utah

A Utah charter school that sparked national controversy when it decided to allow parents to opt their children out of the Black History Month curriculum has now changed course. As The Hill reported, the Maria Montessori Academy faced sharp criticism when it posted a notice stating that students did not have to take part in […]

Utah authorities have announced that they are investigating whether 38-year-old Holly Courtier faked her disappearance in Zion National State Park as scheme to raise money on the popular charitable website GoFundMe. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, police received “numerous tips” that the ordeal was staged to grab headlines and earn sympathy. “Numerous tips have […]

Scofflaws setting off backyard fireworks have started a wildfire that is burning near the city of Lehi, Utah, forcing some residents to evacuate, KUTV reported. Just before midnight Saturday night, an individual allegedly launched consumer-grade fireworks illegally. Unfortunately, the grass was already dry, and when embers landed on the ground, the grass caught on fire. […]

Scott Senjo, a Utah professor who resigned following multiple tweets about police protests, is now asking for his old job back, Salt Lake City’s KUTV reported. Senjo had been a professor of criminology at Ogden’s Weber State University. However, his career with the institution came to an end in the wake of the George Floyd […]

The University of Utah football team’s defensive coordinator, Morgan Scalley, was suspended with pay on Friday after the school became aware of a text he sent that contained a racial epithet. The Athletic‘s Chris Kamrani posted Utah’s official release on Twitter, adding statements from the team’s head coach, Kyle Whittingham, and Scalley himself. Utah athletic […]

A Utah state trooper made a shocking discovery when he pulled over a vehicle that appeared to be driving erratically: a 5-year-old boy behind the wheel. As HuffPost reports, the young man claimed that he was on his way to California to purchase a Lamborghini. On Monday, Trooper Rick Morgan was working his beat when […]

The Nebraska football team got some bad news on Saturday. One of the Huskers’ top targets at the quarterback position from the 2021 class committed to Utah. Peter Costelli announced on his official Twitter account that he chose the Utes. Now, recruiting analysts believe that the Cornhuskers are going to need to shake up their […]

A 5.7-magnitude earthquake has struck just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, leaving tens of thousands of people without power, CNN reports. The earthquake, which couldn’t have come at a worse time for the metropolitan area of about 1 million people, struck as the city, like so many other American cities, is trying valiantly to […]

A Utah man could be looking at time behind bars after he allegedly released mice and other rodents in various hotel rooms, then alerted staff, hoping they could compensate him with a free stay. As the New York Post reported, 37-year-old Ryan State is accused of taking the rodents to three different hotels in Utah […]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a religion more popularly known as the Mormon Church, has been accused of hiding over $100 billion in assets, according to The Wall Street Journal. In fact, news of the billions owned by the church only became public knowledge after a whistleblower accused the organization of improperly […]

A Salt Lake City restaurant owner was caught on video allegedly putting out a smoker’s cigarette with a fire extinguisher, KUTV reports. The owner has since given up ownership of his restaurants and may yet face criminal charges. What transpired between business owner Alex Jamison and smoker Jon Bird is largely a matter of whom […]

On Friday, a tour bus crash near Bryce Canyon left four people dead and at least 30 people injured, according to KUTV. The extent of those injuries is unknown at this time. The bus struck a guard rail and rolled over the barrier on September 20. “Troopers are en route to a tour bus crash […]

A Utah lawmaker wants his state’s legislature to take another look at its laws against polygamy, MSN reports. The Beehive State officially outlaws polygamy, but many people in the state still openly participate in plural marriages. Utah’s relationship with polygamy is “complicated,” says writer Andrew O’Reilly. The state was founded, settled, and to this day […]

Mackenzie Lueck is a 23-year-old University of Utah nursing student who remains missing since disappearing on June 17. Lueck, originally from California, had been visiting her home state before heading back to Utah. She arrived at the airport without issue and then called for a Lyft to pick her up. She then requested to be […]

Two Utah high school football players have been suspended indefinitely after they appeared in a video burning an LGBTQ pride flag, which was then posted on social media, Yahoo Lifestyle reports. In the video, someone can be heard laughing and saying, “All gays die.” The video was recorded last week, and then posted to Snapchat. […]

A man from Utah has been arrested on federal charges alleging that he made over 2,000 phone calls to Capitol Hill in a 13-month period. Said calls reportedly included multiple threats to kill members of Congress. Per The Salt Lake Tribune, 54-year-old Scott Brian Haven has been charged with one count of interstate transmission of […]

