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Utah Headlines

Legislative session

• Utah nonprofits visiting Logan with mission to end child sexual abuse (Cache Valley Daily)

Business and Labor

• The proposed changes to Utah’s social media laws are now public (Deseret News)
• Utah lawmakers want social media companies to ditch algorithmic feeds, limit time for minors (KSL)
• Utah seeks to clarify law on AI-generated explicit videos after fakes of Taylor Swift spread widely (KSL)
• Inside Utah’s war on social media (Deseret News)

Education

• New legislation would allow armed, trained school guardians to respond to emergencies in Utah schools (Deseret News)

Government Operations

• A Utah lawmaker says he’s come up with a ‘super simple’ change to voting by mail. Here’s what he wants to do (Deseret News)

Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice

• Domestic violence providers, law enforcement speak on behalf of legislative bills (KSL)
• Former Red Rocks gymnasts share stories of abuse in hopes of change (Fox13)
• Utah family fights for law change after disabled woman raped by stepdad (KUTV)
• Introduced bill hopes to put the brakes on aggressive driving (ABC4)

Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

• Resolution in Utah's legislature seeks to unwind Bears Ears land swap (Fox13)
• Utah bill would limit cities ability to regulate mine expansion (KUTV)

Other Utah News

Political news

• Sen. Mike Lee leads opposition on border security package (Deseret News)
• ‘Ridiculous’: Mendenhall, Salt Lake County D.A. dispute Gov. Cox border comments (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Immigration advocates voice disappointment with governor's stance on southern border (KUTV)
• Utah's first lady tells Farm Bureau women about agriculture's impact on youth (UPR)
• ‘I can’t afford to get out of the game’ — Winston Wilkinson’s quest to becoming whole (Deseret News)

Utah news

• Utah hosting state-wide fairs to apply, renew passports in February (KUTV)
• Hill Air Force Base begins night flying training this week (ABC4)
• Jimmer Fredette makes BYU broadcasting debut (ABC4)

Crime/Courts

• Overall crime reaches 15-year low in S.L., according to city's top law enforcer (KSL)

Education

• Dartmouth College set to reinstate SAT and ACT requirements for admissions. Will other schools follow? (Deseret News)
• Utah Board of Ed reworks its ‘educational equity’ rule to match the new anti-DEI law (KUER)

Environment

• Equine owners say Salt Lake County aims to kill their ‘Western’ way of life (Deseret News)
• Southern Utah state park to get new entrance, ‘fast pass’ to handle growing number of visitors (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Ute Tribe makes rare move to terminate all nontribal hunting, fishing permits after ‘disrespectful violations’ from outsiders (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Picking up a piece of private land, Zion National Park adds to its protected acres (KUER)

Family

• The Rosie Project is opening doors for military spouses at Hill AFB and beyond (Standard-Examiner)

Health

• Improving treatment by helping immune system see cancer (Deseret News)
• Utah to receive nearly $4M in national opioid settlement (ABC4)

National Headlines

General

• Dial it up to Category 6? As warming stokes storms, some want a bigger hurricane category (AP)
• Los Angeles hit by mudslides flooding as atmospheric river persists (Wall Street Journal)
• He unearthed his roots. Now he digs up lost stories of enslaved people. (Washington Post)

Political news

• Voices from the violent civil rights era see attacks on voting rights as part of ongoing struggle (AP)
• Border bill supporters combat misinformation that it would actually let in more migrants (AP)
• GOP’s border bill outrage underscores a political shift (The Hill)
• Mattis secretly advised Arab monarch on Yemen war, records show (Washington Post)

Election news

• Nikki Haley set to win Nevada Republican primary, but victory will be hollow (Reuters)
• Donald Trump deploys his oft-used playbook against women who bother him. For now, it’s Nikki Haley (AP)
• Trump meets with Ronna McDaniel — then says he’ll be recommending RNC changes (Politico)

Ukraine 🇺🇦

•  Baby killed in Russian strike on Kharkiv hotel (BBC)

Israel 🇮🇱

• Women in Gaza give birth in tents and public bathrooms (Wall Street Journal)

World news

• Invasive ants took over the savanna in Kenya and even lions were affected (Deseret News)
• King Charles III is being treated for cancer and will temporarily halt his public duties (AP)

Number of the Day 

News Releases

Guest opinion: How curriculum transparency can boost the parent-teacher partnership

by Christine Cook Fairbanks

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox boasted that Utah is “weird” (in good ways) during his 2024 State of the State address because we lead the nation in rejecting zero-sum thinking. It’s true: Utah has an impressive record of finding consensus policy solutions on politically thorny issues – from the Utah Compact to the Utah Compromise.

