Monday evening, October 19, 2020
State
New To Utah? Here’s How To Register As A Voter
If you have a Utah driver license or state ID, you can register to vote online. But if you recently moved to Utah or don’t have one of those, you can register by filling out, and signing, a paper form. Depending on what county you're in, you can mail or email that form to the County Clerk's office. The whole process took KUER's Sonja Hutson about 10 minutes, and Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said it's becoming a more popular way to register as more people move to the area from out of state. Read the full story. — Sonja Hutson
Healthcare On The Line For At Least 260,000 Utahns
Utah is one of 18 states suing the federal government to repeal the Affordable Care Act in a case set to begin next month. If thrown out, at least 260,000 Utahns who directly enrolled in the program will lose their health insurance, according to a recent report from the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social policy think tank. Roughly 1 million more with pre-existing conditions or other protections could also be at risk. Read the full story. — Jon Reed
Utah COVID-19 Update
Utah’s Department of Health reported 1,168 new cases of COVID-19 Monday. Currently there are 288 people hospitalized with the disease and more than a third of those people are in ICU beds. Three more people have died from COVID-19 and all of them were long-term care facility residents. According to the state’s dashboard, every county in the state, except for Rich County, now has a high or very high two week incidence rate. — Caroline Ballard
Follow KUER’s coverage of the coronavirus in Utah.
Northern Utah
Green Bikes Free To Commemorate Early Voting
Early voting in Utah starts Tuesday and to mark the day, Salt Lake City residents can ride the city’s GREENbikes for free. There are also ballot drop locations near the shareable bike check out stations at the city library downtown and near the Salt Lake County government center. People can use the bikes for unlimited rides up to 30 minutes at a time. Utah’s voter registration deadline is Oct. 23 and early voting ends Oct. 30. — Darienne DeBrule
Orem Police Shooting Range Responsible For Range Fire
Target shooting at the Orem Police Gun Range this weekend started a fire burning more than 3,000 acres in Provo Canyon. State officials confirmed the origin of the Range Fire Monday and said the Orem police officer present at the start of it is cooperating with investigators. The city of Orem released a statement saying they are conducting an internal safety review that will be released to the public when completed. The Range Fire is 10% contained and has closed westbound traffic in Provo Canyon and parts of state route 92. — Lexi Peery, St. George
Southern Utah
Native Artists Receive Federal Money For Assistance
The state of Utah received over $1 billion from the federal government through the CARES Act this spring. Some of those dollars are going to support Native artists in San Juan County. San Juan County gave the festival $5,000 of federal CARES Act money to pay artists and promote their work online. Twin Rocks trading post in Bluff also received money from the state’s funds. The trading post also received funding to provide hunger relief through the trading post’s restaurant. And for every meal purchased, they’ll donate one to a Navajo family in need. Read the full story. — Kate Groetzinger, Bluff
Zion National Parks Sees Record Number Of Visitors
Zion National Park had a record-breaking number of visitors in September with more than 500,000 people entering the park. That’s the highest number of September visitors the park has seen since it started tracking in 1979. It’s also the most in a single month so far this year. But this year hasn’t been all great for Zion as the park had some of its lower visitor totals in recorded history over the spring and summer due to coronavirus restrictions. Currently, a shuttle reservation system is in place to control the crowds trying to get up the canyon. — Lexi Peery, St. George