Situational Analysis | July 22, 2021

Hi there - welcome to Thursday. It's National Refreshment Day, which is a good way to start a holiday weekend.

The Opening Ceremonies for the Tokyo Olympics are tomorrow evening. Things are kind of a hot mess right now. The director of those ceremonies was just fired, COVID counts are surging in Tokyo and among the athletes and at least one country has pulled out because of the pandemic. Good luck, everyone. This will definitely be an Olympics to remember.

Be in the Know

1. Shorts too long?? The Norwegian women's beach handball team were fined 1500 euros ($1770) for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms with their sports bras in a game on Sunday. Male players can wear tank tops and shorts - no Speedos required. Norway has campaigned since 2006 for shorts to be officially considered acceptable in beach handball. Who makes these rules??

2. Heartbreaking. A 9 year-old boy with disabilities died in American Fork after at least 2 hours in a hot car.

3. In a ruling that could affect what the Utah legislature decides to do next session, a federal judge has temporarily blocked a West Virginia law that would bar transgender women and girls from participating in school sports teams that match their gender identity.

4. You can run, but you can't hide. A Mayo Clinic expert warns that the COVID-19 delta variant will infect everyone who is not immune. “Don’t be deceived that ‘I got this far and I am OK.’ This is a very different variant. It will find you."

FROM OUR SPONSOR

The Future of Higher Education - How Utah is making sure everyone has access to higher education. Watch Utah Insight on Friday at 7:30 p.m. on PBS Utah for in-depth comprehensive discussions about issues impacting the state.

Utah Headlines

General

• Salt Lake City Council and Mayor Erin Mendenhall declare racism a public health crisis. Resolution cites state data showing disparities between people of color and their white counterparts, particularly during the pandemic. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Drug companies reach $26B settlement with states over opioid crisis. Utah among more than 40 states deciding whether to accept the deal. (Deseret News)
• 'Pie and Beer Day' celebration cancelled due to uptick in Salt Lake's COVID-19 cases (KUTV)
• Photo of the day: Partnership bringing transformative power of recreation to all (Deseret News)

Politics

• #DezNat Twitter debates have unleashed vitriol. Now, a BYU grad  and Alaska assistant attorney general is under investigation (Deseret News)

COVID Corner

• 873 new cases, the first time since February the state has been over 800, 4 new deaths, 78% occupancy in all ICU beds, 82% full at the 12 referral hospitals.
• 'This is heartbreaking to watch': Utah reports nearly 900 new COVID-19 cases as surge continues (KSL)
• ‘Pandemic not over’: Utah doctors respond to ‘alarming’ jump in COVID-19 cases (Deseret News)
• Clayton Parr: War on pandemic has been undermined by anti-vaccination movement (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Trust in health agencies and Fauci remains strong, a poll finds, but personal doctors score higher (New York Times)

Drought/Wildfires/Heat

• ‘It’s terrifying’: Researchers fear dire consequences of shrinking Great Salt Lake (ABC4)
• Link two
• As water source dries up, one Utah community trucking in drinking water (ABC4)
• Oregon's gigantic Bootleg fire has burned almost 400,000 acres and yesterday, investigators said it was started by lightening. (Reuters)

Education

• Salt Lake City School District offers new online option for K-6 students (Salt Lake Tribune)
• One of these three people will be the next president of the University of Utah. The finalists are Carrie Byingtonl Jayathi Murthy and Taylor Randall. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Environment

• John Curtis and Heather Reams: We're conservatives and we're fighting against climate change: Here's how. (USA Today)
• GOP congressman John Curtis starts conservative climate caucus to take on global threat (NBC News)
• Why Mitt Romney says doing nothing about global warming would be seen as ‘extraordinary lapse’ (Deseret News)

Housing

• SLC launches tiny home design competition to address housing shortage (ABC4)

Legal

• Former Wellington Police Chief charged with assault after security cameras show him making an obscene gesture before coming up and putting a female employee in a head lock and “winding up” before hitting her backside (Fox13)
• Ogden, Provo school districts join lawsuit against Juul (Standard-Examiner)

Local Communities

• Temple to Temple run in Provo this weekend, up to 20,000 expected to participate (Daily Herald)

National Headlines

General

• Multiple people struck by lightning in Grand Canyon National Park (ABC4)
• Norwegian women’s handball team fined for nonbikini uniforms. The team wanted to point out the double standard for women — and it seems to be working. (Deseret News)

Olympics

• MyKayla Skinner, Grace McCallum ‘flash the U’ at Olympics (Deseret News)
• After positive COVID test ends her Olympic hopes, Kara Eaker looks forward to competing with U of U gymnastics. ‘No chance’ 18-year-old alternate can compete after completing quarantine, her father says. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Simone Biles practices her Yurchenko double pike, the world’s most difficult vault (Washington Post)
• Tokyo reports its highest COVID-19 numbers since January - nearly 2000/day - as first Olympic games start (NPR)
• Opening ceremony director fired on Tokyo Games eve over Holocaust joke (Reuters)

Politics

• House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy withdrew all 5 of his nominees to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot probe committee after Pelosi rejected two Jim Jordan and Jim Banks (Reuters)
• Senate Republicans blocked moving forward on a bipartisan infrastructure bill because they say they are not ready, but think they will be by Monday. (Politico)
• Senate braces for a nasty debt ceiling fight (The Hill)

Economy

• U.S. retailers scramble to stock shelves as kids head back to school (Reuters)
• The pandemic drove women out of the workforce. Will they come back? (Politico)
• US flights neared pre-pandemic levels in June (The Hill)

Education

• Texas Senate removes requirement to tell students that the KKK are "morally wrong" (The Hill)

International

• For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation (AP)
• China rejects WHO plan for study of COVID-19 origin (Reuters)

Policy News

The Utah Foundation honored with multiple national awards

The Utah Foundation was honored with several awards by the Governmental Research Association, a national association of government research professionals. The GRA presented the awards at its annual conference, hosted by the Civic Federation of Chicago.