On Wednesday, the five-day search for missing 5-year-old Utah girl Elizabeth “Lizzy” Shelley came to a tragic end. A body that detectives believe belongs to the little girl was found not far from her home. It was carefully concealed by trees and brush. The devastating discovery was made after Lizzy’s uncle, 21-year-old Alex Whipple, was […]

A judge in Utah was suspended for six months without pay for comments he made about President Donald Trump both online and in the courtroom, Business Insider reports. The court ruling indicates that Judge Michael Kwan made a number of comments critical of the president on social media both prior to the election and since. […]

Beth Chapman, wife of famed bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman, has oftentimes used social media to update her fans regarding the status of her battle with cancer. In addition to those updates, she has also spoken openly about people she admires and causes she believes in. That’s what happened on Tuesday, when the reality television […]

Gwyneth Paltrow is the subject of a lawsuit by a doctor from Utah who suffered severe injuries, including brain damage, after the Hollywood actress allegedly crashed into him while skiing. The incident took place in 2016 at the Park City and Deer Valley Ski Resort in Deer Valley, Utah, according to the Daily Mail. The […]

Wanda Barzee, the woman who helped to kidnap and imprison Elizabeth Smart, is living a few blocks from a Salt Lake City elementary school, the Associated Press is reporting. Back in 2002, Wanda Barzee and her husband, street preacher Brian David Mitchell, kidnapped the then-14-year-old from her Utah home. Over the next nine months, the […]

There were nearly 10,500 deaths on the road in 2016 that were related to at least one person drinking too much alcohol before deciding to get behind the wheel. That amounts to 14 out of every 50 traffic-related deaths across the United States. The human costs of drunk driving are, sadly, much too high. But […]

Utah is using state funds to keep three of its most popular national parks open during the government shutdown, the Salt Lake Tribune is reporting. As Donald Trump and Congress continue to battle over a lack of funding for Trump’s proposed border wall, the federal government is without a working budget, which means that it […]

A 9-year-old Utah girl told police that her father and stepmother subjected her to “waterboarding,” a form of interrogating prisoners of war that is widely considered torture, as a form of punishment, KUTV (Salt Lake City) is reporting. Authorities were called to the family’s Provo home in early December after reports of possible abuse in […]

On December 30, just one day before New Year’s celebrations will see most people hit the champagne, Utah will start enforcing a new and much stricter drunk driving law. As reported by the Hill, the state will drop the standard for blood alcohol consumption (BAC) from the nationwide.08 to.05. This means that just two drinks […]

A Salt Lake City holiday gathering went awry, and a fall into the Christmas tree ended up with shots fired and an arrest on a number of charges, throwing a wrench into the season. The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that Randal Weed Dickinson, 57, was attending a holiday party when after becoming “highly intoxicated” […]

A Utah teen has been sentenced to five years to life for helping his friend commit suicide and filming the act on his cell phone, CNN is reporting. Prosecutors claimed that Tyerell Przybycien, who was 18 years old at the time (May 2017), bought a rope and tied it into a noose, then gave it […]

Last month voters in Utah passed Prop 2, a medical marijuana ballot initiative, and it passed with 53 percent. However, today, the Utah legislature passed a far more restrictive bill than the people of the state voted in last month, and with a super majority in both the House and the Senate, nothing can stop […]

Two men, a father and a son of Mexican descent, were brutally beaten with a metal bar wielded by another man because of his alleged racial prejudices. Yet despite the nature of the targeted racial attack, the assailant is not facing hate crime charges. Jose Lopez, 51, who owns Lopez Tires in Salt Lake City, […]

Rep. Mia Love, a Republican from Utah, delivered a concession speech Monday, following her defeat by Democrat Ben McAdams. And in the speech, the outgoing Congresswoman had some harsh words for President Trump, who had criticized her on the day after the election. Love, who had served two terms in the House and was the […]

In Salt Lake City Utah, amusement park fans will find what is being referred to as a star attraction, which as it turns out is not a thrill ride but is instead a tavern known as the Crooked Lantern, located in Evermore. What does this have to do with theme parks and amusement rides? Well […]

The Utah Department of Health has confirmed the first human rabies death in Utah since 1944. The Utah resident died earlier this month and it is believed the victim came in contact with a bat who had the rabies virus. While the Utah Department of Health has not formally identified the man, a family in […]

The stars of TLC’s Sister Wives are dealing with a big split in their polygamist clan as per a new report by Radar Online. Kody Brown and wife Meri, Robyn, Christine, and Janelle are dealing with a problem that could tear the very fabric of their clan apart. Allegedly, Meri Brown Kody’s first wife, whom […]

Never keep anything made of paper where a toddler can gain access to it — especially if the paper is valuable. That’s a lesson that a Utah man learned after he put an envelope containing $1,000 in cash in a place where his toddler could find it. And if you’ve read the title of this […]

