Utah news

• 'Millions and millions' worth of drugs seized on Utah freeways in 2017

  18-12-2017 23:57
  TAYLORSVILLE — It was another busy year for the Utah Department of Public Safety trying to keep illegal drugs out of Utah.
  In 227 busts during 2017, troopers from the Utah Highway Patrol along with agents from the State Bureau of Investigations and help from the Statewide Information and Analysis Center seized 4,050 pounds of marijuana, 550 pounds of methamphetamine, 100 pounds of cocaine, 46 pounds of heroin and more than 1,100 illegal narcotic pills, said State Bureau of Investigations L
  
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• Hatch denies including tax provision to win Corker support

  18-12-2017 23:53
  SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Orrin Hatch denied reports Monday that he slipped a concession into the Republican tax reform bill to bring along GOP Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker.
  The provision would make it easier for real estate developers to take advantage of a new, more-generous tax structure for pass-through businesses. It could potentially benefit Corker, who was active in real estate before being elected to the Senate, and the Trump family.
  Corker has concerns about the tax bill running up the f
  
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• Photos: Salt Lake police read and donate books to kids

  18-12-2017 22:07
  Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown points to a student while reading to kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classes at Backman Elementary in Salt Lake City on Monday. The Salt Lake City Police Department is donating over 1,200 books and taking time to read to the students. Each student gets two books to take home with them. This is the second year the police department has conducted a book drive for schools in Salt Lake City in partnership with Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.
  See the world through the
  
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• Joe Bauman: Photographing the holiday wreath galaxy

  18-12-2017 21:25
  NASA charmingly described galaxy Messier 74 back in December 2011 when it published a Hubble Space Telescope view of it: "Resembling festive lights on a holiday wreath, this … image of the nearby spiral galaxy M74 is an iconic reminder of the impending season. Bright knots of glowing gas light up the spiral arms, indicating a rich environment of star formation."M74, a relatively close spiral, is well placed for telescopic viewing in the fall through early winter. When members of the Salt La
  
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• Ability Through the Arts: 'Being around so much creativity, it’s kind of infectious'

  18-12-2017 18:35
  SALT LAKE CITY — While Aaron Webb, co-director of Tanner Dance's disabled adult acting troop Elevate Theater Company, loves his job, he has down days like everyone else. But all he needs to improve a bad mood is a few minutes with the students.
  It's hard to stay down when he's greeted with calls of, "Hey, Aaron. How you doing?" or, "Aaron, I really like your personality. You're so funny. Thank you for being here," he said.
  "I'm just so incredibly charmed by those little things and just the
  
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• Jay's Jokes: What Utahns wanted from the outcome of Alabama's Senate race

  18-12-2017 17:05
  A lighthearted look at the news of the day:Alabama voters last week decided we all should have less of Moore.---After Roy Moore lost the election for one of Alabama's Senate seats, President Donald Trump tweeted that Republicans need to start nominating great candidates. Finally, something John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and the other countless Republicans who ran for president last year can agree with the president about.---Utahns were hoping the outcome of Alabama's Senate race would clear
  
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• Smithfield fire causes $150K damage, destroys family's Christmas presents

  18-12-2017 15:26
  SMITHFIELD, Cache County — A fire tore through a Smithfield family's home Saturday, causing up to $150,000 in damage and leaving a family's Christmas presents ruined, authorities said.
  The fire was reported just before 5:40 p.m. at 386 N. Main, and crews arrived to put out the flames in the home's basement, said Smithfield Fire Battalion Chief Brandt Pritcher.
  Within about five minutes of crews getting into the basement, they had doused the fire. Two connected rooms there suffered fire dam
  
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• In our opinion: Bullying should never become a political issue

  18-12-2017 14:05
  The issue of bullying should not be politicized by celebrities or others; instead, it should be a point of social consensus that strengthens individual resolve to combat inappropriate treatment of another.In the past week, internet users around the world have both glorified and vilified Keaton Jones, an 11-year-old boy from Knoxville, Tennessee, who was the victim of bullying at his middle school. This episode in viral groupthink illuminates the underlying insecurity that fuels bullies in the fi
  
