Utah News - The Salt Lake Tribune

Tensions mount as Salt Lake school board talks tax hike

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:19:03 MDT

Tensions mount as Salt Lake school board talks tax hike

by Ray Parker The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 10:19PM MDT

Budget discussions got so contentious Tuesday night, one Salt Lake City School District board member left the meeting. Tiffany Sandberg asked to be excused after board member Michael Clara continued to ask questions about the budget, yet none of the other members seemed to understand his point. Clara said he wants greater transparency involving district business, especially as he considers a vote on whether to increase taxes. The disagreement during Tuesday’s board meeting was the latest in a ...

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West Jordan City Council to discuss full-time pay for mayor

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:51:48 MDT

West Jordan City Council to discuss full-time pay for mayor

by Cathy Mckitrick The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 09:51PM MDT

On Wednesday, the West Jordan City Council will discuss changing the mayor’s position from part-time to full-time without changing the city’s current form of government. At present, West Jordan functions under the Council-Manager form of government where the city manager serves as the city’s chief executive and the mayor is a voting member and head of the City Council. To change to a Mayor-Council form of government would require placing the issue on the ballot for a public vote. Melissa Johnso...

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Sen. Mike Lee rents house from friend who bought his home

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:38:52 MDT

Sen. Mike Lee rents house from friend who bought his home

by Thomas Burr The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 08:38PM MDT

Washington • Sen. Mike Lee sold his home in a short sale two years ago to a friend and then rented a home nearby from the same man, a neighbor, federal contractor and campaign donor. Lee was forced to forfeit his down payment and sell his sprawling million-dollar Alpine home — at a big loss to his mortgage bank, J.P. Morgan Chase — in 2011 after he was elected to the Senate and couldn’t afford the payments. The buyer, property records show, was Ron McMillan, an author and co-founder of VitalSma...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

WVC approves changes to police review board

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:20:03 MDT

WVC approves changes to police review board

by Pamela Manson The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 08:20PM MDT

West Valley City • A board that reviews complaints against police will begin issuing quarterly and annual reports on its operations under changes approved Tuesday by the City Council. In addition, citizens will be able to comment at the beginning of monthly meetings of the West Valley City Professional Standards Review Board (PSRB), the police will no longer have a role in appointing the body’s members and all seven members will be civilians. The police department had been appointing one of the ...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Salt Lake County set to create ‘mutual commitment registry’

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:14:27 MDT

Salt Lake County set to create ‘mutual commitment registry’

by Mike Gorrell | The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 08:14PM MDT

Salt Lake County is poised to create a “mutual commitment registry” that could help an individual in a nontraditional relationship obtain access to his or her partner’s benefits — including a family pass at county recreation centers. The County Council voted 7-0 Tuesday to give preliminary approval to an ordinance instructing the county clerk to set up a “registry for adult relationships of financial dependence or interdependence.” That registry, said sponsoring Democratic Councilman Arlyn Brad...

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Council says no records for mother of Utah woman shot by West Valley City officers

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:08:18 MDT

Council says no records for mother of Utah woman shot by West Valley City officers

by Janelle Stecklein The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 08:08PM MDT

The Salt Lake County district attorney’s office will not have to release records related to the Danielle Willard officer-involved fatal shooting, the Salt Lake County Council decided Tuesday. The council voted 7-1 to deny a request by Melissa Kennedy’s attorney for records pertaining to the November shooting in West Valley City. Jon Williams, who represents Kennedy, Willard’s mother, argued that the denial of the records was “inappropriate” and that his client has already waited 6 ½ months for a...

