Latest news with #Sandall
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Stroke Awareness Month: Recognizing stroke symptoms can help save lives
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – May is National Stroke Awareness Month. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. suffer a stroke each year. More than 600,000 of these are first-time or new strokes. While the risk increases with age, strokes can occur at any age. Dr. Justin Sandall, a doctor of osteopathic medicine and a neuro-intensivist at Ascension Via Christi Comprehensive Stroke Center, emphasizes that time is critical when treating a stroke, saying it is a matter of life and death. There are two main types of strokes, Dr. Sandall explained. 'So, the first category is ischemic stroke. Those are strokes that are caused by a lack of blood flow from a clot that form somewhere in the blood vessels that supply the brain,' he said. The second type is a hemorrhagic stroke, which occurs when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures, causing bleeding. Dr. Sandall noted that ischemic strokes are far more common. Recognizing stroke symptoms can save lives. 'The inability to speak or understand speech, really slurred speech when they try to talk, inability to use one side of the body, they don't feel anything on one side of the body. Levels of consciousness sometimes change with that when the strokes that big,' he said. Measles in Sedgwick County, exposure at Wichita grocery store The CDC reports that in the U.S., someone has a stroke every 40 seconds, and someone dies from one every 3 minutes and 11 seconds. About 185,000 strokes—nearly 1 in 4—occur in people who have previously had one. Stroke is also the leading cause of long-term disability. 'If you have symptoms that are concerning for stroke, we want people to come in to our emergency department so they can be evaluated, the stroke team can be activated, and we can potentially intervene because thousands, millions of neurons will die within minutes to hours,' Dr. Sandall said. He says it is imperative to look at modifiable changes you can make to reduce your risk of getting a stroke, such as having a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and not smoking. 'It is the number one thing that you can stop doing that will decrease your risk of future heart disease and stroke. And, you know, we're talking about two of the top five killers in America,' Dr. Sandall said. Other risk factors include age, genetics, and medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Above all, Dr. Sandall emphasized a critical message: 'Time is brain.' 'There's nothing more sad than hearing about somebody that had stroke symptoms that started yesterday and they decided to go to bed and see if they could sleep it off,' he said. Below is a list of information and resources: CDC Via Christi American Stroke Association Stroke Support Association Kansas Health System For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Changes are coming to Rocky Mountain Power's contracts with AI centers, but not its rate structure
Transmission lines lead away from the coal-fired Intermountain Power Plant near Delta, Utah on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) After Rocky Mountain Power announced it would pursue a double-digit rate increase for Utah residences, Gov. Spencer Cox and legislative leaders vowed to take matters into their own hands to keep it from happening. It has been a couple eventful months for the utility ever since. The rate proposal also led the Legislature to request splitting the utility's parent company, PacifiCorp, into two consortiums of states — red and blue — with similar energy policies, and raised the question of how it would serve large energy users, such as the artificial intelligence and data centers the state is hoping to host. Here's how some 2025 bills may change — or not — how Rocky Mountain Power operates in Utah. Finding ways to feed power-hungry AI centers in the state has been on the state government's mind for a while. Cox dedicated part of his opening statement during his March monthly news conference broadcast by PBS Utah to highlight the importance of it, arguing that the U.S. is in an 'AI arms race with China.' But, building an AI center may take gigawatts of power off the grid. SB132, sponsored by Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, established an alternative process to provide electric power to customers with large loads so existing ratepayers wouldn't have to bear the cost of the additional demands. According to the bill, if the data center and the utility can't reach an agreement within 90 days after a service application is submitted, the customer may be able to negotiate a contract with one or more large-scale generation providers. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'This is outside their regulated monopoly, where we allow them to basically compete with other generators for this new load, and we give them the opportunity to come in and compete for these higher demand loads,' Sandall said. It took a long time to finetune details of the bill and merge in some provisions included in another competing Senate bill, but it ultimately passed the Legislature almost unanimously and is waiting for the governor's signature to become law. Cox criticizes 'radical agenda of the extreme environmental movement' after legal win Initially, Sandall's bill allowed intermittent energy sources, such as solar and wind, to be used in these hyperscale contracts only if they were 100% backed up with energy storage. That provision was eliminated, allowing AI centers to use solar and wind resources. But, they must still specify any arrangements for backup power supply. 'We married the two together through a lot of long hours and negotiation, and I think we're in a spot where both sides didn't get everything they wanted,' Sandall said, 'but I think they feel comfortable moving forward.' David Eskelsen, a Rocky Mountain Power spokesperson, said that overall, the company followed its long-standing practice to provide information to lawmakers to help them draft their energy policy bills. 'Senate Bill 132 authorizes a path for the state to serve and attract large energy users, like data centers, while ensuring existing customers are protected from related rate impacts,' he said in an email. Sandall worried that if intermittent resources didn't provide enough electricity to power the data centers, Rocky Mountain Power would try to provide power through its traditional resources, leaving other consumers short on power, he said. 'We were able to create language where I believe that we did give the protection to the consumer,' Sandall said. 'At the same time, we gave the possibility to find new generation sources without laying the cost back onto our traditional consumer.' A House bill that directly changed Utah's largest utility's fee system was only used as a negotiation tool during the 2025 session and never received a Senate hearing, even after it was proposed and prioritized during the interim session. HB72, sponsored by Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, targeted Rocky Mountain Power's Energy Balancing Account. That account is tied to a market adjustment fee that can either credit or debit ratepayers for the utility's costs not covered by the regular electricity rates. Nuclear development and electricity rates to dominate energy discussion this legislative session Since the Legislature eliminated the sharing band that allowed customers to cover 70% of the adjustment and shareholders absorb 30% in 2016, Rocky Mountain Power has been able to recover 100% of its 'prudently incurred costs in an energy balancing account,' through adjustments for ratepayers. Albrecht's proposal would have completely eliminated that fee from customers' electricity bills. But, amid other negotiations, the legislation fell through. 'Sometimes you use the bill for motivation, and we were trying to motivate Rocky Mountain Power to do some other things in the state,' Albrecht said. While the bill had overwhelming support in the House, when it reached the Senate, the sponsor was asked to stand down until other negotiations took place. But, the bill will come back during the interim this year, Albrecht said, because there's still a need for it. 'We want to make sure that Rocky Mountain Power is not including costs from other states in their rate base that Utah customers have to pay,' he said. But, Albrecht's next proposal may be a little more lenient, since he believes there should be a sharing band in place, a system that existed before that 2016 bill, sponsored by Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton. While the fee changes according to market prices, it has been in an increase pattern for years. Last summer, for example, an interim 11.6% rate increase of the Energy Balancing Account came into effect on July 1, sending electricity costs soaring through the summer. The Legislature also approved HCR9, a concurrent resolution to create an energy compact with Idaho and Wyoming, sponsored by House Majority Leader Jefferson Moss, R-Saratoga Springs, which, may elevate Utah's request to split PacifiCorp into two consortiums; one grouping California, Oregon and Washington together, and the other serving Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Cox has already signed the legislation and commended it, as Utah leaders make strong requests to step away from blue states' aggressive pursuit for a clean energy future. Cox has already met with Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on the issue, and they have 'aligned' with those goals, he said. During interim committee meetings, lawmakers grilled Rocky Mountain Power executives as they searched for ways to make that split happen. However, the feat would be expensive and politically difficult, officials from the utility warned. Albrecht, who has led some of those interim committee hearings, said that there's interest from Idaho and Wyoming as well. 'We did get a report back in Natural Resources and also Public Utilities (committees) during summer interims, fall interims, but it was very superficial,' Albrecht said, 'and we've asked them to do more work on that, because we feel like it's an important thing for the ratepayers in the state of Utah.' 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Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Big changes could be coming to cosmetology licensing. Is it a fresh new look?
