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Good morning! Here are the top stories from last week:

BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff gets candid and draws laughter at Jewish comedy night

Church says Texas town not standing by settlement reached for the McKinney Texas Temple

‘It’s a shock’: Utah Senate leaders respond to Trump funding freeze

The faith-based college fighting to cut ties with its church

Jennifer Graham: We were mourning together. Then came the press conference

Evangelicals, Jews, Adventists, others grateful judges supported church autonomy in Latter-day Saint tithing case

Trump’s 3 remaining headaches

A lawmaker wants to make state election oversight less controversial. Will it backfire?

Utah is one of only two states where the lieutenant governor oversees elections. One Utah lawmaker wants to change that.

As Brigham Tomco reports, Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden, introduced a bill that would appoint a committee of five county clerks to select a state elections director.

“We wouldn’t be running the bill if there wasn’t an appetite for it,” Wilcox told the Deseret News on Friday. “We heard that across the board all year, that we needed to at the very least remove the perception of that problem with regulating your own race.”

Policymakers on both sides of the aisle questioned whether the proposal would eliminate the perception of a conflict of interest.

Read more about HB369 and how lawmakers have responded to it.

At Weber State, the cheerleaders spell

C-H-A-M-P-I-O-N

Lee Benson writes:

They keep winning national titles like Meryl Streep collects acting awards — seven of them in a row with more expected on the way — and yet, in one of those life ironies you just can’t make up, the winningest athletic team right now in the state of Utah, and one of the most dominating in all of college sports, doesn’t have any cheerleaders cheering them on.

For one simple reason: they are the cheerleaders.

Year after year, the cheer teams at Weber State University keep lugging home championship trophies almost as tall as they are. The fact that the trophies are stashed in the coaches office collecting dust ought to give you some idea of the lack of fanfare and fuss. But the bigger fact is that Weber State has won national championships every year since 2017, including two straight Grand Titles — a new award the National Cheerleaders Association implemented in 2023 that recognizes the top school in all of its collegiate divisions. A kind of Best of Show.

Read more about how coach Summer Willis has led the Wildcats to seven straight national titles.

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.

Politics

USAID security leaders on leave after trying to keep Musk’s DOGE from classified info, officials say (The Associated Press)
Trump says potential pain caused by tariffs ‘worth the price that must be paid’ (The Hill)
Trump official declines to say whether women, children to be held at Guantanamo (Reuters)

The U.S.

What went wrong in the Philly jet crash that killed 7 people (Axios)
Inside the grueling effort to recover the bodies of all 67 victims from the mangled wreckage of DC plane collision (CNN)

The World

Trump’s trade war among allies triggers retaliation from Canada and Mexico (The Associated Press)
Rubio demands Panama 'reduce China influence' over canal (BBC)

Sports

Bronco Mendenhall’s most important task as Utah State’s new coach? Find NFL talent (Deseret News)
Trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers is NBA malpractice by the Mavericks (Deseret News)
Utah gymnastics showed its good and bad in loss to Florida, win over West Virginia (Deseret News)
Is BYU ahead of schedule midway through its second Big 12 season? (Deseret News)

Entertainment

Beyonce appears visibly shocked as she wins the Grammy for best country album (Deseret News)
See who won at the 2025 Grammy Awards (CNN)

Health

Naomi Schaefer Riley: Don’t believe the lies about cannabis (Deseret News)
In the LA fires and the NC floods, 'CPR for mental health' treats unseen wounds (NPR)

🗓️ 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. 3 — Utah Jazz vs. Indiana Pacers | 7 p.m.
Feb. 3 — Weber State men’s basketball vs. Northern Arizona | 7 p.m.

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