The northern Utah mother at the heart of a spat about public breastfeeding has reached a “compromise” with her LDS bishop: She’ll now wear two tops to help hide her breast from above and below while nursing her 19-month-old daughter at her Mormon meetinghouse.

But the dispute isn’t dead. The woman is “not quite ready,” she said in her first audio interview on the matter, to meet with the LDS leader who denied her a “temple recommend" unless she covered up.

“I would like to see [LDS authorities] put out a policy worldwide, throughout the whole church, to protect mothers, to make it so that women can breastfeed their babies however is comfortable for mom and baby — whether that’s covered or not covered,” the woman said Wednesday on The Salt Lake Tribune’s "Mormon Land” podcast.

The woman, who agreed to go by the initials S.D. because she hopes to resolve the impasse with her clergy, also addressed misinformation that has sprung up in the viral venting since her story surfaced.

One misperception "is that … as soon as [my daughter] is done nursing, I leave my breast hanging out for the world to see, which is, again, completely inaccurate,” she said. “As soon as my daughter unlatches, I put it away immediately because I don’t want people seeing my breast. The only person I want seeing my breast is my husband.”

Carrie Stoddard Salisbury, the Exponent II blogger who exposed the controversy, said on “Mormon Land” that hundreds of women have agreed to write letters to the faith’s top female leaders calling for a consistent, female-friendly policy on breastfeeding.

To listen, click below:

A St. George businessman is suing an FBI agent and other authorities who investigated the public corruption cases against former Utah attorneys general, saying law enforcers threatened the man and his brothers with excessive force and jail time for false charges if they didn’t help incriminate the politicians in 2014.

In hindsight, Robert Montgomery, the then-owner of a debt repair company, says he now believes he was a pawn in the sweeping investigation into three-term Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and his handpicked successor. Both former attorneys general were cleared.

Montgomery was scared and confused by his implication in the cases, so he considered lying about what he knew of the politicians' alleged corruption to appease the agents, or taking a plea deal just to get out of the situation. He said the case ruined his life, causing him to lose his businesses, his wife and his sense of security. He stills asks himself, “Why me of all people? I’m a little telemarketer from St. George. Why me?"

He landed on the same conclusion Shurtleff did last week, when he filed additional information in a similar lawsuit against Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill and nearly every public agency involved in investigating accusations that he accepted bribes and was corrupt. Montgomery, like Shurtleff, says the investigation into him — which was ultimately dismissed — was fabricated and politically motivated. Gill is a Democrat who Shurtleff, a Republican, didn’t support for re-election.

Swallow, also a Republican, was acquitted of his public corruption charges and is suing the state for $1.5 million in legal fees.

The Montgomerys are specifically suing Utah Bureau of Investigation Agent Scott Nesbitt and FBI Special Agents Michelle Pickens and Jon Isakson. The three are also named in Shurtleff’s lawsuit.

A spokeswoman with Salt Lake City’s FBI office declined The Salt Lake Tribune’s request for comment. The state’s Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gill has denied wrongdoing in the Swallow and Shurtleff investigations, and he said he stands by the work done during that time.

Montgomery and his brothers JD and Chase Montgomery were charged with witness tampering in 2014 after they allegedly attacked an FBI informant to interfere with an investigation, the one looking into the Swallow and Shurtleff cases.

The issue, Robert Montgomery’s attorney Ted McBride said, is that the brothers didn’t know the informant, an employee at their business, was working with the FBI when he came to the business in May 2014 and apparently instigated a confrontation with Robert Montgomery. Regardless, none of them hit him. That was another employee, a manager at the company.

Three months later, the brothers were arrested on suspicion of witness tampering. That charge carries a maximum of 30 years in prison.

“Strikes me as the ultimate leverage," McBride said. "You know, ‘We’re going to charge you with a serious crime to try to get you to turn or divulge some information,' which they never had in the first place, which nobody ever had because we know now that Shurtleff and Swallow were exonerated.”

McBride, who is also representing Shurtleff, said the cases give credence to each other, and he is considering consolidating them. Shurtleff seeks more than $80 million in damages.

Robert Montgomery said the FBI must have begun investigating him after he hosted two fundraisers for Swallow. He said he met Shurtleff once and didn’t know either of the men well.

Before he was charged, investigators asked Robert Montgomery about his dealings with Swallow, Shurtleff and others, but he didn’t have much to say.

Unbeknownst to Robert Montgomery, the FBI planted an informant in his business. The man wore a wire for about four months but apparently never collected useful information.

The informant, who had been fired, came to the business May 8, 2014, seeking his last check. According to Robert Montgomery, the man tried to provoke him into a fight — but it didn’t work. Instead, one of Robert Montgomery’s employees hit the man.

“And the police knew that that day,” Robert Montgomery said. “That’s why they arrested him and his brother and not my and my brothers or my managers. Then, four months later, they come and do that.”

The “that” came Aug. 8, 2014, when "three to five SUVs full” of armed law enforcement came into Robert Montgomery’s home and his business, allegedly pointing guns at Robert Montgomery’s wife and teenage son.

Robert Montgomery’s brothers were also arrested that day. All of them were incarcerated for seven days, according to the lawsuit. “They were interrogated and were threatened with an exorbitant period of time in a federal prison" in an attempt to get them to disclose information about Swallow and Shurtleff, according to the lawsuit.

On Aug. 12, 2014, the men pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors sought to keep them in jail awaiting trial because they were “violent criminals,” the lawsuit states. Two days later, an attorney for the prosecution appeared to have a change of heart and requested that the brothers be released. By October of that year, the case against them was dismissed.

McBride said that’s one of the more striking aspects of this case. He wants to know what happened in those intervening days that caused prosecutors to to change their minds about keeping the brothers in jail.

His attorney says investigators submitted falsified information to the court about the Montgomerys' charges, ultimately prompting prosecutors to throw out the case.

The Montgomerys seek an undetermined amount of money for emotional distress, economic loss, attorney fees and other damages caused by alleged violations of their Fourth and 14th Amendment rights, which protect against unreasonable search and seizure and guarantee due process, respectively.

Since the saga started, Robert Montgomery said, he’s developed post-traumatic stress disorder. He worries all the time about “being taken for no reason." Instead of running a multimillion dollar business, he now trolls for work online, selling business leads and brokering. He said he recently lost business when a potential client searched his name online and saw the allegations against him, even though the case was dismissed.

All that, he said, because he tried to participate in politics.

“I’m sorry I ever got into the political process. I never, ever will again,” he said. “That’s for sure.”

Milan • Italy will launch a three-city bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Turin and Cortina.

