Utah Headlines

Political news

• Unfinished business: The Cox administration reflects on triumphs and trials from the first four years (Deseret News)
• Utah political leaders react to the passing of Jimmy Carter (Deseret News)
• Utah governor orders flags lowered as local politicians, community leaders pay tribute to Carter (Fox13)
• Opinion: Understanding vote-by-mail in Utah (Deseret News)
• The stories of 2024 that you won’t want to have missed (Deseret News)
• Voices: In 2025, Utah’s policy will focus more on preventing societal challenges (Salt Lake Tribune)
• ‘The most powerful person in the building’ will leave Salt Lake City Hall this month (Salt Lake Tribune)
• One of Utah’s coldest counties lacks indoor recreation space. These residents are trying to change that. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• New Utah Congressman pledges ‘to fight for every dime’ for 2034 Olympics (Fox13)

Utah

• How to bring families into Salt Lake City (Deseret News) 
• 26,000-year-old ‘Ice Age’ fox recovered in Uinta Mountains cave (ABC4)
• Deseret News reporters, photographer share key moments from 2024 (Deseret News)
• Snowboarder found buried under 20 feet of snow likely triggered avalanche by accident, report says (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Avalanche safety reminders after 2 victims' bodies found (Fox13)

Biz/Tech/Economy

•  U.S. economy was top election issue but ends year firing on all cylinders (Deseret News)
• As Salt Lake City changes, location and timing can make or break a business (KUER)

Crime/Courts

• Family releases statement on woman whose body was found in car in Bluffdale (KUTV)
• Utah-based film producer sentenced for forcibly retaking home after it was seized for tax evasion (Daily Herald)

Culture

• Resolutions? No thanks. Try these instead. (Deseret News)
• Derwin Gray: How to make 2025 the best year of your life (Deseret News)
• Editorial Board: The magic of New Year’s Day (Deseret News)
• More Americans set mental health as a resolution for 2025 (Fox13)
• A nudge word can help you set a vision for 2025. Here’s how to choose one. (Washington Post)
• RIP, cancel culture? Why cancel culture might not survive 2024 (Deseret News)

Education

• A Utah scientist tracking elephant bones in South Africa makes a smelly find (UPR)
• Not welcome: Many academics say conservative professors don’t fit on campus (Deseret News)
• After Davis School District agreed to reduce racism, this former student faced it nearly every day, lawsuit alleges (Salt Lake Tribune)

Environment

• How a landscape restoration program is spurring change in the Beehive State (Deseret News)
• Utah Lake Authority to host yearlong carp-catching competition (Daily Herald)
• How much water flows to the Great Salt Lake? New streamgages might have the answer, officials say (Standard-Examiner)

Family

• The biggest challenges parents faced in 2024 — and how to navigate them in the new year (Deseret News)
• Need help with breastfeeding? There are plenty of women who can help (KSL)

Health

• Stomach flu cases are increasing. How to stay safe (Deseret News) 
• Ozone may already be affecting Utah’s next generation, new study finds (Salt Lake Tribune)

Housing

• New high-capacity homeless shelter will have pros and cons, state homeless coordinator says (KSL TV)
• Utah lawmaker proposes 'Homeless Bill of Rights' (Fox13)

National news

General

• Why the patent office gives us hope for the future (Deseret News)
• A fireworks explosion in the Honolulu area has killed 3 people and injured at least 20 (AP)
• Norovirus outbreaks are on the rise around the country and on cruise ships (NPR)
• Here's how TikTok creators are preparing for a TikTok ban (NPR)

Politics

• Biden to honor Liz Cheney with Presidential Citizens Medal (Washington Post)
• Trump says he supports Mike Johnson to stay on as speaker (Deseret News)
• Jimmy Carter in uniform: From Naval Academy plebe to U.S. Commander in Chief (Deseret News)
• Perspective: Jimmy Carter and the decency meter (Deseret News)
• Abortion lawsuits, Ten Commandments displays and other key religious freedom developments in 2024 (Deseret News)
• Trump to hold DC rally day before inauguration (The Hill)

Ukraine 

• Russian gas era in Europe ends as Ukraine stops transit (Reuters)
• How suicide drones transformed the front lines in Ukraine (New York Times)

Israel/Gaza

• Israeli airstrikes kill at least 37 across Gaza, medics say (Reuters)

World news

• A butterfly collector in Africa with more than 4.2 million seeks to share them for the future (AP)
• Puerto Rico's power grid collapses; could take two days to restore service (Reuters)
• El Salvador closes 2024 with a record low number of homicides (AP)

Number of the Day 

Tweet of the Day #1

Tweet of the Day #2

Upcoming

• Jan. 6 â€“ Salt Lake County inauguration, 10 am, Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center, 2525 Taylorsville Blvd, Taylorsville
• Jan. 8 — Inauguration for Gov. Cox, Lt. Gov Henderson, AG Derek Brown, Auditor Tina Cannon, and Treasurer Marlo Oaks, 10 am
• Jan. 9 — What’s Up Down South Economic Summit. St. George. Register here
• Jan. 10 — Rural Utah Data Symposium. St. George. Register here
• Jan. 11— Special election for HD4, 2 pm
• Jan 14 — Utah Taxpayers Association Legislative Outlook Conference, 9 am - 12:00 pm, Little America Hotel, Register here
• Jan. 21 — Utah legislative session begins
• Mar. 7 — Utah legislative session ends

On This Day In History

• 1776 - Congress publishes the Tory Act, describing how the colonies should “handle” those who remained loyal to the British crown
• 1811 - First censuring of a U.S. Senator, Timothy Pickering, who publicly revealed secret documents
• 1839 - Louis Daguerre takes the first photo of the moon
• 1854 - Alice Marry Robertson is born. An educator, social worker and Native American rights activist, she was America’s first female postmaster and the second woman to serve in Congress.
• 1868 - Alice Merrill Horne is born. She was elected to the Utah state legislature in 1898 and began Utah’s art program.
• 1890 - President Benjamin Harrison welcomes Alice Sanger as the first female White House staffer
• 1903 - US President Theodore Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola, Miss, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
• 1965 - Martin Luther King, Jr. starts a voting drive in Selma.
• 1974 - President Nixon signs national 55 mph speed limit into law
• 2009 - Eric Holder confirmed as the first Black US Attorney General
• 2017 - US House Republicans vote to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, a public uproar forces them to back down the next day
• 2018 - US senator Al Franken resigns

Quote of the Day

"God has created gifts, and men work so that we are not without poets, painters, sculptors, architects, craftsmen, gardeners and home makers."

—Alice Merrill Horne

On the Punny Side

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