Situational Analysis | March 8, 2022

It's International Women's Day and the Utah Women & Leadership Project is hosting an online celebration from 9:00 - 10:00 am this morning. Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson will be the keynote speaker. Register here. 

It is also caucus night for the GOP and UUP.

Be in the Know

1. The Minister of Foreign Affairs for Russia, Sergei Lavrov, either forget to read George Orwell's 1984, or he decided to use it as a guidebook. "The goal of Russia's special military operation [unprovoked war] is to stop any war that could take place on Ukrainian territory." Thank you for protecting us, Big Brother, we love you. Not. Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya is reading from the same playbook as the tells the security council that Ukrainians.Are.Shelling.THEMSELVES. In the meantime, the death toll keeps mounting. More than 2 million refugees have left in the last 12 days. A million of them are children, a number that UNICEF called "a dark historic first." A growing number are unaccompanied or have been separated from their families. 

2. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute announced  that Zelenskyy is receiving its Ronald Reagan Freedom Award "for his courageous fight against tyranny and for his indomitable stance for freedom and democracy."

FROM OUR SPONSOR, KEM C. GARDNER INSTITUTE

The legislative session is over. How will you be impacted?

Join the Kem C. Gardner Institute, the Deseret News and Utah Policy for a legislative wrap-up on Tuesday, March 8th at 8:30 am. Legislative leadership will be discussing the session and how the laws passed this year will impact Utahns. Sign up here to join us for this free event. 

Utah Headlines

General

• ‘I felt disposable’: Utah women recount experiences of sexism. Hundreds of women reported their experiences in a series of reports from the Utah Women and Leadership Project. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Southern Utah Women in business can find support at the Women’s Business Center (St. George News)
• Gas prices are soaring. Will airfare be next? (Deseret News)

Politics

• Week 7: What You Need To Know About Utah’s 2022 Legislative Session (State Street Podcast)
• Another high-profile Utah Democrat is backing an independent in the U.S. Senate race. Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson says Democrat not electable (Deseret News)
• Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes to be investigated for role in attempts to overturn 2020 presidential election (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Dozens file for office across Utah County (Daily Herald)
• After filing deadline, just one Wasatch County race is contested (KPCW)

Education

• Utah teachers say lawmakers took aim at education this session. Here are 10 things that happened. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• How schools will be affected by this year’s legislative session (KUER)

Environment

• Why drastic water reductions may loom for northern Utah. Weber Basin Water Conservancy District mulling cutbacks (Deseret News)
  
• Can the Great Salt Lake be saved? Partnership will explore solutions (Standard-Examiner)

Housing

• Despite record $70M funding, homelessness and housing advocates disappointed in this year’s session. More affordable housing is needed to fix homelessness crisis, advocates say (Deseret News)
• Utah to earmark $10.8 million for shelter services for the homeless (Cache Valley Daily)

Ukraine

• Feel helpless about Ukraine? Here are things you can do (Deseret News)
• Rep. John Curtis: The US must target Russia's oil and gas industry (Deseret News)
• There are calls to boycott McDonald’s and Coca-Cola over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Several big corporations have pulled out of the Russian market, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have not (Deseret News)
  
• Former refugee and Utah marine heads to Ukraine to help (KSL TV)
• Utah non-profit sending team to Poland-Ukraine border to help with refugees (KUTV)

COVID Corner

• 543 new cases over the weekend, 9 new deaths
• Is ‘COVID brain’ happening even in people who never had it? (Deseret News)
• You can order free COVID tests from the government again (NPR)

National Headlines

General

• International Women's Day and small business: What's changed in the last 30 years, what hasn't and what's gotten worse? (USA Today)

Politics

• An initiative to hold Trump’s lawyers accountable (Washington Post)
• US Supreme Court rejects GOP redistricting plans in NC, Pennsylvania (AP)
• Arizona lawmaker speaks to white nationalists, calls for violence — and sets fundraising records (Washington Post)
• Congress gives final approval to make lynching a hate crime (New York Times)
• Republicans warn Justice Department probe of Trump would trigger political war (The Hill)
• Texas county finds 10,000 uncounted ballots from last week's primary (The Hill)

Ukraine

• Ukrainian foreign minister: The world can do more to help us fight Russia (Washington Post)
• Biden sends Harris to Poland and Romania amid global crisis. The vice president will promise aid and support to Eastern European allies as part of an urgent effort to keep NATO united (Washington Post)
• EXPLAINER: Why does Ukraine need foreign warplanes? (Fox13)
• UK says it will back Poland if decides to send jets to Ukraine (Reuters)
• How sanctions are pinning down the Russian economy (NPR)
• A Yale professor’s list of companies staying in Russia has put the business world on notice (Washington Post)
• People flee embattled Ukraine city, supplies head to another (AP)
• ‘Some kind of terrible dream’ for Ukrainian women refugees (AP)
• Ukraine president says child died from dehydration in besieged Mariupol (Reuters)
• Russian shelling halts Ukrainian evacuation effort (Wall Street Journal)
• Russia’s military chief promised a quick victory in Ukraine, but now Faces a potential quagmire. The close Putin ally modernized Russia’s forces, but those troops have run into ferocious Ukrainian resistance (Wall Street Journal)
• Shell says it will halt operations in Russia, apologizes for buying Russian oil (Washington Post)
• The image of Russia's military as an unstoppable force has been shattered. Its European adversaries have taken note. (New York Times)
• ‘We Are the First in the World to Introduce This New Warfare’: Ukraine’s Digital Battle Against Russia. Ukraine’s deputy digital minister explains how the country is wielding crypto, Big Tech, social media and a volunteer hacker army against Russia. (Politico)

