PROVO -- Genealogy Web site Ancestry.com is opening up its entire U.S. military collection in honor of Veterans Day.

SALT LAKE CITY — Retired state employees who return to government work are costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits at a time the state retirement system is facing a $6.5 billion shortfall, a legislative audit released Wednesday said.

OGDEN -- Contrary to trends from years past, fall gasoline prices are rising in Western states. Utah and Montana drivers have seen an average increase of just 2 cents this past month, but Colorado has seen a 22-cent increase.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The number of skier visits in the state will increase by an estimated 3 percent in the 2009-10 season to about 4.1 million, the president of industry group Ski Utah said Tuesday.

The health insurance industry is regulated primarily by states. Over the last two decades, mandates of benefits, providers and covered persons in health insurance have proliferated. In 2008 there were 1,961 total state mandates, while Utah had only 12 mandated benefits. Mandated benefits, according to the Council for Affordable Insurance, are partly responsible for increasing the cost of basic health coverage "from a little less than 20 percent to more than 50 percent, depending on the state and its mandates." But a detailed literature review of various actuarial and statistical studies by the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy for the state of New Jersey found no clear cut evidence for an adverse effect of mandates.

It will never fail to amaze me the complete disconnect the politicians in Washington have with the American public. My son works as an accountant for a local company and has followed the health care battle in Washington very close.

With his involvement I too have followed what is happening with our elected officials in Washington. Despite the absences of any poll (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, AOL, ECT) showing that Americans want government run health care Nancy Pelosi has forced through a bill in the house.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, like all religions in Utah, has a vital role to play in making Utah a better place to live, work, and raise a family. Sutherland's important role is to constructively help elected officials craft sound, principle-based public policy toward that same end. We recognize the growing differences between religious and secular cultures within Salt Lake City and commend the LDS Church for its earnest desire to keep cultural and political tensions to a minimum.

 

PLYMOUTH, Mass. -- Four retired racehorses from Suffolk Downs moved into their new home on Tuesday, stepping into sawdust-covered stalls built for them by prison inmates at a 90-acre farm not far from the rocky coastline where the Pilgrims first stepped ashore.

LOS ANGELES -- His voice carries above the squeak of sneakers, the chatter of players, echoing into the corners of a mostly empty Pauley Pavilion.

MIAMI -- One of the angling downsides of the unseasonably warm weather this fall is the fizzling of the annual mullet run along southeast Florida's beaches.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Taylor Swift made history at the Country Music Awards, becoming the youngest person to win entertainer of the year and the first solo female to win it in a decade.

WOODS CROSS -- After two years of working on his Eagle Scout project and dealing with setbacks, including a holdup in the Supreme Court, Tom Smith can finally begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Marie Kawaguchi spent much of the first four decades of her life going from doctor to doctor, trying to find relief for conditions that included persistent fatigue and weakness, digestive problems, muscle aches and what she calls "brain fog."