@davidcondos
Covering southern Utah + the environment at @kuer.org, NPR Utah • Past: High Plains Public Radio + Kansas News Service • Reporting: kuer.org/david-condos Send tips confidentially on Signal: davidcondos.75
ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.
They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.
Chart showing in many countries, people see their fellow citizens as morally good.
We asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of others in their country.
The U.S. is the only place we surveyed where more adults describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad than good. See our full morality report here: www.pewresearch.org/...
Come hear me nerd out about climate data tools
The Colorado River quagmire boils down to a simple question, @jfleck.bsky.social writes: "Secretary Burgum: Tell us what you’re going to do." www.inkstain.net/2026/02/in-w...
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!
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...
🚨🔥 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 ❄️
“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...
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 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
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...
“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 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
"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."
❤️❤️❤️
