Deseret Digest January 2024

THE DIGEST

JANUARY 2024 VOL. 2 / NO. 1

Deseret News:

Deseret Magazine:

Church News

In Utah license plates, black is the new cool.

Revival of Utah's black license plates

Race to the bottom. In

Cowboy steps away from professional bull riding to serve a mission

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2024, America will elect a president nobody wants

Inflation, mental health, jobs.

Why are U.S. parents so stressed?

CONTINUES ON PG. 6

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2 DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

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By Burke Olsen

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DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING

If Your Hands, Arms, Feet, or Legs Are Numb - If You Feel Shooting or Burning Pain or An Electric Sensation - You Are at Risk

Don’t Let Creeping Nerve Death Ruin Your Life Get The Help You Need - Here’s What You Need to Know...

Pleasant Grove, UT - If you experience numbness or tingling in your hands, arms,legs, or feet or if you experience shooting or burning pain, this is important. Please read this carefully.

Peripheral Neuropathy is when small blood vessels in the hands,arms, feet or legs become diseased and tiny nerves that keep the cells and muscles working properly shrivel up and die.

Early-warning symptoms include tingling and numbness, mild loss of feeling in your hands, arms, legs or feet, inability to feel your feet, which increases your risk of foot-injury and falling.

More Advanced Symptoms Include...

• Loss of coordination & dexterity, which puts you at increased risk of accidents.

• Inability to feel clothing like socks and gloves.

• High risk of falling, which makes walking dangerous, and makes you more dependent on others.

• Burning sensations in your arms, legs,hands or feet that may start mild, but as nerves and muscles die, may feel like you’re being burned by a blow torch.

Ignore the early warning signals long enough and you risk progressive nerve damage leading to muscle wasting, severe pain, loss of balance and a lot of staying at home wishing you didn’t hurt.

When every step is like walking on hot coals, sitting still may be the only thing you feel like doing. But there’s little joy in sitting still all day long.

Now here’s the scary part....

Copyright ©2021 Russell Communication

Drugs like Gabapentin, Lyrica, Cymbalta, & Neurontin are often prescribed to manage the pain. But, damaged nerves and dying cells do not heal on their own.

Pain pills do not restore healthy nerve function. They just mask the pain as the nerves continue to degenerate and cells and muscle continue to die.

• Nerve damage CAUSES cell damage.

• Cell damage SPEEDS UP nerve degeneration

Without treatment this can become a DOWN-WARD SPIRAL that accelerates.

The damage can get worse fast. Mild symptoms intensify. Slight tingling,numbness or lack of feeling can turn into burning pain.

Before you know it, damage can become so bad you hurt all the time.

Unless this downward spiral is stopped and nerves return to proper function - the damage to nerves and cells in the affected area can get so bad your muscles begin to die right along with the nerves and cells.

And that sets the stage for weakness, loss of mobility, disability, and dependence on others.

If you have early warning signs of peripheral neuropathy, (tingling &/or numbness, loss of feeling or pain) it’s CRITICAL you get proper treatment.

It’s critical, because with proper treatment the symptoms can often be reversed. Without it, you are playing Russian Roulette with your health.

Once your nerve loss reaches 85%, odds are there’s nothing any doctor can do to help. The most common method your doctor may recommend to treat neuropathy is prescription drugs

Taking endless drugs and suffering terrible side effects that may damage your liver &kidney and create even more problems, is not a reasonable path. You deserve better.

Three things must be determined to effectively treat neuropathy. 1) What is the underlying cause? 2) How much nerve damage has been sustained? 3) How much treatment your condition will require?

With proper treatment, shriveled blood vessels grow back & nerves can return to proper function. How much treatment you may need depends on your condition.

At Chiropractic USA we do a complete neuropathy sensitivity exam to determine the extent of your nerve damage. The exam includes a detailed sensory evaluation,extensive peripheral vascular testing, & a detailed analysis of the findings.

Dr. Christopher Moore, D.C. will be offering this complete neuropathy sensitivity exam for $49. This special offer goes away at the end of this month as we have a limited number of exam appointments available.

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4 DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

DESERET NEWS

In Utah license plates, black is the new cool

State Sen. Lincoln Fillmore listened to constituents pushing for a revival of Utah’s black license plates; now they’re everywhere

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

A Legacy license plate is pictured in Murray on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. A bill by Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, introduced the retro black Utah license plates. This plate is a special group plate that benefits the Historical Society of Utah.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, is pictured in Murray on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. It was Fillmore's bill that introduced the retro black Utah license plates. The Legacy plate costs $25 a year and supports the Utah State Historical Society.

By Lee Benson Deseret News

When he turned 49 this past October, Lincoln Fillmore, the state senator representing South Jordan, opened his wife’s gift and found a single sheet of paper inside.

It was a picture of a black Utah license plate with white lettering.

Cheryl Fillmore had ordered the plates weeks earlier, but there was a backlog on the state’s end. The picture was what his plates would look like when they arrived, which they finally did in mid-November.

So even the creator had to stand in line.

By his own admission, Lincoln Fillmore is no fashion guru.

He is a substance over style kind of guy. Cheryl has to sometimes tell him if his shirt matches his pants.

But he knows cool when he sees it, and five years ago, when he first started seeing vehicles with black Utah license plates, he saw cool.

There weren’t many of them. Just a few zipping around town, noticeable because they stood out.

They were also, as it turned out, illegal. Lincoln learned that people were acquiring their black plates from a private manufacturer. They would go online, enter their license plate number, and get their custom plates delivered to them in the mail.

All would be fine until a cop stopped them. Driving with unauthorized plates is subject to a fine and removal of the plates.

When a handful of constituents complained, Lincoln knew

he could do something to help. Since the legislature oversees license plates, he could introduce a bill making black plates legal.

He did so in the 2019 session. He proposed legislation — or “ran a bill,” as the lawmakers say — that authorized a black plate with white letters, similar to plates issued in the 1960s.

Since there was a historic aspect to it, and since Lincoln is a history buff, he chose the Utah State Historical Society to be the organization that would receive the $25 per-plate surcharge mandated for specialized plates.

In his presentation, Sen. Fillmore predicted that “this will be the most popular special edition plate in Utah because it just looks really cool.”

The bill passed without dissent and was signed by the governor.

That’s when the simple turned complicated. It turned out that the company that manufactures Utah’s license plates didn’t have reflective black paint (and neither did anyone else, since black is the only color that doesn’t reflect light). This meant that the cameras used by the Highway Patrol and others wouldn’t be able to read the plates.

That was a deal killer. As a possible Plan B, it was suggested that Utah instead go to purple plates, “a really dark purple,” says Fillmore, “in the right light it looks black, but if you change your angle it looks like eggplant.”

