Drink Beer. Do Good. Give Thanks.

It’s the motto at Salt Lake City’s Kiitos Brewing and what drives beer production at one of Utah’s most environmentally conscious and community-minded craft breweries.

“We do everything we can to minimize our impact,” explained owner Andrew Dasenbrock.

Leaving a light footprint is one of the reasons the 10-month-old brewery was The Salt Lake Tribune Editors' Choice during the second annual Food Truck and Brewery Battle at The Gateway. Shades of Pale won the People’s Choice award in the beer category.

Kiitos' beer lineup — from traditional ales to an aged coconut stout to a blackberry sour made with real fruit — is another reason the business and its head brewer, Clay Turnbow, stand out.

Kiitos sells beer that is 4 percent alcohol by volume (aka 3.2 beer) in grocery stores and by the glass at its tap room, 608 W. 700 South. Several of its higher-alcohol options are available in state-owned liquor stores and at its on-site beer store.

Drinking a Kiitos brew, one might not realize the Earth-friendly investments the brewery made while building the brewery and since beginning production, said Dasenbrock, who listed these six aspects during a recent interview:

Efficient brewing • The brewery has a High Efficiency Brewing System, or HEBS, which uses a mash press to extract liquid from the malted barley. The system speeds up the brewing process, requiring less energy and people power. It uses 30 percent to 40 percent less water than traditional systems and 15 percent to 20 percent fewer grains. Kiitos is one of only 18 craft brewers in the country to have the system, and the only one in Utah.

pH-balanced • A three-step system produces pH-balanced wastewater before it goes into the city drainage system. Other breweries have to add chemicals to get the right balance.

Aluminum cans • Kiitos packages all its products in blue aluminum cans, which are easily recycled and require less energy to produce. It’s also better for the beer. The cans protect it from sunlight.

Local ingredients • About 97 percent of the ingredients used to make Kiitos beer are grown or made within a 350-mile radius of Salt Lake City. Grains come from Idaho, and the cans are from Colorado. The cherries, for the recently released Cherry Berliner Weisse, came from Salt Lake City’s Green Urban Lunch program and were pitted by hand. The savings that Kiitos realizes through efficiency do not necessarily mean more money in investor pockets, Dasenbrock said. “We take that savings and buy what we believe are higher-quality ingredients.”

Sustainable feed • The spent grain from the brewing process is taken to the East African Refugee Goat Project farm in west Salt Lake City, where it is mixed with feed and offers a high-protein, high-fiber meal for the farm animals.

Giving back • Each month Kiitos creates a limited-release beer that is available on draft only in its tap room. For each $5 pint glass sold from the “give back handle,” $1 is donated to an area charity. In June, sales of its Big Gay Ale benefited the Salt Lake Pride Center; in July, proceeds from the Kiito-rita, a version of the pilsner with lime and salt, went to the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The whole idea here,” said Turnbow, who most recently worked at 2 Row Brewing in Midvale, “is to be a responsible company that does things the right way.”

Even the brewery name, pronounced “kee-tose,” has a backstory. It means “thank you” or “gratitude" and is a nod to Dasenbock’s Finnish heritage.

Brewing beer with a conscience doesn’t come cheap, according to Dasenbrock, a Utah native who got bored with his job as an information technology consultant and sold a portion of his company to get funds to launch the brewery. He also brought on several investors, which is fortunate, since construction delays and governmental red tape with Salt Lake City meant the price to open the brewery went over budget and it opened months behind schedule.

Many in Utah’s brewing community weren’t sure the business would get off the ground. Since opening, however, sales have exceeded expectations, Turnbow said. “Right now we are on pace to produce 3,000 to 4,000 barrels this year," he said. "That’s more than the 2,000 barrels we had originally planned.”

Kiitos is “selling very well” at the Beerhive Pub in downtown Salt Lake City, said owner Del Vance. “Most of the sales are driven by the quality of the product.”

Vance believes the “green” aspect to brewing is mostly a marketing tool. “I’d be willing to bet," he said, “you couldn’t tell the difference between a beer brewed by a green brewery and one that’s brewed in a regular brewery.”

Still, a large number of craft beer consumers are “environmentally driven,” so it makes sense that more craft brewers are creating that type of business.

“As I see it,” Vance said, “you might as well be saving the planet while you’re getting buzzed.”

Chapel Hill, N.C. • The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill has revised a textbook for a required fitness course that called cancer “a disease of choice” and included a theory asserting Holocaust victims failed to tap into their inner strength.

The News & Observer reports the university released a statement saying revisions to "21st Century Fitness" began in spring, in cooperation with the publisher. The university had made no mention of a revision when asked about the textbook's contents last month.

The textbook is part of online courseware sold by Perceivant to multiple universities, and was authored by two Brigham Young University faculty members. Co-author Ron Hager defended the book as promoting healthy lifestyles.

Last week, the Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded UNC drop the textbook, which it said “insults the memory of Holocaust victims.”

Provo • The Utah County jail will get a $1 million influx to pay for the ballooning medical expenses of a man who case highlighted the struggle to pay for inmate health care.

The Daily Herald reports the Utah County Commission approved the transfer Tuesday, a month after Sheriff Jim Tracy resigned when faced with the possibility of having to lay off employees and close jail beds to pay the bills.

Jails are required to provide inmates with necessary medical care, and the cost of cancer treatment for a single inmate had outstripped the Utah County's medical budget. It's a problem faced by jails around the country.

Also Tuesday, the Utah County Commission approved budget changes of $500,000 for increased gas prices and $650,000 to cover vote-by-mail election costs.

Provo • Fifth-year senior Matt Hadley says there are times when he has to think twice about which position he is playing before he runs out on the practice field.

That happens when you have played six different positions in a BYU football career that began in 2012.

“Or maybe I’m just getting old,” said the former missionary, who will turn 25 in October. “Yeah, every once in a while I have to do a little mental check to make sure I am in the right spot.”

Thanks to receiving a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA, Hadley is back with the team and participating in his fifth preseason training camp, this time as a running back. It was touch-and-go with the NCAA last spring when Hadley applied for the waiver, but he did what he could in spring camp without knowing how the ruling would go.

“I’m back,” he said last week, only slightly exaggerating. “I’ve been here for like a decade now.”

