It may come as a surprise to anyone trying to navigate rush hour along the Wasatch Front, but Utah is the second-least stressed state in the union, according to a new study.

WalletHub.com, a personal finance website, compared the states across 40 metrics — everything from average hours worked per week to personal bankruptcies to the percentage of adults who get enough sleep. Utahns ranked 49th overall — 49th in work-related stress; 47th in family-related stress; 37th in money-related stress; and 35th in health and safety-related stress.

If you're looking for someplace that might lower your blood pressure even more, Minnesota is the only state ranked behind (ahead?) of Utah in the WalletHub survey. Looking for more stress? Head southeast — Louisiana and Mississippi are ranked first and second.

Of if long trips stress you out, next-door neighbor Nevada is ninth on the list. While Utah has the lowest rate of divorce and separation at 15.88 percent, Nevada has the highest, at 26.19 percent.

Here's how Utah ranked in several stress-level categories — first being the most stressed and 50th the least:

• Divorce — 50th
• Average hours worked per week — 50th
• Percentage of adults in fair/poor health — 45th
• Share of adults getting adequate sleep — 44th
• Percentage of population living below the poverty line — 42nd
• Psychologists per capita — 41st
• Job security — 39th
• Median credit score — 36th
• Housing affordability — 30th
• Crime rate per capita — 30th

And here are most- and least-stressed states:

10 Most-Stressed States

• 1. Louisiana
• 2. Mississippi
• 3. Arkansas
• 4. Kentucky
• 5. West Virginia
• 6. New Mexico
• 7. Alabama
• 8. Nevada
• 9. Alaska
• 10. Oklahoma

10 Least-Stressed States

• 41. Montana
• 42. Hawaii
• 43. Wisconsin
• 44. New Hampshire
• 45. Iowa
• 46. South Dakota
• 47. North Dakota
• 48. Massachusetts
• <b>49. Utah</b>
• 50. Minnesota

La Barba Coffee, which has two locations in Salt Lake City and one Draper — and a devotion to sustainable beans — serves Utah’s best cup of joe, according to a national list released Monday.

Josh Rosenthal launched the roasting company six years ago and today sells a mix of fair-trade, direct-trade and Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees. It’s a philosophy that helped it rise to the top of Food & Wine’s 2019 “Best Coffee in Every State" list.

“Since 2012, Utah’s best has been on a mission, multiple missions, actually, working not only to make great coffee accessible to everyone, without pretense,” wrote author David Landsel, “but also to keep their sourcing sustainable, with the goal of producers earning a living wage for the beans that La Barba buys.”

La Barba’s original store is located inside George Restaurant (formerly Finca) at 327 W. 200 South. It also has a shop at The Gateway near the fountain and at 13811 Sprague Lane in Draper.

Food & Wine’s second annual “best coffee” list is “skewed towards the new and the interesting,” Landsel wrote. To claim the top spot in a state, businesses had to be coffee roasters for at least two years and “be able to deliver the whole package, or close to it — spectacular coffees, great retail operations, and passions for hospitality, community, and, better still, complete sustainabilty.”

The article also gives a shout-out to one of Salt Lake City’s newest coffee shops, Three Pines Coffee, and its owners Meg Frampton and Nick Price. After living in Los Angeles and making a run in the music business, the couple returned to their home state to open the shop at 165 S. Main.

Food & Wine called it “Salt Lake’s most precise, most modern, and very best little café, sourcing from some of the country’s finest.”

Sometimes journalists just don't do a very good job of explaining their craft to the public.

For example, I realized with a shock not too long ago that many people think anonymous sources are not only unnamed in news stories but actually unknown to the reporters who use them as sources. (That's definitely not so; reporters not only know who these people are but usually have to let an editor know, too.)

I had another surprise like that last week when I read the results of a Pew Research public opinion poll.

It said the vast majority of Americans — almost 3 in 4 respondents — believe that local news outlets are in good financial shape.

And fewer than 1 in 6 Americans pays for local news.

These findings unnerved those who believe that local news is hugely important in our culture and that it needs public support to survive.

"I found the survey results to be really sad and disturbing," said David Chavern, president of the News Media Alliance, which advocates for news organizations. "Local journalism is very much at risk, and the public just doesn't seem to realize it."

Maybe that’s because there was a time — not so long ago — when regional newspapers were awash in cash.

In the 1990s, 30 percent profit margins were common at regional newspapers and the chains that owned them.

