HANNAH SCHOENBAUM

Utah state government reporter

Schoenbaum is a government and politics reporter based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also covers general news in the Rockies and LGBTQ+ rights policies in U.S. statehouses.

Members of the Utah House of Representatives applaud for the athlete who was the subject of school board member Natalie Cline's comments on social media after passing the House Concurrent Resolution Condemning and Censuring State School Board Member Natalie Cline at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Megan Nielsen/The Deseret News via AP)

Utah school board member censured over transgender comments is seeking reelection

A Utah State Board of Education member who is facing pressure from top state leaders to resign has instead announced that she is running for reelection.

CORRECTS SENTENCE TO UP TO 30 YEARS, NOT 60 YEARS - Defendant Ruby Franke looks on during court Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, in St. George, Utah. Franke, a Utah mother of six who gave parenting advice to millions via a once-popular a YouTube channel, shared a tearful apology to her children for physically and emotionally abusing them before a judge sentenced her to serve up to 30 years in prison, due to a Utah state law that caps the sentence duration for consecutive penalties. (Sheldon Demke/St. George News via AP, Pool)

YouTube mom Ruby Franke apologizes at sentencing in child abuse case

A judge has sentenced parenting advice blogger Ruby Franke to possibly decades in prison after she admitted to physically and emotionally abusing her children.

Members of the Utah House of Representatives applaud for the athlete who was the subject of school board member Natalie Cline's comments on social media after passing the House Concurrent Resolution Condemning and Censuring State School Board Member Natalie Cline at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Megan Nielsen/The Deseret News via AP)

Utah governor approves censure of school board member who questioned a student’s gender

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has signed legislation censuring a conservative member of the state Board of Education whose social media post questioning the gender of a high school basketball player triggered a firestorm of derogatory comments.

FILE - Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Aug. 10, 2023, in Salt Lake City. Utah’s Republican governor and lieutenant governor are urging the State Board of Education to take action against a conservative board member whose social media post questioning the gender of a high school basketball player incited a tirade of threats against the girl. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Utah governor says school board member who questioned a student’s gender ‘embarrassed the state’

Utah’s Republican governor and other state officials are calling out a conservative state school board member for insinuating in an online post that a member of a girl’s high school basketball team was transgender, when in fact she is not.

FILE - Mike DeWine speaks, Jan. 14, 2019, in Cedarville, Ohio. Ohio's Health Department has backed off proposed rules that would have restricted gender-affirming care for adults. The new proposal Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024 comes after gathering public comment on a proposal released last month. Transgender people and their healthcare providers feared the original rules would have left thousands of patients scrambling to find care — and facing health risks in the meantime. The proposed rules are also relaxed for requirements for treatment for minors, some of which was banned by a law adopted last month when the Legislature overrode Gov. Mike DeWine's earlier veto. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, Pool)

Ohio backs off proposed restrictions on gender-affirming care for adults

Two Ohio departments have backed off proposed rules that would have made the state just the second with a policy limiting gender-affirming care for adults.

Utah Senate President Stuart Adams gives his opening speech to kick off the state's 2024 legislative session, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, in Salt Lake City. Adams said the Legislature would work this session to strengthen laws governing social media access for minors. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

Utah Legislature to revise social media limits for youth as it navigates multiple lawsuits

Utah’s Republican legislative leaders have pledged to reinforce laws they passed last year requiring parental permission for kids and teens to access social media apps.

A Davis School District bus sits at the Bus Farm in Farmington, Utah, in this undated photo. A Black woman hired by the northern Utah school district to investigate racial harassment complaints a year after a 10-year-old Black student died by suicide says that she, too, experienced discrimination from district officials. Joscelin Thomas, a former coordinator in the Davis School District's equal opportunity office, alleges in a federal lawsuit that district administrators treated her “as if she were stupid," accused her of having a substandard work ethic and denied her training and mentorship opportunities that were offered to her white colleagues. (Matt Gade/The Deseret News via AP, file)

A woman was hired to investigate racial harassment after a suicide. Then she encountered it herself

A Black woman hired by a northern Utah school district to investigate racial harassment complaints says that she also experienced discrimination from district officials.

Efforts to restrict transgender health care endure in 2024, with more adults targeted

Republican-led state legislatures are again considering bills restricting medical care for transgender youths and some adults the year after a wave of high-profile bills became law.

In this file photo Nicholas Rossi leaves Edinburgh Sheriff and Justice of the Peace Court in Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 12, 2023. The U.S. fugitive accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges has been booked in a Utah jail. Rossi, 36, was extradited from Scotland last week and was booked in Utah's Davis County Jail. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

US fugitive accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges is booked into a Utah jail

A U.S. fugitive accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges has been booked in a Utah jail. Nicholas Rossi, 36, was extradited from Scotland last week and was booked in Utah’s Davis County Jail on Friday.