Seriously, Hadley is “extremely grateful that it happened, because a lot of people put in a lot of hard work for me to be able to come back, and so I am thankful for all of them.”

He’s also appreciative of BYU’s medical and training staff for helping him return from a fractured kneecap that cut short his would-be senior season.

“After the [paperwork] submission to the NCAA and as the months were kind of going on, it was tough to know what was going on and I felt like, ‘aw, man, there is a good chance I might not get this,’ ” he said.

Hadley isn’t familiar with any athlete who has returned from a fractured kneecap, but he is giving it a try. Doctors took out a piece of the broken bone during surgery, then reattached his patellar tendon to his kneecap. He considers himself fully recovered, although there is a “little bit” of discomfort and he does certain exercises to continue to strengthen it.

“He’s a tough kid and he’s handled it really well,” said former safeties coach Ed Lamb, who is now working with the linebackers.

Even more amazing is Hadley played four games with a fractured kneecap. He sustained the injury in practice prior to the LSU game, banging knees with a teammate who came out of it unscathed.

“It was a pretty painful experience,” he said. “I think back on it, and yeah, it would shake me up a little bit, for sure.”

Finally, the pain became too much, and doctors performed the surgery. Most believed the former record-setting running back had played his last down for the Cougars. BYU’s Jack-of-all-trades never gave up, though.

“I just felt like I still had something to give to this program,” he said last spring. “This is an amazing coaching staff, and an amazing group of guys. It is a privilege to be able to come back and work with them again and make the most out of this season.”

That’s true even if it means going back to running back, which is suddenly a crowded position at BYU because former safety Tanner Jacobson and former quarterback Beau Hoge are also in the running backs room in camp.

Hadley rushed for 6,881 yards and a Washington state-record 746 points in high school, but has yet to carry the ball from scrimmage at BYU. He has returned a dozen or so kickoffs, and is in the running for kick and punt return duties this season.

“I played [running back] in high school,” he said. “It has been awhile. But the coaches have been super encouraging and all the running backs have helped me. I am trying to find that rhythm again that I might have had one day in the past.”

Hadley is listed as an RB/LB on BYU’s preseason roster, so the possibility exists he could return to defense, where he has played cornerback, safety and linebacker. He’s made 55 tackles on that side of the ball.

Lamb said he would welcome Hadley back in a heartbeat, but for now he’s needed at running back.

“The best way to characterize it right now is he is 100 percent on offense and fighting for the starting position and a significant role there,” Lamb said. “If at any time it looked like he was not going to be a significant contributor at running back, then we want to have him back on defense as quickly as possible.”

Lamb has eight seniors in his linebacking corps, but Morgan Unga and Hirkley Latu are recovering from injuries and have yet to participate in camp and another linebacker, Johnny “Ku-J” Tapusoa, has moved to fullback. Freshman Alex Miskela won’t join the program until January.

Hadley says he will play where he’s needed most. He doesn’t even have to think twice about that.

It’s rare for former stars of ABC’s “Bachelor” franchise to criticize the show that made them famous. But on Tuesday, last season’s “Bachelorette” star, Rachel Lindsay, revealed that she was not pleased about how Becca Kufrin’s season finale played out compared with hers.

“This might be the realest article I have ever written,” Lindsay wrote in an essay for Us Weekly, where she has been recapping the show all season. “It’s not quite how I thought I would write this recap. But watching Kufrin’s finale brought about a range of emotions that I was not expecting.”

A reminder: Lindsay’s finale last August was a pretty brutal three hours of television. Viewers saw prolonged scenes of Lindsay parting ways with runner-up Peter Kraus, who said he loved her but was unwilling to propose to someone he had only known for six weeks. (Also known as standard operating procedure in “Bachelorette” world.) When it became clear that Lindsay wanted a proposal, Kraus bitterly told her, “Then go find someone to have a mediocre life with.” The whole thing was a nightmare.

At the end, Bryan Abasolo proposed, and Lindsay excitedly accepted — the two are still together and hope to get married this year. Yet viewers didn’t see much of the joyous end to their journey. Instead, the finale was mainly focused on Kraus; many fans noted they were far more emotionally invested in Lindsay’s breakup than her actual engagement.

Meanwhile, on Kufrin’s finale on Monday night, viewers did witness a tough, raw breakup conversation with Blake Horstmann, as they both broke down crying — but shortly after, it transitioned to her ecstatic engagement to Garrett Yrigoyen.

Then during the post-show interview, she and Yrigoyen practically bounced onstage together, as they cuddled and beamed with happiness. Plus, Kufrin got closure with Horstmann during a talk where he genuinely wished her the best. It was a marked difference compared with the tone of Lindsay’s finale.

“I am so happy for Becca and I am so happy she is getting everything that she deserves,” Lindsay wrote. However, she added, “Do you ever recall seeing Bryan profess how excited he was to propose to me? Do you recall seeing me cry about how I was so excited to say yes to Bryan and get my fairytale ending? The answer would be ‘no’ to both of those questions. And it is a shame because both of those things actually happened. You just did not see them.”

Another key difference: Lindsay sat with host Chris Harrison during the entire live finale as they watched it together; contestants usually arrive onstage after the show has aired, or only for portions of the episode. Lindsay’s experience was unpleasant, as Harrison grilled her with probing questions. She also had an awkward onstage reunion with Kraus.

“Do I sound a little pissed off? Well that is because I am,” Lindsay wrote. “Becca did not sit onstage for three hours and watch the finale for the first time in front of a live audience. Becca did not have to deal with someone telling her she would live a mediocre life. Becca did not have to deal with being baited with real time questions about her emotions watching certain scenes. Nope, that was me.”

Lindsay, the first black star of the franchise, continued: “Let’s just be honest. Becca did not have the finale that I had. There was no controversy and she was not put in a position to face any. She was protected and I was placed on display for three hours and labeled an angry black female. And there will always be that stigma attached to my finale because it has been said that when truth is blurred by misinformation, perception becomes reality and all is lost.”

She brings up another good point: While Kufrin’s finale did have one controversy — those unearthed Instagram likes from Yrigoyen on posts that mocked immigrants, transgender people and a teenage school shooting survivor — the show mostly skated over it. During one segment toward the end, Yrigoyen apologized and Kufrin emphasized she did not condone his Instagram activity. Still, no one actually brought up the content of the posts or pressed Kufrin on her thoughts about them.

