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With a blue wave sweeping the nation, preliminary election night results in Utah show at least 15 Republican state lawmakers could be on track to lose reelection to Democrats and one unaffiliated candidate. If the results hold — election results aren’t final until canvassing is completed in two weeks — it’s possible…
Republican incumbents running to represent Utah’s three right-leaning congressional districts took the lead Tuesday just after the polls closed, according to initial results.
Preliminary election night results show Utah Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Jill Pohlman got about 78% of the vote, putting her on track to keep her seat on the state’s highest court. Of the 51 judges up for retention this year, nearly all were on track to keep their jobs in the courts — but
Preliminary election night results show Utahns rejecting the Utah Legislature’s proposed constitutional amendment that would have made it harder for ballot initiatives that come with tax increases to pass into law. Amendment B — which would require certain citizen-proposed laws to be approved by at least 60% of voters…
Utah christened its blue 1st Congressional District as former U.S. House Rep. Ben McAdams won with 72% of votes, according to preliminary results Tuesday night. Republican Riley Owen had 25% of votes. Libertarian Jesse West got 2% of votes, unaffiliated candidate Elias Henry Montgomery had 1%, and nonpartisan Babak…
Utah Senate Democrats issued a news release Tuesday evening — less than an hour before polls closed on Election Day — announcing they voted to remove Sen. Kathleen Riebe from their caucus, and calling for her resignation. Riebe’s expulsion comes after “the findings from a formal, independent investigation were…
WASHINGTON — In a stunning upset, Democrats ousted Republicans and flipped control of the U.S. Senate Tuesday night, effectively establishing a barricade for President Donald Trump’s agenda for the last two years of his term. Democrats will now have the power to block many of Trump’s nominees, both executive and…
WASHINGTON — Democrats will regain control of the U.S. House early next year, after voters throughout the country rejected the policies that Republicans and President Donald Trump implemented during the last two years. The Associated Press, which States Newsroom looks to for the projected winner of congressional…
Election officials say they’re not worried, but advocates see cause for concern.
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson has issued an emergency declaration to accommodate San Juan County voters after severe flooding events over the past several days overwhelmed the rural area in which distances are long and travel has become hazardous. Henderson, Utah’s chief election officer, signed the emergency declaration…
WASHINGTON — One day before his party is forecast to lose control of the U.S. House, and possibly the Senate, President Donald Trump gathered guests and press at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to tout the “magnificent” renovation of the monument — a monthslong project plagued by algae, reclosure and false…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, mere hours before Election Day in the midterms that will determine control of Congress, denied the Trump administration’s final attempt to force California to set aside the ballots of 20,000 people it suspects are noncitizens. The decision marked a significant blow to President Donald…
American democracy faces one of its biggest stress tests of the modern era, as President Donald Trump’s sprawling campaign for power over elections encounters a firewall of judges, state election workers and voting rights leaders heading into Election Day. A cascade of courtroom losses over the weekend dealt a major…
Utahns want more water in the Great Salt Lake, and they want a plan that lasts. They’re worried about dust, development and decision-making by Utah’s government. That’s what 509 Utahns said about the Great Salt Lake in a short answer, open response survey by the Great Salt Lake Collaborative. As Gov. Spencer Cox…
Utah is still one of the youngest states and has some of the highest fertility rates in the country. But that trend is going in the opposite direction with demographers projecting smaller household sizes and an older median age. Congress is also projecting more deaths than births come 2030. That “demographic…
Costs are soaring for people who care for their older parents and other family members, according to a new study. Out-of-pocket expenses are nearly 60% higher than they were just five years ago for family caregivers, who now spend an average of $11,508 a year on caregiving, according to a report released this week by
The Trump administration cut naturalization sharply over the past year, leading to accusations it’s holding back hundreds of thousands of people who might have voted in the midterms. It’s hard to say how those people might have voted had they become U.S. citizens. Naturalized citizens voted Democratic for president by…
This article was originally published by Healthbeat, a nonprofit newsroom covering public health published by Civic News Company and KFF Health News. Consider this year’s measles outbreaks in Pennsylvania and South Carolina — some of the largest in the U.S. in decades. South Carolina’s outbreak ended with 997…
As concerns rise about the potential for federal influence over the results of next week’s midterm elections, many voting experts and advocates remain confident that the nation’s highly localized systems of administering and counting votes will persevere. Facing sinking approval ratings over high prices, the White…
The rulings marked the third and fourth courtroom losses in less than a week for President Donald Trump’s administration in its 11th-hour legal campaign to assert authority over elections, which under the U.S. Constitution are administered by states.
