Hungry Minds
COVID is still a mystery when you consider how it affected lives and learning. Research shows Utah students lost about three months of reading and math during the pandemic, KUER-FM 90.1 reports. Still, it's not all about education levels or anti-vax tendencies—poverty plays a part, too. Students who had the option of free lunches were in a better place. But in 2022, the federal government ended its lunch program, and Utah lawmakers didn't step in to fill the gap. While there still are questions about why learning suffered during the pandemic, there should at least be an understanding that nutrition is vital for children and should not depend on how rich their parents are.

Kick Rocks
Business or environment? That's the question posed in a Deseret News article about a limestone quarry in Parleys Canyon. SaveParleys.org says that dust—and the water to keep it at bay—are a big problem. Granite Construction is helped by the state's weak regulatory system and insists that Utah needs materials to build, build, build for the future population onslaught. Fraser Bullock, looking to the future Winter Games, doesn't disagree. He just thinks there are better, less environmentally sensitive areas for a quarry. Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, thinks quarry critics should get over it because infrastructure is crucial to the state. Of course, he lives nowhere near Parleys Canyon. And look to the Utah inland port if you want to know how the Legislature looks at environmental concerns.

Wedding Bells
Axios gave us all a good laugh putting in perspective a Latter-day Saint directive to get married. Utahns know that Mormons have a responsibility to reproduce early and often, but Apostle Dallin H. Oaks put their feet to the fire. Church leaders are concerned about declining marriage rates, driven in part by postponing the act. Do it now, Oaks implored—unless, of course, you're gay. Utah ranks No. 3 in the nation for its proportion of same-sex couples (Happy Pride!), The Salt Lake Tribune notes, and No. 1 for opposite-sex marriages. The state is just a marrying place, but not enough to replenish the supply of heavenly spirits. As one Tribune commenter said: "It is incredibly horrible that then so much judgment and blame is put on these sisters for not miraculously finding some faithful young man." Of note: both Oaks and Prophet Russell M. Nelson are married to lovely women who postponed wedded bliss into their 50s.