In the polarized, bitterly divided Washington of today, the lions of the right and left shouldn't do dinners together, right?

But Fred Malek and Madeleine Albright did. And they did those fond old-friend, double-handed handshakes when they saw each other. The Republican rainmaker and the country's first female secretary of state threw their heads back in laughter at their inside jokes, they were gracious and kind to each other. And I was in awe.

Malek, who died this week at 82, once counted Jews for President Richard Nixon.

Albright, 81, learned late in life that her family wasn't Catholic; they were Jews who fled the Holocaust.

And yet, these two powerful political opposites were friends. This is a story about forgiveness, redemption and bipartisanship. How did they make that work?

I've been wanting to ask Albright this question for years, because I often spent time in the same room as these two thanks to something that all three of us have in common - our Czech heritage.

Malek was the son of a Czech-American beer-truck driver from an immigrant neighborhood of the Chicago suburbs. He went to U.S. Military Academy, saw combat in Vietnam as an Army Ranger, served Republican presidents and became a corporate executive at Marriott and Northwest Airlines. He co-owned a baseball team with President George W. Bush. He was one of the driving forces in bringing baseball to Washington. He was fabulously wealthy and wildly influential in Republican politics. A true champion of the right.

Albright, author of a recent bestseller warning the world of the signs of fascism, became one of the most powerful women in the world when President Bill Clinton appointed her secretary of state in 1997. She has been a diplomat, political force, beloved college professor, an adviser to top Democrats and a hero to working moms across the nation. A true luminary of the left.

I first met Malek because my Czech name caught his eye, and he began sending me little notes nearly a decade ago whenever he spotted a column of mine he liked. I imagine there weren't too many he liked, but when he did, he was generous and kind. And he began inviting me to events with his American Friends of the Czech Republic foundation.

That's what drew Albright to him, too.

His work with the Czechs did not make his obituaries. But Malek was the driving force behind statues and memorials in both countries honoring the best of each other's leaders.

The bust of Vaclav Havel in the U.S. Capitol was Malek's doing, as is the statue of Czechoslovakia's first president, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, who wrote the country's Constitution right here in Washington and was a progressive feminist who took his wife's name and pointedly included women in the Czechoslovak Constitution.

Malek was behind the statue of Woodrow Wilson in Prague. And when an explosion in the small town of West, Texas, destroyed a Czech immigrant community center in 2013, Malek rebuilt it.

"That's what Fred and I had in common, our heritage," Albright told me this week.

They met at the Aspen Institute shortly after Albright left the Clinton administration, where they found intellectual rigor the foundation for their friendship.

"Informative and stimulating to enjoy an Aspen Institute evening with Madeleine Albright," Malek tweeted just nine months ago. "While disagreeing with Madeleine on politics and many policies, am pleased to have this fellow Czech American as a friend."

Was 50 years enough time to forgive what he'd done, which people still talked about in Washington this week when he died?

Malek began working for Nixon before I was even born. And it was in 1971 that Nixon - convinced that low workforce numbers coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics were part of a "Jewish cabal" that was out to get him - ordered Malek to compile a list of Jewish staff members at the bureau so that he could punish them.

Malek said he refused the order four times before finally caving to Nixon, making wild guesses at names that sounded Jewish. It led to the demotion of two people. And he spent the rest of his life apologizing for it.

When his list became public, Malek resigned from his position as the Republican Party's deputy chairman and worked with various leaders in the Jewish community to express his remorse. The Anti-Defamation League even gave him an award.

Albright found out when she was 59 that her Catholic family was actually Jewish, that they fled Czechoslovakia to escape the Nazis and that members of her family had died in the Holocaust.

So her own history was complicated, too. How, I asked Albright, did she reckon with Malek's history?

"I decided that was something I didn't want to hold [against him]," she told me. "I think we've all said and done things we wish we hadn't. I didn't know him at the time, and I judged who he was by what I knew of him when we were together."

Malek was known in Washington circles for a very exclusive event he held right before each year's Alfalfa Club Dinner, and he always invited Albright.

"I think we both respected each other, and we would kid about the fact that we had nothing in common," she said.

She said he apologized for the counting incident for years. She saw him try to convince folks he wasn't anti-Semitic his whole life and at one point, after getting to know him, Albright accepted that.

Their friendship is a lesson for a divided nation.

"I do believe in bipartisanship," Albright said. "I also think there's no solution to problems if we don't work together."

“In terms of the Fred relationship,” she said, “it shows you can disagree, then you can find a lot of things where you agree, and it can come out where it’s good for everybody.”

Petula Dvorak is a columnist for The Washington Post’s local team who writes about homeless shelters, gun control, high heels, high school choirs, the politics of parenting, jails, abortion clinics, mayors, modern families, strip clubs and gas prices, among other things. Before coming to The Post, she covered social issues, crime and courts.

@petulad

Thank you, Sen. Mike Lee.

You just totally embarrassed the state of Utah with your absolutely ridiculous response to the Green New Deal.

You made a fool of yourself by suggesting “babies” would stop climate change, not to mention the ridiculous picture. You owe us an apology.

Gail C. Hilton, Murray

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I agree with the March 17 Tribune commentary by Tom Diegel, “Herbert’s roadless rule petition won’t help wildfire situation.”

This looks more like an end run by Gov. Gary Herbert and his “take back our land” cronies to put more public land under state control. More roads, more logging and mining, more motorized use.

The original roadless rule already provides for road construction to facilitate fire suppression and forest health. If the roadless rule is not working, it could be amended at the federal level.

National Forest lands are the birthright of all Americans and should not be subject to the whims of a handful of Utah politicians.

According to the original document, Inventoried Roadless Areas provide undisturbed habitat for wildlife and to protect water quality. Human-caused fragmentation is detrimental to ecosystems, introduces non-native invasive species and threatens the health of plant and animal communities. The Department of Agriculture says these risks should be minimized and these areas conserved for present and future generations.

Becky Yih, Park City

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Special counsel Robert Mueller’s failure to give a solid decision to the question of President Donald Trump’s alleged obstruction of justice is a failure to do his duty. He was chosen precisely to make this decision. His statement that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him” only furthers one’s doubts whichever political side one favors.

That Attorney General William Barr and his deputy do the job for him only clouds the issue.

Barr wrote, “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

But it is not their role to draw such a conclusion. They are not the special prosecutor.

It is common knowledge that Barr wrote a letter impugning the entire Mueller investigation. It is common knowledge that Rosenstein wrote a letter to the president supporting the firing of FBI Director James Comey because of his treatment of the Hillary Clinton email controversy, when the president himself said it was the Russian “thing” that led to his firing.

Mueller was chosen for his position because of his reputation for probity and because of his distance from current politics. This is hardly the case for either Rosenstein or Barr. Why has Mueller allowed this substitution to take place?

If Mueller agrees with the interpretation made by Barr and Rosenstein, why didn’t he make it himself? And if it is not his interpretation, why does he not publicly demur from it?

The failure of Mueller to make his own decision about obstruction and the intervention of Barr and Rosenstein only obscure things further and increase the public’s suspicions.

