Situational Analysis | August 10, 2022

It's Wednesday and National S’mores Day - are you a burn-the-marshmallow S'mores eater or a slowly-toast-the-outside S'mores eater?

Be in the Know

• Serena Williams is stepping away from tennis to focus on her family. Sharing the cover photo from the September issue of Vogue, she wrote on Instagram: "There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction. That time is always hard when you love something so much. My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun. I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just exciting Serena. I'm gonna relish these next few weeks." Her goodbye to tennis comes in her own words as the 23-time Grand Slam champion wrote in Vogue about her decision to try to have another baby.  “Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” she said in her essay. “If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family...But, I'm turning 41 this month and something's got to give."

Rapid Roundup

• US inflation eased slightly to 8.5% in July, pickle seasoning on pizza 🍕, Pinkbox Doughnuts is coming to Utah, Spider-Man turns 60 (!!), PETA wants animal cruelty charges for man who tried to burn a spider, and speaking of spiders, new research suggests they sleep, perchance to dream with what appears to be REM cycles. 🕷 Do you think they dream about being burned by a flame thrower??

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Utah Headlines

General

• 6 times when author David McCullough taught Utah audiences about history (Deseret News)
• Moab business owner 'really upset' no arrests made yet in June incidents (KUTV)
• Mill Creek Canyon visitors should expect delays for the rest of the summer. Asphalt resurfacing and drainage system maintenance in part of the canyon began Monday (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Good inflation news: Online shopping prices are suddenly falling fast (KSL)

Politics

• The Inflation Reduction Act includes a tax credit for electric vehicles but most electric vehicles won’t qualify (Deseret News)
• Gov. Cox weighs in on FBI's search of Trump estate, Utah's water situation in online Q&A (KSL)
• ‘I don’t believe anybody should be above the law’: Gov. Cox talks Mar-a-Lago raid, monkeypox and drought at virtual town hall. Gov. Cox also discussed gas prices and the Uinta Basin Railway among other topics Tuesday. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Women leaders show solidarity against harassment in Utah politics (Fox13)
• Documents detail 2016 sexual harassment claims against Utah state senator (KUTV)

Business

• Flying high with Utah’s most mysterious mogul. Brandon Fugal — the real estate tycoon and owner of Skinwalker Ranch — is reshaping the state he loves and the future of the new west. (Deseret News)
• Consumer confidence at record lows in Utah (KUTV)
• One year ago vs. today: Comparing gas price changes in Utah vs. national average (Fox13)

Education

• Back to school: Kindergartners may need extra help due to pandemic social disruptions (KSL TV)
• Davis School District celebrates new teachers ahead of school year (KSL TV)
• Inflation causing challenges for Utah families struggling to pay for back-to-school items (KUTV)
• Sandy salon gives free back-to-school haircuts (Fox13)
• West Jordan family says school boundaries forcing child too far from home (KUTV)

Environment

• Mark Squillace and Quinn Harper: Hard choices are ahead for the Colorado River. Business as usual will not solve the problem of the shrinking Colorado River. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• 'Dust Lake City' disaster looming as Utah professor fights to save the Great Salt Lake (KSL)
• Utah woman plants milkweed to help endangered monarch butterflies survive migration (KSL TV)
• SLCo Council urges action to save the Great Salt Lake (Fox13)
• No easy fixes to Utah's drought but experts offer some solutions (KUTV)

Family

• Snapchat rolls out option to let parents see who their teens are messaging (KSL)
• Your kids may need help making friends after the big pandemic pause. Here's how (KSL)
• National Ability Centers breaks ground on new mountain center (KPCW)

Health/Well-being

• Please don’t call me skinny — What I learned from an eating disorder (Deseret News)
• ‘Lucky to be alive’: Ashton Kutcher on struggling with a rare autoimmune disease (Deseret News)
• How intergenerational trauma works. In 2013, researchers trained mice to fear a certain odor. Over time, the study revealed that the next generation of mice had a sensitivity to that odor. Something similar happens to humans, too. Psychological damage caused by events like war, abuse or poverty casts shadows through generations (RadioWest)

