Thanks for joining us on Election Day. You can find results and reporting here.
This is your rundown of the daily news for Wednesday, July 3. In this edition:
- A federal judge blocked enforcement of new Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students in Utah
- Phil Lyman still won't concede the primary governor race
- Two Cedar City Hospital workers were recognized for their response to 2023 floods
- Utah DUI arrests are on the rise
- The prison contractor Wellcon Inc. was been fined $2 million after the death of a Salt Lake County Jail inmate
- The man on trial for the death of Sgt. Bill Hooser has been granted private representation
Plus, check out our other published stories today:
Judge blocks enforcement of LGBTQ+ Title IX protections in Utah
4:00 p.m.
Enforcement of new Title IX anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students was blocked in Utah and three other states by a federal judge in Kansas on Wednesday.
The regulations, which go into effect August 1, change the definition of sex discrimination against K-12 students to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
Wednesday’s decision was the third from federal judges to block the new regulations in less than three weeks and is the most wide-ranging so far.
It applies in Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, and Alaska, as well as a middle school in Oklahoma where a student is suing over the rule and members of three groups backing efforts to roll back LGBTQ+ rights.
Utah also passed a resolution on June 18 not to comply with the new Title IX regulations.
Lyman won’t concede governor race, wants ‘transparency’ in election
4:00 p.m.
A week after Utah’s primary election, Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman has still not conceded, citing a desire for transparency in the election.
The AP called the race for Governor Spencer Cox the day of the primary election, and as of today, he still has 54.5% of votes with 98% of ballots counted, equivalent to about a 40,000-vote lead.
Lyman, however, says he wants election data and Governor Cox’s signatures to be verified by an independent third party, questioning the fairness of the election and claiming a “cover-up” in an interview with ABC4.
According to the Washing County attorney, who looked into past irregularities with the company Cox used to collect signatures, there is no evidence of a candidate or the company acting inappropriately.
Two Cedar City Hospital workers recognized for 2023 flood response
4:00 p.m.
Two Intermountain Cedar City Hospital caregivers were recognized by the Utah Emergency Management Association for their response to flooding last year.
Cedar City Hospital was seriously affected by flooding in August 2023. Emergency Management Program Coordinator Jody Johnson and Infusion Center Nurse Manager Tom Giles lead efforts to keep the facility open so patients could receive medical care close to home.
Recovery efforts included digging trenches to redirect flood waters, and adjusting and relocating their cancer and infusion department so patients could still receive care there.
Johnson and Giles were honored with the “Response of the Year” by the Utah Emergency Management Association for their work.
Utah DUI arrests on the rise
6:56 a.m.
The Utah Department of Public Safety says the state could exceed 10,620 DUI arrests in 2024.
This July, there will be 280 DUI shifts worked by 37 law enforcement agencies all over the state according to Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Zach Randall who says officers will be ready with watchful eyes for drunk and impaired driving. Randall says they will be looking for drivers unable to stay in their lanes, driving without their lights on at night, making wide turns, speeding exceptionally fast — or even exceptionally slow.
As of Monday, the Utah Department of Public Safety said there have been 30 impaired driving-related deaths so far in 2024.
Prison contractor Wellcon Inc. fined $2 million after death of Salt Lake County Jail inmate
6:56 a.m.
A Utah jury hit prison contractor Wellcon Inc. with a $2 million fine on Tuesday after an inmate died at the Salt Lake County Jail in November 2013.
According to a complaint filed in Utah's 3rd District Court, Jeremy Aus died after being booked into the Salt Lake County jail and denied necessary medication, leading to withdrawal effects and his death.
According to the complaint, eight days after requesting medication that requires a specific withdrawal process to prevent side effects a Salt Lake County jail officer alerted medical staff to assess Aus, who was suffering from a possible seizure. Aus' cellmate stated that he saw between four and six of Aus' seizures. Later that night Aus was declared dead after being found non-responsive.
Man on trial for the death of Sgt. Bill Hooser has been granted private representation
6:56 a.m.
The man accused of killing Sgt. Bill Hooser has new private practice attorneys after initially asking for a public defender.
The two private defenders representing Michael Jayne will be funded the same way a public defender would be.
Nathan Evershed is a Utah Defense Attorney not associated with the cases, but is familiar with capital cases and their severity. He says in Utah the only way for a case to become a capital case is that it has to be an aggravated murder and can also involve the possibility of the death penalty.
Evershed says it is unusual to have two of these kinds of cases in Utah County at the same time. Public defenders in Utah County have another capital case on their hands.
Kent Cody Barlow, the man who is accused of crashing his car into a horse corral and killing two Eagle Mountain boys, is one of them.
