Situational Analysis | February 23, 2022

Hello, it's Wednesday and that means it's National Banana Bread Day. Nuts or no nuts?

Be in the Know

1. Two Black Hawk helicopters went down in Little Cottonwood Canyon yesterday morning during a "winter survivability and mobility training" exercise. When the first helicopter landed, it kicked up a lot of snow, and dislodged its main blade, which then struck the second helicopter. No one was injured. 

2. Russia invades Ukraine and NATO countries respond with sanctions. Ukraine tells its citizens to leave Russia immediately and activates its military reserves. Why should we care? Jay Evensen explains that a major war would be "impossible to contain." It would mean hundreds of thousands of refugees, an exacerbation of supply chain issues, including oil and gas, and almost certainly involve major cyber terrorism attacks on multiple countries, something Russia has already shown they can do. 

3. Don't try this at home. A video on KSL shows a woman changing a wheel on a plane mid-flight, with no safety harnesses to boot. Yikes. Also, wow. (It's also from 1926. Maybe we've gotten smarter since then?)

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2022 Legislative Session

35 days done, 10 days to go

General

• 2022 Legislative Session Week 5 with Special Guests: Rep. Cheryl Acton and Rep. Rosemary Lesser (Political as Heck)

Today

Committee Meetings

• 8:00 am: House Judiciary, House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment, House Transportation, Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services
• 9:00 am: Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions, Senate Rev and Tax
• 4:00 pm: House Government Ops, House Political Subdivisions, House Rev and Tax, Senate Business and Labor, Senate Education, Senate Health and Human Services
• 4:05 pm: House Economic Development and Workforce Services

Floor Time

• House - 10:00 - 12:00, 2:00 - 3:50
• Senate - 10:00 - 11:50, 2:00 - 3:50

Tomorrow

Committee Meetings

• 8:00 am: House Education, House Health and Human Services, Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice, Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment
• 8:30 am: House Business and Labor, Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy and Technology

Floor Time

• House - 10:00 - 12:00, 2:00 - 3:50, 6 pm - as needed
• Senate - 10:00 - 11:50, 2:00 - 3:50, 6 pm - as needed

Business and Labor

• Should businesses be able to ‘discriminate’ against vaccine status? Some Utah legislators want to make it illegal. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Education

• $20M plan hopes to improve Utah’s ‘best of the worst’ student reading rates (KUER)

Government Operations

• Should Utah ban lobbyists from working on campaigns? One Utah lawmaker wants to do just that. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• How elections in Utah could look different this year. Utah’s lieutenant governor supports a pair of bills aiming to protect election security in the state (Deseret News)
• Who would suffer most from Phil Lyman’s bill to end mail-in voting? His own constituents. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Resolution advances on religious accommodations for youth athletic uniforms (Fox13)

Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

• SLC would lose seats on inland port board, so why are some calling this bill a win? Legislation would give Salt Lake City more control of property taxes generated from the port and help pay for environmental and traffic mitigation. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah House to Union Pacific: Enough is enough. Get rid of your dirty switchers. Accusing the rail company of being a poor corporate citizen, Utah lawmakers fast track bill to force cleaner rail yard tech. (Deseret News)
• Utah lawmakers move to tighten requirements for Utah Lake island real estate project (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Rock art site Nine Mile Canyon could become ‘hydrocarbon highway’ under Utah bill. Bill to divert $20 million from infrastructure fund divides oil and coal counties (Salt Lake Tribune)

Revenue and Taxation

• Elderly people shouldn’t become homeless because of property taxes (Deseret News)
• Why Utah GOP House leaders propose dropping income tax earmark for public education (Deseret News)
• Transient room tax revenue ‘exploded’ in southwest Utah last year (KUER)

Transportation

• Utah House passes bill to pause personalized plates, amend new plate rules (KSL)

Utah Headlines

General

• War in Ukraine? Here’s why it should matter to you. A major war there would be impossible to contain, and would come with consequences for the rest of the world (Deseret News)
• Cache County Executive supporting moves towards tougher penalties for child pornography and a proposal for expanded veterinary instruction at USU (Cache Valley Daily)
• Photos: A grateful community says goodbye to the ‘Berlin Candy Bomber’ (Deseret News)
• Two Black Hawk helicopters crash near Snowbird (KSL TV)
• How a beta like me managed to get kicked out of Salt Lake City’s ‘Alpha Con’ (Deseret News)
• ‘This has got to change’: In Utah, sexual assaults are poorly tracked and under prosecuted (KSL TV)
• Families of victims in Moab double murder learn of possible suspect (ABC4)

