Sarah McLachlan plays West Valley, Wynonna takes Red Butte, and the airport's fast exit closes

Alterra Mountain Company owns Deer Valley and Solitude, runs a dozen more resorts across the West, and sells the Ikon Pass that half the parking lot at Alta is skiing on. Its headquarters sits in Denver. Its chief executive told a room in late June that it would make more sense for the company to be in Salt Lake City than in Denver, and Colorado has spent the weeks since trying to make sure that never happens. On Monday the state's economic development commission signed off on a package of loans, grants and tax incentives to keep Alterra where it is. Denver's downtown development authority added a $7 million low-interest loan on top, on the condition the company stays inside city limits. The whole pitch is built around landing roughly 400 Alterra employees in a downtown core that has struggled to refill its office towers. Nobody should start clearing desk space here yet. Alterra has publicly said it is not looking to leave Colorado, while confirming it met with Denver's mayor in late June, and no move looks close. What is real is the shape of the argument: the company's two most-hyped assets sit twenty and forty minutes from this valley, and its own boss said the quiet part in a meeting.

Three northbound I-215 off-ramps went dark at 8 p.m. Tuesday, and the one that hurts is northbound I-215 to westbound I-80, the standard move for anybody driving to the airport from the south end of the valley. That ramp and the one to eastbound I-80 are down about 35 days, with reopening targeted just before Labor Day. The ramp to Redwood Road stays shut through October 2. Crews need them clear to work on bridge decks, and the detours run Bangerter Highway, I-15 or S.R. 201 depending on where you start.

Salt Lake County is moving to buy the Axis Building at 175 West 200 South for $23 million, and the reason is the convention center. County offices currently sit inside the Salt Palace, which is heading into the biggest rebuild of its life as downtown reorganizes itself around the sports and entertainment district. Moving those workers a few blocks north clears the floor space the rebuild needs. The county says the purchase costs taxpayers nothing extra, because it is funded out of the convention center project rather than the general fund.

The Raised On Radio tour puts two very different voices on the same stage for a full co-headline set, not an opener and a headliner. Wynonna has been singing these songs since she was a teenager next to her mother, Etheridge has been growling hers since 1988, and the pitch of the tour is that they trade the stage rather than split it.

Alex Lora has been fronting El Tri since 1968, which makes this band older than most of the rooms it plays. Saturday night in a 1,200-capacity hall downtown is a small setting for a group that fills arenas in Mexico City, and the crowd tends to know every word of a fifty-year catalog.

Herriman runs its market on Monday evenings, which is a strange night for produce and a great one for dinner, because the Hungry Herriman food truck roundup sets up in the same park at the same hour. It runs weekly into late September, so this is the fourth week of the season rather than the opener.

Utah put four past North Carolina on Saturday, the most goals in club history, and three of them came off set pieces. The reward is Washington at home tonight, which is the toughest home draw on the schedule.

A rough homestand ended Sunday with a 4-3 loss, and Omaha left town having won five of the six. The finale was played at 104 degrees, the hottest game-time temperature the Daybreak ballpark has recorded since it opened.

The Mediterranean spot that started as two guys selling homemade hummus at farmers markets, then anchored Central Ninth for a decade, opened a second counter inside the Sugar House Station food hall on July 1. Order the mezze spread and make sure the muhammara is on it, because the roasted red pepper and walnut dip is the thing people drive across town for and it is what the hummus reputation is actually built on.

Tucked in off 900 W. at about 1000 S., the International Peace Gardens give 28 countries their own plot, each one designed by people from that country: a Japanese garden, a Chinese moon gate, a Vietnamese pavilion, a Matterhorn model for Switzerland. A women's council started it in 1939 as a lesson in getting along, then a world war got in the way and it did not open until 1952. It is free, it is eleven acres, and most of the valley has driven past it without knowing it is there.

Saturday and Sunday in Midvale, the Union Park Avenue shop runs a ticket-only grand opening bowl with wagyu chashu flown in from Japan, no walk-ins and no to-go.

Thursday night at Metro Music Hall in Salt Lake City, two ska-punk lifers on one bill in a small downtown room.

Monday evening in Sandy, eight to ten trucks park at Amphitheater Park from 5 to 8, and the lineup changes every week.

The valley climbs all week and peaks on Saturday. Today runs 97 with a slight chance of a late shower or thunderstorm, the only moisture in sight. After that it is sun and nothing else: 100 Thursday, 102 Friday, 106 Saturday, then 103 Sunday before it settles back to 99 Monday. Overnight lows sit in the low to mid 70s the whole time, which is what keeps the house and the pavement from ever resetting.

The first bells of the 2026-27 year land across a full week of August, and no two valley districts agree on when. Granite goes first on August 12. Murray staggers, with seventh graders on August 14, most students August 17 and kindergarten on August 20. Canyons brings grades one through twelve back August 17 and kindergarten August 19. Jordan splits high schools on August 18 from elementary and middle on August 19, and Salt Lake City School District starts August 18.

The annual Best States ranking put Utah first overall for the fourth year running, on the strength of second place for economy and fiscal stability, fourth for infrastructure and sixth for education. The category that dragged is natural environment, where Utah landed 48th out of 50 on air and water quality and pollution. The state scored worse than the national average on both industrial toxins and days with unhealthy air. Anybody who has watched an inversion settle into this bowl in January knows exactly which half of that scorecard the Wasatch Front owns.