Since 1869, the Gibson family has raised dairy cows in the pastures northwest of Ogden, not far from the Great Salt Lake.

“It’s about as challenging right now as it’s ever been in the history of our farm,” said Ron Gibson, co-owner of Green Acres Family Dairy.

And Gibson is not alone.

Across Utah, tariffs slapped on agricultural products in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign goods have the U.S. sliding toward a full-blown trade war.

On top of severe drought across the state, it’s a crushing one-two punch that is pushing many farmers — regardless of the crops or livestock they raise — to the brink.

Currently there are 160 dairy farms across Utah, said Gibson, who is president of the Utah Farm Bureau. This time next year, there could be as few as 100, he said. That’s nearly two out of every five dairy farms statewide that could cease operation.

“There’s no point doing it at a loss,” said Gibson. “Some of us are kind of stuck that way. We’re all-in when we build a new facility. And nobody is going to buy a dairy farm in Weber County. When we’re done, it’s all going to be turned into houses.”

Politically, it puts people like Gibson in a difficult spot. It’s true, he said, that farmers have been getting the raw end of trade deals for years and he appreciates what Trump is trying to do.

“I really feel like he’s trying to help us,” he said. “The problem is, we’ve stuck a stick of dynamite in the entire world [market] all at once. We’re not doing this as a surgeon would do it.”

Trump has slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Mexico, China and the European Union. Those nations have responded in kind. China imposed retaliatory tariffs on a broad range of U.S. agricultural products, including apples, pork, soybeans, beef, corn and dairy products. Mexico is levying tariffs on pork, potatoes, cheeses and apples, to name a few.

It creates a domino effect, Gibson said. For example, Utah doesn’t really export apples to Asia, but Washington state does. With exports to China plummeting, the U.S. market is flooded and prices are falling.

Dairy farmers are the first to feel the impact, since they sell their product every day. Cattle ranchers, hog farmers, and others won’t feel the pain until they go to market later this year. But the pain will come.

And it will ripple through many sectors. A soybean producer, for example, who can’t export to China isn’t going to plant acres of worthless soybeans next year. Instead he might plant corn, which means more corn on the market and a drop in those prices, too.

Craig Laub grows hay on his farm in Iron County, which his father established when he came home from World War II. He sends some of his product to Japan and Taiwan and a little bit to China. But now, with China buying less hay from the United States, there is an oversupply. And dairy farmers who buy his hay, stung by the tariffs, are buying less.

As a result, the price of hay has dropped by 10 percent.

All of this, of course, comes on top of one of the worst drought years Utah has seen. In Weber County, Gibson said, farmers are getting about half their normal supply of water and are hoping what water they do have will last until September 1.

In Sanpete County, farmers ran out of surface water in reservoirs and creeks on June 1.

Trump is proposing $12 billion in aid to distressed farmers and Gibson was on a conference call last week with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and his top deputies to discuss the implementation of the program. But it’s hard to know at this point how much will make it to the farmers who are hanging on and how long it will take to filter down.

More than that, Gibson said, the farmers don’t want a bailout — they want a solution.

“In agriculture, I don’t know a single farmer who wants to rely on the government for their success,” Gibson said. “We’re independent people and we are trying to do everything we can to build our business and build our markets for our products. … Seeing the government in the middle of this is not what we like.”

The best way to solve this is for the president, who caused the problem in the first place, to drop his protectionist bravado and recognize his actions are hurting Americans. Until he does that — if he’s capable of doing that — farmers in Utah and elsewhere will continue to feel the pain.

Murray • Eating a Philly cheesesteak is a rite of passage on the East Coast.

Pilgrimages are made to favorite shops, with grandparents and parents introducing the sandwich to younger generations.

In most of the shops in Philadelphia, where the sandwich was invented, there are certain rules to ordering, and loyal followings of one location over another have been known to cause family strife and physical confrontations.

Yes, a sandwich can inspire that kind of passion.

The Philly cheesesteak scene is different in Utah. Although a few spots have offered a version of the sandwich loaded with beef and cheese, few have specialized in the monster offering in the way that Fat Boy Phillies has in 2018.

The menu at the restaurant on State Street in Murray is small and concise. You’ll find the original cheesesteak ($8), a chicken cheesesteak ($8), a meatball sub ($8) and a cheeseburger ($8), with occasional additions and variations added to the wall-size menu or announced on a sandwich board or social media.

No surprise, says Fat Boy Phillies owner Anthony Duran, that the original cheesesteak is the top customer request. It’s loaded with thinly sliced and grilled ribeye and filet, a choice of Cheez Whiz or provolone, and a variety of grilled vegetables as additions. Duran said most Salt Lake City customers prefer provolone rather than the Cheez Whiz that is popular in the East.

Having sampled both versions in Philly and at Fat Boy, I tend to agree. While the Cheez Whiz brings additional moisture to the tender, juicy meat, it also adds saltiness. With the addition of grilled mushrooms, peppers and onions (called “loaded”) and a housemade jalapeño mayo sauce drizzled on top, the melted provolone is ideal — particularly when eating the second half of the sandwich as a leftover. Big eaters can also add a spicy sausage to their Philly for $1 more or try the Anaheim chile Philly for $9.

Guests can also satisfy their cheesesteak fix by having the meat and cheese served over fries. I enjoyed the Philly fries ($5) because of the smaller portion size and higher meat-to-carb ratio in addition to a more even coating of Cheez Whiz and mayo on each bite.

The cheesesteaks and meatball sub at Fat Boy Phillies are served on rolls that required a lot of taste testing and tweaking with a Utah bakery, Duran said. While this choice does not have the Philly-made Amoroso roll authenticity, it was a wise decision to use a local business to ensure freshness and the stability needed to hold in all the wet ingredients.

Fat Boy fans have plenty of love for the meatball sub, too. Subtle flavors are packed into the giant rounds covered in tangy marinara sauce. Provolone and Parmesan wrap this offering that could easily feed a small family.

The meatballs are made in house using Duran’s special recipe. “I learned and loved cooking at my mother’s knee,” he says, adding that the teachers in his high school culinary courses realized he had a “knack for seasoning and making things taste good.”

Fat Boy Phillies is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and lines of customers are common. The hours, so far, have helped the restaurant balance employee schedules, family time and crowds, although, Duran said, he is considering longer hours in the future.

Fat Boy Phllies also has launched a food truck to expand its reach.

Service at Fat Boy Phillies is friendly, and questions about meat and cheese choices are met with knowledgeable suggestions. Food preparation and delivery are handled efficiently, and to-go containers are happily provided.

Overall, Fat Boy Phillies is well worth a stop if you’re in the neighborhood and hungry for a mountain of quality food at an affordable price.

Heather L. King also owns www.slclunches.com and can be found on social media @slclunches

As a film buff, David Johnson thinks the subscription service MoviePass, which allowed nearly unlimited movie tickets for a flat monthly or yearly fee, is great.

“It encourages people to try movies that they might not otherwise try,” said Johnson, of Provo, who usually goes to one or two movies a week.

As an accountant, though, Johnson said he was “fascinated by the business model. I did think from the very beginning, ‘How is this sustainable?’”

A lot of MoviePass subscribers in Utah and nationwide have asked that question this week, as the service has taken drastic actions — including a $5 million emergency loan last week to pay for movie tickets its customers wanted to buy — to keep from going under.

