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Show DAILY A4 Friday, February 22. 2008 HERALD Legislature pushes immigration laws forward. The sentiment was felt by most in the Senate, which passed the bill to its third reading calendar 21-The eight who opposed did so with the n argument that rushing important reform while taking deliberate and lengthy steps on health care reform seemed hypocritical. A major effort was made in the early afternoon to amend the bill so it wouldn't go into effect until July 1, 2009, allowing an upcoming task force to study the issue and make necessary Joe Pyrah DA,o HESAlD W'ith much of the country looking on. Leah's Senate pushed forward with sweeping immigration reform after a marathon day of debate on Thursday. . Sen. Bill Hickman, who is sponsoring the omnibus bill, had legal counsel at his side as he stood most of the day with a proverbial target on his chest. g The bill would do everything from employers who hire illegal immigrants to requiring sheriff's departments to discover and record the nationality of inmates and take appropriate action. Questions flung by his colleagues ranged from whether such a massive bill was simply done too hastily, to excruciatingly detailed queries on who can produce .. identification documents that are tweaks. "This bill has not had proper study said Sen. Ross Romero, Lake City, who added that similar reform in other states is having unintended consequences. "They are now feeling economic pressure and difficulty with the passage of such broad immigration bills." Hickman has made several significant changes to the bill on the recommendation of religious and business leaders, and maintained that now is the time. He was backed Thursday by the likes of Sen. Darin Peterson, Peterson said that despite the likely backlash from dairymen and others in the agriculture community that he serves, it's lt security-sensitive- think the important thing to recognize ... is the citizens of this state, based on the latest polling, are overwhelmingly concerned on this issue and want action taken." Hickman said. "We as a state have been charged with the responsibility of addressing the issue." "1 rz 15-1- irnmi-gratio- pun-ishin- ti time to act. "Sometimes you have to say, special interests aside, you have to do something." The delaying amendment was defeated Sen. Jon Greiner, and the son of a naturalized citizen, compared immigration to a poison tree now bearing pestiferous fruit. Education, health care and law enforcement have all been dramatically impacted, he said. "The wink and nod has gone on too long," he said of the government's inac-tioThe debate dragged on so long and the so many changes since its it has been amended eight inception times that even veteran senators got bill has faced turned around. d Several times throughout the day, questions were answered with the statement that the particular point had been amended or taken out in previous versions. The bill will be heard one more time in the Senate before passing on to the House for consideration: With it will likely be four other "minor" immigration bills, including two resolutions. long-winde- ,ta Ffl :'.:l-j , j SL toss VStJS ' i mill, ' I 8 ,1 M i S f - ' f t -- w Daily Motorists travel along 1-- 15 Continued from A 1 billion, leaving $4.4 billion through 'HM for other roads. Officials of the Utah Department of Transportation said earlier in the session they were only waiting for the from lawmakers to get started. Because of rising d construction costs and inter est on bonds, the cost of the project is rising $400,000 every day. It's also not as simple as adding new lanes. Most of Utah County's interchanges and bridges would have to be replaced, a difficult and expensive effort. While the Senate is now backing the plan, the House majority caucus is still in discussions. But Utah County representatives say things are looking good for the proposal. "I think that's got some real traction in our caucus," said Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, Republicans in the House will take a position as early as next Tuesday, he said. Though Utah County was viewed as secondary to the Salt Lake Valley as recently as a few years ago, the county Modified animal rights bill headed to senate Jeff DeMoss but at least we have everyone quently involved in domestic violence situations," he said. on board now," he said. The bill is designed to reach Christensen has argued in middle ground between SB the past against first offense The largest animal rights 117 and House Bill 470, sponfelonies for animal cruelty, group in the state is praising an effort by a local legislator to saying it elevates animals to sored by Rep. Sheryl Allen, HB 470 included further reach across the chasm human status. He said he was reluctant to the that has developed at the state felony for make the concession, request- cat and dog torture, as well capitol in the debate over felonies for ed by House Speaker Greg Utah's animal cruelty laws. as but added Sen. Allen Christensen, Curtis, torturing animals in the presence of children, or in conOgden, has introduced that compromise is often a a new bill that would make junction with an episode of necessary part of the legisladomestic violence. tive process, the torture of domesticated e Senate Bill 102, sponsored "This pushes me right to dogs and cats a by Sen. Gene Davis, felony on the first offense. my limit," he said. "I've tried so hard to keep common An earlier bill sponsored Lake City, would have ape sense in the equation." plied the felony by Christensen, Senate Bill to a wider range of circum17, would have made animal Gene Baierschmidt, execustances. torture a felony, but only on tive director of the Humane Both of those bills, along the second offense in a five-yeSociety of Utah, said he is glad to see "an animal protec- with SB 117, will be replaced span. SB 17 squeezed through tion bill that has some teeth." with the new