Situational Analysis | June 14, 2022

It's Tuesday and National Flag Day. It's also the first of two legislative interim days in June. Follow along at le.utah.gov

Be in the Know

• The Nature Conservancy and the Utah Office of Tourism have partnered to launch a digital guide to encourage visits to the Great Salt Lake - with ideas on helping the Lake recover. Check out the guide on VisitUtah.com
• The S&P 500 fell 3.9 percent Monday, closing more than 20 percent below its all-time high set in January—the benchmark for a bear market—amid continued high inflation and fears of excessive tightening by the Federal Reserve. The tech-heavy Nasdaq has been in a bear market for a while, but the Dow is still about 4 percent above that mark. Cryptocurrency continued its plummet, with Bitcoin at one point on Monday down 67 percent from its November high. World shares are "wobbly" as a result.
• Trump was "detached from reality" in his defeat, as his closest campaign advisers, top government officials and even his family were dismantling his false claims of 2020 election fraud ahead of Jan. 6. The former president kept clinging to outlandish theories to stay in power, the committee investigating the Capitol attack was told Monday. “He’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” former Attorney General William Barr testified in his interview with the committee. Barr called the voting fraud claims “bull——,” “bogus” and “idiotic,” and resigned in the aftermath. “I didn’t want to be a part of it.”
   

Rapid Roundup

• Entrances are closed in Yellowstone after flooding sweeps away bridge, washes out roads, there's a strawberry supermoon this week, Chick-fil-A is bringing back their summer peach milkshake, Sen. Escamilla and Rep. Weight say it's time for a new flag to unify Utah, and Brian Steed is leaving Utah’s DNR to become the first Executive Director of Utah State University’s Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water and Air.

FROM OUR SPONSOR, CHRIS STEWART FOR CONGRESS

Chris Stewart is Fighting the Tough Fights

Utah's values are rooted in honor, duty, and service to God and country. With all its exceptional values, Utah needs exceptional leadership. Chris Stewart considers it his honor and duty to serve the exceptional people of Utah. Learn more about Chris Stewart's personal creed at stewartforutah.com.

Utah Headlines

General

• How active is the Patriot Front white supremacist group in Utah? The Anti-Defamation League reports 161 incidents of distributing propaganda in the past two years (Deseret News)
• 1 in 4 employees in Beaver county work for one company — and it’s cutting jobs (Salt Lake Tribune)
• West Jordan former primary teacher pleads guilty to sex abuse at sleepovers he hosted (KUTV)

Politics

• Evan McMullin calls on Sen. Mike Lee to back bipartisan gun safety proposal (Deseret News)
• Amy Pomeroy: My experience working with David Leavitt — I’m the 25th to leave (Deseret News)
• Jan. 6 hearing: ‘We looked at the allegations (of election fraud), but they don’t pan out’ (Deseret News)

Education

• ‘Practicing like it’s real’: Why this Utah school trained students, parents to reunite after crisis — like a school shooting (Salt Lake Tribune)

Environment

• New Mexico wildfires rage, signaling a horrific start to fire season (Deseret News)
• Are new trails just around the bend in SLC’s foothills? Nope. Here’s why. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Building an urban forest should ease the inequities of Salt Lake City’s heat island effect (KUER)

Family

• Zen and the art of fatherhood maintenance: How to be a dad when you grew up without one (Deseret News)

Health

• What occupation has the highest burnout? Study points to your neighborhood school, as an alarming 52% of K-12 teachers report feeling "always" or "very often" burned out at work (Deseret News)
• The problems of teen suicide and self-harm predate social media. Social media has been blamed for increased teen suicide and self-harm. Taylor Barkley shows it's more complicated than it is being portrayed. (CGO)
• As COVID-19 cases increased, so did attacks on health care workers in Utah (Salt Lake Tribune)

Housing

• This ‘overvalued’ Western city could see home prices fall up to 20% if recession hits (Deseret News)
• Salt Lake City ranks in middle for first-time home affordability, study shows (Fox13)

National Headlines

General

• Bitcoin hits new low as cryptocurrency market loses $200 billion over the weekend (Deseret News)
• Musk to address Twitter employees for 1st time this week (AP)
• More than 100 GOP primary winners back Trump’s false fraud claims. A Washington Post analysis shows the former president’s election denialism has become a price of admission in many Republican primaries (Washington Post)

