Month: August 2025

A driver died Sunday after he crashed while he was trying to set a land speed record at an annual event on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, event organizers said.

Chris Raschke, 60, died after the crash at around 3:03 p.m. MT, officials with the Southern California Timing Association, which runs the event, said in a statement.

Organizers said the crash happened after Raschke “lost control of his land speed vehicle at approximately the 2 1/2 mile.” It occurred during the annual “Speed Week,” which opened Sunday.

The Bonneville Salt Flats are about 12 miles long and 5 miles wide and are made up of sodium chloride, or table salt, according to the federal Bureau of Land Management, which oversees it.

The area is used for land speed racing, among other purposes, it says. Drivers at the Bonneville event can reach speeds of more than 300 mph.

Raschke was a driver with the Speed Demon team in Ventura County, California, and piloted the Speed Demon streamliner, the team says on its website. He began working in motorsports in the 1980s, it said.

“We are deeply devastated,” the team said on social media Sunday.

The American Hot Rod Foundation was among those also mourning Raschke’s death. It said he was reportedly traveling in the neighborhood of 300 mph when the crash occurred.

“To those who knew him on the salt, he was someone who found the perfect balance of friendly and competitive. Never a usual combination and one that speaks to the quality of his character,” the association said in a statement. “We send our deepest sympathies to Chris’s family and friends.”

The flats are around 120 miles west of Salt Lake City, on the western edge of the Great Salt Lake Basin, the BLM says on its website. They’re remnants of Lake Bonneville.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, the Southern California Timing Association said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.

Dark Sky International is a U.S.-based nonprofit that advocates for preserving dark skies by limiting light pollution at night.

Research has shown that light pollution can harm wildlife, disrupt pollinators, and impact human health and safety.

“So the benefit of having a dark sky is not necessarily just for being able to see the stars,” said Michael Rymer, Dark Sky’s communities program manager. He said in the last 10 years, there has been an explosion of interest in Dark Sky certification around the globe. Achieving it is no easy feat, however.

“It’s not just, ‘Hey, you’re dark. Here’s your reward.’ They have to show that they are doing these things: making changes to lights, implementing, adopting a policy that dictates how future lights will behave, showing proof that they are communicating with the general public about what they’re doing,” Rymer said.

The western U.S. is heavily represented.

“Utah is very much a leader in the program, having the most Certified International Dark Sky places in any kind of province or state,” Rymer said.

Utah is home to over two dozen Dark Sky communities and places. The most recently certified was Bluff, in June.

The small town in San Juan County borders the Navajo Nation to the south and is surrounded by state parks and national recreation areas.

“We’re in the far southeast corner. If you’re coming from Moab and headed to Monument Valley, you go straight through us,” said Anne Leppanen, Bluff’s mayor.

“I think this Dark Sky designation for us is a big potential boost if we utilize it correctly,” Leppanen said.

Jennifer Davila, a town council member and business owner, is excited about the certification and its implications for astrotourism, or recreation focused around stargazing.

“We are very tourism-based. During our season, which typically runs from March until the end of October, we’ll see an influx of five to eight hundred people every day come through town,” Davila said.

As part of their certification agreement, Bluff is collaborating with the Bears Ears Partnership on dark sky outreach and events. The initiative’s education director Sarah Burak, said so far, these events have been successful.

“We’ve done a star party, which is constellation tours and telescope viewing, each month. In November, we’ll have a star festival. We’ll bring in astronomers and telescopes and basically open it to, hopefully, additional tourism,” Burak said.

The community is proud to recognize its dark skies as a natural asset.

“Even in the center of Bluff, where we are our brightest it is still very, very dark. You still see the Milky Way from the brightest spot in Bluff. … That’s not true of other places throughout the country or throughout the world,” Burak said.

If you’re someone who likes to arrange things in advance, the Utah Jazz’s preseason schedule might play into your early October plans.

The Utah Jazz announced their 2025-26 preseason schedule, and for the first time in a few years, there are no abnormalities. The Jazz aren’t headed to Hawaii or any other glamorous destination for training camp, they won’t be in Seattle during the preseason, and the New Zealand Breakers won’t be making a pit stop in Salt Lake City.

This time around, things are pretty straightforward, though there are some big names that could feature during the Jazz’s run of preseason games.

The Jazz will start the preseason on the road with a game in Houston on Oct. 8 and a game in San Antonio on Oct. 10. The Jazz then return home to host the Dallas Mavericks on Oct. 13. The preseason slate wraps up at the Delta Center against the Portland Trail Blazers on Oct. 16.

