Free Republic

A 2News investigation uncovered the frightening reality when it comes to the number of parolees Utah Adult Probation and Parole has failed to properly supervise — some of whom are now fugitives putting the public in extreme danger. For the past six months, on average, AP&P lost track of and could not account for 328 parolees statewide each month, documents from the Utah Department of Corrections confirm. The whereabouts of killers, sex offenders, violent gang members from every street gang, and some of the worst of the worst remain unknown. Our efforts to report on this have been met with...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was ripped on social media after she called President Trump “a rapist” online — with many suggesting a tweet from the Congresswoman was grounds for a defamation lawsuit from the commander in chief. Ocasio-Cortez sparked outrage when she tweeted Friday about Trump and the release of files related to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. “Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X, apparently referring to Trump and the 2023 civil trial where he was found liable of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll....

The federal government on Saturday dismissed charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of throwing away COVID-19 vaccines, giving children saline shots instead of the vaccine and selling faked vaccination cards. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on the social media platform X that charges against Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, of Midvale, Utah, were dismissed at her direction. Moore and other defendants faced up to 35 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the government; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and aiding and abetting in those efforts. The charges...

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Saturday that the Department of Justice has dropped charges against Dr. Kirk Moore, a Utah plastic surgeon indicted in 2023 for allegedly issuing fake COVID-19 vaccination cards and destroying government-provided vaccines. “At my direction @TheJusticeDept has dismissed charges against Dr. Kirk Moore,” Bondi posted on X. “Dr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so. He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today.” The move comes after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called for the charges to be dismissed earlier this week. “This...

An "innocent bystander" at the "No Kings" demonstration in downtown Salt Lake City was shot and killed Saturday, police said. Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, of Utah, died in a hospital, Salt Lake City police said in an update. Detectives believe Ah Loo was at the demonstration as a bystander and "was not the intended target of the gunfire." Police have arrested Arturo Gamboa, 24. He was booked into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail on a murder charge. It was not immediately clear whether Gamboa was still in jail Sunday and whether he has an attorney.

Crime 5 shot, 3 fatally at "WestFest" carnival in Salt Lake City suburb. One of those killed was an infant, police say. By Updated on: June 16, 2025 / 7:40 AM EDT / CBS News Five people were shot — three of them fatally, including an infant — at an annual carnival outside Salt Lake City Sunday night, authorities said. West Valley City, Utah, police said officers at the WestFest noticed two groups of people having a "verbal altercation" and, as they moved in to break it up, "a 16-year-old male from one of the groups pulled out a gun...

A 39-year-old man died Saturday night after being shot during Salt Lake City’s “No Kings” protest while a crowd of about 10,000 people marched near 151 S. State Street, the Salt Lake City Police Department confirmed Sunday. Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, a Utah resident, was shot at the demonstration. Despite life-saving efforts from SWAT medics and Salt Lake City Fire, Ah Loo died at an area hospital. As of Sunday morning there were still unreleased details about the incident as the investigation is ongoing, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said in a news conference. A chaotic scene ensued...

Shots fired during 'No Kings' protest in Salt Lake City, Utah

A series of devastating wolf attacks occurred over Memorial Day weekend at the Lost Marbles Ranch, Crystal River Ranch and McCabe Ranch, leaving two calves dead and others injured. A broad daylight attack at the Lost Marbles Ranch, carried out by three wolves from the notorious Copper Creek pack, took place in the heart of the calving grounds, a large meadow where ranchers actively monitor mothers and newborns during the critical calving season. The wolves separated a cow and a calf from the main herd, severely injuring the calf. While many in the public romanticize the idea of seeing a...

A rapid 14-day environmental review has seen a new uranium mine approved in Utah. The endorsement is part of a refreshed Trump administration process to fast-track permissions for energy and mining projects. The Velvet-Wood uranium project received a green light on Friday. It is owned and operated by the Canadian company Anfield Energy. The approval tick comes 11 days after the Interior Department ordered the Bureau of Land Management to review the mine’s environmental impacts within two weeks, as opposed to the prior timeline of months or years.The dynamic new approach has been expected since President Donald Trump declared a...

Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson, the least popular mayor in the country, went on a rant Thursday and called President Donald Trump a racist “monster” for investigating the mayor’s city hiring practices. Johnson, a self-professed “progressive,” raised eyebrows last weekend when he told a congregation of churchgoers that he is proud to have filled all his top posts with black people. His comment spurred a federal probe into his hiring practices under the suspicion that his discriminatory, race-based hiring might violate civil rights and equal opportunity laws. In response to the investigation, Johnson lashed out, and, as he typically does,...

