Former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt said one of the most important lessons he drew from his time as Utah’s chief executive is to lead on transformational issues, one must look for decisions that will result in “cascading consequences.”
He compared them to gears on a clock. Turning the largest gear will spin the smaller ones with ease.
“If you really want to transform society,” he said, “you have to look at the big gears.”
Perhaps one of most impactful “gears” that could transform Utah’s future is Salt Lake City’s now likely chance of hosting the 2034 Winter Games. The city was selected as a 2034 preferred host in November, and with no serious contenders, Salt Lake is close to formally locking down the Games. A final vote on the bid is expected to be announced in Paris on July 24, Utah’s Pioneer Day.
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The International Olympic Committee is coming to Utah this week to tour proposed event venues. Next, the Future Host Commission is expected to submit a report to IOC leaders, who will then decide whether to send Salt Lake City’s bid to a final vote, the Deseret News reported.
A 2034 Winter Games would mark the second time the Olympics has come to Utah. Leavitt was governor when Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Games — and it’s one of the “legacy” issues Leavitt highlights in his recently released memoir series detailing the lessons the former governor learned from his time in office. Leavitt hopes it will help policymakers tackle some of the biggest issues facing Utah today.
On Friday, Leavitt — along with Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and other Utah officials — joined a panel hosted by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, the Hinckley Institute of Politics, and the Deseret News at the Thomas S. Monson Center in Salt Lake City.
The discussion, moderated by Deseret News Executive Editor Doug Wilks, was part of a forum titled “What’s Past is Prologue.” It unpacked generational issues from Leavitt’s memoir that are seemingly coming full circle and resurfacing in new ways for Utah’s government leaders.
The Olympics, Leavitt said, is an “obvious” example. The 2002 Winter Games wasn’t just a 14-day event, it ushered in a new era for Utah. It put the state on the international stage, spurred major growth, attracted tech business leaders, and accelerated transportation infrastructure, including a massive rebuild of Interstate 15 and construction of FrontRunner and Salt Lake County’s TRAX system.
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“The Olympics is a 17-day activity, then it’s over,” Leavitt said. “That isn’t the value of the Olympics to the state. The value … is the 10 years in advance of the Games, during which there is a huge amount of back pressure that will allow you to get a lot of things done that you could never get done in their absence.”
The Olympic rings and downtown Salt Lake City are pictured Feb. 10, 2002, during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Harry How/Getty Images)
Now, with another opportunity to host the Winter Games in 10 years, Leavitt said Utah must act now, not only to use the next decade to prepare, but also brace for and shape the change the Olympics is sure to usher in for the state — another new era.
The discussion focused on what “big gears” Utah must move to make a 2034 Winter Games a generational success. The panel included Leavitt, Romney and other past and current state leaders involved in either the 2002 Olympics or the 2034 bid. They included:
Fraser Bullock, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and current president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, which is bidding for the 2034 Winter Games.
Former Utah Sen. Lane Beattie, who helped plan the 2002 Winter Games. He also formerly served as the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce before his retirement in 2018.
Rep. Jon Hawkins, R-Pleasant Grove, who is serving as one of the legislative members of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation.
Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, one of the legislative members of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation.
Mitt Romney: Utah leaders must launch immediate effort for federal funding
Romney, participating remotely in the discussion on a TV screen, said Utah leaders must launch an “immediate” effort in Washington, D.C., to generate “energy and passion” for a 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City — as well as lay the groundwork now for federal funding to support security and transportation, which the federal government will be tasked with but has not yet funded.
Romney said security for the future Olympics will probably cost billions — perhaps $3-4 billion — but by then he warned Congress will likely be confronting “some very tough financial times,” pointing to frustrations with the federal government’s spending and national debt.
“I’ll tell you, if Salt Lake goes to the government and says we need $3-4 billion dollars for security and transportation, that may not be a welcome request, and it may not be granted,” Romney warned. So he urged Utah and California leaders — ahead of a 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles — to urge Congress to start putting aside funding every year to prepare for national special security events and transportation for an Olympics.
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“So instead of asking for $3-4 billion down the road, we’re able to get $200 million or $300 million year after year going into special accounts,” Romney said.
Romney also said Utah leaders should frame the 2034 Games not as a “big gift” to Utah, but an opportunity to “serve the world.” Like they did with the 2002 Olympics, he said leaders should put Utah’s volunteerism at the forefront and ask Utahns to be part of solving problems.
“What made (the 2002) Olympics so successful was that people began to realize this was an opportunity for us to help serve the world. This was about service. It was about giving, not receiving,” Romney said, urging leaders to not shy away from the challenges. “Acknowledge the difficulties. … Travel’s going to be hard. It’s going to be intrusive. Acknowledge those things.”
