Latest news with #McKenzieRomero
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Yahoo
Gunshots break out in SLC, Utah during ‘No Kings' protest; police urge protesters to disperse
People administer aid to a victim after gunshots rang out during a 'No Kings' protest near 200 S. State Street in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 14, 2025. (Spenser Heaps/Utah News Dispatch) SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The Salt Lake City Police Department is investigating a shooting that occurred during a 'No Kings' protest Saturday night near 200 S. State Street, and officials are urging people to disperse the demonstration in an orderly fashion. 'We can confirm the shooting resulted in one person being critically injured,' the department posted on X at 8:29 p.m. 'The patient has been taken to a hospital with life-threatening injures.' A Utah News Dispatch reporter that was on scene saw the crowd scatter, with some shouting that they heard gunshots. A photojournalist also witnessed what appeared to be a victim lying in the street with several people administering aid. Soon after, the victim was seen being loaded into an ambulance. The police department also said officers had a 'person of interest in custody.' They urged people to leave the demonstration 'safely and orderly.' This story is breaking and will be updated as more information becomes available. Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Dumb flags' and a ‘dumb bill': Utah governor rolls his eyes at SLC's workaround of flag ban
Flags adopted as official banners of Salt Lake City, circumventing the state's ban on most flags being displayed at government buildings and schools, hang outside the Salt Lake City and County building on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. The official city flags include the Salt Lake City flag, pride flag, Juneteenth flag and transgender flag. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch) 'Dumb.' That was the word Utah Gov. Spencer Cox used Tuesday to express his annoyance with a new law that bans certain flags in schools and government buildings while also criticizing Salt Lake City leaders' move to circumvent the ban by adopting pride and other flags symbolizing diversity and inclusion as official city banners. 'They're dumb flags and it was a dumb bill,' Cox said curtly when asked during his monthly PBS Utah news conference about Salt Lake City's response to the flag ban. Salt Lake City adopts new banners, sidestepping pride flag ban Last month, hours before the new flag ban law took effect in Utah, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall unveiled a proposal to adopt three new city flags: a rainbow one symbolizing support for LGBTQ+ communities, a pink and white one for transgender people, and a red and blue one emulating the Juneteenth flag — all with Salt Lake City's official white sego lily symbol. That evening, the City Council voted unanimously to adopt the flags. Cox allowed HB77, the bill Utah lawmakers passed aimed at banning many flags — including pride or LGBTQ+ flags — from schools and all government buildings to become law without his signature. The bill made Utah the first state in the nation to enact such a sweeping flag ban. Though he let it become law, Cox wasn't a fan of HB77. He described it in a letter as 'one of the most divisive bills of the session' and lamented that it didn't result in a compromise. Supporters of the flag ban, sponsored by Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, have argued it was meant to promote 'political neutrality' in government spaces. But critics argued the broad ban would invite free speech litigation while also leaving some Utahns, especially the LGBTQ+ community, feeling unwelcome and erased. Cox could have vetoed the bill, but he indicated in his letter that it would likely have been overridden by the Republican-supermajority Utah Legislature. Instead, he urged lawmakers to 'consider commonsense solutions that address the bill's numerous flaws.' While Cox said he agreed with the 'underlying intent' to bring 'political neutrality to the classroom,' he also wrote 'unfortunately, this bill does not do that.' 'As tired as Utahns are of politically divisive symbols, I think they are also tired of culture war bills that don't solve the problems they intend to fix,' Cox wrote in his letter. On Tuesday, Cox called the ongoing debate over the flag ban and Salt Lake City leaders' response 'ridiculous.' As Sundance leaves, Utah Gov. Cox allows first-in-the-nation flag ban to become law without his pen 'You know, I feel bad for Japanese Americans. I feel bad for Polynesian Americans. I mean, who are we leaving out, here?' Cox said of Salt Lake City's new banners. 'I'm sure they feel great that they got around this dumb law, and they did it with dumb flags. The whole thing's dumb.' Pressed on what he thinks should be done instead, Cox said, 'We should raise the American flag, and let's unify around that. It's a great flag. It represents everyone. And the Legislature doesn't need to be in everybody's business all the time.' Cox let out an exasperated laugh before adding: 'we're living in the dumbest timeline right now. That's all I can say.' In response to a request for comment on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Salt Lake City Mayor's Office said 'we've had an overwhelmingly positive response' from Salt Lake City residents for the newly adopted city banners. Lee, in a post on X responding to Cox's comments on Tuesday, wrote: 'So the bill to stop the divide and get everyone to raise one flag… was dumb?' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Planned Parenthood of Utah shutting down 2 clinics amid Trump funding freeze
