The #2 concern for voters? Lawmakers who don't listen; & plagiarism, allegations of abuse plague some candidates ahead of GOP conventions | | | The Utah Policy newsletter is your one-stop source for political and policy-minded news. We scour the news so you don't have to! Send news tips or feedback to Holly Richardson at editor@utahpolicy.com. | | |
Situational Analysis | March 21, 2024 It's Thursday and World Down Syndrome Day. â¤ï¸ It's also the last day for the governor to sign or veto legislation passed in the 2024 session. Happy birthday to Rep. Jeff Stenquist! ðð ð What you need to know Utah voters and leaders agree cheaper housing should be the stateâs No. 1 policy priority. The stateâs housing innovation adviser, former Rep. Steve Waldrip, called home affordability an âexistential crisis.â The #2 concern for Utah voters? Lawmakers who don't listen. Least important to voters? Abortion, crowded neighborhoods, the Great Salt Lake and transgender rights. Those are the findings from Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan policy research center. Rapid relevance Plagiarism, allegations of abuse plague some candidates ahead of Republican conventions; Utah Department of Public Safety to crack down on seat belt enforcement; and the Alabama governor signed an anti-DEI law yesterday, the day before the 58th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. | | |
| | Utah Business 2024 Legal Elite Nominations Now Open! Nominate a role model from the legal community for the Legal Elite 100! Nominations are due April 1, 2024. Limit of 5 nominations per law firm. | | |
Utah Headlines Political news Privacy prevails: How Utah is finding harmony with technology and privacy (Deseret News) As fentanyl deaths rise, Sen. Mitt Romney says âthe question is what can we doâ (Deseret News) Gov. Cox signs bill to include Ten Commandments in Utah public school curricula, address âlegal personhoodâ (ABC4) Governor Cox signs bill to better support families of crime victims (Fox13) Utah voters and leaders agree cheaper housing should be the stateâs No. 1 policy priority (Deseret News) Election news Plagiarism, allegations of domestic abuse plague some candidates ahead of Republican conventions (KSL TV) Sen. Mike Lee on Donald Trumpâs shortlist for U.S. attorney general â if Trump wins 2024 presidential election (Salt Lake Tribune) Utah news Melissa Holyoak: What makes Utah special? (Deseret News) Chief Justice Matthew Durrant elected to fourth term (Cache Valley Daily) Business/Tech Fed holds rates steady but signals cuts still in store for â24 (Deseret News) Crime/Court Authorities at Salt Lake City airport arrest ticketless passenger hiding on Delta flight (Deseret News) Parole board's fiery response after 2News investigation into attack by career criminal (KUTV) Culture U.S. less happy in annual list, decline driven by young adults (Deseret News) Education This in-school clinic serves studentsâ mental, physical health needs â with hopes to reduce school absences (Deseret News) Park City School District pledges change after dozens of harassment reports in investigation (KSL TV) AI images and conspiracy theories are driving a push for media literacy education (NPR) What the data says about pandemic school closures, four years later (New York Times) Environment Hereâs how much Lake Powell is expected to rise this year (KSL) The powder keg of public land management in the West (Deseret News) Bidenâs EPA goes after tailpipe emissions, gas-powered cars (Deseret News) Utah to begin meeting with other states on new Colorado River compact (Fox13) Family How parents can help children who lost social skills during the pandemic. (Deseret News) Religion is often a safeguard against family abuse. And thatâs not just my experience (Deseret News) Health Do you need 10,000 steps a day? Itâs not what counts, according to experts (Deseret News) Housing Canât afford new home? Would you renovate a fixer-upper? (KSL Newsradio) A Warm Welcome: Breaking the cycle of homelessness (UPR) Will Utahâs new housing experiment actually make a difference? (Daily Herald) | | |
National Headlines General Swedes hope the U.S. is as committed to NATO as they are (Deseret News) âGhost Armyâ that fooled Hitler will receive Congressâs highest honor (Washington Post) A Mexican drug cartelâs new target? Seniors and their timeshares (New York Times) Elon Musk accused Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott of destroying Western civilization with her philanthropy. Then she quietly doubled her donations (Business Insider) Escaped white supremacist inmate and accomplice still at large after Idaho hospital ambush (KSL TV) Political news House GOP warms to spending deal, but time may run out to dodge shutdown (Washington Post) Freedom Caucus votes to remove Ken Buck (The Hill) DeSantis: Flying Haitian migrants to Marthaâs Vineyard is on the table (Politico) Supreme Court Supreme Court unanimously rules against government in No Fly List case (The Hill) Election news GOP primaries flash warning signs for Trump (The Hill) Hogan leads Maryland Senate race by double digits, poll shows (Politico) Ukraine ðºð¦ Russian missile attack on Ukraine's Kharkiv kills five, causes fire (Reuters) Russia targets Kyiv with missiles in largest attack in weeks (New York Times) Israel and Gaza Israelis craft secret plan to put anti-Hamas Palestinians in charge of Gaza aid (Wall Street Journal) Israel said it killed dozens of people it described as terrorists in its raid on Al-Shifa Hospital. (New York Times) World Haiti suspected gang members set on fire as conflict spreads to capital suburb (Reuters) Afghanistanâs school year starts without more than 1 million girls barred from education by Taliban (AP) âWe will shoot you.â War in Darfur raises new fears of genocide. (Wall Street Journal) | | |
