Author: Jesse

“Strategic reinvestment” has become an oft-repeated catchphrase across Utah’s public college campuses and legislative halls over the past couple of years.

The term defines the state-mandated initiative to shift higher education resources into those academic areas determined to be of highest value to both students and Utah industry.

Such “high value” areas include health care, AI and engineering.

In 2025, the Utah Legislature required the state’s eight degree-granting institutions to reallocate 10% from their respective budgets toward strategic reinvestment initiatives. Each school’s reinvestment plans are being implemented over a three-year period that began last year.

Those ongoing strategic reinvestment efforts at the state’s colleges and universities, reported Utah Commissioner of Higher Education Geoffrey Landward earlier this year, are blazing “a better path to addressing concerns about value in higher education.”

Now “strategic reinvestment” is expanding to Utah’s eight technical colleges.

And while the reallocation plans at the state’s degree-granting colleges were initiated last year by the Utah Legislature, similar plans at technical colleges are being launched by the Utah Board of Higher Education.

On Thursday, the education board voted unanimously to begin moving toward strategic reinvestments at its technical colleges: Bridgerland Technical College, Davis Technical College, Dixie Technical College, Mountainland Technical College, Ogden-Weber Technical College, Southwest Technical College, Tooele Technical College and Uintah Basin Technical College.

While degree-granting institutions typically focus on a broad academic education, technical colleges offer hands-on, career-specific training often leading to certificates.

“The Utah System of Higher Education is investing in programs that are growing, serving more students and meeting the needs of Utah’s economy,” said board vice chair Jon Cox in a news release.

“Strategic reinvestment is about making sure every dollar is working as hard as possible for individual students and the state. We are fortunate to have technical colleges that are such good stewards of these limited resources.”

During Thursday’s board meeting, Landward said some lawmakers had asked him about running formal legislation to expand strategic reinvestment to the state’s technical colleges.

The commissioner responded that another bill wasn’t necessary because the education board was already focused on requiring all higher education institutions — including the technical colleges — to reallocate resources into areas of highest value for students and taxpayers.

While similar in intent, the strategic reinvestment framework for the Utah technical colleges differs in a few key ways from what is happening at degree-granting schools. Technical colleges operate on a different model than the degree-granting institutions. They’re funded differently. Their accreditation is different — as are the standards for program viability accreditation.

“And that means that the program of doing a strategic reinvestment (for technical colleges) is going to look different than it would for a degree-granting institution,” said Landward.

But the commissioner added there’s value in requiring Utah’s technical colleges to also examine their respective programs to ensure cost efficiencies — while maximizing each student’s training and investment.

What will ‘strategic reinvestment’ look like for Utah tech schools?

Utah’s degree-granting colleges and universities are required by the Legislature to reallocate 10% of their state budget dollars toward their strategic reinvestment plans.

But the plan outlined by the higher education board would require half of those percentage amounts — 5% — from the technical colleges. That figure acknowledges that technical colleges have less operational and infrastructure flexibility than the degree-granting schools.

Also, while the Legislature required degree-granting colleges to immediately begin executing their strategic reinvestment plans last year, the higher education board is allowing the technical colleges an “optional planning year” for fiscal year 2027. Then the remainder of their budget reallocations would be implemented in phases over the following three years.

Like their degree-granting counterparts, the technical colleges will meet with UBHE each year for reinvestment plan updates and approvals.

Utah technical colleges: AI already prompting reinvestment

Several Utah technical college presidents participating in Thursday’s meeting noted that their frequent accreditation efforts leave them well-positioned for the UBHE’s strategic reinvestment plan.

Industry advancements have already prompted some schools to revisit, say, AI-impacted programs such as medical coding and billing — and reallocate those resources to high-yield programs such as HVAC and refrigeration.

If a program is not industry-driven, said one president, it does not survive in the technical college atmosphere. It has to be reallocated.

