Utah Headlines

Deseret News

• Facebook suspended Donald Trump indefinitely. This group could overturn that decision -The social media giant's global Oversight Board is seeking public input as it prepares to make a 'consequential' decision.
• America doesn't need a revolution. It needs a rediscovery of values and common sense - Boyd Matheson writes that America should rediscover the principled lessons of Ronald Reagan, ensuring the swiftest and surest path to progress.
• Bill to change Dixie State University's name clears Utah House committee - Dixie State University took another step toward a name change Wednesday after the House Education Committee voted 12-2 in support of HB278.
• What Mitt Romney thinks about transgender girls competing in girls sports - Sen. Mitt Romney found himself in agreement with conservative Sen. Rand Paul on not allowing transgender students to participate in girls sports during a Senate committee hearing Wednesday.
• Utah's Evermore amusement park sues Taylor Swift for trademark infringement - A lawyer for Swift, in responding to a cease-and-desist letter from the park, called the claims "baseless" and said the Utah business hasn't suffered damages but had benefited from the association.
• Reminiscent of 'Footloose,' Utah teen urges school board to let us dance - Caitlin Bone said the restrictions should be lifted because the school district now has the capacity to test students who would plan to go to a dance on the day of the event.
• Should elementary kids participate in school suicide prevention programs? - Rep. Brian King says it's needed. More Utah youth ages 10 to 24 die from suicide than any other cause, he told members of the House Health and Human Services Committee.
• Why Sen. Mike Lee says nuking the filibuster would be a disaster for Democrats, Republicans - Lee said the point of the filibuster and the Senate itself is to provide for deliberative debate and forge compromise among a diverse and divided nation.

Salt Lake Tribune

• Utah domestic violence shelters seek more state funding to meet need during COVID-19 - Utah's domestic violence shelters are asking the Utah Legislature for more support, as they face significant cuts in federal funding that could affect their ability to respond to the increase in people needing help during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Camp Last Hope in Salt Lake City dispersing ahead of planned health department sweep - Many of the dozens of unsheltered individuals who have been living there will move to smaller encampments in the city.
• Anti-pornography bill is derailed after Utah lawmakers decline to take a vote - The fate of a proposal requiring mobile devices and tablets to filter out adult content by default is now uncertain after legislators suddenly adjourn.
• Utah researchers launch world's largest gene-mapping study for kids, seek 50,000 volunteers - Doctors hope to find genetic markers to identify cancer, heart disease and other disorders.
• Moderate Mitt Romney and far-right Rand Paul join to oppose allowing transgender youth in girls' sports - "I think boys should be competing with boys and girls should be competing with [girls] on the athletic field."
• The number of Utahns hospitalized with COVID-19 is falling - The number of Utahns hospitalized with COVID-19 dipped on Tuesday, 396 down to 352. The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care dropped from 130 to 119.

Other

• Millcreek mayor urges eligible residents to get vaccinated (ABC 4) - "COVID-19 has taken a particularly hard toll on our senior citizens," says Mayor Silvestrini. "I'm thrilled that our senior Millcreek residents are receiving this life-saving vaccine. This is the first step toward returning to life as normal."
• Community steps up to support Sugar House pastry shop through pandemic (KSL) - Carol's Pastry Shop, 1991 S. Lincoln St., first came into being in 1948 and is still operated today by 92-year-old Al Walkenhorst and his 88-year-old brother, Bob.
• Salt Lake City unveils plans for 300 West redesign (KSL) - Plans are to reconstruct and reimagine 300 West between 900 and 2100 South, with an eye toward greater safety and accessibility on the heavily trafficked corridor.

COVID Corner

• 350,000 Utahns have now had COVID-19; official warns state still in thick of pandemic (Deseret News)
• AstraZeneca vaccine appears to substantially reduce transmission of the coronavirus, study shows (CNN) - The rate of positive PCR tests declined by about half after two doses, according to preliminary results by researchers at the University of Oxford that have yet to be peer reviewed. Their analysis, released as a preprint Tuesday, also supports spacing out doses and estimates good efficacy after just one shot of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
• Russia to ship COVID-19 vaccine to rebel-held eastern Ukraine, Kremlin says (Yahoo! News) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday Russia would supply the rebel-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine with its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 despite Kyiv's ban on using the Russian shots.
• CDC director say schools can safely reopen even if teachers aren't vaccinated (The Denver Channel) - Walensky cited CDC data showing that social distancing and wearing a mask significantly reduce the spread of the virus in school settings.
• Covid-19: Fact-checking Macron's claim about the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine (BBC News) - French president Emmanuel Macron claimed that it was "quasi-ineffective" for people over 65.
• Younger adults are biggest spreaders of Covid-19, study suggests (CNN) - Biggest spreaders are 20-49. Children accounted for very little spread, the researchers said, as did older adults.
• Misinformation between COVID vaccine and infertility raises alarm for women (CBS News) - Jay Huber, a fertility doctor in New Orleans, is asked daily by his patients if the vaccine causes infertility. He said there's no evidence of that happening.
• Fauci says 'no red flags' seen in 10,000 pregnant women who've received Covid shots so far (CNBC) - Pregnant women and young children were excluded from the original U.S. clinical trials of the vaccines, as is typical in experimental vaccine research. That's led to some concerns that there's not enough data to be sure that the vaccines are safe among pregnant women.
• UK says new study vindicates delaying 2nd virus vaccine shot (Associated Press) - Britain's health chief has hailed a new study suggesting that a single dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine provides a high level of protection for 12 weeks, saying it supports the government's contentious strategy of delaying the second shot so it can protect more people quickly with a first dose.