On Tuesday, MoviePass announced it was raising its monthly rate to $14.95, about 50 percent above the $9.95-a-month fee that attracted some 3 million users nationwide since last fall. The new fee should go into effect in the next 30 days.

“The rate hike I’m fine with — I’d be willing to pay $30 a month,” said Jason Williams, a software sales rep who lives in West Jordan.

Williams said he probably sees six to 10 movies a month, and with movie tickets in the Salt Lake Valley usually going for $9.50 or $9.75 on a Friday night, the $14.95 monthly fee is still a bargain.

Rebecca Frost, a freelance critic and producer for the Big Shiny Robot podcast, said MoviePass is invaluable for film critics who aren’t affiliated with a major media outlet. Such freelance critics can’t always get into free advance screenings, so MoviePass lowers the expense of buying tickets.

“It’s allowed me to work on my critical skills,” Frost said.

In recent months, MoviePass has put in limitations to the ticket-a-day deal. The service has instituted surge pricing for the most popular showtimes and titles. It stopped allowing subscribers to see the same movie more than once using the service. And it required users to text photos of their ticket stubs — to prove they didn’t use their MoviePass cards to buy tickets for a different movie than what they said they were going to see.

MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe, in a statement Tuesday, said those restrictions “are meant to protect the longevity of our company and prevent abuse of the service.”

Johnson said the restrictions “made the experience less enjoyable. What if I screw up something accidentally?… What if I forget to take a picture of my ticket?”

A new restriction announced Tuesday will keep users from seeing a new movie in the first two weeks of its release — though that may change with distributors and theaters that have worked out deals with MoviePass. The service blocked purchases of tickets last weekend for the new “Mission: Impossible — Fallout.”

MoviePass’ shaky financial status has been felt by its parent company, the data firm Helios and Matheson Analytics. The company’s stock, which was fetching $11.46 a share on Thursday, closed Wednesday at 23 cents a share — the same day it paid back that $5 million loan.

MoviePass, in some ways, has been a victim of its own success. In an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune last fall, Lowe said he expected heavy-use consumers to be rare. “People think in an all-you-can-eat program, people will go a lot,” Lowe said then. “Even though there are some who will go a lot, the average is much, much lower than you would expect.”

Since MoviePass’ surge in popularity last fall, theater chains have offered their own variations on the subscription service. Two chains with theaters in Utah have subscription deals — AMC’s Stubs A-List and Cinemark’s Movie Club — which don’t offer as many tickets a month as MoviePass, but compensate with discounts on concessions and other perks.

Johnson said he hedged his bets on MoviePass by buying a subscription to Cinemark’s Movie Club, which helps reduce costs when he goes to the movies with his wife and five kids.

“You more than get your money back,” Johnson said. “When we try to go to a movie as a family, it can get so pricey.”

If MoviePass shuts down, Frost said she likely would still see as many movies, but cut back in other parts of the theater experience. “Every time I use my MoviePass, I paid what what I would have paid in tickets in concessions,” she said.

Without MoviePass, Williams said he would see a change in his schedule.

“I’ll probably just be going Tuesday nights, when they do the $5 discount nights,” Williams said. “It’s kind of a bummer. I’ll be seeing less movies, but I’ll be paying the same amount.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Happy Thursday! The QAnon movement got its start last October, pivoting off a cryptic comment by President Donald Trump. Sen. Lee argues free speech in the latest gun-rights dust-up. And a new SLC Airport is taking shape amid a $3.6 billion redo.

The strange, convoluted and increasingly widespread QAnon conspiracy theory traces its genesis to a cryptic comment President Trump made last October about the “calm before the storm.” The theory’s subscribers say they are preparing for conflict against the deep state, globalists and elites with a final awakening destined before the ultimate victory. [WaPost]

Topping the news: Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson attempted to pass a bill by unanimous consent to prohibit publishing blueprints to make 3D guns, but Sen. Mike Lee blocked it, citing First Amendment concerns. [Trib] [Fox13] [DNews] [KUER]

-> The first phase of the “largest construction project in the history of the state,” a $3.6 billion rebuild of the Salt Lake City International Airport, is reaching its halfway point. [Trib]

-> Gehrke writes that the trade war sparked by President Trump’s tariffs is coming home to roost with Utah farmers. Combined with the drought, it has pushed some to the brink. [Trib]

Tweets of the day: From @joshgondelman: “Paul Manafort’s midlife crisis expenses are going to send him to jail when he could have just grown a goatee and gotten really into vinyl instead.”

-> From @katherinemiller: “I love how all the Justice Department photos of Paul Manafort’s clothes look like they’re from a listing for an apartment sublet on craigslist.”

-> From @Pappiness: “The main difference between Al Capone and Donald Trump is that we’ve actually seen Al Capone’s taxes.”

Happy Birthday: To Cam Madsen, a legislative assistant for Rep. Chris Stewart.

Trib Talk: Provo Pride spokeswoman Brianna Cluck, Utah Pride Center executive director Rob Moolman, and Jordan Sgro, chief program officer of Encircle, join Tribune reporter Benjamin Wood to discuss LoveLoud’s impact, successes, missteps, and future. [Trib]

In other news: Sen. Orrin Hatch and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions condemned a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed 211 Utah inmates to file for shortened sentences (30 of which were successful), saying the decision led to the deaths of two Utah County teens whose bodies were found in a mine shaft earlier this year. [Trib]

-> A St. George businessman and his two brothers are suing an FBI agent and other authorities who investigated the public corruption cases of former Utah Attys. Gen. Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow, claiming they were threatened if they didn’t help incriminate the politicians. [Trib]

-> Pioneer Park, which is less than a half-mile from Salt Lake City’s emergency shelter, will be getting a new, lighted grass soccer and multipurpose field as part of a $1 million effort to renovate the downtown park. [Trib] [DNews] [ABC4]

-> As Utah prepares for the development of an inland port, what is being described as the “most significant economic opportunity” in a generation, here is a look at what an inland port is and what other ports around the country look like. [KUER] test test test

-> The latest conflict over plans for an expanded gravel pit at the Point of the Mountain pits the mining company and its promises for designation of a new conservation area with concerns about increased air pollution. [DNews]

-> Myron Walker, husband of the late Gov. Olene Walker, died Monday at the age of 90. He was Utah’s only first gentleman (Olene Walker was the first and only woman governor of the state.) [Trib]

-> Pat Bagley wonders why Sen. Lee would block a bill aimed at preventing the “copying of weapons of mass-killing at home on your personal 3D printer.” [Trib]

Nationally: In the second day of the trial of President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, prosecutors alleged Manafort wired millions of dollars from secret overseas bank accounts, income he hid from U.S. tax authorities, to renovate houses and shop at exclusive men’s boutiques. [NYTimes] [WaPost] [USAToday]

-> Against legal advice, the president asked his lawyers to move forward with arranging an interview between him and special counsel Robert Mueller, saying he looked forward to clearing himself of any wrongdoing in Mueller’s investigation. [NYTimes] [TheHill]

-> With midterm elections nearing, there is a growing fear that U.S. voting systems are no more secure against hackers than they were two years ago when Russia interfered with the presidential campaign. [WaPost]

-> Under the current presidential administration, press briefings are becoming a rarity. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders held just three press briefings in July. [Politico]

Got a tip? A birthday, wedding or anniversary to announce? Send us a note to cornflakes@sltrib.com.

-- Dan Harrie and Connor Richards

Twitter.com/danattrib and Twitter.com/crichards1995

About 40 Utah firefighters left for California early Thursday to help battle the monster wildfires ravaging the West Coast.

