Utah News - The Salt Lake Tribune

Ogden cop-shooting suspect Matthew Stewart dead in jailhouse suicide

Sat, 25 May 2013 01:01:08 MDT

Ogden cop-shooting suspect Matthew Stewart dead in jailhouse suicide

by Jessica Miller The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 25, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Ogden • Matthew David Stewart had lost hope. He faced the death penalty for the slaying of a police officer and had spent more than a year in the Weber County jail as court proceedings chugged along. But a setback in his case this week proved overwhelming for the 39-year-old man, according to his family. He was found dead in his jail cell Friday, an apparent suicide. Officials said he was unresponsive about 12:50 a.m., hanging from a sheet. “We were supposed to see him this evening,” said siste...

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Tribal dispute questions who controls ‘Indian Country’

Sat, 25 May 2013 01:01:05 MDT

Tribal dispute questions who controls ‘Indian Country’

by Brian Maffly The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 25, 2013 01:01AM MDT

A long-simmering feud between the Ute Tribe and local authorities in eastern Utah has reignited into a flurry of suits and countersuits aimed at settling the vexing question of who holds jurisdiction in “Indian Country.” In papers filed last month in U.S. District Court, the tribe alleges Uintah and Duchesne counties, along with state and municipal officials, are unlawfully questioning and detaining tribal members. By practicing law enforcement in and around the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservati...

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Rejecting Nevada water deal hurts Utah, critics say

Sat, 25 May 2013 01:01:02 MDT

Rejecting Nevada water deal hurts Utah, critics say

by Brian Maffly The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 25, 2013 01:01AM MDT

When Utah Gov. Gary Herbert vetoed a water-sharing agreement forged with Nevada over Snake Valley’s groundwater, he said he was acting in response to locals’ desires and to ensure that water that flows into Utah stays in Utah. But the governor’s move, which was hailed by both West Desert ranchers and environmentalists, could jeopardize Utah’s own aims on the Colorado River, according to critics in the water-development community. By failing to cooperate with an important neighbor, Utah could sac...

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Do Utah’s high school seniors dream of technology, math careers?

Sat, 25 May 2013 01:01:02 MDT

Do Utah’s high school seniors dream of technology, math careers?

by Lisa Schencker and Ray Parker The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 25, 2013 01:01AM MDT

As thousands of Utah high school seniors march across stages to graduate in coming days, they’ll dream of summer, sun and STEM. Or at least Utah leaders hope they’ll think about STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Leaders in Utah and nationwide have been pushing for more education in STEM, saying that’s where the jobs openings lie and what the economy demands. Some believe more Utah students would pursue STEM fields if they knew about the great demand for such...

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New warrants show Powell investigation was focused on Josh, Steve

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:54:02 MDT

New warrants show Powell investigation was focused on Josh, Steve

by Jim Dalrymple Ii The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 10:54PM MDT

Just days after Susan Powell vanished without a trace in 2009, police tracked her husband Josh Powell with an airplane as he tried to evade authorities on his way to a Nevada strip club. Those were among the new details to emerge in hundreds of pages of search warrants released Friday that were part of the investigation into the West Valley City woman’s disappearance. The warrants add to the thousands of documents that became public Monday when police ended their investigation into Powell’s di...

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Peg McEntee: Discrimination lives on in the Boy Scouts

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:09:37 MDT

Peg McEntee: Discrimination lives on in the Boy Scouts

by Peg Mcentee The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 10:09PM MDT

So, you can be out and a Boy Scout. But when you turn 18, you’re out for good. The Boy Scouts of America is being heralded as a forward-thinking organization that, after much deliberation, decided to let openly gay boys join a troop, go to camp, earn merit badges and learn to love campfires and charred hot dogs. But in excluding men of 18 and over, it returns to open discrimination against gay men who are presumed guilty of something — being a normal guy and sexually active — and the BSA is per...

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

Five months after Sandy Hook, Emilie’s sweetness lives on

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:36:42 MDT

Five months after Sandy Hook, Emilie’s sweetness lives on

by Kimball Bennion The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 09:36PM MDT

Emilie Parker was always a planner. As far back as September, she began devising the theme of her seventh birthday party. It was going to be all about Harry Potter. That birthday never happened for Emilie. She and 25 her classmates and teachers were gunned down Dec. 14 in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. But when Emilie’s birthday came on Mother’s Day, May 12, her parents, Ogden natives Robbie and Alissa Parker, took their two youngest daughters to Universal Studios’ Harry ...

