By McKenzie Romero | Editor
As fast-moving wildfires have scorched rural Utah, a series of structure fires throughout the state’s suburban core have also taken a toll on Utahns.
From devastating flames that swept through an apartment building to a house fire that injured two people and killed a pet, all under the summer’s record-breaking heat, the blazes have upended Utahns’ lives and put added pressure on urban fire departments.
In today’s Dispatch we take you through the other fires burning this summer, why a judge says Utah can enforce anti-gambling laws against Kalshi, and what attorney general nominee Todd Blanche told faith leaders about his goals for restricting abortion.
“We try to tell people, again: If you’re pulling trailers, try not to be dragging chains. If you are smoking, try not to flick your cigarette butts out the window. If you are doing any type of barbecuing or outdoor fires — anything like that — making sure you have a water source with you.” — Unified Fire Authority spokesperson Nate Cochran on the ongoing need for fire prevention in the state.
The North Union Apartments in Midvale are pictured on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, after a large fire days earlier displaced residents from all 220 occupied units. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)
By Annie Knox
Fire departments are focusing on keeping their crews safe in this summer’s punishing heat, including ensuring they stay hydrated and rotate taking breaks as they are on scene. A Unified firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion last week after attacking an aggressive apartment fire in Midvale that tore through the building’s roof and top floor.
The heads of different departments agree that while blazing outside temperatures don’t seem to intensify house fires, there is concern that gusty winds will carry them quickly to other properties. And in an indirect result of hotter weather, overworked air conditioning units can also place stress on mechanical equipment that can lead to fires.
In Kalshi's lawsuit against the state of Utah, a federal judge found federal commodities law does not override Utah’s anti-gambling mandates. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)
By Alixel Cabrera
Utah may enforce its anti-gambling laws, even if they include bans of proposition betting, a federal judge has ruled in response to a lawsuit from Kalshi challenging a new state law. The prediction market platform plans to appeal.
Kalshi had described the state law, which classified proposition bets within the definition of banned gambling, as “an intrusion into the federal government’s exclusive authority to regulate derivatives trading on exchanges overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.”
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, whose nomination advanced in the Senate on Tuesday, walks through the Capitol. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
STATELINE
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is one step closer to confirmation after the Republican Judiciary Committee voted to advance his appointment on a party-line vote on Tuesday, and based on promises he made to faith leaders around the country last week, that means national anti-abortion actions may be one step closer as well.
In a conference call hosted by the White House Faith Office on July 30 with thousands of religious leaders around the country, Blanche said he was committed to achieving policy solutions so that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision “becomes permanent in every single state.”
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