With thanks to our sponsor
By Camille Smith
October 12, 2026
⛈️ 34 – 59° Logan | ⛈️ 49 – 60° Ogden | ⛈️ 48 – 62° Salt Lake
⛈️ 51 – 62° Provo | ⛈️ 42 – 58° Manti | ⛈️ 57 – 75° Moab
⛈️ 41 – 57° Cedar City | ⛈️ 57 – 68° St. George
🌅 Good morning!
Here are the top stories from last week:
The focus of this midterm cycle has been mostly on areas such as Texas, the Midwest, and the surprisingly competitive battle for the Senate, writes Cami Mondeaux.
But there’s a lot happening in the West that will help determine which party is going to take control of the House — and it’s closer than ever.
The background: A majority of the House is 218 seats. Right now, Republicans hold 218, Democrats hold 214 (and two vacancies) and there’s one independent, who currently caucuses with Republicans.
How to win the majority: To win the majority, Democrats only need to net four seats. And if we look at the competitive seats that are most likely to flip — also known as the “tossup races” — there are 22. Democrats hold just six of those right now, Republicans have to defend a whopping 16. So the advantage currently lies with Democrats, but anything can happen.
There are other competitive races in the “lean Republican” and “lean Democrat” columns, which are just one step shy from being tossups.
And several of them are in the Western region, meaning the fate of Congress could be decided in our own backyard.
Read more about how the West could determine control of Congress.
Lee Benson writes:
Ever since the Sundance Film Festival made it clear that its 2026 showing was to be its last in Utah, people in the arts-loving community of Park City started posing the obvious question: How on earth will we even begin to fill the void?
One group they turned to for ideas was Park City Film, the grass roots nonprofit organization that shows independent films on weekends in the Santy Auditorium on Park Avenue.
Knowing of the loyal support from an extensive number of local followers and supporters, it did not take long for Park City Film executive director Katharine (Katie) Wang and her staff of three to come up with an answer as to how to replace the recently departed iconic film festival:
Let’s start another one.
Read more about Park City Film.
FROM OUR SPONSOR PRAGERU
Celebrate America: A board game for the whole family
Make family game night fun with Celebrate America: Race to the White House! This USA-made trivia game brings all ages together for friendly competition while exploring American history, heroes, civics, geography and culture. Learn, laugh and support PragerU’s mission! Get your copy now!
Utah
Taylorsville event gathers winter coats, Halloween costumes for families in need (KSL)
Moab 240 cut short after 70 runners and volunteers were rescued (KSL)
Utah group says there’s a faster way to block Flock cameras — without legislation (St George News)
North Logan Pumpkin Walk returns Oct. 15 with 'All American Pumpkins' theme (Cache Valley Daily)
Rains, flooding damage Nine Mile Road in Carbon County (Fox 13)
Strong winds, heavy rain and mountain snow target Utah through midweek (Fox 13)
'Saturday Night Live' spoof targets Kevin O'Leary's Utah data center proposal (KUTV)
U.S. & World
Should ‘enabling’ harm be a crime? A son of Holocaust survivors makes the case (Deseret News)
The hidden hunger among older Americans — and the people working to feed them (Deseret News)
Passenger terminal in Riyadh airport hit again, a day after deadly strike killed at least 12 (CBS News)
Six senators call for Trump administration to ‘immediately reverse course’ on Russian diesel plan (The Associated Press)
Faith
Latter-day Saints for Life conference urges members to ‘stand for life with love’ (Deseret News)
First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City finds 'creative uses' for historic building (KSL)
Opinion
Michael Marker: Utah’s $1.4 billion choice — the Great Salt Lake or a gondola? (Deseret News)
Gina Cornia: Misunderstandings about SNAP are driving bad policy (Deseret News)
Naomi Schaefer Riley: We’ve been told that men and women are the same. Not in how they metabolize drugs and alcohol (Deseret News)
Sports
Is undefeated BYU ready to put its perfect season, lofty ranking on the line against No. 2 Notre Dame? (Deseret News)
Where BYU and Utah landed in Week 6’s AP top 25 poll (Deseret News)
Match Review: RSL unable to earn second road win, falls to Philadelphia (Deseret News)
Tyler Betsey has turned heads since arriving at BYU, but he’s just as impressed by his teammates (Deseret News)
Ricky Johnson’s career night exemplifies Utah’s team-first culture (Deseret News)
🗓️ Events Calendar
We put together a calendar list of events and activities going on around the state of Utah during this month. Check it out, and let us know if we are missing anything!
Here are some highlights for events in Utah today:
Oct. 1-Nov. 1 — Cornbelly’s | Lehi
Oct. 1-31 — Pack Farms Pumpkin Patch | Farmington
Oct. 1-30 — BooLights at Utah’s Hogle Zoo
Oct. 1-Nov. 1 — Cross E Ranch | Salt Lake City
Oct. 1-31 — Pumpkin Days at Wheeler Farm | Murray
Oct. 1-17 — “To Kill a Mockingbird” | Parker Theatre
Oct. 1-24 — “The Ghost of Dead Man’s Creek” | Pickleville Playhouse
Oct. 2-17 — “Jekyll & Hyde” | The Empress Theatre
Oct. 9-31 — “Little Shop of Horrors” | Draper Historic Theatre
Oct. 10-18 — “Héctor Armienta’s Zorro” | Utah Opera at Capitol Theatre
Oct. 12 — Utah Jazz vs. San Antonio Spurs | 7 p.m.
Oct. 12 — Utah men’s golf Big 12 Match Play
Oct. 12 — Utah Valley softball vs. Snow College | 6 p.m.
Oct. 12 — Southern Utah men’s basketball vs. Ottawa University Arizona | noon
Oct. 12 — Southern Utah softball vs. California Intercontinental | 3 p.m.
Check your inbox tomorrow morning for more news from the Beehive State and beyond!
And reply to this email or email [email protected] to tell us what you think of Utah Today.
Thanks for reading!
— Camille