Salt Lake City dodged a bullet when a fire raced to the edge of homes near Ensign Peak on Tuesday night, but city officials are tempering their celebration with the knowledge that the fire danger isn’t over yet.

“We are not done with the summer. Our fire restrictions are still in place,” Salt Lake Mayor Jackie Biskupski said early Wednesday as she surveyed the aftermath of the fire, which burned more than 100 acres. “We want people to understand that we live in a very dry community right now. … We’re very fortunate we didn’t lose any lives.”

Her comments came just a few hours before another grass fire started near 1900 West and Indiana Avenue (approximately 900 South) and burned between 4 and 5 acres. Salt Lake City firefighters had the blaze mostly contained within half an hour, a department spokeswoman said.

No one was injured and no structures were damaged. Investigators said they believed the fire was started unintentionally at a transient camp near Interstate 215, the spokeswoman said.

The cause of the Ensign Peak fire, near Utah’s Capitol, remains under investigation, but fireworks and lightning have been ruled out, said Salt Lake City Fire Chief Karl Lieb.

In addition to some 55 Salt Lake City firefighters and supporting crews from neighboring departments, residents of Columbus Court — Biskupski called them “heroes” — fought the flames with garden hoses.

Justin Peterson, his family and friends were having a backyard barbecue when the fire erupted about 3:30 p.m.

“We were literally in the pool, and we saw this huge plume of smoke drifting between houses — super dark, super yellow,” he said. “And I just yelled, 'Fire!'”

Peterson, fellow resident Dusty Holt and two other friends turned on their sprinklers, got hoses and began to fight the flames.

“It got so close to us over here that it literally burned the hair off my arms,” Peterson said. “Dusty was laying in his backyard, holding the hose up with the sprinklers on, trying to keep himself from getting burned.”

“It was extremely surreal,” Holt said.

Their wives and children quickly moved to evacuate, but within two minutes the fire had jumped over Columbus Court and their only exit was blocked by flames shooting about 20 feet high.

“It was insane. From where I was standing, it looked like somebody threw a Molotov cocktail,” Peterson said.

Neighbors above them came down to help the children climb the hill and escape the flames.

“Our kids and wives in swimming suits and flip-flops — or no shoes, in some instances — went up the hill,” Holt said. “So they all [ended up] down at the Capitol in bikinis, and the kids had floaties on.”

Between the garden hoses and fire hoses, no structures were lost. The fire damaged siding on a couple of houses, singed some decks and destroyed some fences. And a few “kids' toys” in Holt’s backyard.

Lieb credited his crews' “Herculean effort” in containing the fire within three hours with very little loss of property. And he pointed to the city’s recent purchase of portable tanks that allowed helicopters to drop water on the flames as a big factor.

The mayor and the fire chief encouraged residents to create a 30-foot perimeter around their homes, cleared of trees, bushes and tall grass.

“Those houses that do not have ... any foliage within 30 feet of their home are much more resistant to wildfire than those that do,” Lieb said.

Fire restrictions — including no fireworks and no open fires — remain in effect in all areas north of South Temple, east of 900 East and west of Redwood Road. And, while fireworks are not believed to have caused Tuesday’s fire, the chief and the mayor issued a strong warning, as fireworks remain legal in unrestricted areas through 11 p.m. Wednesday.

“Use the fireworks sensibly,” Lieb said. “We want everyone to enjoy the holiday, but, obviously, we want everyone to be safe.”

“No matter what, we cannot be in these neighborhoods with … fireworks of any sort,” Biskupski added.

Peterson said that late Tuesday night, after the fire had been contained, there were teenagers above his house shooting off fireworks. So he and another neighbor ran up the hill to confront them.

“I was, like, ‘Are you serious? You can see hundreds of burned acres, and you’re launching Roman candles?’” he said. “Unbelievable.”

Salt Lake City firefighters contained a grass fire on the city’s west side that burned between 4 and 5 acres Wednesday.

The fire, at about 1900 West and Indiana (approximately 900 South), was reported shortly after noon by employees at Salt Lake City’s vehicle fleet, headquartered near there, a Salt Lake City Fire Department spokeswoman said. Fire crews had the blaze was mostly contained within half an hour.

No one was injured, and no structures were damaged. Smoke from the fire is rising in a plume visible miles away.

“It looked a lot worse than it was,” the spokeswoman said.

Investigators said they believed the fire was started unintentionally at a transient camp near Interstate 215, the spokeswoman said.

Another update: Fire is under control. 90 percent contained. 4-5 acres of land. No injuries.

— Salt Lake City Fire Department (@slcfire) July 25, 2018

As the world’s refugee crisis continues to worsen, more and more individuals — people like you — are asking what they can do to help. You might worry that if you can’t take a trip or donate large dollar amounts, there are not many ways to help. Au contraire. There is plenty you can do, whether you have five minutes, five hours, five days or five weeks.

If you can go on a volunteer trip, please jump at that chance! They can be life-changing and soul-expanding. But you do not have to cross an ocean to find meaningful ways to serve.

There are so many opportunities close to home that everyone can help in some way. Connect with a local organization you would like to help and find out what their needs are. It’s a bit sad for everyone if you spend time, money and effort on something that is not needed. With that caveat, here are some ideas:

Sew bears or dolls for Dolls of Hope to send to refugee camps.

Put together hygiene kits.

Put together school kits in new backpacks.

Put together birth/newborn kits.

Organize a new car seat drive for hospitals to give to refugee parents.

Start an online fundraising campaign and share with your friends and neighbors to support your chosen organization.

Reach out to refugees in your local community and get to know them.

Become a mentor to a refugee or refugee family.

Help a refugee family learn to navigate U.S. grocery stores.

Help refugees learn to create a resume and assist them in finding a job.

Learn and share what you know about the refugee crisis.

Speak up against intolerance, bigotry and bias.

Organize a fundraising dinner in your local community.

Support local businesses run by refugees.

Learn and share stories of refugees.

Furnish an apartment for a new refugee family.

Volunteer to tutor a refugee in English.

Help a refugee family register their children for school.

Invite a refugee family to dinner.

Be politically active and lobby for support for refugees.

Send letters to the editor of your local paper in support of refugees.

Use social media to spread messages of support, to raise awareness and to fundraise.

Attend a community event like the August 17 event with Ishmael Beah, author of “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.” Powerful book, by the way.

Become a foster family for unaccompanied refugee children, usually teens.

Help refugee kids get involved in community sports. Consider coaching a team.

Volunteer with a refugee scout troop..

Speak to school or church groups about refugees.

Collect and donate cleaning supplies.

Help refugees grow a community garden.

Help refugees study for and obtain a Utah driver’s license.

Become a tech mentor. How do you hook up that printer again?

Mentor a refugee single mother.

After-school program volunteer.

Help refugees to read, understand and appropriately respond to mail.

Volunteer to assist victims of human trafficking (females preferred).

Volunteer to help teach knitting to a refugee women’s knitting group.

Help herd goats with the East African Refugee Project of Utah.