Then came some brutal blows. The main source of revenue — print advertising — fell off a cliff as advertisers moved to the internet or found other ways of reaching their customers. Department stores, once a mainstay of advertising, withered away in the digital economy.

And a new generation of news consumers never developed the daily newspaper habit that their parents and grandparents had.

Newspapers (and to a lesser extent local TV stations) were forced to cut costs. Often, they did so in a way that made them less valuable to their remaining customers: by eliminating journalists from their newsrooms.

Newspapers cut 45 percent of their newsroom employees between 2008 and 2017.

And some of them — including those owned by hedge funds — are down far more than that. (In Denver, for example, the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News boasted 600 journalists not much more than a decade ago; the latter paper has folded, and the Post is down to well below 100 in its newsroom.)

But even in their shrunken state, many regional newspapers are producing important public-interest journalism. While this may seem encouraging, the ability to do so is fragile: The gutting of many local papers continues apace.

On Thursday, I will moderate a panel discussion featuring three journalists who exemplify this. (It’s one part of a morning-long event, devoted to saving local journalism, that will be live-streamed on The Washington Post’s website.)

Julie Brown of the Miami Herald is one of them. Her reporting revealed a secret plea deal cut by Labor Secretary Alex Acosta while he was a federal prosecutor in Miami. Brown's work, which has led to a federal investigation, revealed that a wealthy, well-connected sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, was given federal immunity for sex crimes involving dozens of underage girls.

Andrew Chavez was part of a Dallas Morning News team whose investigation "Pain & Profit" revealed that thousands of Texans were being denied life-sustaining drugs and treatments by the private contractors hired by the state to manage their treatment. The companies raked in billions, largely from taxpayer-funded Medicaid, while desperately ill people suffered. Reforms are underway.

And Sacha Pfeiffer, now at NPR, was part of the Boston Globe Spotlight team that won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service after revealing the Catholic Church's cover-up of widespread clergy sexual abuse. (She was played by Rachel McAdams in the Oscar-winning film "Spotlight.")

This kind of accountability reporting — along with a great deal of more mundane, but also important, local reporting — is economically threatened. When a recession, inevitably, arrives, things will get worse fast.

The trends aren't going to reverse themselves, any more than will the trends that caused the demise of Blockbuster video stores.

The internet, one hears, is not going away.

There’s no single, or easy, answer to how to preserve local journalism. The Post’s event will explore some options — such as nonprofit, digital-only outlets and support from major philanthropies.

Certainly, increased public awareness has to be a part of this, too. Part of that awareness is opening your wallet.

Local journalism — especially deep investigative journalism — is costly to produce.

As Chavern told me: "Readership is moving quickly to digital, but most of the online ad dollars go to Facebook and Google. The industry needs a better economic deal from the platforms, but it will also need more local readers to subscribe."

The money for local journalism has to come from somewhere — before it’s too late.

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

@sulliview

For the first time since it was founded more than a century ago, the University of Utah law school has named a woman as its dean.

Elizabeth Kronk Warner has accepted an offer to be the next dean of the S.J. Quinney College of Law, which opened its doors 106 years ago.

“I am impressed with the S.J. Quinney College of Law’s strong reputation for scholarly excellence, commitment to students and record of community engagement,” said Kronk Warner, who is currently associate dean of academic affairs, a professor and director of the Tribal Law and Government Center at the University of Kansas School of Law.

In a prepared statement, she lauded the U. law school for doing “an exceptional job of balancing a commitment to excellent educational opportunities for students at an appropriate cost while also promoting outstanding scholarly work. I look forward to leading the college to even greater success in the coming years.”

Kronk Warner will begin work at the U. on July 1, pending the completion of the appointment approval process. She will fill the position formerly held by Robert Adler, who was named dean in 2014 after serving as interim dean for a year.

At Kansas, Kronk Warner chairs the faculty and staff diversity and inclusion committee, and is president of the university’s Native Faculty and Staff Council. A citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, she serves as an appellate judge for the tribe and as a district judge for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe.

She received her undergraduate degree in communication from Cornell University and her juris doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School. Before she was at Kansas, she had been a law professor at the University of Montana and Texas Tech.

Also at the University of Utah, the College of Humanities has named Erika George as the new director of the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center. She’s also set to begin her new position on July 1.

George, who is currently the Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law at the U., will succeed professor of history Robert Goldberg, who has held the position for 13 years.

Correction: An earlier version of this story quoted a university spokeswoman, who said George is the first person of color to be the director of the Tanner Humanities Center. Vincent E. Cheng held that position from 2003-2007.

