Salt Lake City’s re-built North Temple viaduct is finally complete after nearly three years of construction. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, Mayor Ralph Becker joined a celebrating crowd on 400 west this morning before trekking up the bridge and finally signaling traffic to pass through.
A Holladay Republican who took on Senator Bob Bennett in the 2010 election is stepping back into the political limelight to run for Congress. Cherilyn Eagar says the Senate race gave her the ability to travel into Utah’s most rural communities, where she says her ideas for restoring the American dream resonated with both parties.
The Canyons School District has two religious organizations interested in buying a parcel of land it owns for the purpose of building a seminary. Most public schools in Utah have off-campus LDS seminaries so students can exercise their right to release time, but this property, which is part of the new Draper High School campus, has interest from both the Mormon Church and Summum, a religion that’s known for practicing mummification. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, an attorney for Summum says the school board isn’t giving them equal consideration.
Federal safety inspectors have notified Hill Air Force Base of 32 serious violations of safety and health standards. And the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a contractor at the base for exposing workers to hazardous contaminants. Herb Gibson, director of OSHA’s Denver area office, says there were more than 100 injuries or illnesses reported out of the base in the past year.
Utah Republicans are celebrating a federal appeals court ruling that struck down the health insurance mandate in the federal health care reform law. The state is one of 26 that are suing to block the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The attorney general’s office counts the win as a tool in Utah’s arsenal, but as KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, others are convinced the law will prevail once it reaches the U.S. Supreme Court.
Utah Congressman Jason Chaffettz says a bill that’s intended to protect children from Internet pornography will only step on the privacy rights of law-abiding citizens, and a local Internet service provider agrees. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, Chaffettz didn’t vote for the bill when it passed out of a House committee last month, but Senator Orrin Hatch supports the concept, and is sponsoring similar legislation in the Senate.
The nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization made a stop in Salt Lake City over the weekend, spreading its message of equality. Members of the Human Rights Campaign are on a nationwide bus tour to cities they believe still have further to go. The Utah Pride Center hosted the kickoff event before the tour began. President Joe Solmonese says in many parts of the country, it continues to be difficult and challenging to be gay.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis was in Utah today as part of a heat illness prevention campaign. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, she toured a Sandy facility responsible for studying workplace hazards, and introduced a new smart phone application designed to keep outdoor workers safe in the heat.
The Utah Department of Transportation says it’s found a way to improve traffic flow on some streets, decrease excessive delays and enhance safety for motorists and pedestrians by eliminating left turns. UDOT will begin work Monday on the state’s first Thru Turn Intersection at 123rd South and State Street, where drivers sometimes wait two minutes to move through during peak traffic. UDOT Spokesman Adan Carrillo says it essentially encourages U turns, but makes them safer.
Salt Lake City’s Fourth Street Clinic celebrated National Health Care for the Homeless Day by ushering in a new executive director and saying goodbye to the old one. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, they also dedicated the administrative building to founder Dr. Allen Ainsworth, who’s retiring after 23 years leading the clinic.
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