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SALT LAKE CITY — A new Drug Safe Utah lawsuit against the lieutenant governor argues the medical marijuana initiative should be kept off the November ballot in part because it violates constitutional protections of religious freedom.

The initiative should also be invalidated because it violates the constitutional principles of property rights, due process and equal protection under the law, the lawsuit contends.

SALT LAKE CITY — Practice was over and Utah cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah dismissed his players.

One of them, however, wouldn't leave the field.

"Julian (Blackmon) loves to improve," Shah said, drawing out the word love. "He's a worker bee. I gotta shut him down."

After one particular practice, Shah had to insist the junior take a break.

PROVO — During an interview on BYUtv's "BYU Sports Nation" Wednesday, Merril Hoge levied some serious accusations at BYU assistant head coach Ed Lamb regarding how his son Beau was handled in undergoing a switch from quarterback to running back. Beau, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound athlete, played at quarterback last season and competed at the spot during spring practices before switching over to running back.

SALT LAKE CITY — With the state's new school report card or dashboard a work in progress, Utah State Board of Education staff asked lawmakers Wednesday for suggestions for alternatives to letter grades so constituents get an accurate picture of academic progress of Utah schools.

SALT LAKE CITY — As expected, Salt Lake City leaders have decided to place an $87 million bond on the fall ballot to leave it up to voters to decide whether to pay slightly more in property taxes in order to fund street repairs.

The Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to place the question on the upcoming general election ballot.

SALT LAKE CITY — At least Utahns haven't taken to setting electric scooters on fire, throwing them in trash cans or vandalizing them with dog poop, the way people have in some California cities.

Not yet, anyway.

LOGAN — A small modular nuclear power plant design for a facility in southeast Idaho is winding its way through the federal regulatory framework, a procession a key Trump administration official described Tuesday as historic.

SALT LAKE CITY — McDonald's announced Tuesday the company and its franchisees are investing approximately $25 million in Utah throughout 2018 and 2019 on the construction and modernization of more than 35 restaurants.

In total, McDonald's and franchisees are investing $6 billion to modernize most U.S. restaurants by 2020.

The transformed restaurants will feature:

DRAPER — A master of his craft. A hero. Bright. Compassionate. An amazing athlete. A decorated career.

All these words were used Tuesday by friends and colleagues of Draper Fire Battalion Chief Matt "Matty" Burchett, 42, in remembering a man who touched so many lives. Burchett died at a California hospital Monday night while fighting one of California's many raging wildfires.

SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney called for more controlled burns and logging Tuesday to prevent forest fires that are plaguing the West, including Utah and California.

When film producer Karin Gornick made a documentary about teens and anxiety, she purposely didn't mention one thing: anxiety drugs.

That's because medicating children for anxiety is so controversial that Gornick feared the topic would detract from the film's core message, which is that the nation is awash in anxious teens who need help.

SALT LAKE CITY — As expected, Bird Rides Inc. expanded its fleet of vehicles west of I-15 as it redeployed rentable electric scooters in downtown Salt Lake earlier this week after obtaining a business license.

REDDING, Calif. — A wildfire that roared with little warning into a Northern California city claimed two lives as thousands of people scrambled to escape before the walls of flames descended from forested hills onto their neighborhoods, leaving at least 500 structures destroyed in its wake, officials said Friday.

SALT LAKE CITY — With solar energy grabbing more headlines, many Utah consumers are being bombarded with sales offers for home and business use — and that has state officials worried.

"When (popularity rises), unscrupulous players enter the market and customers can be confused about what they're buying or pressured into sales," Chris Parker, director of the Utah Division of Public Utilities, said.