SALT LAKE CITY — A U.S. Appeals Court on Friday struck down a critical approval for a railroad project that would have allowed oil businesses in eastern Utah to significantly expand fossil fuel production and exports.

The ruling is the latest development in the fight over the proposed Uinta Basin Railway, an 88-mile railroad line that would connect oil and gas producers in rural Utah to the broader rail network, allowing them to access larger markets and ultimately sell to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. The railroad would let producers, currently limited to tanker trucks, ship an additional 350,000 barrels of crude daily on trains extending for up to 2 miles.

The Washington, D.C.-based appeals court ruled that a 2021 environmental impact statement and biological opinion from the federal Surface Transportation Board were rushed and violated federal laws. It sided with environmental groups and Colorado’s Eagle County, which had sued to challenge the approval.

The court said the board had engaged in only a “paltry discussion” of the environmental impact the project could have on the communities and species who would live along the line and the “downline” communities who live along railroads where oil trains would travel.

“The limited weighing of the other environmental policies the board did undertake fails to demonstrate any serious grappling with the significant potential for environmental harm stemming from the project,” the ruling stated.

Surface Transportation Board spokesperson Michael Booth said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Though the Uinta Basin Railway proposal still must win additional approvals and secure funding before construction can begin, proponents saw the 2021 environmental impact statement from the board as among the most critical approvals to date.

The statement received pushback from environmentalists concerned that constructing new infrastructure to transport more fossil fuels will allow more oil to be extracted and burned, contributing to climate change.

Additionally, communities in neighboring Colorado including Eagle County and the city of Glenwood Springs — which filed a brief in support of the lawsuit — are worried about safety and potential train derailments. Oil trains would link from the proposed new Uinta Basin line to the common carrier network throughout the country, including through Colorado.

Proponents — oil businesses, rural Utah officials and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation — have argued that the railroad would be a boon to struggling local economies and boost domestic energy production.

The court ultimately ruled that the Surface Transportation Board’s decision to grant the project an exemption from the typical review process and claims that it could not examine its full environmental impact violated the agency’s mandate.

“The Board’s protestations at argument that it is just a ‘transportation agency’ and therefore cannot allow the reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts of a proposed rail line to influence its ultimate determination ignore Congress’s command that it make expert and reasoned judgments,” it said.

The local agency guiding the project through the approval process and the developer seeking funding for it said in a statement that they were undeterred by the ruling and planned to continue seeking approvals.

“We are ready, willing, and capable of working with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to ensure additional reviews and the project’s next steps proceed without further delay. We look forward to bringing this railway to the basin,” the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition and DHIP Group said in a joint statement.

Deeda Seed of the Center for Biological Diversity characterized the decision as a victory and demanded that President Joe Biden’s administration stop the project from seeking any further approvals.

“The Uinta Basin Railway is a dangerous, polluting boondoggle that threatens people, wildlife and our hope for a livable planet,” she said in a written statement.

The post Appeals court strikes down Utah oil railroad approval, siding with environmentalists appeared first on Park Record.

PARK CITY — Gwyneth Paltrow took the stand on Friday to testify in a trial over a ski crash at a Utah ski resort, where a man claims that the movie star’s recklessness on the slope caused broken ribs, brain damage and lasting physical injuries.

Paltrow testified that the crash shocked her — and, at one point, she worried that she was being violated. “Two skis came between my skis, forcing my legs apart. And there was a body pressing against me and a very strange grunting noise. My brain was trying to make sense of what was happening,” she said of the collision.

Paltrow and Terry Sanderson, the retired optometrist suing her, are both expected to answer questions about the crash while their attorneys jostle to convince the 8-member jury which skier was positioned downhill and had the right of way. The actor-turned-lifestyle influencer has said that Sanderson was responsible for the crash.

Paltrow’s heavily anticipated testimony comes halfway into the trial and on the final afternoon Sanderson’s attorneys could compel her to testify. Throughout the week in Utah, her attorneys have asked for special restrictions, including limiting photography both in the courtroom and in the public parking lot outside — where a rope cordons off Paltrow’s entrance and exit paths.

Her testimony could last longer than an hour and is expected to mirror what she said in a previous deposition about how she “froze” when the crash happened.

“We came crashing down together. This man was behind me on the mountain,” she said in November 2020. “My knee – and our skis — were still sort of tangled up. Our bodies were almost spooning and I moved away quickly. And my knee splayed open, and I was in shock.”

Next week, Paltrow’s team is expected to call to the stand medical experts, ski instructors and her two children, Moses and Apple.

