This is your daily news rundown for Thursday, Feb. 26. In this edition:
- A bell-to-bell ban on cell phones in Utah schools is likely to become law
- Utah Medicaid had $24 million in waste — but it wasn't fraud
- Snowplows are getting new tech to navigate traffic faster
Utah’s bell-to-bell phone ban has cleared the Legislature
A bell-to-bell ban on cell phones in Utah schools is likely to go into effect next school year.
Utah already restricts cell phones and other smart devices in classrooms, but with Senate Bill 69, which cleared the state Legislature on Thursday, that rule would expand to all school hours.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, has agreed to add an amendment that allows parents to request an accommodation for their student to briefly use their devices during non-instructional hours.
Then, the bill will head to Gov. Spencer Cox’s desk, where it will likely be signed into law, as Cox has been an open supporter of the bill.
It will go into effect on July 1, meaning students will have to comply starting next school year.
An audit found $24 million in unnecessary Medicaid payments — but it’s not fraud
An audit discovered more than $24 million dollars of unnecessary Medicaid payments in Utah — not from fraud, but from system inefficiencies.
State and federal inspectors looked at data from 20 months across 2021, 2022, and 2024. They said the waste came from overlapping enrollments in other states — either Utah Medicaid was too slow to stop paying benefits, or they started paying before another state had stopped.
Other issues included system limitations and unclear policies.
The audit was clear that these cases were not fraud by Medicaid enrollees, and that caseworkers were also often not to blame due to a lack of necessary tools at their disposal.
Recommendations included ensuring benefits don’t begin before someone becomes a Utah resident, clearer information on application forms, and better training.
Utah Medicaid agreed to follow all recommendations.
Snowplows are getting new tech to move through traffic faster
Snowplows in northern Utah are getting new technology to move through traffic faster.
Vehicle-to-everything technologies, or V2X, let equipped vehicles communicate with roadside infrastructure, such as letting a traffic light know an emergency vehicle is nearby so it will change faster.
The Utah Department of Transportation is installing that tech in over 250 snowplows in northern Utah, letting them move faster through the over 1,200 equipped intersections.
Transportation officials say it will let them spend less time stopped at lights and more time clearing snow, which is especially important during a big storm.
