The scene looks like something from a middle-of-the-night drug raid. Guns drawn, police officers in tactical vests surround a beige ranch house in an anonymous subdivision. With a single decisive kick, one busts down the door. “Come out with your hands up!” an officer yells, as a flashlight’s blinding beams begin sweeping the room.

But police in Chandler, Ariz., weren't seeking out a trove of illegal narcotics when they showed up at the modest home in the Phoenix suburbs on Feb. 25. Instead, they were searching for a 2-year-old who had come down with a dangerously high fever. The boy's mother, Sarah Beck, had allegedly ignored doctors' orders and refused to take him to the emergency room, fearing that she would get in trouble because he wasn't vaccinated. When officials showed up to do a welfare check hours later, the child's father refused to let them in, saying that everything was fine and the fever had passed. Eventually, police decided to take matters into their own hands.

"They treated us like criminals, busting in our door," Brooks Bryce, the toddler's father, told KPNX last month. "I mean, I don't know what kind of trauma that did to my kids."

On Thursday, authorities released body-camera footage from the incident and explained that they decided to "force entry" because the 2-year-old child's health and well-being were in danger, and he needed immediate medical attention. But critics contend that the parents were well within their rights to determine that a costly hospital visit was unnecessary, and that the dramatic late-night raid may have done irreparable damage to their three young children. More than a month later, all three children are still in foster care, according to the Arizona Republic. Bryce and Beck are now fighting to get them back.

"We love our children, we love them," Beck told KPHO. "If our children needed help, we would absolutely help them."

The complicated saga began with a scorching fever. At around 5 p.m. on Feb. 25, Beck brought her son into the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine's clinic, police records say. The doctor there recorded the boy's temperature and discovered it was above 105 degrees. After consulting with staff at two area hospitals, the doctor told Beck that since her son was showing possible signs of a life-threatening illness that she was unable to test for at the clinic, the mother should bring the toddler to the emergency room as quickly as possible. (Attorneys said at a court hearing earlier this month that the doctor had feared that the 2-year-old had meningitis, the Republic reported.)

Beck initially refused, the police report says. She told the naturopathic doctor that she feared that the hospital would report her to the Arizona Department of Child Safety for failing to vaccinate her child, and that her husband, who was in favor of vaccination, would be upset by the situation. (In fact, Arizona parents can opt out of vaccinations for personal, religious or medical reasons.) After being assured that she wouldn't get reported to the authorities, she relented. The clinic doctor sent them to a nearby children's hospital, and called the emergency room and asked them to let her know when Beck had showed up.

She never did. Instead, at around 6:30 p.m., Beck called the clinic again and said that she had bought a thermometer on the way home, and that it was showing that her son's temperature had dropped, according to the police report. She later told KPHO that her son has been "acting normal" and "dancing with his sisters in his car seat" after they left the clinic, and that his temperature had fallen to 102. When they got home, it dropped even more, Beck said.

The doctor told Beck that she should still go to the emergency room to make sure that the boy was recovering, the police report says. Beck reportedly said she was nervous, and asked if she could lie about her son being vaccinated. The doctor told her she couldn't, and warned her that she would have to report her to the authorities if she didn't take her son to the hospital or to an urgent care clinic soon.

Hours later, after Beck stopped answering her calls, the doctor called the Arizona Department of Child Safety, saying that she had called numerous hospitals but was unable to locate the family. The agency contacted the Chandler Police Department and asked police officers to perform a welfare check. By then, it was nearly 10:30 p.m.

When officers showed up and started knocking at the door, they could hear children coughing inside. No one answered. Bryce spoke to police on the phone but wouldn't let them in, saying that the 2-year-old's fever had broken and everything was fine, the police report says. He asked them to leave. When they informed him that they were legally obligated to check on the child, Bryce hung up.

After about an hour, DCS obtained a court order allowing them to temporarily take custody of the 2-year-old child for emergency medical treatment. Shortly before midnight, the officers once again asked Bryce to talk to them outside. He reportedly told them that he wasn't going to be forced to take his child to the hospital and wind up with a "three grand" bill. Police gave one more warning, then busted down the door just before 1:30 a.m.

Inside, they found that two additional children, ages 6 and 4. In their report, authorities wrote that the home was a mess, with piles of clothes scattered across the floor. In the parents' bedroom, police found a shotgun next to the bed. Bryce later told KPHO that the gun didn't work.

"We located the other two children in their bedroom which was covered in stains of unknown origin," one officer wrote. "The children advised us they had vomited several times in their beds and had stains around their mouths. One child told me that their 'stomach hurt.'" All three children were taken to the hospital, then placed in foster care. According to the Republic, the 2-year-old was ultimately diagnosed with a respiratory virus. The other children do not appear to have had any serious medical issues.

Nicholas Boca, an attorney who is representing the child's mother in juvenile court proceedings, told The Washington Post that police had been "completely unjustified" in their use of force. "They had their guns drawn and they're busting into a house with three sleeping children," he said. "It's ridiculous."

From his client's perspective, Boca added, there was never a need for emergency medical treatment. He pointed out that hours had gone by before the doctor got in touch with DCS. "If this was such an immediate emergency, why didn't the doctor put the child in an ice bath?" he asked. "Why didn't the doctor have the child directly transported to the emergency room?"

Both Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and the clinic doctor have yet to comment on the incident. Darren DaRonco, a spokesman for Arizona DCS, said in a statement shared with The Post that the agency cannot discuss specific cases due to confidentiality laws, but noted that the state law allows police officers who are assisting child welfare officials to "use reasonable force" to enter buildings.

According to Patheos, an online outlet covering religion, the children's removal from their parents' home led to a viral conspiracy theory that quickly spread on anti-vaccination Facebook groups, claiming that unvaccinated children were being "stolen" by the authorities. "Almost immediately, discussions broke out that Arizona DCS was kidnapping unvaccinated children to sell them into foster care," the site reported. "Many said that unvaccinated children are highly in demand because they are incredibly healthy. Several discussed an Arizona 'kidnapping cartel.'"

Though obviously untrue, those rumors do seem to have brought more scrutiny to the case. Arizona State Rep. Kelly Townsend, who earlier this month said that mandatory measles shots were "Communist," told the Republic that it had been brought to her attention "that these parents may have been targeted by the medical community because they hadn't vaccinated their children."

After sitting in on the family's juvenile court hearing this month, Townsend expressed concerns that the children had been permanently traumatized by being separated and placed into foster care after police broke down their door and placed their father in handcuffs. On Facebook, she described the episode as "a complete miscarriage of justice and a shame to the State of Arizona," and called for the children to be returned immediately. Speaking to the Republic, she compared officials' actions to that of the Gestapo.

When contacted by The Post on Thursday night, Townsend was somewhat more restrained, saying she understood the doctor's perspective of better safe than sorry. The situation might have ended differently if the parents had opened their door and talked to police, she acknowledged. Still, Townsend said, she could easily understand the decision to hold off on an expensive trip to the emergency room, given that the child no longer had a high fever. The case raises larger questions about parents' rights to make decisions about their children's care, she added.

“Is the doctor an authority figure that you must listen to, or else risk losing your family?” she asked.

Salt Lake City • Salt Lake City officials are putting out the call for artists as work continues on a massive redevelopment project at Utah’s busiest airport.

The city is modernizing the international airport, and plans calls for an installation that will span 30 feet (9 meters) near the security screening area. Officials say more than 25 million passengers pass through the area every year, and they will see the new "SLC Art Wall."

Officials want the artwork to speak to the spirit and people of Utah.

Artists have until April 17 to express interest and outline their qualifications. The Salt Lake Art Design Board and airport representatives will choose three finalists who will then propose concepts for the space.

The first phase of the redevelopment project is scheduled to open in 2020.

