Utahns divided on firework restrictions when considering environmental impact; Millcreek now seeking $ aid; Monroe Canyon Fire expands rapidly
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The Utah Policy newsletter is your one-stop source for political and policy-minded news. We scour the news so you don't have to! Send news tips or feedback to Holly Richardson at editor@utahpolicy.com.

 

Situational Analysis | July 28, 2025

It's Monday and National Milk Chocolate Day đŸ«

What you need to know

  • President Donald Trump issued an executive order remaking the country's approach to homelessness. Following more than a decade of “housing first” requirements from Washington, D.C., Trump’s order makes federal grants conditional on prohibiting urban camping, abandoning “harm reduction” tactics and meeting higher standards of accountability. The order also instructs the U.S. Attorney General and secretary of Health and Human Services to remove federal obstacles to civil commitment. Rep. Tyler Clancy praises the order as a "sea change" and Gov. Cox says it's finally moving D.C.'s approach to homelessness in the right direction. 

Rapid Relevance

 

Utah Headlines

Political news

  • Owens introduces bill to build Saratoga Springs post office (KSL TV)
  • Judge dismisses lawsuit seeking to prevent Utah from suing to acquire federal lands (KSL)

Municipal

  • Proposed 5-story apartment complex in St. George sparks concern among neighboring residents (St. George News)
  • City of Moab is preparing for the ‘next big flood’ (Salt Lake Tribune)
  • Large fire burns at least 24 apartments, displaces 40 in Holladay area, with smoke seen for miles (Salt Lake Tribune)

Utah

  • Utahns warned against buying oysters from Republic of Korea (KSL Newsradio)
  • Driver bites UHP trooper after being pulled from burning vehicle in Taylorsville crash, 7 hospitalized (ABC4)
  • Waiting for your Great Salt Lake license plate? Check the mailbox in 4-6 weeks (KUER)

Biz/Tech

  • 'Incredibly entrepreneurial': Utah program fosters business aspirations of refugees, immigrants (KSL)
  • Utah Tech's digital upgrades to provide a bright future for local filmmakers (KSL)
  • Opinion: Artificial intelligence is upending the job market, but this industry is hiring (Deseret News)
  • TikTok made cottage cheese so popular, producers are struggling to keep up (KSL/CNN)
  • Utah-based Columbus Foundation launches program to train autistic adults for manufacturing jobs (KSL Newsradio)
  • ChatGPT Gave Instructions for Murder, Self-Mutilation, and Devil Worship (The Atlantic)

Crime/Courts

  • Kaysville woman sentenced to 6 years to life in prison for sexually abusing boy (KSL)
  • West Valley man charged with sexually abusing children while in Tonga (KSL)
  • Utah Department of Corrections preparing to carry out execution by firing squad (KSL TV)

Culture/Community

  • Remembering the boy who loved books (Deseret News) 
  • The old dude on the rad ride (Deseret News)
  • Photo gallery: Bountiful Handcart Days parade a tribute to past and present (Deseret News)
  • The impossible balancing act at the heart of the Chip and Joanna Gaines controversy: 3 things to read (Deseret News)

Economy

  • Perspective: Sweetening the deal — ending sugar tariffs for a healthier economy (Deseret News)

Education

  • A new way to improve children's reading — with a horse, of course (KSL)
  • Utah schools to get $40 million in funding that Trump admin initially withheld (Salt Lake Tribune)
  • Judge dismisses SUWA case aimed at stopping Utah from reviving its public land lawsuit (Utah News Dispatch)

Environment/Energy

  • Dragon Bravo Fire expands over 25% in one day on Grand Canyon’s North Rim (KUTV)

Faith

  • Media outlets worldwide recognize ‘Music & the Spoken Word’ for its 5,000th-episode milestone’s (Deseret News)

Family

  • Analysis: The U.S. birthrate has dropped to its lowest level ever: Why should we care? (Deseret News)
  • More Americans are family caregivers; states struggle to help them, report finds (Utah News Dispatch)
  • Medicaid changes will hurt family caregivers, experts warn (The Hill)
  • Intermountain offers new group-based prenatal care option (UPR)

Health

  • Americans with Disabilities Act turns 35: Life before and after (Deseret News)
  • Here’s why 4 Utahns with disabilities chose to crawl, climb the Utah Capitol’s marble steps (Salt Lake Tribune)
  • Mall walking: Staying active while staying out of the heat (Deseret News)
  • Extreme heat elevates Alzheimer's mortality risk; what Southern Utahns need to know (St. George News)

Housing

  • Utah wanted to open a 1,200-bed homeless shelter by October. It’s not going to happen. (Salt Lake Tribune)
  • Are home price increases finally slowing down? (Deseret News)
 

National Headlines

General

  • Abortion, adultery, birth control — Americans weigh in on what they think is morally acceptable (Deseret News)
  • ‘It’s the most empathetic voice in my life’: How AI is transforming the lives of neurodivergent people (Reuters)
  • Authorities seek to file terrorism and assault charges against suspect in Michigan Walmart knife attack (AP)

