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Explanation: Is there any place in the world you could see a real sight like this? Yes. Pictured above is single exposure image spectacular near, far, and in between. Diving into the Earth far in the distance is part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, taken with a long duration exposure. Much closer, the planet Jupiter is visible as the bright point just to band's left. Closer still are picturesque buttes and mesas of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA, lit by a crescent moon. In the foreground is a cave housing a stone circle...

(KCPW News) Utah lawmakers took tips on highway funding from a Texas legislator this morning. Texas Republican Representative Mike Krusee joined them on Capitol Hill. He told the Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee that with federal money drying up, the only way to pay for new highways is to make them toll roads. "Guess how many roads pay for themselves in taxes? Zero. Not a one. Most of them are less than 50 percent," said Krusee. "Imagine if you're a grocery a store owner, and you decide, I'm gonna sell sirloin at a buck a pound, and I'm gonna sell...

PROVO CANYON — A Wasatch County sheriff's sergeant died Thursday morning after collapsing during a routine traffic stop. G. Scott Hathcock, 48, of Heber City, had pulled a car over on U.S. 189 in Provo Canyon and had just stepped to the window of the car to ask for documents when he collapsed, said Summit County sheriff's deputy Josh Wall. The people in the car as well as a passer-by performed CPR until paramedics arrived minutes later, Wall said. However, medical personnel were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Officials don't yet know the...

Thor's Hammer, Bryce Canyon, Utah.

The skeleton, dubbed "Escalante Man" in Bureau of Land Management documents, was found last winter off Highway 12 near Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The bones were likely from an American Indian man in his 50s or 60s. The bones were found with a musket, ammunition and a bucket. Researchers said evidence indicates the man died during the mid- to late-19th century... FBI spokesman Juan Becerra said he couldn't comment on the case because it's part of an ongoing investigation... The BLM's Jeanette Matovich, who is trained in bioanthropology, participated in the dig. "The skeleton was completely collapsed in on itself,...

4-Day, 10 Hour Work WeekReported by: Robin Thibault, KARK 4 NEWS Friday, Jun 27, 2008 @04:43pm CST The state of Utah's doing something that Arkansas state leaders are considering. Beginning in August, state employees in Utah will work four, ten hour days per week. That means dozens of buildings will be closed on Friday, saving energy and money. Back at home, a legislative panel agreed to look at a similar proposal by state senator Tracy Steele. Steele says a four day work week would save gas, cut down on emissions and improve productivity and morale. The legislature would have the...

Republican voters in Utah ousted Rep. Chris Cannon in Tuesday’s GOP primary, expressing their dissatisfaction with the six-term congressman over his left-of-center positions on immigration by nominating a challenger who made crackdowns on illegal immigration a central part of his platform. Cannon was trounced by Jason Chaffetz, the former chief of staff to Gov. Jon Huntsman (R-Utah.) With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Cannon trails Chaffetz by 20 points – 60 to 40 percent. The AP has called the race for Chaffetz.

Jason Chaffetz's promise to change Washington, starting with Rep. Chris Cannon, resonated with Republican voters, who appear to have ousted the six-term incumbent in a Republican primary tonight. "You rock, and you rocked the Republican Party," Chaffetz told supporters gathered in Springville, shortly after polls closed. "We've done this all with volunteers, with no free meals and no polling. We've done it the right way. You can never convince me that one person can't make a difference." With nearly three-quarters of precincts counted, Chaffetz led Cannon by more than 20 points. Chaffetz now advances to face Democrat Bennion Spencer in...

Byline: Liljenquist has Establishment backing, while Mortensen relies on a handful of volunteers In the Senate District 23 Republican primary, it's a case of big bucks squaring off against loose change. Republicans Dan Liljenquist, 33, and Ron Mortensen, 63, are competing to gain the south Davis County senate seat being vacated by Dan Eastman, who is not seeking a third term. "They're exercising the nuclear option," Mortensen said of Liljenquist's well-fueled campaign that has fired off several mailers, the most recent with endorsements that read like a list of who's who in the county's Republican power structure. According to campaign...