In an interview with The Washington Post earlier this year, reporter Amy Kaufman (author of “Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure”) said she always feels sorry for the show’s “winning” couples, as they often aren’t portrayed in the most flattering light.

“The edit almost always works against the final couple,” Kaufman said. “They have an uphill battle when the show’s over.”

Indeed — although it’s up to the producers to decide how to present the star’s decision between the two finalists. Lindsay’s finale certainly was on the negative side, and now it seems that she would like ABC to do something about it.

“As for my happy ending, it was not demonstrated within the confines of your television screens, but I am living it every day in real life,” Lindsay concluded. “So in regards to a future on-camera happy ending and whether or not I will get married on TV, I have no idea but they damn sure owe us one.”

When reached for a response regarding Lindsay’s essay, an ABC spokesperson had no comment.

Raleigh, N.C. • The NCAA is carving out a limited role for agents to work with college basketball players and is changing key parts of its rules-enforcement system as part of numerous reforms in the wake of a corruption scandal.

The Indianapolis-based governing body for college sports announced Wednesday that its Board of Governors and Division I Board of Directors had adopted a “series of significant policy and legislative changes” as part of an effort to “fundamentally” change the NCAA’s structure. Some are immediate, while others first require action from other agencies — such as the NBA changing the age limit for draft-eligible players that has fueled the wave of “one and done” at the college level.

That follows late-April recommendations from the commission headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following a federal investigation into alleged bribes and kickbacks designed to influence recruits on choosing a school, agent or apparel company. Georgia Tech president and Board of Directors chairman Bud Peterson said the NCAA had pushed through changes in about 3 1/2 months that would “normally take us about two years through the governance process.”

“Today was obviously a very important day for the NCAA and especially for men’s basketball, and ... Division I,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a teleconference with reporters Wednesday afternoon.

The agent changes are about transparency and offering a legitimate avenue for communication or advice that previously could’ve taken place in the shadows — and raised the likelihood of attracting unscrupulous actors.

Now college basketball players can work with an NCAA-certified agent while testing the waters of declaring for the NBA draft. College players first would have to request an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee about their draft prospects after the season, and that would clear the way to enter into a written agreement — disclosed to the NCAA or school — with the agent.

That agreement must end if the player returns to school.

Agents would be allowed to cover minimal expenses such as meals and transportation associated with meetings or workouts with pro teams, though the NCAA said that might first require revisions to the Uniform Athlete Agent Act — a version of which is in place in more than 40 states to regulate unethical agent conduct. Previously pro teams could cover some of those expenses.

The agents would have to be certified by the NCAA by no later than August 2020, agents certified by the NBA players’ union would qualify until a formal deadline is set.

The NCAA included a provision allowing agent access for high school players identified as an elite prospect by USA Basketball beginning July 1 before their senior year. But that is dependent on the NBA and players’ union lowering the age limit of draft-eligible players to 18, which would clear the way for elite players to go from preps to pros. It’s unclear what impact that would have on colleges recruiting NBA-ready prospects.

The changes also include allowing a player to return to school if undrafted, but only if he sought the NBA advisory evaluation and participated in the scouting combine — a number that NCAA senior vice president of men’s basketball Dan Gavitt said would be “very limited in scope.” That, too, would first require tweaks to NBA and players’ union rules.

There were also significant changes to the enforcement process to handle cases of rules violations, including the appointment of Rice-recommended independent groups to handle and resolve complex cases. Emmert estimated that would apply to maybe five cases annually.

The changes also allow the NCAA to accept outside information in investigations that has been “established by another administrative body or a commission authorized by a school.” The NCAA says that will save time since investigators would no longer have to independently confirm those details, which could come apply to the current corruption case with federal investigators having access to information through subpoenas and wiretaps — tools the NCAA doesn’t possess.

The changes also include requiring school presidents and athletics staff to commit “contractually” to cooperate fully with investigations, stiffer penalties for violations and regulation of the summer recruiting circuit.

Federal prosecutors announced last fall they had charged 10 men — including assistant coaches at Arizona, Auburn, USC and Oklahoma State along with a top Adidas executive — in a fraud and bribery scandal. The case has entangled schools such as Kansas, North Carolina State, Maryland and Louisville, among others, though prosecutors withdrew a criminal complaint in February against one of the defendants.

In Utah, it is legal to marry at age 15 with the permission of a judge, or 16 with a parent’s consent. But one Utah lawmaker is trying to change that by raising the minimum marriage age to 18.

It’s a change that could be particularly felt by one of Utah’s polygamous groups, in which teenage girls often marry before reaching legal adulthood, due to pressure from their parents and religious leaders, or as a means of escaping their living situations and avoiding assignment into a plural marriage.

On this week’s “Trib Talk” podcast, state Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, and Tribune reporter Nate Carlisle join Benjamin Wood discuss the factors behind teenage marriages in Utah and the arguments for and against raising the legal age of marriage.

“Trib Talk” is produced by Sara Weber with additional editing by Dan Harrie. Comments and feedback can be sent to tribtalk@sltrib.com, or to @bjaminwood or @tribtalk on Twitter.

Listeners can subscribe to “Trib Talk” for free on SoundCloud, iTunes and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and other major podcast platforms.

Three months ago, weighed down by millions in unpaid debt, the nonprofit science and technology museum on Salt Lake City’s Library Square faced an uncertain future.

But members of The Leonardo say they can see a path forward, now that a third of the museum’s creditors have forgiven about 20 percent of its total debt outright. With the rest of their creditors, they’ve negotiated long-term payment plans for the remaining $2.9 million, according to Kathryn Smith, the organization’s chief impact officer.

“Facing a situation where we have to manage this debt or we had to explore what that meant long term for the museum, nobody wanted to see the museum close, and they were willing to do whatever it took to help us manage through that,” she said. “So that has been very humbling, and we are very appreciative of the support that the community at large has given to us.”

Conversations with creditors mostly took place between June and July and are in their final phases, Smith said.

The organization has struggled with debt since its inception in 2011. When The Leonardo opened — six months late — Smith said revenue from traveling exhibits was unpredictable and made long-term financial planning difficult. That, coupled with the startup costs she said are typical for any independent nonprofit, led to the organization’s current financial struggles.

