Also, the UN has a new bill in the legislature (just kidding) and Nathan Chen gives a flawless performance | | | The Utah Policy newsletter is your one-stop source for political and policy-minded news. We scour the news so you don't have to! Send news tips or feedback to Holly Richardson at [email protected]. | | |
Situational Analysis | February 8, 2022 It's Tuesday and National Kite Flying Day - seems a little chilly but I don't make the rules. Be in the Know It's been 20 years since the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympic games in Salt Lake City and the state wants to do it again. Sen. Mitt Romney reflects on what he remembers most: medals, athletes and service. The Olympic cauldron will be lit ð¥ Feb. 8-12 as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations. Did you know that the UN has a(nother) sly bill in the Utah legislature? The mark of the beast would be one step closer as the legislature heads down a slippery slope to concentration camps. Yep. This "pure evil" bill is.... the digital driver license bill. The license would be optional and non-GPS-trackable. Opponents left the committee room singing "Do You Hear the People Sing." Salt Lake Cityâs Nathan Chen sets world record in Olympics short program with a score of 113.97, two points ahead of the former world record. "Every element was virtually flawless, including his quadruple lutz â the hardest jump in figure skating." ððð | | |
| | FROM OUR SPONSOR, VOICES UTAH Conversations with today's most inspirational and influential voices Join Deseret News and Utah Business in this VIP limited engagement series featuring Mike Conley, Joe Ingles and more. Attend for personal meet and greets, photo sessions and intimate conversations with the voices who have engaged and captured our attention. Buy tickets for the April 12 event. | | |
2022 Legislative Session 21 days done, 24 days to go General Week 3: Salty, Stinky, Special, SHRINKING (State Street with KUER) Today Appropriations Meetings, 8 am - Prioritization and final voting Business, Economic Development, and Labor, Infrastructure and General Government, Public Education Floor Time House - 11:00 - 11:50 Senate - 11:00 - 11:50 Committee Meetings, 2 pm House Judiciary, Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions, Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services, Senate Revenue and Taxation 2:20 pm House Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment 3:00 pm House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Tomorrow Final sub-appropriations meetings, 8 am Executive Offices and Criminal Justice, Higher Education, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environmental Quality Floor Time House - 11:00 - 11:50 Senate - 11:00 - 11:50 Committee Meetings 12:30 Senate Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Confirmation Business and Labor Half of the popular hard seltzer brands may disappear from Utah store shelves under liquor bill (Fox13) Education Call it a voucher or a scholarship. Utah school choice proposal sparks controversy (Deseret News) Health and Human Services Utah was one of the last states to recognize MLK Day. Will the Legislature make Juneteenth a state holiday? (Salt Lake Tribune) Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment One water conservation bill passes Utah House while another fails (KUTV) Demonstrators rally at Capitol Hill to protest plans for Utah Lake restoration project (Fox13) Revenue and Taxation The Tech Leads PAC, which represents 6500 tech companies in Utah, is opposing bills that cut income and corporate tax rates, saying they are "committed to making Utah as a whole a better place - including for kids who are not here yet." (Tech Leads) Transportation Lawmakers stifle plan to reduce âunbearableâ street noise caused by illegal car mufflers (Deseret News) âThe Song of Angry Menâ is sung after a Utah House committee amended and then held a bill dealing with digital drivers licenses. (It previously passed the Senate.) (KUTV) Utah Headlines General What Utah Republicans in Congress have to say â or not say â about the RNCâs idea of âlegitimate political discourseâ (Deseret News) Utah politician says a Latter-day Saint leaderâs talk on Constitution worth reading in light of GOP censure (Deseret News) Brian King: An attack on the Capitol is not âlegitimate political discourseâ (Deseret News) Rick Larsen: Despite the efficiency with which we argue our opinions on social media, in the end we learn nothing. (Deseret News) Meet Thom Carter, the executive director of Utah's Office of Energy Development (Twitter) Utah ranks as the 6th "most stressed" state in the nation, according to an international insurance provider. Cost of living, air quality, and LGBTQ+ population density are all factors they considered. (KSL Newsradio) St. George, Utah ranked worst city in United States for football fans (KUTV) Former colleagues of long-time Utah lawmaker Haven J. Barlow are paying their respects on social media. (KSLTV) FOX 13 Investigates: Utah psychiatric hospital cited 44 times for 100+ problems since 2019 (Fox13) Bush, Obama and a view of bipartisan problem-solving (Deseret News) Education Salt Lake City school district needs to make staffing cuts as enrollment shrinks. Here are the schools that may be the most impacted. (Salt Lake Tribune) Utah colleges look to rural Utahns and adult learners to keep enrollment trends up (KUER) Elections Only 4 Utah women have served in Congress since 1896. Of Utahâs 6 seats in its national delegation, none of the seats are currently held by women....Compared to the nationâs 30% average of women in executive offices, Utah lags behind at 20%. (ABC4) Environment Midway Ice Castles to close early due to warm weather (KUTV) COVID Corner Weekend numbers: 5504 new cases, 18 new deaths, 7-day average down 73% Pregnant women who contract the virus that causes COVID-19 are nearly 40% more likely to develop serious complications or die during pregnancy compared to pregnant women who don't contract the coronavirus, a new study led by a Utah researcher suggests. (KSL) New Jersey, California among states moving to ease mask mandates as Omicron ebbs (Reuters) National Headlines General The economy is in far better shape today than anyone could have reasonably expected at the outset of the pandemic. High demand is helping address chronic problems that have undermined American society for decades. (The Atlantic) Peloton CEO John Foley to Step Down, Firm to Cut 2,800 Jobs (Wall Street Journal) The IRS wonât use a facial recognition program to verify taxpayersâ identities online, backing away from a plan