During her funeral, Pamela Atkinson was honored as a pillar in Utah's homelessness and humanitarian community. Known as ‘Utah’s Mother Teresa’ — a title she hated — Pamela Atkinson came from poverty, advised 4 governors and left a lasting mark on the state.
As the Trump administration waged a public legal fight with California over the ballots of suspected noncitizen voters in mid-October, behind the scenes a federal grand jury in Santa Ana issued a series of subpoenas to election officials in Los Angeles County at federal prosecutors’ urging. The subpoenas demanded a…
Children are breathing in unhealthy air for longer periods of time as wildfires worsen across the country, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon State University’s College of Health. The study, published earlier this month in Environmental Research, found that over a 17-year span, the average number of…
It was another financial institution’s commercial that motivated me to create something different. Two busy white, apparently nondisabled, suburban parents were standing on their carefully manicured lawn talking about how they needed to go to the bank to plan for the future of their adult son with Down syndrome. They…
As of early Friday, more than 46 Americans had cast ballots ahead of Election Day, eclipsing the early voting turnout of the 2022 midterms, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
It took two years for Chrissy Teigen to realize she’d had an abortion and not a miscarriage, longer to understand what went wrong in her pregnancy, and not until this week to realize she hadn’t fully grappled with it emotionally. Teigen, a former model and business owner, came to Idaho on Wednesday to make a
Despite efforts to save about 125 jobs, most of which were held by people experiencing homelessness and other challenges, the longtime Utah social enterprise nonprofit Advantage Services is shutting down amid financial struggles. “With heavy hearts, we announce that Advantage Services will be closing its doors and…
Medicaid recipients who are disabled or have a chronic illness will not have to prove they are unable to work to be exempted from new work requirements that take effect next year, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston grants a partial victory to the 25…
Utah received a big donation as it seeks to remove an invasive plant species affecting the Great Salt Lake. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has agreed to donate $3 million toward the state’s efforts to remove phragmites that surround the struggling lake. The donation will help improve habitat…
MERIDIAN, Idaho — It didn’t take long for doctors to see that something was amiss with Rebecca Crozier’s pregnancy. At her eight-week ultrasound in 2025, they mentioned a possible neural tube defect, she said, but after some research, she thought it was something that could be managed or treated. “If it was a fixable…
Most of the nation returns to standard time Sunday morning, and Congress could decide as early as next month whether it will be the last time people have to change their clocks. President Donald Trump wants year-round daylight saving time. The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly in July for the change. Lots of Democrats…
New felony charges against Kalshi and a new federal lawsuit against Utah joined the litigation maze between the prediction market platform and the state this week. Kalshi and its co-founders, Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, are now facing 12 online gambling promotion felony charges, one count of pattern of…
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a U.S. Department of Justice request that would have forced California to not count the ballots of 20,000 voters the Trump administration alleges are likely noncitizens. The decision sets the case on a course to possibly reach the U.S. Supreme Court within days. In a scathing…
Former Utah Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen is speaking out on social media ahead of next week’s election, urging Utah voters to retain judges in order to preserve an “independent, non-political judiciary.” “Do you believe in the Utah Constitution’s promise of a fair, independent and non-political judiciary?” Hagen…
Idaho health officials on Tuesday reported the state’s second flu death in the 2026-27 influenza season. The death was of a resident of Elmore County, a rural area outside Boise, who was in their 80s, the regional health agency, Central District Health, announced. The first death, reported last week, was of an Owyhee…
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is unlawfully scrutinizing naturalized U.S. citizens and placing them at risk of disenfranchisement, civil rights groups alleged in a lawsuit Wednesday, less than a week before Election Day. The lawsuit, filed in California, came as Homeland Security asked for an emergency…
Former Utah Rep. Trevor Lee appeared in court to answer charges of forgery and fraud for the first time since prosecutors filed the case.
The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send election monitors to every state ahead of Election Day, expanding a long-standing practice that’s spurred concern this year among Democrats and voting rights advocates because of President Donald Trump’s push to influence elections. The Justice Department for decades has…
The U.S. Department of Justice in a federal court hearing Tuesday warned California election officials could be prosecuted if they count ballots cast by noncitizen voters, in a case brought by the Trump administration demanding that the state set aside the ballots of 20,000 suspected noncitizen voters. The remark by a…
The Justice Department has struck out again after U.S. District Court Judge David Barlow dismissed a lawsuit against Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson. While Judge Barlow correctly interpreted federal law, it is important for Americans to know that the ruling helps ensure our elections remain fair and secure. The Trump…
This story was 0riginally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on Oct. 21, 2026. The next time you come across an op-ed by an Idaho politician, think twice about the source. It may not be human. Op-eds and other online posts from some of Idaho’s most powerful elected officials contain heavy doses of artificial intelligence…
WASHINGTON — Tens of millions of Americans have already made their way to the ballot box as early voting is underway in a midterm election that will determine control of the House and the Senate, possibly flipping one or both from Republicans to Democrats. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 34 million people have…
Prosecutors say the sentence will deter others from interfering with immigration arrests as the Trump administration aims to deport 1 million people this year.