A 14-year-old boy in Utah was shot and killed by a stray bullet in a freak accident while riding in the back seat of a car with his family, according to the Deseret News. The family was driving near Monte Cristo mountain range in Utah when Zackary Kempke was shot in the head, killing him […]

Wanda Barzee, the Utah woman who, along with her accomplice Brian David Mitchell, kidnapped then-teenager Elizabeth Smart and held her captive for nine months, will be released from prison today. As ABC News reports, Barzee was originally scheduled to be released in 2024. However, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole determined that miscalculations were […]

After serving 16 years in prison for the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, Wanda Eileen Barzee is scheduled for release next week according to CNN. In 2002 a then 14-year-old Smart was abducted at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City bedroom by Barzee and her husband Brian David Mitchell. Smart was missing for nine months before […]

Kate Boyle thought she’d have some fun with friends when she picked up a six-pack of Not See Cola. Then she realized that what she was actually buying was Nazi Cola. According to the Idaho Statesman, Boyle only realized the nature of the offending drink when she got it home and sounded it out. “Wait, […]

Baleigh Bagshaw, a 15-year-old Utah girl, was murdered while talking on her phone to her mother, and police have arrested her boyfriend in connection with this crime, WGNO-TV (New Orleans) is reporting. Twenty-four-year-old Shaun French was taken into custody without incident in neighboring Colorado. Police believe that he may have been attempting to flee across […]

For both hardcore and casual fans of the popular film franchise, May 4 has become recognized in pop culture as “Star Wars Day,” as the first three words in the line, “May the Force be with you,” sound extremely similar to “May the Fourth.” That was what a couple from Utah had in mind when […]

There are 99 Democratic candidates this cycle, compared to just 71 in the last one, according to the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office. A newcomer is Karina Andelin Brown. Besides having been a Medicaid expansion advocate since 2015, she is concerned with the suicide rate of youth in Utah. “Because of my advocacy work and the […]

Utah’s Gov. Gary R. Herbert signed the nation’s first free-range parenting bill into law on March 15, protecting parents who choose this parenting style from facing child neglect charges. The new law will take effect in May and allow children to participate in some activities, such as walking or riding a bike, unsupervised without their […]

Gymnasts for the University of Utah are greedy about wanting the Pac-12 Championship. Then again, as the Salt Lake Tribune reported, they’ve won three of the last four. “We’d like to have it stay in Salt Lake,” senior Maddy Stover told the Tribune. The Utes’ effort to hold onto the conference title, which it also […]

Vanilla and some chocolate — and this year, strawberry? Six ballot initiatives with the promise of changing 1.5 million voters into a legislature beyond which meets in Salt Lake City and could have brought to pass new mandates that polls say Utahns love went nowhere on Utah’s Capitol Hill, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Those […]

A Salt Lake City woman who ran an unlicensed child care center, and who allegedly admitted to breaking both of a baby’s legs, has told cops she’d rather be deported than go to jail, KSTU-TV (Salt Lake City) is reporting. However, whether or not Elvira Ortega, 66, will get her wish remains to be seen, […]

The Utah House of Representatives moved ahead alterations Monday that could somewhat cut down the press’ ability to speak with lawmakers, stop permitting attorneys for the legislature to officially herald when legislation might clash with the constitution, and grant lawmakers the ability to bring themselves into special sessions. The House Rules Committee gave the nod […]

A federal probe into the off-the-books practices of at least 20 Division I NCAA basketball programs has exposed multiple violations of the association’s rules. Yahoo! Sports reported that financial documents reveal multiple cash advances and other perks were given to high school and college prospects, as well as their families. But Lonzo Ball said on […]

Donald Trump threw his weight behind Mitt Romney on Monday. Romney, a harsh critic of the president until now, thanked Trump for endorsing his Senate bid from Utah. Trump’s tweet endorsement was surprising as Romney was seen as one of the president’s most vocal critics. Romney called Trump a “fraud” and a “phony” during the […]

Police have discovered the bodies of a woman and her daughter in an apparent murder-suicide. According to People, Utah authorities believe that 41-year-old Katrina Clark fatally shot her 9-year-old daughter, Madison Clark, before turning the gun on herself at their Magna home on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. Police discovered the bodies on New […]

The growing problem of so-called “porch pirates” stealing packages from the porches of homes was highlighted in the days leading up to Christmas, as thieves allegedly made away with an expensive supply of lifesaving medication meant for a young divorced father’s 4-year-old son. The crime in question took place last week, as a supply of […]