PUBLIC - The Salt Lake Tribune

Water at risk

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Water at risk

Updated May 21, 2013 01:01AM MDT

With a proposed new set of rules, the federal Bureau of Land Management took a step toward better regulation of energy industries that use fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, to extract fossil fuels on public lands and Native American tribal lands. But the regulations are too lax to give much comfort to those who fear fracking is permanently poisoning land and water supplies, endangering wildlife and the public. Each well uses between 2 million and 5 million gallons of fresh water that is perma...

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Streetcar apathy

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Streetcar apathy

Updated May 21, 2013 01:01AM MDT

In “The public and SLC projects” (Opinion, May 14), Salt Lake City Councilman Charlie Luke says the city government’s failure to engage the public caused the outcry about the streetcar proposal. That is incorrect. For almost two years, Salt Lake City and its consultants diligently sought public comment on the streetcar route. But, paraphrasing Yogi Berra, if the people don’t want to participate, nobody’s gonna stop ’em. Limited participation was not government’s fault; it was the public’s choice...

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Millard School District, taxpayers group, to provide more evidence in open-meetings case

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:41:06 MDT

Millard School District, taxpayers group, to provide more evidence in open-meetings case

By Donald W. Meyers The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 20, 2013 08:41PM MDT

Fillmore • Two high school gymnasiums have been spared from demolition, at least until a judge decides whether Millard County school officials broke open-meetings law. Fourth District Judge James Brady continued an emergency restraining order Monday barring the Millard County School District from demolishing the gyms at Delta and Millard high schools. He also gave the district and Millard County Taxpayers for Responsible Government time to provide evidence before he rules on issuing a temporary...

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Senate panel supports Hatch’s pot farming penalties

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:10:02 MDT

Senate panel supports Hatch’s pot farming penalties

By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 20, 2013 04:10PM MDT

Washington • The Senate’s immigration bill now includes tougher criminal penalties for growing marijuana on public lands after the Judiciary Committee unanimously accepted an amendment offered by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on Monday. The new criminal penalties largely target Mexican cartels that for years have set up one-season marijuana farms on Forest Service and BLM land throughout the western United States, including throughout southern Utah. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, explained the amendment as ...

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

Half of U.S. public pools contaminated by feces

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:37:38 MDT

Half of U.S. public pools contaminated by feces

By Anna Edney Bloomberg News

Updated May 20, 2013 10:37AM MDT

WASHINGTON • Human feces taints more than half of public swimming pools, a finding U.S. health officials are using to urge better personal hygiene as the summer months approach. E. coli, which indicates the presence of fecal matter, was detected in 58 percent of samples taken from pool filters by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to data released Thursday by the Atlanta-based agency. Pools frequented mostly by children were more likely to test positive for E. coli, w...

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

Hatch has plan to attack public-lands pot farms

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:24:45 MDT

Hatch has plan to attack public-lands pot farms

By Matt Canham The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 19, 2013 04:24PM MDT

Washington • Somewhere in the remote wilderness of southern Utah on land controlled by the federal government, members of a Mexican cartel are putting new marijuana plants in the earth in hopes of reaping a multimillion dollar harvest this fall. And it eats at the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Sue Thomas. “They have taken over our public lands. They have no stake in Utah,” she said. “They are here to use and abuse our public lands for their own profit,” she said. These illegal flash farms a...

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Short takes on the news

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:32:41 MDT

Short takes on the news

Updated May 18, 2013 10:32AM MDT

The real world • The latest boogeyman striking fear and loathing in the hearts of Utah conservative Republicans is the Common Core educational standards. According to news reports, they were planning to consider a resolution at today’s party convention to oppose using the standards in Utah public schools. This is ridiculous. Utah’s education officials, along with those in most other states, adopted the standards in 2010 in a reasonable and good-faith effort to better prepare students for college...

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Interim Southern Utah U. president named, public meetings set

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:39:28 MDT

Interim Southern Utah U. president named, public meetings set

By Lindsay Whitehurst The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 19, 2013 05:39PM MDT

A former state higher education boss will serve as interim president at Southern Utah University during the search to replace Michael Benson, who is leaving to become president of Eastern Kentucky University. Richard Kendell, who takes over July 8, served as Utah’s commissioner of higher education for five years before retiring in 2007. Prior to that, he was deputy of public education under Gov. Michael Leavitt and superintendent of the Davis County school district. Kendell holds a bachelor’s d...

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Comment sought on green waste recycling plan

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:57:52 MDT

Comment sought on green waste recycling plan

By Mike Gorrell The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 20, 2013 12:57PM MDT

Curbside green-waste recycling is scheduled to begin next year on a subscription basis in Salt Lake Valley communities served by the Wasatch Front Waste and Recycling District. But before the plan is finalized, the district’s board wants to hear what customers have to say about that idea and three other proposals, including one that lets people rent bulk waste disposal trailers again, albeit for a higher fee. A public hearing on those matters will be held at 6 p.m. Monday at district offices in ...

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

Public input invited on Utah tar sands mining proposal

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:44:47 MDT

Public input invited on Utah tar sands mining proposal

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 16, 2013 05:44PM MDT

The Bureau of Land Management is inviting public comment on an environmental assessment released this week concerning a proposal to lease about 2,100 acres in Uintah County for a tar sands mining operation. MCW Energy Group has said it expects to produce 250 barrels a day at the Asphalt Ridge site, a few miles south of Vernal, under an agreement with Temple Mountain Energy Inc., which will supply the ore. Of the total lease acreage, the BLM report anticipates that 540 acres on the east side of A...

