Headlines you may care about today

WEATHER OUTLOOK: Thunderstorms possible today

National Weather Service forecasters are calling for a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon today. Beyond that most of the Utah Valley will be under mostly sunny skies with a high temperature expected to reach 100. Showers and thunderstorms could return tonight, with the low dropping to just 67 degrees. The rest of the week is expected to be hot and dry with highs near 98 during the days and lows in the low 60s.
Mountain weather: The High Uintas around Mirror Lake will be 15-20 degrees coolers that Utah Valley, but hikers can expect afternoon thunderstorms. Hikers in the Nebo Loop and Payson Lakes areas will see similar cooler temperatures as well.

LOCAL NEWS: LDS Church releases video touting success of vaccinations

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it’s humanitarian efforts have helped to save lives in developing nations through it immunization efforts.
“Immunizations spare our children from life threatening diseases like measles,” the video narration states. The statements explains that since 2003, the church has partnered with “organizations to help reduce childhood mortality through continued efforts to eradicate infectious diseases. READ MORE HERE: http://bit.ly/1FNo5va

LOCAL NEWS: Utah County Health seeks funds for teaching abstinence

Utah County Commissioners will hear a request today by the Utah County Health Department for more funds earmarked for Abstinence Education. The request is coming from Health Department Executive Director Dr. Joseph K. Miner. The department launched a website in 2013 to give parents ideas and tools to talk to their children about early sexual activity. County Commissioners are expected to pass Miner’s request for additional funding. READ MORE HERE: http://bit.ly/1egvptl

NATIONAL NEWS: Supreme Court thwarts Obama’s climate change agenda

The Associated Press is reporting that Monday’s Supreme Court ruling against the EPA will likely not help coal fired power plants shuttered because of lower court rulings. The high court ruled ruled 5-4 that the EPA failed to account properly for the costs to industry when it first decided to regulate mercury and other toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired plants, according to an Associated Press report. While the ruling thwarts President Barack Obama’s climate change agenda, it will do little to help the coal industry. READ MORE HERE: http://yhoo.it/1duzp8D

LOCAL SPORTS: Orem Owlz dispatch Ogden Raptors with 21-2 win

Playing at home, the Orem handed Ogden a decisive victory with a 21-2 score in a game that lasted for nearly four hours. The hitting derby on Monday sets up a four-game home series beginning tonight against Grand Junction. Orem is 8-4 on the year. READ MORE HERE: http://bit.ly/1Ns9RpN

NATIONAL SPORTS: U.S. women face Germany in World Cup semifinal

U.S. vs. Germany will be the match to watch Tuesday. The German team, ranked No. 1 will face No. 2 ranked U.S. in Tuesday’s semifinal match. Soccer fans watched France outplay the Germans in the quarterfinals and know that the U.S. women have a chance, but the Germans have proven to show that despite odds they can still win. READ MORE HERE: http://yhoo.it/1FNu2Iq

LOCAL BUSINESS: Vivint earns honors for wireless Internet antenna

Vivint, a leading provider of smart home technology, announced Monday that it has received the prestigious Red Dot Product Design Award 2015 for its wireless Internet antenna, which provides high-speed wireless Internet access to residential customers. READ MORE HERE: http://bit.ly/1JusriA

 Headlines you may care about today

WEATHER for the next few days... 

We’ll see another triple digit day today with the high peaking around 102, according to the National Weather Service. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low around 67. Forecasters are calling for continued highs near 100 through Independance Day, so if you are planning on attending any of the Freedom Festival events, take water and sunscreen everywhere. Next chance of rain? We may see a thunderstorm on Tuesday night or early Wednesday, but it likely will move through the central Utah Valley and not drop any significant moisture. High Uintas: Watch for rain on Tuesday night and Wednesday. Otherwise it will be highs near 90 and lows in the 50s.

LOCAL SPORTS: Parade of champions. 

 BYU fans must attend the Freedom Festival Parade on Saturday morning when a handful of legendary BYU quarterbacks -- including Robbie Bosco, Ty Detmer and Brandon Doman -- will join former coach LaVell Edwards as the grand marshall. The parade is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on July 4. READ MORE HERE: http://bit.ly/1RLw4ji.

NATIONAL SPORTS: The king is out. 