The Utah crews come from seven agencies and they are bringing 15 vehicles, including engines and water-bearing trucks. They join more than 12,000 firefighters from across the country, including deployments from Florida and Maine, traveling to California as reinforcements.

“We are proud to join the brave individuals who already have been working tirelessly in California to save lives, protect property and control these devastating wildfires,” said Salt Lake City Fire Chief Karl Lieb.

More than a dozen fires actively burned in California on Thursday. The largest — the Carr Fire — has killed at least six people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes, according to The Associated Press. It had charred 121,000 acres in the northern part of the state.

California sent a request for assistance this week to combat the rapidly spreading flames. This is the third time in the past year that Utah crews have helped fight fires there — including deployments in October and December 2017.

“It’s good for California. They get the help,” said Joe Dougherty, spokesman for the Utah Division of Emergency Management. “It’s good for our firefighters. They get more expertise.”

The Utah caravan — which includes volunteers from Salt Lake City, Draper and Provo — set off from West Valley City on Thursday and expect to be deployed for up to three weeks. The firefighters won’t know until they arrive where they’ll be stationed, though Dougherty said it will likely be the Eel Fire in Mendocino County.

The agencies sending firefighters based the decision on the “current situation in their cities,” Dougherty said. “They have resources to spare. They’re not leaving their cities unprotected.”

The fires in California are some of the worst in recent history with hot, dry conditions throughout the state after years of drought. Utah has seen large wildfires this year, too, including the Dollar Ridge Fire, which destroyed more than 70 homes and scorched 52,000 acres in Duchesne County. Most are now contained.

The ramp from southbound I-15 to I-215 in North Salt Lake is scheduled to close from Friday at 9 p.m. until Monday at 5 a.m. When it reopens, it will be restricted to one lane for most of the next week.

Drivers — especially those heading to the Salt Lake City International Airport — should plan to use Interstate 80 as an alternate route. The closure is part of a project to repave I-215 between I-15 and 2100 North.

In Lehi, northbound lanes on I-15 will split between 2100 North and S.R. 92 beginning as early as Saturday night, and continuing for several months.

Drivers planning to exit at S.R. 92 will need to merge into the two right lanes prior to 2100 North. The split allows work on a new Triumph Boulevard bridge.

The 10600 South bridge over I-15 is scheduled to close from Friday at 9 p.m. to Monday before the morning commute. All I-15 on- and off-ramps at 10600 South will remain open.

The closure will allow crews to apply a waterproof coating to the bridge pavement to help it last longer.

Construction schedules are weather-dependent and subject to change. Updated information is available on the UDOT traffic app, or online at udottraffic.utah.gov.

Bikers may find it easier, safer and quicker to pass through some traffic lights now that Salt Lake City has installed a number of new signals sensitive enough to be triggered by cyclists.

Before, when a bicyclist would come up to some intersections “the challenge they face is, do they go over and try to push the signal for the pedestrian, which maybe they’re crossing over a right-hand train lane and then trying to work their way back into traffic? Or do they just run a red light?” said Phil Sarnoff, executive director for Bike Utah.

Now, the 10 new signals, which will function normally for motorists, will be able to detect bicyclists, motorists and motorcyclists using 16 microwave signals — meaning cyclists won’t have to wait for a car to trigger a green light.

“It doesn’t automatically defer to the cyclist,” Sarnoff said. “It’s not as if as soon as the cyclist gets up to the light, it’s turning green. It just knows that, hey, the next cycle we need to run it so that the cross traffic can go. … It just now has the sensitivity that it can pick up smaller vehicles like bikes, mopeds or scooters or motorcycles.”

Most of the traffic signals in the city operate on a valleywide timer designed to detect motorists and will eventually turn green. But some — like the light on 400 East and 1300 South, which is continuously green east to west — require a car to trigger the light for traffic to run in the opposite direction.

State law allows a bicyclist to go through an unresponsive light after 90 seconds, but Sarnoff said that’s not ideal.

The signals were upgraded last year with a $53,000 federal grant administered by the Utah Department of Transportation and around $50,000 in funds from the city, according to Becka Roolf, the active transportation planner for Salt Lake City’s Transportation Division.

The same technology is already in use on around 120 of the 140 intersections in Salt Lake operated by the Utah Department of Transportation, and the city has made the signals standard when replacing old ones, which Sarnoff said is an important step.

“[Bicyclists] don’t necessarily ride on a lot of state roads,” he said. “So we need the local municipalities to be helping and disseminating this technology so more people can have it meet their needs.”

The 10 new signals were implemented in areas that are either along a bike route or in an area with a noticeable amount of bicycle traffic, Roolf said, noting that the more sensitive signals represent a step toward the city’s wider goal of getting people out of their cars.

Other recent efforts to make the city more bike friendly include the council’s changes to the city’s bicycle registration process, which eliminated the licensing fee and created an online database to make it easier for people to recover stolen and lost bikes.

The council is also currently considering an $87 million bond to fix failing roads, and the city has said that officials will look at opportunities to put in bike lanes and better pedestrian facilities, like crosswalks, during reconstruction.

“[The signals are] indicative of a desire by Salt Lake City to want to create roadways that work for everybody,” Sarnoff said. “As a bicyclist, it’s disheartening when you go out and ride and you’re trying to do something good by not polluting or getting some exercise and the system doesn’t work for you in all cases. So I think it’s great that Salt Lake City has been working on this and is continuing to advance the needs of all roadway users.”

Not all of the bicycle-sensitive signals are marked, but they can be recognized by the white square at the intersection. If it is one of the new signals, Roolf said, bikers should position themselves in the rightmost through lane in order to be detected.

From somewhere in the vast and mysterious deep state, a dissident agent rises up to give the people cryptic clues about how their heroic president will push back the forces of evil and make America great again. The renegade informant is known only as "Q," and if he actually exists, it's not in a movie, but somewhere in the Washington, D.C., bureaucracy.

Energized by Q’s complex web of conspiracy notions about the forces aligned against President Donald Trump, Q’s followers have spread virally both online and now out in real life too, forming a movement known as QAnon that is making itself visible at Trump’s rallies and other public gatherings.

QAnon is something old — the latest in a string of conspiracy ideas that take hold of the public’s imagination in times of social stress and technological change. And QAnon is something new — a leaderless popular movement made up of people who believe in no one and therefore are willing to believe almost anything.

To believers, Q is a pseudonym for a well-placed U.S. government agent who is posting online distress messages and bits of intel, known as “bread crumbs,” in an effort to save the country — and Trump — from hostile forces within the government. Q’s missives started appearing last October on 4chan, the mostly anonymous website where fringe ideas incubate and blossom.

In messages written in a telegraphic, cryptic style, Q called on Americans to rally behind Trump as he planned a counteraction against forces that would investigate him and remove him from office. Some QAnon followers believe Trump himself inspired their movement with a comment he made last October at a photo session with military leaders. The president pointed to the officers' uniforms and said, “You know what this represents? Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.”

In far-flung corners of the Internet, some speculated that that storm was a counterstrike against the deep state. Then along came Q to turn that speculation into concrete predictions — of the arrest of Hillary Clinton, of a roundup of anti-Trump liberals, of a crackdown on child-sex-trafficking rings.

Q's missives have spread virally online ever since, and in recent weeks, QAnon followers have started turning up in public, including on Tuesday at Trump's rally in Tampa, where the president came to stump for Republican candidates. "We Are Q," said a sign held up high for the TV cameras. Several people wore Q T-shirts or held Q-supportive posters.

