Free Republic

Federal agents have arrested Utah oil magnate James Lael Jensen, his wife Kelly Anne Jensen, and two of their sons, Maxwell Sterling Jensen (aka “Max”) and Zachary Golden Jensen, in connection with a sprawling $300 MILLION smuggling and money laundering conspiracy tied to Mexican criminal organizations. Court records reveal that all four members of the Jensen family were arrested on Wednesday, April 23 — with sons Max and Zachary taken into custody in the Rio Grande Valley, while James and Kelly Jensen were apprehended at their 26,893-square-foot mansion in Sandy, Utah, reportedly worth over $9.1 million. The arrest was carried...

Leaders of Utah's capital city voted to add three new city flags, all incorporating designs not allowed through a new state flag law, to sidestep the measure hours before it goes into law. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall unveiled three new city flag designs to members of the Salt Lake City Council Tuesday evening, as she explained how the city plans to move forward in the wake of HB77 on the eve of the bill becoming law. The new flags would add the sego lily logo from Salt Lake City's city flag to the Juneteenth, Progress Pride and transgender...

In yet another glaring example of failed immigration enforcement and soft-on-crime policies, the illegal immigrant accused of stealing Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Kristi Noem’s purse was reportedly released after committing a similar theft in New York City just weeks earlier. Instead of facing swift deportation or serious consequences, the suspect was reportedly freed, highlighting the disastrous impact of sanctuary city policies. According to a newly released report, the suspect and illegal alien from Chile, Mario Bustamante-Leiva, was previously arrested in New York City. As he stole Noem’s purse from a restaurant in Washington, D.C., the New York Police...

The woman convicted of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart over two decades ago was arrested Thursday for violating her sex offender probation. Wanda Barzee, who abducted then-14-year-old Smart with her husband Brian David Mitchell in 2002, is accused of illegally ... In 2002, Barzee and Mitchell, who was a street preacher, went through an open window and abducted Smart from her Salt Lake City bedroom at knifepoint. The teen was raped on a near-daily basis, and lived with the couple in run-down homes and campsites in Utah and San Diego. Smart was found nine months later after a good Samaritan saw the...

A sprawling fentanyl trafficking network stretching from Albuquerque to Salem, Oregon, has been shattered by federal authorities in what’s being called one of the largest operations of its kind in U.S. history. The takedown, made public this week, culminated in a massive sweep across New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Oregon. Federal agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized staggering amounts of contraband: over 4 million fentanyl pills, $4.4 million in cash, 79 pounds of meth, along with heroin, cocaine, and more than 41 firearms, according to records from the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. At the helm of...

PUC Public Comment Hearing Info re: Xcel Energy JTS.. ... The PUC invites community members to provide comments regarding Xcel Energy’s Just Transition Plan (JTS), Proceeding 24A-0442E. The JTS is Xcel Energy’s next Electric Resource Plan to address the acquisition of new utility resources to meet future electricity needs on its system. The primary objectives of the JTS include fulfilling resource adequacy and providing reliable service; continuing progress on emissions reductions; and, delivering a just transition in communities where generation assets are retiring. Xcel Energy’s Unit 3 coal-fired facility in Pueblo will retire no later than Jan. 1, 2031, and...

SALT LAKE CITY — Four people involved in an apparent robbery attempt at a hotel, resulting in the shooting deaths of two of their friends, have been charged. But no charges were filed against the alleged gunman. "We have charged all the appropriate people with criminal charges in this case," the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office told KSL.com on Thursday. Tiffani Marie Papach, 40, of West Jordan, and Kendra Diane Mitchell, 38, of Salt Lake City, were charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery, first-degree felonies; and obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony. Kevin Leroy...

SANDY — A Utah couple is being accused of money laundering and smuggling oil into the U.S. alongside Mexican cartels, after they were arrested during a multi-state raid by U.S. Marshals, according to court documents. James Lael Jensen and his wife, Kelly Anne Jensen, were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Wednesday. The couple and two of his sons are being federally indicted for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 2,881 shipments of oil from Mexico that they knew were illegal. The family is accused of moving at least $300 million from Mexico to the U.S. The couple was arrested...

Two Honduran nationals were charged in connection with an alleged drug trafficking organization. Jorge Luis Hernandez-Valle, 36, and Luis Alfredo Hernandez, 35, both of Honduras, were living in Salt Lake County, the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Utah said. Detectives with the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force had been investigating an alleged drug trafficking organization since March 2025. They reportedly purchased narcotics during a controlled buy and identified two possible "drug runners" and their vehicles. On April 8, 2025, one of the vehicles, a Toyota 4-Runner, was stopped in Kearns

Two Mexican nationals were arrested in Colorado last month after authorities found them transporting 180,000 rounds of ammunition during a traffic stop, federal officials have announced. Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, were pulled over on March 26th in Cañon City, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. Detectives from Fremont County stopped their white Chevrolet van after it failed to dim its headlights, didn’t signal a turn, and had a broken license plate light, according to an arrest affidavit.

