By McKenzie Romero | Editor
Last fall, officials in Page, Arizona, agreed to sell 500 acres to a developer looking to build a 1 gigawatt data center. The land is located about a mile from the ailing Colorado River’s iconic Horseshoe Bend, and at the border of the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation.
With the explosion of data centers reaching all corners of the country, tribal communities are worried that their land could be next.
In today’s Dispatch we analyze the possibility of a clash between data centers and native tribes, the former employees and volunteers frustrated by Weber County Animal Services, and uncertainty about federal disaster relief funding.
“Water is used for everything, like with holy water in church and traditional ceremonies. But with a data center coming in, it’s going to take a lot.” — Irene Whitekiller, president of the Navajo Nation’s LeChee Chapter, about a data center near the tribe’s land and the Colorado River.
An explosion of data center facilities, including the one pictured here in northeast Oregon on May 18 have been built along the Columbia River Gorge during the last few years. (Photo by Jordan Gale/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
By Madyson Fitzgerald
While municipalities are pushing back against data center developers by tightening codes and enforcing stricter regulations, some companies are hoping that tribal nations will be more lenient. As sovereign, self-governing nations, tribes are not required to follow all state and local laws.
Meanwhile, some tribal leaders are concerned about President Donald Trump’s ability to alter regulations related to federal lands. While most of Trump’s executive orders don’t apply to federal land belonging to Native nations or reservations, his recent reductions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments show that could change.
Alan Waldron, a volunteer for a rescue group for Great Pyrenees, walks a group of dogs. (Photo courtesy of Alan Waldron)
UTAH INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM PROJECT
By Kayli Jacob
Ex-volunteers and employees, animal fosters and rescue personnel have expressed concerns about poor treatment of shelter animals in the care of Weber County Animal Services — and the beleaguered staff and volunteers taking care of them.
Community members have taken to social media and spoke with the Utah Investigative Journalism Project about the issues they are seeing. They also worry members of shelter leadership lack key knowledge of animals and are not being transparent in how they manage care and decide when animals need to be euthanized.
Sisters watch as a skid-steer loader pulls a tree in Highmore, South Dakota, on June 29, 2026, after a severe storm that morning. (Photo by Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight)
STATELINE
By Alex Brown
State leaders are breathing a sigh of relief that the Trump administration’s threats to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency have subsided.
But experts say there’s still confusion about President Donald Trump’s decisions to approve or deny disaster declarations, leaving states with uncertainty about whether they can expect federal recovery funds.
RECENT DISPATCHES
A summer of recalls exposes holes in the nation’s food safety net | Anna Claire Vollers
MORE UTAH NEWS
Thanks for reading Your Daily Dispatch. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.