Utah News

A system-wide investigation of Veterans Affairs has been underway since Sunday due to allegations of fake appointments, unofficial logs kept on the sly and appointments made without telling their patients. It is estimated up to 40 veterans have died in Phoenix awaiting care.

Former Utah Director of Veterans Affairs, Terry Schow, spoke with UPR last week and addressed the issue.

“The general consensus is once you’re in the VA, the care is quite good," he said. "The challenge becomes the delays. That’s the heart of this issue that is going on in Phoenix.”

GeoMetWatch is a Las Vegas-based company that collects and delivers weather information to forecasters. They began working with Utah State's Advanced Weather Systems Foundation and Space Dynamic's Lab in 2010. The groups collaborated to build and finance a satellite-based weather system.

The company is now suing the university, stating USU conspired with a private investor Alan Hall to steal trade secrets and drive them out of business. Hall is now president and CEO of USU's new partner company, Tempus Global Data, which was announced as the new partner in April, about same time USU severed ties with GeoMetWatch.

Utahns will have to wait for a decision by the state legislature on their healthcare options, but one Utah official says that waiting is not an option.

Democratic state party chair Peter Corroon says a special session of the legislature needs to be held so a decision can be made about Medicaid.

He said Utahns are giving their money to other states while the legislature takes its time.

“People think that if we do not take the federal money than we are saving money in our own pocket book but that is not the case,” Corroon said. “Case is that the money is going to other states and Utah is losing out.”

The U.S. Forest Service is reminding Utah residents to be careful and have fun this holiday weekend. Spokeswoman Kathy-Jo Pollock with Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest says Memorial Day weekend is the kick-off for the summer season and traditionally a very busy weekend at campgrounds and picnic areas in the National Forests across Utah.

"Most campgrounds are now open throughout the state," she notes in a press statement. "Some higher-elevation campgrounds, roads, and trails will remain closed due to snow and extremely wet muddy conditions."

A team of bio-engineering and medical students won first place and $75,000 at the International Business Model Competition on Wednesday for their plan to eliminate infections associated with catheters.

They beat 2,500 other teams from 20 different countries.  

The team, Veritas Medical, is a medical devices startup company launched in 2012. It is headed by Nate Rhodes, a U of U bio-engineering student.

A report released yesterday by Families USA and Utah Health Policy Project shows how Medicaid expansion could cover approximately 140,000 working Utahns.

During his monthly press conference, Gov. Gary Herbert says he has not yet read the report but it is important not jump into something without knowing what it will do to the economy down the road.

Snow Canyon High School in St. George conducted its graduation exercises Wednesday night.  It did so without two of its graduating students.

The high school already had plans at its Wednesday graduation ceremonies to memorialize KJ Harrison, a student who died of an accidental drowning while on a scout trip last summer.

The school did not intend to recognize the absence of another graduating student, Brooks Johnson, who was killed in a rollover accident on Saturday.

Earthlings may finally get a glimpse of a meteor shower hundreds of years in the making on Friday, that’s if the comet called 209P/LINEAR left enough space dust in its trail to be visible in Earth’s night sky.

“If, 200 years ago when nobody knew it existed, it was a really active comet that threw off a bunch of stuff, we’re in for a great show. If, however, it was not an active comet, we may be just standing out there watching the sky and not seeing much,” said Utah's NASA Ambassador Patrick Wiggins.

Utah State University researchers have contributed to a worldwide collaborative study that measures the evolution of cognition in a variety of species, specifically the aspect of self-control.

Kerry Jordan, one of the USU researchers on the project, said this study is unique because it is it the first of its kind in which researchers used the same methods and tasks across species.  

"Researchers in the past have had to rely upon things like meta-analyses of data gathered at all different times using all different tasks, purporting to measure the same concept, or they’ve had to just test a couple species they might have access to themselves or with a couple of close collaborators," said Jordan. 

Two groups released a report Wednesday about the gap in Medicaid, and ways to fix the gap. Currently, a family of three that earns more than $9,300 annually are not eligible for to receive Medicaid in Utah.

Rachel Klein, enrollment program director for Families USA, said this leaves a gap between being poor enough to receive Medicaid and wealthy enough to afford insurance.