Month: May 2025

Jefferson Moss, a Saratoga Springs Republican and the Utah House majority leader, is resigning from elected office to become the next executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity.

His last day in the Legislature, where he has served since 2017, will be May 30, according to a Friday morning announcement from the Utah House.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve the people of House District 51 and the state of Utah,” Moss said in a statement. “I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve accomplished together to strengthen our economy, invest in education, and expand opportunity for Utah families. I look forward to continuing my work in a new capacity, helping lead Utah’s economic future.”

Republicans delegates will elect Moss’s replacement in the Legislature, likely at the May 31 Utah GOP convention, and the House GOP will pick their next majority leader in the coming weeks, according to a spokesperson.

Moss’s departure leaves a vacancy in Republican House leadership, where Rep. Karianne Lisonbee of Clearfield serves as the majority whip and Rep. Casey Snider of Paradise serves as the assistant whip.

“Rep. Moss is an extraordinary leader, a trusted colleague, and a loyal friend,” House Speaker Mike Schultz said in a statement. “His vision, work ethic, and collaborative approach have left a lasting mark on our state. Rep. Moss has a unique ability to bring people together, think outside the box, and solve complex challenges. While we’ll miss his leadership in the House, I know he will continue to serve Utah with the same passion and purpose in his new role.”

Gov. Spencer Cox announced the appointment of Moss in a separate announcement Friday morning, the Utah County Republican “brings a rare combination of public service, private sector experience, and a deep understanding of innovation and education.”

In a separate statement, Moss said serving in the Legislature “has been one of the great honors of my life.” He added, “I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue serving the people of Utah in this new capacity and help advance the Governor’s vision for economic opportunity across the state.”

In his new role at GOEO, Moss replaces Ryan Starks, whose departure was announced by the governor last week. Starks, the office said in a release last week, was departing from the role to “pursue other professional endeavors.”

Moss also serves as the associated commissioner of innovation, commercialization and economic development at the Utah System of Higher Education and, according to the governor’s officer, will continue his leadership role at USHE.

Originally founded in 1981, the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity has a host of responsibilities, including recruiting new companies to the state, working to develop Utah businesses in local and foreign markets and overseeing groups like the Utah Film Commission and the Office of Tourism. The office, according to GOEO’s website, oversees more than $240 million in state and federal funding and has a staff of more than 100 people. GOEO also leads economic initiatives like the Utah Innovation Center and the Center for Rural Development.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

As Utah businesses grapple with trade wars and uncertainty surrounding tariffs, two former secretaries of state — including Donald Trump’s former top diplomat — say the president needs a clearer vision and messaging about what he is trying to accomplish with his sweeping trade duties.

“President Trump hasn’t been clear about his overall strategic objective here,” Pompeo told Utah business leaders during the “Crossroads of the World” forum sponsored by Zions Bank and World Trade Center Utah.

“He’s talked about using tariffs for fentanyl, trying to keep it out of the country. He’s talked about balancing trade. He’s talked about bilateral trade deficits,” Pompeo said Wednesday. The uncertainty and lack of a clear purpose for the tariffs are harming business, he further explained.

Pompeo’s sentiment was echoed by Antony Blinken, the secretary of state under former President Joe Biden.

“The first question we all have to ask and continue to ask is: What is the intent? What’s the purpose? What’s the goal?” Blinken said, speaking at the forum Thursday.

The tariffs have been pitched as a means to raise revenue, bring manufacturing back to the U.S., stop fentanyl, and erase trade deficits — none of which, Blinken said, add up.

High tariffs hinder trade; relocating manufacturing facilities takes years and a stable economy; and almost no fentanyl comes to the U.S. from places like Canada. And, Blinken said, the U.S. is bound to have trade deficits with some countries and surpluses with others, which isn’t necessarily bad and won’t be fixed by tariffs.

“These across-the-board tariffs, I think, are a recipe for a downward spiral,” he told Utah business leaders.

