Plus, Sen. Romney confident Biden will sign bipartisan infrastructure bill - it it reaches his desk, record-shattering heat in the Northwest | | | The Utah Policy newsletter is your one-stop source for political and policy-minded news. Send news tips or feedback to [email protected]. | | |
Situational Analysis | June 28, 2021 It's a beautiful Monday morning and National Paul Bunyan Day. Here's to Paul and Babe, the Big Blue Ox. Be in the Know Senator Mitt Romney appeared on CNN's "State of the Union," says he is "totally confident" the bipartisan infrastructure bill will be signed by President Biden - as long as Democratic leadership allows it to come to the floor. Dozens of firefighters have responded to a 5-alarm fire at an apartment building in Salt Lake City this morning. At least 60 people live in the building; all have been accounted for. Utah Democrats re-elect Jeff Merchant as chair and fill other leadership positions at Saturday's convention. Merchant seeks a "bluer, better" state and says "change is coming." Congrats to Utah gymnasts MyKayla Skinner, Grace McCallum and Kara Eaker who are headed to the Tokyo Olympics! Congrats also go to USU College of Engineering student Kevin Glen Plaizier, who won $25k for placing first in an international drone design contest. Plaizier has been flying drones since he was a teenager and has worked as a research assistant for AggieAir USU for nearly three years. A record-shattering heat wave builds in the Northwest as Portland hits 112°, 104° in Seattle and 115° in Lytton, British Columbia, an all-time record for Canada. | | |
Utah Headlines General Pilot dead following small plane crash into roof of home in North Logan; son of pilot witnessed crash (KUTV) Cydni Tetro: Working in Silicon Slopes will never be the same (Utah Business) Jazz President of Basketball Operations Dennis Lindsey transitions into advisory role (Salt Lake Tribune) Ken Woolstenhulme, public servant and former mayor of Oakley, dies at 90 (Salt Lake Tribune) Theyâve had close calls (and crashed their truck) - but Utah's Waffle Love brothers still have a shot at wining $50,000 on Food Network (Deseret News) Politics The politics of redistricting (PBS Utah) Wanted: A good villain for the GOP. Both Democrats and Republicans are suffering from a lack of âbad guysâ they can rally around. President Joe Biden doesnât qualify. (Deseret News) The Inside Utah Politics Panel on municipal firework bans and workforce shortages (ABC4) Donovan Mitchell looks to work with politicians as part of NBA Social Justice Coalition (Fox13) âUtah Politicsâ podcast: How one Utah dad formed a support group for fathers of transgender kids (Salt Lake Tribune) Dixie State officials to reconsider polytechnic moniker. Turns out UPSU is not popular. (Deseret News) COVID Corner Friday: 309 cases, 14 deaths (10 before May 25), Saturday: 351 cases, 4 deaths (3 before May 26); Sunday: 282 cases, 8 deaths (7 before May 25) Utah seeing a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations, state data shows (Deseret News) COVID on the rise in Utah. Community transmission has jumped 25% in June as the Delta variant becoming dominant strain and driving up new cases. Utah is 1 of 3 states with biggest increase. (Jess Gomez, Intermountain Spokesman) Australia battles several clusters in new pandemic phase that some experts describe as the most dangerous since the pandemic began (AP) Settlements locked down as Fiji endures deadly coronavirus wave (Reuters) Scientist finds early virus sequences that had been mysteriously deleted. By rooting through files stored on Google Cloud, a researcher says he recovered 13 early coronavirus sequences that had disappeared from a database last year. (New York Times) The last - and only - foreign scientist in the Wuhan lab speaks out: 'What people are saying is just not how it is' (Bloomberg) Drought/Wildfires Another dry weekend wraps up in Utah (ABC4) Utah's farmers explore ways to be more water efficient (Fox13) Ogden City implements full ban on fireworks, open flames; prohibition could last through fall (Standard-Examiner) Utah vendors say firework sales haven't dipped despite drought (Fox13) Economy Emerging from the pandemic brings new challenges for local business owners (ABC4) Utah County cherry farmers struggling to find workers (KSL) Education Army Lt. Cheryl Keith beats the odds and finds success at UVU (Daily Herald) Washington County education officials reject critical race theory, push for âeducational equityâ instead (St. George News) Elections 2021 Municipal Elections: Get to know the candidates for St. George City Council (The