April First looms — the day for pranking and punking, fooling and feigning, hexing and vexing, hijinks and low jinks.

Some hoaxes are simple. One perpetrator, one victim. A costumed wife flashes her unsuspecting husband. A fiancee bakes an unforgettable, impenetrable, inedible cake.

Others are elaborate, costly conspiracies. Families, friends, co-workers, even hired hands plot against an unwitting target. A man’s man comes back from vacation to a pinkalicious office. A couple return home only to find a wall where their door once was.

We asked readers to share their best capers. Maybe they’ll inspire you or maybe they’ll remind you to beware come Monday (or, for that matter, any other day, heh-heh-heh).

Apocalypse now • “I tagged my friends’ house in Sandy with spray-painted giant words ‘THE END IS NEAR’ because we knew they were replacing their siding the next week. They had people texting and knocking on their door, freaked out. Even better was that they lived off a bigger street, and it was the week of the blood moon in September 2015, [doomsayer and prepper] Julie Rowe was at her peak, and the [LDS] church had just released the statement to avoid end-of-days movements. My favorite prank of all time.”

— Jacquelynn Sokol, Sandy

School daze • “When I was a student at Davis High, I worked one class period for the attendance secretary. When the school office updated its stationery, I kept a stack of letterhead and envelopes. Years after graduation, I drafted a letter to several high school friends, advising them that they had failed to complete one mandatory credit from high school and that their diplomas were invalid — they would have to come back to high school and finish the class. Mailed them out from the correct city of origin, signed by a made-up administrator of the school — sat back and thoroughly enjoyed the ensuing freak show. (It usually only took a day or so for the recipient to determine the letter was a fake.)”

— Traci Gundersen, Draper

Smelly delivery • “As a teenage worker at a Jack in the Box in Auburn, Calif., a co-worker used to crouch down below me unseen at the drive-thru window and make authentic fart sounds — timed exactly as I stretched out the window to deliver the orders to the cars. I actually married the prankster a few years after, and the marriage has lasted.”

— Jill Taylor, Hawaii

A bevy of buyers • “I asked people on Facebook to call or text brother-in-law Joe that you read his ad on Craigslist for a used lawn mower. He received hundreds of text messages from people he didn’t know wanting the lawn mower.”

— Solomon Sampson, Mesa, Ariz.

Scary trophy • “My neighbors in college used fishing line to tie our shower door shut and pack it full of leaves. We used a blanket to scoop leaves out, drag them to a window and dump them outside. As we got to the bottom of the leaves, we discovered a deer head from their recent hunting trip.”

— Alice Fisher Roberts, Salt Lake City

Urinetown • “I bought some methylene blue solution from a pet store (labeled use is to treat fish ich) and baked it into a batch of brownies, which I brought to a [Latter-day Saint] Young Single Adult linger longer potluck. Everyone who partook ended up having a bold blue color to their next, er, No. 1 bathroom event.”

— David Outhier, Anaheim, Calif.

Ask what you can do for your ... • “In 1962, while living in California, our parents woke us kids up early on a Sunday morning for a family meeting. They said the newspaper reported that President John F. Kennedy had announced he was making Peace Corps opportunities available to families. They felt we as a family should volunteer. They didn’t know the specific assignment yet, but we would likely be moving overseas in the next month. We were stunned. They then said they would fix us breakfast while we read the article in the paper. They handed the paper to us. Across the front page in bold marker was written ‘April Fools!’ I was relieved but also a little disappointed.”

— Mark Steele, Cedar Hills

Better late than ... wait • “For April Fools’ Day one year, I turned all the clocks ahead one hour. I even turned my husband’s watch ahead. His friend was in on the joke. He picked him up a little ‘late’ for work. Jim was really sweating it. He hates being late. As he was chafing about his tardiness, his friend had him look at a work clock. All day long my husband’s co-workers asked him to check the time.”

— Liz Vail Ashworth, Salt Lake City

Called to serve • “We created a fake [Latter-day Saint] mission call for my husband’s brother. It was complete with a letter from [then-church] President Gordon Hinckley and a mission president. The mission president letter was over-the-top hilarious. The envelope was stamped at the post office and all. We actually were worried because the family did not suspect anything.”

— Jeni Lawrence Colarusso, Salt Lake City

Discriminating taste • “My husband was always commenting on how disgusting it was to eat raw dough, like cookie dough or cake batter. For April Fools’ Day one year, I mixed two packages of chocolate cake batter, put them in a pretty glass bowl, topping the mixture with whipped cream. My husband finished off his bowl and asked for more.”