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

Police, FBI, arrest bank robber who hit Sandy, SLC

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:56:15 MDT

Police, FBI, arrest bank robber who hit Sandy, SLC

by Jim Dalrymple Ii The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 07:56PM MDT

Police and FBI agents have arrested a man for allegedly robbing banks in Salt Lake City and Sandy earlier this month. Officers took the man into custody Thursday while he was at work, according to FBI spokeswoman Debbie Dujanovic Bertram. The most recent robbery reportedly happened Wednesday, when the man allegedly help up the Zions Bank at 8955 S. 700 East in Sandy. He also allegedly robbed the U.S. Bank at 888 E. 4500 South in Salt Lake City, on May 3. Officers from the Sandy City Police Dep...

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

Salt Lake airport: Man tried to fly with gun strapped to fake leg

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:54:32 MDT

Salt Lake airport: Man tried to fly with gun strapped to fake leg

by Bob Mims The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 07:54PM MDT

For the third time in a week, a passenger has been arrested for trying to carry a loaded firearm onto an airplane at Salt Lake City International Airport — this time hidden next to his artificial leg. Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman with the Transportation Security Administration, said the latest incident came Thursday night when TSA screeners discovered a man with a loaded .22-caliber pistol strapped to his prosthetic leg inside a boot. The firearm was spotted as the man, en route to Charlotte, N...

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

Utah veteran cemetery now has a scattering garden

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:52:26 MDT

Utah veteran cemetery now has a scattering garden

by Kristen Moulton The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 07:52PM MDT

Bluffdale • Families of veterans who want to scatter their ashes but still honor their memories with markers have a new option: the Utah Veterans Cemetery & Memorial Park in Bluffdale. Just in time for Memorial Day, the cemetery has finished a $4.5 million project to expand and upgrade the cemetery, including a hillside landscaped in bark, trees and flowers, where cremated remains can be scattered. Names of those whose ashes are spread there can be etched in panels on a nearby monument. No one ...

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

A first: GOP lawmaker calls for Utah A.G. John Swallow to resign

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:30:14 MDT

A first: GOP lawmaker calls for Utah A.G. John Swallow to resign

by Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 07:30PM MDT

Rep. Paul Ray said Friday that it is time for Attorney General John Swallow to resign for the good of his office and the state. The Clearfield Republican becomes the first lawmaker of either party to publicly call for Swallow’s departure amid a monthslong scandal and a federal and state investigation into alleged wrongdoing. “It’s to the point he needs to step down. He needs to resign,” Ray said. “I think the evidence is overwhelming from the stories we’ve seen and similar stories from different...

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

Stewart is fourth suicide at Weber jail in six months

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:30:14 MDT

Stewart is fourth suicide at Weber jail in six months

by Michael Mcfall The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 07:30PM MDT

Matthew David Stewart is the fourth inmate to apparently kill himself at Weber County Jail in the past six months. “I’ve been practicing in Weber County the last 22, 21 years, and I’ve never seen a rash like this,” said attorney James Retallick, who represented Jeffrey Dean White before the inmate hung himself in November. In December, Ieve Dominguez killed himself, also by hanging. In January, Justin Tilley committed suicide, according to the Standard-Examiner. At the jail’s request, investigat...

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

Timeline: Matthew David Stewart case

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:17:02 MDT

Timeline: Matthew David Stewart case

the Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 07:17PM MDT

Jan. 4, 2012 • Members of the Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force serve an evening “knock and announce” warrant at the Ogden home of Matthew David Stewart. Officer Jared Francom is killed and five other lawmen are injured: Jason VanderWarf, Shawn Grogan, Kasey Burrell, Michael Rounkles and Nate Hutchinson. Jan. 10 • Weber County Attorney announces he will seek death penalty for Stewart. Jan. 14 • Stewart charged with aggravated murder, seven counts of attempted murder and one charge of pro...

