SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is no stranger to discourse surrounding early child literacy.

While the Beehive State generally performs higher than other states in terms of proficiency measures, its leaders still recognize — especially post-COVID — that it’s a real issue that demands serious solutions.

A legislative audit released Tuesday said Utah school teachers and administrators should focus enhanced attention not only on third-graders, the traditional benchmark for early literacy, but also on first-graders, where data starts spotting early literacy challenges in young students.

Then, Utah first lady Abby Cox on Wednesday added to that discussion, speaking with Utah education and policy leaders about the need to meet the literacy crisis head-on and ways Utah has worked to do just that.

“We’re not in the best place that we can be, and we’re a little ahead of the national average; we always have been, but that still isn’t great. We’re in a moment where everybody’s starting to realize this … business community, educators, all of us coming together to realize there’s an issue here,” Cox said.

She mentioned the passage of SB241 during the 2026 legislative session, which committed $25.6 million to literacy coaching, increased the statewide goal to have 80% of third-graders reading at grade-level by 2030 and includes an intervention measure requiring struggling third-graders to repeat the grade — “except in cases of certain good cause exemption.”

“I know we can get 97-plus percent of our kiddos reading on grade level by third grade. We can do this,” Cox said.

She also emphasized the need to get “attention-sucking machines,” AKA cellphones, out of classrooms — something top lawmakers in the state have made strides to emphasize.

July 1 will mark the start of a new Utah law ushered in with the passage of SB69 that essentially places a bell-to-bell ban on cellphones at Utah’s K-12 public schools, unless a school or district opts for a looser policy.

The latest piece of legislation was built upon a similar bill passed during the 2025 session that set a default policy barring students from using their phones during class time.

Despite those restrictions, many lawmakers and educators argued they didn’t go far enough, which led to SB69.

“I don’t think we all know enough about how wonderful this is going to be,” Cox said, adding that data has shown library book checkouts have skyrocketed in schools that have instituted daylong cellphone ban policies.

“I talked to a principal who, after the first day of going bell-to-bell, walked into his high school lunch room, thinking there was a fight, because there was all this chaos and noise … and it was just (students) communicating with each other, playing cards, bringing little games,” Cox said. “It was just beautiful to see, and I think we’re going to see an incredible resurgence as we implement this statewide.”

Washington state is currently experiencing an early-season flare-up of wildfire activity, particularly in the southeastern and central parts of the state, as well as the Upriver Fire, a fast-moving incident East of Spokane.

A combination of an ongoing statewide drought emergency and critical fire weather—including a strong, dry cold front with high wind gusts—has caused several fires to grow rapidly over the last few days.

The most significant other current active blazes include:

Omak Lake Road Fire: Things are moving fast up there right now. As of this afternoon (Wednesday, June 17), the Omak Lake Road Fire has officially merged with the nearby Kartar Fire, creating a massive blaze that has already burned roughly 6,500 acres on Colville Reservation land.
Tule Fire (Yakima Region): Ignited on June 14 south of Toppenish, this is currently the largest wildfire in the state, having ballooned to approximately 20,665 acres with 0% containment. It is burning primarily in dry grass and brush and has been producing a massive smoke plume that is impacting air quality throughout the Columbia River Gorge.
Juniper Dunes Fire (Franklin County): This fire has burned over 10,577 acres and is 10% contained. It has pushed into the challenging, roadless terrain of the Juniper Dunes Wilderness area, making ground access difficult for crews.
A Red Flag Warning remains in effect across much of Eastern Washington due to sustained high winds and low relative humidity, meaning any ongoing fires face an extreme risk of rapid spread, and new starts can ignite easily.

Is smoke from around the state forecasted to arrive in NCW?

Right now, North Central Washington is in the clear. The active wildfire smoke is staying well away from the Wenatchee Valley and surrounding areas, and local air quality remains firmly in the “Good” category.
The main reason for this breaks down to wind direction and fire locations:
Westerly Winds are Our Friend: Strong winds blowing from the west across the Cascades are actively dispersing air over NCW and pushing regional smoke eastward.