Trump has imposed a global 10% tariff on all imports to the U.S. and a 25% tariff on steel, aluminum, cars and some automobile parts. China, in particular, has been targeted by a 145% duty on all imports, and China has issued its own reciprocal tariff.

But the president exempted certain products, like cell phones, and paused the tariffs for 90 days while the administration tries to work on trade deals. Trump‘s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and trade representative are expected to have trade talks in Switzerland later this week — the first time the two nations have had face-to-face trade talks.

“We are feeling the pain”

On Thursday, Trump announced a tentative trade deal with Britain, which is Utah’s largest trading partner, according to a new report by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah.

The institute reported that Utah sent $7.9 billion worth of goods to the U.K. last year, the vast majority of it in gold. Overall, Utah exported $18.2 billion in goods in 2024 and imported $21.9 billion. The exports supported 70,171 jobs.

Trump‘s tariffs, according to the report, will likely increase the cost of goods for Utahns and impact the state’s housing market, as the cost of imported lumber and other supplies rises, and a larger portion of residents’ household incomes goes to cover other expenses.

The roiling trade war, the lurching rollout of the tariffs and the uncertainty of where they will land in a few months have proven challenging for Utah companies, executives said Wednesday.

“Traeger is in the middle of the bullseye of everything bad in global trade,” said Jeremy Andrus, CEO of Traeger Grills, which gets about 75% of its grills from China and uses a lot of non-U.S. steel.

When tariffs were at 10%, Andrus said it was manageable. But once the rate reached 125%, it was a shock.

“We are feeling the pain,” Andrus said. “It’s really hard for us right now, but it’s an interesting moment.”

Lindsay Shumlas, CEO of Cotopaxi, said her company moved much of its production out of China during the COVID pandemic, but it now makes products in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, India and the Philippines, plus some remnants in China.

“The most challenging part is the uncertainty, the uncertainty of what will happen after [July 8],” when the pause on tariffs is set to expire, she said. Right now, Cotopaxi is working on its 2027 line, Shumlas said. “How do we manage through future supply chains?”

The story was similar for Skullcandy, the Utah-based headphones maker, according to CEO Brian Garofalow. Skullcandy moved much of its production from China to Vietnam during the first Trump term, which could give the company an advantage over competitors, depending on where tariffs land.

Allocating resources on investments “to go play offense,” Garofalow said, has been challenging. “We don’t know if Vietnam is going to go back to 46%, or go down to zero or go to 146%. So we essentially have plans that are everything from accelerating growth to cutting to the bone.”

Darin Parker, president of PMI Foods, a global food distribution company with offices on six continents, said his company has been forced to adapt. For example, instead of exporting U.S. meat to China, it would provide its Chinese customers with meat from Australia that wouldn’t be subject to the steep tariffs.

“For the U.S. division, it’s horrific. It’s terrible, especially for China. The other markets, we’re still importing against 10% duties here and there. I mean, we can deal with that,” Parker said. “The elimination of the [Chinese] market entirely. That’s just not sustainable.”

For Wavetronix, which manufactures traffic radar systems, “our Chinese business has dried up,” said John Hortin, the company’s chief financial officer. So far, Hortin said, the harms have outweighed the benefits, “especially the way it has been administered. The uncertainty is the biggest problem we face.”

Kimberly Honeysett, chief legal officer for Varex Imaging, which makes medical devices, said the company has been trying to reevaluate its supply chain and diversify its suppliers, but that can be challenging from a regulatory standpoint.

“We work in a highly regulated medical industry, and so are not able to easily pivot,” she said, “because components have to get cleared and verified.”

Robert Spendlove, a senior economist at Zions Bank and former state lawmaker, said he has heard from more than one Utah CEO that “this will be the end of us. This is an existential threat that we can’t adjust to.”

But Pompeo and the Utah business executives said they believe normalcy will return.

Pompeo said that while Trump “may have gotten it wrong” by taking such an aggressive approach toward tariffs initially, he suspects the administration will refine its approach over time.