Utah didn't have an esthetics license until 2001, and now a bill in the state legislature would make changes to licensing for estheticians, hair stylists, nail techs, barbers and others. SB330, sponsored by Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, changes the type of licenses available and how many hours are required to receive certain cosmetology licenses. But cosmetology professionals and those who teach the skills are concerned about the changes to licensing requirements. Specifically, they are worried how the changes impact what skills the students will master, and if it will impact the clients who receive those services. The bill was put together after the Utah Office of Professional Licensure Review studied cosmetology licenses in Utah and suggested changes. The recommendations from the licensing group focused on safety, making sure people were licensed enough to practice safely, but not necessarily at a high quality. 'I do feel like that's great, the safety is important, but in hair, there needs to be just as much quality as there is safety, because there's so many bad hairstylists, and it's because we don't have to pass the test on quality, the test is to pass on safety,' said Brynn Black a hairstylist who works at Shade Nine Salon in American Fork. Throughout the process of developing the bill, Sandall worked with professionals and school owners to make sure they are on board with the changes the bill would foster. He shared that his daughter is an esthetician, and that he helped pay for her schooling and has watched her throughout her career. 'I know how many hours she had to go. ... I watched her do it, and I've watched her practice esthetics, master esthetics. And so I understand how fast these new technologies come,' Sandall shared. The bill would make significant changes to the licensing for estheticians in Utah, the biggest change being that it would eliminate the basic esthetician program. Currently, those wanting to study esthetics can do a basic esthetics program for 600 hours or get a masters of esthetics license for 1,200 hours. In 2001, when the master of esthetics license was first started in Utah, Mandalyn Freeland was 22 years old and wanted to get licensed. She wanted to study just esthetics, but not do hair. When she couldn't find somewhere to do that, she decided to start her own school of esthetics where students could focus on just esthetics. 'I remember telling my mom and my husband, like, I don't want to wait and drive past someone else doing this. This is my dream,' Freeland said. 'I'm just gonna do it before someone else does.' After hiring licensed instructors for Mandalyn Academy, Freeland earned her master of esthetics through her own school. She has been running the school for 24 years now. Freeland explained that the skills in the basic programs are things performed at a day spa but the extra treatments under the masters level are received at a med spa. The basic license includes learning how to do facials, wax hair removal, manicures, pedicures, eyelash and eyebrow work. Freeland's school also teaches spray tanning and teeth whitening in her basic program because those skills are not regulated through the state. With the master program students learn more advanced treatments, including more aggressive ways to exfoliate. These treatments include microdermabrasion, chemical peels, microneedling, dermaplaning and laser. Freeland said she doesn't think it's a good idea to get rid of the basic program, because it requires just enough hours for it to be federally funded, and students who can't afford it on their own can apply for Pell grants and loans. Without the basic license, students who can't afford esthetician school wouldn't have that option anymore. 'If you're trying to make things easier for the public to gain an education and a license and a career, then we should have kept the basic program at 600 hours, just to be able to give more people the opportunity, time and money wise, to get that foundation. And then if you want to do masters, you can go on and do that,' Freeland said. Kenzi Hopkins is a student at Mandalyn Academy who has finished her basic training and is now working towards getting the advanced license, a decision she made as she worked through learning the basics. 'I really love to learn it, just because I feel like masters side of things is where you see more results oriented. And I really wanted to focus on helping people through their skincare and I wanted them to be confident in their skin,' Hopkins said. Brynn Black is a hair stylist in American Fork who this year decided to take on an apprentice for the first time. Her apprentice, Melanie Wheeler, started with her in the fall. Two other stylists at her salon, Shade Nine, have also taken on apprentices. The apprentices are all working to get their hair design license. Wheeler said she decided to do an apprenticeship instead of going to a school because she heard she would be able to learn more and would be better prepared to start working after being an apprentice. 'What inspired me to do this was because I wanted to teach girls that you can actually be good at doing hair,' Black said. 'Because a lot of girls don't continue doing hair after school, and I truly believe it's (because of) their experience in school.' SB330 would change the hour requirements for the hair design license, requiring students to tally 1,000 hours in school or under an apprenticeship to get licensed. The hour requirements for barbers under this bill would also be 1,000 hours. Black said she believes the apprenticeship for hair design should be less hours than going to school. 