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A state employee accidentally fired a handgun at a state building Wednesday in Salt Lake City.
No one was injured when the gun went off at 2:26 p.m. in the Heber M. Wells building at 160 E. 300 South, according to Salt Lake City police Detective Rob Ungricht.
The woman — a concealed carry permit holder — was showing someone something in the Attorney General’s Office, failed to clear the chamber and the gun went off, said Salt Lake City Lt. Robin Heiden.

An Orem man who was convicted then later acquitted in his wife’s shooting death filed a civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against the police department and prosecutor’s office.
Conrad Mark Truman alleges law enforcement used “misleading, false and outright fabricated” evidence to charge him with murder and keep him behind bars for nearly four years.
Truman was convicted by a jury in 2014 of murder and obstruction of justice — despite his testimony that he didn’t shoot 25-year-old Heidy Truman.

Officials say residents should avoid contact with the waters of Utah Lake in light of the detection of a deadly toxin.
A bloom of toxic algae, detected late last month, has continued to grow and now appears to cover the majority of the lake west of Provo, according to state officials.

The Utah Transit Authority is planning what the agency should accomplish through 2040 — and how to rebuild public trust after scandals — and outlined some early thoughts Wednesday with a new draft vision, mission statement and areas of focus.
For example, the new draft of what the agency calls its vision is: “We move people.”
Its new draft mission statement is: “To provide integrated mobility solutions to service life’s connections, improve public health and enhance quality of life.”
“How do we ...

A national alcohol lobbying group continues its assault on Utah’s strict, new drunken-driving law, this time with full-page newspaper advertisements suggesting that senior citizens — including Gov.

A West Valley City man accused in the December death of his girlfriend — whose body was found at the bottom of a stairwell several hours after the couple had argued — has resolved his case with a plea deal.
Juan Salvador Velasquez-Trujillo, 52, of West Valley City, was charged in 3rd District Court with second-degree felony manslaughter in the death of 61-year-old Haydee Suriano, of California.
On Wednesday, Velasquez-Trujillo pleaded guilty to class A misdemeanor negligent homicide — admitting ...

A clinic providing health and dental care to Salt Lake City’s homeless will receive $550,000 to extend its services to other area nonprofits.
The Community Foundation of Utah announced in a Wednesday news release that it awarded a two-year grant to the Fourth Street Clinic — at the southwest corner of 400 West and 400 South — so that it can establish a pilot program in partnership with YWCA Utah, the Housing Authority of the County of Salt Lake, First Step House, Volunteers of America Utah and T...

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A Utah man has pleaded guilty to reduced charges in a rape case police say they solved two years after the crime thanks to a DNA match to sexual-assault kit evidence.
Richard Simon Garcia, 47, pleaded guilty in 2nd District Court on Monday to first-degree felony rape. He was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl who was riding her longboard home in Davis County on Aug. 8, 2014.
Garcia faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 21. He was initially charged with three othe...

A man angling for catfish on Utah Lake last weekend with his 8-year-old daughter instead caught a four-foot alligator, a tropical predator that has no business in Utah, at least outside a zoo.
Neal, who asked that only his first name be used, kept the reptile in a cooler and took it to the home of his in-laws, Max and Whitney Powers of Provo.

Cottonwood Heights’ City Council is banning residents from discharging aerial fireworks within city borders — a move Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore said he hopes will serve as a message to the Legislature that municipalities need more local control over the issue.
The ban, approved late Tuesday, came in response to firework-related blazes across the Salt Lake Valley over Independence Day, including three fires that burned in Cottonwood Heights.