Free Republic

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — Senate Democrats on Friday tried passing a bill that included language that would continue to prohibit the Bureau of Land Management from issuing final oil shale regulations. But that effort failed when the financial stimulus package, which would have contained the oil shale ban, stalled in the Senate on a 52-to-42 vote. The vote comes as the clock ticks closer to the expiration of the oil shale ban — often called the oil shale moratorium. It is slated to expire at midnight Monday. U.S. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has been a vocal supporter of the ban and...

Oil shale production on federal lands in the West will be allowed to move forward starting Monday after Congress failed to re-enact a ban on finalizing a leasing program. But some Democrats warned Wednesday they may replace moratoriums as soon as Congress reconvenes in January. Congress' decision to let the moratorium lapse brought cheers from companies seeking to turn the rock deposits in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming into synthetic fuel. "It's good for the industry," says Jeff Hartley, a consultant to several Utah-based energy companies. "It's really good for the state of Utah." But Hartley argued that if the ban...

www.gunowners.org/a091508.htmSep 2008 As the House Gets Ready to Vote on Repealing the DC Gun Ban -- Your Representative now needs to hear from you Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585 Monday, September 15, 2008 How quickly things can change. Last week, the early reports indicated that the Childers bill to repeal the DC gun ban, HR 6691, was going to be a "cake walk" in the House of Representatives. But now, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) has managed to get an alternative, anti-gun bill onto the floor of the House. Her bill...

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City police have arrested an award-winning West High School teacher for the alleged sexual abuse of a 17-year-old student. Jose Bernaf Fajul was arrested on campus Tuesday after classes ended for the day. The 46-year-old social studies and world language teacher was booked into the Salt Lake County jail for investigation of forcible sexual abuse and forcible sodomy. Salt Lake City police spokeswoman Lara Jones says the department had been working with the teenage girl and her father prior to the arrest. ... This outstanding "teacher" won Utah's 2007 No Child Left Behind American...

The US Bureau of Land Management issued a final programmatic environmental impact statement Sept. 4 to guide the use of public land containing oil shale and tar sands in three western states. Reactions ranged from applause to expressions of concern. The document, which BLM developed under Section 369[d] of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, amends 12 land-use plans in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to set aside 1.9 million acres of public land for potential commercial oil shale development, the US Department of the Interior agency indicated. One of the next steps would be to complete rules to govern procedures for...

MCCAIN WELL AHEAD OF OBAMA IN IDAHO, RANKING THIRD IN SUPPORT ONLY BEHIND UTAH AND WYOMING McCain leads by a 52%-29% margin “if the election was held today”. Further, a sizable McCain lead remains regardless of region of residence within Idaho, age, gender, and years having lived in Idaho. Even among Democrats, 35% say they would vote for McCain. Idaho’s 23% lead lags only behind Utah (39%) and Wyoming (37%) in McCain support. Greg Smith & Associates will reveal the results of polling work done on Idaho’s U.S. Senate race between Jim Risch (R), Larry LaRocco (D), and Rex Rammell...

Romney to meet with Utah GOP delegates By Lisa Riley Roche Deseret News Published: Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008 12:45 a.m. MDT 0 comments RELATED CONTENT | E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - McCain's choice alters campaign Utah delegates praise Palin ST. PAUL, Minn. — Mitt Romney may not be on the GOP ticket, but Utah delegates to the Republican National Convention will no doubt give him a hero's welcome when he visits them at their Monday morning breakfast meeting. "Next to John McCain and Sarah Palin, right now there is not a hotter name at this convention than Mitt...

With several polls showing Democratic Sen. Barack Obama trailing Republican Sen. John McCain in Colorado on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, some of the state's Democrats worried Sunday that McCain might pick former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as a running mate to solidify his support among a key voting bloc - Mormons. "It's going to make a big difference if Mitt Romney is the V.P." for McCain, said Nick Isenberg, a Democratic activist from Glenwood Springs. "We have a lot of Mormons in Colorado." Romney is a member of the Mormon church, officially known as the Church of...

