In today’s episode, host Palak Jayswal talks about her story on 18-year-old Gracelyn Wilkinson, a Utah teen who survived an electrical shock and the struggles that followed. Wilkinson discusses her years of recovery and finding solace in music. 
Then, reporter Tim Fitzpatrick gives us an update on scooter traffic in Salt Lake City.

How an electric shock survivor found solace through music

Reporters Alixel Cabrera and Blake Apgar join host Jeff Parrott on The DailyBuzz to discuss their reporting on homelessness in Salt Lake City County, particularly along the Jordan River. The reporters discuss the potential of sanctioned homeless camps and if the dedicated camping areas could help Utahns without housing.

Can sanctioned homeless camps help Utahns without housing?

Robert Gehrke joins the podcast to talk about his latest column, which is a collection of short stories that had been left in his reporter’s notebook. Gehrke gets to the bottom of a fundraiser for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who the governor appointed as his new energy czar and why a tax lien was taken out against the Utah Republican Party.

Today’s episode also marks the beginning of a hiatus for “The Daily Buzz.” The show will now be on pause while the newsroom looks to improve how we deliver the day’s biggest stories and investigations to Utahns. 

Thank you for being a listener. The Salt Lake Tribune will continue to share our reporting with you in print, online and on all of our social media pages.

Robert Gehrke digs into his reporter’s notebook to share a few stories

Whether the news coming out of Zion National Park over the weekend is good or bad largely depends on a person’s perspective — and whether they have designs on visiting the Southern Utah jewel in the near future.

The optimistic takeaway is that the park was less crowded in 2022, when its visitation dropped from a record 5 million visitors the year prior, according to a news release issued by the National Park Service on Friday. More pessimistically, last year still ranked as the second-busiest in Zion’s history with 4.5 million visitors. Among the 63 official national parks, it saw the third-most visits.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/05/03/zion-national-parks-visitation-is/

Zion National Park’s overcrowding remains a problem in 2023

Utah is just one of nine states that allow swan hunting, and until this year, that included trumpeter swans, considered North America’s largest bird. The trumpeter swans are still struggling to reestablish migratory populations nearly a century after hunters blasted them to near extinction.

But now Utah wildlife officials have proposed banning the taking of trumpeter swans. 

Tundra swans would remain legal to shoot during Utah’s 73-day fall swan-hunting season.

Utah to ban hunting trumpeter swans, North America’s largest bird

Homeless shelters will now be allowed in most areas of Salt Lake City under an ordinance the City Council passed just hours before a self-imposed deadline to set new regulations was due to expire. Now, homeless shelters will be permitted in all zones except those dedicated to manufacturing. Previously, shelters were allowed in only a few zones.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/05/05/new-rules-will-allow-homeless

Salt Lake City sets new rules for placing homeless shelters

Utahns are more likely than most Americans to believe there are good financial times ahead but are still uncertain about the economy.

Consumer sentiment, which measures attitudes, feelings, values, motivations and behaviors of people within a particular market, rose less than one point between March and April 2023, according to a new report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/05/09/how-utahns-feel-about-economy

How Utahns feel about the economy and their financial future

FrontRunner has been serving Utahns for 15 years — but not on Sundays.

The Utah Transit Authority’s commuter rail system serves riders from Ogden to Provo, but only operates Monday through Saturday. The train provides service every 30 minutes during peak travel times on weekdays — and every 60 minutes on Saturdays — but the agency does not currently have the infrastructure to run service on Sundays, a spokesperson said.

However, Sunday service could be added after the ongoing ”FrontRunner Forward” project is completed. The train currently operates on a single track over the majority of its length, according to documents from the Federal Transit Administration, and the project will add an additional track running parallel to certain portions of the 83-mile corridor — which will increase service frequency and help avoid delays.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/05/14/why-doesnt-frontrunner-run-sundays

Why doesn’t FrontRunner run on Sundays? UTA explains - Daily Buzz

Utah has the highest rate of teens as part of the workforce and the second-highest rate of teens working in the nation. More than half of Utah teens were part of the state’s labor force in 2021.

Learn more:
sltrib.com

Utah’s teen workforce is higher than any other state - Daily Buzz

Dorothy Durrant has operated a farmers market on her property north of Utah Lake since at least 2020.

