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A mother from Riverton, Utah makes a shocking discovery -- pictures of her children on websites connected to porn. Brittany Champagne was on Instagram Wednesday night when she came across her 8-year-old daughter’s picture on somebody else’s profile. “I clicked on there and I found a girl claiming to be 11-years-old as my daughter, and she's a bisexual cheerleader and her whole page is about gay pride,” Champagne said. This was clearly a fake account, so Champagne did some digging and made more disturbing discoveries -- pictures of Champagne herself and her 9-month-old son.

OREM, Utah — Police say a shopper with a concealed weapons permit fatally shot a suspect to thwart a carjacking Saturday outside a Utah grocery store. ... the shooter ... heard a woman’s screams as she was being pulled from her SUV by the suspect ... went to assist the woman and fired one round after the 27-year-old male suspect lunged at him in an attempt to grab his gun. The suspect, who was shot in the chest, later died at a hospital.

A Utah man is suing the local police force after one of its dogs attacked him during an arrest, after he had put his hands up and surrendered. Martin Lee Hoogveldt, 33, had already given himself up after armed police entered his home in response to a disturbing-the-peace complaint in 2013, but the dog still jumped at him,clamping its jaws around his face. The dog handler's body camera captured the horrific attack, and can be seen struggling to get the dog, a German shepherd called Pyro, to let go of Hoogveldt's face.

Senators on Wednesday blocked a Republican push to tie Iran's support of terrorism to a final deal on the country's nuclear program. Senators voted 45-54 on the amendment from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), which would have required President Obama to certify as part of a diplomatic deal that Iran hasn't carried out or directly supported an act of terror against the United States or a U.S. citizen. Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Dan Coats (Ind.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Orrin Hatch (Utah) and John McCain (Ariz.) voted with Democrats against the amendment....

New Mexicans on Monday had their first glimpse of Archbishop-elect of Santa Fe John C. Wester, who declared his commitment to serve the poor, reform a broken immigration system and to work with others “to strengthen the common good.” The bishop of Salt Lake City since 2007, Wester will become the leader of an estimated 300,000 Roman Catholics in New Mexico on June 4 when he is installed as the 12th Archbishop of Santa Fe at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe. He will succeed Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan, who will step down...

West Jordan • Many professional boxers have colorful and jarring nicknames designed to instill fear in opponents, capture the imagination of the general public and perhaps bring some extra publicity and headlines. But when it came to having a trademark moniker, Utah's Gene Fullmer wasn't like many of his counterparts. In a 2009 interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, Fullmer said he just preferred to be called by the name his parents, Tuff and Mary Fullmer, gave him when he was born in 1931. The former world middleweight boxing champion died late Monday night at a care center near his...

SALT LAKE CITY — Now that Utah's favorite son Mitt Romney is no longer a candidate for president, "undecided" is the top choice of the state's Republicans in the party's 2016 nomination race. A new UtahPolicy.com poll found that just over one-fourth, 26 percent, of Utah Republicans haven't picked a preferred presidential candidate yet. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was the candidate with the most support so far, 22 percent. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a close ally of Utah Sen. Mike Lee, followed with 13 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who like Cruz and Lee is aligned with the tea...

A man with ties to the royal family in Saudi Arabia -- accused of trying to flee the U.S. to avoid being tried on a rape charge -- was ordered on Wednesday to be held without bail. Monsour Alshammari, 27, is accused of raping a woman while on a date in February in Orem, Utah An attorney for Alshamarri indicated to the judge that Alshamarri wanted to post bail to take care of his matters, but the judge ordered no bail, noting there’s an immigration hold in place. Alshamarri was free on $100,000 bail when officials said he attempted to...

Perhaps you will find no issue reflecting a greater divide among Utahns that whether LDS Church leaders have too much influence in the Utah Legislature. A new UtahPolicy poll by Dan Jones & Associates finds that three-fourths of the faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say their church has “about the right amount of influence” on state lawmakers’ political decisions. But when you ask the same influence question of non-Mormons, you find super-majorities – 79 percent of Catholics, 84 percent of Protestants – say the Mormon Church has too much influence on Capitol Hill. Now,...

Kat Steed, left, and Dixie Allen hold hands in the Mormon church’s Temple Square, Jan. 14, 2015, in Salt Lake City. Steed, who escaped the FLDS in Colorado City, Arizona, calls polygamy “poisonous.” On a chilly winter morning at sunrise in Salt Lake City, the sun glints on the snowcapped mountains that surround Utah’s state capital and the dazzling white Mormon temple that dominates the downtown area. All is quiet. But change is in the air in this deeply religious, blood-red Republican state — upheaval, even. Same-sex marriage became legal in Utah last October, a dramatic cultural shift for many,...