Eat at the Spice Kitchen Incubator.

Here are some of the organizations in Utah working with refugees:

Because He First Loved Us: a relational ministry to refugee families to meet spiritual, educational and, practical needs through child and family mentoring and resource networking.

Big Brothers, Big Sisters

Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection: focused on helping refugees living in Cache County.

Catholic Community Services: currently running a backpack drive for the upcoming school year. One of the largest relief organizations helping refugees in Utah.

English Skills Learning Center: Get trained to teach English to refugees and other new immigrants.

Granite School District: The majority of Utah’s refugee children live within the boundaries of Granite School District. They have a number of programs and always need additional volunteers..

International Rescue Committee of Utah: Another one of the big groups focused on helping refugees. They also have a short video explaining that your chances of being killed by a refugee in the United States are 1 in 3.64 billion. You are 4 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

Know Your Neighbor: Joint program between the Salt Lake City Mayor’s office and the Utah Refugee Services Office to connect refugees with their neighbors.

One Refugee: helps refugee students pursue a degree from a local college by providing money for refugee education, enrollment counseling, tutors and opportunities for social networking.

The Refugee and Immigrant Center - Asian Association of Utah: Another one of the larger organizations helping resettle refugees in Utah. They are currently looking for volunteers in several areas.

Utah Health and Human Rights: This organization focuses on providing healing and hope to refugee and immigrants who have survived torture and severe war trauma..

Utah International Charter School: Located near a refugee population center, this school serves children from grades 7-12 who come from a number of different countries, speaking many languages, and helps them not only graduate from high school but prepares them to enter the job force and/or college.

Utah Refugee Connection: Connect with URC to connect with many refugee needs and upcoming events in Utah.

Utah Refugee Services Offices The state office located within the Division of Workforce Services dedicated to refugee suppor.

Edward Hale said it well: “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”

Let’s go and do.

Holly Richardson is a regular contributor to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Washington • House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop and his Democratic counterpart, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., on Wednesday introduced legislation to earmark some $5.2 billion over five years to fix aging roads, trails and other basic needs at national parks and wildlife refuges that have been piling up for decades.

The bipartisan bill, which is matched by a similar Senate measure, is aimed at starting to tackle a nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog at America’s national parks where sewer systems, bridges, paths and structures have been crumbling – or in some cases, not working – because of a lack of funding for the National Park Service.

“Our parks are national treasures. Let’s start treating them that way,” Bishop said in introducing the legislation. “This bipartisan bill will put us on the path to improving our parks for future generations.”

The bill would help repair public works projects at 400 national parks as well as land managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Education. Money for the work would come from royalties on oil and gas extraction on public lands.

Utah’s national parks, monuments and historic sites alone have $266 million in needed maintenance, according to the National Park Service. Zion National Park accounts for $65 million of that, the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which includes Lake Powell, needs $63 million and Canyonlands National Park about $41 million.

While fights over management of public lands – and what lands should be protected – are often partisan, the bill is aimed at crossing that divide.

“I’m pleased to join Chairman Bishop to add overdue maintenance and repair work at national parks and public lands to the list of projects eligible for this dedicated funding,” said Grijalva, who often clashes with the Utah Republican. “Chairman Bishop and I share a commitment to providing visitors, both now and in the future, a world-class parks system.”

President Donald Trump’s budget plan released earlier this year called for an $18 billion fund to rebuild national parks and wildlife refuges as well as add money to the Native American education system run by the Interior Department. The budget, though, also called for new authority to sell off public lands.

That is not part of the new bipartisan bill, which earned positive reviews Wednesday from environmentalists, park aficionados and outdoor and tourism groups.

“National Parks are the backbone of the federal recreation system,” said Fred Ferguson, vice president of government relations of Vista Outdoor and a former Bishop legislative director. “For far too long these treasures have not received the care and attention worthy of America’s ‘Best Idea.'”

“The effort to find a compromise to fix our parks is not only bipartisan; now it is also bicameral,” said Marcia Argust, who directs The Pew Charitable Trusts’ restore America’s parks campaign. “Pew applauds Rep. Rob Bishop and his colleagues for collaborating on this proposal, which combines the best of the parks deferred-maintenance bills and provides significant and consistent funding to address the backlog.”

Sens. Mark Warner, Angus King and Lamar Alexander have introduced a companion bill in the Senate. Utah’s senators, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, are so far not co-sponsoring the bill.

While the federal government provides increasingly larger slices of the budget pie in most states, Utah is an exception, according to a new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

And Utah legislators’ refusal to fully expand Medicaid for low-income people is a key reason why, it says. Utah voters will decide themselves whether to approve full Medicaid expansion through an initiative that will appear as Proposition 3 on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The federal government provided 25.7 percent of state revenue in Utah in 2016 to pay for public services such as health care, education, transportation and new facilities, the study reported this week, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

That ranked Utah 46 among the 50 states, and its share was much lower than the 32.6 percent average among all states.

The federal government provided budget pie slices in some states that were nearly 70 percent larger than in Utah.

For example, Mississippi received 43.3 percent of its budget from the federal government; Louisiana received 42.7 percent; and Arizona and New Mexico both received 41.2 percent.

The slice received by Utah decreased by 1.1 percentage points compared to 2015, the study said — which was tied for the third biggest drop among the states.

That came as the overall share of state revenues from the federal government increased for the third year in a row, and reached the third-highest on record.

The study said 30 out of the 50 states saw gains in federal dollars as a share of state revenue that year, and “20 were Medicaid expansion states.” It noted that Medicaid alone accounts for two-thirds of federal grants to states.

In 2016, many states that chose to fully expand the federal-state Medicaid program began to receive enhanced federal aid through the Affordable Care Act. Nationally, enrollment in Medicaid increased 3.8 percent that year.

But Utah legislators have repeatedly rejected full expansion of Medicaid — arguing that the full federal reimbursement to cover those costs could disappear over time and leave the state responsible for an expensive program.

The Legislature’s stance led to a ballot initiative by Utah Decides Health Care, which will give voters the decision this year on whether to fully expand Medicaid to cover 150,000 more low-income Utahns.

Possibly to short-circuit that initiative, the Legislature this year passed an alternative that would cover about 72,000 people instead — with a strict work requirement for able-bodied recipients — if the state is able to work out waivers to federal rules.

Under that proposed plan, the federal government would pay 90 percent of the costs, and the state would pay 10 percent.

That plan passed by the Legislature would cover only those who earn up to 100 percent of the poverty line, which this year is $12,140 for a single person or $25,100 for a family of four. Full expansion would cover people who earn up to 138 percent of the poverty level.

The federal government gave a $2.5 million boost Wednesday to help build new facilities at the Provo airport needed to expand an aircraft refurbishment company — and create 400 new high-paying jobs now, and up to 800 eventually.

“It’s kind of a big deal,” said Provo Airport Manager Steven Gleason. “It’s going to be spectacular for the airport. Right now we have about 650 full-time employees that work at the airport. This will take us over 1,000.”

