Robert Gehrke

1 month ago | sltrib.com | Robert Gehrke |Emily Anderson

Labor groups met the signature threshold in one state senate district Tuesday, the first of at least 15 they'll need in order to get a referendum on the 2026 ballot to repeal a new law banning government entities from negotiating contracts with public employee unions. The Protect Utah Workers coalition met the requirements in Sen. Jen Plumb's Senate District 9, which covers a large portion of northeast Salt Lake City, according to data from the lieutenant governor's office.

1 month ago | sltrib.com | Robert Gehrke

Gov. Spencer Cox said it was "very impressive" but not surprising that labor unions were able to gather more than 320,000 signatures in an attempt to repeal a law banning collective bargaining for public employees - a bill he said he didn't care for, but signed it anyway. "I said from the beginning I didn't like the bill. It wasn't something I was interested in, not something I would run," Cox said during his monthly PBS Utah news conference Tuesday.

2 months ago | sltrib.com | Jeff Parrott |Robert Gehrke |Chris Samuels

A funeral service for former Utah Congresswoman Mia Love, who died March 23 after a yearslong battle with brain cancer, is scheduled to happen at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion on the University of Utah campus on Monday morning. Love, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, was the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress. She served in the U.S. House from 2015 to 2019, and previously was elected as mayor and to the City Council in Saratoga Springs.

2 months ago | moabtimes.com | Robert Gehrke

The Utah Legislature became the first two-time winner of the Society of Professional Journalists’ national Black Hole Award, awarded annually to the government entity that gulps up sunshine and blots out transparency. Representatives in the House Chamber at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 21.

2 months ago | sltrib.com | Robert Gehrke

Gov. Spencer Cox put a stop to - or at least paused - Utah's drive toward transacting business using gold. The governor vetoed HB306, sponsored by Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, a bill that would have hired a company to set up a system that would enable the state to pay vendors using gold, if that's how the vendors choose to be paid. The payment system was envisioned as the next step along Utah's road to gold.