Utah News

A senior Utah senator is demanding the Obama administration provide Congress with records detailing the payment of Social Security benefits to suspected Nazi war criminals.

In letters released publicly on Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah cited an Associated Press investigation published in October that revealed millions of dollars in benefits have been paid to dozens of former Nazis living outside of the United States.

Every year well-meaning individuals leave food out for wild animals, particularly deer, attempting to supplement their winter diet. But the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources says the seeming kindness can do much more harm than good.

The diet of deer is fragile and can be harmed by slight changes said Chris Schulze, conservation officer with the DWR.

“The wrong food at the wrong time of year can be hazardous and even kill deer; it wreaks havoc on their digestive systems,” Schulze said.

More than 1,000 people converged at Rock Canyon Park in Provo to participate in the world’s largest Nativity scene on Monday. The event was verified by a representative from Guinness World Records as the largest in the world. The previous record-holding Nativity event was held in the United Kingdom last year, drawing around 900 participants.

Leading roles in the event were filled by musicians and other local celebrities who are well-known members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, the event was open to people of a multitude of Christian faiths. Fifty families were in charge of sewing costumes for angels and shepherds.

Blanding has a population of more than 3,500 people with a history of conserving water that they are proud of, according to Jeremy Redd, the city manager of Blanding.

“People take a lot of pride in the fact that they’re conserving," Redd said. "And letting their lawns get brown and that kind of thing.”

He said Blanding’s water usage in the 2013 water year used 18 percent less culinary water than in 2012. The town’s 2014 water usage isn’t as impressive, but it is estimated to be close.

Updated 10:06 p.m., 12/1/14. During interrogation, the 16-year-old male arrested for possession of a firearm at Fremont High School admitted to planning to shoot a particular student, then open fire on the rest of the school. He is being charged with Class B Possession of a firearm by a minor, Class A possession of a firearm in a restricted area, and Class A possession of a weapon with intent to assault. 

Police were alerted Monday of a student possessing a loaded handgun at Fremont High School in Plain City.

A student had reportedly seen a peer with the gun and tipped off the school resource officer, who detained the subject. No shots were fired, according to police, and the student was taken into custody.

Though the student’s intentions remain unclear, Lt. Lane Findlay with the Weber County Sheriff’s Office said it is unlikely they were friendly.

The Utah County Health Board voted on Nov. 24 to place greater regulation on electronic cigarettes, following many other counties in the state. The new regulations cover the sale and manufacture of e-cigarettes with sanitation and youth protection in mind, said Lynneah Fletcher of the Utah County Health Department.

“There’s really two parts to the regulation. The first side is for the retail. Anybody that’s selling will need to be permitted through the Utah County Health Department,” she said. “It’s to prevent youth access. The other side is the manufacturing piece. So, it has everything from sanitation [to] cleanliness of the facility.”

In an email sent to students Nov. 18, administrators from the John M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University announced a proposal to increase the school’s differential tuition. The proposal would increase the business school’s tuition by $20 per credit hour for undergraduates. The move has sparked a debate on the USU campus over the rising cost of going to college.

An order signed Monday by U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball means the state will pay attorneys’ fees for the eight plaintiffs in the Evans v. Utah case, which addressed the legal status of couples wed following the initial ruling that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.  

The plaintiffs’ attorneys were seeking nearly $200,000 for their services. However, after an agreement was reached on the fee issue, the state will pay $95,000 to the attorneys.

At the Ching Farm’s Thanksgiving dinner earlier this month there wasn’t any Turkey on the menu. Instead, the goal of the 16th annual Vegan Thanksgiving dinner was to help turkeys and other animals that call the Riverton-based animal sanctuary home. The Ching animal sanctuary provides a place to live for farm animals that were destined for slaughter. It holds a fundraising Thanksgiving feast each year to keep the farm going.

Rescue Executive Director and farm founder Faith Ching said various community groups provide food for the dinner, which is attended by 300 people each year.

“We have the traditional everything," Ching said. "From the cranberry sauce to the mashed potatoes and all of that…it’s just vegan. Everything tastes the same, it’s just that we don’t have to hurt any animals to do it."

The 230-member American Fork High School marching band will join only five other high school bands and two college bands in the 2014 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday.