The annual strategic reinvestment reporting, they added, also provides welcome opportunities for Utah’s technical colleges to keep the higher education board updated on each school’s developments and activities.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Utah police agencies are warning the public of a new scam that is plaguing text messages across the state.

The scam, a document being sent to residents through text message, is claiming to be a “mandatory collection notice” from the Utah Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

Several Utah law enforcement agencies have reposted a photo of the false notice to their social media pages, warning the public.

What are the warning signs of a scam?

The Utah Department of Public Safety revealed the “red flags” of this scam and things that the public should watch out for in the future.

• Fake Agency: It lists the “Department of Safety & Homeland Security.” This department does not exist in Utah.

• High Pressure: It uses words like “Irrevocable,” “Non-Negotiable,” and “Mandatory” to cause panic.

• Extreme Threats: DPS does not collect fines for traffic violations, and real communication would always come from the courts.

Wellington Police was among the agencies who posted, alerting the public to the fact that the Utah Department of Public Safety is tracking the scam and that the best thing the public can do is delete the message and tell others to do the same.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s new congressional map, which gives Democrats a high likelihood of picking up a U.S. House seat in the Salt Lake City area, is likely to remain in place beyond this election cycle because a Republican-led initiative to repeal the state’s anti-gerrymandering law failed to make the November ballot.

How March Madness seeding mishap led Jerrod Calhoun to leave Utah State for Cincinnati appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

New Cincinnati head coach Jerrod Calhoun knows that mid-majors are becoming even more of an obscurity in the college basketball landscape, which had a lot to do with his leaving a successful Utah State program. Despite believing in the Aggies’ future, Calhoun admitted that his recent March Madness seeding played a big role in his decision to accept a new job.

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Calhoun called Utah State a “top-30 job in America,” but knows the March Madness Selection Committee does not view it the same way. The 44-year-old admitted he knew the writing was on the wall when it gave his team a nine-seed after running through the Mountain West.

“Utah State is a top-30 job in America, it truly is,” Calhoun said at his introductory press conference. “But I can tell you this — when we got the nine-seed after winning 28 games, a regular-season title and a tournament title, that was pretty telling. The game has changed; college basketball has changed forever. We don’t have one team — outside of Iowa, which is a nine-seed, and they’re a Big Ten school — in the Sweet Sixteen.”

Calhoun went 55-15 in two years at Utah State, but entered the NCAA Tournament as a 10-seed in 2025 and a nine-seed in 2026. His success was enough to earn his peers’ respect, but not enough for the Selection Committee to make his Aggies the higher-seeded team in either tournament.

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However, Utah State’s placement in the 2026 tournament was beneficial for Calhoun’s career. It allowed him to play a struggling power-conference team, Villanova, to end the season with a quality win while Stan Van Gundy repeatedly called him one of the best offensive minds in the game on the broadcast. If he was not already on Cincinnati’s radar at that point, he certainly was by the end of the game.

Related: How long is Will Wade’s official contract with LSU?

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So far during his time on Food Network’s “The Ultimate Baking Championship,” Adalberto Diaz has suffered through a setback he described as “the biggest embarrassment,” and heard a judge on the show say his cake could not be served in a restaurant.

Going into the third episode of the competition, which aired earlier this week, the Utah chef behind the Salt Lake City bakery Fillings & Emulsions wanted a moment of redemption.

He got it — sort of.

Things went much more smoothly for Diaz than his previous rounds on the show — at one point, he even declared, “I’m back, baby!”

But it wasn’t completely smooth sailing.

For the third week in a row, Diaz found himself among the bottom bakers and on the brink of elimination.

Here’s a look at how he fared in the competition — and if he’s still in the running for the $50,000 grand prize.

Adalberto Diaz lands in the bottom 3 on ‘The Ultimate Baking Championship’

“The Ultimate Baking Championship” competition has been intense — the premiere episode eliminated six of the 16 top pastry chefs from across the country.

At the start of the third episode, Diaz found himself in the top nine.

