David Condos

How a California desalination plant could ease water shortages on the Colorado River Relying on desalination, the San Diego County Water Authority will consider transferring water to cities in Arizona and Nevada that will soon face cuts in Colorado River water.

With cities like Phoenix and Tucson bracing for their allotments of Colorado River water to be slashed, San Diego County’s water agency could sell some of its water to other states by drawing on its ample supplies from the nation’s largest desalination plant. www.latimes.com/environment/...

Incredible shot of Rep. Al Green holding up a "BLACK PEOPLE AREN'T APES!" sign with Trump in the foreground from photographer Kenny Holston (Getty)

A whistleblower just disclosed that FBI experts were delayed by AT LEAST A DAY in deploying to investigate Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Why?

There was an FBI plane and pilot shortage… because Kash Patel was using them for personal flights.

I had not. Thanks for sharing!

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

EXCLUSIVE: An @npr.org investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

Other documents that mention Trump have been taken down (and some restored).

More:

In Mojave Desert tortoise news…

I got to talk with the good folks at @scifri.bsky.social about Utah’s dry winter and why snow is so vital for our water ⤵️

👀The federal judges in West Virginia, where ICE has been pulling over and detaining people on the freeway, are literally screaming about ICE's tactics.

"It is an assault on the constitutional order," Judge Goodwin says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Valuing wildfire smoke–related mortality benefits from climate mitigation | PNAS Human-induced climate change has increased wildfire risks, associated air pollution, and health damages in North America. Despite its large potenti...

🚨🔥 NEW: Increasing mortality from wildfire smoke is directly traceable to greenhouse gas emissions. In our new paper in @pnas.org , we show that every megaton of CO2 emitted costs the US more than 10 million dollars in health costs from wildfire smoke. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Utah's statewide snowpack is no longer at a record low. It had been in record low territory since late January. Levels are still well below average for this time of year (4th percentile).

Snowpack across the Upper Colorado River Basin region remains record low, as seen in the second graph.

Getting some rare desert snow in St. George. It’s not cold enough to stick, but I’ll take it ❄️

Utah sees Trump’s EPA greenhouse gas reversal as an opening for its energy goals Critics and environmentalists see Trump’s decision as “moving backwards to an era” where environmental effects, like the ones Utah already experiences, are ignored.

“We're at a bit of a dark moment here, where all of a sudden we're moving backwards to an era where environmental externalities are being ignored.”

How the Trump admin reversing more than 16 years of greenhouse gas policy may affect Utah.

My latest for @kuer.org ⤵️ www.kuer.org/science-envi...

Meet Minnesota Bathrobe Lady Sam Stroozas of MPR News | Minnesota Public Radio Earlier this week, an unexpected and fast-moving incident unfolded in St. Paul, Minnesota involving both federal and local law enforcement. As crowds gathered and questions mounted, one of our MPR New...

hello minnesota and beyond! thank you for your kind messages. it is very weird to be the news when you cover the news. i love this beautiful state and journalism, and i am hopeful for better days. but we will be forever changed bc of the last two months.

New projections out today show Lake Powell -- nation's second largest reservoir -- careening toward a loss of hydropower production as early as July 2026. Even the more optimistic model shows it losing power in December.

Meanwhile, the basin's leaders today admit failure on crafting new policy.

ICE arrests in Utah courtrooms will change how courts work, attorney says It’s not a new immigration enforcement tactic for the Trump admin, but a string of recent activity inside Salt Lake City’s courthouse has alarmed public defenders.

ICE has been arresting people at Utah court hearings that have nothing to do with their immigration status. Public defenders worry it’ll get in the way of justice.

www.kuer.org/politics-gov...

New proposal: Everyone tithes 10% of their income for news.

Imagine being the idiots who shut down your newspaper’s entire sports section the day before this amazing piece is published.

Graph showing the NOAA Colorado Basin River Forecast Center's forecasts of April to July inflows to Lake Powell from 1991 to 2026, with colored lines showing how each season's forecast evolved from January through July. The latest Forecast, February 2026, is the lowest outlook for this time of year since at least 1991.

