Other
- Romney Says Trump Would Win 2024 GOP Nomination If He Runs (Bloomberg) – “He has by far the largest voice and a big impact in my party,” Romney said.
- Utah House committee green-lights resolution declaring racism as public health crisis (FOX 13) – “You can’t solve a problem that you won’t admit you have,” said sponsor Rep. Hollins. “And this [resolution] states, ‘We have an issue. We have a problem. We have a challenge in this state that we need to address, that we need to start having conversation about.'”
- Some parents upset Black History Month display removed at Bountiful school (FOX 13) – Steve Swensen, the adoptive parent of Black children, feels the outrage and rush to remove the sign doesn’t do the children who attend school here any good at all.
- Supporters hope hair discrimination bill resurfaces this legislative session (ABC4) – However, late Tuesday night, the bill’s sponsor acknowledged that due to lack of support, the bill is dead this year.
Salt Lake Tribune
- Salt Lake City School District appoints new superintendent – Dr. Timothy Gadson said he will make student mental health a priority.
- Effort to stop abuse at Utah’s ‘troubled-teen’ centers is sailing through the Legislature – Legislation would boost inspections, stop the use of sedatives and require tracking of physical restraints.
- Dixie State name change touches off unexpected standoff between House and Senate Republicans – HB278, which easily passed the House last week, is on ice in the Senate as Republican members have decided not to consider the bill, opting instead to wait for a year on the name change.
- New program coming to Ogden to make homes more affordable for teachers, government workers – Eligible employees can receive up to $120,000 in shared-equity down payment support.
- Mitt Romney criticizes Biden’s HHS secretary nominee over abortion, expansion of Medicare – Utah senator questions Xavier Becerra’s stand on ‘partial-birth’ abortion and asked “How are we going to expand something (Medicare) that’s already on track to go bankrupt?”
- Mitt Romney hopes history ‘looks more kindly’ on him than others in the GOP – Romney said he’s been determined to follow his conscience while serving as one of Utah’s U.S. senators.
Deseret News
- Utah governor eyeing threshold to end mask mandates across state – A new statewide health order would no longer make wearing masks mandatory in counties designated as having low COVID-19 transmission rates once the state’s allocation of vaccine reaches some four times the current level.
- As universal pre-K gathers steam, what are the pros and cons experts see? – Critics question whether universal pre-K is the best option to close educational gaps between low-income and better-off children.
- America is behind bars. Trust will set us free – The National Guard’s presence in Washington illustrates more than a security issue: America has lost trust.
- What Mitt Romney thinks about boycotting the 2022 Olympics in Beijing – He does not think the US should boycott. “We’re going to see if we can’t find some ways to make our concerns about China very, very clear without punishing our athletes,” he said.
- When do Utahns believe life will return to normal? Answers may surprise you – Nearly half of Utahns believe it will be at least a year from now before life returns to normal.
- Salt Lake City selects first Black superintendent to lead a Utah school district – The Salt Lake City Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to select Timothy Gadson III, PhD., as the district’s top administrator.
- Sen. Mitt Romney talks ‘clunker’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan with Utah lawmakers – Romney met virtually with lawmakers during their caucuses.
- Utah lawmaker wants to assert state authority on gun rules over state, federal efforts – Local control only applies to the feds, it would appear. House passes bill to preempt cities from restricting firearms.
COVID Corner
- Fauci says new CDC rules are coming for people who’ve been fully vaccinated (Business Insider) – This update should “relax the stringency of the recommendations,” particularly for people in the same family who have been vaccinated.
- California’s coronavirus strain looks increasingly dangerous: ‘The devil is already here’ (The San Diego Union Tribune) – California’s homegrown coronavirus strain is more transmissible than its predecessors, is more resistant to vaccines, and may cause more severe cases of COVID-19.
- So You Got Vaccinated … And Then You Got COVID. Now What? (FiveThirtyEight) – Scientists say there is a difference between “efficacy” and “effectiveness.” Efficacy is the 95 percent number you get from a clinical trial. Effectiveness is what the number is once you’re vaccinating millions more people.
- How do we know COVID-19 vaccines are safe? (FOX News) – Scientists look for safety issues during the testing phase and continue their monitoring as shots roll out around the world.
- The growing evidence that the Covid-19 vaccines can reduce transmission, explained (Vox) – Two recent studies show some pretty favorable results — one from the UK that found that two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine cut down by 86% someone’s chances of developing an infection that they could pass along, the other a study in Israel that found an 89.4% reduction.
- What a new study from Elon Musk tells us about COVID-19 (Deseret News) – A new study — co-authored by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — suggests that those who had mild COVID-19 symptoms had less immunity than those who had more severe illnesses.
- Schoolteachers may play ‘central role’ in COVID-19 spread in schools, small CDC study says (Deseret News) – COVID-19 spread often occurred during in-person meetings or lunches and then subsequently spread in classrooms,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters Monday.
- Coronavirus medical mystery: Baby with high viral load puzzles researchers (Washington Post) – The infant’s viral load was 51,418 times the median of other pediatric patients. When they sequenced the virus in the baby recently, they found a variant they hadn’t seen before.
