Situational Analysis | January 22, 2022

It's Thursday and that means it's National Cheese Lover’s Day. Wanna hear a really cheesy joke?? Nevermind. It’s not that gouda.

The State of the State is tonight at 6:30 pm. Be sure to tune in and/or follow along on Twitter. 

Be in the Know

1. Yesterday in the Utah legislature, Bryan Stevenson, the author of '"Just Mercy" and a national voice on criminal justice reform, met with state leaders to support Utah's effort to get rid of the death penalty. Stevenson believes there is political momentum for the effort. "If we think we can’t trust government with dictating health policy – helping us decide whether we should wear a mask or not, get vaccinated or not – why do we trust them to determine who should live and who should die?”
2. The federal voting bill collapses as Democrats are unable to change the filibuster. The year-long push for federal voting rights legislation died last night, as Republicans blocked an elections bill for the fifth time in six months and Democratic Senators Manchin and Sinema refused to kill the filibuster. Republican legislatures in 19 states have been trying to make voting harder since Trump lost the 2020 election.
3. Yelpers have named the 100 best places to eat in the US. The lone Utah restaurant comes in at #35. Can you guess it? Yep. It's Red Iguana. Congrats, guys!

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2022 Legislative Session

Day 2 is done, 43 more to go.

General

• Utah leaders launch initiative calling for design submissions for new state flag (KSL)
• ‘It’s a good thing’: Utah flag expert explains process, significance of selecting new state banner (ABC4)
• Water, COVID and education: the 2022 legislative session opens on Tuesday's Access Utah (Utah Public Radio)
• GOP leaders prioritize 'Affordable Utah'; woman says she moved out of state because SLC 'too expensive' (KUTV)

Today

Appropriations meetings at 8 am:

• Executive Offices and Criminal Justice, Higher Education, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environmental Quality, Social Services

• Floor time

  • Senate Floor time: 11-11:50
  • House Floor time: 11:00-12:00, State of the State: 6:30-7:30

Committee meetings:

• House Business and Labor, 2 pm
• House Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology, 2 pm
• Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice, 2 pm
• Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment, 2 pm
• Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology, 2 pm

Tomorrow

Appropriations meetings at 8 am

• Business, Economic Development, and Labor
• Infrastructure and General Government
• Public Education
• Social Services

Floor time

• Senate Floor time: 11-11:50
• House Floor time: 11:00-12:15

Health and Human Services

• No House vote on overturning mask mandates Wednesday; unclear when it may happen (KUTV)
• House passes bill suspending Utah's 'test to stay' program, but with no public hearing (KUTV)
• House and governor discussing 'options' on Utah mask mandates (Fox13)
• State Senator says low pay for caregivers means Utah is ‘failing’ people with disabilities (KUER)

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

• ‘Just Mercy’ author urges Utah Legislature to abolish death penalty. Bryan Stevenson calls capital punishment an ‘obstacle’ to public safety in Utah (Deseret News)

Transportation 

• UTA joins coalition with goal of electric buses and zero emissions (Fox13)

Utah Headlines

General

• Hundreds of emails obtained by the Deseret News and the KSL Investigates team show an outpouring of disapproval from constituents to lawmakers regarding the recent, highly controversial redistricting process. (Deseret News)
• USU report finds that poverty still high for single women with young children (Fox13)
• Salt Lake City airport ranks 10th in nation for most firearms found in luggage (Fox13)
• Report: Utah's growth rate to fall, but population will still increase 66% in the next 40 years (Deseret News)
• Former Utah legislator, Jeffrey Vern Fox, arrested in child porn investigation (KUTV)
• Amos C. Brown: Follow the LDS Church’s example to heal divisions and move forward. We must remember and learn from the past, but not let it embitter or define us. (Salt Lake Tribune)

COVID Corner

• 12,564 new cases, 18 new deaths, new record-high hospitalizations at 715.
• We have now passed 800,000 cases in Utah, and today, we will pass 4000 deaths. 
• Will omicron peak soon in Utah? Maybe, but concerns are being raised about the call for less testing. (Deseret News)
• Utah doctors warn COVID still very real threat (Fox13)
• The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to leave the federal mask mandate for air travel in place (Forbes)

National Headlines

General

• "Reporting that Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask surprised us. It is false," Supreme Court justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch said in a statement. "While we may sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends." (Reuters)
• Tongans deafened by volcanic blast as they fled for safety (Reuters)