Duncan Aviation currently operates in Provo at a temporary 15,000-square-foot hangar. A first phase of expansion will build 220,000 square feet of office and hangar space and add 400 jobs. “At eventual build-out, it will have about a 400,000-square-foot campus [on 45 acres], and anywhere from 700 to 800 jobs,” Gleason said.

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department announced it is providing a $2.5 million loan to Provo to help install water, sewer and storm water lines along a new half-mile road to the expansion site for the company. It will serve Duncan, plus 50 adjacent acres that now lack water and sewer service.

Gleason said the Duncan expansion site is on property that the city recently bought that lacked utilities and access. He said obtaining that extra space helped Provo win a competition to house a Western hub for Duncan, one of the world’s largest privately owned jet maintenance companies.

“They customize and refurbish jets tip to tail. They do everything: paint, carpentry, design. Anything that can be done to the inside or outside of a jet, they do it,” he said.

The loan “is going to help us create 400 positions that are high-salary, skilled positions,” with more expected later.

“This investment will bring jobs, infrastructure improvements, and economic growth that will benefit the community of Provo for years to come," Eric Cobb, HUD’s Rocky Mountain deputy regional administrator, said in a prepared statement.

HUD said the average wage for employees at Duncan is expected to between $28 and $30 an hour.

HUD said Duncan plans to invest about $80 million to build and outfit hangars.

Saint-Lary-Soulan, France • His tongue dangling from his mouth, his pedal stroke strained, Chris Froome’s hopes of a record-tying fifth Tour de France title slowly drifted away.

Up amid the thin and misty air of the Col du Portet — rated the second toughest climb in Tour history — Froome cracked on the feared 17th stage through the Pyrenees on Wednesday, solidifying Sky teammate Geraint Thomas's hold on the yellow jersey.

"Froomey said on the radio (at) maybe 5K or 4K to go that he wasn't feeling super," Thomas said after increasing his lead to nearly two minutes over Tom Dumoulin. "That gave me confidence because I knew if Froomey suffered, everyone suffered.

"I didn't want him to have a bad day like he did but it just gave me confidence knowing someone of Froomey's stature was struggling, and I just knew I would be able to respond to the attacks."

Froome finished eighth, 1 minute, 35 seconds behind stage winner Nairo Quintana, and dropped from second to third overall, a distant 2:31 seconds adrift of Thomas.

The British rider’s day then went from bad to worse as he crashed when police mistook him for a fan on the way down the mountain, with his bodyguard also on a bike. Froome had put a black raincoat over his racing uniform to keep warm and when police ordered him to stop, he lost control.

Team Sky said the rider was not injured in the incident, which came a day after police used tear gas to disperse a farmers' protest that had blocked the road with bales of hay.

Froome was among a large group of riders whose eyes needed treatment due to the tear gas.

He has been a repeated target of fans after he was cleared of doping five days before the race began. The four-time champion had been racing under the cloud of a potential ban for using twice the permitted level of salbutamol during his victory at the Spanish Vuelta in September.

Froome said he has been repeatedly spat at since the race started, and that spectators have punched him and tried to make him fall off his bike.

He is attempting to match the Tour record of five victories shared by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, but appeared to concede defeat.

"We've just got to look after (Thomas) now," Froome said. "I've won the last three Grand Tours and G has ridden an absolutely faultless race this year, so he fully deserves to be in the yellow jersey, and fingers crossed he finishes it off and gets the job done in Paris."

The stage was a strong signal that Froome has reached his limit after winning the Tour and Vuelta last year, and the Giro d'Italia in May.

"What you've got with Chris is he'll empty the tank," Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford said. "He deserves a lot of credit having gone to the Giro ... He's a great, great champion. He's not out of it necessarily ... If anybody can bounce back it's Chris Froome — I wouldn't rule him out."

After a less arduous Stage 18 on Thursday, there is another mountainous leg in the Pyrenees on Friday. There's an individual time trial on Saturday before the three-week race ends Sunday in Paris.

Colombian rider Quintana, a three-time podium finisher in the Tour, finished 28 seconds ahead of Irish rider Dan Martin, while Thomas crossed third in the stage, 47 seconds back.

Dumoulin moved up to second, 1:59 behind Thomas, the Welsh rider who is seeking his first Grand Tour victory.

"Thomas has been the strongest, and that's the situation now," Dumoulin said. "For me, so far, it has not been possible to gain time on him."

Froome was first put in difficulty when fourth-placed Primoz Roglic attacked with 2.5 kilometers to go, and then was dropped for good when Dumoulin accelerated at the 2K banner.

While Thomas followed Dumoulin, Froome quickly lost ground and had to be escorted up the rest of the way by Colombian teammate Egan Bernal, who kept turning around to check on his team leader.

It was Quintana's second stage victory in the Tour, having also won a leg in 2013. He moved up from eighth to fifth overall, 3:30 behind.

A Formula One-like grid start introduced to the Tour for the first time had little impact on the race as Thomas and Froome waited for their Sky teammates to join them.

The 65-kilometer (40-mile) route from Bagneres-de-Luchon featured three grueling climbs and hardly a stretch of flat road.

The unprecedented finish on the Col du Portet above Saint-Lary-Soulan at an altitude of 2,215 meters (7,267 feet) marked the highest point of this year's race.

Measuring 16 kilometers at an average gradient of nearly nine percent, organizers rated the Col du Portet as the second hardest climb in Tour history after Mont Ventoux.

Peter Sagan, the three-time defending world champion and three-time stage winner in this year's race, crashed on the descent from the Col de Val Louron, the second mountain of the day.

Sagan made it to the finish with his jersey torn and said he had only injured his backside.

Provo • To the chagrin of some of their fans, BYU football coaches didn’t turn to the junior college ranks for offensive help in the offseason.

The Cougars didn’t land an accomplished quarterback or receiver, despite lacking offensive firepower and legitimate game-breakers in 2017.

They did get fifth-year graduate transfer Dylan Collie, a former Cougar who played receiver at Hawaii the past few years and is the brother of one of the most prolific receivers in BYU history, Austin Collie.

The younger Collie caught 56 passes for 636 yards for the Warriors last year, numbers that would have made him BYU’s top pass-catcher.

Coach Kalani Sitake and his staff pursued Cal running back Tre Watson, but the Bears’ graduate transfer picked Texas.

“We are going to get some guys back from injuries, and we are confident in the abilities of a lot of the guys we have coming back,” Sitake said, alluding to the return of tight end Moroni Laulu-Pututau, who suffered a Lisfranc injury a few days before the 2017 opener and missed the entire season.

That’s roughly what Ty Detmer said before the 2017 season as the offense looked to replace a pair of once-in-a-generation players, Taysom Hill and Jamaal Williams, promising that no-name players would turn into household names.

That didn’t happen, for a variety of reasons, including the absence of Laulu-Pututau.

“I am 100 percent ready to go,” the redshirt junior said at BYU Football Media Day on June 22. “Fully cleared, ready to make up for lost time.”

