Monday morning, May 31, 2021
State
Flags Lowered For Memorial Day
Flags at Utah state facilities will be flown at half staff until noon Monday in honor of Memorial Day. Gov. Spencer Cox encouraged businesses and individuals to do the same, calling the lowering of flags a “tribute to our nation's fallen battle heroes.” — Sonja Hutson
COVID Weekend Update
Utah health officials reported 368 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend. For the past week, there’s been an average of 224 new cases each day, down from 274 this time last week. As of Sunday, 57% of Utahns over the age of 12 have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Health officials reported over the weekend that four more people have died from the disease: two women in Iron County, a woman in Utah County and a man in Salt Lake County. Two of the deaths occurred before May 1. — Sonja Hutson
Search And Rescue Calls High As People Get Outdoors
Search and rescue calls on the Wasatch Front are on the rise again this spring. In May, Salt Lake County Search and Rescue received about double the amount of calls that they did last year. Ryan Clerico, a member of the group, said that’s partially because the region got less snow this year so people are venturing out into the mountains earlier. In Utah County, Sheriff Sgt. Spencer Cannon said their search and rescue team has gotten about the same amount of calls this spring as last spring, but that’s still more than they typically got pre-pandemic. “Last year people got in the habit of going outside and realized how much fun it could be,” he said. Read the full story. — Sonja Hutson
Northern Utah
Plane Crash Claims Two Lives
Two people died in a Saturday morning plane crash near Powder Mountain in Northern Utah. Devin Criddle was 26 years old and from Draper; Braeden Raleigh was 21 years old and from Salt Lake City. It’s not clear yet why the plane went down; the National Transportation Safety Board said it’s investigating the crash. Officials said the plane left Ogden's Hinckley Airport not long before the incident. The crash resulted in a small fire, but officials said the site was cold and wet so the fire was quickly extinguished. — Associated Press
Jazz Legend Mark Eaton Dies At 64
Legendary Former Utah Jazz player Mark Eaton, 64, died Friday night. The Summit County Sheriff said it appears Eaton died after crashing his bicycle, but there’s no evidence a car was involved. Eaton played for the Jazz from 1982 to 1993. He was an NBA Defensive Player of the Year twice and an NBA All-Star in 1989. After retiring from basketball, Eaton opened two restaurants in Holladay and became a motivational speaker. The Jazz said in a statement they were “profoundly saddened" at Eaton's unexpected passing. — Sonja Hutson
Region/Nation
Yellowstone Tree-Rings Tell Climate Story
Tree-rings at Yellowstone show 2016 was the park's hottest summer in more than 1,200 years. New research from University of Idaho studied how the tree-rings document temperature and found that extreme warming trends over the years are not normal. The findings also connect the warming climate and extreme fires. Researchers said it's important to use this data to look at wildfire behavior as climate-related rather than fuel-related, especially as summer temperatures across the Mountain West trend hotter. — Stephanie Serrano, Mountain West News Bureau