Political news 

  • Freedom Caucus: Expert negotiators or flip-floppers? (Deseret News)
  • US and EU avert trade war with 15% tariff deal (Reuters)
  • It’s a year of rapid change, except when it comes to Trump’s approval numbers, AP-NORC polling finds (AP)
  • How and why Trump has struggled in dealing with the Epstein files (NPR)
  • Trump fumes as Epstein scandal dominates headlines, overshadows agenda (Washington Post)
  • Trump’s MAGA allies zero in on Ghislaine Maxwell as Epstein furor persists (Washington Post)
  • House GOP sends warning shot to Bondi for fumbling Epstein saga ‘so badly’ (Politico)
  • Hegseth team told to stop polygraph tests after complaint to White House (Washington Post)
  • ‘We Have All the Trees We Need.’ Trump Wants to Revive the Lumber Industry (Wall Street Journal)

Immigration/deportation

  • 'Hell on Earth': Venezuelans deported to El Salvador mega-prison tell of brutal abuse (NPR)
  • 'Fire up the deportation planes': Deportations begin from Florida’s 'Alligator Alcatraz' (Deseret News)

Ukraine/Russia

  • Russia says it has captured two villages in Ukraine, Ukraine reports heavy fighting (Reuters)

Middle East

  • The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born (AP News)
  • His name is Mohammad Al-Motawaq. He is 18 months old. And he is starving in Gaza. He now weighs less than 10 pounds (NPR)
  • Gazans are starving. Here’s what lack of food does to the human body. (Washington Post)
  • Israel begins daily pause in fighting in 3 Gaza areas to allow ‘minimal’ aid as hunger grows (AP)
  • JosĂ© AndrĂ©s: The World Cannot Stand By With Gaza on the Brink of Famine (New York Times)

World news

  • At Trump’s Urging, Thailand and Cambodia to Meet for Cease-Fire Talks (New York Times)
  • Wildfires threaten Turkey’s fourth-largest city as southern Europe grapples with blazes (AP)
 

Number of the Day

 

Guest opinion: Women and children matter

by Dr. Ellen Brady

Recent controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein files triggered the need to recount the many dots that, when connected, disclose a very clear picture of societal misogyny evocative of  Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale.”

Let’s start with the constitution which explicitly did not and still does NOT give women equal protection. We are still waiting for the Equal Rights Amendment even though it has been ratified by 38 states. It was 1920—my mother’s lifetime–when women gained the right to vote. This year, Republicans attempted to restrict that right with the SAVE Act, a voting bill whose proof of citizenship requirements would have disproportionately disenfranchised women.  The right of women in the US to independently and equitably access credit didn’t occur until 1974 with passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act...

Connect the dots. Open the Epstein files. Hold exposed pedophiles and enablers accountable, including the president, and others in positions of power. Let’s get serious about real pedophiles and sex-trafficking, not just about pizza parlor conspiracies or vigilante operations such as Operation Underground Railroad. While at it, let’s address the bigger picture of systemic misogyny. Women and children matter. (Read More)

 

Tweets of the Day

 

Upcoming

  • Aug 7 â€”  Titan of Public Service gala with Sen. Tom Cotton hosted by the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation at the Grand America Hotel. More Information Here
  • Aug 12 â€” Municipal primary
  • Aug 18-20 â€” Interim Days
  • Sept 11-12 — Women in the Money Conference, Sheraton Hotel and online, Register here
  • Sept 15-17 — Interim Days
  • Oct 6-8 — One Utah Summit, Cedar City, More information here
  • Oct 13-15 — Interim Days
  • Nov 4 â€” General election
  • Nov 17-19 — Interim Days
  • February 4-7, 2026 — Summit, with Silicon Slopes and Visit Salt Lake
 

On This Day In History

  • 1868 - The 14th Amendment granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including formerly enslaved people - is officially adopted.
  • 1879 - Lucy Burns is born. An active suffragist, she formed the National Woman’s Party with Alice Paul, picketed the White House for women suffrage and was arrested 6 times.
  • 1893 - A petition organized by Kate Sheppard, demanding women's suffrage, is delivered to New Zealand's parliament; signed by over 25,000 women, a 5th of the adult European female population
  • 1914 - WWI begins when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
  • 1917 - The Silent Parade, organised by James Weldon Johnson, had 10,000 African-Americans marching on 5th Ave in NYC to protest lynching.
  • 1929 - Future first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy is born
  • 1943 - Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini resigns
  • 1943 - Stalin issues Order No. 227 outlawing cowards. “Panic makers and cowards must be liquidated on the spot.”
  • 1976 - Tangshan Earthquake, 8.2 in magnitude kills over 240,000 Northern China in the largest loss of life from an earthquake in the 20th century
  • 1996 - Kennewick Man, the remains of a prehistoric man, is discovered near Kennewick, Washington.

Quote of the Day

"Can anyone understand how it is to have lived in the White House and then, suddenly, to be living alone as the President's widow?"

— Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy

On the Punny Side

What did one plate say to the other?

Lunch is on me.

 

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