Latest news with #ToddWeiler
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Referendum update: Nearly 80,000 signatures verified in attempt to repeal union bill
Canvassers collect signatures as part of the Protect Utah Workers coalition at the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. The organizations behind the signature effort hope to place a referendum on Utah ballots that would undo controversial legislation restricting collective bargaining for public sector employees including teachers and first responders. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) The effort to overturn a controversial bill that bans public sector unions from collective bargaining is moving forward, having met the signature threshold in four of 15 Utah Senate districts, and clearing the halfway mark for the statewide requirement. Utah has one of the more difficult referendum processes in the country, advocates say, with a high bar to qualify. The Protect Utah Workers coalition had 30 days to gather signatures from at least 8% of the state's registered voters, roughly 141,000 people. Last week, the coalition announced it was submitting about 320,000 signatures, going well above the minimum requirement and, if accurate, making the effort to overturn HB267 one of the most successful in state history. If the county clerks and the lieutenant governor's office validate enough signatures, voters will decide whether the law should be repealed during the 2026 General Election. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX As of Wednesday, data from the lieutenant governor's office showed county clerks have verified at least 79,145 signatures, more than halfway toward one of the two requirements outlined in state code. The coalition must also gather signatures from 8% of registered voters in at least 15 of Utah's 29 state Senate districts. Data analyzed by political consulting and public affairs firm Morgan & May showed the coalition has met that threshold in four districts: Sen. Todd Weiler's District 8, which encompasses North Salt Lake, Woods Cross, Bountiful and parts of Salt Lake City Sen. Jen Plumb's District 9 in Salt Lake City Sen. Nate Blouin's District 13, which includes parts of Salt Lake City, Millcreek, South Salt Lake and Murray Sen. Stephanie Pitcher's District 14, in Salt Lake City, Millcreek, Holladay and Murray. Weiler's district in Davis County is the only GOP-held district so far where the county clerk has verified enough signatures to meet the 8% threshold. Labor coalition shatters threshold to qualify for referendum in effort to repeal union bill According to Morgan & May, 10 other districts are at least 50% complete, with District 11 (much of Tooele County, and parts of West Valley City down to Eagle Mountain) at 49%. Democratic Sen. Kathleen Reibe's District 15 (parts of Sandy, West Jordan and Cottonwood Heights) is the closest to meeting the requirement, at 82%. On Tuesday, the lieutenant governor's office reported that at least 11,547 signatures have been rejected so far — that's to be expected, the coalition said. It's inevitable that some people may sign despite not being registered to vote in Utah, while others might sign twice, have illegible handwriting, or give incorrect voter information. That's why the coalition sought to go above and beyond the minimum requirement of 141,000 votes. According to the figures from Tuesday, about 84% of the signatures submitted are being verified. Signed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in February, HB267 prohibits public sector unions from collective bargaining, the process where, for instance, a teachers union negotiates an employment contract with a school district. The bill takes effect July 1, 2025. Lawmakers say HB267 will protect taxpayer dollars while giving all public employees a voice, not just union members. If a teachers union only represents one third of the employees in a school district, it shouldn't be able to negotiate employment contracts on behalf of everyone, said the bill sponsors, Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, and Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Salt Lake City's police and fire departments, and a handful of the state's school districts, are the only public unions that engage in collective bargaining, and supporters of the bill say the ban would only impact a small number of Utah's labor organizations. But labor groups and members of the public protested the bill at every step, concerned that it would erode their rights and eliminate leverage unions have when meeting with their employers. Once Cox signed the bill, the opposition morphed into the Protect Utah Workers coalition — among them are the Utah State Fraternal Order of Police, the Utah Education Association, Professional Firefighters of Utah, Teamsters Local 222, the Salt Lake Valley Law Enforcement Association, United Mine Workers and more. Cox last week reiterated that despite signing it, he didn't like the bill and was hoping lawmakers and unions would find a compromise to still allow them to collectively bargain. Now that it's escalated to a referendum attempt, the governor said he's impressed by the coalition's work. 'I want to congratulate them for their signatures,' Cox said during his monthly PBS news conference. 'To get 300,000 signatures is very impressive. People ask if I was surprised and I said I'm actually not surprised. It's called organized labor for a reason.' Still, the governor was hesitant to say whether the number of signatures translates to support to repeal the bill. 'I don't know what that means,' he said. 'I don't know if you can extrapolate the number of signatures to broad public support over the course of a year and a half, which is when the vote will take place.'
