Month: July 2025

AI-assisted summary
• President Trump’s immigration enforcement actions have led to a significant increase in arrests, exceeding the daily rate of the past decade.
• Texas, Florida and California have seen the highest number of arrests, with Florida experiencing a 219% increase in daily arrest rates compared to 2024.
• While arrests have risen sharply, the administration’s impact on deportation rates remains to be seen.

As President Donald Trump continues his mission to carry out the biggest mass deportation in history, multiple reports show how much daily immigration enforcement arrests have ballooned nationwide.

The administration has set its sights on deporting 1 million people annually, which would more than double the annual peak set during the Obama administration that helped earn him a critical reputation of “deporter in chief.”

Trump’s directives to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to expand its deportation efforts have led to widespread protests, more assaults on federal officers and multiple legal battles.

A Reuters analysis of ICE and White House data shows the national daily arrest rate has doubled under the Trump administration compared to the last decade. A New York Times analysis of obtained data shows average daily arrest rates have more than doubled in 38 states compared to the 2024 rate.

LOGAN – A match between longtime friends and teammates Simon Kwon and Tyson Shelley would have made an epic finals match at the 127th Utah Men’s State Amateur tournament.

Unfortunately the luck of the draw put two of Utah’s best amateurs in the same early bracket and they had to face each other in the round of 16 Thursday afternoon at Logan Country Club.

Kwon and Shelley, who will both be seniors on the BYU golf team this fall, had played together hundreds of times as junior golfers, Skyline High teammates and Cougar teammates, but only one of them could advance to Friday’s quarterfinals and it was 2023 champion Kwon who prevailed with a 3 & 2 victory.

Kwon was visibly emotional moments after the match, holding back tears as he talked about his relationship with Shelley and how difficult it was to have to play him.

“It’s hard to have to play one of your best friends early on,” he said. “He’s just a really good person – I was a groomsman at his wedding. Obviously I love winning, but it’s kind of bittersweet.”

The match was close all afternoon and Shelley actually led 1 up after the 12th hole, but Kwon ran off four straight birdies to close out the match at No 16.

Kwon will face 24-year-old John Fox, an Olympus High graduate who didn’t play college golf but will graduate from Utah Valley this year.

Fox prevented a match of former champions when he came from behind to beat 2021 champion Martin Leon 1 up by winning the final two holes.

Noah Schone, who won medalist honors Tuesday, advanced to the quarterfinals with wins over Calvin Lillywhite 7 & 6 in the morning and Tyse Boman 4 & 2 in the afternoon.

Schone will take on Jackson Shelley, who won the battle of the brothers in the morning with a 3 & 2 victory over younger brother Austin and then beat Sean Lam 5 & 4 in the afternoon.

Jackson, who is leaving for a church mission to South Korea Monday, took the early lead with birdies on two of the first three holes.

He pushed his lead to 4 up through 14 and closed out the match on 16 against Austin, who will be a senior at Skyline High.

Speaking of brother battles, Jackson and Bowen Mauss will square off in a Friday morning quarterfinal after both posted a pair of victories Thursday.

Jackson, a sophomore-to-be on the BYU golf team, won 4 & 3 over an exhausted Will Pizza, who had to go 25 holes in his round-of-16 match to beat Gavin Dosch.

Bowen, who will be a freshman at Arizona State, edged Jacob Randall 2 & 1 in his round-of-16 match.

The other quarterfinal will pit David Liechty against Jack Summerhays. Liechty, the 2023 State Am runner-up, beat last year’s semifinalist Brendan Thomas 5 & 3, while Summerhays, the 17-year-old son of former champion Daniel Summerhays, advanced with a win over Lucas Schone, the younger brother of Noah.

The matches will begin at 9:30 a.m. Friday with semifinals to follow in the afternoon. The semifinal winners will face off at 9:30 a.m. Saturday for the State Amateur title.

It’s only July — but 2025’s already been a historic year at the University of Utah.

The state’s flagship university is celebrating its 175th birthday and has, in recent months, announced plans to relocate the storied Jon M. Huntsman Center as part of a major campus makeover even while rolling out a new strategic plan dubbed “Impact 2030.”

And now the “U” is unveiling a new institutional logo.

