Situational Analysis | November 29, 2021

Happy Cyber Monday, after Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and right before Giving Tuesday. (Shouldn't that be reversed so the giving happens before the bank account is empty?? 🤔)

Be in the Know

1. Last night was the first night of Hanukkah, the eight-night celebration of lights. According to Mya Jaradat, "after beating the Seleucids, the Jews returned to their temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated. The Jews wanted to rededicate their temple to God by lighting the seven-candle menorah, but they found that only one canister of ritually pure oil remained. Believing that the oil would only last for one day, they made a leap of faith and lit the menorah anyway. Miraculously, it stayed lit for not one night but eight." Chag chanukah sameach! 

2. Merriam-Webster chooses vaccine as the 2021 word of the year, after last year's word, pandemic. Compared to 2019, when there was little chatter about vaccines, Merriam-Webster says they've logged a 1,048% increase in searches this year. Runners-up include insurrection, infrastructure, cicada, meta and murraya.

Utah Headlines

General

• Perspective: America needs one-stop shops for benefits like Welfare Square. People in need shouldn’t have to navigate a complex and sprawling system without help. (Deseret News)
• Where are the workers? Thousands haven’t returned to Utah labor force since pandemic. (Deseret News)
• What you need to know about Native American Heritage Month (ABC4)
• Refugee resettlement in Utah and how you can help (ABC4)

Politics

• Bridging the political divide, with Jason Perry, RonNell Anderson Jones, Boyd Matheson and Gary Herbert (Hinckley Report)
• Former Weber County Commissioner Kerry Gibson loses battle to keep investigations private (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Budget battle erupts as GOP-led Salt Lake County Council trims Democratic mayor’s staff (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Program to expand medical cannabis access in Utah stalls, frustrating patients and lawmakers (Fox13)
• Rep. Rosemary Lesser to push for end to sales tax on groceries (Standard-Examiner)
• ‘Levels out the playing field:’ A bill to allow virtual signatures for initiatives is coming to the Utah Legislature (KUER)
• San Juan County commissioners continue to consider changes to voting districts, will hold Nov. 30 hearing (San Juan Record)

COVID Corner

• 2415 new cases reported Friday, 17 new deaths
• US issues new travel ban restrictions over omicron variant (Deseret News)
• Perspective: Even in death, some COVID-19 skeptics pretend they weren’t wrong. Self-deception and dishonesty have become commonplace throughout the pandemic (Deseret News)
• As Omicron spreads, studies suggest that travel bans alone don't do much good (NPR)
• Omicron variant now in North America as first cases found in Canada (Washington Post)
• Wary, weary world slams doors shut, fearing omicron variant (AP)
• As world shuts borders to stop Omicron, Japan offers a cautionary tale (New York Times)
• How Omicron variant rattled the world in one week. Speedy discovery, announcement and global response shows new phase in fight against COVID-19, as health officials hunt for variants that could evade vaccines (Wall Street Journal)

Education

• How Utah is tackling the mental health crisis on its college campuses (Deseret News)
• Concerns grow over efforts to remove books from Utah schools (KUER)
• How 9 books started a fight over censorship and pornography in this Utah school district (Salt Lake Tribune)

National Headlines

General

• The uncomfortable truths hidden inside the Ahmaud Arbery verdict. Legal scholars warn white vigilantism remains a very real threat. (Politico)
• Former Georgia district attorney booked on charges of obstructing Ahmaud Arbery case (CBS News)
• Carrie Meek, the grandchild of a slave and a sharecropper's daughter who became one of the first Black Floridians elected to Congress since Reconstruction, died Sunday. She was 95. (NPR)
• More childless U.S. adults say they’ll likely never have kids, survey finds (Deseret News)

Politics

• Matthew McConaughey not running for governor of Texas (Politico)
• No deal in sight as Congress nears debt limit deadline (The Hill)

Courts

• Jury finds all 3 men guilty of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s death (Washington Post)
• Supreme Court set to take up all-or-nothing abortion fight. Both sides are telling the Supreme Court there’s no middle ground in Wednesday’s showdown over abortion. (AP)
• Supreme Court to hear landmark abortion case this week (The Hill)
• Stage set for Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial (AP)

International

• As China speeds up nuclear arms race, the U.S. wants to talk (New York Times)
• Amid massive shortage, Canada taps strategic reserves — of maple syrup (Washington Post)

Number of the Day

Keep Utah businesses competitive, pass higher ed reform

By Derek Miller

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way businesses in Utah operate across sectors. As we near the end of this calendar year, and year two of a global health crisis, 2021 was another 12-months of major transitions. Fortunately, for our state’s economy, adapting to extraordinary circumstances is something Utah business leaders have done time and time again. That is why the Salt Lake Chamber, Utah’s largest and longest-standing business association, is proud to stand alongside business leaders in calling on Congress to pass reforms in one of our state’s largest producers of skilled labor and workers – higher education... 

Postsecondary education institutions like applied technical colleges and traditional two-year and four-year institutions are the largest producers of the next generation of workers and business leaders. And as is, the field has plenty of room for policy improvements.

Data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that the typical four-year institution in Utah has an eight-year completion rate of only 40%. Those are worse odds than a coin toss. Low completion rates can, in part, be explained by decades of limited federal oversight. The lack of guardrails has allowed for some bad actors in the higher education system to take advantage of families’ hard-earned money, student loans, and federal taxpayer dollars with no accountability for student outcomes...

Ultimately, we believe that a stronger, more transparent higher education system makes for a stronger economy. Of the many lessons that the pandemic has taught business owners, one is that now is the time to get serious about working smarter. Common sense student-focused policies will not only benefit students but businesses too. 

All of us at the Salt Lake Chamber applaud Senator Romney for standing with Utah students in calling for a more transparent and accountable higher education system through S. 839 and H.R. 2030, the College Transparency Act. (Read More)

Upcoming

• Solving for Housing in the Economic Inclusion Equation - Zions Community Speaker Series – Nov 30, 12:00 - 1:00 pm, via Zoom. Register here
• 2022 Congressional Policy Forecast Webinar - Hatch Center – Dec 8, 10:30 am - 11:30 am Register here
• Utah Economic Outlook & Public Policy Summit 2022 - SLC Chamber – Jan 13, 2022, 8:30 am - 1:30 pm. Register here
• Utah legislative session begins – Jan 18, 2022, 10:00 am
• Utah legislative session ends – Mar 4, 2022, midnight

On This Day In History

From History.com

• 1832 - Louisa May Alcott is born.
• 1876 - Nellie Tayloe Ross is born. She became the nation’s first female governor (Wyoming), replacing her husband who died of appendicitis. Later, she was appointed the director of the US Mint, a position she held for 20 years.
• 1898 - C.S. Lewis is born.
• 1947 - The UN votes for the partition of Palestine and the creation of an independent Jewish state.
• 1963 - LBJ forms commission to investigate Kennedy assassination
• 1972 - Atari releases the first commercially successful video game, Pong. I remember playing that game. Do you?
• 1975 - President Gerald Ford requires states to provide free education for people with disabilities.
• 1976 - Chadwick Boseman is born.
• 1995 - US President Bill Clinton lifts ban on exports of oil from the Alaskan North Slope

Wise Words

“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”

-C.S. Lewis

Lighter Side

Thanksgiving: The day that you forget about all the fighting and division in the world and just focus on all the fighting and division in your family.” 

— JIMMY FALLON

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