Spectrum) Housing The renter's dilemma: Pay rent or eat (Deseret News) Legal Utah's bail reform: Reducing inequities between rich and poor defendants (KUER) Local Communities Lehi Mayor Mark Johnson: Taking a stand in the battle of love vs. contempt (Daily Herald) Berlin Candy Bomber, 100-yr-old Gail Halvorsen, to drop candy at St. George 4th of July Celebration (St. George Utah) National Headlines General Rescuers stay hopeful about finding more survivors in Florida rubble (AP) Scientists excavating Tulsa Race Massacre site unearth skeleton with bullet wounds to head, neck (Washington Post) Simone Biles won the all-around at the U.S. gymnastics trials and will headline a team that includes Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum. (New York Times) Trump Organization lawyers to meet Monday with Manhattan DA prosecutors (CNN) Politics âSpray and Prayâ: Republicans ramp up attacks on Biden on ⦠everything. GOPers have complained that the president is teflon. Theyâre still trying. (Politico) Can civics education counter threats to democracy? Civil debate about American democracy is possible if it's grounded in civic literacy says the new president of the Center for Civic Education. (Governing) Inside William Barrâs breakup with Trump: In the final months of the administration, the doggedly loyal attorney general finally had enough. "It was all bulls---," William Barr said. (The Atlantic) In related news, Trump calls Barr 'a disappointment in every sense of the word' (The Hill) "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace has contentious interview with GOP Rep. Jim Banks: Aren't you the ones defunding the police? (The Hill) Trump's big lie about 2020 results suffers legal and political blows in key swing states (CNN) Economy TSA reports highest traveler numbers since March 2020 (The Hill) A tiny part's big ripple: The global chip shortage has hobbled the auto industry (New York Times) Black workers stopped making progress on pay. Economists are grappling with how much to blame bias or a changing economy for the widening wage gap over the last 40 years. (New York Times) Elections DeSantis âvery waryâ of upsetting Trump. The Florida governor is crisscrossing the country to deliver red-meat speeches â and his travels have him on a collision course with the most powerful man in the GOP. (Politico) Energy OPEC alliance considers boosting production amid uneven recovery (Wall Street Journal) Swiss private equity giant makes $400 million bet on US solar (Bloomberg) Environment Social media footage shows flooding and heavy rain in Detroit and Chicago (Washington Post) Canada records highest temperature ever amid heat wave (Fox News) International Hong Kong police arrested a former senior journalist from the Apple Daily newspaper at the airport as he attempted to leave the city, four days after the paper's forced closure. (NBC) Security US airstrikes target Iran-backed militias in Syria, Iraq (AP) Business Headlines XANT lays off 30 percent of the company, 75 percent of sales team (Utah Business) BuzzFeed reaches deal to go public via SPAC, acquire complex networks (Wall Street Journal) Burberry shares tumble after CEO resigns to join rival (CNN) Tesla hits another 'bump in the road' in China with huge recall (CNN) Pandemic-era Mobile World Congress tech fair kicks off (AP) Stretched global supply chain means shortages on summer menus (Reuters) | | |
Policy News Utah legislative redistricting committee launches official website The official nonpartisan Legislative redistricting website â redistricting.utah.gov â is now live. The website will contain the most up-to-date redistricting information and will provide details on how Utahns can participate in the process. Read More Utah Democratic party hosts convention, elects executive officers After a full day of convention events and ballots open for more than 2,200 delegates, the Utah Democratic Party resoundingly elected its executive officers for the remainder of 2021 until the 2023 Convention. These officers will lead the Party through one of its toughest challenges yet: the upcoming midterm elections. Read More Knitting diversity into the corporate fabric: A Conversation with Weave CEO Roy Banks Headquartered in Lehi, Utah, Weave is one of Utahâs unicorn software companies, with a valuation topping $1 billion. Weaveâs communications platform includes text, chat, email and all of the features necessary for small businesses to engage, maintain and nurture resilient customer relationships. âWeâre the glue that holds small and mid-sized businesses, and their customers, together,â explains CEO Roy Banks.
