I started yesterday's newsletter with a reference to the heat we've all been feeling. But it's not just us. People all over the world have been dealing with record-breaking heat waves, lasting days, and, in some cases, weeks.
Europe is being hit particularly hard with recent summer heat waves. The Italian island of Sardinia was expected to hit 117 degrees Tuesday, getting close to Europe’s all-time high record.
But even Europeans are probably glad they don't live in Arizona. Phoenix is set to hit “a record-tying 18th consecutive day” of 110 degrees or higher and there have been “12 confirmed heat related deaths recorded in Maricopa County so far this year as of the first week of July,” CNN reported.
Utah’s already seen malaria cases this year. Here’s why local transmission of the disease isn’t likely
Malaria, a deadly mosquito-transmitted disease, has cropped up in the United States for the first time in decades.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been sixmalaria cases in Utah, all confirmed to be from mosquito bites in foreign countries, according to Hannah Rettler, a Utah Department of Health and Human Services zoonotic and vector-borne epidemiologist.
Five of the people infected had traveled to Africa and the other to Central and South America. None of the cases, which were diagnosed in Salt Lake and Utah counties as recently as June, are currently active, Rettler said, meaning they’ve been investigated and those infected have been treated.
Utah averages about eight confirmed cases of travel-related malaria annually, she said, putting this year’s count “within normal numbers.” There are about 2,000 cases in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
What’s different about the headline-making cases in Florida and Texas are that people were infected with malaria after being bittenby mosquitos in those states over the past two months, something that hasn’t happened in the United States since 2003.
While Utah is experiencing a jump in mosquito activity this year, with double the average amount of mosquitos in some areas, the species of mosquito native to Utah can potentially transmit the disease only very rarely, with just 0.1% of Utah mosquitos capable of carrying the disease.
Read more about how malaria could begin to spread in Utah.
Utah’s Rep. Blake Moore, a steering member of the newly launched Bipartisan Fiscal Forum, said some Democrats and Republicans are delaying solutions to the country’s debt crisis for partisan purposes.
As the U.S. national debt approaches $33 trillion and interest payments on the debt are estimated at just under $400 billion a year, Moore says the formation of the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum, led by five Democrats and five Republicans, will communicate to the White House, and to the country, that Congress is serious about passing legislation to put the nation on a fiscally sustainable path before reaching a crisis point.
But, according to Moore, who represents the 1st Congressional District, recent rhetoric coming from both sides of the aisle has revealed little interest in taking the country’s financial problems seriously.
“From what I’m seeing right now from the Democrat minority, they’re just using the words ‘Social Security’ and ‘Medicare’ as partisan ploys, and same with President Trump,” Moore said in a phone call with the Deseret News. “He’s using it as a partisan ploy to get elderly folks to vote for him. And the Democrats are going to do the same thing in swing districts.”
Bipartisan efforts to cut wasteful spending and to reform entitlement programs have become increasingly rare because “there’s too much to gain from hyper-partisan messaging,” Moore said. “These issues become wedge issues and then they’re used for political gain. That’s why we can’t work together.”
While some see working with the opposing party as unprincipled, Moore says that teamwork between Democrats and Republicans should be viewed as the responsible and patriotic route to a sustainable future.
Read what Moore had to say about specific steps Congress must take to address the country's debt.
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Fresh off his CNN interview, DeSantis to visit Utah Friday (Deseret News)