The trial has touched on themes ranging from skier’s etiquette to the power — and burden — of celebrity.

After the collision, Sanderson sent his daughters an email with the subject line: “I’m famous … At what cost?” One of the daughters wrote back: “I also can’t believe this is all on GoPro.”

GoPro cameras are commonly worn by outdoor athletes and patrons of upscale ski resorts to capture action sports.

Sanderson’s daughter, Shae Herath, testified Friday that she didn’t know whether GoPro footage existed, despite her email. She said her father told her over the phone that he assumed there must be GoPro footage of the collision — from someone on the crowded run with a camera affixed to their helmet.

“There was this big, blood curdling scream. Someone would’ve looked,” Herath said, recalling the conversation with her father about how Paltrow shrieked during their collision.

While Sanderson’s attorneys have focused on their client’s deteriorating health, Paltrow’s legal team has intrigued the jury with recurring questions about the mysterious, missing GoPro footage. No video footage has since been located or entered as evidence.

The trial thus far has shone a spotlight on Park City and skiers-only Deer Valley Resort, where Paltrow and Sanderson collided. The resort is among the most upscale in North America, known for sunny slopes, après-ski champagne yurts and luxury lodges.

The proceedings have delved deep into the 76-year-old Sanderson’s medical history and personality changes, with attorneys questioning whether his deteriorating health and estranged relationships stemmed from the collision or natural process of aging.

After a judge threw out Sanderson’s earlier $3.1 million lawsuit, Sanderson then claimed damages of “more than $300,000.” Paltrow has countersued for a symbolic $1 and attorney fees. The amount of money at stake for both sides pales in comparison to the typical legal costs of a multiyear lawsuit, private security detail and expert witness-heavy trial.

Lawyers for Paltrow spent much of Thursday raising questions about Sanderson’s mentions of their client’s wealth and celebrity as well as what they called his “obsession” with the lawsuit.

The first three days of the trial featured testimony from medical experts, Sanderson’s personal doctor, a ski companion and his daughter, who said she noticed post-concussion symptoms less than a year after the accident.

Her lawyers Thursday asked Sanderson’s daughter whether her father thought it was “cool” to collide with a celebrity like Paltrow, the Oscar-winning star of “Shakespeare in Love” and founder-CEO of lifestyle brand, Goop.

Paltrow’s attorneys have cast doubt on Sanderson’s medical experts and suggested that the lawsuit could be an attempt to exploit her fame and celebrity.

The post Paltrow takes the stand in Park City ski trial appeared first on Park Record.

SALT LAKE CITY — Clinics in Utah could be banned from performing abortions under a law signed by the state’s Republican governor, setting off a rush of confusion among clinics, hospitals and prospective patients in the deeply conservative state.

Administrators from hospitals and clinics have not publicly detailed plans to adapt to the new rules, adding a layer of uncertainty on top of fear that, if clinics close, patients may not be able to access care at hospitals due to staffing and cost concerns.

The law signed by Gov. Spencer Cox on Wednesday will take effect May 3, at which time clinics will not be able to get new licenses. It institutes a full ban Jan. 1, 2024. Both the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah and the Utah Hospital Association declined to detail how the increasingly fraught legal landscape for providers in Utah will affect abortion access.

The turmoil mirrors developments in Republican strongholds throughout the United States that have taken shape since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, transformed the legal landscape and prompted a raft of lawsuits in at least 21 states.

Utah lawmakers have previously said the law would protect “the innocent” and “the unborn,” adding that they don’t think the state needs the clinics after the high court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

Though Planned Parenthood previously warned the law could dramatically hamper its ability to provide abortions, Jason Stevenson, the association’s lobbyist, said Wednesday it would now further examine the wording of other provisions of the law that could allow clinics to apply for new licenses to perform hospital-equivalent services.

Based on Planned Parenthood’s interpretation, he said in an interview, clinics will no longer be able to provide abortions with their current licenses. They plan to continue, however, to provide the majority of their services such as sexually transmitted disease and pregnancy testing and cancer screenings. Stevenson said they were “looking closely” at the licensing options in the law, but would not say whether the clinics would apply at this point.

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to questions about how it would enact the law.

Jill Vicory, a spokesperson for the Utah Hospital Association, said in an email that it was “too early to comment” on whether hospitals could soon be the only abortion providers in Utah, noting each “will need to make a determination on how they choose to proceed.”

If clinics stop providing abortions, experts are concerned hospitals’ comparatively higher cost of care and staffing shortages will make it harder to get legal abortions in Utah, even though the law isn’t explicitly a restriction on those seeking them in the state, where they remain legal up to 18 weeks.