The Italian Olympic Committee announced the move on Wednesday, having decided a joint bid was more cost effective. It was unanimously voted for by the CONI board.

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, however, has criticized the decision and says that while his city would still be willing to host Olympic events, it will not be involved in the governance of the bid.

According to CONI’s ‘Olympic Masterplan’, Milan will host four events: curling, women’s ice hockey, short track speed skating and figure skating.

Cortina would have the same number of competitions, with the sliding sports (bobsleigh, skeleton and luge) and Alpine skiing, while the Nordic combined and ski jumping would be held in nearby Val di Fiemme.

Speed skating and men’s ice hockey would take place in Turin, with slalom Alpine skiing in nearby Sestriere.

Snowboarding, biathlon, freestyle and Nordic skiing would be staged in the Valtellina region, which is between Milan and Cortina.

Other possible candidates for the 2026 Olympics are: Stockholm; Erzurum, Turkey; Calgary, Canada; and Sapporo, Japan.

International Olympic Committee members will pick the host in Milan in October 2019.

Two years ago, Italy was forced to suspend Rome’s bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics because of staunch opposition from the city’s mayor.

It was the second time in four years a Rome bid was withdrawn or suspended. In 2012, then-premier Mario Monti scrapped the city’s bid for the 2020 Olympics because of financial concerns.

Los Angeles • November’s congressional elections will decide which party will control a narcoleptic institution that is uninterested in performing fundamental functions: Only 43 of the 535 House and Senate seats — ten in the Senate, 33 in the House — are occupied by legislators who were serving in 1996, the last time Congress obeyed the law requiring it to pass all appropriations bills before the Oct. 1 beginning of the fiscal year. Congress, controlled by forelock-tugging Republicans, is a passive bystander as the president decides to shovel out $12 billion to compensate farmers for the damage his trade war — regarding this war, as with real ones, Congress is powerless by choice — is doing to them. So, the country reverberates with campaign sound and fury signifying nothing so much as the preposterous disproportion between the money and energy people expend to get into Congress and this institution’s lassitude.

Here, however, there is a contest that might matter. The choice Californians make for the next superintendent of public instruction could catalyze improvements regarding the education of grades K-12. Marshall Tuck, who looks 10 years younger than his 45 years, worked in finance before Harvard Business School, then became an education reformer running charter schools, which explains why $3.11 million of the $3.7 million donated to support his opponent in the June primary came from teachers unions and other public-school employees organizations. The rest came from the Democratic Party.

Tuck is a Democrat, as is his opponent, Tony Thurmond, a state legislator. Thurmond finished a close second to Tuck in California's primary system, wherein candidates of both parties appear on the same ballot and the top two meet in the general election. Thurmond, who knows who butters his bread, says, "I am not trying to cultivate Republican votes."

California has the largest (about 6.2 million students; 33 states have fewer residents) and one of the most polyglot student population: There are 92 languages other than English spoken in the homes of Los Angeles pupils. More than 3 million of the state's children cannot read at grade level.

The 10 charter schools that Tuck helped to create in this city's poorest neighborhoods dramatically outperformed local schools in pupils' results on standardized tests and in graduation rates, and eight were ranked among the nation's top high schools. Education reform, says Tuck, is not like "trying to figure out how to colonize Pluto." Often it just requires pruning the California Education Code's 2,500 pages, a 40-year accumulation of creativity-stifling regulations written to placate the unions whose membership dues help to elect the regulation-writers.

In endorsing Tuck, the San Francisco Chronicle noted that Thurmond, "was nowhere to be found" when the state Assembly voted on — and defeated — a measure that he claims he supports but that the California Teachers Association, the union supporting him, opposes. The bill would merely have extended from two to three the number of years teachers must teach before being given tenure. Forty-two states require three to five years before tenure; four states never grant tenure. California actually notifies teachers of their tenure status after just 18 months in the classroom.

When incompetent or negligent teachers get tenure, dismissal procedures are so complex, protracted and costly (upward of 10 years and $450,000) that a court has called the power to dismiss "illusory." Because about two of California's 277,000 teachers (0.0007 percent) are dismissed each year for unsatisfactory performance, school districts resort to what is called "the dance of the lemons," shuffling incompetent teachers from one school to another. California's charter schools do not grant tenure.

A French minister of education once bragged that he could glance at his watch and tell what was being taught at that moment in every French classroom. Fortunately, California’s superintendent of public instruction cannot set education policy for the entire state, which leaves room for local improvisations. The superintendent can, however, set a tone. Unfortunately, the best predictor of a school’s performance is the quality of the family life from which the children come — the quantity and quality of reading matter in the home, the amount of electronic entertainment consumed in the home, the amount of homework done there — and, most important, the number of parents in the home.

Family disintegration is the stubborn fact that severely limits the efficacy of even the best education policies. But at least out in the country that is contiguous to Capitol Hill there are elections that might matter.

George F. Will writes a twice-weekly column on politics and domestic and foreign affairs. He began his column with The Post in 1974, and he received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977. georgewill@washpost.com.

Washington • Here is the issue raised by Facebook’s revelations this week about disinformation that we need to face squarely: The political interests of the president of the United States coincide with the purposes of foreign forces using social media to divide us along the lines of race and culture.

President Trump's refusal to make combating Russian interference a high priority, despite warnings from inside his own administration about the dangers, is obviously a scandal. It is also a telltale sign that our commander in chief is not at all motivated to turn back this threat.

This view is reinforced by Trump's constant hectoring of Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's intervention in the 2016 election. His outcries reached a kind of crescendo on Wednesday morning with a tweet in which Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who has recused himself from the inquiry) to "stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now."

It's often said that Trump's ego cannot tolerate the idea he was helped into the White House by Russia's exertions, and that he sees ongoing reports about the probe as marring what in his view is a truly great record. Yet it's hard to interpret Trump's hostility to Mueller as anything but an expression of concern that the special counsel will unearth highly damaging information about him and his campaign.

It's an established fact that the Kremlin and Trump were on the same side in the 2016 election. And so far, the online activity in connection with the 2018 elections — some of which is has been linked to the Kremlin's Internet Research Agency — rather consistently plays into right-wing propaganda and targets Democrats such as Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.

The online meddling has a broader objective as well: to divide our country even more sharply than it already is and to weaponize racial and ethnic divisions.

Thus, some of the phony sites Facebook uncovered that were putatively "left-wing" highlighted themes related to immigration (amplifying the "abolish ICE" message) and race (calls for counter-protests to a white supremacist demonstration scheduled for Aug. 11 and 12 in Washington). Put simply: the more we hate each other, the better it is for our enemies.

