Utah
Draft Utah ethnic studies recommendations lack specifics, conform to anti-DEI law
![Draft Utah ethnic studies recommendations lack specifics, conform to anti-DEI law Draft Utah ethnic studies recommendations lack specifics, conform to anti-DEI law](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/175303b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x2625+0+708/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F76%2Fd4%2Fcf4e9104472ca320a893a39521db%2F20240829-mh-dsc08904.jpg)
After almost two years of meetings and listening sessions, the Utah Legislature’s Ethnic Studies Commission drafted its first list of potential recommendations. The draft recommendations, however, don’t offer a lot of specifics.
Ethnic studies were required to be incorporated into Utah’s K-12 core standards by a 2022 law. However, the new proposed recommendations focus mainly on staying in line with HB 261, the state’s recent anti-diversity, equity and inclusion law. It prohibits DEI hiring practices and offices aligned with identity at state-run universities, public schools and government entities.
Beyond those impacts, it has also had a cooling effect on discussions of race and identity.
“The Utah State Board of Education should carefully consider the use of ethnic studies in core standards and curriculum to ensure a narrowly tailored incorporation of age-appropriate opportunities that naturally arise through education without pretextual effort in courses, programs, or activities where ethnic studies is not a primary focus,” reads the first suggestion to the state board, which will ultimately be in charge of incorporating ethnic studies in public school standards.
Some commission members said this means including ethnic studies in topics like history but not requiring it in subjects like math or science.
The second recommendation directs the public education system to “incorporate curriculum of people and cultures that reflect the state’s various demographics without commentary that seeks to violate the neutrality standard established in H.B. 261.”
The drafted guidance was presented at the group’s first public meeting of 2024 on Aug. 29. The commission will continue workshopping the recommendations and vote on them in the future, potentially at an October meeting.
Throughout the commission’s duration it has repeatedly struggled to cohesively define ethnic studies or a vision for how it should be incorporated in schools, and the anti-DEI law has complicated that further.
At the meeting, co-chair Republican Sen. Kirk Cullimore said the law put “parameters” on their work and “colors what those recommendations can be at this point.”
Rep. Ryan Wilcox, the other Republican co-chair, told KUER after the meeting that he doesn’t know if the law changed “what any of the recommendations would have ultimately been, because I think the commission was already headed that direction.”
Democratic commission members Reps. Angela Romero and Sandra Hollins both said they were confused by parts of the drafted list and what “neutrality” means in this context.
Wilcox said the short version is the curriculum shouldn’t say one race or ethnicity is better than another.
For Hollins, that further confused the issue, “because you’re saying that we’re not to promote one race over another. But if you have teachers who are not teaching any diversity because they are scared to, they are promoting one race over another because one race is being taught.”
Hollins said teachers are telling her “they’re scared to talk about anything, for lack of a better word, that’s not white.”
The draft was not uploaded where the public could see it before the meeting started, and while the co-chairs said the list was based on feedback from commission members, others said they hadn’t seen its full contents before the Aug. 29 meeting started.
The committee is also tasked with giving guidance to the Office of the Governor and the state Legislature, one of which suggests “The Legislature should continue to examine the neutrality standard in HB 261 to strengthen positive outcomes and address any unintended consequences.”
In 2022, Gov. Spencer Cox held a ceremonial signing to celebrate the passage of the law requiring ethnic studies to be taught in K-12 schools. The law created the committee to “consider and review” the contributions of diverse Utahns and figure out how to best incorporate ethnic studies into core standards.
School districts and charter schools had until Aug. 1, 2024, to select a curriculum for teaching ethnic studies. However, it became clear that the deadline would not be met since the state’s committee hadn’t even produced guidance to the board.
In a January email obtained by KUER through a public records request, Republican Rep. Candice Pierucci asked state school board member Jennie Earl for guidance on a new deadline.
Earl responded, “I would strike the time completely. The problem is [charter schools and school districts] are continually updating curriculum, but they may only purchase new curriculum for a specific subject every 5-7 years. We update standards every 7-10 years but never all at once. We just finished our English standards and are now starting math. Any date is unsustainable.”
In a 2024 education omnibus bill, lawmakers moved the curriculum selection deadline for districts and charters to Dec. 31, 2025.
Wilcox said they’ll adjust the timeline again in the future if necessary.
