Emily Means

After a nearly 12-hour hearing Monday, the future growth of a small town in Wasatch County remains uncertain.

The state of Utah, Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City launched Operation Rio Grande as an effort to address homelessness and crime in a downtown Salt Lake City neighborhood where The Road Home shelter used to be. 

Utah lawmakers received an update on the initiative Thursday during a meeting of the Legislature’s Criminal Code Evaluation Task Force.

A report released Wednesday by the Utah Department of Public Safety found that a University of Utah police officer showed explicit photos of Lauren McCluskey to colleagues and that some officers made inappropriate comments about them. 

During the Cottonwood Heights city council’s work session Tuesday night, Councilmember Tali Bruce requested the city adopt a policy that mirrors one recently announced in Salt Lake City, where officers will be disciplined if they don’t turn on their body cams. 

Utah’s housing advocates are gearing up for a rise in evictions with the end of two federal pandemic assistance programs last week. 

Alexandria Taylor has three daughters, all under the age of 15. She and her children, along with her husband, were all infected with COVID-19. She said it shut down their lives for almost two months. 

Most of Utah is in the low-risk phase of the state’s coronavirus pandemic response, and people are venturing out more. Dining in at restaurants, working out at gyms and group gatherings are all allowed under those limited restrictions.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Utahns have been encouraged to stay safe by staying home. But for people who don’t have a home, that can be an impossible task. 

Updated 1:42 p.m. MDT 7/22/2020

A dozen portraits of people who were killed by police have been painted on a building in Salt Lake City following the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal in Salt Lake City.

The art, installed by a group of about 20 unnamed artists, is part of a larger, ongoing movement in which thousands of people have marched in the streets across Utah to protest police brutality and racial injustice.

Utah renters would need to make almost $20 an hour to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment or home. But the average renter in the state makes about $5 less than that.

The Midvale City Council recently stalled on a decision to pull out of the Unified Police Department. And on July 1, Taylorsville voted to leave UPD to form its own, more community-based law enforcement agency.

Gov. Gary Herbert has declared a state of emergency until July 13, following a protest in Salt Lake City calling for justice for Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal. 

Updated 6:11 p.m. MDT 7/9/2020

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill ruled Thursday morning that the officers’ use of deadly force was justified in the shooting of Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal.

Updated 5:54 p.m. MDT 7/8/2020

Utahns voted in an influential primary election June 30. There is an open seat for Governor for the first time since 2004, and four Republicans are vying for their party’s nomination. Utah’s incumbent Attorney General Sean Reyes is being challenged by another Republican. The 1st Congressional District is an open seat for the first time since 2002, andRepublicans and Democrats are facing off in their own primaries for the chance to compete for the seat in November. 

County clerks in Utah are still counting ballots from Tuesday’s primary election.

Utah has provided nearly $134,000 in rental assistance to 112 people since mid-May, when the governor’s eviction freeze ended. 

After nearly two decades in office, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is stepping down from his seat in Utah’s 1st Congressional District. 

Salt Lake County raised the red, white and blue Juneteenth flag at a ceremony Friday morning, where Mayor Jenny Wilson proclaimed the county’s support of the holiday. Juneteenth — a mashup of the words June and nineteenth — commemorates the day when the last enslaved people were freed in 1865. 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump Administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, won’t stand. The program defers deportations of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and gives them a legal work permit.

Organizations that advocate for local government informed a Utah legislative committee Wednesday that they have limited resources to address the coronavirus pandemic. 

Utah’s Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee met Monday to discuss improvements to the Wasatch Front’s air quality during the coronavirus pandemic.