An explosion on Wednesday destroyed a building at Northrop Grumman’s rocket testing complex in northern Utah. According to Air & Space Forces Magazine, Northrop Grumman’s Innovation Systems plant in Promontory, Utah, is where the company manufacturers “solid rocket motors for government and commercial customers.” WATCH: MULTIPLE VIDEOS AT LINK................. Per Air & Space Forces Magazine: There was no immediate report of casualties, which occurred at 7:35 am local time. Local officials said they are investigating the accident. Northrop officials say the accident will not delay any of its programs. The Air Force referred inquiries to Northrop. A Northrop spokesman would...

On March 24, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill laying groundwork for major higher education improvements after more than a century of U.S. universities undermining American moral and intellectual virtues. The law vaults Utah toward competing with Florida for the best higher education reforms that support American self-governance. Senate Bill 334 requires “every student at Utah State University to take a full year-and-a-half course in Western civilization and an additional one-semester course in American civics,” writes Stanley Kurtz, co-author of a model bill inspiring this law. These new core courses will be taught by professors employed by a new...

Former Rep. Mia Love, who served in Congress representing Utah's 4th District from 2015 to 2019, has died after a battle with cancer. Love was diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer in 2022. Earlier this month, her family announced that the cancer was no longer responding to treatment, and that they had "shifted our focus from treatment to enjoying our remaining time with her." Her family announced Sunday evening that she passed away "peacefully ... in her home surrounded by family." She was 49 years old.

By the end of April, the new home of the Sundance Film Festival should be public knowledge with the Salt Lake City/Park City combo, Boulder, Colorado or Cincinnati bid picked as the host for the next decade. However, a bill heading toward Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s desk that would ban the Pride flag in schools and other state government buildings might be an eleventh-hour obstacle to the Beehive State’s hopes of keeping the Robert Redford-founded shindig past 2026. “What are they thinking?” a Sundance insider said late Tuesday of the bill to ban the LGBTQ+ flag after a virtual meeting...

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Following a 2News Investigation into accusations of prosecutorial misconduct at the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office, the case at the center of it all was heard by a juvenile court judge on Wednesday. This comes after criminal defense attorney Nathan Evershed filed multiple motions to dismiss the case against 15-year-old Emiliano, disqualify the DA’s Office from the case, and a motion for immediate release from custody. On August 17, 2023, at Scottsdale Park in West Valley City, Emiliano was robbed at gunpoint by 24-year-old Niusami Auelua, an AP&P probation fugitive who had extremely high...

America bends over backward to financially support Islamic expansion within its borders, while Kuwait and other Islamic nations would never allow the same for Christianity. This isn’t religious freedom—it’s a one-way street to submission to Islam. The United States is allowing a foreign, Islamic government to plant its flag in Utah—of all places. A state known for its conservative values and strong Mormon heritage is now home to a Kuwaiti-funded Islamic center, openly acknowledging its financial and ideological ties to a foreign nation. The Islamic Center of Kuwait in Utah, previously known as the North Utah Islamic Center, was fully...

Utah State Senator Daniel Thatcher left the Republican Party this week to join the Forward Party, becoming the first sitting member of the Utah State Senate affiliated with the organization and its ballot line. In a statement released Friday, the Forward Party said that Thatcher changed his registration on the last day of the legislative session. Reasons provided from a speech Thatcher gave that afternoon include his disappointment with the Utah Republican Party’s leadership on voting rights and legislative priorities. Specifically, Thatcher voiced concerns over the passage of HB 300, which he believes undermines the vote-by-mail process, as well as...

Republican lawmakers in Utah are moving a bill through the legislature that if passed and signed into law would allow vendors working with the state to be paid in gold – a change that could inspire other states and the federal government to do so and perhaps return the U.S. to the gold standard. The bill has already passed in the state House and is working its way through the Senate, as this year's legislative session is coming to a close. The leader sponsor for the House bill is Rep. Ken Ivory, who says the measure will give vendors –...

The Republican-led state legislatures of Georgia and Utah are considering legislation to leave a voter roll data group, pushing back on their respective GOP state election officials who have advocated for remaining in the coalition. A nonprofit organization called the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), was founded in 2012 and calls itself "the most effective tool available to help election officials maintain more accurate voter rolls and detect possible illegal voting."for voter roll maintenance has had nine GOP-led states leave it since 2022, with two more looking to follow their lead. [snip] As these state legislatures have been concerned about...

Netflix series American Primeval has come under fire from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-say Saints (LDS), which has branded the show "dangerously misleading." The Mormon church responded to the series in a release on Friday, calling it "dangerously misleading" and the portrayal of Young "egregiously mischaracterized." "A recently released streaming series presents a fictionalized interpretation of events in mid-19th century Utah. While historical fiction can be illuminating, this drama is dangerously misleading," the church wrote. "Brigham Young, a revered prophet and courageous pioneer, is, by any historical standard, egregiously mischaracterized as a villainous, violent fanatic. Other individuals and...