Plus, lawmakers received hundreds of emails in support of the independent redistricting commission. Why didn’t they listen?
Good morning. Salt Lake City will have a high of 40° and a low of 26°. In case you missed it, the government website where you can request free at-home COVID tests launched yesterday. If you want to quickly complete a task and get that satisfying feeling of crossing an item off your to-do list, this is a great candidate — I ordered mine in less than two minutes. Also on our mind today: how to combat antisemitism in the office, the record Salt Lake International Airport broke in 2021 and how two car accidents demonstrate the power of forgiveness. |
| Utah’s COVID-19 case counts dip, but state warns omicron surge not over |
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| | Utah's case counts are decreasing — the rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 10,652 per day and the rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of tests is 41.3% when all results are included. But state health department spokesman Tom Hudachko insists that the latest COVID-19 surge hasn't peaked yet. Why not? Utah's numbers vs. other states. New COVID-19 infections in Utah increased 191% over the past two weeks, compared to an increase of 62% nationwide over the same time period, according to data compiled by The New York Times. Case count accuracy. It's likely that many people who have COVID-19 haven't been tested, whether because they were asymptomatic or because of testing limitations. Some of those limitations include at-home test kits not being reported to the state and long lines at state testing sites. In Utah and around the country, hospitals are being deluged with COVID-19 because even though a smaller percentage of cases may be serious, there are so many more people who are sick. | Every 10 years, the Utah Legislature redraws political boundaries based on the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 2018: Better Boundaries, a citizen initiative that narrowly passed, established the Independent Redistricting Commission, with the goal of preventing partisan gerrymandering. 2020: The Utah Legislature reached a compromise with Better Boundaries organizers. The deal made the independent commission an adviser to state lawmakers, who have the ultimate decision of which maps to approve. 2021: The Legislative Redistricting Committee voted to approve its own maps, rejecting the maps proposed by the Independent Redistricting Commission. The Utah Legislature voted to approve the maps, as well, and Governor Spencer Cox declined to veto them. The Deseret News obtained hundreds of emails Utahns sent to lawmakers in support of the Independent Redistricting Commission's maps, while a much smaller percentage of emails to lawmakers approved of the Legislative Redistricting Committee's maps. Read more from Kyle Dunphey. More in Politics 2022 Utah Legislature Day 1: Lawmakers swiftly lock crosshairs on local COVID-19 restrictions (Deseret News) Opinion: Lawmakers are wrong to remove local authority over mask mandates (Deseret News) Mitt Romney on voting rights bill: President Joe Biden, Democrats venturing into ‘deep hysteria’ (Deseret News) |
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