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Utah Headlines

Political news

• Perspective: True civility means making others uncomfortable (Deseret News)
• Sen. Mitt Romney gets a call from the president during an interview (Deseret News)
• What Donald Trump says about the new Mitt Romney biography (hint: he's not a fan) (Deseret News)

Election news

• Homelessness takes center stage in chaotic Salt Lake City mayoral debate (Deseret News)
• Sandy City calling for an end to illegal mailers targeting a candidate for city council (KSL T
• St. George City Council candidate debate, congressional forum to be staged at Utah Tech (St. George News)

General Utah news

• McDonalds is giving away free fries for the rest of the year — here’s how to get them every Friday until next year (Deseret News)
• 'It's just so spectacular': 43-foot golden spike monument arrives home in Utah (KSL)
• Family, duty and war: Three Utahns and their civilian fight in Gaza (KSL Newsradio)
• Search for missing woman in Weber River called off for season after months of efforts (KUTV)
• Yes, Californians are still moving to Utah. But more Utahns are moving back, too (KUER)

Business

• The economy was supposed to slow. Instead, it's revving up (Wall Street Journal)
• Utah ski resorts take 1st and 2nd place in Ski Magazine’s western rankings (Deseret News)
• New Chipotle locations coming to Utah this week (ABC4)
• Disneyland announces opening date for new Pixar-themed hotel: Jan. 30, 2024 (ABC4)
• Ogden officials eye big airport changes to lure passenger airlines; some skeptical (Standard-Examiner)

Crime

• Vernal couple charged with tying up young son and starving him (KSL)
• Utah mom convicted of killing foster son now faces new charge of abusing another child (KSL)
• Feds say a Bear Lake resort developer bilked investors. He blames construction delays. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Man charged with trying to kidnap a Granger High student (Salt Lake Tribune)

Culture

• Happy National Croc Day! Here’s how Crocs made a comeback (Deseret News)
• ‘We’re very excited’: Historic Utah meetinghouse turned mosque wins major restoration grant (Deseret News)

Education

• Is the era of the homecoming king and queen officially over? (Deseret News)
• University of Utah says all 1st-year students who apply for housing by May 3 will have bed on campus (Deseret News)
• Utah State students compete for answers on nutrition for Utah families (KSL TV)
• Universities worldwide make 'Lauren's Promise' to listen, believe, 5 years after McCluskey murder (KUTV)
• Kearns Junior High students to take part in West Valley Arts Day of the Dead Celebration (Fox13)

Environment

• Is Utah winning the war on algal blooms? The toxic menace lingers into fall and even winter — not just in Utah, but nationwide. No state has been spared. (Deseret News)
• Roundtable: The status of Utah’s energy sector (Utah Business)
• New research reveals how plants warn each other of danger and how it could revolutionize farming (Deseret News)
• This is how farmers are saving water for the Great Salt Lake (KSL Newsradio)
• Westminster University fills mental health care gap in Utah with free counseling services (KUTV)
• Willard Canyon no longer accessible for hiking due to mining (Fox13)
• Utah just saw its quietest wildfire season in at least 2 decades (KUER)

Health

• Why more than 5 billion people are expected to contract malaria by 2040 (Deseret News)
• Why strokes are more prevalent in women (Deseret News)
• Artificial hearts have improved significantly over 30 years at Intermountain Health (KSL)
• Long COVID brain fog may originate in a surprising place, say scientists (NPR)

Housing

• Gen Z paying more than 30% of income on housing (Deseret News)
• Utah’s housing deficit reaches 61,057 homes (Utah Business)
• More homebuyers back out of contracts over affordability concerns (KUTV)

National Headlines

General

• Death Valley reopens after flooding in August closed the park (Deseret News)
• Off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after trying to stop airplane engine midflight (Deseret News)
• Senate staffer attacked at gunpoint near Capitol as crime rises in Washington, D.C. and other major cities (KUTV)
• ‘Superfog’ near New Orleans blamed for highway crashes that killed at least 7 (AP)
• Theft of 2 million dimes from truckload of coins from US Mint leaves four facing federal charges (AP)
• How an academic uncovered one of the biggest museum heists of all time (Wall Street Journal)

Politics

• Here’s how the internal GOP Speaker nomination will work: closed-door, secret ballot, no proxy voting (The Hill)
• Will the prolonged speaker’s race fix ‘out of control spending’? Or make it worse? (Deseret News)
• The 8 House speaker candidates now in the running (Deseret News)
• Republicans can’t open the House, which could shut down the government (Washington Post)
• Congress should consider aid to Israel, Ukraine separately, Sen. Mike Lee says (KSL)
• Trump’s lawyers file challenges to Washington election subversion case, calling it unconstitutional (AP)
• Trump and Cohen to meet again, this time as enemies on trial. Michael D. Cohen once said he would take a bullet for the former president. Instead, he’s giving testimony against him. (New York Times)
• Trump seethes at gag order in federal case while his campaign relishes it (Washington Post)