Now that the museum’s attention has moved away from traveling exhibits, she said it has better data on its revenue streams and expenses, which will create more stability.

“We feel very confident in working with the board of directors, our finance committee, the leadership team here, that we have a very conservative and solid budget that will allow us to start growing some reserve and being able to use those reserves both to invest in growth and to manage the debt,” she said.

The group received a $600,000 loan from the Salt Lake City in 2011 to cover operating costs during the delay in its opening. It missed payments on the remaining $248,000 owed in March and April of this year and still owes $270,000 in utility payments to Salt Lake City, according to Matthew Rojas, a spokesman for the mayor’s office. The Leonardo pays $1 a month to rent its building from the city.

“We have deferred payment on the money owed to the city until the end of the year,” Rojas told The Salt Lake Tribune. “We recognize that The Leonardo is trying to put together a financial plan that will help lead them to solvency, and the city took steps to be a partner in that.”

Salt Lake City Councilman Derek Kitchen, who has been critical in the past of The Leonardo’s business plan and finances, said the recent changes are positive — but he remains wary.

“It’s nice to hear they have about 20 percent of their debt forgiven,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean they have an operating business model that spells success for them.”

Kitchen noted that he doesn’t know the particulars of The Leonardo’s financial plans moving forward and wants to see the museum succeed. But he worries the organization’s focus on fixing debt has distracted from its core mission of serving the community.

“The Leonardo is spending all its time and effort and energy trying to restructure debt and climb out of a deep hole instead of actually working on bringing unique ideas to Salt Lake City and fostering collaboration between technology and art and science,” he said. “And while I know that they’re trying to do that, when you’re so mired in this administrative chaos of restructuring debt and begging for forgiveness, it’s really distracting from your core mission.”

Smith argued that the museum’s finances have distracted from its recent accomplishments.

For example, she noted that among other awards, The Leonardo was recently named the Best Gallery or Museum in Utah for 2018 by the American Art Awards — bringing national recognition to the state and community. And, she said, the museum offered a record number of educational youth camps this year, which saw record attendance.

“We’re kind of graduating from being young to being a more established organization, and this is an exciting time for us,” Smith said. “And I think this last year, some of the things that have been overshadowed with the conversation we’ve been having about the future of The Leonardo is all the recognition that we received for everything we’ve done for the last seven years, too.”

Thabo Sefolosha is coming back from a knee injury, adding to an assortment of Utah Jazz wings that includes Joe Ingles and Jae Crowder. Georges Niang was also added to the mix.

In this week’s edition of the Weekly Run podcast, The Tribune’s Tony Jones and Andy Larsen break down the Jazz’s group of wings. Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey called Ingles a top-10 small forward in the league, was he right? Is it fair to expect a bounceback year from Crowder? And with Sefolosha recovering from a knee injury and missing the first five games of the season due to suspension, what will the Jazz get from him this season?

The most important part of the podcast, though, is when Tony’s 8-year-old daughter pillories her father’s basketball game.

Here’s a rundown of this week’s podcast:

At 3:00 • What does Carmelo’s departure do to the OKC Thunder?

At 15:30 • What does Joe Ingles bring to the Jazz, and how valuable is he?

At 23:40 • How much better will Jae Crowder get with a second season under his belt?

At 26:50 • Will Thabo Sefolosha bounce back from knee surgery?

At 33:40 • What do we think about Donovan Mitchell’s tweet responding to Donald Trump attacking LeBron James?

At 43:00 • Tony’s daughter interrupts with an important declaration.

At 45:20 • What we think about the Jazz going to Mexico City next year.

You can subscribe and listen on iTunes. Or listen below on SoundCloud:

An inmate at the Salt Lake County jail died Saturday after what the Sheriff’s Office described as an “altercation” with another prisoner.

Daniel Lamont Davis, 38, died at a hospital from his injuries, according to a news release from the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the jail. The release didn’t specify whether his death is considered a homicide.

At about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the news release said, Davis and another inmate got into a fistfight in a housing unit. A deputy intervened, the release said, and then deputies and jail medical staff members treated Davis.

The other inmate was not identified.

Court records show Davis was charged July 18 with a felony count of violating a previous agreement that released him from custody.

Davis had been charged with a misdemeanor count of domestic violence but was allowed to remain free if he stayed away from his alleged victim. Later, West Valley City police found Davis at the woman’s residence.

For the felony count, Davis was being held at the jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Court records also suggest word of Davis' death Saturday didn’t reach the judge handling his case. Davis was supposed to be in state court in Salt Lake City on Monday. When he didn’t appear, 3rd District Judge Randall Skanchy ordered a warrant to be issued for his arrest, according to a court docket.

The jail is in South Salt Lake, and that city’s police force is investigating the case. It declined to release video “due to the ongoing investigation.”

She wanted a massage to ease her sore back muscles, a lingering injury from a car accident years earlier.

J.K. was visiting her mother in northern Utah in the summer of 2016, when she decided to go to Better Massage, a business inside the Newgate Mall. She had never been there before, but felt safe visiting because it was inside the large Ogden shopping center.

“It never threw up a red flag,” the woman recalled.

But while she was there, the massage therapist touched her genitals several times. She felt paralyzed, unable to get up or fight him off.

She had asked for a 40-minute massage but realized later that Hongwei Yang had kept her there much longer, more than once taking a break to talk to potential customers who walked in.

“My body wouldn’t move,” she said in a recent interview. “I remember while I was laying there, a woman came in and I could hear them talking, and she wanted her daughter to get a massage. My head was just screaming inside, ‘Don’t bring her here!’ ”

After he told her the massage was done, J.K. dressed, paid Yang and left in a daze. Was that a sexual assault?

She went to the bathroom, looked at her reflection in the mirror and started to cry.

“I was just trying to figure out what happened," she said, “kind of realizing what happened, but not wanting to believe what happened.”

When she got to her car, J.K. called her husband, who is a police officer where they live in southern Idaho. He reported the assault to Ogden Police.

Officers met J.K. in the parking lot, and Yang was arrested shortly after.

But by this time, J.K. wasn’t the first woman to report that Yang had sexually assaulted her.