FILE - Nicholas Rossi leaves Edinburgh Sheriff And Justice Of The Peace Court after an extradition hearing, in Edinburgh, July 12, 2022. Scottish authorities have signed an extradition order for an American fugitive accused of faking his own death to avoid a rape charge in Utah. In response to a freedom of information request, the Scottish government on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023 said an extradition order for the man local officials refer to as Nicholas Rossi had been signed on Sept. 28. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP, File)

US fugitive accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges is extradited to Utah from Scotland

A U.S. fugitive known as Nicholas Rossi, who is accused of faking his own death to avoid a rape charge in Utah has been extradited from Scotland.

Former Delta Air Lines pilot Jonathan J. Dunn, left, walks with his attorney following his first federal court appearance Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, in Salt Lake City. Dunn, who was the first officer, or co-pilot, threatened to shoot the captain during a heated argument in the cockpit over whether to change course to accommodate a passenger's medical issue. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Pilot accused of threatening to shoot airline captain midflight calls it a misunderstanding

A co-pilot accused of threatening to shoot his captain for proposing they divert their flight to get medical attention for a passenger has appeared in federal court for the first time since his indictment.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate for president, announces he has qualified for the 2024 presidential ballot in Utah, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, at a campaign event in Salt Lake City. Utah is the first state where Kennedy has met all the requirements to appear on the ballot. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. files as presidential candidate in Utah, the first state to grant him access

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he has filed to run as a presidential candidate in Utah after meeting the 1,000-signature requirement needed to qualify.

Callum Bradford rows during a club team practice at Jordan Lake, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023, in Apex, N.C. Bradford, a transgender teen from Chapel Hill needed mental health care after overdosing on prescription drugs. He was about to be transferred to another hospital due to a significant bed shortage. A North Carolina hospital network is referring transgender psychiatric patients to treatment facilities that do not align with their gender identities. Though UNC Hospitals policy discourages the practice, administrators say a massive bed shortage is forcing them to make tough decisions. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)

For transgender youth in crisis, hospitals sometimes increase the trauma

A North Carolina hospital network is referring transgender psychiatric patients to treatment facilities that do not align with their gender identities.

Jodi Hildebrandt attends a hearing Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023, in St. George, Utah. Hildebrandt, a Utah mental health counselor who had been arrested alongside parenting advice blogger Ruby Franke, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse for her role in physically and emotionally abusing Franke's children. (Sheldon Demke/St. George News via AP, Pool)

Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt pleads guilty to abusing children with YouTube mom Ruby Franke

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Utah mental health counselor arrested alongside parenting advice blogger Ruby Franke pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of aggravated child abuse for physically and emotionally abusing Franke’s children.

FILE - Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, R-Ga., arrives on Capitol Hill, Oct. 24, 2023, in Washington. Greene was the target of a swatting attempt at her Georgia residence on Christmas morning, Monday, Dec. 25, the congresswoman and local police said, marking the latest instance of someone calling in a fake emergency to draw armed officers to her home. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene targeted by failed Christmas swatting attempt

Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been targeted with another swatting attempt at her Georgia residence.

FILE - The icon for the video sharing TikTok app is seen on a smartphone, Feb. 28, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. A trade group that represents TikTok and other major tech companies sued Utah on Monday, Dec. 18, over its first-in-the-nation laws requiring children and teens to obtain parental consent to use social media apps. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

A group representing TikTok, Meta and X sues Utah over strict new limits on app use for minors

A trade group that represents TikTok and other major tech companies has sued Utah over its first-in-the-nation laws requiring children to get parental consent to use social media apps.

FILE - In this April 25, 2014, file photo, Utah's Attorney General Sean Reyes waves during a rally at the Western Republican Leadership Conference in Sandy, Utah. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes announced Friday, Dec. 8, 2023 he will not seek reelection in 2024 amid scrutiny for his decadelong friendship with the embattled founder of an anti-child-trafficking group and as bipartisan state lawmakers have cast doubt on his administrative practices..(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Utah attorney general drops reelection bid amid scrutiny about his ties to a sexual assault suspect

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, who is facing scrutiny for his decadelong friendship with the embattled founder of an anti-child-trafficking organization, announced Friday that he will not seek reelection in 2024.

FILE - Elder Patrick Kearon speaks at the First Presidency Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, Kearon, the newest member of the faith's top governing body to fill a vacancy when a member died last month will be a man raised in England who had been previously serving on a middle tier leadership council. (Scott G Winterton/The Deseret News via AP)

Mormon church selects British man who converted to the faith as an adult for top governing body

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the newest member of the faith’s top governing body to fill a vacancy when a member died last month.

FILE - A 12-year-old transgender swimmer is seen waiting by a pool, Feb. 22, 2021, in Utah. She and her family spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. Transgender teenagers challenging a Utah law banning trans girls from playing on girls' sports teams can keep portions of their mental health records confidential after a state judge ruled Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, that some details were irrelevant to the case. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Privacy concerns persist in transgender sports case after Utah judge seals only some health records

Transgender teenagers challenging a Utah law banning trans girls from playing on girls’ sports teams can keep portions of their mental health records confidential.

