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April 14, 2026, 5:31 a.m. ET

Utah Valley University (UVU) is facing backlash over its choice of commencement speaker as critics object to her past comments about Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk following his assassination on the same campus.

The university chose author and educator Sharon McMahon to address the graduating class. Days after Kirk was killed, McMahon wrote on X, “Millions of people feel they were harmed, and the murder that was horrific and should never have happened does not magically erase what was said or done.”

“To many Americans, especially if you are Black, LGBTQ or Muslim, Charlie Kirk was not a person who simply engaged in good-faith debates on college campuses.“

Turning Point USA chapter president at Utah Valley University Caleb Chilcutt called the selection of McMahon a “slap to the face” Monday on “Fox & Friends.”

“They could have brought any other speaker. If they liked Charlie, didn’t like Charlie — I honestly don’t really care. But the fact they brought someone who was so critical, literally days after the assassination on my campus, is just shameful for me,” he said.

Chilcutt said attitudes were divided on campus, with conservative students generally upset while some liberal students chose to “celebrate.”

Former Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz also joined the program and labeled McMahon a “horrific choice” of speaker just months after Kirk’s death, calling her a “liberal hack.”

He said Utah’s largest university should know better, but that there is still time to change course.

“Look, there’s still time to correct this. This hasn’t happened. And if the university is gonna step up and do the right thing, they’re gonna cancel her and put in somebody like an astronaut or an athlete or somebody, anybody, But this person, this partisan hack, she should not be addressing the students, not at the commencement.”

Lani White became the latest Utah women’s basketball player taken in the WNBA draft Monday night.

She had to wait until the end, as the shooting guard was taken with the 45th overall — and final — selection of the draft by the Minnesota Lynx.

It’s the second time in three years that a former Ute was selected. In 2024, former Utah power forward Alissa Pili was the No. 8 overall selection by the Lynx.

White played three of her four seasons for the Utes, with her junior year at Virginia Tech before returning to the Utes as a senior.

The 6-foot California native earned All-Big 12 second-team honors during the 2025-26 season, as she averaged a career-best 15.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.

White spent her first two seasons at Utah, largely as a role player. She starred at Virginia Tech before returning to Utah, and she shot 46.2% from the field and 40.4% from 3 during her senior season.

That included 10 games of 20-plus points this past season.

In assessing White being taken by Minnesota, ESPN’s Charlie Creme wrote, “With Napheesa Collier sidelined for the start of the season, the Lynx need some offense. White can score and do it in multiple ways, and her 40.4% 3-point percentage is a good starting point.

“She is also a capable finisher at the rim. She might have a chance to serve behind Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams if some of Minnesota’s foreign players elect to stay away for another season.”

Former Ute Gianna Kneepkens a late first-round selection

White wasn’t the only former Ute taken during the draft.

Gianna Kneepkens, who played four years (including a medical redshirt season) at Utah before transferring to UCLA this past offseason, was taken No. 15 overall by the Connecticut Sun with the final pick of the first round.

The sharpshooting Kneepkens won a national title in her only season with the Bruins.

She averaged 12.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game for UCLA and was the fifth Bruin taken in the first round of the WNBA draft, setting a record for number of first-round picks by one school in a single draft.

Kneepkens was one of Utah’s all-time greats, as she averaged 15.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game over her four seasons as a Ute.

She was a career 49.5% shooter in college and 43.1% from 3-point range.

“A consistent shooter throughout her career, Kneepkens will get playing time in Connecticut because of her ability to knock down open jump shots. She never shot below 38.4% from 3-point range in any season during her college career,” Creme wrote of Kneepkens’ selection.

“With the Sun, Kneepkens will have time to develop the rest of her well-rounded game. She will always be known for her shooting, but she did more rebounding and facilitating during her time at Utah.”

Greg Jones moved to Utah in 1995, just in time to witness the Utah Grizzlies’ first season in their new home. They won the Turner Cup that season, and it’s still the only championship Jones has been able to witness.

Three decades later, he and thousands of others with similar stories bid the Grizzlies farewell.

The team played its final game on Sunday, losing 5-4 in overtime to the Rapid City Rush after completing a three-goal comeback with 1:21 left in the third period.

They’ll suit up next season in Trenton, New Jersey as the Trenton Ironhawks.

While the easy assumption is that the NHL ran the ECHL out of town, it’s not true. Selling the team became necessary after the passing of both owner David Elmore and CEO Kevin Bruder.