“I hope [they] will focus it on our adversaries — the Chinese Communist Party, the Iranians, the Russians — and befriend the Canadians and the important supply chain that runs through Mexico, our partners in Europe and Japan and Asia,” Pompeo said. “Those are folks who add enormous value and build wealth for America, and we should be very careful to anger them and we should make sure they’re not treating us poorly, too.”

Parker, with PMI Foods, said it’s simply not possible for the U.S. to separate its economy from China, but it may take some time for that realization to set in.

“I think we just need to calm down right now, see how this is going to go. Cooler heads will prevail,” he said. “I bet in a couple weeks we feel a lot different about things.”

Editor‘s note • This article discusses suicide. If you or people you know are at risk of self-harm, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for 24-hour support. You can also reach The Trevor Project, which specializes in helping LGBTQ+ youth, by calling 1-866-488-7386, or by texting “START” to 678-678.

Utah’s transgender teens have previously indicated to state officials they are 3 ½ times more likely than their peers to consider taking their own lives, almost 4 ½ times more likely to experience severe depression and are two to three times more likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol.

But those figures documenting transgender students’ emotional struggles in conservative Utah are no longer available to the public, having been quietly purged from a state website.

Links to data on how transgender students’ mental health is faring on the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health site have been deleted, while other demographic-specific reports remain accessible.

Changes to the website come as orders from the White House increasingly act to erase the visibility of transgender Americans, including ordering public health data that President Donald Trump’s administration has labeled “gender ideology” taken down.

According to web page snapshots preserved by the Internet Archive, “Transgender Student Profile Report[s]” compiled from the statewide Student Health and Risk Prevention survey, commonly known as SHARP, were available on the Utah Office of Substance Use and Mental Health site on Feb. 2. By March 4 those reports had disappeared.

The Salt Lake Tribune accessed copies of the reports prior to their removal.

When reached Wednesday with questions about where the directive to remove the links came from, as well as whether other datasets were affected, a spokesperson for DHHS said the agency would not be able to provide answers until Thursday.

Surveys are conducted every other year, and Utah’s most recent survey data published in 2023. In 2021, the state reportedly didn’t have adequate data to complete a report on transgender students. The first report focused on transgender students published in 2019.

In 2023, 729 students who took the survey responded that they were transgender, representing about 1.4% of the 51,890 students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12 surveyed — although none of the sixth graders were asked if they are transgender.

Reports on gay or lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual, as well as “Not Sure or Other Orientation,” students remain online. The website also has links to health district-specific reports, separate information for males and females, and profiles of various racial and ethnic groups.

“The knowledge we’ve gained from the SHARP survey is invaluable,” the website where reports are posted says, “because it tells us where to look for problems and solutions.”

It continues, “Local health departments, local prevention coalitions, local schools and school districts, superintendents, health systems, public health professionals, and most importantly, parents use SHARP data to develop programs and services to help Utah youth and families.”

Survey results are also provided to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its development of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. Portions of the pages where the surveillance data is displayed were deleted earlier this year, but a federal judge ordered them restored in February.

Now, a note at the top of the CDC page says, “Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female. The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children, by promoting their chemical and surgical mutilation, and to women, by depriving them of their dignity, safety, well-being, and opportunities. This page does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department rejects it.”

The axing of Utah transgender youth’s mental health data comes as resources for the group, which has historically seen heightened risk of mental health challenges and suicide, are in jeopardy. The Trump administration is proposing cutting specialized help for young LGBTQ+ people from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Approximately 19 states, according to LGBTQ+ rights-focused think tank Movement Advancement Project, asked students about their gender identity in Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System surveys in 2021.

“[Government officials] try to defend this by saying they don’t want to advance certain ideologies, but the fact is that this is really not about ideology. It’s just about understanding population health,” said Ilan Meyer, a distinguished senior scholar at the Williams Institute at UCLA, which researches public policy around sexual orientation and gender identity.

