Dan Bammes

  Mormons marching in their Sunday best were a big part of last year’s Utah Pride Parade in Salt Lake City.  This year, even more could turn out to support the LGBT community.

The group Mormons Building Bridges will be joined by the group Mormons for Equality.  In all, Corey Howard with Mormons Building Bridges expects as many as five hundred marchers.

  Frances Monson, the wife of President Thomas S. Monson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away early this morning at the age of 85.

A news release from the church says Sister Monson never sought the spotlight, but President Monson said she was the practical partner in their 64-year marriage.  Speaking at the church’s General Conference in 2008, he recalled the moment when she woke up in the hospital after living in a coma for almost a month.

  Salt Lake City's Living Traditions Festival is this weekend and lots of other entertainment choices are available.  But Dan Nailen's excited about a band that's making a stop in Salt Lake.  He talks with KUER's Dan Bammes.

Dan Nailen reports on entertainment for KUER and blogs at slcene.com

A legislative commission is asking Utah’s governor to take another look at an agreement with Nevada over water rights in the Snake Valley.  Federal law required the states of Utah and Nevada to work out an agreement before the Southern Nevada Water Authority could pump groundwater from the Snake Valley to Las Vegas.  The deal was worked out more than three years ago, but Governor Gary Herbert decided just last month he wouldn’t sign it based on opposition from residents living in the area.  

  Restoring the credibility of West Valley City’s police department is the top priority for Margaret Peterson, who announced her candidacy for mayor of Utah's second-largest city this week.

With its drug investigation unit disbanded, more than a hundred cases dismissed by prosecutors and several officers on administrative leave, Margaret Peterson believes it’ll take strong leadership from the mayor to bring the police department back.  But she says the city should stop short of a wholesale housecleaning.

  The way Dan Nailen tells it, great music is lined up "night after night after night" in Salt Lake City this week.

Dan Nailen reports on entertainment for KUER and blogs at slcene.com

  Notch Peak is a 9600-foot mountain about 35 miles west of Delta, Utah.  From the top, it’s a two-thousand foot drop straight down – and that’s one reason why it’s become a favorite spot for BASE jumping – jumping off the cliff with wing suits and parachutes.  There have been two fatalities there in the past year, one just ten days ago.

  A coalition of community and environmental groups is asking the Utah Department of Transportation to reconsider building a new freeway along the west side of Davis County.  Their so-called "Shared Solution" asks U-DOT to study improving east-west roads and walkable communities as an alternative.

Community activist Lori Kalt wants to avoid a new freeway cutting through her neighborhood on the west side of Farmington.

When Rabbi Joshua Aaronson arrived in Utah eleven years ago, Temple Har Shalom was a small Reform Jewish congregation meeting in rented space in Park City. Today, it’s in a beautiful new building with three times the attendance and a vacancy to fill. Rabbi Aaronson is moving on to Temple Judea in a suburb of Los Angeles – and leaving behind a lot of people who will miss him.

  Chevron had a setback this week when its pipeline near Willard Bay State Park failed a pressure test.  Repair work will have to continue before the pipeline can go back into full operation.

More than 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the pipeline on March 18th.  Willard Bay’s North Marina has been closed since then.  Fred Hayes, the director of Utah’s Division of State Parks, says it could take longer than planned to re-open the beach and campgrounds.

  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is endorsing a proposed policy change by the Boy Scouts of America that would let young gay men participate as members, but would still exclude gay adults from leadership positions. The current policy excludes both gay adults and youth.

  Kennecott Utah Copper is making plans to get the Bingham Canyon mine back in operation after a huge landslide two weeks ago.  Company spokesperson Kyle Bennett says they have a 40-day plan to look at containing costs but also keeping the ore moving to the smelting and refining facilities.

  The state of Utah has released the final version of its plan for protecting the greater sage grouse.  The plan designates 11 Sage Grouse Management Areas stretching from Rich County to Kane County and outlines goals for improving existing habitat and protecting the birds from threats such as energy development, predators and wildfire.

  Utah Governor Gary Herbert is out of the country right now on a trade mission in Israel.  But that didn’t stop environmentalists from holding an Earth Day rally right in front of the Governor’s Mansion on South Temple.

As traffic whizzed by on one of Salt Lake City’s busiest streets, demonstrators wrote their messages of protest on blue ribbons.  They had to tie them to a volleyball net because they weren’t allowed to put them on the governor’s wrought-iron fence.

  Runners and spectators will see a lot more security around the Salt Lake City Marathon on Saturday.  After the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday, marathon planners developed some new security strategies.  Deputy Salt Lake City Police Chief Terry Fritz says the Utah Highway Patrol, the Utah National Guard and other agencies have brought in additional resources for the race.

  This week, KUER's Dan Nailen focuses on the concerts coming up this summer at Red Butte Garden.

Follow Dan Nailen's blog at slcene.com

  Utah Governor Gary Herbert wants to see federal authorities hurry up with their investigation of Utah’s attorney general.   The governor said this morning that the delay is impacting the Attorney General’s office and the investigation has taken too long.

  Communities across Utah are planning for another statewide earthquake drill Wednesday morning – and each one has its own emergency planning issues to deal with. 

West Valley City, for example,  is miles from the Wasatch Fault, but it has unique vulnerabilities.  There are a couple of faults running under the city, and Fire Marshal Bob Fitzgerald says the lake bed soils over most of West Valley could liquefy in a strong earthquake

Hundreds of migrating birds crash-landed at Utah’s Dugway Proving Ground overnight, apparently mistaking a parking lot in a snowstorm for water.  Al Vogel, a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Army, says these are eared grebes, a species that can’t take off from land.  Vogel says the Army’s own wildlife specialists and the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources are working to rescue the birds that survived.

"They’ll take the birds to a nearby pond on post, let ‘em rest there and then they’ll take off and continue their migration," Vogel tells KUER.

  The University of Utah College of Law is hosting the annual Stegner Symposium this week, focusing on Religion, Faith and the Environment. Increasingly, people of faith are citing their beliefs as a major motivation for protecting the environment and caring for those at the margins of society.

  Environmentalists who’ve been trying to stop a water pipeline from the Great Basin to Las Vegas are applauding a decision by Utah’s governor to reject an agreement between Utah and Nevada.

  Utah's Catholic bishop, John Wester, was out of town when the church elected a new pope earlier this month. He's had a lot of people ask about it since, and that also offered the opportunity to talk about a number of other issues involving the Catholic church in Utah.  On Friday March 22nd, I asked Bishop Wester what he's learned about Pope Francis since the conclave.

  Governor Gary Herbert traveled to the Snake Valley on the Utah-Nevada line yesterday to talk to people who might be impacted by a plan to pump groundwater from the Great Basin to Las Vegas.

  Members of Clearfield Community Church are working to keep their church going after a fire almost destroyed their building yesterday.

The church will hold its Sunday worship service in rented space just a few blocks away at Wasatch Elementary School for a few weeks.  But former pastor Richard Axmann says the home-school group that met in the church will have to find another place to meet, along with several other programs.

  A plan to turn the old Granite High School into a movie studio has fallen through and the property could now be sold to a private buyer.  

Originally, the city of South Salt Lake hoped to buy the 27-acre Granite High School property and renovate its historic buildings.  But, two years ago, voters rejected a $25 million bond issue needed to do that by just nine votes.

  Current Utah law would have required Utah’s Attorney General to investigate a complaint against himself of violating Utah’s election rules.  But the Utah State Senate passed a bill Thursday afternoon to give that job to an independent lawyer.