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Good morning! Here are today’s temperatures:

🌤️ 44 – 83° in Logan

🌤️ 55 – 88° in Salt Lake

☀️ 63 – 95° in St. George

Utahns celebrated Memorial Day across the state yesterday. In case you missed it, here are some of the Deseret News' top articles about Memorial Day.

Also on our minds:

America's heroes are keeping us from doomsday
Deseret News archives: A thanks to those who won’t let Memorial Day fade away
Where do those Memorial Day flowers at cemeteries come from?

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What’s up with delays on projects on federal lands?

Amy Joi O'Donoghue writes: "It is a puzzle, a head scratcher and a source of immense frustration for both industry and elected officials.

"The federal leasing and permitting process for all manner of projects, be it transmission lines, highways or even carbon free energy pursuits, continues to frustrate many who are part of the process.

"When it comes to getting things done on federal land — which is Utah’s primary landowner controlling about 30 million acres among various agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service and others — things move slow.

"Stephen Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Association, said workload is part of the problem and blamed it on Republicans in Congress.

"'In many cases, perceived delays over energy and infrastructure projects are more about a lack of capacity in federal agencies — in large part because of Republicans’ refusal to fully fund those agencies — or incomplete information by a project applicant rather than public comment periods or the approval process that agencies must go through to authorize a particular project,' Bloch said."

Read more about why there are so many federal delays in Utah.

Painting Trump out of a corner

Samuel Benson writes: "When Trump put campaigning on pause and debuted at a Manhattan courtroom last month, 'Utah-based artist Jon McNaughton' went to work.

"McNaughton says he’s uninterested in the trial itself — 'I don’t really care about all the details of Stormy Daniels and, you know, that kind of stuff,' he said.

"If Trump goes to prison, he’ll paint it. But for now, he’s focused on a wider scope. He’s working in lockstep with Trump to portray the trial as just more evidence that Trump and his followers are the heroes in a massive battle between good and evil.

"His current project depicts Trump, hog-tied with thick rope. Surrounding him, his prosecutors — Fani Willis, Jack Smith, Juan Merchan — wear menacing grins. Trump’s face looks stoic and angered."

Read more about Trump’s court painter.

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Faith

Church donates milk sheep to promote self-reliance among refugees in Jordan (Church News)
Latter-day Saint soldiers who fought in Korean War and compared to Book of Mormon story remembered in new short film (Church News)

Sports

Remembering Ken Gardner, the ‘Ute with a BYU heart’ (Deseret News)
Will Utah basketball’s newest coaching addition pay dividends on the recruiting trail? (Deseret News)
Walker Kessler struggled in his sophomore NBA season, but didn’t ‘crash and burn’ (Deseret News)

Tech

Meg Walter: The case for being nice to AI (Deseret News)
Here’s what’s next for family history tech innovation (Utah Business)

The West

This southern Utah city says it saved 87M gallons of water with smart meters (St. George News)
73-year-old survives five days in the wilderness after raft flips on Idaho river (East Idaho News)
Lightning strike kills Colorado rancher and 34 head of cattle (ABC News)
Why is Skyline High the top-rated traditional high school in Utah? (Deseret News)

The U.S. & World

US storms kill at least 21 across 4 states on Memorial Day weekend (Reuters)
Dozens reported killed in Israeli strike on Rafah (BBC News)
World Health Assembly hopes to reinforce pandemic preparedness after bold treaty project stalls. (Associated Press)

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Thanks for reading!

— Hannah