By McKenzie Romero | Editor
“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary is asking a judge to toss out a lawsuit against him from two Utahns who say they were defamed when the businessman claimed they and their organizations were agents of the Chinese Communist Party in multiple Fox News interviews.
The Utahns had drawn O’Leary’s ire for their opposition to his proposal to build a large-scale data center in Box Elder County near the shores of the dwindling Great Salt Lake.
In today’s Dispatch we update you on the latest in the case over the currently paused data center project, new federal funding for veterans cemeteries in Utah, and a continued dive in the number of people getting food assistance since the One Big Beautiful Bill passed.
“The Complaint’s own allegations and the appearances it relies on show that O’Leary reasoned his way to the China connection from observed facts rather than publishing a statement he knew to be false.” — Attorneys for celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary in court documents arguing his comments about two Utahns were not defamatory.
Protesters demonstrate against a proposed Box Elder County data center at the Utah Capitol on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (Georgia Metcalf for Utah News Dispatch)
By Annie Knox
Joshua Kanter, founder of the left-leaning Alliance for a Better Utah, and Gabrielle Finlayson, of the Democratic and progressive political firm Elevate Strategies, allege they suffered damage to their reputations after Kevin O’Leary accused them of being “two cells inside of Utah” seeking to undermine American development of artificial intelligence on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.
O’Leary later acknowledged in a social media post he had “no evidence” Kanter, Finlayson or their organizations were funded by China. In this week’s court filings, his attorneys argue the Utahns republished the alleged defamatory statements on their own social media platforms and used them as a fundraising tool.
Development of the new veterans cemetery in Washington Terrace may start in 2027. (Carolyn Ann Ryan/Getty Images)
By Alixel Cabrera
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration has awarded $16.5 million for two Utah projects — one to help establish the Northern Utah Veterans Cemetery in Washington Terrace, and another to expand the Utah Veterans Cemetery and Memorial Park in Bluffdale.
The new cemetery is expected to cover 75 acres on a 100-acre parcel of state-controlled land in Weber County, according to the department. It would have the capacity to serve 4,000 veterans and family members in the region.
A sign noting the acceptance of electronic benefit transfer cards for food aid is displayed at a grocery store in California. New data shows millions of Americans have lost food stamps since the passage of a major law last year. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
STATELINE
By Kevin Hardy
More than 5 million people have lost food stamps since the enactment last July of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut taxes and federal safety net programs. The law changed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility rules, ended certain work requirement exemptions and shifted new costs to states that administer the federal program.
The number of Utahns getting help buying food through SNAP has declined by 16% — or 27,805 people — since the bill went into effect in July 2025, according to an analysis by the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger nonprofit.
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