Genola

The devil's in the details, and county commissioners are finding themselves in minutiae hell as they sign off on cost overruns for the jail expansion, right down to the wiring for the toilets.

On Tuesday the commission unanimously approved an additional $30,000 for low-voltage wiring of the commodes, but not without first complaining that they would have rather voted the other way.

Utah County's population keeps growing and the sheriff's office is growing along with it. But it's the people who come here for the weekend, not the people who come here to live, who are fueling that law enforcement growth.

The Utah County Sheriff's Office has grown by nearly 100 employees since Sheriff Jim Tracy took over in 2003, a phenomenon that Tracy said is mostly due to increased use in the Utah County's canyons and other recreational

Utah County finally got a decent snowstorm; a boon for ski resorts, but a bother for motorists and Provo parade goers who watched the Christmas Parade in the snow.

The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings Saturday for the Uinta Mountains and the Wasatch Plateau.

Five years ago, Beth* was diagnosed with lung and liver cancer. Given six months to live, she watched as her husband left her.

"My ex-husband couldn't handle that," she said. "It resulted in a divorce that was really hard on my kids."

Instead of falling into depression, she embarked on round of chemotherapy that lasted an entire year and forced the cancer into remission.

Everything looked good until a year ago, when the cancer came roaring

High-speed commuter rail will be coming to Utah County in a little more than three years and some of the county's leaders got a preview Friday.

The Utah Transit Authority conducted a test ride on FrontRunner, the commuter train that will run from Pleasant View to Salt Lake City starting in the spring.

When George W. Bush pitched his idea for sweeping education reform at the beginning of his presidency, Rep. Chris Cannon was on board.

But six years later as the act is up for reauthorization, Cannon, R-Utah, has jumped ship, saying the promises of local control never materialized, and instead impossible federal expectations are a burden on schools.

For years, lawmakers on the Hill could be compelled to vote on a bill whether they had a conflict of interest or not.

"I can send UHP or the sergeant-at-arms to drag you back to cast an up or down vote," said Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo.

That long-standing issue will be addressed during the 2008 legislative session via a bill sponsored by Bramble that would allow lawmakers to recuse themselves from a vote in the event of

Charges have been filed in a wreck that killed a Mona man near Genola in September.

The Utah County Attorney's Office on Tuesday filed charges of automobile homicide and driving under the influence against 20-year-old Teisha Painter of Mona. An initial appearance for Painter in Provo's 4th District Court has not been scheduled yet.

Painter was charged in the death of Aaron Newton of Mona, who was a passenger in her vehicle.

The Monticello couple accused of kidnapping their daughter to prevent her wedding took a plea deal on Wednesday that keeps them out of jail and avoids a jury trial scheduled for next week.

Lemuel and Julia Redd, whose kidnapping trial was to begin on Monday, pleaded guilty to charges of custodial interference, a class A misdemeanor.

BYU

At the sixth annual Deloitte Tax Case Study National Competition, Brigham Young University won the undergraduate division and took second place in the graduate division.

As the first place winners, BYU will receive $10,000 and individual team members will each receive a $1,000 scholarship.

Whitney Sorensen has been taking online and on-campus classes and violin lessons at UVSC for about a year, but she's not a traditional college student. First of all, she's 14, and second, she's a home-school student.

• SHE USES THE UTAH VALLEY STATE COLLEGE courses to supplement the curriculum she's learning at home, much like a high school student would do through concurrent enrollment courses.

Sorensen is one of Utah County's more

Home values may be dropping, and food and gasoline prices are higher this year. But that didn't stop hordes of bleary-eyed, tryptophan-high bargain hunters from braving bone-chilling cold in the wee hours of Black Friday for extreme bargains at malls, and big box and department stores throughout Utah County and the state.

Retailers like Mervyns, J.C.