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Mormon church gives update on funeral plans for Frances Monson

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:08:18 MDT

Mormon church gives update on funeral plans for Frances Monson

by Bob Mims The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 08:08PM MDT

More details about the upcoming funeral of Frances J. Monson, wife of LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson, were released Tuesday. Officials of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints confirmed that Thursday’s services for Mrs. Monson would be televised live. Stations and web sites planning to carry the services included KSL 5, KSL.com, BYU TV, BYU TV Global, BYU TV International, KBYU, the church’s international satellite system and LDS.org. No public viewing will precede the services,...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Paul Rolly: Separating church, state and Twitter

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:31:14 MDT

Paul Rolly: Separating church, state and Twitter

by Paul Rolly Tribune Columnist

Published May 21, 2013 06:31PM MDT

Utah state government’s Twitter account, @UtahGov, posted on May 12 a link to a spectacular seven-minute video journey through southwestern Utah’s Snow Canyon, produced by Jeremiah Barber. The scenery, accompanied by soft music, creates an enticing tourism lure to that part of the Beehive State. At the end of the video, right after a shot through an opening in a rock formation revealing a star-filled sky, a Book of Mormon scripture, from Jacob 4:9, appears. It reads: “For behold, by the power o...

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Teenage bicyclist struck by a truck in North Logan

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:19:02 MDT

Teenage bicyclist struck by a truck in North Logan

by Michael Mcfall | The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 06:19PM MDT

A 15-year-old boy was flown to the hospital Tuesday with head injuries after he was hit crossing the street on his bike. The boy, who was not immediately identified, was crossing U.S. 91 at 1600 North in North Logan about 3:24 p.m. He’d made it across the southbound lanes and the inside northbound lane, where traffic stopped for him, but a truck in the outside lane struck him, said North Park police Sgt. John Italasano. The man who had been driving said he couldn’t see the teen because of the t...

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IRS lied by omission, Hatch said

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:15:41 MDT

IRS lied by omission, Hatch said

by Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 06:15PM MDT

Washington • Sen. Orrin Hatch slammed top Internal Revenue Service officials Tuesday for failing to tell Congress that the tax agency inappropriately targeted conservative groups when they were directly asked. IRS officials held their ground before the Senate Finance Committee, arguing the actions were a mistake but not politically motivated and while they may not have been forthcoming, they were truthful when responding to letters sent by Hatch, R-Utah, and other senators about accusations tha...

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Study: Salt Lake City has highest rate of gay parents in U.S.

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:01:16 MDT

Study: Salt Lake City has highest rate of gay parents in U.S.

by Lindsay Whitehurst The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 06:01PM MDT

Salt Lake City has a higher percentage of same-sex couples raising children than any other metro area in the country, according to a new report. Though the city doesn’t have the country’s largest gay and lesbian community, Utah’s capital city and its suburbs boast the highest rate — 26 percent — of same-sex couples sharing parenthood, according to an analysis of census data by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Resident Weston Clark, whose adopted son is now 3 years old, said he’...

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Senate panel OKs landmark immigration bill with Hatch on board

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:59:27 MDT

Senate panel OKs landmark immigration bill with Hatch on board

by Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 05:59PM MDT

Washington • A Senate panel passed a sweeping immigration reform bill Tuesday evening, which Sen. Orrin Hatch supported after the committee accepted his changes to a visa program for highly skilled workers. The bill offers the largest re-write of the nation’s immigration laws since the 1980s, spending billions of dollars on border security, creating a 13-year path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants and requiring every employer to check the immigration status of workers. Tuesday’s 13 to 5...

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Josh Powell’s sister recorded conversations with him and father

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:59:01 MDT

Josh Powell’s sister recorded conversations with him and father

by Pamela Manson The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 05:59PM MDT

Within weeks of Susan Powell’s disappearance, West Valley City police got help in their investigation from the missing woman’s sister-in-law, who secretly recorded the focus of their probe. According to documents, Jennifer Graves questioned Josh Powell, her brother, about what he did the night his wife was last seen and asked, “Where did you put her?” She also confronted their father, Steven Powell, that same night — Jan. 18, 2010, six weeks after the disappearance — about him allegedly having ...