PARK CITY, Utah - President George W. Bush visited Park City to help shake the pockets of donors at a Deer Valley function to bolster Republican campaigns. The Park Record has no report of how well the money-rustling went, but it does report that Bush was greeted, after a fashion, with crude signs and hand gestures. These hand gestures apparently weren’t friendly hand waves. Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds described them as “classless and embarrassing.” To ensure the president’s safety, 47 law officers were called out to help monitor the motorcade route. The cost to local taxpayers for overtime pay...

The case of a first-grade teacher convicted of molesting his own students has taken a new twist. The school's principal is now accused of knowing about the abuse and not reporting it. Frank Laine Hall is currently serving a 15-years-to-life prison sentence for molesting students in his Riverton classroom. Now, the school's principal is charged with one count of failure to report abuse, a misdemeanor that could destroy her career. Parents of Hall's victims have mixed emotions about this new charge. Shelly Nordick is a well-liked principal, who one parent says helped the children heal after Hall's conviction. But could...

Today, President Bush delivered the Commencement Address at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. This was the 50th graduating class of the Academy. There was some rain during his speech. Following his speech, he posed and “cut up” with some of the graduates and you will love these photos. Transcript The President then traveled to Utah where he will attend two fund raisers on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

WELLINGTON, Utah - Along Utah's Nine Mile Canyon lies what some call the longest art gallery in the world — thousands of prehistoric rock carvings and paintings of bighorn sheep and other wildlife, hunters wielding spears, and warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat. But now, a dramatic increase in natural gas drilling is proposed on the plateau above the canyon, and preservationists fear trucks will kick up dust that will cover over the images. And they worry that one possible solution — a chemical dust suppressant — could make things worse by corroding the rock. "They're irreplaceable," said Steve Tanner, a...

Utah, Texas laws are similar; FLDS population isn't By Amy Joi O'DonoghueDeseret News Published: May 25, 2008 Could the raid on the FLDS ranch in Texas happen here? Critics of the April action accuse Texas of cowboy-style justice, trampling over constitutional rights by using lax laws that must be more liberal than other states. That general point of view received a boost this week when a Texas court of appeals ruled that child protective services authorities acted improperly when they removed all 400-plus of the YFZ Ranch children and subsequently placed them in foster care. However, the basic Texas...

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Tina Louise Steed had just one question for a judge who declared her an adult Thursday morning. "I'm wondering how come they wouldn't believe my ID in the first place?" she asked Judge Jay Weatherby. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services acknowledged that Tina Louise and three other "disputed minors" are actually adult women - admissions that came as the Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled it never had sufficient evidence to remove any children from a polygamous sect. At least three more women were to be declared adults Thursday afternoon or Friday,...

What is wrong with polygamy? Nineteenth-century Americans coupled it with slavery, calling both "the twin relics of barbarism." Today, it is used as a scare image to deter people from approving same-sex marriage, lest it lead down a slippery slope to that horror of horrors. But what, exactly, is bad about it? Looking at the Texas sect at the Yearning for Zion ranch, so much in the news, will not tell us, because that sect allegedly forced underage girls into marriage. The case then becomes one of child sexual abuse, a crime hardly unknown in the monogamous family, although it...

Violence seems to have surrounded both the birth and death of 1-year-old Jessica Perez. Her mother, Charity Van Leeuwen, says ex-husband Peter Perez treated her much like a prisoner during her pregnancy - forcing her to stay inside a home with black curtains and heavily tinted windows and threatening her with what he would do to her if she reported any abuse to police. One of the few times she says she was allowed outside was for the birth of her daughter. But even then she and her family claim Perez came to her hospital room with a gun and...

ST. GEORGE - Attorney General Mark Shurtleff called a raid on a polygamous sect's ranch in Texas no surprise given the group's resistant, secretive practices but said Thursday he would never authorize such a move in Utah. "I know you are worried about that. We're not going to do it," said Shurtleff, drawing applause from a crowd at the Dixie Center packed with fundamentalist Mormons. "We don't believe that is the answer." It's been more than a month since Texas authorities took more than 400 children from the ranch, home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of...