For this round of the competition, the show divided the nine bakers into groups of three. The three bakers in each group received the same classic pastry assignment and had to compete against each other with their own interpretations of the dish.

Diaz’s group got assigned Boston cream pie, which delighted the Utah chef, who said he’s been making pastry cream filling since he was 9.

To make his pastry stand out, Diaz drew inspiration from history. He channeled the architecture of the Parker House Hotel — where the Boston cream pie was created — by adding little gold details to his chocolate rum ganache cake.

After 2½ hours, he confidently brought his cake to pastry chef Duff Goldman and guest judge Shinmin Li for feedback.

“I think the message is very clear — I am back,” Diaz told producers ahead of the judging. “I feel very, very good about this.”

The judges had high praise for the Diaz’s final product, complimenting everything from its appearance to its taste.

“That is the fanciest Boston cream pie I have ever seen in my life,” Goldman said.

“I’m back, baby,” Diaz said with a smile.

But the Utah chef had some fierce competition, directly up against Christopher Teixeira, who is from Boston, and Juan Gutierrez, who has been one of the top bakers throughout the competition.

“This is gonna be a tough one,” Goldman said before entering his score.

Ultimately, host Jesse Palmer revealed that Diaz had placed at the bottom of his group of three: Teixeira had finished first with 45 points, Gutierrez was in the middle with 43, and Diaz was close behind with 41.

But that didn’t mean Diaz was automatically eliminated. He was placed among the bottom three bakers, joining the other two who had finished last in their respective groups.

When Palmer revealed the scores of the other two bakers, Diaz, once again on the brink of elimination, could breathe a sigh of relief.

His score of 41 was more than enough to allow him to move forward. In the end, chef Robert Gonzalez, with a score of 29, found himself out of the competition.

Now, Diaz moves forward as one of eight remaining chefs competing for $50,000 in “The Ultimate Baking Championship.”

The show airs Monday nights on Food Network, with episodes available for streaming the following day on Discovery+ and HBO Max.

Who is Adalberto Diaz?

Diaz’s colorful macarons and fruit desserts are on display at Fillings & Emulsions in Salt Lake City — which the chef has described as an “eclectic Latin bakery with a French flair.”

“The last 12 years I have invested everything I have, everything, into my pastry shop,” Diaz said during “The Ultimate Baking Championship” premiere episode, which included footage of his new location that features bright murals painted by his brother to highlight their Cuban heritage.

“When I win this competition, it will be a dream come true and that money is gonna go straight into my business and my amazing team of chefs and pastry chefs,” he said during the premiere episode. “I want to make sure that we make it out of these harsh economic times.”

Diaz emigrated from Cuba in 2000 and made a home in Utah, where he quickly began working in the food industry. He worked at a few places around Salt Lake City over the next decade, and earned the American Culinary Federation’s title of Pastry Chef of the Year in 2012. He opened Fillings & Emulsions the following year, as the Deseret News reported.

The chef’s appearance on “The Ultimate Baking Championship” comes on the heels of being nominated as a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard award for outstanding pastry chef or baker.

“I am part of this community and this community has welcomed me to be part of it, and even bigger, this country welcomed me when I came here, and gave me an opportunity to be more where I am today,” Diaz told the Deseret News last year after his James Beard nomination. “And I wish that opportunity was given to more people because you don’t know how they would change the world.”

The Utah Jazz are clearly doing everything they can to keep their pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Something tells me that next season, we won’t see as many players on the injury report as this season. That means that the core of this Jazz team will play, and it’s clear they’re going to play well. The question is, of the current Jazz roster, who is going to be the most important player next season? Now, Utah may win the lottery and that could change this entire question. If Utah drafts someone like Darryn Peterson or AJ Dybantsa, that changes everything. That said, let’s just ignore the lottery and draft for the sake of this question. If we’re looking at the odds, it’s statistically a little more likely Utah doesn’t draft in the top four of the draft anyway.

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