Utah
Community gathers to honor homeless who died in Utah County over the winter
PROVO, Utah — Monday was a day of remembrance in Utah County for the lives of four unsheltered community members that were lost through the winter.
“Jimmy, Amber, Alan and Marc,” said Karen McCandless, the executive director of Community Action Services and Food Bank. “Each one of them were fellow travelers in this journey that we were on.”
The journey led one of them, “Jimmy” Trafny, to a home in October of 2024.
“Jimmy was so excited… and he was making plans to celebrate the holidays in his new apartment,” McCandless said.
But he never got the chance.
“That was particularly hard for me,” she added.
The memorial comes just as warming centers overseen by McCandless and her team have closed for the season.
“You’re with someone every night for six months… Stability leads to positive outcomes,” said Kenna Mathews, who serves as their director of housing.
No one from their warming shelters was lost during the winter.
“It’s a miracle and you guys participated in that miracle,” said Pastor Justin Banks with the Genesis Project in Provo, which served as one of the centers.
But the challenge to keep others safe now grows.
“I’ve been worried since the morning we closed — way before that,” Mathews said, “How are we going to help our people?”
Mathews says the homeless population in Utah County is only getting bigger — “due to the housing crisis, due to the economy.”
So she’s hopeful those connections they’ve made through the warming centers stick.
She adds that rather than seeing their neighbors through a negative lens, she also hopes the people of Utah County help answer their prayers.
“So many times, they’re pushed aside and they’re rejected, neglected,” Banks said in prayer during the service. “Let us see the beauty in every life, God.”
“They are people and they do deserve to be remembered,” said Mathews. “Just like we want to be remembered, they want to be remembered.”
Mathews noted that she’s grateful for all those who have stepped up, with more than 500 volunteers contributing at the warming centers this winter.
Utah
Here’s who will lead Utah Valley University as its next president
Jon Anderson will be charged with moving the Orem school forward following the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on campus last year.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Incoming UVU President Jon Anderson poses for a photo with his family after an event announcing his selection at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, July 17, 2026.
Utah
Beaver County residents set up thousands of sandbags ahead of flashfloods
BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.
After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.
Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.
“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.
An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.
Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.
Utah
Utah man arrested again for allegedly abusing dog twice in three months
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.
Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.
Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.
“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”
When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.
An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.
In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.
Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.
Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.
In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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