This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
This is the place for same-sex marriage
Armed with a powerful ruling from U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby, six Utahns — Derek Kitchen and Moudi Sbeity, Karen Archer and Kate Call, Laurie Wood and Kody Partridge — made their case for same-sex marriage before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. They won a 2-1 decision in June and prepared to do battle again, this time before the U.S. Supreme Court, this time to settle the issue once and for all. But, on Oct. 6, the justices spoke — by not speaking. They refused to hear appeals from five states, effectively legalizing gay marriage in Utah and across most of the nation. Hundreds of gay couples are now married in the Beehive State, legislators are weighing how to rewrite laws to cover that reality and taxpayers are out hundreds of thousands of dollars that went toward Utah's failed appeals.
The state v. Swallow and Shurtleff
The scandal surrounding former Attorneys General John Swallow and Mark Shurtleff has graduated from a nondescript doughnut shop to the stately halls of government, from political backrooms to state courtrooms, from sordid accounts in news stories to itemized allegations in charging documents. The two were arrested and charged July 15 with a range of corruption crimes from bribery to evidence tampering. Shurtleff faces nine felony counts. Swallow, his handpicked successor, is staring at 12, along with two misdemeanors. Both proclaimed their innocence as the unseemly saga continued to produce surreal images: two ex-prosecutors appearing before a judge as defendants and law-enforcement officers searching the Sandy homes of their former bosses.
Love finds a way
It took three years, dozens of ads, hundreds of speeches, thousands of votes and millions of dollars, but Mia Love finally made history in November, becoming the first black Republican woman elected to Congress. Two years after losing by 768 votes to incumbent Rep. Jim Matheson (who opted against an eighth term), she bested Democratic newcomer Doug Owens by 3 percentage points in the 4th District on election night. Come January, she will join Utah's congressional delegation, which for the first time in 14 years, will be an all-GOP troupe.
Police draw guns and scrutiny
Police use of deadly force captured headlines from Missouri to New York to Utah, setting off protests and counter-protests across the nation. Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman deemed two Saratoga Springs officers justified in gunning down a sword-wielding Darrien Hunt. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill backed a Salt Lake City police officer in the shooting of an unarmed Dillon Taylor outside a convenience store. He also supported the actions of a Unified Police officer who shot dead a suicidal knife-wielding Luis Quintana. A shooting Gill had declared unjustified, the 2012 death of an unarmed Danielle Willard, led to a manslaughter charge against former West Valley City police detective Shaun Cowley. But a 3rd District judge tossed out the case at a preliminary hearing, and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes refused to appeal that dismissal. Salt Lake City police also cleared an officer who shot a dog, a 2-year-old Weimaraner named Geist, during a search for a missing 3-year-old boy. The inherent perils of policing also hit home in January, when a fugitive shot and killed a 19-year law-enforcement veteran, Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride, setting off a two-county chase that left Deputy Greg Sherwood wounded and the gunman dead.
Healthy Utah runs intocomplications
Republican Gov. Gary Herbert succeeded in negotiating with a Democratic White House in gaining federal approval of his Healthy Utah plan to cover 146,000 people as an alternative to expanding Medicaid. He hasn't had the same luck with Republicans in his own Capitol. A Health Reform Task Force decided against recommending Herbert's plan to the full Legislature, opting instead for two alternatives that would cover far fewer Utahns. The governor still could prevail, but he seemingly will need help from moderate Republicans and, wait for it, Democrats.
Lost little ones
In April, Darren West, who had spent eight years in prison for drug crimes before going to a Salt Lake City halfway house, went to his Pleasant Grove home to retrieve some belongings. There, he made a grisly discovery: a baby's remains stuffed into a sealed box. Police came and found six more infant corpses similarly stowed away. West's estranged wife, Megan Huntsman, is charged with six counts of murder for allegedly killing six of her own newborn babies between 1996 and 2006. A seventh child is believed to have been stillborn. Police say Huntsman, who has three older daughters, was hooked on meth during that time and made the choice between feeding her addiction or caring for the babies.
Heavy medal — Utahns rock the Olympics
The world's Olympic powers flexed their muscles at the Sochi Winter Games — Russia, the United States, Norway, Canada, the Netherlands and Utah. Yes, Utah is part of Team USA, but if the Beehive State were its own country, it, too, would have ranked among the global leaders. In all, 15 Utah residents hauled home golds, silvers or bronzes in February. Park City's Sage Kotsenburg got the Beehive buzz going early on with a victory in the new snowboard slopestyle event. Other Utah stars included Ted Ligety (gold in the giant slalom), Joss Christensen (gold in ski slopestyle), Noelle Pikus-Pace (silver in skeleton) and Steven Holcomb (two bronzes in bobsled). A knee injury kept world champion Sarah Hendrickson from landing on the medals stand in Sochi, but she and two other Park City athletes, Jessica Jerome and Lindsey Van, still flew high, competing in the first-ever Olympic women's ski-jumping event.