Given the latest NOAA CBRFC inflow forecast for Lake Powell, I dusted off this plot from my Twitter days and updated it.

The Feb 1st outlook for Colorado River flows hasn't been this poor in >35 years. Even if wetter weather ahead, bottom-10 outcome likely.

h/t @glenwoodrek.bsky.social

Conservation groups sue the Trump admin to stop the Northern Corridor Highway The lawsuit argues the approval of the highway near St. George breaks multiple federal laws, including the act that established the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.

A contentious plan to build a road through protected tortoise habitat near St. George might get its day in court.

Conservation orgs, including @protectwildutah.bsky.social, sued the federal government today over the Northern Corridor Highway.

My latest for @kuer.org ⤵️
www.kuer.org/science-envi...

Utah is in a snow drought. Here’s why that’s bad for more than skiers Utah’s statewide snowpack level has reached a record low. Much of the West is in the grip of a snow drought, impacting everything from water supplies to mountain forests.

“It'll be a smaller piece of the pie, and everybody will be fighting for that smaller piece.”

Utah’s snowpack has hit a record low.

When nearly all the state’s water supply comes from melting snow, that’s a bad sign for what 2026 may hold.

My latest for @kuer.org ⤵️
www.kuer.org/science-envi...

Utah's statewide snowpack level is now at a record low for this time in early February. That's based on data from the state's network of snow survey sites, which began in 1980.

Ammon Bundy Is All Alone The anti-government militia leader can’t make sense of his allies’ support for ICE violence.

Ammon Bundy on ICE: “To call such people criminals for lacking official permission” to be in the country is to “forget the moral law of God, the historical truth of our own founding, and the Constitutional ideals that continue to define justice.”

The cheap water is gone, which is to say the "easy" water is gone, which is to say that any water project is going to be a big dollar project. buff.ly/DKJhjkW

St. Peter police chief intervenes, prevents federal agents from arresting resident The police chief of St. Peter intervened to prevent federal agents from taking a local resident who was observing ICE enforcement actions into custody. It is believed to the first time local police in...

"MPR News has learned that the police chief in the small southern Minnesota city of St. Peter intervened Thursday afternoon to prevent federal immigration agents from arresting a local resident" who had been observing federal agents. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

"Journalists have not only the right, but the responsibility to observe and report events in the public interest. It is not illegal to document a protest against the federal government. The fact that the protest took place in a church does not negate journalists’ First Amendment rights to report."

YouTube video by artfilm33 Midnight at the Oasis - Waiting for Guffman HD

❤️❤️❤️

Southwest Utah has to lean on wastewater reuse because ‘the cheap water is gone’ A new plant that cleans and recycles more sewage is another big step toward stretching Washington County’s limited water supply. It highlights the massive effort and big money it’ll take to keep the…

“We are sewer folks. … We can't take our jobs too seriously.” Wise words my water reuse friend.

Journalists Don Lemon, Georgia Fort arrested in connection with church protest against ICE Lemon's attorney said he was taken into custody by federal officers Thursday night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy Awards.

"As a member of the press, I filmed the church protest a few weeks ago and now I'm being arrested for that," Indipendent journalist Georgia Fort said. "It's hard to understand how we have a Constitution, Constitutional rights, when we can just be arrested for being a member of the press."

The Lingering Guilt and Lessons Learned from the Challenger Disaster Forty years ago, the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch. According to NPR's Howard Berkes, the lessons learned from the disaster are as critical as ever.

More on the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, and the failed effort to delay the launch, from me and
@kuer.org Radio West
radiowest.kuer.org/show/radiowe...

St. George is this year’s best small city, but water and housing could hold it back The Milken Institute put southwest Utah’s largest city in its top spot for the first time. The ranking highlights St. George’s job growth and wage growth, both among the nation’s highest in recent…

In Milken's rankings, St. George was often the bridesmaid, never the bride. Not this year.