Situational Analysis | February 15, 2022

It's Tuesday and National Gumdrop Day, Also, a very happy birthday to Susan B. Anthony, born this day in 1820.

Be in the Know

1. The bill to repeal the death penalty in Utah failed in committee and the bill about transgender athletes moved forward. 

2. Senator Mike Lee is under fire for voting against a bill that would create a national historic site at a former internment camp in rural Colorado. His spokesman, Lee Lonsberry says Lee objects to any increase in the total amount of land owned by the federal government. The Senate passed the bill anyway.

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2022 Legislative Session

27 days done, 18 days to go

General

• Demonstration highlights groups’ support for public education, educators (Daily Herald)
• Utah Senate poised to pass rule limiting media access during legislative session (Deseret News)

Today

Committee Meetings:

• 8 am: House Government Operations, House Political Subdivisions, House Revenue and Taxation, Senate Business and Labor, Senate Education, Senate Health and Human Services
• 4 pm: House Business and Labor, House Education, Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment, Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology

Floor Time

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

Tomorrow

Committee Meetings:

• 8 am: House Judiciary, House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, House Transportation,
• 8:40 am: Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services, Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions
• 9:00 am: House Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment

Floor Time

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

Economic Development and Workforce Services

• Kevin Costner wants to film 5 movies in Utah. But there’s a catch — and it hinges on lawmakers (Deseret News)

Education

• Under a bill that passed out of a Utah House committee today, a commission would determine whether a transgender athlete is eligible to participate in school sports. (KUTV)
• ‘No one’s happy’ with Utah’s latest transgender student-athlete eligibility bill. (KUER)
• Panel would evaluate weight, height and wingspan of transgender student athletes under Utah bill (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Multiple "curriculum transparency" bills are part of a coordinated national strategy by the GOP (KUTV)

Government Operations

• Two bills simplifying ballot petitions clear committee and head to the House floor (City Weekly)

Health and Human Services

• In the private sector, time off after a miscarriage or stillbirth can vary depending on the business. But a bill this legislative session would give Utah government employees three days of paid bereavement leave. (Salt Lake Tribune

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

• Utah Legislature passes bill outlining when police can use 'no-knock' warrants (KSL)
• Gruesome murders relived before Utah committee axes death penalty repeal (Deseret News)
• Utah Senate bill looks at stiffer fines, harsher punishments for excessive speeding, reckless driving (Fox13)

Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

• Lawmakers consider bill that would formalize a long-standing habitat restoration program (St. George News)
• Utah Air National Guard will fly lawmakers over the Great Salt Lake to see how far it's shrunk (Fox13)

Utah Headlines

General

• Utah homeless services receives nearly $13M for affordable housing (KSL)
• Sen. Mike Lee drawing backlash for blocking Japanese American internment site designation in Colorado (Deseret News)
• Opinion: This is no time to repeal the death penalty (Deseret News)
• Utah's Homie cuts staff amid roiled real estate market (KSL)

Elections

• A large majority of Utahns trust that their state will conduct a fair election in 2022 (Deseret News)

Environment

• Conservation groups asked a D.C., appeals court to review the Dec. 15 approval of Utah's Uinta Basin Railway project, an 85-mile line that would give shippers of crude oil an alternative to trucking. The plaintiffs allege the project violates the NEPA (Reuters)
• The Bureau of Land Management is rounding up and corralling mustangs in Nevada and other Western states as part of a plan to reduce the wild-horse population on public lands by more than 16,000 in 2022, as the drought continues (Wall Street Journal)
• How bad is the Western drought? New study says worst in 1,200 years. (Deseret News)

COVID Corner

• 3128 new cases, 39 new deaths
• Utahns with ongoing symptoms 12 weeks after diagnosis of a COVID-19 case are encouraged to enroll in Intermountain's Long COVID Navigation Program, where they will be directed to appropriate treatments and resources.
• Hardest hit ‘long’ COVID-19 patients may be those who least expect it (Deseret News)

National Headlines

General

• Three star players of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins team were diagnosed with the most severe form of CTE and died within 16 months of each other. For the first time, their families discussed caring for the NFL veterans at the end of their lives. (New York Times)
• Russian units near Ukraine moved into "attack positions," official says (CBS News) 
• U.S. closing embassy in Kyiv and moving diplomats to western Ukraine due to what officials call the dramatic escalation of Russian forces. (KSL Radio)
• Canada's Trudeau invokes emergency powers in bid to end protests (Reuters)
• US Embassy in Kyiv destroying documents as drawdown underway (The Hill)
• The Lesson Stalin Could Teach Putin About Invading a Neighbor. The Soviet Union’s attack on Finland in 1939 ended surprisingly badly for the much larger aggressor. (Politico)

