Robert Gehrke

5 days ago | sltrib.com | Robert Gehrke

As Utah businesses grapple with trade wars and uncertainty surrounding tariffs, two former secretaries of state - including Donald Trump's former top diplomat - say the president needs a clearer vision and messaging about what he is trying to accomplish with his sweeping trade duties. "President Trump hasn't been clear about his overall strategic objective here," Pompeo told Utah business leaders during the "Crossroads of the World" forum sponsored by Zions Bank and World Trade Center Utah.

1 week ago | sltrib.com | Robert Gehrke

Officials at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Salt Lake City are not accepting new patients needing inpatient behavioral health treatment, but V.A. officials have not explained why or how long this move will last. "Right now, we are diverting patients" to other facilities, V.A. spokesperson Jeremy Laird said. "We aren't accepting new patients."The diversions from the George E.

2 weeks ago | sltrib.com | Robert Gehrke

It's on. Labor groups have met the requirements to put a measure on the 2026 ballot to repeal a law banning police, firefighters and teachers unions from representing their members in contract negotiations. As of Monday morning, the referendum backers had reached their target in the required 15 senate districts, in addition to the 146,480 verified signatures statewide, according to the lieutenant governor's office.

3 weeks 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.

3 weeks 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.