— Christine Wallace Balderas, Millcreek

Great wall • “My father, Ross Ekins, and his friend, Bill Partridge, living in Salt Lake City, engaged in a long series of pranking one another, but it all came to an end when my father administered the coup de grace. While Bill and his wife were out of town, Ross hired masons to brick up Bill’s front door. It was a brick house, so it was a fairly easy thing to lay in the same color of brick across the porch, effectively making the door disappear. Of course, Ross had the masons insert shims along each side of the big, beautiful wall so it could easily be pulled down later. We just wish they had spy cameras back in those days so we could all enjoy the looks of bewilderment when Bill and Jeanette returned late at night only to find their door had disappeared. As Bill told the story later, he had his front-door key in hand as they groped around in the semi-dark, trying desperately to find the door. Realizing that their mutual pranks had now escalated to an unsustainable level (this was NOT inexpensive) and that it would be unlikely either would ever be able to top the Great Wall of Salt Lake City, both pranksters declared a truce that was never, to my knowledge, violated.

— Roger Ekins, Jacksonville, Ore.

Door approach • One Halloween night, when our small children were asleep, I snuck out the back door in a trench coat and mask. I had nothing on under the coat. I went around to the front door and rang the doorbell. My husband opened the door expecting a trick-or-treater. In a disguised voice, I said ‘trick or treat’ — and flung open my coat. He was so shocked! When he finally got his wits about him, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the house. A good Halloween night ending.

— Anonymous, Salt Lake City

Class act • “While I was a middle school teacher in Arlington, Va., I prepared for weeks to play a prank on my students by pretending to be a substitute teacher in my own class. I changed my hair, got glasses, bought new clothes, adopted new mannerisms and pulled it off. All my students thought I was ‘Mr. Johnson,’ who I told them would be substituting. The joke only fell apart when the school office called to say that there were reports of a substitute in my class but that I hadn’t called in sick, so the principal wanted to know what happened.”

— David Bennett, Concord, Calif.

Groundhog day • “We hid about 100 pictures of groundhogs in and on a co-worker’s desk after he got a voice-over gig as a groundhog in some cartoon. He was such an easy mark.”

— Manny Mellor, Lehi

Sisterly love • “I called my sister-in-law on the phone and told her I was from the water company, and there had been a break in the waterline a couple of blocks from her home, and I was calling just to let her know so that she could save water for her use, to fill bottles, pitchers, bathtub, etc. I also told her I was running behind in my calling because everyone had so many questions and would she mind contacting the neighbors on each side of her home and let them know the situation. She said she would but also said she wasn’t working today so she said she would cover both sides of her street for two blocks and let all of the neighbors know. Yup, she did it!”

— Gale R. Frandsen, Salt Lake City

Meet the in-laws • “When I was engaged to my husband, we had dinner at his mom’s house with some of his siblings and their spouses. I offered to bring my ‘famous sponge cake’ for dessert. My soon-to-be husband was having a hard time trying to cut the cake because it was so rubbery. He was trying hard not to embarrass me in front of his family, but it was obvious that I had baked a bad cake. When he finally got one slice cut open, he realized that it was a chocolate-frosted foam rubber sponge.”

— Valerie Phillips, Kaysville

Bat girl • “I placed a very lifelike bat on a co-worker’s keyboard, during a time when we were having a bat infestation in our downtown offices. Her scream could be heard for miles.”

— Judy Swenson Cullen, Salt Lake City

Pretty in pink • “I worked with a manly guy who made a HUGE deal about hating pink. He went on vacation and came back to a totally pinked-out cubicle. We all wore pink shirts to work that day. My favorite was the pink chair cover.”

— Kathy Cushman, Payson

P.R. blitz • “During my first month doing P.R. for a new Bay Area company, a co-worker approached me to say she had told one of our brand managers that the carpet tiles were made from recycled human hair. Now she really wanted to ‘sell’ the prank. So, I created a website for a fake company that manufactured the tiles, including multiple pages outlining the process and talking about different tile types. Then, I made up a fake P.R. person and an email for her. Naturally her email signature included the website for the carpet tile company. I emailed the brand manager at my company as the fake P.R. woman, telling him that a magazine within the ‘green building space’ was working on a piece about our tiles and that we wanted to have a quote from him about what he thought of the tiles in his office. We emailed back and forth a couple of times — not just him and the fake P.R. person, but also me, the real P.R. person. It was a hilarious chain.”