The new logo features a pair of red interlocking U’s with an emphasis on “Utah” in its accompanying identifier — “The University of Utah.”

The updated logo “represents an effort to connect University of Utah Health, academics and athletics into one all-encompassing image that will further boost the U’s national reputation and support Impact 2030, the U’s strategic plan,” according to the university.

Hard-core Ute fans will immediately recognize the basic design elements of the new institutional logo.

It echoes the university’s primary athletic logo that was introduced a decade ago.

“This logo refresh is part of our journey to be a top-10 public university because we are expecting to have a national and global reputation,” said Chief Experience Officer Andrea Thomas.

“As we share this new logo across the country, it won’t feel dramatically different because we have been very visible in athletics. This image better aligns with the awareness we already have.”

So why is the University of Utah updating its logo?

More than a century ago, the University of Utah built the block U on the hill above campus. Since that time, the standalone “U” letter has become synonymous with the university.

Surveys reveal that the vast majority of Utah residents immediately associate the standalone “U” with the school.

“Outside of the state, however, the standalone ‘U’ runs into competition from other institutions, such as the University of Miami, and brands like Unilever,” according to the university release. “As the ‘U’ builds its national reputation, we are aiming to differentiate and distinguish ourselves as leaders in impact, health care, research and instruction — and the interlocking U institutional logo is a visual representation of that distinction.”

But don’t expect the standalone block U to entirely disappear.

The standalone block U logo on the mountain and other block U structures — such as the U by the Gardner Commons or the Campus Store — will remain the same.

“One way to think of this application is to consider that most people who are on campus, where the block U is featured prominently on banners and other permanent structures, will likely already be familiar with this image and its relationship with the University of Utah,” according to the university.

Meanwhile, the secondary logos used by University of Utah colleges, divisions, departments, programs, units and services are not changing.

Other updates to the university’s brand

With the updated logo, the University of Utah is also introducing a new primary color — Zion Cinder Cone — to its primary palette of red, black and white.

The University of Utah now has six secondary colors — including Salt Flat Grey and Granite Peak, which are shades of grey and blue.

“While the U. is looking to expand its reputation and awareness nationally, this logo change also supports the university’s efforts to emphasize integration and collaboration across the institution as part of its strategic vision,” according to the university.

“This logo represents the impact of the entire institution, including research, health, academics and athletics.

When Juan Diego Catholic High School opened in 1999, principal Galey Colosimo hired his brother, John Colosimo, as his vice principal.

Galey had an early favor he hoped John could fulfill.

“He wasn’t going to coach football,” Galey said. “What we realized was that we just needed coaches. I asked John, ‘Can you just do it for a year or two?’”

John had previously coached football at Judge Memorial from 1985 to 1996, so he agreed to this short stint on the sideline. What he didn’t know, though, was that it would turn into a legendary 18-year career.

It is one he is now fondly remembered as family, friends, students and colleagues mourn his death. John died this week from complications due to Parkinson’s Disease. He was 69 years old.

As the founding vice principal and head football coach at Juan Diego, John helped establish the Skaggs Catholic Center with the mission to empower students to become “active Christians, motivated learners and responsible citizens.”

He led the school’s football team for 17 years (from 2002 until his retirement in 2019). Between the two schools (including Judge Memorial), John appeared in 10 state championship title games and won eight (including two 3-peats) and earned 17 region championships (12 of which were consecutive). John’s cumulative 235 victories make him the fourth-winningest coach in Utah history. His 81% winning percentage is the highest rate of any school in any state history.

John’s younger brother, Joe, said he coached with him for 32 years.

“The best. He was the best,” Joe said. “Every player would think John was tough but fair. He was demanding with the kids, and he put them to the test. They knew he loved them, and he was fair.”

John’s son, Gabe, played four years of football under his dad while a student at JDCHS. He laughed, thinking about the ways John used to motivate the team and get the room going.

“This just kind of shows the wit my dad had. He called one of the teams the ‘Wizard of Oz Team.’ No heart, no brain, no courage,” Gabe said. “I don’t know where he thought of all those things.”

John’s work earned him a place in the National High School Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. JDCHS honored him that same year by naming the school’s football field “John Colosimo Field at Soaring Eagle Stadium.”