Guest opinion: Why do Americans support Ukraine? Maybe it’s because our stories are so similar

By Tony F. Graf, Jr.

During the past eleven days, I have wondered why many of us as Americans have come together in support of the Ukraine. The United States of American and the Ukraine are separated by vast oceans, differing traditions and large tracts of land, yet something seems to call to us as Americans to voice support for the Ukrainian people.

Perhaps the reason lies within our own history. We as a country began as a British colony and broke away from our mother country England. With a handful of men and boys, we stood against the British in Concord and Lexington on a bright April spring morning, as we took a stand to fight against violations of our rights, and our freedoms as British citizens. 

We endured a war that began more than a year before July 4, 1776 and ended in September 1783. Led by a 44-year-old general named George Washington, it was a war we were not expected to win as our small army was untrained, undisciplined and largely unpaid. 

In the depths of despair, we cried out to the international community for help. We fought alone as foreign superpowers watched on the sidelines waiting to see if the rebels in the British American colony could actually prevail against the strongest military force in the world....

As we have read about the situation in the Ukraine, the similarities between the United States and the Ukraine are worth noting. Like us, the Ukraine gained their independence from Russia when the Soviet Republic dissolved. Like us, the Ukraine was one of the most populous and prosperous republics of the Soviet Union. Like us, they are fighting for the independence against a world superpower. Like us, they are outnumbered, under supplied and outgunned and calling out for international support. Finally, like us, they are led by a 44-year-old leader who has taken arms to defend his country and fight for liberty...

Support of the Ukraine is not a Republican or Democrat issue as freedom transcends party. We need to petition our leaders, local, state, and federal to send the support needed to help this struggling nation fighting in the streets for their freedom. (Read More)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Legislative wrap-up with Kem C. Gardner Institute, Deseret News and Utah Policy â€“ Mar 8, 2022, 8:30 am, Register here
• GOP caucus night â€“ Mar 8, 2022
• United Utah Party caucus night â€“ Mar 8, 2022
  
• 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
• Dem. caucus night – Mar 22
• 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

• 1841 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is born. He served on the US Supreme Court justice from 1902-1932.
• 1884 - Susan B. Anthony addresses the U.S. House Judiciary Committee arguing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote.
• 1915 - Selma Fraiberg is born. She pursued groundbreaking studies of infant psychiatry and normal child development, and wrote The Magic Years, a classic translated into 10 languages. 
• 1917 - February Revolution begins, leading to the end of czarist rule in Russia.
• 1917 - US Senate introduces the Cloture Rule, requiring a two-thirds majority to end debate, at the urging of Woodrow Wilson.
• 1930 - William Howard Taft, 27th US President (Republican: 1909-13) and Chief Justice, dies at 72.
• 1934 - Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars.
• 1945 - Phyllis Mae Daley, the first of four Black nurses to serve active duty in WWII, receives her commission as an ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps.
• 1945 - Lilia Ann Abron is born. An entrepreneur and chemical engineer, she was the country’s first Black woman to earn a PhD in chemical engineering.
• 1950 - The iconic VW bus goes into production.
• 1951 - Monica Helms is born. She became a transgender activist, author, veteran of the United States Navy and creator of the Trans Pride Flag.
• 1957 - Egypt opens the Suez Canal.
• 1958 - Author William Faulkner says US schools have degenerated and become babysitters.
• 1978 - The first-ever radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
• 1993 - MTV’s highest rated series premieres. It’s Beavis and Butt-Head.
• 1999 - The US Supreme Court upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh. The same day, Joe DiMaggio dies of lung cancer at age 84.
• 2014 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanishes with more than 200 people aboard.
• 2017 - Fearless Girl sculpture is revealed across from the Charging Bull statue on Wall Street.

Wise Words

"One of the most important things we can do for our daughters is expose them to other women who are leaders – business and government. It’s important for girls to see women leading."

- Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson

Lighter Side

“Meanwhile, here in the U.S., a convoy of truckers spent the last two days surfing the Capital Beltway outside D.C. to protest Covid restrictions. Yep, the truckers waited until all the mandates were lifted and gas hit five bucks a gallon.” 

— JIMMY FALLON

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