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Good morning!

I spent the weekend in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, and everything from Main Street to the Eccles Center felt vibrant and alive. This was the first time I’ve attended the festival, and I hope it isn’t the last.

Sundance Institute announced in April that it was considering moving the film festival from Park City, but Utahns and out-of-towners alike have expressed their support for it to stay put.

Margaret Darby reports that actor and producer Elijah Wood said he can’t imagine Sundance anywhere else and hopes it stays in Utah. Margaret also reported on Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s hopes for Sundance — read more about what Gov. Cox said about the festival’s future in Utah.

Also on our minds:

Meet the Utah woman competing on ‘The Bachelor’
What can parents and schools do to get kids back to free play and fun?
Holocaust survivors share their experiences on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

How one lawmaker plans to clean up Utah voter rolls

Brigham Tomco writes:

Utah lawmakers expanded their response to recent election audits with the release of a bill that would overhaul how the Lieutenant Governor’s Office oversees voter roll cleanup.

House Majority Whip Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, unveiled the new legislation Monday morning which would require the state to end its contract with the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, by July 6, and lists requirements for obtaining another third-party contractor.

The bill would also instruct the Lieutenant Governor’s Office to publish updated voter registration totals on its website multiple times a year, report annually to the Legislature on its efforts to maintain the accuracy of voter rolls, and ensure that voter rolls are compared to death certificate information 90 days before every even-year election.

Read more about about this and other election reforms proposed by Utah lawmakers in the 2025 legislative session.

Perspective: App stores are exploiting our children. We must change that

The TikTok ban, while controversial, has raised important questions about online safety and privacy. However, it isn’t just TikTok that poses a risk — many apps exploit personal data, and that risk is especially high for children.

App stores face little accountability for exploitative terms of service, misleading age ratings and inadequate child safety practices. One Utah bill, the App Store Accountability Act, aims to require apps to verify age and parental consent before downloads.

In this guest opinion, Dawn Hawkins, Todd Weiler, Melissa McKay and Michael Toscano argue in favor of the act, writing that it "brings us closer to a future where digital gatekeepers are held to the same standards as any responsible brick-and-mortar institution."

Read more on the threats app stores pose to children and how parents and lawmakers can address them.

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Utah

Meet the Utah woman competing on ‘The Bachelor’ (Deseret News)
Salt Lake City warns residents about unpaid parking ticket scam (KSL)
Utah is the heart of a booming night-sky tourism industry (Axios Salt Lake City)
Surgical robots bring hope, healing to Huntsman Cancer Institute patients (KUTV)

The U.S.

Why did Trump threaten to impose tariffs on Colombia? (Deseret News)
Much-needed rain falls on parched Southern California, Southwest U.S. (NBC)

The World

Holocaust survivors share their experiences on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz (Deseret News)
Northern Gaza is shattered. The spirit of returning Palestinians is not (The Associated Press)

Sports

NBA scouts flocking to Big 12 showdown to watch BYU’s Egor Demin, Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe perform (Deseret News)
BYU basketball is close to making winning a habit (Deseret News)
Bills rally around former Utah star after playoff heartbreak (Deseret News)
Ties that bind: Runnin’ Utes legend and Olympus High star share special family bond (Deseret News)

Faith

Church says Texas town not standing by settlement reached for the McKinney Texas Temple (Deseret News)
‘Duck Dynasty’ — and all of its religion references — is returning to A&E (Deseret News)
Elder Cook shares Missionary Executive Council’s objectives, emphasis (Church News)

Business

Always ‘on’: How constant connectivity fuels workplace burnout (Deseret News)
China’s new, high-powered DeepSeek AI spooks U.S. markets (Deseret News)

🗓️ Events Calendar

We put together a list of events and activities going on around the state of Utah in January. Check it out and let us know if we are missing anything!

Here are some highlights for events in Utah today:

Jan. 28 — Bigfoot Snowshoe Festival | Midway
Jan. 28 — An Evening with Fran Lebowitz | Eccles Theater
Jan. 28 — BYU men’s basketball vs. Baylor | Marriott Center 7 p.m.
Jan. 28 — U of U men’s basketball vs. Cincinnati | Jon M. Huntsman Center 8 p.m.

Check your inbox tomorrow morning for more news from the Beehive State and beyond!

And reply to this email or email newsletters@deseretnews.com to tell us what you think of Utah Today.

Thanks for reading!

— Ariel