Employing nearly 800 people today, with plans to reach 1,000 by year end, Weave is enjoying tremendous growth under Banksâ leadership.
While unicorns are becoming increasingly common in Utah, Weave stands out for a different reason. When Banks took over as CEO in late 2020, Weave became the first African American-led unicorn company in Utah, and one of the few nationwide. Read More | | |
| By Polly Policy The quietly reported TC-23 report was issued by the Utah State Tax Commission recently. The report shows some massive revenue numbers. It has income tax revenue up 58.7%, state sales tax revenue up 14.9%, and corporate tax up 94.4%. Comparing these actual figures against what was expected at the end of the legislative session makes for a truly astonishing surplus. If we use just the year-over-year growth rates against the estimated target, summing sales tax, income tax, and corporate income tax equates to almost a $1 billion surplus. Surely the income tax number will come down slightly in the final month but wonât change the view of an extraordinarily large surplus. The spin out of the Fiscal Analystâs Office and Governorâs Office of Planning and Budget was, unsurprisingly, to downplay the revenue picture and instead focus on the never-ending debate about inflation and federal spending. (Why they chose to wade into this old debate is unbeknownst to us â they surely know that inflation directly generates sales tax revenue and indirectly income tax revenue, so long as it does not turn into hyperinflation. Weâd be surprised if they actually are wading into the hyperinflation debate as a real forecast concern.) The question now becomes: What will legislators do with this one-time money and the extra ongoing money theyâll have next year to spend? Thinking through the ongoing and one-time revenue available for the coming year, Governor Cox and legislators may have at least $1.6 billion in ongoing money and over $1 billion in one-time money. What will Governor Cox and legislative leadership want to do? Will this be seen as an opportunity to spend massive amounts of one-time money to âbuild institutionsâ. Will legislative leadership offer a reasonably sized tax cut of perhaps $300-$400 million or go on the cheap for taxpayers? Roads, buildings, and other structures will certainly get tons of money. Weâre anxiously waiting for some signals on which concerns matter most. | | |
Upcoming Preparing for a New Future: Legislative updates and trends with Rep. Brian King and Senator Todd Weiler â July 8 @ 10 am Register here Securing the American Dream: A conversation with Tim Scott presented by the Hatch Foundation â Aug 11 @ noon. Register here Utah Foundation Annual Luncheon with Shaylyn Romney Garrett â Sept 23 @ 12 pm. Register here | | |
On This Day In History From History.com 1836 - James Madison dies 1914 - Austriaâs Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are assassinated by a Bosnian Serb nationalist, setting in motion the events that led to WWI. 1919 - Treaty of Versailles is signed, officially ending WWI. John Maynard Keynes predicts economic chaos because of the harsh terms of the treaty. 1969 - Stonewall riots start. In the early morning hours, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. That night the street erupted into violent protests and street demonstrations that lasted for the next three days. The Stonewall riots marked a major turning point in the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement in the United States and around the world. 1971 - Elon Musk is born. 2007 - Egyptian Health Ministry officially bans female genital mutilation Wise Words "Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power."
-James Madison Lighter Side While hosting a garage sale, I asked a man if he was looking for anything in particular. âYes,â he said. âPlace mats the color of grape jelly.â H. T. Gibbons, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Reader's Digest) | | |
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