Situational Analysis | June 21, 2022

It's Tuesday and the Summer Solstice! Days will start getting shorter tomorrow - weird, right? It's also weird that today is National Peaches ‘N’ Cream Day when it is not yet peach season 🤷‍♀️ 

Be in the Know

• The Jan. 6 committee holds its 4th public hearing today and will focus on former President Trump. The testimony at the hearing "will demonstrate that President Trump and his allies drove a pressure campaign based on lies" that put state and local election officials at risk, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The hearing will begin at 11 am MDT. 
• Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says he will step down, bringing Israel to its fifth round of elections in just over three years. It comes as former leader Benjamin Netanyahu tries to return to power. Centrist Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will take over as prime minister. Elections are likely to take place in October.

Rapid Roundup

• The BLM warns hikers of quicksand in Utah, Thai Drift in Orem among the "most loved" restaurants in the US, a Juneteenth "Braid Battle" (no license needed), a VHS copy of "Back to the Future" sold for $75K (!), a 660-pound, 13 feet long freshwater stingray has been caught in Cambodia (!!) and a Russian journalist auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize medal for $103.5 million and donated the money to Ukrainian children (!!!). 

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Utah Headlines

General

• Why a possible recession doesn’t scare the youngest adults (Deseret News)
• Over $2 million dollars worth of drugs discovered in Utah traffic bust (ABC4)
• Prices at Utah farmers markets projected to rise due to inflation this summer (KUTV)
• Mormon feminists and the Equal Rights Amendment (RadioWest)
• Buffalo Soldiers — Black Americans who served on the Western frontier during the Civil War — helped transform Utah (PBS Utah)
• Flipping off neighbor, putting up signs bashing her business: Is this free speech — or stalking? (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah nonprofit for adults and children with disabilities expands reach through Facebook grant (KSL)

Politics

• Andrew Bjelland: Secession is now thinkable, even in the Intermountain West (Salt Lake Tribune)
• How far apart are moderate Democrats and Republicans, really? (Deseret News)
• How the fight over school prayer became a battle for the soul of the nation (Deseret News)
• Lawmaker wants to ban campaign signs from Utah overpasses, ramps (Fox13)

Education

• Nature center in Logan hosts workshops for preschool teachers and caregivers (UPR)
• Title IX at 50: Utah women in sports celebrate progress, but say more still needs to be done (Salt Lake Tribune)
• For some Black athletes in St. George, wearing Dixie on a jersey meant ‘putting my morals and my history aside’ (Salt Lake Tribune)

Elections

• Legislative races to watch in the upcoming primary election (Fox13)
• Economics a forgotten issue in the 1st Congressional District primary race (Cache Valley Daily)
• House District 3 candidates finally square off in a KVNU Town Hall debate (Cache Valley Daily)

Environment

• State, federal, tribal leaders sign official agreement for Bears Ears National Monument (ABC4)
• Leaders in the small Utah town of Helper are looking for ways to prevent future flooding as cleanup continues (Fox13)
• Toxic dust warnings might be our future as the Great Salt Lake shrivels up (KUER)
• It's not too late (yet) for a new water policy (RadioWest)
• “Forever chemicals” detected in Park City groundwater, state and federal regulations expected later this year (KPCW)

Family

• Ready for a serious relationship? You’re probably a woman (Deseret News)
• Utah man Thom Reed collecting oral histories to connect African Americans to their ancestors (KSL)
• This Texas teen wanted an abortion. She now has twins. Brooke Alexander found out she was pregnant 48 hours before the Texas abortion ban took effect (Washington Post)

Health

• The dangers of negative body talk — our children are listening. 10-year-old girls are worried about weight gain. The messages about our bodies start early, and they never stop. We need clearer voices to outshout the negative ones (Deseret News)
• COVID vaccinations for small children start Tuesday in Utah (Fox13)

Housing

• Utah, Idaho housing markets see boost to inventory as rates strangle buyers (Deseret News)
• Rising inflation and housing crisis — Where is the American dream? (Deseret News)

National Headlines

General

• The New York Times analyzed over 100,000 government bidding documents and found that China’s approach to collecting digital and biological data from its citizens is far more expansive than previously known. (New York Times)
• Sweltering streets: Hundreds of homeless die in extreme heat (AP)
• Stock futures, Bitcoin jump after S&P 500’s worst week in two years. The bullish mood was spread across many sectors and assets, including growth stocks and cryptocurrencies (Wall Street Journal)

Politics

• Election 2022: Trump endorsement flip scrambles Alabama race (AP)
• 1st Native American US treasurer to be appointed, head Mint (AP)
• Speaker at meeting of Ginni Thomas group called Biden’s win illegitimate long after Jan. 6, video shows (Washington Post)
• Pence navigates a possible White House run, and a fraught political moment (New York Times)
• A right-wing Senate candidate in Missouri wielded a shotgun and asked voters to go “RINO” hunting in a new political ad. (New York Times)
• Trump ratchets up attacks amid questions about his presidential viability (The Hill)
• All the seats up for grabs in Tuesday’s primaries: Voters in Alabama, Georgia, Virginia and the District of Columbia have big races on the ballot today (Politico)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

• Thousands of Ukrainians were taken to “filtration camps” and forced to resettle in Russia. Some escaped. These are their stories. (New York Times)
• ‘The impossible’: Ukraine’s secret, deadly rescue missions (AP)
• Russia tells Lithuania: your citizens will feel the pain over Kaliningrad (Reuters)
• A top E.U. official called Russia’s blockade of Ukraine a “war crime,” in a strong rebuke of the Kremlin’s tactics. (New York Times)
• There’s something about Zelenskyy: Ben Stiller meets Ukraine’s leader. ‘You are my hero,’ actor tells Ukrainian president in Kyiv. (Politico)

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Upcoming

• Primary election day â€“ June 28
• ULCT Annual Convention - Oct 5-7, Salt Palace Convention Center, Register here
• General election â€“ Nov 8

On This Day In History

• 1788 - US Constitution is ratified
• 1893 - George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. debuts his invention, the Ferris wheel, at Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition.
• 1964 - Three Civil Rights workers working to register Black voters disappear and are murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi.
• 1990 - A 7.7 earthquake in Iran kills 50,000 and injures another 135,000. 400,000 were left homeless.
• 1997 - The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) plays its first game.
• 2001 - Mexican artist Frida Kahlo becomes the 1st Hispanic woman to be honored on a US postage stamp.
• 2004 - Test pilot Mike Melvill flew SpaceShipOne into suborbital flight becoming the first civilian to pilot an aircraft into space.

Wise Words

"At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."

— Frida Kahlo

Lighter Side

“The Capitol Police are much more cautious than they were, say, 18 months ago, and for a very good reason. If you don’t know what that reason is, I know what news network you watch.”

— STEPHEN COLBERT

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