Situational Analysis | August 5, 2022

It's Friday and National Water Balloon Day. The best way to fill them? That nifty invention that lets you fill 100+ at a time and you do not even have to tie them off....

Also, it's Rep. Chris Stewart's annual Security Summit at the Little America, from 8:30-1:00.

Be in the Know

• The US economy added more than a half million jobs in July, more than doubling expectations as the job market showed surprising strength. Employers added 528,000 jobs in July according to the Labor Department — a significant acceleration from the previous month. The unemployment rate nationally dropped to the pre-pandemic low of 3.5%, meaning the US has now made up all the jobs lost during the pandemic. So are we in a recession? If we are, it's certainly a weird one. â€œRecession – what recession?” wrote Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings, wrote after the numbers came out. “The U.S. economy is creating new jobs at an annual rate of 6 million – that’s three times faster than what we normally see historically in a good year. ‘’

Rapid Roundup

• Feel like the earth is spinning faster and faster? You're not wrong! June 29 was the shortest day in history. A missing Utah woman found alive 1 week after crashing car in 300-foot ravine, a Utah team of veterans in wheelchairs bring home multiple gold medals, goats and sheep are being used to help prevent Utah wildfires, and an argument on TikTok leads to stabbing in Bountiful.

Utah Headlines

General

• Grand County attorney bought property from someone her office was prosecuting (KUTV)
• Biker falls 60 feet in Zion National Park (ABC4)
• Hill Air Force airman charged in Syria base blast that injured troops (KUTV)
• Salt Lake County offers program to help people with life after incarceration (Fox13)
• Utah wants to help Afghan refugees prosper. Will the federal government get in the way? (Reason)
• The American Dream: What millions of genealogical records teach us about immigration (CGO)

Politics

• Lt. Gov. Henderson: 'Turn down the rhetorical heat' on election fraud claims (KUTV)
• Lawsuit dropped over recount demand in Washington County (Fox13)
• ‘This is not over’: Citing potential court costs, Billings withdraws House 72 recount complaint (St. George News)
• Rep. Blake Moore: You should know what’s happening with national defense funding (Deseret News)
• Gene Davis accused of ‘sexual misconduct’ by Utah Senate intern, a problem some Democrats allege has been ignored by the party. Salt Lake County Democratic Party has “temporarily suspended” longtime state Sen. Gene Davis from all party events in the county. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Stephanie Thompson Lundeen: Our nation is caught between two parties in perpetual conflict (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Former SLC Mayor Rocky Anderson to run for mayor. Again. (KSL Newsradio)
• Ogden hikes taxes, but drops politician pay raise (Fox13)

Business

• Utah couple with Down Syndrome running popular food truck (Fox13)

Education

• Western Governors University at 25: How a group of governors disrupted higher education (Deseret News)
• Terry Marasco: Substitute teachers don’t get enough respect (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Nathan Flynn: Occupational licensing could reduce teacher shortages (Salt Lake Tribune)
• ‘We can’t afford these luxuries’: Parents blast Jordan school board’s $30 million tax increase. After hearing hours of comments from critics, the board voted 6-1 to increase its property tax levy by 23%. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah districts short on support staff as school is about to start (KSL)
• NAACP President asks DOJ to mediate SLC School Board, Gadson dispute (KUTV)
• Mendenhall confident in school district's handling of superintendent controversy (KUTV)

Environment

• Get ready to stretch the water supply — population is booming and drought isn’t ending (Deseret News)
• Utah board approves 'historic' $190M in secondary water meter grants. Here's why that matters (KSL)
• The underwater wonders of Glen Canyon resurface as Lake Powell sinks to new lows (KUER)
• Extreme heat continues to hit the nation with nearly 90 million Americans under a heat advisory (Deseret News)
• Why aren’t Florida sea turtles having little boy turtles? It has to do with the temperature of the sand (Deseret News)
• (Mostly) good news from the Great Barrier Reef. Coral cover on portions of the reef at highest level in 36 years (Deseret News)
• Robert Redford and family set aside more than 300 acres as wilderness at Sundance resort (Salt Lake Tribune)
• “Live to Breathe” campaign encourages steps for clean air (KSL Newsradio)

