Latest news with #KyleDunphey
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Our prayers were answered': After 25 years of advocacy, a small Navajo community has water
The Navajo community of Westwater is pictured on Friday, April 25, 2025. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch) Three weeks ago, the taps rumbled to life in Thomas Chee's home. For the first time in his life, water sputtered through his faucet. 'Oh, it was so beautiful,' said 47-year-old Chee on Friday. 'Boy, it just hit me. It hit hard, and I just broke down.' Chee is one of the few dozen residents of Westwater, Utah, a small Navajo community in the southwest corner of the state that for years lacked water and electricity. Chee, who currently serves as the community president, has called Westwater home for his entire life. He, along with his neighbors, have used outhouses, hauled water with tanks on the back of their trucks, relied on solar electricity and lit kerosene lamps. With his grandmother, Chee would often walk down to a spring in a ravine near his home to get drinking water. Until now. For 25 years, residents have been trying to get water. In March, Chee said, 'our prayers were answered.' On Friday, Westwater residents celebrated alongside Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, Utah GOP Rep. Mike Kennedy and other lawmakers, bureaucrats and tribal leaders. 'As president, my priority has always been water, water, water,' said Nygren, who took office in 2023. 'I grew up without running water. I know what it's like to haul water. I know what it takes, it's tough, it's something that our kids and our relatives shouldn't be going through.' Bringing water to Westwater was part of a larger, ongoing effort to expand access to water in Navajo communities. Estimates vary, but somewhere between 30% to 40% of homes on the Navajo Nation, the country's largest Indian reservation, lack running water. That's despite Lake Powell and the Colorado River, which supplies drinking water to 40 million people across seven states and Mexico, running along the northern border of the reservation. But those communities are mostly rural, tucked away in some of the most remote parts of the lower 48 states. Westwater is not. The same ravine where Chee and his family got their drinking water separates Westwater and Blanding, home to about 3,100 people. In minutes, a Westwater resident can get to Blanding's main street, which has a hospital, a grocery store, a city hall, bank, and a handful of cafes, shops and restaurants. Utah State University's campus in Blanding is visible from Westwater. 'I was shocked with how close this community was to Blanding,' Henderson told Utah News Dispatch Friday, describing her first visit to Westwater. 'This is a community right here, next to a city. So to me, this challenge was something that I felt was worth taking on.' Expanding basic utilities to Westwater was less of a logistical issue — which is often the case for the remote communities that dot the Navajo Nation — and more of a jurisdictional issue. The land has long been home to Navajo families, and was purchased by the Navajo Nation in 1986. However, it's 'fee simple' land, not reservation land, meaning the residents pay taxes to San Juan County. That's different from untaxed 'trust' land, which makes up most American reservations and is under full control of indigenous people. For 25 years, as Westwater residents lobbied for access to water, they were stuck in jurisdictional limbo, caught between the Navajo Nation, the city, county, and state. 'No one really took ownership, no one took responsibility for the people out here. It wasn't really the tribe's responsibility, it wasn't the county, or the city's responsibility. So I decided it was the state's responsibility,' Henderson said. Henderson, who gave Westwater a shoutout during her inaugural address earlier this year, said she made improving access to water and electricity a priority. In 2020, the Utah Legislature appropriated $500,000 to electrify Westwater, matched by a $500,000 donation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Two years later, Westwater tied into Blanding's grid and lights flickered on in the 29 lots that make up the small community. That same year, Blanding struck a deal with the state of Utah, the Navajo Nation, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and San Juan County to bring culinary water to Westwater. The Navajo Nation chipped in $5.5 million, and Utah state leaders allocated $3.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds, the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden in 2021. Blanding city leaders changed its ordinances to allow for a well to be drilled, and a coalition of nonprofits, with help from the county, helped raise funds and coordinate the project. State officials helped Blanding build an arsenic treatment plant and drill a new well near the spring that divides the city and Westwater. For the last couple years, crews have been building a pipeline into the community. By late March, every Westwater resident had potable water flowing through their taps. 