BOISE, Idaho - Eight Western states on Thursday rejected a company's plan to ship tons of radioactive waste from Italy for disposal in Utah, saying importing foreign loads would violate the group's rules. EnergySolutions Inc. is applying for a federal license to import 20,000 tons of waste from four Italian nuclear reactors, with a portion of it to be buried at its private disposal site in Clive, Utah. But members of the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management said their rules would need to be changed to allow roughly five or six rail cars of waste a year...

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A man who authorities believe was sickened by the deadly toxin ricin was arrested Wednesday on federal charges after he was released from a hospital. Roger Bergendorff, 57, had been hospitalized since Feb. 14. He is charged with possession of a biological toxin and two weapons offenses stemming from materials authorities said were found Feb. 26 and Feb. 28 in his room at an extended-stay motel several blocks off the Las Vegas Strip. "He was released from the hospital and he's in custody," said Agent Joseph Dickey, spokesman for the FBI office in Las Vegas. The...

A fanged creature found in Utah after some ice melted on a pond has stumped biologists trying to determine what it is. Officials said the pond may have been poisoned or the water may have run out of oxygen due to the thick ice. While checking the pond, the creature was spotted. "When we first saw that fish, we thought what in the ….. is that thing?" Utah Divison of Wildlife Resources Ben Boyce said. The fish was found with carp and goldfish that had been stocked in the pond. Biologists said they are not sure what the creature is...

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — The body of a 7-year-old girl was found Tuesday night in an apartment in the same complex where her family lives, and five people were taken into custody.

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

A Vernal man shocked twice with a Taser during a traffic stop last year has accepted a $40,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed against the state and a Utah Highway Patrol trooper. The Utah Attorney General's Office announced the settlement between Jared Massey and UHP trooper Jon Gardner on Monday. "We think this is a legally defensible case because Trooper Gardner acted reasonably to avert a volatile and potentially dangerous confrontation on the side of a busy highway," said Assistant Attorney General Scott Cheney, who represented Gardner. "We recognize, however, that this is a close case." The settlement comes on...

Hickman tried to ease concerns about SB81 A St. George lawmaker has put on hold a debate on an omnibus piece of immigration legislation as he continues to work to make it palatable to religious and business organizations. Describing the planned changes to SB81 as "word-smithing here and there," Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, said he wants to make the bill "a really fine piece of legislation." The Senate vote has been rescheduled for Thursday morning. The bill would create barriers against undocumented immigrants obtaining jobs or public benefits. Lane Beattie, president and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake...

People are asking questions about why an illegal immigrant who was charged with killing a Spanish Fork man in a car wreck was allowed to make bail, and the answers differ depending on who is giving them. Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to investigate the immigration status of 21-year-old Gabriel Hernandez, while ICE officials say they were not properly informed of his arrest. Tracy said internal jail documents show that jail officials made two calls to the ICE office in Orem before Hernandez was released on bail. Hernandez, of Orem, was arrested by Spanish...

Family of Trolley Square gunman goes back to Bosnia In grand immigrant tradition, Suljo and Sabira Talovic brought their children to Utah for a better life. But it eluded them. They tried to forget the savagery of ethnic civil war in the former Yugoslavia. They worked two and three back-breaking jobs to provide for their alienated teenage son and three little girls. They bought a house. Then, just as the mundanity of the middle class was within their grasp, it slipped away in one brutal night at Trolley Square, when their son methodically gunned down five Valentine's Day shoppers before...

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

LAS VEGAS - As police tried to piece together how a rare, deadly poison ended up in a motel for transients, the 57-year-old man who could hold the key lay unconscious in a hospital. Adding to the mystery, police said firearms and an "anarchist type textbook" were found in the same room where the ricin was discovered two days later. Capt. Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference late Friday that the book was tabbed at a spot with information about ricin. Police found the firearms and books on Tuesday after a manager at the Extended Stay America motel called...

Speculation grows on Utah's young leader completing a McCain ticketWASHINGTON - In Utah political circles, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. seemed to be hitching his future on a John McCain presidency with an eye toward a big-time ambassadorship or high-level Cabinet post. Not even the most starry-eyed of the Utah GOP had the audacity to hope for a McCain-Huntsman presidential ticket. But now that McCain is the presumptive nominee, Huntsman is appearing on several short lists as a possible running mate. The Washington Post, The Associated Press and the Atlantic, among others, have floated Huntsman as a possibility for rounding out...

