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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

• Utah offers rare apology over ‘disturbing evidence’ of cover-up of rape claims against trooper (KSL) 
• When it comes to the Giving Machines, let’s be the born-again version of Scrooge (Deseret News)
• IOC delays decision on 2030 Winter Games again. What’s next for Salt Lake City’s Olympic bid? (Deseret News)
• Utah takes the top spot for the country’s worst drivers, according to new report. The Utah Highway Safety Office reported 61,406 crashes in 2021 (Deseret News)
• How this Hill AFB major hopes to inspire a new generation of Air Force pilots (KSL)
• Utah ranks #2 for best place to retire (Fox13)
• ‘We never came here by our choice’ — the heartache of religious persecution. Millions of people, including this 19-year-old, have fled Afghanistan after the Taliban came into power one year ago, but the pain hasn’t ended and the future is unclear (Deseret News)
• Worker shortage puts Utah’s prison in ‘crisis’. A shortage of nearly 400 officers has critics warning of likely injuries, death, even riots. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Murray community rallies around immigrant family after father dies from rare disease (Fox13)

Politics

•  Poll: Gov. Spencer Cox’s approval rating is inching up (Deseret News)
• A U.S. Supreme Court case could impact lawsuits over Utah’s congressional districts. A decision in the North Carolina gerrymandering case could affect ongoing court battles in Kentucky, New Mexico and Utah. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Business

•  Vivint Smart Home sold to Houston-based NRG Energy for $2.8 billion in cash and the assumption of $2.4 billion in debt (KSL)
• Provo mayor says 4-day workweek works for city employees (KSL)
• 2 more Utah tech companies — each valued at over $1B — lay off staff (Salt Lake Tribune)

Education

•  U. seeks policy prohibiting ‘undue influence’ on admission, scholarship awards. State lawmakers, donors, others have tried to exert influence when advocating for students seeking admission (Deseret News)
• Is full-day kindergarten right for Utah's students? (KSL)
• Only small group of parents utilizing new law to help ban books in Utah school libraries (KUTV)
•  Once homeless, Utah Tech director now helps first-year students feel at home (Salt Lake Tribune)

Environment

•  Utah Lake’s would-be dredgers demand controversial island project be reinstated (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Mitt Romney, Mike Lee among senators asking USDA to do more for Western farmers amid drought (Deseret News)
• U.S. Forest Service uses Utah trees to reforest areas impacted by climate change (UPR)
• Rocky Mountain Power is monitoring grid safety after N.C. substation attacks (Salt Lake Tribune)

Family

• Are in-game ‘loot boxes’ a gambling gateway for children? (Deseret News)
• A stranger called. He had photos of her family from the Holocaust era. (Washington Post)
• Building empathy in children takes practice. Parents can help. (Washington Post)

Health

•  Add cognitive decline to the health woes linked to ultra-processed foods (Deseret News)
• FDA grants priority review for over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray to treat opioid overdose (KSL)
• Overcoming loneliness during the holidays (ABC4)
• That 8-glasses-of-water-daily thing? It’s from the ’40s and not accurate. (Washington Post)
• Weighted blankets may boost melatonin, a sleep hormone, study shows (Washington Post)

Housing

• How bringing in new companies is inadvertently creating a housing crisis in some states, including Utah (Denver 7)
• Housing prices in Utah have increased by 200% since 2000 (ABC4)
• The Lord of Misrule Christmas play to raise funds for SLC homeless (ABC4)
• Here’s where SLC wants to funnel $6M to chip away at homelessness (Salt Lake Tribune)

National Headlines

General

•  Valerie Hudson: The autocrats’ dilemma. Regimes play a dangerous game when they forget that millions of outraged people can move the world under their feet (Deseret News)
• Trump Organization convicted in tax fraud scheme. Two Trump businesses were found guilty on 17 counts (Deseret News)
• ‘Next mass killer’: Dropped case foretold bloodbath at Club Q in Colorado (ABC4)
• Dying to compete. Bodybuilders are risking their lives, and in some cases dying, because of extreme measures that are encouraged by coaches and rewarded by judges. (Washington Post)

Politics

•  Warnock wins Georgia Senate race, giving Democrats a one-vote cushion (Deseret News)
• National Republican Party leadership elections are heating up — See who’s running (Deseret News)
• Black Santa, the KKK and why Justice Samuel Alito is facing calls to leave the Supreme Court (Deseret News)
• McConnell criticizes Trump's calls to terminate the Constitution (NPR)
• Justice Dept. subpoenas Ariz., Mich., Wis. officials in Trump Jan. 6 probe (Washington Post)
• House panel fines Cawthorn over $15,000 for promoting cryptocurrency (Washington Post)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