Politics

• We make pilots retire at 65. Why not presidents? (Deseret News)
• Sarah Palin is running for office again. An early tally of votes shows that Palin has a significant lead in the fight for Alaska’s open House seat (Deseret News)
• Biden announces immigration policy changes as migrant caravan sets off for U.S. border (Deseret News)
• The United States refugee resettlement program is like a paddleboard that has lost its keel. We need to add certainty and stability to the system (CGO at USU)
• The United States has always been a nation of immigrants. What has driven political hostility toward immigration, and how can we change it? (CGO)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

• Russians control 80% of contested city in eastern Ukraine (AP)
• Pope blasts Russian ‘cruelty,’ lauds Ukrainian ‘heroism’ (AP)
• Ukraine's besieged farmers fear war-time harvest 'hell' (Reuters)

News Releases

Gov. Cox and First Lady Cox to recognize Utah artists

Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox and First Lady Abby Cox will honor Utah artists who positively impact the arts and their communities with the 2022 Governor’s Mansion Artist Awards. The Coxes will present the awards at a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.

This year’s honorees include performing artists Richard Elliott, Tabernacle Choir Organist; Paisley Rekdal, Utah Poet Laureate; and Clytie Adams, Director of Clytie Adams School of Ballet. Visual artists include Paige Crosland Anderson, painter; Carrie Trenholm, glass artist; and Leroy Transfield, sculptor. Philanthropist Marcia Price will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for her many years of support for the arts in Utah. (Read More)

Romney offers measures to health bill to prevent future formula crisis, support dietary supplements industry, and lower drug prices

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) today offered several amendments to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Landmark Advancements (FDASLA) Act—legislation to be considered by the HELP Committee tomorrow—which will prevent a future infant formula crisis, support the dietary supplements industry in Utah, and advance more options to lower drug prices. One of Romney’s amendments to lower drug prices has already been included in the legislation, and he will push for inclusion of other measures during tomorrow’s markup. (Read More)

Project KIDS receives award from National State Auditors Association

The Office of the State Auditor (Office) today announces that Project KIDS received the National State Auditors Association’s (NSAA) 2022 Excellence in Accountability Award for Special Projects. Project KIDS is a special, in-depth performance audit of public education in Utah that integrates financial, operational, and performance data to create interactive visualizations. Project KIDS identifies student-level spending and performance to allow stakeholders to explore what resource allocations drive improved student achievement. Interactive dashboards are made available to authorized local education agency (LEA) administrators and statewide visualizations are available on the State Auditor’s website: auditor.utah.gov/kids. (Read More)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Utah Legislature Interim Days – June 14,15 le.utah.gov for more info
• Primary election day â€“ June 28
• General election â€“ Nov 8

On This Day In History

• 1777 - Congress adopts the Stars and Stripes
• 1811 - Harriet Elisabeth Beecher (Stowe) is born. She went on to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
• 1825 - Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French-born American architect who laid out Washington, D.C., dies at 70 
• 1877 - The first Flag Day is observed
• 1940 - Germany invades Paris; Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp opens in Nazi controlled Poland with Polish POWs, later expanded to include civilian Jews and gypsies (approx. 3 million would die within its walls)
• 1946 - Donald Trump born
• 1953 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave the commencement address at Dartmouth and addressed Senator McCarthy’s push to “get rid of” books by “subversive” authors. “Don’t join the book burners,” he said. “Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book.
• 1970 - Cheryl Adrienne Brown becomes the first Black woman to compete in the Miss America pageant after winning Miss Iowa
• 1982 - Argentina surrenders to Great Britain, ending the 74-day Falklands Islands conflict
• 1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg is nominated to the United States Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton
• 2017 - Five people, including Rep. Steve Scalise, shot at a charity baseball game.

Wise Words

“For me, literacy means freedom. For the individual and for society.”
― LeVar Burton

Lighter Side

“For the first hearing on Thursday, over 20 million people tuned in, which is higher than this year’s N.B.A. finals. Trump was torn — he didn’t know whether to worry about the hearing or brag about the ratings.” 

— JIMMY FALLON 

– Advertise With Us –

Subscribers may receive special messages with information about new features, special offers, or public policy messages from clients and advertisers.