For 31⁄2 years there was an impasse, until in the summer of 2022 Fillmore’s friend John Valentine, head of the Utah State Tax Commission, had another suggestion: Fillmore should run a new bill, this one exempting the black paint from the reflec-

tivity standard as long as the white paint used in the numbering and lettering was legally reflective.

The bill sailed through the 2023 legislative session and the governor’s office. This past May, the legal black plates finally became available.

Supply quickly exceeded demand. By early summer, there was an online line. Black plates were as popular as the “Eras Tour” — well, maybe not that popular, but to this day there continues to be about a two-week wait.

By the end of November, 67,531 black plates had been ordered through the DMV, an average of 375 per day.

Lincoln’s “this will be the most popular plate in Utah” prediction is proving to be spot on.

“Let’s be honest, the reason to have these plates is because they’re cool,” he says. “I think if you ask anybody who got them they would answer yes, I got them because they look cool on my car.”

To the Utah Historical Society, black is beyond cool. At $25 per plate, the organization has already received $1.7 million.

“Huge,” is how Jennifer Ortiz, the society’s director, describes the impact of the plates. The money, she said, will “support the new Museum of Utah project and future related programming.”

She added, “We are thrilled to see such turnout for the black license plates and grateful for the legislation that supports this avenue of funding.”

“It would be nice if the (designated) charity was my reelection fund — I’d be sitting pretty,” Lincoln jokes, “but no luck.”

Mostly, his role goes unknown; he’s just another citizen with black plates. Although just the other day he was passing some pickleball players who recognized him, one shouting out, “Hey, this is the guy who did the black license plate.”

Everyone cheered.

“We’re living in a time when so much of what we talk about we disagree, there’s so much vitriol,” says the senator from South Jordan. “But this is one of those things that transcends that. Democrats and Republicans both like the plates, and they’re all happy to support the historical society. Who’s going to argue with that?”

DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

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6 DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

SPECIAL REPORT: AMERICAN FAMILY SURVEY

Inflation, mental health, jobs.

Why are U.S. parents so stressed?

The 2023 American Family Survey takes a deep look at life in America, from attitudes to actions — and finds reasons for both hope and worry

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

Maka Palu, back, looks on as his wife, Jessica Palu, and three of their children, Lini, 5; Bubba, 4; and Fine, 7, look at a video on her phone at their home in Eagle Mountain on Nov. 28.

By Lois M. Collins Deseret News

Editor’s note: This story is based on data from the 2023 American Family Survey.

American adults believe the cost associated with raising a family is the biggest challenge facing American families overall, with concerns about technology, including social media and video games, tied with “high work demands and parental stress” for second place.

Having money to meet inflation’s demands and affording family life is a real concern for many U.S. households, according to the ninth annual American Family Survey, released Tuesday

at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. The report says the economy has largely recovered from COVID19’s challenges — in part due to government support. But it adds, “The public also remains deeply worried about inflation, particularly if they have suffered recent crises or lack of income.”

The survey, which included a nationally representative sample of 3,000 adults, presented a curated list of 15 challenges and asked half to consider their own families, the other half to consider families in general. Each person could choose three challenges.

Children growing up without two parents at home and mental and physical health struggles round out the top f ive in the

curated list. Those choices far surpassed violence and abuse in families, lack of education opportunities, sexual permissiveness, drugs and alcohol, and crime and other threats to safety.

Those were each chosen by no more than 1 in 8 respondents.

In the middle for U.S. families were declining religious faith and church attendance, lack of good jobs or wages, diff iculty f inding quality family time, parents’ lack of commitment to each other and tension or disagreements in families.

The survey examines the actions, attitudes and opinions of U.S. adults on topics from what families do together and the CONTINUES ON PG. 8

DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

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8 DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024 strength of marriage to how families struggle, what policies might help and thoughts on issues like abortion and declining fertility. Conducted by YouGov for Brigham Young University’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, the Wheatley Institute at BYU and the Deseret News, it has an error margin of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points and was f ielded Aug. 3-15.

The report separates what people think about their own families from “The Family” as an institution. And the news is pretty good when Americans ponder their own: More than three-fourths of adults express satisfaction with their families, compared to 11% who express dissatisfaction.

Across political lines, top concerns about their own families are mental or physical health and f inding enough family time.

“Physical and mental health are probably more of a problem for people than our data had previously shown,” said study co-investigator and report co-author Jeremy C. Pope, who shares both titles with Christopher F. Karpowitz. Both are BYU political science professors.

Jessica and Makafana Palu met in his native Tonga, where he worked at the school where she was teaching art. The Eagle Mountain couple married eight years ago. They are deeply religious and each served missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said they want to pass that faith to their kids, along with a heart for serving others.

They are not surprised that money is a huge challenge for families. They have four very young children — daughters Fine, 7, and Melolini, 5, as well as sons Akilisi, 4, and Joseph, 3. They are expecting a tie-breaker that will give the boys an edge in about a week. They plan to call baby Makafana “Rocky.”

Jessica Palu said the past year has been among the hardest her family has faced f inancially. Her husband had a long, terrible bout with COVID-19 and recovered slowly after being hospitalized. He nearly died. He couldn’t work for months, nor was he able to return to the rigorous job he’d had.

This year, he started his own business, doing concrete work and landscaping, which he’d done as a side job. They’re hoping 2024 is a little easier on finances. But she has learned, she said, that neighbors and friends can be awesome in a crisis.

Mental health across ages

Despite similarities in individual families, political divisions loom large in attitudes about families in general.

Asked about challenges facing teens, parents of teens believe mental health, including suicidality, and technology overuse are the biggest issues. On the right, the two are seen as intertwined.

For teens, Democrats were more worried than Republicans about pressure to succeed, mental health, diff icult relationships with family members and navigating sexual identity. Republicans worried more than Democrats about teens’ overuse of technology, poor-quality schools, family breakdown and sexual activity decisions. There wasn’t much partisan difference on bullying, friendships and peer relationships, pressure to use drugs or alcohol, abuse, safety in communities, too few good work opportunities and availability of pornography.

The report emphasizes that not ranking as high does not indicate lack of concern. For instance, teen mental health was No. 2 on Republican parents’ concerns, but was chosen by a larger share of Democrats.

Psychotherapist Jonathan Berent, author of “Social Anxiety” and other books, calls social anxiety and related problems “entrenched as the social disorder of our time.” At least 1 in 8 people have it, he said, and “it’s very misunderstood.”

Youths have never struggled with mental health more than they do now, per Berent, who notes substance use disorder is also very high. For most who struggle, he said the solution offered is often medication, without figuring out root causes — “a lot of band-aiding.”

Richard Petts, professor of sociology at Ball State University, sees a “pervasive” mental health problem as a growing number of people deal with challenges amid inadequate resources. He said universities are backed up when it comes to providing mental health appointments for college students, who often turn to

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

Maka Palu, right, cooks dinner while Jessica Palu helps their son Joey, 3, put on shoes and Lini, 5, and “Bubba,” 4, play at their home in Eagle Mountain on Nov. 28.

professors and others who may not be qualif ied to help.