(KCPW News) Utah lawmakers took tips on highway funding from a Texas legislator this morning. Texas Republican Representative Mike Krusee joined them on Capitol Hill. He told the Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee that with federal money drying up, the only way to pay for new highways is to make them toll roads. "Guess how many roads pay for themselves in taxes? Zero. Not a one. Most of them are less than 50 percent," said Krusee. "Imagine if you're a grocery a store owner, and you decide, I'm gonna sell sirloin at a buck a pound, and I'm gonna sell...

Mark Udall's message to Colorado voters is crystal clear: just tell me want you want to hear, and I'll say it. Udall is a five-term Democrat congressman, vying for perhaps the country's most hotly contested U.S. Senate seat. He's built his reputation as an uncompromising environmentalist, consistently opposed domestic energy exploration, and blocked construction of new refineries to make American energy supplies more secure. Now, Udall wants voters to believe that he's suddenly seen the light. "We've got to produce our own oil and gas, right here in our country," he says in a new commercial paid for by his...

PROVO CANYON — A Wasatch County sheriff's sergeant died Thursday morning after collapsing during a routine traffic stop. G. Scott Hathcock, 48, of Heber City, had pulled a car over on U.S. 189 in Provo Canyon and had just stepped to the window of the car to ask for documents when he collapsed, said Summit County sheriff's deputy Josh Wall. The people in the car as well as a passer-by performed CPR until paramedics arrived minutes later, Wall said. However, medical personnel were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Officials don't yet know the...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2008 – Kim Robinson knows that when military members deploy, they face a lot of stress overseas on top of worrying about their families at home. To help alleviate that stress, Robinson has committed to do what he can to ease the burden on the families of his employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserve. Robinson’s company, Robinson Transport, of Salina, Utah, provides $1,000 a month to the families of employees who are deployed with the National Guard or Reserve. This money is meant to supplement the family’s income, and the company still pays all...

   Year  Output  Type  Cigarette Use (Adults) – BRFSS2007 State Current Cigarette Use (%) Alabama 22.5 Alaska 22.2 Arizona 19.8 Arkansas 22.4 California 14.3 Colorado 18.7 Connecticut 15.5 Delaware 19.0 District of Columbia 17.3 Florida 19.3 Georgia 19.3 Hawaii 17.0 Idaho 19.2 Illinois 20.2 Indiana 24.1 Iowa 19.8 Kansas 17.9 Kentucky 28.3 Louisiana 22.6 Maine 20.1 Maryland 17.1 Massachusetts 16.4 Michigan 21.2 Minnesota 16.5 Mississippi 24.0 Missouri 24.6 Montana 19.5 Nebraska 19.9 Nevada 21.5 New Hampshire 19.4 New Jersey 17.2 New Mexico 20.8 New York 18.9 North Carolina 22.9 North Dakota 21.0 Ohio 23.1 Oklahoma 25.8 Oregon 16.9 Pennsylvania 20.9...

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, Utah — One of the largest and most photographed arches in Arches National Park has collapsed. Paul Henderson, the park's chief of interpretation, said Wall Arch collapsed sometime late Monday or early Tuesday. The arch is along Devils Garden Trail, one of the most popular in the park. For years, the arch has been a favorite stopping point for photographers. Henderson said the arch was claimed by forces that will eventually destroy others in the park: gravity and erosion. "They all let go after a while," he said Friday. He said it's the first collapse of a...

Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter from which oil may be produced. The regulations would provide for a thoughtful, phased approach to oil shale development on public lands in the West. [Photo Credit: Argonne National Laboratory] WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of the InteriorÂ’s Bureau of Land Management today published proposed regulations to establish a commercial oil shale program that could result in the addition of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from lands in the western United States. In keeping with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Mineral Leasing Act...

A coalition that represents fundamentalist Mormons has issued a statement objecting to the LDS Church's attempts to deny their claim to a shared Mormon heritage. The Principle Voices Coalition, based in Salt Lake City, said that members "strenuously object to any efforts to deprive us and others of the freedom to name and describe ourselves by terms of our own choosing." Two weeks ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints launched a media campaign aimed at distinguishing itself from the breakaway sects. The church said its effort was primarily aimed at clarifying the difference between the LDS Church...

