Utah News Dispatch

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will nominate Erica Schwartz, who served in the president’s first administration, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a seat left vacant for months after his last director said she was ousted in a rift over childhood vaccines. Trump announced his new pick on his social media platform, Truth Social, touting Schwartz’s career as a medical doctor with the U.S. armed forces. “She is a STAR!” he wrote.

Our country’s dependence on fossil fuels does more than pollute our air. It destabilizes the world and empowers the ultra-wealthy to profit off of that volatility, leaving working families to pay the price. This dynamic has been on full display since President Donald Trump’s attack on Iran. Trump’s invasion of one of the world’s most oil-rich regions jolted energy markets, sending gas prices soaring to the highest level in either of his terms. In 2024 he campaigned on cutting them in half.

DUTCH JOHN, Utah — It’s opening day at Cedar Springs Marina. The family-owned recreation hotspot is preparing to welcome visitors for another season of fun at Flaming Gorge. “Hundreds of thousands come through,” John Rauch, one of the marina’s operators, told FOX 13 News on Wednesday. “Business wise? Boat rentals, we’re looking at thousands of boat rentals.

by Robert Kimball Shinkoskey, Utah News Dispatch April 14, 2026 It is not just the Great Salt Lake that is slipping away from the Utah landscape. The power of the people, the prospect of a happy and prosperous family life, and the health of our citizens are also slipping away.

by Dackota York, Utah News Dispatch April 9, 2026 Imagine spending years showing up. You attend meetings. You give input. You sit through presentations that go on too long. You speak anyway. You bring your family. You tell your story. You do exactly what you’re told democracy is supposed to look like. And then, after all of that, someone in Washington decides none of it mattered. That is exactly what’s happening right now. Nevada Republican U.S. Rep.

At least 2.5 million low-income people quickly lost help affording groceries under a Republican-passed law that added new requirements for the nation’s largest nutrition program and shifted hundreds of millions of dollars in costs from the federal government to states, according to a study the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities published Wednesday.

by Tim McConnehey, Utah News Dispatch April 7, 2026 Utah’s public-records law broke down in the simplest possible way: I asked for records, the Jordan School District said it had none because an elected official used a personal Gmail account, and when I pressed further, I was told he frequently deleted messages and had produced all he could find. That is not transparency. It is an honor system.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump continued to escalate his rhetoric against Iran Tuesday, even as some Republicans in Congress began to back away from his declarations, threatening that “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted online its first large tranche of advanced genetic data from measles viruses spreading last year. Scientists with knowledge of the operation expect the agency to post heaps more in weeks to come, revealing whether the U.S. has lost its hard-won measles elimination status. The CDC withheld the data for months as a team hit hard by mass layoffs and resignations sorted through the information.

by Nelson Thibault, Utah News Dispatch April 3, 2026 Utah veterans who fought as U.N. peacekeeping forces against communist North Korean troops from 1950 to 1953 are eligible for a South Korean commemorative medal made from melted down pieces of barbed wire. The wire that is used to make the medals was cut from fencing at the 38th parallel, giving it profound significance.