In a carefully researched article published Monday arguing that "demographic change is fracturing our politics," Vox's Ezra Klein said bluntly: "There's a reason why, when the Russians wanted to sow division in the American election, they focused their social media trolling on America's racial divisions."

In the face of active measures by our adversaries to widen our nation's social gulfs, one might imagine a more responsible leader trying to bring us together, to ease our anxieties about each other and to stand against endless cycles of recrimination.

Instead, Trump is working in tandem with these outside trolls to aggravate resentment, stoke backlash and incite his opponents.

On the very day that Facebook revealed the new influence operation and announced it had deleted 32 pages and accounts connected to it, Trump went to Florida for a rally where he rehearsed some of his favorite incendiary themes.

He said that Democrats want to "open our borders, they want to let crime, tremendous crime, into our country." For good measure, he also accused them of "trying to give illegal immigrants the right to vote."

And in a comment bewildering to all who visit supermarkets on a regular basis, he defended voter-ID laws — which work to reduce minority turnout — by observing that “if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID.”

The absurdity of some of Trump's statements should not distract us from their divisive ends. The same is true of his habitual return to reviling kneeling NFL players, most of them African-Americans protesting injustice, and his repeated declarations that we can all now say "Merry Christmas" again, a play on white evangelical fears of being marginalized in a changing country. He touched on both issues in his Florida speech.

Understanding that Trump's strategy of maintaining power rests on stoking the animosities that allowed him to reach the White House in the first place explains why he has no apparent desire to contain cybercampaigns organized overseas that advance the same objectives. He seems ready to tell them to keep on keepin' on.

Doing so also underscores that battling the bots and the hackers is not primarily a technical question but a matter of political will and moral commitment. It requires resolute resistance to the forces turning us against each other.

E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column and on the PostPartisan blog. He is a government professor at Georgetown University, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio and MSNBC. He is most recently a co-author of “One Nation After Trump.” ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne

The boom is back.

Well, not yet. But Utah fans won’t have to wait too long to see No. 13 stalking and waiting to launch himself. Pads come on Friday. Then Marquise Blair will be comfy again. It’s been nine months since the now-senior strong safety went down awkwardly on the turf inside Rice-Eccles Stadium, suddenly halting a stellar junior year in which the one-time JC transfer became a fixture of Utah’s defense.

The knee injury suffered in a runaway win against UCLA last November turned out to be a significant blemish on what would’ve been an otherwise perfect evening. Blair recalls hoping it wasn’t serious, but when he couldn’t stand up on his own, he knew it was. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound big-hitter underwent knee surgery in high school, so he knew what he was up against.

Monotonous days without the sport that he loved. Pushing himself to the limit in rehab, and then having to tone it down.

“It’s just a day-by-day thing,” he said after suiting up during Utah’s first official day of fall practice. “You know it’s hurt, so you can’t force it. You just got to get through it.”

A former JC All-American at Dodge City CC, Blair became a household name in the Pac-12 Conference in 2017 known for his painful open-field hits. Blair played in nine games a year ago, starting six, and lined up all over the field, including stints at strong safety, free safety and even at outside linebacker. He finished the year with 48 tackles.

It’s actually been a couple of months now in which Blair has felt 100 percent.

Once he got to that point, he started perfecting his footwork and has started adjusting to lower his tackling angles once more. Those were things, he said, that were already on the improvement list regardless of the injury.

When asked what adjective he’d use to describe Blair on the field, defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley didn’t blink.

“Nasty,” Scalley said.

Is there any trepidation that it might take some time for Blair to get back to his highlight-hitting ways?

“He was born that way,” Scalley said. “You wish that more people were kind of born with that attitude. For us, it’s kind of reining him in and making sure that, he’s a guy when you’re practicing on a day like today with pads off and there’s not a lot of contact, he gets impatient, he gets frustrated.”

Because he wants the real thing.

It’s a different Blair in 2018. A year ago, as his star began to soar, he was a bit apprehensive when approached for interviews, jokingly trying to evade the Utah sports information staff because he was uncomfortable. On Wednesday, the senior stood tall and spoke about getting through the pain of being sidelined. To Scalley, Blair’s matured plenty ahead of his final year at Utah. He recently became the father of a baby boy, too.

“He gets that it’s not all about showing how physical you can be and the big hits,” Scalley said. “There’s a lot more to it. He’s always had a great heart. I love that kid. He just had a baby, that does a lot to give you perspective. I don’t know if it softens him here [on the field], but it definitely gives you a new perspective.”

Blair said while most would go a little stir crazy in the absence of such a familiar routine, he didn’t.

“Not with me,” he said. “I just keep pushing.”

Scalley said Blair, in fact, returned earlier than expected. So once he felt 100 percent, that was that.

“Wish I had him for a few more years,” Scalley said.

Florham Park, N.J. • Sam Darnold huddled up with his team-issued tablet to keep on top of the New York Jets’ offense during his brief contract holdout.

The rookie quarterback missed the first three practices of training camp while his representatives ironed out details of his four-year, $30.5 million fully guaranteed deal. But Darnold wasn’t very far from the field — literally.

Staying at a hotel just a few deep passes down the road from the Jets’ practice facility, the No. 3 overall pick was able to view film of the team’s camp sessions on his own while staying patient as his contract negotiations played out.

“It sucked watching them,” Darnold said Wednesday, speaking to reporters for the first time since rejoining the team Monday. “But at the same time, I knew what needed to be done. It was tough watching them, but at the same time, I knew that it was necessary.”

The hang-up appeared to be over contract language — namely offsets and possibly defaults — and Pro Football Talk first reported that the deal includes offset language on future guarantees — if he gets cut. But the Jets also agreed to pay the quarterback’s full $20 million signing bonus within 15 days after Darnold signed Monday and removed language in the deal voiding guarantees based on fines by the NFL.

“I thought it played out great,” Darnold said. “But honestly, you know, I think with the way that everything worked out, that’s why I have great agents because they’re able to figure that stuff out. And then whenever I get back on the field, that’s my job and my job is to play football to the best of my ability.”

While sitting out camp, Darnold said he worked out at the hotel gym and also was able to throw passes at a nearby high school with fellow clients of his agents’ group — CAA — serving as his receivers.

Darnold is competing with Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater for the Jets’ starting job, but has to make up for a little bit of lost time because of his early camp absences.

“That’s a coach’s decision,” Darnold said when asked if his goal is to be the starter in Week 1. “The competitor in me, yeah, I want to start. But at the same time, it’s about the team and what’s best for the team.”

Darnold has appeared comfortable running the offense, hardly looking like a lost 21-year-old who’s simply trying to tread water. He has made his share of mistakes, too, but his ability to immediately bounce back from them has been impressive.

