It's Tax Day; ice cream has health benefits (?!); SpaceX launch scrubbed; and Murphy-the-eagle becomes a dad!
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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 | April 18, 2023

It's Tuesday and Tax Day. It's also National Columnists’ Day. 🎉 🎉

What You Need to Know

  • Two shootings in less than a week kill one and seriously injure another when people make a mistake and go to the wrong home. In Kansas City, 85-year old Andrew Lester shot Ralph Yarl in the head and then shot him a second time as he lay bleeding on the ground. Ralph rang the wrong doorbell looking for his younger brother. In New York, 65-year old Kevin Monahan shot at a car who mistakenly pulled into his driveway, looking for a friend's home. He killed 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis. Lester has been charged with two felonies and Monahan was charged with second-degree murder

Rapid Roundup

 

Utah Headlines

Political news

  • Audit says Utah prosecutors had private contract but used public employees, resources (Fox13)
  • Davis County Republicans pick new chairperson, leadership slate (Standard-Examiner)
  • Weber County Democrats elect party leadership (Standard-Examiner)
  • Davis County group under fire after comment targeting Black city council member (Standard-Examiner)
  • Cache County Republicans vote for new blood in party leadership role (Cache Valley Daily)
  • Voter signature effort for geographical district representation fails in Logan (Cache Valley Daily)
  •  Gov. Spencer Cox withdraws his nomination of a Democratic physician to the Utah Air Quality Board (Salt Lake Tribune)
  • Utah Republicans consider withholding party support for signature-gathering candidates (KSL Newsradio)
  • Sen. Mike Lee defends Clarence Thomas amid ethics scandal, calls justice a 'hero' (KSL)
  • Ukraine will win war with Russia, former Ukrainian president says during visit to Utah. Utah leaders to embark on trade mission in Ukraine (Deseret News)
  • New poll shows Mitt Romney has the approval of a majority of Utah voters, but could still be vulnerable in a Republican primary (Deseret News)

General Utah news

  • Spanish Fork residents start community garden (Daily Herald)
  • Weekend water rescue incidents in St. George prompt warning: ‘It can be deceiving’ (St. George News)
  • Celebrate International Dark Sky Week (ABC4)
  • Registered sex offender in Elmo costume arrested at Lehi Farmers Market (KUTV)
  • Parents ask for help finding missing kids they say are being hidden by followers of Warren Jeffs (KSL TV)
  • Photojournalist for ABC4 dies after getting hit by car in Little Cottonwood Canyon (KSL)
  • New rabbi hopes to bring Utah County's Jewish community together (KSL)

Business

  •  Bountiful Starbucks becomes third in Utah to unionize (KUTV)
  • A slew of Utah Burger Kings is set to close as franchisees run into fiscal trouble (Deseret News)
  • Utah ‘momfluencers’ have game — it’s time to take them seriously. Our discomfort with influencers obscures some of Utah’s sharpest business leaders (Deseret News)
  • Nurse shortage pushes hospitals into the gig economy (Wall Street Journal)

Education

  • Utah students plagued with over $1.7 million in school lunch debt (Fox13)
  • Utah Tech University seeks to break mental health stigma with new seminar series (St. George News)
  • At a West Valley school, a teacher mentors Utah’s first kids’ mariachi band (Salt Lake Tribune)
  • ‘Kids can’t read’: The revolt that is taking on the education establishment (New York Times)

Environment

  • Utah farmer hoping to save firefly habitat from housing development (Fox13)
  • Boats back in the Great Salt Lake Marina thanks to rising water levels (Fox13)
  • What oily, sticky tar seeps can teach us about saving Great Salt Lake (KUER)
  • Water for wildlife: Dire consequences of a shrinking Great Salt Lake (Great Salt Lake Collaborative)
  • Delayed harvest of Utah onions, corn expected due to prolonged winter, farmland flooding (KUTV)
  • Flooding reaches some Utah cities, but water managers welcome huge snowpack (Deseret News)

Health

  • COVID during pregnancy may alter brain development in boys (NPR)
  • Covid is still a leading cause of death as the virus recedes (Washington Post)

Housing

  • Enter the forever renters. Buying a home has never felt this out of reach. Is it time to redefine the American dream? (Deseret News)
 

