Water Damage Restoration in West Valley City, UT

As 18-year-old Wyatt Johnson prepared for AP tests in his senior year of high school, he wasn’t the only busy one at his crowded West Valley City home. The family of six ran between activities, household chores, jobs and all the hubbub that comes with raising four children.

At school, Johnson became familiar with how the often bad outdoor air quality in West Valley City made a mark on his community’s environment and health. Last year he entered an art competition to market solutions to the valley’s air pollution concerns. This year, he monitored the issue at the most hyper-local level he could find: his house.

Johnson learned about how small particles from car exhausts, neighboring refineries and even the Great Salt Lake were part of a big air pollution problem that plagued Utahns with asthma and other health concerns. But, what was happening indoors, where he and most people spend the majority of their time? Would those particles sneak into the family’s lungs while Wyatt was drawing or while his siblings played video games?

Or was his family in control of the air they breathed in their own home?

In four Salt Lake Valley households, including Johnson’s, residents installed indoor air-quality sensors built by Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation during May and June. The two months predated Utah’s above-average wildfire season and no inversions occurred.

With a small fan to pull in air samples, and scattered light, the device estimated the mass concentration of PM2.5, a mixture of tiny particles in the air, and monitored carbon dioxide, temperature and humidity for about two months. Throughout the experience, Wyatt Johnson recorded his reflections and shared them with Reaching for Air, a multimedia series by KUER and The Salt Lake Tribune,.

“I'm realizing a little more that indoor air quality is a lot more important than I really gave it credit for,” Johnson said at the beginning of the study. “I always thought that it was all about, like, smog outside or whatever, and the terrible air that we breathe outside, but I thought a little less about what I'm breathing when I'm inside my house.”

As the sensor sat in the living room, Wyatt’s mom Rebecca Johnson saw the lights indicating the PM2.5 levels inside the house sometimes reached three digits. She became as invested as her son in tracking the roots of the issue. Many of those times there wasn’t a clear explanation for the ranges, but after the study, the family made changes to address the particles that live among them.

Is bacon the culprit?

This year, in the middle of a commitment to not indulge in fast food, the Johnson kitchen has seen more steam and sizzling hot oil from the family’s pots and pans.

But, in that quest, a greasy, sweet-and-salty breakfast addition made Johnson’s sensor reach numbers it had never shown.

“There was a huge spike near 200 (µg/m3) at about 7 p.m. tonight when my mom was making bacon,” Johnson said on May 20, the day he saw the highest level of PM2.5.

That range is considered “very unhealthy.”

“And then my mom turned on the fan, and then it dropped all the way back down again,” Johnson said in his entry.

Each time he reflected on the three worst PM2.5 spikes, Johnson knew what had been on the breakfast menu.

“That was because we were cooking bacon inside, we were cooking bacon for breakfast burritos. So I know exactly what that one was,” Johnson said on May 30 about a 170 µg/m3 spike – the third-highest level captured that month.

It took about 15 minutes, Johnson said, before the PM2.5 levels dipped down to about 40 µg/m3. While 40 µg/m3 is still considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” it was a significant improvement.

After Johnson submitted his last recording, his mom wanted to clarify that fried food isn’t something they eat frequently. However, she said, seeing the numbers skyrocket as the kitchen and living room filled up with smoke made her better understand what it means to breathe in the particles suspended in the air.

“It's in the back of my mind a lot. So I think it's changed the way that I fix food for our family, probably to the point where it's even less frequent than we already infrequently were having it,” Rebecca Johnson said of the fried foods.

She also started cooking with an air fryer instead of oil, which she said makes a significant difference.

How is this affecting Utahns?

Typically, people spend more than 90% of their time indoors, so it’s an important proportion of the regular daily exposures to air quality. And the main drivers of poor indoor air quality are mostly found within a building’s walls.

“Any type of solid fuel burning in the house, and smoking — those are the two biggies,” said Kerry Kelly, an associate professor in chemical engineering at the University of Utah. She has conducted similar experiments, but at a much larger scale.

