This is your daily news rundown for Wednesday, August 28. In this edition:
- The University of Utah has received $6.5 million to reduce air pollution at schools
- Gov. Spencer Cox is facing backlash for a 'campaign photo' at the Arlington National Cemetery
- Old concrete is being reused for the new Bangerter Highway
U of U receives $6.5 million to reduce air pollution at schools
5:28 p.m.
The University of Utah is receiving $6.5 million to reduce air pollution at schools in low-income, disadvantaged, and tribal communities.
The funding will go towards developing indoor air quality management and greenhouse gas reduction plans for schools in Utah, Nevada, and the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming.
Specific goals include energy efficiency assessments of schools, indoor and outdoor air pollutant monitoring, developing an indoor quality school phone app, and community engagement.
The university is one of five recipients of a $34 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to combat air pollution at schools. According to data from the agency, half of K-12 schools across the country don’t have plans or programs in place for indoor air quality management.
Cox campaign faces backlash for photo at Arlington National Cemetery
5:28 p.m.
Governor Spencer Cox is facing backlash after his reelection campaign used a photo of him and former President Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery.
Cox joined Trump and others at the famous veterans’ cemetery on Monday in a wreath-laying ceremony for U.S. service members killed three years ago in a suicide bombing at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan. Among them was Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover, who was from Utah.
The event has faced scrutiny after reports emerged on Tuesday that Trump’s campaign staff had an altercation with cemetery officials who tried to stop them from taking photos of the visit.
Trump also posted a campaign video on social media using footage from the event.
The Arlington National Cemetery’s media policy prohibits political campaign or election-related activities at the cemetery, including photography.
Cox’s campaign then sent out an e-mail on Wednesday asking for donations with an included photo of the event. He later said on social media that the picture shouldn’t have been sent out and was not part of the campaign.
Old concrete being reused for new Bangerter Highway
5:28 p.m.
As The Utah Department of Transportation builds new freeway-style interchanges on Bangerter Highway, they’re reducing, reusing, and recycling old concrete.
Typically, the old concrete would go to waste, hauled away from the construction site to be replaced with newly mixed concrete. Instead, crews crushed old concrete sections of the highway and reprocessed it into a road base for the ramps at new interchanges.
Crews have finished recycling 15,000 cubic yards of concrete, a process that’s been going every day for the past five months. The metal rebars inside the concrete were also recycled.