A federal judge in Alaska declared late Friday that President Donald Trump's order revoking a sweeping ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans is illegal, putting 128 million acres of federal waters off limits to energy exploration.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason is the third legal setback this week to Trump's energy and environmental policies. The judge, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2012, also blocked on Friday a land swap the Interior Department arranged that would pave the way for constructing a road through wilderness in a major National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that Interior's Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service illegally approved two gas drilling plans in western Colorado, on the grounds that officials did not adequately analyze their wildlife and climate impacts.

Trump's rollbacks of Obama-era conservation policies have suffered nearly two dozen setbacks in federal court, largely on procedural grounds. While the administration is appealing many of these decisions and holds an advantage if the cases reach the Supreme Court, the rulings have slowed the president's drive to expand fossil fuel production in the United States.

Earlier this month, for example, a federal judge halted drilling on more than 300,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Wyoming. Friday's decision on offshore drilling could affect a five-year leasing plan the administration plans to issue in the summer, as well as block the six offshore lease sales it proposed to schedule in the Arctic Ocean starting as early as this year.

"President Trump's lawlessness is catching up with him," Erik Grafe, the lead attorney from the environmental law organization Earthjustice who argued to reinstate Obama's leasing withdrawals in the Arctic and Atlantic, said in a statement Friday. "The judge's ruling today shows that the president can not just trample on the constitution to do the bidding of his cronies in the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our oceans, wildlife, and climate."

Industry officials, however, said the administration could forge ahead with its offshore drilling process as litigation continued. While Friday's decision applies to 98 percent of the Arctic Ocean, it only covers undersea canyons in the Atlantic, as opposed to the entire Eastern Seaboard.

"While we disagree with the decision, our nation still has a significant opportunity before us in the development of the next offshore leasing plan to truly embrace our nation's energy potential and ensure American consumers and businesses continue to benefit from U.S. energy leadership," said Erik Milito, vice president of upstream and industry operations for the American Petroleum Institute.

The Interior Department declined to comment Saturday.

In her Friday ruling, Gleason wrote that the law in which Congress gave the president authority over offshore drilling — the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act — expressly allows for leasing withdrawals but does not state that a subsequent president can revoke those withdrawals without congressional approval.

"As a result, the previous three withdrawals issued on January 27, 2015 and December 20, 2016 will remain in full force and effect unless and until revoked by Congress," she wrote.

In a separate decision earlier in the day, Gleason found that then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke did not provide sufficient justification for reversing the government's stance on whether to allow a small, remote Alaska town to construct a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

Residents of King Cove have argued for years that they need to bisect the refuge, which has been protected for decades and provides a critical rest stop for migratory waterfowl, for medical evacuations under rough weather.

In a statement Friday, local leaders there vowed to continue their fight.

"The people of King Cove deserve to have access to a higher level of care, especially when the unforgiving weather prevents them from traveling from their isolated community by air or boat," said Aleutians East Borough Mayor Alvin D. Osterback. "This land exchange would have accomplished that."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also promised to continue pushing for building the road, which otherwise would be prohibited in a wilderness area. "I will never stop until this road is a reality and the nearly 1,000 residents of this isolated community have a lifeline for emergency medical care," she said.

Opponents counter that the federal government has provided millions in funding to give town residents alternative forms of transport, and warn that a road would fragment critical habitat. They also cite expert testimony that any road through the refuge would be impassable during snowstorms.

"Here, the Secretary's failure to acknowledge the change in agency policy and his failure to provide a reasoned explanation for that change in policy are serious errors," Gleason wrote.

The third adverse decision the administration received this week came in a ruling from U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock, a Ronald Reagan appointee. A coalition of environmental groups had challenged adjacent plans to drill 171 wells in Colorado’s North Fork Valley, which provides key habitat for elk and mule deer.

The Utah Compact was reaffirmed on March 21, once again putting Utah at the forefront of a more balanced approach to immigration. However, the principles of the compact are aspirational and leave supporters wondering how this vision can translate into meaningful action.

Federally elected officials from all political parties have failed to reform our immigration system for more than 30 years. Therefore, state and local governments, businesses and communities should take collective action to bring equality, full justice and respect for human rights to all Utahns, including our state’s immigrants.

Here are some steps we can take to put the spirit of the Utah Compact into action:

Principle 1: Federal Solutions

• Ask our Congressional delegation to take immediate action on immigration. Ask them to support H.R. 6 The Dream and Promise Act of 2019 or develop other solutions. H.R. 6 allows Dreamers and individuals with Temporary Protected Status to contribute fully in the country they love and know to be their home by providing a pathway to citizenship.
• Constantly engage with our delegation to hold them accountable to uphold the principles of the Utah Compact in every vote they take.

Principle 2: Law Enforcement

• All local law enforcement agencies in the state should create and enforce a policy to serve and protect everyone in their communities, regardless of immigration status.
• End all collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement to ensure there is no pipeline to deportation. Local governments have no legal obligation to help enforce federal immigration laws and oftentimes voluntarily offer assistance to ICE at their own expense.
• Clear U Visa policies: establish policies and protocols for signing U Visa certifications.

Principle 3: Families

• Increase access to health care for all families. Expand health insurance coverage to all Utah children and strengthen current safety-net programs.
• Expand access to affordable, high quality and culturally competent early childhood education and care.
• Invest in working adults to help them succeed in community college, such as supportive services, short-term financial aid and career counselors.

Principle 4: Economy

• Increase and expand immigrant’s access to workforce development programs, including English as a Second Language, adult education, and training programs.
• Ensure access to a living wage and make employer-based health coverage attainable for all employees.
• Support immigrant asset building by encouraging small business ownership, home ownership, and protections against discriminatory and predatory products and practices.

Principle 5: A Free Society

• Municipalities should create offices of New Americans or Immigrant Affairs to build unity between longer-term residents and immigrant communities.
• Create and implement a multi-sector plan around civic, linguistic and economic integration of immigrants and long-term engagement of receiving communities.
• Donate your time and resources to grassroots, immigrant-led efforts in the state of Utah to bring change from the ground up.

Luis Garza is executive director of Comunidades Unidas/Communities United, a Utah-based immigrant rights organization established in 1999 with the mission to empower communities to be healthy, self-sufficient and civically engaged.

The Utah Compact’s five principles are straightforward and bring important attention to the impact our broken immigration system has on families, law enforcement and our standing as a free society. They balance compassion with the rule of law and consider the potential benefits to our economy. In short, they help us all consider the broad impacts of this issue and the importance of getting it right.

Past debate on immigration often followed a hardline path, exemplified by Arizona’s legislative action in 2010. Many in our community were concerned about the effect such legislation would have on Utah’s economy, our residents and our state’s reputation.

Utah wisely decided to start from shared values and shared goals to chart its own path. To move past partisan, divisive positions, a group of business, civic, faith and community leaders drafted a set of principles to guide Utah’s immigration debate. The document they signed in 2010, known as the Utah Compact, changed the tone and course of the debate and has proven a model for other states to follow as they urge the federal government to pass immigration reform

Today, nearly a decade later, our immigration system is still broken, and the humanitarian crisis has grown. Children are separated from their families at the border. Young Dreamers — for whom this is the only home they know — are in a state of limbo. Both parties have held control over the federal government and both have failed to find solutions. Politics continue to overshadow important policy discussions, while Utah and the rest of the nation stand in need of reform that adheres to the principles laid out by our community leaders nearly a decade ago.

Last week, leaders from many of the same organizations that drafted the Utah Compact in 2010 — as well as several new voices — gathered again to reaffirm their support for the principles outlined in the document and to call on a new generation of Utahns to take up the mantle of leadership.

Across all business sectors, in both blue- and white-collar jobs, immigrants represent a significant share of Utah’s labor force. Nearly 9 percent of Utah’s population was born in another country. These foreign-born residents are business owners, taxpayers and our neighbors. They represent 16 percent of the hotel and food services’ workforce and nearly 20 percent of employees in Utah’s construction industry. Immigrants not only fill in the gaps in Utah’s workforce and help businesses create jobs, but they are also an integral part of our communities. Smart immigration reform would ensure our diverse communities continue to thrive and would be a big benefit to Utah’s already booming economy.