New Bill To Allow Police Misconduct Be Hidden From Public Written by: Jonny Glines A new bill proposed at the legislature would allow for police to withhold misconduct reports from the public. Supporters of the bill believe that police misconduct should be kept secret from the public so to not discredit police testimony. Others say that a forthright police unit is essential to the community. In September, Jared Massey was zapped with a taser by Trooper John Gardner. A video of the incident was recorded from Gardner’s patrol car. Gardner can be seen shocking Massey until he hits the ground...

Utah Internet service providers could earn a state-approved "G-rating" for filtering content and insuring that users could not access pornography under provisions in a bill heard by a House committee on Monday.

"Utahns may get the chance to vote for a Romney this November after all — Josh Romney, the son of former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, says he's considering a run for Congress. Of course, there's always the possibility that Mitt Romney may end up on the ballot as a vice presidential candidate — or even, some suggest, the party's nominee if the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., continues to falter. Josh Romney told the Deseret Morning News that after a year of campaigning across country for his father, he's been approached to run as a Republican against 2nd...

Muslim woman: Wal-Mart cashier said 'Don't stick me up' Tuesday, February 19, 2008 6:45 PM CST RIVERDALE, Utah - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. apologized to a Muslim woman who said she was mocked because of her face veil. "Please don't stick me up," a cashier told the shopper on Feb. 2, according to The Council on American-Islamic Relations. Wal-Mart apologized Monday in a letter signed by Rolando Rodriquez, a vice president and regional general manager. It was released Tuesday by the council's Nevada chapter. "I can assure you that the associate in question was disciplined in accordance with our employment policies...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's U.S. senators told the Legislature on Tuesday that changes to federal immigration laws won't occur until after the next president takes office -- and possibly longer. The comments come as the Republican-controlled Legislature considers a pack of bills in response to what some see as Congress' failure to act on illegal immigration. Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett did not address any of the state bills. Instead, in their annual address to the Legislature, they assured lawmakers that Congress wouldn't make any changes soon. "I think the prediction it may be as long...

A prominent Hindu leader met a senior leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Salt Lake City (Utah) yesterday and discussed similarities in both the religions. Rajan Zed, prominent leader of Hindus and Indo-Americans, and Neil L. Anderson, member of the Presidency of the Seventy of LDS Church, met in LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City, and talked about various issues concerning their religions. Similarities examined were "law of the harvest" of LDS and karma doctrine of Hinduism; life does not begin with birth nor end with death; Brahman is unlimited and pervasive, so is...

The Utah State Senate will begin differently today. As in other states, the Utah's Senate meeting begins with a prayer or religious rite. However, today will mark the first time a Hindu prayer has opened the Utah Senate meeting. Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain, will read a prayer from the "Rig-Veda," an ancient book of Hindu scripture that dates back more than 3,000 years. Zed will first read the prayer in Sanscrit, a language considered sacred by Hindus, and then an English translation. After the prayer, Zed will meet with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and with Elder Quentin L. Cook...

SALT LAKE CITY -- Mitt Romney's withdrawal from the presidential race Thursday caught some of his most devoted supporters by surprise and disappointed many who hoped the nation would elect its first Mormon president. Romney, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints like 60 percent of the Utah's residents, had raised more than $5.2 million here and won the state's primary on Tuesday with almost 90 percent of the Republican vote. "I'm very disappointed," said state Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem. "Of course I wanted him to go all the way. But what I view him...

OK, to explain the title, I discovered that Goblin Valley State Park -- now another site on my list of "places I just found about and now I've got to visit" -- was a site for filming in GalaxyQuest, starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, etc. Amazing desert scenery. Here's a couple. From www.hickerphoto.com: From photoseek.com: and from www.lookoutnow.com, below. This formation must be one of the most photographed in the park; there are a lot of images of it.

Fox News says Mitt Romney and Barack Obama win in Utah.

