Matilyn Mortensen

“All of the things together, like being pregnant in a foreign country while mourning the loss of my brother, felt like the hardest thing I've ever done. And I've done hard things before as we all have. But for me, these were the hardest together and the timing of them and I felt so alone.”

The first round of results from this year’s primary election are in and as expected, many of the races are too close to call, including the four-way Republican primary for the Governor’s seat.

When Gonca Soyer and her family moved to Cache Valley a few years ago, they decided to invite their friends and neighbors to join them in celebrating for each night of Ramadan — a holy month where Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and then gather with family, friends and community members to eat and pray and spend time together in the evening. 

Social distancing guidelines have made accessing healthcare challenging and in some cases impossible for people who have a disability or a chronic illness. And even when people could in theory access that care, the risks of infection leaving home creates may make them reluctant to venture out. One of these people struggling to access care is Lou McKee of Salt Lake City. 

As concerns about shortages of personal protective equipment and hospital overcrowding during the coronavirus pandemic grew, Utah’s governor issued an executive order last month stopping all elective surgeries in the state. For one Cedar City family, this means their five-month-old baby is awaiting a postponed cleft lip and palate surgery.

After being closed for over a month, the Uintah County Library began a “soft opening” this week. The library staff is continuing to work to provide community resources, while social distancing.

“Vernal strong” is the motto right now in one Unitah Basin community as residents work together to help each other through not only the global pandemic, but also the downturn in the oil and gas  industry which has hit the community hard. 

Years ago, Paisley Rekdal created a digital community project that mapped the people, places, buildings and events that defined Salt Lake City. When she became Utah’s poet laureate, she decided to build on this idea and create a literary map for the entire state.

In response to the global pandemic, Utah lawmakers started a special legislative session on Thursday morning. The session marked the first time lawmakers called themselves into a session since the state’s constitution was amended in 2018 to give them the power to do so and the first time they held a session via video conferencing. 

On Monday, the Utah Department of Health announced over 33,000 people have reportedly been tested for the coronavirus in Utah.