Alliance for a Better Utah
@betterutah.bsky.social
We're a nonprofit that holds politicians accountable and advocates for progressive policies that make Utah an even better place. https://linktr.ee/betterutah
Enforcement is quietly expanding into parts of Utah that never used to see it, and the numbers puncture the "worst of the worst" talking point: most of those detained have no convictions at all. -> 🔗 KUER: buff.ly/PA3FXZe
St. George ICE flights signal increased southern Utah enforcement activity
Activists in Salt Lake City are tracking flights so people know where their loved ones are headed, and a group in St. George is working on doing the same.
kuer.org
Utah budgeted $16.5 million just to administer these hurdles; that money could keep people covered instead of building a maze designed to make them fall out. 🔗 Utah News Dispatch:
New federal Medicaid rule threatens more coverage on top of Congress’ cuts, Utah advocates say • Utah News Dispatch
Medicaid advocates called on Utah leaders to stand against looming federal cuts and new requirements for Medicaid coverage.
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This is Utah's growth-at-all-costs reflex meeting its most fragile resource. We're told the lake is a top priority, yet project after project asks the public to absorb the water, the waste, and the risk while the details stay fuzzy and the benefits accrue elsewhere.
Concern about data center impacts on Great Salt Lake grows, now for Tooele project’s wastewater • Utah News Dispatch
Concern about data center development in Utah and how it could affect the drying Great Salt Lake is migrating south.
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Recusal rules exist precisely so no one has to wonder whether a judge decided the case before hearing it. Nielsen recused when the conflict involved gerrymandering; consistency should mean recusing when it involves abortion, too.
The Salt Lake Tribune@sltrib.com · 2w agoPlanned Parenthood is asking that Justice John Nielsen be disqualified from hearing arguments in a challenge, citing his previous work on behalf of Pro-Life Utah. Nielsen had declined to recuse himself voluntarily.
As we leave July behind, make sure to check out this Op-Ed by our Senior Policy Advisor Chase Thomas! In this piece, he expresses his wish for America's next 250 years and the Utah that we can choose to become
Voices: America at 250 could use a little more Utah
“My wish for America as she moves into her next 250 years is that she becomes a little more like Utah,” Chase Thomas writes in an op-ed. “Not only the Utah that we are today, but the Utah that we can…
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Transit is a choice about what kind of Utah we're building. Cleaner air, less traffic, and room to grow all run down the same track. The catch is the timeline and a price tag that leans on federal dollars that are anything but guaranteed. 🔗 The Salt Lake Tribune:
Utah’s next FrontRunner trains will offer a ‘higher-quality passenger environment.’ Here’s what they might look like.
Utah transportation officials are looking to buy new trains for FrontRunner. It looks like they'll partner with a Salt Lake City factory for them.
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Utahns don't need another round of optimism—they need water in the lake, and a commissioner willing to hold the state's biggest users accountable. 🔗 Utah News Dispatch:
Utah governor appoints new Great Salt Lake commissioner • Utah News Dispatch
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has picked a new leader tasked with helping save the shrinking Great Salt Lake: Hannah Freeze.
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When coverage vanishes, the costs don't, instead shifting to emergency rooms, delayed diagnoses, and families one illness away from ruin. A state that prides itself on self-reliance should be furious that Washington made being insured unaffordable.
Utah lost more than 63,000 ACA health insurance enrollees after subsidies expired
Utah health advocates warn that higher insurance premiums following the end of Affordable Care Act subsidies have led thousands of residents to lose coverage, and enrollment could decline even…
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"SUWA, @earthjustice.org, and other organizations have publicly stated that they will challenge these reductions in court. "Congress did not give the president the authority to undo national monuments. It was the power to create, not destroy," - Steve Bloch." www.sierraclub.org/sierra/new-f...
