National Card Playing Day; congrats to Utah's First Family; Utah State loses to the Memphis Tigers; retired Pope Benedict XVI very ill
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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 | Dec. 28, 2022

It's Wednesday and National Card Playing Day. Our current favorite is Disney Princess Uno. 

A very hearty congratulations and good luck to Governor Spencer Cox and First Lady Abby Cox on the engagements of two of their sons. Spring weddings are lovely. 

Also, the morning commute is a mess. Be safe out there and stay home if you can. 

Be in the Know

  • The Amber Alert issued last night for 13-year-old Evan McConney from Layton was canceled early this morning when Evan was found with his abductor, Aaron Zeman, at a gas station in Grand Island, Nebraska. They are believed to have met online. Zeman told McConney to bring his passport, which he did. An observant gas station attendant noticed something was off and called authorities. 

  • The Supreme Court issued an order on Tuesday temporarily blocking a federal judge’s earlier ruling that would have lifted Title 42, a pandemic-era public health measure that allowed border officials to quickly expel migrants without allowing asylum applications otherwise required by law. The stay will remain in effect at least until the Court hears arguments in late February or early March over whether the 19 state attorneys general who sought to keep the policy in place can pursue their challenge to the federal judge’s ruling. Justices Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority opinion.

Rapid Roundup

  • Utah State lost to the Memphis Tigers; on this third day of Kwanzaa, the focus is "ujima," or the principle of collective work and responsibility; 2 civilians use kayaks to rescue a pilot from a plane crash; ideas for those gift cards you don't want/can't use; and an avalanche warning has been issued for backcountry near Logan as heavy mountain snow piles up ⚠️ 

 

Together, We Can Better Support Women in Business

Whether you’re a woman starting a business or looking to elevate your career, Inspire In Utah is dedicated to providing you with the resources to help on your journey. Find funding, training, and even inspirational stories in our dedicated resource center.

 

Utah Headlines

General

  • University of Utah basketball legend, athletic director Arnie Ferrin dies at 97 (Deseret News)
  • Utah sharpens data on hate crimes; LGBTQ people are top targets (Standard-Examiner)
  • As inflation holds steady, one Utah County food bank predicts a great need in 2023 (KUER)

Politics

  • What the $1.7 trillion spending bill will bring to Utah (Deseret News)
  • What the final Jan. 6 committee report says about Utah Sen. Mike Lee
    (Deseret News)

Business

  • Harry & Meghan series brings influx of orders to Utah small business (KSL Newsradio)
  • ‘Beauty and sorrow at the same time’: Woman processes trauma through embroidery and hand-drawn art (St. George News)

Culture

  • Valerie Hudson: Our language is being corrupted. What is a woman? You can no longer count on some dictionaries to tell you, and the deception is putting women at risk (Deseret News)

Family

  • The holidays can increase the risk of child sexual abuse. Here are warning signs to watch out for (Deseret News)
  • Dog or human? As more people name pets like people, which owns your name? A Washington Post analysis found some human names are more commonly given to dogs. And the opposite is true, too (Deseret News)

National Headlines

General

  • Southwest cancels more than 70% of flights this week. ‘Our biggest issue at this time is getting our crews and our aircraft in the right places,’ Chris Perry, a Southwest spokesman, said (Deseret News)
  • Glass act: Scientists reveal secrets of frog transparency (AP)
  • World shares mostly lower after tech-led fall on Wall Street (AP)
  • Man sentenced to 16 years in prison for plotting to kidnap Michigan’s governor (New York Times)
  • Chaotic holiday travel weekend leaves mountains of lost luggage in airports (Washington Post)
  • Social Security denies disability benefits based on list with jobs from 1977. Despite spending at least $250 million to modernize its vocational system, the agency still relies on 45-year-old job titles to deny thousands of claims a year. (Washington Post)
  • With warming, snowbound Buffalo braces to find more dead (AP)

Politics

  • House committee expected to release Trump’s taxes Friday (KSL TV)
  • Race for G.O.P. chair obscures the party’s bigger problems. Ronna McDaniel’s quest for a fourth term atop the Republican National Committee has triggered an ugly intraparty fight between the right and the farther right. Figuring out how to win back swing voters is not a top priority. (New York Times)
  • Republican Jewish Coalition denounces Santos for lies about his credentials (Politico)
  • Tulsi Gabbard tears into George Santos during Fox interview: ‘Do you have no shame?’ (The Hill)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

