Chris Holmes

Hurricane high school in Washington County was evacuated Tuesday after a construction crew working on the schools new addition ruptured a three inch natural gas line.

At approximately 11:45 a.m. parents received a text message from hurricane high school indicating that due to the emergency students were being dismissed to return home.

The Utah attorney general’s office has filed criminal charges against the chief of police and the town manager of Springdale, Utah alleging the pair conspired to redirect tens-of-thousands of dollars of traffic fines to city coffers instead of the local justice court.

Town manager Richard Wixom and police chief Kurt Wright are charged with one count each of failure to keep and pay over public money—a third-degree felony.

The shaking continues in Iron County where a series of small earthquakes has rattled windows frames and cupboards.

Iron County has experienced ten measurable earthquakes in the last 24 hours, the smallest have registered from 1.4 to 2.8, and the largest quakes from 3.1, to 3.5 to 3.7 on the Richter scale.

According to the University of Utah Seismic Station, all of the tremblers have been centered in the same location, about seven miles northwest of Cedar City and five miles west of the town of Enoch.

Three people remain hospitalized following a high speed chase that began in Arizona and ended in Utah after a driver may have tried to purposely cause a head-on collision.

Arizona troopers attempted to stop a motorist on northbound I-15, but the vehicle failed to stop.  The pursuit reached speeds of 115 miles per hour through the Virgin River Gorge.

Shortly after noon Thursday, the Cedar City area was shaken by a series of small earth quakes.

A series of five small earth quakes has shaken iron county.  The first registering 2.7 on the Richter scale occurred just before noon Thursday, followed by a 2.0 shake.

About 30 minutes later a slightly stronger 3.1 quake occurred, and the strongest quake of the day, measuring a 3.5 magnitude occurred at around 1:00.

Two smaller aftershocks of 2.0 and 2.7 also shook the area.

Southern Utah University is in its first year as a member of the Big Sky Conference, and already University President Dr. Michael Taft Benson suggests the benefits of Big Sky membership extend well beyond athletics.
At the Monday Thunderbird club coaches luncheon Benson told athletic boosters that the university’s academic and other non-athletic departments have met counterparts from other big sky schools and benefited greatly from the exchanges—most recently SUU’s alumni association.

Police in both Southern Utah and Southern Nevada have seen an increase in vehicle burglaries as of late.  While Utah authorities are still on the look-out, it appears that police in Mesquite, Nevada have a suspect.

30-year-old Mario Gaxiola of Las Vegas was caught in the act and detained by private citizens until Mesquite police arrived to make the arrest.  Gaxiola was booked on three counts of auto burglary and other charges.  

Law enforcement in Southern Utah is still on the lookout for a suspect in the aggravated robbery and sexual assault of the woman near Kanarraville.

The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon. The female victim was showing a male subject a building lot in a remote mountain subdivision south of cedar city when she was suddenly attacked.
 

A Utah district court judge has extended a custody order for a former member of the FLDS church who is seeking custody of his estranged children.
Lorin Holm was married to three women and is father to eight children.  In 2011 Holm was expelled from the FLDS church by leader Warren Jeffs for unspecified reasons.

Thereafter, his wives and children were assigned by church leadership to other men.  But Holm has reconciled with his first wife, to whom he is lawfully married, and has sought custody of his children.

Utah regents have approved Dixie State College's years-long drive to become a university and are sticking with the school's traditional name despite some concerns expressed about racial insensitivity.

The regents voted Friday to adopt the new name of Dixie state university. The decision is subject to approval by the Utah Legislature and by Gov. Gary Herbert, who has indicated his support.