LeBron James will be a free agent again. The Cleveland Cavalier has refused to exercise a $21.6 million option on his contract, according to AP sources. The move will make him available to any team willing to take a chance. Fans in Cleveland have mixed feelings after seeing him snub his hometown more than once now. After graduating high school at St. Vincent–St. Mary High School near Akron, Ohio, he joined the Cleveland Cavaliers, leading the team to the first finals appearance in 2007, but losing to the San Antonio Spurs. Three years later he left Cleveland for the Miami Heat, which reached the finals every year he was there and earned him his first two championship titles in 2012 and 2013. In 2013. He came back home to Cleveland in 2014, making it to the finals again, but failing to clinch the title after losing to the Golden State Warriors. READ MORE HERE: http://yhoo.it/1Hq0bex.

LOCAL BUSINESS: Springville’s ATL Technology acquires MedConx. 

ATL Technology LLC announced today that it has acquired MedConx Inc.a California corporation with locations in Santa Clara, California and San Jose, Costa Rica. ATL is a provider of electromechanical contract manufacturing of assemblies and devices with specialties in single use solutions, and according to a statement by the company, today’s move result in expanded operational capabilities and increased capacity. The facility is ISO 13485:2003 quality medical device certified and joins ATL's existing facilities in China and the USA. READ MORE HERE: http://bit.ly/1Hq18DN.

NATIONAL BUSINESS: Gay marriage ruling could affect insurance coverage.

The Supreme Court’s decision to make legal gay marriage legal nationwide could have financial impacts as employers decide how to handle the increase of people now qualified under company insurance plans. Some employers already offer benefits to same-sex couples who are unmarried. But now, some employers may drop coverage for unmarried same-sex partners because same-sex marriage is a national right. READ MORE HERE: http://yhoo.it/1NpV4fb.

RECENT VIDEOS

This is one of many of videos I shot using an iPhone on location at a breaking news event in Springville, Utah. Find more of my videos HERE.

EDITOR'S NOTES

The Provo River and I need your help

I built a boat over the winter. But I’m not very happy about it, and neither is my daughter.
Let me explain.
Sometime in February, I took up a large part of the garage and began constructing a kayak. It is wood-framed and covered in canvas. It floats beautifully. A couple weeks ago I spent several days with the Venture Crew my son belongs to near Moab paddling up and down the Colorado River.
At the same time I was building my kayak, my son knocked one out in about half the time, thanks to the help from his Venture Crew leaders.
I now have two kayaks killing grass in my back yard.
This new found mode of transportation, however, also has taken me to several locations around Provo, including the lower Provo River – the section just above the state park.
If you’ve not been to that part of the river or the Provo River trail, you really owe it to yourself to spend some time there. It is a beautiful section of trail shaded by tall willows and cottonwood trees. There are beaver and Canada geese and ducks and a rope swing or two. Plus there are benches along most of the trail. It’s perfectly flat and perfect for bike riding, long boarding or just strolling.
And, if you have a couple of kayaks like I now do, it’s perfect for paddling. There is virtually no current and lots of overhanging trees complete with moss hanging into the water, giving it the feel of a southern states bayou.
Perfect, right? Wrong.
This section of the Provo River is heavily strewn with trash, garbage and junk everywhere. It’s mostly in the form of plastic water bottles, flip flops, food containers old tires and anything else that someone on shore decided to toss into the water. Out of sight out of mind, I guess.
My daughter – who borrowed her brother’s kayak -- and I spent a couple of hours on the river on Saturday and we simply could not believe how trashed it was. We took a couple of small bags of garbage out, but it barely made a dent.
My daughter is a woman of action. Consequently she began plotting ways to clean up the river. Her first thought was, “I’m going to call Mayor Curtis about this. He should know that his river is trashed.”
Of course it’s not his river, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Mayor Curtis gets a call anyway from a very upset young woman seeking action.
At the bottom of this page, you’ll see a letter from Dave Olpin a longtime member of the local Kiwanis Club. Like my daughter, Olpin is issuing a call to action. The local service organizations need more members, but there seems to be a lack of interest in community service, he surmises.
A few weeks ago, we reported in the Daily Herald that the local Lions Club was reforming after several years of inactivity. That’s great news.
My hope is that local residents just need to be reminded that there are community service options out there. Organizations such as the Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis and others play in invaluable role in our community, not only through their charitable giving, but as a social organization that brings neighbors, business leaders and others together.
Of course, the LDS church and its myriad service programs also provide a valuable function. Children learn early on that service is a part of church and family life. What ward or stake doesn’t use “service projects” as part of the regular activities?
Last week, we reported on the Utah Valley Ministerial Association’s effort to gather members of all faiths in the Provo/Orem area together to tackle the huge issue of homelessness. Again, this is a perfect example of local people taking action to provide service to their community.
Thinking back to the Provo River, I know there have been several cleanup efforts along various sections of the river, especially around the Vivian Park area that is heavily used. This is a great service that is hugely appreciated for anyone like me and my daughter who find ourselves near the river fairly often.
My guess is that now that I have a couple of new boats to navigate more of the waterways, we’ll be out there even more often, but we’ll be bringing trash bags along.