SALT LAKE CITY — The battle over illegal immigration is being waged on a surprising front — Utah, where some lawmakers are scrambling to drop perks that have lured tens of thousands of undocumented workers to the Beehive State. Since the opening of the 2008 session on Jan. 21, Utah legislators have discussed around a dozen measures that would dramatically curb rights for illegal immigrants in this non-border state, which has become an unlikely battleground in the nation's immigration debate. "It’s not a good situation," said Utah Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R.-North Ogden. "As other states take away the benefits, then...

If affection can be measured by gifts, Utahns love Mitt Romney 13 times more than does the typical American. New financial disclosure forms show Utahns gave a whopping $5.2 million total to Romney's presidential campaign through the end of 2007, including $619,471 in the last quarter. That averages to $1.97 for Romney from every man, woman and child in Utah. No other place comes close to that. In a distant second was Washington, D.C., at 77 cents per resident for Romney. Ironically, Romney has been bad-mouthing Washington, saying the nation needs to replace politicians entrenched there. Most of the D.C....

A shuttle driver has filed a complaint with the FAA against the Salt Lake International Airport, saying officials allowed thousands of religious services to be conducted on public property. Muslim cab drivers began praying in a small airport building used as a break room after 9-11, because, the airport says, they became targets, with people yelling at them and throwing things. Last week we brought you the story of a Muslim cab driver at the airport who says he was assaulted when he tried to pray inside the building. Tonight the man charged in that case speaks out about his...

I am disappointed in the tactics and statements of almost all the presidential candidates, both Democrats and Republicans. My grandmother used to say that you can tell just as big a lie with a half-truth and sometimes a bigger one. Take the half-truths said about Mike Huckabee and taxes. I lived in Arkansas when he was the governor. He did away with the marriage tax penalty and the capital gains tax on the sale homes. He doubled Arkansas' standard deduction and the child care tax credit. He slashed the capital gains tax for both individuals and businesses. In 2001, Mike...

LDS Church leaders have told legislative bosses that the "element of humanity" should be re-introduced to the state's immigration debates. Before each general session, GOP and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate sit down separately with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints special affairs committee, a group made up of church general authorities, church public relations officials and their lobbyists, to discuss any items on the minds of both legislators and church leaders. House Minority Whip David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, said the Democrats' meeting with church officials brought up several issues, but the immigration discussion was the...

Scandals: Hillary Clinton calls President Bush's talks with the Saudis about increasing oil output "pathetic." But it's not as pathetic as her co-president husband locking up billions of tons of clean coal in exchange for political contributions.As Bush wrapped up his Middle East trip, Sen. Clinton commented: "President Bush is over in the Gulf now begging the Saudis and others to drop the price of oil. How pathetic." A large part of America's energy dependence on foreign sources can be traced to Sept. 18, 1996, when President Bill Clinton stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon on the Arizona...

Professional extreme skier Billy Poole died this afternoon after taking a fall while filming in Big Cottonwood Canyon between Solitude and Brighton ski resorts. Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesman Paul Jaroscak said the 28-year-old died around 1:30 p.m. at University Hospital. Poole was filming a jump, had a bad landing, and possibly hit some rocks, Jaroscak said. Earlier reports of an avalanche in the area were false, he said. Poole was filming in the area with Boulder, Colo.-based Warren Miller Entertainment. A spokesman reached at the company's corporate headquarters said the company is still trying to learn details about...

MEXICAN HAT, Utah—A chartered bus ran off a wet road and rolled 41 feet down an embankment in far southeastern Utah, killing eight passengers who were returning home from a ski trip, authorities said Monday. About 20 others were injured. The Arrow Stage Lines bus was southbound on State Route 163 when it failed to negotiate a curve, went off the road and rolled over several times at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, said Trooper Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol. "When the vehicle was overturning, the roof of the bus split open and multiple occupants of the vehicle were ejected,"...

Rocky Anderson, it turns out, is not stepping aside quietly. Joining a list of liberal luminaries, including Noam Chomsky and George McGovern, Salt Lake City's outgoing mayor submitted a letter Friday that calls on the House Judiciary Committee to investigate the Bush administration for abuses of power. The letter, signed by 18 political and cultural figures, asks House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., to hold hearings on alleged violations of the law under President Bush that include kidnapping and torture, warrantless wiretapping, a war of aggression against Iraq and disseminating false propaganda to deceive the American people. It came...