Utah’s top news stories of 2022

Here is our tackle Utah’s largest information tales of 2022.

• Most of those performed out all 12 months, however they’re listed roughly in chronological order.

1. Rising from COVID

January introduced a harsh actuality examine with the best case counts and hospitalizations of your complete pandemic, due to the omicron variant.

What occurred: When circumstances later dropped, we began creeping again out into the world to find loads had modified economically, with wages and inflation each rising quick.

What we’re watching: COVID left Utah’s well being care workforce with thinned ranks as docs and nurses left the career, which is making it tougher for sufferers to get ample care.

2. Utah’s transgender athlete sports activities ban

Utah joined different GOP-led states in passing laws barring transgender ladies from competing in class sports activities that align with their gender id.

Catch up fast: An impassioned Gov. Spencer Cox used his veto energy to strike down the invoice after it handed in each chambers of the state Legislature.

• In a four-page letter explaining his veto, Cox cited the excessive suicide fee amongst transgender youngsters and wrote, “I need them to dwell.”
• The Legislature overrode his veto.

The most recent: Utah is at present embroiled in a lawsuit over the constitutionality of the invoice.

3. Abortion: Can we or cannot we?

The U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade in June, activating Utah’s strict abortion ban.

Sure, however: Deliberate Parenthood of Utah gained an injunction that put the ban on maintain whereas Utah courts resolve whether or not the ban violates the state’s structure.

What we’re watching: Utah’s pending abortion ban may have an effect on ladies’s well being care extra broadly by deterring OB-GYNs and med college students from coming right here, worsening an already looming scarcity.

• If the ban takes impact, docs warn its slim exceptions will not truly shield sufferers in most medical problems and will delay care in life-threatening emergencies.

4. It is too sizzling and there is not sufficient water

Anybody who hit the slopes final winter is aware of the snow was pitiful from January to March.

Sure, however: That was solely the start of our troubles.

In the meantime: Utah’s hottest summer season on file was adopted by a blistering September warmth wave, whereas householders scrounged for tactics to make use of much less water.

Why it issues: Because the Nice Salt Lake recedes, it is exposing a lake mattress the place poisonous soil from industrial air pollution is roofed solely by a layer of salt crust.

5. UDOT’s controversial gondola proposal

State transportation officers beneficial a controversial $550 million gondola in August as a best choice to alleviate site visitors congestion in Little Cottonwood Canyon. That got here regardless of robust native opposition.

The opposite aspect: Some elected officers and conservation teams say the gondola may impression ingesting water and quantities to a taxpayer subsidy for profitable ski resorts.

Zoom in: UDOT obtained virtually 14,000 submissions throughout its public remark interval, the Deseret Information reported.

6. Salt Lake Metropolis College District issues

Controversy surrounded the Salt Lake Metropolis College Board’s resolution to ask Timothy Gadson III, the primary Black superintendent of a Utah faculty district, to resign over the summer season.

Sure, however: An inner investigation decided Gadson didn’t commit any wrongdoing.

• By October, Gadson and the board had reached a $200,000 separation settlement, spurring additional criticism concerning the board’s lack of transparency and dysfunctional practices.

The most recent: A scathing state audit report launched this month discovered the varsity district is misspending tens of millions of {dollars} by not closing colleges after a yearslong decline in pupil enrollment.

• Auditors additionally questioned the moral habits of some board members.

7. Utah’s intense U.S. Senate race

On this uncommon matchup, GOP incumbent Sen. Mike Lee confronted impartial challenger Evan McMullin.

What occurred: It was some of the aggressive U.S. Senate races the state had seen in almost half a century.

• It was additionally the costliest, as tremendous PACs poured tens of millions of {dollars} into the race.

Catch up fast: In a historic transfer, Utah Democratic Occasion delegates voted in Could to again McMullin over one in every of their very own candidates to extend their odds of defeating Lee.

What’s subsequent: Democrats mentioned supporting an impartial was “a one-time factor.”

• However former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams — the person who mobilized Democrats to clear the ticket for McMullin — says the midterm outcomes present the celebration ought to preserve taking “a centrist lane.”

8. Automobiles versus individuals

If Salt Lake’s dismal air high quality weren’t already a warning that our site visitors could be dangerous for our well being, this 12 months’s crash stats must be.

By the numbers: At the very least 75 Utahns have been killed by automobiles whereas they have been on strolling, biking or on “private conveyance” units, like wheelchairs and scooters, in accordance with state information on ZeroFatalities.com and weekly crash reviews.

• That is greater than any 12 months up to now decade.

Of be aware: Utah’s drivers have been ranked America’s worst.

What’s occurring: Salt Lake Metropolis diminished a lot of the metropolis’s pace limits to twenty mph this summer season, and planners are taking a look at extra “neighborhood byways” — streets that get redesigned for safer strolling and biking.