HEBER CITY, Utah, June 7, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — Heber City Police and agents from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources responded to a Friday morning call, and found a moose standing in a residential driveway.

“Around 6:45 this morning, Heber City PD responded to reports of a teenage moose wandering through the neighborhood near 500 North and 100 West,” says a statement issued Friday by Heber City Police.

“The young moose explored the area for about an hour and 15 minutes, likely a little lost and curious.

“Officers worked closely with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DNR) to monitor the animal and ensure public safety.”

The moose was eventually tranquilized and given a free ride to a new wilderness home, the agency said.

“Thanks to teamwork and patience, DNR was able to safely capture and relocate the moose to a more suitable habitat.”

SALT LAKE CITY—Alex Jensen and his Utah basketball program have secured the commitment from Elmeri Abbey, a point guard from Finland. He becomes the ninth addition to the new Runnin’ Utes roster.

This continues Utah’s roster overhaul, which has featured mostly transfer portal activity. Abbey is the first international player to commit to Jensen and the Utes.

Utah Basketball: Alex Jensen’s Staff Built, Focus Shifts To Recruiting

Elmeri Abbey commits to the Runnin’ Utes

This is a significant addition for Utah, as Abbey helps to solidify the depth in the backcourt, more specifically point guard.

Abbey has played for Jyvaskyla Basketball Academy in Finland’s top basketball league. There the 6-foot, 180-pound guard played in 27 games and averaged 19.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 5.1 assists in 26.8 minutes of action.

Regarding his efficiency, Abbey averaged 48.5% shooting from the field, including 27.1% from 3-point range and 56.9% inside the arc. Not the most explosive off the ground, Abbey is still a good athlete for the position. He can get into the paint consistently and finish around the rim creatively.

More importantly, Abbey will add to the defensive identity that Jensen hopes to build.  The Finnish product averaged 2.7 steals per game in league play, and just has the sort of foot speed and toughness to be a good defender.

Alex Jensen and staff continue to build out the 2025-26 roster

He joins Babacar Faye, Don McHenry, Seydou Traore, Jakhi Howard, Elijah Moore, James Okonkwo, Kendyl Sanders, and Terrence Brown as Utah’s offseason additions.

That brings Utah’s roster to a total of 12 players, leaving three open spots. The Runnin’ Utes have added some solid pieces and must continue to secure players who will help them compete in the Big 12 next season.

More importantly, though, Utah should focus on players that have room, in terms of potential and eligibility, to grow under Jensen and his staff.

Martin Schiller Named Third Assistant Coach On Alex Jensen’s Utah Basketball Staff

Setting the foundation: Utah’s culture starts with defense

Roster building is urgent—but culture is permanent. Jensen isn’t just recruiting players. He’s building a program, and that starts with identity. For Utah, that identity will start on the defensive end.

“I want to build something, I don’t want to build a new team every year, but build some continuity that way,” Alex Jensen said in an interview with NCAA reporter Andy Katz.

“Watching Houston make their run, Kelvin [Sampson] does such a good job, he gets his guys to play so hard,” Jensen shared.  “That’s something the assistants I’ve hired talk about. That’s who we measure ourselves to and we’ve got to get kids that are tough like that and compete like them.”

In Jensen’s vision, the Runnin’ Utes will be a disciplined, gritty, tough, defensive-minded program. Think closeouts with purpose. Rotations with urgency. Contests without fouling. Utah isn’t going to outgun everyone—they’ll out-tough them.

Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.

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VERNAL, Utah — While Vernal is known for dinosaurs, with many being discovered in the area, there is a different kind of creature making waves for being found nearby.

Scientists at the Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of State Parks at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum spend their days studying bones, but gathering them is a rarity.

That’s why when they heard of a perfectly preserved Ice Age discovery, they were thrilled.

What is it, you ask? Well, those of us here at FOX 13 News are especially excited about it because it is a perfectly preserved red fox skeleton.

Her name is “Roxy,” and she was found undisturbed in a cave in the Uintah Mountains, representing one of the most significant Ice Age mammal discoveries in the region.

The bones were known about for years, but it wasn’t until the U.S. Forest Service dated some of them that the researchers realized what a rarity they had on their hands. When they learned how old the bones were last year, they knew they had to collect them, and then they recently learned the species.

“This is probably the most exciting vertebrate skeleton I’ve ever collected,” said John Foster, the curator of collections at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum. “I hate to say it, but it was a lot more fun than a dinosaur.”

The fox skeleton includes skull material, neck, back, tail, ribs, and what Foster describes as one of the best-preserved parts: the left lower jaw.

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Among his favorite elements are the individual claws from the front paws of the animal.

Incredibly, you can make out the details in them as if the fox died just a few years ago, but she’s quite a bit older than that.

At 26,000 years old, Roxy predates the pyramids, written language, and even farming.

Red foxes are the most widely distributed terrestrial carnivores in the world.

The team of researchers said the species appeared in North America from Eurasia between 300,000 and 130,000 years ago.

Roxy remained perfectly preserved on the surface of that remote cave until scientists carefully extracted her.

The recovery process was challenging, requiring hours of hiking just to reach the cave entrance, followed by more hours navigating to the back of the cave where the skeleton lay.

“Of course, it was completely nerve-wracking collecting it. The scariest part was deciding that we hadn’t missed anything,” Foster said. “We’re trying not to break anything. It was six hours in there just to get all that done.”

Before Roxy was discovered, few Ice Age mammals had been found in northeastern Utah. Foster said the only one of note that he personally knows of is a shin bone of a camel found in the 1980s south of Vernal.

Now that the bones have been acclimated and preserved, the science can begin.

To start, researchers will take small portions of two ribs and send them off to be carbon dated, which should provide dating accuracy within about 100 years.

Next, the team will also analyze ear bones to extract DNA and conduct isotope analysis.

DNA and isotope analysis will unlock what Roxy’s diet was like, and if it was any different from modern red foxes.

It also might offer clues to the relationship between different canine species, from foxes to wolves, to my two adorable spaniels.

Finally, one question Foster is hoping the DNA might answer is what color her fur was, since it was the Ice Age, and a red fox might stick out like a sore thumb.

All of this discovery is the reason Foster says he keeps coming back and doing what he does.

“That’s kind of the highlights of doing this stuff,” he said.

All of this adds up to making Roxy the most important skeleton discovered, ever…

Okay, I made that last sentence up but we’re partial at FOX13 since Roxy is one of us!

Following the science that will be done, Roxy’s bones will go on display at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park so we all can share in her incredible story.