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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 600 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

• Salt Lake City and SL County mayors warn of fallout from 2 controversial bills (KSL TV)

Business and Labor

•  'Giant target on our backs': Transgender bathroom bill clears Utah Senate committee (KSL)
• Utah transgender bill threatens millions in federal funds for sexual assault, domestic violence services (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Big changes to how Utah kids use social media are — again — in the works at the Legislature. Here’s why. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Education

• DEI debate comes to Utah Senate amid national controversy. Demonstrations took place at the University of Utah and the state Capitol in opposition to a bill prohibiting ‘discriminatory’ diversity, equity and inclusion practices (Deseret News)
• 'An issue of humanity': U. students defend diversity efforts; committee, nevertheless, recommends change (KSL)
• ‘Untested’: Utah’s higher education commissioner questions anti-DEI bill approach (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Lisa-Michele Church: College degrees are our best investments. They should be accessible to all. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Howard Stephenson: The Utah Legislature is considering defunding Utah’s world-renowned Dual Language Immersion program. They shouldn't. (Deseret News)
• No kindergarten unless potty trained? Why a Utah lawmaker is pushing for the mandate. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Government Operations

• Should the deadline for by-mail ballots be changed in Utah? HB214 held in committee (Deseret News)
• Lawmakers propose resolution condemning communism, socialism (KSL Newsradio)

Judiciary

• There’s a Utah House bill for those auto-renewal subscriptions you may have forgotten (Deseret News)

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

• Here’s why a Utah lawmaker wants to ban polygraph tests for those who report they were sexually abused (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Bill proposes establishing model for all sexual assault investigations in Utah (KUTV)

Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

• Bill in Utah's legislature seeks to cut emissions by 50% in 10 years (Fox13)
• Market forces will decide the fate of coal, even as Utah tinkers with energy policy (KUER)

Other Utah News

Politics

• Cox, other GOP governors want Biden to tap the brakes on EV transition (Deseret News)
• John Curtis holds Senate campaign launch party with hundreds in attendance (Deseret News)

Utah news

• Former S.L. District Attorney David Yocom, who prosecuted Ted Bundy, Mark Hofmann, has died (Deseret News) 

Business/Tech

•  TikTok cuts jobs as tech layoffs continue to mount (NPR)

Crime

• Court upholds conviction of nanny who sexually abused Utah rabbi as a boy (KSL)

Culture

• The demise of an old friend — how Sports Illustrated fell apart (Deseret News)
• Voyaging in Film: Sundance 2024 celebrates Tongan short film ‘Lea Tupu’anga’ (KSL TV)

Education

• Prison, jail education programs help incarcerated youths, adults change trajectory (Deseret News)
• Utah class sizes are the largest in the nation. What that can mean for students (KSL)

Environment

•  Great Salt Lake commissioner to ask for reservoir releases (Fox13)

Family

•  Having more siblings may negatively affect mental health, study says (Deseret News)

Health

• Intermountain Health performs more than 400 organ transplants during record-setting 2023 (Fox13)

Housing

•  â€˜A proud moment’: New facility for medically vulnerable homeless officially opens doors (ABC4)

National Headlines

General

• Dexter Scott King, son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., dies of cancer at 62 (AP)
• A Texas school district superintendent defended the continued suspension of a Black student over his locs in a full-page newspaper ad. “Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity (The Messenger)
• 'America is under attack': Inside the anti-DEI crusade (New York Times)

Political news

• Biden administration can cut razor wire along U.S.-Mexico border, Supreme Court says (Deseret News)
• McCarthy: Freedom Caucus has ‘stopped Republicans from being able to govern’ (The Hill)
• Sen. Mike Lee co-sponsors bipartisan PRESS Act, giving journalists protection from federal entities (Deseret News)