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Utah Legislature bans pride flags from schools, public buildings
(Getty Images) The Utah Legislature has passed a bill aimed at banning LGBTQ+ flags from Utah's public schools and government buildings in the name of 'neutrality.' After a fiery debate Thursday — the second-to-last day of the Utah Legislature's 2025 session — the Utah Senate voted 21-8 to approve the bill, with two Republicans (Sens. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, and Dan Thatcher, R-West Valley) joining Democrats in opposition. The House also gave a final nod of approval, 53-20. If Gov. Spencer Cox signs HB77, it will ban almost all flags from being displayed on or in public buildings, except for flags explicitly allowed in a prescriptive list included in the bill, such as the U.S. flag, the state flag, military flags, Olympic flags, college or university flags, or others. Pride flags or other LGBTQ+ flags — which Utah lawmakers in recent years have repeatedly tried to bar from schools in various ways — would be prohibited. As critics decry 'gross government overreach,' bill to ban pride flags from schools advances The bill's sponsors, Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, and Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, argued it's meant to encourage 'political neutrality' from government workers, including teachers. But critics, including Democrats, argued the broad ban on all government properties will invite free speech litigation while also leaving some Utahns, including the LGBTQ+ community, feeling unwelcome and erased. While the bill started out as one aimed at classrooms, McCay's arguments on the Senate floor reflected an appetite to also prevent other city governments from displaying certain flags, like pride flags, on their buildings' exterior. Utah Democratic capital city, Salt Lake City, hosts the Utah Pride Festival and Pride Parade every year at Library Square. Senate leaders told reporters Thursday that HB71 will prevent government officials from hanging pride flags in and around city and county buildings, but would still allow Utahns who are protesting or rallying to carry their flags in public. McCay said he thinks other local governments should be more like how the Utah Capitol is run. 'You know, we at the Capitol here at the state, we have strong rules about what (can be displayed) on the outside of the building,' he said. 'We're very careful and do all we can to make sure that everyone is welcome and everyone feels, you know, that the outside of the building appears to be politically neutral.' Without naming Salt Lake City or other cities or counties, McCay said 'that is not the case in several government buildings around the state.' 'The effort here is to try and restore that political neutrality' to public buildings and school classrooms, McCay said. Sen. Stephanie Pitcher, D-Salt Lake City, tried unsuccessfully to scale the bill back closer to applying only to school districts, warning that its current language could be unconstitutional, but a majority of Senate Republicans rejected her proposed amendment. 'The Supreme Court has recognized that local government entities hold independent free speech rights known as the government speech doctrine,' Pitcher said, adding that case law has established that 'government entities have the right to speak for itself.' 'I think we can save ourselves a lot of money and litigation by passing this amendment and bringing this bill to a place where it's constitutionally sound,' Pitcher said, before the Senate voted it down. McCay pushed back, arguing that while the Supreme Court 'says there is room for local expression, it does not mean that the majority has the ability to change the historical focus or warp the building into its own political speech.' Thatcher — a Republican who at times strays from his fellow GOP senators, especially on LGBTQ+ issues — argued against the bill, saying cities and counties 'elect their own representation' and 'they know their own people.' Utah bill to ban LGBTQ+ flags from schools — and in all government buildings — heads to House 'I'm wearing my Gadsden flag today,' Thatcher said, pointing to a yellow pin on his lapel with the 'Don't Tread On Me' logo, 'because I feel like we have been doing an awful lot of treading this year. And I think liberty is liberty, even if people want to liberty different than us.' Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, also spoke against the bill, arguing lawmakers shouldn't infringe on free speech. 'I don't think that it disappoints people when we have different flags in our schools, I think it empowers them to find connections and to find understanding,' she said. Sen. Jen Plumb, D-Salt Lake City, argued against the bill, saying the issue 'feels so much bigger than just who likes your flag.' 'Taking away the ability for people to speak and represent who they are, just seems so fundamentally un-American to me,' Plumb said, urging lawmakers to consider what it means to take away freedom of speech, 'which I think every single one of us clings to and cherishes. It doesn't matter to me what population it is, I don't want it taken from anyone.' McCay — who last year was part of an unsuccessful effort to pass a previous flag ban on the final night of the 2024 session — argued HB77 isn't about taking away people's 'right to express themselves.' 'I believe that all those rights of expression … are important, and they need to be respected for the individuals to express them,' McCay said. 'The government, on the other hand, is intended to do the people's business, regardless of their political perspective, political identity or ideology.' McCay also compared the debate to restricting religion from government buildings and classrooms, calling the arguments against HB77 'ironic.' 'The fact that that's the interpretation that people took from the Constitution is such a perverted end result,' he said. 'When you remove the morality or the ability to express morality on one side, you do not get to replace it with your own.' McCay added 'the government is meant to be for all people. It should not be subject to the majority decision about what the outside of the building should become as a method of political speech.' He went on to argue that 'ideology' shouldn't be on display in classrooms, either. 