The lot between Center Street and Country Lane, off a spur called Farmers Market Street, is home to her Lehi Farmers Market on Fridays and Saturdays. It has also been a recreational vehicle park, petting zoo and a launch site for hot air balloon and helicopter rides, with food trucks, tractor rides and firework shows.

On paper, the more than 4-acre lot isn’t permitted for many of the attractions hosted there, including the namesake farmers market, said Bryce Armstrong, associate director of Utah County Community Development. It isn’t even technically in Lehi.

Read more:
sltrib.com

Lehi Farmers Market remains open despite fines - Daily Buzz

The Utah Supreme Court upheld a law that limits access to some of Utah’s rivers and streams, a ruling that impacts anglers and those who want to float many of Utah’s waterways.

Utah Supreme Court upholds limited access to Utah waterways

Multiple sources have confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune that U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart plans to resign, citing ongoing health issues with his wife. 

First elected by Utahns in 2012, Stewart is serving his sixth term in Congress. 

But what happens when a congressman resigns? There will be a special election. 

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2023/05/30/what-happens-us-rep-chris-stewarts/

U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart resigns from Congress

Utah NHL fans could have their dream turn into a reality. There’s about a one in six chance that Salt Lake City is the next location for the Arizona Coyotes.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/jazz/2023/05/30/will-arizona-coyotes-move-utah-why/

Will NHL's Arizona Coyotes move to Utah? - Daily Buzz

The needs of senior gays and lesbians are particularly acute as they get older. While many straight seniors have children and other relatives to help care for them, that’s not true for many of the older members of the queer community.

Today's Daily Buzz is a look at some of the resources that do help people in this group. 

Silver Pride Senior Drop-In: https://utahpridecenter.org/calendar/silver-pride-senior-drop-in-50-in-person-1686600000

Sew Much Pride: https://utahpridecenter.org/calendar/sew-much-pride-1684353600

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/05/31/utah-pride-center-does-what-it-can/

Helping the seniors in Utah's LGBTQ+ community

The spray-painted sunglasses that would eventually become Pit Vipers were once traded for beers and rides to the slopes. Now an established brand popular among skiers and speed demons, the Salt Lake City company "is serious about taking things less seriously."

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2023/06/05/salt-lake-city-sunglasses-brand/

Salt Lake City sunglasses brand Pit Viper invites you to ‘Party Mountain’ - Daily Buzz

Downtown Salt Lake City may be forever changed by the coronavirus pandemic, with its future now less about workdays and more about nightlife.

Three-plus years after the U.S. onset of COVID-19, about a third fewer workers are commuting each weekday to a workplace in the central business district, compared to late 2019. As the pattern persists, effects of remote work and all those empty cubicles are now combining with higher interest rates, pockets of layoffs and rising economic uncertainty to produce a major slowdown in the city’s office sector.

At the same time, evidence suggests downtown as a whole is unbowed in its dramatic recovery since fall 2021 in visitation numbers even as some office workers stay home, with overall trips to the urban core now 139% ahead of pre-virus levels.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/06/05/downtown-slc-office-vacancies-are/

Downtown SLC office vacancies are soaring, but here’s why the vibe is still alive

This past Monday, 38 inmates at Utah State Prison celebrated getting their high school diplomas through the South Park Academy which is now run by the Salt Lake City School District.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2023/06/06/these-utah-state-prison-inmates

38 Utah State Prison inmates graduate this week

After a yearlong wait, Utah’s Hogle Zoo successfully captured the birth of a new 98-pound male zebra on camera.

Ziva, a 10-year-old Hartmann’s mountain zebra, delivered the baby zebra — also called a foal — at approximately 7:11 p.m. on June 2. Within the first hour of his birth, the foal nursed, stood on his own and began walking.

“He was super active right off the bat, super energetic and doing lots of what we like to call zoomies,” said Rachel Mozingo, a senior keeper of the zoo’s African Savanna exhibit.

“Zoomies” are playful gallops that are natural behavior for young zebras in the wild who need to quickly be on the move from predators after birth, she said.

Visitors can now catch a glimpse of the yet-to-be-named baby zebra in the African Savanna exhibit.

