May 14, 2021

Could a tiny Utah town's expansion dreams get snuffed out by its own residents?

The Hideout Town Council snatched up hundreds of acres in a neighboring county last October — despite raising the ire of state legislators, neighboring local governments as well as the town’s own residents.

Now those residents will decide the annexation’s fate in a referendum late next month.

Until then, the property’s developer and town officials will hold public informational sessions about the planned 350-acre expansion, called Silver Meadows, which is located in Richardson Flat near Park City. At the first such public session, held Wednesday evening, Hideout Mayor Phil Rubin made his case for growing the town.

“Given the demand for nearby services that will only increase as 1,500-plus previously approved units get built around Jordanelle [Reservoir],” Rubin said at the virtual hearing, “I encourage you to vote recognizing that it will further the goals ... of the community if we choose to move ahead with the annexation.”

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2021/05/13/could-tiny-utah-towns/
(Salt Lake Tribune)

May 14, 2021

Sen. Mike Lee says continued federal COVID-19 aid is 'throwing gasoline on the fire' of inflation

Utah Sen. Mike Lee on Thursday lauded the state’s recent decision to stop paying higher jobless benefits, arguing that federal coronavirus relief dollars are now damaging the economy rather than helping it.

“With this latest round of government spending coming in right now, it’s kind of like throwing — not just water on an oil fire — but it’s a little bit like throwing gasoline on a fire,” the Republican senator said during an event hosted by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.

Dumping government money into the economy has sent inflation soaring and driven the cost of gasoline and food upwards, he contends. And the $300-a-week unemployment bonus, supported by federal funding, also has backfired by making it more profitable for people to stay home than re-enter the workforce, Lee continued.

He said he’s heard from employers across the state who can’t fill positions, including one Logan restaurant that can’t find people to work for $18 an hour in entry-level jobs.

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2021/05/13/sen-mike-lee-says/
(Salt Lake Tribune)

May 14, 2021

Land grab or fighting climate change? Illinois senator wants more Utah land as wilderness

t's a battle for other state's land in Congress, without the consent of their legislators, again.

On Monday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) refiled the America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act which would designate 8.4 million acres of Utah land as wilderness, including some former land from the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments.

However, none of the Utah congressional delegation signed on as co-sponsors.

Some, like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) are retaliating.

On Thursday, they refiled the Shawnee Wilderness Area Designation Act of 2021, previously introduced by Romney and former Sen. Rob Bishop (R-UT), which would designate 289,000 acres of land in Illinois as wilderness.

Read more: https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2021/05/13/battle-other-states-land-congress-when-illinois-senator-wants-utah-land/5074770001/
(St. George The Spectrum)

May 14, 2021

Nurse convicted of spreading hepatitis C in hospitals tries again for compassionate release

Note: To head off confusion when reading this article please recognize that the nurse's surname is Neilson; meanwhile, the appellate judge's surname is Nielson. I had to read the article three times to recognize and comprehend the article.


A former nurse convicted of spreading hepatitis C in two Northern Utah hospitals by diverting injectable narcotics from patients is trying again to get a compassionate early release from her five-year federal prison term.

In a 13-page, handwritten motion to U.S. District Judge Howard Nielson Jr. filed in Salt Lake City on Friday, Elet Neilson claimed she has heightened risk from COVID-19 because she has hepatitis C.

The former emergency room and intensive care registered nurse, who worked at McKay-Dee and Davis hospitals, also said she has rejected an offer of the Moderna vaccine where she is incarcerated, the minimum security Alderson prison camp in West Virginia.

“I have had adverse reactions to vaccines in the past,” she said. “I have no confidence in the substandard medical care (at the prison) to treat such a reaction in an urgent manner.”

Read more: https://www.heraldextra.com/news/state-and-regional/nurse-convicted-of-spreading-hepatitis-c-in-hospitals-tries-again-for-compassionate-release/article_c8e3f841-f218-57bc-8858-5662c307ddb6.html
(Provo Daily Herald)

May 14, 2021

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Crazy Vaccine Misinformation Keeping Americans Unvaccinated

May 13, 2021

Utah opts out of federal pandemic unemployment benefits

In a release on Wednesday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced the discontinuation of the federal unemployment programs tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal stimulus package, with programs ending June 26.

These programs include an additional $300 in federal stimulus to anyone qualified for unemployment, the federal extension of unemployment benefits, and one for self-employed or gig workers.

According to a release from the governor’s office, federal pandemic unemployment assistance in Utah totals $12.4 million a week.

The state has a 30-day opt-out period, and Department of Workforce Services Assistant Deputy Director Kevin Burt said the state will opt out soon.