Laulu-Pututau caught 27 passes for 277 yards and two touchdowns in 2016 as a receiver, then put on some extra weight in the summer of 2017 in hopes of switching to tight end. Some believe the added weight contributed to the foot injury.

“I am just focused on what’s ahead,” he said, declining to speculate.

The Cougars will also count on senior running back Squally Canada, redshirt freshman running back Zach “Lopini” Katoa, sophomore tight end Matt Bushman and incoming freshman receiver Gunner Romney for big plays. Canada was named to the Doak Walker Award watch list and said he has been training hard to make his final year in Provo a memorable one.

“I love the scheme that coach Grimes has put in, and how much emphasis he’s going to put on the run game, and how much free rein we’re going to have in the offense as running backs,” Canada said.

The offense will be without two expected contributors, running back Ula Tolutau and tight end Joe Tukuafu. Neither is on the 2018 roster and coaches declined to say why at media day.

“You saw who was out there this spring,” Grimes said. “I am excited about who is on the roster right now.”

The former LSU offensive line coach is surely excited about Romney, the fleet-footed receiver from Arizona who picked BYU over offers from several Pac-12 schools.

“Obviously, it is hard for anyone to watch his tape and say, ‘this guy won’t get the ball,’” Grimes said. “One thing I really like about him is his ability to run after the catch. There are a lot of receivers who do 90 percent of their work before the ball ever touches their hands. And then there are other guys who do 50 percent of their work beyond the time they catch the ball.”

Grimes said Romney is a guy who can take a 5-yard reception and turn it into a 50-yard gain. In other words, they type of playmaker that BYU didn’t have last year.

“What I like about him the most is his mindset,” Grimes said. “He has a real competitive spirit and I will be shocked if he doesn’t come in here and play a significant role this year, just because of what I see from him in terms of his confidence and his desire to compete.”

Los Angeles • Washington is the favorite to win this year’s Pac-12 football championship, overwhelmingly.

That description would not apply to the way the Huskies have performed against Utah in Chris Petersen's three seasons as the Huskies' coach.

Same story with USC's Clay Helton, whose team is picked to win the South division title in 2018.

The status of the Huskies and Trojans in the Pac-12 is a compliment to the Utes, who can claim to have played as well against those top-tier schools as any program in the conference lately. Whenever the subject of the Utes came up Wednesday during the Pac-12 Football Media Day, a theme emerged.

Washington quarterback Jake Browning: “Utah's a very physical team.”

Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith, formerly the Huskies' offensive coordinator: “Those guys are physical.”

Petersen: “They play tough, physical football.”

Helton: “You know you're in for a physical opponent.”

They’re not being condescending.

Chase Hansen on the weirdest questions at Media Day and what Utah needs to do in order to get over the hump in the Pac-12 South. pic.twitter.com/IwqUfvG37M

— Salt Lake Tribune Sports (@sltribsports) July 25, 2018

The Trojans remember how Ute quarterback Troy Williams beat the (31-27) in 2016 at Rice-Eccles Stadium with a late touchdown drive, then gave his team another chance to win by completing a TD pass last October in Los Angeles. Williams then scrambled and was stopped a yard short of the goal line on a 2-point conversion attempt, with receiver Darren Carrington II famously open in the back of the end zone.

The Huskies know they needed Dante Pettis' punt-return touchdown to break a fourth-quarter tie in Salt Lake City in 2016, and then had to score 10 points in the last 58 seconds to rescue a 33-30 win last November in Seattle. Utah could have completed a seven-point victory either by picking up one more first down offensively or making a fourth-and-10 stop defensively.

Ute coach Kyle Whittingham's timeout on Washington's last possession ultimately enabled the Huskies to kick the winning field goal as time expired. From a Ute perspective, though, the game never should have reached that stage.

Nobody knows what may have happened in overtime in either of those games. What's clear is the Utes, even though they won only three of their other seven Pac-12 games, played two of the conference's best teams evenly on the road.

And they get the Huskies and Trojans at home in 2018.

Washington's visit Sept. 15 in a Pac-12 opener will tell a lot about each team. “I think Utah's a tough matchup for everybody,” Petersen said. “I don't think it's anything unique to us.”

That's partly true, considering the Utes have gone 8-10 in conference play the past three seasons. They've raised their level of play against the better teams.

The Trojans will come to town Oct. 20 in a game that should help determine the Pac-12 South champion. “When we go up there, we’re expecting another tight battle until the last minute,” said USC linebacker Porter Gustin, a senior from Salem Hills High School.

Washington • Supporters of a bill that would make international sports doping a crime argued Wednesday that the legislation would deter scandals like Russian state-sponsored drug use at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Yulia Stepanova, a Russian former track athlete who became a whistleblower about the drug program, said at a congressional hearing that ending doping in her country would have to “start from the top” — with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.

The bill was named for Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the Russian lab director who exposed the cheating in Sochi. Rodchenkov has said the doping stemmed from Putin’s command to his sports ministry to “win at any cost.”

Several European countries have passed similar legislation. The bill being considered in the House is stronger because it would allow the United States to police doping that occurs outside its borders. U.S. and foreign athletes would be subject to the law if competing in an event that includes four or more U.S. athletes and athletes from three or more countries.

The bill has bipartisan support but has yet to be introduced in the Senate, and its prospects for approval are unclear.

The hearing occurred while, in the same Senate office building, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was questioned by lawmakers who accused President Donald Trump of being too soft on Putin. While the president has made conflicting claims about the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 election, the hearing on doping turned attention back to other ways in which Putin’s actions have brought scorn from the international community.

In written testimony, Rodchenkov and Stepanova said that those who participated in the doping program were essentially following orders, fearing that to refuse or speak out would mean the end of their careers, or possibly even lead to their deaths.

“You will lose your job, your career and even fear for the safety of you and your family,” Stepanova said. “You will be called a liar and a traitor if you stand up against the system that unfortunately still exists in Russia today.”

Asked by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas how to end Russian doping, Stepanova said, “It should start from the top because if it started from the top, they ... would stop doping.”

“If Mr. Putin had a different attitude and expressed that, it would stop?” Jackson Lee asked.

“Yes, I think so,” Stepanova said.

Rodchenkov did not attend the hearing, but his attorney, Jim Walden, said he and his client believe Putin needs to be held accountable.

“There are some in our government who refuse to confront Russia for its abject criminality,” Walden said. “Doping fraud is one more example of the gangster state that Vladimir Putin has created in Russia.”

The hearing also featured emotional testimony from Katie Uhlaender, who finished fourth in skeleton — by four hundredths of a second — in Sochi to Elena Nikitina of Russia. Nikitina’s bronze medal was later stripped for suspected doping before the Court of Arbitration for Sport restored it on the eve of the Pyeongchang Olympics. Uhlaender feels that she was unfairly denied a medal twice, although it’s still possible she could prevail on appeal.

“My moment was stolen,” Uhlaender said through tears. “A line was crossed. It erased the meaning of sport and the Olympics as I knew it.”

Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said he would continue trying to persuade Congress to address international doping and called on the corporations that sponsor the Olympics to join the effort.

“If the governments of the world aren’t going to step up and do something about it, where are the corporations? They’re profiting off the backs of these athletes,” Tygart said. “I think it all it would take would be a couple phone calls from them to get this situation fixed and cleaned up. But where are they? They’re sitting there counting the money.”

Los Angeles • The mystique is real. Just ask the 25-year-old quarterback-turned-safety-turned-linebacker, who when he was a younger was fascinated with the team in the flashy green uniforms and shiny winged helmets that ran plays at a break-neck pace and launched slashing runs and explosive passing plays from all over the field. Chase Hansen wondered then: How do you stop a team that literally wears opponents out?

Now, all these years later, he’s going to get a crack at it. Because Chip Kelly is back.

After spending the last five years in the NFL, the offensive guru who rose to stardom with the Oregon Ducks as an offensive coordinator and later as head coach, is back in the Pac-12. And later this year, Hansen and his fellow Utah defenders will try solve Kelly’s distinctive spread attack when they visit the Rose Bowl and the UCLA Bruins on Oct. 26.

“I think there’s a lot of teams that try to do it [like him],” Hansen said, “but the legend of Chip Kelly is he knows how to do it best. It’ll be fun to see how that works out.”

The Pac-12’s meal ticket has returned. Nobody put the conference in the spotlight in such a short amount of time like Kelly’s Ducks. He tried the pros, he tried his hand at installing his spread look with the Philadelphia Eagles and later the San Francisco 49ers. That’s done and dusted now, and Kelly is back to donning the signature trademark visor for a Pac-12 program.

“It just adds to the competitiveness of the Pac-12,” said Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert, who grew up a Ducks fan at the height of Oregon’s fame under Kelly. “It’s already a really competitive conference, and it’s just going to be even more competitive now.”

Kelly signed a five-year, $23 million contract when he was hired last November, ending a short stint as a football analyst after being fired by 49ers following just one season on the job. One of the most sought-after free agent coaches in football was available and UCLA came calling after firing Jim Mora Jr. The Bruins, always in a battle with USC for the hearts and minds of recruits and fans here in L.A., needed to kickstart a program trending downward. They swung for the fences. They had no other choice.

“I think it’s fair to say the Chip Kelly derby was one of the most-watched national coaching searches,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said. “Chip could’ve wound up in any league in the country if he wanted to. He wanted to be in the Pac-12, and he wanted to be at UCLA.”

Like most of us, UCLA wideout Theo Howard found out online. And at first, the Bruin junior didn’t believe it. He’d seen rumors swirling of Kelly-to-UCLA in the past, so he needed to validate the news he was seeing on social media accounts.

“I’m really happy he’s here,” Howard said. “It’s a fresh start. He’s bringing a culture change, making sure we’re all bought into the goal, all bought into what he wants to do with us this season.”

As one of the five new coaches in the Pac-12 this year, Kelly will want to do what he’s always done: Win, and do so with his unique, solitary style. It will take some time. The Bruins lost star quarterback Josh Rosen to the NFL Draft and the jury is still out whether or not this year’s UCLA roster has a signal caller up to the tall task of handling Kelly’s offense.

Things, too, have changed in college football since Kelly last roamed the sidelines. Mainly because of Kelly’s influence and mainly because of what Oregon was able to do, capturing the attention of talented recruits with his wizardry on the field and the uniform swag the Ducks' got under the Nike umbrella.

“When I first came in the league we were the only ones that ran a spread offense and had shiny helmets,” Kelly said. “Now everybody runs the same offense and has shiny helmets.”

The last coach to speak at Wednesday’s Pac-12 Media Day in Hollywood, Calif., was predictably Kelly, the old new guy who has returned to his comfort zone after venturing out of it for a few seasons. It might take some time, because nothing significant is built in one season. But it is the first step to seeing if the new UCLA coach can replicate what he built in Eugene.

Kelly is back in a familiar groove. Only he’s traded in dreary skies of Oregon for the bluebird days in Southern California, where he said the best thing about L.A. is that he knows he’s not the prettiest person in any room. UCLA fans might feel differently.

Washington • A group of 11 House Republicans has introduced articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The Republicans who introduced the resolution have criticized Rosenstein for not being responsive enough as they have requested documents related to the Russia investigation and a closed investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton's emails. It is unclear whether there will be enough support in the party to pass it, as Republican leaders have not signed on to the effort.

The articles were introduced by North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, frequent critics of the Justice Department. The introduction does not trigger an immediate vote, but Meadows and Jordan could make procedural moves on the House floor that could force a vote late this week or when the House returns from its upcoming five-week recess in September. The House is scheduled to leave for that recess Thursday.

The move came about two hours after GOP lawmakers met with Justice Department officials who have been working to provide documents to several congressional committees about decisions made during the 2016 presidential campaign. The department has provided lawmakers with more than 800,000 documents, but Meadows said after the meeting that there was still "frustration" with how Justice has handled the oversight requests.

Republican leaders, however, have said in recent weeks that they are satisfied with the Justice Department's progress. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy said after the meeting that he was pleased with the department's efforts and wouldn't support Rosenstein's impeachment. House Speaker Paul Ryan has also said he is satisfied with progress on the document production.

Democrats have criticized Republican efforts to pressure the Justice Department in recent months, saying they are attempts to undermine Mueller’s investigation.

Washington • If you are not collateral damage in the escalating trade wars, the bulletins from the wars' multiplying fronts are hilarious reading. You are collateral damage only if you are a manufacturer, farmer or consumer, so relax and enjoy the following reports.

Whirlpool, which makes washing machines and demands for government protection, wheedled Washington into imposing tariffs on, and quotas for, imported machines. Unfortunately for Whirlpool, American steel and aluminum makers horned in on the protectionist fun, getting tariffs — taxes paid by Americans — imposed on imports of those materials that, The Wall Street Journal says, account for most of the weight of 200-pound washing machines. And for part of the decline in Whirlpool's share price. And for declining demand for appliances, the prices of which have risen as protectionism increases manufacturing costs and decreases competition.

Citing the threat to America's "national security" from American consumers (they caused 2017's imports of $192 billion worth of cars, 44 percent of all cars sold in America), the administration contemplates imposing tariffs on cars. USA Today estimates that the tariffs would add $4,000 to $5,000 (approximately the size of this year's tax cut on $125,000 in income) to the price of a car (average price: about $32,000). U.S. auto manufacturers oppose the tariffs, which would also cover vehicle components, $147 billion of which ($100 billion more than steel and aluminum imports combined) were imported last year for cars made in America by Americans and sold mostly to Americans.

General Motors' supply chain includes 20,000 businesses worldwide. Of the seven "most American" car models, measured by the value of domestically made components, four are Hondas, three models made in Alabama and one made in Ohio. The number of 2018 models whose parts are all American or Canadian: 0.

