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ANCIENT ROCK TOPPLED
Ex-Scout leaders plead guilty to rock toppling
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Two former Boy Scout leaders accused of toppling a 170 million-year-old rock formation in Utah last year have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges.
Glenn Taylor and David Hall pleaded guilty on Tuesday afternoon in Utah's Seventh District Court in Castle Dale.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports the men were sentenced to probation. If they meet its requirements, the offenses will later be removed from their records.
A video shot by Hall in October and posted on YouTube shows Taylor dislodging a mushroom-shaped sandstone pillar at Utah's Goblin Valley State Park.
They claimed it might have been ready to fall and kill a visitor. Both were later stripped of their Boy Scout positions.
Parks officials have said the rock formation had been standing for much of human history, if not longer.
4TH DISTRICT RACE
Love challenger jumps into Utah congressional race
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Republican businessman Bob Fuehr has jumped into the race to replace longtime Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson in Utah's Fourth Congressional District.
Fuehr, former telecommunications executive, filed papers to run Tuesday and will square off against former Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love for the GOP nomination in April.
Love, who narrowly lost to Matheson in 2012, is well-positioned this year with more name recognition and cash and no incumbent to unseat.
Love filed papers on Monday to run, as did Democrat Doug Owens, a son of the late U.S. Rep. Wayne Owens.
Another Democrat, Bill Peterson, has filed to run, as has Libertarian candidate Jim Vein, who ran for the seat in 2012.
SALT LAKE-ATTORNEY RACE
Gill announces re-election bid for Salt Lake DA
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced Tuesday morning that he's running for re-election this fall.
The Democrat is in the middle of several high-profile cases, including an investigation of two of the state's former attorneys general and a wide-ranging probe of the police department in West Valley City, Utah's second-largest city.
Gill said Tuesday that he's considered running for state attorney general but feels he has more work to do at the county level.
Republican Steve Nelson, a criminal prosecutor in Gill's office, is challenging his boss for the office this year.
Nelson has worked in the office for 11 years and told the Deseret News recently that he has a good relationship with Gill and the decision to run was not personal.
BABY SITTER KILLED
Life sentence for Utah man in babysitter's death
OGDEN, Utah (AP) — A Utah man convicted of killing a teenage baby sitter after a night of sex and drugs that also involved the man's wife has been sentenced to life in prison.
A judge in Ogden said Tuesday that 38-year-old Eric Millerberg took advantage of an immature victim in an especially egregious homicide and then showed callous disregard for the body once the girl died.
A jury last month found Millerberg guilty of child abuse homicide in the 2011 death of 16-year-old Alexis Rasmussen. He was also found guilty of unlawful sexual contact with a minor, obstruction of justice and desecration of a dead body.
Rasmussen's mother told the judge that she suffers every day from the loss of her daughter and struggles to explain to her 7-year-old son where his sister is.
Prosecutors say Millerberg gave the teen a lethal mix of heroin and methamphetamine and then dumped her body in the woods.
AIR QUALITY-UTAH
Utah clean air advocates criticize Legislature
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah advocates calling for more laws to cut pollution say the state Legislature isn't trying hard enough to clean up sooty wintertime air.
Representatives from three clean-air groups at the Capitol Tuesday afternoon released a report card evaluating Gov. Gary Herbert and state lawmakers for their efforts to address air quality during the 2014 legislative session, which ended last week.
The governor earned a "B'' for calling on lawmakers in January to limit smoke from wood-burning stoves and to help convert diesel-fueled school busses to cleaner fuel.
Lawmakers in the House earned a "B-" after a bipartisan group brought over a dozen measures to cut pollution. But the Senate made a "D'' after a measure to broaden state regulators' power failed to get a vote in that chamber.
SENATOR COLLAPSES
Utah Senate leader recovering from heart failure
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Senate Majority Leader Ralph Okerlund is heading home from the hospital less than a week after he collapsed at a leadership meeting at the state Capitol.
Okerlund said in a statement on the Utah Senate website that he experienced heart failure on Wednesday but is now doing well.
He says doctors have told him to rest but added that he soon expects to resume his normal schedule.
Okerlund was rushed to the hospital Wednesday after Senate staff members and others found him awake but on the floor outside a meeting room.
Utah lawmakers wrapped up their 45-day session on Thursday.