The clinic-focused legislation has also raised questions about which kinds of facilities are best equipped to provide specialty care to patients regardless of their socioeconomic status or location.

If clinics stop providing abortions — as early as May or as late as next year — it could reroute thousands of patients to hospitals and force administrators to devise new policies for elective abortions. To do so would require expanding their services beyond emergency procedures they have previously provided, prompting questions about the shift’s impact on capacity, staffing, waitlists and costs. Roughly 2,800 abortions were provided in Utah last year.

The Utah Hospital Association said no hospitals provided elective abortions in the state last year.

The new restrictions are most likely to affect those seeking to terminate pregnancies via medication, which accounts for the majority of abortions in Utah and the United States. Abortion medication is approved up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, mostly prescribed at clinics and since a pandemic-era FDA rule change, increasingly offered via telemedicine.

The new law takes on added significance amid legal limbo surrounding other abortion laws that have been signed in Utah.

Last year’s Supreme Court ruling triggered two previously passed pieces of legislation— a 2019 ban on abortion after 18 weeks and a 2020 ban on abortions regardless of trimester, with several exceptions including for instances of risk to maternal health as well as rape or incest reported to the police. The Planned Parenthood Association of Utah sued over the 2020 ban, and in July, a state court delayed implementing it until legal challenges could be resolved. The 18-week ban has since been de facto law.

Abortion-access proponents have decried this year’s clinic ban as a back door that anti-abortion lawmakers are using to limit access while courts deliberate. If abortions were restricted regardless of trimester to the exceptional circumstances, closures would have less wide-ranging implications for patients pursuing elective abortions up to 18 weeks of pregnancy.

The post Abortion ban creating fear and confusion appeared first on Park Record.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Friday that he plans to sign a measure that would effectively ban abortion clinics from operating in the state, meaning hospitals will soon be the only places where they can be provided in the state.

After passing through the state Senate on Thursday with minor amendments, it returned to the Utah House of Representatives Friday morning, where it was approved and then sent to the governor for final approval. The move comes less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, returning the power to regulate abortions to states.

Cox told reporters that he will sign the legislation, which also clarifies the definition of abortion to address legal liability concerns providers voiced about the way exceptions are worded in state law — a provision that he and Republican lawmakers called a compromise.

“One of the concerns with the trigger bill that medical providers had across the state was there was a lack of clarity that would have made it hard for them to perform legal abortions,” Cox said.

The measure is one of several that members of Utah’s Republican-supermajority statehouse has passed this year while abortion restrictions approved in years past are on hold because of a state court injunction. It has faced fierce opposition from business, civil liberties and abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, which operates three of the four abortion clinics in the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah sent Cox a letter on Friday demanding he veto the legislation, with its executive director writing it interferes with people’s rights and “pushes essential abortion care out of reach.”

Republican lawmakers’ push to shutter abortion clinics comes as red states throughout the country work to implement restrictions after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that enshrined a constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

In Utah, the ruling triggered two previously passed laws — a 2019 ban on abortion after 18 weeks and a 2020 ban on abortions regardless of trimester, with several exceptions including for instances of risk to maternal health as well as rape or incest reported to the police. The state Planned Parenthood affiliate sued over the 2020 ban, and in July, a state court delayed implementing it until legal challenges could be resolved. The 18-week ban has since been de facto law.

The clinic-centered push in Utah is unique among states with trigger laws, where many abortion clinics closed after last year’s Supreme Court decision including in West Virginia and Mississippi. The measure mirrors a raft of proposals passed in red states in the decade before Roe was overturned when anti-abortion lawmakers passed measures regulating clinics, including the size of procedure rooms and distances from hospitals.

In Utah, the proposal from Rep. Karianne Lisonbee would require all abortions — via medication or surgery — be provided in hospitals by not allowing new clinics to be licensed after May 2 and not allowing any to operate once their licenses expire. It would affect the operations of the four clinics that provide abortions in Utah — three run by Planned Parenthood and the other by Wasatch Women’s Center, an independent clinic in Salt Lake City.

In Utah last year, clinics provided most abortions. Of the total 2,818 administered, 61% were with medications like mifepristone rather than via surgery. Abortion access proponents argued abortions were no different than other kinds of specialty care that have increasingly moved to clinic settings where providers are more accustomed to recurring patient concerns and confronting complications that may arise.

The post Governor says he’ll sign abortion ban appeared first on Park Record.

