Mackinzie Hamilton

The nation’s largest retailer is trying to head off protests and promised walkouts by some employees.

Frustrated Walmart employees have formed groups like Our Walmart and Making Change at Walmart. They want better wages, benefits like affordable healthcare, and overall better working conditions and for these employees walking out on the busiest sales day of the year is their way of getting the message across.

"Is there anybody in here with us? Jim are you still here?"

Sarah Argyle bends down to inspect a flickering flashlight on the concrete floor. It's the only light in the darkened room.

"Now set it down," Argyle says as she slowly backs away.

Argyle is the manager of Cache Valley Paranormal and tonight the group is investigating an old office building in Logan, H&A Palmer and Sons.

One man is dead and a Logan apartment complex has had to be evacuated as police respond to a reported suicide by carbon monoxide.

Logan Police arrived at The Riverwalk Apartment Complex near the Logan River at about noon on Tuesday after receiving a call that an apartment was filled with chemicals. Authorities began evacuating residents due to suspected high levels of carbon monoxide in the building. A hazmat team was called in and the body of a 26 year old male was recovered. Captain Curtis Hooley says authorities are calling the death a suicide.

There was an NPR feature during All Things Considered last month about Sweet Potatoes and how they are being used to feed villages in Africa. This was especially interesting to me because I had recently returned from Ethiopia where I witnessed villagers in Kerswa Ellala digging pits for their "food storage"— harvested rubber banana plants that can be eaten years after they are buried. Sweet potatoes was a crop I had never thought would work in Africa, but as I sat in my car outside my house listening, I was informed that yes, they do. 

15 miles south of Logan you’ll find a relatively unknown place called Avon, population 367. But this weekend the sleepy farming community will be a little more lively as visitors trickle in to attend the Porcupine Music Festival.

Tucked away in the Bear River Mountain Range, the town’s backdrop of sloping yellow fields and scattered red barns seems more suited for a period piece film. But to festival organizers Rich Macatee and Wade Evans the setting complement the event’s eclectic acts – reggae groups, funk bands with horn sections, folk, world music, singer/songwriters, a west African drum troupe, one year they even hosted a belly dancing troupe. In short, the festival is a celebration of music and community.

Residents living near Lundstrom Park in Logan concerned with a proposed plan to pipe a nearby canal will meet with members of the Logan City and Cache County Councils. About a dozen citizens and members from both councils requested the meeting with engineers to discuss the canal rebuild design. They say the original piping plans included the use of a concrete box culvert to move water through the canal. Now, engineers say they will request a permit from the Logan Planning Commission for a plan that calls for the water to flow through an underground pipe.

It’s a hot summer day in Salt Lake City and Amanda Baldwin is looking for some shade. The 21 year old and dozens of others have endured the noon day sun to walk around the track at Valley View State Park. They’re all participants in the Williams Syndrome Walk, an event designed to raise money for the Williams Syndrome Association, but most importantly it gives people like Amanda and their families a chance to connect.

Amanda's friend explains, "I think Amanda is the best, and kids with Williams syndrome are always generous and loving. Yeah, Williams syndrome is pretty tight."

June 2012 was the 4th warmest on record for the globe according to an analysis by the NOAA National Climatic Data Center. Warmer than normal temperatures were especially prevalent across the Northern Hemisphere, which, when analyzed separately, were the warmest June since records began in 1880.

UPR's Mackenzie Hamilton sat down with State Climatologist Dr. Robert Gillies to try to understand exactly what these June records say about the state of the climate here in Utah and around the world, starting by asking the obvious...

Authorities have charged a man in the murder investigation of a 6-year-old girl whose body was found in a canal near her West Jordan home. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced today at a press conference that 41-year-old Terry Lee Black has been arrested and charged with the June 26 homicide, child abduction, and rape of Sierra Newbold.