Utah News

Do criminal defendants have a right to decide whether a judge or jury will weigh the evidence against them at a trial? The Utah Supreme Court will hear arguments related to that question Tuesday in the case of a middle-school cafeteria worker accused of having sex with a 16-year-old boy. Jamie Lynn Greenwood, 43, was charged in March 2010 in 3rd District Court with felony counts of rape, forcible sodomy and forcible sexual abuse. Greenwood was set to go to trial by jury in August 2010 when she ...

The fate of a bill to ban 16- and 17-year-old drivers from using cell phones while behind the wheel remains unclear as it moves to a final vote later this week. Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, is proposing to prohibit the phone use, arguing that young drivers are more likely to phone while driving and more likely to endanger themselves and others on the roads. ?This bill has been very narrowly tailored and it?s addressing a problem that specifically is affecting young individuals,? Romero sa...

Drivers on southbound and northbound Interstate 15 are being detoured on to State Road 9 and State Road 17 due to a police standoff. Authorities closed the interstate from mile post 16 to mile post 27 about noon Monday. Utah Highway Patrol reported that about 11 a.m. a car pursuit started on State Road 17 near the Toquerville cemetery when the driver failed to yield. The pursuit went through Hurricane then entered northbound I-15 then crossed over to southbound lanes. Spikes set up by authoritie...

Seven current Utah congressional candidates are running for districts where they do not live, prompting Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, to try to stop that growing practice. ?They should have to run in their own districts, just like every other type of candidate. I?m tired of Congress playing by different rules.... They are just shopping for a district,? he said. So he introduced HB439 in the Legislature to require them to live in their districts. So far the bill has only a title with no text, in p...

It?s a seemingly benign policy fix. But a bill that would require state agencies to stop using nine-digit numbers to identify people ? a switch intended to prevent misuse of Social Security numbers ? was estimated to cost $10 million and caused a ?buzz saw? of controversy, says its sponsor, Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan. On Monday, he pitched a watered-down version instead. Harper says HB19 was sparked by stories in The Salt Lake Tribune revealing the Utah Department of Health?s decades-long...

A 42-year-old Washington County man died from injuries suffered in a crash, authorities said Monday. Craig V. Thygerson was eastbound on State Road 59 near Apple Valley about 3:20 p.m. Friday when his 1994 Geo Prizm crossed the center line into oncoming traffic in the westbound lane, the Utah Highway Patrol reported in a news release. The Geo hit a FedEx van nearly head-on before going off the shoulder and catching fire, UHP said. Thygerson was extricated from his car and taken to Dixie Regional...

The Utah Senate approved legislation Monday to overhaul the state boards that oversee clean air, water and radioactive waste. Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, said the bill has been revised to add a representative from an environmental group to each board. The other members on the board would be industry representatives or government officials. ?Changes have been made to involve the environmental community and they have a voice on each board,? Dayton said. SB21, reduces the membership of all five o...

Nighttime sky gazers looking for shooting stars sometimes catch a glimpse of a slower, brighter object streaking across the sky. It?s usually not a meteor, but rather a bolt or a paint chip that is part of the tons of debris floating in Earth?s orbit, posing real dangers to space exploration. A new film opening at Clark Planetarium on Friday called Space Junk 3D highlights some of those risks. ?What?s the history of pioneers working through a new frontier? They leave behind stuff, it?s what arch...

The same sugary drinks and sweets that can make children fat are also giving them cavities. A report released Monday shows more than half of Utah children ages 6 to 9 have had tooth decay, which can lead to pain, infection, problems with eating and difficulty learning. Even worse, the Utah Department of Health estimates that 2,655 children attended school with pain or infection from extensive decay that required emergency or urgent dental care. Brushing and flossing and regularly seeing a denti...

Two men were arrested Monday morning on suspicion of stealing spools of wire valued at $1,500. Salt Lake City Police were called to the parking lot of Wasatch Electric, 2729 W. Andrew Ave., at 4:39 a.m. on a report of a suspicious vehicle. Officers found two men inside a car with two spools of wire by their vehicle. Police said the business? fence had been cut and the spools of wire were identified as belonging to Wasatch Electric. The men were booked on suspicion of theft and trespass.

