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Situational Analysis | May 22, 2023

It's Monday and the last full week of May. It's also World Preeclampsia Day, a complication of pregnancy that is still a potential killer.

What You Need to Know

The story became an instant, sensational talking point: homeless military veterans were being expelled from their temporary hotel rooms north of New York City so people coming from the Mexican border could stay there. Problem was, the story was a sham. It began unraveling when reporters could not locate any displaced veterans. It fell apart further when managers of the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, N.Y., said they had no record of the veterans’ staying there. On Friday, an article in The Mid Hudson News quoted a group of homeless men who were wined, dined and promised cash to pose as veterans. New York Mayor Eric Adams has asked for an investigation into potential criminality for the "conscious decision to fabricate" the story.

Rapid Roundup

Elizabeth Cantwell is the new president of Utah State University; a giant sinkhole opened at an American Fork golf course; SUU student defies odds, summiting Mt. Hood after accident left him paralyzed; more than 42 million Americans are expected to travel over Memorial Day weekend; and the city of Kyle, Texas attempted to make the Guinness World Record for largest gathering of Kyles.

Utah Headlines

Political news

Do election workers need extra protection in today’s political climate? (KSL)
Senate President Stuart Adams recounts visit to Ukraine (ABC4)
The IUP Panel on the debt ceiling and opioid overdoses (ABC4)
Ogden City Council approves new city flag (Standard-Examiner)
SafeUT program here to stay: Senator Daniel Thatcher says it will never go away (KSL Newsradio)
Utahns under 16 most likely group to lose social media, says sponsor of Utah’s restrictions law (KSL Newsradio)
'I hear you': SLC Mayor Erin Mendenhall discusses concerns of low-income mothers (KSL)

General Utah news

Officials encourage safety measures as bike deaths hit record high (Standard-Examiner)
12-year-old airlifted to hospital after near-drowning at Gunlock Falls (Fox13)
Suspect gave guns to friend, then purchased ammo; victim contacted therapist shortly before Layton triple-homicide (Fox13)
UDOT update: Is burying I-15 an option? How many homes, businesses may be displaced?. Many still hope to stop the project, saying the west side has “already been through enough.” (Salt Lake Tribune)
Utah 'optimistic' to receive grants to study rail service from Salt Lake to Boise, Las Vegas (KSL)

Business

Remote work: An underestimated benefit for family caregivers (Salt Lake Tribune)
Utah businesses team up to bring wild cacao to U.S. stores — and preserve Bolivian rainforests (Salt Lake Tribune)
Neighbors call it ‘basically a homeless camp.’ Unpermitted Utah County farmers market remains open. (Salt Lake Tribune)
Immigrants' share of the US labor force grows to a new high (Wall Street Journal)

Culture

Jana Riess: 1 in 4 U.S. Latter-day Saints has thought about leaving the church (Salt Lake Tribune)

Education

College is remade as tech majors surge and humanities dwindle (Washington Post)
Utah lawmakers chastise Alpine School District over its proposed closures (KUER)
Thousands to graduate this week from Utah County high schools (Daily Herald)
Weber, Ogden, Davis school district graduation ceremonies coming up (Standard-Examiner)

Environment

Utah Inland Port now says it will be lean and green. Experts are skeptical (KUER)

Family

Are your children doing enough chores? (Deseret News)

Health

Utah bucking national trend in child deaths (KSL Newsradio)
Our bodies respond differently to food. A new study aims to find out how (NPR)
'You just see the human spirit': Amputees build community through mobility clinic (KSL)
Obesity drug brings heart health benefit alongside weight loss, study says (KSL)
Living in limbo: The 'emotional roller coaster' of a cancer diagnosis (KSL)

Housing

This donated RV is one way the community can chip away at homelessness in Utah (KUER)

National Headlines

General

The NAACP has issued a travel advisory for Florida, joining other civil rights groups in warning potential tourists that recent laws championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis are "openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals." (AP)
About 60,000 pounds of explosive chemicals went missing on a rail shipment from Wyoming to California in April and has still not been found, officials said. (New York Times)
Jeffrey Epstein appeared to threaten Bill Gates over Microsoft co-founder’s affair with Russian bridge player (Wall Street Journal)
Meta fined $1.3 billion over data transfers to US (Wall Street Journal)
‘Digital twin’ of the Titanic shows the shipwreck in stunning detail (New York Times)
An accidental release at the Census Bureau revealed surprising details about U.S. Hispanics and Latinos (Washington Post)

