Utah
Utah Rep. Maloy offers tepid criticism of some White House spending cuts at town hall – WTOP News
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy received applause at a Thursday town hall in Salt Lake…
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy received applause at a Thursday town hall in Salt Lake City when she told the crowd she’s concerned about the country drifting toward authoritarianism “if we don’t get the executive branch under control.”
But the cheers turned to boos when she added those worries weren’t specific to Republican President Donald Trump.
“When Biden was president, I had the same concern,” she said, referring to former Democratic President Joe Biden.
Maloy’s comments summed up her careful approach to criticizing Trump throughout the event, which she held with Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kennedy. The Utah lawmakers are among a handful of Republicans who have held public meetings against the recommendation of House Speaker Mike Johnson, who encouraged them to skip out after others drew protesters.
The boisterous audience in liberal Salt Lake City repeatedly urged Maloy to denounce Trump’s sweeping federal budget cuts. Maloy wields power over federal funding as a member of the House Appropriations Committee. She and Kennedy said they opposed some of the administration’s cuts, including to the National Park Service. But Maloy also said tough spending decisions are necessary.
“We are not going to get out of the situation we’re in financially without all of us feeling some pain,” she said.
Maloy said she and Kennedy held the town hall because they believed Utah could set an example on how to hold civil discussions about tough issues. Questions were sent in to a message board and attendees could vote for those they were most interested in hearing. The question about authoritarianism came from a man who stood up and shouted it.
To jeers from the crowd, Kennedy defended Trump’s actions in his first three months in the White House, including the president’s move to end foreign aid contracts at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“We need to make sure that our own house is in order,” he said. “We’re spending money off in foreign lands on things that may or may not be meritorious. In this case, our grandchildren will be paying back with economic disaster.”
Maloy took a more tepid approach, telling the crowd she sees a need for more checks on the executive branch as Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders.
She said she called the White House to express concern about an order that directed federal agencies to lay off hundreds of thousands of probationary employees. Judges recently ordered the workers to be rehired. She said she supports broad efforts to shrink the size and scope of the federal government but thinks the mass firing of probationary workers was the wrong approach.
Many questions focused on how federal budget cuts might impact Utah’s vast public lands, including its five national parks. Both lawmakers said they opposed the Trump administration’s reductions of National Park Service staff, but that they had little power to influence his decisions. Some jobs have been restored.
Maloy, who lives just north of Zion National Park, began her career at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working to conserve natural resources, improve water quality and manage nutrients in the farmlands of southwest Utah. In Congress, she has served on subcommittees focusing on water resources and rural development. Her district includes many rural towns known for outdoor recreation.
Kennedy is a family doctor and former state senator. His district spans the entire eastern border of the state and groups vastly different communities, from the winter resort town of Park City, to the urban center of Provo, down to the red rock recreation hub of Moab.
Voters from both parties said after the town hall they had hoped to hear more about Social Security. Dozens of the program’s offices across the country are slated to close due to actions taken by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Not everyone in the crowd opposed Trump’s actions. Andrew Turner, a 30-year-old Republican and engineering student, said he wished the lawmakers had more time to address the future of Social Security and criticized the audience for talking over Maloy and Kennedy as they tried to answer questions.
“Something will have to be done about Social Security because otherwise it’s going to collapse,” he said. “I know as somebody who’s younger, at the current trajectory, I’m probably not going to be able to use the program. So I support the budget cuts Trump is doing.”
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HEBER CITY, Utah, June 7, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — Heber City Police and agents from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources responded to a Friday morning call, and found a moose standing in a residential driveway.
“Around 6:45 this morning, Heber City PD responded to reports of a teenage moose wandering through the neighborhood near 500 North and 100 West,” says a statement issued Friday by Heber City Police.
“The young moose explored the area for about an hour and 15 minutes, likely a little lost and curious.
“Officers worked closely with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DNR) to monitor the animal and ensure public safety.”
The moose was eventually tranquilized and given a free ride to a new wilderness home, the agency said.
“Thanks to teamwork and patience, DNR was able to safely capture and relocate the moose to a more suitable habitat.”
SALT LAKE CITY—Alex Jensen and his Utah basketball program have secured the commitment from Elmeri Abbey, a point guard from Finland. He becomes the ninth addition to the new Runnin’ Utes roster.
This continues Utah’s roster overhaul, which has featured mostly transfer portal activity. Abbey is the first international player to commit to Jensen and the Utes.
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Elmeri Abbey commits to the Runnin’ Utes
This is a significant addition for Utah, as Abbey helps to solidify the depth in the backcourt, more specifically point guard.
Abbey has played for Jyvaskyla Basketball Academy in Finland’s top basketball league. There the 6-foot, 180-pound guard played in 27 games and averaged 19.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 5.1 assists in 26.8 minutes of action.