However, the hundreds of thousands of Americans employed by Japanese automakers have less to fear than other American autoworkers do from the American government's fears about American consumers' threat to America's security. China, retaliating against new U.S. tariffs on Chinese products, has raised to 40 percent the tariffs on imports of American-made autos. These include BMWs (87,600 of the 385,900 made in South Carolina in 2017 were exported to China) and Mercedes (The Wall Street Journal reports that two-thirds of the approximately 300,000 vehicles made in Alabama are exported worldwide). The New York Times reports that BMW has stopped exporting the X3 crossover from South Carolina to China, shifting production of it to plants in China and South Africa.

Volvo, formerly Swedish but now Chinese-owned, just opened a $1.1 billion South Carolina plant that currently employs 1,200. Volvo has planned to increase employment to 4,000, with half the workers building cars for export, especially to the world's largest auto market, China. (In 2018's second quarter, GM sold 758,000 vehicles in America, 858,344 in China.) So, under current policies, China will impose a 40 percent tax on imports made by a Chinese-owned company.

Last year, soybeans were $12.4 billion of America's $19.6 billion in agricultural exports to China, which might impose a 25 percent tariff on soybeans. The Wall Street Journal reports that University of Illinois and Ohio State University researchers estimate that over four years this "would result in an average 87 percent decline in income for a midsize Illinois grain farm."

The caroms of trade aggressions and retaliations call to mind an experience Gulliver had when his travels took him to the grand academy of Lagado. There he met a man who had worked “eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers.” To those who say that this is as plausible as trying to produce prosperity with protectionism — correctly likened to pursuing wealth by blockading one’s own ports — today’s trade warriors respond: Have patience. Given sufficient time, protectionism will pay.

But as the comedian Steven Wright says, everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. Speaking of time:

In the 1830s, a Baptist preacher predicted Jesus would return to Earth sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. When the world persisted, its end was re-predicted by the preacher's followers for October 22, 1844. Between March and October, the number of believers increased substantially. Despite their great disappointment on October 23, many followers held to their beliefs and went on to found the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The lesson from this story, as from the protectionists' sunbeams-from-cucumbers economics, is familiar: The persuasive power of evidence is overrated.

George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

A downtown Salt Lake City deli with a dirty kitchen and a refrigerator that couldn’t keep foods cold, was shut down Wednesday by the Salt Lake County Health Department.

Gandolfo’s New York Deli, 158 S. Main, was closed, according to a notice on the department website, because the restaurant “lacks the capacity to hold potentially hazardous food at 41 [degrees] Fahrenheit or below due to damaged and nonfunctional cold-holding equipment.”

The damaged equipment was one of 58 violations discovered at the restaurant. Of those, 22 are considered critical to human health.

The restaurant will remain closed until the owner can fix problems, and health inspectors say it is safe for the public.

Among the most serious problems found:

• Employee personal foods are stored with useable food product.

• A food handler touched ready-to-eat food with bare hands.

• Cream cheese, feta, cut vegetables, raw eggs and cooked deli meat are being held at too high a temperature, potentially causing bacteria growth.

• Shelves throughout the kitchen are unclean to sight and touch.

• The floor is dirty in various areas; egg shells and debris were found behind and under grill area; walls are dirty in various areas.

Oxnard, Calif. • Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doubled down Wednesday on insisting that his players stand for the national anthem, declaring that he wouldn’t support anyone who chose to stay in the locker room.

Speaking at his annual news conference to open training camp in California, the outspoken billionaire became the first owner to say publicly that his players would not be allowed to stay off the field during the anthem.

“No,” Jones said when asked if he would support players staying in the locker room. “Our policy is that you stand at the anthem, toe on the line.”

Last week, the NFL and the players’ union agreed to suspend the rule approved by owners this spring that gave players the option of staying in the locker room while allowing teams to discipline players who took a knee or sat during the anthem.

The decision to begin negotiating on the issue came hours after The Associated Press reported that Miami Dolphins players who protested during the anthem could be suspended for up to four games under team policy.

Last season, Jones was the first owner to declare that he would bench a player for protesting during the anthem. Two of his players — defensive linemen David Irving and Damontre Moore — raised their fists briefly as “The Star Spangled Banner” ended but weren’t disciplined.

“I obviously wouldn’t dare speak for any of the other owners, much less in general about 31 other owners,” Jones said. “As far as the Dallas Cowboys are concerned, you know where I stand. Our team knows where I stand on the issue.”

The issue erupted in 2016 when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began protesting police brutality, social injustice and racial inequality by kneeling during the national anthem. The demonstration spread to other players and teams.

The NFL started requiring players to be on the field for the anthem in 2009, the year it signed a marketing deal with the military. Jones had already owned the Cowboys for 20 years when players moved from the locker room to the field for the anthem.

Jones said he understood the point of view of players who say they aren’t protesting the flag or the military.

“This is a case where we need to in my mind check that and be real clear that it is, the priority is about the flag, and be real clear about that,” Jones said. “Sometimes it’s best to just be real clear and succinct so that nobody misunderstands. I think that’s our case.”

Executive vice president Stephen Jones said the Cowboys don’t have an anthem issue because his father has made his stance clear from the beginning.

“I do understand when you see the back and forth,” Stephen Jones said. “But we’ve been consistent and we’ve never moved. Jerry’s never changed his stance once. I think he feels strongly about it.”

The younger Jones didn’t want to speak for the players when asked if Jerry Jones’ strong message is the reason none of his players have defied him.

“I was always brought up when you work for somebody and they’re the boss, you play by their rules,” Stephen Jones said.

Jones, who drew praise from President Donald Trump when he said last year that he would bench players, said Trump’s continuing involvement in the anthem issue is “problematic” for the league.

Trump weighed in again after news of the Dolphins’ policy broke, tweeting “The $40,000,000 Commissioner must now make a stand,” a reference to Roger Goodell.

“His interest in what we’re doing is problematic from my chair and I would say, in general, in the owner’s chairs,” Jerry Jones said. “And unprecedented if you really think about it. But like the very game itself, that’s the way it is and we’ll deal with it. But, yes, everybody would like for it to go away.”

Unlike other sports organizations, the Cowboys haven’t distanced themselves from Papa John’s after founder and CEO John Schnatter was ousted over a racial slur.

Schnatter was already under fire for suggesting last year that the pizza company’s sluggish sales were a result of the controversy surrounding the anthem.

Jerry Jones, who has had a close relationship with Schnatter, said the Cowboys couldn’t cut ties with the company because of an ownership stake in Papa John’s stores. Stephen Jones said the team was linked to 50 stores in the Dallas area.

“I regret that for John,” Jerry Jones said. “But at the end of the day we’ve got too many people, too many customers, too many people that we just need to do as good as we can do under the circumstances.”

Santiago, Chile • Chile has investigated 158 members of the country’s Roman Catholic Church for committing or covering up sexual abuse against minors and adults, the national prosecutor’s office said this week.

The investigations include reports of abuse by bishops, clerics and lay workers filed since 2000. Some of the cases date as far back as 1960.

