Utah Headlines

Legislative session

• Gov. Cox, Lt. Gov. Henderson declare Feb. 14 ‘Equal Suffrage Day’ (ABC4)
• Al and Rachel van der Beek: Natalie Cline bullied our child, and she should be impeached (Salt Lake Tribune)

Economic Development and Workforce Services

• Utah Senate passes ‘religious freedom’ bill after compromise with LGBTQ+ advocates (Daily Herald)

Education

• Utah bill adding Ten Commandments to public school curricula advances with favorable recommendation (ABC4)
• Opinion: The lifeline I needed — the case for sexual abuse prevention education in schools (Salt Lake Tribune)

Government Operations

• Lawmakers tackle housing shortage via regulatory reform, not new funding (Deseret News)
• Will lawmakers come up with enough money to pay for Utah’s Super Tuesday presidential primary? (Deseret News)
• These bills aim to make homeownership more attainable for Utahns (KSL TV)

Health and Human Services

• ‘Without this bill, I will die’ (Deseret News)

Judiciary

• ‘My personality changed,’ Utah teen says about social media usage in emotional bill hearings (Deseret News)
• 'Our youth are addicted': Legislature advances pair of social media regulations (KSL)

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

• Bill bans Utah police from making 'quotas' based on performance (Fox13)

Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

• Editorial Board: Don’t allow a rock quarry up Parleys Canyon (Deseret News)
• Utah lawmakers revisit mining regulation bill (KUTV)
• Flurry of water bills advance at Utah Legislature (Deseret News)
• Utah passes agriculture water optimization measure, weighs another change (KSL)

Revenue and Taxation

• Utah Taxpayers Association backs change to voter initiative process (KSL Newsradio

Transportation

• Could this bill be the end of registration stickers on Utah license plates? (KSL Newsradio)
• Utah bill would drop front license plate requirement in cost-cutting effort (ABC4)

Other Utah News

Political news

• Utah Board of Education votes unanimously to request Natalie Cline's immediate resignation (KSL)
• Utah’s congressional delegation voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas. Here’s why (Deseret News)
• There’s another plan to link east and west in SLC. Trouble is, west-siders don’t want this one. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Culture

• Don’t believe Hulu. These are the really-real house lives of Latter-day Saint wives. Research consistently suggests Latter-day Saint women tend to be more engaged in their communities and marriages, but there’s no docuseries about that (Deseret News)

Education

• Deneece Huftalin: SLCC is unapologetically affordable, open-access and welcoming to all (Deseret News)
• Higher education leads to individual, societal and economical benefits, analysts say (KSL)

Housing

• Salt Lake City police want more cash to enforce crackdown on homeless camps (Salt Lake Tribune)

National Headlines

General

• At least 8 children among 22 hit by gunfire at end of Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade; 1 person killed (AP)
• Black Catholic nuns: A compelling, long-overlooked history (AP)
• Deputy scared by an acorn hitting his cruiser opens fire in street (Washington Post)
• Special counsel asks Supreme Court to move quickly in Trump immunity case (New York Times)
• Trump hearings in N.Y., Georgia on Thursday as trial schedule comes into focus (Washington Post)
• Immigration wave delivers economic windfall. But there's a catch. (Wall Street Journal)

Political news

• Trump says when he mixes up names it is on purpose (Reuters)
• Donald Trump stands by remarks about not defending NATO members after backlash (AP)
• House Homeland chairman announces retirement a day after leading Mayorkas’ impeachment (AP)
• Putin says Russia prefers Biden to Trump because he’s ‘more experienced and predictable’ (AP)
• Officials sound alarm about new Russian ‘space threat’ (Washington Post)

Election news

• Democrats embrace tougher border enforcement, seeing Trump’s demolition of deal as a ‘gift’ (AP)
• Trump ramps up calls to Congress to impeach Biden (Washington Post)
• Trump up by 36 points in new South Carolina poll (The Hill)
• Why John Bolton is certain Trump really wants to blow up NATO (Politico)

Ukraine 🇺🇦

• US, EU discuss Russia sanctions ahead of Ukraine war's second anniversary (Reuters)

Israel 🇮🇱

• Rafah was supposed to offer refuge. Now, the city waits for a possible Israeli attack (NPR)
• Biden-Netanyahu relationship at boiling point as Rafah invasion looms (Wall Street Journal)
• Israel will 'pay price' after deadly day, Hezbollah says (Reuters)
• Israeli forces storm main hospital in southern Gaza after prolonged standoff and partial evacuation (Politico)

World news

• Students in Germany found a 10,000-year-old wall in the Baltic Sea (Deseret News)
• Japan slips into a recession and loses its spot as the world’s third-largest economy (AP)

Number of the Day 

News Releases

USBE takes action to address board member conduct

In accordance with Board Policy 2005: Complaints Against Individual Board Members, the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) has concluded its investigation into conduct by Board Member Natalie Cline. 

Following discussion in a closed session, the Board approved a resolution to censure Member Cline. The Board voted to request Member Cline’s resignation from the Board by February 19, 2024. Additionally, she will be removed from all committee assignments, not be allowed to place items on upcoming Board agendas, and prohibited from attending any Board advisory committee meetings. (Read More)

Economic data confirm higher education confers substantial individual and societal benefits

Utahns who secure higher education degrees earn more income, secure greater employment opportunities, achieve greater upward mobility, participate less in public assistance programs, and garner a variety of other positive benefits. These and other benefits are documented in a new policy brief released by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. (Read More)

Utah consumer sentiment continues to rise

Utah’s consumer sentiment rose 2.0% in January (from 79.8 in December to 81.3), according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s Survey of Utah Consumer Sentiment. A similar survey by the University of Michigan found that sentiment rose 13.3% among Americans as a whole during the same time (from 69.7 to 79.0). “Utah consumer sentiment begins 2024 continuing its upward trend with a third consecutive monthly increase, reaching its highest rating since October 2021, said Phil Dean, chief economist at the Gardner Institute. (Read More)

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Feb. 21 — Women in Leadership Executive Speaker Series: Women Focused Organizations, 11:30 am-12:30 pm,Register here
• Feb. 22 — Understanding Utah’s Caucus-Convention System, with GOP Chair Rob Axson and Dem. Chair Diane Lewis, sponsored by Utah Women Run, 6:00-7:30 p.m., Register here
• Mar. 1 — Legislative session ends 
• Mar. 5 — Caucus night
• Mar. 20 — Utah Foundation Annual Lunch, 11:45 am-1:30 pm; Grand America, Purchase tickets here
• Apr. 20 — United Utah Partyconvention
• Apr. 27 — State GOP and Democratic Conventions

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 is 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1989 - The last Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan
• 2001 - The first draft of the complete human genome is published in the journal Nature.
• 2005 - YouTube is launched.

Quote of the Day

“Fear makes you weak; anger makes you strong.”
― Irena Sendler

On the Punny Side

Dad: “How are your grades, son?”

Son: “They’re underwater, Dad.”

Dad: “What do you mean, underwater?”

Son: “They’re below C level” 

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