An embattled data center campus project in Utah could emit “dangerous quantities” of air pollution linked to premature deaths, illness like asthma and heart attacks, and health-related economic damage, a new report from the firm EmPower Analytics Group says. The vision for the Stratos Project, a massive data center…
Editor’s note: This story is part of We Vote Utah, a partnership between KUER, PBS Utah and Utah News Dispatch to cover Utah’s 2026 elections. Representing Utahns in the state’s most sprawling new congressional district is a job that’s hard to imagine even for veteran political scientists — and not just because of all…
Utah Valley University is tapping a former state official to fill a new safety post in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination on campus.
NAYTAHWAUSH — Peggy Flanagan took the microphone and began, as she always does, in Ojibwe. “Boozhoo,” she said, giving her name, her tribe and her clan before switching to English. “Thank you for welcoming me home.” Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor and Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, had traveled hours…
Salt Lake County Clerk Lannie Chapman has announced that her office will offer early in-person voting for the first time on a Saturday, Halloween day. “We’re excited to offer early voting on a Saturday for the first time,” said Chapman said in a news release announcing the new early voting option. “We hope this makes
This story was originally published by ProPublica. The strain of bird flu that’s ripped through American barns for the last four years has killed two people who caught it from sick animals. But as far as anyone can tell, humans can’t spread it. The virus has remained a true “bird” flu, tailored to attach to
As the Utah Transit Authority proposes a 20% fare increase, a low-income advocacy group is asking the agency to take a step back and consider putting more resources toward increasing enrollment of available discount passes before hiking fares. The Crossroads Urban Center sent a letter to UTA last week as part of the…
Earlier this month, a 50-year-old man riding his personal electric scooter in Washington, D.C., was killed when he collided with a woman on a rideshare scooter. In June, a 12-year-old Massachusetts girl died after her electric scooter slammed into a school bus in a suburb of Boston. And in April, an Atlanta woman…
State and local government employees report high levels of job satisfaction across the country, but face significant rates of burnout and on-the-job harassment. That’s according to a new national survey of nearly 5,000 public servants across all 50 states released today by The People Lab at Harvard University’s…
A record number of women are running for state legislative seats this November, more than two-thirds of whom are Democrats. Across the 46 states with legislative seats on the ballot, a total of 3,824 women are running — up from 2022’s previous record of 3,621 women candidates, according to the Center for American…
This year’s statewide ballot measures are written, on average, at a graduate-school reading level, according to a new report. The readability of 2026’s ballot questions — which ask voters to weigh in on issues as varied as abortion, property taxes, voter ID and firearms — varies by state, political data tracking…
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration against Utah’s top election official, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, that sought Utah voters’ sensitive private information. Henderson announced the ruling on social media, writing “0-27” with a heart emoji, referring to the number of times the U.S…
The young women allege school officials did little beyond telling the boys to delete their social media accounts
The U.S. Department of Justice is stepping up its legal campaign over the midterm elections, suing Alaska over its U.S. Senate election and appealing a lawsuit against suspected noncitizen voters in California. Election law experts have cast doubt on the strength of the cases, criticizing them as performative. The…
Utah officials are urging drivers to keep their eyes peeled and use high beams as the nights grow longer and deer cover more ground in search of food and mates.