Meyer advocated for national public health agencies to expand their data collection on LGBTQ+ populations in the late 1990s as the Public Health Service questioned, amid the AIDS epidemic, whether it had enough data to include that group in its 10-year health priorities blueprint. Any loss of data on LGBTQ+ communities, he said, is “devastating.”

“It sounds to me like the state … government,” Meyer continued, “is saying, ‘We just don’t want to look, we don’t want to know about it.’”

‘We’re really in the dark’

Transgender students’ responses were scrubbed from the DHHS website less than a year after a law requiring parental permission for students to take the SHARP survey took effect, likely already inhibiting the amount of youth mental health data Utah is able to collect. Experts say limiting which demographic information is available is an additional blow to the usefulness of behavioral surveys like SHARP.

Sharon Talboys, a professor at the University of Utah who specializes in public health and behavior change research, said taking down the reports is a “disservice” to teens — and their caregivers — who agreed to share information about themselves.

Survey data on gender identity and other population characteristics help researchers pinpoint where students are suffering and how the institutions responsible for looking after them should improve. Without that information, Talboys said, “We’re really in the dark.”

An appendix at the end of the 2023 report detailed all of the questions asked in the survey, and possible answers students could give.

“Some people describe themselves as transgender when their sex at birth does not match the way they think or feel about their gender,” one question says. “Are you transgender?”

Students had the option to respond, “no,” “I am not sure,” “I don’t know what this question is asking” and “yes.”

“Why can’t kids be asked that?” Talboys asked. “It’s certainly something that the people who are affected think about. And we know that they have poor health outcomes, especially with mental health and substance use.”

This year was the fourth in a row that Utah passed laws imposing restrictions on its transgender residents, and the most acute effects of those measures are experienced by the youngest transgender Utahns.

Transgender girls were prohibited from participating in high school sports that align with their gender identity in 2022, and in 2023, Utah banned gender-affirming health care for transgender minors.

Last year, transgender Utahns were barred from using public restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity in government-owned buildings, including schools. And during the recent legislative session, the state banned transgender students from living in dorms that align with their gender identity at public universities.

An article by researchers at The Trevor Project — an LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention nonprofit — published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour last year concluded that state-level restrictions on transgender people lead to an increase in suicide attempts among transgender youth.

About a quarter of Utah’s surveyed transgender students reported in 2023 attempting suicide at some point during the previous year.

“Whatever it is that LGBT youth are going through is continuing, and just not knowing something doesn’t really address the underlying problem,” Meyer, of the Williams Institute, said. “By not knowing, you’re not going to be able to address it at all. And maybe that’s the point.”

This story is developing and may be updated.

In his first 100 days back in office, Donald Trump signed five bills into law — fewer than any president in decades — but Sen. John Curtis, Utah’s newest U.S. senator, isn’t blaming the president.

“This is not so much, in my mind, dependent on the president, but on us,” Curtis said during a recent interview.

Congressional Republicans currently have a majority in both chambers, holding 53 of 100 seats in the Senate and 220 seats in the 435-person House. Despite the majority, Congress passed six bills during the first 100 days of the Trump administration, according to a Time Magazine analysis.

“Having not been in the Senate with a new president,” Curtis said, “this is kind of a new experience for me, but my a-ha moment was, ‘Holy cow, we have a lot of nominations, and the reconciliation [budget process] is taking a lot of time.’”

In his last session as a member of the House of Representatives, where Curtis served beginning in 2017 until taking office as a senator this January, the former Provo mayor was ranked the fifth most effective House Republican by the Center for Effective Lawmaking, as three of the 48 bills he proposed during the session were signed into law by then-President Joe Biden.

He’s hopeful he’ll be back on the same track soon. Once lawmakers are through with the budget and the Senate is done confirming nominees, Curtis said he thinks Congress will make more legislative progress.