Election news

• Chris Cillizza: Race to the bottom. In 2024, America will elect a president nobody wants (Deseret News)
• Sandy City calling for an end to illegal mailers targeting a candidate for city council (KSL TV)

Ukraine 🇺🇦

• Ukraine’s leader says Russian naval assets are no longer safe in the Black Sea near Crimea (AP)
• Russian forces apply pressure on Ukraine's Avdiivka, Kupiansk (Reuters)
• Coming of age in Ukraine (New York Times)
• Inside the commando raids unnerving Russia in Crimea (New York Times)
• Russia presses attacks in northeast Ukraine in bid to thwart counteroffensive (Washington Post)

Israel 🇮🇱

• Now freed, an Israeli hostage describes the ‘hell’ of harrowing Hamas attack and terrifying capture (AP)
• World leaders press Israel to minimize civilian casualties (Wall Street Journal)
• Israeli military shows footage from Oct. 7 attacks (Wall Street Journal)
• Israel’s strikes bring the highest single-day death toll of the war, Gazan officials say. (New York Times)
• IDF says it struck Gaza refugee camp (The Hill)
• 'Netanyahu got all the warnings.' says former head of Israeli military intelligence (Politico)
• U.S. readies plans for mass evacuations if Gaza war escalates (Washington Post)

World

• Russian-American journalist detained in Russia could face up to 5 years in prison (Deseret News)
• Women in Iceland including the prime minister go on strike for equal pay and an end to violence (AP)

Number of the Day 

News Releases

Romney applauds federal investment in Utah’s critical minerals manufacturing

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) today applauded an announcement by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) that it would invest in Utah’s critical mineral production and manufacturing industry. Today’s announcement comes after Senator Romney advocated on behalf of the Intermountain Critical Materials Consortium (ICMC), a collaborative group of industry partners led by the Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Initiative (UAMMI), which is developing a regional strategy to advance the production and manufacturing of critical minerals needed for clean energy technologies, many of which lack any domestic production presence. (Read More)

Owens condemns antisemitism

Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Chairman Burgess Owens (UT-04) introduced a resolution condemning support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations at American universities, which have created a hostile environment for Jewish students, faculty, and staff. (Read More)

New child care access report shows licensed child care only meets 36% of Utah’s need.

Voices for Utah Children today released, “Mapping Care for Kids: A County-Level Look at Utah’s Crisis in Licensed Child Care.” This report aims to provide policymakers and the general public with a clear understanding of the pressing need for child care reform in Utah. It highlights the urgent demand for accessible, affordable, and high-quality child care for all working families. 

Licensed child care program capacity is only sufficient to serve about 36% of all children under six whose parents are working. Shortages face parents in every county statewide, with families in rural counties struggling most. The report also shows how effective federal stabilization funding has been for Utah’s child care system, which has grown licensed child care capacity by 31% since 2020. (Read More)

Tweet of the Day 

Upcoming

• 2nd Congressional District Debate — Oct. 26, 6:00 pm
• UVU Conference on Mental Health — Oct. 27, 9 am - 5 pm, Register here
• Martha Hughes Cannon Award with Utah Women Run — Nov 2, 6:00-8:00 pm, Nominate someone here
• Interim Day — Nov 14-15, le.utah.gov
• Celebrating 30 years of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, with the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation — Nov 16, 10 am, MST, Register here
  
• General election — Nov. 21
  

On This Day In History 

• 1830 - Belva Lockwood is born. An attorney, politician, educator, and author, she was the first woman admitted to practice law before the Supreme Court, and ran for U.S. President in 1884 and 1888.
• 1861 - First transcontinental telegraph sent
• 1901 - Annie Edson Taylor celebrates her 63rd birthday by becoming the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
• 1915 - Letitia Woods Brown is born. A pioneer in researching and teaching African-American history, she completed her Ph.D. at Harvard in 1966, and was the primary consultant for the Schlesinger Library’s Black Women Oral History Project.
• 1929 - Black Thursday, the first day of the Stock Market Crash that marked the beginning of the Great Depression
• 1938 - With the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 40-hour workweek went into effect in the United States.
• 1945 - The United Nations is born. (The Charter goes into effect.)
• 2007 - Rosa Parks dies at age 92
• 2022 - US Mint issues first US currency featuring an Asian-American, silent film actress Anna May Wong

Quote of the Day

“Differences of race, nationality or religion should not be used to deny any human being citizenship rights or privileges."

—Rosa Parks

On the Punny Side

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