Salt Lake City Police officers used a Taser on a mentally ill man Friday night. The man, 38, removed his clothing and began directing traffic near 1313 W. California Ave., according to Det. Mike Hamideh. Arriving officers attempted to escort him away from the roadway, but he pulled away from them and took a fighting stance, Hamideh said. The man was speaking incoherently and was not responding to officers? commands. They used pepper spray on him, but it was ineffective. One of the officers then ...

Salt Lake City Police are investigating vandalism that damaged two patrol cars. Sometime Saturday night someone spray painted the letter ?TCG? on two patrol cars at two different addresses. The letters ?BK? also were painted on the right front fenders of the cars, police said.

A House committee found a bill ? lauded by the news media, but attacked by cities and towns ? too hot to handle on Monday. It attempts to close a loophole in the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act. The House Government Operations Committee debated HB111 for more than an hour, and then adjourned without taking a motion to pass or kill it. Rep. Craig Frank, R-Pleasant Grove, sponsor of HB111, said some governmental bodies try to skirt the open meetings law by appointing subcommittees ? which then m...

Students and staff were evacuated because of a fire Monday at Northridge High School in Layton. The fire was reported to have been started in a boys bathroom after someone set a toilet paper roll on fire, Davis School District spokeswoman Shauna Lund said. The fire was contained to the bathroom, which sustained some smoke damage. Students were evacuated from the building for about 90 minutes while fire crews ventilated the smoke, Lund said. rorellana@sltrib.com Twitter:@RoxanaOre

Graham, Wash. ? A beleaguered Josh Powell ? under suspicion for the 2009 disappearance of his wife and fighting an uphill battle for custody of his two young boys ? killed himself and his sons on Sunday by setting fire to his Washington state home, officials said. Calling it a ?double murder/suicide,? authorities said late Sunday the blaze that leveled Powell?s Graham home was ?very well-planned? and was fueled by accelerants spread throughout the residence. ?Everything that happened was inten...

Husband. Antisocial. Father. Awkward. Person of Interest. Erratic. Loving. Controlling. Abusive. All are words that have been used to describe Josh Powell, 36, but there is only one that will forever be associated with his name. Murderer. Powell took his own life, and that of his two sons, Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, when he set his Washington state home on fire with all three inside Sunday afternoon. Not only did he leave a gaping hole in the lives of those who knew and loved his sons, but he m...

The bodies of two Colorado men have been found in a wrecked Jeep in a remote canyon of Carbon County about a week after they were reported missing. According to a release by friends and family, Brian Axe and Mark Widegren, both 28, of Grand Junction, Colo., apparently died when their Jeep Grand Cherokee crashed in the Cottonwood Canyon area of Nine Mile Canyon in Carbon County. Crews had been searching for the two natural gas pipeline construction workers for several days, according to the news ...

Puyallup, Wash. ? As Washington state authorities continued investigating a Sunday house fire in Graham started by Josh Powell that killed him and his two young sons, the boys? grandparents said the child protection system needs to change. Chuck and Judy Cox ? who have temporary custody of the boys ? said Monday that in light of recent events Josh Powell?s court-ordered supervised visits with his sons, 7-year-old Charlie and 5-year-old Braden should have been suspended. Powell found out Feb. 1 t...

Cheyenne Miller never knew Susan Cox Powell or her two young sons, Charlie and Braden. But like thousands in Utah, she followed the case of the woman missing since 2009. It struck a nerve for Miller ? who watched a friend lose her own children to a spouse who, like Josh Powell, killed his own kids during a bitter custody dispute. When Miller learned of Josh Powell?s disturbing suicide and double murder Sunday, she organized a community vigil to share her grief with others. The Powell case made ...

For nearly six weeks this fall, they crisscrossed the Utah-Idaho border, terrorizing strangers in their paths. The thieves left one Logan woman cowering in her bed, ambushing and then robbing her while she had been asleep. One Hyrum man was home when they broke in to steal only $23. A Preston, Idaho, man was chowing on a chicken leg when they broke into his vehicle and stole his two rifles and two shotguns. At first glance, the sudden spike in property crimes in both states may appear unrelate...