Utah
Salvadorans in Utah casting ballots in Central American nation’s presidential election
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KEARNS — Sofia Zelaya, now living in Utah, is thousands of miles away from her native El Salvador.
That doesn’t mean she’s left the tiny Central American country behind.
With presidential elections in El Salvador set for Sunday, she and many other Salvadorans and Salvadoran-Americans in Utah are paying close attention to what’s happening in the country and aim to have a say in the process. The government has created new openings for voting by expatriates, with Salt Lake City to host one of many remote polling sites around the United States and beyond on Sunday to accommodate the global Salvadoran diaspora.
“We still have loved ones at home. We want our loved ones to live in a peaceful environment,” said Zelaya, a naturalized U.S. citizen and dual national who was offering voting information to Salvadorans at a table set up inside the Kearns Library in Kearns. Some 13,000 to 20,000 Salvadorans and Salvadoran-Americans live in Utah, according to varied estimates, and the money they and others around the world send back to relatives is a pillar of the Salvadoran economy.
Indeed, becoming a U.S. citizen, Zelaya went on, “doesn’t mean we don’t have cultural and family ties to where we came from.” The pride is still there and she and many more Salvadorans in Utah have already voted online — which started for eligible expatriates on Jan. 6 — or will do so in person on Sunday at the Salt Lake polling site, 850 E. South Temple, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Fernando Pérez, consul general of the Salvadoran Consulate in Salt Lake City, called the expatriate community “a fundamental part of our nation,” noting the money those living and working abroad send to family members in El Salvador. According to the Salvadoran newspaper El Mundo, expatriate Salvadorans sent $8.2 billion to El Salvador in 2023 — more money than generated by exports — benefitting 25% of households in the country.
The laws allowing expatriates to vote “aim to make sure that the voices of our compatriots are heard, that their opinions are taken into account and that their rights are respected in the electoral process,” Pérez said in a message to KSL.com.
Laura Morales, originally from El Salvador but now living in Kaysville, already cast her ballot online, a new option this election cycle open to Salvadorans who have registered their foreign addresses with Salvadoran election authorities. Now she’s keeping tabs on what’s happening in El Salvador in the lead up to next Sunday.
“It’s my first time voting in 24 years, and for my kids it’s the first time in their lives,” except for balloting in U.S. elections, she said. “It’s been a month of civic joy.”
The Salvadoran elections come at a critical time, observers and others say. Incumbent President Nayib Bukele, elected to his first term in 2019 and widely expected to win his second term handily, has spearheaded a massive crackdown on the gangs that once dominated life in the country. He warns the country could slide backward if he’s not reelected, according to Reuters. But he’s not without critics, who charge his administration with employing repressive tactics and blast changes to election laws enabling his reelection bid.
Among the other hopefuls are Manuel Flores, a leftist former mayor and Salvadoran Legislative Assembly deputy, and Joel Sanchez, a conservative aspirant, according to CNN en Español.
Whatever the case, Zelaya and Morales are enthusiastic Bukele supporters, both crediting the leader with turning the country’s fortunes around. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the country was wracked by civil war, violence that pushed many out of the country. Mara Salvatrucha and other gangs dominated the urban landscape after that, also pushing many from the nation.
“Mara Salvatrucha — that’s all we were known for, crime and nothing more,” said Zelaya, who fled El Salvador in 1981 during the nation’s civil conflict and now lives in Herriman. She was operating the information desk at the Kearns Library Friday with Gladis Rodríguez, another Salvadoran now living in Utah, as part of their volunteer efforts with Comunidad Salvadoreña de Utah, a cultural group.
Street crime, kidnappings and gang violence pushed Morales and her family from the country to the United States in 2000. “The last 20 years has been difficult for our country,” she said.
Changes implemented by Bukele, though, have inspired a renewed sense of pride in El Salvador, prompting much of the excitement among expatriates in Utah like Morales in the presidential contest. What’s more, Bukele has pointedly reached out to Salvadorans living abroad, opening more consulates, including the Salt Lake consulate, and streamlining the voting process for expatriates, she said.
“It’s a peaceful environment,” she said, describing the changed atmosphere in El Salvador thanks to the crackdown on gangs and street crime. “All the Salvadorans living abroad support the president so we can keep cleaning up the country.”
Francisco Raymundo, a Salvadoran expatriate now living in Taylorsville, is an unabashed supporter of Bukele and his New Ideas political party, promoting the incumbent’s candidacy among Salvadorans here in Utah. He left El Salvador with his wife and four kids in 2002, worried about crime and violence and fearful of getting caught up in it.
“We really didn’t want to go but we left to keep my family safe,” he said. “It was personally painful to see people dying every day, people being extorted.”
Accordingly, seeing the change in the country and being able to vote and have a say in the nation’s future is exciting for him. “We are excited and engaged,” he said.
