SERVICE - The Salt Lake Tribune

FBI searches Spokane apartment in ricin letter case

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:57:16 MDT

FBI searches Spokane apartment in ricin letter case

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS The Associated Press

Updated May 18, 2013 03:57PM MDT

Spokane, Wash. • Authorities in hazardous materials suits searched a downtown Spokane apartment Saturday, investigating the recent discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin. Few details have been released in the case, and no arrests have been made. Federal investigators have been searching for the person who sent the letters, which were postmarked Tuesday in Spokane. The letters were addressed to the downtown post office and the adjacent federal building, but authorities ...

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Comment sought on green waste recycling plan

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:40:50 MDT

Comment sought on green waste recycling plan

By Mike Gorrell The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 17, 2013 10:40PM 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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Texas tornado devastation includes Habitat homes

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:38:30 MDT

Texas tornado devastation includes Habitat homes

By ANGELA K. BROWN and JAMIE STENGLE The Associated Press

Updated May 16, 2013 07:38PM MDT

Granbury, Texas • Habitat for Humanity spent years in a North Texas subdivision, helping build many of the 110 homes in the low-income area. But its work was largely undone during an outbreak of 13 tornadoes Wednesday night that killed six people and injured dozens. On Thursday, authorities combed through debris in Granbury, while residents awaited the chance to see what was left of their homes. Witnesses described the two badly hit neighborhoods as unrecognizable, with homes ripped from founda...

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For the U.S. military, a baffling rise in suicides

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:15:10 MDT

For the U.S. military, a baffling rise in suicides

By JAMES DAO and ANDREW W. LEHREN The New York Times

Updated May 15, 2013 08:15PM MDT

After Spc. Freddy Hook, a medic with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, killed himself in 2010, the trail of possible causes seemed long. He had used illegal drugs: Was it the demons of addiction? His rocky relationship with his fiancee? A wrenching deployment to earthquake-ravaged Haiti or the prospect of an impending tour in Afghanistan? As with most of suicides plaguing the military today, no one will know for sure. “There are so many factors,” said his mother, Theresa Taylor, of Lafayette, L...

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

Salt Lake Postal Service customers savvy about mail technology

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:08:06 MDT

Salt Lake Postal Service customers savvy about mail technology

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 14, 2013 07:08PM MDT

A lot of Utahns are perfectly happy to bypass the post office when they want to buy stamps or take other steps to use the mail. Almost 64 percent of all postal retail sales in the Salt Lake District of the Postal Service now take place other than a post office retail counter, according to the U.S. Postal Service. The Salt Lake District includes all of Utah and southern Idaho. The percentage puts the district at No. 1 in the U.S., ahead of Santa Ana, Calif.; Los Angeles; the Triboro district of N...

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Letting go of the Old West

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:01:04 MDT

Letting go of the Old West

By Michael dax

Updated May 15, 2013 01:01AM MDT

Frederick Jackson Turner’s classic 1893 essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” argued that the frontier experience — the opportunity for unlimited expansion into “uninhabited” lands — shaped the country’s entrepreneurial spirit. Turner’s essay took on added significance because three years earlier, the Census Bureau had declared the frontier closed. The line that separated “civilized” from “uncivilized” was gone. Over the next few decades, settlers filled in the remaining...

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

Tooele County approves changes to retirement benefits

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:38:23 MDT

Tooele County approves changes to retirement benefits

By Cathy McKitrick The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 14, 2013 11:38PM MDT

Tooele • With cash flow evaporating in this sprawling county’s budget, Tooele County commissioners voted Tuesday to change the structure of retiree medical benefits. Speaking to a packed house, Commissioner Shawn Milne said they heard constituent concerns expressed two weeks ago and adjusted accordingly. “What we were proposing at that time was that all retirees be obligated to pay for 25 percent of their medical coverage, [and] ceasing coverage on dental and life insurance,” Milne said, “and ...

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

How to complain effectively when products go bad

Sun, 12 May 2013 17:59:47 MDT

How to complain effectively when products go bad

By Claudia Buck The Sacramento Bee

Updated May 12, 2013 05:59PM MDT

Got a gripe? Whether it’s a faulty cellphone, a cranky washing machine or a designer dress that falls apart, inevitably something goes wrong with something you’ve bought. What do you do? Too many of us just give up or don’t bother trying to get the store or company to resolve the problem. “We live in a buck-up-and-take-it society,” said Anthony Giorgianni, associate finance editor for Consumer Reports magazine. “We’re not going to plead for anything; we’re just going to take it. We have a subcon...