At the rally, clusters of angry Trump supporters shouted curses at news reporters, and later that night, the president and his son Eric retweeted video of rallygoers chanting "CNN sucks!"

"Pray Trump mentions Q!" one user wrote on 8chan. That didn't happen, but when news coverage of the rally captured images of the Q signs and shirts, Q's supporters on Reddit and 4chan celebrated QAnon's leap from Internet message boards to the president's "Make America Great Again" tour.

"QAnon is finally trending on Twitter!" one user wrote on a Reddit board called "The Great Awakening."

The scene at Tuesday's rally seemed to some a disturbing threat.

"It's an incredibly dangerous movement when the president of the United States is part of an attempt to separate people from credible sources of information," said Chip Berlet, a Massachusetts-based author and researcher on political extremism and conspiracies. "You have a large number of people who accept this information from Q even though they don't know if there's a real person or people behind it."

Even some of Q's most avid students say they do not know if Q is, as the anonymous author of a book compiling Q's missives put it, "either the most long lasting Live Action Role Playing, a.k.a. prank, on 4chan, or indeed the biggest intelligence drop from the U.S. government to the public ever."

One regular QAnon follower wrote on Reddit that "Reading and diving into Q had me occupied for many hours. Definitively better than watching mindless TV programs. Even if it was all a lie, the entertainment value is real :)"

A compiler of Q's messages wrote that he doesn't know if the messenger is real, but he nonetheless believes: "It is clear that whoever Q may be, his statements, questions and/or insinuations paint a compelling picture," the writer concluded, "a world out to be set free from the grip of a global cabal that includes CIA, FBI, banker families and royal dynasties."

Q is not the first purported Trump-era insider who dishes online about government secrets. Since shortly after the inauguration, a Twitter account called RoguePOTUSStaff has claimed to be the voice of White House staffers "operating in secrecy to reveal hidden truths of the Trump administration."

Whether Q is an individual, a group, a spoof, or an exercise in political mischief-making, the QAnon phenomenon fits neatly into centuries of history of movements that construct elaborate conspiratorial explanations of why the world is in such trouble and how it might triumph — or collapse.

Such ideas have won popular support regularly throughout U.S. history, from the Illuminati, the 18th-century notion that a secret society was bent on sowing mayhem and revolution in Europe and later in the United States, through to the 1980s and 1990s New World Order belief in a cabal of foreign agents aiming to undermine U.S. sovereignty, and on to the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that led a gunman to open fire in a Northwest Washington pizza place last year.

Trump himself has at times purveyed conspiracy theories, notably in refusing for years to back down from his false claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He also asserted without evidence that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower, peddled the debunked idea that millions of illegal votes cost him the popular vote and associated the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with the assassin who shot John F. Kennedy.

On the QAnon message boards, users reach for another level of conspiracy ideas: Trump only feigned collusion to create a pretense to hire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is actually working as a “white hat,” or hero, to expose Democrats' misdeeds. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros are planning a coup — and traffic children in their spare time. J.P. Morgan, the American financier, sank the Titanic.

"These ideas never completely die," said Michael Barkun, a political scientist at Syracuse University who studies conspiracy theories and political extremism. "They get recycled every generation, and in America, some of the most powerful conspiracy ideas deal with an enemy inside the government who is really pulling the strings but cannot be identified."

"We all want stories that make sense of the world," Barkun said. "When we can't find them, we look around in strange places. The end of the Cold War deprived us of one of the major stories that made sense of our world, the struggle between the free world and what Ronald Reagan called the 'evil empire' of the Soviet Union. Nothing replaced that story."

The "Deep State," that favorite notion of Trump and his former top strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, is "a classic conspiracy idea," Barkun said, "where the conspiracy is always invisible."

Q is supposedly a renegade member of that Deep State, cryptically sounding the alarm and offering hints about what horrors are being cooked up inside the government. Q's predictions are alarming, apocalyptic even.

Last year, Q announced that the president had ordered a "state of temporary military control" accompanied by "public riots," designed "to take back our country and make America great again." This was to have happened last November.

It did not.

But Q’s influence — and the complexity of his predictions — only grew, even as his forecasts proved wrong. QAnon believers contended that Trump’s detractors, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Hillary Clinton’s longtime aide Huma Abedin, wear ankle monitors that track their whereabouts.

The Illuminati loom large in QAnon, as do the Rothschilds, the wealthy Jewish family that conspiracy theorists have long vilified as leaders of a satanic cult.

"Conspiracy thinking is part of the human condition, especially during times of anxiety," Berlet said. "In a healthy community, such ideas get laughed at or marginalized. But when people are stressed, the idea of a big, invisible threat is a great mobilizer for any movement, left or right."

Conspiracy theories are often aimed against people in power, but in Trump's case, as a longtime conspiracy buff, he more often ends up as the hero.

When Q is absent for long stretches of time, followers take note.

"Please tell me where to go," one wrote last month. "I feel lost without Q."

Some big names have bought into the fantasy. Roseanne Barr, the disgraced star of the canceled ABC revival that bore her name, has posted messages on Twitter that appear to endorse the QAnon worldview, fixating on child sex abuse. She has sought to make contact with Q on social media and has retweeted messages summarizing the QAnon philosophy. And Curt Schilling, the former major league pitcher who now hosts a show on Breitbart Radio, tweeted about QAnon and said on his program that "I know there's something there."

Learning about Q involves entering a community of conspiracy buffs who are, naturally, deeply reluctant to step into the sunshine. The author of one book that delves into QAnon responded to an interview request with a curt "No comment." A researcher who is reported to know about QAnon turns out to be a phantom, an alias purportedly protecting the identity of another government agent.

Online books such as "QAnon: The Secrets Behind the Secrets," which consists of four months worth of Q's messages, invariably have unnamed authors.

QAnon followers speculate avidly about who Q might be and where his secret identity came from. Q was, after all, the name of the gadget-making genius in many James Bond movies.

And Q was the name that "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry chose for the great and powerful galactic force that appeared in the original show in the 1960s and in the sequel series in the 1990s. In the final episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1994, Q poses one final test for an otherwise doomed people.

"I don't know why anybody would confuse a mole in a so-called deep state with the omniscient, omnipotent Q," said Brannon Braga, one of the writers of that famous final episode.

In that show, “Q was putting the captain to a test to see beyond his own limitations and perceptions,” Braga said. “It’s a test to see if humanity’s really worth being part of the intergalactic club. Ultimately, it was very uplifting — the idea that by exploring the galaxy, we are taking a step toward exploring ourselves.”

Braga had never heard of QAnon. "People take these episodes and make them their own," he said.

The Washington Post’s Avi Selk and Abby Ohlheiser contributed to this report.

“When do you get here?”

“What’s going on?”

“Are you still a Ute?”

Derrick Vickers faced those kinds of inquiries weekly for a year and a half. And for 18 months, he never had an answer. That hurt. Because as he learned, there’s no worse place than in limbo. That’s where he wound up after first committing to sign with Utah in February of 2017.

The senior wide receiver, from Bakersfield, Calif., was first looked at as a versatile weapon in Troy Taylor’s new offensive scheme. Vickers eventually chose Utah over the likes of Texas A&M, Colorado State, Utah State and others, eager to build upon the accolades he received at Bakersfield College. The 5-foot-11, 185-pounder with game-changing ability was on track.

