 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Utah Advances Bill On Sex Offenders
by Michael Martinez
Utah lawmakers this week advanced legislation to make it a first-degree felony to solicit sex from minors over the Internet.
Under a bill unanimously passed by the state House on Tuesday, sexual predators would face up to three years in prison for enticing minors on the Web. The vote was 73-0. The measure has been sent to the Senate for further action.
"Predators like this need to be dealt with; they need to be taken off the streets," GOP state Rep. Paul Ray told The Deseret Morning News.
The bill, H.B. 5, would significantly enhance penalties against those caught using a computer to "solicit, seduce, lure or entice, or attempts to use a computer to solicit, seduce, lure or entice a minor or a person [believed] to be a minor to engage in any sexual activity."
Ray's measure is part of package of child safety bills he unveiled this week along with Republican state Rep. Carl Wimmer. Other measures in the package include a bill, H.B. 31, that would require registered sex offenders to carry special identification cards that are to be renewed each year with updated photographs and contact information.
Lawmakers in Arkansas also moved sex-offender legislation this week. The state House on Wednesday passed by a 97-0 vote a bill that would boost the state's penalties for indecent exposure and Internet stalking. The bill would subject Internet stalkers to prison sentences of up to 20 years and fines of as much as $15,000.
In other tech-related news from Utah this week, state Rep. Scott Wyatt on Tuesday pulled from a committee hearing agenda his bill that would prohibit sales of violent and sexually explicit videogames to minors. He cited concerns about the constitutionality of the measure.
Wyatt told The Logan Herald Journal that he plans to meet soon with aides at the state attorney general's office to discuss modifications he could make to help the measure withstand constitutional scrutiny. Under the Republican lawmaker's bill, the state's Harmful To Minor's Act would be modified to include videogames.
State Attorney General Bill Shurtleff said in a radio interview last week that he has severe doubts about Wyatt's bill. He said the state would be wasting its money to defend in court a bill that is dead upon arrival constitutionally.
But Wyatt told the Herald Journal that he is committed to the measure and that he intends to reintroduce it after consulting with Shurtleff's staff. "It will either make it into law or be immediately struck down," Wyatt said. "If it doesn't see the light of day, it will be my choice."
Watchdog Group Rips Tennessee Web Site
A watchdog group in Tennessee called on the state legislature to make its Web site more user-friendly. The Tennessean reported Monday that Common Cause Tennessee is pushing the legislature to upgrade its Web site so more information is readily accessible to the public.
According to the group's chairman, Dick Williams, lawmakers are less accountable for their work because the public does not have easy access to detailed information about the state's legislative process. Williams said the state has done a good job of posting information to the site, but users often have extreme difficulties navigating the site to access the data.
Drew Johnson, the president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, said his group considered launching its own legislative tracking database. But he said it pulled the plug on the project because the legislature's online reporting is so poor that he would have had to hire staff to sit in the gallery and track every vote themselves.
Former state House Minority Leader Bill Dunn told The Tennessean that it is particularly difficult to track action in committee because so many panels conduct business by voice vote. He said those problems could be solved if the state made more detailed information about committee hearings available to the public.
"A lot of times, you'd just have a voice vote and the chairman would declare a bill failing or passing," Dunn said. "You didn't know if a chairman was becoming a mini-dictator. In addition, those on the committee couldn't be held accountable for their vote. There was no paper trail."
Idahoans Move Toward Streamlined Sales Taxes
Idaho lawmakers this week pushed forward a proposal to enter a multi-state agreement to streamline the tax code in order to make it easier for taxes to be collected on Internet and catalog purchases.
The state House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Monday approved legislation to take steps to join 18 other states in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. Under the proposal, H.B. 7, the state's tax officials would be given a year to propose solutions to streamline the Idaho tax code with that of other states.
Then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne signed an executive order in 2005 in support of joining the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, but lawmakers still have not authorized that move. Kempthorne, a Republican, left the governorship last spring to become U.S. Interior secretary.
State Rep. Jim Lake told The Spokesman Review this week that the legislature cannot afford to rush into joining the agreement. He was one of two members of the Revenue and Taxation Committee who voted against the proposal.
"I don't want to be the skunk in the garden, but this is a huge issue," said Lake, a Republican.
But Dan John, tax policy manager for the Idaho Tax Commission, told the newspaper the bill is designed so that policymakers will have enough time for careful consideration of potential solutions. "We've had a bumpy road with this legislation in the past, and we didn't want to try to do it all at once," he said.
Wisconsin Tech Officer To Leave Post
Wisconsin Chief Information Officer Matt Miszewski will leave his post at the end of February, according to Governing.com.
Gov. Jim Doyle tapped Miszewski for the job in 2003. He has overseen several large information technology initiatives, including a substantial upgrade of BadgerNet, the state's high-speed, wide-area Internet work. He said he now plans to pursue "any and all opportunities in the private sector."
State Administration Department Secretary Michael Morgan lauded Miszewski's "ability to understand what technology can do to reduce state government's costs" and said a replacement would be named in coming weeks.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
