YEONSEUNG KIM

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The Salt Lake Tribune •

This drug overtook meth for overdose deaths in Utah for the first time last year

Editor’s note • This story discusses opioid misuse and substance use disorder. If you or someone you know is at risk of an opioid overdose, visit UtahNaloxone.org or your local public library to obtain free naloxone. If you or someone you know needs medical services, visit the Utah Naloxone Wellness Center, aka Andy’s.Finding fentanyl, Mysti Lopez remembers, was as easy as heading to the Jordan River Trail, a popular spot for deals. Police announced seizures of hundreds of fentanyl pills there t...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Utah has different breast cancer screening options than other states. Here’s a breakdown of your options.

Editor’s note • The Salt Lake Tribune is now making this access to this story free in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you would like to support our work, please visit our donations page.Three years ago, Alisha Gorder was diagnosed with Stage 0 breast cancer in Connecticut. Doctors were able to detect it early, thanks to diligent breast cancer screenings that the 51-year-old receives annually.“When I was 40, I went in, I got my mammogram, and my doctor said ‘Oh, you have dense br...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Boulter Fire near Juab and Tooele county lines prompts evacuations

A wildfire on the Juab and Tooele county lines was at approximately 2300 acres as of Sunday afternoon.The Boulter Fire started Saturday afternoon, along Utah State Route 36, which was closed in both directions through Sunday morning. Evacuations were issued between Vernon and Eureka on Saturday afternoon, but they were lifted as of 1 p.m. on Sunday.First responders battled erratic winds when the fire first started, with gusts up to 60 mph in the area, per Hayden Mayhan, meteorologist at National...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Moab’s third flood event of 2024 was a doozy

A series of thunderstorms rolled through Grand County Friday night, bringing Moab its third flood event of the summer.The bridge on 300 South near the dog park sustained heavy damage. Moab City Councilor Luke Wojciechowski was helping with cleanup at the bridge Saturday morning and he indicated the city might put the long-problematic bridge at the top of its list of infrastructure projects.Wojciechowski said it’s time to ask the state to help Moab address its flooding issues, which occur with in...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

These Utah intersections could get safer with the help of laser technology, which can analyze crashes, crosswalks and more

There’s a new watchdog carefully monitoring major Salt Lake Valley intersections.It’s called lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging. The technology uses eye-safe laser beams to measure the distance and movement of cars, pedestrians and cyclists alike in order to understand how to make intersections safer and more efficient for all.Right now, lidar is only fully operational at two local intersections: 5900 South and State Street in Murray; and 2100 South and Redwood Road in Salt Lake...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Utah Arts Festival in jeopardy after suffering major financial loss this summer

The long-standing Utah Arts Festival is in jeopardy after suffering a major financial loss this year, drawing in about 14,000 fewer patrons than organizers had hoped for and sitting about $200,000 short of its $2 million budget.Organizers are now looking to potentially change the event’s dates and location in the future, according to a notice the festival’s board and staff sent to supporters and media on Friday.“I can’t commit 100% to 2025,” Executive Director Aimee Dunsmore said in response to...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Utah wildfire resource guide: How to plan and protect your home before a wildfire

Editor’s note • The Salt Lake Tribune is providing free access to this vital story about wildfire preparation. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber.On the hills north of the Capitol, a July wildfire forced the evacuation of about 40 homes as flames quickly spread within a half-mile of a Salt Lake City neighborhood.Evacuation orders were later lifted as firefighters began to contain the blaz...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

‘It was our priority’: SLCPD clears massive criminal record expungement backlog that piled up under ‘Clean Slate Law’

Salt Lake City police on Friday announced that they have expunged more than 74,000 criminal records, clearing a massive backlog that had built up over the past two years.That backlog ballooned after Utah lawmakers in 2019 passed the “Clean Slate Law,” requiring officials to automatically expunge certain misdemeanor criminal records after five to seven years, as long as the defendant had not been convicted of other crimes.The law was supposed to go into effect in May 2020 but was delayed because...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