Environment

• ‘We’re already running out of water’: the reality and future of Utah’s drought (ABC4)
• Climate change, drought are endangering hydropower production from Lake Powell. Is it time to ‘balance the water budget’? (Salt Lake Tribune)

Politics

• Partisanship doesn't work. We're trying partnerships instead. One of America’s most influential conservatives explores the mistake of betting on one party — and what we can learn from it (Deseret News)
• Salt Lake County mayor: Gov. Cox should listen to Outdoor Retailers (Deseret News)
• Daniel Friend kicks off campaign announcement season for Utah county Democrats (Daily Herald)

COVID Corner

•  2068 new cases over the weekend, 13 new deaths
• Why University of Utah Health says omicron is still stressing hospitals (Deseret News)

National Headlines

General

• Worries about interest rates, inflation and now Ukraine have sent the S&P 500 tumbling more than 10% from its record. A drop of that size — in Wall Street parlance, a "correction" — can be scary, but it's not that rare. (AP)
• Arbery killers convicted of federal hate crimes in his death (AP)
• The Russian incursion no one is talking about. While the world watches Ukraine, Moscow is making moves in neighboring Belarus, too. (The Atlantic)

Politics

• Supreme Court deals final blow to Trump bid to stymie Jan. 6 panel (The Hill)
• Supreme Court takes up wedding site designer's case refusing gay couples (The Hill)
• Emboldened GOP looks to expand midterm battleground map (The Hill)

Russia/Ukraine

• ‘Mitt Romney was right about Russia’: Media look back on his much-maligned comments from 2012 (Deseret News)
• DHS warns “every organization in the United States is at risk from cyber threats” with Russia potentially considering “escalating its destabilizing actions.” (NBC News)
• Biden Calls Russia’s Moves an Invasion, Outlines Sanctions (Wall Street Journal)
• Biden, Putin signal bigger confrontation ahead over Ukraine (AP)
• Australia, Canada, Japan impose sanctions on Russia over Ukraine crisis (The Hill)
• On Ukraine, Republicans are united on criticizing Biden, but not on how to counter Russian threat (Washington Post)
• Republicans descend into foreign policy factionalism over Russia-Ukraine standoff (Politico)
• The U.S. and its allies imposed economic sanctions on Russia for what President Biden denounced as the beginning of an “invasion of Ukraine.” Western officials confirmed that Russian forces had begun crossing the Ukrainian border. (New York Times)
• Trump praises Putin as 'savvy' amid new escalations on Russia-Ukraine border (NPR)
• Cheney: Trump's 'adulation' of Putin 'aids our enemies' (The Hill)
• U.S.' Blinken cancels meeting with Lavrov, says Russian moves are 'rejection of diplomacy' (Reuters)
• Ukraine tells citizens to leave Russia immediately (BBC)

News Releases

Utah Saves Week: Utah Council on Financial and Economic Education raises awareness of savings resources and focuses on reducing barriers to critical financial services

Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks and community partners are raising awareness of the importance of saving and the resources available to help Utahns achieve their financial goals as part of the annual “Utah Saves Week” campaign. One focus of this year’s campaign is to reduce barriers for Utahns to access safe and affordable financial services.

AAA Fair Credit Foundation, a member of the council and the Utah Saves campaign coordinator, launched Bank On Salt Lake in January. Bank On Salt Lake is a collaboration between financial institutions, community-based organizations and government institutions to connect Utahns to safe, affordable and functional banking accounts. According to Bank On, 19% of Utahns are unbanked or underbanked. (Read More)

Romney welcomes Veterans Affairs Secretary McDonough’s decision to visit Utah

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) today released the following statement after Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough announced travel this week to Utah to visit the VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System, Salt Lake City Regional Office, Fort Douglas Post Cemetery, Salt Lake City Vet Center, and the University of Utah for a student veteran roundtable. The VA Salt Lake City Healthcare system provides services to more than 66,000 veterans across the region.