that drew bipartisan criticism (Wall Street Journal) American skateboarder Josh Neuman was one of four men killed when a sightseeing plane crashed into a lake in Iceland, authorities said Monday. (USA Today) New killing reinvigorates national debate on no-knock warrants (The Hill) Politics Exclusive: FBI probes pre-Capitol riot meeting of far-right groups (Reuters) In his fight against âwokeâ schools, DeSantis tears at the seams of a diverse Florida (Washington Post) The GOPâs âlegitimate political discourseâ Jan. 6 revisionism is off to a rough start (Washington Post) 15 boxes of White House records have been recovered at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. Those records should have been transferred to officials from the White House at the end of the Trump administration, according to federal law. (NPR) The Supreme Court lets Alabama use a GOP-backed map of the state's congressional districts (NPR) Georgia prosecutor says presidential immunity won't protect Trump (The Hill) International Maori party calls for Queen Elizabeth II to be dropped as head of state of New Zealand (Washington Post) UK broadcaster Channel 4 has announced that its coverage of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games will be fronted by a team consisting entirely of disabled anchors and pundits (CNN) Pandemic forces closure of English pub open for more than 1,000 years (The Hill) | | |
Guest opinion: Good faith drawing of districts or gerrymandering? by Justin Stapley One of the difficulties in the gerrymandering debate is that there are different approaches to the good faith drawing of districts. More often than not, what many people deride as gerrymandering is simply a disagreement over how the drawing of districts was done. Consider the four following different approaches to drawing district lines: the enclave approach, the competitive approach, the community approach, and the state delegation approach. My honest estimation finds both merits and pitfalls to all of these approaches. In some situations, any of these approaches could lead to âtrue representation.â In other cases, any of these approaches could easily become gerrymandering. This is why the issue of âgerrymanderingâ isnât just some scientific consideration where we can definitively say what gerrymandering is and what it isnât. Itâs an ongoing discussion and debate, which is why itâs best left to state legislatures to draw up districts, however imperfect that process sometimes is. They, at least, answer to the people of the state who alone can truly determine which approach they feel best represents them and which approach is gerrymandering. Now, yes, there is gerrymandering, and itâs a concerning reality in the American Republic. But given that there are so many different views over what good redistricting looks like and what we should denounce as gerrymandering, the best solution from where Iâm sitting is to educate and empower the people to understand the process and the various approaches to the process. We should continue to allow legislatures to perform this fraught duty so that those making these all-important decisions are ultimately answerable to the people. (Read More) News Releases Rep. Owens applauds passage of bipartisan bill to end forced arbitration of sexual assault Today, Rep. Burgess Owens released the following statement after the House passed the bipartisan Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act. âFor far too long, forced arbitration has silenced the voices of victims while protecting abusers and shielding egregious misconduct in the workplace. The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act restores the rights of an employee to seek public accountability in a court of law. Passing this bipartisan, bicameral legislation is a victory in our efforts to ensure justice for survivors of sexual assault and harassment.â The full text H.R. 4445 is available here. (Read More) Senators Romney, Hassan introduce legislation to improve pandemic preparedness & response U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), members of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today introduced the Medical Countermeasures Surge Capacity Act of 2022, legislation to improve our domestic manufacturing surge capacity and capabilities for biodefense and pandemic preparedness and response. Their legislation has been included in the recently released discussion draft of the HELP Committeeâs bipartisan pandemic response bill, the Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and Pandemics Act (PREVENT Pandemics Act). âMore than two years into the pandemic, we continue to see a lack of capacity in medical countermeasure manufacturingâmost recently experiencing a testing shortage,â Senator Romney said. âOne of the ways we can improve is by providing our public health agencies the tools to support critical manufacturing on an ongoing basis, which this legislation will equip us to do.â (Read More) | | |
Upcoming Lt. Governor Town Hall â Feb. 10, 6:30 pm meet-and-greet, 7 pm town hall, River Bridge Event Center, Spanish Fork Register here The Emergence of the Crypto Economy with the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation and special guests â Feb. 16, 10 am MST. Register here. Campaign filing period: Feb 28-March 4 (early this year!) State of the Union address â Mar 1, 7 pm MST Utah legislative session ends â Mar 4, 2022, midnight Fireside chat with Justice Clarence Thomas hosted by the Hatch Foundation â Mar 11, 2022, 7 pm. Register here. Campaign Management Training with Utah Farm Bureau â Mar 24-25, registration deadline March 1. Register here | | |
On This Day In History 1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded for treason. 1725 - Peter the Great, emperor of Russia, dies. 1894 - Congress repeals the Enforcement Act which makes it easier for some states to disenfranchise Black voters. 1910 - The Boy Scouts are founded. 1915 - âThe Birth of a Nation,â opens, glorifying the KKK. 1943 - Americans secure Guadalcanal. 1944 - Harry S. McAlphin becomes the first Black journalist accredited to attend White House press conferences. 1968 - Officers kill 3 Black students protesting segregation of a bowling alley. 1986 - Oprah Winfrey becomes the first Black woman to host a nationally syndicated talk show. 1990 - Surfer Bethany Hamilton is born. 2002 - The U.S. Winter Olympics open in Salt Lake City. Wise Words âWhen we are faced with the unimaginable and think we canât do something, maybe we actually are stronger than we think, and can.â â Bethany Hamilton | | |
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