Month: December 2025

Hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed during an appearance at Utah Valley University in Orem, FBI Director Kash Patel told the world: “The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.”

But the attorney appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the bureau posted a correction less than two hours later, saying that person had been released. The alleged shooter was not arrested until more than 24 hours after that post.

Within a week, Patel faced questions on his handling of the incident during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. A report submitted by “a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI agents and analysts” to that body and the House Judiciary Committee, and leaked to the New York Post this week, raises more concerns about Patel’s approach to the Kirk slaying investigation.

The Utah anecdotes in the 115-page report were relayed by two FBI veterans who each spoke with separate agents who had ties to the Kirk case.

One agent was described as someone who has worked in the bureau for multiple decades. The second, who the report described as a Trump supporter, is also “a highly decorated, respected leader with extensive experience conducting a wide variety of complex criminal and national security investigations, including investigations conducted overseas.”

Utah’s only member of Congress on either of the judiciary committees is Sen. Mike Lee. His office did not respond to multiple questions about whether the senator read the November report, his opinions on it and if he has discussed the case with agents from the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office.

The Republican majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee has not released any statements on the report.

Ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., however, wrote, “This stark assessment of the damage Kash Patel has done to the nation’s leading law enforcement agency cries out for one—just one—Republican Senator to break the ranks of silence and demand that Kash Patel be held accountable for his mismanagement of the FBI.”

Since the report’s release earlier this week, Patel has given interviews to multiple right-leaning media outlets, denying many of its claims.

In a post on the social media platform X with a clip from an appearance on Fox News, Patel said, “Fake news can spread false stories from anonymous sources about me and a jacket all they want — when they come for you it only means you’re hitting the target. Pound sand. Mission and results are the only things that matter and @FBI team is crushing it.”

Delayed by a missing FBI raid jacket

According to one FBI agent, when Patel arrived at the Provo Airport in Utah the day after Kirk was shot — and the suspected shooter was still at large — the director would not disembark from his plane without an FBI raid jacket. Patel did not have his own jacket with him.

“Many FBI Special Agents (and other FBI personnel) were busy working in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and … FBI personnel had to (stop and) ask around to find an FBI raid jacked — a medium-sized one — that would fit FBI Director Kash Patel,” the report says.

There were reportedly “many large and extra-large FBI raid jackets available” that were not suitable for the director. Ultimately, agents “finally found” a medium-sized jacket belonging to a female FBI Special Agent that Patel could borrow.

Patel noticed that jacket, though, did not have Velcro patches on the upper sleeves, and allegedly demanded patches be added before he left the plane. The report says members of an FBI SWAT team “took patches off their uniforms and ran those patches over to FBI Director Kash Patel at the airport.”

Patel has repeatedly characterized the episode as “100% false.”

Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote of the incident in his statement, “America deserves better than this self-absorbed FBI Director fussing over his wardrobe in the midst of a national crisis.”

‘Expletive-laden tirade’

Prior to Patel’s arrival in Utah, one agent said he “was not happy with how the FBI investigation was going and the information he (the FBI Director) was receiving.”

That agent reported Patel called Salt Lake City’s special agent in charge Robert Bohls, yelled, and asked if he needed to travel to Utah to run the investigation.

The report says Patel at one point went on an “expletive-laden tirade … regarding perceived blunders” in the Kirk shooting investigation when speaking with Bohls. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino reportedly later called Bohls to apologize, “saying that never should have happened.”

‘Motivated by his desire to draw attention’

Both sources who discussed Patel’s performance during the Kirk shooting investigation commented on local agents’ negative impression of the director following his time in Utah.

The agent that expressed support for Trump described Patel as “not very good.”

That source, according to the report, “likes FBI Director Kash Patel’s aggressiveness (i.e., how the Director pushes back against critics to move the FBI in a new direction), but … said Director Patel strikes him/her as ‘odd,’ adding that he/she believes Director Patel’s performance to date in his role as the leader of the FBI is ‘concerning.’”