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – Social and environmental groups yesterday challenged a multistate proposal to trim greenhouse gas emissions because they fear it would harm low-income communities and be vulnerable to fraud. Protesters showed up outside a meeting of the Western Climate Initiative in San Diego, where leaders from several states and Canadian provinces discussed their pollution-reduction compact. California supports the blueprint, which aims to drop climate pollutants 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The most controversial aspect is a plan to create a cap-and-trade system for atmospheric pollutants. Once emission limits are set by the 11 participating governments, high-polluting...

Your daily routine -- switching on a light, cooking a meal, driving down the street -- would generate less greenhouse gases under a first-of-its-kind regional strategy to curb global warming unveiled Wednesday at the state Capitol in Salem. The strategy emerged from the Western Climate Initiative, an alliance of Western states -- including Oregon and Washington -- and Canadian provinces trying to jump ahead of any federal move to regulate greenhouse gases. Large utility companies and factory owners would feel the effects first, followed by fuel distributors, as they face limits on their greenhouse gas emissions. Individual Oregonians would not...

One of the more dangerous phenomena in aviation is an F-16 pilot whose marksmanship is better than his situational awareness. Two soldiers discovered this on the Utah Test and Training Range one night in April 2007. An F-16 pilot lost sight of his target while rolling into a strafing run using night-vision goggles, acquired their rented GMC Suburban instead, and converted it to Swiss cheese.

Colorado, Wyoming and Utah have more oil in oil shale than OPEC. Everyone seems to know that by now, but here are six things you probably did not know about oil shale. 1) Did you know oil shale has a smaller carbon footprint than ethanol? When calculating the carbon emissions of the entire oil shale process, without the use of carbon capture technology, its total carbon footprint is about 7 percent larger than gasoline. But a peer-reviewed article in the February issue of Science calculates the entire carbon footprint of ethanol to be 93 percent larger than gasoline. The article...

Duke Field Airmen from the 711th Special Operations Squadron dropped the last operational Bomb Live Unit-82 from an MC-130E Combat Talon I July 15 at the Utah Test and Training Range. Nicknamed "Commando Vault" in Vietnam and "Daisy Cutter" in Afghanistan, the BLU-82 is a 15,000-pound bomb, and because of its size, the bomb was dropped by parachute from the aircraft. "We in the Air Force Reserve Command feel fortunate to have been chosen to drop the last operational Daisy Cutter," said Col. Jon Weeks, the 919th Special Operations Wing vice commander and mission commander on the drop. "Our people...

WASHINGTON - The music will be rising into a crescendo, the hall glowing with red, blue and white stars, confetti at the waiting, when Utah delegates take the microphone in the nomination of John McCain for the president and cast their ballots for Mitt Romney.

An Ogden, Utah, woman said she discovered a spider in her home that she believes to be a species native to Iraq and Afghanistan. Lynnelle Carson said she caught the alleged camel spider in the living room of the home she recently moved into with her family, the Ogden Standard-Examiner reported Thursday. I was working in the living room around 2 a.m. and I looked down and thought, 'Hey, there's a camel spider, I've got to catch that,' Carson said. Carson said she learned to recognize the species, which can grow to up to 6 inches long and can...

Beginning next month, most Utah government employees will not go in on Fridays. Many cities and counties already have four-day workweeks, and some states have voluntary programs for shorter workweeks, but Utah is the first state to institute the four-day week as a policy. Brigham Young professor Rex Facer, who has studied changes in workplace schedules, says workers often like the change, but employee satisfaction is not the main reason government employers are taking new looks at alternative work schedules. Facer says employers are looking for ways to reduce commuting costs, congestion and pollution. Facer started studying alternative workweeks in...

A major dinosaur fossil discovery has been announced in southeastern Utah. Currently identified as the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry, the area is located in a preserved river channel and contains the fossilized remains of multiple dinosaur skeletons, animal burrows and large petrified tree trunks. Recently excavated by a team from the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, IL, the site is similar in age to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry near Price. It is believed to be 145-150 million years old, falling at the end of the Jurassic Period, which was the middle period of the Mesozoic era or "Age of Reptiles."...