As of Wednesday, no member of Utah’s congressional delegation has had a standalone bill signed into law during Trump’s second term, though several pieces of legislation sponsored by the federal lawmakers have begun to move through the House and Senate in recent weeks.

The Salt Lake Tribune looked at all the legislation Utah’s congressional delegation has introduced so far this year. This assessment focused largely on bills — not resolutions — that are chiefly sponsored by Utah’s members, and do not include legislation they are signed onto as co-sponsors.

Here’s a look at what all of Utah’s representatives are pushing in Congress right now:

Sen. Mike Lee

While most members of Utah’s congressional delegation have largely tailored their legislative proposals in the early months of this session to their areas of expertise and committee assignments, Mike Lee, the state’s senior U.S. senator, has proposed more than 50 bills already this year, which touch on a wide range of issues.

Lee’s office did not respond to a request for an interview or comment regarding his legislative priorities, though he has frequently highlighted his SAVE Act on social media in recent weeks. The bill, should it become law, would require proof of citizenship to vote, and a House version of the legislation passed the lower chamber last month.

In his public comments about the bill, Lee has frequently pushed misinformation about immigrant voters.

“Illegal immigrants and non-citizens across the nation are being improperly registered to vote, allowing them to cast illegitimate ballots in federal elections,” Lee said in a statement last year when he first introduced the bill. “At a time when trust in voting is more important than ever, we must stop foreign election interference and pass the SAVE Act.”

According to voting rights organization The Brennan Center for Justice, cases of non-citizens voting are extremely rare: In a 2016 assessment of 42 areas in the U.S. with high immigrant populations, the center found just 30 cases of suspected noncitizens voting, or just 0.0001% of votes cast.

Lee has also proposed legislation that would ban the use of federal funds for a federal database tracking racial disparities in affordable housing access; lift restrictions on abortion clinic protesters; terminate the U.S.’s membership in the United Nations; require age verification for app store purchases and online adult content; ban the use of union “official time;” and shift Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, costs onto states, a move that could hit Utahns particularly hard.

Since taking office in 2011, Lee has introduced more than 500 bills. Six have been signed into law, according to GovTrack.

Sen. John Curtis

In his first term in the Senate, Curtis said he continues to focus on energy, climate and public lands issues, and that he sees the U.S.’s relationship to China and tackling the national debt as high-priority issues for this session.

“I’m not afraid to talk about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and reform,” Curtis said. “I think it’s a false narrative that you have to take away benefits to do it better, and [for] Social Security, that you somehow have to hurt our seniors to reform it. So I’m going to be really aggressive about that, because the debt really, really bothers me.”

One of the other early legislative focuses for Curtis has been the Fix Our Forests Act, which aims to reduce wildfire risks in U.S. forests.

“I think this is a really good example of coming together on an issue that Republicans and Democrats don’t always agree on,” Curtis said of the legislation. “Fires are becoming a bigger deal, and … I think this really is a very, very important bill.”

Despite its bipartisan group of co-sponsors, the bill has attracted some pushback from environmentalists, as it would allow for increased logging on federal land. A House version of the bill passed through the chamber in January.

Curtis has also introduced bills that, if passed and signed by Trump, would require a report on possible money laundering by the Chinese government, aim to address the presence of Hezbollah in Latin America and look into the expansion of Utah’s Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

“I aspire someday to have that run all the way across the state,” Curtis said of the trail. “The better that will be for recreation, for access, and once again, the more people that recreate there, the better. We’re giving them access, literally right out [in] their backyard, to just some amazing recreation.”

Curtis also had his first piece of legislation as a senator — a resolution undoing a Biden-era EPA rule — pass through the Senate earlier this month.

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Rep. Blake Moore

Rep. Blake Moore, who took office in 2021 and serves as the House Republican conference vice chair, is the first Utahn to serve in House leadership. A member of the House Ways and Means and Budget committees, most of the legislation Moore has proposed this year focuses on changes to the tax code. During a recent interview, he said the budget reconciliation process has been his central focus in recent weeks.

