Utah News

  Some Utah high schools don't allow students to wear leis and other ornamentation during graduation ceremonies, a restriction that the state's Pacific Islander community says feels discriminatory.

Some schools around the state have sought a uniform look for graduating students that limits distractions or special attention, resulting in bans on ornamentation.

Financial disclosures show former presidential candidate Mitt Romney has a large leg up on his opponent heading into Utah Republican primary next Tuesday.

Romney's campaign reported raising nearly $2 million between April and June. He spent $1.4 million in that period and has roughly $1.6 million in the bank.

Northern Utah authorities are scaling back the search for a swimmer who disappeared while swimming at Newton Dam over the weekend.

Cache County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Locke told the Herald Journal Monday that volunteers will remain throughout the week to search for the 35-year-old man.

  Authorities say a suspect has been arrested in the death of a St. George woman last week.

St. George police say 28-year-old Kevin Ray Mcatlin was taken into custody Saturday in the Moab area on suspicion of murder.

  Law enforcement authorities in northern Utah are accusing a man of throwing sulfuric acid on a child.

32-year-old Smithfield resident Jason Keith Summers was arrested Friday on charges including child abuse and trespassing.

  Authorities are searching for a man who allegedly stole a box containing several car keys from an outdoor recreation company, leaving as many as 30 people stranded.

Provo Canyon Outfitters, which rents tubes and rafts to float on the Provo River, said Saturday a man had stolen a box containing car keys and identification cards of customers.

A 35- year-old man went missing while swimming with a group of people in Newton Dam reservoir on Saturday. 

The U.S. Department of Energy will give the University of Utah up to $140 million to support a research laboratory studying manmade geothermal energy.

The department announced the five-year funding plan Thursday for the facility outside Milford, in Beaver County.

Organizers of a prominent Utah July Fourth festival are reversing course and allowing LGBTQA organizations to march in its parade.

LGBTQA Mormon activist Kendall Wilcox said Thursday he and other activists had an emotional meeting with organizers of America's Freedom Festival that resulted in an agreement allowing the five organizations to participate.

A new report indicates the cost of housing in Utah is increasing at a faster rate than wages for low income households.

A study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition released Wednesday shows people earning minimum wage would need to work 98 hours per week to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent in the state.

A new survey shows high rates of depression and anxiety among LGBTQ teens nationwide. Advocates say lawmakers could do more to ensure kids aren't bullied because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

A self-styled prophet who helped lead a Utah doomsday cult that believed in polygamy is pleading guilty to sodomy and child bigamy charges.

John Coltharp agreed to the plea deal in a courtroom in Manti Wednesday in exchange for prosecutors dropping kidnapping and obstruction of justice charges.

  Utah officials say 23 children died over the last year after state child-welfare authorities became involved in their cases, marking a slight increase over the year before.

A report released Wednesday shows four of the deaths between July 2017 and June 2018 were homicides. The others were suicides, accidents or from natural causes.

A woman who says a former Mormon missionary leader raped her in the 1980s is accusing church officials of knowing about the man's prior sexual misconduct before he was appointed.

McKenna Denson's attorneys allege in a court document filed Tuesday that Joseph L. Bishop disclosed to church leaders his "acts of sexual predation" while he was a mission president in Argentina in the late 1970s.

A wildfire in central Utah fed by dry conditions and swift wind has consumed more than 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) and burned a cabin.

The U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday the Trail Mountain fire northwest of Orangeville began as a prescribed burn but grew out of control last week.

  An Ogden distillery owner will be able to buy liquor ads on Utah light rail trains and buses after all despite earlier beliefs that these ads were illegal.

The confusion started last week when Steve Conlin, a managing partner with Ogden's Own Distillery, asked how much it would cost to advertise his products on Utah Transit Authority vehicles. He was initially told it was illegal to advertise spirits in Utah.

A fast-moving brush fire destroyed eight homes in the southern Utah tourist town of Moab.

 Moab city officials said in a news release Tuesday night that the fire started Tuesday night in a wooded area near an apartment complex.

Police are continuing to investigate whether a Utah driver's medical issue was responsible for sending a pickup truck careening into a Starbucks patio last week.

Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera can't confirm investigators' initial hypothesis about a medical episode such as a seizure until she reviews a toxicology report that is still being compiled.