Read more: 
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/06/06/baby-zebra-born-utahs-hogle-zoo-is

Baby zebra born at Utah’s Hogle Zoo

After extensive forensic comparisons, however, Curtis Weber, an independent Latter-day Saint researcher in Utah, now believes that the daguerreotype found in a locket by a Smith descendant, Daniel Larsen, is indeed a photo of the man who proclaimed that he saw God and Jesus in a New York woods as a boy and launched a global religious movement.

“I always believed it was him,” says the owner of the hotly debated daguerreotype. Adds an LDS historian: “The mere possibility of its veracity reminds us that Smith was a historical figure of flesh and bones.”

To read more, check out https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/06/08/new-forensic-research-provides/

Researchers believe this is a photo of Mormon founder Joseph Smith

Utah is one of 18 states in the nation with an established all-payer claim database (ABCD). Essentially, every bill sent to a health care insurer is logged into one massive database, which then researchers can work with to answer all sorts of healthcare questions: which procedures are being done most often, with medications are given and when, how much each procedure costs, which hospitals and doctors are most and least expensive, and so on.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/06/10/andy-larsen-understanding-health

Understanding health care costs — and why knowing what something costs isn’t enough

As Planned Parenthood Association of Utah fights a blocked near-ban on abortion and a recently passed abortion clinic ban in Utah courts, its only facility that offers abortions outside Salt Lake County “temporarily” closed in March, providing no explanation to patients.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2023/06/14/utahs-only-abortion-clinic-outside/

Utah’s only abortion clinic outside Salt Lake is ‘temporarily’ closed

Lawmakers say pushing back Utah’s 2023 municipal election scheduled to coincide with the 2nd Congressional District race will prevent voter confusion and be less expensive for the state.

Legislature approves condensed election timeline to replace Rep. Chris Stewart

Landlords across the state filed more than 2,600 eviction cases in the first four months of 2023. That’s 40% more than the first quarter of 2022 and more than double the number of eviction lawsuits filed in the first four months of 2021.

Here's what to do if you get an eviction notice in Utah

This Saturday marks the one year anniversary of Roe V Wade being overturned. So where does Utah currently stand when it comes to abortion access?

One year after Roe reversal, where does Utah stand on abortion access?

Public records show that a Department of Government Operations employee ‘got in trouble’ for posting an LGBTQ+ Pride image on the agency’s official social media pages.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2023/06/27/utah-state-agency-shared-an-lgbtq

A Utah state agency shared a Pride post on social media — a Gov. Cox appointee had it removed

Legal experts recommend getting an application in ASAP. Fees to expunge a criminal record in Utah will cost more than four times higher beginning July 1.

Utah criminal record expungement fees to quadruple July 1

Under an end-of-year tradition n the Alpine School District, kids could leave this Utah school after two hours of class. One student, his parents said they later learned, used the unsupervised time in May 2022 to have sex with his girlfriend — during school hours, in the parking lot of the Lehi campus. The Latter-day Saint couple, whose faith prohibits premarital sex, sued the district and some administrators, arguing that their constitutional right to parent their child and freedom of religion had been violated.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2023/06/29/utah-teen-had-sex-school-heres-why

A Utah teen had sex at school. His Latter-day Saint parents sued the district — and lost.

To save travelers from paying more for food, drinks and other items once they pass through security, Salt Lake City International Airport instituted a policy to bar vendors from charging more than they do out on the street. According to an airport shopping excursion of sorts by The Salt Lake Tribune, the pricing policy seems to be working.

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/07/04/little-known-policy-that-keeps

How SLC airport officials prevent travelers from being gouged at its restaurants

Bryce Canyon has the second-most Instagram posts per square mile out of all the National Parks, according to a new study.

Bryce Canyon is the second-most popular national park on Instagram, according to new study.

A Salt Lake County Council member is pressing for a new policy barring men from using women’s locker rooms at county recreation facilities.

Dea Theodore, a conservative Republican from Sandy, announced her effort in between media appearances and public testimony Tuesday by county resident and GOP activist Candace Duncan, who asserted she had been confronted by “biological males” twice in women’s locker rooms recently at the Northwest Recreation Center in Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake County Council member raises question: Are men entering women’s locker rooms?

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