Many blame social media for a rise in mental health issues, particularly among the young. Petts said there are also other factors. “We’ve dealt with a lot as a society, one disaster after another: COVID. Economic downturns. Wars. Mass shootings.” Even efforts to forestall bad things could contribute. He wonders what school lockdown drills do to mental health.

“It shouldn’t be a surprise that people are struggling,” said Petts, noting how pressured parents are to get kids in activities to help earn a spot in the best schools, how early college prep starts and worries about paying for things, including education.

Shawn Fremstad, director of Law and Political Economy and senior adviser at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, agrees, citing “a lot of insecurity, a lot of change in a tumultuous period. I think of it almost as more insecurity and uncertainty about things, as opposed to pure struggle,” he said.

Partisan differences

The view of “The Family” is largely partisan, the survey found. For example, support for marriage as a path to stable, committed relationships is falling among those on the left, where Democrats see as top challenges parental stress and the cost of raising a family. On the right, concern is greatest about single parenting and a decline in religious faith.

But there’s also remarkably little difference in how happy people are in their own families — or in how they live. The survey found “far more agreement than disagreement across party, religion and income” when pondering personal family challenges.

Work and money

There were also no partisan differences in concerns about high work demands and parental stress for “your family,” but asked about families overall, Democrats were more concerned than Republicans.

If you’re worrying about the economy, workplace productivity comes to mind, said Michelle Janning, sociology professor and chair of social science at Whitman College. She’s been

pondering COVID-19’s impact and remote work. “I think we are seeing an interesting paradox emerging, especially for working mothers,” she said.

Bosses are trying to f igure out how to balance the advantages of remote work against the need for face-to-face work, in part to create workplace culture. Parents say they have more control over time and place with remote work and it’s easier to shift the schedule. And some bosses don’t mind, if work gets done on time.

Meanwhile, she said, when there’s fluidity and autonomy, “a workplace can get greedy” and begin to overcompensate and over-monitor. Some bosses wonder if remote workers are committed enough or get too distracted.

Economic inequality may come into play. People who work from home need space and tools to do it well, said Janning.

While inflation and the economy are widespread concerns, those at the lower end of the economic scale are hardest hit.

Half of Americans with an income below $40,000 a year are experiencing an economic crisis, the survey found. About 4 in 10 of those making more than $100,000 also worry about inflation.

Crises don’t care about party politics, either, impacting people of different ideologies at about the same rate.

“In the everyday lives of families, costs are the issue,” said Karpowitz. “It’s not as much finding a job as being able to afford things even if you have a job.” That’s a worry for middle- and low-income people, while it’s less worrisome at upper-level income distributions, but even some of them are stressed.

Cost of children

According to the report, most economic indicators have recovered from the shock of the pandemic. “Counterintuitively, however, personal economic crises are on the rise — perhaps because of reduced government income support.”

Fewer than a quarter of the adults polled said raising children is “affordable” for most families. Fifty-nine percent directly disagreed that it’s affordable.

Pope said the government helped families a lot during COVID-19. “Some of it may have been misguided, but a lot of it hit its target and made it so families had enough money to

DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024 weather those crises. That has dried up in the last year and now people are having as many crises as they used to, more or less.”

What if the economy gets worse? he wonders. “We’re in a kind of complicated economy at the moment — pretty decent in many ways, but inflation lingers.”

While other families not disciplining their children is a perennial top concern in the survey, f inancial and related worries showed up in many forms, not just costs associated with raising a family. Nearly a third said high work demands and parental stress vex families. Lack of government programs to support families was cited by 14%, while 11% listed lack of good jobs.

Belgrade, Montana, mom Melanie Musson is acutely aware of rising prices, she said by email. She has “f ive wildly wonderful kids at home,” ages 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13. But she and her husband bought their home less than two years ago and they’re still getting used to the higher payment and the higher costs of electricity, taxes and insurance.

“The extra space is worth it,” she said, “But budgeting is a little more stressful.”

Musson said her worries include her kids and their health.

She sees stories of accidents and illnesses online every day and “the fear that something could happen to our kids is real and can be heavy,” she said.

She knows they will face a lot of decisions as they grow. “One of my biggest goals for them is to be able to stand up for what’s right and not go with the flow just because it’s popular.”

She also worries about the impact artif icial intelligence will have — and wishes it would just go away, despite any possible benef its.

Public policy for families

When it comes to family policy, there is very broad support for some policies, but also many partisan differences. And policy details would likely vary considerably depending on who drafted them and where eligibility lines were drawn.

Passing paid family leave would be helpful or very helpful, according to more than 86% of those polled, with more Democrats than Republicans saying “very helpful,” but clear majorities of both parties f inding some benef it.

Child tax credits, Medicaid expansion for mothers, access to affordable housing, expanded access to mental health services for children and families and free or reduced-cost health care for children were all deemed at least helpful by more than 80% of those asked.

Just under 67% said student loan forgiveness would help family well-being, but there was a large partisan divide. Just over a quarter of Republicans said helpful or very helpful, compared to 89% of Democrats.

The report said that while conservatives believe marriage and stability are essential for families to thrive, “with a few exceptions, the right generally does not see a strong need to provide public support to families confronting economic trouble and vulnerability.”

“Maybe there’s a good case to be made that some of these policies would be counterproductive in some way we’re not seeing; policy can be complicated,” Pope said. “But there is a genuine hunger in the public for various policies to support families. I’m not here to argue for any set of policies. I’m just pointing out the public would like to see them implemented in many cases.”

Fremstad believes help given during the pandemic, including stimulus payments that spanned Trump and Biden administrations, has softened many views on providing some aid.

That doesn’t surprise Janning. “I think COVID afforded the world the chance to be better sociologists,” she said, providing “capacity to recognize that our circumstances are not just our own making, but the context in which family life is situated.”

Jennifer Randles is interim associate dean of the College of Social Sciences at California State University, Fresno, and wrote “Proposing Prosperity: Marriage Education Policy and Inequality in America.” She said the pandemic helped stabilize some families for a time, but now research says a lot of families

are “worried about wipes and food and diapers and gas in the car to get to work.” Those struggling are not all working-poor families, but “working-class families earning just enough to not qualify for benef its but not enough to cover basic needs.”

“The pandemic demonstrated we all suffer amid big problems. We are all vulnerable to losing a job, to not having child care, to a health crisis. It helped to demonstrate that there is some common suffering all are vulnerable to way up the income spectrum, not just at the lowest levels,” said Cynthia Osborne, professor of early childhood education and policy and founder and executive director of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University. “It also showed when we put resources toward problems, public policy can help in some ways.”