In the three weeks before her Aug. 7 report, four other women had already told police about Yang’s inappropriate touching. Several had complained to mall management and security officers — but nothing was ever done.

Now J.K. and two other women are suing the Newgate Mall’s owners, its security company and the massage parlor that employed Yang, who was not licensed by the state to give massages.

“The mall should have stepped up,” the now-49-year-old woman said. “If they would have simply looked at the paperwork, he would have been gone. It never would have got to the rest of us.”

‘A complete and total failure’

Like J.K., another woman chose to go to Better Massage because it was located inside a mall — a place she assumed would protect her. She felt safe, in part, because L.T. had worked as a cosmetologist in other malls, her father said in a recent interview.

“This wasn’t a little strip mall or something,” the father said. “She was familiar with it and felt safe.”

L.T. didn’t know Yang wasn’t licensed, according to the lawsuit, and agreed to a massage. But during the treatment, Yang removed her underwear without her permission and touched her.

After the massage, she paid Yang and left. She called her parents, who urged her to contact the police. The now-25-year-old woman also tried to report the assault to mall management, according to the lawsuit, but she couldn’t find the mall office or a security officer.

“It was just shocking,” the woman’s father said. “The mall basically provided him a place where he could go on a serial sexual assault rampage.”

A week before L.T.’s assault, another woman, J.C., had a similar experience at Better Massage, where Yang pulled off her clothing and touched her inappropriately. Immediately after the massage, J.C. went to the mall office to report the assault, according to the lawsuit — but the offices were closed. The woman encountered a security guard and reported what happened, but the employee did nothing more than offer a vague description of where to find the security office. J.C. reported the assault to police that same day.

The woman also called the mall office twice to tell them she had been harmed during the massage — once the day after the assault and then again a week later when she learned from a family member that the business was still open and Yang was still working.

The mall took no action, according to the lawsuit.

“Better Massage remained opened,” the lawsuit reads, “Yang remained employed, and none of the defendants made any effort to warn the public about Yang.”

The Salt Lake Tribune does not generally identify victims of sexual assault, but the three plaintiffs agreed to the use of their initials.

The women’s lawsuit names as defendants the two companies that owned the Newgate Mall during parts of 2016, the mall’s management company and its security company. None of the companies — GGP Inc., Time Equities Inc., The Woodmont Co. and Professional Security Consultants Inc. — responded to requests for comment.

The women’s attorney, Michael Young, said it would not have been difficult for the mall management to take steps to prevent the women from being harmed.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling to me,” the attorney said. “Even if you were a skeptic, you do a little investigation and see that he’s not licensed. It was such a complete and total failure to do even the easiest of things.”

‘It wasn’t accidental’

It’s unclear what Ogden investigators did in response to the first four reports of sexual assaults before Yang was arrested that August day after J.K. came forward. A police spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment, and only partial reports were released in response to a public records request.

Police officials declined to release more information about the first five cases because it might reveal “investigative or audit techniques.” The Tribune is appealing the decision.

Prosecutors charged Yang with a dozen misdemeanor crimes, accusing him of sexual battery, voyeurism and unlawful conduct by a massage therapist.

Investigators wrote in charging documents that Yang told police he had worked at Better Massage for just a few months. He had never been to a certified massage school, he told investigators, and had learned “on the job” at massage parlors in California.

After Yang’s arrest was publicized in media reports, more women contacted police. One told an investigator she had been assaulted in May 2016, according to a police report, when Yang touched his genitals against her hand and he touched her body inappropriately.

“I thought it might be accidental,” she said when asked why she didn’t report immediately. “I tend to brush it off because of my mentality. I’m not one to falsely accuse people. I felt awkward about it the whole time. The more I thought about it, I’ve realized it wasn’t accidental.”

That September, Yang pleaded no contest to a charge of third-degree felony attempted forcible sexual abuse and six counts of misdemeanor sexual battery. He was sentenced to serve a term of up to five years in prison, where he remains today.

Along with the prison sentence, Yang was fined $500 by state authorities for conducting massages without a license. Better Massage’s owner, Xinjun Wei, was also fined for aiding in unauthorized massage practices — but not because of Yang’s conduct.

Wei was fined the following year after an investigator with the state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing found that an unlicensed massage therapist was working at Wei’s business, which had moved to the Fashion Place mall in Murray.

No other action has been taken against Wei’s massage license, according to DOPL records.

Wei and Better Massage are also listed as defendants in the women’s lawsuit, but court filings indicate that attorneys have not been able to find her to serve her the lawsuit.

For J.K., her experience at Better Massage has had lasting effects. She is not the outgoing person she once was. She said she has anxiety and recently had a panic attack in a grocery store.

She hopes now that her lawsuit will bring change to how businesses respond to reports of sexual assault and might encourage others who have had similar experiences to come forward.

“This shouldn’t be pushed under the rug,” she said. “It is a real problem. ... Don’t be afraid to say something because nothing will stop if we don’t.”

Idaho Falls, Idaho • An Idaho man is recovering after being pinned underneath his truck for at least two days after it rolled into a ravine.

Joe Rightmire's sister, Tasha Goforth, found the 21-year-old pinned under the pickup near Idaho Falls on Monday night after he had been missing for several days.

Idaho Falls Fire Department spokeswoman Kerry Harmon says Rightmire had been partially ejected from the truck.

Bonneville County sheriff's Sgt. Bryan Lovell says he had no broken bones but was dehydrated.

Rescuers were able to free Rightmire by sticking airbags underneath the vehicle and inflating them to lift the truck. They also used heavy extrication equipment.

He was flown to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, which said he's in fair condition. Goforth says her brother is stable and doing well.

___

This story has been corrected to show Tasha Goforth’s name was misspelled on second reference.

As wildfires tear through much of the West, Senate candidate Mitt Romney sees an “unarguable” failure by government to do its main job: secure life, liberty and property.

In an essay posted on Romney’s campaign website, the former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate argues for greater investment in fire-prevention programs — including controlled burns and logging operations to thin forests and remove dead timber — and the buildup of regional response hubs, personnel training and a large-scale fire-detection system to monitor “every square mile” of high-risk land.

“If the devastation of wildfires were being caused, instead, by a foreign enemy rather than by natural causes," Romney wrote, “we would do and spend whatever it took to stop it.”