Salvadorans in Utah who wanted to vote in the 2019 elections had to travel to the Salvadoran consulate in Las Vegas, the closest one before the Salt Lake office opened, or cast a ballot by mail. Raymundo had hoped to vote by mail, but his ballot arrived from El Salvador after voting ended.
Morales, too, is charged by the new atmosphere in El Salvador. She already cast her ballot online and recalled the strong emotion as she clicked the screen prompt on her computer so her vote could be tallied.
“You cry. When you click and it says, ‘You voted,’ you cry,” she said.
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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah athletics is making a notable change to the Huntsman Center gameday setup, but the move is about more than where the team sits.
The Runnin’ Utes are moving the team bench from the east side of the Jon M. Huntsman Center to the west side, returning the bench to the side it occupied during the Rick Majerus era. The change will also move the MUSS and band from the west side to the east side.
The shift is part of a larger effort by Utah Athletics to improve the student-section experience, create a more consistent setup inside the Huntsman Center and better connect the arena to the university’s growing College Town Magic initiative.
Enhancing The MUSS And Fan Experience
Nowlin said the primary motivation behind the change is improving the MUSS and the overall fan experience.
“The reason we’re doing this is we want to enhance the MUSS,” Utah’s Deputy Athletics Director & Chief Revenue Officer, Patrick Nowlin said. “As an ongoing effort, we’ve been working on for the past two years, how do we enhance the fan experience?”
One issue Utah identified was that the MUSS had been located in different areas for different events. Moving the student section and band to the east side gives the department a more consistent location to build around.
“We wanted to create a better fan experience,” Nowlin said. “We wanted to be able to have one spot that we can build on, which means we can brand. We can enhance everything about it.”
The move also ties directly into College Town Magic. Nowlin said the area around the Huntsman Center will include more than 2,900 total beds, including more than 1,400 new beds, giving students a direct path from nearby housing to the student-section entrance.
“There’s over 2,900 new beds that are right there, which will be right at the branded entrance, right where the student section is,” Nowlin said. “They don’t have to go far at all. So it’s just a walk straight down from the dorm, right in the door.”
And according to Utah’s Patrick Nowlin, the move is not limited to men’s basketball.
“It’s not just men’s basketball. It’s all Huntsman Center events,” Nowlin said.
A Nod To Utah Basketball History
While the move is primarily about fan experience, there is also a clear basketball-history component.
The west-side bench location is where Utah sat during the Majerus era, when the Runnin’ Utes were one of the top programs in the country and the Huntsman Center had a different level of edge. Alex Jensen was part of that era as a player, and now, as Utah’s head coach, the move reconnects the current program with one of its most successful periods.
Nowlin said the historical connection was part of the conversation, even if it was not solely Jensen’s decision.
“Yeah, it’s a nod to history,” Nowlin said. “I think Alex, him being here, he’s a steward of the program. There’s a lot of history to having it on that side.”
Still, Nowlin made clear the change was not simply pushed through by Jensen.
“It wasn’t a push from him,” Nowlin said. “It was a concerted effort from everybody to where, how do we create an area that the MUSS can have, but also how do we lean into our history, but still move forward in a way that we can honor that, but create an unbelievable environment.”
That is the heart of the move. Utah is trying to bring back a piece of its basketball identity while also reworking the building for the future.
How Fans Will Be Impacted
The change will affect some season-ticket holders, donors and fans seated near the current bench, MUSS and band areas, but Utah tried to limit the disruption.
Nowlin said the department spent months working through the seating impact and expects fewer than 200 accounts to be directly affected. Those accounts are in sections T, U and V.
“This wasn’t something that just came about,” Nowlin said. “We’ve been working on this for a few months now, and we wanted to find a way that we could minimize the accounts that were directly impacted, but still create the fan experience change we were after.”
Utah’s plan is to work individually with affected fans and mirror their seat location as closely as possible on the other end of the court.
“If you’re on one end and now you’re going on the other end, we will work with you to get you in the seat that is similar to where you were and allow you to have the same experience you’ve had, just on the other end of the court,” Nowlin said.
Utah will also hold a virtual seat-selection process from July 7-17, allowing fans who want to move to choose from available options.
“We’re going to take care of everybody, but we’re also going to allow people the choice and the freedom to be able to make the changes they want to make,” Nowlin said. “We want to create every opportunity we can to give our fans opportunities to choose their own experience.”
Not Part Of The Huntsman Renovation
The bench and MUSS move is not directly tied to the larger Huntsman Center renovation discussions. Nowlin said the change is instead connected to College Town Magic and Utah’s effort to improve the student and fan experience inside the building.
“It does not have to do with the renovation, but it does have to do with College Town Magic,” Nowlin said.
The move could create some new seating and premium opportunities, particularly around courtside and floor seating. Nowlin said Utah is still evaluating those possibilities.
“By doing this, this will create additional opportunities for us on courtside and floor,” Nowlin said. “We’re also looking to how do we enhance our premium experience across the board. So this is a step in a process that will continue.”