The Monroe Republican says he plans to return to the Legislature during the first series of interim meetings in May.
GAY MARRIAGE-UTAH
UT gay marriage advocate group includes former DA
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former U.S. Attorney for the state of Utah is heading up a new group advocating for gay marriage in the state.
Brett Tolman co-chairs Utah Unites for Marriage, which is scheduled to ask Utah officials to reverse the state's ban on gay marriage in Salt Lake City Tuesday afternoon.
State attorneys in a brief filed last week told a federal appeals court that Utah's same-sex marriage ban should be upheld because such matters should be up to each state.
The Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals holds a hearing on the case April 10.
After U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby found the ban unconstitutional in December, more than 1,000 gay couples married in Utah. The U.S. Supreme Court then granted Utah an emergency stay in January.
OFFICE BUILDING FIRE-LINDON
500 people evacuated in Utah office building fire
LINDON, Utah (AP) — Hundreds of employees have been evacuated and a firefighter is injured after an office building in Lindon caught fire.
Authorities say the fire started a little after 9 a.m. on Tuesday at the Vivint building. The company produces automated systems to control security, lighting and other household appliances.
Lindon Police Chief Cody Cullimore tells the Daily Herald it appears the fire began with heat tape in the roof that's meant to keep the gutter system from freezing.
Authorities say one firefighter suffered injuries to his hip and shoulder when a piece of the roof fell on him.
Vivint spokeswoman Jenna Cason says about 300 employees were in the building at the time. Cullimore says a total of about 500 people were evacuated, including people in adjoining buildings.
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY-UTAH COUNTY
Utah Co. man convicted in child pornography case
PROVO, Utah (AP) — A jury has convicted a 26-year-old Utah County man on eight charges of sexual exploitation of a minor as part of a 2011 large-scale child-pornography sting in the state.
The Daily Herald of Provo reports Mark Tingey was found guilty Monday night after a three-day trial.
Tingey was arrested in 2011 along with more than 30 others across the state, including 11 people in Utah County.
He will be sentenced on May 13 and could face anywhere from one to 15 years in prison.
ATTORNEY GENERAL RACE
Months on the job, Reyes faces political opponent
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Sean Reyes has been Utah's attorney general for less than three months, but he's already facing a challenger for the office_one of his own staff attorneys.
Democrat Charles Stormont, who has worked on civil cases in the attorney general's office for six years, officially announced his bid for the office Tuesday.
Reyes, a Republican appointed by Gov. Gary Herbert in December, replaced Republican John Swallow, who resigned after nearly 11 months in office.
Swallow resigned after he was inundated with investigations and accusations of wrongdoing but has maintained his innocence.
Reyes, who ran against Swallow for the office in 2012, was appointed to serve as Utah's top law enforcement officer until a special election can be held this November.
HEAVY WINDS-BARNS
Fierce Utah winds destroy barns but calves are OK
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Fierce winds have torn down a pair of Lewiston barns, burying about 20 calves under hay bales but not seriously injuring any of them.
Dan Nalder of Nalder Farms tells the Herald Journal that most workers had gone home for breakfast Monday morning when the winds blew through. Nalder says one worker stayed behind and saw gusts tear down one of the structures.
Hay bales then toppled on the calves, but none were injured.
The National Weather Service said Monday a cold front rushing over the southern part of the state triggered the fierce winds.
In Cache Valley, winds registered from around 45 mph up to 60 mph.
The gusts also shut down ski lifts at northern Utah resorts, registering around 90 mph near Ogden.
SEX ABUSE-TROUBLED TEENS
Ex-youth worker in St. George pleads to sex abuse
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) — A 29-year-old man accused of sexually abusing boys at a southern Utah center for troubled teens has pleaded guilty to reduced charges.
The Spectrum reports Diarra Fields pleaded guilty to three counts of forcible sex abuse on Monday. The plea agreement reduces the severity of the felony charges and cancels a trial scheduled for this week.
Police say a 16-year-old boy had reported to his mother that he had engaged in inappropriate touching with and Fields, who worked at the Red Rock Canyon School.
Detectives say the boy reported there were other victims, and a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old later said they had been involved with Fields.
Police say Fields denied the allegations, but apparently lied about a key piece of information used to identify him as the perpetrator.
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