Then, life happened.

Vickers hurt his knee. That required surgery. He faced confusion over what final classes he needed to pass in order to become academically eligible last summer. There was a miscommunication with his college counselor, he said, on which course needed passing to get to Utah. When his knee healed, he realized he wasn’t going to be able to make it to Utah in 2017. His junior year of eligibility evaporated.

Every time he got through one obstacle, another presented itself.

“It was just one thing after another,” he said.

In the meantime, fans asked where he was, what his timeline was for his arrival and whether or not all those videos posted of him staying in shape on his social media pages were ever going to translate to game days inside Rice-Eccles Stadium. The 22-year-old was still a question mark as of three weeks ago. He needed to pass his last class just to get to Salt Lake City. It was an online course, and as Vickers reached out to his professor on the status of his last determining grade, he didn’t hear back for as long as a month.

That’s when the first drop of doubt hit him. This was his last shot. There were no more years of eligibility. Vickers has one year to play one, and hopefully become part of a talented, yet unproven wide receiver corps in 2018.

Then finally, two weeks ago, the email hit his inbox.

“It was a lovely feeling,” Vickers said. “It was like, ‘It’s here. I get to go play at Utah.’”

Vickers hasn’t even been in Utah a week. He arrived last Saturday. But the coaching staff expects him to be in the rotation somewhere once he gets up to speed. A two-time first-team JC All-American, he was recruited to Utah as a jack-of-all-trades, potentially a slot receiver, potentially a running back, likely a threat in the return game.

“He’s a big-play guy, I can tell you that,” said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, who on Thursday said the Utes will petition to the NCAA to restore a year of Vickers' eligibility. “Watch his junior college tape, and you can figure that out pretty quickly. We’ll find a niche for him and a role. Right now, it’s just a matter of getting him up to speed.”

Taylor said he handed Vickers the playbook Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before Utah’s preseason camp kicked off. It will take time, Utah’s OC said. It does with all newcomers.

“For the new guys, it’s kind of like their heads are spinning,” Taylor said, “but he did a good job. He’s very fast-twitch, competitive, he seems to have a good football sense and IQ. And he caught the ball well.”

Vickers expects to have the general gist of the offense down by the end of the weekend. He’s known the ins-and-outs for a while. He tuned into Taylor’s OC debut a season ago. It’s why, in an interview shortly after committing in February 2017, he said this was what attracted him to Utah: Taylor’s spread-it-around approach that is tailored to his skill-set.

“I’ll be able to pick it up,” he said. “It actually fits me. This is the perfect spot for me. That’s why I picked it. Anywhere they put me, anywhere they need me, that’s where I’ll play.”

Utah’s newest receiver no longer has to worry about how to answer those questions that flooded his phone for 18 months. Vickers is finally on campus, in a jersey (he’s No. 17), on the field running routes and prodding teammates for advice. After the first day of camp, Vickers stood on the north side of the practice facility with his fellow receivers waiting for JUGS machine to let loose a football. It was a moment he longed for every day.

“I just couldn’t wait to get here,” he said. “I couldn’t wait to get things done and I just kept pushing, kept pushing, and now I’m here.”

And he’s determined to make the most of it. Because the next four months — maybe more — are it.

Provo • Utah County commissioners are declaring their opposition to the establishment of any needle exchange program, citing fears of discarded needles and possible legal liability.

The Daily Herald newspaper reports the county's addiction-prevention director Richard Nance said Tuesday many such fears are unfounded, but the resolution opposing a program passed with a 2-1 vote.

It was introduced by Utah County Commissioner Bill Lee after the idea was informally proposed at town halls called to address opioid addiction in the county. County Commission Chair Nathan Ivie said a needle-exchange program run by a nonprofit could be an addiction-fighting tool, but his colleagues disagreed.

Needle exchanges are aimed at curbing the spread of disease by making clean needles available. Public health officials say they can help reduce drug use by keeping drug users healthy and directing them to counseling programs.

The internet has made it easier than ever before to evangelize on behalf of a conspiracy theory. But this week, the missionaries for QAnon used their physical bodies to spread the word, with T-shirts and a paper sign, “We are Q,” aimed at the cameras covering President Donald Trump’s campaign rally.

People noticed, including journalists. The signs became mainstream news, and the news of QAnon spread. On Reddit's "Great Awakening" discussion board, devoted to QAnon and its supporters, a user wrote, "QAnon is finally trending on Twitter!"

QAnon is as convoluted as any other conspiracy theory out there but with one distinguishing feature: QAnon is the result of a twisted sort of optimism. It gives the people who believe in the conspiracy internet hope that a reckoning is about to hit.

The layers of the conspiracy go like this: Take your standard Democratic pedophilia ring and world-domination fantasy, but that's only the base, like the crust of a pizza. Onto this, you layer a fantasy in which Trump, while posing as a flailing president in public, is secretly orchestrating a crackdown on the entire cabal. Trump is working behind the scenes with special counsel Robert Mueller III, whose real federal investigation is aimed at the Clintons. Trump has loyalists spread through the U.S. intelligence agencies, which are otherwise dens of the cabal. The crackdown is imminent. It's always imminent, and it will be glorious.

Better yet, we don't need to simply wait in ignorance, because a high-level operative in Trump's alliance has for the last nine months been communicating with the public through cryptic posts on an anonymous internet forum.

This is how it spread from there.

Whether he knows it or not, Trump birthed the QAnon conspiracy theory with a single sentence, uttered to reporters while he posed with senior military leaders for a photo op in October last year.

"You guys know what this represents?" Trump said, gesturing to the uniforms. "Maybe it's the calm before the storm."

When reporters asked what storm, Trump refused to explain. This led to a brief burst of public speculation that he was hinting at a military strike. But no strike came, and soon most of the world forgot about the strange comment.

But the thinking progressed very differently on hard-right internet forums such as 4chan’s /pol/, where thousands of anonymous commenters literally deify Trump — as a messianic revolutionary who conceals his strategic genius under layers of crass egotism and ineptitude.

On those forums, Trump's comment was filled with meaning, and his "storm" must be imminent.

For weeks, amateur theorists batted around ideas of what Trump’s storm might be. If not a military strike, perhaps it was a crackdown on the so-called deep state — Obama loyalists the president claims infest his administration. If not that, then something else. 4chan is entirely anonymous, so no one theory or theorist stood out from any other.

Until Q came along. Their posts promised 4chan that exactly what it was hoping for was about to come true.

Q’s first string of posts on Oct. 28 did not read like typical forum speculation. They were written with authority and phrased as cryptic prophecy. Many referenced mockingbirds. Operation “Mockingbird,” Q hinted in another post (more than 70 appeared on various forums within the first week), referred the imminent arrest of Hillary Clinton.

This would, Q promised, be followed by the detention of other liberals, globalists and “an evil corrupt network of players” that had controlled the world for decades — until Trump came along and outmaneuvered them.

When their early predictions did not come true, Q simply made more predictions, all the while dropping hints that suggested Q was a high-level operative embedded in Trump’s counter-conspiracy. (The "Q" in their pseudonym stands for Q-level security clearance — or basically super-duper top secret.)

Q once posted in entirety:

Nonsense? Probably, but later that same afternoon in November, Trump tweeted, “Happy #SmallBusinessSaturday” Small and small. To devotees, it’s proof that Trump really is working with Q.