A Planned Parenthood clinic in Salt Lake City is pictured on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch) Planned Parenthood of Utah announced on Tuesday that thanks to 'ongoing attacks from the Trump administration,' it's been forced to restructure its operations, which includes closing two clinics — one in northern and one in southern Utah. On May 2, Planned Parenthood said it would be closing its Logan and St. George centers, which served about 4,500 patients last year. Plus, it said it would be cutting staff and increasing prices. 'The painful decisions to close Logan and St. George health centers, reduce PPAU's staff, and increase service fees are forced on us by the Trump administration,' said Sarah Stoesz, interim CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. The nonprofit — which offers affordable sexual and reproductive health care, especially for low-income Utahns — said in a news release Tuesday that it had to make 'several difficult operational decisions,' including the clinic closures, 'to preserve the organization's long-term sustainability and access to care for as many patients as possible.' Planned Parenthood of Utah officials said President Donald Trump's administration's withholding of $2.8 million in Title X funds forced them to take action. In addition to the closures, they said they also had to reduce 'clinical and education staff' and up their prices. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'Unfortunately, without Title X funding, PPAU must also increase the sliding-fee scale for self-pay patients,' the news release said. 'Simultaneously, PPAU will expand telehealth services to help connect patients in remote or rural areas to timely care.' Since 1985, Planned Parenthood of Utah has been the only recipient of Title X funding in the state. More than 26,000 low-income Utahns received low or no-cost services from Planned Parenthood thanks to that grant, according to the nonprofit. Last month, on March 31, the federal Health and Human Services' Office of Population Affairs notified almost one in five Title X grantees across the country that their fourth year of funding (for a five-year period) would be 'temporarily withheld,' according to KFF, a health policy research outlet. That freeze impacted all nine of Planned Parenthood's grantees, plus seven other nonprofits. It's not clear when or if that funding will be unfrozen. As part of that decision, all of Utah's Title X funding was frozen. Planned Parenthood of Utah has eight clinics throughout the state. The Trump administration said the funding freeze was aimed at enforcing executive orders on diversity and immigration. Federal officials gave Utah and the other impacted affiliates '10 days to submit detailed reports showing they don't discriminate in hiring or patient care, but those who did so by the deadline said they have not received a response,' Politico reported Tuesday. The outlet also said the Trump administration did not respond to questions about the status of the funds. 'It's been radio silence,' Stoesz told Politico. 'For some inexplicable reason, they are taking a meat axe to the healthcare system in America.' Since Title X, the nation's only federally-funded family planning program, was enacted in 1970 with bipartisan support, it has helped millions across the country access preventative health care, including birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and cancer screenings. The program's money cannot be used to fund abortions, according to Congress. 'By withholding Title X funding from PPAU, the Trump administration is taking away essential health care from Utahns,' Stoesz said. Utah House passes bill to ban Planned Parenthood educators from schools Still, Stoesz said in a prepared statement Tuesday that the nonprofit is 'committed to making sure that everyone gets the health care they need when they need it, despite efforts by politicians to take it away.' 'We know that we cannot show up for the communities who rely on us without making some challenging decisions now,' she said. By 'consolidating our health care delivery and expanding telehealth, we will be in a better position to continue serving those who rely on us for health care,' Stoesz added. 'While politicians in Washington are taking away people's health care, Planned Parenthood is working tirelessly to keep our patients, families, and communities healthy.' Shireen Ghorbani, interim president of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said the organization has spent decades — 55 years — supporting Utahns and 'future generations.' 'This decision is heartbreaking and extremely difficult but necessary right now, so we can operate a sustainable organization that can continue to provide our community with essential health care and education,' said Ghorbani, who ran an unsuccessful Democratic bid to represent Utah in Congress in 2018. Despite the funding freeze, Ghorbani said Planned Parenthood of Utah will continue to provide services. 'Our mission, coupled with the challenges of this moment — federal dismantling of health care, inflation, stagnant reimbursement rates — requires us to take serious and immediate cost-saving measures to protect the people we serve,' she said. 'During this transition, our clinical staff will ensure our patients continue to get the same high-quality, trusted care they have come to expect.' 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Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Utah international students and ACLU sue DHS over abrupt visa terminations
The Orrin G. Hatch United States Courthouse is pictured in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch) Eight international students in Utah whose permits to study in the country were revoked have sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the 'unilateral' and abrupt termination of their legal status in the country, forcing them to lose school time and jobs while subjecting them to detention and deportation. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit in federal court in Utah on behalf of the students on Friday, asking for a temporary restraining order halting the removal of the individuals' records from Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVIS), a database that tracks their visa compliance and allows them to stay in the country while they complete their studies, or in the case of recent graduates, maintain an early career job. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX That, after more than 50 students were reported to be impacted by status revocations in Utah, many without any type of notice. Some of them didn't have links with protests or a criminal background, generating confusion on campuses. According to the suit, the Department of Homeland Security action violated the students' rights for due process since they didn't get a chance to contest the decision. It also alleges that erasing the SEVIS records was against federal law and violated the Constitution. '(The students) were following all their visa requirements and had committed nothing that should have changed their status,' Aaron Welcher, communication director for the ACLU of Utah, said on Friday. The ACLU declined to release some details about the students to protect their privacy. However, the organization said they are from China, Nigeria, Mexico and Japan and are attending different universities across the state, including the University of Utah, Brigham Young University and Ensign College. A ninth student from BYU-Idaho was also included in the complaint. Cox asks for clarity from Trump administration on revoked student visas The students have been experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety after learning about their status terminations, and are uncertain about their futures, including fears of being labeled a national security or foreign policy threat, forbidding them from reentering the United States or other countries. 