Utah
Utah tip line flooded with false reports of trans bathroom law violations
Transgender activists have flooded a Utah tip line created to alert state officials to possible violations of a new bathroom law with thousands of hoax reports in an effort to shield trans residents and their allies from any legitimate complaints that could lead to an investigation.
The onslaught has led the state official tasked by law with managing the tip line, the Utah auditor John Dougall, to bemoan getting stuck with the cumbersome task of filtering through fake complaints while also facing backlash for enforcing a law he had no role in passing.
“No auditor goes into auditing so they can be the bathroom monitors,” Dougall said on Tuesday. “I think there were much better ways for the legislature to go about addressing their concerns, rather than this ham-handed approach.”
In the week since it launched, the online tip line already has received more than 10,000 submissions, none of which seem legitimate, he said. The form asks people to report public school employees who knowingly allow someone to use a facility designated for the opposite sex.
Utah residents and visitors are required by law to use bathrooms and changing rooms in government-owned buildings that correspond with their birth sex. As of last Wednesday, schools and agencies found not enforcing the new restrictions can be fined up to $10,000 a day for each violation.
Although their advocacy efforts failed to stop Republican lawmakers in many states from passing restrictions for trans people, the community has found success in interfering with the often ill-conceived enforcement plans attached to those laws.
Within hours of its publication on Wednesday night, trans activists and community members from across the US already had spread the Utah tip line widely on social media. Many shared the spam they had submitted and encouraged others to follow suit.
Their efforts mark the latest attempt by advocates to shut down or render unusable a government tip line that they argue sows division by encouraging residents to snitch on one another. Similar portals in at least five other states also have been inundated with hoax reports, leading state officials to shut some down.
In Virginia, Indiana, Arizona and Louisiana, activists flooded tip lines created to field complaints about teachers, librarians and school administrators who may have spoken to students about race, LGBTQ+ identities or other topics lawmakers argued were inappropriate for children. The Virginia tip line was taken down within a year, as was a tip line introduced in Missouri to report gender-affirming healthcare clinics.
Erin Reed, a prominent trans activist and legislative researcher, said there is a collective understanding in the trans community that submitting these hoax reports is an effective way of protesting against the laws and protecting trans people who might be targeted.
“There will be people who are trans that go into bathrooms that are potentially reported by these sorts of forms, and so the community is taking on a protective role,” Reed said. “If there are 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 form responses that are entered in, it’s going to be much harder for the auditor’s office to sift through every one of them and find the one legitimate trans person who was caught using a bathroom.”
The auditor’s office has encountered many reports that Dougall described as “total nonsense”, and others that he said appear credible at first glance and take much longer to filter out. His staff has spent the last week sorting through thousands of well-crafted complaints citing fake names or locations.
Despite efforts to clog the enforcement tool they had outlined in the bill, the sponsors, state representative Kera Birkeland and state senator Dan McCay, said they remain confident in the tip line and the auditor’s ability to filter out fake complaints.
“It’s not surprising that activists are taking the time to send false reports,” Birkeland said. “But that isn’t a distraction from the importance of the legislation and the protection it provides women across Utah.”
The Republican had pitched the policy as a safety measure to protect the privacy of women and girls without citing evidence of threats or assaults by trans people against them.
McCay said he hadn’t realized activists were responsible for flooding the tip line. The Republican said he does not plan to change how the law is being enforced.
LGBTQ+ rights advocates also have warned that the law and the accompanying tip line give people license to question anyone’s gender in community spaces, which they argue could even affect people who are not trans.
Their warnings were amplified earlier this year when a Utah school board member came under fire – and later lost her re-election bid – for publicly questioning the gender of a high school basketball player she wrongly assumed was transgender.
SALT LAKE CITY — Insurance fraud costs Americans over $300 billion every year — and it’s growing.
In Utah, state investigators said half of their insurance fraud cases involve automobiles. These scams not only slow down legitimate claims, but they also jack up the premiums we pay for insurance.
“We’ve seen a steady increase over the years,” said Armand Glick, who oversees the Utah Insurance Department’s Fraud Division. “Since 2022, we’ve had an 80% increase in our referrals to our division for investigation.”