The Republican candidate said the country no longer can rely on understaffed and inadequately equipped local fire departments. He referred to the fire-related deaths of 10 people this year — although it was unspecified what region that number was taken from — and the loss of hundreds of homes, saying it is unacceptable to attribute the destruction solely to acts of nature.

“Massive, destructive wildfires are no longer the exception,” Romney wrote. “Climate realities mean they will be a recurring menace every year. It’s high time for government to do something about them."

Wildfires burning in Utah, Oregon and California have produced sufficient smoke and haze to obscure views of the Wasatch Front and produce unhealthy levels of particulate matter within the Beehive State. In California, the Mendocino Complex Fire has burned roughly 290,000 acres, making it the largest wildfire in the state’s history, according to Associated Press reports.

Jenny Wilson, a Salt Lake County councilwoman and Romney’s Democratic opponent for Utah’s U.S. Senate seat, said she supports proactive fire-prevention measures like controlled burns and detection systems. But she added that Romney had missed the point in his essay.

“Rising temperatures, early snowmelts, and drier forests are the direct result of climate change,” Wilson said in a prepared statement. “We must address climate change as a national crisis in order to protect the American west.”

Wilson said Utah’s fires are becoming larger and causing more damage than ever. Investment in and support for on-the-ground firefighting teams must be combined with meaningful climate policies, she said.

“We have to fight for responsible environmental policies as a long-term solution to Utah’s terrifying and increasingly more dangerous fire season,” Wilson said.

Beyond his reference to “climate realities” and a line about seeking common ground with environmentalists, Romney’s essay does not address what role, if any, he sees human activity playing in climate change and the exacerbation of wildfires. His campaign did not respond to requests by The Salt Lake Tribune for clarification.

In his 2010 book “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness,” Romney wrote, “I believe that climate change is occurring — the reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor. I am uncertain how much of the warming, however, is attributable to factors out of our control.”

As Massachusetts governor, he refused to sign a regional cap-and-trade agreement and, in his 2012 presidential campaign, he opposed President Barack Obama’s emissions regulations on power plants and vehicles and said he would renegotiate the increasingly tough fuel-efficiency standards that automakers had agreed to during the Obama administration.

The national spotlight will be on the Utah Jazz this season.

On Wednesday, the NBA announced two marquee nationally televised games for the Utah Jazz. First, the team’s home opener will see the Jazz host defending NBA champions Golden State Warriors on Friday, Oct. 19, at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.

The bigger news — first reported by ESPN on Tuesday afternoon and confirmed by The Tribune on Tuesday night — was the announcement that the Jazz will play on Christmas Day for the first time in 21 years. They’ll host Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN in only the Jazz’s third Christmas Day game since 1982.

Utah’s last Christmas Day game was in 1997 as the Jazz defeated the Houston Rockets 107-103. In 1988, the Jazz hosted the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, and won 101-87. Overall, the Jazz have played six times on Christmas Day, with a 4-2 record.

The star power of Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell had something to do with the Jazz being on national television. Last Christmas, Mitchell tweeted about getting a Christmas Day game in Utah, when the Jazz sported a record of 15-19.

Merry Christmas to everyone and their families! Hope everyone got what they wanted! As I’m watching these games on Christmas it got me thinking...Christmas games in Utah in the future ??🤷🏾‍♂️🤔🙏🏾 #happyholidays

— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) December 25, 2017

Mitchell wasn’t the only Jazzman excited about the prospects of playing on Christmas. Since the announcement, Ricky Rubio, Royce O’Neale, Rudy Gobert and Joe Ingles have all tweeted about it.

As part of being selected for the slate of Christmas Day games, the Jazz will also get a unique jersey to wear. The jerseys will debut for that Christmas audience, though a previous report from Paul Lukas of Uniwatch indicated the jerseys wouldn’t reach retail until February 2019. In all, the Jazz could wear up to six different uniforms this season.

The Jazz’s home opener against the Warriors figures to get a lot of attention after Utah demolished the Warriors twice last season, winning by 30 points at home in January and then at Golden State by 40 points in April.

The full schedule will be announced Friday.

Nick Ford’s development as a redshirt freshman is improving the outlook for Utah’s offensive line, which returns four starters. Yet the need to determine the line’s top three reserves is coach Kyle Whittingham’s biggest concern after one week of preseason camp.

The Utes thought they had created more depth this summer by adding a lineman who once was banned from junior college football in California for injuring a referee. Bernard Schirmer voided his non-binding scholarship agreement with Utah, however, and signed with USC, Trojans coach Clay Helton announced Tuesday.

Still, Whittingham likes the work of Utah’s five offensive line starters, who showed improvement in pass protection in the segment of Wednesday’s practice open to the media. The issue is “making sure we come away with at least eight guys we feel good about,” Whittingham said. “Right now, we’re not there — close, but not there yet.”

Utah’s first-team offensive line includes tackles Jackson Barton and Darrin Paulo, guards Jordan Agasiva and Ford and center Lo Falemaka, Whittingham said this week. Sophomore guard Orlando Umana is pushing Ford, and junior Paul Toala and freshman Braeden Daniels are making good impressions.

Daniels has gained 30 pounds since arriving on campus about two months ago and now weighs 290, Whittingham said. Fourth-year junior Johnny Capra is also in the mix “if he can get physically straight,” Whittingham said.

Schirmer may have played his way into Utah’s rotation this season if he had followed through on the commitment he announced in late June. Because he signed after the traditional letter-of-intent period, he was not bound to the Utes. Whittingham said during the Pac-12 Media Day in July that he was “hopeful” about Schirmer’s arrival.

Schirmer subsequently changed his mind and joined USC's program, closer to home.

The lineman was arrested in September 2016 and charged with battery of a game official, stemming from an incident during his Mt. San Antonio College team’s contest at Ventura College. Schirmer apologized in a series of interviews and said he was hitting his helmet in an effort to calm himself after an argument with opposing players and unintentionally struck the official with his forearm.

The Southern California Football Association banned him for playing for five years and denied Mt. SAC's two appeals, although the criminal charges were dropped.

“Still to this day, my opinion is it was just an accident,” Mt. SAC athletic director Joe Jennum said last month.