WASHINGTON — Fewer than 5% of U.S. House races are seen by a top political analysis as truly competitive heading into November’s midterm elections, giving relatively few voters the ability to determine which party controls the chamber for the next two years. The other 414 of 435 House districts are viewed by the…
A longtime Utah social enterprise nonprofit that employs more than 100 people experiencing homelessness and other challenges has furloughed almost all of its staff — and it’s days away from shutting down completely if it doesn’t get an infusion of cash by the end of the month. “We’re going to drown unless somebody…
WASHINGTON — The price health insurance companies charge for employer-sponsored plans increased again this year, as did the deductible many people must pay before those plans begin covering most healthcare costs, according to a survey released Thursday by the nonpartisan health organization KFF. The cost of individual…
The current Trump administration claims its mass deportation efforts have expelled nearly a million people through July of this year, but those include both voluntary returns and people turned around at the border, according to a new analysis by the former chief statistician for the Department of Homeland Security…
The U.S. Department of Justice is sending election monitors to Utah polls to oversee the Nov. 3 elections, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson learned on Wednesday. The move comes amid pressure from the agency as Henderson, Utah’s chief election officer, refuses to release private voter data to the federal government. The…
When Patrice Jetter and Garry Wickham became engaged, the first decisions were of small, giddy consequence: where to hold the ceremony, whom to invite, what to wear. But soon enough, a far weightier question eclipsed them all: whether they could afford to marry at all. They learned that, as people with disabilities…
Utah lawmakers may soon evaluate how public universities hold tenured professors accountable after a legislative audit found the institutions struggle to correct instances in which faculty members are “persistently poor teachers.” Auditors analyzed 666 performance reviews conducted in 2024 and 2025, which are required…
Utah, you have done this three times since 1977. Gary Gilmore. John Albert Taylor. Ronnie Lee Gardner. Five rifles. A chair. A hood. A white target pinned over the heart. Sandbags stacked behind the chair so the bullets would not ricochet off the cinderblock. For 48 years, every firing squad execution in America was…
Embattled Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby sent a letter to County Council members Tuesday night offering to go on paid administrative leave until his term ends at the end of the year. The letter, obtained by Utah News Dispatch, came ahead of the Wasatch County Council’s 4 p.m. meeting Wednesday, when council…
A progressive advocacy group is calling on a Utah Supreme Court justice to recuse himself from the state’s ongoing anti-gerrymandering court battle after reports that he signed a petition to repeal Utah’s 2018 voter-approved independent redistricting law before he was appointed to the bench. Alliance for a Better Utah…
Utah’s largest electricity provider has “mature” cybersecurity tools, but the Utah Legislature may consider additional oversight for it and municipal utilities after legislative auditors determined that direct federal and state supervision on the protocols is limited. The only state agency that oversees cybersecurity…
Single-family home completions remain stuck at early pandemic levels as of September as costs, labor supply shortages and high interest take a toll on home builders, especially in the Northeast and South. Apartment building was a more mixed picture, down nationally but up sharply in the Midwest (53%) and West (18%)…
President Donald Trump on Monday took to social media to renew his call for New Mexico to be renamed New America. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that the state should change its name “immediately” because, “We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America! The name would add great value
Utah Attorney General Derek Brown filed a lawsuit against the major prediction market platform Kalshi on Tuesday, seeking to block the company from taking bets from Utahns. “Utah has said no to gambling since statehood in 1896, and that didn’t change when betting moved onto cellphones,” Brown said during a news…
During a discussion focused on water and saving the shrinking Great Salt Lake, U.S. Sen. John Curtis said on Monday he’s trying to drum up the political will in Congress to help President Donald Trump’s $1 billion proposal for the lake materialize. The president’s budget request is just that — a request, which needs…
Bears are having a very bad year. Across much of the United States, a warm winter and persistent drought have decimated the natural foods that black and brown bears rely on. With nearly every station at the buffet in short supply, the adaptable eaters are turning to human food. From California to Connecticut…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday establishing a Women’s Health Division within the National Institutes of Health. The new division is set to work with the agency’s existing Office of Research on Women’s Health, which was established in 1990 and “has served as the focal point for…
WASHINGTON — Immigrants living in the United States with humanitarian status from Ukraine and Sudan will retain their deportation protections and work authorizations for now, the Department of Homeland Security said over the weekend. More than 100,000 Ukrainians and roughly 2,000 Sudanese with Temporary Protected…
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson is among several election officials across the country that have been sent suspicious white powder and threatening letters ahead of the midterm elections. Reports of the letters in Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma and Louisiana began last week, prompting building evacuations and an FBI…
Utahns’ perception of their quality of life is the lowest it’s been in 15 years, according to a new report. The report issued last week by the nonpartisan research nonprofit, the Utah Foundation, says Utah’s quality of life index measured an “all-time low” of 63 out of 100 based on a statewide survey that measures
The sheer size of investment in data centers is drawing concern as it surpasses all other historical booms and crowds out other more job-creating ventures. Until now, no industry had driven the U.S. economy with such force since the railroad expansion of the late 1800s, when titans battled one another to lay the…