| | Guest Opinion: How to get curriculum transparency right for teachers by Christine Cooke Fairbanks According to a newly released Sutherland Institute-Y2 Analytics survey, a majority of likely voters in Utah say it is important that instructional materials and curriculum for Utahâs K-12 students be accessible to parents and the public. In fact, most respondents support rewarding teachers for making their curriculum transparent. Fewer support mandating transparency from educators. Two factors are key to addressing the hurdles educators face: (1) understanding and pursuing transparency methods that benefit teachers, students and parents alike, and (2) rewarding teachers for making the responsible choice to be proactively transparent about instructional materials, assignments and assessments. Many advocates of curriculum transparency high-center on the opportunity to identify inappropriate materials and prevent teachers from teaching politically charged material in the classroom. As illustrated by some documented instances of teaching gone highly political, this is a legitimate concern for parents and a useful benefit of transparency. However, many additional â potentially more significant â benefits from curriculum transparency for parents, students and teachers are too often left out of the discussion. There is rarely a detailed policy that fits every state, district or school. But understanding, promoting and pursuing the benefits of curriculum transparency through prudently designed state and local policy reforms can benefit educators, parents and students alike. Based on their reported policy opinions, Utah voters seem to intuitively grasp this reality. Utah policymakers and education leaders should too. (Read More) News Releases Gov. Spencer Cox signs 11 bills in the 2024 General Legislative Session Gov. Spencer J. Cox signed 11 bills today. He has signed 464 pieces of legislation from the 2024 General Legislative Session to date. Information on the bills signed today can be found here. Gov. Spencer Cox signs 39 bills in the 2024 General Legislative Session Gov. Spencer J. Cox signed an additional 39 bills today. He has signed 503 pieces of legislation from the 2024 General Legislative Session to date. Information on the bills signed today can be found here. Strong majority of Utah likely voters support curriculum transparency Most likely voters in Utah strongly support curriculum transparency policies in public schools, a recent survey from Sutherland Institute and Y2 Analytics finds. Respondents shared their views about three different approaches for implementing curriculum transparency: requiring schools to share grade curriculum with parents, rewarding teachers for sharing lesson plans with parents, and requiring teachers to share lesson plans with parents. (Read More) Romney: Fentanyl-related deaths are a human tragedy U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ranking Member and Chair of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight Subcommittee respectively, today led a bipartisan hearing to discuss how the U.S. government can stop the flow of fentanyl, and the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, into the United States. The Subcommittee heard from experts on ways to strengthen international law enforcement cooperation and encourage China and Mexico to increase efforts to stop fentanyl trafficking stemming from their countries. (Read/Watch More) | | |
Upcoming March 21 â Utah Women in Society â A Living Room Conversation, 12:00-1:15 pm, online, Register here March 22 â YWCA Utah Legislative Recap, 5:00-7:00 pm, YWCA offices (322 East 300 South, SLC), Register here March 23 â MWEG annual conference, 8:30 am-3:30 pm, UVU campus, with virtual option, Register here April 10 â Utah Valley Chamber Pillar of the Valley recognizing Gail Miller, 7:00-9:00 pm, Register here April 20 â United Utah Partyconvention April 27 â State GOP and Democratic Conventions | | |
On This Day In History 1617 - Matoaka dies at age 20. We know her by her nickname - Pocahontas. 1873 - Hannah Kaaepa is born. Hannah was a Hawaiian immigrant who moved to Iosepa, Utah and who boldly spoke for Hawaiian womenâs voting rights. 1891 - A Hatfield marries a McCoy, ending a 20-year long bloody feud that began with an accusation of pig-stealing. 1916 - Albert Einstein publishes his Theory of General Relativity in the scientific journal Annalen der Physik. 1947 - US President Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to have âcomplete and unswerving loyalty to the United Statesâ 1963 - Alcatraz prison closes. 1965 - Martin Luther King, Jr. begins march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. 1975 - Ethiopia abolishes its monarchy after 3000 years 1980 - President Carter announces that the US will boycott the Olympics to take place in Moscow later that summer. 1985 - In a race riddled with storms, Libby Riddles claimed victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, becoming the first woman to win the famed endurance race. 1986 - Debi Thomas becomes first African American woman to win the World Figure Skating Championship. 2006 - Twitter is born! 2014 - Russia formally "annexes" Crimea amid international condemnation. Putin didn't care. 2021 - 10 people shot dead at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, by 21 year-old gunman Quote of the Day "Today I want to tell the city of Selma, today I want to say to the state of Alabama, today I want to say to the people of America and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. We are on the move now....Yes, we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us." âMartin Luther King Jr. On the Punny Side When I was young, I was very poor. After years of struggle, I'm no longer young. | | |
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