Hansen wins Utah GOP chairmanship

LAYTON -- The Utah Republican Party has elected Dave Hansen as its new chairman.

The party held its organizing convention in Layton on Saturday and Hansen won the top post with more than 51 percent of nearly 1,800 votes cast. He beat Steve Harmsen and Brian Jenkins.

Hansen replaces Stan Lockhart, who announced in January that he would not seek a second term.

Hansen says he plans to make some improvements to the state party, including making sure its core values are clear to the public and giving as much assistance as possible to party organizations in each of the state's 29 counties.

Hansen is a former political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and former executive director of the Utah Republican Party and Montana Republican Party.

Jeffs's lawyer reaches plea deal in case

ST. GEORGE -- An attorney for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has agreed to a plea deal on a misdemeanor intoxication charge.

Walter "Wally" Bugden was arrested Feb. 7 by Ivins police and booked into jail. He was charged with class C misdemeanor intoxication.

Court records show Bugden pleaded no contest to the charge as part of a plea in abeyance on April 16 in Washington County Justice Court. The records show he also paid a fee of $182.

Bugden, 58, represented Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in a 2007 criminal trial.

A St. George jury convicted Jeffs on two first-degree felony counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in the marriage of an underage girl.

Black grass bug infestation wiped out

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah agriculture officials say an infestation of a bug that feeds on crops like alfalfa has been eradicated.

The black grass bug populates in cycles and can be extremely destructive if left unchecked.

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and private landowners worked together to stop the infestation before it grew out of control. More than 25,000 acres of pasture, commercial grains and other crops were infested by the native insect.

The state said this week that it had received requests from more than 50 landowners asking for help to fight the insect.

More than $250,000 of federal insect funds contributed to the aerial and ground treatment of the infested areas.

1 dead in fiery crash on I-80 west of Salt Lake

SALT LAKE CITY -- One person has died in a vehicle crash that closed Interstate 80 for several hours near the Salt Lake County-Tooele County line.

Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Cameron Roden says an SUV crossed the median and collided head-on with a semi pulling three trailers on Saturday morning.

A fire started, engulfing the SUV and part of the semitrailer, The Salt Lake Tribune reported on its Web site Saturday. Roden says the SUV driver was killed and the semi driver was flown to University Hospital in critical condition.

Part of the semitrailer was loaded with ammunition and Roden says some of it went off as emergency crews worked to clean up the crash.

Roden says troopers think the SUV was cut off by a pickup truck that did not stop at the scene.