'This project is a testament to what can happen when people come together,' said Logan Monson, the former mayor of Blanding who now serves as a Republican lawmaker in the Utah House. 'It is my hope today that this water project will stand as a symbol, a symbol that every person matters. That every community deserves to be seen.' Now that the residents have water and electricity, leaders have high hopes for the small city. 'Moving forward, the Westwater community is not going to have those struggles, so that they can focus on some of the things that matter. What else can life provide you when you set yourself up,' Nygren said. Chee, standing in the creek where he once helped his grandmother bring water back to their home, echoed the Navajo Nation president. 'I believe we will thrive. Life has gotten easier,' he said. 'We don't have to worry about hauling, or looking for water. I believe my community will be more productive.' Chee spoke over the soft trickle of the spring, pausing as his eyes watered. 'For many years, we relied on this beautiful water right here. It sustained life. Sorry to be emotional, but water is a real precious resource,' he said. 'It's been a long time coming for my people to have this infrastructure.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Utah to receive millions through another opioid settlement
Utah Attorney General Derek Brown talks to reporters during his first press conference at the Utah State Capitol Building on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch) Utah will continue to see millions more in funds secured through litigation with companies that manufactured or sold opioids, after a new settlement was announced on Monday with the global pharmaceutical company Mylan Inc. According to the Utah Attorney General's Office, Mylan 'deceptively marketed' its opioid products — which included fentanyl patches, oxycodone, hydrocodone and buprenorphine products — to doctors as less prone to abuse. That's particularly the case with the fentanyl patch, the office said. As a result, the attorney general's office claims doctors overprescribed Mylan's products, which ultimately ended up on the illegal drug market. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Mylan merged with Upjohn, Pfizer's off-patent medicine business, in 2020 to form Viatris. Its brands and products include Epipen, Viagra, Xanax and Zoloft. Viatris will join a growing list of pharmaceutical manufacturers, retailers, marketing companies and more — including UnitedHealth Group, Express Scripts, Purdue Pharma, Kroger, Johnson & Johnson, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and McKinsey & Company — that have either been sued by various attorneys general, or agreed to large settlements in the last several years. Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said Mylan 'was aware that its opioid products, including fentanyl patches, were especially prone to abuse, and did not inform consumers of that issue.' Split among 15 states, including Utah, Viatris will pay about $335 million over the next nine years, money that will go toward law enforcement training and equipment, recovery programs and harm reduction efforts, including purchasing the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. Fentanyl is the most common drug found in overdose deaths in Utah Attorneys general from California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, and Virginia negotiated alongside Brown for the settlement, while coordinating with Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, and Vermont. Those annual payments will vary between $27.5 and $40 million each, and will be allocated based on each state's 'level of participation in the settlement,' according to a statement from Viatris. In the statement, Viatris said its presence in the U.S. opioid market is 'very small,' and that the settlement 'is in no way an admission of wrongdoing or liability.' Viatris said it will 'further focus on its mission of empowering people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life, advance its efforts to address unmet patient needs through an expanded innovative portfolio and continue to serve approximately 1 billion patients annually with its diverse portfolio of medicines.' The company pointed to its manufacturing of a generic, injectible version of naloxone, and other generic buprenorphine and naloxone products used for opioid treatment and recovery. The Viatris settlement will add to the roughly $81 million secured by Utah so far from opioid settlements. According to legislative budget records, Utah expects to see nearly $495 million from opioid settlements over the next 17 years — about $248.7 million will go to the state government, and $242.3 million will be dished out to counties. The largest settlement is from the 'Big 3 Distributors,' according to state records, which are Cardinal, McKesson, and Amerisource Bergen — industry giants that, according to The New York Times, distribute about 90% of the country's drug and medical supplies. That settlement amounts to more than $219 million that will flow to the state and counties over the next 17 years. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Who is driving Utah's energy future?