Family

• What’s next in the lingering baby formula shortage? (Deseret News)
• Centenarian celebration honors Utahs 100 years and older (Fox13)

Health

• Utah’s COVID-19 deaths jump, case counts dip, state reports, Twenty-eight more Utahns have died from the coronavirus. (Salt Lake Tribune)

National Headlines

General

• Two dead after Thursday night lightning strike near White House (Washington Post)
• Seven years of sex abuse: How Mormon officials let it happen (AP)
• Alex Jones must pay $4.1 million to Sandy Hook parents, jury rules (Washington Post)
• Jury in Alex Jones defamation case to begin deliberations on punitive damages (Reuters)
• Brittney Griner sentenced to nine years in penal colony for bringing drugs Into Russia (Wall Street Journal)
• Washington and Moscow are ready to negotiate over Griner, officials say. (New York Times)

Politics

• Former GOP vice president Dick Cheney called Donald Trump a ‘great threat to our republic’ (Deseret News)
• How 3 presidents announced the deaths of terrorist leaders and what it says about them (NPR)
• Democrats say they’ve reached agreement on economic package (AP)
• Kari Lake, election denier backed by Trump, wins Arizona’s G.O.P. governor primary (New York Times)
• Pelosi: US will ‘not allow’ China to isolate Taiwan (The Hill)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

• US aid chief counters food crisis, Russia (AP) 
• Russia’s vow to annex occupied Ukraine sparks divisions, pleas for aid (Washington Post)

News Releases

Utah’s consumer sentiment continues to fall in July

Utah’s consumer sentiment fell in July, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy  Institute’s Survey of Utah Consumers. The Utah index fell to 62.9 in July, compared to 64.4 in June. A similar survey for the United States showed consumer sentiment rising slightly, increasing to 51.5 in July compared to 50.0 in June. This is the first month since the Gardner Institute began tracking consumer sentiment in October 2020 where the Utah index has fallen while national sentiment increased.  (Read More)

WGU leads nation in nursing graduates

Today, the Utah Foundation releases America’s Nursing School: The Nursing Program at Western Governors University. The analysis, commissioned by Western Governors University (WGU), finds that the institution is playing a leading role in filling this vital health care and economic need across the country.

Among the findings of the study: 

• As an online university, WGU has provided 84,390 nursing graduates from all 50 states since 2009 – 60,368 of whom received bachelor’s degrees in nursing and 24,022 of whom received master’s degrees in nursing.
• WGU nursing graduates make up 2.0% of all the registered nurses with an active license in the nation.
• In 2021, WGU produced a whopping 17% of the nation’s registered nurses earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, suggesting that its already outsized role in educating national nursing personnel will rapidly expand.

Utah Foundation President Peter Reichard described WGU’s impact as “eye-popping.” (Read More)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Women in the Money with Utah State Treasurer's Office — Sept. 15-16, Salt Lake Sheraton + online, Register here
• ULCT Annual Convention — Oct 5-7, Salt Palace Convention Center, Register here
• General election â€“ Nov 8

On This Day In History

• 1624 - William Tucker, 1st child of African descent to be born in an English colony in America, is born in Jamestown, Virginia
• 1858 - First transatlantic telegraph cable completed
• 1861 - Abraham Lincoln imposes the first federal income tax
• 1864 - Battle of Mobile Bay, won by the Union Army led by Rear Admiral David Farragut with the cry "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" 
• 1962 - Marilyn Monroe is found dead
• 1963 - The US, Great Britain and the Soviet Union sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater or in the atmosphere. 
• 1981 - Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 air-traffic controllers
• 2011 - Hazel Johnson dies. She was the first Black woman to become a general in the U.S. Army. She was appointed the Chief of the Army Nurse Corps in 1979. Johnson held a doctorate in education administration.
• 2014 - Obama signs The Iron Dome Bill providing $225 million in additional funding for Israel's Iron Dome defense.
• 2019 - Toni Morrison, writer and first African American woman to win a Nobel Prize, dies at age 88.

Wise Words

"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."

—Toni Morrison

The Punny Side

I had to clean out my spice rack and found everything was too old and had to be thrown out. 

What a waste of thyme.

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