Romney said he’s happy to see Utah leaders talking about the issue now. A 2034 Winter Games is sure to “bring the world’s attention to Utah, for good or bad, and I think we’re going to see the best,” he said. But he also urged leaders to think about whether they really want it to bring “more growth.”
“I’m not sure we want more growth,” he said, noting it’s “not necessarily a bad thing” when a state’s population growth tapers. “I think we have to ask ourselves, ‘Do we want to continue to grow the state?’ I know it’s great for developers … but how much growth do we want to have?”
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How to harness Utahns’ support for hosting Olympics
McKell agreed Utah leaders need to start formulating a vision now about how it wants Utah to change in wake of the Olympics.
“It’s time to have that discussion,” McKell said. “I don’t think we know exactly as a state what we want to accomplish, right now. And I think we need to decide. We need to harness government at all levels … we need to decide what is the legacy, what do we want to accomplish.”
Another “big gear” a 2034 Winter Games could turn and help transform Utah’s future, the panel discussed, is acting as a remedy to today’s polarized political climate.
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“We have a divisive society today in many ways. How do we overcome that?” Bullock said. He pointed to recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics polls that show over 80% of Utahns support hosting another Olympics, and said Utah can coalesce that support and bring people together through volunteer efforts during the Games.
“We’re going to host the world together, as a community. And then utilize that not only at the local level but at the national level and at the international level — an opportunity for unity to celebrate human achievement under the umbrella of sport,” Bullock said. “It’s just a wonderful opportunity for the next 10 years.”
Bullock said last time, when Utah hosted the Olympics in wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack, “we became a healing opportunity for the world.”
“There will be something important that we will be doing at some point along this journey,” he said. “That’s the opportunity. … For us to do something special, for not only our community but the entire world.”
The Utah News Dispatch, like the Idaho Capital Sun, is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: [email protected]. Follow Utah News Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.
SPANISH FORK — The man charged with capital murder in the death of Santaquin Police Sgt. Bill Hooser is once again facing additional charges for allegedly spraying a deputy at the Utah County Jail with an unknown liquid.
Michael Aaron Jayne, 43, of Garrett, Indiana — who is already awaiting trial on a charge of aggravated murder and is facing a possible death sentence if convicted — is now accused of propelling an unidentified liquid into the face of a Utah County sheriff’s deputy while incarcerated.
On Sunday, about 6:50 p.m., Jayne allegedly used his hands “to forcefully hit something on the inside of his cell door through the crack, causing liquid to spray out onto the victim. When this happened, the cell door was shut. It took planning and effort to shoot the substance through the crack in his door at the right time. The victim then stepped back and radioed for an additional deputy. I then entered the unit and saw the victim wipe his face and liquid droplets on the victim’s pants and shirt,” according to a police booking affidavit.
Deputies later reviewed surveillance video and saw Jayne watching the deputy as he entered the housing unit to do a head count, the affidavit states.
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He was initially arrested and later charged for allegedly running over Hooser with a semitruck intentionally on May 5, 2024, according to charging documents. A preliminary hearing in that case is scheduled to begin Nov. 24.
In August, Jayne was charged with aggravated assault by a prisoner, a second-degree felony; two counts of assault by a prisoner, a third-degree felony; and causing property damage, a class A misdemeanor. In that case, he is accused of attacking multiple deputies on July 30.
In September, his defense team filed a motion stating they are “gravely concerned” that if their client isn’t moved out of the Utah County Jail, he may not live to see a trial. But just a week later, that motion was withdrawn.
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.
A Utah judge on Monday rejected the new congressional map drawn by Republican lawmakers, adopting an alternate proposal that creates a Democrat-leaning district ahead of the the 2026 midterm elections.
Republicans currently hold all four of Utah’s House seats and had advanced a map poised to protect them.
Judge Dianna Gibson ruled just before a midnight deadline that the Legislature’s new map “unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats.”
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She had ordered lawmakers to draw a map that complies with standards established by voters to ensure districts don’t deliberately favor a party, a practice known as gerrymandering.
If they failed, Gibson warned she may consider other maps submitted by plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led her to throw out Utah’s existing map.
Gibson ultimately selected a map drawn by plaintiffs, the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government. It keeps Salt Lake County almost entirely within one district, instead of dividing the heavily Democratic population center among all four districts, as was the case previously.
The judge’s ruling throws a curveball for Republicans in a state where they expected a clean sweep as they’re working to add winnable seats elsewhere.
Nationally, Democrats need to net three US House seats next year to wrest control of the chamber from the GOP, which is trying to buck a historic pattern of the president’s party losing seats in the midterms.
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The newly approved map gives Democrats a much stronger chance to flip a seat in a state that has not had a Democrat in Congress since early 2021.
