Situational Analysis | June 9, 2022

Today is Thursday and National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day. Do you ever wonder who first said "Hey! Let's try these red stalk things!" Or how they found out the leaves were poisonous? 🤔 

Be in the Know

• A shooter fired as many as two dozen rounds from a treeline, twice striking the Hill Cumorah Visitors’ Center in Manchester, New York on Wednesday afternoon. About 80 people were at the visitors’ center at the time of the shooting, according to the report. The news outlet said the gunfire triggered a massive police response, including a SWAT team, but the shooter had not been found. 
  
  
• The US House committee investigating the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol is holding its first public hearing tonight, beginning at 6 pm MDT on all major networks except Fox News. The committee has conducted interviews with about 1,000 people and has obtained more than 140,000 documents. Rep. Liz Cheney said “The question for every one of us is, in this time of testing, will we do our duty? Or will we look away from danger, ignore the threat, embrace the lies?”

Rapid Roundup

• Utah naval cadet Taylor Connors died with family by his side, a garbage truck totaled 6 cars in a Bountiful parking lot, hundreds of cockroaches were released during an arraignment in New York, a man with a gun was arrested near Judge Kavanaugh's home in Maryland, the UN is warning of a "food catastrophe" and some Black Latter-day Saints don’t feel safe in their own wards, with more racism today than during segregation.

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Utah Headlines

General

• As China verges on becoming the premier global economy, how do U.S. businesses survive? That's the focus of the China Challenge Summit at UVU today (Deseret News)
• $2 billion contract to Northrup Grumman will create 200 Utah jobs to boost rocket booster production (KSL)
• Parents share message to 'love like Grace' after grieving their daughter's drowning in Ogden (KSL)
• June is meant to celebrate Pride but it also brings a spike in hate crimes to Utah (KUER)
• Eileen Gu won three medals at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games earlier this year. Her new gig is global ambassador for the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games. (KPCW)

Politics

• How would GOP Senate candidates fare against Evan McMullin in Utah A large chunk of undecided voters will have a loud voice in a competitive race come November (Deseret News)
• Editorial Board: Tired of hearing about Jan. 6? This is why we must keep caring - this means everything for our democracy (Deseret News)
• Editorial Board: What’s the real tragedy in the gun control debate? Doing nothing. (Deseret News)
• Utah County Commission delays ‘elected officer’ investigation following sheriff, county attorney dispute (KSL TV)

Education

• Utah educators attend threat assessment training (ABC4)
• Park City School District discussing settlement in abuse case (Fox13)
• BYU students build Mars rover, compete in international challenge (Fox13)
• Across the country, educational equity was in vogue. Then it wasn’t. A Colorado Springs superintendent loses his job after school board elections usher in conservatives and the equity program is on its way out too. (Washington Post)
• Virtual high schools are growing in Utah. Here’s why (Salt Lake Tribune)

Environment

• Check out this new dashboard that shows environmental trends in the Central Wasatch. The online tool presents current and historical environmental data for policymakers, residents and land managers. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah man will spend 4 years in federal prison for killing eagles without authorization (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Two Utah farms produce kitchen staples with up to 90% less water than traditional agriculture. Hydroponic farming essentially replaces soil with water to grow all kinds of crops. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• New $50 million pipeline project looks to improve water quality at the Great Salt Lake (Fox13)

Health

• Latter-day Saint missionaries returning home should be screened for tuberculosis (Deseret News)
• What the CDC says travelers need to know about monkeypox (Deseret News)
• How will rising COVID-19 cases affect summer travel plans? COVID-19 cases are five times higher than they were this time last year (Deseret News)
• Officials: Millions of COVID-19 shots ordered for youngest (AP)

Housing

• More signs point to cooling in Utah's housing market (KUTV)
• SLC clears way for new apartments at Western Garden Centers site near Trolley Square (Salt Lake Tribune)

Between its massive size and level of government involvement, China's economy is like no other in the world. How will a forecasted slowdown in China's economic growth affect the country's political stability and the rest of the global economy? At today's China Challenge Summit â€“ hosted by World Trade Center Utah and Utah Valley University in partnership with Utah Policy – leading experts will take a deep dive into China's economy. They will provide the latest assessments of President Xi's economic policies and ambitions, the business environment for foreign companies operating in China, challenges to demographic and workforce trends and the sustainability of Beijing's zero-COVID policy. Thanks to a generous donation from Zions Bank, you can join virtually for free. Sessions begin at 9 am.

National Headlines

General

• Canadians love their guns, too. So why are their gun laws stricter? (Deseret News)
• The creator of the FBI mass shooting protocol is 'shocked' by Uvalde police response (NPR)
• Poll: Support for controlling gun violence hits its highest point in a decade (NPR)
• Tech's tumble worst since 2002, ending a decade of stock-market dominance (Wall Street Journal)
• Ukraine war, higher interest rates prompt businesses to dial back overseas investment (Wall Street Journal)
• Brookings think tank sidelines retired general amid federal probe (Washington Post)
• The billionaires behind a push to reinvigorate U.S. chip-making (New York Times)

Politics

• Jan. 6 Capitol attack committee goes prime time with probe (AP)
• Jan. 6 panel to put Trump at center of ‘coordinated, multistep effort’ to overturn election (The Hill)
• House passes tough new gun measures hours after wrenching testimony but bill expected to go nowhere in the Senate (Washington Post)
• Parents of trans children sue Texas to stop child-abuse investigations (Washington Post)
• American trust in government near ‘historic lows,’ Pew finds (Washington Post)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

• War displaced two-thirds of Ukraine's children. Keeping them safe isn't easy (NPR)
• Key city’s fate in balance as fighting rages in east Ukraine (AP)
• Ukraine says troops hold on Sievierodonetsk, advance in south (Reuters)
• Russia cracks down on critics of military actions in Ukraine (AP)
• More bodies found in Mariupol as global food crisis looms (AP)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• China Challenge Summit with WTCU, at UVU – June 9, 2022, 8:30-4:30, Register here
• Hatch Foundation Debate w Lindsey Graham & Bernie Sanders – June 13, 10 am MDT. Tune in here
• Utah Legislature Interim Days – June 14,15 le.utah.gov for more info
• Primary election day â€“ June 28
• General election â€“ Nov 8

On This Day In History

• 1856 - Mormon handcart pioneers leave Iowa City for Salt Lake City.
• 1869 - Charles E. hires sells his first root beer
• 1921 - Phyllis Wallace is born. An economist, she was the first African-American woman full professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a pioneer in the study of gender and race discrimination in the workplace.
• 1943 - "Pay-as-you-go" (withholding) US income tax deductions authorized
• 1949 - Georgia Neese Clark of Kansas becomes first woman treasurer of US
  1954 - “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” Sen. Joseph McCarthy is asked in a hearing by Joseph Welch, special counsel for the US Army. This marked the end of McCathy’s conspiracy of the “Red Scare” infiltrating all levels of the US
• 1964 - CIA report challenges President Lyndon B. Johnson’s ‘domino theory’ of foreign policy which was being used as the basis by which decisions were made about Southeast Asia
• 1978 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints strikes down 148 year policy of excluding Black men from priesthood
• 2013 - Edward Snowden publicly makes his identity known as the leaker of NSA documents

Wise Words

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." 

—Calvin Coolidge

Lighter Side

“Americans like entertainment; Congress wants Americans to pay attention to politics. Those two don’t mix. But there is one person who can make political machinations interesting for the masses; there is only one man: Lin-Manuel Miranda.” 

— TREVOR NOAH

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