Politics

Thune, No. 2 Senate Republican, set to endorse Tim Scott’s presidential bid (Politico)
Debt ceiling talks break down and attacks escalate as deadline approaches (Politico)
Biden, McCarthy to meet on debt ceiling as Wall Street starts to worry (Washington Post)
COVID emergency orders are among `greatest intrusions on civil liberties,′ Justice Gorsuch says (AP)
Biden and McCarthy gear up for the next round of debt ceiling talks (NPR)

Ukraine 🇺🇦

The Russian government has rejected for a second time a request from U.S. officials to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in a Moscow prison (Wall Street Journal)
‘Exhaust them’: Why Ukraine has fought Russia for every inch of Bakhmut, despite high cost (AP)
Russia claims eastern city of Bakhmut, but Ukrainian military leaders say battle isn’t over (AP)

World

Greece’s conservatives achieve landslide victory but fall short of majority (Politico)
Under 1,350 square miles of jungle in Guatemala, scientists discovered 417 cities dating back to circa 1,000 B.C. and that are connected by nearly 110 miles of “superhighways” — a network of what researchers called “the first freeway system in the world.” (Washington Post)
The U.S. left them behind. They crossed a jungle to get here anyway. (New York Times)
China’s loans pushing world’s poorest countries to brink of collapse (AP)
As Haiti unravels, refugees search for something better. Will they find it? (Deseret News)
Andrew Tate thought Romania was a risk-free haven for antisocial behavior where “corruption is accessible to everybody.” He now faces charges of human trafficking and rape in the country, which has made a serious effort to tackle crime in recent years. (New York Times)

News Releases

Utah Congressional delegation introduces legislation to support Dugway Proving Ground

U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Mike Lee (R-UT), and Representatives Chris Stewart (R-UT), John Curtis (R-UT), Burgess Owens (R-UT), and Blake Moore (R-UT), introduced the Chemical and Biological Defense Program Improvement Act, legislation to remove a bureaucratic roadblock that prevents the U.S. Army from requesting funding for military construction projects related to chem-bio program facilities like those at Utah’s Dugway Proving Ground. (Read More)

Nominees announced for 3rd District Court vacancy

The Third District Judicial Nominating Commission has selected nominees for a vacancy on the Third District Court. This position results from the confirmation of Judge Amy Oliver to the Utah Court of Appeals on Feb. 17, 2023.

The nominees for the vacancy are: Deborah Chandler, Partner/President, Anderson & Karrenberg; Darcy Goddard, Shareholder, Strong & Hanni, P.C.; Sandi Johnson, Chief Deputy/Deputy County Attorney, Utah County Attorney’s Office; Todd Olsen, Senior Deputy District Attorney, Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office; Charles Stormont, Director of Right of Way and Property Management, Utah Department of Transportation. (Read More)

Burger King gives away thousands of meals to Granite students in need

Each year, HB Boys, LC – Burger King® Restaurants partners with Granite Education Foundation and five Granite School District schools to provide a summer meal punch card, good for 10 free meals, redeemable at their local Burger King®. Every student (2,284) from Whittier, Granger, Lincoln, Redwood, and Millcreek Elementary Schools, receives a punch card. (Read More)

On This Day In History

1802 - Martha Washington dies at age 70.
1843 - The first major wagon train heads west to Oregon
1844 - Mary Stevenson Cassatt is born. An American painter and printmaker, Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.
1856 - Southern congressman Preston Brooks beats Northern senator Charles Sumnet with a cane in the halls of Congress
1900 - The Associated Press organizes in NYC as non-profit news cooperative
1964 - LBJ formally presents his specific goals for the Great Society
1972 - President Nixon arrives in Moscow for historic summit with Soviet leaders
1977 - Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman to qualify for the Indy 500.

Quote of the Day

"The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time."

—President Lyndon B. Johnson, announcing his goals for the Great Society

On the Punny Side

What do you call a beehive without an exit?

Unbelievable.