A New Fight Over National Monuments Emerges in Utah
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments are once again threatened by a major downsizing
sierraclub.org
Adams blames "dark money" and "personality attacks" for his defeat, but his record—shutting down senators’ speeches on the floor, the Prop 4 end-run around voters—tells a fuller story about a leadership style former colleagues called controlling.
Outgoing Senate president reflects on his loss and the future — for himself and the Legislature • Utah News Dispatch
After eight years as serving as one of Utah’s most powerful Republican state leaders, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams unexpectedly lost his primary. In an interview, he reflected on his loss, his…
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Send a message to Sen. Curtis and ask him to Reject the SAVE Act Backdoor in the Reconciliation Bill: buff.ly/sdlghyU What happened, and why it matters in Utah ->
Contact Your State Senator
Enter your personal information in the form to automatically find your elected officials and write them regarding an issue that concerns you and deserves action. You can use this form to contact your…
actionnetwork.org
Utahns showed up "motivated by love" because they understand what Washington keeps forgetting: you cannot extract your way to a legacy.
‘Motivated by love’: Utahns find strength in numbers during protest of Trump’s monument slashing
Nearly a thousand people Utahns gathered across the state to protest the loss of protections for nearly three million acres of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
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From @sltrib.com, on the removal of the seals of five tribal nations from the remaining Bears Ears National Monument signage. Davina Smith–Idjesa, co-chair of the Bears Ears Coalition is quoted in the piece: www.sltrib.com/news/environ...
Days after slashing Bears Ears, Trump administration removes tribal seals from monument signs
President Donald Trump shrank Bears Ears by 91% and disbanded a tribal-led commission. Now, the BLM is removing tribal seals from remaining monument signs.
sltrib.com
Over 1000 people turned out around the state yesterday to protest Trump's reduction of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments. When UT Gov Cox and Senator Mike Lee say locals don't support the monuments, think of these images.
From Ogden to Bluff, Utahns all over the state showed up to stand with Tribes and support Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments on Monday. Check out photos from the rallies in our photo essay below.
"We're powered by love": Utahns gather across the state to show support for national monuments
Rallies held from Ogden to Bluff illustrate broad support for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase in Utah
westwise.substack.com
Public debate is healthy. False accusations are not. We brought this case because our names, our organizations, and our work matter. Expressing concerns about an issue affecting our communities should never result in being falsely accused of acting on behalf of a foreign government.
‘Shark Tank’ Star Is Sued by Opponents He Claimed Were Foreign Agents
Kevin O’Leary, the celebrity investor, accused opponents of his proposed data center near the Great Salt Lake of being agents of China. Now they want compensation.
nytimes.com
Power changing hands is an opening—Utahns should use it to demand better.
Utah News Dispatch@utahnewsdispatch.com · 2w agoOne longtime senator is vying to take outgoing Senate President Stuart Adams’ place: Sen. Evan Vickers, who served as majority leader for years before he lost that position to Sen. Kirk Cullimore in 2025. #utpol utahnewsdispatch.com/2026/07/20/w...
Hunters and anglers expected that President Donald Trump would shrink two Utah national monuments again, but they didn't expect fact-checking him on whether hunting and fishing is allowed in the monuments.
Hunting and fishing group blasts ‘blatant misinformation’ in monument debate • Utah News Dispatch
A hunter and angler group is blasting ‘blatant misinformation’ in the downsizing of two Utah national monuments.
utahnewsdispatch.com
The man who killed a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband last year was sentenced to life in prison. That tragedy happened more than 400 days ago, and Utah Sen. Mike Lee still hasn't apologized for making jokes about the violence on social media.