The King of Amnesty is dead. On tuesday, Team America candidate Jason Chaffetz defeated La Raza Republican Chris Cannon by over twenty points! Team America raised over $25,000 for Jason who used the money to make it clear to the voters of Utah that he stood for securing the borders and enforcing our laws, while Cannon stood for amnesty. Chris Cannon has long been one of our top targets. He’s sponsored over half a dozen amnesty bills, and has won awards from MALDEF and La Raza for his pro-amnestyrecord. We supported his challengers in 2004 and 2006, but they...

Rep. Chris Cannon -- who lost in a 60%-40% Primary election landslide yesterday -- had survived several previous Primary challenges by fooling enough people into believing that he was not really an amnesty champion. The seven-term incumbent lost to Jason Chaffetz, 41, a former chief of staff for Utah's governor who was running for public office for the first time and who was outspent 7-1. Chaffetz ran as a True Immigration Reformer, favoring deep cuts in legal immigration and vigorous Attrition Through Enforcement measures.

I knew gun lovers wouldn't like my Sunday column. No matter how reasonable and even-handed I tried to be (I acknowledged firing guns myself and conceded on concealed weapons, for goodness' sake), I know that people are irrational about their Glocks. So I expected hate mail. But when some helpful Second Amendment literalist posted my column at www.freerepublic.com, my e-mail box filled up - and The Salt Lake Tribune's Web hits took off. I'm still being chastised. Many calmly offered their interpretations of the right to bear arms. They repeatedly compared the Second Amendment to the First, reminding me of...

Jason Chaffetz's promise to change Washington, starting with Rep. Chris Cannon, resonated with Republican voters, who appear to have ousted the six-term incumbent in a Republican primary tonight. "You rock, and you rocked the Republican Party," Chaffetz told supporters gathered in Springville, shortly after polls closed. "We've done this all with volunteers, with no free meals and no polling. We've done it the right way. You can never convince me that one person can't make a difference." With nearly three-quarters of precincts counted, Chaffetz led Cannon by more than 20 points. Chaffetz now advances to face Democrat Bennion Spencer in...

Byline: Liljenquist has Establishment backing, while Mortensen relies on a handful of volunteers In the Senate District 23 Republican primary, it's a case of big bucks squaring off against loose change. Republicans Dan Liljenquist, 33, and Ron Mortensen, 63, are competing to gain the south Davis County senate seat being vacated by Dan Eastman, who is not seeking a third term. "They're exercising the nuclear option," Mortensen said of Liljenquist's well-fueled campaign that has fired off several mailers, the most recent with endorsements that read like a list of who's who in the county's Republican power structure. According to campaign...

Here's a part of the letter: ...obsession with undocumented workers amounts to persecution. He would eliminate their ability to work, to drive, to go to school. He is blind to the economic reality that local businesses and farmers depend on them. There is neither compassion nor realism in Mortensen's hostility toward them. Click the link to freep and scroll to the bottom of the article. Click the thumbs down.

Cost of gasoline bleeding you dry? Air pollution taking your breath away? Worried to death about auto-induced climate change and the future of your planet? You should be. Our oil addiction is a drain on our wallets, a threat to our health and national security, and a major contributor to the global warming that threatens our planet. And with world-wide demand for oil increasing and supplies dwindling, it's a problem we can't drill or dig our way out of. But there's a solution somewhere over the horizon. Hang on, folks. Hydrogen, the most abundant element on Earth, is on...

WASHINGTON — The fight over energy and how to lower gas prices threw the Rocky Mountain West into the spotlight Wednesday when President Bush urged Congress to repeal a moratorium on the development of oil shale. In a speech that spurred protests from Democratic leaders and environmentalists, Bush called for harvesting oil from shale rock found in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The president also advocated drilling for oil in coastal waters and the Alaskan wilderness, saying the tight supply is pushing up gas prices. "Every American who drives to work, purchases food or ships a product has felt the effect,"...

