Utah
Ruby Franke abuse pushes Utah to shift money, power from mommy bloggers to child influencers
The eldest daughter of disgraced Utah parenting blogger Ruby Franke has taken action to help protect other kids with a new child actor law in her home state.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed the bill that Shari Franke helped promote, HB322, which gives certain payment and privacy protections to minors involved in entertainment, which could include traditional acting, i.e. acting in TV commercials, or acting in social media content.
“I have been working on drafting HB322 that would protect child influencers in our state,” Shari Franke said in a February Instagram post. “This bill would require parents to create a trust fund for their children and require parents to pay children a minimum amount. It would also allow children influencers, at 18, to have any content they appeared in to be removed from all social media platforms.”
Shari added that certain family bloggers and lobbyists in Utah are against the legislation, but wrote that “[i]f family vlogging is as good as ‘ethical’ family vloggers want you to think, they should not fear being mandated to pay their children (because they say the children are already being paid anyway).”
MOMMY BLOGGER RUBY FRANKE ASKED DAUGHTER FOR ONE THING BEFORE ARREST: MEMOIR
Shari Franke details the last word she said to her mother in her new memoir, “The House of My Mother.” (Handout)
“And if children are supposedly consenting to being filmed, why fear the kids would want content removed once 18?” she wrote.
Shari’s support of HB322 is one of many actions she has taken to try and help protect the rights of children whose parents are social media influencers since her mother pleaded guilty to multiple counts of child abuse in 2023 and sentenced to years in prison.
MOMMY BLOGGER RUBY FRANKE’S HUSBAND SAYS ‘SOME CRAZY S–T’ WENT ON IN ABUSE ACCOMPLICE’S $5.3M FORTRESS
Blogger Ruby Franke pleaded guilty to child abuse in Utah. (Instagram/ moms_of_truth)
Democratic Utah State Rep. Doug Owens, who sponsored the bill, explained its purpose to Fox News Digital.
“It’s a bill that has a couple different parts: one is it protects traditional child actors, like in the film industry or making commercials, [it] has their parents set aside 15% of their earnings for when they become an adult, and that is copying a number of other states,” Owens said. “And then it goes further and also includes protections for children in social media content.”
He added that it is “usually” children’s parents featuring kids in their content and, in turn, earning money from that content.
YOUTUBE MOMMY BLOGGER RUBY FRANKE, CO-HOST JODI HILDEBRANDT SENTENCED FOR CHILD ABUSE: ‘DARK DELUSION’
Utah authorities found two malnourished and emaciated children at a home in Utah prior to arresting Franke and Hildebrandt. (Instagram/ moms_of_truth)
“It … requires the parents or other adult to save some of that money for the kids when they get to be an adult,” he said. “And then it also has a third part, which says that if you are a child in content creation, when you get to be an adult and you find that content embarrassing or emotionally damaging in some way, you can have that removed from the website later so that it gives kids some protection for when they get to be an adult.”
“[I]f you are a child in content creation, when you get to be an adult and you find that content embarrassing or emotionally damaging in some way, you can have that removed.”
Ruby Franke, a 43-year-old mother of six, and Jodi Hildebrandt, a 55-year-old mother of two, ran a joint parenting and lifestyle YouTube channel called ConneXions Classrooms before they were arrested and pleaded guilty to four of six counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse in a St. George courtroom in December 2023.
UTAH POLICE DISCOVER ‘PANIC ROOM’ INSIDE ABUSIVE MOMMY BLOGGER ACCOMPLICE’S $5.3M DESERT HOME
Utah police found a “panic room” inside Jodi Hildebrandt’s $5.3 million Ivins home, where Ruby Franke sent her children to stay with Hildebrandt. (Washington County Attorney’s Office)
Utah authorities initially arrested Ruby Franke and Hildebrandt for abusing Franke’s two youngest children, a 9-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy, after Franke’s son approached a neighbor for help in 2022, and the neighbor called 911. Some of the abuse occurred in Hildebrandt’s home in Ivins, Utah.
911 CALL REVEALS SHOCK OF UTAH MOMMY BLOGGER’S ALLEGED CHILD ABUSE: ‘SHE’S A BAD LADY’
Prior to ConneXions, Ruby Franke ran a parenting vlog, or video blog, called 8Passengers, centered around her own family of six children and two parents. But the 8Passengers empire came crumbling down once users started to notice Franke’s unusual behavior and punishments for her children. Ruby Franke stopped posting to the 8Passengers YouTube channel after her last video was uploaded on June 5, 2019.
In earlier videos without Hildebrandt, Franke complained about her children’s school using TikTok to teach dances, the dangers of sleepovers, bullying, and other topics. Some of her videos included her husband, including a “live couples workshop” about managing finances. (YouTube/ ConneXions)
Fox News is not aware of any evidence that Ruby Franke or anyone associated with 8Passengers engaged in any illegal conduct during the period she was actively vlogging on the 8Passengers YouTube channel.
Franke and Hildebrandt were both sentenced to serve up to 30 years in prison.
Shari also wrote a memoir titled “The House of My Mother,” in which she explains how she and her siblings were listed as 8Passengers LLC’s “employees.”
