Published January 1, 2021 at 5:49 PM MST Listen • 4:17
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Teressa McMorris and Joshua Harden of South Jordan welcomed daughter Juliana at 12:09 a.m. This story and more in Friday evening’s news brief.
Friday evening, January 1, 2021
State
State Parks Increase Fees For Utahns
Utah State Parks increased their prices for annual day-use passes starting Friday because of rising operating costs and increased visitation. It ll now cost Utahns $100 dollars for a year $50 dollars for Utah residents 65 and older. That’s up from $75 and $35 dollars respectively. This is the first time in more than 25 years the price of an annual pass has changed for residents.
Listen • 4:15
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The 2021 Sundance Film Festival will be almost entirely virtual this year. That story and more in this morning s news brief.
Friday morning, January 1, 2021
State
Cox Names Pick For Head Of Utah Alcohol Control
Gov.-elect Spencer Cox has named Tiffany Clason as his pick for executive director of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Cox said in a statement he picked Clason because of her experience in the food and beverage industry and in government. She helped launch an artisan bread line in London, as well as worked for politicians from both parties for 12 years. She previously worked for Republican Gov. Gary Herbert’s as his director of constituent services and for Democratic Utah Congressman Ben McAdams as district director.
It may be an understatement to say a lot happened in Utah in 2020, both on and off the Wasatch Front. KUER southern news bureau reporters Kate Groetzinger, based in Bluff, and Lexi Peery, based in St. George, spoke with All Things Considered host Caroline Ballard about some of the biggest stories they covered in 2020.
KUER
Yes, 2020 was the year of COVID. But here’s a timeline of the other interesting stuff that happened in Utah last year, too.
January: Impeachment, Sundance and Condomgate
Jon Reed
The Sundance Film Festival drew more than 100,000 people to Park City Utah.
The year began with the end of the controversial Southern Red Sands Mine project in Kanab, and by the middle of January there was just one thing at the top of people’s minds: Impeachment.
It was also this month that the Utah Department of Health faced its first crisis of the year: Condomgate. Gov. Gary Herbert quickly blocked the HIV prevention campaign that sent out thousands of condoms with sex-positive, Utah-themed packaging. But his plan to protect Utahns from such tastlessness wasn’t entirely effective full sets of the profalactics with messages like “Greatest Sex on Earth and “Explore Utah’s Caves” appeared on Ebay days later.
KUER
KUER reporters covered beats and stories across the state in an unprecedented year of challenges. From racial justice to sexual assault, our coverage has been widespread.
“When I first moved to St. George in the summer of 2019, the kind folks who toured me around town often included a stop at the gates of Red Rock Canyon School which, back then, was more often referred to as the “school that had a riot” only five weeks earlier. That introduction left quite an impression. And for next year and half, I grew fascinated in this industry, which seemed shrouded in whispers of both big profits and widespread mistreatment, and how it came to grow larger in Utah than anywhere else. This fall, Paris Hilton stepped forward with her own stories of abuse in a Utah facility and inspired countless others to do the same. From building trust with former residents to requesting and reviewing hundreds of pages of agency records, the reporting in this piece took months to assemble. I hop