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Living History: An Emigration Canyon railroad inspires the Pinecrest Inn

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:50:02 MDT

Living History: An Emigration Canyon railroad inspires the Pinecrest Inn

by Eileen Hallet Stone The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 05:50PM MDT

Emigration Canyon, long associated with the emigrant trail, Donner-Reed Party, the 49ers, Johnston’s Army and the Pony Express, was early on abuzz with commerce, from timber rights and sandstone quarries to the Emigration Canyon Railroad and the Pinecrest Inn. In 1907, during Salt Lake City’s building boom, the Utah pioneer jurist LeGrand Young built a 14-mile narrow-gauge electric railway to better serve the city’s increasing demands for building foundation sandstone (see May 12, 2013, Salt L...

Three students face charges in West Valley school food fight

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:47:39 MDT

Three students face charges in West Valley school food fight

by Bob Mims The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 05:47PM MDT

Three students are facing charges ranging from assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest to disorderly conduct after allegedly igniting a food fight involving hundreds of kids at West Valley City’s West Lake Junior High School. West Valley City police Lt. Rick McLenon confirmed Friday that the three students were arrested during the Thursday afternoon cafeteria free-for-all. One officer sustained a minor ankle injury while helping take one of the resisting students into custody. McLeon s...

Forest Service overhauls fees at Utah’s Mirror Lake, American Fork

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:44:39 MDT

Forest Service overhauls fees at Utah’s Mirror Lake, American Fork

by Brian Maffly The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 05:44PM MDT

The U.S. Forest Service has eliminated long-standing fee areas on the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway and American Fork-Alpine Loop after a review found it may not be appropriate to charge everyone visiting these popular mountain corridors an hour from Salt Lake City. Under a plan released Friday by the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, land managers propose a new system requiring fees only at specific recreational destinations, such as Cascade Springs and Mirror Lake’s fishing site and picnic area....

Utah awarded $2.5 million HUD grant

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:37:21 MDT

Utah awarded $2.5 million HUD grant

by Cathy Mckitrick The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 05:37PM MDT

Within its six-state region, Utah was the lone recipient of a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant to target lead and other health hazards in low-income housing. Salt Lake County Housing Manager Randy Jepperson, who applied for the grant, said he shouted out in jubilation Thursday when he received the call from Ruth Ann Norton, executive director of the national Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, regarding Utah’s $2.5 million award. “We went up against some of the biggest c...

Two dead in RV crash on southern Utah’s I-15

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:13:17 MDT

Two dead in RV crash on southern Utah’s I-15

by Bob Mims and Donald W. Meyers The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 05:13PM MDT

In a deadly start to the Memorial Day weekend, two people were killed and eight injured when their motor home crashed through a fence line and into a residential area off Interstate 15 in southern Utah. Utah Highway Patrol troopers believe a blown right front tire may have caused the vehicle to veer off the right side of southbound I-15, 7 miles north of the Utah-Arizona state line about 5:50 a.m. Friday. The RV, which also was hauling a Jeep, crossed a frontage road, plowed through a cinder b...

Utah Pride Festival drops blogger over Mormon comments

Fri, 24 May 2013 16:14:18 MDT

Utah Pride Festival drops blogger over Mormon comments

by Ray Parker The Salt Lake Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 04:14PM MDT

Joe Jervis writes an award-winning blog from Manhattan called Joe.My.God., which chronicles the ups and downs of the gay-rights movement. And given his cred with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Jervis seemed like a no-brainer to participate in next weekend’s Utah Pride Festival as one of its grand marshals. But then he got dropped like a political hot potato. In the past seven years, Jervis said he has written about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Mormo...

Roy teacher needs Facebook votes to win $5K for student lab

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:56:25 MDT

Roy teacher needs Facebook votes to win $5K for student lab

by Carol Lindsay Special To The Tribune

Published May 24, 2013 03:56PM MDT

Roy • If Maggie Huddleston wins a national award of $5,000 for her science lab, she knows one thing she won’t spend the money on — textbooks. The integrated science teacher at Sand Ridge Junior High doesn’t think books are the best way to teach science. Instead, she likes to be outside doing real-life experiments. She enjoys her job and her students know it. “Oh my gosh I love science! We do lots of hands-on stuff. I’m kind of crazy, I’m not afraid to sing, dance and do cheers; we like to be i...