Shari Franke explained how she tried for years to get the Department of Family and Child Services to take action against her mother in her memoir. (Hulu)
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In dozens of YouTube videos and social media posts, Franke and Hildebrandt coached parents in calm voices from a living room couch on how to raise their children in “truth.” In a video posted just before their arrests, Hildebrandt said pain can be a good thing for children of a certain age.
The case has prompted discussions about how parenting and lifestyle blogs often present only a sliver of a person’s or family’s reality, as well as children’s rights to their own privacy if their parent is a social media star.
Utah
One hospitalized in St. George after rollover crash south of Utah-Arizona border
ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — One person was hospitalized at the St. George Regional Hospital after a car rolled and caught fire just south of the Utah-Arizona border.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department in Arizona said its crews responded to the crash near the Black Rock Road exit – roughly two miles south of the state border – on Sunday night.
Upon arrival, crews put out the car fire and found the driver had left the scene. A single occupant, who was able to get out of the car on their own, was transported to the hospital by a Beaver Dam ambulance.
MORE | Crashes
Their condition has not been publicly released.
Details on what led to the crash and the condition of the driver were not immediately available.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department said law enforcement investigated the scene.
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Utah
Utah Jazz win coin flip, guaranteed to keep NBA Draft Lottery pick
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz missed out on the NBA Playoffs, but still scored a big win thanks to a coin flip.
In Monday’s tiebreaker coin flip to determine who had the fourth-worst record in the league last season, the Jazz came out winners over the Sacramento Kings, who had the same 22-60 record.
Had the Jazz lost the coin flip, they would have been fifth in NBA Draft Lottery odds. Only the worst four teams are guaranteed to remain within the top eight of the lottery.
If Utah had fallen to fifth, there would have been the chance they could have dropped out of the top 8 teams in the lottery, and owed the draft pick to Oklahoma City, which was top-8 protected in a previous trade.
The Jazz now have an 11.5 percent chance to win the first overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, which is scheduled for Sunday, May 10.
Utah
Jazz 2026 Salary Cap Tracker: Cap Space, Contracts, Free Agents
The Utah Jazz are rolling into a big offseason before they into what’s projected to be a wildly different-looking 2026-27 campaign from what they had just seen this past 22-win season.
But before that season is able to get underway, the Jazz have some priorities to address in the offseason––both in terms of constructing their roster and retaining a few key pieces from last year’s group into next year.
That makes their salary cap situation and everything around it important to be aware of in the next few months. So with that in mind, we’ve put together an offseason cap tracker for a glimpse of what the Jazz are dealing with in terms of cap space, contracts, and any of their own free agents hitting the open market.
Let’s break it down:
Maximum Possible Cap Space: $24.7M
The Jazz are currently projected at just under $25 million in cap headed into the summer. That’s without any additional moves made to the roster from how they’re entering the offseason, and without factoring in any free agents’ pending cap holds.
That number is bound to get smaller once the Jazz hash out their contract situation for Walker Kessler, but it could also see an uptick if Utah were to shed salary with some of their non-guaranteed deals, or any other player they wanted to pivot from.
As of now, it allows the Jazz to make a couple of moves around the edges in free agency, but the main focus will lean on signing Kessler to a long-term deal.
Contracts
A glimpse of the Jazz’s contract values for the 2026-27 season, and when they’re slated to hit free agency from their current deals:
– Jaren Jackson Jr.: $49.0M, ’29 PO
– Lauri Markkanen: $46.1M, ’29 UFA
– Ace Bailey: $9.5M, ’29 RFA
– Keyonte George: $6.5M, ’27 RFA
– John Konchar: $6.1M, ’27 UFA
– Cody Williams: $6.0M, ’28 RFA
– Brice Sensabaugh, $4.8M, ’27 RFA
– Svi Mykhailiuk: $3.8M*, ’28 UFA
– Kyle Filipowski: $3.0M, ’28 RFA
– Isaiah Collier: $2.7M, ’28 RFA
– Hayden Gray: $2.1M*, ’27 RFA
– Bez Mbeng: $2.1M*, ’27 RFA
– Blake Hinson (two-way), ’27 RFA
Total: $142.1M
*- non-guaranteed
The biggest chunk of the Jazz’s salary leans on their top two veterans, Markkanen and Jackson Jr., each making a combined $95 million next season alone.
However, the rest of the roster isn’t taking up much money. No one else will be making more than $10 million, and their payroll is a little less than $150 million in total.
Another noteworthy fact: the Jazz’s key roster pieces outside of George and Sensabaugh are all under contract through the next two seasons.
Both of the aforementioned names are also bound to see extension discussions take place this summer, which might lock in their future for even longer.
Free Agents
A look at who from this season’s roster is set to hit the free agent market in July:
– Kevin Love (UFA)
– Jusuf Nurkic (UFA)
– Walker Kessler (RFA)
– Oscar Tshiebwe (two-way)
– Elijah Harkless (two-way)
The biggest name of note is, of course, the Jazz’s restricted free agent big man, Walker Kessler, who Utah is bound to hand a big payday, but it remains to be seen how much that contract––or offer sheet from another team––will be.
Jusuf Nurkic and Kevin Love have also expressed their desire to return to the roster as they hit free agency. Re-signing both likely wouldn’t cost much for the Jazz financially, but instead relies on a question of whether the roster space is readily available to keep both.
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