SALT LAKE CITY — Lindsey Lundholm looked out over hundreds of people at the Utah State Capitol last year and felt a deep sense of healing. Abuse survivors, religious leaders and major party politicians were all gathered to rally for an end to a legal loophole that exempts religious clergy from being required to report child sexual abuse once it comes to their attention.

Lundholm, one of the rally’s organizers, recalled telling the crowd how, growing up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Idaho, she told her bishop about her painful abuse only to see it go unreported.

Unearthing the trauma wasn’t easy, but back in August she hoped reforms could be forthcoming so others would not face what she did.

“There was really a lot of momentum,” said Lundholm, now a teacher in northern Utah. “Everyone we were talking to was like, ‘This is a no brainer. This is something that needs to be changed.’”

It hasn’t.

Pressed by Lundholm and other survivors, Republicans and Democrats announced plans last year to reform laws that exempt religious clergy from reporting child sexual abuse cases revealed in conversations with parishioners. Despite initial momentum, religious groups in several states have blocked those efforts, doubling down on lobbying tactics they’ve used for years to defend exemptions.

That’s the case in Utah, a deeply religious state where the majority of lawmakers are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church. State law requires that most professionals — therapists, doctors and teachers among them — report abuse, yet clergy are exempt from alerting authorities about abuse they learn of through confessions.

Behind-the-scenes conversations between legislative leaders in Utah and what Senate President Stuart Adams said was “a broad base of religious groups” helped thwart four separate proposals to add clergy to the list of professionals required to report child sexual abuse. None received hearings as lawmakers prepare to adjourn for the year.

“I think they have First Amendment rights and religious protections,” Adams, a Latter-day Saint himself, said, noting fears among religious leaders that clergy could be punished for breaking vows of confidentiality.

Each proposal was introduced or announced after an Associated Press investigation found that the Utah-based faith’s sexual abuse reporting hotline can be misused by its leaders to divert abuse accusations away from law enforcement and instead to church attorneys who may bury the problem, leaving victims in harm’s way.

In lawsuits detailed in the investigation, church attorneys have argued clergy-penitent privilege allows them to refuse to answer questions and turn over documents about alleged sexual abuse.

Church officials declined to comment about the stalled legislative efforts. The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City did not respond to requests for comment but campaigned against them, saying in January that priests and clergy were different from others mandated to report sexual abuse, including doctors, teachers and social workers.

“Legislation that would require a priest to (report sexual abuse) violates our right to practice our religion,” Bishop Oscar Solis, of the Salt Lake City Diocese, wrote in a Jan. 25 letter to parishioners.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox last month said he “had no problem with the bills moving forward” and receiving consideration in the statehouse.

“I think it’s an important conversation to have. We’ve encouraged the Legislature to look at this and make sure that our model is the right model,” he told reporters.

Marci Hamilton, chief executive of the abuse prevention nonprofit Child USA, said churches have maintained the same playbook for decades in opposing more disclosure.

Routinely it involves a two-pronged approach, defending clergy-penitent privilege in statehouses and using it to avoid damaging disclosures in court cases, said Hamilton, also a University of Pennsylvania law professor.

“They have not veered from it. Both institutions are hoping that time will simply let everybody start trusting them again,” Hamilton said, referring to Catholics and Latter-day Saints.

But, she added, “by preventing the public — and especially the sincere believers — from getting the full story you don’t create the accountability that these organizations should be held to and the secrets continue.”

“The problem in the United States — and this is particularly acute in state like Utah — is that the lobbying power of these religious organizations is so extraordinary,” Hamilton said.

Laws in 33 states exempt clergy — regardless of religion — from laws requiring professionals such as teachers, physicians and psychotherapists to report child sexual abuse allegations to authorities. Religious leaders have systematically fought efforts to expand the list of states. They currently oppose efforts from Vermont to Washington, where a proposal advanced through the state Senate Tuesday.

Kansas lawmakers introduced multiple proposals on penalties for not reporting suspected child sexual abuse, including one in the state Senate that would have added clergy to a list of mandatory reporters. It faced especially fierce public rebukes from Catholic leaders because it didn’t exempt confessions. No proposal received even a hearing before an initial deadline this year.

In the wake of the AP’s investigation last year, Republican state Rep. Phil Lyman and Democratic Rep. Angela Romero announced plans to reform Utah’s clergy-penitent privilege loophole. Lyman, who served six years as a Latter-day Saints’ bishop, said at the time lawmakers should want to reexamine the loophole “regardless of religious or political affiliation.”

“People should be able to go and confess their sins to their bishop without fear of being prosecuted up until when they are confessing something that has affected someone’s else life significantly,” he told the AP in August.

