This is your daily news rundown for Friday, Oct. 9. In this edition:
- A major roadway through Zion National Park is fully reopened after last week's rockfall
- An Oklahoma kratom company dropped its lawsuit over Utah's ban
- Utah's Hogle Zoo broke ground on an African Savanna habitat expansion
Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway is fully reopened sooner than expected
Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway fully reopened Friday morning, much sooner than officials expected.
A rockfall closed part of the major roadway through Zion National Park last week.
Some of it reopened on Tuesday, but repairs for a section from Canyon Junction to the Great Arch Pullout was expected to take several weeks.
Park officials sped up that timeline by removing damaged asphalt and putting gravel in those sections for now. They will be repaved in the near future.
A kratom company dropped its lawsuit against Utah’s ban
An Oklahoma kratom company abruptly dropped its lawsuit against Utah’s ban on some kratom products.
Botanic Tonics LLC initially argued that only allowing pure leaf kratom to be sold in Utah will cost the company millions of dollars.
Supporters of the law point to kratom’s addictive nature and recent deaths related to mislabeled synthetic kratom products.
In August, the lawsuit was put on hold, and at the end of last month, the company and the Utah Attorney General’s Office agreed to dismiss it.
A spokesperson for the attorney’s office said the move came after the Utah Department of Agriculture approved a new pure leaf kratom product by Botanic Tonics.
Utah’s Hogle Zoo is getting an expanded African Savanna habitat next year
Utah’s Hogle Zoo broke ground on Thursday on an almost $11 million expansion for its African Savanna animals.
It will include a year-round indoor giraffe habitat, a dedicated outdoor giraffe feeding area, and expanded hoofstock facilities.
The project was largely funded through donations and is expected to open next summer.
