Top Stories Salt Lake City

MILLCREEK CANYON — A back-country skier suffered compound fractures to both legs after being caught in an avalanche Sunday afternoon.

The slide was triggered about 3 p.m. by a party of three skiers in Alexander Basin, an area north of Gobbler’s Knob about two miles back from Millcreek Canyon Road, said Unified Police Sgt. Travis Skinner.

Rescue crews were transporting the 42-year-old man by air to University Hospital.

“If the weather had been bad, he probably wouldn’t have made it with all the blood he was losing,” Skinner said.

The other two skiers were not hurt.

About a half-hour later, another avalanche in Millcreek Canyon near Porter Fork injured a skier’s shoulder, but he was able to ski out on his own, Skinner said.

— Paul Koepp

WEST VALLEY CITY — Nearly 200 people gathered at the Financial Fitness Fair Saturday to ensure their taxes were properly completed and filed in plenty of time.

Approximately 25 tax preparers have volunteered to work with people who have a combined income of less than $49,000 annually and to prepare their taxes for free. The offered service began Jan. 25 and will continue through April 15. During this time, CAP Utah hopes to assist more than the 14,300 people they prepared taxes for last year across Utah.

The VITA program — Volunteer Income Tax Assistance — which helps volunteers become certified to prepare taxes, assisted CAP Utah in organizing the volunteers. Stephen Parks, a recently retired CFO of Questar, underwent the 12-hour training to become certified.

“The people that use this program are people who can use the help,” Parks said.

In addition to volunteering at the fair Saturday at the West Valley City Family Center, Parks will work a couple of three- to four-hour shifts every week through April 15.

“It’s a great way to get your return done,” Parks said. “If you can get your return done for free, why wouldn’t you do it?”

Frank Silva, 20, attended the fair for his first time with hopes to get his taxes done and learn a little bit more about how to do them.

“It’s great because it’s free,” Silva said.

Milika AtaAta, of Taylorsville, returned for her second year to have her taxes done.

“They’re really nice and helpful here,” AtaAta said. “She showed me how to do them last year as we were going through it.”

AtaAta said she learned enough last year to do her taxes on her own but attended the fair to have a tax preparer do them to ensure accuracy.

In addition to offering free tax services, the fair also taught locals in attendance how to stretch and save their dollars.

Utah Saves and AAA Fair Credit offered free credit reports and counseling to anyone interested in learning more. Additionally Utah Saves promoted their ‘Save $200′ program, a program that encourages people to take $200 and put it towards a smart investment.

AtaAta visited one of the many booths at the fair to open a savings account for her children. It’s something she said she had thought about in the past but had not gotten around to doing.

“The goal today is to help people become more educated about their finances and also to teach them what to do with their refund,” said Heather Tritten, executive director of CAP Utah.

Other organizations, such as the Taxpayer Advocate Service, were on hand to raise awareness about the services they offer.

Ana Ruiz, a bilingual specialist for TAS, said she serves as a liaison between the taxpayer and the IRS but that taxpayers don’t often realize that.

“We’re here to help you resolve your problems,” Ruiz said. “We’re the good guys.”

For more information about locations to have taxes prepared or for other financial questions, call 211 or visit caputah.org.

e-mail: ejames@desnews.com

SALT LAKE CITY — New details have emerged in federal court about the alleged plan by a Lindon man to have four of his former investors killed.

Jeffrey Lane Mowen appeared Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul M. Warner, seeking a release from custody pending his trial on charges of wire fraud, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, witness tampering and retaliating against a witness.

But federal prosecutors told Warner that while Mowen was in the Davis County Jail, he attempted to have four former investors murdered by a white supremacist to prevent them from testifying against him, according to Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah.

Prosecutors claim that in one instance, Mowen used Morse code to dictate a letter to a fellow inmate ordering the slayings. The inmate taking the dictation was working with authorities. He was wearing a recording device that captured Mowen tapping out the hit list, prosecutors said.

Based on the information, Warner denied Mowen’s request for pre-trial release.

“The judge found him to be a danger to the community,” Rydalch said, noting that Warner had already determined that Mowen was a flight risk during his initial detention hearing.

“Those are the two prongs in federal court,” she said, “if they’re found (to be) a danger to the community or a flight risk, then they remain in custody pending resolution of the case.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, Mowen, 47, also sought to prevent the U.S. Marshals Service from auctioning off a collection of 210 exotic cars, motorcycles and boats that prosecutors allege were purchased with ill-gotten funds from a fraudulent investment scheme.