Rob Cuff, who is the executive director of the Utah High School Activities Association, has been in the position for 16 years and got to know John over that time.

“I think the first thing that people understand about John is not only was he an outstanding football coach and coach in general — because he also coached basketball, too — but he was an outstanding person,” Cuff said. “You would label him as a players’ coach. Somebody who you would go through a brick wall for. Somebody that you would give your heart for. You did that because he was willing to do that.”

Cuff remembers John’s coaching style as an “old-school and offensive” approach with a “powerful and strong” defense. But the athletes gained more than just game plans from Colosimo.

“John was a teacher first. Even though he was a coach, he was also a teacher. He taught about life,” Cuff said. “His faith was his foundation and his base to everything that he did and the outlook that he looked at life with. He was one that was full of endurance, hard work, full of faith. I think that carried over to his coaching.”

During the football team’s inaugural season in 2002, John started the post-game Rosary tradition. Following every game, player coaches, parents and fans gather in the Grotto of Our Lady of Guadalupe to pray together.

“I think that’s the big thing that spoke to who he was. Win, loss, it didn’t matter. We’d get home from a five-hour bus ride and it is 2 a.m. and we’d all climb out of the bus, wake up all the teammates, and gather and pray,” Gabe said. “It made it so that it was greater than football. It was building a team. In those moments, he would always share a little piece of wisdom.”

While John crafted dominance on the football field for JDCHS, he also developed the school’s academic infrastructure, which led to national recognition as a U.S. Department of Education National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in 2019.

“As great as he was as a coach, he was really foundational for our academic strength,” Galey said. “The accolades come from the popularity of football, but equal to that was his day job. He was helping to build this academic foundation at Juan Diego that is second to none.”

That impact was seen through students who had nothing to do with the football team.

Emily Kasue attended JDCHS from 2012-18 and was placed in John’s mentor group during her senior year, which was the school’s version of homeroom.

Kasue reflected on a day in high school when all of her responsibilities became overwhelming. She was a peer mentor, ambassador, cheerleader and lacrosse player. Kasue was trying to study for her AP classes when she was asked to give a tour for the ambassador program.

“This specific day, I just was not feeling it. I started crying,” Kasue said. “I remember, because I was having such a rough time, Mr. Colosimo opened up his office, and he just let me sit in there the entire time. I just got to sit in his office and chill out. That meant everything to me.”

John talked to the ambassador program for Kasue that day and continued to be a source of support for her even after she moved on to college at Seattle Pacific University, where Gabe also went.

“He said, ‘If you need anything, please let me know. And make sure you remember my son Gabe is there, so if you need anything, just reach out to him,’” Kasue said. “I remember my freshman year, every single time Gabe saw me, he would help me out. He was just so kind. And I didn’t realize that Mr. Colosimo had really specifically talked to Gabe and told him I was going to his school and to watch out for me. It was really sweet to see.”

John battled hard at the end of his life, his family said, after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s around 2010. His wife, Kathie, was by his side the entire time.

“You talk about how tough football players are – Kathie was one tough wife and mother,” Joe said. “She had to shoulder the burden of helping John through this really unbelievably painful death.”

Gabe said the outpouring of support they have received from the DJCHS community and beyond has been “surreal.” People he has not heard from in 10 years have sent in notes and stories about his father.

“When I think of my dad, I think of the heart he displayed throughout his life,” Gabe said. “My dad loved an underdog and was always looking out for the people who were maybe outcasts or unspoken. He just had such a soft spot for people.”

That legacy remains for all of those who knew John.

“I think he is going to be most remembered for his love and his patience and his generosity. He is one of the most generous men I have ever met at the school. Literally just so nice,” Kasue said. “I think he will be remembered for his spirit. And being truly just a good servant of the Lord. He embodied that in everything he did.”

Information about funeral services for John will be forthcoming and shared via the school’s social media accounts.

A Utah judge on Wednesday set an execution date for a man with dementia who has been on death row for 37 years, even as his lawyers file appeals and argue his condition is worsening.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, is set to be executed Sept. 5 for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution. He would become only the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.

Judge Matthew Bates signed the death warrant a month after he ruled Menzies “consistently and rationally” understands why he is facing execution despite recent cognitive decline. Attorneys for Menzies have petitioned the court for a reassessment, but Bates said Wednesday that the pending appeal was not a basis to stop him from setting a date.

