Construction Underway, Scheduled Operation: 2025

The Intermountain Power Project's transformational “IPP Renewed” project is under construction and on track for mid-2025 start-up. The project includes new natural gas-fueled electricity generating units that will also utilize "green" hydrogen for long-term, dispatchable storage of renewable energy. There are currently 998 workers on site in Millard County, with 1200 expected during peak construction. Click here to watch construction unfold. For more information, visit www.ipprenewed.com

Utah Headlines

Legislative session

• Davis County seeking $30 million to build homeless resource center (Fox13)

Business and Labor

• Utah lawmaker wants to raise the minimum wage based on age (KSL Newsradio)

Government Operations

• Bill intended to improve Utah’s homelessness services passes House 74-0 (Deseret News)
• Revamped Utah bill aims to exempt NIL agreements from open records law (Deseret News)
• Logan rep introduces bill to create a Utah Office of Families (UPR)

Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice

• How Utah might tackle its domestic violence epidemic (Deseret News)
• 16-year-old Om was killed in 2023. Now his childhood friend is advocating for change (Deseret News)
• Bill would fund Utah's rape recovery centers, focus on spotting abuse in relationships (KUTV)
• Utah bill looks to strengthen child exploitation laws against AI-generated porn (KUTV)

Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

• Billboard industry won’t get seat on Scenic Byway Committee in revised bill, but critics say the companies still have influence (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah says ‘I don’t think so’ to federal land exchange at Bears Ears (Deseret News)
• Bill would hide Utah golf course water use (Fox13)

Other Utah News

Political news

• Utah congressman switches vote to ‘no’ on Mayorkas impeachment at the last minute as a procedural move to bring it back later (Deseret News)
• Utah Reps. Burgess Owens, John Curtis and Celeste Maloy don’t think the $118 billion border bill is the solution (Deseret News)
• Sen. Mitt Romney on the border bill: Politics is now ‘the art of the impossible’ (Deseret News)
• Gov. Cox speaks on disagreeing better while protesters meet outside (UPR)

Election news

• Groups set to present caucus training event this week (Standard-Examiner)

Culture

• Step aside, baseball: America has a new favorite pastime (Deseret News)
• Usher embraced the code word ‘Utah’ to keep a super-sized secret from his kids (Deseret News)
• Is the big box office gamble of ‘The Chosen’ paying off? (Deseret News)
• Utah Transit Authority brings back 'Date Nite Train' for Valentine's Day (KUTV)

Education

• University of Utah President Taylor Randall: ‘U.’s diversity is its strength’ (Deseret News)
• University of Utah professors say they’re frustrated by state’s anti-DEI measure — and the ‘chilling effect’ it’s already having (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Equity training is now considered discriminatory in Utah’s K-12 schools (Salt Lake Tribune)

Family

• Perspective: The great sleepover debate (Deseret News)

Health

• PCOS suicide risk calls for mental health monitoring, treatment (Deseret News)

National Headlines

General

• Standoff at Eagle Pass (Deseret News)
• Jennifer Crumbley convicted of involuntary manslaughter over son's school shooting in Michigan (NPR)
• Why Americans are so down on a strong economy (Wall Street Journal)

Political news

• Trump is not immune from prosecution in his 2020 election interference case, US appeals court says (AP)
• 4 takeaways from Trump’s loss in his immunity case (Washington Post)
• Border security and Ukraine aid collapses despite Biden’s plea for Congress to ‘show some spine’ (AP)
• Aid package for Israel fails in the House, dealing another setback to GOP leaders (AP)
• House fails to pass articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas (NPR)
• The Republicans who won’t take yes for an answer (The Atlantic)

Election news

• ‘None of these candidates’ projected to beat Nikki Haley in Nevada primary (Deseret News)
• After falling out of favor with Trump, Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, is planning to step down. (New York Times)

Ukraine 🇺🇦

• Ukraine rations munitions as end of U.S. aid looms, Russia inches forward (Wall Street Journal) 
• Senate to vote on Plan B: Ukraine funding without border security (The Hill)

Israel 🇮🇱

• Hamas proposes 135-day Gaza truce with complete Israeli withdrawal (Reuters)
• Diapers and baby formula are hard to find in Gaza, leaving parents desperate (AP)

World news

• ‘Disaster of the century’: 1 year after the earthquake that demolished parts of Syria and Turkey (Deseret News)
• Chile's former president Sebastian Pinera dies in helicopter crash (Reuters)

Number of the Day 

News Releases

Romney joins colleagues in requesting Speaker Johnson invite Japanese Prime Minister to give Joint Address to Congress

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, today joined 28 of his colleagues, led by Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), in sending a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) encouraging him to invite Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to address a Joint Session of Congress during his Official Visit to the United States in April 2024. (Read More)

Utah leaders reject exchange of School and Institutional Trust Lands

Gov. Spencer J. Cox, President J. Stuart Adams and Speaker Mike Schultz released the following statement regarding the governor’s withdrawal of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Legislature’s joint resolution rejecting the proposed land exchange of state school and institutional trust lands and mineral interests for federal lands and mineral interests.  

