Plus, the Utah company turning plastic bags into warmth 
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BYU 1984 Magazine

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By Ariel Harmer Monday Jan. 13, 2025

⛅ 17 – 30° Logan | ⛅ 25 – 35° Salt Lake 


⛅ 15 – 30° Manti | ☀️ 19 – 40° Moab


⛅ 12 – 34° Cedar City | ☀️ 25 – 46° St. George

 

Good morning! In case you missed it, here are the top stories from last week:

 

What to know about new seminary life preparation lessons being rolled out this January

 

‘God’s magnified my gifts and my talents through this process’: Utah native wins award at Miss America 2025

 

Plane with 2 bodies in the landing gear made a stop in Utah

 

Why does Donald Trump want Greenland?

 

President Biden just designated two new national monuments in the West. Where are they?

 

Name change for Latter-day Saint addiction recovery program reflects Jesus Christ’s role in healing

 

What does the future hold for the ski industry in the Cottonwood canyons?

On front lines of Trump’s impending trade war, an ‘unflappable’ Latter-day Saint

 

Samuel Benson writes: 

 

Days before formally taking office, President-elect Donald Trump is ruffling feathers globally by threatening “economic force” to annex Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal.


The responsibility of carrying out those promises will likely fall to a soft-spoken Latter-day Saint.


Jamieson Greer, Trump’s nominee to be U.S. trade representative, will serve as Trump’s chief adviser and negotiator on international trade if confirmed. A international trade lawyer and an alumnus of Trump’s first administration, Greer steps into one of the most high-stakes positions in the incoming administration.


”This is a critical role,” said Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security adviser. “If you’re focused on trade and America First, it’s one of the three or four most important candidate positions.” 

 

Read more about Greer and Trump’s trade policy.

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A magical alchemy that turns plastic grocery bags into warmth

We all have one: a plastic bag filled with more plastic bags that we keep shoved under a sink somewhere in the hopes that, eventually, we’ll need to use them. 

 

If your pile of old grocery bags is overflowing, like my own, consider dropping it off to Krysti Wright at Stitching Hearts Worldwide, who Lee Benson says performs “a kind of magical alchemy” with the plastic.


“Through a weaving process that requires about two hours per mat, 350 plastic grocery bags, on average, are cut into strips that are then intertwined together to produce a ground covering that is reckoned to warm up a cold sleeping spot by as much as 40 degrees,” Lee writes. 


“Stitching Hearts quietly produces and distributes thousands of these mats every year, to locations both far away, like Bangladesh and Guatemala, and right next door, like the Provo Food Bank. ‘They tell us every time they put them out, they’re gone,’ says Krysti.”

 

Read more about how Stitching Hearts Worldwide is helping the disadvantaged and the dispossessed.

 

More in Utah

  • Shima Baradaran Baughman: Why I returned to teach at BYU (Deseret News)
  • Midway’s popular Ice Castles set to open after warm delay (KSL)
  • Utahns rally at Capitol to show support for public lands (ABC4)
  • ‘Mostly assembled’ rifle seized from Australian tourist's backpack at City Creek Center (KUTV)
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FROM OUR SPONSOR BYU 1984 MAGAZINE

Relive the glory: BYU’s championship season

 

This is more than a look back; it’s a tribute to the spirit and passion of the Cougar community. Step back in time and celebrate the legendary moments of BYU’s epic 1984 National Championship season! Order your copy and relive the championship journey with us. Celebrate the past, inspire the future.

Round out your day (v5)

Politics

  • Valerie Hudson: Richard Dawkins, Jerry Coyne and the ‘new religion’ of gender ideology (Deseret News)

The U.S.

  • Elliot Haspell: The problem with calling childless adults ‘kinless’ (Deseret News)
  • Temporary protected status extended for Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine and Sudan (Axios)
  • Newsom: LA wildfires could be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history (Politico)

The World

  • Saudi Arabia presses top EU diplomats to lift sanctions on Syria after Assad’s fall (The Associated Press)
  • Sudanese army claims capture of key city from rebels (BBC)

Sports

  • ‘Gotta have more grit’: BYU basketball searching for toughness after 3rd-straight loss (Deseret News)
  • The LA fires are close to home for 2 Jazz players (Deseret News)
  • Kyle Van Noy, 3 other players with Utah ties advance to NFL’s divisional round on Day 1 of wild-card weekend (Deseret News)
  • Lakers, Clippers expected to resume home slate Monday amid fires (ESPN)

Faith

  • America is divided. Can religion provide a better way? (Deseret News)
  • President Biden celebrates faith as he awards Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction (Deseret News)

Health

  • Inside the movement to ‘rediscover the joy of undivided attention’ (Deseret News)
  • He gave his cats raw milk because he thought it was healthier. He says it tragically backfired (The Associated Press)
  • USDA report finds Boar's Head listeria outbreak was due to poor sanitation practices (NPR)

🗓️ Events Calendar

 

We put together a calendar list of events and activities going on around the state of Utah the next month. Check it out and let us know if we are missing anything!

Check your inbox tomorrow morning for more news from the Beehive State and beyond!

 

And reply to this email or email newsletters@deseretnews.com to tell us what you think of Utah Today.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

— Ariel

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