US Woman Gored by Bison in Same Park Where Date Was Also Attacked
A U.S. man who was gored by a bison at a park in June thought it safe to take his date back to the scene of the crime — only for her to also be attacked.
Read moreUtah
Judge Rejects Bid to Dismiss Bears Ears Monument Lawsuit
Legal challenges to the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to downsize and develop on Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments will move forward, a judge has ruled, handing environmental and tribal groups their first victory in the case.
Read moreCompany Tied to Mormon Sect Denies Affiliation With Troubled Predecessor
A Utah company asked a 10th Circuit panel Wednesday to reject a judge’s finding that it is a successor to Paragon Contractors, a company with numerous Department of Labor violations and ties to Mormon sect leader Warren Jeffs.
Read moreTour Bus Crash Near National Park in Utah Kills 4
A tour bus carrying Chinese-speaking tourists crashed near a national park in southern Utah, killing at least four people and critically injuring up to 15 others, authorities said Friday.
Read moreOil & Gas
Living Rivers et al. sued the Utah Division of Lands and Minerals and the U.S. Department of the Interior in federal court, claiming they offered 130 oil and gas leases on 130,000 acres of public lands on the Colorado Plateau without analyzing greenhouse gas and climate change impacts.
Read moreReal Estate Scam
The Utah Division of Consumer Protection claims Troy Stevens dba Real Estate Workshop; Prosperity International fdba Flip and Build Wealth fdba Real Estate Workshop, et al. raised $40 million through bait-and-switch real estate “workshops,” in federal court.
Read moreEmissions Cheating
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment claims 4 Wheel Drive Hardware, Transamerican Auto Parts, United Web Sales, 4 Wheel Parts, et al. sell and install auto parts that defeat vehicle emission control devices, “increasing the discharge of harmful pollutants in a region already plagued by unhealthy air,” in federal court.
Read moreUtah Wildfire Destroys Homes, Prompts Hundreds to Evacuate
Officials say a wildfire has burned three homes, heavily damaged five more and prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people in the Salt Lake City suburb of Bountiful.
Read moreCourt Has No Role in Woman’s Beef With Religion, Mormon Church Says
Is the Book of Mormon the word of God? That is not a question for an American court of law to answer, attorneys for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday in a motion to dismiss a federal conspiracy lawsuit against the church.
Read moreNinth Circuit Upholds Verdict Against Sect-Run Arizona Town
An Arizona town that let a Mormon sect run the government deprived non-church members of their constitutional rights, a Ninth Circuit panel held Monday, affirming a federal judge’s 2016 finding.
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Feds Issue Final Plan for Shrunken National Monument
The federal government’s final management plan for lands in and around a Utah national monument that President Trump downsized does not include many new protections for the cliffs, canyons, waterfalls and arches there, but does include a few more safeguards than were in a proposal issued last year.
Read moreFired Policeman Can’t Sue Department After Settlement
A former Utah police officer who shot and killed a woman in her car cannot resue the city that fired him — after it rehired him and settled — the 10th Circuit affirmed Tuesday.
Read moreUtah High Court OKs Legislative Gut of Voter-Approved Pot Law
The Utah Supreme Court dismissed a petition Wednesday brought by voters against the Utah Legislature fighting a last-minute law passed in a special session to replace a voter-approved medical marijuana initiative.
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Surrogacy for Gay Couples
The Utah Supreme Court ruled that part of a state law that prohibits same-sex couples from entering into “gestational agreements” to have a woman act as their surrogate is unconstitutional, because other childless, married couples are allowed to enter into such agreements when they cannot have children themselves.
Read moreHiking and Mining Battle for Supremacy at Shrunken National Monument
Rabbitbrush bloomed in abundance, casting a soft yellow sheen that extended out from both sides of the desert roadway. To the north, the carpet of wildflowers was broken only by distant hills along the horizon that wall in the Paria River Valley. The super bloom gave testament to the glut of precipitation that fell in Utah’s high desert this past winter.
Read moreFederal Lands
The Natural Resources Defense Council claims in a federal complaint that endangered cacti, sensitive shale soils and riparian areas are at risk after the Interior Department lifted a 12-year-old closure of off-highway vehicle travel on 5,400 acres in the Factory Butte area of Utah, without environmental review.
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Environmentalists Shred Plans to Develop Shrunken Bears Ears Monument
Democrats and environmentalists vilified a Trump administration plan announced Friday to open up Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument to development in areas that once enjoyed protection.
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10th Circuit Upholds New Districts in Navajo Voting Rights Case
The 10th Circuit Tuesday approved new school board and county commission election districts for Utah’s geographically largest county, finding that a lower court properly sided with the Navajo Nation, which claimed that the old districts were unconstitutional.
Read moreEnergy
Setting aside interim rates imposed by the Public Service Commission of Utah, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that the state lacks this authority and did so without substantial evidence that the related costs were prudently incurred or just and reasonable.
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