Frankfort next week to resume the 2025 legislative session. When asked for comment on the bill, Lockett said in an email to the Kentucky Lantern that he filed the bill 'to provide a statewide, clear policy regarding biological sex-specific restroom facilities after concerns were raised about a potential loophole in previous legislation passed during the 2023 Regular Session (SB 150).' That law was omnibus legislation that included several anti-transgender measures, such as requiring schools to create policies keeping people from using bathrooms, locker rooms or showers that 'are reserved for students of a different biological sex.' Lexington middle school's restroom design draws ire of Republican lawmakers in Frankfort Lockett said preserving 'gender-specific bathrooms based on biological sex ensures privacy, safety, and comfort for all users.' 'While the issue was brought to my attention by constituents in Fayette County, the measure would address concerns that parents and students have regardless of what school district they attend,' he said. 'We have an obligation to respect personal boundaries and accommodate biological differences.' Dia Davidson-Smith, a spokesperson for FCPS, said in a statement to the Kentucky Lantern that the school district did not have a comment on the bill at this time, but the restroom plans for the middle school 'have remained unchanged since last year.' 'The restroom designs at Britton Middle School are gender-specific and this bill has no impact on them,' Davidson-Smith said. Last year, the school district said the restrooms would not be 'gender-neutral' as the pods would be designated for boys or girls. It also added that Lockett's district does not include the part of Fayette County where the new middle school would be, so his constituents would not be impacted. Superintendent Demetrus Liggins told lawmakers at the time the new configuration would allow adults to better supervise students. He noted that a 2021 TikTok trend encouraged damage and theft, particularly in boys' restrooms, and cost the school district $42,000 in repairs. According to the 2023-24 School Safety Annual Statistical Report from the Kentucky Department of Education, 13,524 behavior events happened in school restrooms across the state. That accounted for about 5% of all reported behavior events during the school year.