Utah should continue its “weird” approach by creating curriculum transparency reform that empowers parents, supports teachers, and strengthens the parent-teacher partnership...

Proponents of curriculum transparency talk about it as a way for parents to exercise their right to understand and direct their child’s education. Opponents of curriculum transparency talk about the burden it creates on teachers.

Utah can rise above this polarizing divide and find a consensus solution where curriculum transparency strengthens the parent-teacher partnership around student learning. Such a solution will: (1) build trust between parents, teachers and public schools, (2) make parents and educators sharers of information about what a student will learn, and (3) make it attractive for teachers to do the work of being transparent...

Seeking a consensus curriculum transparency policy is a natural next step for Utah to keep being “weird” and reject zero-sum thinking. Policymakers should embrace the opportunity to renew trust in public schools while also strengthening the partnership between parents and teachers. (Read More)

Protecting Utah’s youth from the harms of social media

Sen. Mike Mckell, Sen. Kirk Cullimore, Rep. Jordan Teuscher and Rep. Jay Cobb announced enhanced legislation to protect youth from the harms of social media and empower families with resources to keep children safe. Utah is leading the nation with landmark legislation that helps safeguard kids and teens from the growing mental health crisis tied to the rise in social media addiction. S.B. 194 Social Media Regulation Amendments focuses on platform safety for and parental engagement with minors. H.B. 464 Social Media Regulation Act Amendments addresses the harmful addictive algorithms that social media companies deploy on children in Utah. (Read More)

Utah congressional delegation announces passport fairs in coordination with State Department

U.S. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Mitt Romney (R-UT), and Representatives John Curtis (UT-03), Blake Moore (UT-01), Burgess Owens (UT-04), and Celeste Maloy (UT-02), in coordination with the Department of State, today announced five “Passport Fairs” throughout the state. Utahns in need of a passport, or those whose passports have expired or will expire in the next year, may register for an appointment from February 13 – 17 at one of five locations. Expedited processing will be available. (Read More)

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Feb. 6 — Cache County Safe Child Parent and Community Training, Riverwoods Conference Center, 7:00 pm, Register here
• Feb. 7 — Women in Leadership Executive Series: Finance, 11:30 am-12:30 pm,Register here
• Feb. 8 — Women in Leadership Executive Speaker Series: Traditional Industries, 2:00-3:00 pm,Register here
• Feb. 21 — Women in Leadership Executive Speaker Series: Women Focused Organizations, 11:30 am-12:30 pm,Register here
• Feb. 22 — Understanding Utah’s Caucus-Convention System, with GOP Chair Rob Axson and Dem. Chair Diane Lewis, sponsored by Utah Women Run, 6:00-7:30 p.m., Register here
• Mar. 1 — Legislative session ends 
• Mar. 5 — Caucus night
• Mar. 20 — Utah Foundation Annual Lunch, 11:45 am-1:30 pm; Grand America, Purchase tickets here
• Apr. 20 — United Utah Partyconvention
• Apr. 27 — State GOP and Democratic Conventions

On This Day In History 

• 1820 - First organized emigration of U.S. Blacks back to Africa, from New York to Sierra Leone.
• 1867 - Peabody Fund is established to promote Black education in the South.
• 1887 - Florence Luscomb is born. She became an architect and reformer and was the first woman to graduate from MIT as an architectural graduate. In 1909, she gave 222 speeches for woman suffrage in 14 weeks,
• 1911 - Ronald Reagan is born.
• 1952 - Elizabeth becomes the Queen of England when her father, King George VI dies.
• 1985 - The “Reagan Doctrine” is announced during the State of the Union and was President Reagan’s approach to foreign policy. 
• 1988 - The Alaskan legislature establishes the Elizabeth Peratrovich Day due to her “courageous, unceasing efforts to eliminate discrimination and bring about equal rights in Alaska.” Peratrovich was the president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood and testified repeatedly about the unfair treatment indigenous peoples received across the state.
• 1993 - Arthur Ashe dies of AIDS he contracted receiving blood after heart surgery. He was the first Black tennis player to win at Wimbledon.
• 2022 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking seventy years on the throne
• 2023 - 7.9 earthquake hits southern Turkey

Quote of the Day

“Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few; it is the universal right of all God’s children.” 

—Ronald Reagan, State of the Union, 1985

On the Punny Side

When your girlfriend comes home in a white suit, covered in bee stings and smelling like honey.

You know she's a keeper.

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