Karpowitz said the survey showed increases in the extent to which people didn’t pay a bill or skipped a meal, had to borrow money, moved in with someone or couldn’t see a doctor.

Despite partisan differences, he sees room to collaborate.

“If Democrats were a little more vocal in support of the idea of marriage and commitment and Republicans were willing to be more generous, a coalition that would serve the needs of American families could form.”

While Karpowitz acknowledges that the political right and left likely have different ideas about how to implement policies, including means testing and work requirements, “that’s the stuff of politics. We’re just showing those are things that really do make a difference in the lives of families, and are a popular thing to do. There’s potential for Republicans and Democrats to come together. I think that’s going to need movement from both sides.”

Fremstad predicts the 2024 presidential election will come down to “who will address America’s insecurities the most,

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whatever they are. Some are economic.”

“I would say, by and large, the American family is doing better,” he said. “But it’s hard to talk about one American family because of class divides.”

Kids faced many struggles the past four years, Osborne said.

Babies born in the pandemic had a delayed introduction to the world. Now 4-year-olds are trying to f igure out how to act in a restaurant and there are kids in high school who never went to middle school.

“Those life transitions were really interrupted,” she said. “It’s going to take some time to settle back into some sense of normal, but kids don’t ever get a do-over. They don’t get to be 14 or 4 again,” she said.

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THE WEST

How the end of hog farming can kill a way of life in rural Utah Smithfield Foods pulls out, leaving farmers in Beaver County and elsewhere to survive on their own

of farming and ranching in rural America and, in particular, from taking hits from critics in Utah because of the agricultural use of water and the impacts on the ailing Great Salt Lake.

“How do we overcome some of these obstacles? And then when you go home at night, when you’re finally done working, and you turn on the news, the first thing you hear about is how agriculture has too much water,” Bunker said. “They don’t know what we’re doing with it. They think we are misusing this precious commodity. And we shouldn’t be able to do what we do.

We’ve got too much.”

He said it is demoralizing for an industry already fraught with uncertainty.

“And so you finally wind down and you go to bed and then you wake up because the sheriff’s office calls you at 2 o’clock in the morning because you’ve got cows out,” Bunker said. “They broke through the fence and you’ve got cows on the road and now it’s dark and cold and you wake up all your kids and your wife and you’re chasing cows off the road trying to get them back in, in the middle of the night. And you’re gonna wake back up in the morning after you get back to bed and do it again. And that’s why agriculture is like it is — nobody wants to really do it.”

A third of what Bunker grows went to the hog farms to feed the animals and now, Smithfield’s problems have become his own.

“These are the struggles we face from day to day, and I don’t think people understand. And the only way I thought to portray it is just that. What if I came to everyone in the population of Utah and said you all are taking a 33% pay cut starting tomorrow?

Merry Christmas. That’s right. That’s really what’s happened.”

Scrambling for solutions

Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Buildings used to raise hogs owned by Smithfield Foods in Milford on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. Smithfield Foods is ending its relationship with more than two dozen hog farms in Beaver County. Hog farming is the No. 1 employer in this rural area of Utah.

By Amy Joi O’Donoghue Deseret News

There is an old saying, perhaps trite: You don’t know how tough you are until tough is the only option.

It’s only hog farming to some, but it has been the lifeblood of Beaver County. But now with Smithfield Foods and its operation suddenly leaving the state, locals will have to deal with the aftermath.

“We’ll figure it out. Seems like we always do,” said Beaver County Commissioner Brandon Yardley.

This week, Smithfield announced it will end contracts with 26 hog farms in Utah to “optimize” its supply chain for more efficient operations in the face of an industry oversupply of pork, weaker consumer demand and high feed prices.

The press release said this: “The contract terminations will result in the elimination of Smithfield positions that support contract farm relationships.

The company will offer relocation opportunities for affected employees and provide transition assistance. While the exact number is to be determined, the number of Smithfield positions eliminated may be up to one-third of the 210 currently employed in its Utah hog production operations,” it said.

“Our industry and company are experiencing historically challenging hog production market conditions,” said Shane Smith, president and chief executive officer. “These are difficult decisions, but they are necessary to help our company remain competitive in this operating environment.”

Happy holidays

Brett Bunker does not necessarily blame Smithfield for pulling out. It was not cost effective for them.

“They were just losing too much money and they said enough’s enough. And you can’t blame them. You know when your business is failing, it doesn’t matter. Like I can’t stop them.”

Bunker said his life was already stressful from the challenges

Bunker said it is not just a Beaver County problem. It’s a Millard County, an Iron County problem. He said he knows someone in Vernal who grows corn for the hog feeding operations.

The trickle-down effects are astounding, he emphasized.

“So this is really a statewide issue. I’m pretty sure they bought wheat out of Green River, too.”

The 2017 agricultural census put total hog inventory sales in Beaver County alone at $220 million.

As of 2021, according to the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, Utah had a total inventory of 940,000 hogs.

Beaver and Iron counties were the top two counties for hog production.

“We are devastated for the hog farmers and employees in Beaver County,” said Craig Buttars, commissioner of the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. “We are extremely concerned about what this means for the local agriculture industry and economy. Since the announcement made by Smithfield, we have been working closely with local and state government officials to figure out solutions for this community moving forward.”

The Utah Farm Bureau, too, is doing what it can to help.

“We are disappointed in the news that farm families will have their contracts canceled,” said Spencer Gibbons chief executive officer of the association. This decision will have a negative impact on the families and communities in rural Utah that have relied on this business model for decades.”

CONTINUES ON PG. 12

DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

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12 DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024 Gibbons emphasized the Utah Farm Bureau will work with local families and other agricultural leaders in the state to soften the blow.

Bunker, however, is a realist and sees the Smithfield decision as just another setback to rural Utah and is not so sure how fast the area will recover.

“It’s more than just hog farms closing. It’s a way of life. It’s an economy. It’s the way people make their living.”

Beaver County Commissioner Tammy Pearson said the downsizing of the hog industry in this area has been a slow, painful process that affects everyone.

“So we had 49 contractors that lost their jobs a year ago,” she said. “And they have been moving on and working in Cedar City or somewhere else. They have built their businesses on their own, but they are trying to stay here, because this is our home and we are kind of tough and bullheaded. We don’t want to leave, so we are going to figure out a way to make an existence in Beaver County.”

She said what stings is these contractors impacted by the latest decision by Smithfield sunk their own money into the barns.

It’s millions of dollars.

“They borrowed money, built their own barns through a Smithfield contract and they have like a 15-year contract with them and now less than five years down the road they’re done,” she said. “It’s a hard pill to swallow.”

Smithfield was Beaver County’s largest employer.

“Ever since the pigs came to town, Beaver County was sitting at No. 1 in ag producing receipts. And we have been for years, with our beef, our hay exports and the pigs. So for that to leave ...,” Pearson said, her voice trailing off.

