By Katie McKellar | Senior Reporter
The unexpected primary loss of one of Utah’s most powerful lawmakers, Senate President Stuart Adams, has sent shockwaves through the Legislature. He has been at the helm of the Republican-controlled Senate for eight years, but come next year, he’ll be gone.
Senate Republicans won’t pick their next slate of leaders until a closed-door caucus meeting after the November elections — but already at least one senator has thrown his hat into the race.
In today’s Dispatch, we report on why Sen. Evan Vickers is running to be the state’s next Senate president. We also cover environmentalists’ worries over a proposed EPA rule change, and highlight a States Newsroom analysis of violent outcomes involving ICE and DHS agents across the country.
“It certainly appears feasible. It doesn’t mean I’m going to win, but it certainly appears feasible.” — Sen. Evan Vickers, on his conversations so far with other Senate Republicans about his run for Senate president.
Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, is pictured on the first day of the legislative session at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Katie McKellar
Vickers pointed to his 18 years in the Legislature (four in the House and 14 in the Senate), as well as six years he spent as Senate majority leader before he lost the position to current Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, who is also expected to run for the Senate presidency.
Cullimore declined to comment for this story. But Vickers said he thinks he’s well positioned to lead the Senate. If elected, Vickers said he would work to “get the public’s trust back.”
Massive diesel generators for backup power supply are pictured during construction of the new QTS data center in Eagle Mountain on Friday, April 17, 2026. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Alixel Cabrera
The EPA is considering streamlining air quality reviews for what it considers “minor” polluters by skipping federally-mandated public comment periods. Utah environmentalists worry that making the change would close the door to the public on projects in Utah.
However, the Utah Division of Air Quality’s director Bryce Bird said that the state agency has no plans to remove the public comment requirement from its minor source air permitting process.
People gather near the scene of 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, 2026, the third shooting in as many weeks. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
D.C. BUREAU
By Ariana Figueroa
ICE agents on July 13 killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national with legal work authorization, in Maine, making him the 22nd person shot at by federal immigration officers during President Donald Trump’s second term.
Nearly all of those 22 incidents – 19 – involved Department of Homeland Security officers shooting upon people in their vehicles during traffic stops, a crucial nexus, according to a States Newsroom review of news reports and documents. The encounters spanned the nation, from Colorado to Texas to Oregon to New Jersey.
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