Cooking with natural gas or oil, frying, and other personal activities (such as vaping) are also some predominant sources of PM2.5. Then, there are outdoor factors that could contribute to indoor pollution.

A study conducted in buildings at the University of Utah campus found that of all outdoor pollution events — including dust, wildfires and inversions — wildfire smoke tends to be the biggest cause of poor indoor air quality, Kelly said.

Dust particles are pretty big, so most filtration systems will do a good job removing them, she said. And inside temperatures and relative humidity make inversion particles dissociate.

Also, certain HVAC systems that use airside economizers, while great for efficiency during hot months, can bring in more particles from wildfire smoke, the study found.

There are many factors that contribute to indoor air quality, Kelly said, including the age of the building, poor filtration, whether or not the people inside smoke, and whether or not they use natural gas for their stove or an electric one.

The one upside is that most people can do things to mitigate indoor pollution.

A fan with a HEPA filter taped to it can help absorb some of the particles for households on a budget, Kelly said, as opposed to purchasing sleeker air filter units.

“Filtration is good, especially if you've got one of these extended events, like a wildfire event,” she said.

Other fixes are even lower maintenance.

“If you've decided you're frying a bunch of bacon, open the windows. It's a great solution.”

Editor’s note: This story is part of Reaching for Air — a collaboration of The Salt Lake Tribune, KUER, Utah News Dispatch and the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, which explores air quality along the Salt Lake Valley’s west side.

The indoor air quality project and sensors were designed by Todd Whitney. Statistical Analysis was by Yue Zhao.

A Department of Homeland Security agent working in Utah is accused of convincing a confidential source to sell the synthetic drug bath salts on the street in exchange for profit from the illegal side hustle.

The FBI arrested the agent, David Cole, on Dec. 6 after the confidential source came forward, worried that the bath salt sales he was directed to do were unlawful. He had been incarcerated on drug charges when he was recruited as a legitimate source and began working for Homeland Security investigators upon his release, the federal complaint states.

According to court documents, Cole and another agent who was not named in the complaint are estimated to have “profited approximately $150,000 to $300,000 in illegal proceeds” from the operation.

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The confidential source’s initial Homeland Security recruitment was aboveboard, the complaint indicates. Other agents were involved in his recruitment and ongoing handling, and he engaged in “legitimate, successful drug buys involving individuals who were illegally purchasing drugs.”

But in spring, Cole allegedly approached the source about the separate “arrangement” to sell bath salts, a stimulant that sometimes has hallucinogenic properties. According to the complaint, the source was required to pay Cole or the unnamed agent $5,000 to procure the drugs, then directed to sell them to contacts the source “had in the community.”

The agents allowed the source to keep the estimated $10,000 he would sell the drugs for, the complaint says.

This arrangement, according to the complaint, happened once or twice a week in Utah alongside what appeared to be legitimate drug buy operations coordinated with other Homeland Security agents.

Cole or the unnamed agent would meet the source to exchange the bath salts at locations including a local Shake Shack, Panera Bread, Smith’s grocery, Harmons Grocery and a Nike store, the complaint states.

During the bath salts operations, though, neither of the agents arrested anyone who purchased the drugs, the confidential source told investigators, and they didn’t give the source any recording devices or other equipment to gather information on buyers.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Department of Homeland Security offices in West Valley City, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024.

The source also noted that neither Cole nor the other agent seemed to track the amount of bath salts sold, and all communications between the source, Cole and the other agent happened on Signal, an end-to-end encrypted texting app.

In late October, the source met with FBI investigators to report the bath salts “scheme,” the complaint states. That’s when the FBI began monitoring eight bath salt buys involving either Cole or the other agent.

Evidence suggests that Cole and the other agent “conspired and worked together to execute this scheme, regardless of which one of them actually appears at the buy location,” the complaint states. At one point, the agents and the source also discussed potentially creating a website to sell bath salts, the complaint states.