The Rockets were part of one of the summer’s blockbuster deals when they acquired Kevin Durant, and the preseason opener against the Jazz could be the first time we get a glimpse at what Durant looks like with the Rockets, though, there’s always a chance that Durant doesn’t play.

Victor Wembanyama and the No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft, Dylan Harper, will headline the Jazz’s final road game of the preseason.

The first home game of the preseason will obviously have some hype because the Dallas Mavericks’ roster features No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, the player the Jazz and every other team coveted before being thwarted by lottery luck.

Finally, the Jazz will face the Trail Blazers in the preseason finale, which has the potential to be an actual measuring stick for the Jazz against a young team with a couple of higher-profile veteran players. But, by the final game of the preseason, teams usually sit their best players and give more opportunity to the deep bench.

Ticketing and broadcast information for the preseason games have not been announced and are expected at a later date.

BYU’s questions at quarterback haven’t kept the Cougars from being ranked to start the 2025 season.

BYU is ranked No. 23 in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll released Monday morning, with 287 points.

That comes a year after the Cougars went 11-2 overall, finished in a four-way tie at 7-2 in the Big 12 and won the Alamo Bowl. BYU ended the 2024 season ranked No. 14 in the coaches poll.

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Utah, meanwhile, also finds itself in a favorable position, considering it’s coming off a 5-7 season.

The Utes received 86 points in the poll and are fifth among others receiving votes, which would be No. 30 nationally.

What other Big 12 teams are ranked in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll?

There are five Big 12 teams in the preseason coaches poll.

Defending league champion Arizona State is the highest-rated Big 12 program in the rankings at No. 11.

Three other teams joined BYU in the 20s — Kansas State is ranked No. 20, Iowa State is tied for No. 21 and Texas Tech is ranked No. 24.

In addition to Utah, four other Big 12 teams received votes in the poll but are outside the top 25. That includes Baylor (76 points), TCU (24), Colorado (12) and Kansas (6).

Who are the top teams in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll?

Texas edged out defending national champion Ohio State for No. 1 in the preseason coaches poll.

Behind the Longhorns and Buckeyes at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, are Penn State at No. 3, Georgia at No. 4 and Notre Dame at No. 5.

The rest of the top 10 includes Clemson at No. 6, Oregon at No. 7, Alabama at No. 8, LSU at No. 9 and Miami at No. 10.

Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. Currently writing for SB Nation and FanSided, he has covered the Utah Jazz and BYU athletics since 2024 and graduated from Utah Valley University.

I WAS PERUSING my social media feed like the socially inept 20-something that I am. Brainless. Thoughtless. Careless. Images and comments light up the glossy film at my fingertips, designed for pure brain stimulation. Sometimes I’m fully cogniscent that such activities are destined to sear my dopamine receptors; abusing the very hormones designed to keep my life fulfilling. I’m on a roll, though, and refuse to let science and reasonable life choices stand in the way of steamrolling through a forgettable hour or two of my day.

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Often, the decision to dissolve into an amorphous blob on the couch as my retinas take in an essence-consuming array of photos and short-form swipable videos surpasses self-awareness. It’s not until I’m reminded of the clock that realization consumes me like a Vertigo dolly zoom. My vision blurs. Heartbeat intensifies. The second hand lands like a sledgehammer with every tick.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

Wait a minute. Am I going to let this tiny icon on a phone screen erase me from an entire world for the day? Mountains stand firm and immovable, beckoning the next 1,000 adventurers to scale their mighty peaks. Birds conduct a symphonic melody, resonating from treetop to treetop. The delicate babble of a stream is a rushing superhighway below the surface, with an assortment of fish species rushing past one another in a heated grand prix.

And I allow my habitat to start and end at the pleather-saddled edge of my sofa. I am the engineer of my own decay.

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Forget this. I’m going to do something. I’m going to be something. Leave this forsaken land for one better. An entire world awaits my arrival, and I’m going to make an impression.

Raising the phone in one hand, a triumphant fist constituting the other, I make a solemn vow that from this day for—

Whoa. That’s what the new court looks like?

The nerdy girl took off her glasses and became hot.

It’s a trope almost as old as Superman himself (apologies for those who remained in the Clark Kent bubble, but your second favorite writer of all time is actually an alien from the planet Krypton. Grow up). The ugly duckling swims through its entire childhood to emerge as a beautiful and elegant swan. The very hungry caterpillar begins as the poster child for gluttony before entering its chrysalis to emerge as a spectacular butterfly.

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Well, the Utah Jazz have been gestating since the onset of basketball’s most heinous and straight-up wrong rebrand that traded a cascading palette of desert color for a Sharpie highlighter from the Dollar Tree.

