Good morning! Here’s your forecast:

🌥️ 15 – 33° in Logan

⛅ 26 – 39° in Salt Lake City

🌤️ 32 – 51° in St. George

It was tough putting this email together today because there were a LOT of good stories. Let me start you off with a few of my favorites:

🧔🏻‍♂️ Sen. Mitt Romney shocked the world by growing out his beard. If you thought politics were polarized, then you haven’t seen anything. Meg Walter wrote this piece about the controversy behind Mitt’s new devil-may-care look.

💔 Kelsey Nield wrote a beautiful profile about a young woman named Zahra who had to flee religious persecution in Afghanistan. She is a part of a minority faction of muslims called the Hazara who have faced relentless discrimination and abuse at the hands of the Taliban.

🤫 Pssst! Don’t forget to take a look at the photo of the week at the end of the email. Photographer Ben Braun caught a spectacular moment at the University of Utah game against USC.

Also on our minds: Gen Z has a complicated relationship with religion, what happens when NBA players are critical of how games are officiated and Utah offers a rare apology over a rape cover up.

What leads women to become homeless in Utah?

The Utah Women & Leadership Project released a new report looking at gender differences in homelessness. Here are a few key takeaways from the report:

Domestic violence contributed to many of the women seeking access to homelessness services. 2021 data showed 26.7% of all women accessing services had experienced domestic violence at some point.
Nationally 18 in 10,000 people experience homelessness compared to Utah which is 9.8 in 10,000.
Nearly 4 in 10 — more than 9,000 people — who accessed homelessness services during 2021 in Utah were women. One-quarter of those individuals were younger than 18.
Women accessing homelessness services are more likely to present with children.
In 2022, the state legislature invested “historic amounts of funding” into addressing homelessness.

What else did the study say? Read the article here.

Poll: Are Utahns confident their government conducted a fair and accurate election?

Utahns have significant trust in election officials according to a new poll. They feel confident that their state and local election officials conducted a fair election.

By the numbers:

49.1% of voters feel very confident in the election.
38.2% felt confident
8.6% didn’t feel very confident.
3.6% didn’t feel at all confident.

Weber County Clerk Ricky Hatch said of the results:

“Six years ago, I would have been really disappointed with these numbers ... but given what has happened with all these allegations, and the fact that back in February, the same type of question produced an 81% confidence level, I’m pretty pleased with that. And we’ll get back up into the high 90s, I’m sure.”

Read the full story here.

Business:

PepsiCo layoffs could be a signal for more corporate cutbacks (Deseret News)

Police and Courts:

‘A lot of quality leads’ in University of Idaho homicide case (Deseret News)
Utah offers rare apology over 'disturbing evidence' of cover-up of rape claims against trooper (KSL)

The Courts:

Perspective: The most outlandish analogies in the 303 Creative case (Deseret News)
Get Gephardt: Husband sued for deceased wife's unpaid medical bill (KSL)

Entertainment:

Sundance Film Festival releases 2023 line-up (Axios)

Faith:

How Gen Z threatens the future of religious freedom protections (Deseret News)
A Christian guide to dealing with heartbreak (Deseret News)

Northern Utah:

How this Hill AFB major hopes to inspire a new generation of Air Force pilots (KSL)

Wasatch Front:

Here’s where SLC Mayor Erin Mendenhall wants to spend $6M to reduce homelessness (Salt Lake Tribune🔒)
Worker shortage puts Utah’s prison in ‘crisis’ (Salt Lake Tribune🔒)

The Nation:

Police called to Sen. Ted Cruz’s home amid emergency involving daughter (Deseret News)

The World:

Volodymyr Zelenskyy named Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ (Deseret News)
Germany arrests 25 accused of plotting far-right coup (Deseret News)
Taliban conducted public execution, possibly the first since its return to power (Deseret News)

Sports:

Opinion: When NBA players are critical of how games are officiated, it comes with a price. And it’s not right (Deseret News)
Analysis: What hiring of Weber State’s Jay Hill as associate head coach and defensive coordinator means to BYU’s football program (Deseret News)
Why Cade Fennegan could make his BYU debut at the New Mexico Bowl (Deseret News)

Photo of the Week

Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham is doused in celebration before beating the USC Trojans in the Pac-12 Championship at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. The Utes are playing in the Rose Bowl for the second straight season, this time against Penn State. Read the story here.

📸: Ben B. Braun, Deseret News

Check your inbox tomorrow morning for more news from the Beehive State and beyond! 🐝

And reply to this email or email newsletters@deseretnews.com to tell us what you think of Utah Today!

— Kathleen

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