Lyman ultimately released a proposal that broadly affirmed clergy’s exemption from mandatory reporting. It hadn’t advanced or received any hearing as lawmakers prepare to adjourn Friday. He did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Proposals from Democratic Reps. Romero and Brian King, and Sen. Stephanie Pitcher to close or narrow the loophole have also not moved forward amid opposition from religious groups.

Both Pitcher and Romero, who is Catholic, said they planned to reintroduce their proposals next year.

“With AP uncovering what they uncovered, you’d think this would be a matter of urgency for this Legislature and for Legislatures across the country. But again we are allowing these institutions to dictate what we mandate,” Romero said, referring to the Catholic Church.

Several Utah lawmakers told AP that opponents of limiting clergy-penitent privilege regarding child sexual abuse had circulated research that they claimed suggests mandatory reporting reform doesn’t result in more confirmed reports of sexual abuse and may deter perpetrators from speaking to clergy.

“What most of the research shows is that if people aren’t able to come to them for fear of being reported on, they’re not able to provide the help and support they need,” Sen. Ann Milner said.

However, conclusions drawn from the study, which the Catholic Diocese also circulated in opposition to a similar bill from Romero three years ago, have been challenged by its authors.

University of Michigan law professor Frank Vandervort and his co-author, Vincent Palusci, a pediatrics professor at New York University, told the AP last year the study was limited, partly because churches often wouldn’t give them access to relevant data.

“A single article should not be the basis for making policy decisions,” Vandervort said. “It may be entirely the case that there’s no connection between the changing of the laws and the number of reports.”

Lundholm said Utah lawmakers adjourning without having a “true public discussion” on any clergy-penitent privilege reform proposal provoked eerily familiar feelings for survivors. Though she never expected political change to happen overnight, she said survivors like her who had abuse go unreported — once again — feel unheard.

“Maybe the worst part is that this is something that survivors experience often, and unfortunately, it’s rare when their stories are heard,” she said.

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.

The post Push to require clergy to report abuse stalls in Utah appeared first on Park Record.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its investment arm have been fined $5 million for using shell companies to obscure the size of the portfolio under church control, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday.

“We allege that the LDS Church’s investment manager, with the Church’s knowledge, went to great lengths to avoid disclosing the Church’s investments, depriving the Commission and the investing public of accurate market information,” Gurbir S. Grewal, the agency’s enforcement director, said in a statement.

The faith, widely known as the Mormon church, maintains billions of dollars of investments in stocks, bonds, real estate and agriculture. Much of its portfolio is controlled by Ensign Peak Advisers, a nonprofit investment manager overseen by ecclesiastical leaders known as its presiding bishopric.

The church has agreed to pay $1 million and Ensign Peak will pay $4 million in penalties based on the violation.

Federal investigators said for 22 years, the firm hadn’t filed required paperwork to disclose the value of some assets, in violation of the Securities Exchange Act and agency rules.

Instead, they said, with the church’s knowledge, Ensign Peak filed the forms through 13 shell companies they created, even as they maintained decision-making power. They also had “business managers,” most employed by the church, sign the required shell company filings.

“The Church was concerned that disclosure of its portfolio, which by 2018 grew to approximately $32 billion, would lead to negative consequences,” the agency said in a statement announcing the charges.

Since a whistleblower alleged in 2019 the church had stockpiled nearly $100 billion in funds, rather than directing it toward charitable causes, Ensign Peak has been a source of intrigue and mystery for the nearly 17-million member Utah-based faith, which encourages members worldwide to give 10% of their income in a what is known as “tithing.”

Increasingly, the church and its investment arm have faced scrutiny over the fact that tax law largely exempts religious groups from paying U.S. taxes. Ensign Peak is registered as a supporting organization and integrated auxiliary of the church.

In a statement, church officials said over the time period investigated, none of their holdings had gone unreported and all had been disclosed through the separate companies. They said they had “relied upon legal counsel regarding how to comply with its reporting obligations while attempting to maintain the privacy of the portfolio” and noted that Ensign Peak had changed its reporting approach after learning of the SEC’s concerns in 2019.

“We affirm our commitment to comply with the law, regret mistakes made, and now consider this matter closed,” they said.

The post Mormon church fined $5M for obscuring size of portfolio appeared first on Park Record.

When officers pulled over a van for speeding outside of Arches National Park in August 2021, they found a visibly distraught young couple in an emotional fight. Gabby Petito, 22, and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie, 23, were driving across the United States, and upon observing the couple, police officers in Moab, Utah, decided to separate them for a night rather than issue a domestic violence citation or investigate further.