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

Business news briefs

Fri, 10 May 2013 21:41:11 MDT

Business news briefs

staff and news services

Updated May 10, 2013 09:41PM MDT

Two attorneys set up new firm Attorneys David York and Andrew Howell have formed the firm of York Howell LLC, with offices at 6405 S. 3000 East, Suite 150 in Cottonwood Heights. They also are licensed to practice in Texas, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska and New York, and will focus on tax and estate planning, among other areas. Both were previously with Callister Nebeker & McCullough. Burrito franchise coming to Utah Tavistock Restaurants has signed on a local franchisee for its fast-casua...

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

UTA board: Are transit cops just well-armed customer service?

Thu, 09 May 2013 06:18:20 MDT

UTA board: Are transit cops just well-armed customer service?

By Lee Davidson The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 9, 2013 06:18AM MDT

Several Utah Transit Authority board members worry that its police force essentially may be an expensive, well-armed customer service agency, or fare enforcement squad. So they said Wednesday that it may make sense to have police focus on the serious enforcement that only they can perform, and have less-expensive workers handle such things as helping customers navigate its system. Or it may make sense to save money by disbanding its force to contract with others for essential policing. That led ...

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

Early-retirement plan may limit expected layoffs at Kennecott

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:17:23 MDT

Early-retirement plan may limit expected layoffs at Kennecott

By Paul Beebe The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 8, 2013 11:17PM MDT

Unions representing workers at Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Mine agreed Wednesday on an optional early-retirement package that could cut the number of layoffs expected later this month by up to 275 employees. That’s the number of workers whose ages and years of service qualify them for the package, said Wayne Holland, chairman of the bargaining committee for four unions represented at the mine, where a massive landslide occurred last month. The package is patterned after a pension plan...

Feds add bigger, faster planes to wildfire fleet

Mon, 06 May 2013 22:48:36 MDT

Feds add bigger, faster planes to wildfire fleet

By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press

Updated May 6, 2013 10:48PM MDT

Grants Pass, Ore. • As the wildfire season ramps up across the West, the U.S. Forest Service is adding bigger, faster planes to its fleet to fight the fires. The forest service announced Monday that it has selected contractors to provide seven air tankers that fly faster and drop a larger payload of fire retardant than other planes in its firefighting fleet. The agency will spend nearly $160 million over five years for access to several models of aircraft, including a converted DC-10 jumbo jet,...

Letter carriers’ food drive set for May 11

Mon, 06 May 2013 09:19:02 MDT

Letter carriers’ food drive set for May 11

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated May 6, 2013 09:19AM MDT

The Postal Service and its letter carriers will hold their annual food drive May 11, according to a news release. Utahns are encouraged to participate by placing nonperishable food items in bags and leaving them by their mailboxes before mail delivery that day. All food collected will go to community food banks and pantries in the state. This is the 21st year for the Postal Service’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, which has collected more than 1 billion pounds of food since its inception, the rele...

7 American service members killed in Afghanistan

Sat, 04 May 2013 14:56:02 MDT

7 American service members killed in Afghanistan

By PATRICK QUINN and RAHIM FAIEZ The Associated Press

Updated May 4, 2013 02:56PM MDT

Kabul, Afghanistan • Seven U.S. service members were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest days for Americans in Afghanistan in recent months, as the Taliban continued attacks against foreign troops as part of their spring offensive. The renewed violence came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged at a news conference that regular payments his government has received from the CIA for more than a decade would continue. Karzai also said that talks on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral security ag...

Word of warning

Sat, 04 May 2013 01:01:07 MDT

Word of warning

Updated May 4, 2013 01:01AM MDT

It is quite understandable why the readership of The Tribune is declining — very poor delivery service. During the past month or two, the paper has regularly, frequently, and repeatedly been over an hour late. Telephone calls to an annoying and repetitive system bring change, for a day or two, if we are lucky. Notifying the manager appears to be useless. It is starting to feel like the payment for The Tribune is just a donation to a charity, not a payment for expected service. That will not c...