Matt Proser, Salt Lake City

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Thank you Robert Mueller. Since the day Donald Trump became president, I have searched for a deed, a character trait, an action, a quote, something of the president that I could be proud of and that I could point to as an example for my grandchildren to be proud of and to emulate.

Of course, there are the affairs with porn stars and the subsequent cash payments for silence, which could be an obstruction of justice. Then there is the bashing of our allies while at the same time cuddling up to the likes of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jung Un, the Saudi prince, etc. Then there is the insulting and bullying by Trump of those who don’t agree with him. Sadly, this includes insulting a deceased American hero.

Then there is the management style of stacking the cabinet with yes men. Dissenting opinions are not appreciated and life is simpler if everyone agrees with you.

Just when I was about to give up, Mueller gave me something I could finally embrace.

“Grandkids, apparently the president of the United States is not guilty of treason.”

Bruce M. Baird, Sandy

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“'Twas a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the courtesy to thank her for it.”

— W.C. Fields

It’s not the Democrats, or the Socialists, or the Democratic Socialists, who are going to get us to Medicare for All. It’s the Republicans, lead by their clueless commander in chief, with the eagerly irrational assistance of Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.

While other Utah politicians are arguing around the margins of the Affordable Care Act, and its attendant expansion of the Medicare program for low-income households, Reyes has signed the state’s name to a legal argument that, while derided as legally unsound and politically foolish by scholars and politicians up and down the spectrum, has won approval from one federal judge and, just the other day, the White House itself.

The argument is as convoluted as it is cruel and foolish. Basically it asserts that because Congress repealed the tax penalty for not meeting the individual mandate to have insurance, effectively ending that mandate, the whole rest of the Affordable Care Act is null and void.

So, according to a lawsuit led by the Republican attorney general of Texas, supported by Reyes and a handful of other GOP AGs, it’s all out. Coverage for pre-existing conditions. Keeping your children on a family plan until they are 26. Making insurance providers provide policies that aren’t expensive scams. All gone.

It was an argument, and a ruling, that was scoffed at by most legal scholars. Including a University of Michigan law professor whose credibility is either greatly enhanced or seriously diminished by the fact that he’s a nephew of Tribune political cartoonist Pat Bagley.

Even the White House was not thought to be on board. The official position there was that the individual mandate was bad but other things — such as the pre-existing condition safeguard and even Medicaid expansion, in states that wanted it — would stay put until the Republicans came up with a total — and better — replacement for the whole shootin’ match.

Until, that is, last week. That’s when the administration — surprising just about everyone and, reportedly, overruling both the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services — filed a brief letter taking the side of the Texas/Utah argument.

Informed speculation has it that the president overruled his legal and administrative brains and set out to destroy Obamacare once and for all. To keep his campaign promise to do so. To satisfy his base. And to force the issue with a Congress that hasn’t been able to come up with a substitute for Obamacare despite all these years of supposedly being focused on little else.

Like O.J. being devoted to looking for the real killer. On the golf courses of Florida, even.

Maybe that will work. Maybe the Republicans will become, in the president’s words, the party of health care, necessity being the mother of invention.

More likely, we are looking at one of two outcomes. Either Obamacare survives, limping into a future where, bill by bill, state by state, it becomes something resembling the kind of basic public service the citizens of First World nations have long taken for granted.

Or it all falls apart, upwards of 20 million poor and not-poor people suddenly find themselves without health care coverage, and the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party rides to everyone’s rescue with single-payer universal coverage. Medicare for All.

The arguments against that are getting more and more feeble. The one stressed repeatedly by conservative (though no longer Republican) pundit George F. Will is that, for Medicare for All to really mean all, we would have to take existing employer-provided coverage away from millions of Americans who, as Barack Obama once said, should be able to keep the coverage they like.

What Will fails to see is that those employer plans provide less coverage, at greater cost, for fewer people every month. Public affection for them is growing thin.

It is like Will’s past argument that we didn’t need the taxpayer-assisted Public Broadcasting Service any more because its function has been usurped by free-market channels such as The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel and Arts and Entertainment. Which just proved that he doesn’t watch those channels, most of them just known by initials rather than by whole words that no longer apply, which have been assimilated by Honey Boo Boo, Duck Dynasty and Dr. Pimple Popper.

And all those gig economy jobs, like driving for Lyft or Uber, and all those shiny new coworking spaces, where startups and freelancers rent a desk, Wi-Fi access, maybe the use of a coffeemaker, seem to be the wave of the future. None of them come with health insurance.

Medicare for All is clearly the most entrepreneurial supportive thing our nation could do. If that’s what the president, and the Utah attorney general, are deliberately backing into, well, at least we should have the courtesy to thank them.

George Pyle, editorial page editor of The Salt Lake Tribune, is very grateful to the woman who treated him to a Nut Brown Ale at John Harvard’s Brewery and Ale House in Washington, D.C., (which doesn’t exist any more) 20 years ago. gpyle@sltrib.com

My eldest granddaughter, Hallie, ran track for Herriman High School in a meet against Riverton High on Tuesday.

It was the first race of hers I attended since she started running for the school a few months ago. When I heard she had joined the track team, I rolled my eyes.

In a direct line going back 500 years, neither side of my parental ancestry has produced a single common athlete, much less a superior one.

This is not to say that we weren’t strong, only that competitive athleticism was not in our genes. We made good farm drudges, laborers and were always handy with a shovel or pulling a plow.

The one team area of physical effort for which we were valued was front line service during medieval battles. My ancestors excelled at arrow catching, being doused with flammable substances while assaulting castles, and getting ridden down by cavalry.

Hallie, 17, is a sprinter. On Tuesday, she ran the 100- and 400-meter races. She didn’t finish first but that didn’t matter. It’s the fact that she ran at all that made me proud.

Hallie suffers from celiac disease and scoliosis. Both would give her a legitimate pass at athleticism, but she refuses to let them.

Other granddaughters participate in organized sports. Lyndie, 12, is a volleyball star, and Faith, 13, just joined an all-girl tackle football team. When they were still in high school, Bailie and Brylie actively pursued competitive cheerleading.

Conversely, my two grandsons seem better suited for what charitably could be referred to as “cerebral competitions,” but which I call “thumb sports” such as Fortnite, Dota 2 and Sit-on-Your-Butt-Craft.

It’s not their fault. I blame history. Centuries of conscripting males from a certain family line, arming them with pointy turnips, then sending them against Vikings and Saxons, is definitely going to thin out the testosterone over time.

Never mind. The point is that my granddaughters are tough. I like watching them engage in battle through sports that I was never good enough to play.

I managed one miserable season with the Park Lane Lions in sixth grade during which I was skull-drilled by a pop fly that came my way while I was reading a comic book in way-right field.

Church basketball and baseball were theoretically open to all comers, but it only takes hearing “and please don’t let Kirb touch the ball” a couple of times during opening prayer before a guy catches on that his skill isn’t required.

I almost drowned during an impromptu game of water polo — which was really just a game of keep away with some other kid’s bathing suit.

And even when highly motivated by various forms of livid authority — police, principals, teachers, the Old Man — I was never able to run as fast as Hallie ran Tuesday.

The only competitive thing I was ever any good at was shooting — specifically handguns. There’s no athleticism involved in target shooting. I even won a few trophies, the whereabouts of which are unknown today.

