BLM Releases Plan that finally protects Labyrinth Canyon

After years of prioritizing off-road vehicles, a recent decision from the Bureau of Land Management brings balance to this special place. Travel plans are an opportunity to develop reasonable, balanced, and forward-thinking blueprints that ensure public access while preserving the backcountry and minimizing damage. Learn more at suwa.org

Utah Headlines

Political news

• Jay Evensen: Did we ever really solve the problem of the federal government spying on Americans? (Deseret News) 
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeals to disaffected partisans during Salt Lake presidential rally (KSL)
• Mayors Michelle Kaufusi and Dawn Ramsey: Utah is growing ... and we have a plan (Deseret News)
•  SLC planning commissioner resigns, citing ‘lack of expertise’ from colleagues. Andra Ghent, a University of Utah professor, wrote a scathing letter outlining why she was leaving the commission before the end of her term. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Weber County tax hike proposal generates backlash: ‘Death by cuts’ (Standard-Examiner)
• Abby Cox on trailblazing statewide initiatives (Utah Business)

Election news

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rallies in Salt Lake, says 'we're going to make history' (KUTV)
• 60 years after famous JFK speech, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. returns to Salt Lake City (Deseret News)

Holiday corner

• How the Festival of Trees embodies hope and healing for a domestic violence survivor (KSL Newsradio)

Utah news

• Warnings, advisories issued as 'significant' winter storms heads toward Utah (KSL)
• Utah liquor board gives licenses to three new bars and eight restaurants (Salt Lake Tribune)
• USU alumna and NASA astronaut Mary Cleave dies at 76 (Cache Valley Daily)

Business/Technology

• Elon Musk apologizes for antisemitic tweet then launches foul-mouthed tirade against X advertisers (Deseret News)

Crime/Courts

• Company calls human trafficking charges 'outrageous' (KSL)
• ACLU Utah speaks on behalf of homeless in lawsuit filed against Salt Lake City (KSL)
• Utah universities go to court to stop release of NIL contracts (Deseret News)
• Salt Lake City UPS employees arrested for alleged theft of items worth over $6,000 from packages (KUTV)

Culture

• I only want the Olympics back in 2034 if it means the return of the Roots beret (Deseret News)
• New website on slavery in early Utah includes debate between Brigham Young and LDS apostle Orson Pratt on race (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah influencer named Krispy Kreme’s ‘Chief Donut Dreamer’ after winning flavor contest (ABC4)

Education

•  BYU and Utah’s sovereign tribes are creating lessons so students know ‘We’re still here’ (KUER)

Environment

• New EPA proposal would require all lead water pipes in the U.S. be replaced within 10 years (Deseret News)
• Water levels still below normal statewide, but another banner snow season will fill reservoirs (Fox13)
• Kolob Canyons Road reopens and Zion’s shuttle service shuts down until the Christmas holidays. Visitors can use personal vehicles. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Family

•  Utah’s mental health crisis starts in childhood. Children in Utah are more likely than kids elsewhere to have an adverse childhood experience or a parent who’s struggling with mental health, and less likely to get treatment or counseling when they’re struggling themselves. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Health

• What happens when you quit taking Ozempic? (Deseret News)
• Maker of Wegovy, Ozempic showers money on U.S. obesity doctors (Reuters)
• Utah has ‘very high’ COVID-19 levels in wastewater, new CDC tool shows (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah Navajo Health System looks to bring 'winter blessings' to community (Fox13)
• The USDA is giving Utah’s rural telehealth services a $1.7 million boost (KUER)

Housing

• Mortgage rates drop for fifth straight week (KSL)
• Study says the US is ill-prepared to ensure housing for the growing number of older people (KSL Newsradio)

National Headlines

General

• The power of music during the Holocaust. Leo Geyer of England restored damaged sheet music from Auschwitz to tell a story of hardship and hope (Deseret News)
• Indiana judge dismisses state’s lawsuit against TikTok that alleged child safety, privacy concerns (Salt Lake Tribune)
• The iceberg cometh: It's the size of Oahu, and it's moving into the open ocean (NPR)

Political news

• DeSantis and Newsom call each other bullies during heated debate (Deseret News)
• Senate Judiciary Committee issues subpoenas to private citizens connected to Clarence Thomas (Deseret News)
• Rand Paul successfully used the Heimlich maneuver on Joni Ernst at a GOP lunch (NPR)
• Lies, charges and questions remaining: George Santos’s stories can be hard to keep straight, so we broke them down. (New York Times)
• Speaker Johnson singed by a blast of conservative fury (Politico)

Election news

• What if Donald Trump is convicted? The 2024 Republican convention rules don’t address the issue (AP)
• Haley and DeSantis are relying more on outside campaign groups with time running out to stop Trump (AP)
• ‘A dumpster fire’: DeSantis struggles grow in GOP presidential race (Washington Post)
• Trump tries to embrace Black Lives Matter, a group he previously said ‘hates our country’ (Washington Post)
• Trump targets wife of New York judge overseeing civil fraud trial (The Hill)

Ukraine 🇺🇦

• For eastern Ukrainians, the ordeal of war is entering its second decade (Reuters)
• Zelenskyy says the Israel-Hamas war could divert attention from Ukraine's conflict (AP)
• Russian POWs describe 'nightmare' of combat in Ukraine (Wall Street Journal)

Israel 🇮🇱

• Nearly 2 months into the war, many Israelis have no idea if their relatives are dead or alive (AP)
• Israel plans to kill Hamas leaders around the world after war (Wall Street Journal)

Number of the Day 

News Releases

Romney welcomes investment from bipartisan infrastructure bill to advance Wildfire Resilience in Utah

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) today applauded an announcement from the Department of Interior that more than $10 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, negotiated by Romney and his colleagues, would be invested in Utah to advance wildfire resilience work and support fuels management projects on 43,240 acres of land across the state. This announcement follows the latest report released by the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission—which Senator Romney secured in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—outlining recommendations to prevent, mitigate, suppress, and manage wildland fires. (Read More)

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Jan. 2 — Candidate filing period opens
• Jan. 16 — Legislative session begins
• Mar. 1 — Legislative session ends 

On This Day In History 

• 1641 - Massachusetts becomes the first colony to give statutory recognition to slavery
• 1824 - Presidential election goes to the House of Representatives after no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes. The House chooses John Quincy Adams.
• 1862 - Abraham Lincoln delivers the State of the Union address, 10 weeks after the Emancipation Proclamation. 
• 1878 - First White House telephone installed
• 1893 - Dorothy Detzer is born. She investigated child labor infringements for several years and became the national secretary of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (1924-46), where she became known as the “Lady Lobbyist” in Congress, respected for her research and integrity – no personal favors, private dinners or backroom deals
• 1913 - The world’s first assembly line begins at Ford Motor Company
• 1941 - Japanese Emperor Hirohito signs declaration of war
• 1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white man.
• 1978 - US President Jimmy Carter more than doubles the national park system size
• 1981 - AIDS virus officially recognized
• 1988 - Benazir Bhutto named the first female Prime Minister of a Muslim country (Pakistan)
• 1990 - Ty Detmer wins the Heisman
• 2019 - Earliest traceable patient, a 55-year-old man, develops symptoms of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China

Quote of the Day

"We know how to save the Union…In giving freedom to the slave, we ensure freedom to the free–honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth.”

—Abraham Lincoln, in his State of the Union address on Dec. 1, 1862

On the Punny Side

Mariah Carey is opening her Christmas present.

Inside she finds a deed to an undeveloped plot of land that is zoned residential.

Disappointed, she set the deed down and says..

"I don't want a lot for Christmas"

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