Thelma Whiskers of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe speaks in opposition of the White Mesa Uranium Mill during a protest outside the Utah Capitol Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch) Our state leaders are calling for Utah to become the 'nation's nuclear hub.' Gov. Spencer Cox has claimed that his Operation Gigawatt 'puts Utah in a position to lead the country in energy development, secure our energy future, and remain a net energy exporter while diversifying and expanding our energy resources.' Deciding what energy technologies to pursue in a state involves weighing risks and benefits and determining what risks a community is willing to accept. This year, Utah's legislature passed HB249, which will create a nuclear energy consortium to guide the state's plans for nuclear energy. However, in the process of passing this bill, we have yet to see a robust discussion of the risks of nuclear energy or meaningful engagement of communities that this development will most impact. While new technology may present new opportunities, we must consider the critical risks of investing so much in nuclear energy. The dangers of nuclear power before and after its operation go beyond the risk of a meltdown and could have devastating consequences for our state. The uranium boom in the '50s and '60s had devastating impacts on Utah's people and lands, as well as for uranium miners in Navajo Nation. The largest nuclear accident in the U.S. happened in 1979 at the United Nuclear Corporation's Church Rock uranium mill site in New Mexico. A dam broke and released radiation into the Rio Puerco, contaminating drinking water, aquifers, and soil on Diné (Navajo) lands. Uranium mining and milling are not just a part of Utah's past. Today, the country's last remaining conventional uranium mill is near Blanding, Utah. The mill is owned by Energy Fuels, a company that specializes in uranium and rare earth mineral mining and milling. Recently, the mill accepted uranium from the newly reopened La Sal mine complex in Utah and the Pinyon Plain Mine near the Grand Canyon. Indigenous communities around the region, including the Havasupai Nation, Diné communities, and Ute Mountain Ute Nation, have spoken out on how the nuclear fuel chain disproportionately impacts their communities and lands. Milling, often overlooked, is a critical part of nuclear energy production. Like the history of nuclearism in this state, this mill disproportionately impacts Indigenous communities, in this case, the local White Mesa Ute community. Community members from White Mesa have fought for years against the mill's contamination of their air and water and desecration of sacred lands. White Mesa Concerned Community, a grassroots group, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe held a rally this fall at the state capitol. Yolanda Badback, leader of White Mesa Concerned Community, called on the state to regulate and shut down the mill. She stated, 'I want my community to have good air quality and good water resources. We live there, and that's our homeland. And I will never leave my homeland for anything.' State leaders have failed to listen to and represent the members of their state most impacted by the nuclear industry today. Just this fall, state legislators took a field trip down to the mill to see it for themselves. This visit allowed Energy Fuels direct access to the eyes and ears of state legislators. That same privilege was not offered to those just 5 miles down the road in White Mesa who are most impacted by its operation. Hearing from impacted communities adds a needed layer to discussions about the safety of nuclear energy, including its entire lifecycle. Nuclear power's lifecycle begins with uranium mining and ends with nuclear waste storage. State leaders claim that nuclear energy is clean and safe. For example, at the committee hearing for HB249, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Carl Albrecht, insisted that new nuclear technology was safe and highly regulated. Yet, the state of Utah recently joined a lawsuit to sue the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reduce regulations on small-modular nuclear reactors. These regulations are necessary to protect our state, public health, and future generations. Will the state also seek to reduce regulations on uranium mining and milling, transport, and waste storage? Decisions we make about our energy future must be informed by the real lived experiences of members of our community, especially those who bear the brunt of its impacts. As state leaders seek to grow nuclear power in the state, we, as Utahns, must demand that our legislators not only listen to those most impacted but also evaluate the risks of nuclear energy, especially those within the entire lifecycle.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Coalition gets green light to start gathering signatures in effort to overturn union bill
Hundreds of teachers gather at the Utah State Capitol to protest a bill that strips public unions of their ability to collectively bargain on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch) An effort to overturn a controversial bill that strips Utah's public unions of the right to collectively bargain got the initial green light on Monday. According to the Utah Lt. Governor's Office, a coalition of union advocates called Protect Utah Workers finalized their documents Monday morning, the first step in putting together a referendum on HB267, which was signed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in February. On March 15, the coalition will begin the daunting task of collecting enough signatures to meet the threshold for a referendum, where voters can choose whether to overturn the law during a general election. Per Utah Code, once the first signature is collected, organizers have 30 days to gather signatures from 8% of the state's total active voters, and in 15 of Utah's 29 Senate districts. Massive crowd descends on Utah Capitol calling for governor to veto union bill The coalition is shooting to gather about 200,000 signatures, which is above the minimum threshold, but leaves room for error if some of the signatures are deemed invalid by the lieutenant governor's office. They plan on submitting the signature packets by April 16. By late June, the coalition says it will know whether the effort was successful. Collecting 200,000 signatures by April 16 averages out to more than 6,000 signatures each day, a monumental task. But on Monday, members of the coalition said they already have 1,200 volunteers ready to get to work, the latest example of the large-scale opposition to HB267, arguably the most controversial bill to pass this legislative session. If they are successful, the coalition says a question asking whether HB267 should be overturned will appear on the November ballot. The Utah Education Association, which represents about 18,000 teachers in the state and was one of the most vocal opponents to the bill, says the effort is a result of lawmakers not listening to constituents. 