That’s OK because I would rather watch my granddaughters compete. They remind me that the only part of sports I ever excelled at was bleacher sitting. With the proper family motivation, I can do it for hours.

Robert Kirby is The Salt Lake Tribune’s humor columnist. Follow Kirby on Facebook.

Winter seemed to break in March with snowy days dwindling — sort of — even before the first day of spring.

College basketball’s March Madness took over Salt Lake City. On the pro side, fans, players and basketball officials had big conversations on racism.

One family mourned, but was able to put to rest a World War II pilot whose remains were finally returned home.

Utahns also managed to celebrate between the chariot pub crawl and St. Patrick’s Day.

See more moments captured by photographers at The Salt Lake Tribune. To keep up with their work, follow The Tribune on Instagram.

Giovanni Platt pushes a cart at the 12th Annual Urban Chariot Pub Crawl — formerly the Urban Iditarod — in Salt Lake City on March 2.

102-year-old Jazz fan Roberta Morgan holds up an autographed shoe given to her by Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) as the Jazz hosted the Milwaukee Bucks in Salt Lake City on March 2.

Utah’s newest State Liquor and Wine store in Syracuse features a wine “cave” and $5.4 million eco-friendly technology that officials say will result in lower operating costs and decreased energy and water usage.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) taunts the crowd after hitting a three-pointer as the Utah Jazz hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder in Salt Lake City on March 11. Westbrook and Jazz fans got into a heated altercation that resulted in one fan’s lifetime ban from Jazz games for racist remarks. The team later banned another fan for making racist remarks to Westbrook last year.

Angry residents express their frustration to Cory Shupe, of Blu Line Designs, during an open house at Bastian Elementary School for members of the public to learn more about the Olympia Hills project in Herriman on March 13.

Cottonwood High School tuba player Preston Palmer takes a deep breath before hitting his notes on March 14 at symphony practice. Utah Symphony Music Director Thierry Fischer helped members of the school’s symphony bring to life Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” through the first Adopt-a-School pilot program. They will perform the piece on May 20 with Maestro Fischer conducting the live-streamed event to other participating Utah orchestras, who will follow along to create the state’s largest “Super Orchestra.”

What happened on the last night of this year’s legislative session? Some business, but also some antics.

Miranda and Valerie Kemeny hold signs as students gather to call for action on climate change at the Utah Capitol in on March 15.

Fans line up to cheer on the Salt Lake Stallions as they take to the field for the second half of the game against the Memphis Express in Salt Lake City on March 16.

Mary Ann Turner, the daughter of 2nd Lt. Lynn W. Hadfield, holds a flag during the graveside service for her father. Hadfield was killed during World War II and was laid to rest on March 21 at Veterans Memorial Park in Bluffdale.

Salt Lake City hosted one of the first rounds of March Madness, showing the skills of teams from Gonzaga University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Auburn University, New Mexico State University, University of Kansas, Northeastern University, Butler University and Syracuse University.

University of Utah gymnastics coach Tom Garden reacts as Kari Lee lands her dismount on the uneven bars in the PAC-12 Gymnastics Championships at the Maverik Center in West Valley City on March 23.

A spring snowstorm made for a slick on March 29, but it also brought more than 10 inches of snow to Utah ski resorts.

Religious discrimination on death row was highlighted Thursday night when the Supreme Court halted the execution of a condemned killer in Texas because prison officials wouldn’t allow a Buddhist spiritual adviser in the death chamber with him. That was a 180 reversal from last month when the high court declined to block the execution of a Muslim man in Alabama for that state’s refusal to allow him to be accompanied at the time of death by an imam. The justices gave no reason for their decision in the Texas case, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for himself, said the denial of Patrick Murphy’s request to have a Buddhist reverend present was discriminatory. [WaPost]

Happy Friday.

Topping the news: Utah leaders said they are prepared to move forward Monday with the state’s partial Medicaid expansion even though they have yet to receive approval from the federal government for provisions that deviate from the Affordable Care Act. [Trib]

-> Proposed tuition increases at Utah colleges are some of the lowest in more than a decade. [Trib]

-> Utah Rep. Chris Stewart joined fellow Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee calling for Rep. Adam Schiff, the panel’s chairman, to step down because of his repeated accusations of treason and Russian collusion against President Donald Trump. [Trib] [DNews]

Tweets of the day: @GovGaryHerbert: “Capstone day for Utah’s impressive legislative session on mental health and suicide prevention as I signed into law HB17, HB174, HB373 and HB393. #utpol.”

-> @pourmecoffee: “He will comment as president on anything he sees on Fox News. I have asked Our Great Navy to look into the water-skiing squirrel!”

-> @aedwardslevy: “Pleased to report we have now entered that time of year where I can no longer tell whether the names you all keep mentioning are a) minor politicians or b) incredibly famous baseball players.”

-> @RobertGehrke: “[Lee & Bishop] complain about wildfire that is scarring their state. ... But when it comes to solutions, all they have to offer is condescension and snide dismissiveness.

That’s supposed to be my job. Keep your clown car in your own lane, gentlemen."

Behind the Headlines: Tribune editor Jennifer Napier-Pearce, reporter Jessica Miller, and news columnist Robert Gehrke join KCPW’s Roger McDonough to talk about the week’s top stories, including the sentencing of former USU football player and convicted rapist Torrey Green.

Every Friday at 9 a.m., stream “Behind the Headlines” at kcpw.org, or tune in to KCPW 88.3 FM or Utah Public Radio for the broadcast. Join the live conversation by calling (801) 355-TALK.

Friday quiz: Last week, 94 percent of you knew that Russia deported two missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but only 21 percent knew there are 900 calories in Crown Burger’s famous pastrami burger. Think you kept up with the news this week? Take our quiz to find out. A new one will post every Friday morning. You can find previous quizzes here. If you’re using The Salt Lake Tribune mobile app, click here. [Trib]

Happy birthday this weekend: to state Rep. Jim Dunnigan, ABC’s Meredith Nettles on Sunday and former state Rep. Lorie Fowlke and DEQ’s Stacee Adams on Saturday.