With 2 Utah endangered condors killed, investigators seek help from the public

Utah investigators are seeking those responsible for the recent killings of two endangered California condors.The two condors were found shot, one in 2022 and another last month, with both discovered in the same area southeast of Cedar City and north of Zion National Park. This brings down the population of these critically endangered species 85 remaining in the wild in northern Arizona and southern Utah as of June 2024. There are currently no leads on the perpetrators.The Utah Division of Wildl...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Ensign Peak fire evacuation order is lifted, with blaze 10% contained

The blaze that started Saturday on Ensign Peak was 10% contained Sunday evening, officials said, and Salt Lake City police later announced that an evacuation order in place for more than a day was lifted.“Today we had really good success on the fire” after getting an early start, said Ryan LaFontaine, an operations trainee with the Northern Utah Type 3 Incident Management Team.“If conditions on the fire stay the way they are and we don’t have any more flareups,” he said around 8 p.m., “we’ll be...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Utah says it will get proven lethal injection drug 3 days before Taberon Honie execution

Utah officials said Saturday that they have secured access to a proven lethal injection drug — pentobarbital — which they expect to arrive at least three days before the scheduled Aug. 8 execution of death row inmate Taberon Honie.Since they are scrapping an earlier plan to use an untested three-drug cocktail of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride, they have now asked a judge to dismiss Honie’s lawsuit attacking their execution method.“As long as UDC can procure pentobarbital,” Brian Redd,...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Sweltering heat to linger in Salt Lake City through weekend

The summer heat is expected to simmer down slightly this weekend after highs lingered in the grueling triple-digits last week. But it’ll still be warm.The high on Friday is currently forecast at 98 degrees, followed by 100 degrees on Saturday and 99 degrees on Sunday.Those temperatures are typical for mid-July in Salt Lake City, according to the National Weather Service. Still, heat is dangerous — and deadly.Officials advise people to drink lots of water; avoid strenuous outdoor exercise midday;...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Utah’s COVID-19 wastewater levels are rising amid a national increase, data shows

Levels of COVID-19 in Utah wastewater are currently higher than they have been in the last two months, according to state data.Wastewater analysis is an early indicator of COVID-19 spread, and the uptick signals the need for increased awareness, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.Josh Benton, an epidemiologist with the state, explained that COVID-19 can present in the body for a week and a half or more before someone develops symptoms, “but the virus can be detected in...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says he won’t vote for Donald Trump in 2024 — but wants him to win

Gov. Spencer Cox said Wednesday — the day after Utah counties finished certify their primary election results — that he wasn’t going to vote for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in this year’s election. And he’s not going to vote for President Joe Biden either.“I’m not going to vote for either presidential candidate this year,” Cox said on CNN’s The Source on Wednesday.Instead, Cox, who is up for reelection this year, said he plans to write-in his presidential candidate —...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

High heat warning: Salt Lake City may break an all-time record this week

Utahns are being warned to take precautions with temperatures expected to climb above 100 degrees later this week in Salt Lake City.High heat above 100 degrees is anticipated to arrive Wednesday and to persist through Saturday. There is even a 25% chance of breaking an all-time record 107 degrees on Saturday, for the first time since 2022, said Nicole Desmet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.“It’s unusually warm. We have a very strong area of high pressure that’s currently west,...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Sunday morning: Silver King Fire outside Marysvale grows to 2,800 acres

The Silver King Fire in south-central Utah burned approximately 2,800 acres as of Sunday morning, Marysvale Fire Chief Jon Christensen said.Marysvale, a community of roughly 400 people in Piute County, is the closest town to the fire, which is believed to have been caused by lightning.First responders were hopeful that additional support would arrive soon, including aerial resources.“We’re supposed to be getting a lot more assets,” Christensen said. “This is a major concern for the region.”Chris...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Utah politicians rejoice at end of Chevron Doctrine; environmental activists are concerned