As is the nature of a good conspiracy theory, believers began to do Q's work for Q. After so many missed predictions, the dispatches tended to become even more cryptic. But cryptic worked.

Quickly and quietly, at first, QAnonism spread from 4chan and 8chan to small conspiracy news sites, personal blogs, Twitter and YouTube. Some videos devoted to QAnon theories have hundreds of thousands of views on the platform. Q’s messages were so vague that fans could easily graft their preferred fantasy villains onto its cabal of Democrat-led globalists — the Illuminati or the Rothschilds, for example. And as it spread, its circles of supporters discussed how to spread the word. To express this feeling, some started to quote a specific line from the Bible:

"For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be made known and come to light." (Luke 8:17)

QAnon spread further through an "unholy combination" of media manipulation and true belief, said Whitney Phillips, an incoming assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University.

Although the posts about QAnon have the feeling of a religion, or a cult, there’s no way to truly know whether QAnon’s evangelists are spreading the conspiracy theory because they believe it is true — or because, as is often the case with 4chan, they just want to spread chaos. Maybe it’s a combination of both.

"When you are talking about traditional proselytizers, you can take seriously that the people doing it are actually, (for example), Mormons, who trust that they believe they are doing the right thing," said Phillips, whose work often focuses on the amplification of misinformation and media manipulation. "In this particular case, you can have that evangelical drive without trusting that they are actually believing what they are selling."

The only thing to know for sure about the spread of QAnon is that its evangelists want to make themselves, and the conspiracy theory, more visible. Over the next several months, that drive worked, helped along by the wild and confusing daily narrative coming from the White House.

"It provides coherence to a real-world narrative that is so lacking in coherence," Phillips said. "The conspiracy is a way to understand it more clearly, even if you are engaging with it as a joke."

In early January, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave #QAnon a major signal boost by tweeting "Watch @wikileaks closely! Tick tock.," helping the theory rocket into mainstream consciousness.

Roseanne Barr became an apparent devotee, and in March her public theorizing morphed into a string of bizarre, racist tweets that led to the cancellation of her hit TV show.

As Isaac Stanley-Becker wrote elsewhere in The Washington Post, an armed militant group became convinced that a homeless camp was a secret base for child sex-trafficking rings, which feature heavily in QAnon fantasies. This week, Q posted a picture of an office belonging to a lawyer critical of Trump, after which a man showed up prowling around outside the building — bizarre enough to concern police.

About a month ago, Q evangelists began to target members of the White House press corps — reporters who regularly get to question the president’s press secretary — in their quest to spread the word.

“I started getting these emails and DMs and replies to everything I’d tweet: ‘Ask about Q,’” said Saagar Enjeti, who reports for the Daily Caller. He said the requests were not coming from the Caller’s regular audience, which leans conservative — but from members of an online fringe he had not known existed.

A brief dip into those anonymous forums was enough to persuade Enjeti that he would not be asking Trump if he was secretly allied with Q.

Only after he tweeted his refusal did he realize how deep Q fervor ran.

"I'm no stranger to nasty DMs, but this was insane," Enjeti said. "I think I probably got over 60 to 70 DMs on Twitter; people went to my Facebook page; people found my Instagram and started going through old photos: "Ask about Q. You'll be famous. What is there to lose? Ask about Q, you coward."

"An acquaintance of mine, her mother called her and told her to tell me I'd lost my rocker," Enjeti said. "I need to ask about Q to prove my bona fides."

He’s seen viral conspiracy theories come and go — sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right. He usually rolls his eyes at them.

"I think this one is truly, legitimately dangerous," Enjeti said. "The rhetoric, and the dedicated base of believers, and the patterns of propensity for violence. I think it's only a matter of time before someone abuses the open access of the White House, in terms of getting a press pass and causing a scene.

"Nothing is outside the realm of possibility," he said.

It took a paper sign reading "I am Q" to bring the conspiracy theory to its latest threshold of visibility. Enjeti decided not to ask the White House about QAnon. But now, as curiosity about it is spreading, the conspiracy is becoming a series of explanatory articles.

Phillips said that when journalists become involved in reporting on things like QAnon, conspiracy evangelists benefit from the core belief that drives journalism itself — to provide the public with truthful information.

"The problem is that the information is exactly what the evangelists want. It risks bringing more people into the story who can be converted," Phillips said.

“These reports, they are serving an important function even as they are doing the worst possible thing they could do.”

St. George • The police chief of the southern Utah city of St. George is retiring after an 18-year tenure where he saw the city’s population nearly double.

The Spectrum newspaper reports Chief Marlon Stratton says he is looking forward to spending more time with family after a total of 34 years with the department.

He joined as a patrol officer in 1984 and climbed up the ranks.

His tenure will end Sept. 27. St. George Mayor Jon Pike has proposed Deputy Chief Richard Farnsworth as his replacement.

The city council is expected to vote on the choice sometime this month.

St. George • A teenager accused of trying to blow up a homemade backpack bomb at a St. George high school after looking at Islamic State propaganda has pleaded not guilty.

The Spectrum newspaper in St. George reports the 16-year-old boy entered his plea Wednesday and is due back in court Aug. 22.

The teen is charged with felony attempted murder and using a weapon of mass destruction, as well as misdemeanor graffiti and abuse of a flag.

The charges were filed after the smoking backpack was found in a common area of Pine View High School in March. It failed to explode.

Investigators found no known connections between the boy and the terror group.

He’s also charged with spray-painting “ISIS is comi_” on a Hurricane High school wall in February plus cutting up an American flag and replacing it on a flagpole with a homemade ISIS flag.

Sandy • A 4-year-old Utah girl whose fingers were severed in the steps of a grocery store escalator last year is learning to color pictures again, but she could face more surgeries as her small hands grow, her father said Wednesday.

For Ramon Moreno, it's hard to forget the terrifying day he held his daughter Adalene in one arm and two of her fingers in a bucket in the other.

"It's a sick feeling. Scary," he said in an interview.

The family filed a lawsuit last week claiming Adalene lost her fingers because the Salt Lake City store failed to keep the escalator properly maintained. It says several “comb teeth” of the escalator’s steps were missing, creating a hole where the girl could stick her fingers inside.

"I don't want nobody to feel what I felt, or kid to go through what my daughter went through," Moreno said. The lawsuit filed against the supermarket and the escalator manufacturer claims state inspectors had warned the store about the broken pieces two years before, and safety switches did not stop the escalator from functioning after the girl's fingers got caught. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.

The store, Kroger-owned Smith's Marketplace, declined to comment Wednesday, citing the ongoing litigation. The escalator's manufacturer, Schindler Elevator Corp., has denied wrongdoing.

Moreno was on his way to his construction job when he got the call from the girl's mother, Silvia Zamora, his former partner, on Sept. 20, 2017. She had been buying when she heard the girl scream.

She rushed from the second-floor self-check register to the nearby escalator and found then-3-year-old Adalene at the bottom, covered in blood, her middle and ring fingers severed midway down. Adalene is too young to say exactly how it happened, so lawyers are also trying to obtain store surveillance video.

Employees had to retrieve the fingers from escalator components under the floor, and Moreno rushed the girl to an ambulance. Surgeons tried to re-attach the fingers, but they were too small and mangled, Moreno said.

"She from went being happy, singing, dancing, all the time every day, to just kind lying there with a blank look on her face," Moreno said.

Today, Adalene is a bubbly child with long dark hair who loves her Barbie dolls, building forts out of blankets and playing with her six older brothers and sisters.

