Utah's Top 10 News Stories Of 2005
 
The Associated Press
KUTV Channel 2
 
SALT LAKE CITY Here are the top 10 state news stories of 2005 as voted on by Utah members of The Associated Press:


1) The misery of flooding in southern Utah – first in January and then again in August – forced dozens of people from their homes, knocked out utilities and washed out roads and bridges. Beleaguered Gunlock also was evacuated in June because of wildfires.


2) Mark Hacking was sentenced in June to six years to life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder for shooting his wife, Lori, in the head and dumping her body in a trash bin. The state Board of Pardons and Parole set his first parole hearing for 2034.


3)(tie) The Legislature approved an out-of-court settlement in a November special session that will allow construction of the Legacy Parkway after four years of delay. The 14-mile parkway to Salt Lake's northern suburbs will be a restricted road for cars and light trucks;


And Utah relief providers were swamped with offers of help as 600 hurricane refugees from the Gulf Coast were evacuated to Camp Williams in August and September. About 400 people opted to stay in Utah.


5) Eight Utah State University agriculture students and an instructor were killed in September when their school van blew a tire and rolled over on the way back to the Logan campus from a farm field trip. Nearly 5,000 people attended a public memorial service in November.


6) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September authorized a license for a disposal site for 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel for Private Fuel Storage, a utility consortium, on the Goshute Indians' Skull Valley reservation. The state and its congressional delegation are aggressively fighting the plan.


7) The attorneys general of Utah and Arizona cracked down on polygamy in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., including removing fundamentalist church leader Warren Jeffs and others from management of the United Effort Plan Trust, which holds the church's real estate assets. Jeffs, 49, has not been seen publicly by church outsiders for more than a year. He is considered a fugitive by the FBI and has been indicted in Arizona on charges of sexual assault and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct on a minor.


8) (tie) Eleven-year-old Brennan Hawkins, who vanished from a Boy Scout camp, was found alive and in good condition after spending four days lost in the rugged Uinta mountains;


And the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the sale of Salt Lake City's Main Street to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which turned a block-long section of the street into an extension of its Temple Square gardens.


10) (three-way tie) Utah's winter avalanche season claimed the lives of eight people, the highest death toll since the state began keeping records in 1951;

The state decided to replace regular driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants with driving privilege cards that cannot be used as official identification, a move which opponents said relegated many minorities to second-class citizens;

And Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, with secondary hubs in Salt Lake City and Cincinnati, filed for bankruptcy, pushed by a steep jump in fuel prices as well as competition from low-cost carriers. The company has lost more than $11 billion over the last five years.
 
KUTV.com
Originally published December 25, 2005
 
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