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Utah
Pickup truck fire causes partial closure on I-15 in southern Utah
![Pickup truck fire causes partial closure on I-15 in southern Utah Pickup truck fire causes partial closure on I-15 in southern Utah](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4922cf5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1008+0+36/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F20%2F5d%2Fd8790b92440ea00ae2ac3c889380%2Fimage-2.jpg)
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Utah — A pickup truck caught fire Sunday afternoon on I-15 in southern Utah, causing a partial closure of the freeway.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said around 2 p.m. that the truck caught fire near milepost 40, just south of the Washington/Iron county line and midway between St. George and Cedar City.
Initially, two of the three northbound lanes were closed. It was fully reopened in under an hour.
Photos from the scene showed the aftermath of the fire, with the vehicle completely burned and hardly recognizable.
It was not immediately known if anyone was injured.
Washington County Sheriff’s Office
Washington County Sheriff’s Office
Washington County Sheriff’s Office
Utah
Arlington cemetery controversy shines spotlight on Utah governor
A few months ago, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox was one of the few prominent Republicans consistently keeping his distance from former President Trump, whose brash style seemed to be the antithesis of a brand of politics Cox had carefully cultivated that centered on unity and respect.
Cox did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, and told CNN in July that he would not vote for him this year. The governor said the then-president’s role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol went too far.
Days later, after an assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, Cox changed his mind.
Cox sent a letter to Trump explaining that his defiant response at the moment of the shooting had spurred a sudden reassessment and switch for Cox.
His turnabout bewildered political observers who, for the past decade, have watched Cox methodically build a persona as a moderate in the manner of Mitt Romney, the Utah senator who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, while climbing the ranks of state leadership.
Cox, 49, said in his note that he believed Trump could save the country “by emphasizing unity rather than hate.”
“You probably don’t like me much,” Cox wrote. “But I want you to know that I pledge my support.”
Trump has not in turn endorsed Cox for reelection.
The pair’s puzzling relationship was thrust into the spotlight again this past week when they put themselves at the center of a controversy at Arlington National Cemetery. After Trump’s staff had an altercation with a cemetery official, Cox broke rules — and likely federal law — in using a graveside photo with Trump in a campaign fundraising email.
Federal law prohibits campaign or election-related activities within the Army’s national cemeteries, and officials at Arlington said that rule had been shared widely before Monday’s ceremony honoring 13 service members, including one from Utah, who died in an airport bombing during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.
Cox’s campaign issued a swift apology for politicizing the ceremony; Trump’s has insisted it had permission to film in a restricted area. A TikTok video of the visit shared by Trump includes scenes of him and Cox at the cemetery with a voice-over of the former president blaming the Biden administration for the “disaster” of the withdrawal.
The opposing responses highlight the disconnect between their political styles and reignite questions why Cox has chosen to stand by Trump, who said after the assassination attempt that he had no plans to change his ways.
“I’m confident that he was there to support a Utah family, and that’s a laudable goal, but in being there with Donald Trump, he got pulled into something that creates some ethical challenges,” said Chris Karpowitz, a political science professor at Brigham Young University. “He allowed himself to compromise his values, and he’s not the first politician aligning with Donald Trump to have found himself in that position.”
The sudden embrace by Cox, who is up for reelection in a race not expected to be close, is not sitting well with some of the Utah moderates he had worked to win over.
Kyle Douglas of Orem said he lost his trust in Cox when the governor chose to back a presidential candidate who does not share his values.
“I used to be proud that my governor was still one of the good guys,” Douglas said. “It’s so disappointing to see him sell out.”
Lucy Wright of Provo put her disgust more bluntly.
“Trump is a big orange stain on his legacy,” she said.
Karpowitz said he, too, was surprised by Cox’s switch, and recalled thinking the governor’s notion that Trump could be a unifying figure for the nation was “somewhat naive.” Like many in Utah, the professor said he found himself struggling to understand why Cox might have thought backing Trump would help the governor politically.
The decision risks Cox’s reputation with his moderate voting base while likely doing little to win over followers of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, many of whom booed Cox at the state GOP convention this year.
Aligning with Trump has been known to bolster the political profiles of some Republicans, but the former president has not been quite as influential in Utah.
The state is a rare Republican stronghold that has half-heartedly embraced Trump, whose divisive rhetoric and comments about refugees and immigrants do not sit well with many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. About half of Utah’s 3.4 million residents belong to the faith known widely as the Mormon church.
