Construction Underway, Scheduled Operation: 2025

The Intermountain Power Project's transformational “IPP Renewed” project is under construction and on track for mid-2025 start-up. The project includes new natural gas-fueled electricity generating units that will also utilize "green" hydrogen for long-term, dispatchable storage of renewable energy. There are currently 600 workers on site in Millard County, with 1200 expected during peak construction. Click here to watch construction unfold. For more information, visit www.ipprenewed.com

Utah Headlines

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

• Rev. King’s advice for developing compassion? Learn to see another’s point of view (Deseret News)
• Why Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a national day of service (Deseret News)
• Rev. Theresa Dear: What Coretta Scott King asks of us on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Deseret News)
• Salt Lake City, Ogden holding Martin Luther King Jr. Day marches, activities (KSL)
• Eddy Thompson Jr. knows the power of perspective, and building bridges (Deseret News)
• Five essential sermons delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. (Deseret News)

Political news

• Jill Biden to visit Utah this week (Deseret News)
• Margaret Busse & Jeff Shumway: Monthslong waitlists and high costs: Why many Utahns are struggling to get mental health treatment (Deseret News)
• Utah lawmakers to consider state NIL law for first time (Deseret News)
• ‘The goal is to veto nothing’; says Gov. Cox for 2024 session (KSL TV)
• The first anti-DEI bill of the Utah legislative session is now public. Here’s what it says. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah lawmakers unveil flagship bill to restrict DEI statements, alter programs (Daily Herald)
• ‘They don’t even speak English’: GOP lawmaker weighs barring immigrant children from public schools (Deseret News)
• Utah County Commission approves salary raise for elected county officials (Daily Herald)
• Candidates finalized and session approaches (Hinckley Report)
• Lawmaker plans to repeal, replace Utah's social media law for minors (KUTV)

Election news

•  Climate takes center stage in Curtis’ Senate campaign (Deseret News)

Utah news

•  Utah will keep on growing — quickly — and that’s a good thing, Gov. Cox says (Deseret News)
• Sunday Edition with Jennifer Sirangelo on why we serve and why it matters (KSL TV)

Crime/Courts

• Tim Ballard faces four new criminal sexual assault complaints in California, attorney says (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Police investigate Salt Lake City’s first homicide of 2024 (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Teen arrested after ’emptying his clip’ in Fashion Place Mall shooting (ABC4)

Culture

• Why a tiny Iceland elf home is the tiniest listing on Zillow (Deseret News)

Environment

• Clean energy advocates set their sights on XGR reforms for 2024 (Deseret News)
• Kazakhstan’s drying Aral Sea carries a message for those worried about the Great Salt Lake (KUER)

Family

• Day care accessibility, affordability can't meet Utahns' needs, new report shows (KSL)

Health

• Women with pregnancy-related depression face greater risk of suicide, even over time (Deseret News)
• The health fads you shouldn’t get caught up in this year (Washington Post)

Housing

• Why zoning is key to watch as Utah legislators tackle the issue of affordable housing (Deseret News)
• Utah gov.: ‘The single greatest threat to our future prosperity is the price of housing’ (Deseret News)
• Smaller households to dominate Utah's future. Can walkable neighborhoods accommodate them? (KSL)

National Headlines

General

• In the red: The alarming rise of credit card debt (Deseret News)
• 3 migrants, including 2 kids, drowned in Eagle Pass days after Texas blocked Border Patrol from area, congressman says (KSL Newsradio)
• Iowa principal who risked his life to protect students during a high school shooting has died (AP)
• Nearly 100 million Americans are facing extreme cold this week (NPR)

Political news

• Congressional leaders unveil stopgap bill to head off shutdown (New York Times)
• Former MLK speechwriter: Slain civil rights leader would describe Trump as ‘moral fraud’ (The Hill)
• Supreme Court set for pivotal cases that could claw back federal administrative power (The Hill)
• Johnson faces conservative blowback over latest spending patch (Politico)

Election news

• Utah Sen. Mike Lee endorses Donald Trump for president (Deseret News)
• Iowa caucuses: What to watch as voters weigh in on the Republican campaign’s first contest of 2024 (AP)
• As Iowa prepares to vote, focus is on who places second (Wall Street Journal)
• Haley wins backing from ex-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who won’t mount his own third-party 2024 bid (AP)
• DeSantis plans to go from Iowa to South Carolina, instead of New Hampshire, as he targets Haley (AP)
• Joe Biden closes out 2023 with a strong $97 million fundraising haul (Washington Post)

Ukraine 🇺🇦

• Ukraine ground commander says his troops, now on 'active defence', can still surprise (Reuters)
• He warned of nuclear disaster in Ukraine Then he was thrown in a Russian jail and tortured. (Wall Street Journal)