Where the Smoke is Heading Instead:

South: Earlier this week, massive plumes from the Tule Fire down in Yakima drifted west/southwest into the Columbia River Gorge and Portland-Vancouver metro.
East: With the current wind shift, smoke from the large fires in the Columbia Basin (like Tule and Juniper Dunes) is now being carried east toward the Tri-Cities, Walla Walla, and the Palouse.
North/Northeast: Up north, the Kartar and Omak Lake fires east of Omak are causing localized downwind smoke impacts, but the smoke is drifting east toward Nespelem and the Coulee Dam rather than dropping south into Chelan or Douglas counties.
Because these breezy, dry conditions are expected to persist through the rest of the week, weather and air quality officials note that intermittent smoke impacts will mostly be a concern for communities situated directly downwind (east) of the active blazes.

Where can I look online to see where wildfire smoke is coming from?

A few years ago, I discovered a Canadian website that not only shows you where wildfire smoke is coming from, but also how the smoke forecast will affect you in the coming days. It comes from the BC Wildfire Service.
Click on this helpful wildfire smoke map and bookmark it.
A couple of things to know about this BC Wildfire Service website.
1) When you first find the smoke map, select the Smoke Forecast button.

The map will come to life, showing where current wind conditions are directing wildfire smoke and where it is forecast to travel in the coming days.
2) Since it’s a service of the BC Wildfire Service, it doesn’t provide any information on fires here in the US, but it does show where smoke is forecast to come from any wildfires north and south of the border.

Where can I find updated information about wildfires in Washington?

The Watch Duty app for any device.
The Washington DNR fire dashboard is active throughout the fire season and shows up-to-date information on wildfires affecting Washington state.
View a full-screen version of the DNR fire dashboard with this link.

CASPER, Wyo. — Casper police believe they know the man who made an unfounded claim about possibly seeing a bomb at Banner-Wyoming Medical Center on the morning of May 19.

In that incident, 20 law enforcement officers responded and the Natrona County Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team did a floor-by-floor search, restricting non-emergency access to the hospital and roadways on the perimeter, according to Detective Andrew Hamilton’s report.

After the case was assigned, Hamilton listened to the recording of the 911 call, which came in at 4:11 a.m. that day. The caller stated, “Listen, I was there, and I think that someone has a bomb there. So I’m just calling in to tell you.”

Hamilton noted that the caller seemed out of breath.

Dispatch asked the caller where he was in the hospital. The caller said, “Just in the main part, anyways.”

The caller hung up after the next question.

Hospital security told Hamilton there hadn’t been any activity in the ER for the three hours prior to the report, and every other entrance would have been locked at that time.

The Casper-Natrona County Public Safety Communications Center logs showed the phone number had no subscriber service, but was still able to call out to 911. The GPS information said the call came from Evansville. Hamilton checked the area, but nothing was located.

The same number had reportedly called 911 eight days earlier, on May 11. That caller said it was accidental. He reportedly identified himself with the first name “Dylan” and confirmed his location to be in Bar Nunn.

A Natrona County Sheriff’s Office deputy went to the residence and contacted several people. One of them, 24-year-old New Mexico resident Caleb Jeremiah Bacallao, reportedly admitted that he’d accidentally called “and didn’t respond to officers because he did not like law enforcement,” the report said.

Hamilton listened to that call recording and noted a strong resemblance in the caller’s voice, as well as the use of “anyways” as a filler word.

Bacallao had no fixed address listed, and the people at the house in Bar Nunn said they’d told him not to come back after the May 11 incident. He was not located elsewhere.

Hamilton’s May 21 warrant request charges Bacallao with falsely reporting an emergency, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Bacallao has pleaded guilty in district court to a felony drug possession charge and two counts of theft over $1,000. In the second theft case, prosecutor Amanda Kirby told the judge Bacallao used a baby stroller to smuggle merchandise out of Walmart.

Bacallao has an agreement for probation in each felony case, with four to seven years suspended on one of them.

Public Defender Steve Mink said at the April 29 hearing that Bacallao had had his bond modified after getting accepted into Adult Drug Court. Part of his bond conditions were to work with the state corrections department on his presentence report and not violate the law.

Bacallao is presumed innocent of the false bomb tip unless found or pleading guilty.

The arrest warrant was issued on June 11.

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