In other news: Talk show host Stephen Colbert mocked Utah Sen. Mike Lee for his climate change presentation in the Senate using a poster of Ronald Reagan firing a machine gun astride a dinosaur. Colbert labeled Lee the "Jar Jar Binks of the Senate.“ [Trib] [KUTV]

-> Ogden will suspend, temporarily, its recycling program because of a tripling of tipping fees. [StandExviaAP]

-> Lehi is the latest city to bail out of a pilot project to stage an election using a new voting method called ranked-choice voting. Only three of the six cities who signed up are still on board. [Trib]

-> A law professor from Brigham Young University will begin clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch starting in 2021. [Trib] [KUTV]

-> If confirmed as interior secretary, as expected, David Bernhardt will continue efforts to move the Bureau of Land Management headquarters to the West, possibly Salt Lake City. [Trib]

-> Tribune columnist Robert Gehrke bashed Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Rob Bishop for acting more like class clowns than leaders when it comes to the issue of climate change. [Trib]

-> Tribune cartoonist Pat Bagley gives his take on Utah’s version of Medicaid expansion. [Trib]

Nationally: The Supreme Court elected not to block the Trump administration initiative to ban devices called bump stocks that enable semiautomatic weapons to fire repeatedly. [NYTimes] [WaPost]

-> The Justice Department indicated that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is over 300 pages long. A.G. William Barr’s summary was four pages. [NYTimes] [Politico]

-> Following a social media outcry, President Donald Trump announced that funding for the Special Olympics will continue despite proposed cuts in his budget. [NYTimes] [Politico] [WaPost]

-> President Donald Trump held a rally Thursday in Michigan, declaring “the Russian hoax is finally dead.” He attacked the “fake news media” and detractors as the crowd chanted “Lock them up!” [NYTimes] [Politico] [WaPost]

-> President Donald Trump took to Twitter to demand that Adam Schiff step down as House Intelligence Committee Chairman for accusing him of working with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. [Politico]

-> A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University shows that former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden are the top three picks for 2020 Democrat nominee. [Politico]

Got a tip? A birthday, wedding or anniversary to announce? Email us at cornflakes@sltrib.com. If you haven’t already, sign up here for our weekday email to get this sent directly to your inbox.

-- Dan Harrie and Sahalie Donaldson

https://twitter.com/danattrib, https://twitter.com/SahalieD

An early and unexpected spring snowstorm dropped less than 2 inches of powder on Salt Lake City by Friday morning but created a mess of damaged power lines, downed tree branches and slushy commutes.

Though it was historic in becoming the fourth wettest March 29 on record for the capital city, its impact was expected to stretch into Saturday, as well. In an emailed update, the city announced that the scattered outages — affecting nearly 19,000 residents at the peak — likely wouldn’t be completely fixed until the morning.

“Residents are encouraged to plan accordingly and to reach out to neighbors who may be impacted, particularly the elderly and those with health issues," the notice states.

Additionally, Salt Lake City’s forestry team continued working to clean up fallen tree limbs knocked down by the snow or wind.

The storm started when rain turned to snow on Thursday night into Friday morning, creating slick conditions that slowed traffic to a crawl and led to a number of crashes. Flooding also temporarily closed some major intersections, and Emigration Canyon was shut down when power lines fell on a snowplow and set it on fire. The driver escaped without injury, according to Salt Lake City police.

The SLC airport has received 0.71" inches of precipitation since midnight. So far this makes for the 4th wettest March 29th. The current record is 0.88" set in 1915.#utwx

— NWS Salt Lake City (@NWSSaltLakeCity) March 29, 2019

According to the National Weather Service, the airport received 1.39 inches of precipitation Thursday night through early Friday morning — .71 inches of of that came between midnight and 7 a.m. The current record — .88 inches — was recorded in 1915. The airport has now recorded 3.92 inches of precipitation for the month, which is more than double the monthly average water value of 1.79 inches.

The storm also brought 10 to 13 inches of snow to several Utah ski resorts, including Alta, Brighton, Powder Mountain, Snowbasin, Snowbird, Solitude and Sundance.

Several residents also reported seeing cold air funnels throughout the valley. The weather service said those are not tornadoes, but are cold masses of air caught in a spin that pose no danger.

Overall, clearing is expected on Saturday, with partly sunny skies and temperatures in the low 50s in the Salt Lake area. The forecast calls for a sunny Sunday, with temperatures in the mid-50s.

Tribune reporter Courtney Tanner contributed to this article.

An 18-year-old Lindon woman is in custody after an arson fire at an Orem meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints early Friday.

Jillian Robinson arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of arson, burglary, criminal mischief and possession of burglary tools.

According to a probable cause statement, smoke and flames were reported at a chapel at 1230 North and 950 West shortly before 1:50 a.m. When officers arrived, the discovered two exterior doors had been broken; “several fires had been set throughout” the building; and “Satan Lives” had been written by one of them “in a dark colored marker permanent felt tip."

Officers put out the fires using an extinguished from a patrol car, and police began checking other churches in the area. An officer saw a “suspicious invidual” at a second LDS church building at 828 W. 1600 North, but lost sight of that person. That meetinghouse also had “Satan Lives” written on the door; the entry control panel had been pried off; and the officer smelled the “strong odor of gasoline" by the door.

The two buildings suffered an estimated $600,000 in damage, according to police.

Robinson was located "a few blocks away” at 2:11 a.m.; her backpack contained a bottled that “smelled of gas,” a lighter, matches, a black sharpie marker, a screwdriver and a drill with drill bits.

According to an Orem Police Facebook post, Robinson’s backpack contained a bottle that smelled of gasoline, a lighter, a power drill and other items.

According to police, Robinson “denied any involvement in the cases and gave several different stories about what she had done” before agreeing to make a statement. According to the probable cause statement, she wrote that she started the fire because she was “angry and all I wanted to do was set a small fire and it got out of control.”

She added that she “felt like playing with fire because of my crazy life at home, this was not a hate crime."

Washington • Wanna know the reason Republicans have had so much trouble coming up with a “replacement” plan for Obamacare?

Because if Republicans actually tried to devise a health care system that fulfilled both conservative principles and their public promises, they'd probably propose something that looks too much like … Obamacare.

For reasons few can fathom, President Trump has revived the GOP’s disastrous, nearly decade-long effort to destroy the Affordable Care Act. In a legal brief filed Monday, his administration told a federal court that it believes the entirety of the 2010 law should be declared unconstitutional — not just the now-neutralized individual mandate but also all the popular stuff, too, including protections for those with pre-existing conditions, letting young adults stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26, individual-market subsidies, Medicaid expansion and so on.

Trump's own health and human services secretary and attorney general reportedly opposed the move, as did Republican congressional leaders.

They must recognize that past Republican threats to health care coverage helped power Democrats' wave election in 2018. And they likely foresaw that attacking the ACA would unify the left — which had become divided over single-payer — even as it divided the right on what the heck to replace the repealed law with.

Nonetheless, Trump boldly proclaimed the GOP the "party of health care" and subsequently instructed Republican lawmakers to come up with "a plan that is far better than Obamacare." Or to use his earlier coinage, "something terrific," though Republicans have had nearly a decade to produce that something and failed to deliver.

In fairness, it's a near-impossible task, assuming terrific-ness requires (a) adhering to Republican principles; (b) fulfilling Trump's promises to protect those with pre-existing conditions and guarantee "everybody" gets covered; and (c) not producing a near-facsimile of Obamacare.

Despite the constant accusations of socialism, after all, the basic framework of the ACA uses market-based mechanisms to expand coverage and keep cost growth down. It preserves the private insurance industry, which is still the largest provider of insurance, and relies on private hospitals and providers. It was based on a plan first implemented by a Republican governor who went on to become the 2012 Republican presidential nominee: Mitt Romney.

One of the three legs of Obamacare's "three-legged stool" — the individual mandate for people to carry health insurance — was also featured in a health reform proposal once promoted by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Trump and his co-partisans have now explicitly committed to protecting another of those "legs" — preventing insurers from denying coverage or raising premiums for those with pre-existing conditions — at least in rhetoric, though not in practice.

