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Each episode, Utah Clean Energy brings together leaders from all political stripes, backgrounds and beliefs to get their unique perspectives on the impacts and solutions to climate change. Latest episode: Finding common ground on climate change with Becky Edwards 

Utah Headlines

General

•  His only source of food was fish — but he also caught the hearts of two volunteers (Deseret News)
• ‘This is much needed;’ Salt Lake City VA gets new and improved food pantry (KSL TV)
• Could Salt Lake City become a permanent Winter Games host? (Deseret News)
• Utah ranked a top state for the ‘American Dream’ (ABC4)
• Police: Man who 'did not want to freeze' breaks into temple in Provo, faces felony charge (KUTV)
• Hate crimes increasing in Utah, DPS says (Fox13)

Politics

•  Editorial Board: No one is larger than the Constitution (Deseret News)
• Poll: Are Utahns confident their government conducted a fair and accurate election? (Deseret News)
• ‘Kiss of death.’ Mitt Romney blames Donald Trump endorsements for GOP midterm losses (Salt Lake Tribune)
• League of Women Voters, Mormon Women for Ethical Government accuse Utah lawmakers of gerrymandering (ABC4)

Business

• PepsiCo layoffs could be a signal for more corporate cutbacks (Deseret News)
• Utah restaurants say 2022 has been tougher than the first years of the pandemic. The triple whammy — staffing shortages, inflation and supply issues — have left some independent eateries hanging by a thread. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Education

•  Granite school district votes to close down three schools (Fox13)
• Migraine education makes its way into Utah public schools (Fox13)
• Washington County School District removes 14 more books from libraries (St. George News)

Environment

• 3 things to know about the mosquito problem at the new Utah prison. The site sits on ecologically sensitive wetlands. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Water districts vowed to send billions of gallons to the Great Salt Lake this year. It probably won’t be enough to reverse the lake’s dire straights, but every drop helps. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Cooperation, not ‘polite rejection,’ will help national parks overcrowding, says Rep. Moore (KUER)

Health

• How to deal with and overcome seasonal depression (KSL Newsradio)

Housing

• What leads women to become homeless in Utah? The Utah Women & Leadership Project report highlights domestic violence and other differences in factors impacting homelessness for women. (Deseret News)
• Expert joins Inside Sources on women accessing homeless resources (KSL Newsradio)

National Headlines

General

• ‘A lot of quality leads’ in University of Idaho homicide case (Deseret News)
• Suspect in Colorado Springs Club Q shooting faces 305 counts. Hate crimes are among the charges in the slaying of 5 and wounding of 17 at LGBTQ nightclub (Deseret News)
• New York Times journalists, other workers on 24-hour strike (AP)
• US gas prices now lower than a year ago (New York Times)
• They brought their sick baby to the hospital. Three days later, the state took their kids away. (Washington Post)
• Great minds think alike: twins beat school’s cheating claim, win $1.5M. Jurors ruled in favor of identical twins who fought claims that they had cheated on a medical school exam after submitting near-identical tests (Washington Post)

Politics

• Should U.S. troops discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccine be reinstated with back pay? Utah Sen. Mike Lee wants assurance dismissed service members will be ‘treated fairly’ (Deseret News)
• Poll: What should the Republican House prioritize during the next session? There’s some agreement between voters of all parties, but the GOP is also interested in investigating the border and Hunter Biden. (Deseret News)
• Bill protecting same-sex, interracial unions set for passage today (AP)
• Defense bill includes years-long proposal to combat sexual assault in military (NPR)
• Walker’s loss in Ga. spurs new GOP hand-wringing, calls for new strategy (Washington Post)
• Key Senate Republican Thune says he hopes for ‘other options’ to Trump in 2024 (The Hill)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

• 2022 was year the horror of war returned to Europe (AP)
• Russians march on foot to advance yards in bloody eastern Ukraine battle. Moscow’s troops have taken positions at the gates of the crossroads city of Bakhmut, sending in waves of infantry despite growing losses (Wall Street Journal)
• Ukraine hit by deadliest single Russian attack on civilians in weeks. A day after Putin warns of a protracted conflict, Russian strikes kill 10 in eastern Ukraine (Wall Street Journal)
• Zelenskyy predicts ‘peacetime’ next year as Putin warns war will be ‘long process’ (Politico)

World News

• The Taliban conducted a public execution, possibly the first since its return to power (Deseret News)
• Iran executes first known prisoner arrested in protests (AP)
• Rapid fall from power, arrest for embattled Peru president (AP)

News Releases

Romney, Sullivan introduce bill to secure U.S. critical mineral independence from China

U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) today introduced the Critical Mineral Independence Act of 2022, legislation to help ensure that the U.S. secures critical mineral independence from China. The U.S. cannot afford to allow the critical minerals used by the Department of Defense (DoD) to be mined or processed in adversarial countries, and it must urgently invest and build its capabilities to achieve critical mineral independence in coordination with allies. (Read More)

Utah Dept of Commerce warns of vacant land scams

The Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Real Estate is urging land buyers and owners to be aware of a recently re-emerged scam related to vacant lots and land parcels. The Division of Real Estate is already aware of at least 10 different instances and suspects others. 

The scam typically involves vacant land that is owned outright. A fraudster locates a property through public records, impersonates the owner, and lists the property for sale, usually as a FSBO (For Sale by Owner), for a price well below market value. Many of these false listings appear on third party property sites like Zillow, but the division has received word that more of them are being listed with brokerages to get the listing on a multiple listing service (MLS). (Read More)

Foreign Relations Committee advances Romney bill to establish U.S. strategy toward Black Sea region

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today advanced the Black Sea Security Act, legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), that directs the Administration to develop a strategy toward the Black Sea region, which has increasingly become a critical inflection point for European and global security amid Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war in Ukraine. The legislation now heads to the floor for consideration by the full Senate. (Read More)

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

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

• 1776 - George Washington's retreating army crosses the Delaware River from NJ
• 1863 - President Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
• 1915 - John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" appears anonymously in "Punch" magazine
• 1919 - Julia Robinson is born. She is best known for her contributions to the fields of computability theory and computational complexity theory. She solved Hilbert’s 10th problem and developed the most important theorem in elementary game theory.
• 1927 - Robert S. Brookings joined with other government reformers to create the Brookings Institute. The private organization was the first of its kind devoted to independently researching policy on a broad variety of topics and concerns.
• 1941 - The US declares war on Japan. Jeannette Rankin casts the sole vote against.
• 1952 - I Love Lucy features TV’s first pregnant character
• 1953 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "Atoms for Peace" speech at the United Nations in New York
• 1967 - Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., the first African-American astronaut and U.S. Air Force major, dies in a crash of an F-104 Starfighter while training at 32
• 1978 -  Golda Meir, 4th Prime Minister of Israel and the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics, dies of lymphatic cancer at 80
• 1980 - John Lennon shot and killed outside his Manhattan apartment
• 1987 - President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the first treaty between the two superpowers to reduce their nuclear arsenals
• 1993 - NAFTA signed into law
• 2010 - SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft upon the return of the unmanned space capsule Dragon.
• 2016 - John Glenn, first American to orbit the earth and politician (Senator, D-Ohio), dies at 95

Wise Words

“As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.”
― John Glenn 

On the Punny Side

I asked the doctor if I could administer my own anesthetic...

He said “go ahead, knock yourself out!” 

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