The band’s director John Miller said this is the second time the band has had the opportunity to play at the prestigious venue.

“They can only invite bands back every seven years. So, they sent me an email and said, ‘If you’re interested, would you please apply again. We can’t guarantee you a position, but… we’ll take a look at it.’ So we did, and to our surprise they offered us another spot in the Macy’s parade this year,” Miller said. “They only take the very top, top cream of the crop for this thing, so it was quite an honor again.”

Utah politicians had a lot to say after President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration Thursday, in which he announced his support of deferring deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert said in a statement that he was disturbed the president would take such divisive and unilateral action. Herbert said the broken immigration system is compromising national security and must be addressed by congress.

According to a recent study, 48,000 of Utah’s undocumented immigrants will qualify for temporary amnesty as outlined in Thursday’s executive action by President Barack Obama. The report from the Migration Policy Institute shows that the 55 percent of undocumented immigrants in the state who now qualify for amnesty is the highest rate in the entire United States.

Every five years, the U.S. Geological Survey publishes a water usage report showing how the nation fares in water consumption. The 2010 report was published earlier this month.  

In conjunction with the release of the report, media have touted that Utah is the worst in the nation for water consumption, but Molly Maupin, a hydrologist with the USGS, said it depends on the category and how the data is being compared.    

A Salt Lake City-based water treatment company with offices around the world is set to open a new facility, partnering with Utah State University. WesTech has hired a growing number of Utah State biological and environmental engineering graduates in recent years. The company aims to use the new facility at the university’s Innovation Campus to continue its research into turning water waste into resources.

Along with the quizzes about which states you’ve visited and which Disney character is your spirit animal, another online survey has been spreading like wildfire across Facebook pages in Utah—the Mormon Gender Issues Survey.

Unlike other online quizzes, the gender issues survey has the backing of researchers from universities across the nation, who plan to publish the survey findings.

Volunteers of America unveiled plans last week to build a new resource center for homeless youth in Salt Lake City.

Zach Bale, chief development officer for the project, said the new 30-bed overnight shelter will serve the immediate needs of youth, but also will include services to help those being served to overcome their circumstances.

“We knew that both having a safe overnight shelter has been really important, but maybe even more important [is] expanded education and employment support for the youth,” Bale said. “We’re going to have a lot more space, classroom space, to provide those types of services.”

Forty percent of eligible voters in Utah participated during the recent mid-term elections. Official numbers released Tuesday showed that the number is one of the lowest on record. To reach more voters, some counties switched to all mail-in voting. Duchesne County, switching to vote-by-mail to serve rural areas, beat the state average with 51 percent participation in the election. Cache County, also making the move to mail-in voting, experienced similar success. Voter participation grew in the last midterm, said Jill Zollinger, the Cache County Clerk.

An old scam is using a new technology to fool unsuspecting customers of Rocky Mountain Power. Because of this, the company has issued a warning to their customers to be leery of anyone calling them for payment of over-due bills.

The perpetrators called businesses, as well as residents, claiming that their bill is overdue and aggressively demand payment in the past scam. According to Paul Murphy, spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power, the new tricks are easier to fall for.

“They use a caller ID system that makes it look like the call is coming from Rocky Mountain Power," Murphy said. "And they actually give a number that when you call, sounds like the automated telephone answering service used by Rocky Mountain Power, so it’s a very sophisticated way of doing a very old thing which is to take your money.”

Agriculture is one of the largest industries in Utah, and it takes some effort to locate farms and what products they provide around the state. Roslynn Brain is an associate professor at Utah State University Extension Sustainability. She said farmers can get lost in the online world, which is how most people find their information.

Brain runs the Utah Farm-Chef-Fork project, a program that trains both farmers and chefs about direct marketing benefits as well as training in things such as social marketing. The project has just received a two and a half year funding cycle.

“Research also shows that when farmers use direct marketing– selling directly at farmers markets or to restaurants–  is an effective way to increase their income and decrease farmland loss,” she said.

The Census of Agriculture results from 1982 to 2007 show that more than 300,000 acres of land have been lost due to population growth. That is more than 50 acres a day of farmland that is lost to development.