UTAH

Salt Lake City wins 2034 Winter Olympics

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City was formally awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics following a vote on July 24 by the International Olympic Committee in Paris, giving Utah its second Games after hosting in 2002.

About a thousand sports fans gathered in downtown Salt Lake City at 3 a.m. local time — 11 a.m. in Paris — to watch the long-anticipated announcement on a livestream. Some dressed in ski gear in the summer heat, while others donned Team USA merchandise and waved flags with the Olympic rings. The crowd erupted in cheers as Olympic officials made their final decision to return to a city where they said the local enthusiasm was palpable even two decades after it first hosted.

Utah’s capital city was the only candidate for 2034 after the Olympic committee gave Salt Lake City exclusive negotiating rights last year. Climate change and high operational costs have reduced the number of cities willing and able to welcome the Winter Games.

Utah has capitalized on low interest elsewhere, pitching itself to Olympic officials as an eager repeat host if the committee eventually adopts a permanent rotation of Winter Olympic cities. Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi said Salt Lake City would be a prime candidate for such a plan.

Remnants of the 2002 Games are nestled throughout the city and have kept the Olympic fever alive. Organizers of the 2034 Games touted that enduring enthusiasm throughout the selection process and showed visiting Olympic officials how they have preserved nearly all the venues used in 2002.

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In its final presentation to Olympic officials, the Utah bid team outlined its plan for one of the most compact layouts in Olympic history, with all venues within a one-hour drive of the athletes village on the University of Utah campus. The plan requires no new permanent construction, with all 13 venues already in place and each having played a role when the city first hosted.

Hiker dies after running out of water

HURRICANE — A 56-year-old woman died while hiking near a state park in southwestern Utah over the weekend after running out of water on a sweltering day, officials said.

Emergency crews responded near Quail Creek State Park on July 21 to a report of a hiker “in distress due to not having enough water and the temperature being 106 degrees Fahrenheit,” the Hurricane City Police Department said in a statement.

She was unresponsive when rescuers found her. Life-saving measures were not successful, police said. Her name and hometown have not been released.

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The woman’s death is one of several believed to be caused by the heat in the western United States over the past several weeks.

Three hikers died in state and national parks in Utah over the previous weekend, including a father and daughter from Wisconsin who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands National Park in triple-digit temperatures. A 30-year-old woman died in Snow Canyon State Park while two others were suffering from heat exhaustion.

Three hikers died in recent weeks at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, where summer temperatures on exposed parts of the trails can exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

ARIZONA

Judge nixes abortion ballot measure’s description

PHOENIX — A judge on July 26 rejected an effort by GOP lawmakers to use the term “unborn human being” to refer to a fetus in the pamphlet that Arizona voters would use to weigh a ballot measure that would expand abortion access in the state.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten said the wording the state legislative council suggested is “packed with emotion and partisan meaning” and asked for what he called more “neutral” language. The measure aims to expand abortion access from 15 weeks to 24 weeks, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb.

It would allow exemptions to save the woman’s life or to protect her physical or mental health. It would also prevent the state from adopting or enforcing laws that would forbid access to the procedure.

Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, a co-chair of the legislative council, said the group will appeal the court’s decision to the state Supreme Court.

Aaron Thacker, communications director for Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, noted that the final decision on the ballot itself remains in the air.

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Arizona for Abortion Access, the organization leading the ballot measure campaign, sued the council earlier over the suggested language and advocated for the term “fetus,” which the legislative council rejected.

Attorney General Kris Mayes wrote in a “friend of the court” document that “fetus” and “pregnancy” are both neutral terms that the council could adopt.

“It’s incredibly important to us that Arizona voters get to learn more about and weigh our measure in objective and accurate terminology,” said Dawn Penich, communications director for the abortion access group.

Democrats have focused on abortion rights in their campaigns in this year’s elections, with similar measures proposed in multiple states. Arizona organizers submitted more than double the amount of signatures needed for the measure to appear on the ballot.

NEW MEXICO

FBI says man, woman may be linked to 6 wildfires

RUIDOSO — A wildfire that burned more than 12 square miles in southern New Mexico in June was human caused and two people may be to blame, federal authorities said on July 22.

The FBI said a man and woman may be linked to a vehicle seen fleeing from at least five other wildfires near the village of Ruidoso over a six-week span.

The names of the couple have not been released because they haven’t been charged, according to authorities.

FBI investigators said there have been 16 wildfires between May 3 to June 18 in the Mescalero Apache Reservation and all are believed to be human-caused.

The lightning-caused South Fork Fire and Salt Fire both started on June 17.

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Authorities said the Salt Fire charred more than 12 square miles and was deliberately set.

Together, the Salt and South Fork wildfires charred more than 25000 acres and it took firefighters weeks to contain the blazes.

Federal investigators determined that all the fires were started within an area of 25 square miles.

Two people died and over 1,400 structures in Ruidoso were burned in the South Fork Fire.

Man sentenced for shooting at border agent

ALBUQUERQUE — A federal judge sentenced an El Paso man to 19 years in prison for shooting at a U.S. Border Patrol agent, the U.S. District Attorney of New Mexico announced July 19.

Robert Esquivel was convicted of attempted murder of an officer, aggravated assault of an officer with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm and conspiracy to transport migrants in the U.S. illegally.

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He opened fire on an unnamed agent and struck him twice in the torso area after the agent stopped him on a rural stretch of New Mexico highway during a “routine immigration inspection,” according to court records and the district attorney’s office. Esquivel, a U.S. citizen, had five people in the car who had entered the country illegally, according to court records. He later admitted to transporting migrants who came to the U.S. illegally on four different occasions.

The agent survived the shooting largely due to his ballistic vest, according to the district attorney’s office.

Esquivel fled the scene but lost control of his vehicle and rolled it over multiple times. Several people in the car pleaded with Esquivel to stop the vehicle while he fled, according to court records.

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