But her face occasionally clouds over with when she thinks about her missing fingers, her father said.

Moreno worries about his daughter's future, wondering whether she'll be self-conscious when she's older or how she might wear a wedding ring one day with a severed ring finger.

“It’s something I have to think about all the time,” he said.

Logan • A former northern Utah jail guard who pleaded guilty to a stalking charge after tracking down female inmates online has been sentenced to 30 days behind bars.

The Herald Journal newspaper in Logan reports one woman said Tuesday that messages from 36-year-old James Joshua Woytko were particularly disturbing because he'd apparently gotten accessed jail systems to get her information, including intimate knowledge of her appearance.

Defense attorney Ryan Holdaway says the onetime guard didn't fully realize how he had affected the women until charges were filed, and takes full responsibility.

Holdaway asked for probation, but Judge Brian Cannell said he imposed jail time because Woytko was a law enforcement officer who violated the public trust.

Woytko worked at the Cache County Jail from 2011 through 2017.

Vatican City • Pope Francis has decreed that the death penalty is “inadmissible” under all circumstances and that the Catholic Church must work to abolish it, changing official church teaching to reflect his view that all life is sacred and there is no justification for state-sponsored executions.

The Vatican said Francis had approved a change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compilation of official Catholic teaching — to say that capital punishment constitutes an “attack” on the dignity of human beings.

Previously, the catechism said the church didn’t exclude recourse to capital punishment “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.” Previous popes have upheld that position, while urging an end to the practice.

The new teaching, contained in Catechism No. 2267, says the previous policy is outdated, that there are other ways to protect the common good, and that the church should instead commit itself to working to end capital punishment.

“Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme means of safeguarding the common good,” the new text reads.

“There is an increasing awareness [today] that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes,” it reads. New systems of detention and sanctions have been developed that don’t deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

“Consequently, the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide,” reads the new text, which was approved in May and published Thursday.

In March, Bishop Oscar A. Solis, who shepherds Utah’s 300,000-plus Catholics, called for an end to “abortion, assisted suicide and capital punishment.”

His immediate predecessor, John C. Wester, now the archbishop of Santa Fe, led an effort in 2016 opposing a push to reinstate executions in New Mexico.

The death penalty "diminishes us and erodes our respect for the sanctity of all human life," Wester said in 2010 while he oversaw the Diocese of Salt Lake City. "Executing criminals will not overcome crime nor will it restore the lives of the innocent victims."

In March 2015, Wester penned a statement against Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signing a bill that made it legal for convicted murderers to be executed by a firing squad.

Francis has long railed against the death penalty, insisting it can never be justified, no matter how heinous the crime. He has also made prison ministry a mainstay of his vocation and even opposes life sentences, which he has called “hidden” death sentences.

On nearly every foreign trip, Francis has visited with inmates to offer words of solidarity and hope. He still stays in touch with a group of Argentine inmates he ministered to during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

The death penalty has been abolished in most of Europe and South America, but it is still in use in the United States and in several countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Just this week Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could soon move to reinstate the death penalty, which it had abolished in 2004 as part of its bid to join the European Union.

In an accompanying letter explaining the change, the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office said the development of Catholic doctrine on capital punishment didn’t contradict previous teaching but rather was an evolution of it — a defense to fend off critics who have already accused the pope of heresy for challenging past doctrine on capital punishment.

Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the change aims to “give energy” to the anti-death penalty movement and “to encourage the creation of conditions that allow for the elimination of the death penalty where it is still in effect.”

Francis is not alone. Perhaps the most famous Roman Catholic anti-death penalty campaigner is Sister Helen Prejean, who visited Utah in 2015 and whose book “Dead Man Walking” — about her spiritual ministry to a man on death row — helped fuel opposition in the U.S. to capital punishment.

In addition, plenty of Catholic organizations are active in the anti-death penalty campaign, including the Sant’Egidio Community, which together with Italian authorities always lights up Rome’s Colosseum whenever a country abolishes capital punishment.

In a statement Thursday, Sant’Egidio said the change served “as another push to the church and Catholics, based on the Gospel, to respect the sacredness of human life and to work at all levels and on every continent to abolish this inhuman practice.”

It was precisely Francis’ citation of the Gospel, however, that sparked criticism from some on the Catholic right, who cited Scripture in arguing that Francis had no authority to change what previous popes taught.

“He is in open violation of the authority recognized to him. And no Catholic has any obligation of obedience to abuse of authority,” tweeted the traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli.

Some on social media questioned the timing of the announcement, given that the Vatican and the Catholic Church is under extraordinary fire once again over clerical sex abuse and how bishops around the world covered it up for decades. The U.S. church, in particular, is reeling from accusations that one of the most prominent U.S. cardinals, Theodore McCarrick, allegedly abused minors as well as adult seminarians.

“Coming in the midst of the sex abuse revelations, the timing is curious... and more fury is not what the Church needs at this moment,” noted Raymond Arroyo, host of the Catholic broadcaster EWTN.

Francis announced his intention to change church teaching on capital punishment in October, when he marked the 25th anniversary of the publication of the catechism itself. The catechism, first promulgated by St. John Paul II, gives Catholics an easy, go-to guide for church teaching on everything from the sacraments to sex.

At that 2017 ceremony, Francis said the death penalty violates the Gospel and amounts to the voluntary killing of a human life, which “is always sacred in the eyes of the creator.”

He acknowledged that in the past even the Papal States had allowed this “extreme and inhuman recourse.” But he said the Holy See had erred in allowing a mentality that was “more legalistic than Christian” and now knew better.

Amnesty International, which has long campaigned for a worldwide ban on the death penalty, welcomed the development as an “important step forward.”

“Already in the past, the church had expressed its aversion to the death penalty, but with words that did not exclude ambiguities,” said Riccardo Noury, Amnesty Italia spokesman. “Today they are saying it in an even clearer way.”

In addition, he praised the clear indication of the church’s commitment to the cause beyond doctrine.

“There seems to be also a desire to see the Catholic Church take an active role in the global abolitionist movement.”

AP writer Simone Somekh and The Salt Lake Tribune contributed to this story.

Provo • Although BYU’s linebacking corps in 2017 featured one of the best defenders in program history in San Francisco 49ers’ rookie Fred Warner, it never became the dominant unit it was projected to be.

New linebackers coach Ed Lamb hopes to change that, but acknowledges is it going to take a lot of work.

Lamb said at BYU Football Media Day in June that the three starting linebackers will be converted safety Zayne Anderson at flash linebacker (Warner’s old spot), converted defensive end Sione Takitaki at weakside linebacker and Butch Pau’u at middle linebacker. All three are seniors.

“Those guys have already played a lot of football for BYU and give us a really solid nucleus,” Lamb said.

Another senior, Matt Hadley, also played a lot of football, mainly at safety, before he suffered a knee injury that cut his season short last year. Hadley received a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA and is back for another year.

“I consider Matt a starter,” Lamb said. “No question in my mind, he will play as many snaps as everybody else, assuming that guys remain healthy and all that. … He could play any [linebacker] position. He is just so versatile in everything that he does.”

Actually, the entire two-deep chart at linebacker could be filled by seniors, because just behind the the quartet of aforementioned players are seniors Adam Pulsipher, Morgan Unga and Riggs Powell, a walk-on.

“I love what Adam Pulsipher brings to us from a leadership standpoint, and his knowledge of the game,” Lamb said. “He also has a lot of versatility because he is so smart at what he does, has a lot of efficiency in his movement.”