“This is a win for every Utahn,” said state House and Senate Democrats in a joint statement. “We took an oath to serve the people of Utah, and fair representation is the truest measure of that promise.”
In August, Gibson struck down the Utah congressional map adopted after the 2020 census because the Legislature had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters.
The ruling thrust Utah into a national redistricting battle as President Donald Trump urged other Republican-led states to take up mid-decade redistricting to try to help the GOP retain control of the House in 2026.
Some Democratic states are considering new maps of their own, with California voters approving a map last week that gives Democrats a shot at winning five more seats. Republicans are still ahead in the redistricting fight.
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Redistricting typically occurs once a decade after a census. There are no federal restrictions to redrawing districts mid-decade, but some states — more led by Democrats than Republicans — set their own limitations.
The Utah ruling gives an unexpected boost to Democrats, who have fewer opportunities to gain seats through redistricting.
If Gibson had instead approved the map drawn by lawmakers, all four districts would still lean Republican but two would have become slightly competitive for Democrats. Their proposal gambled on Republicans’ ability to protect all four seats under much slimmer margins rather than create a single-left leaning district.
The ruling came minutes before midnight on the day the state’s top election official said was the latest possible date to enact a new congressional map so county clerks would have enough time to prepare for candidate filings for the 2026 midterms.
Republicans have argued Gibson does not have legal authority to enact a map that wasn’t approved by the Legislature. State Rep. Matt MacPherson called the ruling a “gross abuse of power” and said he has opened a bill to pursue impeachment against Gibson.
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Gibson said in her ruling she has an obligation to ensure a lawful map is in place by the deadline.
When most people think about seafood production, a landlocked state like Utah may not be the first state that comes to mind. But Utah already plays a pivotal role in America’s seafood supply chain — thanks to the Great Salt Lake — and expanding aquaculture into deep open ocean waters off our coasts would bring even greater opportunities and benefits for Utah’s economy and local communities.
With demand for sustainable protein on the rise, aquaculture has become one of the fastest-growing food production systems. Advances in science and technology have made open-ocean aquaculture one of the most efficient and environmentally responsible methods for producing protein. Yet in the U.S., the industry remains largely untapped. Once a global leader in seafood production, America now ranks 18th in aquaculture and imports up to 85% of the seafood we consume, including half from overseas fish farms. Expanding U.S. aquaculture production off our shores through open-ocean aquaculture is critical to strengthening food security, creating jobs and ensuring American families have greater access to locally raised seafood.
Utah has a unique stake in this national effort. The Great Salt Lake is the world’s leading source of brine shrimp, a critical ingredient in aquaculture feeds. Brine shrimp provide the nutrition needed to raise healthy fish, and aquaculture operations across the U.S. depend on Utah’s supply. That connection generates an estimated $67 million for Utah’s economy each year, sustaining jobs and cementing Utah’s role in the seafood supply chain.
Utah’s fish feed industry is a prime example of how aquaculture expansion in the U.S. would deliver benefits far beyond America’s coastal states. New farms in federal waters would bring jobs and investment to waterfront areas, while ripple effects across the seafood supply chain would reach deep inland states. Utah producers would benefit from increased demand for fish feed, and farmers across the Heartland, including Utah’s own wheat and corn growers, would benefit from rising demand for American-grown crops that are used in plant-based aquaculture feeds. From hatcheries and feed suppliers to processors and retailers, seafood supply chain businesses throughout the state and across the country would benefit from growing demand for American-raised seafood.
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But for the U.S. to realize the potential of open ocean aquaculture in federal waters, legislation is needed. The bipartisan Marine Aquaculture Research for America (MARA) Act of 2025, recently introduced in both the House and Senate (H.R.5746/S.2586), would create a pathway for open ocean aquaculture in federal waters, supporting the growth of U.S. seafood production. This bipartisan bill has already garnered strong support from leading environmental groups, seafood industry leaders, award-winning chefs and academics, who all recognize that aquaculture is a crucial tool for producing more sustainable protein, meeting rising demand and alleviating pressure on wild fisheries.
Utah is well positioned to benefit from the growth of aquaculture. Home to established companies and suppliers with decades of experience in aquaculture and aquafeed production, Utah businesses are ready to support the seafood supply chain and meet the increased demand that expanded U.S. aquaculture would create. At the same time, research institutions like Utah State University are advancing sustainable harvest practices that balance economic activity with the health of the Great Salt Lake.
Expanding U.S. aquaculture isn’t just about producing more seafood. It’s about creating jobs, strengthening food security and securing America’s future food supply while supporting communities nationwide, both inland and along the coast. With our established aquafeed producers, research expertise and strong ties to the seafood supply chain, Utah is ready to support aquaculture expansion in America. By passing the MARA Act and advancing American aquaculture, Congress can help deliver a stronger American seafood industry.