WEST VALLEY CITY - With his Smith & Wesson .40-caliber semi-automatic holstered on his right hip, Travis Deveraux addressed the mayor and City Council on Tuesday. Deveraux says he has been harassed by West Valley City police for carrying that gun and treated like a criminal. "A criminal does not want [police] attention, and they will not openly carry a gun," Deveraux said. With 10 other gun-toting civilians - who came from as far as Bountiful, Santaquin and Lehi - to support him, Deveraux told the council that their police department has consistently overreacted to his gun carrying. And in...

A newly discovered batch of well-preserved dinosaur bones, petrified trees and even freshwater clams in southeastern Utah may provide fresh clues about life in the region some 150 million years ago. The Bureau of Land Management announced the find Monday, calling the quarry near Hanksville "a major dinosaur fossil discovery." Several weeks of excavation have revealed at least four long-necked sauropods, two carnivorous dinosaurs and possibly a stegosaurus, according to the BLM. Nearby, there are also animal burrows and petrified tree trunks six feet in diameter. It doesn't contain any new species - at least not yet - but offers...

Last April 9th, at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, two soldiers were driving a rented SUV about five kilometers from the part of the range used for live firing. It was at night, and an F-16 that thought it was firing at something in the live fire area, lit up the SUV instead. Only 70 20mm rounds were fired. Fortunately, the two people in the SUV were only injured (both from flying glass, the passenger got a dislocated shoulder as he rapidly exited the vehicle when it quickly turned off the road and stopped.) The investigation of how this happen...

Park dispatch received a call routed through 911 from Kane County dispatch on May 31st regarding people stranded in the backcountry and needing medical attention. A Pennsylvania couple in their 60s had rented a two-wheel drive sedan and were vacationing in the Glen Canyon area. They planned to drive from Big Water to Escalante, both small towns in southern Utah, via a rugged four-wheel drive road. They later reported that the GPS unit in their vehicle advised that they could travel this route. About 45 miles from Big Water, though, the vehicle broke down after the oil pan was ripped...

SALT LAKE CITY - University of Utah geneticist Mario Capecchi got a bonus after winning the Nobel Prize for medicine last fall: He learned he has a younger sister. Capecchi, 70, and half-sister Marlene Bonelli, 69, met last month in northern Italy. It was technically a reunion, but really more of an introduction; they were too young to remember when they were separated in the early days of World War II. Bonelli had long believed that Capecchi and their mother had died in the war, he told The Salt Lake Tribune. Capecchi's mother gave birth to Bonelli in 1939, when...

PROVO, UTAH -- For years, Kevin Jensen carried a pistol everywhere he went, tucked in a shoulder holster beneath his clothes. In hot weather the holster was almost unbearable. Pressed against Jensen's skin, the firearm was heavy and uncomfortable. Hiding the weapon made him feel like a criminal. Then one evening he stumbled across a site that urged gun owners to do something revolutionary: Carry your gun openly for the world to see as you go about your business. .....

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- You'd think this would be oil shale's moment. You'd think with gas prices topping $4 and consumers crying uncle, Congress would be moving fast to spur development of a domestic oil resource so vast - 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone - it could eventually rival the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. You'd think politicians would be tripping over themselves to arrange photo-ops with Harold Vinegar (whom I profiled in Fortune last November), the brilliant, Brooklyn-born chief scientist at Royal Dutch Shell whose research cracked the code on how...

A missing case of military assault rifles has turned up on Hill Air Force Base, but officials still don't know who took them. Whoever took them had a change of heart. He brought the weapons back for base officials to find this morning. Maj. Shannon Smith, air base wing security commander, said, "What we think happened was this was a crime of opportunity." An early-morning phone call led base officials to the missing M-16 rifles. Smith said, "We think that he saw some of these news reports and decided the best thing to do was bring the weapons back." Whoever...

Packing In Public: Gun Owners Tired Of Hiding Their Weapons Embrace 'Open Carry' Those who wear their guns in full sight are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm a common accessory. By Nicholas Riccardi Los Angeles Times Staff Writer PROVO, UTAH — For years, Kevin Jensen carried a pistol everywhere he went, tucked in a shoulder holster beneath his clothes. In hot weather the holster was almost unbearable. Pressed against Jensen's skin, the firearm was heavy and uncomfortable. Hiding the weapon made him feel like a criminal. Then one evening he stumbled across a site that urged...

