(FAIRVIEW) – The Utah Department of Transportation is warning motorists to be alert of falling rocks on state highways. UDOT Public Involvement Manager Kevin Kitchen said that several rocks measuring up to four-by-four feet had fallen on SR-31 up Fairview Canyon over the weekend. Kitchen said that crews took about an hour to remove the rocks from the canyon roadway about two miles east of Fairview. The canyon road was not closed during the rock removal. Kitchen said canyon roads in Utah are always susceptible to rock slides this time of year with melting snow on rock faces.

(MANTI) – An ongoing survey conducted by the Utah League of Cities and Towns has found that many rural communities still struggle to meet their financial needs. The survey found that 65% of responding mayors and managers statewide were “less able” to meet the financial needs of running their cities in 2010 and 57% said they believe they’ll be even less able to address those same issues in 2011. Manti Mayor Natasha Madsen says her city is in better shape financially that it was several years ago because a significant amount of bond and interest payments will be retired this year. She joked that Manti and surrounding communities are challenged all the time but are used to running a tight ship. Madsen noted that many vehicles in Manti’s fleet are circa 1975-85 and city employees made do with only a one percent raise last year and the city managed to scrounge the extra $7-8,000 needed to buy Christmas decorations. Respondents to the survey also expressed concern that the bursting housing bubble hurt their cities, with declining property values.

(BEAVER) – The Bureau of Land Management is inviting the public to attend several economic workshops in February to discuss changes in the economic role of public lands management. BLM officials say the meetings will be held in Beaver, Iron and Washington Counties. The BLM says the economy of the West has diversified and the uses of and demands on public lands have diversified as well. They say that recreation, scenery, wildlife habitat, solitude and ecological functions are becoming increasingly important economic attributes of public lands. The BLM says conserving healthy ecosystems and protecting natural resources are growing factors in the economic development and success of nearby communities. The workshops are slated for Feb. 7 from noon to 2pm at the Commission Chambers in Beaver, on Feb. 8 from 10am to 2pm at the public library in Cedar City and from 4-6pm Feb. 8 at the Community Arts Center in St. George.

(LOA)-Loa-based Garkane Energy Cooperative Inc. was recognized by the state of Utah Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve committee with a Department of Defense Seven Seals award during the company’s quarterly Board of Directors meeting last Tuesday.

The Seven Seals award is presented to individuals and organizations whose actions confirm their support for the National Guard and reserve.

Garkane’s board of directors has authorized a 50 percent credit, or reduction in the monthly residential electric bill of active duty servicemen/servicewomen.

The credit is then given to service members who have a Garkane Energy account in their name and are called to leave their normal job for active military duty.

The credit is then given to their family for the duration of their deployment while the Garkane Cooperative serves a 16,000-square mile radius covering south central Utah and northern Arizona.

(VANCOUVER, British Columbia)-As reported in the Salt Lake Tribune Sunday, a Canadian judge is now considering a landmark challenge to Canada’s ban on polygamy as unconstitutional, a case being closely inspected in Utah.

Last week, testimony ended in the proceedings which were sparked by the Canadian branch of the polygamous sect nestled on the Utah-Arizona border in Hilldale and Colorado City, Ariz.

Since last November, British Columbia Chief Justice Robert Bauman has heard from nearly 20 witnesses, some of whom are Utahns, and taken numerous affidavits and video testimonies concerning plural marriage.

The justice is expected to issue a ruling later this year on whether an anti-polygamy law dating to 1892 violates Canada’s guarantee of freedom of religion.

Utah Attorney General’s Office spokesman Paul Murphy said his office will be watching this ruling closely.

After testimony concludes, lawyers on both sides of the argument will prepare closing remarks, which will begin in late March.

Although Bauman’s eventual ruling will likely be appealed, the outcome is poised to influence decisions about whether polygamists should be prosecuted in British Columbia and the rest of Canada, a law officer with the British Columbia Supreme Court said.

Meanwhile, University of Utah law professor Wayne McCormack says the Canadian decision will likely have minimal, if any, direct effect on U.S. policy toward plural marriage although he did say it would likely resuscitate the interest in polygamy in the states should it go through.

(CEDAR CITY)-Although Iron County’s population is increasing at a healthy clip, county officials say there is enough wilderness in the area and are amending the county’s general plan to reflect opposition for more wilderness areas.

Last week, the commission discussed the possible addition of wilderness areas concerning an initiative announced recently by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar which requires the Bureau of Land Management to inventory property for possible designation as wild lands.

Three chunks of BLM land in the county have already been designated as wilderness study areas along with the already designated Ash Down Gorge Wilderness Area while commissioners believe that is enough.

Iron County Commission Chairman Alma Adams says the county prefers that the mostly BLM lands in the county be designated for multiple-use as managing the land as “wilderness” could tie up the property for 30 years or more while it goes through the designation process at Congress.

Thus, Adams and his commission colleagues have ordered the planning commission to include their concerns in an ordinance, in the county’s resource-management plan and in its general plan.

