Amber Alert

SALT LAKE CITY — Speed is everything with an Amber Alert, and a new program unveiled Wednesday might make the notification system work faster.

State officials used a news conference to demonstrate the Law Enforcement Alerting Portal — or LEAP — a high-speed portal that can alert people through email, texts, fax and RSS feeds about child abduction. The new portal can create a PDF with a picture and description of the child, as well as provide information about the suspect and the vehicle.

Making Amber Alerts available to the palm of the hand only works, however, if people sign up. People can sign up for the alerts via www.amberalertcom. The signup is free and funded by private money.

WEST VALLEY CITY — A woman who prompted an Amber Alert when police say she abducted her daughter from a West Valley City elementary school in March now faces charges in the case.

FARMINGTON -- Women in Business recently presented a $10,000 check to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to benefit the Utah Amber Alert Program.

The businesswomen have now raised more than $25,000 for the child abduction alert plan, according to a news release. As tax dollars are not used to support the Amber Alert, Women in Business has raised the entire budget for the program during the past four years.

WEST VALLEY CITY -- West Valley City police have issued an Amber Alert for an 11-year-old girl who is presumed kidnapped.

OGDEN -- Police in Ogden no longer think about placing photos on milk cartons to find juveniles who are missing or have run away.

Instead, they use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to help determine their whereabouts, said Lt. Scott Conley, head of the Ogden Police Department's Selective Enforcement Division.

SOUDERTON, Pa. -- A 9-year-old girl who disappeared while playing outside her suburban Philadelphia apartment complex has been found dead, and a man who lives nearby is in custody.

State police issued an Amber Alert on Monday night for Skylar Kauffman when she didn't come home for dinner after playing with her friends in a parking lot in the small town of Souderton.