To be sure, there are parts of the law that Republican officials are less keen on, including subsidies to make insurance more affordable (that third "leg") and the Medicaid expansion. But these are now quite popular, too, even among Republican voters, according to polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation. So good luck killing them.

The ACA is by no means a perfect law. It did a lot to expand insurance coverage but not enough to reduce costs. As written, it was too vulnerable to sabotage from those with political motive to do so. Republicans could have spent the past decade working with Democrats to make the law stronger; instead, they worked to destabilize markets by abruptly changing the rules on insurers and cutting funding for implementation of the law.

Besides subtracting elements of the ACA, Republican officials have also made some additions to the U.S. health care system that have not exactly proved successful.

In fact, Trump’s administrative efforts to add work requirements to Medicaid were blocked by a federal judge Wednesday — specifically because, the judge determined, the programs in question (in Kentucky and Arkansas) did not advance Medicaid’s basic purpose of providing health coverage. The Big Government bureaucracy necessary to correctly ferret out the tiny population of supposedly “undeserving” Medicaid beneficiaries targeted by such programs is also arguably not terribly conservative; if promoting work was the objective, there are much more effective ways to do so than ripping away access to health care, which often enables people to work.

In any case, Republicans have demagogued themselves into a corner, and they know it. The late Republican senator John McCain arguably saved the party from itself by killing the last legislative attempt at "repeal and replace"; now that Trump has foolishly revived this losing battle, Republicans will be forced to return to shouting "Free markets!" into the wind, as though that will somehow produce a real policy.

Catherine Rampell’s email address is crampell@washpost.com. Follow her on Twitter, @crampell.

Having teamed with his wife to finance athletic and academic scholarships at the University of Utah, Steve Smith Sr. enjoys receiving letters of thanks from students each year.

In 2022 or some year afterward, Smith hopes to receive a phone call that would be meaningful to him in a different way. The former receiver is in line to become the second Ute player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Smith this month joined the Pac-12 Hall of Honor, in an annual ceremony that recognizes an athlete from each school — in Utah’s case, usually predating Pac-12 membership. He’s also the featured speaker in Saturday’s Utah Football Coaches Clinic.

Smith views his Hall of Fame candidacy in the same context as his failed attempt to win a Super Bowl during his 16-year NFL tenure with Carolina and Baltimore: It is not necessary to complete a satisfying career, but it would be nice. Larry Wilson, a St. Louis Cardinals defensive back from 1960-72, is the only ex-Ute enshrined in Canton, Ohio.

“God willing, hopefully, it’ll happen,” Smith said during the Pac-12 event in Las Vegas. “As the old saying goes, ‘Man’s time is now, but God’s time is when he says it.’ … So when it happens, it happens. But it’s always been a goal of mine since February 2002, when I hired a sport psychologist to really help me hone in and start to focus on my craft. … So If it happens, it’s great. It it doesn’t, it doesn’t take away from all the great experiences that I got.”

Pac-12 Hall of Honor inductee Steve Smith Sr., on key influences during his Ute days. pic.twitter.com/g2khUtkEWJ

— Kurt Kragthorpe (@tribkurt) March 16, 2019

Smith’s Hall of Fame eligibility begins in 2022, five years after his retirement. Statistically, with Smith having caught 1,031 passes for 14,731 yards and 81 touchdowns, Pro Football Reference ranks him comparably to Hall of Fame receivers Andre Reed, James Lofton, Cris Carter and Art Monk. His numbers are somewhat inflated by this century’s passing emphasis. Some observers have suggested that voters will scrutinize Smith’s demonstrative nature on the field as well as some off-field issues early in his career. With only five modern-era players inducted each year, receivers recently have had to wait for induction beyond the initial five-year mark.

Smith is revered at Utah, where coach Kyle Whittingham labels him “a great ambassador for the university, all during his NFL career … just a great supporter and tremendous alum.”

Former Ute safety Eric Weddle respected Smith as a longtime opponent and appreciated him even more as a teammate in Baltimore in 2016, Smith's farewell season.

Smiling as he discussed Smith’s habit of verbally engaging with opponents, Weddle said, “We always knew — or I knew — not to poke the bear.”

Weddle, who spoke to Utah’s Pro Day participants this week, will always remember “just seeing his personality and his competitiveness and how animated he is, and what a talented player he was,” he said. “And then, luckily enough, I was able to be his teammate for a year, which was a dream come true, of looking up to the guy — not just the player, but the man.”

As for Smith's Hall of Fame possibilities, Weddle said, “One hundred percent. ... I think it's a no-doubt. His stats speak for themselves, but the way he affected games was second to none.”

Known in his Utah years (1999-2000) as Stevonne Smith, the receiver and return specialist was drafted by Carolina in the third round. He became a star almost immediately, helping Carolina reach the Super Bowl in his third season and catching four passes for 80 yards vs. New England — only to have a young Tom Brady lead the Patriots’ drive to the winning field goal.

Smith, who will turn 40 in May, marvels about where his Utah experience propelled him, in football and now in business ventures that have been influenced by his major in family and consumer studies. He's also an NFL Network analyst. Having come to Utah from Santa Monica (Calif.) Community College, Smith said, “When you sign to a school, it's a hope and a dream that it'll work out. You don't even know how it'll work, but you just hope you get an opportunity, and that's what I got.”

That’s why Smith and his wife, Angie, endowed an athletic scholarship for a Ute receiver and an academic grant for a first-generation college student. “Now, I get to pay for other people going to college,” he said. “I may not give off that impression because of football or because of TV, but deep inside, that’s what it’s about.”

The share of U.S. adults reporting no sex in the past year reached an all-time high in 2018, underscoring a three-decade trend line marked by an aging population and higher numbers of unattached people.

But among the 23 percent of adults — or nearly 1 in 4 — who spent the year in a celibate state, a much larger than expected number of them were twentysomething men, according to the latest data from the General Social Survey.

Experts who study Americans' bedroom habits say there are a number of factors driving the Great American Sex Drought. Age is one of them: The 60 and older demographic climbed from 18 percent of the population in 1996 to 26 percent in 2018, according to the survey. The share reporting no sex has consistently hovered around 50 percent, and because that age group is growing relative to everyone else, it has the net effect of reducing the overall population's likelihood of having sex.

But changes at the other end of the age spectrum may be playing an even bigger role. The portion of Americans 18 to 29 reporting no sex in the past year more than doubled between 2008 and 2018, to 23 percent.

Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy - and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood, said in an interview that growing sexlessness among America's twentysomethings is primarily attributable to partnering up later in life.

“There are more people in their twenties who don’t have a live-in partner,” she said. “So under those circumstances I think less sex is going to happen.”

Americans in their 30s, 40s and beyond, meanwhile, are much more likely to be married than those in their 20s. These age groups are now considerably more likely to have sex in a given year than their younger peers.

The data also show a significant gender divide among twentysomethings.

For most of the past three decades, twentysomething men and women reported similar rates of sexlessness. But that's changed in recent years. Since 2008, the share of men younger than 30 reporting no sex has nearly tripled, to 28 percent. That's a much steeper increase than the 8 percentage point increase reported among their female peers.

There are several potential explanations for this, Twenge said. Labor force participation among young men has fallen, particularly in the aftermath of the last recession. Researchers also see a “connection between labor force participation and stable relationships,” she said.