Politics

• Judge to throw out Sarah Palin's lawsuit against New York Times (New York Times)
• 😳 Longtime Trump accountant says a decade of financial statements are unreliable (NPR)
• Ex-RNC chair pens open letter to McDaniel: You will regret censure of Cheney, Kinzinger (The Hill)

Olympics

• "We don’t look like them": Black figure skaters face barriers to entry from a young age (NBC News)
• The U.S. Olympic Team in Beijing is loaded with Utahns; per capita, no other state in the union comes close (Deseret News)
• Nathan Chen reportedly gets slammed on Chinese social media after winning gold (Deseret News)
• Russian skater can compete, but medal ceremony won’t be held (AP)
• Sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson questioned why Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was allowed to continue competing at the Beijing 2022 Games amid a doping charge, months after a positive test for cannabis derailed her own Olympic dreams (Reuters)
• Olympians let loose on Kamila Valieva and the Russian doping controversy at the Beijing Olympics (TIME)

News Releases

“Real Women Run Podcast” launches, aims to make running for office more accessible

Monday, Real Women Run has launched “The Real Women Run Podcast,” which highlights the stories and life experiences of women serving as elected officials in municipal and county government across the state of Utah.

While Real Women Run is known for its in-person candidate trainings, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented the organization with opportunities to expand its programming and to reach more women from different backgrounds and from all parts of the state. 

In this six-episode first season, co-hosts Yándary Chatwin (Past Chair, Real Women Run; and current Vice Chair, Salt Lake County Redistricting Commission), and Nina Barnes (Real Women Run committee member; Vice Chair, Utah System of Higher Education; and current candidate for the Utah State House) interviewed eleven women from Logan to St. George to discuss the day-to-day duties of serving in elected office, how and why they decided to run, and how their individual life experiences prepared them for the roles they hold today. (Read More)

Utah women-owned grant giveaway now open

The Women’s Business Center of Utah (WBCUtah) is giving away five (5) $1,000 grants to small businesses owned and operated by women who have helped grow the Utah Women-Owned Business Directory during the month of February. The grant money, generously provided by the Nasdaq Foundation to WBCUtah, will benefit women who will invest their grant money where it will be most helpful in their businesses.

“A grant giveaway is a great way to accelerate the growth and use of the Utah Women-Owned Business Directory,” said Ann Marie Wallace, state director of the Women’s Business Center of Utah. “Not only will our communities have a more comprehensive database to search and find women-owned products and services, but it will also become easier to intentionally support female-run enterprises. Anyone can search the vast directory for their next meal out, gift, service or provider. And, bonus, five women owners will be awarded money to invest in their businesses however they would like to.” (Read More)

Sen. Romney joins colleagues in urging Homeland Security Committee to hold hearing on border crisis

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) joined his colleagues, led by Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), in writing a letter to Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, requesting a hearing on the historic humanitarian and national security crisis on America’s southern border. During President Biden’s first year in office, more than two million migrants were apprehended after illegally crossing the border. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Ron Johnson (R-WI), James Lankford (R-OK), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) have signed on to the letter. (Read More)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• The Emergence of the Crypto Economy with the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation and special guests – Feb. 16, 10 am MST. Register here.
• Independent American Party Organizing Convention – Feb. 16 from 4-6 pm at the Millcreek Library (2266 East Evergreen). Credentialing begins at 3:30 pm. 
• 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

• 399 BC - Socrates is sentenced to death for “corrupting the minds” of the youth of the city.
• 1820 - Susan B. Anthony was born. 
• 1851 - Black abolitionists invade a Boston courtroom and rescue a fugitive slave.
• 1891 - The USS Maine explodes in Cuba’s Havana Harbor.
• 1903 - The first Teddy bears go on sale, named after President Teddy Roosevelt. They caught on. 
• 1910 - Irena Sendler is born. She was a Polish social worker who rescued around 2500 Jewish children. Two.Thousand.Five.Hundred. What a boss. 
• 1921 - The Suffrage Monument, depicting Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott, sculpted by Adelaide Johnson, is dedicated at the U.S. Capitol. It is almost immediately relegated to a broom closet in the basement, where it remained for the next 75 years.
• 1950  - Disney’s Cinderella opens in theaters.
• 1953 - Tenley Albright became the first American woman to win the World Figure Skating championship.
• 1961 - The entire 18-member US figure skating team is killed in a plane crash on the way to the World Figure Skating Championship.
• 1965 - Nat King Cole died of lung cancer at age 45.
• 1986 - Ferdinand Marcos “wins” the presidential election in the Philippines.
• 1998 - Dale Earnhardt Sr wins his first Daytona 500.
• 1989 - The last Soviet troops withdraw from Afghani
• 2001 - The first draft of the complete human genome is published in the journal Nature.
• 2005 - YouTube is launched.

Wise Words

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think”
― Socrates

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