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News Brief: Crashes, Surgery & Holiday Spending

Bank of cash registers at a clothing retail store.
iStock / Vera Petrunina
Zions Bank's monthly consumer confidence survey found that Utah families will spend $200 more on the holidays this year over last.

  Wednesday morning, November 27, 2019

State

Utah Holiday Spending

A Utah family will spend about $700 over the holidays this year, according to Zions Bank’s monthly survey. That’s $200 more than last year, which suggests consumers are still feeling pretty good, even if their mood towards the overall economy has soured a bit. Read full storyJon Reed

Central Utah

Crashing Through The Snow

Utah Highway Patrol responded to 349 crashes on Monday during the season’s first major storm. That’s much more than they typically see, according to spokesman Nick Street. He said people were driving too fast, and that with more people on the road for the Thanksgiving Holiday, more crashes are probable if drivers aren’t careful. — Sonja Hutson

No Charges Against Police In Custody Death

The Salt Lake County district attorney said he won't file any charges against police in the death of a suspect in May. Mischa Cox, age 30, was suspected of stealing from ACE Hardware in downtown Salt Lake City before citizens restrained and detained him on the ground in the parking lot. District Attorney Sim Gill said a city police officer put handcuffs on Cox while he was on the ground — then began to question a witness before he assessed Cox again and determined he was unresponsive and not breathing. Gill said it appears Cox was either already dead when police arrived or had sustained fatal injuries "making his impending death essentially inevitable." — Diane Maggipinto

Identity Of Man Found In Freezer

A man whose body was found in a freezer was the husband of the woman who had recently died in their Tooele apartment. Police Sgt. Jeremy Hansen said the medical examiner identified the man as 69-year-old Paul Edwards Mathers. Officers discovered his body after finding his wife dead on the bed. Police suspect foul play but don't know if his spouse, identified as Jeanne Souron-Mathers, was involved. They don't suspect foul play in the death of his wife. Detectives estimate the man's body was in the freezer for at least one year and as long as 11 years based on when residents in the complex say they last saw him. — Diane Maggipinto

Regional

Idaho Prisoner Preparing For Transgender Surgery

A Federal Judge just ruled that Adree Edmo must receive her first pre-surgical in readiness for transgender surgery on Tuesday. Meanwhile the State of Idaho is still hoping the 9th Circuit will agree to an en banc ruling with could overturn the August decision in Edmo’s favor. Adree Edmo’s case is the focus of Locked, a podcast from Boise State Public Radio and the Mountain West News Bureau. — Amanda Peacher, Mountain West News Bureau

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