According to an email sent May 13, 2025, by Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Gibbs, Nicole Rosmarino is the sole finalist for the director of the State Land Board, which is the state’s second largest landowner with 2.8 million surface acres and 4 million mineral estate acres. Gibbs said, per statute, the board provides public notice for 14 days prior to a formal appointment which will occur at the next regularly scheduled public board meeting, which is June 11 and 12 in Denver. An email sent to DNR confirmed the hire Friday. The mission of the State Land Board...

Federal agents have arrested Utah oil magnate James Lael Jensen, his wife Kelly Anne Jensen, and two of their sons, Maxwell Sterling Jensen (aka “Max”) and Zachary Golden Jensen, in connection with a sprawling $300 MILLION smuggling and money laundering conspiracy tied to Mexican criminal organizations. Court records reveal that all four members of the Jensen family were arrested on Wednesday, April 23 — with sons Max and Zachary taken into custody in the Rio Grande Valley, while James and Kelly Jensen were apprehended at their 26,893-square-foot mansion in Sandy, Utah, reportedly worth over $9.1 million. The arrest was carried...

Leaders of Utah's capital city voted to add three new city flags, all incorporating designs not allowed through a new state flag law, to sidestep the measure hours before it goes into law. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall unveiled three new city flag designs to members of the Salt Lake City Council Tuesday evening, as she explained how the city plans to move forward in the wake of HB77 on the eve of the bill becoming law. The new flags would add the sego lily logo from Salt Lake City's city flag to the Juneteenth, Progress Pride and transgender...

In yet another glaring example of failed immigration enforcement and soft-on-crime policies, the illegal immigrant accused of stealing Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Kristi Noem’s purse was reportedly released after committing a similar theft in New York City just weeks earlier. Instead of facing swift deportation or serious consequences, the suspect was reportedly freed, highlighting the disastrous impact of sanctuary city policies. According to a newly released report, the suspect and illegal alien from Chile, Mario Bustamante-Leiva, was previously arrested in New York City. As he stole Noem’s purse from a restaurant in Washington, D.C., the New York Police...

The woman convicted of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart over two decades ago was arrested Thursday for violating her sex offender probation. Wanda Barzee, who abducted then-14-year-old Smart with her husband Brian David Mitchell in 2002, is accused of illegally ... In 2002, Barzee and Mitchell, who was a street preacher, went through an open window and abducted Smart from her Salt Lake City bedroom at knifepoint. The teen was raped on a near-daily basis, and lived with the couple in run-down homes and campsites in Utah and San Diego. Smart was found nine months later after a good Samaritan saw the...

A sprawling fentanyl trafficking network stretching from Albuquerque to Salem, Oregon, has been shattered by federal authorities in what’s being called one of the largest operations of its kind in U.S. history. The takedown, made public this week, culminated in a massive sweep across New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Oregon. Federal agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized staggering amounts of contraband: over 4 million fentanyl pills, $4.4 million in cash, 79 pounds of meth, along with heroin, cocaine, and more than 41 firearms, according to records from the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. At the helm of...

PUC Public Comment Hearing Info re: Xcel Energy JTS.. ... The PUC invites community members to provide comments regarding Xcel Energy’s Just Transition Plan (JTS), Proceeding 24A-0442E. The JTS is Xcel Energy’s next Electric Resource Plan to address the acquisition of new utility resources to meet future electricity needs on its system. The primary objectives of the JTS include fulfilling resource adequacy and providing reliable service; continuing progress on emissions reductions; and, delivering a just transition in communities where generation assets are retiring. Xcel Energy’s Unit 3 coal-fired facility in Pueblo will retire no later than Jan. 1, 2031, and...

SALT LAKE CITY — Four people involved in an apparent robbery attempt at a hotel, resulting in the shooting deaths of two of their friends, have been charged. But no charges were filed against the alleged gunman. "We have charged all the appropriate people with criminal charges in this case," the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office told KSL.com on Thursday. Tiffani Marie Papach, 40, of West Jordan, and Kendra Diane Mitchell, 38, of Salt Lake City, were charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery, first-degree felonies; and obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony. Kevin Leroy...

SANDY — A Utah couple is being accused of money laundering and smuggling oil into the U.S. alongside Mexican cartels, after they were arrested during a multi-state raid by U.S. Marshals, according to court documents. James Lael Jensen and his wife, Kelly Anne Jensen, were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Wednesday. The couple and two of his sons are being federally indicted for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 2,881 shipments of oil from Mexico that they knew were illegal. The family is accused of moving at least $300 million from Mexico to the U.S. The couple was arrested...