— Lindsey Nikola, Salt Lake City

A month after Utah receiver Britain Covey’s knee surgery and a couple of hours into Andy Ludwig’s second stint in the Ute program, Covey visited his new offensive coordinator in January. He asked one fundamental question: What’s the look of a Ludwig offense?

The answer impressed Covey. There's no such thing as a Ludwig offense.

Ludwig's response reflects adaptability, as opposed to indecision. “He knows exactly what he wants to do,” said running backs coach Kiel McDonald.

That means making sure what he’s doing fits what the Ute athletes do best. From his start with tiny Augustana University to working with five Power Five programs, Ludwig, 54, has done everything from complete overhauls to merely using the team’s old playbook. His current reworking of Utah’s offense falls somewhere in the middle.

Ludwig, a coordinator at the FBS level for 22 seasons, has made a career of getting the most out of his available personnel. He exploited the talent of Ute defensive back Eric Weddle in an offensive package in 2006 and coached quarterback Brian Johnson during Utah’s 13-0 season in 2008. Describing Ludwig as “meticulous” and “innovative” during a campus visit last week, Weddle said, “It’s exciting for guys that have been around him, that know the difference he’ll make for our offense.”

During nine open practices, including the first of two major scrimmages, and in interviews, Ute coach Kyle Whittingham and his staff have not been secretive about the scheme. Ludwig’s disclaimer is that only one-third of his offense is installed, so there’s much more to come Yet even in a “very vanilla” stage, by Lugwig’s account, the core elements of his Utah offense have emerged in the transition from Troy Taylor, now Sacramento State’s head coach.

What’s old

• The quarterback run game

Ludwig’s No. 1 job in 2019 is to maximize Zack Moss, the dynamic senior running back who’s sidelined this spring after knee surgery. In an interview after he arrived in January, Ludwig cited “a premium commitment to running the football” among his basic beliefs.

Yet the scheme is not as simple as having quarterback Tyler Huntley hand the ball to Moss 30 times a game. The zone-read option will remain a big part of the offense, thanks to Huntley’s running ability.

“I have not coached a quarterback with that skill set, that athleticism, really, in my career,” Ludwig said after Saturday's scrimmage. “Brian Johnson was an athletic quarterback, but not like Tyler Huntley. … Getting him on the move, getting him in space in the passing game, in the running game, plays to his strengths. That's what we're going to do.”

• Multiple personnel groups

The one-back scheme, almost universal at all levels of football, remains in place. As Taylor did, Ludwig will use tight ends Cole Fotheringham and Brant Kuithe in a set with two receivers at times; he’ll also use four receivers and no tight end or three receivers and one tight end.

• Using receivers as runners

Last year, Taylor called handoffs to Covey and forward pitches to him as a misdirection element. Covey is rehabilitating this spring, but Demari Simpkins took fly-sweep handoffs Saturday. Having a receiver as a decoy helps reduce the number of defenders against Moss when he runs it up the middle.

Ute legend Eric Weddle exemplifies a lot of good things, including how then-and-now offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig uses available personnel. pic.twitter.com/fOB8jMB2Qg

— Kurt Kragthorpe (@tribkurt) March 28, 2019

What’s new

• More responsibility for the quarterback

Huntley is charged with “a lot of thinking” this spring, he said. He’s asked to change plays at the line of scrimmage and even assign different routes for the receivers, based on the coverage he sees.

• Predetermined routes for receivers

Taylor’s scheme featured option routes, with receivers adjusting their patterns to find holes in the defense. Ludwig’s routes are assigned in advance, a method that receivers coach Guy Holliday prefers. “It’s been really good for me, getting back to what I’m used to,” Holliday said.

Crossing routes at various depths will be a bigger part of the passing scheme, along with passes to the backs.

• More presnap movement

Kuithe, a high school running back in Texas, especially will move around in the formation to create different looks.

As defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley said, “What you don't [usually] see in spring is a lot of shifting and motioning. That challenges you as a defense. … With Andy, we're getting all that stuff. All the stuff that gives us fits, the shifting, the motioning, the [bootleg], so it's been really, really good for us.”

Defensive end Bradlee Anae also endorsed Ludwig’s work. “I love this offense,” he said. “As a defensive guy, I know this offense would ruin a lot of Pac-12 teams, just by the whole scheme and everything.”

That will become true only if the Utes offensive line improves. First-team ball-carriers were not tackled to the ground in this spring scrimmage, but Anae and the rest of the defensive line stuffed Devonta’e Henry-Cole on every run up the middle.