In court papers, the marshals service said storing the massive motor menagerie was costing $21,000 a month. Two auctions had been scheduled for January but were postponed after Mowen filed an objection in court.

On Tuesday, Warner ruled that the auctions will take place once he signs a new order that Rydalch described as a “road map” for the sales. A date for the auctions has not been set, and Warner said he will allow Mowen to raise additional objections to the sales.

Authorities say Mowen represented himself as a successful trader in foreign currency and swindled investors out of about $18 million. They say he used the vehicles bound for auction, which include a 1925 Ford Model T Speedster, a 1956 Austin Healey convertible, a 1970 Pontiac GTO and a 1971 De Tomaso Pantera GTS coupe, to perpetrate the fraud.

e-mail: gliesik@desnews.com TWITTER: GeoffLiesik

Here are some ways to share your time and talents with others, provided by the 2-1-1 Information and Referral, 3150 S. 900 West. For more information, go to www.211ut.org.

Maliheh Free Clinic — Volunteer interpreters are needed. Volunteers should have adequate understanding of both English and the language for which they’re interpreting. Volunteers must understand medical terminology in both languages and be at least 18 years of age.

The English Skills Learning Center — Volunteers are needed in the Humanitarian Center to teach adult immigrants and refugees from 10 a.m. to noon Monday-Friday. Training will be provided.

U.S. Dream Academy — After-school mentors and tutors are needed for third- to seventh-grade children who have a parent who has been incarcerated, 3-6 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 1-6 p.m. Friday. Volunteers are needed one hour per week and must pass a background check.

Heart Change Ministries — Need volunteer handyman, organizer for kitchen, mentors, lunch workers, people who like working with children.

Catholic Community Services — Ongoing food-pantry volunteers needed to assemble food boxes, sort and organize food and other duties. May have to lift up to 40 pounds.

The American Diabetes Association, serving Utah — Need help at Diabetes Expo, a health fair on Feb. 27, 2010, at South Towne Exposition Center. Lunch and an event T-shirt provided.

Camp Hobe — For cancer kids and their siblings. Volunteers needed for summer camp: June 13-18 (campers ages 6-12), June 20-25 (campers ages 12-19), and June 20-22 (campers ages 4-7). Positions include counselors, activity leaders, cooks, medical staff and lifeguards.

The Utah Domestic Violence Council — Looking for office volunteer approximately 10-15 hours a week to assist with answering phones, general filing, maintaining the reference library, material distribution and other general office assistance.

The Susan Powell Facebook page is back up.

The page was taken down by the social networking site for “technical reasons” after investigating claims that the Friends & Family of Susan Powell page was the target of people posing as Susan Powell, said Cox family spokesperson Shelby Gifford.

Page administrators and family of the missing West Valley City mother of two have been monitoring the page and had grown distressed after about six people had posed as Susan Powell and multiple threats were made against the women who helped create the page. The page was back up by late Saturday night.

Gifford said they hope no further problems will occur and compares the half a dozen imposters as minor compared to the wonderful 43,000 members.

— Lana Groves

WEST VALLEY CITY — Detectives investigating the disappearance of Susan Powell seized the family’s van again Friday after her husband temporarily returned to Utah.

Josh Powell told police he was driving the blue minivan on the night his wife disappeared.

He returned to Utah from his new home in Washington state Friday to fix his West Valley home so that he could offer it for sale, according to Kirk Graves, Josh Powell’s brother-in-law.

Powell parked the van in a parking lot near his home while he went to visit some neighbors. When he returned to the car a few hours later, a police officer was waiting by the van with a search warrant and a tow truck.

“Unfortunately, Josh didn’t let anybody know what was on the warrant,” Graves said. “I’m assuming it was to look for something specific.”

West Valley Police Capt. Anita Schwemmer confirmed that the minivan was seized Friday as part of a search warrant. She gave no other details except that the vehicle was expected to be returned to Powell Friday evening.

Police consider Powell a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance. She has been missing since Dec. 7. After losing his job in Utah, Powell moved with his two young sons to Puyallup, Wash., about a month ago, to live with his father.

Powell had driven a moving van to Washington and left the minivan at the West Valley City home, Graves said. Investigators had searched the van once before shortly after Susan Powell disappeared.

— Abigail Shaha, Pat Reavy