The Girl Scouts are concerned about falling membership and a declining number of adult volunteers, so a Girl Scout staffer in Salt Lake City cooked up the idea to start a troop headquartered in the area’s “gay pride center.” The idea is to attract “transgender” youth and children living with an LGBT parent. Shari Solomon-Kleba told the Associated Press, “Girl Scouts is all about empowering girls to become leaders who make the world a better place. Why not at the Pride Center?”

At least one Girl Scout Troop in Salt Lake City is now accepting boys. The troop meets every Monday at the Utah Pride Center and is open to boys who identify as girls. Their first meeting yesterday included five girls between the ages of six and ten, but no boys yet. Shiela Raboy with the Pride Center says she’s proud to host the first Girl Scout Troop in Utah that welcomes anyone grappling with gender identity.

DENVER – Scientists are working to pinpoint the source of a giant mass of methane hanging over the southwestern U.S., which a study found to be the country's largest concentration of the greenhouse gas. The report that revealed the methane hot spot over the Four Corners region — where Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona meet — was released last year.

Two of the country’s most powerful and politically influential labor unions are backing President Obama in the recent court challenge to his 2014 executive action on illegal immigration, saying they support the president’s effort because "undocumented workers" need more workplace protection and their participation helps the U.S. economy. The AFL-CIO and the National Education Association on Monday each filed so-called amicus briefs in a federal appeals court case in which Texas and 26 other states are challenges the president’s 2014 memorandum on illegal immigration. The memorandum essentially expands work authorization and delayed-deportation programs for illegal immigrants. And it provides similar...

Sen. Mike Lee would have quite the fight on his hands if he were to face off against former Rep. Jim Matheson in 2016. The latest UtahPolicy.com shows 48% of Utahns would support Lee while 42% would back Matheson. 10% are undecided. Matheson's electoral calculus has always been the same in heavily Republican Utah. Win a majority of Democrats, pick off some Republicans and get a majority of the independent vote. The survey shows Matheson would win 87% of Democrats, 20% of Republicans and 57% of independents. He would likely need to increase the numbers among Republican and independent voters...

As a declared presidential candidate, Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) should generate even bigger headlines when he addresses black audiences, as he has at Howard University and other venues. When he was executive of mainly Democratic Milwaukee County, Governor Scott Walker (R., Wis.) appealed to black voters; his reelection majorities consistently increased. These and other Republicans should ask black Americans for their votes from now through November 2016. They should do so by challenging blacks to ask themselves an honest question: “What, exactly, have you gained by handing Obama 95 percent of your votes in 2008 and 93 percent in...

We’ve all been there: You’re invited to a function, you think you’re just going to be a passive observer and then suddenly you thrust into the spotlight.One guy apparently had that uncomfortable experience with the commander in chief.President Barack Obama stopped by Hill Air Force Base in Utah last week to talk about the economy.His speech was closed to the public, but the presidential team sent some invites to the media and industry leaders.That’s where things went wrong.Image via imgur/TheBlaze The above picture, posted to Reddit on Tuesday, apparently shows an unprepared, mid-level employee trying his best to blend into...

e New York Times just published one of the more rough-handed pieces we’ve yet seen regarding “gay Christianity.” In “Bigotry, the Bible and the Lessons of Indiana,” opinion writer Frank Bruni takes the gloves off and seeks to bully Christians into caving on homosexuality. The column is frank, direct, and brutalizing.Let’s consider five takeaways from this striking article.1. Here’s what Bruni believes opposition to “gay Christianity” is based in: raw prejudice. He says as much: But in the end, the continued view of gays, lesbians and bisexuals as sinners is a decision. It’s a choice. It prioritizes scattered passages of ancient texts over all...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog With help from 80 years of self-described “progressives,” Obama is now waging the biggest war against medical marijuana of any president in history Anyone who has been following the self-described “progressive” politicians since FDR should not be surprised at Obama’s war against medical marijuana.Obama’s war against medical marijuana is a direct result of the policies of the self-described “progressives” in the White House, Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court, going all the way back to FDR’s New Deal.During the Great Depression, while millions of Americans were hungry, the self-described “progressives” who controlled the federal government passed...

Welcome to the big leagues. That’s the message several top GOP operatives say Rand Paul will get from the Republican establishment, and from the media, when he announces his candidacy for the presidency on Tuesday. These onlookers believe that Paul, who has been a media darling and a ubiquitous presence on the airwaves since his election in 2010, has gotten a pass from the press. In their eyes, he’s been allowed to skate past one controversy after another in part because he’s been a vocal critic of the Republican party. “The media treats him better than they treat other Republicans,”...