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National Headlines

• House Republicans To Keep Rep. Liz Cheney In Leadership Position (NPR) - Via secret ballot, 145 members voted to keep her in her leadership role, and 61 members voted to strip her of the position.
• House Republican leader punts on punishing Marjorie Taylor Greene as Democrats move toward removing her from committees (CNN) - McCarthy announced no new repercussions for Greene.
• Democracy or the white supremacist mob: which side is the Republican party on? (The Guardian) - Today Washington is staring at something like a new dawn the start of the post-Trump era and Republicans don't know which side of the war they're on. Are they with the United States or with the insurrectionists?
• Proud Boys may have planned Capitol breach to retaliate against police for member stabbed at earlier march, FBI alleges (Washington Post) - Social media posts by a Washington state member of the Proud Boys arrested Wednesday indicate that he and others were planning in advance to organize a group that would attempt to overwhelm police barricades and breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
• Psaki defends Biden's 'vast majority' are 'decent' comments about FBI agents (Fox News) - The "vast majority" comment, though not inaccurate, didn't sit well with some in the context of agents losing their lives.
• Fact Check: Did Fox News Not Cover Ceremony For Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick? (Newsweek) - They did, albeit briefly on the main channel. NewsNow from Fox covered the entire event, and the Fox News' YouTube channel also live-streamed the scenes from the Capitol rotunda.
• Prosecutors want arrest warrant, higher bond for Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse over questions about current address (Chicago Tribune) - He's no longer living at his last known address and prosecutors say they do not know where he is.
• Biden administration to house migrant teens at overflow facility in Texas closed under Trump (USA Today) - The facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, will house up to 700 migrant children within the next two weeks.
• Greene apologizes to GOP colleagues - and gets standing ovation (The Hill) - While Greene was apologetic in her remarks, she stated that she felt nothing she said would ever be good enough for the media or Democrats, according to one source in the room.
• Pentagon, stumped by extremism in ranks, orders stand-down in next 60 days (Reuters) - The Pentagon has yet to define how it will deal with extremism or offer data estimating how many service members hold white nationalist ideology. It has also not disclosed how many troops have been disciplined for extremism.
• US ends deal with Arizona restricting Biden on immigration (Associated Press)
• Parler CEO fired by company board (Wall Street Journal) - "Over the past few months, I've met constant resistance to my product vision, my strong belief in free speech and my view of how the Parler site should be managed," he said.

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Policy News

Salt Lake Chamber surveys business owners to facilitate vaccination efforts
The Salt Lake Chamber's Roadmap to Recovery Coalition, in partnership with Chamber's Foundation - Utah Community Builders, has developed resources for employers seeking to understand the complexities of vaccine policy and business strategy. Part of this effort is a survey to gauge operational willingness and readiness of the business community to support a large-scale vaccine rollout.

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DICK'S Sporting Goods announces expansion of female-focused initiatives
In honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day (today, Feb 3), DICK'S Sporting Goods announced it will expand its efforts in support of female athletes throughout 2021. The Company's 2021 efforts to champion women, while highlighting the importance youth sports play in the lives of girls will include:

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Sen. Lee introduces parental rights bills
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Parental Accessibility Rights for Emergency and Negligent Treatment (PARENT) Act and the Parental Right to Know Act Wednesday, a pair of bills designed to ensure that parents have access to the policies regarding the care and medical records of their children from hospitals and organizations that use taxpayer funding.

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Sen. Lee introduces "Cancel the Coin Act" to eliminate debt limit loophole
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Wednesday after introducing the Cancel the Coin Act earlier this week. The bill would remove the Treasury Secretary's ability to mint coins of any value.

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Webinar, Feb 10: Developing an effective COVID-19 vaccination policy
Mark your calendars! The Salt Lake Chamber's Roadmap to Recovery Coalition is sponsoring a webinar on Developing an Effective COVID-19 Vaccination Policy. Throughout the past year many businesses have focused on preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. Now that vaccines have been developed, employers are faced with new questions. Can employees be required to be vaccinated? And do businesses need a formal vaccine policy?

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Business Headlines

• Meet Andy Jassy, the next CEO of Amazon (CNN) - Though not as public a figure as Bezos, Jassy is an accomplished executive in his own right - having grown Amazon's cloud segment, Amazon Web Services, from its inception into a $45 billion business and the company's biggest moneymaker.
• Parler CEO John Matze says he's been terminated by board: 'I did not participate in this decision' (Fox Business) - "I have worked endless hours and fought constant battles to get the Parler site running but at this point, the future of Parler is no longer in my hands," he said.
• Robinhood CEO, regulators to testify at House hearing on GameStop frenzy (The Hill) - The Financial Services hearing, set for Feb. 18, will be split into two panels: one featuring government and industry investment regulators, and the other focused on the businesses and investors central to last week's stock market chaos.
• Apple and Hyundai-Kia pushing toward deal on Apple Car (CNBC) - Sources familiar with Apple's interest in working with Hyundai say the tech giant wants to build the "Apple Car" in North America with an established automaker willing to allow Apple to control the software and hardware that will go into the vehicle.

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