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Utah governor: Grand bargain and state taking fed lands ‘complementary’

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:28:55 MDT

Utah governor: Grand bargain and state taking fed lands ‘complementary’

by Thomas Burr The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 05:28PM MDT

Washington • Gov. Gary Herbert backed the idea of a congressional “grand bargain” to solve the decades-old contentious public lands debate in Utah but he still says the federal government should hand over public lands to the state. Herbert said the two viewpoints aren’t contradictory, but are “complementary,” and that the state would still want to preserve some land and open other parts up to oil and gas drilling. “The only difference is that we’re suggesting the title of that property should b...

Utah couple sue law enforcement agencies over break-in

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:43:02 MDT

Utah couple sue law enforcement agencies over break-in

by Michael Mcfall The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 04:43PM MDT

They had the wrong house. A week before Christmas, police officers broke into Christopher and Kim Dettle’s home at 278 E. 700 North in Richfield and forced them to the ground at gunpoint, causing them to allegedly suffer injuries. But when the officers asked about their intended target, Christopher Dettle informed them she lived down the street. “Eventually, one of the officers, after apparently verifying the address, exclaimed‘S---, we are at the wrong house,’ ” according to a federal lawsuit t...

Trib Talk: Is Common Core an upgrade or ‘cookie-cutter’ education?

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:40:34 MDT

Trib Talk: Is Common Core an upgrade or ‘cookie-cutter’ education?

the Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 04:40PM MDT

State Board of Education Chairwoman Debra Roberts on Tuesday urged opponents of Common Core educational standards and new computer testing to “let go of this political posturing and recognize what we can do to transform education here in Utah.” “This is great stuff. Let’s work together to meet the needs of our children,” Roberts said during a live video Trib Talk with Dalane England of the Utah Eagle Forum, moderator Jennifer Napier-Pearce of The Salt Lake Tribune and Tribune education reporter...

Utah duck stamp champ learned to paint in September

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:39:23 MDT

Utah duck stamp champ learned to paint in September

by Matthew Piper The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 04:39PM MDT

Oil painting came as naturally to Sandy’s Zachary Williams as — well, as a duck takes to water. The 18-year-old’s vibrant King Eider outshone 310 other entrants to win the 2013 Utah Junior Duck Stamp Contest in early April, roughly eight months after his introduction to the medium in an Olympus High School AP Studio Art class. “I’ve never painted a bird or even water,” said Williams, who for that matter hadn’t painted much of anything until he began his senior year in September. “I pretty much...

Salt Lake City plume now on Superfund list

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:57:45 MDT

Salt Lake City plume now on Superfund list

by Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 03:57PM MDT

A contaminated groundwater plume on Salt Lake City’s east side is among the latest additions to the Superfund cleanup list. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the PCE plume at 700 South and 1600 East is among nine new sites being prioritized for cleanup nationally. “Sites that pose serious risks to human health and the environment and warrant Superfund attention continue to be identified by EPA and our state partners,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Off...

Veterans push child identity protection in immigration bill

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:56:02 MDT

Veterans push child identity protection in immigration bill

by Derek P. Jensen The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 03:56PM MDT

Bountiful • Too many Utah children fall victim to identity theft at the hands of undocumented immigrants and the contentious immigration reform bill in Congress does nothing to curb the crime. A group of Utah veterans made that claim Tuesday outside an American Legion hall, insisting tens of thousands of Utah minors have had their Social Security numbers usurped and their futures “ruined.” “True immigration reform must not, in fact it can not, ignore this problem,” said Ron Mortensen, a retired ...

Former Utah school secretary gets probation for lying about sex investigation

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:31:22 MDT

Former Utah school secretary gets probation for lying about sex investigation

by Jessica Miller The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 21, 2013 03:31PM MDT

American Fork • Montreia Barney was found not guilty last month of unlawful sexual conduct with a former Mt. Nebo Junior High School student. But the former school finance secretary was sentenced Tuesday for a related conviction: lying to police during their investigation of the sex allegations. Barney, 50, was sentenced to 12 months probation and 120 hours of community service. Fourth District Judge Thomas Low also ordered the woman to pay a $760 fine. Barney declined to address the court Tues...