New data from New American Economy (NAE) shows immigrants in our state have a net economic benefit of more than $562 million as of 2017; they pay $1.6 billion in taxes and hold $5.3 billion in spending power. There are more than 12,000 immigrant entrepreneurs in Utah, who collectively employ over 38,000 Utahns. Industries from construction and manufacturing to restaurants and tech depend on immigrants in order to thrive. Just ask companies in Silicon Slopes if they could use more skilled code writers and engineers. Filling those jobs with immigrant workers creates additional jobs in other areas for Utahns as well.

The principles of the Utah Compact show how agreement can be forged, based on shared values and common sense. The leaders who made the effort to come together around a divisive political issue have delivered a benefit to all Utahns and we are proud to continue to advance the sound principles they presented.

Our state and our nation deserve immigration policy that strengthens our economy, protects families, allows law enforcement to focus on criminal activities and ensures Utah will always be a place that welcomes people of goodwill.

Ben McAdams represents Utah’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Derek Miller is the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber.

Palm Beach, Fla. • Taking one drastic action against illegal immigration and threatening another, President Donald Trump moved to cut U.S. aid to three Central American nations whose citizens are fleeing north and declared he is likely to close America’s southern border next week unless Mexico halts the flow of migrants.

Though Trump has previously threatened to close the border and has not followed through, his administration moved to cut direct aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The State Department said in a statement that it will work with Congress to suspend 2017 and 2018 payments to the trio of nations, which have been home to some of the migrant caravans that have marched through Mexico to the U.S. border.

The president emphasized "I am not kidding around" about closing the border, even though such a severe move could hit the economies of both countries.

"It could mean all trade" with Mexico, Trump said when questioned on Friday by reporters in Florida. "We will close it for a long time."

Amplified by conservative media, Trump has made those caravans the symbol of what he says are the dangers of illegal immigration, making them a central theme of his midterm campaigning last fall. Now with the special counsel's Russia probe seemingly behind him, Trump has revived his warnings of their presence.

Trump has been promising for more than two years to build a long, impenetrable wall along the border to stop illegal immigration, though Congress has been reluctant to provide the money he needs. In the meantime, he has repeatedly threatened to close the border, but this time, with a new group of migrants heading north , he gave a definite timetable and suggested a visit to the border within the next two weeks.

A substantial closure could have an especially heavy impact on cross-border communities from San Diego to South Texas, as well as supermarkets that sell Mexican produce, factories that rely on imported parts, and other businesses across the U.S.

The U.S. and Mexico trade about $1.7 billion in goods daily, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which said closing the border would be "an unmitigated economic debacle" that would threaten 5 million American jobs.

Trump tweeted Friday morning, "If Mexico doesn't immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week."

He said several times that it would be "so easy" for Mexican authorities to stop immigrants passing through their country and trying to enter the U.S. illegally, "but they just take our money and 'talk.'"

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke out Saturday against cutting off aid to Central America, declaring that "foreign assistance is not charity; it advances our strategic interests and funds initiatives that protect American citizens."

And a group of House Democrats visiting El Salvador denounced the administration's decision to cut aid to the region.

"As we visit El Salvador evaluating the importance of U.S. assistance to Central America to address the root causes of family and child migration, we are extremely disappointed to learn that President Trump intends to cut off aid to the region," said the statement from five lawmakers, including Rep. Eliot L. Engel of New York, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The President's approach is entirely counterproductive."

The Trump administration has threatened before to scale back or cut off U.S. assistance to Central America. Congress has not approved most of those proposed cuts, however, and a report this year by the Congressional Research Service said any change in that funding would depend on what Congress does.

Short of a widespread border shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the U.S. might close designated ports of entry to re-deploy staff to help process parents and children. Ports of entry are official crossing points that are used by residents and commercial vehicles. Many people who cross the border illegally ultimately request asylum under U.S. law, which does not require asylum seekers to enter at an official crossing.

Border officials are also planning to more than quadruple the number of asylum seekers sent back over the border to wait out their immigration cases, said an administration official. The official said right now about 60 migrants per day are returned and officials are hoping to send as many as 300 per day. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about internal plans and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Trump's latest declaration came after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his country was doing its part to fight migrant smuggling. Criminal networks charge thousands of dollars a person to move migrants through Mexico, increasingly in large groups toward remote sections of the border.

"We want to have a good relationship with the government of the United States," Lopez Obrador said Friday. He added: "We are going to continue helping so that the migratory flow, those who pass through our country, do so according to the law, in an orderly way."

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico's foreign relations secretary, tweeted that his country "doesn't act based on threats" and is "the best neighbor" the U.S. could have.

Alejandra Mier y Teran, executive director of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce in San Diego, said the mere threat of border closures sends the wrong message to businesses in Mexico and may eventually scare companies into turning to Asia for their supply chains.

"I think the impact would be absolutely devastating on so many fronts," said Mier y Teran, whose members rely on the Otay Mesa crossing to bring televisions, medical devices and a wide range of products to the U.S. "In terms of a long-term effect, it's basically shooting yourself in your foot. It's sending out a message to other countries that, 'Don't come because our borders may not work at any time.' That is extremely scary and dangerous."

___

Merchant reported from Houston, Lucey from Washington. Associated Press writers Peter Orsi in Mexico City, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Colleen Long, Catherine Lucey and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley’s first pass in anything resembling a football game in nearly five months, a rollout pass to his tight end for a 23-yard gain, showcased the skills that offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig hopes to maximize.

Huntley’s next pass was intercepted by Penn State transfer Manny Bowen, a linebacker who has made plays like that throughout March.

Utah’s first full scrimmage of the spring produced the usual mixed results Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium, with Huntley’s successful return emerging as the biggest takeaway. His season ended in early November with a broken collarbone at Arizona State, but Huntley clearly has regained his starting job and appears ready for a productive senior year.

Huntley completed 10 of 12 passes for 98 yards (statistics are unofficial), including a 2-yard touchdown pass to Demari Simpkins in the red-zone phase of the scrimmage.

“I think Tyler has a chance to be a great quarterback,” Ludwig said. “I'm really impressed with the way he works. His football aptitude and football intellect in the meeting room is outstanding. I'm his third quarterback coach [at Utah], and he's been well trained. I just want to make sure the scheme caters to his skill set.”

The playbook gives the quarterback considerable responsibility to make adjustments. “It’s a lot of thinking when you come to the line,” Huntley said, “but in the long run, it’s going to be good.”

Jason Shelley and Drew Lisk split series with the No. 2 offense. The uncertainty about Texas transfer Cameron Rising's 2019 eligibility makes it impractical to reduce playing time for Shelley and Lisk, coach Kyle Whittingham said.

Shelley went 4 of 8 for 47 yards with three throwaways, due to the coverage. Lisk was 4 of 7 for 40 yards, including an 8-yard touchdown to Samson Nacua. Solomon Enis caught three passes for 57 yards.

Partly due to injuries and inexperience on the offensive line, Utah’s straight-ahead running game was stuffed by the veteran defensive line on nearly every play. The offense’s most rushing success came via misdirection runs, handoffs to receivers and quarterback keepers on the zone-read option. Running back TJ Green posted runs of 18, 9 and 8 yards. Receiver Demari Simpkins ran for 10 and 15 yards and Shelley kept the ball for gains of 11 and 10 yards, plus a 6-yard touchdown.

Quarterbacks were not tackled; nor were first-team offensive players in the 68-play scrimmage. Rising quarterbacked a 7-on-7 segment at the end of the Utes' ninth of 15 practices this spring.

