Identity Theft

CENTERVILLE — A 41-year-old woman who has multiple cases in 2nd District Court entered guilty pleas in her first court appearance since her arrest April 7.

Julia Herzog, also known as Julia Amelia Higbee, entered the guilty pleas Monday to three of the cases and agreed to pay restitution in the fourth case.

Judge John R. Morris set June 4 for sentencing hearings for those three cases, as well as three other cases.

SALT LAKE CITY — An additional 750,000 people had their personal information stolen by hackers, state health officials said Monday after discovering that the thieves downloaded thousands more files of data than authorities initially believed.

Officials originally estimated that about 24,000 people had their records stolen after a computer tracked to Eastern Europe infiltrated a server beginning March 30. They later changed that number to 182,000 victims.

Health officials now believe a total of nearly 900,000 people have had their personal data stolen.

SALT LAKE CITY -- A student entrepreneurial team at the University of Utah believes it has come up with a winning business plan for a virtual ID badge that operates off of any mobile device.

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Roy lawmaker doesn't think the state should be a partner in aiding identity thieves by selling current voter registration information, including emails and birth dates.

Local law enforcement agencies saw a disturbing trend in 2011 of out-of-state crews coming into the area to sell illegal drugs, everything from marijuana and methamphetamine to illegal prescriptions, cocaine and heroin.

"This is just following a national trend that has hit here," said Lt. Darin Parke with the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Four years after Sacramento County Child Protective Services removed Katrina Haywood from her mother's abusive grip, the woman still has managed to stand in the way of her daughter entering college, finding a job or paying for the roof over her head.

Haywood, 18, has spent two months starting to clean up a mess that foster care workers say she couldn't have prevented.

Eight entities, including Bank of America and Pacific Gas and Electric, want a total of $6,000 from Haywood. She says her birth mother started opening lines of credit using subtly crafted aliases and Haywood's Social Security number. Since the bills weren't paid, the credit history associated with Haywood's Social Security number is filled with accounts in poor standing.

Exiting the state's 60,000-member foster system at about the age of 18 is hard enough for teenagers such as Haywood. For one to five out of every 10 children, the situation is even worse. Their Social Security numbers and birthdays -- easily accessible to birth parents, foster parents, siblings, social workers and courts -- were hijacked so others could get quick cash from banks, keep electricity and water flowing, avoid criminal conviction or even save on taxes and medical costs.

OGDEN -- The folks at the nonprofit Cottages of Hope have a busy couple of weeks ahead.

The group finished celebrating the fifth annual AmeriCorps Week on Saturday and will hold an open house June 2 at its offices at 2724 Washington Blvd.