KDXU up to the minute News

Fire Crews warning Southern Utah residents

Fire crews in Washington County said a family's campfire at Red Cliffs Desert Reserve burned several acres of land Saturday evening.  Officials from the St. George Fire Department are now warning this year will likely be the worst fire season in the St. George metropolitan area in over a decade.

St. George airport closes tonight

The St. George airport serves more than 200,000 commercial passengers a year. The airport will close for four months to let crews rip up and rebuild a runway undermined by unstable blue clay. It'll be mostly paid for with Federal Aviation Administration and federal infrastructure funds. Plans call for digging 17 feet beneath the more than 1-mile-long runway and installing more stable material. The airport will close tonight at midnight.

Child pornography arrests highest in Utah in five years

Officials say child pornography arrests are at their highest peak in Utah in five years.   In 2013, 133 people were arrested for downloading child pornography, and in 2018 that number nearly doubled to 226.  Dixie State Police told St. George News that better law-enforcement efforts and more reporting are driving the numbers.  In the United States about 50-thousand people are trading child pornography at any time, according to a 2014 report by the Journal of Digital Forensics and Security.

Home security research organization gives Utah an "A"

A home security research organization is giving Utah an "A" for the laws it's put in place to protect children from online threats.  SafeWise says Utah is one of the top ten states in the country when it comes to penalizing online harassment, disciplining students who commit cyberbullying and implementing criminal penalties for sexting.  Utah is one of only six states where someone charged with sexting can be convicted of a felony.

Woman choking causes crash

A woman whose choking fit caused her to plunge 50-feet down an embankment in Arizona's Virgin River Gorge is recovering in a hospital in Utah.  Arizona Department of Public Safety officials responded Sunday morning to a semi tractor-trailer that was blocking northbound I-15 south of Cedar Pocket.  The driver had stopped to help the woman whose car had hit a berm and sailed over the freeway shoulder, crashing near the water.  The woman had been drinking coffee when she started choking and then blacked out.

Utah man dies in Kauai

A 70-year-old Utah man is dead after being pulled from Kauai waters in a body-boarding area called Major's Bay.  Kauai authorities say beach-goers saw Washington Bennett the Fourth and brought him to shore.  Pacific Missile Ranger Facility personnel and firefighters responded.  Bennett was pronounced dead at Kauai Veteran's Memorial Hospital.  An autopsy will be performed.

4 women rescued in slot canyon

Officials say it's lucky that four women trapped in deep water in a slot canyon in Box-Death Hollow had a beacon alert with them.  The beacon-alert company contacted Garfield County emergency around eight Sunday evening, and told dispatcher where the four were stranded.  A helicopter lifted the women out.  The hikers said that when the water got too cold to stand in, they found a ledge and waited to be rescued.

Careful target shooting

Many of us love to go out and target shoot. A group of Weber County target shooters could face charges after failing to set up a backstop and causing damage to two homes and a car.  Lt. Cortney Ryan of the Weber County Sheriff's Office says deputies were dispatched Saturday after several people called to report gunshots near West Weber Cemetery.  Deputies tried to make contact with the shooters but were forced to duck behind logs as they continued to fire.  Ryan says the target shooters may face reckless endangerment charges as well as the cost to fix the property damage.