The confidential source cooperated with the FBI “for monetary value” and “out of fear for his personal safety” if he continued following Cole and the other agent’s directives, the complaint notes.

FBI agents on Dec. 4 and 5 executed warrants on the pair and their homes, their government vehicles, their work phones, their Homeland Security cubicles and a safety deposit box. They say they found evidence to support the source’s reports, including more than $67,000 in cash and what appeared to be more bath salts.

Agents believe at least some of the bath salts Cole sold to the source had been procured from product that law enforcement in “a different geographical area” had previously seized, the complaint states.

Cole was arrested on one count of conspiracy to distribute — and possession with intent to distribute — a controlled substance. He initially appeared in court Monday, after which his complaint was unsealed. He is set to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin B. Pead for a detention hearing on Friday.

Cole and the unnamed agent have not been terminated as Homeland Security Investigation employees, but their credentials were suspended, the complaint states.

Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wyn Hornbuckle, the deputy director of the Office of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice, declined to comment on the case Tuesday, citing its ongoing prosecution.

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Utah has set a high bar for reading proficiency. It wants 70% of third grade students reading at grade level by 2027. But there’s still a big gap to close.

As of the 2023-2024 school year, only 48.1% of third-graders met that mark, according to Utah State Board of Education Literacy and Early Learning Coordinator Julie Clark. That’s about the same as it was the year before.

“Our first graders moved a little bit. Our second and our third graders stayed very stagnant; it was about exactly the same as where we were the year before. We've kind of hit a plateau,” Clark said.

“Obviously I would love to see it jump more, but at the same time, we do know that change takes time,” Clark said.

The Legislature set the 70% goal in 2022. The state spent millions to train teachers on the science of reading, invest in literacy coaches and make sure districts were using high-quality instructional materials.

At the end of the 2022-2023 school year, the first full school year after the law passed, the state saw some positive growth in all K-3 grades. The number of third graders reading at grade level moved from 46% to 48%. At the time, state leaders were most excited about the gains in kindergarten, where they saw the largest percentage of kindergarten students ever move to reading benchmark status during a school year.

Since then, Clark said the board has tweaked its definition of “reading on grade level” because of confusion among districts and state leaders after that first year. Now, third grade students must get a score of 405 or be “above benchmark” on the end of the year standardized Acadience Reading assessment. If they hit that, Clark said their chances of staying at or above benchmark in future grades is high.

Clark is also in talks with school district leaders about what can be done to improve reading instruction in the second and third grade. This includes how much time kids spend reading in the classroom.

“We're doing a lot of instruction, and the teachers are doing a lot of talking, but what are our students doing in the classroom? Are they getting time where they can practice those skills that they're learning and reading in text?” Clark said. “If you're in a classroom and they're reading less than five minutes each day, that's not enough.”

The state is also focused on making sure administrators are holding teachers accountable for implementing training they’ve received on the science of reading in their classrooms, Clark said.

While there is still a ways to go, she is encouraged by the progress being made in kindergarten, which she said was aided by the expansion of full-day kindergarten statewide. Utah has seen a 16% increase in those students achieving above benchmark reading levels since the end of the pandemic, according to the state board.

“Although I think that our goal is very lofty, I think that we can reach it,” Clark said.

The students who were in kindergarten last school year are the cohort to watch, she said. They will be in third grade during the 2026-2027 school year, when the state hopes to reach its goal.

Jennifer Throndsen runs the education consulting company Impactful Learning Designs and is the former director of teaching and learning at the state board, where she oversaw a lot of the work toward Utah’s literacy goal. She said they weren’t expecting to see huge jumps the first few years, but they hoped for better results than what they’ve seen at this point.

“What we're missing is implementation. So we've got knowledge,” Throndsen said.

In order to reach the 2027 goal, Throndsen said there needs to be ongoing teacher professional development as well as coaching and support for educators. She also said school and district leaders need to be monitoring teachers’ instructional practices and holding them accountable.