North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley, right, speaks while Gov. Roy Cooper listens at an Executive Mansion news conference in Raleigh, N.C., on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. Kinsley and Cooper announced that North Carolina would launch Medicaid expansion coverage on Dec. 1. Expansion will be able to start because Cooper said he'll let a state budget bill sent by the General Assembly last week to his desk become law without his signature. (AP Photo/Gary D. Robertson)

Hundreds of thousands in North Carolina will be added to Medicaid rolls this week

Full Medicaid coverage starts this week for hundreds of thousands of uninsured adults in North Carolina.

FILE - Law enforcement respond to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill campus in Chapel Hill, N.C., Aug. 28, 2023, after the university locked down and warned of an armed person on campus. Tailei Qi, a graduate student at the school charged with fatally shooting his faculty adviser, has been found unfit for trial after two mental evaluations, a judge ruled Monday, Nov. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum, File)

University of North Carolina shooting suspect found unfit for trial, sent to mental health facility

The University of North Carolina graduate student charged with fatally shooting his faculty adviser has been found unfit for trial after two mental evaluations.

FILE - N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls speaks during a press conference, June 9, 2020, in Raleigh, N.C. Earls, a Democrat, sued the state Judicial Standards Commission and its members in August, alleging that the pending probe against her and a previous investigation have chilled her First Amendment right to speak freely and interfered in her ability to work. Her lawyers asked for a preliminary injunction to halt the panel's activities while her lawsuit goes to trial. (Julia Wall/The News & Observer via AP, File)

Ethics probe into North Carolina justice’s comments continues after federal court refuses to halt it

An ethics probe into a Black justice’s comments about diversity can move forward after a federal judge denied her request to halt the investigation.

FILE - A sergeant-at-arms in the North Carolina state Senate passes out copies of a map proposal for new state Senate districts during a committee hearing at the Legislative Office Building in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. A federal lawsuit filed Monday, Nov. 20, 2023, in North Carolina alleges newly adopted district boundaries for the state Senate divide a cluster of predominantly Black counties in the northeast corner of the state in a way that will unfairly dilute the voting power of Black residents. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum, File)

Black voters file federal lawsuit challenging North Carolina Senate map

A lawsuit filed in North Carolina alleges newly adopted district boundaries for the state Senate divide a cluster of predominantly Black counties in the northeast corner of the state.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings speaks during a news conference Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, in Charlotte, N.C. A video circulating on social media shows a North Carolina police officer striking a woman repeatedly during an arrest while several other officers hold her down, but police officials said the officer was “intentional” about where he hit the woman to get her to stop resisting and comply. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)

Video shows North Carolina officer repeatedly striking a pinned woman during her arrest

A video circulating on social media shows a North Carolina police officer striking a woman repeatedly during an arrest while other officers hold her down.

Toyota more than doubles investment and job creation at North Carolina battery plant

Toyota will invest an additional $8 billion in the hybrid and electric vehicle battery factory it’s constructing in North Carolina.

FILE - U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C. speaks during a hearing, Sept. 18, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Walker announced Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, that he is dropping out of the Republican primary for governor in 2024 and will instead try to take back his Greensboro-area seat in the U.S. House. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Former US Rep. Mark Walker drops North Carolina gubernatorial bid to run for Congress

A former North Carolina congressman has announced he is dropping out of the Republican primary for governor to try to win back his U.S. House seat. Former U.S. Rep.

Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell), one of the sponsors of a congressional redistricting bill, speaks as the North Carolina Senate debates the bill at the Legislative Building, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

North Carolina Republicans close in on new districts seeking to fortify GOP in Congress, legislature

North Carolina Republicans have closed in on enacting new boundaries for the state’s congressional and legislative districts that aim to fortify GOP prospects for Capitol Hill and in Raleigh.

The North Carolina state House reviews copies of a map proposal for new state House districts during a committee hearing at the Legislative Office Building in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

North Carolina Senate advances congressional map plan that could give Republicans a 3-seat gain

Republicans in the North Carolina Senate have advanced a map proposal for the state’s congressional districts that could position the party to pick up at least three seats in the U.S.

FILE - Rep. Wiley Nickel, D-N.C., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, in Washington. North Carolina Republicans pitched on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, new maps for the state's congressional districts starting in 2024 that appear to threaten the reelection of at least three current Democratic U.S. House members. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

North Carolina Republicans pitch Congress maps that could help them pick up 3 or 4 seats next year

North Carolina Republicans have pitched new maps for the state’s congressional districts starting in 2024 that appear to threaten the reelection of at least three current Democratic U.S.

FILE - Heather Redding, left, and Elizabeth Waugh, of Orange County, N.C., rally for transgender rights outside the state Legislative Building, Aug. 16, 2023, in Raleigh, N.C. A family of a transgender boy in North Carolina filed a lawsuit Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, against state health officials to block implementation of gender-affirming care restrictions that they say will force their son to undergo a traumatic wrong-gender puberty. The lawsuit alleges alleges the new state law violates the U.S. Constitution by denying treatment access. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum, File)

Transgender residents in North Carolina, Montana file lawsuits challenging new state restrictions

Transgender residents of North Carolina and Montana added to a growing list of lawsuits challenging the recent onslaught of Republican state laws aimed at transgender individuals.