Besides, ECHL games are meant for a separate demographic than NHL games.

Jones, for example, is now in a position where he can afford Utah Mammoth season tickets, but he thinks back to a time when he was putting two kids through travel hockey.

Cheap Grizzlies tickets would have been the only option, even if an NHL team had been in Utah back then.

Grizzlies head coach John Becanic noted the same thing.

“There’s not a lot of corporate people (at Grizzlies games),” he said. “These are people that sometimes spend their last dime of their paycheck to come to a Grizzlies game.

“That’s tough for those people because it was an affordable, entertaining brand of hockey, and that’s leaving the Salt Lake City area, and that I feel bad for.”

For now, fans can take advantage of the limited-view tickets at the Delta Center for Mammoth games, many of which are sold for $15 through the Smith’s grocery store ticket program.

But once the renovations are completed, those will be gone, too. That’s where other levels of hockey will be able to step up.

The NCDC, a Tier II junior team, has the Utah Outliers and the Ogden Mustangs; A number of colleges in the state have ACHA hockey programs; The USPHL Premier division has the Vernal Oilers and the GMHL has the St. George Ravens.

Becanic’s previous coaching job was with the NCDC’s Idaho Falls Spud Kings, where the local community has latched onto the team and made it one of the best places to catch a hockey game outside the NHL.

It’s not classified as professional hockey, but the fans don’t care — they make it great anyway.

Nothing will remove the sting of losing a team that spent 30 years in the area or the traditions and memories that come with it, but if you’re looking to get your hockey fix without breaking the bank, consider hitching your wagon to one of these other hockey programs and creating those traditions and memories all over again.

The fans are what make the games special.

Sometimes teams win so many games they never have to worry about their playoff positioning. Other times, they lose just enough to stay humble.

Both teams are capable of winning.

This year’s Colorado Avalanche are a good example of the former. They officially clinched the Presidents’ Trophy with four games remaining in the season, but they were so dominant throughout the entire season that it was never really a question.

For the best example of the latter, we look back at the 1993 Montreal Canadiens.

Solid play in January and February secured the Habs a playoff spot, but with just one regulation win in their final 11 games, they were bleeding by the time the playoffs arrived.

But that bit of losing humbled them. It forced them to play the right way — and that’s especially important in the playoffs, where opponents will take advantage of every mistake.

The Canadiens went on to win the Stanley Cup that year.

With consecutive 4-1 losses after clinching a playoff berth last Thursday night — first to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday and most recently to the Calgary Flames on Sunday — frustration is beginning to show through for Utah Mammoth.

They know they have the talent to win, but things just didn’t click this weekend. If the Mammoth take these games as lessons rather than failures, they could end up better off for it — just like the Habs in 1993.

“We had to be ready to grind, to get inside and to work extremely hard for every inch, and I didn’t like our approach,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny after the loss in Calgary. “I thought we were perimeter in east-west play.

“At this time of the year, it’s a good opportunity for us to learn that that doesn’t work against a team who’s committed.”

Veteran defenseman MacKenzie Weegar added his thoughts.

“It’s about being together and coming together as a group here and enjoying the grind,” he said. “I don’t think, tonight, we wanted to enjoy that grind. These next two games, it’s playoff hockey, and it’s the most important two games all season.

“We’ve got to be willing to grind it out, because in playoffs, playing (poorly is) not going to work.”

One way or another, the Mammoth will compete in the postseason this year, but they’re still fighting to keep the top wild card spot in the NHL’s Western Conference, which would allow them to go through the “pillow fight” Pacific Division rather than the gauntlet Central Division.

The Mammoth currently have a three-point lead over the Los Angeles Kings for that top wild card spot, but the Kings have a game in hand and their three remaining games are against bottom-feeder teams.

The Mammoth have the advantage of the tiebreaker, though.

In order for the Mammoth to clinch the first wild card spot, they need three points out of their final two regular season games — at least a win and an overtime loss, in other words.

Of course, that would change if the Kings were to lose points in any of their games this week.

MacKenzie Weegar’s return to Calgary

Everything moves so quickly when you get traded midseason. That’s what the Weegar learned at this year’s trade deadline when the Mammoth acquired him from the Flames.

Per the Mammoth broadcast Sunday, Weegar brought an empty suitcase on the plane with him for this trip so he could go back to his house in Calgary and pack some essentials.

But the emotional toll a sudden trade takes can be even greater than the logistical inconveniences, and during Weegar’s tribute video Sunday, it was obvious how much he meant to the city of Calgary.

