• Negotiations continue over the final impact of this session's most sweeping child welfare bill — a proposal by Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, which has made state child welfare officials cringe the past seven weeks.

HB202, in its second version, has passed the House and awaits discussion in the Senate. Richard Anderson, director of the state Division of Child and Family Services, said Harper has been willing to work with the division's concerns over the removal of "threatened physical harm" as a cause of action for caseworkers. Anderson said he is hopeful the bill will be amended to restore that provision.

• Less certain is the fate of the request for $3 million in one-time money to shore up a Medicaid funding shortfall affecting community mental health centers in Utah. Although listed as a priority by the health and human services budget subcommittee, the request failed to survive beyond that. Advocates say 4,300 Utahns, about 800 of them children, will be cut off from mental health services if the request is not met.

Questions, too, remain over funding to help people with bleeding disorders, additional money to get 12,000 uninsured children the health insurance they need and money to remove the Medicaid asset test for pregnant women. Also at issue is $626,000 requested that would allow teenagers aging out of foster care to continue to receive medical benefits until 21.

A big push this session is the effort for Utah to adopt an "any willing provider" law to allow consumers choice in selecting their health care provider — whether or not part of a preferred list. Sponsoring Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, and House sponsor Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, have been pushing hard to have the measure get a hearing in the House.

• It remains to be seen whether those smoke-filled taverns and private clubs will clear out and be a less offensive place to work for employees and to party for non-smokers.

The bill to ban smoking in those venues is expected to come up in the House.

Higher education

• Higher education administrators plan to spend the final days of the session seeking money for special programs.

About $10 million is being sought to begin planning and recruiting for a high technology economic development initiative. The money would pay for five new buildings, recruitment of researchers and equipment. Additionally, HB313 would provide that institutions within the state system of higher education may receive grants from the Department of Community and Economic Development to enhance the growth of technologies that have the potential for economic development.

• A bill that would increase in nonresident tuition waivers in large part to help Utah State University, which has lost 400 out-of-state students from Idaho and Wyoming because of stricter residency requirements implemented in 2002.