Yardley said it is too early to assess the economic impact and Smithfield’s offer of relocation of impacted employees is a hollow victory.

“It’s pretty devastating for the local community. There’s kids in school that are going to have to figure out something else.

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People who have been here 20 years that have been employees or some somehow tied to the pig barns are now going to find something else to survive. They are rooted in the community pretty deep. So to be able to just take Smithfield’s offer and transfer to another location, I don’t think that’s what they want to do. They want to be able to stay in our small community and be part of it.”

But Yardley said he is optimistic that Smithfield will make it right with the contractors through the buy-out clause, but it is tough.

“People understand this was a business decision, but it is hard for people to live with now.”

Clean energy implications

Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, represents Beaver County and other rural areas of the state and says this region needs to weather the blow and continue to diversify its economy and grow — even if it is not easy.

“We’ve seen growth on the Wasatch Front, about 50,000 people a year moving in, and businesses and so forth. And we’ve seen growth in Iron and Washington counties in the southwest part of the state. So the area that’s not grown has been the areas in between from Nephi, south to Cedar City, east and west, north and south,” he said. I call it the hole in the doughnut. And you can’t continue to shove 50,000 people a year into four counties on the Wasatch Front.”

He did emphasize there is a central Utah agriculture facility being developed south of Nephi which will help agriculture in central and southern Utah. He pointed to the FORGE geothermal project, which has the potential to be huge in terms of proving technology to develop base load, clean energy.

But that is still years down the road.

In the interim, the cancellation of hog farm contracts in central Utah have implications for renewable energy.

Two years ago, Dominion Energy announced its plans to cap-

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ture methane from hog farming operations in Beaver County, transform it into renewable natural gas and generate enough energy to heat more than 3,000 homes and businesses.

In the largest venture of its kind in the United States, Dominion and Smithfield were jointly investing $500 million over the next 10 years to develop renewable natural gas projects in the United States.

The projects were anticipated to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. hog farms by 2.5 million metric tons. Reducing pollution by that much amounts to taking 500,000 cars off the road or planting 40 million new trees each year.

That partnership, at least in Utah, is off the table and Dominion is now reviewing its options.

Albrecht pointed out there isn’t a place to process wool in Utah, or lamb, or hogs for that matter.

The wool industry in Utah is big business. The state is the fourth-largest producer of wool in the nation, shearing a little more than 2.1 million pounds in 2019 alone — accounting for about 10% of the nation’s total wool production. In 2019, the value of that wool was nearly $4.5 million.

A wool testing facility opened in Midvale in 2021, but — like what happened with the Smithfield hogs — the company could not, or would not make it work because processing the animals here didn’t fit into the bottom line.

“These guys have never been willing to process them in Utah.

We offered that when they downsized the first time. The governor and the whole team of Utah offered to build processing plants here and they just told us they’re not interested,” Pearson said.

Added Yardley: “It’s not that anybody didn’t try. It just wasn’t something Smithfield was willing to do.”

Bunker says he is just going to hope for the best and, regardless, continue to do what is steeped in his soul: farming and ranching.

“It just seems like it is out of everybody’s control.”

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14 DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

HUMOR

How to survive an entire afternoon without electricity When the power went out in my home, I learned I’m too soft for any other historical era

Zoë Petersen, Deseret News

By Meg Walter Deseret News

It was around noon on a Monday when my computer screen suddenly faded to black. I spent a few minutes unplugging it and plugging it back in, futzing with the outlet and pressing every button I could find. Nothing worked. The monitor must be broken, I assumed. Until I noticed the lights in my office were not on, and the house, normally humming with the sounds of multiple appliances, had gone silent.

It must be the breaker, I thought.

This was surprisingly astute, given I barely know what a breaker is, let alone where I could find one in my home. So I called the person in my family who does know where the breaker box is and knows what one does with a breaker. He talked me through how to switch the levers in the dark, just like Laura Dern in “Jurassic Park,” minus the surprise severed arm.

Also minus the successful restoration of power.

A few texts with neighbors confirmed the power was indeed out for the entire street and no one knew when it might be restored. That’s when my primitive instincts kicked in. I began hunting and gathering just as my ancestors once had. But instead of hunting venison and gathering berries, I was hunting for portable phone chargers and gathering them on the kitchen table.

They were all partially charged, and combined I had enough

battery power to create a hotspot on my phone and connect to the Wi-Fi. I applauded my own resourcefulness and celebrated as I imagined the first man or woman who first started a fire did.

The celebration lasted until my laptop battery died.

Then it was just me, alone in a powerless home, learning the hard way just how much I rely on electricity throughout my day.

Without thinking, I tried to run the dishwasher. I hit the start button five times before remembering that the dishwasher is, indeed, an electronic device.

When I went to the bathroom, I tried to switch the light on more than once.

I pulled out the toaster to toast the bread for a sandwich, before coming to the horrible realization that my bread would have to remain plain. It was one of the worst sandwiches I’ve ever had.

When the school called and announced that they, too, were without power and so were sending kids home early, I legitimately did not know if I would be able to drive my car out of the garage to pick up my children. As it turns out, garage door openers have a battery, so I could get out. Once my kids were home, I fielded no fewer than 745 questions about why the TV wouldn’t turn on, why the iPad wouldn’t charge, and why the windowless playroom was so dark.

For a few hours, we lived like we were in the Stone Age. I used 5G to access the Rocky Mountain Power website and refresh the updates page every 30 seconds, and my children played with the

physical toys they suddenly remembered they owned.

Before long the daylight was starting to fade and the house was growing cold. So I chopped down a tree in the backyard, chopped that tree into firewood, and built a fire for heat and light.

Just kidding. I didn’t do that.

What I did do was pile everyone into the car and drive to a restaurant because I wasn’t about to make dinner in a dark house. By the time we returned home just before bedtime, the lights were back on.

I’m not sure what we would have done had the electricity not been restored. Frozen in our sleep or stayed in a hotel, I guess.

Obviously, my five hours without power hardly compare to some of the more significant power outages in recent history.

And I’m grateful my family and I are all in good health and can withstand an electrical disruption every now and then. But I still didn’t enjoy the experience.

People sometimes wax (or wane) poetic about the challenges of our modern time. And yes, there are many complications related to living in the digital age.

But I can now confidently say my family and I would struggle to survive beyond a single afternoon in any other era of history. And if we did survive, we would do a lot of complaining. I believe some people when they say they were born in the wrong generation. Just like I believe I was born in exactly the right one.

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DESERET MAGAZINE

Race to the bottom In 2024, America will elect a president nobody wants

By Chris Cillizza Deseret Magazine

Illustration By Ian Sullivan

What if they held an election no one really wanted?

Well, that’s exactly what 2024 is shaping up to be.

Consider a late August Associated Press poll. Voters were asked to name a word or two that came to mind for each of the front-runners for their respective party nominations — President Joe Biden for Democrats and former President Donald Trump for Republicans.

