Utah News

Real estate housing prices have dropped but what is the market price for a whole town?

The listing reads like a wild west exhibit: old gold mine, a geyser, and a supposed hideout of famed outlaws. And it's all for sale in a middle-of-nowhere ghost town of Woodside 3 hours southeast of Salt Lake City.

Listing Price? $3.9 million.

Images of a dark period in Japanese American history are now on display thanks to the state history department. The department has created an online exhibit of the World War II Topaz Internment Camp in Delta. Utah State History Archivist Heidi Orchard says the new collection documents the 3-year internment of more than 11,000 Americans of Japanese descent.

A recent assessment of Utah’s life sciences industry shows that it’s well ahead of the rest of the county. Suzanne Winters, Life Science Cluster Manager for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, says a consultant researched everything from workforce data to technical publications, and found that employment in Utah’s life sciences industry grew by nearly 26 percent from 2001 to 2010, compared to 8.4 percent nationally.

A group of community leaders from across the state will meet with stakeholders over the next several months to discuss the best methods of caring for the Jordan River. Laura Hanson, Executive Director of the Jordan River Commission, says the new partnership is important because such a large portion of the state has a stake in the future of the Jordan River.

New population projections released by Governor Gary Herbert’s office are showing slower growth than expected in Utah’s Washington County. The new growth projections for Washington County could mean a stop to planning for the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline.

“It effectively means that the Lake Powell Pipeline is totally obsolete and unnecessary, and will save the tax payers billions of dollars over the long run for not building this project,” said Zachary Frankel, Utah Rivers Council Executive Director.