“It was the second day for him,” coach Todd Bowles said. “He’s learning, progressing. He’ll watch the film, learn and get better.”

After having his arm hit as he was throwing a pass that was intercepted by Morris Claiborne, Darnold completed a long pass to Chad Hansen for a big gain.

“We always talk about it in the quarterbacks room, but we also talk about it as a team: You want to limit your mistakes,” Darnold said. “At the same time, if you do make a mistake, you don’t want to keep your head down. You want to hold your head up high and go after the next play with all you’ve got. So that’s kind of our mentality here, but that’s also been my mentality throughout playing football.”

That cool-headed, veteran-like approach has impressed his teammates.

“Just his decision-making with the football,” running back Bilal Powell said. “Just taking what the defense gives him and not just trying to force it in there. He’s a smart guy and I think he’s going to do well in this league.”

Added Bridgewater: “I’m a huge fan of Sam Darnold. I’m glad to be in the quarterback room with him.”

While a rookie holding out might rub some teammates the wrong way, many insisted they understand the business side of the game and didn’t resent Darnold for not being there with them when camp opened.

That didn’t make the young QB immune from some good-natured razzing, of course.

He received a slow-clap as he jogged onto the field for the first time Monday, causing him to break into a sheepish smile just before practice.

“That was awesome,” Darnold said with a laugh. “To be able to just be a part of that, not really expecting anything and them doing that, it kind of pushed everything — me not showing up to camp on time and me being late — it kind of pushed all that aside. It made me feel comfortable and made me feel like a part of the team.”

Darnold was the main attraction during and after practice Wednesday, with a couple dozen reporters and cameras surrounding him as he spoke.

Even the other two quarterbacks knew who everyone wanted to hear from.

Bridgewater went first and cracked about how he was part of the undercard to the main event. McCown then compared himself to a warmup act at a concert.

“I’ve only got three songs,” the 39-year-old quarterback joked, “and one of ‘em is a cover.”

Then, the headliner made his way to the podium.

“Personally, because I have really high expectations for myself, I’ve got a ways to go in terms of growth,” Darnold said. “But I feel comfortable with the offense at a rudimentary level.”

Utah’s most celebrated backup receiver stood in the sunshine, sweating after his first official practice in two-plus years and patting his stomach.

“I have some Chilean bread, still in there,” Britain Covey joked Wednesday, “but other than that, I’m feeling pretty good. I feel like I haven’t lost a step.”

Covey’s return from a church mission to Chile is just in time for an offensive that needs his dynamic, playmaking ability. Covey won’t approach the 117 receptions that Cooper Kupp made in Troy Taylor’s Eastern Washington offense in 2016, but he’s sure to be productive as a Ute in Taylor’s scheme.

And he'll enjoy every bit of it.

“Sometimes it’s easy to get complacent in college football,” Covey said, “but then you take a step back and realize this is the greatest time in your life.”

Covey is listed No. 2 at the “E” receiver position behind Demari Simpkins, and that’s where he’ll remain for most of this month. The coaching staff won’t publicly update the depth chart until the week of the Aug. 30 season opener against Weber State.

That status hardly will lower the fan base’s hopes of what Covey will bring to the Utes. Covey caught 43 passes as a freshman in 2015, in a largely inefficient passing scheme. The latest version of the Utah offense should function better in the second season with Taylor and quarterback Tyler Huntley. The 5-foot-8 Covey knows he’ll have to become more than a novelty in the second phase of his college career.

“I kind of want people to underestimate me again,” he said. “That was fun. I feel a little bit of pressure, but I kind of just bury it. There are more expectations for our team than there are for me.”

That's partly true, although he's among the reasons the Utes are picked to contend for the Pac-12 South title. Covey's appearance as a returned missionary might be the most anticipated homecoming for a college athlete in this state since Devin Durrant resumed the second half of his BYU basketball career 35 years ago.

And there may never be a story like this again in Utah. Covey is a nontraditional missionary in this era, having played one season of football before leaving. Most athletes now depart in the summer after high school.

Covey returned in March, missing spring practice but giving himself a full summer in the Utes' conditioning program.

“He lacks a little endurance right now ... but he is what we hoped he would be,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.

Covey says he’s slightly faster than before and nobody questions his ability to learn the offense and emerge as a team leader.

“Already, you see the leadership qualities,” Taylor said. “He's not jumping in, trying to take control, but he's doing it the right way. He's incredibly intelligent, he's a humble kid. … He's as advertised, or better.”

As an illustration of how glimpses of practice can produce the wrong impression, either way; Covey dropped a pass on the first play of the media-viewing portion of Wednesday’s session. That’s unlikely to happen often, while Covey plays a major role for the Utes as a receiver and kick returner.

He should thrive in Taylor’s offense, designed for receivers to read the coverage and find holes. Sounds like Covey’s game, right?

“He puts a lot of trust in the receivers,” Covey said. “I love it, because if you can master that with the quarterbacks, it’s almost unguardable.”

Englewood, Colo. • The Denver Broncos are singing the praises of rookie outside linebacker Bradley Chubb even if carrying a tune isn’t necessarily his specialty.

The No. 5 overall pick recently paired with fellow rookie Courtland Sutton to perform a duet in front of the team.

“I messed up the lyrics a little bit,” Chubb said.

No big deal. They didn’t bring him in for his voice, just his voracious intensity. In that respect, he’s hitting all the right notes.

Chubb believes this group of pass rushers can create quite a bit of “chaos” this season. The defense even has a scheme dubbed “NASCAR” to take advantage of the speed and power of Chubb, Von Miller, Shane Ray and Shaquil Barrett. Simply put: It gets all of them on the field at the same time to wreak havoc.

“Now that will be dangerous,” Ray said. “You can’t block any of us one-on-one. It would be too tough, especially if you have all four of us in the game. We have the guys to get a lot of sacks this year.”

Chubb was a surprise pick by the Broncos mainly because he wasn’t predicted to fall to them. Miller even posted his reaction on Instagram — complete with a scream.

So far, the 6-foot-4, 275-pound Chubb has been just as advertised through training camp.

“What we saw in college we’ve seen some out here,” coach Vance Joseph said. “Watching him play versus NFL tackles and tight ends, it hasn’t been a setback for him. He’s a strong guy. He can set an edge. He can rush the passer.”

The pressure to produce out of the gate doesn’t faze Chubb in part because he has Miller & Co. next to him. The 22-year-old is all ears these days in meetings and on the field. He’s taking in every piece of advice offered to him to get up to speed.