Here is video of the incident: https://t.co/qPMO5z1hqy

— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) August 8, 2018

Speaking to reporters Tuesday in Los Angeles, Helton said, "We learned from the administrators, counselors and coaches that we were dealing with a tremendous young man. A man that is a great student and a great person, and a guy that we had no question would be a great member of our Trojan family.”

Utah’s coaching staff also had researched Schirmer’s background and was comfortable recruiting him. The Utes guided him through the academic process and planned for him to join them last week. Schirmer is eligible to play this season; the Trojans will visit Rice-Eccles Stadium on Oct. 20.

John Coltharp, one of two men who traded daughters to be their wives and formed a doomsday group that prepared for a Muslim invasion of the United States, was sentenced this week to 26 years to life in prison.

Coltharp pleaded guilty in June in state court in Sanpete County to child bigamy and child sodomy charges. According to FOX 13, 6th District Judge Marvin Bagley on Wednesday ordered the sentences run consecutively, amounting to at least 26 years.

Judge Bagley asks Coltharp why he should sentence him to a concurrent or consecutive term.

"I personally don't care either way. Society isn't going to last that long," Coltharp responds.

He's even OK with a death sentence. @fox13 #Utah

— Ben Winslow (@BenWinslow) August 8, 2018

FOX 13 reported Coltharp was unrepentant for entering into a spiritual marriage with a girl and compared himself to Old Testament prophets.

"My marriage was the right thing to do,” Coltharp told Bagley. “If I’m a sex offender for what I’ve done, if I go to the other side, I’ll be in good company with all those other sex offenders.”

Coltharp’s partner in forming Knights of the Crystal Blade, Samuel Shaffer, pleaded guilty to similar charges and has already been sentenced to 26 years to life in prison. A third defendant, Robert Roe, has been charged with sodomy of a child, also punishable by up to life in prison.

Roe has been released on bail. He has not yet entered a plea. Roe’s next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 19.

Court records have said the Knights of the Crystal Blade believed in so-called Mormon fundamentalist teachings, including polygamy, and that a Muslim invasion of the United States and the end of the world were nearing.

Knights of the Crystal Blade came to the attention of law enforcement in December. That’s when Coltharp and Shaffer hid Coltharp’s children from his ex-wife, triggering an Amber Alert and search that spread from Spring City in central Utah to the desert west of Cedar City, where Shaffer and the children were found in a makeshift home constructed from shipping containers.

Prosecutors and the children’s mothers have said the youngsters were traumatized by the sexual abuse and kidnapping and could have died of hypothermia in Utah’s west desert.

Salt Lake City • A candidate for a new, moderate third-party is bringing a trove of cash and a little Mormon humor to a northern Utah congressional race against a longtime Republican incumbent.

Businessman Eric Eliason is facing an uphill climb in the three-way race to unseat eight-term U.S. Rep. Bob Bishop in a heavily Republican district, but he could be bolstered by anxiety some voters feel about President Donald Trump as well as partisan wrangling in Washington.

He's one of more than a dozen candidates the United Utah Party is fielding after another third-party candidate made a mark in the state's 2016 presidential vote.

Eliason, a Mormon, is running TV ads with the lighthearted tagline "release the bishop," referencing the end of service by lay leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bishop, who is also Mormon, responds "we have enough Bishops in Utah, let's keep this one in Washington."

Eliason's messaging will soon turn to weightier issues, and he hopes to do well enough in polls taken in the coming weeks to participate in the race's main debate.

"For us, it's almost the quality of our primary, it's the election before the election," Eliason said. He's got about $195,000 in cash on hand to get his name out. Much of that is his own money, but he's also attracted big-name donors like Utah Jazz executive Derek Miller. His haul is dwarfed by Bishop's $561,000, but far outweighs Democrat Lee Castillo, who has raised and spent about $5,000.

Castillo, meanwhile, is betting that the addition of a third party in the 1st Congressional District race could fracture the Republican vote, leveling the playing field for the social worker and gay single father, campaign manager Sheila Raboy said.

Bishop, for his part, expects the two challengers to split voters dissatisfied with his tenure, while he wins re-election from those happy with him, campaign manager Kyle Palmer said.

Bishop has represented Utah's 1st Congressional District, which includes the cities of Logan, Ogden, and Park City, for 16 years. The chairman of the powerful House Natural Resources Committee has said that this will be his last congressional race.

Third-party candidates haven't historically fared well in Utah, but in 2016, former CIA officer and independent conservative Evan McMullin earned a healthy 21 percent of Utah presidential votes. Eliason has hired McMullin's former campaign manager.

On issues like public land, Eliason takes a nuanced approach but disagrees with Bishop's support for downsizing two sprawling national monuments. He says the congressman is too influenced by big donors in the oil and gas industry.

Bishop has argued that oversized monuments hinder land uses like energy development and grazing.

Bishop is a onetime school teacher who can’t afford to run his own campaigns, but he wants to broaden access to public lands to benefit regular people, Palmer said.

Provo • Lost in the speculation regarding who will be BYU’s starting quarterback on Sept. 1 when the Cougars open the season at Arizona is the feeling from coaches that the group overall is one of the deepest in recent memory.

“We’ve got some guys at that spot we can win with,” offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes said at Media Day.

It appeared to be a four-man race when the Cougars broke spring camp back in April — and it still is, with a twist.

Freshman Jaren Hall, who returned from a church mission in June, has replaced Beau Hoge in the quarterback derby. Hoge was switched to running back the first day of preseason training camp last week and Hall has been given significant reps in team sessions of practices — more than most anyone expected.

Still, it appears that senior Tanner Mangum and freshman Zach Wilson have edged ahead of sophomore Joe Critchlow and Hall in the race that quarterbacks coach Aaron Roderick insisted was wide open in June.

Roderick told 1280 AM The Zone that Critchlow and Hall “are battling just a little bit behind those guys” after Monday’s practice, in which Mangum and Wilson got the majority of the reps with the first-team offense.

Sources said Mangum has a “slight” lead over Wilson, and would be the starter if the season started today, but coaches are seriously thinking about not naming a starter publicly in order to keep Arizona guessing.

Coaches might inform the team of their decision next week to establish a leader for the offense, but tell them to keep it a secret.