A Supreme Court ruling on Friday effectively ended the “Chevron Deference,” a doctrine that’s largely shaped American law for the past 40 years. This decision will significantly cut federal agencies’ power, a move that Utah politicians are celebrating, but environmental groups are deeply concerned about.In 1984, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case involving the oil company Chevron established that judges should defer to a reasonable federal agency and their interpretations when dealing with s...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Where Jamaican Jerk meets Swahili Spice: World Refugee Day celebrates 20 years

“I grew up with a lot of Islamophobic remarks and even anti-black remarks, but I’m proud of who I am and I try not to let that bother me,” said 19-year-old Gudon Abdi, who lives in Utah.Abdi’s family fled from war-torn Somalia before she was born. She came to World Refugee Day at Big Cottonwood Park on Friday evening sporting a stunning turquoise green Somali Baati Dress with symmetrical sun patterns.“I’ve come here like, I think four years in a row at this point,” she said. “I love seeing the d...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Utah Rep. Birkeland says ‘unnatural hormone concoctions’ may have led to St. George-area murders

Utah state Rep. Kera Birkeland on Saturday insinuated the cause of two killings in Washington City may be due to gender-affirming hormonal therapy, despite a lack of scientific evidence to support her claim.“This might be an unpopular opinion, but I feel strongly that we need to talk about how harmful unnatural hormone concoctions are,” Birkeland started her tweet, made on the platform now known as X.Mia Bailey was charged Friday with 11 felony counts, including two of aggravated murder, after a...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Repairs from Moab flash flood may take years

Friday evening’s flash flooding in Moab may leave years of work, according to an official.“These things can sometimes take years,” Moab City Manager David Everitt said. “We’re actually still doing repairs from the floods from two years ago.”Everitt said a couple of major construction projects have taken substantial hits due to the heavy downpour.A flash flood swept through Moab on Friday evening, drenching the region with just under an inch of rain in 10 minutes. That’s about a month’s worth of...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

One of the ‘Real Housewives’ is being sued, accused of not paying back more than $400,000 in loans

Another member of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” cast is becoming mired in legal drama — Lisa Barlow, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Sundance,” is being slapped with a lawsuit.Bart Carlson and Yukon Construction, the Park City homebuilding company of which Carlson is president, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Utah’s 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, claiming that Barlow and two of her companies have not paid back $410,842.36 in loans, going back to 2010.In the complaint, Carlson and Yuk...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Passport agency with same-day services set to open in Salt Lake City

Good news for Utahns with pre-travel jitters: A new passport agency is set to open in Salt Lake City — so misplacing your passport before catching your flight will soon be a concern that you can easily write off.The U.S. Department of State announced Tuesday that it plans to build six more passport agencies nationwide. Besides Salt Lake City, the new offices will be located in Kansas City, Mo.; Orlando, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; San Antonio and Cincinnati.The Department of State’s announcement did...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

Missing hiker found dead near Horsetail Falls

Alpine, Utah • The missing hiker whose cellphone was found on the Horsetail Falls Trail has been found dead, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office confirmed late Saturday morning.After receiving a phone call from some hikers who had found a phone Friday afternoon at Horsetail Falls containing footage of her in the river, search-and-rescue crews and a helicopter were deployed to search for the missing woman.They located her body late Friday night, but the team waited until the morning due to how dange...
The Salt Lake Tribune •

H Mart, a giant Asian food chain, opens its first Utah store

Friends Vivian Lee and Viviane Nguyen couldn’t wait for Utah’s first H Mart, a grocery chain known for its wide selection of Korean and other Asian foods, to open at 10 a.m. Friday.“We got here at 9 a.m.,” Lee, 24, said while shopping in the side dish corner of the 100,000-square foot supermarket at 1442 W. 9000 South in West Jordan — the largest among the chain’s at least 97 U.S. stores, and the first of its kind in Utah.“We’ve been waiting for H Mart to open for years now,” Lee said. “So whene...
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