Read more: https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/utah-opts-out-of-federal-pandemic-unemployment-benefits/article_8cfef35c-7f3d-565b-9805-9bd42ae2bee1.html
(Provo Daily Herald)

May 13, 2021

As SpaceX Ramps Up Activity In The Rio Grande Valley, Local Concerns Grow

Local activists in the Rio Grande Valley are frustrated with Elon Musk’s SpaceX operation in Boca Chica, just east of Brownsville.

Their concerns range from blocked public access to parks and beaches to long-term ecological damage to region-wide gentrification.

Local leaders, including Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez, regularly post on social media to announce meetings and tours with SpaceX officials while providing updates to local media about the developing relationship between the company and the region.

In a recent interview with the Rio Grande Guardian, Mendez expressed excitement that housing prices in the area were beginning to “shoot up” as a result of SpaceX and the third-party projects that it has already attracted to the area. Those projects include a newly formed out-of-region venture capital firm dedicated to funding space startups and a media channel that will broadcast only news about the space industry.

Read more: https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2021-05-12/spacex-rio-grande-valley-local-concerns-grow

May 13, 2021

There's an easy way for cruises to resume from Port of Galveston

There’s a simple solution for cruise lines wanting to resume operations from the Port of Galveston.

That solution is to follow a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guideline allowing the ships to sail if 98 percent of the crew and 95 percent of the passengers are vaccinated against COVID-19 infection.

The other option is for the lines to round up volunteers and stage cruises to prove their protocols can prevent virus transmission even among large numbers of unvaccinated people spending days in the close quarters that shipboard life demands.

The latter method is far more complicated and might end up disproving the merit of those untested protocols.

Cruise fans have protested about the CDC continuing tight restrictions on a resumption of sailing. The message has been something along the lines of “Let’s just do it.”

Read more: https://www.galvnews.com/opinion/editorials/free/article_24f80d14-5eca-56db-9935-f378dbef1f30.html
(Galveston County Daily News)

May 13, 2021

Official: Repairs to interstate bridge could take months (I-40)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Repairs to the Interstate 40 bridge linking Arkansas and Tennessee could take months after a crack was found in the span, forcing thousands of trucks and cars to detour and shutting down shipping on a section of the Mississippi River, a transportation official said Wednesday.

A congressional Democrat from Tennessee flagged the crack as a warning sign of the urgent need to act on fixes to the nation's infrastructure.

The six-lane bridge into Memphis was shut down Tuesday afternoon after inspectors found a "significant fracture" in one of two 900-foot horizontal steel beams that are crucial for the bridge's integrity, said Lorie Tudor, director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

Both states' transportation agencies said they would make sure the 48-year-old, 1.8-mile bridge is safe before reopening.

Read more: https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2021/may/13/official-repairs-interstate-bridge-could-take-months/871011/

May 13, 2021

More than 9,000 employees are sick as COVID overwhelms Arkansas workplaces

Poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc., the third-largest employer in Arkansas, reported 2,866 COVID-19 cases at its workplaces, nearly one-third of the state's 9,065 sickened workers across all industries from May 19, 2020, to April 8, 2021, according to an Arkansascovid.com analysis of Arkansas Department of Health data.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was produced by the University of Arkansas journalists in collaboration with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland. The Howard Center is an initiative of the Scripps Howard Foundation in honor of the late news industry executive and pioneer, Roy W. Howard.

SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc., the third-largest employer in Arkansas, reported 2,866 COVID-19 cases at its workplaces, nearly one-third of the state's 9,065 sickened workers across all industries from May 19, 2020, to April 8, 2021, according to an Arkansascovid.com analysis of Arkansas Department of Health data.

The state health department publishes COVID-19 occupational illness reports that show businesses with five or more active cases. In less than one year, Tyson had 281 appearances in these reports. Comparatively, Walmart Inc., the largest employer in the state, had two appearances that totaled 12 sick workers.

Of Tyson's 21 major locations in Arkansas, four have not appeared in the state's data during the pandemic. Near the company's headquarters in northwest Arkansas, the Tyson location on Berry Street in Springdale reported 416 COVID-19 cases, the most of any company workplace in the data.

In working conditions that stress a quick turnaround on products and have close contact between employees, workers told Arkansascovid.com they were put at risk for catching COVID-19. Legal-aid attorneys and worker-advocacy groups said the state regulatory structure was overwhelmed by the pandemic. That, combined with a weak union presence, led to a failure to provide adequate protections for struggling workers.

Read more: https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2021/may/13/more-9000-employees-are-sick-covid-overwhelms-arkansas-workplaces/870995/

Note: I realize the thread title is misleading in the fact that it is using a cumulative amount rather than the number of people currently infected.