The Bottom Line
Utah’s bench move is not just a nostalgic callback to the Rick Majerus era, and it is not just a seating chart adjustment. It is part of a broader effort to reshape the Huntsman Center experience.
The team bench is moving back to the west side, where Utah sat during some of the program’s most successful years. The MUSS and band are moving to the east side, where Utah believes it can build a stronger, more consistent student-section identity tied to College Town Magic.
For Utah Athletics, it is another step toward rethinking how the Huntsman Center looks, sounds and feels on game day. For Jensen, the move reconnects the program to its winning past.
The symbolism will matter to longtime Utah basketball fans. The logistics will matter to students, band members and season-ticket holders. But the larger goal is simple: make the building feel more intentional, more connected and more like home again.
Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.
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SALT LAKE CITY – The San Juan County assessor has resigned partway through his second term, following a recommendation that he be removed from office.
Rick Meyer’s resignation became effective on Monday, according to San Juan County Commissioner Lori Maughan. A copy of Meyer’s resignation letter was not immediately available.
This comes after the Utah State Tax Commission determined that Meyer had failed to follow the law and was “unfit to perform his duties.” In a letter last week to San Juan County commissioners, the tax commission recommended “the immediate removal of the San Juan County assessor from office to protect the public interest and restore the integrity of the property tax system in San Juan County.”
Among other things, Meyer was accused of failing to tax agricultural buildings, misclassifying property, and giving property tax exemptions to certain parcels, including vacant land, when he shouldn’t have.
The recommendation to remove Meyer from office was the first under a recent state law giving the Utah State Tax Commission more power to take corrective action against county assessors who aren’t doing their jobs properly. Assessors play a major role in the property tax process by determining the value of property throughout their counties.
Yet, it was unclear whether the San Juan County Commission could have actually removed Meyer from office had he not stepped down.
With Meyer’s resignation, the San Juan County Assessor’s Office has just one employee left. Deputy assessor Nathan Pitts will run the office until the San Juan County Republican Party recommends a replacement and the County Commission appoints one.
“It’s me holding down the fort here,” Pitts told KSL on Thursday, noting that he has spoken with the Utah Association of Counties and the state tax commission about plans for this interim period. “Everybody’s on board to assist and try to make it the best as we can, (but) I’ve definitely got my work cut out for me.”
Pitts said he does not plan to run for county assessor to replace his old boss.
“That is not my intention at all,” he said. “I’m quite content as a deputy assessor.”
Meyer was first elected as San Juan County assessor in 2020 and won reelection in 2024. His current term was set to conclude in 2029.
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.
FLAGSTAFF, AZ (AZFamily) — The Rock Canyon Fire, burning in northern Arizona near the border with Utah, doubled in size overnight to 4,512 acres and was 5% contained.
The fire has caused firefighters to evacuate hikers and campers in the area, and some roads in the Kaibab National Forest are closed.
People in Jacob Lake — less than 20 miles from the Rock Canyon Fire — say the new fire is stirring up anxiety after last year’s devastating fire season. They say they’re confident in firefighters, but after the trauma, they’re still holding their breath.
Memories of last year’s fires
For over 100 years, Jacob Lake Inn has been serving cookies to guests who want to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon or explore the Kaibab National Forest. Melinda Rich Marshall’s family has owned the inn since 1923.
Last year, they were evacuated during the White Sage Fire that burned close to 60,000 acres, and then the Dragon Bravo Fire, which destroyed nearly 150,000 acres, shut down the North Rim.
Now the Rock Canyon Fire has already burned thousands of acres north of the inn.
“I mean, honestly, our reaction was not again,” Rich Marshall said. “I mean, that’s really what it was.”
Rich Marshall said last year was hard enough, so once they heard about this new fire, it brought back bad memories.
“I’d say we have a little PTSD from it, seeing smoke and smelling smoke and all those things,” she said.
Fire burning in old burn scar
The Rock Canyon Fire was sparked over the weekend by a lightning strike.
Parts of it are burning in the White Sage burn scar. Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Dolores Garcia said old burn scars will usually slow down a new fire, but this time it’s actually fueling the flames.
“In some of those areas, we’re seeing quite a bit of fuels,” Garcia said. “We’re not seeing that the burn scar is helping much, especially with the winds as strong as they’ve been in some days and as dry as it’s been, those fuels are just tender and cured and really flammable.”
She said firefighters are attacking it from the ground and the air, but the high winds are limiting their ability to make water drops.
Hikers and campers were evacuated from the area. Garcia said she knows how stressful this must be to the surrounding communities after last year’s fires.
“We still understand that, it’s still a very fresh wound to many of the people who live up there, who’ve recreated up there for years,” she said. “That’s definitely at the forefront of our minds.”
Rich Marshall said while it’s scary, they have full trust in the firefighters.
“We’re really just grateful to see them and know the work that they are doing,” she said.
Rich Marshall said this is usually their peak season, but they’ve seen a bit of a slowdown even after the North rim reopened. She said people can support them by staying there or even just stopping in and getting some of their famous cookies.
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