bill, Christensen said. the Senate last week on a 4 While he would like to He believes he has garvote. see a proposal that allows Christensen said the new first degree felonies for all in- nered enough support in the bill, which is still in the final stances of animal torture, Bai- Senate, but couldn't say what drafting process and has yet erschmidt said dogs and cats its chances are in the House. "There's no guarantee," he to be numbered, represents a are the best place to start. said. "These animals comprise compromise with the House, The new bill will likely be animal rights groups and agmost of the cases that the Humane Society deals with, and heard by a Senate committee ricultural interests. "No one is overly pleased, the ones that are most fre next Monday. .' :' first-offen- first-offen- third-degre- lt 1 1 15-1- -- Keeping a civil tongue during a bill ballyhoo Joe Pyrah DAILY Herald near American Fork and Pleasant Grove. 5 HERALD Senate rules dictate that when your bill is on the floor, you're on your feet. And so as Senate Bill 81 shifted back and forth on Thursday, so did its sponsor, Sen. Bill Hickman. The St. George Republican was on his feet for the better part of five hours answering questions or listening to opponents. "I felt like a barber," he said, adding that he was thinking, "Are these people I Requires a county sheriff to make a reasonable effort to determine the citizenship status of a person confined to a county jail for a period of time and to verify the immmakes it igration status of a confined foreign national, and a rebuttable presumption, for the purpose of determining the grant or issuance of a bond, that a person verified by the sheriff's efforts as a foreign national not lawfully admitted into the United States is at risk of flight; I Provides that the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission may not grant a restaurant liquor license or private club license to a person who is not lawfully present in the United States; I Provides for the withholding of state income tax at the top rate from an independent contractor who fails to provide documentation to the contracting entity that verifies the independent contractor's employment authorization pursuant to the prohibition against the use of unauthorized alien labor; ... i Provides for the creation and issuance of identification documents and requires that those identification docu- ments issued by public entities go only to United States citizens, nationals or legal permanent resident aliens with ' " certain exceptions; I Provides for exceptions to the issuance of identification documents by public entities based on valid documentation of certain approved or pending immigration status and places time period restrictions on the length of validity of the documents; I Requires public employers to register with and use a Status Verification System to verify the federal authorization status of a new employee; I Beginning July 1, 2009, provides that a public employer may not enter into a contract for the physical performance of services within the state with a contractor unless the contractor registers and participates in the Status Verification System to verify the work eligibility status of the contractor's new employees; I Identifies as a discriminatory employment practice the discharging of a lawful employee while retaining an unauthorized alien in the same job category; I Requires an agency or political subdivision of the state to verify the lawful presence in the United States of an individual who has applied for a state or local public benefit, as defined by federal law, or a federal public benefit that ,; is administered by the agency or the political subdivision, and provides for exceptions; Requires an applicant for a state or local public benefit to execute an affidavit attesting to the applicant's lawful presence in the United States, and provides penalties for making a false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation in the affidavit; t Provides, subject to the availability of funding, for the establishment of a Fraudulent Documents Identification Unit by the attorney general for the primary purpose of investigating, apprehending and prosecuting individuals who participate in the sale or distribution of fraudulent identification documents created and prepared for individuals who are unlawfully residing within the state; I Requires the attorney general to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Department of Justice or the United States Department of Homeland Security for the enforcement of federal immigration and customs laws within the state by state and local law enforcement personnel; i I Prohibits a unit of local government from enacting an ordinance or policy that limits or prohibits a law enforcement officer or government employee from communicating or cooperating with federal officials regarding the immigration status of a person within the state; I And makes it a class A misdemeanor for a person to transport in this state an alien, knowing that the alien is in the United States in violation of federal law, in furtherance of the illegal presence in the United States; or conceal, harbor or shelter from detection an alien, in a place within this state, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the afien is in the United States in violation of federal law. This portion has been amended to exclude religious organizations! ; i sr-- SENATE BILL 81 HIGHLIGHTS: ever going to stop coming?" Typically, a bill will last maybe five minutes on the floor. Controversial bills will last longer, but rarely, if ever, an entire day. But the Senate has always prided itself on respect and decorum. Even when Sen. Chris Buttare, Jordan, uttered his now infamous words "This baby is black. ... It is a dark, ugly thing," the body recognized it as a "breach of decorum" and handled it in a manner. So as the debate wore on Thursday and Hickman leaned heavily on his desk