Draper

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

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.

Like their scantily clad stylists, the prospect of a Bikini Cuts opening in Utah County has been a bit of a tease.

Between 2005 and 2006, the Utah-based mostly-for-men salon promised to open up shop in Provo. The situation got so far as to include Municipal Council meetings and radio ads that poked more than a little fun at the valley's buttoned-down image.

But just as things seem to have quieted down, the salon whose name leaves little

WASHINGTON -- Government health regulators recommended adding label precautions about neurological problems seen in children who have taken flu drugs made by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday released its safety review of Roche's Tamiflu and Glaxo's Relenza.

As you and millions of other Americans go to bed tonight, your kidneys will be kicking into overdrive. Turkey, yams, pie. It all has to be sent through the body's filter if you don't want to die of a nasty backup of toxic material. Few people know the feeling of having traitorous kidneys, and fewer still are as gratefully aware of a healthy kidney as BYU professor Diana McGuire.

Riding high to bed ridden

In 1968, in a small community

First rain and sleet fell, then the temperature dropped and it started to snow. Thanksgiving weekend 2005 was wet, cold and dangerous. The roads were covered in sheets of black ice when BYU senior Katie Renville and her mother were heading to Provo so Renville could return to school after the holiday break.

On Interstate 15 their Jeep rolled after hitting black ice.

Twelve-foot-high crosses honoring deceased Utah troopers along state highways are not an illegal public endorsement of religion, a judge said.

U.S. District Judge David Sam said the 14 crosses communicate a secular message.

"Even classic religious symbols may have various meanings and purposes depending on their context," he said Tuesday.