The agent said Patel appears to lack self-confidence, pointing to his presence at a news conference where the director stood alongside Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. The source observed “the Director’s eyes darting around the room,” saying he looked “uneasy.”

“[The source] said he/she believes former FBI Director James B. Comey made some bad decisions and was not good for the FBI, but even former Director Comey … appeared to possess the kind of demeanor and FBI Director should have, which FBI Director Kash Patel does not,” the report says.

They also believe Patel is inexperienced, according to the report, and cited the director’s communication with the public in the wake of Kirk’s killing, saying he revealed too much about evidence collected during the investigation. Patel’s actions “strayed from … proper protocol,” the report said, with the source adding that Patel “should know better” because of his background as an attorney.

“Patel may have been motivated by his desire to draw attention to himself or by his desire to glorify his performance as FBI Director,” the agent speculated in the report.

When Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray announced charges against suspected shooter Tyler Robinson, a reporter asked why his office was more measured than federal officials in distributing information about the case. Gray responded, “As attorneys, we typically like to control that information to preserve an impartial jury and a fair trial.”

The source later agreed that “Patel may have been selected above all else for his loyalty to the President and not necessarily because Director Patel checked all the boxes required for anyone to effectively serve as the leader of the FBI.”

The second agent who was cited as a source in the report said Patel seemed to take undue credit “for the good work by other agencies” in the case.

“Patel seemed to imply the results achieved in the investigation would not have been possible without his (the Director’s) involvement,” the report said.

When Patel spoke at a news conference announcing Robinson’s arrest two days after the shooting, he stood in front of cameras and addressed FBI employees, saying, “You have done monumental work in historic time when the public, who had a right to demand such an expeditious solving of an investigation — the FBI answered that call diligently. [It was] critically important to our nation, and we delivered. And I’m proud to be their leader, and I’m proud to be the director of the FBI.”

Salt Lake Tribune reporter Robert Gehrke contributed to this story.

Lehi • Two new sacred additions were made to Holy Cross hospitals in Lehi and Layton.

Both CommonSpirit hospitals finished their chapels for visitors and patients to use as places of prayer and had these spaces dedicated this week.

A faith-based health care organization, CommonSpirit requires all of its hospitals to have an on-site dedicated chapel.

Bishop Oscar Solis, leader of Utah’s 300,000 Catholics, performed the dedicatory Mass for the chapels in Layton (on Monday) and in Lehi (on Wednesday).

In the Lehi ceremony in Lehi, Solis expressed the importance of providing a place of prayer and comfort to those who are sick. He blessed the space, a former hospital mail room, to be a “house of salvation and praise” to aid in the healing of patients.

“The beautiful thing about all this is that the chapel has never been locked,” Solis said. “It is a place of refuge. It is a place of quiet. It’s a place to pour your soul out to God.”

Solis blessed the space, walls, altar and sacred objects, explaining the spiritual and theological significance.

Given the relatively small size of the chapel, visitors attending the Mass sang hymns and prayers in the overflow next door.

Chris Stines, president and CEO of Lehi’s Holy Cross Hospital — Mountain Point, emphasized the importance of health care and its legacy, in both body and spirit.

“This chapel will be an important part of the services we provide here at this hospital,” Stines said. “As we stand here today … we call ourselves small but mighty. And so this chapel, too, I think, takes on that spirit of small but mighty.”

The chapels will be available to all hospital patients and visitors. A weekly Mass will also be held at each location with the first weekly Mass in Lehi taking place Friday.

Note to readers • Dylan Eubank is a Report for America corps member covering faith in Utah County for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps to keep him writing stories.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — After a mostly dry start to the month of December, the weather pattern is quickly changing to a rainy one. Thursday’s rain showers will mark the first in a series of wet storm systems lining up over the Pacific Northwest. The stormy weather is expected to carry well into next week, […]

The University of Utah has launched a program called “The Dignity Index” that rates how statements sound during political or social disagreement on an eight-point scale. 