Election news

• Trump: ‘Highly unlikely’ DeSantis will end up in Cabinet (The Hill)
• This Bud’s for Him. Ron DeSantis reached for Churchill, but came up with a line from a Budweiser ad. (The Atlantic)
• Trump, Haley spar in New Hampshire over foreign wars (Reuters)
• Some key differences between New Hampshire and Iowa voters (NPR)
• What to watch in the New Hampshire primary (New York Times)
• Sununu says Trump has ‘no energy’: ‘He can barely read a teleprompter’ (The Hill)
• Donald Trump has a big problem ahead. A whole swath of GOP voters appears firmly committed to not voting for Trump in November. (Politico)

Ukraine 🇺🇦

• Drones are hit and miss for Ukrainian soldiers (Reuters)

Israel 🇮🇱

• Israeli military suffers deadliest day since Gaza war began (Wall Street Journal)

World news

• Serbian archaeologists unearth Roman triumphal arch (Reuters)
• Turkey set to approve Sweden's NATO membership bid after long delay (Reuters)
• 7.1 magnitude quake rattles western China, killing at least 3 people and collapsing 47 homes (AP)
• Remote African hub reopens for migrants headed toward Europe (New York Times)

Number of the Day 

News Releases

Utah’s State Privacy Officer identifies compliance gaps in online privacy policy statements

The Office of the State Auditor today announces that the State Privacy Officer (SPO) has completed the first comprehensive compliance review of over 1600 Utah governmental entities and governmental non-profits and their compliance with statute governing privacy protections and policies.

The review showed that 66% of the reviewed entities currently fail to meet all the necessary criteria specified in statute.  These governmental entities range from counties and cities to school districts, charter schools, and water districts, which, between them, serve all the residents of Utah. (Read More)

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Jan. 24 — Davis County Safe Child Community Training, Syracuse High School, 7:00 pm, Register here
• Jan. 31 — Utah County Safe Child Community Training, Cascade Elementary School, 7:00 pm, Register here
• Feb. 5 — Women in Leadership Executive Speaker Series: Healthcare, 11:30 am-12:30 pm, Register here
• Feb. 6 — Cache County Safe Child Parent and Community Training, Riverwoods Conference Center, 7:00 pm, Register here
• 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
• 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

On This Day In History 

• 1556 - Deadliest earthquake in history rocks China, killing an estimated 830,000.
• 1737 - John Hancock is born
• 1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first female in U.S. history to be officially recognized as a physician, earning her medical degree from Geneva College in New York.
• 1855 - Gun designer John Browning is born in Ogden, Utah.
• 1859 - Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii begins an eruption that lasts 300 days.
• 1870 - Soldiers massacre sleeping camp of peaceful Blackfeet in northern Montana. 
• 1907 - Kansas elects the first Native American senator, Charles Curtis. During his career as a politician, Curtis would serve as the Senate Majority Leader, support the 19th Amendment and become the first Native American Vice President when Herbert Hoover won the election in 1928.
• 1916 - Temperature falls from 44°F to -56°F the night of 23-24 in Browning, MT
• 1918 - Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist and drug researcher who developed groundbreaking leukemia and herpes drug treatments (Nobel Prize, 1988), is born.
• 1964 - The 24th Amendment banning poll taxes in federal elections is ratified, as South Dakota became the 38th state to endorse it.
• 1997 - Madeline Albright becomes the first female secretary of state after unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate. 
• 2002 - Reporter Daniel Pearl kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan.
• 2005 - Johnny Carson dies at age 79.
• 2016 - Category 5 blizzard delivers record 3ft of snow to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast US, killing 55 and incurring an estimated $500M - $3B in economic losses.
• 2018 - Twelve camels disqualified from the King Abdulaziz Camel beauty contest, Saudi Arabia after their owners used botox on their lips.
• 2021 - Larry King dies at 87.

Quote of the Day

“The reason I made women's issues central to American foreign policy, was not because I was a feminist, but because we know that societies are more stable if women are politically and economically empowered.”
—Madeleine Albright

On the Punny Side

What do you call an army of babies?
Infantry.

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