Israel 🇮🇱

• Photos: 100 days of the Israel-Hamas war (NPR)
• Israel bombs targets across Gaza, Hamas to reveal 'fate' of three hostages (NPR)
• They thought they knew death, but that didn't prepare them for Oct. 7 (New York Times)

World news

• Volcano erupts in Iceland, flowing lava reaches fishing town (Reuters)
• In Uganda, refugees’ need for wood ravaged the forest. Now, they work to restore it (AP)
• Why the world is betting against American democracy (Politico)

Number of the Day 

News Releases

2024 Martin Luther King Day Beloved Community celebration at the state Capitol

As we welcome the new year, join us at the 2024 Martin Luther King Day Celebration in Utah. Let’s celebrate unity, upliftment, and the ongoing work for equity. 

Event Details:

• Date & Time: Monday, January 15, 2024
• Community Gathering & Celebration Walk: 9:30 am @ Utah State Capitol
• Community Choir Concert: Noon @ The Gateway
• Community Service Project (Donation Center): Noon @ The Gateway (Read More)

Utah Senate Minority caucus announces 2024 General Session priorities

We are deeply committed to the well-being of all individuals and families. We envision our state to be a place where all people have the freedom to learn accurate history, the freedom to exercise critical thinking, the freedom to make informed choices, the freedom to breathe clean air, and the freedom to receive quality care. 

This 2024 General Session, as we pursue health, prosperity and safety for all, we will be focused on the following: 

• Healthy communities
• Responsible growth
• Environment & air quality 
• Housing
• Education
• Upholding democracy 
• Criminal justice reform
• Homelessness
• Fostering innovation
• Water 

(Read More)

Salt Lake Chamber announces 2024 legislative priorities

The Salt Lake Chamber hosted the annual Utah Economic Outlook & Public Policy Summit with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute to release its 2024 legislative priorities. The Chamber identified several priorities for public policy, chief among them being affordable housing, homelessness, water infrastructure and conservation, and workforce development. (Read More)

2024 Economic Report to the Governor highlights resilient Utah and U.S. economies

The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute presented the 36th Economic Report to the Governor to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox at the 2024 Economic Outlook & Public Policy Summit, hosted by the Salt Lake Chamber. The report highlights the resilience of the U.S. and Utah economies in 2023 and projects continued, albeit slowed, economic growth in 2024. (Read More)

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Jan. 16 — Legislative session begins
• Jan. 17 — Local Officials Day on the Hill
• Feb. 5 — Women in Leadership Executive Speaker Series: Healthcare, 11:30 am-12:30 pm, Register here
• Feb. 7 — Women in Leadership Executive Series: Finance, 11:30 am-12:30 pm,Register here
• Feb. 8 — Women in Leadership Executive Speaker Series: Traditional Industries, 2:00-3:00 pm,Register here
• Feb. 21 — Women in Leadership Executive Speaker Series: Women Focused Organizations, 11:30 am-12:30 pm,Register here
• Mar. 1 — Legislative session ends 
• Mar. 5 — Caucus night

On This Day In History 

• 588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah’s reign.
• 1777 - Vermont declares independence from New York.
• 1870 - The Democratic Party donkey first appears in Harper’s Weekly.
• 1895 - Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” ballet premieres in St. Petersburg.
• 1898 - Irene Kuhn is born. She became a journalist and scooped the world when a tidal wave hit Honolulu in 1923, worked on Thomas Dewey’s campaign and wrote a conservative, nationally syndicated column for more than two decades.
• 1919 - The Great Boston Molasses Flood killed 21 people and injured scores of others when fiery hot molasses burst from a huge tank in the heart of the city.
• 1927 - Tennessee Supreme Court overturns John T. Scopes' guilty verdict for teaching evolution
• 1929 - Martin Luther King Jr born.
• 1943 - The Pentagon is completed.
• 1967 - The first Super Bowl was held. The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. The cost of a 30-second commercial was $42,000.
• 1970 - Qaddafi, the son of a Bedouin farmer, becomes premier of Libya.
• 2000 - Utah's Jerry Sloan becomes 12th coach in NBA history to reach the 700-victory plateau when the Jazz defeat the LA Clippers, 112-75 at the Delta Center, Salt Lake City
• 2001 - Wikipedia is launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger
• 2009  - Chesley Sullenberger lands US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River
• 2018 - US Olympic gold medal winning gymnast Simone Biles says she is one of more than 130 women sexually abused by former team doctor Larry Nassar

Quote of the Day

“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.” — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 

On the Punny Side

I accidentally took my cats meds last night...

Don't ask meow.

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