'So I don't know why they think apprenticeship need more hours, because they're already working in a salon, and that's the goal, that's why you go to school, is to be able to feel confident in working in a salon, and they already are,' Black said. One concern when the bill was first introduced was that it would prevent high school students from attending cosmetology schools. This licensing for high schoolers can be achieved through their school's CTE programs or through the private cosmetology schools. 'I've had several high school students that have attended my school through the school district and have been able to get elected credits fulfilled to graduate and get a scholarship that the school district provides for them to come their junior or senior year and already have this license and career by the time they graduate high school. That has been phenomenal,' Freeland said. Sandall said that he worked with stakeholders to fix the issue. Now, the bill would allow these high school students to attend cosmetology school. 'The high schools that have reached out are comfortable with the language that we've got,' Sandall said. 'It was never our intent to exclude them, yeah. So I think we got it fixed,' Sandall said SB330 would also allow people to become licensed in smaller individual components of esthetics and hair design. These have been referred to as 'micro-licenses.' This would include being individually licensed in facial hair removal, eyelash and eyebrow work, haircutting and chemical hair services. 'So we've created components, these small health and safety permits, in hours,' Sandall said. 'And if somebody just wants to get that and do that, they can go out and try to be marketable on their own.' There is still an option for the smaller components to be bundled together so students can learn all of cosmetology or esthetics if that's what they want to do. Freeland said she's concerned that with the micro-licenses, students won't receive all the background and foundation that they need for sanitation and also professionalism, because of the limited amount of hours. Another concern Freeland shared about these micro-licenses is that people who are only licensed in individual components of esthetics and not all of esthetics might still claim to be a estheticians. 'How is the public gonna know?' Freeland said. 'You're gonna have all these girls going through one of those courses, and saying, 'I'm an esthetician,' and so the public's not gonna know, like, what does your esthetician really know? What are they really certified to do?'
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fairpark District may host stadiums, in plural, under this new bill
Signage promotes the Power District development outside the Rocky Mountain Power Gadsby plant in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Everyone involved in the Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District project had a clear vision of a vibrant, river-connected area, hopefully surrounding a $900 million Major League Baseball stadium for a portion of the west side of Salt Lake City. But, a new bill aimed to clean up emerging details included one detail that raised some eyebrows, but mostly out of curiosity — the multiplication of the stadiums. SB335, sponsored by Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, also chair of the Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District (UFAIR) Board, allows for the development of multiple, small stadiums in the district. However, all players — the lawmaker, the executive director of UFAIR, and the Larry H. Miller Company, which is developing the district — insisted on Thursday that the provision didn't necessarily translate into an immediate change of plans. Legislature approves funding plan for MLB stadium in Salt Lake City 'This is really just a flexibility option. There's no plans to do additional stadiums,' Benjamin Buys, the executive director of UFAIR, told the Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee. 'But should that opportunity arise, we love the idea of being kind of the home of sports on the west side.' The committee voted 2-1 to recommend the bill to the full Senate for its consideration. Amanda Covington, chief corporate affairs officer for the Larry H. Miller Company, wrote a similar statement about the bill's language. 'The Power District is a large project that will be developed over many years,' she said. 'This language provides optionality as we work with UFAIR and other key stakeholders to continue to master plan the area.' The stadiums would be for major league sports teams, the bill reads. That does not include college sports teams. But, the proposal also softens salary requirements for the teams the stadiums could host and lowers the minimum capacity of the arenas from 30,000 to 18,000 spectators. Apart from that, the bill creates a system to get land use authority for the district in case there's a chance of adding more land to it. It also moves up the date on which the authority could levy a 1.5% tax increase on short-term car rentals to Oct. 1, 2025, as opposed to the original agreement, which stated that the tax could only be collected after an MLB team acquisition announcement. But, that may change on the Senate floor. 'We have to go back and change when we're going to start to collect that tax,' Sandall said, 'because some discussions that I've had in the last hour indicate to me that that was a firm discussion.' Eventually, Sandall added, the authority may contemplate using that revenue to fund its own police force, to clean up, to invest in the Jordan River and to allow the Fairpark to expand north. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Competing Senate bills try to answer the question, how should Utah power new data centers?
