A new proposal from the U.S. Forest Service would require fees in order to camp and hike in dozens of trailheads, campsites and day areas throughout the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, a region in northeastern Utah that attracts roughly 13 million visits annually. 

According to the Forest Service, the fees would aid in the expense of maintaining services like toilets, picnic areas, fire rings, parking lots and more, as visitation to the area continues to surge.

"But questions around equity remain, with advocates worried the proposal could make it difficult for families to access their public lands, especially those in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons that have been historically free," my colleague Kyle Dunphey writes.

Rusty Bowers speaks: The Arizona Republican Party has fallen

Arizona, a longtime republican stronghold, has seen an uptick in Democratic candidates winning in recent years. However, that trend has seemingly come to a halt after candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump won big in the state’s Republican primary this week.

On Tuesday, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who testified before the Jan. 6 committee in June about being pressured to help overturn the state’s election results in 2020, lost his bid for a state Senate seat. 

“The party in Arizona is dysfunctional and now they want everybody to turn around and step into lock step,” Bowers said, adding that he sees “frightening developments in the (Arizona) House, which I love and want to protect.”

Read the full story here.

More in politics

• Utah legislator among Latina lawmakers who met with VP Harris about reproductive rights (KSL.com)

• Demand for Colorado abortion care spikes as out-of-state patients face desperate circumstances (KUER)

• First migrant bus from Texas arrives in New York City, part of Gov. Abbott’s plan to ship thousands to the East Coast (Deseret News)

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Wasatch Front:

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