That decision proved fateful when, about a month later, Petito’s body was found strangled on the edge of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Laundrie, the only individual ever identified as a person of interest, was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after returning alone to his parents’ home in Florida.

The case captured international attention, sparking discussions about both dating violence and how white women like Petito receive disproportionate media coverage compared to other missing people.

Less than two years later, with civil litigation still pending, lawmakers in Utah are advancing legislation to strengthen how police investigate suspected intimate partner violence like the kind now believed to have led to Petito’s death.

Utah state senators voted unanimously Monday in favor of a proposal from Republican Todd Weiler that would require law enforcement throughout Utah to ask a series of 11 questions in situations where they suspect intimate partner violence.

The “Lethality Assessment Protocol” on which Utah’s proposal is based was first piloted in Maryland two decades ago. Roughly half of law enforcement departments in Utah currently use the assessment protocol, yet as of now there is no statewide mandate.

“If it had been used, I believe she’d still be here today,” Joe Petito, Gabby’s father, said at a press conference after the vote in Salt Lake City.

Though police officers regularly ask questions when they have probable cause to believe crimes like domestic violence are being committed, those in the assessment are designed to screen for risk and are based on statistical data that draws correlations between certain behaviors and danger to potential victims’ lives, Weiler said. They include questions about prior threats, access to firearms and a history of behavior such as choking, jealousy or spying.

Utah lawmakers said the learning about the correlation between choking and later death was particularly striking in light of a murder-suicide in Enoch, Utah, last month, where a father killed his wife, five children and mother-in-law several years after one of his daughters told officers conducting a child abuse investigation that he had once choked her.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, whose cousin was shot and killed by her ex-husband last year, said 22% of homicides in Utah were intimate partner-related and that the majority of suspects had prior interaction with law enforcement.

“With this bill, we are trying to very narrowly target the biggest problem we have right now in the state with intimate partner violence,” she said. “That’s to prevent intimate partner homicide.”

The Senate bill also includes provisions to create a law enforcement database for responses to the lethality screenings so officers can access information on prior lethality assessments conducted by any department statewide to better understand and protect victims. Weiler said the database wouldn’t be publicly accessible to ensure it didn’t violate the due process of people investigated yet not convicted of any crimes.

The post Petito family lobbies for ‘lethality assessment’ law appeared first on Park Record.

SALT LAKE CITY — Vendors selling hiking apparel, e-bikes, zippers and other outdoor gear gathered in Utah last week for what has long been one of the country’s largest trade shows catering to the recreation industry, marking its return to the deeply Republican state after a four-year boycott over its land management stances.

Though organizers decided to move the twice yearly event back to Utah, many large ski and apparel brands skipped it, pointing to a confluence of factors including politics and changing industry dynamics. Notably absent were industry heavyweights such as Patagonia, The North Face and REI, which signed onto a letter asking trade show organizers not to return to Utah.

The debate over the location of the show, which can generate millions of dollars for the local economy where it’s held, centers around land management in southern Utah, particularly over the boundaries of two national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Many brands with histories of environmental advocacy believe Utah is a bad choice because state officials oppose protecting some lands that the industry cherishes.

The industry trade show moved to Denver in 2018 after Utah lawmakers successfully asked President Donald Trump to downsize the two monuments, which had been designated by President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton, respectively. Trump’s move opened up part of the land for mining and drilling, angering the outdoor recreation industry, which relies on customers being able to access public lands.

But show organizer Emerald X said the four-year boycott wasn’t effective. In a statement last year announcing it was bringing the trade show back to Utah, the company said “we will push back, not pull back.”

“We firmly believe that staying engaged and collectively contributing to the ongoing discussion, no matter how difficult, is far more constructive,” the statement said.

Utah has continued to fight the federal government over the monuments. After President Joe Biden restored the size of the two, the state joined with rural counties to sue.

Last week’s trade show includds “community corners” and “campfire discussions” with local activists and public officials about environmental stewardship and sustainability.

“Part of our reengagement into Salt Lake City with state and local officials is the environment. Access to all of the recreation land is vital to the health of the industry,” Marisa Nicholson, the show director, said.

Nicholson acknowledged the absence of certain large brands, but said it was natural for any trade show to evolve with an industry.

Peter Metcalf, the founder of Black Diamond and an activist who helped bring the show to Utah decades ago, said he doubted reengagement would change minds or policy.

“They perceived the industry would come anyway but they were very short-sighted,” he said of the boycotts. “We had a seat at the table and were never served so why stay at the table?”