Placekicker is among Utah’s unsettled positions, with the graduation of former Lou Groza Award winner Matt Gay. Sophomore Chayden Johnston was No. 1 going into the spring, but his inconsistency has created a competition with freshman Jadon Redding, who made field goals of 42 and 37 yards. Johnston hit a 25-yarder.

The Utes will stage another scrimmage Friday in the last live work for most front-line players. The Red-White Game is April 13.

Donald Trump cannot win the 2020 election. But the Democrats can certainly lose it, just as they did in 2016. In fact, they seem determined to do so. They have already put forth dozens of potential nominees, most of whom have no chance of success.

Will Rogers said something like, “I don’t belong to an organized political party; I’m a Democrat.”

Trump fell short in the popular vote the last time around. Since that time, he has surely lost more votes than he has gained. First, he has not fulfilled the promises he made during the campaign. Second, he made himself even more offensive than he was four years ago. And third, his in-house helpers vacated the White House and its environs in record numbers. Many of them wrote books attacking Trump’s character or his wisdom or his leadership — or all three. Those who continue to back Trump either don’t pay any more attention to facts than Trump does, or they listen only to Trump apologists such as Sean Hannity, or they care more about their party than their country, or they believe in the tooth fairy.

Sadky, the motivation behind Trump loyalists is not difficult to discern. Most are good people who have been hurt by thoughtless political and economic misdeeds or by changing realities ignored by leaders over too many decades.

Democrats often seem equally oblivious to reality. They foolishly expected too much from the special counsel. Even now, they focus on proven losers. Bernie Sanders has no chance at winning a nationwide election. His words and past performance are filled with pie-in-the-sky promises, but he offers no realistic plans for implementation (much like Trump).

Elizabeth Warren has some of the same problems. She knows where she wants to go, but she has no rational idea about how to get there. As a highly visible senator, she had zero success in convincing Congress to deal with the deficit – perhaps our most threatening challenge. The interest we pay on the debt — mostly to millionaires — would certainly take care of the social programs our billionaire president wants to starve or eliminate. Neither Trump nor Democrats seem to care about people or deficits, and Trump doesn’t plan to deal with national debt any more than he planned to pay debts he accumulated to build his business.

Almost all Democrat candidates are more capable than Trump, but unless the party can unite early and find a strong, identifiable message, the campaign will be more disruptive than unifying for them.

Republicans, too, have attractive candidates other than Trump. But Republican leadership marches in goose-step against the challengers, and the Trump media echo chamber would just as soon attack rational Republicans as rational Democrats.

There’s a chance that Trump will resign before the election. It makes sense for him to do so. He could easily claim that Congress — especially “those nasty Democrats” — won’t let him deliver the “great” things he promised, that the presidency is overly restrictive for “outstanding individuals” such as Donald Trump, that powerful forces are out to get him and his family, and that he can’t “make America great again” unless the American people learn to appreciate the “greatness” he pretends to offer.

It’s all baloney, but it’s the kind of baloney on which Trump thrives.

Trump’s face-saving resignation would elevate Mike Pence, a relatively easy target for even the least qualified Democrats.

Sadly, it appears that the question in next year’s national election is not who will win but who will lose. And that most likely means that the ultimate losers will be the American people and the American dream.

Don Gale, Salt Lake City, has, over the past 50 years, written 6,000 broadcast editorials, 500 newspaper/magazine commentaries, 1,000 speeches and a dozen books.

In June of 2018, a Virginian restaurant refused to serve White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, igniting a conversation about civility within the Republican Party. Many Democrats scoffed at the Republicans’ hypocritical outrage. Then-candidate Donald Trump had joked about imprisoning Hilary Clinton. Clearly, the lack of civility exists on both sides.

The sensationalism of modern newscasts reflects their true priority: ratings. This trend also exists in online media. The number of people who click on an article or subscribe to a newspaper determines the economic success of that medium.

The emphasis on bold, controversial titles attracts more clicks and viewers but forms stronger opinions and first impressions, leading to further division between viewers with opposing politics. Vice Media, for example, makes controversial and outlandish claims without much factual backing to increase its bottom line. It operates this way because viewers are more likely to click on outrageous titles than investigate simple facts. Tragically, in a time of information overload, many people do not read past the headline, which then becomes accepted as fact.

The Society for Professional Journalists’ code of ethics states that journalists should “take responsibility for the accuracy of their work.” Because these provocative titles become regarded as fact by some viewers, Vice Media must take responsibility for the incivility fostered by its sensationalized reporting.

The media have a responsibility to encourage civility. Fox News, as an example, flouts this responsibility by heavily stressing the corruption of the Democrats and the perfection of Donald Trump and his administration, even at the cost of truth and integrity.

By creating animosity among its viewers, Fox News generates a dangerous mob mentality and encourages increased hostility based on party identification rather than on policy. Fox News and other such news outlets demonize the Democratic Party to create antagonism along party lines, furthering the divide that already splits the nation. Especially when politics touches every discussion necessary for change, the nation’s future, much like a family Thanksgiving dinner, cannot afford animosity at the very mention of disparate political views.

Republican President Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill heartily disagreed on policy. However, they looked past their differences as politicians to become friends once the work day ended. This act of civility, like those that once defined Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch’s bipartisan legacy, starkly contrasts with the current political scene, where the president jokingly threatened to arrest Hilary Clinton on the campaign trail.

The shift from the civility of past administrations to the hostility of today’s politics is, in part, due to the rise of media like InfoWars and Vice Media and their disregard for civility and the truth in pursuit of monetary gain and partisan politics.

To promote civility, the media should report facts, pen accurate titles and avoid demonizing politicians or their parties. Civility is an end in itself, but cannot exist when the media drive wedges through “purple” communities, attack political foes or make egregiously false claims for the sake of publicity or monetary gain.

The country’s political landscape once supported civility between political opponents, and though times have changed, two things that have not are the spirit of democracy and the ability of the American public to strive for positive change in a civil manner.

Laura Summerfield is a junior at Rowland Hall High School, Salt Lake City. This essay won first prize in this year’s Westminster’s Honors College Essay Contest.

Some people may tell you that a couple of bills passed by the Utah Legislature will reduce the number of legal abortions performed in the state.

But they may be wrong about which bills those were.

In fact, one measure that may do the most to cut down on the number of abortions the only reasonable way a state can — by helping women to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies — wasn’t even passed this year. It was an act of the 2018 session, that year’s Senate Bill 184, which made it legal for women to get various forms of contraception from a pharmacists rather than require a prescription from a physician.

Working out the regulations and paperwork, of course, took awhile. But, Wednesday, Dr. Joseph K. Miner, executive director of the Utah Department of Health, issued the necessary order to implement the legislation, which was carried through the process by Sen. Todd Weiler and Rep. Raymond Ward.

Pharmacists who take five hours of specialized training will be allowed to issue certain kinds of contraceptives to women over the age of 18 after getting the woman’s health history and discussing with her which method might be best for her. To keep receiving the medication or devices, patients must see a women’s health specialist at least once in two years. Paying for the contraceptives is up to the woman or her health insurance provider.

Arguably that’s still too many hoops to jump through. A process that would make contraceptives simple over-the-counter buys, with no age restrictions, might have been better. But this was apparently as far as the Legislature was willing to go, so it was a step worth taking.

The law and the rules properly recognize that the easy availability of contraceptives not only reduce the demand for abortions, they also improve the health, educational and career opportunities and financial security of the women who choose to use them. And that, in turn, benefits whole households, communities and the state overall.

And, as health department officials rightly point out, any physical hazards associated with modern forms of contraception pose less of a risk to women than does pregnancy, with its possibilities of hypertension, hemorrhage and miscarriage.