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• In our opinion: Bullying should never become a partisan issue

  18-12-2017 14:05
  The issue of bullying should not be politicized by celebrities or others; instead, it should be a point of social consensus that strengthens individual resolve to combat inappropriate treatment of another.In the past week, internet users around the world have both glorified and vilified Keaton Jones, an 11-year-old boy from Knoxville, Tennessee, who was the victim of bullying at his middle school. This episode in viral groupthink illuminates the underlying insecurity that fuels bullies in the fi
  
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• Officers arrest man suspected of striking 2 police cars with vehicle

  18-12-2017 04:32
  MILLCREEK — A man suspected of striking two police cars in an escape from officers last week was arrested Sunday, Unified police reported.
  Harley Gregory Welsh, 39, was arrested following a low-speed vehicle pursuit from near a South Salt Lake hotel to 3900 S. West Temple, said Unified Police Lt. Brian Lohrke. Welsh attempted to escape on foot at the end of the chase but was brought to the ground by a K-9 officer, Lohrke said.
  Welsh, of Taylorsville, allegedly hit two police cars with a st
  
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• Officers arrest man suspected of striking 2 police cars

  18-12-2017 04:32
  MILLCREEK — A Taylorsville man was arrested Sunday after police say he struck two police cars in an escape from officers last week.
  Harley Gregory Welsh, 39, was arrested following a low-speed vehicle pursuit from near a South Salt Lake hotel to 3900 S. West Temple. Welsh attempted to escape on foot at the end of the chase but was brought to the ground by a K-9 officer, said Unified Police Lt. Brian Lohrke.
  Welsh was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of receiving a st
  
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• Utah dog that bit girl wins reprieve, won't be put to death

  18-12-2017 04:07
  SALT LAKE CITY — A deal has been reached that will spare the life of a dog ordered put to death after he bit a 12-year-old girl in a case that generated criticism from the Humane Society of Utah.
  Lindsy Bray, the owner of the Australian Shepherd named Dexter, agreed last week to pay a $145 fine for dog-at-large and dog licensing violations. A judge had imposed the original death sentence for the dog.
  In return for Bray's payment, officials in Santaquin dropped the dog-attack charge filed a
  
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• Police release name of Idaho man killed in Logan crash

  18-12-2017 03:23
  LOGAN — Police have identified the man who died from a crash in a Logan intersection over the weekend.
  Luis A. Vital, 25, of Wendall, Idaho, was driving a Chevrolet Traverse that collided with a Mini Cooper about 4 p.m. Saturday in the intersection of 1400 North and 200 East, according to Logan police. Vital later died from his injuries at a hospital.
  Police reported a 2-year-old in Vital's vehicle was taken to a hospital by medical helicopter with serious injuries following the crash, but
  
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• Ejected woman among 2 critically hurt in Grantsville crash

  18-12-2017 03:06
  GRANTSVILLE — Two people were critically injured in a single-vehicle crash here Sunday, police reported.
  A man driving a truck westbound on Main Street about 3:20 p.m. veered into eastbound lanes near Orchard Lane for an unknown reason, striking a tree, said Grantsville police officer Alison Peterson.
  The passenger, a woman, was ejected from the truck, and both she and the man driving the vehicle were taken by medical helicopter to a Salt Lake County hospital in critical condition, Peterso
  
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• Utah town stuffed with wild turkeys and some have had their fill

  18-12-2017 02:37
  MENDON, Cache County — Hundreds of wild turkeys are flocking through the streets, leaving a mess behind and making lots of noise in the town of about 1,500.
  "I'm sitting in my office right now, looking out the window, and there is close to a hundred turkeys out on the city square right now," Mendon Mayor Ed Buist said Tuesday.
  "They're kind of cool in a way, but there's just way too many of them," said homeowner Karla Davidson. She has long gotten over the novelty of the holiday birds.
  "Th
  
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• Veterinarians seek permission to research pot meds for pets