'The abrupt and unexplained termination of these students' lawful SEVIS registration is profoundly concerning. These students now face deportation or worse, placing their education and futures in jeopardy,' Tom Ford, staff attorney at the ACLU of Utah, said in the release. 'Coordinated attacks on due process are paving the way for the kind of tyrannical government our Constitution was meant to prevent — and the ACLU of Utah is taking action to stop that abuse of power and keep rights intact for all of us.' The termination of SEVIS records effectively ends the students' permits to be in the country. While the students have the option to apply for reinstatement of status with USCIS, according to the lawsuit, the federal government has informed multiple schools that they will deny all reinstatement applications for students in this specific situation. The new process of removing SEVIS records was also criticized in the suit. 'If ICE believes a student is deportable for having a revoked visa, it has the authority to initiate removal proceedings and make its case in court,' the lawsuit reads. 'However, it cannot misuse SEVIS to circumvent the law, strip students of status, and drive them out of the country without process.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Utah State Board of Education to consider resolution tying DEI programs to communist goals
The Utah State Board of Education building is pictured on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch) Are diversity, equity and inclusion programs explicitly 'attempting to achieve the Soviet Communist goal of actual equality'? That will be part of a resolution the Utah State Board of Education is scheduled to discuss, and perhaps adopt, on Thursday. Five Republican board members signed on to back a proposed resolution to remove DEI from Utah schools — Christina Boggess of Taylorsville, Cole Kelley of Vineyard, Joann Brinton of St. George, Rod Hall of Syracuse, and Emily Green of Cedar City — supporting a draft containing Trump Administration orders and a lot of Soviet Union terminology. 'The Utah State Board of Education directs its employees and subsequent staff, instructional and administrative personnel to immediately disband any and all 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Practices;'' the proposal reads. 'Moreover, the agency shall immediately disband and rescind all associated documents, training, programs, curriculum and policies.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The state school board still doesn't have an official statement on the resolution since the board hasn't discussed it yet, a communications person for the board said, and Boggess, who is coordinating the effort, didn't reply to a request for comment on Tuesday. The move stirred concerns from Utahns who oppose more DEI regulation in the state's education system. Especially, since there's already a Utah law in place that tightly restricts deploying DEI programs. When HB261 became law in the summer of 2024, all public institutions in Utah banned programs that 'promote differential treatment' and may exclude some based on their race, color, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion or gender identity. As anti-DEI law takes effect, students and staffers share 'great sense of loss' 'Of all of the anti-DEI things I've read in politics and in policy, this is the most far reaching and the most frightening,' Sarah Reale, one of two Democrats among the 15 state school board members, said on Tuesday. Citing the recent implementation of that anti-DEI policy, Reale questioned the necessity of such a resolution when Utah schools have spent the last year making substantial cuts to diversity programs and are already in compliance with new federal orders prohibiting DEI. 'We have tons of work to do — helping students' math scores improve, helping find ways to provide teachers with professional development opportunities, finding ways to support parents in the schools.' Reale said. 'So to spend time on something that, to me, is blatantly just inciting fear, and that doesn't help our teachers or students in their learning environment (…) is embarrassing. The resolution is embarrassing.' Utah State Board of Education resolutions aren't binding, they are just approved statements that express the opinion of the board's majority. However, the draft resolution cites a Utah Constitution provision that gives the board control and supervision powers over public schools and programs designated by the Legislature. However, Reale said, whether or not the resolution is enforceable isn't the main issue. 'It's the principle, it's the tone, it's the message that it sends that's hurtful and scary,' she said. Approving these kinds of resolutions, 'feels very Big Brother, very big government,' which, she added, isn't the role of the state school board. The resolution explains how a series of words and programs used in the Soviet Union may relate to DEI efforts — 'коренизация (korenizatsiya), which maps to 'inclusion,' and разнообразие (raznoobrazsiya), which means 'diversity,' in the sense meant by Lenin who described it as 'diversity in form to arrive at unity in content.' DEI at its core is 1920s Soviet Union policy for using ethnic minorities to advance the installation of Communism,' the five board members wrote in the resolution. The authors also criticized the terms 'identity politics' and 'inclusion,' which they define as 'programs, processes or implemented ideas that emphasize including, affirming and protecting counter-hegemonic perspectives at the expense of universal and objective truth.' Those correlations, Reale said, are false analogies. 'You cannot say that words in different languages mean the same thing and cross over with the same definition in English,' she said. 'It feels very McCarthyism. It screams Red Scare. It's frightening language.' The resolution also has DEI as a synonym of Critical Race Theory, an academic discipline examining racial disparities in the country, which has existed for decades but became a hot culture war debate during Trump's first term. 'DEI is not equal to CRT,' Reale said. 'CRT is not found in any of our schools. We have looked and reviewed for anything that could be even a glimmer of CRT taught in our schools in Utah. They don't exist. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