Another bill, this one passed this year and signed by Gov. Gary Herbert last week, might also do some good in reducing unwanted pregnancies, and thus reducing abortions. That was House Bill 71, sponsored by the same two legislators, which somewhat cleaned up the messy state law governing the teaching of sex education in Utah public schools to clarify that teachers may get a little closer to sex education worthy of the name by explaining — though not advocating — the uses, benefits, and risks, of various forms of contraception.

Sex ed in Utah schools is still opt-in, meaning parents have to sign off on their children even attending the class. And school districts can still opt out. Which is unfortunate. But HB71 is clearly a step in the right direction.

The two of those bills together will do a lot more to reduce the number of abortions. They will do so by being supportive of women and families rather than trying to dictate to women by entering the most personal spaces of their lives. Bills with that dictatorial approach, one that would ban abortions after 18 weeks and another that purports to tell women not to have abortions only because their fetus has been diagnosed as having Down syndrome (as if anyone will ever know what the real reason was) also passed this session.

Both are likely to be struck down in court as interfering with a woman’s constitutional right to choose. Which means if Utah politicians really want to reduce abortions in their state, they are going to have to find more ways to be helpful, and fewer ways to be overpowering.

Utah women’s basketball player Dre’Una Edwards, the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, is in the NCAA transfer portal, her father confirmed Saturday.

Andre Edwards didn't say why his daughter planned to transfer from Utah, after a season when she became a six-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, helping the Utes break the conference record with a total of nine such awards.

Dre’Una Edwards, a 6-foot-2 forward from Las Vegas, averaged 11.6 points and 6.7 rebounds in 26 games, while shooting 54 percent from the field to rank third in the Pac-12. She injured her knee during a Feb. 22 win over Washington and missed the remaining three games of the regular season, plus a first-round loss to Washington in the Pac-12 tournament.

With her team down to seven active players, Ute coach Lynne Roberts chose to halt the team’s season, rather than play in the WNIT. Utah finished 20-10 overall and 9-9 in the Pac-12, tying for sixth place in the program’s highest-ever finish in a conference that landed five teams in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.

Edwards was among the team's most consistent players, with her rebounding and inside scoring ability. She became even more vital after senior forward Daneesha Provo was lost for the season with a knee injury in the team's Pac-12 opener. The Utes once stood 18-1 with a No. 14 national ranking, before fading in a tough league.

The departure of Edwards, along with senior guard Erika Bean and All-Pac-12 forward Megan Huff, means Utah will have two returning starters in 2019-20: guard Dru Gylten and forward Kiana Moore, plus top reserves Andrea Torres and Niyah Becker. Utah also will have two transfers who redshirted last season, Julie Brosseau and forward Ola Makurat. Injured forward Maurane Corbin also will be available, and the program is labeling forward Lola Pendande of Spain as an incoming freshman, after admissions issues made her unavailable in 2018-19.

In November, Roberts signed Corner Canyon High School guard Kemery Martin, the Utah Gatorade Player of the Year, and guard Brynna Maxwell, the 3A Player of the Year in Washington.

Some Salt Lake City residents will remain without power into a third day after an early spring snowstorm damaged power lines.

Maintenance crews have been working to restore electricity since Friday morning after the city was coated in an unexpected inch of snow. The storm, which brought heavy winds and heavy slush, caused scattered outages that impacted more than 19,000 residents at the peak.

About 900 remained without power by Saturday night.

The city sent out a notice advising those residents that a fix might not come until sometime Sunday. To check the status of the outage, customers can text “STAT” to Rocky Mountain Power at 759677.

Salt Lake City’s forestry team also worked to clear the broken tree branches blocking roadways and sidewalks. But most residents were asked to clean up the litter on their own property.

The forecast calls for a sunny Sunday, with temperatures in the mid-50s.

For many years, the Utah gymnastics coaching duo of Greg and Megan Marsden lobbied to change the NCAA Championships to make the event more fan and TV friendly.

Their efforts finally paid off as the NCAA regional and national competitions are introducing new formats that cut the participating teams, eliminating the need for the byes that made postseason competitions a sort of endurance event for everyone involved.

While Greg retired several years ago and won’t get to experience the change, his wife is all too happy to negotiate the new system, even if it means the Utes don’t advance to nationals.

“Human nature often makes you look at what is best for you, but we want to be part of something bigger and what is best for gymnastics overall,” Marsden said. “You have to look at the big picture.”

The big picture wasn’t good for gymnastics in previous years, at least when it came to TV exposure. While more and more regular season meets were being broadcast live, nationals continued to be broadcast most often on tape-delay several weeks after the event because the bye format simply made it unmanageable.

Beginning this year, regionals are being cut from a six-team, six-site format to a nine-team, four-site format. And instead of 12 teams making it to nationals, only eight will survive.

Also changing is the method for individuals to quality for the NCAAs. The 12 best all-around and 16 best gymnasts on each event who are not on a regional qualifying team will advance to regionals as individuals and will compete in the second day, rotating with qualifying teams just as before.

The top all-around individual and top individual finisher on each event will advance.

The changes mean the regional competitions expand from one to two days, plus a play-in meet, but college gymnastics coaches saw the format as a good compromise since it still allows 36 teams to advance beyond conference play.

The expanded competition means more demand on the gymnasts, which Utah junior MyKayla Skinner sees as a double-edged sword.

“It gives other schools a chance to make it, but I also think it could be too many meets,” she said. “We already compete back-to-back at nationals and doing it at regionals is kind of hard, but then again, it gives us the opportunity to compete that way before nationals so it’s extra practice.”

Marsden, though, remains positive that the changes will be embraced by fans and the gymnasts.

“I really predict the athletes and coaches living it are going to find out that finishing a competition in an hour and 50 minutes instead of three hours will feel a lot better to them,” she said. “I don’t think they are going to feel like they got hit by a bus like they did with the other format. Physically and mentally it was hard because with the byes you get warmed up and ready to go, then cool down, then warmed up, then cool down. It was hard and when you sit around like that, soreness starts to set in.”

While the new format might seem like it will make it more difficult for programs that aren’t traditionally in the Top 10, Southern Utah coach Scott Bauman said the change was worth it for the fans. He would be willing to do away with the individual competition too.

“We would then be a strictly team sport and I believe the NCAA has more of an affinity towards team sports," he said.

There is no doubt following four teams competing at once will be easier for fans than keeping tabs on six.

But what about that goal of getting more TV exposure? Indications are the move will help.

ESPN will televise the regional meets at LSU (where the Utes will perform) and Georgia with a combination of ESPN3 and SECN+, while the Oregon State and Michigan regionals will be covered by Pac-12 digital and Flo Sports.

The NCAA Championships April 19-20 in Fort Worth, Texas, will be televised by a combination of ESPN2 and ESPNU.

“We didn’t know if we were going to have any TV coverage this year so to have some is exciting,” Marsden said. “We have to do what is best for our sport and I believe these changes are going to move us forward. Being on live television definitely helps us. There is that saying, it’s not real unless it is on live TV.”

Technology is a major part of our lives, and companies such as Facebook have immense responsibilities. Every day, we make decisions about what speech is harmful, what constitutes political advertising, and how to prevent sophisticated cyberattacks. These are important for keeping our community safe. But if we were starting from scratch, we wouldn't ask companies to make these judgments alone.

I believe we need a more active role for governments and regulators. By updating the rules for the internet, we can preserve what’s best about it — the freedom for people to express themselves and for entrepreneurs to build new things — while also protecting society from broader harms.

From what I've learned, I believe we need new regulation in four areas: harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.

First, harmful content. Facebook gives everyone a way to use their voice, and that creates real benefits — from sharing experiences to growing movements. As part of this, we have a responsibility to keep people safe on our services. That means deciding what counts as terrorist propaganda, hate speech and more. We continually review our policies with experts, but at our scale we’ll always make mistakes and decisions that people disagree with.

Lawmakers often tell me we have too much power over speech, and frankly I agree. I've come to believe that we shouldn't make so many important decisions about speech on our own. So we're creating an independent body so people can appeal our decisions. We're also working with governments, including French officials, on ensuring the effectiveness of content review systems.