“I just need to keep coming out and working,” said Chubb, who had 26 sacks, 203 tackles and eight forced fumbles while at North Carolina State. “Having a lot of rushers and a lot of good players who can get to the quarterback out there on the same field and at the same time, I feel like it’s going to be chaos.

“That’s what we’re trying to do, cause chaos.”

Chubb’s versatility allows defensive coordinator Joe Woods to get even more imaginative with his schemes. Woods plans to use Chubb at outside linebacker, defensive end and even drop him into coverage.

“It’s definitely a luxury,” Woods said.

About his singing: Turns out Sutton and Chubb elected to do a number together for their teammates. Sutton presented several songs and Chubb didn’t know any of them. Finally, they found common ground with “Can You Stand the Rain,” a ballad by New Edition . It went rather smooth, outside of a few lapses on lyrics.

“We got a little standing ovation,” Sutton said.

Now on to the next rookie ritual: The funky haircut . The veterans get to have a little fun with the razor and trim the hair of the rookies. Or, if a rookie would rather, the eyebrow is always an option.

“I’m not looking forward to it,” Chubb said.

What he is looking forward to is rushing QBs.

“We’re all coming out here with the same mindset,” Chubb said. “We all want to be great and we’re pushing each other to be great. When we’re all going, it’s going to be pretty special.”

San Francisco • A divided U.S. appeals court on Wednesday struck down a key part of President Donald Trump’s contentious effort to crack down on cities and states that limit cooperation with immigration officials, saying an executive order threatening to cut funding for “sanctuary cities” was unconstitutional.

In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that the order exceeded the president’s authority. Congress alone controls spending under the U.S. Constitution, and presidents do not have the power to withhold funding it approves to pursue their policy goals, the court majority said.

“By its plain terms, the executive order directs the agencies of the executive branch to withhold funds appropriated by Congress in order to further the administration’s policy objective of punishing cities and counties that adopt so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies,” wrote Chief Judge Sidney Thomas, joined by Judge Ronald Gould, who both were nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The court, however, also said the lower-court judge went too far when he blocked enforcement of Trump’s order nationwide after a lawsuit by two California counties — San Francisco and Santa Clara.

Thomas said there wasn’t enough evidence to support a nationwide ban, limited the injunction to California and sent the case back to the lower court for more arguments on whether a wider ban was warranted.

Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, called the ruling a victory for “criminal aliens in California, who can continue to commit crimes knowing that the state’s leadership will protect them from federal immigration officers whose job it is to hold them accountable and remove them from the country.”

“The Justice Department remains committed to the rule of law, to protecting public safety, and to keeping criminal aliens off the streets,” he said.

The decision overall is a big win for opponents of the executive order, but Trump could try to enforce it against jurisdictions outside the nine Western states covered by the 9th Circuit, said David Levine, an expert on federal court procedure at the University of California, Hastings College of Law.

“If they wanted to go after Chicago, if they wanted to go after Denver or Philadelphia, they would not be bound by an injunction,” he said. “Those places would have to bring their own lawsuits and whatever happens, happens in those cases.”

Trump signed the executive order in January 2017 — part of a push by his administration to go after cities and states that don’t work with U.S. immigration authorities.

The government also has moved to withhold a particular law enforcement grant from sanctuary jurisdictions and sued California over three laws that extend protections to people in the country illegally.

The Trump administration says sanctuary cities and states allow dangerous criminals back on the street. San Francisco and other sanctuary cities say turning local police into immigration officers erodes the trust needed to get people to report crime.

The executive order directed the attorney general and secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that jurisdictions refusing to comply with a particular immigration law generally are not eligible to receive U.S. grants.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco ruled in November that the order threatened all federal funding and that the president lacked the authority to attach new conditions to spending approved by Congress.

The executive order potentially jeopardized hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, Orrick said, citing comments by Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions as evidence of the order’s scope.

The Trump administration said the order applied to a relatively small pot of money that already required compliance with the immigration law.

“When a president overreaches and tries to assert authority he doesn’t have under the Constitution, there needs to be a check on that power grab,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement Wednesday. “The courts did that today, which is exactly what the framers of the Constitution had in mind.”

Santa Clara County Counsel James R. Williams said the decision was a victory for a key provision of the U.S. Constitution.

In a colorful dissenting opinion, 9th Circuit Judge Ferdinand Fernandez said the executive order clearly says any action by the attorney general or Homeland Security secretary was to be taken in accordance with the law.

Fernandez, who was nominated to the 9th Circuit by Republican President George H.W. Bush, said Orrick had pushed that language aside. Fernandez called the counties’ fears about the order an “imagined beast.”

Canton, Ohio • Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher, two of the NFL’s greatest linebackers, enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame this week. When their teams meet in Thursday night’s preseason opener, the game could very well honor them by being a defensive battle.

On one hand, the Chicago Bears are installing a new offense under first-year coach Matt Nagy. On the other side, few if any of the Baltimore Ravens’ starters at the offensive skill positions are likely to get much action.

So if this winds up 10-9 or something similar, well, the smiles on the faces of Lewis and Urlacher might get a bit broader.

Nagy has a second-year quarterback, Mitchell Trubisky, who will be taking his first major steps running the new scheme Nagy brought from Kansas City. He seems unconcerned that the second overall pick in the 2017 draft will be overmatched — even though Trubisky has been an interception machine in practices.

“Our guys have picked up everything that we’ve asked them to do,” Nagy said. “There have been mistakes, but they’re way ahead of the learning curve. So that’s exciting and it tells me that once we get to the regular season we can do more than I initially thought. But we will be growing throughout the season.”

And the preseason.

As for the Ravens, don’t look for Joe Flacco in this one. The Hall of Fame game is an extra exhibition outing for the participants, and provides an opportunity for Baltimore coach John Harbaugh and his staff to look at first-round draft pick Lamar Jackson and veteran Robert Griffin III, who is attempting a comeback after not playing last year.

“We have that set,” Harbaugh said of the QB plans for Thursday night. “I never really talk about that. We just go do it. But we have the quarterback rotation set, and then we’ll organize the rest of it ... There’ll be some guys who won’t play in that game, probably you might guess the guys who haven’t practiced as much that first week.”

Some other things to watch in the Hall of Fame game:

A fifth game

The extra preseason contest usually gives low draftees, non-draftees and guys trying to catch on an additional chance to show their stuff. This isn’t much different from the final exhibition game, when starters generally sit and others get a last chance to make a roster.

“When you have that extra game, the benefit is it gives you more reps for your players,” Nagy said. “The negative is there’s health risks, right? So people can get hurt. There’s a fine balance of both of those and being able to understand which way you want to go, and right now I feel like our plan as a coaching staff for who we want to play and don’t want to play, I feel really good about it.”