  • Minister: Ukraine aims to develop air-to-air combat drones (AP)
  • Russia's economy is still working but sanctions are starting to have an effect (NPR)
  • US scrambles to stop Iran from providing drones for Russia (New York Times)

World News

  • Former Iran soccer star says family was stopped from leaving the country (Deseret News)
  • Vatican says health of retired pope Benedict XVI ‘worsening’ (AP)
  • China to resume issuing passports, visas as virus curbs ease (AP)
  • Uneasy allies: As the West backs Nigeria's war on insurgents, it backs off on human rights (Reuters)
 

Guest opinion: I wasn’t worried about ChatGPT until I tried ChatGPT

by Jared Whitley

Of all the anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence, the biggest one is disastrous military applications. Technophobes have referenced The Terminator’s Skynet as the endgame for AI, particularly now with the power of the new ChatGPT chatbot, which is scaring everyone on the planet.

Created by San Francisco-based company OpenAI, the prototype has grabbed enormous attention, with applications including data science, college essays, and even formulaic screenplays. With some demanding government regulation, reaction to ChatGPT has been much stronger than to OpenAI’s art program Dall-E earlier this year.

How the same company could come up with something as clever as Dall-E – a portmanteau of Wall-E and Salvador Dalí – and as muddled as “ChatGPT” – short for Generative Pre-trained Transformer – is somewhat baffling. The cleverness of Google is it’s both a noun and a verb, so people say they’ll “google” something, even when using a different search engine.

But it will be small comfort indeed to Google’s leadership if people refer to “googling” when they look for stuff with ChatGPT. And if Google CEO Sundar Pichai is as scared as recent headlines make him out to be, then I certainly should be. So, I turned to the only source I trust enough to waylay my concerns.

ChatGPT itself.  (Read More)


News Release

WGU welcomes Roy Bosch as strategic partnerships manager to increase equity in Utah’s higher education

Western Governors University (WGU) has named Roy Bosch as the strategic partnerships manager to increase equity in higher education among underserved populations in Utah.

In this position, Bosch launches relationships with organizations to raise awareness about the opportunities available to people looking to further their education and skillsets. Through his initiatives, Bosch identifies the needs of the state and its workforce to help guide the right people to the right positions. Specifically, his associations with the Hispanic and Venezuelan communities allow Bosch to help new Americans establish successful lives in Utah. (Read More)

 

Number of the Day

Number of the Day, Dec 28, 2022

 

Tweet of the Day

Screen Shot 2022-12-28 at 7.15.08 AM
 

Upcoming

  • Utah Economic Outlook and Public Policy Summit with the Salt Lake Chamber — Jan. 12, 2023, Salt Lake City Marriott, 8 am - noon, Register here
  • Legislative session begins, Jan. 17, 2023, le.utah.gov
 

On This Day In History

  • 1065 - Westminster Abbey consecrated

  • 1732 - Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym Richard Saunders begins publication of "Poor Richard's Almanack"

  • 1856 - Woodrow Wilson is born. He became the 28th US president

  • 1886 - Josephine Cochran receives patent for the automatic dishwasher. Today, her patents are owned by the KitchenAid corporation.

  • 1894 - Burnita Matthews is born. As a young law student in the District of Columbia, she learned that she could carry a banner outside the White House but would be arrested for not having a permit if she spoke, stayed silent and avoided arrest. She gained admission to the bar in 1920, worked for the National Woman’s Party, and was chosen as Federal District Court Judge by President Truman in 1949

  • 1945 - The Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted by Congress.
  • 1967 - Muriel Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on New York Stock Exchange

  • 1973 - Endangered Species Act signed into law

  • 1981 - First American “test-tube baby”, Elizabeth Jordan Carr is born in Norfolk, Virginia

  • 2000 - U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.

  • 2002 - LinkedIn is founded by Reid Hoffman and others in Mountain View, California

  • 2012 - Vladimir Putin signs into law a ban on US adoption of Russian children

  • 2016 - Debbie Reynold dies, one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher

  • 2021 - Harry Reid dies of pancreatic cancer at age 82


Wise Words

"'Singin’ in the Rain' and childbirth were the two hardest things I ever had to do in my life."

—Debbie Reynolds


On the Punny Side

“May ya live as long as ya want, and not want for as long as ya live” is an Irish toast.

“Bread, cinnamon, eggs, and maple syrup” is a French toast.

 

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