An F on air quality, child care, health care access, and a minimum wage still frozen at the federal floor is not an image problem to be spun away. It is a set of choices the Legislature makes and remakes every session. 🔗 Deseret News:
How Utah ranked on a list of worst places to live
New report finds Beehive State earns high rankings for business environment but not so much on quality of life metrics
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The theory that building at the high end eventually trickles down to everyone else is the same bet Utah has been placing for a decade, while prices climbed out of reach. buff.ly/nBYekJI
As Utah’s largest public development takes shape, The Point makes a major push for housing — but don’t plan on it being affordable
In a pivot from the project's original plan, The Point is Draper is looking to build lots of new housing.
sltrib.com
This letter is one of 50 sent nationwide as part of a broader effort to pull state voter files into federal hands, and Utah is right to treat a threat of criminal charges against its own election officials as coercion rather than help. 🔗 KSL: buff.ly/0V70cGN
Utah asks DOJ not to interfere with state elections after it threatened Lt. Gov. Henderson
Top Utah officials asked the U.S. Department of Justice not to interfere with state elections after the agency threatened Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson with prosecution over election administration last…
ksl.com
Utah's delegation has spent years insisting the monuments were too big and locked people out. That claim fell apart at the signing table, where officials told the president you cannot hunt, fish, or even walk on the land. That is false. -> 🔗 Utah News Dispatch: buff.ly/WncOmXA
President Trump shrinks Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — again • Utah News Dispatch
President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders on Monday to again shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah — this time more dramatically, by about 3…
utahnewsdispatch.com
No one setting American foreign policy should be able to personally profit from the foreign governments on the other side of the table. buff.ly/zUs29hb
Contact Your State Senator
Enter your personal information in the form to automatically find your elected officials and write them regarding an issue that concerns you and deserves action. You can use this form to contact your...
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The honest response to masked men carrying upside-down and Confederate flags through the capital is to condemn them, full stop. 🔗 KSL: buff.ly/OZWiaui
Mike Lee blames 'leftists,' 'Democrats' for white nationalist march on Fourth of July
Sen. Mike Lee blamed
ksl.com
In the courtroom, due process is being squeezed until it barely functions, with dockets stacked so high that a single missed notice becomes a deportation order. 🔗 KUER: buff.ly/ILyJ9ZX
Utah’s immigration court is speeding up hearings — and deportations
KUER spent an afternoon in the courtroom to observe larger hearings and gauge when immigrants were ordered deported for not showing up to court.
kuer.org
A Republican lieutenant governor threatened with prosecution by a Republican administration for following the law is genuinely insane. 🔗 KSL: buff.ly/kpktgZI
DOJ threatens Utah's lieutenant governor over election administration
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said she received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice Tuesday threatening her with criminal prosecution over her administration of state elections.
ksl.com
For nearly two million dollars of public money, Utahns got a losing effort to undo something they voted for, argued by out-of-state lawyers at rates the state's own attorneys don't charge. 🔗 Utah Political Watch: buff.ly/O4uUsMj
Utah lawmakers hired a D.C. law firm to defend their repeal of Prop. 4. The tab: $1.86 million.
Utah taxpayers paid Consovoy McCarthy $1.86 million to defend the Legislature's repeal of Prop. 4's anti-gerrymandering rules, and lost at nearly every turn.
utahpolitics.news
Legislative leaders say they won't put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to undermine voter initiatives and redistricting, choosing instead to let the Prop 4 litigation play out. 🔗 Utah News Dispatch: buff.ly/3xZvjRZ
Utah lawmakers now won’t pursue constitutional amendment to change ballot initiative power • Utah News Dispatch
Though previously Utah’s Republican state leaders said they were likely to pursue another attempt to change the Utah Constitution to ensure Utah voters’ ballot initiative power was “co-equal” with…
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After the Supreme Court voted 6-3 last week to strike down President Trump's order limiting birthright citizenship, Sen. Mike Lee called for a constitutional amendment to end it, describing automatic birthright citizenship as "suicidal." 🔗 The Salt Lake Tribune: buff.ly/2iiVpoU
After Supreme Court defeat, Sen. Mike Lee pushes to end birthright citizenship
Birthright citizenship is a right guaranteed in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court has reaffirmed. Not happy with that ruling, Sen. Mike Lee is seeking a constitutional amendment to…
sltrib.com