Situational Analysis | January 18, 2022

Today is Tuesday and National Winnie The Pooh Day.

It's also the beginning of the annual 45-day legislative session. Let the games begin. 

Be in the Know

• The Utah legislature kicks off its annual 45-day session this morning. The pomp and ceremonies begin at 10 am. 

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2022 Legislative Session

General

• Utah Legislature’s general session will look a little more normal this year, despite omicron surge. Members of the public who aren’t comfortable participating in person can track the session using virtual options. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• How to get involved in the Utah Legislature, whether you have 5 minutes or all day (Deseret News)
• A cynics's guide to the upcoming Utah legislative session (Fox13)
• What are Utah lawmakers prioritizing in 2022? A lot — but not COVID-19 (Deseret News)
• What do rural Utah lawmakers hope to accomplish during the 2022 legislative session? (Deseret News)
• 'Fist bump zones' and COVID tests are how lawmakers will get through another weird session (Fox13)
• Session begins, tax cuts on the horizon (UTPOL Underground)

Today

• The Utah legislature kicks off the 2022 session at 10:00 am. You can watch the opening ceremonies at le.utah.gov 
• State of the Judiciary is at 2:15, then floor time for the remainder of the day.

Tomorrow

• Appropriations meetings at 8 am: Business and Labor, Infrastructure and General Government, Public Education and Social Services.
• Floor time: 11-11:50 and 1:30-2:00

Education

• On MLK Day, Utah legislators announce working group on diversity and inclusion for K-12 education (Deseret News)
• Utah elected officials developing new K-12 curriculum on diversity, inclusion (Fox13)

Government Operations

• Lt. governor says voting rights legislation would only hurt Utah's election process (KUTV)

Health and Human Services

• Bill limits mayors in pandemic response, exempts state facilities from local health orders (KUTV)
• A Utah lawmaker is set to run end-of-life legislation again (KUER)

Revenue and Taxation

• Why this legislator has the sales tax on food in her sights. First-term legislator Rosemary Lesser, a physician from Ogden, is leading the cause to eliminate sales tax from food purchases. (Deseret News)

Transportation

• Proposed bill would make public transit free in Utah (KUTV)

Utah Headlines

General

• Utah celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day; President Nelson issues call to 'abandon prejudice' (KSL)
• Salt Lake community members honored by NAACP for efforts among minority groups (KUTV)
• The ‘audacious’ train plan that could remake a key part of Salt Lake City (Salt Lake Tribune)
• How do you make middle housing more appealing? Make it look like a single-family home (Deseret News)
• BYU celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. day with service projects (Daily Herald)
• After racist incidents, University of Utah marks MLK Day with calls to become a ‘beloved community’ (KUER)

Politics

• The enemy within: How bad citizens threaten the future of our democracy (Deseret News)

In the classroom

• Utah teachers prepare for challenges of online and in-person classes this week (KUTV)

COVID Corner

• Weber High moving to remote learning due to COVID-19 cases (Standard-Examiner)
• No plans to halt school sports or band as Omicron rages, Utah leaders say (ABC4)
• Herd immunity is over—long live superimmunity (Wall Street Journal)
• Workers are calling out sick in droves, leaving employers scrambling (NPR)
• Researcher says Utah's record COVID-19 surge likely due to a number of factors (KUTV)
• Don’t count on omicron ending the pandemic, Fauci says (Washington Post)

National Headlines

General

• First images of Tonga volcano damage show entire communities covered in thick ash (CNN)
• Tonga tsunami sparks 'unprecedented disaster', government says (BBC)
• All homes on one of Tonga's islands destroyed, three dead (Reuters)
• Winter storm sweeps through South and Northeast with crippling amounts of snow (CBS News)
• East Coast storm leaves more than 100,000 without power, at least two dead (Washington Post)
• Large 'potentially hazardous' asteroid passing by Earth on Tuesday. Don't look up. (CBS News)
• Twitter expands feature allowing users to flag misleading tweets (Reuters)
• Major U.S. airlines warn 5G could ground some planes, wreak havoc (Reuters)
• Microsoft to buy 'Call of Duty' maker for $68.7 billion in gaming push (Reuters)

Politics

• Democrats came up short on MLK day promise. What's next for the push for a voting rights bill? (USA Today)
• Senate Democrats press ahead with debate on voting rights bill (New York Times)
• Marchers honor King and call on Senate to pass voting rights legislation (New York Times)
• Biden year one takeaways: Grand ambitions, humbling defeats (AP)
• RNC signals a pullout from presidential debates (New York Times)
• Gottlieb says Biden administration made mistake in federalizing vaccine mandates (The Hill)
• Where voting rights — and the filibuster — stand in the Senate this week (NPR)
• Conservative pundit Ann Coulter says Trump 'is done' - and she's not pulling punches (The Hill)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Utah legislative session begins – Jan 18, 2022, 10:00 am
• State of the State address - Jan. 20, 2022, 6:30 pm. Watch here or here.
• State of the Union address - Mar 1, 7 pm MST
• Utah legislative session ends – Mar 4, 2022, midnight
• Fireside chat with Justice Clarence Thomas hosted by the Hatch Foundation - Mar 11, 2022, 7 pm

On This Day In History

From History.com

• 1778 - Captain Cook reaches Hawaii. 
• 1788 - The First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony.
• 1803 - President Thomas Jefferson requests $2500 from Congress to fund the Lewis and Clark expedition.
• 1827 - Joseph Smith and Emma Hale are married
• 1882 - A.A. Milne’s birthday.
• 1911 - The first landing of an aircraft on the deck of a ship takes place in San Francisco Harbor.
• 1912 - Robert Scott reaches the South Pole only to find that Roald Amundsen had beat him by a month. Scott and his team all died on their way back to base camp.
• 2000 - Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky dies, just shy of her 103rd birthday. She was a renowned Austrian architect who created a standardized kitchen designed to maximize workflow. She was active in the Nazi resistance movement and was arrested and jailed until the war was over.

Wise Words

“One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries.”
― A.A. Milne

Lighter Side

“Well, guys, former President Trump is in the news. Apparently he’s been trashing Florida governor Ron DeSantis behind his back, calling him a ‘dull’ guy who has no chance of beating him in a potential 2024 matchup. Trump was like, ‘I have to insult him behind his back ’cause I can’t tweet it to his face.’” 

— JIMMY FALLON

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