My friend's small business, Ice Cream Social, in Salt Lake City, has an amazing drop for next week (for pick up on 10/4/26).
Order at https://www.hotplate.com/icecreamsocial
Becky's Birthday Cake
Vegan Dirty Chai
Bee's Knees Honeycomb
Bananas Foster
Pick up at 432 S 900 E 1-7PM
Salt Lake Tribune: Bird flu death in Washington state renews concern as virus spreads unchecked at Utah mink farm
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/11/06/bird-flu-death-washington-state/
I agree with this article, Mike Lee is never getting elected in Utah again:
> Lee being on the ballot in 2028, Finlayson said, could be a major opportunity for Utah Democrats
> ... said he isn’t convinced that Lee will be on the ballot in 2028 ... "All of that said, I’m not wishing [that he will retire], I’m just reading the tea leaves.”
That first quote is from a Democratic strategist.
The second one is from a Republican state lawmaker.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2026/11/05/utahs-sen-mike-lee-will-lose/
#Utah is being fairly slow in counting its ballots this year. Since my spouse is working as a ballot counter, I have a little bit of understanding why - though please keep in mind this is like third-hand information.
First, you need to know that most of Utah votes by mail-in ballot - over 90% of ballots were cast this way in 2024 (though the legislature has passed a law that makes changes to this in the future).
Second, there was a law passed by the state legislature last year that will require voters to write the last 4 digits of their SSN or drivers' license number on mail-in ballots, in addition to their signature (which has always been required.)
BUT the law is not yet fully in effect; for now, writing those 4 digits is optional, though the text on the printed ballots makes it sound like it is mandatory, so I assume most people are doing it. If you do write the digits, they must match what's on file - if you don't, your ballot gets processed anyway.
The normal process here for validating mail-in ballots is to have machines do *most* of the signature verification, with ones "challenged" by the machines reviewed by trained humans, as well as spot checks to verify the machines' accuracy.
However, the machines are not capable of validating those last-4-digits.
So, this year, every single signature, plus the digits, are being validated by humans (including my spouse).
Despite the fact that they (at least Salt Lake County) have been checking signatures for weeks, since many ballots come in early, it's simply taking too long to validate all the ballots that came in on election day.
NEW: The Interior Department may open tens of millions of acres of public lands for AI data centers.
ProPublica found Trump officials who oversee these lands stand to profit from the growth of the industry.
https://www.propublica.org/article/burgum-public-land-data-centers-investments?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #PublicLands #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology #Tech #Government #Ethics #Utah #Nevada
RE: https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/post/3mzsvphfd3c2p
Definissimo!
For #Utahns, there is so much we can do to continue to chip away at the #LDS church and #GOP stranglehold on the state.
Right now, there are a bunch of new people coming in to the first legislative session in January. The governor is going to issue his budget, but it's up to the legislature what actually gets budgeted.
Connect with the nonprofits you support. They will tell you what bills are being voted on, whether they support or reject them, and how to contact the legislature to push those views.
For example, I care about domestic violence prevention, so I go to https://udvc.org/public-policy-work/ Soon that page will be updated with their info on the 2027 session.
#utpol #utleg #uspol #Utah
