Utah News

The Saudi Arabian government has stopped recommending Southern Utah University's English as a Second Language program to Saudi Students it sends abroad to study.

The Saudi Arabia cultural mission likes its students to study English in ESL programs comprised of no more than 35% Saudi students. Its thought is that doing so maximizes the educational and cultural experience.

President Obama announced more key administration posts Friday, and Cache Valley resident Sachin Pavithran was among them. The Utah State University graduate has been appointed to the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. The board helps develop policy relating to disability.

The search is over for a missing single-engine plane that disappeared after refueling in Fillmore, Utah, more than one week ago.

37-year-old pilot Matt Ahrens, his girlfriend 34-year-old Trista Meyer, and Trista's 9-year-old daughter Shyann Lenz, were returning to Gillette, Wyoming, from Bakersfield, California, after the Thanksgiving holiday when they stopped to refuel in Fillmore.

When the aircraft failed to arrive at its destination, family members alerted authorities and the search, by both air and ground, ensued.

Federal wildlife officials will hold public meetings in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming on their proposal to buy conservation easements along the Bear River. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reportedly wants to buy up to 920,000 acres from willing sellers for an estimated $745,000,000.

From its headwaters in Utah's Uinta Mountains, the river flows north through Wyoming and Idaho before ending its 500-mile journey at the Great Salt Lake.

The Utah Attorney General’s office, along with the Salt Lake City Police Department, the Unified Police Department, and federal agents, performed a search on Thursday of Salt Lake-area massage parlors. The result: three men arrested, and ten women—several of whom were minors—detained, in what looks to be part of an international human trafficking and prostitution ring.

Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen says the businesses that were raided may have looked legitimate to outsiders.

Former Utah Governor John Huntsman has found a new place in Washington; he’s now the co-chair of the bipartisan group No Labels. Jessica Gail talks with Thomas Burr, Washington correspondent for the Salt Lake Tribune and author of Political Cornflakes, about what this means for Huntsman's future.

The percentage of high school students from Utah's rural areas who attend college is much lower than that of their city and suburb dwelling counter parts. That's according to a new study by the Utah Foundation that examined the challenges faced by Utah's rural schools. Research Analyst Shawn Teigen says rural students are offered fewer advanced placement courses that would allow them to score higher on college entrance tests.

A national survey shows Utah has the lowest number of underage drinkers in the country.  The National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows just 14.3% of Utah teens surveyed reported using alcohol during the previous month, more than 12% below the national average.

Susannah Burt, Program Manager for Prevention Services at the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, attributes those low numbers to the state doing a good job of educating people about the negative consequences of underage drinking, and also to the state’s stringent alcohol laws.

To be named an American Academy for the Advancement of Science fellow is an honor reserved for the nation's top scientists. Utah State University professors Patricia Lambert and Lance Seefeldt are among 702 scientists named as AAAS fellows.

A new report finds Western states grew more jobs at nearly double the rate of the rest of the nation over the last four decades—and the access to high-quality outdoor opportunities on public lands is a factor driving that growth. Ben Alexander with Headwaters Economics says their new “West is Best” report finds almost all of the job growth in Western States has been in the high-wage service industry, and he says Utah is leading the pack.