Transmission lines lead away from the coal-fired Intermountain Power Plant near Delta, Utah on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) After a couple of years focusing on keeping coal burning to power the state, Republican lawmakers are expanding their focus to cover hyperscale demands, potentially from data and artificial intelligence centers. Two bills establishing requirements to process large-scale electricity service requests are currently being considered in the Senate. One, by Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, hasn't left the rules committee, and the other by Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, who has successfully sponsored substantial energy legislation, has already advanced to the Senate floor. Because there's currently not a specific process to single out large energy users, to serve potential large customers in data centers or other manufacturers, Rocky Mountain Power, the largest electricity provider in the state, must include those loads in its general rate calculations filed to the Utah Public Service Commission. That's what both of those bills are trying to change. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'What my bill file does is allow Rocky Mountain Power to step out of that regulated monopoly space and into the competitive space and contract directly with these large loads,' Sandall told reporters on Wednesday. Under SB132, sponsored by Sandall, Rocky Mountain Power may individually contract with new customers requiring over 50 megawatts of power without affecting demands and rates for existing customers. The utility would have six months to review those novel contracts. 'If at that point in time no deal can be made, or it looks like they are struggling to make a deal, a third-party producer could come in then with the large load under a separate contract,' Sandall said in his presentation to the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee last week. One aspect of Sandall's bill has raised concerns for those who would like to see more renewable energy sources in the state's portfolio — the fact that intermittent energy sources, such as solar and wind, need to be 100% backed up with energy storage to serve large-load contracts. Energy demand from data centers growing faster than West can supply, experts say 'What we don't want to have is billions of dollars of investment under these contracts and an energy source that's not being able to supply the whole base load, then coming to the legislature and saying, 'excuse us now, we've got to have more power,'' Sandall said. 'And where do we leverage that?' SB227, Cullimore's bill, is similar to Sandall's. But, the biggest difference is that Cullimore's proposal doesn't dictate which resources should be included in the contracts with data centers. It's an approach that advocates for renewables prefer, Josh Craft, director of government relations and public affairs for the nonprofit group Utah Clean Energy, said in a statement. 'It is resource neutral and provides a pathway to utilize Utah's incredible clean energy potential,' Craft wrote. 'Utah should be expanding access to affordable, clean energy, not creating barriers that limit options for businesses and communities.' Sandall called that resource neutrality the 'movement of unrestricted energy through the meter,' which is what gives Rocky Mountain Power — and him — some pause. But, while both senators have different approaches, there's a lot that Sandall said he and Cullimore are trying to work out together. After working on his bill for six months, Sandall said he thinks he's getting close to creating a firewall between current customers' rate structure and data centers. Rocky Mountain Power representatives have told him that his bill would allow them to find the power to serve those new, large loads, he told Utah News Dispatch. 'Rocky Mountain Power, quite honestly, has some apprehension around this bill, because they're not used to stepping in a competitive space,' Sandall said. 'And so I've had to bring them along, and they've finally gotten here.' Because data and AI centers are still speculative customers, Michele Beck, director of the Utah Office of Consumer Services, believes it is reasonable to expand views on what models could work for Utah. 'Under the utility model, it's impossible to understand how we can build enough resources fast enough to serve what might be out there, what people are saying is out there,' Beck said about the potential for new data centers in the state. 'So I think it's good to evaluate alternatives, but on the other hand, it needs to be done in a way that protects existing customers.' Sandall's bill does a reasonable job of protecting other customers, she said. His intent, Sandall said, is to be cautious since these contracts are a new space for the state. 'We're having a really hard time making sure that we don't go to deregulation, but we still allow this faster build-out of the energy that we're going to need,' he said. Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, supported the idea of making plans to 'keep a firewall between them and our public utility' since, he said, data centers are willing to pay more for energy, potentially affecting rates for other Utahns. As for which of the bills Senate leadership will end up supporting for final approval? Adams said he expects the process to dictate the answer. 'There's two bills, and they'll work together, and it'll be interesting how they come out.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