While staged accidents where criminals crash into unsuspecting drivers to make false claims do happen in Utah, Glick said most of the fraud is staged on paper in the form of false reports.
“They swerved to avoid a deer or an animal and struck a guard rail, or a hit and run in a grocery store parking lot,” Glick said of two common schemes his investigators hear.
But the biggest scheme they see, he says, is “crash and buy.” That’s where uninsured drivers buy a policy just after a crash.
“They’ll file the claim and they’ll represent that they were involved in the accident after they were insured,” said Glick.
Another common scheme involves drivers trying to lower their rates by lying about where the car is located, whether it’s used for ridesharing, or who regularly drives it. And one of the biggest increases they’ve seen lately is windshield fraud. That’s where people get insurance to cover a windshield that was already broken.
“Windshields no longer cost $300,” he said, “but they’re closer to $1,200 to $1,500.”
Whether it’s windshield fraud, a “crash and buy” or a staged collision, gaming the system causes everyone’s rates to go up.
“We pay $700 to $1,000 a year due to insurance fraud,” said Glick.
While staged accidents aren’t as common in Utah as others, it’s still possible to get caught up in one. Glick says if the other driver doesn’t want police called and insists on settling in cash that is a huge red flag.
Call police, take pics of everything. That includes photos of passengers of the car. Fraudsters like to add passengers in their claim.
Other reading: More from Matt Gephardt and the KSL Investigators
In a victory at the Utah Democratic Party Convention, Dr. Kent Stewart Udell has secured the Democratic nomination for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. His message, he said, centered on integrity, science, practical solutions and bridging political divides.
Udell will spend the coming months meeting with voters across the district via listening sessions, town halls and community service projects. He will be in Park City Monday, and his first road tour will be in Southern Utah May 8-18.
“I’m both honored and humbled by the faith the delegates have placed in my candidacy” said Udell. “Our goal is to run a creative, energetic campaign that excites Democratic voters, engages new voters, and offers a place for disillusioned Independents, Libertarians, and Republicans to land. I entered this race because I feel what so many Americans are feeling right now — the grief and frustration of watching too many leaders lose sight of their commitments to the Constitution, the rule of law, and to a nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We deserve better. We need a representative who honors those commitments and stands up for truth, integrity, competence, and compassion.”
Udell, an engineer, scientist and educator with a history of working on water and land remediation problems, will now shift his campaign to the general election. He said he is focused on addressing the issues that matter most to Utah families, including cost of living, water security, protecting public lands and restoring accountability in Washington.
With data centers moving front and center in Utah politics including in CD3, Udell said he is calling for an immediate moratorium:
“Utah cannot afford data centers, especially without transparency and public input. In a desert state, water is life. It belongs to our communities, our farms, our families and our future, not to the highest bidder. Putting profit over people cannot continue to be the ‘Utah way.’ At some point, it will devour all of us.”
As the general election season begins, Udell emphasized his commitment to earning the support of all voters, regardless of party.
“You don’t have to agree with me on everything to know that I’ll show up, listen and work hard for you,” Udell added. “Utah deserves a representative who is accountable to the people here, not to political parties or special interests.”
Udell has promised not to accept donations from corporations or corporate PACS.
“When you take money from corporations you inevitably owe them favors and special backroom deals,” said Udell’s campaign manager, Cherise Udell. “Our campaign is powered by the people for the people, and they are the ones Kent will represent. This should be the case for all elected officials.”
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WEST JORDAN, Utah (KUTV) — A 25-year-old motorcyclist was killed in a crash after colliding with a vehicle in West Jordan.
According to the West Jordan Police Department, the crash happened Sunday evening at Banquet Avenue and Cougar Lane. Officers responded to reports of the crash just after 8:10 p.m.
When first responders arrived, they attempted life-saving measures, but the motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officials said the driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and cooperated with the investigation. They were not transported to a hospital.
All northbound and southbound traffic between 6400 South and 6600 South was closed on Cougar Lane. Traffic on Banquet Avenue approaching Cougar Lane was also closed.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
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