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Good morning. Today’s temperatures:

☀️ Logan: 40 - 81°

🌤 Salt Lake City: 58 - 87°

🌦 St. George: 74 - 88° 💧 50% chance

This weekend is the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, an event that my family goes to nearly every year. One of my favorite parts is watching the American Sign Language interpreters.

Tell me: What is your favorite Utah festival? I know there’s a lot of them!

Also on our mind: Why flags are flying at half-staff, President Nelson’s birthday and the results from BYU’s investigation about the Duke volleyball game.

Where is the smoke coming from?

The heat wave is on its way out, but a new culprit has descended on Utah in its wake: wildfire smoke.

Hold your breath: Some pretty active wildfires in Idaho are to blame and the airnow.gov interactive map allows folks to see where the fires are burning that are pushing pollution levels to the extreme.

Read about what to expect this weekend and early next week.

Did Mitt Romney urge Joe Biden to run for president?

On the night in 2018 that Utah elected Mitt Romney to the U.S. Senate, Romney urged Joe Biden to run for president, according to a new book.

“You have to run,” Romney told Biden.

The exchange is detailed in the upcoming book “The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama,” by Gabriel Debenedetti, a copy of which was obtained by The Guardian.

Read more about what Biden has encouraged Romney to do.

More in Politics

Utah’s flags will fly at half-staff for Queen Elizabeth II (KSL)
Sen. Mike Lee has support from 48 GOP senators for his reelection. But one is noticeably missing (Deseret News)
Frank Pignanelli & LaVarr Webb: A user-friendly guide to catch up on the 2022 election season (Deseret News)
Utah Dems sue to get new acting director of state office off November ballot (KSL)

Faith

98 statements of counsel from President Nelson in honor of his 98th birthday (Church News)
How the Relief Society helped 19th century Latter-day Saint women become midwives and doctors (Deseret News)
How religion shaped BYU and Baylor’s football programs (Deseret News)

Health

Utah reports 2,370 new COVID-19 cases, 8 additional deaths over past week (KSL)
Utah monkeypox cases increase, with 73% of infections in Salt Lake County (Salt Lake Tribune 🔒)

Education

Intensive BYU investigation finds no evidence of racist slur beyond Duke player’s statement (Deseret News)
Will district raze, rebuild Highland High, 100-year-old West High? (KSL)

Southern Utah

It’s a tornado. It’s a landspout. No, it’s a funnel cloud – this time over the Santa Clara-Ivins area (St. George News)

Wasatch Front

Rodeos, punk rock and a comedy gunfight at the Utah State Fair (Axios)
51 years later, siblings agonize about sister’s mysterious death (Standard-Examiner)

Wasatch Back

This Utah town is one of the nation’s top spots for remote workers (Salt Lake Tribune 🔒)

The West

Charges against Colby Ryan, Lori Daybell’s son, have been dropped without prejudice (East Idaho News)
Amazon cutting nearly 400 jobs as it closes fledgling health care biz (Seattle Times)

The World

King Charles III makes a promise of ‘lifelong service’ in his first address as monarch (Deseret News)
Will Salt Lake City host the 2030 Olympics? The wait to find out could take longer (Deseret News)
Here's why the risk of a nuclear accident in Ukraine has 'significantly increased' (NPR)

Trending

Dolly Parton and Kelly Clarkson bring this generation a new ‘9 to 5’ (Deseret News)

Game Day

BYU Cougars: Here is what’s at stake for No. 21 Cougars in rematch with No. 9 Baylor (Deseret News)
Utah Utes and Southern Utah Thunderbirds: ‘Nobody feels sorry for us’: What Utah must fix against SUU on Saturday (Deseret News)
Utah State Aggies and Weber State Wildcats: 'Chance to really shine' as Weber State prepares for matchup with Utah State (KSL)
Real Salt Lake: Real Salt Lake hosts D.C. United in non-conference matchup (KSL)

Signing off with a summer song — can’t forget that it's still summer with the temperatures we’ve had this week. Check your inbox tomorrow morning for more news from the Beehive State and beyond!

And reply to this email or email newsletters@deseretnews.com to tell us what you think of Utah Today!

— Ginny