The most common words for Biden? “Old.” “Outdated.”

“Slow.” “Confused.”

For Trump, it wasn’t any better. “Corrupt,” “crooked” and “bad” led the way.

And these are the two people with massive leads over their prospective primary opponents! What must people think about the rest of the field?

At the same time, someone has to win this election. And the overwhelming odds are that someone will be named either Joe Biden or Donald Trump, whose victory or loss may be decided by several thousand voters in a quartet of swing states.

So, how did we get here? And where are we going in a race in which one candidate is facing down four indictments and the other is seen by a majority of the American public as way too old for the job he is running for?

The right place to start is the Republican side of the aisle, where, as recently as a year ago, it appeared as though Trump’s grip on the party was loosening.

Think back to January 2021. Republicans watched as they lost not one but two runoff Senate elections in Georgia, defeats that cost them a chance at the majority.

The blame quickly fell to Trump. “Republicans turn on Trump after Georgia loss,” read a Politico headline that included these lines: “The immediate recrimination is emblematic of the complicated GOP dynamics that have emerged after Trump’s loss in the November election. Fissures are forming as Republicans decide whether it’s useful to cling to Trump — even as he tries to subvert an election — or to distance themselves. And if the Georgia races are any indication, it appears Republicans are willing to turn on Trump if he can’t reliably turn out the vote for candidates in the months and years ahead.”

Then came the 2022 midterm election where Republicans were, again, disappointed. The Senate, which the party seemed certain to win back, remained out of reach. Yes, Republicans retook control of the House majority but with a far smaller margin than most people expected. The blame fell in large part on Trump.

In that same election, Gov. Ron DeSantis won the previously swingy state of Florida by almost 20 points. The contrast was clear. DeSantis was the future. Trump just might be the past.

It was actually the second time in as many years that it appeared Republicans were on the precipice of moving on from Trump. The first time came in early 2021, when the Democratic-controlled House impeached Trump for his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Mitch McConnell, leader of Senate Republicans, very publicly let speculation grow that he could vote to convict Trump — a move that could have also banned the former president from running for office again.

Except that, well, he didn’t.

McConnell eventually cited a technical matter — Trump

DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024 was now out of office and therefore could not be impeached — for his “no” vote. The fact that, after the vote, McConnell blasted Trump as “practically and morally responsible” for the riot has been lost to history.

Late 2022 and early 2023 was another one of those moments.

And then, within two months, the moment was gone. In March 2023, Trump was indicted in New York — on charges that he had paid off two women during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep them quiet about alleged affairs he had conducted with them.

And suddenly, the moment to oust Trump from his perch atop the party was gone. Rather than an embattled former president with a load of losses to answer for, Trump was suddenly back in his favorite role: victim.

And he played it to the hilt. This was no longer a presidential candidacy, this was a crusade. Trump wasn’t just fighting Democrats, he was now fighting the whole Deep State. This wasn’t about a case in New York, it was about the future of the country.

The base of the Republican Party — sensing a fight — immediately sided with Trump. His poll numbers soared. And his primary opponents, fearful of ticking off that base, largely sided with him — insisting he was the victim of election interference by Democrats.

Around the same time, it was becoming increasingly clear that DeSantis — the man who was so hyped in January — was actually a would-be emperor with no clothes. His campaign took months to launch. When he did get into the race, it was via a disastrous (and glitch-filled) event on Twitter, now known as X. On the campaign trail, he seemed wooden and nonhuman.

And he and his campaign kept picking dumb fights — like arguing that enslaved people benefited from the skills they were taught during their bondage.

As Trump rose, DeSantis stumbled. And what’s more, no one rose up to take DeSantis’ place as the Trump alternative in the race. Because the party didn’t really want an alternative. Poll after poll suggested that Republicans voters were a) perfectly happy with their choices, and b) flocking to Trump in droves.

And the candidates not named Trump reflected that reality. No one this side of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson — both noshot candidates running on an anti-Trump message — dared to say a word against the billionaire businessman. And the longer their silence went, the stronger he got.

By the end of the summer, it was clear: Trump was in a historically strong position to be the Republican nominee. He was ahead by 40 points nationally — and by smaller but still wide margins in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

Two numbers — taken from a CBS News national poll — confirmed, for me, the enduring grasp Trump has on the Republican Party. Almost 8 in 10 (77 percent) said that Trump’s indictments were politically motivated. Three quarters said that Trump’s legal problems were a major reason they were supporting him in the race.

Yes, his supporters back him in spite of the four indictments but, at least in part, because of the four indictments.

Biden’s path to the nomination, on the other hand, has always been assured — ever since he made the decision to seek a second term back in April.

But pockets of resistance remain. A majority of Democrats — in poll after poll — say that they would prefer a candidate other than Biden as the party’s nominee. Young people, in particular, are unenthused about the prospect of voting for him again.

The problem? Biden’s age. At 80 — he will be 82 when and if he is sworn in for a second term in early 2025 — he would be the oldest person ever elected to the office.

And there are signs of Biden slowing — a more halting speaking style, a shuffling gait — over the past few years.

Talk to most Democrats and they will tell you that Biden is a nice guy but his time has come and gone — that it’s time for fresh blood in the form of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer or Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro.

17

A very small number of voters in just four states could well hold the fate of the 2024 election in their hands.

Most of that talk amounted to whispers — until little-known Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips went public with his doubts about Biden.

“I want him to preserve his legacy, not to compromise it,” Phillips said in August. “And this is exactly why I’m asking — pass the torch, open the stage.”

The Phillips argument, distilled, is this: The threat posed by Trump is so serious that the Democratic Party can’t take a risk on the aged Biden in 2024.

“God forbid the president has a health episode or something happens in the middle of a primary,” Phillips has said — invoking the specter of what would be an absolute nightmare scenario for Democrats.

For all the attention he’s drawn to himself, Phillips’ calls for a contested primary have, largely, fallen on deaf ears.

Not a single elected official (or former elected official) has chosen to primary Biden. Instead, a political gadfly is the only one in the mix: Marianne Williamson.

Robert Kennedy Jr., scion to the most famous Democratic political family in America, dropped out of the Democratic race in early October, announcing he would instead run as an independent for the presidency.

Williamson, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 2020, is a fringe candidate at best with support in the single digits.

And so, Joe Biden — despite warning signs flashing all around his party — will be the Democratic presidential nominee. And the party will cross its fingers and hope he makes it through the general election without a major health scare — or worse.

All of which brings us to a general election starting — likely — some time next spring or early summer (Trump will have the nomination wrapped up by that point) featuring two candidates with deep weaknesses in the eyes of the general electorate.

The way I have come to think about that race is via a boxing metaphor. Two aging former champs, neither at their best, collide in the ring. Both lack the power to put the other one away — and so they lean and grab and sucker-punch whenever they can as they try to get the narrowest of advantages. It’s not fun to watch nor particularly fun to participate in. And yet, here we are.

