Deseret News
- Religious liberty hangs in the balance this summer – The case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, has the potential to gut First Amendment precedent that has stood for over 30 years. It will also signal how the new conservative majority will rule on religious freedom protections.
- Searching for a moral awakening: How America can become equitable, humble and prosperous – Our upswing, if we choose to reject our narcissism, will start with Americans deciding there is a better way, assessing their own moorings and then working among their city blocks to change hearts and minds.
- How RootsTech Connect went from 130,000 to 1.1 million – Bottom line, the pandemic offered an opportunity to look at the conference differently. The desire to connect and the increased ability to do so brought people together in unprecedented numbers.
- Letterboxd: It’s like Facebook, but for movie lovers – The film-centric social media outlet saw its membership nearly double since the start of the pandemic and now has over 3 million members.
- Republican support for a third party is at an all-time high. But could it actually happen? – Those who support a third party include 70% of independents, 63% of Republicans and 46% of Democrats. In the recent past, election reforms have replaced efforts to create another party.
- Why Sen. Mike Lee thinks the massive COVID-19 relief package is ‘offensive’ – “The bill before the Senate this week is not really about COVID relief. It’s about politics,”
- Utah bill spelling out ‘endgame’ for pandemic clears House, but may be in trouble – “I’m not sure we need legislation,” Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, pointing to the pace of the vaccine rollout and declining case counts as indicators the state could already be “headed toward the end of the pandemic.”
- Dixie State University name change bill passes, headed to governor’s desk – No one in the Senate spoke against the bill, but some, like Sen. John Johnson, R-North Ogden, expressed frustration that the push to change the university’s name was tantamount to cancel culture.
- Four more companies hired to help vaccinate Utahns against COVID-19 – Utah’s Red Rock Pharmacy, Hurricane Family Pharmacy and Community Nursing Services, along with Curative Wellness in California, were chosen Wednesday to join Orem-based Nomi Health to provide mobile and mass vaccinations.
Salt Lake Tribune
- $1.23B transportation package heading to governor’s desk – Legislators add language urging the hiring of Utah firms and residents to tackle the construction projects.
- Commission on racial equity urges Salt Lake City’s police improve its training programs – The commission wants more trainers to be officers of color and more focus on implicit bias.
- Robert Gehrke: Utah legislators are pushing a quick exit from COVID restrictions, but these steps are more critical – There’s a difference between getting to that endpoint fast and getting there right.
- Is a 5G pole planned for your neighborhood? This map shows all permits in Salt Lake City so far. – The City Council is mulling potential policies to make the tech less of an eyesore.
- Bill on changing Dixie State University’s name gets final approval from Utah lawmakers – The bill requires the university to restart the renaming process — going back to square one to form a committee to study the issue and collect more community input before making a final call. And it no longer stops the new name from still including “Dixie,” as the first version of the bill did.
- Bail reform repeal passes Utah Legislature just months after kicking in – Reforms were meant to stop kicking defendants locked up before trial simply because they couldn’t afford bail. Prosecutors say the new system has worked.
- Political party switching banned in three months before primary election under bill headed to governor – Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, said he brought the legislation in response to efforts to recruit Democrats to join the Republican Party to cast a ballot in the 2020 primary for governor, even though the data does not support that claim.
- Reversing Trump, Interior Department moves swiftly on climate change – As the Interior Department awaits its new secretary, the agency is already moving to lock in key parts of President Joe Biden’s environmental agenda, particularly on oil and gas restrictions.
Other
- Feel shaking in Salt Lake County on Tuesday? No, it wasn’t an earthquake (ABC 4) – Officials say the shaking was related to night-flying operations at Hill Air Force Base.
- ‘This is our community’: Salt Lake City residents voice concern over plan to demolish 5 historic homes (KSL) – Four of the five homes were constructed in the 1890s.
- Sullivan talks latest project while under house arrest for Capitol riot involvement (FOX 13) – He has about 70,000 words finished in a book he is currently writing about the riot.
- Do parents want distance learning after pandemic? Jordan School District wants to know (FOX 13) – A survey raises these questions: Has the pandemic led to a better school schedule, or do people want to return to a pre-pandemic school week?
- Utah has nation’s worst housing shortage, new programs announced to help (FOX 13) – The effort would create a statewide authority to guide development of affordable housing to reassure communities projects will fit into communities rather than detracting from property values. It also funds a new director of homeless issues at the state level to advise the governor and coordinate a homeless advisory council.
- Senate passes bill aimed at getting higher education to incarcerated youth (St, George News) – “Education is the antidote to recidivism,” Snow told St. George in February. “We’ve got to invest in education outreach. This program will provide the same opportunities for concurrent enrollment to incarcerated youth as it does to their peers who are not incarcerated.”
COVID Corner
- Hundreds of unhoused people have received COVID-19 vaccines in Salt Lake City (Salt Lake Tribune) – Fourth Street Clinic is hoping to get single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines in the near future.
- Utah expected to get more COVID-19 vaccines in next few weeks (FOX 13) – The week after next, we are really going to start seeing an increase in the number of Pzfiser and Moderna doses that we receive. J&J should really have its production ramped up by the third week of March.
- Texas doctors say Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to scrap mask mandate could result in another Covid-19 surge (NBC News) – “I think the governor’s decision was premature…If the goal is to reach herd immunity, we are not there yet. Masking and distancing are an important bridge to herd immunity. We’re still seeing 1,000 new cases per day in Houston.”
- T cell response to virus variants remains potent; Asthma does not raise severe COVID-19 risk (Yahoo! News)
- Why Blood Type May Matter for COVID Infection (WebMD) – The new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is particularly attracted to the blood group A antigen found on respiratory cells.
- Why type A blood may increase COVID-19 risk (LiveScience) – Laboratory experiments revealed that part of the coronavirus called the “receptor binding domain” (RBD), which directly binds to cells to jumpstart infection, also grabs onto unique molecules associated with type A blood.
- The COVID-19 vaccine has a side effect that is being mistaken for breast cancer (Salon.com) – The observation of swollen lymph nodes in one’s armpits is a common sign of breast cancer, particularly in female patients.
- Widely used convalescent plasma treatment doesn’t stop COVID-19 patients from getting sicker, study finds (USA Today) – The federal government discontinued a research trial of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 saying the blood product from recovered patients doesn’t prevent at-risk people visiting emergency rooms from getting sicker.
- Rural Americans in pharmacy deserts hurting for Covid-19 vaccines (CNN) – 111 rural counties, mostly located between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, have no pharmacy that can give the vaccines.
- COVID-19 felt like leukemia, Dr. Drew says (Deseret News) – Dr. Drew — a media personality and addiction medicine specialist — once criticized COVID-19. He has now changed his tune.
- 4 tips to consider after you get the COVID-19 vaccine (Deseret News) – Apply a cool, wet cloth over the area where you got the shot, use or exercise the arm that was injected, drink plenty of fluids and dress lightly to reduce any discomfort you might have.