Designers and salespeople said they appreciated the event returning to Salt Lake City because its proximity to mountains and recreation areas makes it ideal for testing products.

Eric Henderson, a publicist representing brands manufacturing jackets out of recyclable materials, eco-friendly ski wax and avalanche jackets, said the outdoor industry remained uniquely committed to its advocacy goals and those returning to Utah wanted to come back with renewed commitment. He said he hoped drawing attention to the kinds of activities that can be pursued outdoors would help get people to care about protecting lands.

“We came back intentionally for that,” he said.

Before leaving, Outdoor Retailer’s twice annual trade show drew an estimated $40 million in annual economic impact to Utah, benefitting hotels, restaurants and the Salt Palace Convention Center. The 2023 show was significantly smaller than prior years because of the boycott and industrywide trends that have put less emphasis on expositions at the start of each year, brand representatives said.

The post Outdoor Retailer’s bumpy return to Utah appeared first on Park Record.

Republican Mike Lee’s reelection to a third term in the U.S. Senate, defeating independent challenger Evan McMullin Tuesday in the state’s most closely watched Senate race in decades, keeps Utah in Republican hands as the party vies for control of Congress and reflects that the libertarian-leaning conservative’s popularity has endured in Utah. His win indicates the majority of Utah voters were not swayed by McMullin’s criticisms of Lee’s second-term transformation, from a one-time opponent of former President Donald Trump to among his most loyal supporters.

In an emotionally raw victory speech, Lee said his victory was a rebuke of Democrats who have controlled Washington for the past two years. He said it put Republicans in a good position heading toward the next presidential election, when voters will be asked whether to give Democrats another four years in the White House.

“I look forward to 2024, when even the blue states are going to be saying ‘Heck no!’ And that’s strong language in Utah,” Lee said on a stage alongside his family.

McMullin’s formal backing from the Democratic party, which opted to back him instead of choosing a candidate, and attempts to exploit anti-Trump sentiment ultimately weren’t enough to unseat Lee, but in his concession speech he commended them for making the race competitive.

McMullin thanked the Democrats, Republicans and independents who supported him and said their unity made the race Utah’s most competitive in half a century. He said he hoped more voters, candidates and campaigns would focus on unifying people rather than leaning into politics of division “because America does stand at the crossroads of democracy and despotism.”

He mostly refrained from pointed remarks against Lee, yet he repeated his campaign trail message against divisiveness and threats to democracy.

“I truly hope he upholds his oath to the Constitution in his upcoming term,” McMullin said of Lee.

Utah voters were familiar with McMullin from his independent presidential campaign in 2016, when he won 21.5% of the vote in the in Utah by seizing on anti-Trump sentiment to deny Trump an outright majority in the state.

Six years later, McMullin’s bid focused largely on Lee’s text messages with Trump’s staff in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. It ultimately wasn’t enough to score an upset in a state where voters and many political leaders have gradually grown to embrace Trump since 2016.

McMullin’s accusation that Lee had betrayed his oath of office when he became entangled in communications about how Trump could overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 win was front-of-mind for Lee’s supporters at his election night event, including one who yelled, “You deserve an apology!” during the senator’s victory speech.

“Thank you,” Lee said.

Lee comes from a prominent Utah political family. His father, Rex, served as U.S. Solicitor General under President Ronald Reagan and his brother, Thomas, is a former state Supreme Court Justice currently defending the state’s ban on transgender youth who want to participate in girls’ sports.

Since first being elected, Lee has cultivated a reputation for citing the U.S. Constitution frequently, often with the help of a pocket-sized edition he carries, and for advocating to limit the size of the federal government. He’s clung to those principles even when doing so has made him a lone “No” against otherwise unanimous votes in the Senate and contributed to the federal government shutting down. Two Republicans cited his unwillingness to compromise as a rationale for challenging him in Utah’s June primary and McMullin used his record to accuse him of being an obstructionist.

Lee’s defenders say his voting records exemplifies a willingness to fight for them and their values. He received endorsements from 48 Senate Republicans — all but Mitt Romney, who he’s represented Utah alongside since 2019. Lee’s victory over a self-identified conservative independent like McMullin suggests challenges could lie ahead for Romney should he decided to run for reelection in 2024.

Lee’s contest against McMullin was more competitive than either of Lee’s previous two races. He was first elected in 2010 during a Tea Party wave that he rode to unseat third-term Republican Sen. Bob Bennett at the Utah Republican Party’s convention that year and ultimately won the general election by 28.8 percentage points. He secured a second term in 2016, defeating Democrat Misty Snow by 31 percentage points.

