This is your daily news rundown for Friday, May 9. In this edition:
- Over 30 kids are confirmed safe after a tour bus caught fire near Moab
- The bestselling novel "Water for Elephants" is now one of 18 books banned in schools statewide
- The Utah House Majority Leader is resigning to serve in the governor's office
Over 30 kids are confirmed safe after a tour bus caught fire
Over 30 kids have been confirmed safe after a tour bus near Moab became fully engulfed in flames due to a mechanical issue Friday morning.
The tour bus was traveling from the Denver area with about 36 children on a camping trip. At about 9:30 a.m., the driver reportedly noticed a mechanical issue and pulled over to the side of SR-191, having all children aboard evacuate the bus.
Shortly after, it caught fire and became fully engulfed.
The Grand County School District sent a bus to transport the kids to a local school and the tour bus company has reportedly sent another bus to get them back to the Denver area.
No injuries have been reported.
Bestselling novel ‘Water for Elephants’ is now banned in schools statewide
Utah has banned the bestselling 2006 novel “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen from public schools statewide.
A 2024 state law ordered schools to remove any book or other content if at least three school districts deem it “sensitive material,” which is anything considered pornographic, indecent, or harmful for children.
While there’s an exception for content with serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors, districts are required to prioritize keeping pornography out of the hands of children over other considerations.
Since then, 18 titles have been banned statewide, four this year. Of those, 16 were written by women.
“Water for Elephants,” which follows a fictional veterinarian who works for a traveling circus during the Great Depression and includes a teen couple’s first time having sex, was targeted by Davis, Tooele, and Cache school districts.
Utah House Majority Leader resigns to serve in the governor’s office
The Utah House Majority Leader is stepping away from his legislative role at the end of this month to serve in the governor’s office.
Rep. Jefferson Moss, a Republican from Saratoga Springs, has served in the Utah House of Representatives since 2017 and in Majority Leadership since 2019.
He will step down from that role on May 30 to serve as the Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, a role he will begin on June 2 as an interim until it is confirmed by the Utah Senate.
Moss’s new role will involve overseeing statewide efforts to promote business development, innovation, and economic strategy.