Formally announced in October, according to The Daily Utah Chronicle, the Index is expected to cost $400,000 every year for equipment as well as personnel for the program. 

According to the University of Utah, the Index is an “eight-point scale that measures how people talk to each other when they disagree—ranging from ONE, which shows total contempt for the other side, to EIGHT, which shows dignity to everyone, no matter what.”

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The University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Getty Images)

Tami Pyfer, chief external affairs officer and co-creator of the Dignity Index, said on a university page that the program was started “as a pilot to establish the validity of the Dignity Index itself has grown into an initiative with touch points in 25 states.”

The partnership between the University of Utah and Project UNITE, a nonprofit which created The Dignity Index, initially began in 2022 when the University of Utah used the Index “to use the Dignity Index to score political speech in Utah’s congressional mid-term elections.”

A “youth edition” of The Dignity Index talks about “building skills for dignified disagreement” and also scores speech on an eight-point scale, with a one being, “We have to hurt those people; they deserve it,” a four progressing to, “We’re better than those people; they don’t really belong,” and an eight being, “Each one of us is precious and irreplaceable, so we should treat each other with dignity, no matter what.” 

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The University of Utah has launched a program called “The Dignity Index” that rates how statements sound during political or social disagreement on an eight-point scale. (Javi Sanz/Getty Images)

According to Meghan Monroe, senior program associate of K-12 Education at Project UNITE, which created The Dignity Index, the youth edition of the Dignity Index “can be applied to the programs and practices already happening in schools, like those promoting Active Listening and Empathy, which encourage open dialogue where everyone – educators, students, and parents – feels heard, affirming the dignity of each person.”

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“Formally announced” in October, according to The Daily Utah Chronicle, the Index is expected to cost the university $400,000 every year for equipment as well as personnel for the program. (Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)

She also said it can be used in “Restorative Practices, which help rebuild relationships and address conflicts with dignity, compassion, and understanding; and Inclusive Resources, which recognize the diverse perspectives and cultural backgrounds students bring to school.” 

Natalie Gochnour, director of the Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the university “prioritizes dignity. As stated in our core values, ‘We care deeply about our students, patients, society and world, and recognize the inherent dignity of all people.’ In addition to dignity, we simultaneously affirm the bedrock value of freedom of expression and the pursuit of truth as fundamental and non-negotiable rights on campus and in the community.”

Gochnour added, “Together, these three ideals – the inherent worth of all people, the pursuit of truth, and right to express opinions and ideas — create an environment for speech to flourish and society to prosper.”

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“We often pair these ideals together because too often, contempt – the opposite of dignity – suppresses speech and learning. When people experience contempt, they often self-censor, or worse, bite back with even more disdain,” Gochnour said. “When people self-censor or fall into a spiral of contempt, communication falters. People eventually stop talking, listening, and learning. Without communication, problems worsen; civil society suffers. There’s a better way and the University of Utah stands ready to lead out. The Dignity Initiative is a privately funded endeavor at the University of Utah to reduce contempt and inspire free speech. In partnership with UNITE, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the U prepares research on dignity scholarship, shares insights on dignity practices, and pioneers a tool known as the Dignity Index to measure how we treat each other when we disagree.” 

Gochnour also said that participation is “entirely voluntary.”

A Utah mom accused of fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl is scheduled to have a court hearing on Friday ahead of her murder trial next year.

Kouri Richins, a 35-year-old realtor and mother of three who wrote and self-published a children’s book on grieving following her husband’s death, was arrested in 2023 following a lengthy investigation. She was charged with aggravated murder in connection with the 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins. Prosecutors allege she spiked his cocktail with a lethal dose of fentanyl. 

She is also charged with attempted aggravated murder, with prosecutors alleging she gave him a sandwich laced with fentanyl on Valentine’s Day two weeks before his death in an initial, failed attempt to kill him.

Prosecutors allege that Kouri Richins fraudulently secured a life insurance policy on her husband’s death in January 2022 and had financial incentive to kill him. She is also accused of texting a paramour on Feb. 15, 2022, the day after the alleged Valentine’s Day incident, that “if he could just go away … life would be so perfect.”

Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in the couple’s bedroom on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined he died from fentanyl intoxication, and the level of fentanyl in his blood was approximately five times the lethal dosage, according to the charging document. The medical examiner determined the fentanyl was “illicit fentanyl,” not medical grade, according to the charging document.

A pretrial conference in the murder case is scheduled for Friday afternoon in a Park City courthouse, ahead of the February 2026 trial. Kouri Richins has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Kouri Richins also faces over two dozen charges in a separate case filed earlier this year alleging she committed mortgage fraud in 2021. The charging document alleges she submitted falsified banks statements in support of mortgage loan applications for her realty business, committed money laundering and issued bad checks. 

The charges in the case also allege she murdered her husband for financial gain as she “stood on the precipice of total financial collapse.” According to the charging document, at the time of Eric Richins’ death, her realty company owed lenders at least $1.8 million and his estate was worth approximately $5 million.

She is scheduled to make an initial appearance in that case Friday afternoon as well. She has not yet entered a plea to the charges.

Kouri Richins has remained in Summit County Jail since her arrest, after the judge last month denied a defense motion to reconsider bail and release.

She proclaimed her innocence in an audio recording released in May 2024.

“The world has yet to hear who I really am, what I’ve really done or didn’t do,” Kouri Richins insisted in the audio, provided to ABC News through a trusted confidant. “What I really didn’t do is murder my husband.”

A month prior to her arrest in May 2023, the mom of three appeared on a “Good Things Utah” segment on Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX to promote her book. In the segment, Kouri Richins said her husband of nine years died “unexpectedly” and that his death “completely took us all by shock.”

Utah for decades has billed itself as having the “Greatest Snow on Earth.”

Tom Korologos, an editor at the Salt Lake Tribune, coined the phrase in a headline for a special ski edition of the newspaper’s Home magazine in December 1960, shortly after Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus passed through town.

“Intermountain folk will tell you that the winds blowing from the west leave the wet, sticky snows in the Sierras. When the storms reach the Intermountain ranges, only the most perfect dry powder is left. That’s just a sprinkling of what you’ll find in the vast, scenic country that is the Intermountain area. And what an area. It’s some 600 miles long and 2.5 miles high. That’s the extent of the Intermountain’s big top which supports this real, true Greatest Snow on Earth,” the article proclaims.

The state trademarked the slogan in 1975. It started showing up on Ski Utah! license plates in 1985 and later the state’s Life Elevated plate.

Ringling Bros. sued Utah for trademark infringement in the late 1990s. But a federal judge found the company failed to prove that consumers were confused by the similar slogans.

So, step right up. Get your tickets to the greatest snow on Earth. Or is it?

Becoming a powderhound

Many skiers and snowboarders live for powder days where the world seems to stop. There’s no better feeling than gliding through a fresh layer of pristine pow. And Utah’s tall and jagged mountain ranges, including the Wasatch, with their long vertical drops and steep slope angles are made for powder lovers. Steep and deep, as they say.

Longtime skier Paula Colman, a regular contributor to Visit Utah and Ski Utah among others, put it this way:

“Shake it! Now, put it down. That’s what skiing a powder day in Utah looks and feels like. It’s akin to being inside a life-size snow globe, one which dampens sound, alters perception and, for a few loose turns, seems to slow velocity and time.”

And as she notes in the piece for Visit Utah, “Every skier and snowboarder eventually becomes a powderhound in Utah!”

OnTheSnow meteorologist and avid skier Evan Thayer can attest to that. To him, when conditions are right, powder skiing is an art form.

“It is beautiful in both its simplicity and grace. Only the subtlest movements are necessary as your skis glide effortlessly through the fluff. The mountain, the snow, and gravity work in concert to give you an exhilarating feeling of flotation — total weightlessness. It’s a feeling so intoxicating — so freeing — that powderhounds such as myself devote their entire lives to experiencing it again and again,” he wrote for Visit Utah.