Bates did, however, schedule a July 23 hearing to evaluate the new competency petition. Menzies’ attorneys say his dementia has gotten so severe that he uses a wheelchair, is dependent on oxygen and cannot understand his legal case.

“We remain hopeful that the courts or the clemency board will recognize the profound inhumanity of executing a man who is experiencing steep cognitive decline and significant memory loss,” said Lindsey Layer, an attorney for Menzies. “Taking the life of someone with a terminal illness who is no longer a threat to anyone and whose mind and identity have been overtaken by dementia serves neither justice nor human decency.”

The Utah Attorney General’s Office has “full confidence” in the judge’s decision, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Boyer said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has at times spared prisoners with dementia from execution, including an Alabama man in 2019 who had killed a police officer. If a defendant cannot understand why they are being put to death, the high court said, then an execution is not carrying out the retribution that society is seeking.

For Hunsaker’s son Matt, who was 10 years old when his mother was killed, it has been “hard to swallow that it’s taken this long” to get justice.

“You issue the warrant today, you start a process for our family,” he told the judge Wednesday. “It puts everybody on the clock. We’ve now introduced another generation of my mom, and we still don’t have justice served.”

Hunsaker, 26, was abducted by Menzies from a convenience store where she worked in the Salt Lake City suburb of Kearns. She was later found strangled and her throat cut about 16 miles away at a picnic area in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Menzies had Hunsaker’s wallet and several other belongings when he was jailed on unrelated matters. He was convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes in 1988.

Attorneys for Menzies  claim that evidence discovered after his trial could have led to a life sentence, rather than capital punishment, CBS affiliate KUTV reported. They added that the judge who sentenced him to death no longer stands by that decision, the station reported.

Over nearly four decades, attorneys for Menzies filed multiple appeals that delayed his death sentence, which had been scheduled at least twice before it was pushed back. He and other Utah death row inmates sentenced before May 2004 were given a choice between firing squad and lethal injection. For inmates sentenced in the state after that date, lethal injection is the default method unless the drugs are unavailable.

Menzies is among 10 people scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. Twenty-five men in the U.S. have died by court-ordered execution so far this year.

Utah last executed prisoners by firing squad in 2010, and South Carolina used the method on two men this year. Only three other states – Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma – allow firing squad executions.

Mikal Mahdi, a South Carolina man executed by firing squad in April, was conscious and likely in extreme pain for up to a minute after the bullets missed their target and failed to quickly stop his heart, according to a pathologist. 

Mahdi’s attorney confirmed to CBS News that Mahdi, 41, chose to die by firing squad, over the other two options: lethal injection and electric chair. Witnesses to the execution heard Mahdi cry out as the shots were fired, groan again some 45 seconds later and let out one last low moan just before he appeared to draw his final breath at about 75 seconds.

Prison officials gave no indication that there were problems with Mahdi’s execution. A shield law keeps many details private, including the training and methods used by the firing squad.

A Utah judge on Wednesday set a September execution date for Ralph Menzies, who has been on death row for nearly 40 years for kidnapping and brutally killing a young mother.

Third District Judge Matthew Bates’ decision to sign a death warrant comes a month after he ruled that Menzies’ dementia did not affect the 67-year-old’s competency to the point where he could not legally be executed.

This week, however, Menzie’s attorneys filed a new motion arguing that the death row inmate has continued to mentally decline in the months after experts assessed him — opinions which Bates relied on when determining Menzies’ competency. Now, his lawyers say, Menzies has a full-time aide in the prison who helps him get meals and other daily tasks that he can’t do on his own.

He appeared in court on Wednesday in a wheelchair and using an oxygen tank, which his attorneys say he uses continuously at the prison.

“Dementia doesn’t get better,” defense attorney Eric Zuckerman said during Wednesday’s court hearing. “It’s a clear progression. It gets worse over time.”

Bates said that he was legally required to sign the death warrant on Wednesday, which orders that Menzies be executed by firing squad on Sept. 5.