Regarding his efficiency, Abbey averaged 48.5% shooting from the field, including 27.1% from 3-point range and 56.9% inside the arc. Not the most explosive off the ground, Abbey is still a good athlete for the position. He can get into the paint consistently and finish around the rim creatively.
More importantly, Abbey will add to the defensive identity that Jensen hopes to build. The Finnish product averaged 2.7 steals per game in league play, and just has the sort of foot speed and toughness to be a good defender.
Alex Jensen and staff continue to build out the 2025-26 roster
He joins Babacar Faye, Don McHenry, Seydou Traore, Jakhi Howard, Elijah Moore, James Okonkwo, Kendyl Sanders, and Terrence Brown as Utah’s offseason additions.
That brings Utah’s roster to a total of 12 players, leaving three open spots. The Runnin’ Utes have added some solid pieces and must continue to secure players who will help them compete in the Big 12 next season.
More importantly, though, Utah should focus on players that have room, in terms of potential and eligibility, to grow under Jensen and his staff.
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Setting the foundation: Utah’s culture starts with defense
Roster building is urgent—but culture is permanent. Jensen isn’t just recruiting players. He’s building a program, and that starts with identity. For Utah, that identity will start on the defensive end.
“I want to build something, I don’t want to build a new team every year, but build some continuity that way,” Alex Jensen said in an interview with NCAA reporter Andy Katz.
“Watching Houston make their run, Kelvin [Sampson] does such a good job, he gets his guys to play so hard,” Jensen shared. “That’s something the assistants I’ve hired talk about. That’s who we measure ourselves to and we’ve got to get kids that are tough like that and compete like them.”
In Jensen’s vision, the Runnin’ Utes will be a disciplined, gritty, tough, defensive-minded program. Think closeouts with purpose. Rotations with urgency. Contests without fouling. Utah isn’t going to outgun everyone—they’ll out-tough them.
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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VERNAL, Utah — While Vernal is known for dinosaurs, with many being discovered in the area, there is a different kind of creature making waves for being found nearby.
Scientists at the Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of State Parks at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum spend their days studying bones, but gathering them is a rarity.
That’s why when they heard of a perfectly preserved Ice Age discovery, they were thrilled.
What is it, you ask? Well, those of us here at FOX 13 News are especially excited about it because it is a perfectly preserved red fox skeleton.
Her name is “Roxy,” and she was found undisturbed in a cave in the Uintah Mountains, representing one of the most significant Ice Age mammal discoveries in the region.
The bones were known about for years, but it wasn’t until the U.S. Forest Service dated some of them that the researchers realized what a rarity they had on their hands. When they learned how old the bones were last year, they knew they had to collect them, and then they recently learned the species.
“This is probably the most exciting vertebrate skeleton I’ve ever collected,” said John Foster, the curator of collections at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum. “I hate to say it, but it was a lot more fun than a dinosaur.”
The fox skeleton includes skull material, neck, back, tail, ribs, and what Foster describes as one of the best-preserved parts: the left lower jaw.
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Among his favorite elements are the individual claws from the front paws of the animal.
Incredibly, you can make out the details in them as if the fox died just a few years ago, but she’s quite a bit older than that.
At 26,000 years old, Roxy predates the pyramids, written language, and even farming.
Red foxes are the most widely distributed terrestrial carnivores in the world.
The team of researchers said the species appeared in North America from Eurasia between 300,000 and 130,000 years ago.
Roxy remained perfectly preserved on the surface of that remote cave until scientists carefully extracted her.
The recovery process was challenging, requiring hours of hiking just to reach the cave entrance, followed by more hours navigating to the back of the cave where the skeleton lay.
“Of course, it was completely nerve-wracking collecting it. The scariest part was deciding that we hadn’t missed anything,” Foster said. “We’re trying not to break anything. It was six hours in there just to get all that done.”
Before Roxy was discovered, few Ice Age mammals had been found in northeastern Utah. Foster said the only one of note that he personally knows of is a shin bone of a camel found in the 1980s south of Vernal.
Now that the bones have been acclimated and preserved, the science can begin.
To start, researchers will take small portions of two ribs and send them off to be carbon dated, which should provide dating accuracy within about 100 years.
Next, the team will also analyze ear bones to extract DNA and conduct isotope analysis.
DNA and isotope analysis will unlock what Roxy’s diet was like, and if it was any different from modern red foxes.
It also might offer clues to the relationship between different canine species, from foxes to wolves, to my two adorable spaniels.
Finally, one question Foster is hoping the DNA might answer is what color her fur was, since it was the Ice Age, and a red fox might stick out like a sore thumb.
All of this discovery is the reason Foster says he keeps coming back and doing what he does.
“That’s kind of the highlights of doing this stuff,” he said.
All of this adds up to making Roxy the most important skeleton discovered, ever…
Okay, I made that last sentence up but we’re partial at FOX13 since Roxy is one of us!
Following the science that will be done, Roxy’s bones will go on display at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park so we all can share in her incredible story.
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