Moore, who represents Utah’s 1st Congressional District, is the main sponsor of the Family First Act, which aims to enhance the Child Tax Credit, a benefit for families of up to $2,000 for each dependent child under the age of 17. Moore said he is “highly confident” the proposal will be included in and passed via the reconciliation process.

“If we don’t do anything about the child tax credit in the next nine months, that will drop back down to $1,000, which is pre-2017 levels,” Moore said. “When you look at the time value of money, that would be a significant decrease in the Child Tax Credit, so we’re trying to enhance that, and it would be part of this larger package.”

Moore said he was not as confident that some of his other proposals would progress via reconciliation, including a bill that would provide an affordable housing tax credit for members of the armed forces, but that he intends to focus on passing them as standalone legislation once the budget process is complete.

As of Thursday, Moore has so far been the most successful member of Utah’s congressional delegation, having had two bills he is sponsoring, the MAPWaters Act of 2025 and the Hershel Woody Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act, pass the House.

​”That’s going to be something that will be lasting and pretty neat to be able to have as a legacy piece that doesn’t cost the government any money,” Moore said of his work on placing the monument in Washington. “The development of it, the design of it, is all in conjunction with private owners … so it’s a neat little thing that is fiscally sound and also will enhance visitation to our nation’s capital and honor those… [who have] entered our armed services.”

Rep. Celeste Maloy

Rep. Celeste Maloy joined the delegation in 2023 following the resignation of former 2nd Congressional District Rep. Chris Stewart, and has so far proposed legislation this session related to water rights, congressional authority to designate national monuments, and the right for states to decide if they want to stay on daylight savings time year round, among other issues.

Maloy became one of the first members of Utah’s delegation to get a full vote on the House floor last week, as the House passed a joint resolution she sponsored to block a National Park Service rule limiting the use of off-road vehicles and ATVs in Glen Canyon Recreation Area.

“I introduced a resolution to nullify a senseless rule that limits recreation in a National Recreation Area, and I’m thrilled to see the House advance it,” she said in a statement. “Ensuring that agencies are managing land for multiple uses, as directed by Congress, is a continuous battle that I will continue to fight so that people in Utah and across the country are free to continue exploring and enjoying the land that was set aside for them.”

Maloy’s office did not respond to a request for an interview or comment regarding her legislative priorities this year.

Rep. Mike Kennedy

Rep. Mike Kennedy is Utah’s newest member of Congress and has thus far proposed eight pieces of legislation in the early months of his first congressional session.

“It has been my priority since I arrived on Capitol Hill to be a voice for Utah issues and safeguard United States interests,” the 3rd Congressional District representative said in a statement to The Tribune. “So far, I have proposed legislation to clean up federal government waste in Moab, fight back against [Bureau of Land Management] overreach when it comes to our public lands, and protect children from the dangers of ultra-processed foods in their school lunches. As I continue my work, I remain committed to elevating Utah’s priorities at the federal level.”

Kennedy is the lead House sponsor on the Moab UMTRA Project Transition Act of 2025 — a bill that Curtis has taken on as the lead Senate sponsor — which aims to transfer federal land previously used for a uranium milling operation in southern Utah to Grand County.

He has also joined with both Curtis and Lee to sponsor the Historic Roadways Protection Act, following a decision by the BLM to close a number of historic Utah roadways. Should the bill become law, it would prevent the agency from closing certain roads while a court fight over closures is ongoing.

Additionally, Kennedy has waded into “Make America Healthy Again” territory with his school lunches bill, which would ban “ultraprocessed foods” and several types of food dyes under the National School Lunch Act.

Rep. Burgess Owens

Rep. Burgess Owens, who originally took office in 2021, has focused most of his legislative proposals through the early months of this session on culture war issues in the education system, including the Say No to Indoctrination Act, which would ban federal funding for any school teaching “radical gender ideology,” as Owens said in a news release last month.