“I don’t want to tell you guys it is set yet, but it is moving towards what we [want],” head coach Kalani Sitake said Monday. “You can probably guess on it a little bit, but I think we are starting to see guys emerge. We haven’t found a starter yet, but I think guys are stepping up and starting to improve.”

Wilson spoke to reporters for the first time since camp opened on Monday, and said he is taking a low-key approach to the quarterback race.

“I just focus on myself. I really don’t have much to lose,” he said. “I am 18 years old. I just come out and do me, don’t worry about anybody else. Just stick with the offense. Don’t try to do more than I am capable of doing and just let the coaches decide.”

Wilson turns 19 later this month. He has worked with former BYU quarterback John Beck at various times throughout the summer, and has a firm grasp of the offense.

“If you show the coaches you can do something, even if you were expected to come in and redshirt and not even play, if you show them you can do something you are always going to be in a quarterback battle,” he said. “ So you kinda just take every day [and say] ‘OK, I am going to give them everything I’ve got today, and just let the coaches decide.’”

Wilson said he’s developed a nice connection with his receivers through player-run practices in June and July.

“We have thrown almost every single day since spring ball ended.” he said. “All the receivers came out and our chemistry was awesome. So the connection we had, running routes on time, things like that. You know when they are going to break, which coverages they are going to be open on. We practice that all summer.”

Move over, Mother Nature. First-time moms at low risk of complications were less likely to need a cesarean delivery if labor was induced at 39 weeks instead of waiting for it to start on its own, a big study found. Their babies fared better, too.

The results overturn the longtime view that inducing labor raises the risk for a C-section, and prompted two leading OB-GYN doctor groups to say it's now reasonable to offer women like those in the study that option.

But only certain pregnant women qualify, and the study did not track how inducing labor affected breastfeeding or other mom-baby issues later. Some groups such as Lamaze International still advocate letting nature take its course rather than giving medicines to make the womb start contracting.

"Many women don't want all of the medical care that goes with induction" such as an IV and fetal monitoring, said Lisa Kane Low, past president of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and associate dean of the University of Michigan School of Nursing. "It can result in a very different type of experience."

Being induced doesn't mean moms can't have "natural childbirth" — they can forgo pain medicine or use a hospital's homelike birthing center rather than delivering in "an operating room in a sterile suite with a big light over your head," said the study leader, Dr. William Grobman, an OB-GYN specialist at Northwestern University in Chicago.

"Everyone has a different definition of what a natural birth is," said Dr. Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, which participated in the study.

"Some women feel that natural just means delivering vaginally" and more were able to do that when labor was induced, she said.

Results of the federally funded study were published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.

About the Study

About 40 percent of U.S. women giving birth are first-time moms, and at least half are low risk — no problems requiring early delivery or a cesarean. Many women ask to be induced now, to let them plan delivery and ensure their doctor is available, but the risks and benefits are unclear.

Previous studies suggesting that inducing labor raises the risk for a C-section were observational and compared different types of women giving birth under different types of circumstances. This was the first very big experiment to time labor induction for 39 weeks — when a pregnancy is considered full term and complication rates are lowest.

More than 6,100 women at 41 hospitals were randomly placed in two groups: one had labor induced at 39 weeks; the other waited for labor to start on its own and were induced only if a problem developed or they hadn't delivered by 42 weeks.

How Moms and Babies Fared

Deaths and severe complications were fewer among babies of women who were induced — about 4 percent versus 5 percent in the other group — but the difference was so small it could have occurred by chance alone. Significantly fewer babies in the induced group needed breathing tubes or extra oxygen after birth, and they spent less time in the hospital.

Nineteen percent of induced moms had a cesarean versus 22 percent of the others. Doctors estimate that one C-section would be avoided for every 28 women induced.

Nine percent of induced women developed dangerous high blood pressure at the end of pregnancy versus 14 percent of the others. Study participants who were induced, such as Aleksa Owen, said they had less pain and felt more in control.

"I was pretty open to any kind of birth, whatever works to keep the baby safe and myself safe as well," said Owen, a 34-year-old graduate student from the Chicago suburb of Woodridge, Illinois. Her son was born in October 2016 and "I felt like I had a sense of control throughout the process."

The Cost

It's not clear which option costs more; researchers plan to study that. Induced women spent more time in the labor and delivery unit but went home sooner after birth. Insurers often pay a fixed rate for births, complicating cost comparisons.

The labor and delivery suite is one of the most expensive places in a hospital, said Dr. Nanette Santoro, OB-GYN chief at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. If all eligible moms decided to be induced, "I do not believe we would have the resources to accommodate them," but may have to adapt based on this study, she said.

What Others Think

Christen Sadler, a certified nurse-midwife and president-elect of Lamaze International, said other research suggests that "letting labor start on its own is almost always best for moms and babies" unless there's a problem that requires intervening.

Nan Strauss, policy chief for the advocacy group Every Mother Counts, agreed: "Inducing labor disrupts the complex hormonal processes that help labor progress, prepare the baby for birth, and promote successful breastfeeding and bonding."

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine says it's reasonable for doctors to offer labor induction "after discussing the options thoroughly" with first-time moms at low risk who had an ultrasound early in pregnancy to verify when they will reach 39 weeks.

Dr. Michael Greene of Massachusetts General Hospital noted that women in the study were younger than U.S. mothers on average and fewer were over 35, calling into question how generalizable the results are.

Still, the study “should reassure women that elective induction of labor at 39 weeks is a reasonable choice” that’s unlikely to harm moms or babies, he wrote in a commentary in the journal.

Defending champion Lea Garner bogeyed the 18th hole Wednesday to drop into a tie for the lead after the first round of the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Women’s Open at East Bay Golf Course in Provo.

Annie Yang, like Garner a BYU graduate, shares the lead at 4-under-par 68 going into Thursday’s final round. Bingham High School’s Tess Blair, who won last week’s Women’s State Amateur, is tied for third with Las Vegas pro Catherine Kim.

Blair played her last 10 holes in 4-under par, extending her strong play from last week when she earned medalist honors in the stroke-play portion of the State Am and never had to go beyond the 16th hole in any of her four matches. Kim, the director of player development at the TPC at Summerlin, posted six birdies and three bogeys.

The starting field included 23 amateurs and 10 pros. Utah pros Emily Jones and Haley Sturgeon are in a group at 73, tied for seventh.