In all, the number of victims is 266. That includes 178 children and teenagers, and 31 adults. The age of victims was not established in 57 other cases.

The nationwide figures follow an avalanche of sex abuse and cover-up cases that have recently embattled Chile’s Catholic Church and prompted Pope Francis earlier this year to publicly denounce a “culture of abuse and cover-up.”

The pope also said he was ashamed that neither he nor Chilean church leaders truly ever listened to victims as the country’s abuse scandal spiraled.

“The temptation would be to focus on those investigated within the church, but today we must first focus on the number of victims, which is what worries us,” the Chilean church’s Episcopal Conference said in a statement after the report was released.

In the past, prosecutors in Chile have had to drop charges against members of the clergy accused of sex abuse because the statute of limitations had expired.

But the national prosecutor’s office said it wants to “rigorously investigate all sex abuse case cases committed by priests or people related to the church” against children and adults, “regardless of whether the crimes have prescribed or not, because the victims have a right to be heard by the justice system.”

The report said that out of the 158 people investigated in 144 separate investigations, 65 are bishops, priests or deacons who belong to a congregation; 74 do not belong to any congregation; 10 are laypersons in charge of pastoral parishes or linked to schools; and nine were undetermined.

Authorities said 36 of the 144 cases are currently being investigated, and 22 have been sent to another judicial office because the alleged crimes were committed before a judicial reform in 2000. Another 22 cases have resulted in convictions, while 64 cases have been either closed or temporarily suspended for various reasons.

Prosecutors said the vast majority of the sexual abuse crimes were committed by parish priests connected to an educational establishment. There are at least five cases where the heads of congregations or bishops in charge of a diocese are accused of cover-up or obstruction of an investigation.

“The prosecutor’s announcement is the latest sign that the impunity of the Catholic Church is ending in Chile. Increasingly, Chilean bishops and clergy are being treated simply as fellow citizens, subject to secular laws,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a U.S.-based group that compiles a database of clergy abuse.

“Today’s report will encourage more Chilean victims to file complaints. Each complaint filed will lead to a safer church.”

For decades, victims and their advocates have pointed to the hierarchy’s culture of cover-up as the Vatican’s main failure in dealing with the problem.

Francis apparently came around to their view after meeting earlier this year with Chilean victims of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, the country’s most notorious predator priest, and reading a 2,300-page report prepared for him by Vatican investigators, who also interviewed victims of Karadima and others in Chile.

Fallon, Nev. • A man “willfully and deliberately with premeditation” opened fire during services last Sunday at a Mormon church in Nevada, killing one man and wounding the victim’s brother, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday, although authorities have yet to determine a motive.

John O’Connor made his first court appearance but did not enter a plea.

Connor, 48, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of 61-year-old Charles E. “Bert” Miller, a longtime volunteer firefighter in rural Fallon, Nev., and with battery with a deadly weapon in the shooting of Miller’s 64-year-old brother.

He faces a third count of assault with a deadly weapon after authorities said he pointed a gun at another man.

The Lahontan Valley News reports O’Connor, dressed in a black-and-white jail jumpsuit, showed no emotion during the appearance in the New River Township Justice Court in Fallon, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Reno. Richard Davies, who was appointed to represent O’Connor, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

O’Connor, 48, ran unsuccessfully for the state Assembly as a Libertarian in 2010 and 2014.

Authorities say he and Miller knew each other from church, but they have not determined a motive. An estimated 50 people were in the church at the time of the shooting.

An indictment says Bert Miller was shot multiple times with a handgun while he and his brother, Duane Miller of Spanish Fork, Utah, sat on a bench during Sunday’s services. Duane Miller was released from a hospital Monday after being treated for a gunshot wound to his ankle.

After the shooting, O’Connor went to his home about a block away and surrendered later that day after a standoff with police. He is being held on $1 million bail. A status hearing will be held Thursday.

Churchill County Chief Deputy District Attorney Lane R. Mills declined comment.

Major League Baseball is bound for expansion one of these days. Commissioner Rob Manfred has kicked around the idea of a 32-team league for a while now and brought up the notion again during last week’s All-Star festivities.

One of the potential locations he named during an interview with Fox Sports 1 was Montreal, ironic considering Manfred’s predecessor, Bud Selig, spent years trying to move that franchise practically anywhere else. The Expos played 22 games in Puerto Rico in 2003 and 2004, and after baseball’s 29 other franchises pitched in to purchase the team, the island — along with Portland, northern Virginia and Washington — made offers to the league.

Of course the District of Columbia won, and 13 years later, the Nationals are at home in Washington, showing off its 10-year-old ballpark and star players over the All-Star break. The Nationals selectively honor parts of the franchise’s history, but Montrealers generally have moved on to root for other teams.

But the city hasn’t moved on from baseball, experts say, and would eagerly welcome Manfred and an expansion team despite the league’s checkered past north of the border.

“It was a blank slate, clean page, whatever the expression is,” says Matthew Ross, president of the ExposNation Committee, a nonprofit that promotes Montreal as a sight for a future expansion team, and a radio host on one of the city’s sports talk channels. “We heard that Rob Manfred was very worldly when he looked at baseball. He cared about doing things outside the United States.”

Montreal is a three-sport city between the NHL’s Canadiens, MLS’s Impact and Canadian football’s Alouettes. But baseball is woven into its history. Jackie Robinson played for the minor league Royals, a team with consistently high attendance numbers, before breaking the major league color barrier in 1947. Montreal hosted the first All-Star Game held outside the United States in 1982.

Since the Expos moved in 2005, the Toronto Blue Jays regularly play a pair of weekend preseason games in Montreal that between them draw close to 100,000 fans. This season, those games were on weeknights - and still drew 50,000 fans.

“Major League Baseball had to buy the franchise and run it into the ground to move it to Washington,” said Rich Griffin, the Toronto Star’s baseball columnist.

Until the end - when the Expos were playing in worn out Olympic Stadium, when league leaders were openly shopping the team to other cities, when the team agreed to move a quarter of its home games to Puerto Rico — Montrealers insist the city supported the team.

When the ballclub was good, contending for the pennant as a labor strike loomed in 1992 through 1994, an average of 21,000 fans showed up for each home game.

When it was bad, the bottom fell out at the box office. In the final seven years in Montreal, fewer than 12,000 fans went to each home game, on average. The final season, the Expos only averaged 9,000 fans. That convinced the league the city wasn’t good for baseball any longer. And that engendered a fair amount of bitterness among Montrealers.

“When they were playing games in Puerto Rico, it was almost like they were telling fans, ‘Goodbye, we’re done, you’re not good enough,’ “ said Griffin, who previously worked in the Expos’ front office.

“When things are good here, they’re really good,” Ross said. “It just seemed like there was always something that would happen for the Expos not to take off or do well.”

That is what tamps expectations among residents despite Manfred’s repeated mentions of Montreal: The league has dissed Montreal before.

The Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics both need new stadiums, and Expos boosters fear that MLB officials will threaten municipalities with franchise relocation to Montreal if governments don’t pony up money for new ballparks.