Daily Herald executive editor David Kennard can be reached at 801-344-2530 or dkennard@heraldextra.com or on Twitter @davidbkennard.

NEWS STORY

Commissioners to hear statements on Snowbird's plans for American Fork Canyon

PROVO -- Utah County Commissioners will hear public comments Tuesday over possible development in the Mineral Basin area of American Fork Canyon.
According to the Protect and Preserve American Fork Canyon group, Snowbird plans housing a gondola at Tibble Fork and condos on Miller Hill in the Mineral Basin area as part of a 416 acre land swap by the Mountain Accord ...

NEWS STORY

National Park Service debunks volcano rumors

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona -- When pictures emerged last week of what appeared to be steam plumes coming from Sunset Crater just across the Utah state line in northwestern Arizona, it had geologists scrambling.
A series of very minor earthquakes shook southern Utah June 3-4, but the last time Sunset Crater erupted was in the year 1085.
If the dormant volcano located within Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument really was coming back to life it could be a cataclysmic event for northern ...

 

NEWS STORY

Two Utah national parks raising fees

ZION NATIONAL PARK -- With the passing of Memorial Day, so begins the traditional start of summer, but it will cost just a bit more at three of Utah’s favorite destinations -- Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument.
The National Park Service has announced that maintenance and improvement projects within the parks have made it necessary...

NEWS STORY

Springville's Bartholomew Park nears completion

SPRINGVILLE -- Wayne Bartholomew Family Park is nearing completion and is expected to open on June 13 with a Duct Tape Regatta as part of the Art City Days celebration.
The park was built as a water storage facility for irrigation and to improve fish habitat ...

NEWS STORY

Warm weather returns for the weekend

PROVO – Forecasters are calling for summer through the weekend.
The National Weather Service said Utah Valley residents will see temperatures near 80 Friday and near 90 on Saturday and Sunday.
Skies will clear and sunny ...

EDITOR’S NOTES: Tourism a major industry in Utah

This column was originally published April 28, 2015 in the (Provo) Daily Herald

By David Kennard

A few months ago, I was walking through downtown Salt Lake City with my son, Noah.

We had taken the FrontRunner up from the Orem station to go see a movie at the theater at the Gateway Mall. It was a Saturday afternoon and he was up for an adventure.

After the movie we walked over to Temple Square, on our way passing behind the Salt Palace, which was just tearing down from the Outdoor Retailer Show. We had to dodge dozens of fork lifts, which were working to move literally thousands of Buick-sized wooden crates from inside the show floor to stacks that lined at least two city blocks.


Each crate was labeled with the brand of some outdoor equipment manufacturer: Patagonia, The North Face, Camelbak, Salomon, Yakima, and countless more.

Crates stacked 20 feet high made it feel as if we were walking through some slot canyon in southern Utah.

We were both amazed by the volume of merchandise and the number of different band names brought in for the show.

During the last few decades, Utah has firmly established itself as a leader in outdoor recreation, the number one sector in the state’s tourism industry.

From branding campaigns such as “Greatest Snow on Earth” to “Life Elevated,” Utah has done an excellent job of telling its outdoor recreation story to the world.

On page A6 of today’s Daily Herald, you’ll find a story by reporter Karissa Neely who reports on recent numbers released about our state’s tourism industry.

She learned that tourists spent a record high of $7.5 billion during 2013, with $6.4 billion of that spent by out-of-state visitors.

Those are big numbers.

Those are also good numbers for our local economy because of the compounding effect of those dollars in the form of related jobs and local businesses.


