Utah, Salt Lake County | featured news

A Salt Lake City man who was already a registered sex offender in Utah has been sentenced to more than 27 years in a federal prison for distributing child pornography.
Donald Ray Fritcher, 36, pleaded guilty in February to distribution of child pornography in U.S. District Court.
Last week, Judge Dale A. Kimball imposed a sentence of 330 months in prison and placed Fritcher on supervised release for life when he finishes his prison sentence.

Sun Valley, Idaho • As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reflected on her life Friday during a speech at the Utah State Bar convention, she had this advice for young lawyers: “Do something outside of yourself. Something that will make a difference.”
The jurist spoke to a packed room of Utah lawyers and their families, sharing details about her life ranging from why she chose law school, to her role in changing laws that discriminate against women, to her rise to Supreme Court justi...

It proved to be one robbery too many for a gun-toting ex-con, Salt Lake City police say.
Detectives say the 32-year-old man, who has a past drug possession-related conviction, walked into a Maverik store at 310 S. 900 East at 5:44 a.m., a pistol in his hand. He demanded cash from the clerk, ran out and jumped into a van and sped off.
Less than half an hour later, an armed suspect matching the same description as the Maverik robber — 5-foot-6, thin, with facial sores and wearing a long-sleeved bl...

In a pivotal ruling for Utah’s legal battle to control thousands of routes crossing federal land, a divided Utah Supreme Court has held that these road claims have not run out of time under an obscure state law.
Joined by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, federal lawyers had argued the statute in question barred “quiet-title” claims after seven years, meaning that Utah’s claim to more than 12,000 routes covering 35,000 miles would have been extinguished as long ago as 1983.
Chief Justice Ma...

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A federal judge in Alaska on Thursday ordered pre-trial detention for a southern Utah man charged in the beating death of his wife aboard an Alaskan cruise ship.
U.S. District Magistrate Judge Kenneth McCoy also approved a motion by the U.S.

Washington • Should he be confirmed, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s role as U.S. ambassador to Russia could be even further hamstrung by actions Moscow took Friday to seize two U.S. properties in the country and limit the State Department’s staff there.
Russia’s foreign minister said in a statement Friday that U.S.

Police are asking the public to keep an eye out for a 74-year-old West Bountiful man missing since Pioneer Day.
West Bountiful Assistant Brandon Erekson said that John Darrell Page was last seen at a Maverik convenience store, 1265 W. Parrish Lane, in Centerville on Monday. He was driving a 2005 Ford Explorer, license plate number Y410YG.
Page is 5-foot-7, 160 pounds, with gray hair and hazel eyes.

A federal judge ordered Utah officials this week to comply with a subpoena from the Drug Enforcement Administration to make a prescription drug database accessible for searches.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Utah state officials have argued in the past that the judge’s recommendation to allow the searches would violate people’s privacy rights, and that safeguards are needed for a database that contains records of prescriptions for medication like the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the slee...

Washington • After the GOP-led Senate was unable to pass any legislation to gut Obamacare including a dramatic one-vote loss early Friday, Sen. Mike Lee said the chamber “failed the American people.” Sen. Orrin Hatch regretted the Senate couldn’t “keep our promise.”
The Utah Republicans vowed to continue to work on measures to change Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, even as President Donald Trump suggested the best course would be to let the Democrats’ seven-year-old health ...

The Utah Highway Patrol has identified an Arizona man who died in southern Utah rollover crash that also injured to female passengers.
Troopers say 32-year-old Tyler Charles, of Fredonia, Ariz., was driving onto an on-ramp to eastbound State Route 7 from Long Valley, about 15 miles east of St. George, when his 2009 Toyota pickup truck went off the left side of the road.