The survey showed, for instance, that 54 percent of unemployed Americans didn't have a steady romantic partner, compared with only 32 percent among the employed.

Young men also are more likely to be living with their parents than young women: In 2014, for instance, 35 percent of men age 18 to 34 were living in their parents’ home, compared with 29 percent of women in that age group. At the risk of stating the obvious, “when you’re living at home it’s probably harder to bring sexual partners into your bedroom,” Twenge said.

One final factor that may be affecting Americans' sexual habits at all ages is technology. "There are a lot more things to do at 10 o'clock at night now than there were 20 years ago," Twenge said. "Streaming video, social media, console games, everything else."

Underscoring this point, the share of people who are having relations once a week or more is on a downward trajectory: from 51 percent in 1996 to 39 percent today.

The newest superhero in DC Comics’ movie roster, “Shazam!” star Zachary Levi, is coming to FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention.

Convention organizers announced Friday that Levi will appear at the event, set for April 19-20 at the Salt Palace Convention Center.

In “Shazam!”, which opens nationwide on Friday, April 5, Levi plays the superpowered alter ego of 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who must navigate his newfound powers and the responsibility that comes with them.

Levi, 38, has appeared previously at FanX, formerly called Salt Lake Comic Con, as he represents several fandoms through his other roles.

Disney fans know him as the voice of Flynn Ryder, aka Eugene, in the Rapunzel tale “Tangled” (2010). He starred in the spy series “Chuck” from 2007 to 2012, and played Fandral, one of Thor’s Asgardian sidekicks, in “Thor: The Dark World” (2013) and “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017).

More recently, Levi provided the voice of Joseph in the animated Nativity story “The Star” (2017), and had a recurring role on the Amazon comedy “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

Levi joins an already sizable list of celebrity guests coming to this spring’s two-day edition of FanX. Here’s the lineup so far:

• Brian Baumgartner, played Kevin on “The Office.”
• Irene Bedard, Disney’s “Pocahontas.”
• Paul Bettany, Vision in “The Avengers” films, also in “Solo,” “The Da Vinci Code” and “A Knight’s Tale.”
• Lynda Carter, TV’s “Wonder Woman,” recently on “Supergirl.”
• Roger Clark, voice actor in “Red Dead Redemption II.”
• Mike Colter, star of Marvel’s “Luke Cage.”
• Alice Cooper, rock legend, recently appeared on “Jesus Christ Superstar Live!”
• Warwick Davis, 3-foot-6 actor in “Harry Potter” films, “Star Wars” franchise, “Willow.”
• Tom Ellis, star of “Lucifer.”
• Tom Felton, Draco Malfoy in “Harry Potter” series.
• Aimee Garcia, co-star of “Lucifer.”
• Seth Gilliam, appeared in “The Walking Dead.”
• Clark Gregg, Agent Coulson in “The Avengers,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
• Jess Harnell, voice actor, best known for “Animaniacs” and “Transformers.”
• Tyler Hoechlin, plays Superman on “Supergirl.”
• Adelaide Kane, appeared on “Reign,” “The Purge.”
• Val Kilmer, star of “Batman Forever,” “Willow,” “Top Gun.”
• Angela Kinsey, played Angela on “The Office.”
• Pom Klementieff, plays Mantis in “Guardians of the Galaxy” films.
• Linda Larkin, voiced Jasmine in Disney’s “Aladdin.”
• Oscar Núñez, played Oscar on “The Office.”
• Mark Pellegrino, appeared on “Supernatural,” “Lost.”
• Billie Piper, played Rose Tyler on “Doctor Who,” starred in “Penny Dreadful.”
• Ricky Schroder, starred in “Silver Spoons,” “Lonesome Dove,” “NYPD Blue.”
• Tye Sheridan, plays Cyclops in “X-Men” films, starred in “Ready Player One.”
• Samantha Smith, appeared in “Supernatural.”
• Austin St. John, the original Red Ranger in “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.”
• Joonas Suotamo, currently plays Chewbacca in “Star Wars” films.
• Tony Todd, horror icon, star of “Candyman,” “Final Destination.”
• Garrett Wang, played Ensign Kim on “Star Trek: Voyager.”
• Scott Weinger, voiced Aladdin in Disney’s “Aladdin.”
• Rob Wiethoff, voice actor in “Red Dead Redemption II.”

The Florida man who was caught on video asking a Utah man if he is gay and then punching him failed to show up for a court date on Friday, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Carlo Alazo, 22, faces three misdemeanors — one count of threatening to use a weapon in a fight and two counts of assault. Now he’s facing a $2,500 warrant for failure to appear at a scheduled 3rd District Court date on Friday.

An 8-second video of the incident in the early-morning hours of Feb. 17 went viral when the victim, Sal Trejo, posted it on Twitter. The video shows Alazo approaching Trejo and asking, “Are you gay, though?”

Trejo replies, “Oh, I am.”

My friends and I were assaulted by this homophobic man in downtown Salt Lake City last night. Anyone know him? The police are interested in having a chat with him. #SaltLakeCity @slcpd @slcmayor @EqualityUtah pic.twitter.com/1tPFSCADOp

— Salonge Knowles (@saltrejo) February 17, 2019

“Oh, then you are gay,” Alazo says, and then he appears to hit Trejo, knocking the cell phone out of his hand.

Trejo and other witnesses told police Alazo had been using homophobic and racist slurs. According to a probable cause statement, after he punched Trejo, Alazo “pulled out a small, 'butterfly-type' knife and pointed the knife blade in Trejo's direction.”

According to a court document, Alazo called the court on Thursday and said that he had sent a motion via certified mail requesting a 90-day continuance because he lives in Tampa, Fla. The court had not received his request, and Alazo was advised to call back on Friday “once court is done.”

In the meantime, the judge issued a $2,500 warrant for his arrest.

According to Blake Nakamura, chief deputy at the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office, the court will set a new court date at its convenience, not Alazo's. “And if he does show up, that'll clear the warrant.”

If Alazo fails to appear again, “I just can't tell you at this point if we'd go get him,” Nakamura said. Given that the charges are misdemeanors, it's “unlikely” prosecutors would have Florida police or federal marshals arrest and extradite him to Utah.

However, his name would be entered in the NCIC (National Crime Information Center), and if Alazo is stopped by police they will have the option of taking him into custody on the outstanding warrant.

Flagstaff, Ariz. • A federal grant program that provides college scholarships to Native American students reportedly could lose funding.

Flagstaff radio station KNAU reports the Trump administration has proposed defunding the grant program.

The program survived last year's proposed cuts, but it's on the table again this year.

The administration's fiscal year 2020 budget would slash nearly $40 million from tribal scholarship and education programs administered by the Bureau of Indian Education.

Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt says the budget proposal supports tribal self-determination and improves education services in Indian Country.

But Navajo officials say the federal Higher Education Grant is crucial for thousands of students to attend and graduate from college.

KNAU reports that just over 4 percent of Navajo tribal members have a bachelor’s degree.

Flagstaff, Ariz. • U.S. Sen. Martha McSally vowed Wednesday to take quick action on a plan to preserve the drought-stricken Colorado River, which serves about 40 million people in the U.S. West and Mexico.

