News

Next year, thousands of Americans will take the GED test and obtain a certificate that’s equal to a high school diploma.  But come January 1st the test will be a much different experience. The GED Testing Service has announced a new exam for 2014 that focuses more on college and career readiness and less on high school completion. 

Utah Governor Gary Herbert released his 2015 budget proposal today at Utah Valley University in Orem and its main focus is on increased education funding.

For the 2015 fiscal year the Governor’s office of Management and Budget projects the state will receive $338 million dollars in new money. Governor Herbert’s proposal calls for more than 75% of it to go towards education.

  The state of Utah missed a deadline a year ago to submit a plan to the Environmental Protection Agency for meeting new standards for the smallest particles in the air – the so-called PM 2.5 pollutants.  This plan includes new rules on industrial polluters and on wood burning in urban counties.  It also depends heavily on improvements in auto emissions as cleaner cars replace those now on the road.

Kathy Van Dame, who’s a leader of the group Breathe Utah and a member of the Air Quality Board, likes this plan much better than the one they rejected a year ago.

The Spanish Fork City attorney’s office filed a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct against a Spanish Fork Junior High School teacher accused of kicking one of his students. Meanwhile Utah State School Board members are considering beefing up teacher discipline standards. 

At midnight on Monday John Swallow officially became the former Attorney General of Utah. And while there are several Republicans vying to become the appointed replacement, the Governor won’t make that decision for another few weeks. Until then, Major General Brian Tarbet will be the acting Attorney General and dealing with the transition won't be easy.

Community groups around the state have been holding events to educate people about the Affordable Care Act, but Utah Pride is trying something different Wednesday to reach their target demographic - healthcare happy hour.

  Last week, a judge in Price ruled that Utah’s state engineer acted properly in allowing a development company to lease water rights in the Green River for a proposed nuclear power plant.  Blue Castle Holdings is now planning to move ahead with the next step -- applications to federal regulators  for the plant itself. 

Blue Castle has agreed to lease rights to more than 53,000 acre-feet of water to operate a 3,000 megawatt power plant near Green River.  Environmental groups had challenged the agreement, and they may yet appeal the court’s ruling. 

Archeologists at an open pit coal mine in Spain have discovered the most well preserved ankylosaur, ever found in Europe, but the discovery has roots right here in Utah.

Dr. James Kirkland is the state paleontologist at the Utah Geological Survey. He’s been studying dinosaurs for 40 years. Recently, he’s been working on reclassifying all of the wide, heavily armored kind of dinosaurs. So when researchers in Spain called him up to ask his help identifying newly discovered fossils, he didn’t hesitate to say yes.

  Over the weekend, somebody vandalized the Hannukah menorah in front of a synagogue in Salt Lake City.  But the rabbi doesn’t think it was meant as a hate crime.

A Brigham Young University student will be recognized by a national suicide prevention organization this week for his work with the lesbian and gay community in Utah. BYU Senior Adam White will be receiving the ‘Youth Innovator’ Award at the Trevor Project's annual dinner in Los Angeles. Past honorees at TrevorLIVE include Lady Gaga, Neil Patrick Harris, and Queen Latifah.

Elf the Musical opens next week on stage at Pioneer Theater Company in Salt Lake City. It’s the first time the production has been done in Utah since the contemporary classic film Elf was released 10 years ago. Pioneer Theater’s Artistic Director, Karen Azenberg says “family” is at the heart of the story, and believing in something good.

  Residents of Layton are expressing shock after the unexpected death of Mayor Steve Curtis at the age of 58. 

City Council member Mike Bowhuis says Mayor Curtis died in his sleep after enjoying Thanksgiving with his family.  Curtis was just finishing his second term as mayor.  Prior to that, he served ten years on the Layton city council.  Bowhuis says city employees held him in high regard.

  Green Day's musical American Idiot and Plan B Theater's annual radio drama are on Dan Nailen's list of entertainment this week in Salt Lake City.

Dan Nailen reports on entertainment for KUER and blogs at slcene.com

Abandoned mines are at the center of a quiet controversy between independent explorers and land management agencies. State and federal officials see them as a safety hazard, so government agencies close hundreds of abandoned mines in Utah every year. But one group wants to keep them open.