'The sad truth of the matter is, as the left has removed religion entirely and morality from classrooms,' McCay said, before he was interrupted by a 'point of order' from Riebe. McCay balked, saying he's been 'called a racist' on the Senate floor before Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, told him to stay focused on the bill. Still, McCay continued. 'At the end of the day, those who have fought for removing religion or morality from our classrooms, they have invited in a presence that is unwelcome by many,' McCay said. 'This is just an effort to try and trim back, in our classrooms, that type of political speech.' In two legislative public hearings on HB77, Utahns including those identifying with the LGBTQ+ community passionately argued pride or LGBTQ+ flags aren't 'political' or trying to push an 'agenda,' but rather they're meant to signal to youth that they're loved as they are. Research shows LGBTQ+ youth face an increased risk of self harm and suicidal attempts compared to heterosexual youth. Equality Utah — the state's largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization — issued a statement Thursday saying lawmakers passed a 'blatantly unconstitutional bill.' 'This legislation, seemingly fueled by an ongoing dispute with Salt Lake City, strips away local control and targets the free expression of Utah's communities,' Equality Utah's executive director, Troy Williams, and the group's policy director Marina Lowe, said in the statement. 'In this political tug-of-war, LGBTQ Utahns have unfairly become collateral damage.' While Williams and Lowe said they were able to secure 'critical amendments' to the bill — which preserve 'the right of students and teachers to wear rainbow stickers, pins, and patches in classrooms — this does not erase the bill's broader harm.' They said McCay's arguments on the Senate floor 'made it clear that HB77 aims to censor the free speech rights of municipalities statewide, a move that oversteps legislative authority and invites legal scrutiny.' 'Equality Utah is frustrated by this outcome, but our resolve remains unshaken,' Williams and Lowe said. 'We will continue to fight for the rights and visibility of LGBTQ Utahns, supporting efforts to challenge this bill in court and hold the state accountable.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Utah becomes first state to pass app store age verification law
Utah passed a bill on Wednesday that will require app stores to verify users' ages and receive parental consent for minors to download applications, making the Beehive State the first in the country to pass such a measure. The bill, titled the App Store Accountability Act, now heads to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R)'s desk. If signed, the majority of the bill's stipulations would take effect May 7. 'I am pleased that the majority of my colleagues in the #utleg voted to protect children from accepting sometimes predatory terms and conditions when downloading apps that may collect and sell their personal data,' Utah state Sen. Todd Weiler (R), the bill's sponsor, wrote on the social platform X Wednesday night. 'We shouldn't encourage children to enter into contracts. #utpol.' The bill's passage comes amid a wider debate between major technology firms over whether it is up to the app stores or the application developers to verify users' ages. At least eight other states are weighing similar measures. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and social media apps X and Snap believe the onus to verify kids' ages is on the app stores following criticism that technology devices and social media networks are causing harm to minors. 'Meta, X, and Snap agree! Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child's age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way,' Antigone Davis, Meta's vice president of global safety, wrote on X following the bill's passage. 'The app store is the best place for it, and more than a quarter of states have introduced bills recognizing the central role app stores play. We applaud Utah for putting parents in charge with its landmark legislation and urge Congress to follow suit,' she added. Apple and Google, which host two of the market's largest app stores, lobbied against the Utah bill, arguing age verification presents risks to the privacy of minors and their parents or guardians. The two companies have argued developers are a better fit to handle age verification. Last week, Apple introduced what it called 'age assurance' technology to allow parents to be able to select the age range of their kids instead of providing their exact birthdates when setting up child accounts. This is done before young users download apps from third-party developers, who will soon be able to use a 'Declared Age Range API' that gives them access to this range. Apple described the API as a 'narrowly-tailored, data-minimizing, privacy-protecting tool.' The technology company argues a requirement to verify age on the actual app marketplace would make all users hand over sensitive information, when only a limited number of apps need such specific information about users. 'That means giving us data like a driver's license, passport, or national identification number (such as a Social Security number), even if we don't need it,' the company said in its online safety report last year. A federal judge in 2024 put a temporary block on a Utah law that would have required social media companies to check the ages of all users and implement restrictions on accounts of minors, The Associated Press reported. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
06-03-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Utah becomes first state to pass app store age verification law
