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The face of higher education is changing in Utah and across the country. Labor shortages and an evolving job market are forcing universities to offer more technical skills, but that sometimes comes at the risk of other programs.

House Speaker Mike Schultz has a possible solution: establishing career and technical programs at Utah high schools.

“CTE training has kind of taken a back seat inside of our public education system — for no other reason than probably lack of funds and prioritizing other portions of academics,” Schultz told the House Education Committee on Monday.

Read more about Schultz’s bill to introduce CTE training in public schools.

Also on our minds:

Luka Doncic makes his Laker debut against the Jazz
How do Salt Lake rent changes rank nationally?
Trump wants Treasury Department to stop producing pennies

Utah is one of the slowest states at delivering election results. Lawmakers want to change that

Vote counts aren’t known for being particularly speedy. While this year’s presidential race was decided on election night, Utah was one of the slowest states in the country to update its election results. Other races — including several here in Utah — took days and even weeks to finalize.

One new bill in the Utah Legislature aims to change that.

HB445 would make several changes to voter requirements and county clerk duties to ensure quicker results on Election Day.

For voters, the bill would:

Eliminate same-day registration by restricting provisional ballots to just those whose voter ID or voter registration is challenged.
Require mail-in ballots to arrive before polls close on election night.
Shorten the time period when voters can correct a ballot with a mismatched signature from up to 11 days after Election Day to six days after.

Read more about Utah’s plan to finish counting votes sooner on election night.

Utah looking to pave way to directly pay college athletes

Dennis Romboy writes:

A Utah lawmaker has proposed a bill to allow universities to directly pay college athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness.

The legislation also explicitly states that athletes are not employees of a school through participation in an athletic program or because they receive compensation.

Furthermore, HB449 would make contracts between athletes and universities a public record subject to Utah’s Government Records Access and Management Act, or GRAMA.

Bill sponsor Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, said the proposal is intended to keep Utah universities competitive with schools across the country and ensure they don’t fall behind because the state’s laws are not up to date.

Read more about the shifting landscape of college sports.

Utah Business 2025 HR Achievement Awards

Know a stand-out HR professional who deserves to be recognized for great work? Nominate today!

Politics

Republicans push to make it easier for Trump to undo Biden administration policies (Deseret News)
Long time coming? Trump wants Treasury Department to stop producing pennies (Deseret News)
Jay Evensen: The real spending problems DOGE can't solve with a sledgehammer (Deseret News)

The U.S.

Trump imposes higher-than-ever metal tariffs, hints at upcoming blanket tariffs (Deseret News)
Trump in continual legal pushback against executive action on citizenship (Deseret News)
Hawaii court rules against insurance companies in Maui wildfire, allowing $4B settlement to proceed (The Associated Press)

The World

As Hamas postpones next hostage releases, Israeli mother Idit Ohel pleads for her son (Deseret News)
Russia-U.S. relations "balancing on the brink of a breakup," Kremlin warns (Axios)

Sports

Luka Doncic made his Laker debut against the Jazz. How did it go? (Deseret News)
The controversy behind Nike’s star-studded, female athlete-filled Super Bowl ad (Deseret News)
What reeling Cougars are focusing on ahead of Tuesday’s visit to West Virginia (Deseret News)
What Andy Reid said after the Chiefs’ three-peat hopes were dashed in blowout Super Bowl LIX loss (Deseret News)

Faith

Why everyone should be religious, according to Ross Douthat (Deseret News)
Trump reestablishes White House Faith Office, places Paula White-Cain in charge (Religion News Service)

Health

Bad medicine? Trump targets overhead costs for research grants, gets pushback from universities (Deseret News)
8 stretches to do while sitting at your desk (Deseret News)

🗓️ Events Calendar

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

Here are some highlights for events in Utah today:

Feb. 11 — U of U women’s tennis vs. Memphis | 2 p.m.
Feb. 11 — USU men’s basketball vs. Colorado State | 9 p.m.
Feb. 7-22 — “The Secret Garden” | Valentine Theater, American Fork

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