  18-12-2017 02:36
  BEND, Ore. — Dr. Byron Maas surveys a supply of marijuana products for dogs that lines a shelf in his veterinary clinic. They're selling well.
  "The 'Up and Moving' is for joints and for pain," he explains. "The 'Calm and Quiet' is for real anxious dogs, to take away that anxiety."
  People anxious to relieve suffering in their pets are increasingly turning to oils and powders that contain cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive component of marijuana. But there's little data on whether they work, or
  
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• About Utah: Provo pizza parlor's 2-for-1 deal a boon to Malawi's hungry

  18-12-2017 02:34
  PROVO — Several years ago, a Utah County multimillionaire named Blake Roney, co-founder of the network marketing giant Nu Skin, found himself traveling through Africa on a humanitarian tour.
  When he visited the small nation of Malawi, a land-locked country of 18 million people shoehorned between Tanzania and Mozambique, he learned it ranked as the poorest country on Earth.
  Wage earners there earned on average slightly less than a dollar a day — and those were the ones lucky enough to
  
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• Sen. Orrin Hatch slams 'regulatory acrobatics' needed for cannabis research

  18-12-2017 02:32
  SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Orrin Hatch supports efforts in Utah and elsewhere to study the medicinal effects of marijuana, but condemns the federal "regulatory acrobatics" required of researchers studying the plant.
  "Under current law, those who want to complete research on the benefits of medical marijuana must engage in a complex application process and interact with several federal agencies. … The longer researchers have to wait, the longer patients have to suffer," Hatch, R-Utah, sai
  
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• First priority for new UTA chairman: 'Establish our good name'

  18-12-2017 02:27
  SALT LAKE CITY — It probably isn't the start Greg Bell had hoped for as the incoming chairman of the Utah Transit Authority board of trustees.
  A meeting where he was supposed to be sworn in had to be postponed several days until Monday because the board's agenda was not properly noticed under the state's open meetings law.
  The delay came as a legislative task force is readying a restructuring of the agency that calls for shrinking the size of the board and replacing top management with a s
  
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• Free samples increase sales, loyalty in long run, BYU study finds

  18-12-2017 02:22
  PROVO — If you've ever stood in line for free samples at a grocery store, chances are you also bought the product you sampled. But does sampling actually increase sales and encourage customer loyalty?
  Recent research from BYU says yes.
  Grabbing free samples at a grocery store is a tradition shoppers expect at major warehouse retailers like Costco or Sam's Club.
  These stores are renowned for providing copious free food samples to their shoppers, letting customers see, smell, touch and taste
  
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• Temps to climb along Wasatch Front in advance of new storm

  18-12-2017 01:12
  Salt Lake residents saw just under an inch of snow from a Saturday storm.
  Three inches were recorded in Smithfield in far northern Utah, 2.5 inches fell in Brigham City, and 1.5 inches came down in both Bountiful and Sandy, according to KSL-TV meteorologist Dan Guthrie.
  High temperatures along the Wasatch Front are expected to climb to the high 30s to mid-40s from Monday through Wednesday, with a new storm system arriving by the middle of the week. Temperatures Thursday and Friday are projected
  
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• West Valley house fire causes as much as $100,000 in damage

  18-12-2017 00:50
  WEST VALLEY CITY — A fire ripped through a vacant home Sunday morning, causing as much as $100,000 in damage.
  Firefighters responded around 7:15 a.m. to 2900 W. Lehman Ave. to find a burning home immediately behind an apartment complex, said West Valley Fire Battalion Chief Jed Peters.
  The home's only access point is through the apartment complex, so it required extra time to both locate the fire and get to it, particularly after the wrong address was called into dispatchers, Peters said.
  
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• Op-ed: Desire and opportunity — both are needed for success

  18-12-2017 00:35
  Over the last few months, I’ve had the unique opportunity to witness firsthand several programs and partners that are changing people’s lives. This has reinforced my opinion that success is achieved when desire and opportunity intersect. The opportunity can come from anywhere, but in the world where I work, they usually come from multiple partners working together to support a common goal. These partners includes education, government, nonprofit organizations and businesses.Two month
  
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