“I got some goosebumps over there. It was a great cheer,” he said afterward. “The fans, my appreciation for them and their appreciation for me never goes unnoticed, so it was a special moment.”

Olli Määttä went the other way in the trade, and it has been exactly what he needed.

The veteran defenseman helped Utah a ton last season when it suffered injury after injury on the blue line, but a surplus this year had him in the press box more often than not.

Since the trade, Määttä has averaged 22:25 of playing time a night and has contributed two goals and 14 points — including an assist against the Mammoth on Sunday — in 19 games.

That’s a major step up from his singular assist in 22 games with Utah this season.

Winter’s disastrously low snowfall could further complicate an already-audacious plan to refill the dying Great Salt Lake in time for the 2034 Winter Olympics in Utah.

The plan being pushed by Utah officials and Olympics supporters received a major boost when President Donald Trump proposed $1 billion in federal assistance to acquire more water and address environmental concerns. The lake has been shrinking for decades as farmers divert melting snow and rain onto fields to grow crops, including alfalfa for cattle.

Boosters remain optimistic that the coalition they’ve assembled can reverse the long-term declines in time for the lake to reflect the Olympic flame for the world.

“I am fully convinced we’re going to fix this. This is a fixable problem,” said Josh Romney, a Utah businessman and son of former Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate.

Josh Romney said saving the lake may cost as much as $5 billion and require about 260 billion gallons of water, roughly the same amount used by residents and businesses in New York City over nine months.

What problems does the Great Salt Lake face?

Lake levels have always fluctuated in the Great Salt Lake, but in 2022 water levels fell to their lowest in recorded history. And while they have rebounded slightly since then, ecologists, climate experts and the lake’s supporters say long-term trends are grim due to water use and climate change.

In addition to its iconic role in helping define Salt Lake City, the lake is a popular recreation destination and a critical wildlife habitat for migrating birds. It’s also home to a flourishing fishing industry, where workers scoop up vast quantities of microscopic brine shrimp sold internationally as fish food.

“The ecosystem is on life support. We’re on the edge of ecological collapse, as well as economic and hydrological collapse with the lake, and that is because of local water overuse in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming,” said Ben Abbott, a professor of ecology at Brigham Young University and executive director of Grow the Flow, a water policy nonprofit.

Around 80% of the lake’s decline is caused by water overuse, with the remaining portion attributable to climate change and drought, Abbott said.

Abbott and other lake experts said this year’s poor snowfall won’t help their efforts.

Climate change is altering weather patterns across the West, warming temperatures, increasing evaporation and reducing snowpack.

Why is the Great Salt Lake drying up?

Although climate change contributes to the lake’s woes, Abbott and other experts said agricultural use is the single-largest factor in drying up the lake. Another is population growth.

The suburbs around Salt Lake City are among the fastest-growing in the country, and Utah is growing much faster than the rest of the nation.

From 2024 to 2025, according to the Census Bureau, Utah’s population grew by 1%, more than Arizona or Nevada, making it the 5th-fastest growing state that year. All those new residents – particularly the lush green lawns many grow in the desert-like climate – are consuming water that would ordinarily flow into the Great Salt Lake.

Farmers growing alfalfa for cattle and horses are the primary drivers of water use, however. And when it comes to convincing farmers to help recharge the lake, Romney said it’s important that everything be voluntary.

“It’s not the same as encouraging people with big lawns to turn down their water,” he said. “When you have that conversation with farmers, it’s their livelihood, not just affecting the color of their lawn, but how much money they are able to bring home for their families.”

The goal would be to provide opportunities for farmers to continue to farm or grow crops, but in a way that reduces water use while realizing economic benefits, he said. “There are a lot of solutions out there that reduce water while maintaining crop yield.”

He sees “massive” opportunities on the residential side, just by getting people to stop overwatering their lawns. Even if people just watered what the lawn needs and not what they think it needs, the region could achieve 200,000 acre-feet of water savings, he said.

How does 2025-2026 snowfall aliffect the lake?

Most of the West saw historically poor snowfall over winter, which has significant implications for residents and businesses that depend on the melting snow for irrigation each summer. But because the water that eventually ends up in the Great Salt Lake itself is too salty for drinking or irrigation, water managers won’t be drawing it down the way they will with other lakes and reservoirs like Lake Powell in southern Utah.