O-line questions

Both teams have to find answers regarding their blockers. Baltimore has one of the best in the league in right guard Marshal Yanda, but he’s coming off an injury-ravaged 2017 in which he made it into two games.

“That’s why they call it training camp,” Ravens OL coach Joe D’Alessandris said. “You have an idea of who are going to be your so-called projected players and starters, but that could change overnight. The same thing could happen during the season.”

Considering how stationary Flacco can be, Baltimore needs to solve the offensive line issues quickly if he is its starter.

Trubisky at least can move around, and there’s no question he will be the Bears’ first-stringer. Guard Kyle Long’s assortment of health issues doesn’t help in the quest to solidify the line.

Homecoming

This is sort of a homecoming for Trubisky. He played at North Carolina but is from this area (Mentor, Ohio).

“I’m excited. The Hall of Fame game is a great opportunity for this team, and it’s a unique place to place,” he said. “Just going back to the Hall of Fame, I’ll have some family coming to the game. It’ll be great to see some family, and it’s an exciting time for this team.”

National anthem

With the NFL’s new policy on protocol during the national anthem in limbo as both the league and union discuss it, nothing really has changed from last season. Demonstrations by the players aimed toward awareness of social injustice could occur Thursday night.

Betting line

With legal betting on NFL games in some states, there actually is a line on this game: Baltimore by 2½ points. How the oddsmakers got there is anyone’s guess considering there are 90 players on each roster and many of them will get on the field.

Washington • By now, there are few in the political world who have not yeti heard about what’s going on in the 5th Congressional District of Virginia.

The Republican candidate in the race, Denver Riggleman, was discovered to have posted images of "Bigfoot erotica" on Instagram, with the furry fellow's ample nether regions obscured. The candidate is also co-author of a 2006 book about Bigfoot hunting in which he describes "serious Bigfoot research" and includes an assertion that "Bigfoots like sex, too."

Shouldn't that be "Bigfeet"?

But you may not be aware of this: This is not the first time the 5th District has seen an election turn on erotica.

Exactly 10 years ago, in another race for the same seat, it was discovered that the incumbent, Republican Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., had an unwanted connection to "gay erotica." The name of Goode, a traditional values conservative, was in the closing credits of the erotic gay film "Eden's Curve," which featured an appearance by Goode's press secretary. Goode secured an earmark for the theater whose managing artistic director produced the film.

Thus do we have, in a single district, two snapshots in the devolution of the Republican Party into an exotic entity. Ten years ago: gay erotica. Now, in the Trump era, Bigfoot erotica.

Riggleman, who runs a distillery, is trying to sasquatch the story by saying it's a joke.

“I thought it was funny,” he told The Washington Post’s Ron Charles. With a laugh, he added, “I do not believe that Bigfoot is real. But I don’t want to alienate any Bigfoot voters.”

Indeed not! And Riggleman should not back down. He has happened upon a potentially winning message.

I say this with some authority because of my history with Bigfoot. As a cub reporter in 1992, acting on a tip, I spent a long, cold night stalking the beast with a leading Bigfoot hunter near Cleveland. Years later, when CBS' Bob Schieffer and I discovered our mutual (platonic) interest in the creature, I bought him a true-to-life yeti statue.

So it is my informed opinion that Republicans should take a page from Teddy Roosevelt, who in 1912 bolted the Republican Party to create the Bull Moose Party. Now that Trump has led his partisans to abandon most of what the Republican Party stood for two years ago, and has led them into a mythical land of alternative facts, they ought to rename the entity they've created: the Bigfoot Party.

For a party slogan, I suggest a twist on Robert F. Kennedy's famous paraphrasing of George Bernard Shaw: There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that are not, and say, yes they are!

If Thomas Nast were alive, he might draw the party animal as a 6-foot-3 lumbering creature with a flowing orange mane, a beast uncivilized but cunning.

I've taken the first stab at a platform for the nascent Bigfoot Party:

Whereas U.S. intelligence says Pyongyang is proceeding with new missile development and uranium enrichment, and whereas we say North Korea is "no longer a nuclear threat";

Whereas the Constitution says Congress shall have the power to levy taxes, and whereas we say the president can cut capital gains taxes by fiat;

Whereas Republican leaders say a government shutdown would be harmful, and whereas we say we "would be willing to 'shut down' government";

Whereas a White House official said "the wealthy are not getting a tax cut under our plan," and whereas we tell the billionaire Koch brothers that the cut "made … them richer";

Whereas we have said hundreds of times that there was "no collusion" with Russia, and whereas we also feel compelled to assert that "collusion is not a crime";

Whereas we believe that Iran should be threatened, in all caps, with "CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE," and whereas we will be happy to talk to them "anytime they want" without precondition;

Whereas we believe Montenegro has "very aggressive people" poised to start World War III, and whereas we believe the European Union, not Russia, is our enemy;

Now, therefore, be it resolved that we also believe that Bigfoot exists and that he is, in all likelihood, a sexy beast. Be it further resolved that none of the foregoing shall be construed to deny the existence of any other creature, including but not limited to: unicorns, dragons, mermaids, werewolves, fairies (also pixies), centaurs, griffins, ghouls, gnomes, trolls, leprechauns and the Loch Ness Monster.

The Bigfoot Party is a big tent.

Dana Milbank is a Washington Post columnist. He sketches the foolish, the fallacious and the felonious in politics. Twitter, @Milbank

Good intentions have paved Salt Lake City’s roads to hell.

Years of neglecting road maintenance has brought Utah’s capital city to a point of no return. Two-thirds of city roads are considered poor or worse, according to an independent analysis. Less than 10 percent were considered “good” or “satisfactory.” Now the city is looking at $20 million a year just to attack the backlog.

There is no surprise in this. Four years ago, the Salt Lake City Council even went so far as overriding then-Mayor Ralph Becker’s veto of a property tax increase. The council intended some of the money for roads, but even after the override Becker put the money toward employee raises instead. It wouldn’t have been enough anyway.

The ensuing years have seen various pledges from city officials to change their tune. It’s likely that every current council member campaigned on a pledge to address roads. But so far it’s been mostly talk.

Meanwhile, the roads keep crumbling. As it is, major city thoroughfares like 1100 East through Sugar House and 300 West in the “big box” retailing area are crevasse-filled stretches that turn shopping into a GoPro adventure.

And it’s only getting worse. Potholes that opened up last winter are still unfilled. That ensures today’s cracking roads are tomorrow’s failed ones. As the city engineer says of unmaintained roads, “ ... it’s not a straight-line deterioration. They get really bad really quick.”

