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Three Utah Highway Patrol troopers looked out the windows of a black 15-passenger van, searching for drivers focused on their cellphones instead of the road.
Almost immediately, one trooper spotted a driver using a cellphone and alerted one of seven nearby troopers, who moved in to make a traffic stop.
The van — an experiment UHP rolled out last month — headed north on Interstate 15 at 2:45 p.m. Thursday with an entourage of reporters for a four-hour effort to catch distracted drivers.

A lawyer for a Utah woman accused of trying to conceal her slain toddler’s injuries with makeup says the girl’s parents want permission to attend her funeral.
The Standard-Examiner in Ogden reports attorney Susanne Gustin said Thursday she expects to request a furlough from jail for 22-year-old Brenda Emile after authorities release the girl’s body.
Judge Michael DiReda says he’d be unlikely to allow it, given the allegations against Emile and her husband, 25-year-old Miller Costello.
They are b...

In the wake of the massive Brian Head Fire, Utah officials on Thursday moved to secure a meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to talk about ways improved forest management practices and other measures might prevent future catastrophic fires.
Garfield County Commissioner Leland Pollack initiated the request for an audience with Perdue amid a state Constitutional Defense Council discussion of the nearly 70,000-acre fire’s impact on his county.
The human-caused fire has left rancher...

State wildlife authorities are deeply dubious of claims by a man who says he was angling for catfish on Utah Lake last weekend when he instead caught a four-foot alligator, a tropical predator that has no business in Utah, at least outside a zoo.
After seeking unsuccessfully to contact the man Wednesday and Thursday for more details and examining digital marks on emailed photos of the animal, officials with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) said they were treating the report as likel...

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All lanes on the State Road 201 freeway will close Friday at 9 p.m. until Saturday at 6 a.m. between Bangerter Highway and Redwood Road.
The Utah Department of Transportation says the closure is to allow crews to place beams for a new bridge over S.R. 201 at Interstate 215.
During the overnight closure, the department recommends using Interstate 80 as an alternate.
Westbound traffic on S.R.

Senate Republicans release a revision of their health care bill, gaining some conservative votes but still lacking support from moderates. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch says the story of Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian national is “overblown.” Republican candidates for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District have a hard time distinguishing themselves from one another at their first debate. And a ballot initiative aiming to increase education funding receives mixed reactions from the public.

At 9...

Utah opponents of the Common Core State Standards may need to foot a $100 million bill if they’re committed to replacing the controversial education benchmarks, according to state school board member Spencer Stokes.
During a Thursday meeting of the school board’s Standards and Assessment Committee, Stokes said it is simply too expensive for Utah to start from scratch on a new set of grade-level standards for mathematics and English education.
“There’s no way on God’s green Earth that the Legis...

State officials have been granted extra time to work on competency issues with a now-17-year-old West Valley City boy accused in the sexual assault and killing of his 12-year-old neighbor.
In December, a juvenile court judge found that the boy was not competent to stand trial on charges of aggravated murder and rape of a child in the July 2015 death of Kailey Vijil.

Several items on Sen. Mike Lee’s wish list made it into the latest draft of the GOP health care bill, but he still hasn’t said if he’ll vote for it.
“I am withholding judgment and look forward to reading it,” the Utah Republican wrote Thursday morning on Twitter.
Lee has adamantly pushed for the Consumer Freedom Option, an amendment he drafted with Republican Sen.

A former West Jordan police officer was sentenced to probation with Utah’s veterans’ court this week after he pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges.
James Michael Harvie, 30, pleaded guilty last month in 4th District Court to second-degree felony aggravated assault, admitting in court papers that he pointed a gun at his live-in girlfriend last August.
A Utah County judge on Monday suspended a prison sentence for the military veteran, opting instead to order a 36-month probation through vet...

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