Ins and outs of Mormonism
Kate Kelly: out. The Ordain Women leader was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in June. General women's meeting: in. After some confusion and mixed signals, the twice yearly gathering is now officially a General Conference session. News media: out. Reporters and photographers were barred from downtown Salt Lake City's Temple Square during General Conferences. Mormons at the Vatican: in. Top LDS officials participated last month in a Catholic-sponsored conference on marriage that included a historic handshake between Pope Francis and Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the governing First Presidency. Joseph Smith's polygamy: out. LDS officials released yet another essay about sometimes-sticky historical and theological issues, this one explaining their founder's plural wives, including marriages to young teens and women already wedded to other men. Foreign languages at General Conference: in. For the first time, several top LDS leaders delivered their sermons in their native tongues. Chi Hong (Sam) Wong, a member of the First Quorum of Seventy, was the first to do so, giving his speech in Cantonese. Women at priesthood meetings: out, then in. After repeatedly failing to gain entry to the all-male general priesthood session, dozens of women were allowed to attend the proceedings at satellite locations in Provo, Ogden, Logan and elsewhere.
The bitter ballot battle
It may be the mother of all intraparty challenges: A Republican-dominated Legislature adopted — and a GOP governor signed — SB54, paving the way for political candidates to get on Utah's primary ballots without going through the current caucus-and-convention system. The change, a compromise meant to pacify the Count My Vote group and boost Utah's slumping voter turnout, is set to take effect in 2016. Trouble is, the Utah Republican Party doesn't like the new approach and is suing to dump it, arguing it is unconstitutional for the state to dictate how it picks its nominees.
Fed up
The turf war between Utah and the federal government escalated on several fronts. Legislators pressed forward with their push to take control of more than 31 million acres overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. In May, San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman led an ATV ride in southeastern Utah's Recapture Canyon to protest federal "overreach." Lyman and three other Utahns face misdemeanor conspiracy and trespassing charges for their excursion through the BLM-closed area. In southwestern Utah, ranchers and local leaders ramped up pressure on the BLM to remove hundreds of wild horses from parched territory. Much of this rangeland wrangling came after the feds backed down in an April standoff with armed supporters of Nevada cattleman Cliven Bundy, who owed more than $1 million in grazing fees.
Air apparent
Anti-smog advocates reached for the sky, but fell short when Utah lawmakers refused to allow state regulators to adopt standards that exceed federal rules. But they did air dozens of measures designed to battle pollution, including efforts to get cleaner school buses and low-emission cars on the road and to reduce wood burning as heat sources. At the top of the governor's clean-air push: funneling more Tier 3, low-sulfur fuels into Utah gas tanks.
And so much more …
Utah motorists sped up, able to cruise legally at 70 mph on freeways across most of the state. Student scores went down, largely because the state switched to new SAGE tests. The Utah State Prison and the Hoberman Arch, an iconic sculpture from the 2002 Winter Olympics, are having a hard time finding new homes. Even homeless services may run into the same problem if a Salt Lake City commission decides it is best to move that campus away from the Pioneer Park area. Accused fraudster Rick Koerber walked after a federal judge threw out federal charges he operated a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Uintah Elementary tossed school lunches of students behind on their meal bills. Diner Jan Harding survived after drinking tea accidentally laced with lye at a South Jordan eatery. Feminist Anita Sarkeesian scrapped a speech at Utah State University after receiving a death threat. A pistol-packing teacher accidentally shot a toilet at Taylorsville's Westbrook Elementary. A buying game broke out at Wasatch Front ski resorts, with Vail purchasing Park City Mountain Resort (ending a long legal feud), former PCMR owner Ian Cumming taking over at Snowbird and Deer Valley snatching Solitude. In sports, Tyrone Corbin departed as Utah Jazz coach; Quin Snyder arrived. Utah and Utah State University won football bowl contests; BYU lost, giving the program a black eye with an ugly post-game brawl. U. gymnasts vaulted to the school's first Pac-12 crown before stumbling at nationals, and BYU's women's volleyball team made an unlikely run to the NCAA title match, falling to perennial powerhouse Penn State.