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SEVEN DEAD BABIES-ARREST
Utah woman arrested after 7 dead babies found
UNDATED (AP) __ Police accused a Utah woman of killing seven babies she gave birth to over 10 years after they found the bodies stuffed in cardboard boxes in the garage of her former home.
Megan Huntsman lived in the Pleasant Grove home until three years ago and was arrested Sunday. Police say the 39-year-old birthed the infants from 1996 to 2006.
Police Capt. Michael Roberts says officers responded to a call Saturday from Huntsman's estranged husband about a dead infant at the home about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City. Officers then discovered the six other bodies.
Roberts says the man had lived with Huntsman but isn't a person of interest.
Huntsman was booked into jail on six counts of murder. Roberts says it wasn't clear if she has an attorney.
PAY FOR STAY-DAVIS COUNTY
Judge halts county's 'pay for stay' program
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah judge ordered the Davis County Sheriff's office to stop taking money from the personal accounts of inmates to pay for lodging and medical expenses in a practice known as "pay for stay."
Judge Michael Allphin addressed the issue in court last Monday during the sentencing of a 20-year-old man on forgery charges. The Standard-Examiner of Ogden reports that the judge issued the order Wednesday. Allphin says the sheriff's office needs authorization from a judge in order to take money from the accounts that inmates typically use for food and other personal items.
Allphin called for a halt to the practice until further direction from the court.
The Davis County Sheriff's Office says it will comply, but it says it wasn't doing anything illegal. Officials say their practice is no different than how other county jails handle the payments.
RANGE SHOWDOWN
Feds to pursue effort to end dispute with rancher
UNDATED (AP) __ A day after blinking in a showdown on the range, federal land managers pledged to pursue efforts to resolve a conflict with a southern Nevada rancher who has refused to pay grazing fees for 20 years.
Bureau of Land Management spokesman Craig Leff says the agency would continue to try to resolve the matter involving rancher Cliven Bundy "administratively and judicially." The bureau says Bundy owes more than $1 million in grazing fees.
The fight between Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management widened into a debate about states' rights and federal land-use policy. Bundy does not recognize federal authority on land he insists belongs to Nevada.
NAVAJOS-ELECTRICITY
Navajo families receive electricity for first time
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) —Margie and Alvin Tso raised eight children in the LeChee area of the Navajo Nation did so without a power line running to their home. For Margie Tso, that meant laundering clothes in a tub with a washboard and cooking food on a wood stove. The children did homework under the light of a kerosene or gas lamp and did not have television.
At night, the lights from a nearby power plant illuminated their ranch, but decades would pass before a power line was extended to their home. When Margie Tso heard of a project to connect her home and dozens of others to the power grid, she watched as each power pole came closer and closer. Last Monday, the Tsos had electricity for the first time.
Electricity is a basic necessity in most people's lives but one that is considered a luxury on portions of the Navajo Nation. Navajo Tribal Utility Authority spokeswoman Deenise Becenti says that across the 27,000-square-mile reservation that extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, an estimated 15,000 homes do not have electricity.
The project in LeChee, a small community just outside of Page, came as the result of a mix of funding from federal grants, the tribal utility authority and the owners of the Navajo Generating Station run by the Salt River Project. The $4.8 million project that began in 2012 with a goal of connecting 63 homes is scheduled to be complete next year.
More than 75 miles of power poles and electric lines have been installed.
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