We hear complaints from time to time that Utah has done too good of a job marketing our peculiarity. It is getting harder to find places where you can get away because too many people have discovered our secret places.

A few years ago my boys and I created a Google map that labeled some of our favorite places, places where we had been hiking or camping or fishing or just hanging out. We’ve got a spot on Morro Bay in northern California where we spent an afternoon poking star fish in the tide pools, another on Rehoboth Beach on the southern coast of Delaware where we threw french fries to sea gulls as they hung in mid-air in the ocean breeze.

But most of our spots are here in Utah. From Bear Lake to the Four Corners, we’ve been lucky enough traverse the Beehive State and see many of its wonders.

We’ve not quite made it to all of the “Mighty 5,” but we have checked off Zion, Bryce and Canyon Lands, although to be honest we only saw a piece of Canyonlands National Park from the bottom of the Labyrinth Canyon during a canoe trip along the Green River. And the trip to Bryce Canyon National Park was marred by an impromptu alternator repair job in the campground. The kids got to see the park while I spent several hours under our Dodge van swearing at various engine parts.

One of my favorite trips was a weekend backpack trip I made with my then 8-year-old daughter into some high mountain lakes in the Uintas. We still have the bright pink backpack that she had to have before we left the sporting goods store.

I can’t tell you how much money I’ve contributed to the billions of dollars collected each year by the tourism industry, but I will say I’ve done my part.

Daily Herald executive editor David Kennard can be reached at 801-344-2530 or dkennard@heraldextra.com or on Twitter @davidbkennard.

EDITOR’S NOTES: Journalist caught in middle of breaking news

This column originally appeared in the April 21, 2015 edition of the (Provo) Daily Herald


Veteran Daily Herald reporter Genelle Pugmire found herself in the middle of a breaking news situation Tuesday night in Provo when the City Center was locked down by police and SWAT members.

Our key editors had just dismissed from our daily afternoon news meeting to finalize what news stories would go online and what would be in print the next day when we heard police dispatchers talking about a man with a gun.

If you’ve ever visited our offices — and you are always welcome to come in — you’ve heard the police scanner squawking away. Mostly its conversations are about minor traffic crashes or other non-emergency situations.

As journalists, we screen out most of the chatter. I’m pretty sure I’ve honed those skills from an early age. While growing up my mother would listen to her little battery-powered transistor radio that she carried in her apron while she puttered around the house. It was always tuned to talk radio, Denver Broncos game analysis or chart-toppers such as Glen Campbell, Dionne Warwick and other easy listening favorites.

But when we heard the words "gun," "bomb" and "mayor’s office" in the same sentence, almost in unison everyone in the newsroom said, “Did you hear that?”

A quick call to the Provo Police yielded only a busy signal. We immediately sent a photographer and a reporter to Provo’s City Center.

I sent a text message to Genelle asking where she was at that moment. A minute or two later she called and said police were locking down the third floor of the City Center after a report from police that there was possibly a man with a gun and a bomb in the building.

Genelle was covering the regular Provo Municipal Council work session when all of this started happening.

“I was on the phone with you when an officer with an AK-47 came in and said we needed to evacuate the building right now,” Genelle later told me.

I told her to stay safe and record everything that was happening.

Another call came in from Barbara Christiansen, who was the first reporter on the scene outside the building. She reported that crews were shutting down streets about two blocks in every direction — including the streets around the Covey Center for the Arts, where a group of young children was attending a dance class.

I then got this email from Genelle, who was still sitting on the third floor of the City Center taking notes, “Provo police notified the city council during Tuesday work session there was a man claiming he had a bomb and a gun on the third floor of the building. The council meets on the third floor. The Mayor’s office is on the opposite side. We are evacuating.”

By that time we had already had an initial news story posted to heraldextra.com and were working on updates as fast as possible.

Genelle (@gpugmire) was tweeting as rapidly as possible, despite being assisted out of the building by police and Mayor John Curtis.

After the first 15 minutes or so, the chatter on the police scanner begin to take a less excited tone, indicating things were beginning to come under control. We began to think maybe it was a prank call. It later turned out it was actually a false alarm and police are now investigating the caller.

By early evening we had crafted a fairly detailed story about the situation. The question then became, “How do we play this in the newspaper?”