•  Ukraine strikes back with drone attacks on Russian airfields (Deseret News)
• Donors race to get generators, other aid to hard-hit Ukraine (AP)
• Russian oligarch seizes 400,000 acres of Ukrainian farmland, owners say (Wall Street Journal)
• ‘They just bring them here as meat’: Ukraine inches forward to deliver Russia a new defeat in Luhansk (Washington Post)

World News

•  China lends billions to poor countries. Is that a burden ... or a blessing? (NPR)
• Thousands of police officers carried out raids across much of Germany on Wednesday against suspected far-right extremists who allegedly sought to overthrow the government in an armed coup and install a prince. Officials said 25 people were detained. (AP)
• China eases ‘Zero Covid’ restrictions in victory for protesters. Beijing’s costly policy of lockdowns has pummeled the world’s second-largest economy and set off mass public protests that were a rare challenge to China’s leader, Xi Jinping. (New York Times)

News Releases

Salt Lake County 2023 budget approved

This evening, the Salt Lake County Council held public comment and certified the county’s 2023 budget.

“The 2023 comprehensive budget provides historic support to health, quality of life initiatives, homeless system assistance and environmental sustainability investments. Additionally, all of the county’s priority deferred maintenance was funded including much needed improvements at parks, recreation centers and buildings throughout the county system.” said Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson. (Read More)

Nominees announced for 2nd District Court vacancy

The Second District Judicial Nominating Commission has selected nominees for a vacancy on the Second District Court. This position results from the retirement of Judge David M. Connors, March 16, 2023.

The nominees for the vacancy are: Cara Baldwin, General Counsel, R-Zero Systems, Inc.; Catherine Conklin, Commissioner, Second District Court; Joseph Kjar, Attorney, Fabian VanCott; Bryan Memmott, Judge, Plain City Justice Court, Woods Cross Justice Court, South Ogden Justice Court, South Weber Justice Court; Jason Nelson, Deputy County Attorney, Davis County Attorney’s Office.

Written comments can be submitted to the Second District Judicial Nominating Commission at judicialvacancies@utah.gov or Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, P.O. Box 142330, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-2330. The deadline for written comments is noon Dec. 19, 2022.

Gov. Cox orders flags to half-staff for National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox has ordered the flags of the United States of America and the great state of Utah to be lowered in recognition of National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

Flags should be lowered to the half-staff position beginning at midnight on Dec. 7, 2022 until midnight on Dec. 8, 2022. 

Romney introduces bill to end China’s unfair international advantages

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, today introduced the Ending China’s Developing Nation Status Act, legislation to prevent the granting of “developing nation” status to China in future treaties and international organizations. This bill also directs the Secretary of State to pursue changing the status of China to “developed nation” in treaties or organizations where a mechanism for change exists. (Read More)

Utah’s consumer sentiment falls in November

Utah’s consumer sentiment fell from 66.0 in October to 64.1 in  November, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s Survey of Utah Consumers. A similar  survey by the University of Michigan also found sentiment decreased from October (59.9) to November (56.8) among Americans as a whole.

Number of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Upcoming

• Utah Health Policy Project annual conference, Dec. 7, 8:00 am - 4:00 pm, Utah Cultural Celebration Center, Register here
• 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

• 1787 - Delaware is the 1st state to ratify the US constitution
• 1941 - Pearl Harbor is attacked
• 1941 - Capt. Annie Fox received the first Purple Heart awarded to a woman for her service while under attack at Pearl Harbor.
• 1965 - Pope Paul VI & Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led to split of 2 churches in 1054
• 1970 - Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist whose cartoons inspired the Rube Goldberg contests (Pulitzer Prize 1948), dies of cancer at 87
• 1972 - Apollo 17 launched, the final manned lunar landing mission where the crew takes the famous "blue marble" photo of the entire Earth
• 1982 - Charlie Brooks Jr, convicted murderer became first US prisoner to be executed by lethal injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas
• 1988 - PLO delegation lead by Yasser Arafat proclaims the State of Palestine, recognizing the existence of the State of Israel for the first time
• 2006 - Jeane Kirkpatrick, American ambassador to the UN and a key foreign policy figure in Ronald Reagan’s administration, dies at 80
• 2017 - Former US gymnastics physician Larry Nasser is sentenced to 60 years on child pornography charges
• 2020 - Chuck Yeager, American test pilot who was the 1st man to break the sound barrier, dies at 97

Wise Words

"You cannot escape anxiety. You cannot escape a clutch of fear at your heart and yet I hope that the certainty of what we have to meet will make you rise above these fears.

​We must go about our daily business more determined than ever to do the ordinary things as well as we can and when we find a way to do anything more in our communities to help others, to build morale, to give a feeling of security, we must do it. Whatever is asked of us I am sure we can accomplish it. We are the free and unconquerable people of the United States of America."

—First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Dec 7, 1941

On the Punny Side

I was watching Star Wars with my daughter. She asked why Luke was climbing inside a Tauntaun, I said to keep warm.

She asked how warm is it inside?

I said Lukewarm.

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