About seventy-five people are crowded into a room at the West Jordan Library. Stuart Burgess is at the front, giving a presentation on ghost towns and abandoned mines in Utah.

Utah education officials unveiled a  list of the state’s highest performing Title 1 schools based on end of year exams. Schools in Utah classified as Title 1 often serve students facing poverty.

Ann White is the State Coordinator of Title 1 Improvement.  She says Title 1 schools have a number of unique challenges beyond having a large population of low-income students.

Utah consumers and retailers are getting ready for the biggest shopping weekend of the year.  Some stores are opening as early as tomorrow afternoon running through the night into Black Friday.

Some stores like Toys R Us open as early as 5 pm Thursday while Costco and other large retailers aren’t scheduled to open until 9 am on Friday.  Niki Copeland is a Team Leader at the Downtown Target store in Salt Lake City opening at 8 pm Thursday.  She says their preparation began weeks ago and focused on popular sales items.

Taylorsville City Spokeswoman Aimee Winder Newton has announced her candidacy for Salt Lake County Council District 3.

Republican David Wilde plans to vacate the seat in January to go to work for Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gil.

Newton, who’s the sister of West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder is a life-long Salt Lake County resident who has served as a GOP delegate for the state and Salt Lake County. She also served eight years on the Taylorsville Planning Commission.

Lt. Governor Spencer Cox announced today that he will not pursue civil action against Utah Attorney General John Swallow.

Cox says he won’t pursue the case because Swallow has already resigned. He says because the outcome of resignation and civil action is the same, a vacated office, moving forward would only be a waste of time and taxpayer money.

“Short of spending $200,000 in a six month trial to end up exactly where we are today, I don’t know what else we could do except to forward it on to the other investigators,” he says.

Leaders of the Utah Democratic Party are calling on Governor Gary Herbert to hold a special election to replace Attorney General John Swallow, instead of appointing the replacement himself. But, there might not be a legal path for what the Democrats want.

In preparation for the release of the Governor’s budget, members of his staff gathered at the Capitol today to talk about how much money the state could and should spend in the next year.

Several investigations into Utah Attorney General John Swallow will continue to move forward despite his resignation from office.

Democratic Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill and Republican Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings have been investigating Swallow since early this year. They’re trying to determine if he’s violated any state laws, specifically those against selling influence. Because of that, Gill says Swallow’s resignation will have little, if any, effect on what they’re doing.

There’s a new health center coming to Murray. University of Utah Health Care broke ground Monday on a new facility that will provide services from the U’s Moran Eye Center and Department of Dermatology.   

It will be called the Mid-Valley Health Center, and it will be just north of Fashion Place Mall, easily accessible from I-15, 215 or 80. Randall Olson, CEO of the Moran Eye Center, says the U campus is not the easiest place for most people in the Salt Lake valley to get to.

Members of the Utah State Board of Regents announced last week that Snow College President Scott L. Wyatt will be the new president of Southern Utah University.

Wyatt will succeed SUU President Michael Benson who stepped down last spring to accept the top job at Eastern Kentucky University. A 21-member committee conducted a nationwide search and considered nearly 70 candidates for the job.

At Friday’s announcement in Cedar City, State Board of Regents Chair Bonnie Jean Beesley praised Wyatt’s work at Snow College.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch was in Salt Lake City Friday to check in on a major foreign trade deal being negotiated here. Consumer advocates and some members of Congress have criticized the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but Senator Hatch remains supportive.

The special counsel to the state election’s office has found that there is sufficient evidence to show that Utah Attorney General John Swallow violated Utah election law.

A new University of Utah program will allow students who attend Nankai University in China to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree by attending both schools. The new partnership was announced Thursday.

Robert Newman is Dean of the College of Humanities. He says the U of U’s 3+X program is a flexible agreement. Hence the name, Chinese students who are admitted to the program have three options.

A state legislative committee has decided not to consider a full Medicaid expansion as defined by the federal Affordable Care Act. Instead, the Health System Reform Task Force is considering three alternative options.