Utah News

A potentially toxic algae bloom at Utah Lake has forced the closure of the Jordan River in Utah County. Utah’s Poison Control Center has been taking a number of calls about possible risks. The center has had over 500 people call with concerns about the algae forming in Utah Lake.

The Bureau of Land Management released the latest draft of the Moab Master Leasing Plan on Wednesday for an area that spans from Moab to Monticello.

Many Utahns are planning on taking their boats out to Utah’s lakes this Pioneer Day weekend. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources officials hope boaters stop to get their boats checked for invasive mussels, which are often called the “STD of the Sea.”

As a way to bolster a growing IT industry, Gov. Gary Herbert signed a new package of tax incentives on Monday designed to convince companies like Facebook and Google to build data centers in Utah. 

As part of the Utah Public Radio Kitchen Sister Project—Reporter Aimee Cobabe gathered a story of one man who, after he recovered from throat cancer, chose to cycle on what is called the loneliest road in America. 

Public input is being sought this week for a plan to update forest management in northeastern Utah.

  On Monday afternoon, a Utah State University aviation student, Frank De Leon Compres, was killed after he crashed a plane near Hyrum, Utah.

Main Street in Logan was closed Monday afternoon after a man attempted suicide in front of the North Logan Walmart Supercenter.

Cache County Sheriff's Office have confirmed the death of a Utah State University student in a plane crash Monday afternoon. 21-year-old Frank M. de Leon Compres was from the Dominican Republic and was in the pilot training program at USU. The crash site was located near the Mt. Sterling area near Paradise, Utah.

Salt Lake City Democratic State Sen. Jim Dabakis is calling on Gov. Gary Herbert to call a special legislative session to deal with child suicide in Utah. 

“I could never do science.” That’s what high school student Mitzy Ocampo thought before participating in iUTAH’s Summer Research Institute. The institute, an educational outreach element of a statewide research and training program, brings together a number of Utah high school and undergraduate students as well as teachers to conduct water-related research with scientists.

On Thursday, Utah’s First Congressional District Republican Rep. Rob Bishop unveiled changes to his Public Lands Initiative. The updated plan would grant protected status to over a million acres of the Bears Ears region. The PLI also seeks to add limitations to the Antiquities Act, the federal law that allows the President to unilaterally declare national monuments.

Until further notice, the Utah State Forester has prohibited lighting fireworks or cutting metal in unincorporated areas, meaning areas that aren’t governed by local cities. Smoking in areas with dry vegetation and lighting campfires in undesignated areas is also prohibited.

Each spring, a group of graduate students studying architecture at the University of Utah move to Bluff, Utah. Before the move, they prepare plans for homes and other structures they plan to build. For this year’s project, students designed and built a gateway to the Bluff community educational campus.

The 55th season of the Utah Shakespeare Festival has begun in Cedar City, but the works of the Bard in the American West did not begin with the vision of Fred Adams in 1962. A new exhibit at Southern Utah University’s Sherratt Library titled “Willy the Kid: Shakespeare in the American West” documents the prolific presence of the man from Stratford-upon-Avon in even the tiniest of American frontier towns.

A new phone application called “Pokemon Go” was released Friday, and now almost as many people use the app daily as Twitter.

The game uses GPS to track where players are located and scatters Pokemon, which means “pocket monsters” in Japanese, around the country. The game encourages players to "catch em’ all" by traveling around their cities searching for the Pokemon with their smart phones.

‘Sustainability’ is not just a buzzword. The resources on our planet are finite. To meet present needs and those of the future, implementing strategies with preservation and viability in mind is critical. But, how do we instill a mindset of sustainability in our culture and relay the interconnectedness between the environment, society and economy? Faculty across the country, including those at Utah State University, believe one way is through classroom education.

Community branding experts from Roger Brooks International are in Logan this week. Julie Hollist-Terrill of the Cache Valley Visitors Bureau said Brooks representatives are secretly shopping downtown businesses.

Government watchdogs have called for an audit of money Utah officials spent to explore a potential lawsuit to take control of Federal lands.

  A team of cyclists pedaled into St. George Thursday as part of a journey across the United States to promote affordable housing and do a service project on Friday.

After receiving criticism for a study comparing state versus federal management of recreation lands, the Sutherland Institute corrected the data that critics said was inaccurate.

It began with a herald of trumpets and marks the culmination of years of fundraising, planning and construction.  Thursday was the dedication of the Beverly Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts at Southern Utah University.

According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 4.5 million Americans are bitten by dogs annually. Half of those attacks involve children. And according to the U.S. Postal Service, Salt Lake City is listed as one of the top 30 cities in the United States for the most people bitten by dogs.