Seven states are looking to Congress to pass legislation to implement drought contingency plans that would mean voluntary cuts to keep two key reservoirs on the river from falling so low that their dams could not deliver water or produce hydropower.

The plans that have been in the works for years got a first congressional hearing Wednesday before a subcommittee that McSally chairs. The Arizona Republican said she'll introduce a bill soon and expects strong support.

"Now that the states have completed their work, it's time for Congress to take it across the finish line," she said.

Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming recently agreed to push for the federal legislation. Their goal is to have it approved by April 22 so that Mexico's water contributions also kick in next year. The drought plans would expire in 2026, and states already are prepping for negotiations on what follows.

Climate change, drought and an increased demand for Colorado River water have shrunk Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the largest man-made reservoirs in the country — to about 40 percent of their capacity, officials said.

The drought plan for the lower basin, which includes Arizona, California and Nevada, would have those states leaving water in Lake Mead when it hits certain elevation levels. Under current guidelines, Arizona and Nevada would lose water when Lake Mead drops to 1,075 feet (328 meters) in elevation. California would never lose any because it has the most senior rights.

On Wednesday, the lake created by Hoover Dam on the Arizona-Nevada border was at nearly 1,090 feet (332 meters) — the point at which water contributions would kick in under the drought plan and eventually loop in California.

Las Vegas relies on the Colorado River for 90 percent of its water supply. Nevada expects to meet the conditions of the drought plan with relative ease because of previous water conservation measures and storing eight years' worth of water, said John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

"We're in a strong position to not only help the rest of the river but to protect ourselves as well," he said.

The drought plans also create incentives for storing water, rather than for removing it when the lower basin states believe it could be stranded in Lake Mead if water levels drop too low.

Unlike the upper basin states, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the lower basin historically haven't used their full allocations of Colorado River water. They use Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border as a bank to store water when hydrology is good to ensure they can deliver water through Glen Canyon Dam to the lower basin in drier years, meeting obligations under a 1922 compact that divvied up the river's flows.

"If we cannot get water past that dam, we violate the compact," said Wyoming state engineer Pat Tyrrell.

Tyrrell said diminishing flows in the Colorado River have increased the threat that upper basin states might need to curtail their use of water, or move water from large reservoirs in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico to Lake Powell when it's needed. The ability to store water in the reservoirs upstream from Lake Powell without charge also is part of the plan, Tyrrell said.

Besides Entsminger, no one on Wednesday's panel mentioned the California irrigation district that has the largest entitlement to Colorado River water and was written out of the drought plan. The Imperial Irrigation District said it wouldn't participate unless it secured $200 million in federal funding for a massive, briny lake southeast of Los Angeles. Another powerful California water agency said it would make up Imperial's pledged water contribution to avoid delay.

Representatives of the Imperial Irrigation District are in Washington, D.C., this week partly to oppose draft federal legislation the states recently submitted to Congress. Imperial says the language would waive environmental laws. The states disagree.

Another hearing on the Colorado River is scheduled Thursday before a U.S. House subcommittee.

Between 70,000 and 90,000 Utahns are clear to enroll in Medicaid on Monday after federal administrators on Friday approved the state’s partial expansion plan.

The Utah Department of Health confirmed on Twitter that Utah’s initial “bridge” waiver had been granted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), teeing up a temporary expansion program that will allow individuals earning up to 100 percent of the federal poverty limit to enroll in Medicaid. The federal government will cover 70 percent of the costs.

We just received federal approval to extend #Medicaid coverage to an additional 70,000-90,000 #Utah adults. Applications will be accepted starting Monday at https://t.co/zynFUrLnXE. More info here https://t.co/nAKaG3IQjZ #utpol pic.twitter.com/Byah9mDpQQ

— Utah Dept. of Health (@UtahDepOfHealth) March 29, 2019

“It’s a great opportunity for individuals that are uninsured and below the poverty level,” said Nathan Checketts, the state’s Medicaid director. “If they have applied before and were denied because that group wasn’t eligible, we hope they will come back and apply.”

The bridge program is expected to last for up to a year but eventually be replaced by a permanent Medicaid program that, if approved, would see the federal government increase its share of costs to 90 percent. In exchange, Utah will request additional waivers to impose work requirements, per-capita spending caps and other cost control measures on beneficiaries.

“We hope to have that [request] submitted within the next month or so,” said Tom Hudachko, spokesman for the Utah Department of Health.

While the bridge program that begins Monday also includes work requirements, Hudachko said those elements will not be enforced.

“It does include elements like the self-sufficiency requirement and the requirement, where it’s available, that people enroll in their employer-sponsored health insurance plan,” Hudachko said. “Neither of those things will be implemented until January of next year.”

Both the “bridge” and eventual permanent expansion plans leave roughly 50,000 low-income Utahns off the Medicaid rolls who would otherwise be covered by full expansion under the Affordable Care Act. In November, voters approved the full-expansion Proposition 3, but lawmakers rejected the initiative in favor of their own program, citing the need to control costs.

The shift in policy means that Utah will initially be spending more taxpayer dollars to provide health care to fewer people than it would have under the ballot initiative.

Medicaid work requirements in other states have been struck down in court, and CMS has never yet approved the types of caps and cost-splitting arrangements that will be requested by Utah.

“We know that as we go for the per-capita cap, we’re introducing some new concepts there,” Checketts said. “We think they’re good for the state and for the federal government, but it would be the first that some of these things have been requested.”

Critics of Utah’s partial-expansion plan say they anticipate legal challenges to the state’s Medicaid program, if it is approved. A successful challenge could trigger a fallback provision in the state’s law that would see full expansion, similar to Proposition 3, take effect.

Checketts said Utah’s work requirements differ from those in states like Arkansas and Kentucky, which were rejected this week by a federal judge. He acknowledged the possibility of a lawsuit against Utah’s program, while adding it’s unclear how, or if, those court precedents would be applied in such a case.

“We’ll have to see if that happens,” Checketts said. “This has been a state-by-state issue.”

Randall Serr, director of the enrollment-assistance organization Take Care Utah, said he was “elated” that Utahns in the Medicaid coverage gap would now be able to access health care.

“We’re really excited that we don’t have to tell people repeatedly calling our office wanting health insurance that they don’t have an option,” Serr said.

And while there is still some uncertainty around the long-term status of Medicaid in Utah, Serr said he expects tens of thousands of new enrollees to demonstrate the need for the program, and to positively impact the state’s health care systems.

“It’s going to stabilize the health insurance market,” Serr said. “It’s going to make it so there’s less people going to the emergency room. There’s going to be a lot of benefits that I think everyone will see once it’s in place.”

Taylorsville Republican Rep. Jim Dunnigan, House sponsor for the Prop 3-replacing SB96, said he was pleased the state’s “bridge” waiver had been approved.

Asked about the recent court rulings, Dunnigan said Utah lawmakers intentionally avoided a strict requirement that beneficiaries be employed. Instead, he said, Utah’s law requires a work “effort,” which includes education, professional training or job searches, and provides exceptions to parents and individuals with mental or physical health impairments.