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Malnourished horses to be sold at public auction in Utah County

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:22:38 MDT

Malnourished horses to be sold at public auction in Utah County

By Jessica Miller The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 15, 2013 11:22PM MDT

A number of horses found sick and malnourished on a Spanish Fork ranch in February will be sold at a public auction next week. Fourth District Judge Fred Howard has ruled that the Utah County Sheriff’s Office can auction off the 70-80 horses seized from Trudy Childs, 59, and her son Rory Childs, 31. The two have each been charged with 20 counts of cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor, after Utah County Sheriff’s deputies found more than 100 horses on four different pastures that were mal...

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Boomers need immigrants

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Boomers need immigrants

By XXXXXX The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 15, 2013 01:01AM MDT

The Senate Judiciary Committee took up comprehensive immigration reform late last week. And, as expected, opponents are already rushing to derail it, arguing that any bill that legalizes the vast majority of undocumented immigrants in the United States will cost billions of dollars and place an unfair burden on taxpayers. Such arguments are merely scare tactics. There’s no doubt that granting citizenship to millions of immigrants 13 years from now, as the Senate bill would, will carry a cost, b...

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Jordan Valley groundwater treatment permit up for public review

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:22:38 MDT

Jordan Valley groundwater treatment permit up for public review

By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 15, 2013 11:22PM MDT

The Utah Division of Water Quality has completed an in-depth, multi-year review of the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District plan to clean up contaminated groundwater in southwest Salt Lake County and is asking the public to weigh in on the proposed permit. The Jordan Valley Southwest Groundwater Treatment Plant has worked for years on its plans to remove and treat groundwater tainted by historic mining in the southwestern Salt Lake Valley The division is poised to sign off on those plans no...

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Millard County residents plea with school board to keep gyms

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:38:24 MDT

Millard County residents plea with school board to keep gyms

By DJ Summers | The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 14, 2013 11:38PM MDT

Delta • In this rural Utah town, there isn’t a Gold’s Gym on every corner. Kids work out at the school or county gym, building roads toward athletic scholarships or away from grim realities. “A lot of these kids don’t come from great homes,” said Luke Beckstrom, a volunteer junior high wrestling coach. “I have kids come to meets with no food. For some of them, programs like this are the only thing going to keep them out of jail.” The fear of losing the gyms led community activists to a file law...

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Amid controversy, West Valley City mayoral race heats up

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:23:23 MDT

Amid controversy, West Valley City mayoral race heats up

By cathy mckitrick The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 14, 2013 08:23AM MDT

West Valley City • Surrounded by family and friends at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, Margaret Peterson officially kicked off her campaign Monday for mayor of this sprawling and diverse west-side city. Peterson, 66, served as an at-large City Council member for 17 years, choosing not to seek a sixth term in 2007. However, recent controversies drew her back into the fray. “My roots run deep here,” Peterson said of the city she’s called home for 45 years. Drawing her grandchildren around h...

U. president’s salary climbs in national ranking

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:51:08 MDT

U. president’s salary climbs in national ranking

By Lindsay Whitehurst The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 14, 2013 10:51AM MDT

Salary sweeteners designed to keep David Pershing in the University of Utah president’s chair pushed his compensation to 44th in the country last year, a jump for the U. in a national ranking of public institutions released by the Chronicle of Higher Education on Monday. Pershing’s compensation totaled just over $624,000 in fiscal 2012, but he didn’t receive it all immediately. Instead, he’ll get $175,000 of that total paid from an endowment five years into his tenure, said Cathy Anderson, assoc...

The public and SLC projects

Tue, 14 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

The public and SLC projects

By charlie luke

Updated May 14, 2013 01:01AM MDT

A week ago, the Salt Lake City Council voted 4-3 to extend the Sugar House Streetcar north along 1100 East to 1700 South. I was one of three votes in the minority. I believe an extension east up 2100 South made more sense. But last Tuesday I put that preference aside and made a motion to extend the streetcar only from its current endpoint near McClellan Street, up Sugarmont to Highland Drive (about 1125 East and 2250 South), and to stop there until the citywide transportation plan is complete. I...

Utah State Records Committee looking to fill vacancy for public member

Mon, 13 May 2013 20:57:02 MDT

Utah State Records Committee looking to fill vacancy for public member

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 13, 2013 08:57PM MDT

Do you have an interest in open government? The Utah State Records Committee is looking for you. The committee is seeking applications from people interested in filling the vacancy for a second public member on the seven-member body. The committee hears appeals of records requests, as well as establishes records retention policies. The board includes representatives of local government, news media, private business, the governor’s office and the public. The current opening was created when the U...

Collins: Legislatures — Is yours more corrupt than mine?

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:35:02 MDT

Collins: Legislatures — Is yours more corrupt than mine?

By GAIL COLLINS The New York Times

Updated May 13, 2013 11:35AM MDT

Let’s talk about what makes a delinquent state legislature. I know it’s been on your mind. The newest political trend in New York involves corrupt state legislators attempting to curry favor with federal prosecutors by wearing wires to work. Perhaps there have been worse fads. There was a time, not long ago, when Assembly members could punch in early in the day, leave to play golf and still be recorded as voting “yes” on every single bill that hit the floor. Officials recently revealed that a 74...

Police asking public’s help in locating missing Millcreek man

Sun, 12 May 2013 14:07:56 MDT

Police asking public’s help in locating missing Millcreek man

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 12, 2013 02:07PM MDT

Unified Police are asking the public’s help in locating a 69-year-old Millcreek area man with Alzheimer’s disease, who has been missing since 6:30 a.m. Saturday. Derald Nielson, who lives near 1350 East and 3600 South, was last seen by a neighbor walking his dog. UPD Lt. Justin Hoyal said the dog returned home without Nielson. Nielson’s wife went to check on him at noon and he was not at home. She called UPD at about 3:00 p.m. Nielson is described as Caucasian who is 6 feet tall, 185 pounds, wit...