Utah State University celebrated its new bovine mascot, Thistle (played by two Highland steers), with pumpkin portraits and launched Thistle’s Highland Swirl ice cream on Oct.
31 on the Logan campus. The university says the Thistles will appear at Aggie events beginning in fall 2027, and plush toys are now sold on campus.
509 Utahns told the Great Salt Lake Collaborative they want more water and durable policies to raise lake levels, citing toxic dust, reduced snowfall, and health risks; Gov. Cox signed the Great Salt Lake 2034 charter in Sept.
2025 to boost levels by the 2034 Olympics (with $200 million pledged).
RDO Equipment Co. held a ribbon-cutting Friday after moving into a new S 1900 W West Haven facility, replacing its Midland Drive shop.
The site expands service capacity from two small bays to 12 full-service plus two indoor wash bays, increases parts inventory from $600,000 to over $2 million, and grew staff from 8 to 29.
A state audit found Utah public universities often paid tenured professors to quietly leave instead of pursuing discipline, citing a $175,000 separation at Weber State, and auditors urged clearer statewide rules for firing tenured faculty as lawmakers weigh changes to tenure.
Operation Hero opened Utah’s Fallen First Responders Boot Display on Wednesday, Oct.
28; about 56 boots representing police, dispatchers, firefighters, EMS + K-9s who died since 9/11 are on view at Layton Hills Mall through Sunday, and the public can submit additional names on Operation Hero’s website.
Unaffiliated and third-party candidates are on the ballot this fall to push for ranked-choice voting and multi-member districts, and several are campaigning in the northern (2nd District) even though none qualified for the congressional debates.
Biologists and volunteers are planting roughly 3,000 sagebrush and brittlebush across the Middle Fork Wildlife Management Area (about 400 acres) to restore habitat after a summer wildfire and help mule deer, while crews also work to limit non-native grasses that could take over the burned area.
A Halloween weekend storm could drop heavy snow that might let Brian Head meet its planned Nov.
6 opening, with forecasts calling for about 22 inches at Brian Head and roughly 4 inches at Powder Mountain and Snowbasin near Ogden.
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