“Those who are able-bodied, they will have to make some effort to get training or eduction,” he said. “It is absolutely not a requirement, like some other states have done.”

Dunnigan said the state’s next set of waivers are “cutting edge" but that CMS representatives have expressed interest in considering Utah’s plans. He said final approval of the permanent program could take some time but that he doesn’t have any reason to expect its rejection by federal administrators.

“We worked on this for a long time,” Dunnigan said. “I’m very excited that Monday, people can start enrolling.”

Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall once zip tied the hands of the city’s zoning and planning administrator. He put his arms on a resident during a conversation in his office. He raised his voice at the city’s recorder after they’d had a dispute over his handling of a contract negotiation.

The women involved in these incidents viewed them as evidence of aggressive and intimidating behavior — and the two city employees told The Salt Lake Tribune they’d left their jobs because of it. But Marshall, in acknowledging the actions to city investigators, suggested they were innocent reflections of his outsized personality.

The zip tie incident was “all in fun” and Shauna Kertamus “wanted it done,” he said. He wasn’t trying to be “offensive” to Susan Johnsen, a resident who was trying to push through an initiative. He just put his hands on her because he’s a “touchy person.” And he’d raised his voice at Recorder Rachel Reid Wright only after she yelled at him.

The mayor’s comments are part of a 16-page investigative report commissioned by the Grantsville City Council in the wake of a number of accusations first reported last year by The Salt Lake Tribune. A heavily redacted version of the year-old document was turned over to the newspaper Thursday only after ordered to do so by the State Records Committee. Grantsville had unsuccessfully argued the entire report was protected by attorney-client privilege.

In many of the 24 interviews, mostly unnamed witnesses paint a picture of Marshall as an occasional “bully" who often “raise[s] his voice at others” and “puts everyone on edge.” Several said they had seen him engage in workplace conduct they felt was inappropriate, and one said Marshall had treated him personally in a “demeaning” and “abusive” manner on numerous occasions.

Others said they found his behavior harmless, noting that the mayor’s tendencies to violate personal space and use a loud voice are just part of his personality. One person described him as an “acquired taste."

“What we’ve discovered all along is [people say], ‘Oh, that’s just the way he is,’” said Johnsen, who believes that’s just an effort to excuse his behavior. “Well, OK, I mean, maybe that’s true. But at the same time you can learn to be different in a professional setting.”

Johnsen was part of a nonprofit group fighting the city on its proposal to turn part of the J. Reuben Clark Historic Farm into a cemetery when she went to the mayor’s office to ask a question. During the conversation, she said Marshall draped his arms across her shoulders, with his elbows pointing down into her shoulder blades and his hands pointing straight up. She was rattled by the interaction and has avoided speaking with the mayor one on one ever since.

Marshall, who has served as mayor since 2010 and won re-election in 2017 by 37 votes out of 1,867 cast, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

But after several people recounted seeing him yell at or put his hands on people, he told investigators that was “only a way of making an acknowledgment with the person" and said he has a loud voice because he “worked in an industrial plant for 36 years” and learned how to make his voice carry.

The allegations against Grantsville’s mayor surfaced during the peak of the #MeToo movement, a social media hashtag that demonstrated the scope and frequency of people’s experience with sexual assault, harassment and abuse. Johnsen, Kertamus and Wright were three of six people who’d had political dealings with the mayor and told The Tribune that he runs the city of nearly 11,000 people in Tooele County in a bullying manner, sometimes using physical aggression to intimidate those who disagree with him.

None had filed a formal complaint at the time of the incidents, but they said they hoped speaking out would improve the mayor’s behavior.

“In hindsight, had I known absolutely nothing would be done, I probably wouldn’t have said anything,” Kertamus told The Tribune on Thursday. “Because what good does it do? But at the same time, maybe it will help others feel like they can speak up. I hope some good comes out of it somehow, someday.”

Kertamus, the city’s former zoning and planning administrator, said she left her job in 2014 in part because of Marshall’s intimidation tactics and aggressive behavior. In addition to the zip tie incident, she said Marshall was demeaning, overly critical and looked down on her because of her gender.

In the aftermath of The Tribune’s story, the City Council authorized an investigation into the allegations in February 2018 and hired Spencer Phillips, an outside investigator and workplace attorney, to conduct it.

The report was completed the next month, on March 26. The Tribune fought for months for access to the investigative report but its requests were denied by Grantsville, which held that the report was protected under attorney-client privilege.

Earlier this month, the State Records Committee took up The Tribune’s appeal and sided with the newspaper’s argument that the public interest in the investigation outweighed privacy interests. It unanimously ordered the city to release the report with limited redactions.

The final 2½ pages of the report, which detail allegations and the investigator’s conclusions, were completely blacked out. All the names but those that had already been publicly identified in The Tribune’s story were also censured to preserve confidentiality.

The city said Friday it could not immediately provide the cost of its outside attorney fees for the investigation or for fighting disclosure of the records without a formal records request. Grantsville hired Kirton McConkie, a Salt Lake City-based law firm, to argue its case at the State Records Committee.

One of the people publicly identified in the document was Councilman Neil Critchlow, who said Marshall had forcefully placed his arms or hands on his shoulders, yelled at him on numerous occasions and told him how he was supposed to vote. The other was Tooele County Commissioner Shawn Milne, who told investigators he’s seen the mayor “put his hands on other ladies’ shoulders” and said Marshall often assumes a “folksy, small town” persona to excuse his behavior.

A witness whose name was redacted from the report stated “that Mayor Marshall simply does not respect others and that he repeatedly engages in behavior that blatantly demonstrates his lack of respect.” The person “believes that if any other City employee engaged in the same behaviors as Mayor Marshall, that employee would be terminated from employment.”

Because the investigator’s report redacts the conclusions, it’s difficult to tell whether he concluded Marshall’s behavior violated the employee code of conduct or was grounds for disciplinary action. The City Council appears to have taken no public action on the matter, and Marshall seems to have made no apology for his actions.

Councilwoman Krista Sparks said the council had received a verbal summary of the report in closed session and was “relieved” to find there was no criminal activity or legal wrongdoing. She said the council took the allegations “very seriously.”

“We feel like we’re all held to a higher standard as elected officials and we all come from different backgrounds and upbringings and sometimes our interpersonal skills can be taken the wrong way at times,” she said, speaking on behalf of the council. “All of us have our human nature. I think that the mayor at times has been misinterpreted or his intentions may be taken the wrong way.”

Sparks said the council has taken steps to update its employee handbook, ensure there are ways for workers to file complaints and has conducted trainings in the wake of the accusations. She declined to give specifics but also said the council has had “conversations with the mayor” that he’s been “very agreeable to.”

It’s unclear how much more the council could do, even if it wanted to. State law allows for removing a municipal officer who is found guilty of “oppression, malconduct, misfeasance, or malfeasance in office,” a class A misdemeanor.

But Johnsen and Kertamus said they’re not lobbying for his removal from office.

“It would have been healing for him to have at least admitted that, yeah, there were some inappropriate things about his behavior; he could have made more of a public apology,” Johnsen said. “Basically his apology was, ‘I didn’t mean to do it. People took it up wrong’ ... which isn’t really an apology.”