Utah News

More than 3,000 counties and the District of Columbia were evaluated by the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The county health rankings measure how healthy their residents are and how long they are expected to live.

In Utah, Cache County received the #2 ranking when it comes to health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment.

• Federal Officials Arrest 54 Immigrants in Utah
• Parents of Boy Who Drowned in Washing Machine Won't Face Charges
• Where are the Worst Drivers in Utah?

These headlines and the rest of the day's news along with the forecast from the Utah Climate Center during our 5:30 Utah News broadcast.

Joy Wicks and her husband aren’t strangers to owning a home. After losing money on their previous homes, she says they’re excited to learn about a new program that will help them get back into one they can afford: “It’s just a struggle to come up with the down payment. Not so much to make the monthly mortgage payments but just having that savings or that money from the homes that we may have lost money on.”

The overall theme for National Public Health Week this year is "A Healthier America Begins Today". It's a time when public health agencies from all across the United States come together... to encourage families, friends and neighbors to make small changes. Because when they make small changes in their lives, they protect their health and they prevent disease.

Jill Parker of the Bear River Health Department gives UPR listeners a run-down of the week's events in Northern Utah.

Wendell Loy Nielson has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine for each of his 3 counts of bigamy -- the maximum penalty under Texas law. While his defense lawyers argued that Nielson was not guilty of bigamy because his extra relationships were not legal marriages, the jury disagreed. Nielson is also alleged to have conducted ceremonies, marrying girls 12- and 16-years-old to Warren Jeffs. He has allegedly been involved in the marriages of 37 girls of that age.  

The concept behind an empty bowl event is not new. It began in South Carolina as a way to bring attention to the need to feed those less fortunate. Thursday, on the campus of Utah State University in Logan, area restaurants donated soup and bread while members of USU's ceramics guild threw 250 bowls. Visitors who purchased a bowl of soup got to take the bowl home and the money was donated to the Cache Community Food Pantry.

Lawyers for an environmental activist convicted of disrupting a federal oil-and-gas auction say the man has been put into isolation at a federal prison because of an unidentified congressman's complaint. The federal bureau of prisons refuses to confirm or deny that Tim DeChristopher is being punished.