Utah police: Avalanche killed 4 local backcountry skiers
Four backcountry skiers in their 20s died when one of the deadliest avalanches in Utah history hit a popular canyon, police said Sunday.
Four other people also were buried in the Saturday slide but managed to dig themselves out and didn’t suffer serious injuries, according to Unified Police of Salt Lake County.
The skiers were from two separate groups, and all eight had prepared with the necessary avalanche safety gear, authorities said.
The four killed were all from the Salt Lake City area, not far the spot where they were swept up by the skier-triggered avalanche in Millcreek Canyon.
Utah parents drop Black history curriculum opt out request
Parents who sought to opt out their children from learning Black History Month curriculum at a charter school in northern Utah have withdrawn their requests.
Maria Montessori Academy in North Ogden experienced a public backlash after announcing plans to make participation optional, the Standard-Examiner reported Saturday.
“We regret that after receiving requests, an opt-out form was sent out concerning activities planned during this month of celebration,” a statement from Academy Director Micah Hirokawa and the school’s board of directors said.
Dem-led House, drawing a line, kicks Greene off committees
A fiercely divided House tossed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene off both her committees Thursday, an unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she’d earned by spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories.
Underscoring the political vise her inflammatory commentary has clamped her party into, nearly all Republicans voted against the Democratic move but none defended her lengthy history of outrageous social media posts.
The chamber’s near party-line 230-199 vote was the latest instance of conspiracy theories becoming pitched political battlefields, an increasingly familiar occurrence during Donald Trump’s presidency. He faces a Senate trial next week for his House impeachment for inciting insurrection after a mob he fueled with his false narrative of a stolen election attacked the Capitol.
Utah developer drops lawsuit to build waterfall development
A developer in northern Utah who wanted to build a drug treatment facility near a natural waterfall has decided to drop a lawsuit against Utah County that was filed after the county blocked private development.
Court records show that developer Richard Losee dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice on Jan. 26, less than a month after filing it in the state’s 4th District Court, the Daily Herald reported.
His attorney Bruce Baird said on Wednesday during the public comment portion of the Utah County Commission meeting that Losee decided to drop the lawsuit and intended to support efforts to make Bridal Veil Falls a state monument.
