Situational Analysis | August 4, 2021

Welcome to Wednesday. It is the birthday of the US Coast Guard (established in 1790) and of former president Barack Obama (he turns 60 today). It's also National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.

Be in the Know

1. The Governor and Lt. Governor say they have no plans to implement new COVID restrictions. They both support the free market and letting businesses decide if they will require vaccinations for their employees and/or proof of vaccination from their customers. You can watch the entire press conference here.

2. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez says they are "grateful for the funding for the Navajo Utah Water Settlement Act in the pending infrastructure bill, which will bring desperately needed drinking water to the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation. We commend Governor Cox, Senator Romney and Senator Sinema for their leadership."

3. President Biden, Speaker Pelosi and Mia Love join the entire NY congressional delegation in calling for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign after he sexually harassed multiple women, violated state and federal laws, creating a 'hostile work environment.' He vows not to resign

4. COVID-19 is once again dominating the news as cases surge in Utah and around the country. I've linked to a number of news stories below, but there are many, many more.

Utah Headlines

General

• Olympian receives welcome home parade in Herriman after winning silver medal (ABC4)
• Historic D.C. property will be named for Orrin Hatch and will house University of Utah interns (Deseret News)
• Valerie Hudson: I’m a feminist. A mandatory military draft would be terrible for our women. Women already sacrifice more for their country than men do, and women should not be asked to bear even more (Deseret News)
• Anti-Black Lives Matter letter targeting Salt Lake Valley residents being hand-delivered (KUTV)
• Nomi Health says report on validity of COVID-19 tests should remain blocked from public (Salt Lake Tribune)

Politics

• Silicon Slopes launches political action committee aimed at Utah's Capitol Hill (Fox13)
• Utah’s redistricting commission may be set up to fail, Robert Gehrke says. A shoestring budget and a Herculean task on a tight timeframe has Utah’s first-ever commission scrambling to do its work on the cheap (Salt Lake Tribune)

COVID Corner

• 728 new cases, 5 new deaths
• COVID-19 hospitalizations are nearing summer 2020 levels right now (Deseret News)
• Over 82% of ICU beds full as Utah’s hospitals are once again stretched to capacity by COVID patients (Salt Lake Tribune)
• The lambda variant shows COVID-19 vaccine resistance in lab, new research paper says (Deseret News)
• U.S. hits Biden's 70% vaccine goal as holdouts in hot spots like Florida and Louisiana rush to get shots (Yahoo News)
• Top RNC official in Florida spreads Covid-19 conspiracies, calling vaccines the 'mark of the beast' (CNN)
• Alex Azar, former Department of Health and Human Services secretary, wants everyone - including Republicans - to get the vaccine. He writes: "I was the architect of Operation Warp Speed. I have a message for all Americans." (New York Times)
• New York City to require vaccination for indoor activities, restaurants, gyms (The Hill)

Drought/Wildfires/Heat

• Extreme drought, urban heat and the Utah killer targeting the vulnerable (Deseret News)

Economy

• Utah bet on dropping pandemic benefits to get people back to work. So far, it hasn’t worked. (Deseret News)

Education

• Construction delays have forced Bingham High School to start classes online (Salt Lake Tribune)
• High-risk families were asking a Utah County Commissioner for a mask mandate. She turned to an anti-mask Facebook group to solicit comments opposing them. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Education's digital divide: The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of remote learning in American schools. But experts worry unconnected children from lower-income families will be permanently left behind. (PBS Utah)
• The Malouf Foundation and Southern Utah University just announced a new scholarship program for survivors of human trafficking.The Juniper Scholarship will allow those who have been human trafficked to earn a bachelor's degree through SUU's $9,000 online general studies program. (KSL)

Health

• Putting down your phone may help you live longer (New York Times)

Legal

• Two more Utahns charged with participating in U.S. Capitol insurrection (Fox13)

National Headlines

General

• The gymnast who won’t let her daughters do gymnastics. Rachael Denhollander is one of many people who can no longer watch the Olympics with casual enjoyment. (The Atlantic)
• Pentagon police officer killed during encounter outside U.S. military headquarters, officials say (Wall Street Journal)
• Poll: Public opinion of Supreme Court sags over past year (Politico)

Olympics

• Medal Count: US: 77, China: 70, ROC: 53, Britain: 48, Japan: 39
• Here’s how Sydney McLaughlin beat her own world record to win gold. (New York Times)
• Belarus runner flies to Europe after feud with team managers (AP)
• Sprint queen Thompson-Herah blocked from sharing her races on Instagram (Reuters)
• Large earthquake rattles the Olympics (The Hill)
• Sky Brown: How 13-year-old British skateboarder was urged on to bronze by gold medal winner Sakura Yosozumi (CNN)
• Simone Biles reveals her aunt unexpectedly died during the Olympics (CNN)

Economy

• Americans are willing to take pay cuts to never go into the office again (Bloomberg)

Education

• Law school loses luster as debts mount and salaries stagnate (Wall Street Journal)

Elections

• Shontel Brown wins Ohio Democratic primary in show of establishment strength (The Hill)
• Trump pick wins U.S. House special Republican primary election in Ohio (Reuters)
• NEW POLL: DeSantis slips behind Democratic rival amid scrutiny over pandemic response, surge in COVID-19 cases (The Hill)

International

• Prominent Belarusian activist, who helped others flee Lukashenko regime, found dead in Ukraine (Washington Post)
• Mired in crises, Lebanon marks 1 year since horrific blast (AP)

Policy News

‘Great news for Utah’: What Utahns are saying about the bipartisan infrastructure bill

Support grew across Utah this week for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, bipartisan infrastructure legislation negotiated by U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) and his colleagues. 

