Welcome to the
Utah Policy Minute for Wednesday, Aug. 21. I’m Holly Richardson and today is National Senior Citizens Day. Utah is suing the federal government over control of 18.5 million acres of unappropriated public lands and is asking the U.S.
Supreme Court to decide whether the
federal government has constitutional authority to maintain the lands or if the state does. The lawsuit will not impact the 18.8 million acres of federal and Tribal lands that include national parks, national monuments,
national forests and national wilderness areas. According to data from the Utah Highway Safety Office, 990 Utahns were hit by vehicles during the 2023-24 school year, and 34 people were killed. A significant number of auto-pedestrian crashes happened during peak commute hours for school: 8 a.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Please be careful! There have been 971 fire starts in Utah this year, including nearly 100 new starts over the past week. The cost to fight Utah fires so far is an estimated
$28.5 million and could reach more than
$32 million. Get these and
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