for support, opponents' ques- tions and comments remained mostly civil, with an occasional voice rising. For his part, Hickman took the verbal blows in stride. "You have to understand that other members of this body ... sincerely come with different perspectives and philosophies, and we don't always agree," he said. "It would be easy to get mad at somebody after you have been standing there for two hours." is now the fastest growing in the state. through the area is also the most heavily traveled section of the freeway in the state, and what was once an outflow of traffic to work in Salt Lake City is now a 5050 split of vehicles in and out. Reconstruction could begin as early as 2009 and an environmental impact statement is currently being worked on. Quake Continued from A 1 Anderson, who was at the Wagon Wheel residential motel her father built 50 years ago when' the quake hit. She said it seemed like the shaking went on for "five or six hours." "I wasn't terribly scared but it felt like everything was just going to crumble down around us," Anderson told AP. Gov. Jim Gibbons said after touring the area Thursday afternoon that several buildings in the historical district had been reduced to "bricks and mortar and foundations." "But people are safe. We have three minor injuries, no deaths." Gibbons said. "I think we were just blessed that Mother Nature struck when it did ... rather than some time later on when the people would be out and about and the sidewalks might have had more people on them when these structures came down," he said. The temblor, centered in a sparsely populated area six to 12 miles east of Wells, was felt from northern Idaho and Utah to Southern California, officials said. "Definitely a lot of people felt this, and if they were sleeping, they were awoken," said geophysicist Carrieann Bedwell of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., which initially measured the quake at 6.3. As many as 30 aftershocks were reported. "It was scary; the scariest thing ever," said Karen Swabb, who lives southeast of Wells in Clover Valley. "I never imagined it could be like that," she told the Elko Daily Free Press. She said friends in Wells told her "one of their fish flew out of the bowl." The town of about 1,600 was closed to all but residents, the Nevada Highway Patrol said. Gov. Jim Gibbons and state Public Safety Director Jerry Hafen toured the community to assess the damage and determine what assistance might be needed. Dan Burns, spokesman with the Nevada Division of Emergency Management, said workers were inspecting roads, bridges and dams for structural damage. Crews were getting the upper hand on a ruptured supply pipeline that at one point was leaking up to 20,000 gallons of water a minute. Newmont Mining Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rich- ard O'Brien said an inspection of the underground gold mines in the area "found no deficiencies." Located along the California Trail traveled by Western pioneers, Wells was founded by Central Pacific Railroad in the . serious a broken arm, some head lacerations, some difficulty breathing," he said. The Flying J Truck Stop was evacuated because of a propane leak, Elko County Undersherif f Rocky Gonzalez said, but no fires broke out. The leak was contained by midmorning. A manager at the Flying J said the store was a wreck, with groceries and goods scat- tered. Gonzalez said deputies were going door to door to check on residents, and the Red Cross had set up a temporary evacuation center at the fire station. By nightfall, about 40 families had registered at the center but there was no indication 1860s. how many would need a place Thursday's quake temporar- to stay overnight, said Caroline Punches of the Northern Ne- - . ily disrupted the railroad now owned by Union Pacific. vada Chapter of the American "After it happened, we had Red Cross. to make sure that our track A man who answered the was OK," Union Pacific spokes- phone at Wells Elementary woman Zoe Richmond said. "It School said there were cracks was a minor blip in our operain walls and items were distion," she said. placed. Because it is a crossroads "It was pretty bad," said for travelers on Interstate 80 Jane Kelso from the Motel and U.S. 93 about 60 miles west 6. "Everything in our whole of the Utah state line, officials building shook. were posting signs along the "We have cracks in our walls." highways for motorists to fill In Wendover, Utah, just up on gasoline elsewhere. "In northern Nevada gas over the Nevada state line, stops are few and far beTammy Wadsworth was irontween," Trooper Jim Stewart ing clothes when the quake hit. said. "We don't want motorists "I kept thinking, 'When is it going to quit?' A couple stranded in the middle of nowhere." pictures fell off the walls," she In the historic district of said. "One of my grandkids ran outside. They didn't know Wells, brick facades tumbled off several buildings, signs what else to do. It scared fell and windows broke, and them." some vehicles parked on the Wadsworth isi secretary at street were damaged by falling Wendover High School, where debris. classes began as usual. A support beam crushed "They did a quick walk an unoccupied car. Brick and around," she said of school offimortar piled up along the cials. "The school is OK. Teachstreet. Numerous chimneys ers were instructed to talk were toppled. about the earthquake and tell students what to do if it hap"They have some businesses in there, mainly some retail or if it's worse." pens again Wells High School suffered stores, some old hotels, things like that, but only about half of damage and was to remain them are occupied," McKinney closed Friday. said. "Most or them are kind of Tony Lowry, an assistant in the process of being refurprofessor of geophysics at Utah State University, said the bished, being revitalized." Three injuries were reportsize of the quake and its location was unusual ed, but they were "not very |