Internet companies should be accountable for enforcing standards on harmful content. It’s impossible to remove all harmful content from the internet, but when people use dozens of different sharing services — all with their own policies and processes — we need a more standardized approach.

One idea is for third-party bodies to set standards governing the distribution of harmful content and to measure companies against those standards. Regulation could set baselines for what's prohibited and require companies to build systems for keeping harmful content to a bare minimum.

Facebook already publishes transparency reports on how effectively we're removing harmful content. I believe every major internet service should do this quarterly, because it's just as important as financial reporting. Once we understand the prevalence of harmful content, we can see which companies are improving and where we should set the baselines.

Second, legislation is important for protecting elections. Facebook has already made significant changes around political ads: Advertisers in many countries must verify their identities before purchasing political ads. We built a searchable archive that shows who pays for ads, what other ads they ran and what audiences saw the ads. However, deciding whether an ad is political isn't always straightforward. Our systems would be more effective if regulation created common standards for verifying political actors.

Online political advertising laws primarily focus on candidates and elections, rather than divisive political issues where we've seen more attempted interference. Some laws only apply during elections, although information campaigns are nonstop. And there are also important questions about how political campaigns use data and targeting. We believe legislation should be updated to reflect the reality of the threats and set standards for the whole industry.

Third, effective privacy and data protection needs a globally harmonized framework. People around the world have called for comprehensive privacy regulation in line with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, and I agree. I believe it would be good for the internet if more countries adopted regulation such as GDPR as a common framework.

New privacy regulation in the United States and around the world should build on the protections GDPR provides. It should protect your right to choose how your information is used — while enabling companies to use information for safety purposes and to provide services. It shouldn’t require data to be stored locally, which would make it more vulnerable to unwarranted access. And it should establish a way to hold companies such as Facebook accountable by imposing sanctions when we make mistakes.

I also believe a common global framework — rather than regulation that varies significantly by country and state — will ensure that the internet does not get fractured, entrepreneurs can build products that serve everyone, and everyone gets the same protections.

As lawmakers adopt new privacy regulations, I hope they can help answer some of the questions GDPR leaves open. We need clear rules on when information can be used to serve the public interest and how it should apply to new technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Finally, regulation should guarantee the principle of data portability. If you share data with one service, you should be able to move it to another. This gives people choice and enables developers to innovate and compete.

This is important for the internet — and for creating services people want. It’s why we built our development platform. True data portability should look more like the way people use our platform to sign into an app than the existing ways you can download an archive of your information. But this requires clear rules about who’s responsible for protecting information when it moves between services.

This also needs common standards, which is why we support a standard data transfer format and the open source Data Transfer Project.

I believe Facebook has a responsibility to help address these issues, and I'm looking forward to discussing them with lawmakers around the world. We've built advanced systems for finding harmful content, stopping election interference and making ads more transparent. But people shouldn't have to rely on individual companies addressing these issues by themselves. We should have a broader debate about what we want as a society and how regulation can help. These four areas are important, but, of course, there's more to discuss.

The rules governing the internet allowed a generation of entrepreneurs to build services that changed the world and created a lot of value in people's lives. It's time to update these rules to define clear responsibilities for people, companies and governments going forward.

Mark Zuckerberg is founder and chief executive of Facebook.

Maybe President Trump should come with a warning label.

The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold, who covers what might be called the Trump flimflam beat, issued his latest installment Thursday with Jonathan O'Connell about the serial exaggerations, omissions and fabrications Trump used on financial statements to lenders: padding Trump Tower with an extra 10 floors, adding 800 phantom acres to a vineyard, puffing up an estate's value by more than $200 million, ignoring debts and inflating his net worth by $4 billion.

But experts said he might get away with it without being charged with fraud — because he was so bold and outrageous in his dishonesty that nobody would be fooled. One of Trump’s statements even came with a disclaimer saying “users of this financial statement should recognize that they might reach different conclusions about the financial condition of Donald J. Trump if they had access to a revised statement of financial condition prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.”

In other words: You might feel differently about this huckster if you knew the truth. Caveat emptor.

A similar technique — transparent chicanery — appears to have gotten Trump off the hook in Robert Mueller's probe into whether he obstructed justice by firing his FBI director and harassing those investigating him.

Trump's lawyers had argued that his obvious efforts to thwart the investigation couldn't qualify as obstruction because they happened in plain sight. As the New York Times put it in February: "The president's brazen public behavior might be his best defense."

Amazingly, Attorney General William Barr made exactly that point in his four-page summary of the nearly 400-page Mueller report, in which Barr said he would not charge Trump with obstruction. "In cataloguing the president's actions, many of which took place in public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct," Barr wrote.

In the broader inquiry into whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to win the 2016 election, Trump's defenders yet again made a similar argument: A conspiracy is clandestine, but Trump was talking to TV cameras when he asked Russia to find Hillary Clinton's emails.

In all cases, it boils down to this: Trump's wrongdoing was too obvious, ham-handed and pervasive to be criminal. The guy's a con artist — what did you expect? It's not bank fraud or conspiracy or obstruction of justice: It's Trump being Trump.

There's a downside to this, though, as Trump now sees. The same reputation for being a scoundrel that protects him from scandals simultaneously denies him credibility and respect.

Barr claims that Mueller found no criminal conspiracy between Trump's campaign and Russia, and Barr decided that the evidence Mueller presented did not merit charging Trump with obstruction of justice. Trump now claims "complete and total exoneration," and it appears he earned at least partial exoneration.

But the public isn't impressed. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted at the time Barr's summary came out found Trump's disapproval rate remained unchanged, at 55 percent, from earlier in the month and earlier this year.

A CNN poll, meanwhile, finds that 56 percent say Trump has not been exonerated of conspiring with Russia, even though Barr says Mueller found no criminal conspiracy. And only 13 percent say Mueller's findings will sway their 2020 vote — 7 percent for Trump and 6 percent against.

If Trump supposed his troubles would end with the Mueller probe, he confused consequence and cause. Mueller was a consequence — one of many. The cause is a president who is erratic, impulsive and fundamentally dishonest. Even a number of his supporters, polling indicates, don't regard him as honest or admirable but back him for partisan reasons.

Suppose a special prosecutor in the Obama administration had filed a 400-page report about crimes possibly committed by President Barack Obama, and Obama appointees sat on the report while offering a "nothing to see here" summary.

Trump would no doubt have speculated that the prosecutor had found evidence that Obama had conspired with Lee Harvey Oswald, murdered both Vince Foster and Antonin Scalia, was an operative of both Islamic State and the "deep state," ran a pedophile ring out of a pizza restaurant, and was shown by DNA to be Osama bin Laden's twin brother.

And most people would have just figured that was Trump being Trump.

Now, Trump claims "total and complete exoneration" in the Mueller probe. And most people just figure this is Trump being Trump. In this sense, he already carries a disclaimer, unwritten but understood by all.

Warning: This man is a charlatan.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.

Quin Snyder was perturbed by the reporter’s question.

“It seems like Ricky (Rubio)’s done a really good job of staying involved with the community and the team even after the trade rumors. What does that say about Ricky and what kind of person he is?”

That’s what upset Snyder. The Utah Jazz coach knows Rubio well enough that the thought of Rubio changing who he is as a person in response to something that happened on the court or in the news is, well, offensive.

“It’s who he is. The idea that he wouldn’t be is, to me, it wouldn’t be on my radar. It’s not about a perception or something, it’s not even about him. It’s about what he’s doing for other people and the things that he’s passionate about," Snyder said. “If he’s here, if he’s in Minnesota, if he’s in Barcelona, he’s a unique, unique person.”

But the truth of the matter is that there would have been NBA players who immediately withdrew from their surroundings once their future was in doubt. That Rubio didn’t says something about him.