Senator Romney released statements of support from Governor Cox, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, Carlos Braceras, the executive director of UDOT, Mayor Mike Caldwell who serves the city of Ogden and is president of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, multiple water conservancy district managers, Derek Miller, the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber and others. (Read More)

Sen. Lee proposes infrastructure alternative

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has put forth an alternative to the “bipartisan infrastructure bill.” Lee’s amendment #2255 is a combination of the Transportation Empowerment Act, the UNSHACKLE Act, and the Davis-Bacon Repeal Act.  The amendment would reduce the federal gas tax by more than eleven cents per gallon, return the national Highway Trust Fund to solvency, speed-up and simplify burdensome National Environmental Policy Act requirements, and remove Davis-Bacon wage rules.  Each of these reforms will allow more federal infrastructure projects to be built more quickly and more affordably. (Read More)

Salt Lake Chamber to honor business and community leaders at 2021 Annual Meeting and Awards luncheon

Utah’s business and community leaders will gather for the Salt Lake Chamber’s 134th Annual Meeting. Attendees will recognize Chamber volunteers and community leaders who have shown exemplary support over the past year by committing their time and abilities to advance the Chamber’s mission and bolster the business community.

“Overcoming the challenges of the past year have taken the best of our talents and coming together to solve problems to ensure we fully emerge from the pandemic stronger than ever,” said Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber and Downtown Alliance. “The leadership exemplified by our Outgoing Chair Craig Wagstaff, to our mission-driven Chamber team, and allies across the community have inspired many to dig deeper and give more. The important work the Chamber performs to advocate for maintaining our friendly business climate, building capacity in our community, and connecting people for the greater good has stood the test of time. I am honored we get to celebrate these leaders of change as they helped us all navigate uncharted territory with steady hands.” (Read More)

Number of the Day

New poll on the EQUAL Act shows strong support from Utah voters

Just days after a rare, overwhelmingly bipartisan 36-5 vote by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to advance the “EQUAL Act” to a full House floor vote, the Libertas Institute, Utah’s premiere conservative free-market think tank, is releasing a poll showing a whopping 73% of Utah voters (including nearly 70% of strongly conservative and Trump voters) support the proposal, which would eliminate the 18-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, often called one of the most egregious racial injustices in America’s drug policy. 

“It appears the EQUAL Act, which would finally and fully eliminate one of the worst vestiges of injustice in America’s drug policy, is not only sound policy, it also makes for very smart politics,” said Molly Davis, Policy Analyst at Libertas Institute. â€œJust as Utah voters dislike proposals like ‘defund the police,’ they also don’t want to return to the failed ‘war on drugs.’ They know all too well that archaic, unfairly harsh penalties for low-level drug offenders at the federal level simply created more criminals rather than better citizens, wasting billions in taxpayer dollars. And when 73% of Utah voters support this common-sense, bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation, our U.S. Senators and Representatives would be wise to follow the lead of Rep. Owens, and announce their support for the EQUAL Act as soon as possible. It’s just a no-brainer.”

Utah’s own Representative Burgess Owens (R-04) is already a co-sponsor of the “EQUAL Act,” which has more forty Republican and Democratic co-sponsors from all over the country. The legislation could go the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives before Congress breaks for the August recess. The bill also received a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, former head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, testified in support of the legislation.

The new poll, commissioned by the Justice Action Network, a bipartisan criminal justice reform advocacy organization, was conducted by conservative pollster Robert Blizzard of Public Opinion Strategies, one of the nation’s leading public opinion research firms, which polls for a quarter of the Republican Representatives in the U.S. House, and a dozen Republican U.S. Senators. 

Read more about this poll and the EQUAL Act.

Upcoming

• Securing the American Dream: A conversation with Tim Scott presented by the Hatch Foundation – Aug 11 @ noon. Register here
• Utah Foundation Breakfast Briefing: Mental health in anxious times – Aug 26 @ 9 am. Register here
• Utah Foundation Annual Luncheon with Shaylyn Romney Garrett – Sept 23 @ 12 pm. Register here

On This Day In History

From History.com

• 1790 - The US Coast Guard is established.
• 1821 - The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first edition.
• 1870 - Red Cross forms in Britain as the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War.
• 1890 - Barbara Armstrong is born. A lawyer and the first female law professor at a law school of a major university, she advocated social insurance throughout her career. She is considered the architect of the US Social Security system.
• 1942 - US and Mexico sign the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement, also known as the Bracero Program. The largest guest worker program in US history, it lasted until 1964.
• 1944 - Anne Frank and her family captured
• 1961 - Barack Obama is born in Hawaii
• 1964 - The remains of three slain civil rights workers found in Mississippi after a massive search.

Wise Words

"No one has ever become poor by giving."
-Anne Frank

Lighter Side

“The easiest time to add insult to injury is when you’re signing somebody’s cast.”

–Demetri Martin

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