Situational Analysis | Jun. 3, 2021

It's already Thursday and today is National Chocolate Macaroons Day.

Be in the Know

1. Jazz win their series against the Grizzlies and are moving on in the playoffs. 

2. More evidence of a return to normal: the Salt Lake farmers market is returning for its 30th season

3. An article in Utah Business says your degree in entrepreneurship isn’t worth it. 

4. Have you ever seen a drone crash into an erupting volcano? Now you can.

5. A 9 year old Utah girl takes her 4 year old sister on a joy ride 'to California' to see the dolphins. They made it onto the freeway, then off again before crashing into a semi. Both girls were fine after their 3 am escapade. The parents? Probably not so much.

Utah Headlines

General

• The holiday weekend is over, but Utah’s national parks are still bursting with visitors (Deseret News)
• ‘Hit me like a ton of bricks’: Utah County Sheriff’s deputy reacts after apology video goes viral (ABC4)
• Davis sheriff’s deputies won’t enforce laws that infringe on gun rights
  The policy, which Sheriff Kelly Sparks calls “proactive,” is symbolic, University of Utah law professor says. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• ‘We don’t feel safe’: Ogden parents speak out after man is caught peeking in daughter’s second-story window (ABC4)
• Utah businesses tell Facebook's Sandberg how social media has helped them through pandemic (KUTV)
• New Boys & Girls Club gives kids in underserved area safe, fun space in Salt Lake City (KSL)
• Fed up with the growing number of thefts, Bike Batman reunites owners with stolen bikes (Fox13)
• New attacks, old questions. How do we stop antisemitism? (Deseret News)

Politics

• Utah County Commission approves $1.8 million budget adjustment as it rolls back a 2019 property tax increase (Daily Herald)
• Roy elevates Matt Gwynn, a Utah House member, to head city's police department (Standard-Examiner)
• Dr. Rex Facer, redistricting commission face time crunch (UTPOL Underground)
• Taylorsville council shoots down housing project on property that's been vacant for years (KUTV)

COVID Corner

• Utah has 200 new coronavirus cases, 3 more deaths and vaccine doses delivered passes 2.6 million (Salt Lake Tribune)
• 'Biggest beer giveaway in history' if the US reaches 70% COVID-19 vaccination threshold (ABC4)
• New U of U Health clinic opening for people with COVID-19 long hauler symptoms (KSL)
• U.S. nursing home deaths fall sharply as older Americans are vaccinated. (New York Times)

Drought/Wildfires

• No water restrictions planned for Spanish Fork despite drought (Daily Herald)
• Pineview Water officials warn of early residential shutoff of secondary water if conservation efforts don't improve (Standard-Examiner)

Economic Development

• Box Elder County Commissioner Stan Summers is suggesting that northern Utah counties cooperate and coordinate with bordering southern Idaho counties in the areas of tourism and economic development. (Box Elder News Journal)

Education

• Dixie State should drop ‘Dixie’ from its name, 65% of focus group participants say (Deseret News)
• Cynthia Kimball Phillips: The misinformed debate about critical race theory in Utah schools. How can teachers avoid stepping on a landmine when teaching about history, literature and society? (Salt Lake Tribune)
• CJ Alexander: We need critical race theory (Daily Utah Chronicle)
• Salt Lake City School Board Commission votes to give members a pay raise, from $3,000 to $12,000 (Fox13)
• Utah parents feel civics is one of the most important subjects in school, but say it's not taught very well (KUER)
• Local youth historians in Canyons School District researched and presented their findings on women's suffrage, won the state title for group exhibit and are headed to nationals (Cottonwood Heights Journal)

Energy

• Utah part of energy deal for Wyoming nuclear power (Fox13)

Environment

• Another slide disrupts Bingham Canyon mine (Salt Lake Tribune)

Health

• Southern Utah’s first medical marijuana pharmacy set to open in Cedar City (Salt Lake Tribune)