Republican Utah Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee are also leery of Salazar’s order which negates a 2003 agreement between then-governor Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton which stripped BLM’s authority to create wilderness areas.

Hatch calls such distinctions “devastating” to rural Utah and that Utahns are tired of being “dictated to” by the federal government.

Gina Ginouves, the planning coordinator for Cedar City’s BLM field office says her office is in the process of revising its resource management plan for 2.1 million acres in Iron and Beaver counties.

Ginouves says the work is in its early stages as it probably wouldn’t be ready for three more years.

Mark Ward, the senior policy analyst and public lands counsel for the Utah Association of Counties said the BLM’s Cedar City field office is the latest of 10 field offices around the state to update its resource management plan.

Ward said counties considering wilderness and other designations can use resolutions or ordinances to clarify their position on management efforts.

(SALT LAKE CITY)-While affinity fraud has been a perpetual problem in Utah, Democratic Senator Ben McAdams of Salt Lake City is seeking to rectify the problem, via his new bill, SB101.

The bill, in essence, is supposed to protect Utahns from being defrauded by those closest to them who hold the highest levels of trust.

The bill would modify the Utah Uniform Securities Act, which would exact harsher penalties upon those who use “undue influence” to exploit the trust, dependence or fear of another person to gain their confidence” while “deceptively influencing” their position.

Harsher penalties may also be affixed should the fraud victim be a “vulnerable adult.”

The bill would also enable prosecutors to file second-degree felony charges in such cases.

Former U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman, who now works in private practice, said individuals should be wary of situations where someone wants to hold a meeting comparable to a church meeting and use religious terms to sell their idea, especially since many affinity fraud perpetrators are affiliated or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Utah’s predominant religion.

Tolman said their are certain warning signs affiliated with affinity fraud that can warn people of impending danger, such as proposals involving promissory notes, lack of security and promises of high interest return.

(SALT LAKE CITY)-Utah’s Attorney General has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the life without parole sentence given to a man who killed a 6-year-old girl in a house fire he set.

A writ of certiorari petition was filed after the Utah Supreme Court threw out the sentence of Mark Anthony Ott after the 2002 incident.

In September 2002, Ott cut the phone lines for his estranged wife, Donna, while also stabbing her teenage daughter, Sarah Gooch, when she tried to intervene and finally dousing the home with gasoline and setting it on fire.

After a five-day hearing, a jury sentenced Ott to life without parole while in January 2010, the Utah Supreme Court overturned Ott’s sentence and ruled his rights were violated when Donna Ott and Gooch testified he was remorseless.

The petition is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case to address whether a crime victim has the right to comment on the character of the defendant, the circumstances of the crime and the appropriate sentence.

(DUCK CREEK VILLAGE)-With the halfway point of Utah’s snow season approaching Tuesday, state officials say this is already the most profitable winter in the state since 2005.

Virtually everywhere throughout the state, the snowpack is well above average while the only place with average snowpack is the Escalante River drainage.

Duck Creek Village, due east of Cedar City, despite being one of the state’s snowiest places traditionally, set a record for most snowfall on the ground January 1 with numbers still totaling around 12 feet.

Throughout much of Utah, snowpack is as much as 180 percent of normal, while in many rural areas, such as Duck Creek Village, it is 200 percent of average.

The state is expected to benefit from soil-moisture content in many parts of Utah as the ground soaked up tremendous amounts of water during early season rainstorms which were followed by torrential snow in many areas.

(PRICE)-Sunday, a Roosevelt man died following what investigators are calling an industrial accident at an oil field near Nine-Mile Canyon.

The 32-year-old Cody Earl McMullin, a water truck driver, had been drawing water from a pit at a location in the Wells Draw area of Nine Mile Canyon when he climbed over a safety fence and onto the pump jack at the well site, according to Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant John Crowley.

Authorities say McMullin fell into the pump jack and suffered fatal crash injuries while his body was discovered by other oil field workers upon their arrival at the scene Sunday morning.

Crowley believes the incident could have occurred anytime between 12:30 and 7:00 a.m., he said.

The sergeant also said the Occupational Health and Safety Administration is also involved in the probe.

(SALT LAKE CITY)-The Chevron pipeline that suffered two major oil leaks in six months at Red Butte Creek may restart soon, with or without Salt Lake City’s approval.

Before the pipeline could be opened, Houston-based Chevron had to jump through numerous hoops, such as putting in a formal request to the Federal Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to restart the pipeline.

Chevron spokesman Mickey Driver said last Friday that within a 24-hour period, the company had been granted permission to restart the pipeline while the company plans to reopen it February 1.

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker said the city first saw the company’s restart plan late Thursday afternoon.

Becker says Chevron’s reassurances have not quelled his concerns because the city has not had an opportunity to review the restart plan and he feels Driver went around Salt Lake City authority in obtaining the federal permission.

Chevron insists it has performed extensive inspections, modified operational procedures, improved control center leak detection capability and implemented external surveillance processes.