The greatest snow on Earth?

While the Beehive State is renowned for its light, fluffy snow, is it really the greatest snow on Earth?

According to the man who literally wrote the book on powder snow and who Backcountry magazine dubbed the “Professor of Powder,” the answer is a qualified yes.

Jim Steenburgh is a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah, avid skier and author of the book “Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth.” Backcountry calls it “the greatest book (about snow) on Earth.” Steenburgh’s X handle is @professorpowder.

“What I usually tell people is the greatest snow on Earth is in the eye of the beholder. It’s a subjective thing. Science really can’t answer that question,” said Steenburgh, who tracked down the origin of the Utah slogan for his book.

But, he said, Utah ski areas, particularly Little Cottonwood Canyon, have the three ingredients that go into making great powder snow: frequent storms, a soft underlying surface of snow and right-side-up-snowfall, meaning lighter snow sits on top of heavier snow.

“As a skier who’s also a meteorologist, when we look at a place like Little Cottonwood Canyon there are a lot of things that line up to make that a great place for snow,” said Steenburgh, adding that it’s the birthplace of deep powder skiing. “I look at Little Cottonwood as one of the great meccas for powder skiing anywhere in the world.”

Utah’s mountains typically receive more than 500 inches of snow above 8,500 elevation. And the snow climatology in Little and Big Cottonwood canyons favors what he calls “Goldilocks” storms. They aren’t too big and they aren’t too small.

“If you want to have good powder skiing, you want to have storms that produce at least 10 inches of snow because that’s what allows for bottomless skiing,” Steenburgh said. “But you don’t want storms that produce 25 inches frequently because those get to be too problematic for getting the resorts open or skiing in the backcountry.”

Frequent Goldilocks storms produce what are called right-side-up snowfalls. Those storms start out with higher density snow that gets lower density or drier with time making them optimal for ski or snowboard flotation, he said.

Steenburgh said there’s a strong argument to be made about Utah having the greatest snow on earth but all of Utah is not Little Cottonwood Canyon. “The reputation of Utah for powder skiing is based strongly on the Cottonwoods,” he said. The snow outside those canyons, he said, is still really good but there are fewer powder days.

Much is made of Utah’s lake effect snow, primarily as a result of the Great Salt Lake. But Steenburgh said it’s not much of a factor, accounting for about 6% of the total snowfall in the Cottonwoods.

Where else to find deep powder

Also, Utah doesn’t have the driest snow on the planet. Mountains in Montana, Idaho and western Colorado have snow with lower water content.

“We don’t have the driest snow on Earth but that’s a good thing in many ways because the best deep powder skiing is not in the driest snow,” he said. In low density snow, a skier or snowboarder settles to the bottom rather than floating.

Outside of the Cottonwoods, Steenburgh lists the Tetons, interior British Columbia and Hokkaido Island in Japan as outstanding powder skiing locales.

Sukayu Onsen in the Hakkoda Mountains is the snowiest inhabited area in the world with an average annual snowfall of 694 inches. In January, the average snowfall is 181 inches. There is no surer climatological bet for deep powder skiing than northwest Honshu and western Hokkaido in late January, he wrote in his book.

“I call Japan the greatest snow climate on Earth and I say Utah has the greatest snow on Earth. Scientifically, that’s how I get around getting people upset,” he said.

“It’s a great slogan. I think it’s one of the best slogans in the outdoor industry. It definitely has helped the brand for Utah. And I think there’s definitely some truth to it.”

How Utah snow is changing

Steenburgh also notes that Utah snow is changing because of climate change. It’s shifting to high density, which means snowfall is getting a little heavier, he said.

A greater fraction of winter time precipitation falls as rain instead of snow, mainly at lower elevations such as the Salt Lake Valley. It still snows but there are more wintertime rainstorms. Steenburgh said it will creep up in elevation in the coming decades.

Right now, the effect in the upper elevations and north facing slopes is “almost zero,” he said. “But it’s coming. It will come to the mid and upper elevations eventually.”