Montrealers know that’s largely an empty threat, Griffin said, because Canadian politicians are loathe to use public money on private athletic facilities, unlike their American counterparts. Besides, the Rays just released renderings of their proposed new stadium and the Oakland city council voted to negotiate with the A’s on two proposed stadium sites. Both teams are likely to get new ballparks without enduring the threat of relocation.

“It’s an intelligent fan base,” Ross said. “They know nothing can happen until Tampa Bay and Oakland are sorted. There’s a hurry-up-and-wait mentality.”

That leaves Montreal only one option to get a team — expansion — but there is competition: Manfred also listed Nashville and Charlotte, North Carolina, as targets, along with Portland, Las Vegas, Vancouver and even Mexico.

Tokyo • In an era when many cities are hesitant to bid for the Olympics, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is convinced his city has a winning formula to make the games a success.

“I think it is a rational thing for most cities not to bid for the Olympics these days because it is an immense cost for most places,” Garcetti said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. “But we have a different model. Instead of trying to fit the city into the Olympics, we ask the Olympics to fit into our city.”

A driving force behind the campaign to bring the Olympics back to Los Angeles for a third time, Garcetti was speaking in Tokyo where he signed a cooperative agreement on Wednesday with the organizers of the 2020 Olympics.

Following the withdrawal of several cities in the bidding process for the 2024 Games, the International Olympic Committee decided to jointly award the 2024 and 2028 games to the only two cities remaining — Paris and Los Angeles.

An agreement was reached whereby Los Angeles would bid for the 2028 Games with $2 billion of additional funding from the IOC. This cleared the way for Paris to be confirmed as the 2024 host. Both cities were formally announced as hosts at an IOC session in Lima, Peru, in September 2017.

Tokyo organizers have estimated their cost for the 2020 Games at $12.6 billion. Los Angeles has proposed a $5.3 billion budget for the 2028 Games by relying on the region’s many existing stadiums and arenas, including the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Staples Center.

The bulk of the revenue for the LA Games is expected to come from ticket sales and corporate sponsorships.

The 2028 Olympics will halt a stretch of 32 years without a Summer Games in the United States, since Atlanta in 1996. LA hosted the games in 1932 and 1984, and Garcetti has pledged the next version will be just as successful.

“The Olympics have been an amazing part of Los Angeles’ history,” Garcetti said. “In many ways in 1932, they put us on the map when people didn’t even know where Los Angeles was. In 1984, they were the first profitable Olympics of the modern era.

“We want to do what a lot of cities hope to do, but are never able to, which is to leave behind a human legacy — not just a few buildings which may or may not be used.”

That’s not to suggest there won’t be hurdles to overcome.

Traffic could be a problem - it almost always is in LA - but the city will be well along in its multibillion-dollar transit upgrade by 2028.

“10 years from now I think people will begin to see a transformed Los Angeles,” Garcetti said. “The car capital of the world will no longer be a car-only place. We have a new rail line that will be opening up to the airport, by then a subway that will take you from the west part of Los Angeles all the way to downtown in 20 minutes. People will have options finally.”

Garcetti’s term will have come to an end long before the 2028 Games but that hasn’t dampened his determination to see the city transformed, saying there will be “a willingness to test new modes of technology and transportation.”

Garcetti added: “We could potentially see new underground modes of transit together with Elon Musk and the Boring company he has. We’re partnering with Uber and many companies to take a look at vertical takeoff and landing electric drones that essentially can carry people.”

And for critics who say money should be put to other uses, Garcetti said Los Angeles is not spending any taxpayer money on the Olympics and claimed the city is already reaping the financial benefits of the games.

“We negotiated for the first time historically money for the Olympics before they start,” Garcetti said. “Not just to run the organizing of them but for the legacy. We negotiated $160 million by going second after Paris and that money started flowing this year.”

Early Tuesday morning, Paul Hirst received a call with “unprecedented” news: Twenty-five million gallons of water had been drained from one of the Benchland Irrigation Water District’s reservoirs overnight, leaving it empty for the first time anyone working there can remember.

A water shortage, spurred by low snowpack, dry conditions and rapid population growth, led the district to implement tough usage restrictions earlier this month on the east Farmington residents it serves in Davis County.

“We use 30 million gallons a day [on average], which is obscene to be using that much water,” said Hirst, who’s a member of the district’s board of trustees. “There isn’t a supply large enough to meet that demand. So we have these reservoirs that we fill that then can take that demand but they don’t empty and they haven’t ever emptied — until now.”

Even with a $50 fine for a first offense — and complete disconnection from the water system on the third — the district can’t seem to break customers of the habit of chronic overwatering, said Hirst. Officials issued 400 citations during their first enforcement last weekend of the watering restriction from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday.

Hirst said he believes some of the people who received citations may have watered their lawns the entire night, in a “vindictive” effort to make a point. The district has received a number of angry calls and even threats of lawsuits over the restrictions.

In Riverton, city officials are also trying to get ahead of overwatering and are asking residents and businesses to cut their culinary and secondary water by 25 percent. The city is one of the few in the valley that offer secondary water access from canals to all their residents, and it has no other water source for lawns and gardens.

“I would say that the situation isn’t dire right now, but it is serious,” said Casey Saxton, a spokesman with the city. “So we’re just asking everybody to do their part voluntarily right now with the hope that people will cut back a little bit.”

If Farmington residents continued their pre-restriction usage rate, district officials estimate, the water supply would dry up by Sept. 1.

There’s no indication that the canals in Riverton will dry up, Saxton said, so the reduction is voluntary for now. He said the city hasn’t had “in-depth discussions of what to do if the water use doesn’t cut back,” but that the City Council and administration will consider other options, if needed.

Each day, Riverton uses 6 million to 7 million gallons of culinary water, which is treated for drinking, and 30 million to 34 million gallons of secondary water, which is untreated and meant for landscaping and irrigation. That’s an average of 683 gallons per household of culinary water and 2,952 gallons of secondary water — and it’s unsustainable.

“We need to get comfortable with brown spots in lawns,” Saxton said. “If your lawn is totally green, then you’re likely overwatering. At this time of year, where it’s hot and dry, the brown spots are going to be a reality.”

Riverton has cutting back on watering its 473 acres of parks and other green space. It now averages about 25 percent less than the state-recommended amount of water use per week in those spaces, according to a news release from the city.

One of the biggest challenges Riverton and the Benchland Irrigation Water District in Farmington face in fighting overuse is that their secondary water sources aren’t metered.

“That doesn’t mean it should be unlimited,” Saxton said. “And we just want to encourage everybody to be responsible neighbors, to be responsible citizens and to really only use what they need.”

But in Farmington, water district officials are realizing that relying on their residents to play by the rules might not be enough, and they’re considering metering — a process that would cost about $1,000 per connection to install meters, along with additional costs to hire employees to read them and bill customers.

“The cost of irrigation is going to go up drastically” if that’s the case, Hirst said. “If [residents] would be wise, we wouldn’t have to do this. But now we’re going to have to.”