“A reverence for freedom and the importance of service are values engrained in Utahns,” Senator Romney said. â€œThis is evidenced by the nearly 140,000 veterans who call Utah home. We owe each of our veterans a debt of gratitude for their service and sacrifice on behalf of our great country—and this includes the absolute best healthcare our country can offer. While the COVID pandemic has impacted veterans services throughout Utah, the VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System has been experiencing severe staffing challenges, which have impacted their ability to give our veterans the quality of service and care that they usually receive. Secretary McDonough’s visit to Salt Lake will provide him with a better understanding of these challenges, and I look forward to working with him to improve care for Utah’s veterans.”

Office of the State Auditor adds medical cannabis visit cost information to Utah Health Cost Compare

The Office of the State Auditor (Office) today announces the addition of medical cannabis visit cost information to Utah Health Cost Compare. HealthCost.utah.gov allows users to easily compare the cost of a variety of healthcare procedures and medications from different providers across Utah. This update delivers a tool where users can compare the cost of a visit to obtain or renew a medical cannabis-related evaluation.

The new capability was jointly developed by the Office of the State Auditor in cooperation with the Utah Department of Health. It provides a convenient way to compare the cost of different types of medical cannabis-related healthcare provider visits. Utahns can select from 4 types of visits to compare prices across various Utah practices. Types of visits include Initial Cannabis Evaluation or Cannabis Renewal Visit. (Read More)

State Board of Education to hold stakeholder engagement events for school accountability redesign

The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) will be holding four stakeholder engagement events to give interested members of the public additional opportunities to provide input around the school accountability redesign in Utah, and to provide information on the results of the recent accountability redesign survey that was distributed last month. Public feedback at these events is important because it will be considered by policy makers as the state seeks to build a new accountability system for schools in Utah. Two of the events will be streamed virtually, and two of the events will be held in person. (Read More)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Campaign filing period: Feb 28-March 4 (early this year!)
• State of the Union address – Mar 1, 7 pm MST
• Utah legislative session ends – Mar 4, 2022, midnight
• Fireside chat with Justice Clarence Thomas hosted by the Hatch Foundation – Mar 11, 2022, 7 pm. Register here.
• Campaign Management Training with Utah Farm Bureau – Mar 24-25, registration deadline March 1. Register here
• Last day for a registered voter to change voter affiliation before the regular primary election.  - Mar 31
• Ballots are mailed - June 7
• Primary election day - June 28
• General election  - Nov 8

On This Day In History

• 1455 - Johannes Gutenberg prints his first Bible.
• 1836 - The siege on the Alamo begins.
• 1868 - W.E.B. DuBois is born. An American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, he was awarded the Spingarn medal by the NAACP in 1920 and the Lenin Peace Prize by the USSR in 1959.
• 1900 - Elinor Warren, a composer, and gifted pianist, was born on this day. Some of her major works with orchestra are “The Harp Weaver” and “The Legend of King Arthur.”
• 1940 - Woody Guthrie writes This Land Is Your Land.
• 1945 - U.S. Marines raise the American flag on Iwo Jima.
• 1954 - 1st mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine takes place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh
• 1968 - The US Equal Opportunity Commission rules that a candidate’s gender (female) or marital status (single) could not be a required qualification for employment as a flight attendant.
• 1979 - Frank E. Peterson, Jr. is named the first Black general in the Marine Corps.
• 1991 - President George H. W. Bush gives Iraq a 24-hour deadline to withdraw from Kuwait or face a ground war.
• 1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
• 2020 - The first major COVID-19 outbreak in Europe hits Italy with 152 cases and three deaths, prompting emergency measures, locking down 10 towns in Lombardy.
• 2020 - Ahmaud Arbery shot to death after being chased down by two white men in Brunswick, Georgia. Video of the killing emerges in May, prompting arrests.

Wise Words

“We say easily, for instance, ‘The ignorant ought not to vote.’ We would say, ‘No civilized state should have citizens too ignorant to participate in government,’ and this statement is but a step to the fact: that no state is civilized which has citizens too ignorant to help rule it.”

— W.E.B. DuBois

Lighter Side

Why did Vladimir Putin send troops into another country?

“He claims it’s to carry out ‘peacekeeping functions,’ and it’s true. I keep this piece of Ukraine. I keep that piece of Ukraine. I keep all the pieces of Ukraine. I am piece-keeping.” 

— STEPHEN COLBERT

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