Utah

Bus with Chinese-speaking tourists crashes in Utah; 4 dead

PANGUITCH, Utah (AP) — A tour bus crashed on a highway running through the red-rock landscape of southern Utah on Friday, killing four people from China and injuring dozens more.

The bus from of Southern California rolled onto a guard rail, crushing its roof and ramming the rail’s vertical posts into the cab, Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Nick Street said.

Five passengers remained in critical condition Friday night, and the death toll could rise, he said.

Suspect in Utah student's death charged in 2018 assault

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The highly publicized arrest of a man in the killing of a Utah college student this summer prompted a woman to come forward and report that he had sexually abused her during a dinner date at his home in 2018, authorities said Tuesday.

Ayoola Ajayi is charged in a new court filing with assaulting the woman he met on a dating app. The woman reported the crime after Ajayi was charged in June with murder and kidnapping in the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.

Utah won’t get enhanced funding for partial Medicaid boost

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration has rejected Utah’s planned request for enhanced federal funding for partial expansion of its Medicaid program, state officials said Saturday.

A statement released Saturday by Gov. Gary Herbert, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Brad Wilson, all Republicans, said the White House told Utah officials late Friday that the state’s waiver request awaiting formal submission wouldn’t be approved.

Man charged in Utah college student's death appears in court

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A tech worker charged in the death of a Utah college student made his first court appearance Monday as friends of the slain woman held hands in the front row.

Ayoola A. Ajayi appeared by video from jail alongside a court-appointed attorney during a quick hearing Monday to set a future court date. He did not speak or enter a plea to murder, kidnapping and other charges.

Tech worker charged with murder in death of college student

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A tech worker was charged Wednesday with murder and kidnapping in the death of a Utah college student whose body was found in a wooded area with her arms bound behind her.

Prosecutors said Ayoola A. Ajayi, 31, was the last person Mackenzie Lueck communicated with before she disappeared on June 17.

She died of blunt force trauma to the head, and her body was found with her arms bound with zip ties and ropes, District Attorney Sim Gill said while announcing the charges.

Utah police say body of slain college student recovered

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The body of a slain college student has been recovered in a Utah canyon about 85 miles away from a backyard in Salt Lake City where other remains were found last week, police said Friday.

The disclosure came in the case involving 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck.

Authorities previously said some of her charred remains and personal belongings were found in a suspect’s backyard in Salt Lake City. The body was discovered Wednesday in Logan Canyon, north of the city.

Police arrest man suspected of killing Utah college student

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah college student missing 11 days was abducted and killed and her remains burned in the yard of a man now facing aggravated murder and other charges, authorities said Friday.

Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown, who became emotional at times during a morning press conference, said Ayoola A. Ajayi will be charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping, obstruction of justice and desecration of a body in the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck.

He was arrested without incident Friday morning by a SWAT team.

Utah holds exhibition to honor Chinese railroad workers' contribution

SALT LAKE CITY, the United States, May 11 (Xinhua): A photo exhibition is held in the western American state of Utah throughout May to commemorate thousands of Chinese workers' contributions to building the first U.S. transcontinental railroad.

The bilingual photography exhibition, curated by Stanford University and featuring the stories of the Chinese rail workers during the construction of the railroad in 1860s, runs from May 1 to 31 in Park City near Salt Lake City. It also travels to other parts of Utah.

Utah weigh bans on shackling jailed moms during childbirth

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Michelle Aldana gave birth to her first child chained to a hospital bed.

Then serving time at the Utah state prison on a drug charge, she says she labored through the difficult 2001 birth for nearly 30 hours, her ankles bleeding as the shackles on both her legs and one arm dug in. “I felt like a farm animal,” she says.

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