Housing

• The dark side of Utah’s surging home values: An ‘unprecedented’ tax burden (Deseret News)
• Increased housing costs weigh on Southern Utahns; Housing Action Coalition seeks attainable solutions (St. George News)
• These Salt Lake westsiders were displaced from their homes, here’s where they are now (KUER)
• In a shift, developers in St. George area may need water managers’ approval to build (Salt Lake Tribune)

National Headlines

General

• Elon Musk sells nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla stock amid Twitter uncertainty (Wall Street Journal)
• Domino’s leaves Italy, where — surprise — diners prefer local pizza 🍕 (Washington Post)

Politics

• President Biden signs $280 billion microchip bill aiming to boost ailing U.S. industry (Deseret News)
• Mar-a-Lago search appears focused on whether Trump, aides withheld items. A lawyer for Donald Trump said agents seized about a dozen boxes on Monday, months after 15 boxes of items were returned (Washington Post)
• GOP rallies around Trump following FBI search of his estate (AP)
• After Mar-a-Lago search, users on pro-Trump forums agitate for ‘civil war’ — including a Jan. 6 rioter (NBC News)
• Republicans who blast FBI's Trump search are prepping to snag Joe in a Hunter Biden probe (Politico)
• Trump says he’ll be questioned in New York investigation into finances (The Hill)
• Michels wins Wisconsin GOP governor primary, will face Evers (AP)
• Omar ekes out House primary win over centrist in Minnesota (AP)
• Biden signs measures giving U.S. approval to Sweden and Finland’s bids to join NATO. (New York Times)
• Most Americans support using the popular vote to decide U.S. presidents, data shows (NPR)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

• ‘Potentially catastrophic’: Shelling of nuclear complex in Ukraine raises alarms (Deseret News)
• Russian disinformation spreading in new ways despite bans (AP)
• Blasts rock Russian air base in Crimea (Wall Street Journal)
• Ukraine says 9 Russian warplanes destroyed in Crimea blasts (AP)
• Kazakhstan's unease toward Russia grows as Ukraine war drags on (Wall Street Journal)
• Experts raise questions about Russian claims on blast that killed Ukrainian POWs (Washington Post)
• As Ukraine holds the line in Donbas, Russian fire shatters cities in Moscow’s path. In Bakhmut, cluster munitions injure civilians as the infrastructure is gradually destroyed (Wall Street Journal)
• The other Ukrainian army: Imperiled by Russian invaders, private citizens are stepping forward to do what Ukraine’s government cannot. (The Atlantic)

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Upcoming

• Interim Days — Aug 16-18, le.utah.gov
• Women in the Money with Utah State Treasurer's Office — Sept. 15-16, Salt Lake Sheraton + online, Register here
• Interim Days — Sept. 20-22, le.utah.gov
• ULCT Annual Convention — Oct 5-7, Salt Palace Convention Center, Register here
• Interim Days — Oct 18-20, le.utah.gov
• General election â€“ Nov 8

On This Day In History

• 1776 - Word of the Declaration of Independence finally reaches London
• 1793 - Louvre Museum opens in Paris
• 1846 - Smithsonian Institution created.
• 1858 - Anna J. Cooper is born. Upon receiving a Ph.D in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1924, Cooper became the fourth African American woman to earn a doctoral degree.
• 1874 - Herbert Hoover is born. He becomes the 31st US president.
• 1921 - FDR stricken with a paralytic illness at summer home. At the time it was thought to be polio, but could possibly have been Guillain–Barré syndrome
• 1943 - Adolf Hitler watches lynching of Allied pilots
• 1977 - Son of Sam serial killer is arrested.
• 1981 - 6 year-old Adam Walsh is found decapitated.
• 1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as the second woman and 107th Justice to serve on the US Supreme Court.
• 2018 - Evidence of one million Uighurs being held in "counter-extremism centers" in China presented to UN Committee on Human Rights.
• 2019 - Jeffrey Epstein found dead in his jail cell.

Wise Words

“Whatever you choose to do, leave tracks. That means don’t do it just for yourself. You will want to leave the world a little better for your having lived.”
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The Punny Side

Why is Peter Pan always flying?

He neverlands.

I like this joke because it never grows old.

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