Utah passed a bill on Wednesday that will require app stores to verify users' ages and receive parental consent for minors to download applications, making the Beehive State the first in the country to pass such a measure. The bill, titled the App Store Accountability Act, now heads to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R)'s desk. If signed, the majority of the bill's stipulations would take effect May 7. 'I am pleased that the majority of my colleagues in the #utleg voted to protect children from accepting sometimes predatory terms and conditions when downloading apps that may collect and sell their personal data,' Utah Sen. Todd Weiler (R), the bill's sponsor, wrote on the social platform X Wednesday night. 'We shouldn't encourage children to enter into contracts. #utpol.' The bill's passage comes amid a wider debate between major technology firms over whether it is up to the app stores or the application developers to verify users' ages. At least eight other states are weighing similar measures. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and social media apps X and Snap believe the onus to verify kids' ages is on the app stores following criticism that technology devices and social media networks are causing harm to minors. 'Meta, X, and Snap agree! Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child's age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way,' Antigone Davis, Meta's vice president of global safety, wrote on X following the bill's passage. 'The app store is the best place for it, and more than a quarter of states have introduced bills recognizing the central role app stores play. We applaud Utah for putting parents in charge with its landmark legislation and urge Congress to follow suit,' she added. Apple and Google, which host two of the market's largest app stores, lobbied against the Utah bill, arguing age verification presents risks to the privacy of minors and their parents or guardians. The two companies have argued developers are a better fit to handle age verification. Just last week, Apple introduced what it called 'age assurance' technology that will allow parents to be able to select the age range of their kids instead of providing their exact birthdates when setting up child accounts. This is done before young users download apps from third-party developers, who will soon be able to use a 'Declared Age Range API' that gives them access to this range. Apple described the API as a 'narrowly-tailored, data-minimizing, privacy-protecting tool.' The technology company argues a requirement to verify age on the actual app marketplace would make all users hand over sensitive information, when only a limited number of apps need such specific information about users. 'That means giving us data like a driver's license, passport, or national identification number (such as a Social Security number), even if we don't need it,' the company said in its online safety report last year. A federal judge in 2024 put a temporary block on a Utah law that would have required social media companies to check the ages of all users and implement restrictions on accounts of minors, The Associated Press .
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Are you aware of what your child could be agreeing to online?
Utah has often set the national standard in using legislative power to protect children online. The latest bill to pass, SB142, protects children from entering legal contracts. It may seem silly; you wouldn't have an 8-year-old sign a binding legal agreement, yet children enter into contracts and share their information online daily. 'Every time a child downloads an app on their smartphone, the app developers ask them to accept the terms and conditions,' the bill's sponsor, Senate Parliamentarian Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, said two weeks ago in the House Economic Development and Workforce Services committee meeting. 'They are the terms and conditions of a legally binding contract. Sometimes, they ask for permission to access your microphone. They may ask for permission to access your camera. They may ask for permission to collect your data. They may ask for permission to sell your data,' he added. 'How many of you think it's a good idea for an 11-year-old child to be clicking 'yes,' agreeing that their microphone and maybe their camera can be accessed and their data can be harvested and used against them.' On Wednesday, the Senate agreed with the changes made to the bill by the House — voting 25-1 — after passing it in early February. Nearly a unanimous vote every time it has been voted in both committee meetings and on the floor, SB142 will now be signed by both the House speaker and Senate president, then to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. In response to the Senate passing SB142, social media platforms Meta, X and Snap, Inc. shared the following joint statement via email: 'Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child's age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way. The app store is the best place for it, and more than a quarter of states have introduced bills recognizing the central role app stores play. We applaud Utah for putting parents in charge with its landmark legislation and urge Congress to follow suit.' Melissa McKay said in the House Economic Development and Workforce Services committee meeting that if the bill were signed into law, it would address the 'exploitative parts' of the mobile device app stores, Google and Apple. McKay has advocated for years to hold Big Tech accountable for its effects on minors. According to McKay, app stores currently treat children older than 12 as consenting legal adults. This bill would restore parental oversight by linking children to a parent account. 'It's so important that parents understand which apps their kids are downloading and (that) they have full disclosures about what those apps do and what they are rated,' she said. 'Trillion-dollar companies should not be able to broker underage children to other billion-dollar companies without parental oversight.' During the public discussion regarding SB142, Melanie Mortensen, a representative of Utah Parents United, shared that a survey of Utah parents was highly in favor of the bill. 'Seventy-eight percent of Utah parents support requiring app stores to obtain parental approval before children can download apps,' she said. 'And even better, another poll showed that 80% of Utah mothers support it.' From safeguarding children against predators in virtual reality to shielding them from the dangers of social media and pushing back against platforms that apparently profit from exploiting minors to now protecting them from signing legal contracts, Utah politicians are making it clear: the children of Utah will be protected.