Housing

• Shipping containers see new life as affordable Box 500 apartments in Salt Lake City (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah eases housing regulations. Does it cut too many corners? New law exempts rules on new homes going up in existing neighborhoods and weakens enforcement in new historic districts. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Advocates hope for federal affordable housing investment; Utah's market gets even hotter (KUTV)
• What more can be done for housing in Moab? (Moab Times)
• IN FOCUS Discussion: Partnering to help the unsheltered (ABC4)

Infrastructure

• Washington County moves forward with ‘much-needed improvements’ to Kolob Terrace Road (St. George News)
• Former Utah House 1st District Representative Ronda Rudd Menlove has been appointed to sit on the Utah Transportation Commission by Utah Governor Spencer Cox. (Box Elder News Journal)

Service

• Farr West women have been providing home-cooked meals to neighbors in need each week - for the last seven years (KUTV)

National Headlines

General

• Instant karma. Teen breaks into Airbnb rented by police officers, falls asleep, wakes up arrested (Fox13)
• When owners think about their businesses, their brain patterns are similar to the brain patterns of parents thinking about their children. Here's why that matters. (Wall Street Journal)
• Organizer cuts off veteran's mic when he discusses role Black people played in origins of Memorial Day (The Hill)
• Systemic racism right here: The NFL has long "assumed" racial differences when assessing brain injuries. They're not going to do that anymore. (NPR, AP)
• Forbes 50 over 50: These dynamic women show that growing older means getting wiser - and bolder. (Forbes)
• About 10,000 Tokyo Olympic volunteers have quit, with Games closing in (CNN)

Politics

• Justice Dept. secretly obtained New York Times reporters’ phone records during Trump administration (New York Times, Washington Post)
• Trump has grown increasingly consumed with ballot audits as he pushes falsehood that election was stolen (Washington Post)
• Trump ends blog after 29 days, infuriated by measly readership (Washington Post)
• Federal prosecutors looking into whether Gaetz obstructed justice (Politico)
• This seems like a big deal. The Senate Parliamentarian rules that Democrats only get one more chance to sidestep the GOP this year (The Hill)

Economy

• The economic recovery is here. It's unlike anything you've seen. (Wall Street Journal)
• Labor shortage draws attention of US lawmakers (Wall Street Journal)
• The jobs report that could upend Biden’s economic agenda (Politico)

Elections

• A political battle is brewing over Critical Race Theory (NPR)
• Arizona secretary of state Katie Hobbs, a Democrat pushing back on the state Legislature's "audit" of the 2020 election, will run to succeed term-limited Gov. Doug Ducey. (Politico)
• Experts call it a 'clown show' but Arizona 'audit' is a disinformation blueprint (NPR)
• George P. Bush announces bid for Texas attorney general (The Hill)

Energy

• Dissident shareholders win a third seat on ExxonMobil board (Washington Post)

Environment

• Sri Lanka faces an environmental disaster as a ship full of chemicals starts sinking (NPR)
• Study: California fire killed 10% of world’s giant sequoias (AP)

International

• Netanyahu opponents reach coalition deal to oust Israeli PM (AP)
• China's silencing of Tiananmen tributes extends to Hong Kong (AP)
• Uyghur exiles describe forced abortions, torture in Xinjiang (AP)
• A herd of elephants has roamed more than 300 miles across China and is headed toward a city in spite of attempts to lure them back to their home on a nature reserve (Washington Post)

Security

• Russian cybercriminal group was behind meat plant attack, F.B.I. says (New York Times)
• New York subway system was targeted by Chinese-linked hackers in April (The Hill)
• Wanted: Millions of cybersecurity pros. Salary: Whatever you want (CNN)

Business Headlines

• Shares of retail favorite AMC nearly double, company woos investors with free popcorn (Reuters)
• CEO pay increasingly tied to diversity goals (Wall Street Journal)
• The Fed announces plans to sell off its corporate bond holdings. (New York Times)
• Celonis raises $1 billion at $11 billion valuation, making it New York’s —and Germany’s — most valuable startup (Forbes)
• Dogecoin soars as Elon Musk declares the crypto’s ‘inevitable’ financial takeover following Coinbase pro listing (Forbes)

Policy News

Utah Thrives podcast: Tackling health care costs

In this edition of Utah Thrives, Utah Foundation President Peter Reichard explores health care challenges with Dan Liljenquist, Sophia DiCaro, and Andrew Croshaw.