“Utah has sought for a collaborative, inclusive approach to managing our public lands, including in the management of the Bears Ears National Monument, yet the Biden administration continues to ignore our good faith input. The federal government has signaled that it once again plans to adopt a restrictive land management plan that will harm recreational access, grazing, and other traditional public uses of these lands. When the administration is prepared to have a serious and good faith collaborative discussion about land management, we stand ready to renew discussions of a land exchange.” (Read More)

Wasatch Jr. High Principal sleeps on roof to raise money for Granite Education Foundation, ‘Souper Bowl of Caring’

As part of the “Souper Bowl of Caring,” Wasatch Jr. High Principal Mary Basso slept on the school’s roof Tuesday, February 6, to raise money for the Granite Education Foundation. From 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., Basso will be waving to students and collecting more money for the cause (Wasatch Jr High, 3750 S 3100 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84109).

Wasatch Jr High students held several events, including dumping buckets of water and throwing plates of whipped cream on student and staff volunteers, raising over $35,000 since January 29. (Read More)

UVU student and ‘Team USA’ teammates win gold at the World Trampoline Championships in England

Simon Smith, a 22-year-old, pre-dental student at Utah Valley University (UVU), and three â€œTeam USA” teammates won the Team gold medal in the double-mini event at the 2023 FIG World Trampoline Championships in Birmingham, England last November. (Read More)

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Feb. 7 — Women in Leadership Executive Series: Finance, 11:30 am-12:30 pm,Register here
• Feb. 8 — Women in Leadership Executive Speaker Series: Traditional Industries, 2:00-3:00 pm,Register here
• Feb. 21 — Women in Leadership Executive Speaker Series: Women Focused Organizations, 11:30 am-12:30 pm,Register here
• Feb. 22 — Understanding Utah’s Caucus-Convention System, with GOP Chair Rob Axson and Dem. Chair Diane Lewis, sponsored by Utah Women Run, 6:00-7:30 p.m., Register here
• Mar. 1 — Legislative session ends 
• Mar. 5 — Caucus night
• Mar. 20 — Utah Foundation Annual Lunch, 11:45 am-1:30 pm; Grand America, Purchase tickets here
• Apr. 20 — United Utah Partyconvention
• Apr. 27 — State GOP and Democratic Conventions

On This Day In History 

• 1812 - Charles Dickens is born.
• 1812 - A series of earthquakes causes a “fluvial tsunami” in the Mississippi River, causing the river to run backwards.
• 1867 - Laura Ingalls Wilder is born.
• 1872 - Amy Brown Lyman is born in the tiny farming community now known as Pleasant Grove, Utah. She brought social work to Utah and worked to reduce maternal and child mortality.
• 1918 - Ruth Sager is born. A scientist, she worked on corn genetic research in plants, studied cancer research after 1975 and became professor of cellular genetics and chief of the Cancer Genetics Division at Harvard Medical School.
• 1945 - President Truman appointed Irwin C. Mollison judge of the US Customs Court, making him the first Black federal judge in the U.S.
• 1962 - Full US-Cuba embargo announced by JFK.
• 1979 - Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death,” dies of a stroke in Brazil. His death was not verified until 1985. 
• 1984 - Navy Captain Bruce McCandless II becomes the first human being to perform an untethered space walk.
• 1992 - European Union treaty signed. 
• 2002 - President George W. Bush announces plan for faith-based initiatives
• 2020 - Dr. Li Wenliang, Ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital in China died from COVID after warning the world of a mysterious pneumonia in late December 2019.

Quote of the Day

"Om should not be dead. Om should be getting his driver’s license. Om should be practicing a new piece on his saxophone. Om should be applying for college this year. But no matter how desperately I want to bring him back, I know that I can’t."

—Ella Udell, age 17, writing in the Deseret News

On the Punny Side

My wife got angry at me for kicking the dropped ice cubes under the refrigerator...

But now it’s all just water under the fridge.

– Advertise With Us –

Subscribers may receive special messages with information about new features, special offers, or public policy messages from clients and advertisers.