He began that year as an avowed and public opponent of then-candidate Trump, even attempting to lead an effort to sabotage his nomination on the floor of the Republican National Convention. He voiced anger at Trump’s treatment of his friend and colleague U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and said on national television that the “Muslim ban” plank of Trump’s 2016 campaign was religious discrimination and an affront to both his beliefs and the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members make up the majority of Utah’s population.

Lee gradually warmed to Trump as he began fulfilling the priorities such as nominating conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, lowering taxes and embracing a conservative case for criminal justice reform. His ideological viewpoint won him support from political action committees like Americans for Prosperity and Club for Growth, which funneled millions into attack ads undercutting McMullin’s attempts to portray himself as an independent.

The post Lee victory could point to hurdles for Romney appeared first on Park Record.

Tech leaders and Democratic Party-aligned groups are among those funneling millions into Utah to support independent Evan McMullin’s bid to unseat Republican Sen. Mike Lee.

The race has been inundated with outside spending, with super PACs unaffiliated with either the Lee or McMullin campaign spending heavily on glossy mailers and attack ads on the local affiliates of the four major television networks in the lead-up to the midterm elections.

The sheer amount of money pouring into the race reflects how McMullin has turned Utah from a political afterthought to a legitimate battleground. The outside spending supporting him also illustrates the traditional partisan dynamics at play in the independent-versus-Republican race and the emerging reality that some Democratic Party-aligned groups and donors see McMullin — an anti-abortion conservative — as one path toward preventing Republicans from retaking control of the Senate.

McMullin and Lee’s campaign have raised $6.9 million and $8.6 million respectively, campaign finance filings published Oct. 28 that cover up to Oct. 19 show.

Though they’re spending heavily on their own campaign ads, consultants and staff, the candidates are receiving boosts from independent expenditure committees that aren’t allowed to coordinate with their campaigns.

The most active among them is a pro-McMullin super PAC called Put Utah First. It’s spent $5.1 million throughout 2022, including $3 million from Oct. 1 to Oct. 19.

The group has received most of its funding from Blake Murray, the former CEO of the financial services technology company Divvy. Murray is among a number of Utah technology leaders supporting McMullin. It’s also received $250,000 from American Bridge’s political action committee. American Bridge has spent $45 million nationwide in the current midterm election cycle and is also running attack ads in traditional battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Put Utah First got another $100,000 from the Republican Accountability PAC, which is also running ads against Senate candidates including Herschel Walker in Georgia and J.D. Vance in Ohio.

Put Utah First has also received $700,000 in total from members of the Cumming family, which owns POWDR, one of the Rockies’ largest ski resort operators. POWDR’s founder and chairman John Cumming, his wife Kristi, mother Annette and brother David are longtime Democratic donors and this cycle have also contributed to Planned Parenthood’s political action committee, the Arizona Democratic Party and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.

The group’s attack ads against Lee are set to ominous music, portraying the second-term Republican as an obstructionist unwilling to compromise in Washington, D.C. and highlighting various votes against spending bills that would have funded benefits for first responders and veterans.

While not mentioning their own source of funds, the Put Utah First ads blast him for taking campaign contributions from special interest groups.

Independent expenditure groups supporting Republican Senate candidates throughout the country are defending Lee and investing in attack ads and mailers against McMullin, including the Koch Network-backed Americans for Prosperity, the Consumer Technology Association, Liberty Champions PAC and Crypto Freedom, a pro-Bitcoin PAC affiliated with Club for Growth.

The conservative Club for Growth Action PAC had spent more than $3.7 million to oppose McMullin as of Oct. 19 and said last week that its total spending had grown to more than $8 million. One of the group’s ads attacks McMullin’s past remarks about Republicans that led to a lawsuit. McMullin said the ad was inaccurate and libelous and has taken legal action over it.

Another of the group’s ads shows former Utah Gov. John Huntsman endorsing Lee’s re-election bid against independent Evan McMullin. “You might not always agree with Mike. I don’t,” says Huntsman, a Republican widely seen as moderate. “But we can all agree that principled leadership and fidelity to the Constitution are paramount in difficult times.”

David McIntosh, the group’s CEO, said Club for Growth Action felt they needed to spend money defending Lee and attacking McMullin given the other side’s outside spending, to ensure Utah didn’t “take away the opportunity for Republicans to get a majority in the U.S. Senate.”

“We think it’s important that voters in Utah know it’s a clear choice between Mike Lee, a Republican and a conservative, and Evan McMullin,” he said on a call with reporters this month.

The post Dems, tech leaders spending big on McMullin appeared first on Park Record.