SOUTH JORDAN - South Jordan city leaders are considering a ban on air guns, BB guns, paintball guns and some firearms replicas. Police say they've had more than 15 complaints in the past year and a half about fake weapons that were thought to be real. The police department recently responded to a 911 call of a man lying in the bushes with a rifle that turned out to be fake. Police are asking the City Council to ban certain kinds of weapons and the fakes. The rule would require residents to notify police if they plan to use items...

Health department recommends residents take precautions Public-health officials are urging residents to take precautions to avoid hantavirus. Four cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome have already been reported in 2008, with one resulting in a fatality. The most recent cases were confirmed last week in Delta and Dolores counties. Two previous cases of hantavirus were reported in Kiowa County in February and Fremont County in early May. The patient in Kiowa County died. "This year's heavy snowpack has provided moisture for ample vegetation that provides food for rodents, and often results in a large jump in both mouse populations and infection...

PARK CITY, Utah - President George W. Bush visited Park City to help shake the pockets of donors at a Deer Valley function to bolster Republican campaigns. The Park Record has no report of how well the money-rustling went, but it does report that Bush was greeted, after a fashion, with crude signs and hand gestures. These hand gestures apparently weren’t friendly hand waves. Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds described them as “classless and embarrassing.” To ensure the president’s safety, 47 law officers were called out to help monitor the motorcade route. The cost to local taxpayers for overtime pay...

PARK CITY, Utah - President George W. Bush visited Park City to help shake the pockets of donors at a Deer Valley function to bolster Republican campaigns. The Park Record has no report of how well the money-rustling went, but it does report that Bush was greeted, after a fashion, with crude signs and hand gestures. These hand gestures apparently weren’t friendly hand waves. Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds described them as “classless and embarrassing.” To ensure the president’s safety, 47 law officers were called out to help monitor the motorcade route. The cost to local taxpayers for overtime pay...

The case of a first-grade teacher convicted of molesting his own students has taken a new twist. The school's principal is now accused of knowing about the abuse and not reporting it. Frank Laine Hall is currently serving a 15-years-to-life prison sentence for molesting students in his Riverton classroom. Now, the school's principal is charged with one count of failure to report abuse, a misdemeanor that could destroy her career. Parents of Hall's victims have mixed emotions about this new charge. Shelly Nordick is a well-liked principal, who one parent says helped the children heal after Hall's conviction. But could...

Fatal Mine Collapse Covered 50 Acres ScienceDaily (Jun. 3, 2008) — New calculations show that the deadly Crandall Canyon mine collapse -- which registered as a magnitude-3.9 earthquake -- began near where miners were excavating coal and quickly grew to a 50-acre cave-in, University of Utah seismologists say in a report on the tragedy. The University of Utah Seismograph Stations estimated the size of the collapse is about four times larger than was thought shortly after the time of the Aug. 6, 2007, disaster that resulted in the deaths of six miners and, 10 days later, three rescuers. The seismologists'...

WASHINGTON – President Bush was the headliner last week at three fundraisers for Sen. John McCain. But as happy as he was to accept the help to raise badly needed money, McCain did everything he could to push the unpopular president out of the headlines. Events in Arizona and Utah were moved out of big public arenas and into private homes. The only public sighting of the two men together was the briefest of handshakes at an Arizona airport, timed late in the day after the network news broadcasts. For Bush, it reflects his status as a lame duck with...

This map shows the part of the Crandall Canyon Mine that was being mined in August 2007, when a collapse occurred. A smaller collapse in March 2007 (red rectangle marked... Click here for more information. SALT LAKE CITY� New calculations show that the deadly Crandall Canyon mine collapse � which registered as a magnitude-3.9 earthquake � began near where miners were excavating coal and quickly grew to a 50-acre cave-in, University of Utah seismologists say in a report on the tragedy. The University of Utah Seismograph Stations estimated the size of the collapse is about four times larger than...