SENATE - The Salt Lake Tribune

Sen. Mike Lee rents house from friend who bought his home

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:59:08 MDT

Sen. Mike Lee rents house from friend who bought his home

By Thomas Burr The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 22, 2013 06:59AM MDT

Washington • Sen. Mike Lee sold his home in a short sale two years ago to a friend and then rented a home nearby from the same man, a neighbor, federal contractor and campaign donor. Lee was forced to forfeit his down payment and sell his sprawling million-dollar Alpine home — at a big loss to his mortgage bank, J.P. Morgan Chase — in 2011 after he was elected to the Senate and couldn’t afford the payments. The buyer, property records show, was Ron McMillan, an author and co-founder of VitalSma...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Senate panel OKs landmark immigration bill with Hatch on board

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:31:35 MDT

Senate panel OKs landmark immigration bill with Hatch on board

By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 22, 2013 09:31AM MDT

Washington • A Senate panel passed a sweeping immigration reform bill Tuesday evening, which Sen. Orrin Hatch supported after the committee accepted his changes to a visa program for highly skilled workers. The bill offers the largest re-write of the nation’s immigration laws since the 1980s, spending billions of dollars on border security, creating a 13-year path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants and requiring every employer to check the immigration status of workers. Tuesday’s 13-5 vo...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Immigration bill heads to full Senate

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:10:21 MDT

Immigration bill heads to full Senate

By ERICA WERNER and DAVID ESPO The Associated Press

Updated May 22, 2013 06:10AM MDT

WASHINGTON • A far-reaching bill to remake the nation’s immigration system is headed to the full Senate, where tough battles are brewing on gay marriage, border security and other contentious issues, with the outcome impossible to predict. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the measure 13-5 Tuesday night, setting up an epic showdown on the Senate floor after Congress’ Memorial Day recess. The legislation is one of President Barack Obama’s top domestic priorities — yet it also gives the Repu...

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Dreamers press Senate panel on immigration bill

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:06:59 MDT

Dreamers press Senate panel on immigration bill

By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 21, 2013 11:06PM MDT

Washington • Itza Hernandez came to the United States as a 4-year-old girl on a vacation with her family. That was 17 years ago. Now she’s a politically engaged woman living in Salt Lake City without legal status, and she’s following every twist and turn of a Senate bill that, if passed, would offer her, her family members and friends an eventual path to citizenship. Through the group United We Dream, Hernandez traveled to Washington, D.C., to observe the Senate Judiciary Committee’s debate on a...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Senate panel supports Hatch’s pot farming penalties

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:10:02 MDT

Senate panel supports Hatch’s pot farming penalties

By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 20, 2013 04:10PM MDT

Washington • The Senate’s immigration bill now includes tougher criminal penalties for growing marijuana on public lands after the Judiciary Committee unanimously accepted an amendment offered by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on Monday. The new criminal penalties largely target Mexican cartels that for years have set up one-season marijuana farms on Forest Service and BLM land throughout the western United States, including throughout southern Utah. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, explained the amendment as ...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

House immigration group reaches a deal

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:47:30 MDT

House immigration group reaches a deal

By ERICA WERNER The Associated Press

Updated May 16, 2013 06:47PM MDT

Washington • A bipartisan group of House members announced a deal Thursday on sweeping immigration legislation, a breakthrough that could boost chances for one of President Barack Obama’s top second-term priorities. It came after months of secretive talks among the four Republican and four Democratic House members had seemed to stall in recent days even as an immigration bill in the Senate moved forward. The House members met for two hours Thursday evening, emerging to announce they had a deal. ...

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Senate panel approves U.S. ambassador to Libya

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:23:17 MDT

Senate panel approves U.S. ambassador to Libya

By DONNA CASSATA The Associated Press

Updated May 14, 2013 09:23PM MDT

Washington • The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved President Barack Obama’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Libya, a post that has been vacant since insurgents attacked the diplomatic mission in Benghazi last September, killing Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. With little discussion, the panel on a voice vote approved Deborah Kay Jones, a career diplomat who has served in Kuwait, Argentina, Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the...

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Washington Post: GOP’s new low of dysfunction

Tue, 14 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Washington Post: GOP’s new low of dysfunction

By The Washington Post

Updated May 14, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The following editorial appeared in Monday’s Washington Post: It’s no surprise that Senate Republicans grouse about Obama administration policies on enforcing civil rights laws or limiting greenhouse-gas emissions. They are entitled to their policy views. It’s a different matter for Republican leaders to manifest their views by blocking confirmation to Cabinet positions of the officials in charge of those policies. By doing so, on absurdly flimsy pretexts, Republicans not only impede the pres...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Minn. Senate OKs gay marriage; governor to sign

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:45:20 MDT

Minn. Senate OKs gay marriage; governor to sign

The Associated Press

Updated May 13, 2013 10:45PM MDT

St. Paul, Minn. • Spurring onlookers’ cheers, the Minnesota Senate voted Monday to make gay marriage legal, putting the state on the brink of becoming the 12th to allow same-sex couples to marry. Gov. Mark Dayton immediately announced he would sign the legislation Tuesday. The Senate vote of 37-30 came four days after the House passed the bill on a 75-59 vote. When the tally was announced after more than four hours of debate, a huge cheer erupted in the chamber and gallery, where spectators sto...

University of Utah reconsidering proposed skateboard ban

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:39:39 MDT

University of Utah reconsidering proposed skateboard ban

By Lindsay Whitehurst The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 10, 2013 09:39AM MDT

The University of Utah will take another look at a proposed campus skateboard ban, officials said Thursday. The proposal to ban all recreational nonmotorized riding devices on campus — including bikes — won’t come before the university’s Board of Trustees later this month, said U. spokesman Keith Sterling. Instead, an executive committee for the school’s Academic Senate will review it again on June 17. That meeting is closed to the public. “I think the drafters of the policy wanted to respect...

Senate panel rejects Mike Lee’s border security plan

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:19:59 MDT

Senate panel rejects Mike Lee’s border security plan

By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 9, 2013 08:19PM MDT

Washington • Supporters of the Senate’s immigration bill rebuffed repeated Republican attempts to verify border-security gains before any immigrant here illegally could gain legal status. The fight over this “trigger” became the first contentious battle in what are expected to be weeks of debate within the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The triggers in the bill that kick off legalization are weak,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee’s top Republican. “No one can dispute that this bil...

Will: For Obama, 2014 is his number

Thu, 09 May 2013 01:01:05 MDT

Will: For Obama, 2014 is his number

By George F. Will The Washington Post

Updated May 9, 2013 01:01AM MDT

WASHINGTON -- Thirty-one months ago Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell affronted the media and other custodians of propriety by saying something common-sensical. On Oct. 23, 2010, he said: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” He meant that America needed conservative change from the statist course of Obama’s presidency (the stimulus, Obamacare, etc.), therefore America needed a president who would not veto such change. B...