But all wrongs can be made right, and what Utah has done in the second iteration of their rebrand is so, so right. The decedent, rich purple, soaking up the spotlight with a gentle, comforting baby blue as its accent. The cascading mountains cresting at the center of it all. The remastered font from the late 90s now spells out “Utah” in a bold, classic, and stunning arrangement sure to set the fashion world ablaze.

It’s just a shame Jordan Clarkson won’t be here to enjoy it.

We were already treated to the opening course of this meal with the “Mountain Basketball” campaign over a year ago in June 2024, where the world was introduced to the pure majesty of the incoming white jersey (to make its debut this season).

Oh yeah. That’s the stuff.

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The Utah Jazz are beautiful again. Like a flower in full bloom, this recapturing of the Jazz identity is indicative of the transformation beneath the surface. The petals appear and spread out wide, welcoming the admiration and awe of its onlookers. Stunning in every sense of the word.

Unfortunately, pure aesthetic appeal does not provide a boost to the win column, nor Utah’s championship odds. Though the bloom is stunning for now, I feel it is best to remind us of what happens to flowers around the time basketball season begins. That’s the product you’ll see on the floor. But surely we can appreciate the absence of the bright yellow stain in Jazz history.

With a fresh coat of paint, so arrives a fresh outlook for Utah’s prospects moving into the future. Though the team itself is still years removed from proper competition, today, they lay the groundwork for a prosperous tomorrow.

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According to Marc Stein, Kevin Love is looking for a way to be traded away from the Utah Jazz.

Here’s what Stein said about Kevin Love:

“…five-time NBA All-Star Kevin Love is actively exploring potential pathways out of Utah after he was dealt by Miami to the Jazz as part of the three-team Norman Powell trade.”

Like Stein said, Love came to Utah as part of the Norman Powell trade. It appears that it was mostly dependent on his contract, which expires this season.

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We’ve heard from other sources that Utah has set up its books so that Lauri Markkanen is the only long-term veteran on the team, which means there won’t be a chance for another contract. Hence, this news from Kevin Love. Yes, I know Jazz fans are quick to lament the “no one wants to be here” narrative. But if Utah was willing to give Kevin Love a contract, I’m sure he’d be tweeting about how much he loves Utah real quick. The fact is, Utah is acting with a lot of discipline and is keeping its books clean for after next season when it adds another strong piece in the draft.

Now, Utah may not win the draft and doesn’t come away with a core player, but they’ll have clean books for deals at that point. They can be open for business to move young players they don’t see as part of the future, or bring in money for more picks. Or maybe they can make a big move in free agency. Whatever the case, it’s smart for Utah to be financially ready for any potential move it wants to make.

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Utah native Daniel Summerhays’ amazing comeback from having back surgery last winter continued Saturday in the third round of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship.

Summerhays, the 41-year-old PGA Tour veteran from Kaysville, shot a 4-under 66 to remain in contention for the title at Ogden Golf & Country Club.

At 12-under, he’s just four shots off the lead, which is co-owned by Robby Shelton and Taylor Montgomery.

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Bio Kim of Korea is alone in third place at 14-under, followed by Kensei Hirata of Japan and three others at 13-under.

Tied for eighth, Summerhays was sailing along nicely until he hit his tee shot over the green on No. 16 and made bogey to fall out of the top five.

Former Arizona State standout Preston Summerhays, who is Daniel’s nephew, continued to master the course as well, posting a 67 on Saturday.

With his sister, Grace, on his bag, Preston is tied for 16th at 10-under.

All told, three Utahns are in the top 25 and six are in the top 52 heading into Sunday’s final round.

Former BYU golfer Cole Ponich is in the lead among Utahns not named Summerhays, having posted a 68 on Saturday to get to 9-under for the tournament.

He’s currently tied for 24th place after having received a sponsor’s exemption.

Ponich won the Provo Open in June in his professional golf debut. He flourishes at Ogden Country Club, having won the 2024 Utah State Amateur there last summer.

Former University of Utah golfer Mitchell Schow, the 2020 State Amateur champion, vaulted up the leaderboard with his second consecutive 66 on Saturday. A Monday qualifier, Schow is currently tied for 41st place at 7-under for the tournament.

North Ogden’s Connor Howe is also tied for 41st at 7-under.

Former BYU golfer Peter Kuest, No. 150 on the KFT points list, shot a 67 on Saturday and is tied for 52nd entering Sunday’s final round.

Two golfers with Utah ties — incoming BYU freshman Kihei Akina and former Weber State golfer Hayden Banz — did not make the cut.

The leaders will tee off at 3 p.m. on Sunday to accommodate the broadcast on the Golf Channel.

Daniel Summerhays will tee off at 2:20 p.m. with Trace Crowe of Raleigh, North Carolina.