Flight Attendants Suing Skywest: KSUB News Summary

Utah-based SkyWest Airlines is being sued by a flight attendants' union over the firing of two employees. The Association of Flight Attendants claims the employees were fired in retaliation for trying to organize a union with the Association of Flight Attendants. A SkyWest spokesperson said last month the two employees were fired for revealing personal employee data. The two employees claimed that the data was already accessible by the public and they were exposing that it wasn't secure.

Former Lt. Governor Denies Charges

Former Utah Lieutenant Governor Greg Bell is denying allegations that are included in a lawsuit against outgoing state House Speaker Brad Wilson. The former chief financial officer of the homebuilding company Wilson co-founded is suing Wilson for breach of contract. The lawsuit also alleged Wilson made and forgave several loans, including a loan to Bell when he was a state senator. Bell told The Salt Lake Tribune in a statement that Wilson's company bought "several lots" from his company, but never lent him money. Bell added that he wasn't in a position to do Wilson any political favors and that Wilson never asked for any.

SUU Professor Wins NSF Grant

Southern Utah University chemist Dr. Jacob Dean has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Program grant. The five-year, 500-thousand dollar grant will support Dean's research in enhancing light harvesting efficiency in organic materials. Dean is an associate professor of chemistry at SUU. He'll enlist three undergraduate research students each year to work with him

Bird Flu Outbreak Detected In Utah and South Dakota Flocks

The US Department of Agriculture last week identified two large commercial poultry flocks showing presence of the bird flu pathogen. Testing from last Friday showed a flock of over 47-thousand birds in South Dakota had traces of the virus. Two days later, a flock three times the size in Utah was infected. Both flocks will have to be killed to prevent further spread. Fortunately, human cases are rare, and the virus won't survive if the poultry you eat is properly cooked. The real damage, says the USDA, is to the American economy. An outbreak in February cost the federal government upwards of 660-million dollars, and the industry has taken an estimated three-billion-dollar hit. Shoppers saw poultry prices spike after farmers were forced to cull over 58-million birds earlier this year.