“At this time, what we need to focus on is holding our teachers accountable and giving them the support they need to implement their new knowledge.”

And it can’t just be educators. Throndsen also said there needs to be family and community engagement in this effort.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Dec. 7, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Rock band Styx and REO Speedwagon singer Kevin Cronin have announced they will join forces for the upcoming Brotherhood of Rock tour, coming to Utah on June 11.

The tour also will feature Don Felder, formerly of The Eagles. The Utah concert will be at the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre.

General tickets for the tour, produced by Live Nation, will go on sale starting Friday, Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. local time at LiveNation.com. Styx and Kevin Cronin will be offering VIP packages via their own exclusive pre-sales beginning Tuesday, December 10 at 10 a.m. local time, as well as at LiveNation.com.

Citi is the official card of the “Brotherhood of Rock” tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets in the U.S. beginning Dec. 9 at 10 a.m. through the Citi Entertainment program. For presale details, visit www.citientertainment.com.

Styx and Kevin Cronin (as part of REO Speedwagon) first toured together in 2000 and in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, they came together to form the Rock to the Rescue, a nonprofit organization that still collects donations for local charities at every stop on Styx’s on-going tour.

Styx, formed in 1972 Chicago, draws from over five decades of chart hits, including “Lady,” “Come Sail Away,” “Blue Collar Man” and “Renegade.”

Cronin continues to be joined onstage by lead guitarist Dave Amato and drummer Bryan Hitt, who have played in REO Speedwagon since 1989. Additionally, Derek Hilland, who previously toured with Rick Springfield and Whitesnake, has been REO’s keyboard player since January 2023. Matt Bissonette, who spent 12 years with Elton John through 2023, signed on as REO Speedwagon’s touring bassist in November of that year.

Cronin wrote or co-wrote such REO hits as “Keep On Loving You,” “Keep the Fire Burnin,” and “Can’t Fight This Feeling.”

For more information on Styx and the tour, click here.

The pharmacies will still offer vaccine appointments, spokesperson says.

CVS Health is shutting down its walk-in clinics in Utah this week, a spokesperson confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune this week. It’s unclear how many Utahns employed by the pharmacy will be impacted by shuttering the clinics.

The “MinuteClinics” offered basic health care services including vaccine appointments, COVID-19 tests and sports physicals performed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Services were available by appointment or on a walk-in basis.

“We regularly evaluate MinuteClinic’s footprint to ensure it meets the demands of our patients and aligns with our health care delivery strategy,” CVS said in a statement to The Tribune on Monday. “As a result, we made the difficult decision to close our three MinuteClinic locations in Utah by December 7 to help support future growth and design in the next evolution of community health destinations.”

Utah’s three remaining MinuteClinics were in Highland, Ogden and West Jordan. The Highland and West Jordan clinics have already closed, according to CVS’s website. Ogden’s clinic is open but no appointments are available online this week.

Each Utah clinic provided sports physicals and sore/strep throat treatment, according to the CVS website. The West Jordan clinic also offered COVID-19 testing.

CVS still offers virtual on-demand care seven days a week, the spokesperson said. And most Utah CVS pharmacies offer flu, COVID-19 and other vaccines.

Patients who require a physical assessment, however, will need to find another provider.

The pharmacy has also shut down MinuteClinics in parts of California and New England, following a trend of retail pharmacies offering, and then closing, in-store primary care.

Meanwhile, CVS announced plans last month to expand in-network primary care services to Aetna members in some MinuteClinic locations.

“We believe, at the end of the day, it’s our obligation and privilege to serve the communities and deliver better, more comprehensive primary care for those patients coming into MinuteClinic,” Dr. Creagh Milford, CVS Health’s president of retail health, said in a news release last month.

CVS said in its statement to The Tribune that it will try to find “different opportunities within the company” for Utah’s MinuteClinic clinical staff.

“Those who are not able to find a new role will be offered severance benefits,” the statement said. CVS did not say how many clinical staff work in Utah.

Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.