Monday morning, July 12, 2021
State
Record Temperatures Across Utah
Temperatures in St. George reached 117 degrees on Saturday. The National Weather Service said it’s investigating the data, but if confirmed, the Saturday high will tie the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in the state. Further north, the temperature hit 104 degrees in Salt Lake City Sunday, breaking the record of 103 set in 2012. Utahns along the Wasatch Front have also been experiencing smoky skies due to wildfires in California, Oregon and Idaho. It’s expected to clear up Tuesday afternoon. — David Fuchs
Trump, Lee And 2022 Senate Challengers
Sen. Mike Lee, R-UT, has been an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, but both of his major Republican challengers have publicly taken the opposite position. Ally Isom, a staffer for former Gov. Gary Herbert and former spokesperson for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the party needs to look forward and she “reject[s] the fact that anyone would say there's a litmus test for being a good Republican.” Isom and Lee’s other challenger former Rep. Becky Edwards have shied away from directly criticizing the former president during their campaigns so far, but Brigham Young University political scientist Adam Dynes said their past statements could still spell trouble for them in a state where Trump garnered about 60% of the vote last year. Read the full story. — Sonja Hutson
Northern Utah
Local NAACP Denounces Black Lives Matter Statement On American Flag
The Salt Lake branch of the NAACP has denounced recent statements from Lex Scott, founder of Black Lives Matter Utah. In a Facebook post on the Fourth of July, Scott called the American Flag a “symbol of hatred.” It came in response to a far-right nationalist group carrying the flag in another state. Jeanetta Williams, president of NAACP Salt Lake, said in a press release on Saturday that although the U.S. has a complicated past — the flag is a symbol of aspiration. Scott continues to stand by her statement. — Ivana Martinez
Southern Utah
Woman Charged With Hate-Crime Against Deputy
The state of Utah is charging a 19-year-old woman with a hate crime for destroying a “Back The Blue” sign in front of a sheriff’s deputy in Garfield County. According to the deputy’s report, the woman stomped on the sign and then threw it in the garbage after he gave her friend a speeding ticket. The deputy wrote that the woman’s actions are being treated as a hate crime because he saw them as an attempt to intimidate law enforcement. Under Utah law, a hate crime is defined as an offense that is committed with the intent to intimidate or terrorize another person. — David Fuchs
Region/Nation
Native Hunting Rights
It’s been two years since the Supreme Court upheld the Crow Tribe’s off-reservation hunting rights in the landmark Herrera v. Wyoming case. The state of Wyoming has been seeking to block treaty hunters from exercising that right though, and a federal judge has now handed the state a victory. He declined to overturn a 30-year-old lower court ruling that contradicts what the Supreme Court said in 2019. Native American Rights Fund Attorney Dan Lewerenz represents the Crow Tribe in this case, and said the tribe is likely to appeal the ruling. The judge’s decision is also a blow to the Eastern Shoshone, the Shoshone Bannock and other tribes in the Mountain West that claim off-reservation hunting rights in Wyoming. — Savannah Maher, Mountain West News Bureau