“To keep that same positivity and same happiness, it’s never a dull day with Ricky, it’s never an off day,” Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell said. “He’s always on and always happy.”

The list of community programs Rubio is involved in is lengthy. So, for example, Rubio has continued his “One Month One Cause” plan this season, where each month, he highlights, works with, and donates to a different charity.

He’s an ambassador for the Special Olympics — this year, he took a group of Special Olympians up to the Adidas store in Park City, where he led them on a shopping spree. He’s hosted Make-a-Wish Utah at a Jazz game in November. He’s probably the main player face behind the 5 For The Fight organization that has placed its name on the Jazz’s uniforms, working to raise funds for cancer research.

Cancer is a cause near and dear to Rubio: he lost his mother to lung cancer in 2016.

So he’s met with patients at the Huntsman Cancer Institute multiple times this season, including two days before the trade deadline. Just an hour after the deadline, he visited Primary Children’s Hospital, along with his Jazz teammates. He flew 12-year-old cancer patient Luca de la Vega from Spain to New York to watch the Jazz’s game against the Knicks; Luca acted as Rubio’s ball-boy, got excellent seats, and Rubio made sure he got an autograph from all of his teammates after the game.

“Ricky is just such a great person. He’s got a big heart. He really cares about people, he cares about us as teammates,” Kyle Korver said. “It feels like he’s always watching, always noticing, always reaching out however he can. And then he’s doing that in the community too, that’s just who he is. He’s a great guy.”

There’s also the Ricky Rubio Academy, his monthly basketball camp at Rowland Hall school in Salt Lake City. For kids of all skill levels between 7 and 14 years old, the camp teaches basketball skills and “the values that bring basketball to life, including leadership skills, healthy habits, and nutritional knowledge," according to Rubio.

“The kids have something special. They always have the fire to play basketball, because they love basketball no matter what. Sometimes we lose track of that during our pro years,” Rubio said. “Seeing a kid enjoying the game just loving the basketball is pure passion, pure love. That’s why I started to play basketball, because of that.”

While the camp has regular attendees, Rubio often invites special groups to join. In February, 10 from Special Olympics Utah attended Rubio’s sessions, for example. In March, it’s a group of Japanese youth who traveled to the U.S. for the occasion, meeting with Rubio on Saturday and Sunday.

How did that come about? Well, that story encapsulates what Rubio is all about: He met Japanese Timberwolves fan Mitsuaki Ono in a chance meeting at a Minneapolis restaurant. Through his seasons with the Wolves, whenever Ono had the chance to travel to the states for a game, the two would chat before or after the contest.

“So yeah, it’s pretty much the same after the game. After that, he always said, ‘Oh, you came today. How was the flight and how’s life?” Ono told the Japan Times. "That makes me closer to him. Every time I meet him . . . he cares what I’m doing (in life).”

“In Japan and China, they love basketball, but they’re so far away, it’s hard to get connected. He really is passionate about basketball, and we met more than a couple of times, and the first couple of times I realized how much he loves basketball and how much he’s doing for the people in Japan to really love the NBA,” Rubio said.

Ono was introduced to Rubio’s manager and friend Lucas Charte, and the two began to figure out how Rubio could reach out to Japanese youth. This trip was the result.

“I brought them them to feel something outside of Japan, because they only know Japan basketball," Ono said. "In the States, they can see whole other things, which will grow their mind and their futures.”

So yes, Rubio’s future with the Jazz might be up in the air — he’s an unrestricted free agent this summer. But from the way Rubio is regarded by those in Minnesota, Barcelona, or even Japan, regardless of what happens to his basketball future, Rubio’s impact will continue to be felt in 2020 and beyond in Utah.

“The community gives you so much that you have to give back a lot. The more you give back, the more love you receive, and that’s great. We have the power to make an impact where we’re at, and we have to take advantage of that for the good things,” Rubio said. “Kids are going to grow up and you can be proud of making an impact.”

Reno, Nev. • Aaron Zanto describes ski lines in snow the way a painter describes brush strokes on canvas.

When he's skiing the Lake Tahoe area backcountry, the 44-year-old firefighter from Kings Beach, California, strives to make every line meaningful.

But not every line is beautiful, as Zanto learned when an avalanche on Jobs Peak turned his partner's ski line into an ugly smear across the snow.

It also transformed the day into a crisis that required every ounce of Zanto’s skill and a few strokes of luck: Setting his partner’s broken leg; watching a helicopter turn away due to high winds; dragging his seriously injured partner through deep snow to reach rescuers; wondering whether a second helicopter could get his friend off the mountain by nightfall.

Through the ordeal, Zanto gained a greater appreciation for the tools and knowledge anyone who skis, hikes or rides in the backcountry should take on every trip.

"Think about where you are going and are you prepared for what it is going to mean," he told the Reno Gazette Journal . Zanto's ski partner didn't want to be interviewed or identified publicly.

Their ski trip went bad Feb. 12 on the flanks of Jobs Peak, a mountain towering more than 5,000 feet above Nevada's Carson Valley floor. The 10,600-foot peak with commanding views of the Lake Tahoe Basin is actually in California.

An advisory from the Sierra Avalanche Center warned of the potential for avalanches.

But Zanto had been monitoring the snowpack all season and was confident they could avoid problems.

"I think any reports are super important, but skiing day in, day out is kind of more what I take into consideration," he said. "We definitely thought things were stable that day."

By 10 a.m. they reached the rim of a steep couloir called Jaws and noticed there had already been a natural avalanche.

They descended a 2,000-foot line on better snow back into the canyon.

With plenty of time left in the day, they headed toward the S Chute, named for its shape and visibility from the valley below.

Along the way they noticed strong winds had rearranged snow, even in protected areas. They also observed ridges of wind-deposited snow deep into the trees, something usually associated with exposed terrain.

Zanto said they didn't factor the conditions into their decision-making as much as they could have.

Eventually, they reached what they estimated to be about a 40-degree pitch, an angle that's steep enough to produce avalanches.

While they were discussing their options, a gust of wind ripped a climbing skin from Zanto's grasp and blew it down the line they were contemplating.

Zanto skied first and retrieved the lost skin. The snow held and all seemed well.

Zanto's partner followed. That's when things went wrong and the snow broke loose.

"The whole thing just broke away, it started to carry him," Zanto said.

Zanto watched helplessly from 15 feet away while the avalanche gained size and speed. By the time it stopped, it was 40 feet wide and had carried his partner 500 feet down slope.

"I remember him getting washed off his feet and being like, 'Oh crap, he is not going to be able to stop.'"

Zanto reached for his avalanche beacon but realized he wouldn't need it. His ski partner was only partially buried with his head and arms free above the snow.

When he realized his partner was breathing and conscious, Zanto thought they had averted a serious problem.

It wasn't until Zanto was digging that he saw his partner's leg was bloody and badly broken.

Zanto knew he had to act fast. Given his medical training as a firefighter, Zanto knew his friend was at risk of catastrophic blood loss, hypothermia and shock.

He disassembled a collapsible ski pole to make a splint to set the broken leg. He wrapped his friend in warm clothes and tucked him into a bivy bag.

They were within range of cellular towers, and Zanto called 911 about noon. Dispatchers sent a California Highway Patrol helicopter with a hoist toward them.

But despite multiple hoist attempts in high winds, the helicopter was forced to turn back.

Alpine County Search and Rescue advised Zanto and his friend to stay put while rescuers approached by ski and snowshoe.

It would take rescuers hours to reach them, and Zanto knew they didn't have that kind of time. The sun would set in less than four hours.

Nightfall was "just not an acceptable option," Zanto said.

So Zanto started moving his partner toward the rescuers.

It was a slow operation. The snow was deep and soft and Zanto had to pull him, step-by-exhausting-step.

"I was pulling on his good leg; I basically pulled his ski boot and walked backward," Zanto said.

