The Daily Buzz

Tribune reporter Jordan Miller had never heard of inversion before she moved to Utah. So this past week, she dug into the reason the Wasatch Front experience inversion all winter and if there is anything Utahns can do to make the air quality better.

The Utah Senate is targeting press access with a bill this session that will limit where and how journalists could cover the Legislature. Senate Resolution 1 would stop journalists from accessing the Senate floor and limit where journalists can report from in committee hearings. The resolution passed a Senate committee 7-1 on Wednesday.

A plan by Utah officials to export Utah-mined coal to Japan has run aground after the city of Oakland and port developers, after years of legal battles, have reached a settlement framework. The agreement would stop coal from being shipped out of the California port.

And although medical marijuana is legal in Utah, advocates for the state’s medical cannabis program have found that legal doesn’t always mean free of consequence.

A Utah lawmaker from Salt Lake City has proposed a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to patients with a terminal illness if the patient puts the request in writing. Similar efforts have been presented in recent years, but the bill’s sponsor hopes the climate has changed on the issue in Utah.

The Tribune’s Becky Jacobs reports on a new study that shows how dangerous COVID-19 infections are for pregnant women.

And Utah health officials report COVID-19 hospitalizations were down after this past weekend.

For Utahns who’ve ever worried about who they were going to meet up with from a dating app, access to Utah’s online court records now only cost the public $5 to search.

On Friday, the Republican National Committee decided to censure Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Colorado for participating in the House Jan. 6 select committee investigating the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. Reporter Bryan Schott attended the RNC’s winter meeting in Salt Lake City and talks about the censure with Grant Burningham.

And Bethany Rodgers reports on a proposed bill that aims to increase election security in Utah.

Tribune reporters shared the latest news from the Legislature’s general session, like a proposal to make public transportation free to passengers, and fact-check some common myths about mail-in voting.

And Saige Miller and Alastair Lee Bitsóí have been reporting on Westwater, a small, eastern Utah community that has been promised electricity and water for 40 years. Will 2022 be the year these utilities come to Westwater?

Tribune reporters shared the latest news from the Legislature’s general session, including a reintroduction of school vouchers and how lawmakers are trying to limit press access on Capitol hill.

And Bryan Maffly discusses his most recent reporting on the Utah Lake Restoration Project.

Bryan Schott reports that all the momentum in the Utah Legislature is aimed towards an income-tax cut next year, with the potential of additional social security tax relief and an earned income tax credit.

And reporters Andy Larsen and Kim Bojórquez report on the slow-moving walkways at the Salt Lake City International Airport and a proposed bill that could change the way the state offers driver license testing for Utahns who do not speak English.

Utah lawmakers have started the third week of their annual general session of lawmaking. At the Capitol on Monday, Rep. Steve Eliason asked lawmakers to set aside $2.5 million to create centers in Utah’s middle and high schools where teens experiencing homelessness could find support.

Also, locals are worried that dinosaur tracks outside of Moab were destroyed during a recent construction project. The 112 million-year-old tracks were at the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite.

While in Salt Lake City, a runner who’s cruised every street in the capital city is making his own tracks.

Monday, Jan. 31, kicks off the third week of the 2022 Utah Legislature’s general session. So far, lawmakers have dedicated their efforts to curbing county and local COVID-19 response powers and proposed tax cuts.

Another priority this year, and for perhaps many years to come, is water.

Journalists from The Salt Lake Tribune spoke with a top lawmaker and a water policy expert to learn what the Legislature can do to ensure there is enough water to go around — including saving the Great Salt Lake.

While daily COVID-19 cases continue to fall in Utah, hospitalizations have again hit a record high, with more than 830 patients in health care facilities in Utah. Also, Utah County Attorney David Leavitt is stuck in Amsterdam after testing positive for the coronavirus while on his way back to the Beehive State. The county’s top prosecutor traveled to Ukraine earlier this week to collect some personal items from his apartment in Kyiv.

And finally, two Utah Senate Democrats have been removed from their committee assignments.