Mayor Jackie Biskupski, with the City Council’s support, is asking voters to approve an $87 million bond for road reconstruction over 10 years. It would take 20 years to pay back the bond.

This is on top of two other tax increases that city residents already must absorb. Salt Lake City recently added a half-cent sales tax in part for roads, and Salt Lake County is also bumping its rate up for roads and transit. Combined, the sales tax rate is going from 6.85 percent to 7.60 percent in Salt Lake City.

Because the city is retiring other debt, the bond won’t raise property taxes much. But residents would be passing up a chance to drop their taxes by an average of $41.75 per year.

At this point, the bond may be unavoidable, but it has to come with genuine change. Maintenance means responding in real time. They need to fill the holes and cracks before they grow. It also means better coordination and oversight of utilities that dig up and patch roads with varying success.

Without the city changing its ways, we could see the new bond-funded roads fall apart before the bond is paid off.

Road maintenance is a core competency for cities, and Salt Lake City has been failing. Before taxpayers bail them out, city officials need more than intentions. They need to show they know what they’re doing.

Unfortunately, Utah does not get it. Those still maintaining their continued support of the present administration must really not fathom the true depth of the situation (by conscious choice, or perhaps it is just by rote conditioning). Is that truly an integral part of the authorized and prescribed teachings (throughout the entire common community) to be a "faithful and true" member?

Is the teaching actually one where you must not question, not look, not evaluate, not hold those issues or persons in any position of authority to your closely held and professed “testimony” that there is really a “higher standard” to be strived for and met? And, if that is true, is that endorsed mitzvah also rigidly coupled so you must blindly follow those same leaders or ideas, because of the real risk of local community disenfranchisement, or there is a possibility of that happening at other various higher levels?

When do you, personally, finally acknowledge that the “here and now” reality actually presents the “mists of darkness, filthy river, and building full of taunting people,” using terms (I'm assuming) you should be very familiar with? If you are not understanding these references, then I suggest you might consider re-reading the “foundation” of your individually, fully professed, unfoundering “faithful and true” belief. As little as I know: Where do “free will” and holding onto the “rod of iron” versus “current thinking and your measurable actions” intersect when it will really count, at your appointed time and place?

I’ll apologize to those who are offended, where I may have somehow misspoken or not fully understood the ecclesiastical realm in which this occurs, but given the recent national events, it is really hard for this “Episcopal Gentile” among the “faithful” to conclude something otherwise.

Allen Peterson, Murray

Hostility toward the media at Trump rallies is nothing new. It infected the presidential campaign and has marred every raucous gathering of supporters since the election.

But on Tuesday night in Tampa, Florida, the extreme aggression dropped the basement floor another level.

This was a new low. And a scary one at that.

"I'm very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in someone getting hurt," CNN's much-maligned reporter Jim Acosta noted, as he posted video of the scene:

It showed a sea of worked-up Trump supporters screaming curses at him and aggressively gesturing with their middle fingers.

The New York Times's Katie Rogers agreed, calling it "as hostile as I've seen people."

Making matters worse was a dark novelty: The emergence at the rally of a cultish group called QAnon. These are the deranged devotees of a supposed government agent who they believe is waging war against the "deep state" that threatens the Trump presidency.

Believers were front and center at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall, as The Washington Post reported.

"As the president spoke, a sign rose from the audience. 'We are Q,' it read. Another poster displayed text arranged in a 'Q' pattern: 'Where we go one we go all.' "

The group, born on internet message boards such as Reddit and 8Chan, is a close cousin to the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that led a gunman to open fire in a D.C. restaurant last year. The Huffington Post's Andy Campbell described it as a mishmash: "It's every conspiracy, all at once, an orchestra tune-up of theories."

And although the group has staged public events in recent months, Tuesday night's Trump rally was its real coming-out party.

What's particularly troubling about QAnon's embrace of Trump rallies is its love for armed conflict and quasi-military associations: This crowd likes guns.

As Will Sommer's QAnon primer in the Daily Beast put it: "The general story ... is that every president before Trump was a 'criminal president' in league with all the nefarious groups of conspiracy theories past: the global banking elite, death squads operating on orders from Hillary Clinton, deep-state intelligence operatives, and Pizzagate-style pedophile rings. In an effort to break this cabal's grip, according to Q, the military convinced Trump to run for president."

It brings to mind Hunter S. Thompson's observation: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

President Donald Trump ought to be doing everything in his power to calm the waters at his rallies before real violence — perhaps deadly violence — takes over.

Necessary as that is, the chances of his doing that are remarkably low. After all, for him, the reality-based press is the "enemy of the people."

Rather, he and his closest allies, including his son and Sean Hannity at Fox News, are fanning the flames.

Brian Stelter of CNN identified, in his media newsletter, two megaphones that amplified the anti-press message on Tuesday: Eric Trump's retweeting a video of the "CNN sucks" chants and commenting that this is "truth." And Hannity's on-air assessment, snidely informing the mainstream press that "the people of this country, they're screaming at you for a reason." (The purported reason being inaccurate or biased reporting.)

All of this is what New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger was talking about when he met with Trump recently to express his deep concerns about the president’s anti-press rhetoric, which has gone — in his words — “from divisive to increasingly dangerous.”

It fell on deaf ears, of course. Trump not only needs to use the mainstream press as a foil — a convenient and ever-present enemy. He is also intensely invested in undermining the reporting that surrounds special counsel Robert Mueller III’s investigation of him so that he can ward off the negative effects of whatever Mueller finds.

In fact, Trump soon broke the agreement to keep the Sulzberger meeting off the record and instead began tweeting about what he insists on calling "fake news," which is really the legitimate reporting that doesn't reflect well on him.

Trump needs to change the tenor of these rallies. With more gatherings coming up this week, he should act immediately, first with a public statement that calls off the anti-media dogs. And then by his demeanor and his words at the events.

Defending press rights — and the safety of journalists — would be a sign of real patriotism, as opposed to hypocritical flag-waving.

That's a fantasy, of course, given how crucial this coordinated anti-media messaging is for Trump.

Nevertheless, it would be a way for him to show that he is more than just the president of his base. And it should happen before his hands are splashed with blood.

Margaret Sullivan is The Washington Post’s media columnist. Previously, she was the New York Times public editor, and the chief editor of the Buffalo News, her hometown paper.

Sen. Orrin Hatch could become one of the few senators in all of history with a legacy so significant his name will be honored, revered and never forgotten.

He will be remembered as the senator with the insight to have realized a seriously camouflaged danger to our democracy and democracies around the world … the single senator courageous enough to face a political tsunami of lies and to take those dangers down.

