Situational Analysis | July 12, 2022

Good morning! It's Tuesday and National Simplicity Day. 

Be in the Know

• Today's Jan. 6 committee hearing will focus on extremist organizations like the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and QAnon. Top leaders and members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have been charged with seditious conspiracy in the most serious cases the Justice Department has brought so far in the Jan. 6 attack. The committee will also focus on "the tweet heard 'round the world," from former President Trump: ​​“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” he tweeted Dec. 19, 2020. Live coverage begins at 11 am MDT.
• Ukrainian forces struck an ammunition depot deep inside Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine's south, as Russia shelled Ukrainian cities in the east, Ukrainian officials said.Russia says it was just a fertilizer storage facility. Also, Iran is preparing to provide Russia with drones, as well as training for its forces to use them.

Rapid Roundup

• Today and tomorrow are Amazon Prime Day(s): here are some of the best deals
• Not to be left out, Target has its own version of Amazon Prime Day. Here are its best deals
• A swimmer in Iowa was infected with a brain-eating amoeba

FROM OUR SPONSOR, DESERET NEWS MARATHON

This is the race! Join us for this year's Deseret News Marathon on July 23.

First run in 1970, the Deseret News Marathon is the oldest road race in Utah and the 4th oldest marathon west of the continental divide. The marathon follows the path the Utah pioneers traveled when they first entered the valley. This event is truly a part of Utah’s heritage! Register today!

Utah Headlines

General

• Abortion remains legal in Utah, after a judge decided Monday to continue blocking trigger law (Salt Lake Tribune)
• A place of their own. As we celebrate America, we can’t forget the many immigrants who weave its magnificent tapestry – or the hardship of building a new life here. (Deseret News)
• Is there a gun in your house? New poll reveals how many Utahns own firearms (Deseret News)
• Uber files: Leaked records show how ride-hailing giant ‘broke laws, duped police’ in rise to power (Deseret News)
• Which Utah tech companies have the most employees? There are 29 Utah businesses that are classified as tech companies and report having at least 500 employees. Amazon is #1. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Yes, data centers use a lot of water. But a Utah company shows it doesn’t have to be that way. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Suspect allegedly hangs Ogden man, kills Spanish Fork man as part of 'purge' directed by God (Fox13)
• Judges opened a Utahn’s therapy records to her abuser’s lawyer. They should have let her defend her privacy, new ruling says. The Utah Supreme Court ruled crime victims have a right to be heard in cases affecting their rights; decision reverses the state’s Court of Appeals. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Politics

• Americans are smarter than our leaders think we are. Politicians don’t seem to respect us. Maybe that’s why so many of us don’t respect them (Deseret News)
• What Senate candidate Evan McMullin sees as the biggest threat to the U.S.: Our unmooring from the truth (Deseret News)
• Rep. Andrew Stoddard: The EPA has been restricted — it’s up to Utah to lead out on climate action. Decarbonization and environmentally friendly policies need to be a priority in Utah. We can combat climate change “the Utah way” (Deseret News)
• ‘No anomalies’: Utah Lt. Gov. visits Cache County for post-election audit (UPR)

Education

• Granite School District offers summer food pantry program (KSL)
• Search for new university president at SUU trimmed to three candidates (SUU News)

Environment

• Northern Utah should expect ‘dangerously hot conditions’ this week (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Here are the largest fires burning in Utah and the West (Deseret News)
• Gov. Cox urges fire safety after 23 human-caused blazes spark over the weekend (KSL)
• Gov. Cox: Those who start Utah wildfires ‘will be held responsible’; weekend blazes still scorching acres (Salt Lake Tribune)
• The race to save the giant sequoias at Yosemite National Park. The National Park Service’s Yosemite unit said the fire, reported July 7 near the Washburn Trail in the Mariposa Grove section of Yosemite, had grown to more than 2,340 acres by Monday morning (Deseret News)
• Who owns the land for the proposed Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola station? Snowbird, which would benefit from a gondola, quietly bought the land for the project late last year. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Health

• These omicron subvariants could be the most infectious human viruses ever, expert says. Each person infected with omicron subvariants BA.4 or BA.5 can pass the virus to about 18 others. This is more contagious than any other human virus (Deseret News)
• Utah doctors try to solve latest COVID mystery: Why are kids getting diabetes after the virus? (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Federal judge blocks Arizona’s ‘personhood’ abortion law (AP)

Housing

• Building is underway but Salt Lake City’s tiny home village still faces red tape (KUER)

National Headlines

General

• NASA unveils the deepest-ever view of the cosmos with images from the James Webb telescope (Deseret News)
• Far out: NASA space telescope’s 1st cosmic view goes deep (AP)
• The Library of Congress has named Ada Limón the nation's 24th poet laureate. She takes over for Joy Harjo, who has held the position since 2019. (NPR)
• UK Olympian Mo Farah reveals he was trafficked as a child (AP)
• 😮 Amazon issued 13,000 disciplinary notices at single U.S. warehouse (Reuters)

Politics

• Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony jolted the Justice Department to more openly discuss former President Trump’s conduct. (New York Times)
• It's time for Trump to 'sail into the sunset,' says Musk (Reuters)
• Half of GOP voters ready to leave Trump behind, poll finds. Far from consolidating his support, the former president appears weakened in his party, especially with younger and college-educated Republicans. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is currently the most popular alternative. (New York Times)
• An anti-Trump Republican group, the Republican Accountability PAC, plans to spend at least $10 million to beat candidates who embrace Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election. (New York Times)
• GOP sees chances of midterm rout spike (The Hill)
• Doomsday political scenario takes shape for Democrats (The Hill)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

• Famed Ukrainian medic describes 'hell' of Russian captivity (AP)
• Putin will travel to Tehran next week as he seeks to build support. (New York Times)
• The U.N. will investigate the deaths of children in Ukraine. (New York Times)
• Europe braces for gas ‘nightmare’ as pipeline from Russia shuts off (Washington Post)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Hatch Center Webinar: Preserving Judicial Integrity — July 14, 11:00 am, MDT. Register here
• Monument dedication to Black pioneers — July 22, 10:00 am, This is the Place Heritage Park
• ULCT Annual Convention — Oct 5-7, Salt Palace Convention Center, Register here
• General election â€“ Nov 8

On This Day In History

• 1389 - Geoffrey Chaucer is named chief clerk to the king by Richard II
• 1849 - Dolley Madison dies. She was the 4th First Lady of the United States
• 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln signs a law that creates the Medal of Honor
• 1909 - 16th Amendment (income tax) was passed by Congress
• 1984 - Geraldine Ferraro named vice presidential candidate, the first woman to be named on a major political ticket
• 1997 - Malala Yousafzai is born. She is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. In 2012, they shot her in the head for teaching other girls to read.
• 2013 - Malala Yousafzai addresses the United Nations and calls for worldwide access to education

Wise Words

“Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.”
― Greg McKeown, in Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

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