The honors include three award-winners and two certificates of merit. (Read More)

Gov. Cox appoints new Dept. of Government Operations Privacy Officer

Gov. Spencer J. Cox recently appointed Christopher Bramwell as the new Department of Government Operations Privacy Officer. The position was created by the Utah Legislature during the most recent legislative session (see HB 243) and requires Senate approval.
“Protecting the personal privacy of all Utahns has become even more important as technology has advanced,” Gov. Cox said. “I’m pleased to see this new emphasis on privacy and look forward to developing policies that will hold the state accountable for the use of Utahns’ personal data and information.” (Read More)

Sen. Romney gives opening statement on subcommittee hearing on combating climate change in East Asia and the Pacific

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, today gave the following opening remarks at a subcommittee hearing on combating climate change in East Asia and the Pacific. During his remarks, Romney emphasized the importance of maintaining U.S. leadership in the world and partnering with our allies to dissuade China from pursuing its predatory path. (Read/Watch More)

Rep. Stewart secures Utah community project funding

Last week, Congressman Chris Stewart (R-UT) secured a total of $11.5 million in community project funding within House Appropriations legislation. This funding, distributed between four separate projects, would provide critical support for Utah’s 2nd congressional district.
“This is a major win for Utah and its people,” said Rep. Stewart. “These projects will make significant, immediate impacts across the district, from ensuring safe drinking water to improving our infrastructure. There is nothing more important than ensuring the health and safety of Utahans, and I’m proud to have secured a level of funding that will do exactly that.” (Read More)

Number of the Day

Letter: We need to recognize that this nation is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse

By James L. Scott, Ph.D.

When I read Senator Lee’s press release yesterday I suspected something was amiss, and I was right. The Department of Education did make some minor changes to a small ($5million/year) grant program that conservatives had been up in arms about, but it had nothing to do with Critical Race Theory as the senator alleges. Lee’s original public statement on this issue, his Deseret News opinion piece and this press release have all been consistently inconsistent with the facts. The newspaper op-ed was particularly inflammatory, and disturbing. I know he wants to appeal to his far-right base, but race is a sensitive subject in America in 2021. Rhetoric that might yield short-term political gains could very well harm our chances of achieving long-term racial harmony.
The United States is becoming a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, more secular society. That reality is not going to change. America may come later to Utah than other states, but it will arrive. White Christians are 44% of the population, and fundamentalists are only a third of those. These percentages fall each year. US History is usually taught to high school juniors, and in the 2021/2022 national class of high school juniors, nonwhite students will most likely be a majority. There will be more students studying American history whose ancestors were here before the Pilgrims arrived, were brought here as slaves, crossed the Rio Grande River or other parts of the southern border, or came from Asia, than have European heritage. I am not sure how excited some of these students will be to sit through a history course focused on the glorious triumphs of white men over people who looked like them.
The truly backward state legislatures in Oklahoma and Texas have passed anti-Critical Race Theory legislation that, in a few years, may make the teaching of a fact based version of American history impossible. What is scary is that some in these legislatures may not care. The Oklahoma legislature helped keep the details of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 excluded from Oklahoma history textbooks for three decades.
Racial issues are, under the best of circumstances, hard to deal with. It is always wrong for a politician to use race for short-term personal gain. Senator Lee should be ashamed of himself.

James L. Scott, Ph.D., Public Policy History

Upcoming

• Utah Foundation Breakfast Briefing: Mental health in anxious times – Aug 26 @ 9 am. Register here
• Securing the American Dream: A conversation with Tim Scott presented by the Hatch Foundation – Aug 11 @ noon. Register here
• Utah Foundation Annual Luncheon with Shaylyn Romney Garrett – Sept 23 @ 12 pm. Register here

On This Day In History

From History.com

• 1849 - Poet Emma Lazarus is born.
• 1862 - Lincoln tells his cabinet that he will issue an Emancipation Proclamation but will wait until the Union Army has achieved a substantial military victory.
• 1890 - Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy is born. An American matriarch, she was the mother of JFK, RFK & Ted.
• 1893 - Inspired by the view from atop Pikes Peak, American author and professor Katharine Lee Bates writes the lyrics to “America the Beautiful.”
• 1898 - Miriam Underhill is born. She became a mountaineer and environmentalist, was in the first all-women ascent of the Matterhorn in 1932, and developed “manless climbing,” which means all-women climbing groups.
• 1908 - Jane Bolin is born. She was the first African American woman judge in the United States. She was also the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association and the first to join the New York City Law Department.
• 1910 - Ruthie Tompson is born. The American animator and artist worked nearly 40 years with the Walt Disney Company. Some of the animated films she worked on include Mary Poppins, Robin Hood, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. In 2010, she became one of America’s supercentenarians.
• 1923 - Bob Dole is born.
• 1926 - Dorcas Reilly is born. You may not know her name, but you almost certainly know her food. During her time working for Campbell’s Test Kitchen, she created the green bean casserole, a staple of an American Thanksgiving feast.
• 1937 - The US Senate rejects FDR's proposal to enlarge the Supreme Court
• 1942 - Deportations from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka begin.
• 1987 - Gorbachev accepts ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
• 1991 - Cannibal and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is caught.

Wise Words

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
-Emma Lazarus

Lighter Side

“Inoculations have slowed dramatically, and less than half of the total U.S. population is fully vaccinated. So if you think of it like a pie, about half of the pie would be vaccinated while the other half wouldn’t be able to taste the pie because they have Covid.” 

— STEPHEN COLBERT

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