200,000 meals for children to be served through USDA-sponsored summer food service program

Utah Food Bank is proud to announce that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has officially declared sponsorship of the Summer Food Service Program. The program will extend Utah Food Bank’s Kids Cafe program by providing free meals to children 18 years of age and under in both “Open Sites” and “Enrolled Programs.”

Reps Curtis, Lofgren introduce bipartisan legislation to eliminate arbitrary per-country limits on employment-based visas

Today, Congressman John Curtis (R-UT) and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced H.R. 3648, the Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act of 2021, a bill that will benefit the U.S. economy by allowing American employers to focus on hiring immigrants based on their merit, not their birthplace.

Ogden joins national mountain town partnership Pledge for the Wild

Visit Ogden today announced their partnership with Pledge for the Wild. Pledge for the Wild encompasses a number of mountain towns around the country committed to supporting responsible tourism and building awareness around opportunities to directly give back to the wild places in these iconic mountain towns.

Backed up by apartment boom, Provo self-storage is thriving

As metro Provo’s apartment market surged in the past decade, the business of storing people’s belongings boomed along with it. So much so, that Provo witnessed an expansion of 38% of its 2010 inventory that resulted in the addition of 1.5M square feet of storage space.

Number of the Day

Deep Dive: Tami Pyfer, Tim Shriver and the call to unite

By Holly Richardson

Tami Pyfer, former education advisor to Gov. Gary Herbert, is vice-president of UNITE, a national organization started by Tim Shriver to change the culture of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ to just ‘us.’
She joined me recently to talk about her work as a UNITEr and what that looks like in an increasingly polarized world.

One of the first steps we can take to overcome our current problem of contempt is to find points of common ground: Can we see the humanity in others? Can we recognize their dignity? Unity does not mean become identical. Quite the contrary. It is our ability to embrace diversity as we work toward common goals that will bring about true unity. To quote Ghandi, it is “our ability to reach unity in diversity” that will be “the beauty and the test of our civilization.”
The founder of UNITE, Dr. Tim Shriver, spoke recently at the Herbert Public Policy Forum at Utah Valley University. “Whether we agree on every issue,” he said, “we can find ways to be creative on every difference.” He believes the number one problem we face today - and there are many - is the crisis of trust and meaning between us, which, as we’ve seen, leads to hatred, contempt and demonizing. “Will the uniter prevail?,” he asked. “Or will the divider prevail?”
Shriver also joined KSL’s Boyd Matheson to talk about the power of uniting and building bridges and Utah’s first lady Abby Cox to talk about Special Olympics, his book “The Call to Unite” and social-emotional learning in our schools.

What will you do today to be a uniter?

Upcoming

• Municipal election filing period  – June 1 - 7

• Utah Democratic Party Organizing Convention  – June 26

• Utah Foundation Annual Luncheon with Shaylyn Romney Garrett – Sept 23 @ 12 pm – Register here

On This Day In History

From History.com

• 1906 - Singer/actress Josephine Baker is born. She was the first African American woman to star in a major motion picture and to integrate an American concert hall. She was also a spy and owner of Folies-Bergere in Paris.
• 1919 - Elizabeth Koontz is born, the first African-American president of the National Education Association.
• 1940 - Last British and French troops evacuated from Dunkirk.
• 1965 - First American astronaut, Major Edward H. White II, walks in space.
• 2016 - Muhammad Ali dies at age 74

Wise Words

"I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad."
-Josephine Baker

Lighter Side

“Under quarantine, marijuana is legal and haircuts are against the law. It took half a century, but hippies finally won.”

– Ruth Buzzi, actor

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