“[T]oo many schools are using taxpayer dollars to push political agendas instead of focusing on outcomes,” Owens said in a statement at the time. “The Say No to Indoctrination Act codifies President Trump’s commonsense executive order and puts a stop to this, ensuring that federal education funds go where they belong — into the classroom, not activism.”

Owens, who represents Utah’s 4th Congressional District, has also been promoting his Accreditation for College Excellence (ACE) Act. The bill would require that accreditors, according to a release from Owens’ office, “confirm their standards do not require, encourage, or coerce an institution to support or oppose specific partisan or political beliefs, viewpoints on social or political issues, or support the disparate treatment of any individual or group.”

In practice, the bill would mean that accreditors could not consider diversity, equity and inclusion teachings in the classroom as part of the accreditation process, and would protect the right for religious schools to require students to adhere to a religious code of conduct.

Owens also recently introduced a bill that would require unions to disclose any payments to consultants and legislation he proposed regarding the disclosure of foreign investments in U.S. universities included in the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act, which passed the House last month.

Owens’ office did not respond to a request for an interview or comment on his legislative priorities during this session.

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Utah quarterback Cam Rising is hanging up his cleats, but he won’t be leaving the game of football entirely behind.

Rising, 25, announced on social media Wednesday that he would be retiring from football over medical reasons after suffering a hand injury during a game against Baylor in September.

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“Due to a hand injury I suffered during the Baylor game, I’ve been advised by two orthopedic physicians that I will never be able to return to playing football,” Rising said. “I’ll be obtaining a 3rd medical opinion and will undergo the recommended surgery. I will continue to rehab and do all I can to get healthy. In the meantime, I will unfortunately be forced to medically retire from the game I love.

“My why has always been my family. I have always thought of my teammates as my brothers and always will. Thank you guys for always pushing me to improve and just making this game enjoyable. Thank you to the coaches for guiding me in the right direction to become a better man and football player. Coach Ludwig, thank you for turning me into a football nerd and showing me the correct way to respect that game. Lastly, thank you to all the fans and everyone that supported me throughout my career. You all made the moments special.”

While Rising won’t be on the field for Utah anymore, he will be on the sidelines for his high school alma mater, Newbury Park, as its offensive coordinator, ESPN reported.

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Rising was a three-year starter at the California high school from 2015-17 before spending his first college season at the University of Texas.

The 25-year-old played 30 total games during his time with Utah and led the program to Pac-12 championships in 2021 and 2022.

But injuries hindered his time on the field, and this past season, he played in just three games.

DENVER (KDVR) — An NHL team now located in Utah has gone through some massive changes over the years, initially starting out as the Phoenix Coyotes, then the Arizona Coyotes before packing up and relocating to Utah altogether.

This Colorado water park was named the second best in the US

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The newly moved team started in its new home, Salt Lake City, as the Utah Hockey Club during the 2024-25 season. However, as the end of the NHL season approaches, the team is due for one more change — the official name selection for the team, which will now be known as the Utah Mammoth.

Nexstar affiliate station ABC4 in Salt Lake City posted the update on Wednesday morning.

The Smith Entertainment Group used four rounds of voting in an over-year-long process that saw upwards of 850,000 fans vote to select the permanent name of their new hockey team.

“We couldn’t be more excited to launch the official name and marks for Utah’s NHL hockey team,” said Ryan and Ashley Smith in a joint statement. “When it came to naming the team, we did something unprecedented – going through four rounds of community voting, including getting feedback not only on potential names but also potential logos. We love the passion of the people of Utah and the way they showed up for the team during its inaugural season and the energy they brought to voting on its permanent identity.”

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While the news may be breaking in Utah, Coloradans might have heard the name somewhere else in their own state.

Lacrosse is a fast-growing sport and may not have as much popularity as football, baseball or basketball yet, but it has been a staple for professional sports in Colorado since 2003, the year the Colorado Mammoth were officially introduced as the newest franchise in downtown Denver.

