- President Donald Trump is expected to sign executive orders reducing the size of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments on Monday.
- The monuments have shifted in size between administrations, with Trump reducing them in 2017 and President Joe Biden restoring their original boundaries in 2021.
- Environmental groups and Utah officials are divided over the potential reduction, with critics threatening legal challenges and supporters seeking more local control.
Utah
New overdose task force in Utah launched, DEA claims it's a success
SALT LAKE CITY — A new task force to get tough on those involved in overdose deaths just launched here in Utah, and the Drug Enforcement Administration says so far, it’s a success.
But one public health advocate that works with addicts get help says the task force will result in more overdose deaths, not fewer.
“I know what it feels like to lose somebody and want there to be someone to pay for something to make it better,” says Dr. Jen Plumb. “Some sort of consequence that would make it seem somehow alright that we lost him.”
Back in 1996, Dr. Jen Plumb lost her brother, Andy, to addiction. Stopping addiction is personal for her, and she says this new task force concerns her.
“When we talk about increasing responses in an overdose in kind of a criminalized fashion, that’s the thing I’m most worried about,” says Plumb.
She says the approach to allow law enforcement to hold more people accountable in an overdose death will result in fewer calls for help.
“You’re going to discourage people from calling for that response.,” says Plumb.
“It is the deadliest drug that we’ve ever seen in the history of our country,” says Dustin Gillespie with the DEA in Salt Lake City. He says the goal of the Utah Drug Overdose Task Force is to crack down on big-time criminals.
“We’re looking for serious, serious offenders. the worst of the worst,” says Gillespie. Gillespie is looking for people like like Colin Shapard, the dealer sentenced earlier this month for selling fentanyl to an 18-year-old who almost died.
According to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah, the DEA states that fentanyl has saturated the drug market in Utah. “It is cheaper, more potent, and more widely available than ever before,” the office said.
They say he’s the same dealer that gave two Park City teens drugs in 2016. Those teens died.
“We’re looking for the distributor who shows a callous disregard for the city, is looking to target youth,” Gillespie says that’s what Shapard is.
Gillespie says the task force is meant to establish better training for agencies processing scenes where someone died from a drug overdose.
“There’s a balance between holding people accountable, providing justice for those families and allowing the public the opportunity to feel like they can come to us because without an investigation, we can’t provide justice,” says Gillespie.
“Making everything illegal, busting everybody has unintended consequences in the world that i work in,” says Gillespie.
She says consequences like this, mean more addicts will die. “Personally, I can’t sleep at night with that thought.” Gillespie said.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Riverton woman is proving that one moment of compassion can change a life.
On May 21, LaCinda Thackeray was flying home to Utah from Southern California after attending a family funeral when someone outside the window caught her attention.
As she waited to board her plane at John Wayne Airport, she noticed an airport worker struggling to walk across the tarmac.
“I just saw somebody who needed a little bit of support and love and kindness,” Thackeray said. “What really was hard for me was just the conditions he was in, and I didn’t even know his story at that point.”
Before her flight departed, Thackeray recorded a short video of the man and shared it on TikTok, asking if anyone knew who he was.
“Immediately when I sat on the airplane, my thought was, if anybody knew who he was, could we get him retired?” Thackeray said. “I didn’t know it was going to take off. I had no idea.”
Within a few hours, the video had been viewed more than a million times. Thousands of people shared it, and strangers from around the world began asking how they could help.
The internet soon identified the man as 64-year-old James Blair, a Navy veteran who works as a fuel injector and fuel mechanic at the airport.
By all accounts, Blair has lived a life of service. He served in the Navy from 1980 to 1990.
“We were 20 minutes from launching against Iran when the hostages were in Iran. We had all of our planes loaded with bombs and missiles on our ship and were just waiting for President Reagan to give the go-ahead,” Blair said.
After the Navy, Blair said he worked at LAX airport for 13 years and, after a three-year stint as a truck driver, returned to working on planes at John Wayne Airport.
“I’ve been at John Wayne Airport since April of 2006,” Blair said.
Though Blair turned 64 in March, retirement is not on his horizon.
“My plan was to work until I can’t work, until I physically can’t work,” he said. “I have inquiries out about getting knee operations; I’m working on that right now.”
Despite ongoing knee problems, Blair said his priority is his elderly mother, whom he lives with.
Thackeray said much of Blair’s income goes toward her hospice care.
“She has her good days, and she has her bad days,” Blair said.
Encouraged by people online, Thackeray started a GoFundMe campaign. She said donations quickly poured in.
“At one point, I remember telling my husband, ‘What did I do?’” Thackeray said. “When we needed to get him the money, that is when we were a little panicky, but then it changed really fast.”