Lamb said Powell is a former junior college quarterback who walked on and has found a role.

“He is pushing for not just playing time, not just a backup role, but legitimate reps and contributing to a winning effort,” Lamb said.

Unga missed spring camp with an injury but is back to push Anderson for the starting flash spot. Another outside linebacker in 2017, Johnny “Ku-J” Tapusoa, has been moved to fullback. Will Sedgewick and Jeremiah Ieremia are no longer on the roster.

Isaiah Kaufusi, AJ Lolohea and Christian Folau will add depth, along with freshmen Alex Miskela, Max Tooley and Jackson Kaufusi.

Salt Lake City • Prosecutors have filed manslaughter charges against a Utah driver after a fiery car crash that killed three members of a vacationing North Carolina family.

Charges were filed Wednesday against 42-year-old Jennifer Diamond, who is accused of hitting the family's car head-on after moving into the opposite lane to pass a truck on a central Utah highway June 19.

Killed in the crash were 47-year-old Tyrone Bova of Archdale, North Carolina, his wife, 43-year-old Holly Jo Bova, and 11-year-old Haden Bova. Seventeen-year-old Tyler Bova was critically injured.

Diamond's 9-year-old daughter also suffered critical injuries. Diamond was charged with three felony counts of manslaughter as well as aggravated assault and reckless driving.

Her lawyer Edward Stone says he disputes prosecutors' version of what happened and expects the case to go to trial.

The Mormon Land newsletter is a weekly highlight reel of developments in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whether heralded in headlines, preached from the pulpit or buzzed about on the back benches. Want Mormon Land in your inbox? Subscribe here.

This week’s podcast: Breastfeeding mom speaks out

The northern Utah mother at the heart of a controversy about public breastfeeding has reached a “compromise” with her 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” to meet with the stake president who denied her a “temple recommend” unless she covered up.

Here directly from her — in her first audio interview on the matter — and from the blogger who broke the story.

Listen here.

By the way, Aug. 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week.

More bouts with breastfeeding

A By Common Consent blogger shares her struggles with breastfeeding while covered, especially given her baby’s difficulty nursing.

“Because my daughter did not latch well, a nursing cover was an impossible option for me from the beginning,” she writes. “ … Eventually, I surrendered and would drop a cover over my head as a mere formality that expressed, ‘hey, I’m trying,’ only to push the fabric to the side so I could see my body and my baby clearly.”

The writer suggests that “covering up motherhood” may not be best way to “honor, celebrate, glorify, or respect motherhood.”

“Perhaps we would do well as a church and as a culture to witness motherhood and make a space for breastfeeding mothers in our congregations,” she concludes. “Perhaps instead of fearing female bodies as potential ‘walking pornography,’ we should celebrate female bodies as creators and life-bringers.”

Kirby’s take on nursing

No, our resident cop-turned-curmudgeonly-columnist has never breastfed a baby. But Robert Kirby does know a thing or three about bodily functions, many of them far less glorious than nursing a child.

“It’s ... natural to release burps, gas, snot, sneezes and stomach gurgles (during fast Sunday),” he writes. “... We should all be aware of the less-than-pleasant needs our bodies have and try not to make such a big deal out of nursing babies, which is actually a beautiful one.

Reyna Aburto’s faith journey

The three-part video series of Reyna I. Aburto’s personal faith journey is drawing attention from tens of thousands of YouTube viewers.

Second counselor in the general presidency of the women’s Relief Society, Aburto details the trials of a devastating and deadly earthquake that killed her brother and destroyed their home; her Nicaraguan homeland’s slide into civil unrest and her husband’s spiral into addiction; and, finally, her eventual divorce, conversion to Mormonism and a “beautiful” second marriage in an LDS temple to her “best friend.”

“I have gone through very hard times. The scars are still there. The consequences. The pain is still there,” she says. “But the Lord has rebuilt my life and allowed me to have joy ... through his tender mercies.”

Marijuana or marriage? Pain now or love forever?

Brian Stoll — a devout, churchgoing Mormon — had to sacrifice his health to marry his fiancee in an LDS temple.

Why?

Because he lives in Utah.

You see, the Los Angeles Times reports, Stoll was using marijuana to ease severe back pain. And since medical pot remains illegal in Utah, he had to give it up to qualify for a temple wedding. If only the West Jordan resident lived in any of the 30 other states that have approved medical marijuana.

“This was devastating ... I had to choose between my health and my fiancee,” he told the Times’ Kurtis Lee. “It seemed asinine that if I lived in another state, I wouldn't have to make such a difficult decision.”

A painful one, too. Stoll now resorts to less-effective and more-addictive opioids, but they leave him sleepy and sluggish.

If Utah voters sign off on medical marijuana in November — as polls show could happen — Stoll could find relief.

But his Salt Lake City-based church has been lobbying against the initiative.

Meeting with Iraq’s helpers

War-ravaged Iraq is hurting, and AMAR International is dedicated to relieving that suffering and restoring self-sufficiency.

Baroness Emma Harriet Nicholson, leader of the nearly 30-year-old charitable organization, met recently with LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson, apostle Jeffrey R. Holland and Sharon Eubank, first counselor in the Relief Society’s general presidency and director of LDS Charities.

“The church and the [charity] have partnered for many projects through the years,” the LDS Church News reports. “Both organizations believe in utilizing practical solutions in helping individuals rebuild their lives.”

‘Cafeteria’ spirituality — the only way to feast?

In 2011, apostle Russell M. Nelson denounced so-called “cafeteria” Mormons.

“This practice of picking and choosing will not work. It will lead to misery,” he warned. “To prepare to meet God, one keeps all of his commandments.”

Well, Religion News Service senior columnist Jana Riess argues that picking and choosing may be the only approach that keeps many Latter-day Saints in the faith.

Besides, she adds, “I would counter that almost everyone already does this. ... Cafeteria spirituality is a fact of religious life, and has been even before Jesus made his astute crack about the speck in our neighbor’s eye being obscured by the big freakin’ log in our own.”

Hunger strike over interviews

Sam Young, a former LDS bishop who has led a grass-roots effort urging Mormon leaders to end bishops’ one-on-one interviews with minors and forbid explicit sexual questions, is making headlines again.

FOX 13 News reported that Young and members of his Protect LDS Children group launched a hunger strike to push their dual cause.

In March, Mormon leaders unveiled revised rules that allow those being interviewed to have a parent or other adult present.

Young said he plans to fast until LDS leaders listen to his pleas.

In response to his latest action, the church noted in a news release that “leaders at every level — from Sam’s local bishop and stake president to a recent conversation with a general authority — have met with him to express love, to listen and to counsel with him.”

Quote of the week

Mormon Land is a weekly newsletter written by David Noyce and Peggy Fletcher Stack. Subscribe here.

Salt Lake City • Zion National Park officials are calling out two groups of visitors who didn’t heed instructions for a demanding canyoneering route and had to be rescued.

Officials with the southern Utah park said in a news release this week that the leader of one group mocked a ranger's advice to take rope and harnesses for the difficult route to a popular spot known as "the Subway." A member of the group injured a knee Monday making a nearly 7-foot jump and had to be hauled out by helicopter.

Another group wore inappropriate footwear and got lost on the route while making poor decisions. The group ended up spending an unexpected night in the canyon Monday and had to be rescued the next day.

Zion spokeswoman Aly Baltrus says search and rescues have been increasing by 10 percent a year.