Politics

• Biden predicts Russia will invade Ukraine, warns Putin (AP) 
• Why Schumer picked a filibuster fight he couldn't win (Politico)
• Biden: The GOP epiphany I predicted didn't come (Politico)
• Oath Keepers stockpiled 30 days of supplies, rifles ahead of Jan. 6 (The Hill)
• Five big takeaways from Biden's White House news conference (The Hill)

Courts

• Supreme Court allows Jan. 6 committee to get Trump documents (AP)

News Releases

State Board of Education seeks public feedback on school accountability redesign

The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and the Utah State Legislature are partnering to reexamine the state’s school accountability system. The current Utah School Accountability System was established through Senate Bill 220 during the 2017 legislative session, prior to the advancement of the Personalized, Competency-Based Learning and Portrait of a Graduate initiatives. The pandemic has highlighted the dependency of the school accountability system on access to state assessment results. The state is seeking to build a new accountability system...USBE is asking interested members of the public to take a 10-minute, online survey to provide input on the future of school accountability in Utah. The survey will be open until February 18, 2022. USBE will offer both virtual and in-person opportunities to engage further along in the process. (Read More)

Guest opinion: A new path forward to help Utah’s homeless

By Tyler Clancy, Dr. Amy J. Hawkins, Scott Howell and Dave Kelly

Walking the streets of downtown Salt Lake City, we see an astonishing number of fellow Utahns living on the street. Many of them are plagued with severe drug addiction and many suffer from deep mental health challenges. All of them are suffering due to the unforgiving cold of winter along with the trauma and violence of street living. Seeing such startling despair right in front of our eyes begs many Utahns to ask how we can do better when it comes to serving our brothers and sisters living on the margins. Former HUD Secretary, Jack Kemp offered key insight into how we ought to address poverty in our communities. He said, “We ought to define compassion not by measuring how many people receive aid, but rather by the number of people who no longer need it.” ...

Last month, the Legislative Auditor General’s office published an audit titled: An In-Depth Follow-Up of the Oversight and Management of Utah’s Homeless Services System. In the report, legislative auditors identified key findings that we need to address before we can hope to end homelessness in Utah...

Unfortunately, the November audit highlighted that the system is not working how it was designed...

The legislative auditors made precise and practical recommendations we can act on. The legislative auditors specifically recommended that the Office of Homeless Services consider measuring â€œclient flow” as a successful outcome. Wayne Niederhauser, Utah’s Homeless Coordinator, has already spoken in favor of this. When we can accurately measure these critical data points, we can identify gaps in the system. When we identify gaps in the system, we can address these issues with razor-sharp precision and help more people change their life for the better. (Read More)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• State of the State address - Jan. 20, 2022, 6:30 pm. Watch here or here.
• The Emergence of the Crypto Economy with the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation and special guests – Jan. 26, 10 am. Register here.
• Legislative Bootcamp with Americans for Prosperity and Libertas Institute – Jan. 29, 9 am - 1 pm. Register here.
• 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

On This Day In History

From History.com

• 1801 - John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
• 1869 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton becomes the first woman to testify before Congress.
• 1870 - Sisters Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Clafin open the first woman-owned brokerage firm in the United States.
• 1872 - Julia Morgan is born. She becomes the first licensed female architect in California and the innovative architect of Hearst Castle and over 700 other buildings
• 1896 - Actor and comedian George Burns is born.
• 1910 - Joy Adamson is born. As a conservationist, she lived and worked in Kenya and wrote the book “Born Free” after raising a lion cub to be released into the wild.
• 1942 - Nazi officials hold Wannsee Conference in Berlin to organize the “final solution” to Europe’s Jewish population.
• 1943 - Lead, South Dakota, temperature is 52°F, while 1.5 miles away Deadwood records -16°F
• 1945 - FDR inaugurated for his 4th term.
• 1981 - Ronald Reagan is sworn in as the 40th president of the United States. Within minutes of the inauguration, 52 U.S. captives are released, ending the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.
• 1986 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated for the first time as a federal holiday.
• 1993 - Audrey Hepburn dies at age 63.
• 1998 - Researchers announce the successful cloning of calves.
• 2009 - Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. 
• 2017 - Donald Trump sworn in as the 45th president.
• 2021 - Joe Biden sworn in as the 46th president and Kamala Harris makes history as the first female vice-president.

Wise Words

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others."

-Audrey Hepburn

Lighter Side

“The president took a lot of questions, too many questions. You know how at the end of most press conferences, the reporters are yelling ‘Mr. President, Mr. President!’? At the end of this one, they were like, ‘Goodbye. We’re good. We got plenty.’” 

— JIMMY KIMMEL

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