With ballots hitting Utah mailboxes this week, protesters in Salt Lake City’s No Kings demonstration Saturday marched with their votes in hand to deposit in a downtown drop box. The city’s fourth No Kings protest brought out a smaller crowd, with Utah Highway Patrol estimating 2,000 people at the Capitol grounds, and…
Editor’s Note: This story is part of Gen Z at the Ballot Box, a collaboration between States Newsroom and The 19th. Boise State University senior Cade Syvock opposes abortion. As president of the school’s chapter of the conservative group Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the late activist Charlie Kirk…
The Grand Canyon State announced Friday that it intends to join Nevada’s lawsuit challenging the federal government’s most recent plan for the future of the Colorado River. The announcement comes after years of unsuccessful negotiations among the seven states that depend on Colorado River water to develop a plan to…
Growing up in a small town in Amherst County, Virginia, Pierre Thomas would gather around the table each night with his family to eat dinner and watch “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” on ABC — in part because Jennings was their favorite evening news anchor, but also because it got the best reception on
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has a flurry of travel on deck in the final frantic weeks leading up to the end of the midterm elections, in which the GOP is vying to maintain its control of both the U.S. House and Senate. But that outlook looks increasingly less favorable for Republicans, as analysts say
Legal challenges first filed against President Donald Trump’s cuts to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments almost a decade ago can move forward after he downsized them once again and more sharply this summer, a federal judge ruled this week in Washington, D.C. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya…
WASHINGTON —Suddenly there’s hope for cutting the reams of red tape that can make getting new energy projects a seemingly endless slog. Top Republican and Democratic senators have unveiled a 417-page bill to overhaul the approval process, a pathway for what’s known as “permitting reform.” A debate is likely when…
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador on Wednesday joined seven other states in announcing separate lawsuits against OpenAI, alleging the company’s chatbot ChatGPT harm. The 107-page lawsuit filed in Ada County Fourth Judicial District Court alleges that the company has harmed Idaho children and deceived adults in…
Of at least 6,191 Utah voters who state election officials have notified that they need to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship before this year’s November election, only 1,827 have responded and confirmed their citizenship, according to Utah’s lieutenant governor’s office. Those voters received a ballot with state…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Thursday announced that the execution of a man convicted of the Fort Hood shooting will not be livestreamed, a reversal after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that Nidal Hasan’s death by firing squad would be public. “I think streaming the execution for all to see might…
As candidates debate public safety ahead of the midterm elections, a new assessment of the nation’s historic homicide decline suggests there is no single explanation for the drop — and that some widely discussed enforcement strategies may have played little role. A survey of nearly 50 crime scholars convened by the…
Inflation grew to a 3.7% annual rate in September, according to an Oct. 14 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 3.4% in August. In the last consumer price inflation report before midterm elections, with voters already fed up with higher prices, September’s number was the highest since May, when it…
WASHINGTON — The No Kings movement that has brought millions to the streets across the United States three times since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term is staging its next event at the polls. Organizers across hundreds of advocacy groups will pull together thousands of events nationwide Saturday to…
Utahns seeking federal compensation after they or their loved ones were affected by Cold War-era nuclear weapons testing can get help with their applications through Intermountain Health’s Downwinders Clinic. The health provider’s Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program has scheduled its next series of…
A federal judge has issued a preliminary ruling blocking the Trump administration from moving the U.S. Forest Service’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City while the rest of the lawsuit over the relocation plays out in court. In the order signed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, in…
WASHINGTON — A federal judge late Tuesday extended a block on a Trump administration ban of press passes for three news organizations, which will allow them to continue to enter the White House grounds while a legal challenge to the ban, including a Wednesday appeal filed by the administration, plays out. U.S…
In the race for Utah’s newly-drawn 2nd Congressional District, Republican incumbent Rep. Blake Moore squared off with one of his challengers, Democrat Peter Crosby, on the debate stage at Utah State University on Tuesday, three weeks before the Nov. 3 election. The debate — hosted by the Utah Debate Commission…
Prosecutors say Matthew Alder fired a "reckless shot." His defense attorneys say what happened was a tragedy, but not a crime.
Emigration Canyon residents recently found surveyors for the oil company HF Sinclair poking around their yards. Sinclair wants to lay a new 12-inch gasoline pipeline through the canyon and foothills of Salt Lake City carrying up to 4 million gallons a day of gasoline and diesel. Since 2010 the U.S. Pipeline and…
Three weeks before Election Day, the Trump administration’s sprawling project to send sensitive personal information on millions of voters to the Department of Homeland Security has been declared illegal by a federal judge. The blistering court decision comes after the Department of Justice pressured or sued states…
The Great Salt Lake is now below 30% of its natural volume, and a billboard along the Wasatch Front is back to remind Utahns just how much the lake has declined. The Great Salt Lake Tracker, launched by Grow the Flow in 2025, is back on Utah roadways. When the billboard first went up last