The advancement of the Internet as a breaking news tool is fabulous, but we are reminded every day that once we post the news of the day, we then prepare it for print.

Typically we don’t report false alarms as news items because it encourages attention seekers, but it is hard to ignore when the City Center is evacuated because of death threats on the city’s entire elected body.

That’s why you’ll find Genelle's and Barbara’s story — accompanied by Sammy Jo Hester’s photos on A1, above the fold today. You can find more content online in the form of video shot by videographer Casey Adams.

As journalists, we rarely find ourselves in the middle of news situations as Genelle was today; but when it happens it reminds us what it must be like for the people we write about.

My thanks go out to all those who were involved in Tuesday’s incident and to those who helped our staff be safe and get timely information to the people of Provo.

Daily Herald executive editor David Kennard can be reached at 801-344-2530 or dkennard@heraldextra.com or on Twitter @davidbkennard.

Notes from an Angels Landing rookie

By David Kennard
Daily Herald

ZION NATIONAL PARK -- The Angels Landing Trail in Zion National Park is the roller coaster of outdoor hikes.
The 2.5 mile trail to Angels Landing takes hikers on a very aggressive, but mostly paved trail 1,488 feet above the Virgin River, which quietly winds its way through Utah’s first national park.
There are two numbers there that are important: 1,488 feet and 2.5 miles. Any fifth-grader putting that on a graph will understand that that’s a steep hike, really steep. Imagine going on a two-mile walk then taking the stairs to the top of the Empire State Building (1,250 feet) or the The Willis Tower in Chicago (1,451 feet), and back again.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE 

Kennard: World Trade Center opening a significant news event

This column originally appeared in the Daily Herald

By David Kennard

People around the country remember where they were when they first heard about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that leveled the World Trade Center.

It’s been just a little more than 13 years now, but on Monday One World Trade Center opened for business to become America's tallest building at 104 stories.

Any journalists you talk to will remember that day as one of the longest of their careers. It was one of those surreal stories that just continued to get worse and worse as the hours progressed.

No one enjoyed covering the news that day.

Even the most cynical journalists will tell you they were rocked by the horror of the events of that Tuesday morning. Perhaps that is why, after weeks and weeks of continued coverage, news organizations continued to try and find new ways of reporting the horror.

So many questions about the attack continued to plague reporters around the country, but even months and now years later we are still asking the biggest question: Why did this happen?

Reporters are good at answering the “who, what, when, where and how” questions. It’s the “why” questions that are the hardest to answer in this job.

I can tell you as a journalist watching the horror unfold that day, that question still haunts me.

I had moved from Provo to work for a sister paper in Ohio two years previous and still remember that incredibly long day 13 years ago.

I was working in the newsroom when the first reports of a fire at the World Trade Center began to break. It was an afternoon delivery paper with a 9 a.m. press start, so the presses had just started rolling, when we learned that early reports were that a plane had actually slammed into the North Tower.

We immediately turned on the television, which had pre-empted “The Price is Right” to cover the weird story.

In those first few minutes, terrorism wasn’t even a thought. Pilot error, instrument malfunction, misdirection from traffic control. All those ideas were the first to be floated out there by news organizations.

I remember quickly searching online for some historical context. I found a story about a small plane that had hit the Empire State Building some years prior.

And then the unbelievable happened.

I watched the live footage as a news camera caught a second plane making a wide circle in the background as it targeted the North Tower.

That was one of those “stop the presses” moments.

Everyone on staff paused for moment to again try to understand what they were watching. And then the phones began ringing as readers, reporters and anyone sitting at a computer began compiling information.

The photos, of course led the day. Images from every source started filing in. The arguments about what to lead with became heated. Editors were shouting and the press crew wanted to know when they could have material to begin running again.

We held the presses for three hours so we could get an edition out the same day. Paper carriers were upset because they had to wait, but we were among the first to have news of the event in the same day.

Other papers across the country printed an extra edition, but most dailies had to wait until Wednesday morning to get the news in their regular editions.

Journalist still consider the event one of the most significant breaking news stories of all time.

Today, 13 years later, I consider the opening of One World Trade Center a remarkable end to a story that I’m glad I was around to report on. I hope I never have to report on anything like it again.

Daily Herald executive editor David Kennard can be reached at 801-344-2530 or dkennard@heraldextra.com or on Twitter @davidbkennard.