The overwhelming support, Thackeray said, presented an exciting opportunity but also some challenges in ensuring that Blair would receive the money.
Until recently, Blair didn’t have a smartphone or social media accounts.
His boss volunteered to drive 1.5 hours to his home to help him set up a GoFundMe account so that he could receive the funds as a beneficiary.
“When his boss went out there, it eased so much anxiety,” Thackeray said.
Recently, Thackeray returned to California to personally deliver a $174,000 check to Blair.
For Blair, the support from complete strangers has restored his faith in humanity.
“Not in a million years,” Blair said when asked if he ever imagined something like this would happen.
“I’m just a person trying to do a job, trying to survive, and the way people give their own money. I have a hard time working to pay bills, so other people probably have the same problems. When they’re giving money they really can’t spare, that amazes me. I’m just blown away.”
Thackeray said the generosity extended far beyond the United States.
“I was speechless because I felt like the world showed up, and I think in these times we need people like that.” She said.
“I’ve been speaking to people all over the world, and they’re just, ‘Tell James hi!’ Give him a hug for us!” she said.
Blair also reflected on how deeply the experience has affected him personally.
“I believed in God, but I didn’t really believe in God. But now, with the angel sitting next to you, it’s amazing,” Blair told Thackeray. “I can’t believe how God works in mysterious ways.”
Although Blair is still going to work, he recently used some of the funds to buy himself a bed. He continues to care for his mother.
“I mean, I don’t know what Salt Lake City living is now, but California is really expensive,” Blair said.
What began as a brief glance through an airplane window has grown into an unlikely friendship — and a powerful reminder that a single act of kindness can inspire thousands of people to make a difference.
“I’m so happy for him and that he gets to experience this,” Thackeray said.
“I told him, I’m just a little part of your story, I’m happy that I could do that, but I hope you can always remember the ones that showed up and donated.”
To date, nearly 6,000 people have donated to the fundraiser. It has raised $180,521.00 for Blair.
Thackeray’s TikTok video of Blair has been viewed more than 9 million times, garnering nearly 800,000 likes and 8,000 comments.
For more information about the fundraiser, visit: https://gofund.me/51f1c9e16
*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Not only the Utah that we are today, but the Utah that we can choose to become.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gabriel Meneses makes one of the limited edition flags for the United States 250th anniversary at Colonial Flag in Sandy on Monday, June 1, 2026.
President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order on Monday afternoon shrinking the size of two national monuments in Utah, which currently cover a combined 5,094 square miles, the Deseret News confirmed on background with a Utah source.
The two national monuments — Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears — have oscillated in size through the previous several presidential administrations.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was created by President Bill Clinton in September 1996. Bears Ears National Monument was created by President Barack Obama in December 2016. Both designations received a mixed reception among Utahns.
In 2017, Trump reduced Bears Ears by about 85% and Grand Staircase by about 46%.
Then when former President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he restored them to their original sizes.
Trump is expected to sign the executive orders in the Oval Office on Monday at 4:30 EST.
In a statement to the Deseret News on Friday, the White House said, “Any policy announcement will come directly from the President. This reporting about potential executive orders is pure speculation.”
National monument designations place restrictions on what recreational and economic activity residents and visitors can do on the land. The designation also prohibits anyone from pursuing new mining claims, oil and gas leasing, coal exploration or new commercial infrastructure projects.
However, the Bureau of Land Management previously found that Bears Ears and Grand Staircase have little to offer in terms of oil and gas potential, the Deseret News previously reported.
For nearly three decades since Clinton designated the first monument, Utah’s federal delegation has asked for reductions in land size for more local control, recreation and grazing.
Recently, Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy challenged the monument’s resource management plan to return to a plan the first Trump administration outlined in 2020 with help from local Utahns.
However, her bill died after missing a key deadline to make it to the Senate for a vote.
People react to the potential land reduction
Based on an initial report by ABC4, environmental groups are already vocalizing their disapproval over a potential reduction of monument land.
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Executive Director Scott Braden described the potential executive order as “unlawful, unwise and unacceptable,” in a press release sent to the Deseret News.
“This action will only bring uncertainty and chaos to places that should instead be protected for their rich biodiversity, unique geology, and remarkable cultural values,” he wrote. Braden said SUWA was preparing to fight the executive order through lawsuits or by lobbying in Congress.
On X, former Utah state Sen. Nate Blouin referenced the land reduction in conjunction with the Babylon Fire, which as of Friday is 25% contained and has covered more than 100,000 acres in southeastern Utah.
“As the largest wildfire in the U.S. burns pristine landscapes in southeastern Utah, Trump is threatening to shrink both Grand Staircase & Bears Ears National Monuments,” Blouin wrote. “This unprecedented move is happening without input from the region’s ancestral inhabitants.
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