April Schofield, a senior lecturer of marketing at Metropolitan State University Denver, as well as an avid Denver sports fan, told FOX31’s Greg Nieto that the pair of names “presents a fascinating case of identity and differentiation.”

She says the same name and logo can create some brand confusion with social media, merchandising and digital spaces.

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“For sports branding, fan identity is everything,” Schofield told Nieto. “Sports teams are selling a lot more than tickets and merchandise … they’re selling pride and emotional connection.”

After hearing of the Utah NHL team’s name change, the Colorado Mammoth threw a playful jab at the Utah Mammoth in a post on X.

The Utah Mammoth posted on X, “A new Ice Age Dawns. Introducing Utah Mammoth.” The statement was accompanied by a video and the hashtag #TusksUp.

The Colorado Mammoth quoted the post and in its own post said, “Mammoth since 2003.” The post included the hashtag #TuskUp, a singular tusk as opposed to Utah’s plural, a hashtag that has been used in the team’s social posts for a long period of time.

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The Colorado Mammoth won the National Lacrosse League championship twice during the team’s time in Denver, during the 2006 and 2022 seasons.

While it’s not an ideal situation for a team’s identity, shared names have popped up in professional sports many times. Some of those teams include:

• Rangers — NHL: New York, MLB: Texas

• Giants — MLB: San Francisco, NFL: New York

• Panthers — NFL: Carolina, NHL: Florida

• Kings — NBA: Sacamento, NHL: Los Angeles

• Jets — NHL: Winnipeg, NFL: New York

• Cardinals — MLB: St. Louis, NFL: Arizona

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NHL teams across the league, including the Colorado Avalanche, responded to the Utah Mammoth’s post on X with fun memes and GIFs involving mammoths.

The Avalanche responded with “Cold environments,” followed by a handshake emoji.

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The Utah Hockey Club is no more.

After an exhaustive search that lasted more than a year, the NHL’s Utah team announced they are rebranding as the Utah Mammoth for the 2025-26 NHL season.

“More than 10,000 years ago, herds of mammoth claimed Utah as their home and, ever since, the mammoth has embodied strength, momentum, and an earth-shaking presence – qualities that are brought to life by the passion of Utah’s hockey fans and that mirror the franchise’s bold emergence into the NHL. In a process driven by the community, the Utah Mammoth name was chosen by fans during a 13-month process involving four rounds of fan voting and more than 850,000 votes,” began a statement on the team’s website Wednesday.

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The team also released this video on social media:

“We couldn’t be more excited to launch the official name and marks for Utah’s NHL hockey team. When it came to naming the team, we did something unprecedented – going through four rounds of community voting, including getting feedback not only on potential names but also on potential logos. We love the passion of the people of Utah and the way they showed up for the team during its inaugural season and the energy they brought to voting on its permanent identity,” said Ryan and Ashley Smith, owners of the Utah Mammoth.

“From day one, we committed that this team would be built with and for the people of Utah, and we are excited to celebrate today’s launch with the entire state. The community chose the Utah Mammoth, and it stands as a symbol of who we are, where we came from, and the unstoppable force we’re building together.”

Here’s the franchise’s new sweaters. Yay or nay on these?

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The main logo for the franchise will be the “Mountain Mammoth” logo, which contains subtle nods to the state of Utah. According to the team, the logo “captures the fierce power of the mammoth mid-charge, tusks up, and ready to attack. Within the mark are nods to the state, including the Wasatch Mountain Range and snow-capped peaks that form the beast’s crown; the shape of Utah, which is subtly embedded in the mountain silhouette; and the curved tusk to form a bold ‘U.’”

The team also released secondary logos, as well as a team badge:

The most fascinating aspect of the announcement might just be a new font, for the typeface enthusiasts among us. “Accompanying the visual identity is a unique custom-designed typeface, Mammoth Sans, which features a 10-degree forward slant that mirrors Utah’s mountainous terrain and reflects the team’s relentless pursuit of progress.”

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The team will also introduce a mascot for home games next season, in the months to come.

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