The low snowfall in the valleys around the Great Salt Lake are symptoms of the lake’s chronically low water levels, Abbott said. “Part of the reason why we had such a bad snow year this year is because the lake is so small that we don’t have as much water vapor coming from the lake to support our snow.”

In 1986, when the lake was at a record high, it covered approximately 2,300 square miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In 2022, it covered less than 1,000 square miles. Restoring the lake would increase the rain and snow, Abbott said.

Winter’s low snow could have a short-term impact on how much water flows into the lake, but it’s “so big that it can deal with one or even a number of drought years,” Abbott said. “What it can’t deal with is, we’ve diverted that water year after year after year, over a century.”

What environmental problems are connected to the Great Salt Lake?

Because the lake doesn’t have an outlet, water flowing in eventually evaporates, leaving behind minerals, salt and other substances. Those deposits make the lake saltier when it holds less water, creating a potentially toxic environment for birds or fish.

But salty is a perfect environment for brine shrimp – those tiny little creatures sold as Sea-Monkeys. Harvesting brine shrimp eggs for commercial fish food supports thousands of jobs and provides more than $1.5 billion in revenue annually. State officials say half of all farmed fish worldwide are raised on Utah-harvested brine shrimp eggs.

However, the mineral deposits left behind when lake levels drop and the lakebed dries out and blows away in the wind contribute to air pollution in the region, along with persistent ozone issues. Last year, the Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem metro area ranked 25th worst in the nation for short-term particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association.

What are Great Salt Lake boosters trying to do?

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in fall 2025 announced a plan to top up the lake in advance of the Winter Olympics.

“The Great Salt Lake is our lake, our heritage, and our responsibility,” he said at the time, announcing that $200 million in private donations had already been pledged to help.

Romney said he’s optimistic that businesses and residents, along with the government, can work together to save the lake. One of the coalition’s first big steps was to help the state buy the defunct U.S. Magnesium plant along the shore, keeping 3.26 billion gallons of water in the lake.

Although state officials won the bid, they needed Romney’s Great Salt Lake Rising group to help cover half the immediate cost. Romney called the partnership “one of the largest environmental wins in the last two decades in the West.”

Supporters are encouraged by a building sense of unity they see in Utah to address the lake’s crisis. State legislators recently approved three bills to help the lake. Romney and Abbott said leaders of the state’s predominant religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have taken steps to promote the lake’s restoration. The church has committed water and has adopted irrigation and landscaping measures that reduce use at many of its Utah facilities.

The Great Salt Lake is the largest saline lake in the Northern Hemisphere, and the world’s 8th-largest, said Hannah Freeze, deputy commissioner of the Great Salt Lake. The commissioner’s office coordinates lake improvement efforts among the nonprofits, development community and governments.

“The lake is of hemispheric importance,” Freeze said. “It’s just a huge driver for our economy, our hydrology and the way we live here in Utah.”

How does Trump plan to save the Great Salt Lake?

Federal officials have not offered more specifics on how Trump’s $1 billion plan would work, instead referring reporters to a four-sentence statement in the White House budget proposal that notes any restoration efforts would require a comprehensive federal approach. The funding also requires Congressional approval.

The president himself on March 10 declared that only Trump can save the Great Salt Lake, which he said would be out of water “in a short period of time” unless he stepped in.

“Together, these investments would ensure the Great Salt Lake continues to support global aquaculture, serves as a domestic source of critical minerals, and drives economic activity in Utah and beyond,” Trump’s budget says.

Freeze, the deputy lake commissioner, called Trump’s support “wildly significant.”

Lynn de Freitas, the executive director of FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake, said she’s glad to see decades of work paying off. The nonprofit has been working for more than 30 years to address the environmental conditions and consequences that have caused the lake’s dramatic rise and fall.

Today, the lake averages about 33-feet deep, but can spread out over a larger area with even a little bit of rain, like batter poured into a cake pan, de Freitas said.

She’s waiting to hear what specifics the president’s plan will fund, from potential changes to the railroad causeway that essentially cuts the lake in half, to measures limiting how much sediment flows in. She said, at this point, any and all help is welcome given the long-term forecasts.

“It’s very good news to hear,” she said. “I think there is a recognition that the West is going through some heavy times.”

Trevor Hughes and Dinah Voyles Pulver, national correspondents for USA TODAY, write about the impacts of climate change and weather disasters across the nation, among other news topics. Reach them at thughes@usatodayco.com and dpulver@usatodayco.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Great Salt Lake is dying and fixing it could cost billions