While we can’t know exactly how a rematch between Biden and Trump will play out, we already have some clues.

Trump will paint a dark vision of America under Biden — a nearly-failed nation that only he can fix. (If that message sounds similar to how Trump ran in 2016, it’s because it’s the exact same.) He will work to paint Biden as a doddering puppet of a liberal elite, someone who, in Trump’s words, “doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Biden will, in turn, focus on the accomplishments of his first term — from the Inflation Reduction Act to the CHIPS and Science Act — to counteract predictions of doom and gloom over the economy. He will, largely, try to ignore Trump’s antics (and there will be many) and instead focus on the notion that these are serious times that require serious people — suggesting, by extension, that Trump is not one.

We also know a few more things about the election to come.

First, it’s likely to be very, very close. Polling has consistently shown Biden and Trump running neck and neck. As of late September, the Real Clear Politics polling average gave Trump a slim, 1.6 point advantage.

Second, it’s going to come down to only a pittance of swing

states. Unlike in past elections where we were talking about 8 to 10 states where the campaign was being fought, it’s likely that only half that number are truly competitive come November 2024.

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan campaign tipsheet, said in its initial 2024 ratings that only four states — Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — should be considered true tossups.

In 2020, Biden won all four of those states. But, the margins were tiny. In Arizona, he won by less than 11,000 votes out of more than 3 million cast. In Michigan, Biden’s margin was 150,000 out of more than 5 million votes cast. In Pennsylvania, Biden won by 80,000 votes. In Wisconsin, his margin was just over 20,000 votes.

Add it up and you see that less than 250,000 votes decided the presidency. (Had Trump won all four states — and there 57 total electoral college votes — he would have been reelected.) Given polling — both nationally and in early states — that suggests a tight race between Trump and Biden, we could well be headed toward a repeat of the 2020 election.

All of which gets us to a simple yet profound question: Who is going to win? As a journalist, I always shy away from predictions — because they are a) frowned upon by my industry and b) usually wrong. (I will admit I had NO inkling that Trump would win in 2016 and would have bet my mortgage on a President Hillary Clinton.)

But I will make a prediction (and not just because I promised my editors I would!) Before we get to it, let me say that — given the likely closeness of the race as I described above — that BOTH parties seem certain they will win next November.

Is some of that false bravado — a fake-it-until-you-make-it vibe that they have adopted out of necessity given the uncertainty of the race? Maybe! But I am still struck by the confidence they have based — as far as I can tell — on not all that much.

So, without further adieu, it‘s prediction time! (Let me AGAIN caveat all of this by saying that campaigns are defined by big, unpredictable changes. I expect this one to be as well.) I believe that President Joe Biden will be reelected next November thanks to the deep doubts among the swing portion of the electorate about Trump’s character.

A lot of these swing voters have, I believe, already made up their mind that they won’t vote for Trump under any circumstances. Might that mean that they hold their nose and vote for Biden? Sure. But those votes count the same as one made with full adulation and confidence in Biden.

One more prediction while I’m at it: Donald Trump will, again, refuse to accept the results of the election. And a significant chunk of the Republican base will, again, believe him.

But, the impact of those conspiracy theories will be lessened because Trump, unlike in 2024, doesn’t have his hands on any of the levers of government power.

And one more prediction (I am feeling it!): If his health remains a nonissue, Donald Trump will run again for president in 2028 — and have a better-than-decent chance of being the nominee. Brace yourselves.

CHRIS CILLIZZA IS A POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND AUTHOR OF “POWER PLAYERS: SPORTS, POLITICS, AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.”

18 DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

CHURCH NEWS

Latter-day Saint cowboy steps away from professional bull riding to serve a mission Kade Madsen, of Honeyville, Utah, has temporarily left bull riding in the prime of his career to serve the Lord for two years in Nashville, Tennessee

Andy Watson, Bull Stock Media

Kade Madsen rides Eldred Cattle's Electric Avenue for a score of 87.75 during the second day of the Fort Worth Teams Professional Bull Riders event. Madsen is stepping away from bull riding to serve a mission in Nashville, Tennessee.

ByTrent Toone Church News

Professional bull rider Kade Madsen was watching the Cheyenne (Wyoming) Frontier Days pro rodeo behind the bucking chutes last July when he received the email with his mission call for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Surrounded by curious team members and other bull riding buddies, the 18-year-old cowboy from Honeyville, Utah, eagerly began to read the opening lines when a wise thought forced him to pause.

“I better call my parents and at least let them know what I am doing so that they don’t get mad at me,” Madsen said. “So I hurried and called them and said you got two minutes to get down here or I’m reading it.”

Moments later, parents Doug and Sonya Madsen had joined

the group of 10 people. With their son, the Madsens were the only three Latter-day Saints in the huddle. Yet everyone knew how important the occasion was to Kade and seemed to lean in with anticipation as he resumed reading.

When Kade announced he going to Nashville, Tennessee, the news was met with happy wishes and hearty congratulations, followed by an abundance of questions. He was more than willing to explain what it all meant and why he was stepping away from the sport he loved for the next two years.

“This past summer, being around all those good people in the Professional Bull Riders, it made me realize how blessed I am to live where I do, to be born into the fullness of the gospel, and to know there is a bigger purpose,” said Madsen, who started his mission with the home missionary training center on Dec. 4. “I decided to serve a mission for myself, because I would benefit from it, and to help others. I know I can make a difference.”

Riding bulls

Growing up in a family with years of rodeo experience, Kade Madsen said he started riding sheep around age 3 and climbed onto his first mini-bull when he was 4 years old.

“To be honest, it scared me quite a bit,” he said of the memory. “I didn’t know that I was going to be a bull rider. I wanted to be a bareback rider.”

In the years that followed, Kade watched his older brother, Briggs Madsen, become adept at riding the jumping, kicking and snorting 1,500 to 2,000-pound bulls. With persistence and will power, Kade said he overcame his fears and grew to love bull riding through years of practice on a variety of livestock.

At age 15, Madsen became the youngest person to win the Lane Frost Challenge, one of the premier bull riding events in Vernal, Utah, in 2021. He won the same event again in 2023.

He joined a bull riding tour called the Challenge of Champi-

DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024 ons and won that in 2022.

Madsen only singled out those accomplishments, but there were many other rodeo competitions and victories that prepared him for what would come after his 18th birthday, and he did it while suffering relatively few injuries.

“I’ve been pretty lucky,” he said. “I broke both elbows twice when I was in junior high. I’ve torn a couple groins. But I have been pretty blessed and lucky in my career.”

Missouri Thunder

When he turned 18, Madsen submitted his name for the Professional Bull Riders team series draft.

