Author: Mariah Wheeler

OGDEN, Utah – With 2,614 new coronavirus cases reported Wednesday, Utah’s rate of new diagnoses held steady, but with 21 new deaths, the virus continued to exact a high toll. And with 25% of tests coming back positive — a near-record high — it’s likely that the virus is spreading undetected in many communities. At its highest point, in mid-December, the percentage of positive tests reached just over 27%. “That’s really high. That’s concerning,” Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious diseases physician at Intermountain Medical Center, said in a news conference Wednesday. “I think it’s really indicating … that not enough…

UTAH – Coal remains king in Utah’s Emery County despite bankruptcies, shrinking demand and obstacles shipping it oversees. The Bureau of Land Management quietly signed off on a plan to expand a Utah coal producer’s federal lease by 7.2 million tons, adding two or three years of additional production from Emery County’s Lila Canyon mine. But at the same time it shelved a proposal to issue a much larger lease to the mine’s operator, the reorganized Murray Energy Corp., which recently emerged from bankruptcy with a new name and corporate structure. Even as mines shutter all over the United States in the face of…