But the judge also scheduled a hearing for later this month, where attorneys will argue whether Menzies should be evaluated again to determine whether he is still considered competent — or if his dementia has progressed to the point where he can no longer understand what’s happening. (Both Utah’s and the United States’ constitution prohibits the government from executing someone if they don’t understand that they are being executed and the reasons why.)

While the potential for another delay over competency is possible, Matt Hunsaker, the victim’s son, said he felt that — at last — he could start to prepare himself and his family for the execution of his mother’s killer after waiting for nearly 40 years.

In 1986, Menzies kidnapped Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother, from a Kearns gas station, slit her throat and left her body tied to a tree near a picnic area in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

“I’m preparing myself to go see somebody’s life taken from them,” Hunsaker said after the judge signed the death warrant. “This is going to be a humane sort of way; his life will be over in mere seconds. My mom, we don’t know how long she stood there and suffered in that grove.”

Eric Zuckerman, one of Menzies’ attorneys, said they’ll seek relief with the Utah Supreme Court and the parole board’s clemency process in an effort to halt the execution.

“We remain hopeful that the courts or the clemency board will recognize the inhumanity of taking a man like him into the death chamber,” he told reporters. “Taking him out of his wheelchair, and executing him, it’s wrong. And Utah can do better.”

Assistant Utah Attorney General Daniel Boyer said Wednesday that the state’s not convinced that Menzies’ attorneys have enough evidence to warrant another look at the man’s competency — but added that they’ll review the defense’s motion for another competency review and respond in writing.

A jury in 1988 ordered Menzies to die for killing Hunsaker, and he’s been appealing the decision ever since. If he is executed, he will be the second Utah death row inmate to be executed in recent years after Taberon Honie died by lethal injection last August.

Utah has not executed someone by a firing squad since 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah judge on Wednesday set an execution date for a man with dementia who has been on death row for 37 years, even as his lawyers file appeals and argue his condition is worsening.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, is set to be executed Sept. 5 for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution. He would become only the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.

Judge Matthew Bates signed the death warrant a month after he ruled Menzies “consistently and rationally” understands why he is facing execution despite recent cognitive decline. Attorneys for Menzies have petitioned the court for a reassessment, but Bates said Wednesday that the pending appeal was not a basis to stop him from setting a date.

Bates did, however, schedule a July 23 hearing to evaluate the new competency petition. Menzies’ attorneys say his dementia has gotten so severe that he uses a wheelchair, is dependent on oxygen and cannot understand his legal case.

“We remain hopeful that the courts or the clemency board will recognize the profound inhumanity of executing a man who is experiencing steep cognitive decline and significant memory loss,” said Lindsey Layer, an attorney for Menzies. “Taking the life of someone with a terminal illness who is no longer a threat to anyone and whose mind and identity have been overtaken by dementia serves neither justice nor human decency.”

The Utah Attorney General’s Office has “full confidence” in the judge’s decision, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Boyer said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has at times spared prisoners with dementia from execution, including an Alabama man in 2019 who had killed a police officer. If a defendant cannot understand why they are being put to death, the high court said, then an execution is not carrying out the retribution that society is seeking.

For Hunsaker’s son Matt, who was 10 years old when his mother was killed, it has been “hard to swallow that it’s taken this long” to get justice.

“You issue the warrant today, you start a process for our family,” he told the judge Wednesday. “It puts everybody on the clock. We’ve now introduced another generation of my mom, and we still don’t have justice served.”

Hunsaker, 26, was abducted by Menzies from a convenience store where she worked in the Salt Lake City suburb of Kearns. She was later found strangled and her throat cut about 16 miles (25 kilometers) away at a picnic area in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Menzies had Hunsaker’s wallet and several other belongings when he was jailed on unrelated matters. He was convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes in 1988.

Over nearly four decades, attorneys for Menzies filed multiple appeals that delayed his death sentence, which had been scheduled at least twice before it was pushed back. He and other Utah death row inmates sentenced before May 2004 were given a choice between firing squad and lethal injection. For inmates sentenced in the state after that date, lethal injection is the default method unless the drugs are unavailable.

Utah last executed prisoners by firing squad in 2010, and South Carolina used the method on two men this year. Only three other states — Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma — allow firing squad executions.

Menzies is among 10 people scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. Twenty-five men in the U.S. have died by court-ordered execution so far this year.