'Our legislators and the governor did not listen to the huge public outcry against HB267 and we believe that we the people should be able to weigh in and have our voice heard,' said Renee Pinkney, president of the association, last week. The bill restricts public unions, which represent teachers, police officers, firefighters, municipal workers and other public employees, from negotiating terms of employment. For instance, a teachers union would no longer be able to negotiate with a school district. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Legislative leaders were behind the bill — which prohibits collective bargaining for public employees including teachers, firefighters, police officers, municipal workers and others — despite it receiving broad bipartisan pushback, narrowly clearing the Senate with a 16-13 vote on final approval. Even Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said he didn't like the bill, despite signing it late on Valentines Day. 'Didn't love the bill, thought we had a compromise, thought that was done, and then it fell apart at the last minute,' Cox told Utah News Dispatch on Friday. 'Just because I don't love a bill doesn't mean I veto it. I'm going to sign 100 bills that I don't love.' And although he voted and advocated for the bill, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, welcomed the challenge. 'They're pushing back on us. That's part of the process,' Adams said. 'We welcome that, even though we may not like it, we actually welcome it as part of the process. We'll see how successful it is.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Coalition of public employees will try to overturn controversial union bill through referendum
Hundreds of teachers gather at the Utah State Capitol to protest a bill that strips public unions of their ability to collectively bargain on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch) A coalition of teachers, police officers, nurses and other public employees will attempt to overturn a controversial bill signed by the governor last month that will ban Utah's public labor unions from collective bargaining. On Wednesday, the coalition — called Protect Utah Workers — announced its intent to file an application for a referendum that seeks to overturn HB267, which Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed on Feb. 14. The bill takes effect July 1. Sponsored by Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, and Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, HB267 bans public unions — which represent teachers, police officers, firefighters, municipal workers and other public employees — from collective bargaining, the process where unions meet with employers to negotiate terms of employment. New poll suggests controversial Utah union bill is unpopular among voters The sponsors say the bill was meant to protect taxpayer dollars while giving all public employees a voice, not just union members. Labor advocates were staunchly opposed, worried it takes away public employees' ability to negotiate and could lead to unsafe working conditions and stagnant wages. Thousands of people signed petitions, joined protests and spoke during committee meetings against the bill. But on Feb. 6, the Senate narrowly gave it final passage after a 16-13 vote. 'The Legislature did not listen to their constituents when it came to HB267. There was overwhelming opposition to this bill and they went ahead and it was passed anyway,' said Brad Asay, president of AFT Utah, which represents faculty and staff in public and higher education. 'Our next choice is to do a referendum so we can give the people of Utah a choice.' Per Utah code, a citizen-led ballot referendum can overturn a bill as long as the bill received less than two-thirds support in both the House and Senate. HB267, which received bipartisan opposition, did not pass with a two-thirds majority. A referendum's sponsors need to collect signatures from 8% of the state's total active voters, and in 15 of Utah's 29 Senate districts. The signature packets need to be submitted to the Utah Lt. Governor's Office at least 30 days after the first signature is collected, or 40 days after the legislative session ends. The Utah Education Association, a union that represents 18,000 educators in the state, is shooting to gather 141,000 signatures. The lieutenant governor's office will then verify the signatures — assuming the coalition follows state code, ballot language will be crafted for the next general election, where voters will decide whether or not to overturn HB267. It's a difficult process that requires immense organizing. Referendums often fail, including a 2023 attempt where voters tried to repeal the law that created Utah's new state flag but didn't collect enough signatures. But the coalition is confident it has the support. The Utah Education Association has done this before, overturning an education voucher program in 2007 through a referendum that received 60% support. 'We have volunteers and people are just chomping at the bit. I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me,' said Renee Pinkney, president of the association. 'We had a lot of people who opposed HB267, we had a lot of our members who were calling for a referendum and this is the next step in the process.' Polling from RABA Research — a bipartisan polling firm founded in 2016 whose name stands for 'red America, blue America' — found that about 80% of respondents opposed HB267, while 78% were hoping Cox would veto it. The coalition plans to officially apply for a referendum on Monday. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