For more than an hour, Zanto pulled his partner downhill. Even resting was a challenge. Every time they stopped, his partner's body heat melted the snow around him and caused the bivy bag to freeze in place.

After about an hour, Zanto and his partner reached a rescuer about 1,000 feet lower than where they started.

They continued towing Zanto's friend, descending another 200 feet before meeting more rescuers.

Even with help, progress remained slow and daylight dwindled.

The two skiers had been on the mountain nearly eight hours. Traveling another half-mile would take until after dark.

One of the rescuers summoned a Nevada National Guard helicopter able to fly under difficult circumstances.

National Guard Lt. Col. Andrew Wagner got the call.

Wagner knew other helicopter teams had decided against flying. But he also knew the Guard's UH-60 Black Hawk, with two engines and a combined 3,000 horsepower carrying his crew of five could conduct the mission.

Plus, the Black Hawk might be the skiers' last chance.

"If we weren't able to get there, there was a good chance they were going to be there all night which greatly increased the risk for the patient," Wagner said.

With the capability to fly 170 mph, the crew reached the Carson Valley in about 20 minutes. The crew had little trouble locating the group, but they faced stronger winds than expected.

"We train in more difficult conditions routinely around here, whether it is night or snow or higher elevation," Wagner said.

He described hovering about 120 to 130 feet above the ground, using tall trees to help him keep the craft properly oriented. Staff Sgt. Nicholas Hammond and a stretcher were lowered by hoist to the ground.

After his ski partner was safely in the Black Hawk, Zanto had time to ski back to his parked truck.

Although the day included a serious injury and helicopter rescue, Richard Bothwell, a backcountry ski guide and avalanche instructor, said the skiers were well prepared for emergencies and made good decisions under difficult circumstances.

He said carrying a bivy bag instead of a space blanket and having a working cellphone and GPS location were critical.

"The vast majority of the people we see out in the backcountry are poorly prepared to deal with a significant situation," he said.

Zanto and his partner also benefited from good luck, Bothwell said.

"With just a little bit of a shift in luck that helicopter wouldn't have flown in and they would have been out there for a significantly longer period of time," he said.

___

Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, http://www.rgj.com

Herriman • Things did not go well early for Real Salt Lake on Saturday evening against FC Dallas.

Not even a minute had passed before Real Salt Lake gave up a goal. Minutes later, center back Erik Holt, who started the game after a solid performance last week against LAFC, left with an apparent ankle injury.

Then Damir Kreilach, getting knocked down in the midfield, got up and appeared to head butt an FC Dallas player, causing the referee to show him a red card and eject him from the game. RSL finished with 10 players on the field in the 4-2 loss at Rio Tinto Stadium.

The first 20 minutes against FC Dallas were the polar opposite of the first 30 two weeks ago against D.C. United, when Real finished with nine men on the field in a 5-0 drubbing. Two players received red cards that night.

Forward Jefferson Savarino evened the score in the 31st minute with a vicious right-footed strike from just outside the 18-yard box. Sebastian Saucedo provided the assist and let out an emotional first pump when Savarino found the back of the net.

But just a minute later, an FC Dallas player attempted a pass to Paxton Pomykal, who was positioned between RSL center backs Marcelo Silva and Nedum Onuoha. Silva tried to bat the ball away, but it went straight to Pomykal, who scored from about 10 yards away and gave Dallas a 2-1 lead.

Pomykal scored again in the 64th minute, but Silva answered two minutes later with a well-placed header off Albert Runsák’s corner kick. Jesús Ferreira quickly extended Dallas’ lead with a finish close to goal off a low cross for a 4-2 advantage.

This story will be updated.

Thousands of revelers gathered to celebrate the arrival of spring at the Holi Festival of Colors at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork Saturday. In India, Holi announces the arrival of spring, the Holi Fest in Utah is a modern adaptation of the traditional Indian celebration, where colored powder is used instead of liquid color. The festival featured live music, yoga, dancing, food, and the throwing of colors. The Festival continues Sunday from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

For weeks now I’ve been seeing a persistent rumor circulating in social media: that the prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M. Nelson, is about to lift the ban on members drinking coffee and tea.

Now before I go on the record as saying that I think this rumor is, at best, wishful thinking on the part of people who would like to gulp down a guilt-free frappuccino, let me out myself as an utter failure at giving credence to other early rumors when those rumors did, in fact, wind up bearing fruit.

To wit: I wrote a column nearly a year ago saying that people who believed that the church was about to shorten its Sunday services to two hours instead of three were completely off base, and if I was wrong, I would eat my hat.

Here is the follow-up post in which I described what it tasted like to eat my hat.

The point is that I’ve been 100 percent wrong before, so you should take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt in your aforementioned coffee: I do not believe this rumor.

One of the reasons I don’t believe it is that my own research, which does not have any bearing on the matter, has been cited on social media as proof that the prophet is about to loosen the church’s restriction against coffee.

Say what? If I had been drinking coffee, I would have spit it out in surprise when I saw that.

For the record, the Next Mormons Survey did find that:

• Four in 10 millennial and Generation X Latter-day Saints in the United States said they had consumed coffee at some point in the past six months. Benjamin Knoll and I found this to be surprisingly high, as you can see in<a href="https://dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V51N01_20.pdf"> this Dialogue article</a> that unpacks the study’s findings about <a href="http://local.sltrib.com/online/WoW/">Word of Wisdom </a>observance.
• 62 percent of temple recommend holders affirmed that they had not consumed any of the substances forbidden by the Word of Wisdom (alcohol, coffee and tea, tobacco, or illegal or recreational drugs) in the past six months. The other 38 percent of recommend holders had consumed one or more.
• In a separate question, younger Latter-day Saint were less likely to say that it was “essential” to avoid coffee and tea to be a good member. Fewer than a third of millennials or Gen Xers said this was an “essential” part of a Mormon identity, compared to 52 percent of baby boomer/silent Saints.

(Read a past Salt Lake Tribune story here about the Word of Wisdom and how it has changed through the years and could in the future.)

So is there softening about Latter-day Saint attitudes toward Word of Wisdom adherence in the United States? Clearly, particularly for younger generations. Does this mean that the prophet is about to announce a Starbucks in every temple? No, though that idea made for a fun April Fools’ column a few years ago.

Leaving aside the argument that Mormonism is a global religion that is not wholly buffeted by the shifting sensibilities of some of its U.S. adherents, the Word of Wisdom has become a significant piece of our tribal identity the world over.

Yes, there are challenges in various areas of the world when missionaries and church leaders have to figure out whether a particular beverage is in keeping with the spirit of the Word of Wisdom, but that’s nothing new. The church has been navigating those questions for nearly a century, ever since adherence to the Word of Wisdom became a requirement for temple admission in 1921.

And even before that, when adherence was far from standardized and many members drank coffee — it was on a list of suggested provisions for pioneers to bring with them when crossing the plains — the ideal existed.

I have yet to hear anyone I know who works for the church confirm this rumor. Moreover, I don’t see a particular reason for it to be true; nothing vital has changed. No scientist has suddenly discovered the lifesaving benefits of a daily cuppa joe. No pressure is being exerted from outside the church insisting that Latter-day Saint abandon their java-avoidant ways and join the blocklong line at Peet’s.

Rather, what I see from the outside world is a begrudging admiration, like when Garrison Keillor did his “Prairie Home Companion” show in Utah and remarked upon how industrious the Mormon settlers had been — before imagining how much more they could have accomplished if they’d only consumed coffee.

So, I’m putting this particular General Conference rumor in the dustbin category, fully aware that I may have to eat my words because 1) I’ve been spectacularly wrong before and 2) Nelson likes to keep us guessing. He has warned us that more surprises are coming and that we should eat our vitamins to prepare for all the changes.

Vitamins, at least, are Word of Wisdom-approved.

Editor’s note • The views expressed in this opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.