The Professional Bull Riders is an international professional bull riding organization headquartered in Pueblo, Colorado.

There are eight teams that span the United States from Arizona to Florida, and each team consists of five riders. The teams compete against one another at rodeos and events during the year where the riders can earn significant amounts of money, not mention fame and glory.

Similar to other professional team sports, the PBR began holding an annual draft to select people for its teams. Briggs Madsen, Kade’s older brother, was selected by the Oklahoma Freedom in the 2022 draft (he was later released by the Freedom and picked up by the Missouri Thunder).

Earlier this year, Kade Madsen was the fourth overall pick in the first round of the draft by the Missouri Thunder.

“It’s the biggest stage of bull riding in the world and the most prestigious bull riding tour to be on, it’s the elite of the elite,” he said. “I was very thankful to be drafted and grateful to know somebody had faith in my abilities.”

The Thunder had a slow start and finished in last place in the regular season, but Madsen helped the team claw back to finish in fourth place at the 2023 PBR Camping World Team Series Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Other highlights of his first Professional Bull Riders season include riding a two-time world champion bull named Chis-

eled for a score of 86.75 in Las Vegas, despite hitting his head against the bull during the ride; Madsen also remained atop another bull named Tulsa Time for a 91.5 point ride to help him win at a Professional Bull Riders event in Big Sky, Montana.

Serving a mission

After two big rides for the Missouri Thunder at the Professional Bull Riders Teams Championship in Las Vegas in late October to bring his team wins, Madsen was one of three riders selected to speak to news media, said Andrew Giangola, Professional Bull Riders vice president of communications.

Giangola said he was impressed with Madsen’s poise and confidence while speaking to reporters. Then he heard the young cowboy say the event would be his last for a while since he was about to serve a mission for his Church.

“I thought I’d heard it wrong and approached him after the press conference to ask. Indeed, Kade warmly confirmed I didn’t need to check my hearing,” he said. “As head of PR for PBR, my initial reaction was disappointment. We would be losing a blazing star for two long years. Then I realized this is what our sport is all about: a young cowboy following his heart to serve the Lord, putting aside riches and fame, to do what is truly important to him. What an amazing young man. We can’t wait until he’s back.”

Madsen grew up planning to serve a mission. That plan wavered slightly during his high school days when he said he was focused more on “material things.”

Then a few years ago, Madsen watched his older brother leave bull riding to serve a mission in South Carolina. Seeing that example, along with having his own spiritual experiences and opportunities to share his faith and beliefs with others, influenced his decision to serve a full-time mission.

Kade Madsen knows he is leaving in the prime of his career, but “it’s for a bigger purpose.”

“I know there is a bigger purpose to life than bull riding,” he

19

said. “I ran into a lot of good people that didn’t know the fullness of the gospel, but were still really good people and doing all that they could with the knowledge they had been given, and that was a testament to me that I could make a difference by serving a mission.”

Luke Snyder, one of Madsen’s coaches, said the Thunder knew of Kade’s mission plans before they drafted him, and still wanted him. They said they look forward to his return in two years.

“We are going to feel his departure because he was such a standout athlete for our team,” Snyder said. “But as a team and a coach, we could not be more proud. ... He is a born leader and will have a whole new perspective on things when he comes back. He is a great young man, wise beyond his years, and it shows you his dedication to his faith, given all the opportunities on his plate right now.”

Madsen’s parents says his decision reflects his love for the Lord.

“For an 18-year-old ... to be able to walk away from fame and money contracts is so humbling to me and our family,” said his father, Doug Madsen. “He truly loves the Lord and the gospel and wants to give that to other people.”

His mother, Sonya Madsen, agreed: “I am so proud of the decision that he has made to take the two years off from his professional career to serve his Heavenly Father and the people in Nashville, Tennessee. He truly is an inspiration and a great example to me.”

Since receiving his call, Kade Madsen said he has felt a powerful change in his life. He is thrilled to have a role in helping to “gather scattered Israel.” He summarized his feelings with a verse from the Book of Mormon (Alma 29:9): “I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.”

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20 DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

© 2023

40, No. 5

Big and white, fluffy and furry, these are adjectives that describe a polar bear!

Can you think of other adjectives that would describe this animal?

Polar bears love on this page?

These statements are either all true or all false. Check your answers by adding up the numbers next to each of your answers. If the total is 33, you’ve got it right!

g ar youn Polar be d cubs. e ll a are c

Polar bear cubs are born without hair and are blind and deaf.

A polar nose can bear’s seal on th smell a e miles aw ice 20 ay!

Pola r be is bla ar skin ck.

Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Follow simple written directions.

Each hair shaft is transparent with a hollow core that scatters much like what happens with ice and snow, giving it a bright white appearance.

In January, the average temperature in the Arctic ranges from a chilly 0°C to -34°C (32°F to -40°F).

30°C 20°C 10°C 0°

In July, the average temperature Polar bears live on ice near the North Pole in the Arctic, which is covered in ice and surrounded by very cold water. But that doesn’t bother a polar bear.

In each box, write the letter that comes before the letter at the bottom of each box to find a couple of cool ways these fluffy fellows stay warm.

G

B

U

G

B

V

S

O

E

-10°C

Color the graph to show the temperature range in each month using Celsius.

-20°C -30°C -40°C -50°C guard hairs

Very Special Fur

Polar bears have two types of fur: long oily guard hairs and short insulating hairs.

The long, oily guard hairs are tiny, hollow dense, tubes that trap warmth and hold it close to short fur the skin. Their oily surface keeps polar bears dry.

Under the guard hairs is a layer of dense, short, soft hairs that trap heat close to the skin, like thermal underwear.

skin

REFLECTS FOOTPADS THERMAL HOLLOW ARCTIC POLAR BEARS LAYER WHITE GUARD HAIRS DENSE TUFTS OILY PAWS

C P O E S N E D L S

I A R L A M R E H T

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C O S S U W H I T E

R T I G O B A A U L A A Y L E W I A F F

R M L A Y E R A T E

L O R O W A S Y S R

H S D A P T O O F S

Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recognize identical words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.

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22 DESERET NEWS | JANUARY 2024

EVENTS 2024 US Cross Country Ski Nationals Jan. 7 | 8am 2002 Olympic Drive - Midway usskiandsnowboard.org/events/ Draper Tree Lights 2023 Jan. 7 | 5pm-10pm 12501 S 1300 E - Draper draperutah.gov Monster Jam 2024 Jan. 7 | 1pm 301 W South Temple - SLC monsterjam.com Rocky Mountain Gun Show Jan. 7 9575 S. State Street - Sandy rockymountaingunshows.com Salt Lake Home Show Jan. 7 9575 S. State Street - Sandy saltlakehomeshow.com

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2023-24 Winter Farmers Market Jan. 13 – Apr. 20 | 10am-2pm 400 W 200 S, - SLC slcfarmersmarket.org

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