All it will take is his vote in the Senate to stop Donald Trump’s psychopathic resolve to disavow our friendly nations, undermine our own democracy and join Vladimir Putin in splintering democracies around the world. Doing so will establish the Hatch legacy as truly heroic and beneficial to all of mankind forever.

Or Sen. Hatch can continue to just sit there, support Trump and establish a legacy known primarily for being one of those senators who just sat there and watched it happen.

John Dombek, Santa Clara

At the end of June, U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw ordered that the federal government reunite the 2,000 children they separated from their families in May and June. As the deadline passed last week, over 700 children remain in limbo.

While the federal government pats itself on the back for reuniting families it shouldn’t have separated in the first place, it also cannot account for the whereabouts of hundreds of parents. Judge Sabraw described the government’s failure to keep track of split families “a deeply troubling reality” of a policy that separated families “without forethought.”

In some instances, the parents “voluntarily” accepted deportation as a condition of being reunited with their children, but the reunions have yet to happen. In some cases, the children are separated from family because they were deemed “ineligible” to be reunited. Representative Karen Bass, D-Calif., tweeted: “Last week, I spoke to a grandmother (in a cage) who the government had deemed “ineligible” to stay with her grandchild because she was not his mother. The boy was shipped off to foster care and in 6 months, can be put up for adoption in Texas. That’s what “ineligible” means.”

Chilling stories continue to pile up about how these children are being treated. Children are having their belongings taken from them, including dollies clung to by little girls, being told that their families have abandoned them, that they will be detained until they turn 18, are being mocked and lied to. They are being subjected to sleep deprivation, served rotten food, being physically hit and kicked and in some cases, held naked. It’s abhorrent.

In an NBC article, Franklin, an 11-year-old Honduran boy spoke about the treatment he and his 7-year-old brother received in a detention center: freezing cold conditions, inadequate blankets, being woken at 3 a.m. and given inedible food.

In another instance, now part of a court case, with over 200 youth being represented, 16-year old Sergio F. described how he and his father were separated, all of their belongings were taken away and then they were put into different vehicles.

“When I left, and my dad wasn’t with me, they told me not to worry that he would be coming in a moment,” he said, according to testimony given in Spanish and translated into English. “I went in the car and felt very relieved and happy that he would follow. But it wasn’t like that. He didn’t come. I haven’t seen him since.”

That was more than 45 days ago. When a guard found him crying in a bathroom, he was mocked for being a “crybaby.”

And, it gets even worse. ProPublica, the news organization that released the tape of detained children crying, just released a new report about sexual abuse in immigrant youth shelters.

“If you’re a predator, it’s a gold mine,” says Lisa Fortuna, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Boston Medical Center. “You have full access and then you have kids that have already had this history of being victimized.”

By using public records laws, ProPublica obtained more than 1,000 pages of police reports and call log records documenting hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse, fights and missing children from more than 70 facilities of the approximately 100 run by the U.S. Health and Human Services department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. The stories are deeply disturbing.

Also deeply disturbing is the revelation that at least one facility is administering psychotropic drugs to their young residents to “keep them compliant” without parental permission or a court order. Some children were being forced to take up to 15 pills a day and if they refused, they either had their mouths pried open or were given injections of drugs so powerful they rendered at least one child incapable of walking.

Federal Judge Dolly Gee ordered on Monday that children be removed from that facility unless a licensed professional deems them a danger to themselves or others and has prohibited the administration of psychotropics without a court order or parental consent.

It’s not like the current administration didn’t know the consequences. They were warned about “traumatic psychological injury” if they pursued separating families under the “zero tolerance” policy. In front of Congress yesterday, Commander Jonathan White of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps said in response to questioning that “there’s no question that separation of children from parents entails significant potential for traumatic psychological injury to the child.” Maybe that was the point all along. Or maybe the kids are acceptable collateral damage in a game of political warfare where “elections have consequences.”

The racist rhetoric of describing people — families — as infestations to be eradicated, fish to be caught and animals to be caged has worked before. It worked during slavery, it worked during Chinese immigration of the 1800s, it worked during the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II and it’s working now. Over 14,000 campaign ads this election cycle celebrate “getting tough” on immigration.

If we want to put an end to this despicable approach to other human beings, we have to do more than shout at the TV or news headlines. If we do not take bold action, if we do not speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, then our nation will continue to reap the whirlwind.

Holly Richardson, a Salt Lake Tribune columnist, continues to be outraged at the damage being done to children and their families in order to score political points.

I was recently contacted for input on a political poll. The questions started as expected, but then took a turn toward the medical marijuana ballot proposal.

With a spouse and disabled sister who suffer debilitating chronic pain, I fully favor medical marijuana. The medical marijuana-related poll questions were obviously biased against medical marijuana, such that if you answered in favor of the ballot proposal you would also be in favor of 5-year-olds using pot at school, organized crime and more or less the complete destruction of Utah society.

After responding to a couple of these biased questions, I asked who was sponsoring the poll and told the person the questions were ridiculous. The pollster said they would tell me the poll sponsor, but only after I completed the survey. At this point I hung up. The pollster immediately called back and wanted me to complete the poll. Since they would not tell me the poll sponsor or acknowledge the poll was biased, I declined.

If you see a poll about medical marijuana, beware. The one I was asked to complete was sneaky and completely biased against medical marijuana.

Dave Larsen, Ogden

With all the tax and rate increases, the Salt Lake City Council seems to feel that the property owner and taxpayer have deep or unlimited pockets.

To solve this, I would like to propose that every time the mayor or the city council wants a rate, fee hike or property tax increase, their pay should be cut by the same percentage. So if they want a 2 percent tax increase, then chop their pay by 2 percent. Maybe this would get their attention.

Molly Baird, Salt Lake City

Looking to help out our less-fortunate neighbors? Take them a bowl of chicken soup and vote yes on Prop 3 this November.

The reason you should vote yes on Prop 3 is because it would protect CHIP and Medicaid from future benefit cuts, as well as provide Medicaid coverage for more than 100,000 Utahns. By voting yes on Prop 3, we are supporting CHIP and Medicaid and doing our part in making sure less-fortunate children and families are able to have proper access to health care.

The state funding for this expansion would come from a small sales tax increase of 0.15 percent on nonfood items; this is only 3 cents for every $20 spent by consumers. The rest of the funding is already available from the federal government.

Utahns are known for their generosity and charitable hearts, which is why I know an extra 3 cents for every $20 will be considered a minimal contribution in order to maintain a healthy community.

In the meantime, go ahead and take over that chicken soup.

Maurena Grossman, Salt Lake City