Cox, a Latter-day Saint, said he believes God had a hand in saving Trump’s life, even calling it a miracle.
At the time of the July 13 shooting, President Biden was clinging to his party’s nomination in the face of unrelenting pressure from many Democrats to drop out as they feared he might be unable to win reelection after his disastrous debate against Trump in June.
Cox said in his letter to Trump that he was not looking for a Cabinet position or a role on the team, but the governor told the Atlantic he had come to realize he could not have broader influence within the party if he wasn’t on Trump’s side.
Cox has not publicly expressed a desire to run for national office, but he has worked to raise his profile beyond Utah by chairing the National Governors Assn. His initiative as chairman, “Disagree Better,” focused on restoring civility in politics.
The Trump endorsement came a month after Cox breezed to victory in the primary over ardent Trump supporter Phil Lyman, who espoused false claims of election fraud after the 2020 presidential election. Lyman remained defiant and encouraged his supporters to write his name on the November ballot instead of voting for Cox, who is expected to defeat his Democratic opponent even without the support of the state’s MAGA faction.
Cox is not the first moderate Republican, nor even the first from Utah, to be lured closer to Trump despite previous opposition.
Romney had been one of Trump’s most strident critics in the 2016 election, calling him a phony and a fraud. But after Trump’s victory, Romney met the president for dinner to discuss a top diplomatic job in Trump’s administration. After the meeting, he even praised Trump but has since reverted to being one of Trump’s fiercest Republican critics.
Schoenbaum writes for the Associated Press.
Utah
'Together we can': Hundreds gather at Utah State Capitol for Overdose Awareness Day
!['Together we can': Hundreds gather at Utah State Capitol for Overdose Awareness Day 'Together we can': Hundreds gather at Utah State Capitol for Overdose Awareness Day](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/262e20e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1008+0+36/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fx-default-stgec.uplynk.com%2Fause%2Fslices%2F11c%2Fef205c0e5ea14d77944cbd6904335118%2F11cb7818161a4228b19186e4cd2f182b%2Fposter_3999ae3ecead4c8eb4e168c97b9a0b9c.jpeg)
SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of people crowded the south steps of the Utah State Capitol on Saturday for International Overdose Awareness Day.
The day is recognized on a global scale every year on Aug. 31. It is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose and remember loved ones who died due to overdose.
Beginning in 2021, Overdose Awareness Day was officially recognized in Utah.
FOX 13 News spoke with Richard Beeman on Saturday. He lost his son, Jesse, to an overdose on May 14, 2011.
“He was a wonderful kid, a real wonderful kid. Did a lot for people, cared about everybody but himself, he did,” said Beeman.
Beeman said his son’s death happened just shy of his 20th birthday.
“I wish I could have saved him,” said Beeman. “He OD’ed the third time and passed away.”
It’s a feeling Terry Olsen knows all too well.
“It’ll be 10 years that I lost my 25-year-old son Dane to a heroin overdose,” said Olsen.
Olsen is a board member of Changes Parent Support Network, which she describes as a support group for families who have a loved one causing conflict in their home.
“The whole experience when we went through our loss, the support I received from other people … saved my sanity, helped me work through something that wasn’t in the script for our life,” said Olsen.
The theme of the event at the capitol on Saturday was “Together We Can.”
Names of loved ones lost to an overdose were read. Several speakers also stepped up to the microphone to tell their story, like Tiffany Naccarato.
“I want to say thank you to the people who helped save my life. A lot of them aren’t here today, they were not able to stand here, and it makes me happy that they chose to save my life,” said Naccarato, who serves as the community impact manager for Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness. “I’m actually a 12 survivor of overdose.”
Olsen told FOX 13 News on Saturday that she is grateful every year to see the response, the people that show up to support this event and the people who are there to honor those who have been lost.
She also wants to help find solutions.
“And help for the people who are still here that we want to see not on a poster at the next overdose awareness,” said Olsen.
Provisional data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicate there were an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. during 2023. That is a 3% decrease from the estimated numbers in 2022.
This marked the first annual decrease since 2018.
On Friday, Utah Governor Spencer Cox issued an order for the U.S. flags and Utah flags to be flown at half-staff on all state facilities in recognition of Overdose Awareness Day.
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