| Obesity-surgery bill is pulled for lack of support
The 23-year-old Midvale woman, who now weighs 150 pounds, implored legislators Wednesday to pass a bill requiring insurance companies to cover the surgery for morbidly obese Utahns. Before her operation, she endured sleep apnea, acid reflux, a diseased gall bladder and joint pain.
"Without this tool, I would not be alive today," she said.
But people rallying for the legislation will have to wait until next year.
Sensing the bill would fail to garner enough support, Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, asked a House committee to send his bill back for study this summer. The panel agreed.
Salt Lake City surgeon Steven Simper said the gastric bypass procedures cost less than treating heart attacks, strokes and other health problems related to obesity.
Bill would require birth date and signature for referendum
A proposal to add a birth date requirement to referendum petitions gave some House lawmakers heartburn during floor debate Thursday. Rep. Neal B. Hendrickson, D-West Valley City, has proposed legislation that attempts to better identify and validate signatures on referendum petitions. Such petitions are designed to bring a vote to repeal a law, and suspend that law until a vote is taken. For example, Draper residents have submitted a referendum petition to move a proposed TRAX line there. According to Hendrickson, it is currently very difficult to show that a person who has signed a petition is a registered voter -- making it a valid on the petition. Hendrickson's bill, HB 63 would require that birth dates be gathered on petitions and used by county clerks to determine the validity of the signature.
If heartburn takes you you by throat, sip liquids
According to the British medical journal The Lancet, heartburn is a common ailment. In fact, 25 percent of Americans report experiencing heartburn at least once a month, 12 percent at least once a week and 5 percent daily. What is heartburn? And what about gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)? Here's a guide to provide a bit more understanding of that burning sensation in your chest. • Why is it called heartburn? ''Heartburn is often sensed as a burning feeling behind the middle of the lower to middle of the chest, giving the sense that it may be coming from the heart,'' said Dr. Philip Jaffe, an associate professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine. • What is happening, biologically speaking? According to Dr. David Peura, a professor of medicine at the University of Virginia Health System: ``Acid that's normally produced by the stomach is washing back up into the esophagus [the swallowing tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach] and irritating [burning] its lining.
Five new ministers
Heartburn and discontent in the BJP marked the long-postponed cabinet expansion on Thursday even as letdown aspirants in JD(S) pinned their hopes of getting a chance in the power shift later this year.
Three vacancies in the JD(S) and two in BJP were filled with all berths going to the major communities — Lingayats and Vokkaligas. Those who got in are H S Mahadeva Prasad, Alangur Srinivas and G T Deve Gowda (JDS) and Sogadu Shivanna and Appasaheb (Appu) Pattanashetty from the BJP.
Governor T N Chaturvedi administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly inducted members, all cabinet rank, in Raj Bhavan. Portfolios of the new ministers and likely changes in some of the old ones are expected to be announced over the weekend.
Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy managed to quell any uprising in the JD(S) as names of the new ministers were doing the rounds since the last expansion on June 22, 2006.
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