3+ hour, 13+ min ago (646+ words) Thanksgiving and Christmas are a time when people are focused on giving and serving. It's one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. It's also something I'm trying to emphasize in my own home " making Christmas more about how we make others feel rather than what we receive. My 4-year-old is having a hard time grasping this, unsurprisingly. In my family, we teach that Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of all " and that's why we give gifts to others. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I'm touched by how the church emphasizes this. And it doesn't just ask its members to serve or donate " it lives that principle, too. In 2024, the Church of Jesus Christ donated "$1.45 billion in humanitarian aid, welfare and other relief," Deseret News reporter Tad Walch wrote in March....

14+ hour, 55+ min ago (437+ words) Editor's note: This story was originally published on Nov. 24, 2024. On Nov. 24, 1971, a hijacker calling himself "Dan Cooper" " but who soon became popularly known as "D.B. Cooper" " parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 in ransom. His fate remains unknown, and his disappearance remains one of the most famous unsolved cases in FBI history. The Deseret News noted the hijacking on Thanksgiving Day and followed the case for many days. Amazingly, it was one of two hijackings that week in the western U.S. "Hijacker escapes; 2 chutes missing," read the headline on Nov. 25. "RENO, Nev. " A hijacker apparently parachuted to freedom from a commandeered passenger jet after extorting $200,000 from North Airlines with a bomb threat, authorities say." Through the years, the cold case has heated up and cooled down in the search for Cooper. Was he a Provo man…...

15+ hour, 48+ min ago (898+ words) The high school wrestling season gets underway this week, and for Layton's boys team a four-peat could very well be in its future. Layton was tagged by 6A's coaches as the team to beat in the the Deseret News preseason rankings, followed by Corner Canyon and Westlake. The Lancers won their third straight 6A state championship last season with a 60-point cushion over runner-up Westlake, with Corner Canyon in third. Three of Layton's five individual state champs from a year ago were underclassmen as it has a strong foundation again to build on. In 6A girls voting, Mountain Ridge narrowly edged Cedar Valley for the preseason No. 1 ranking. Mountain Ridge won last year's 6A title, while Cedar Valley was 5A runner-up behind Wasatch. Six of Cedar Valley's 10 state placers a year ago were underclassmen. For Mountain Ridge, 10 of its 14 state placers from a year…...

1+ hour, 40+ min ago (1037+ words) Thanksgiving Week has turned into Feast Week in the college basketball world, with multi-team events throughout the country " and even outside the U.S. " showcasing intriguing nonconference matchups. Utah basketball will have its taste of the MTE action this week, as the Runnin" Utes head to Palm Desert, California, for the Acrisure Series. For a Utah program coming off a frustrating 92-85 home loss against Cal Poly, the event will allow the Utes to see if they can show progress when the competition is elevated. On Tuesday, the Utes will face Grand Canyon in the nightcap of a five-game day (10 p.m. MST, CBS Sports Network). Utah vs. Grand Canyon Then on Wednesday, Utah will take on either Iowa or Ole Miss before a short Thanksgiving break. Utah (5-1) played its first six games of the season at home " that included wins over San Jose State,…...

3+ hour, 13+ min ago (1478+ words) Imagine this: Little black pellets made of uranium dioxide are stacked on top of each other in a silver, cylindrical rod. A rogue neutron hits a U-235 nucleus inside a pellet, causing the nucleus to split. This causes fission, which releases heat and more neutrons. The heat boils water and creates steam, the steam spins a turbine, and the turbine generates electricity. That is, simply put, a nuclear reactor at work. In the United States, about 20% of electricity is generated by nuclear reactors, and as of December 2024, there were over 315,000 bundles of spent nuclear fuel rods (that are radioactive) sitting in concrete vaults around the country. In an age when the U.S. has an insatiable need for energy, thanks in large part to the growth of artificial intelligence, there are many prominent lawmakers " including in Utah " who think this plentiful, clean source…...

3+ hour, 13+ min ago (1854+ words) Dr. Kristin Francis has thought a lot about what it takes to co-parent well after divorce. She's among experts who say the holiday season may add an extra dose of angst, expectation and disappointment to being a good parent with a former partner. Francis, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, ponders co-parenting not just from the view of a mental health professional " she's at Huntsman Mental Health Institute " but also as someone who has tried to do it right. She's a divorced mom who's juggled the holidays and knows it can be emotionally hard. The weeks from late November to the end of the year are packed with holidays and their related events for many faiths and cultures, creating a challenging period for divorced or separated parents, she told Deseret News. And to do it right, parents must set aside self-interest…...

3+ hour, 13+ min ago (954+ words) Utah Sen. John Curtis is happy he made the decision to leave his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to run for the U.S. Senate. Curtis said he prefers his new position in the Senate, and that the transition made for a "dramatic" difference. "The culture of the two, the House and the Senate, is so radically different," he said. In the House, lawmakers are competing with over 400 members to be the loudest voice in the hopes that their legislation gets attention, he said. "There's a lot of people who can get attention by being outrageous, and so the House tends to foster a little bit more of that than the Senate," Curtis said. Utah's freshman senator, a Republican, spoke about his transition to Congress' upper chamber at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, as part of the Sutherland…...

13+ hour, 27+ min ago (384+ words) The year is quickly drawing to a close, and politicians and pollsters are already looking over the horizon to next year's midterm elections. Despite the breakneck pace of an ever-changing news cycle, early indications suggest the issue at the front of voters' minds is a familiar one: the economy. The issue is the future of Social Security, a program that supports more than 68 million Americans. Because the program operates as an internally funded program walled off from the rest of the federal budget " funded by payroll taxes and taxation of benefits " many Americans are unaware of how the program is doing financially. But earlier this year, the Social Security trustees issued a dire wake-up call: they project that the trust fund that allows the program to currently pay full promised benefits will be exhausted in late 2032. That's less than seven…...