Government investigators are gathering data to confirm what exactly cracked the windshield of a 737 Max aircraft at above 30,000 feet. An United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplane, similar to the one that was struck, approaches San Diego International Airport for a landing.Photograph: Kevin Carter; Getty Images Save this storyThe National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Sunday that it is investigating an airliner that was struck by an object in its windscreen, mid-flight, over Utah. "NTSB gathering radar, weather, flight recorder data," the federal agency said on the social media site X. "Windscreen being sent to NTSB laboratories for examination." The strike occurred Thursday, during a United Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles. Images shared on social media showed that one of the two large windows at the front of a 737 MAX aircraft was significantly cracked. Related images also reveal a pilot's arm that has been cut multiple times by what appear to be small shards of glass.

Outside of the Utah hospital where Charlie Kirk was taken Wednesday, a crowd of families, college students, and Proud Boys gathered to mourn. Mourners outside Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah, where Charlie Kirk was taken after being shot at Utah Valley University, September 10, 2025. At around 8 pm on Wednesday, the motorcade with Charlie Kirk's body left the Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah. Along the road, the 100 or so people who showed up for an impromptu memorial for Kirk stopped what they were doing, lined the sidewalk, and stared as it sped away from the mountains and into the dark. Kirk had been at nearby Utah Valley University for the kickoff stop of his planned "American Comeback Tour" when a sniper allegedly stood on the roof of a building 200 or so yards away, and took aim, killing him with one shot .

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes speaks at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, last year after state leaders announced they are suing the federal government over 18.5 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land, which covers about 34% of Utah.Saige Miller / KUER via High Country News This story was originally published by High Country News and Public Domain and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Last year, as Utah prepared to file a federal lawsuit aiming to take control of millions of acres of federal public land within its borders, state officials sought help swaying public opinion in their favor. So they turned to a group of public relations professionals at Penna Powers, a media and branding firm based in Salt Lake City. Backed with a commitment of more than two million in taxpayer funds, the firm sprang into action. One of the early orders of business was studying the opposition. In June 2024, an assistant attorney general sent an email to numerous state government colleagues and Penna Powers staffers that contained a video from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) in which the well-known hunter and media personality Randy Newberg described the dangers of transferring federal land to state control.

Teal's workers in Salt Lake City assemble their drones by hand, sitting at several long tables in an open workshop. There is no need for conveyor belts or automated production at their current scale. They do have one robot arm in the back, which is used to calibrate each drone's navigation systems. After calibration, they take the drones out to a grassy patch out front to run them through test flights, with the snow-capped Wasatch Mountains in the distance.

A tech expert has warned that new advances in AI-powered technology will lead to an'explosion' in cybercrime in 2024. Shawn Henry, the chief security officer for CrowdStrike, recently shared how cybercriminals can use AI to sneak through individuals' cybersecurity defenses, spread misinformation, or infiltrate corporate networks. Cybercriminals can use AI to mislead people into believing false narratives during the election season and potentially giving up sensitive information, said the retired executive assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The cybersecurity veteran's warning comes when AI has been given more jobs than ever, including in the US federal and state governments. Twenty-seven departments of the US federal government have deployed AI in some way, and many states have, too.

Zipline has teamed up with a healthcare provider servicing the Intermountain Region in the US to deliver medicine to customers using its drones. The company has started doing drone deliveries to select Intermountain Healthcare patients in the Salt Lake Valley area. For now, it can only do drops for local communities within several miles of its distribution center. Zipline intends to add more centers over the next five years, though, so it can eventually expand beyond Salt Lake Valley and deliver medicine throughout Utah. As TechCrunch notes, Zipline has long been deploying drones for delivery in Africa, and it wasn't until the pandemic that it started doing drops in the US.

Wearable robotic devices have potential to assist and protect their users. Toward design of a Smart Helmet, this article examines the effectiveness of audio and visual warnings to help participants brace for impacts. A user study examines different warnings and impacts applied to users while running. Perturbation forces scaled to user mass are applied from different directions and user displacement is measured to characterize effectiveness of the warning. This is accomplished using the TreadPort Active Wind Tunnel adapted to deliver forward, rearward, right, or left perturbation forces at precise moments during the locomotor cycle. The article presents an overview of the system and demonstrates the ability to precisely deliver consistent warnings and perturbations during gait. User study results highlight effectiveness of visual and audio warnings to help users brace for impact, resulting in guidelines that will inform future human-robot warning systems.

Yu Sun, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Florida, created and organized the Robotic Grasping and Manipulation Competition. Yu talks about the impact robots will have in domestic environments, the disparity between industry and academia showcased by competitions, and the commercialization of research. Yu Sun is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Florida (Assistant Professor 2009-2015, Associate Professor 2015-2020, Associate Chair of Graduate Affairs 2018-2020). He was a Visiting Associate Professor at Stanford University from 2016 to 2017, and received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Utah in 2007. Then he had his Postdoctoral training at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL), Cambridge, MA (2007-2008) and the University of Utah (2008-2009).

New years bring excitement, energy, and predictions about the future. Although the past two years have shaped the future, there are a few things that I notice from my observations. For the past few decades, certain technologies were only available to the most prestigious companies. These technologies were either too expensive or didn't care enough about small businesses. The tools for customers and businesses will continue to drive digital transformation in Main Street small businesses. These are just a few of the many examples that continue to gain popularity.

For Darin Carver, the assistant clinical director for Weber Human Services, the often overlooked crisis in mental health treatment is not just one of access. It's that the care people do get often doesn't help. There are proven techniques for helping people with things like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. But in Utah, only about 43% of adults receiving mental health treatment improve and recover, according to data from the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. While Carver's organization tops the list of public behavioral health centers in urban counties, with about a 50% recovery rate, he said behavioral health overall is not where it needs to be.