National Headlines

General

  • NY woman driven to wrong address fatally shot by homeowner (AP)
  • ‘Racial component’ in shooting of Ralph Yarl who went to wrong house, prosecutor says (AP)
  • Here’s what it takes to be middle class in America (The Hill)
  • FBI arrests 2 on charges tied to Chinese outpost in New York City (NPR)
  • A Spanish athlete spent 500 days alone in a cave — for science (NPR)

Politics

  • DeSantis clashes with Disney again (Deseret News)
  • Oklahoma officials captured on audio making racist comments, plans to kill journalists (AP)
  • Okla. governor calls on officials to resign after ‘horrid’ audio emerges. Officials in McCurtain County allegedly lamented they could no longer lynch Black people and spoke of assassinating a journalist, a local newspaper reported (Washington Post)
  • Biden signs executive order to improve access to child care (AP)
  • It's true: Rep. George Santos announces his bid for reelection (NPR)
  • DeSantis tried to bury her. Now she’s helping Trump try to bury him. (New York Times)
  • Republicans worry the Club for Growth could cost them the Senate (Politico)

Ukraine 🇺🇦

  • Egypt nearly supplied rockets to Russia, agreed to arm Ukraine instead, leak shows (Washington Post)
  • Putin visits two occupied regions in Ukraine, pushing illegal annexation (Washington Post)

World

  • U.S. diplomatic convoy fired on in Sudan as U.N. aid workers assaulted (Washington Post)
  • American and European officials have been targeted in attacks in Sudan. (New York Times)
  • Sudanese Army rejects call for humanitarian cease-fire (New York Times)
  • Pakistan court jails Chinese national charged with blasphemy, which carries a death sentence (AP)
  • UN says leaving Afghanistan would be ‘heartbreaking’ (AP)
  • The Yanomami are dying of malaria and malnutrition. Is it genocide? (Washington Post)
  • After American’s killing in Syria, F.B.I. builds war crimes case against top officials (New York Times)
 

News Release

Thousands to walk at Weber State’s 160th commencement

Weber State University is honoring the class of 2023 during its 160th commencement ceremony April 28 beginning at 8:30 a.m., followed by ceremonies for each college throughout the day. 

The university expects 3,442 students to graduate from among its academic seven colleges, representing arts to the sciences, associate’s degrees to doctorates. (Read More)

 

Number of the Day

Number of the Day, Apr 18, 2023

 

Tweet of the Day

Screenshot 2023-04-18 at 6.48.54 AM

 

Upcoming

  • Utah GOP convention — Apr 22, 10:00 am, UVU UCCU Center, Orem (More information here)
  • Teen Girls Experiencing Increased Sadness and Violence with Utah Women and Leadership Project — April 25, 12:00-1:15 pm via Zoom, Register here
  • United Utah Party State Convention — April 29, 10:00 am-12:00 pm, Lehi High School with keynote speakers Teri McCabe and Jay Mcfarland
  • Mount Liberty College Spring Youth Seminar on The Virginian — May 6, 9 am-7 pm, Register Here
  • Interim Day — May 16-17, Utah State Capitol, le.utah.gov
  • Utah Democratic Convention May 19-20, SUU (More information here)
  • Interim Day — June 13-14, Utah State Capitol, le.utah.gov
 

On This Day In History 

  • 1775 - “The British are coming!” Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride through the countryside, warning the militiamen that British troops were on their way.
  • 1898 - Ruth Bunzel is born. An anthropologist, she studied the art and culture of southwest Native American women starting in 1924, learned Zuni language, pottery and sewing to understand and preserve the culture.
  • 1906 - The Great San Francisco Earthquake, estimated to be close to 8 on the Richter Scale topples buildings and kills an estimated 3000 people. 
  • 1942 - Doolittle leads air raid on Tokyo
  • 1955 - Albert Einstein dies at age 76.
  • 1983 - A suicide car bomber destroys the US embassy in Beirut, killing 63.
  • 2012 - Dick Clark, host of “American Bandstand” and “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” dies at age 82

Quote of the Day

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity."

—Albert Einstein


On the Punny Side

What happens when a microscope bangs into a telescope?

A kaleidoscope.

 

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