Overall, Ludwig has made a good impression. McDonald’s quote about Ludwig knowing “exactly what he wants to do” was not intended to be a dig at Taylor. But it was meaningful, coming from a coach whom Taylor brought with him from Eastern Washington.

“I’ve learned so much football from coach Ludwig,” McDonald added. “Every day, it’s been a learning experience. And I’m so fired up to be working under him and just want to continue to get these guys better, because this offense is really something special.”

Taylor is a tinkerer, with creativity. Ludwig is a grinder, with consistency. His ability to adjust to opposing defenses also will be critical.

In Utah’s five losses last season, the offense produced a total of nine points in second halves. Taylor countered the defense’s strategy in some games, but not against Washington (twice), Washington State, Arizona State and Northwestern.

Taylor also deserves to be remembered for wins over Oregon and Colorado with a No. 2 quarterback (Jason Shelley) and running back (Armand Shyne) that secured Utah’s first Pac-12 championship. Subsequent losses to Washington in the Pac-12 title game and Northwestern in the Holiday Bowl left Ludwig with opportunities for improvement, though. That’s unlike the case for him as Utah’s coordinator in 2005, when he took over the offense from Urban Meyer and Mike Sanford after a 12-0 season that included a Fiesta Bowl win – or in ’09, when Ludwig handed over the reins after the Sugar Bowl.

Work 💪

📹 highlights from yesterday’s scrimmage. pic.twitter.com/WbaElV3jbG

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) March 31, 2019

Washington • The House Judiciary Committee will prepare subpoenas this week seeking special counsel Robert Mueller’s full Russia report as the Justice Department appears likely to miss an April 2 deadline set by Democrats for the report’s release.

The Judiciary panel plans to vote on subpoenas Wednesday, a day after the deadline. The chairmen of several House committees asked for the full, unredacted report last week after Attorney General William Barr released a four-page summary laying out the report’s “principal conclusions.” Barr said in a letter to the House and Senate Judiciary committees on Friday that a redacted version of the full 300 page report would be released by mid-April, “if not sooner.”

The planned committee vote, announced Monday morning, would not automatically issue subpoenas but authorize House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to send them if he decides to do so.

"As I have made clear, Congress requires the full and complete special counsel report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence," Nadler said in a statement. "Attorney General Barr has thus far indicated he will not meet the April 2 deadline set by myself and five other committee chairs, and refused to work with us to provide the full report, without redactions, to Congress."

The vote comes as Democrats are escalating their battle with the Justice Department over how much of the report they will be able to see — a fight that could eventually end up in court. Democrats have said they will not accept redactions and will almost certainly be unhappy with the amount of information provided by Barr when the department releases the report in the coming weeks.

The panel will also vote Wednesday to authorize subpoenas related to a number of President Donald Trump's former top advisers, including strategist Steve Bannon, Communications Director Hope Hicks, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, White House Counsel Donald McGahn and counsel Ann Donaldson. Donaldson served as McGahn's chief of staff before both left the administration.

The five were key witnesses in Mueller's probe of possible obstruction of justice and were sent document requests by the Judiciary panel last month. Nadler said he is concerned about reports that documents relevant to Mueller's investigation "were sent outside the White House," waiving executive privilege rights that would block document production.

"To this end, I have asked the committee to authorize me to issue subpoenas, if necessary, to compel the production of documents and testimony," Nadler said.

Nadler sent requests to 81 people connected to Trump's political and personal dealings as he launched a wide-ranging investigation into possible obstruction of justice, public corruption and abuses of power.

Barr said in the letter Friday that he is scrubbing the report to avoid disclosing any grand jury information or classified material, in addition to portions of the report that pertain to ongoing investigations or that "would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties."

Democrats say they want all of that information, even if some of it can't be disclosed to the public. They are citing precedents from previous investigations involving presidents and also information disclosed about the Russia investigation to Republicans last year when they held the House majority.

If the committee does issue subpoenas, the path forward is uncertain. If the administration decides to fight, lawmakers could ask federal courts to step in and enforce a subpoena — a fight that could, in theory, reach the Supreme Court. Generally such disputes are instead resolved through negotiations.

The Democrats could also formally ask Mueller to send the Judiciary committee evidence that could be used in possible impeachment proceedings against Trump. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, backed by the majority of her caucus, has said she's not currently supportive of impeachment.

Barr wrote in his summary that the special counsel did not find that Trump's campaign "conspired or coordinated" with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election. He said Mueller reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed the federal investigation, instead setting out "evidence on both sides" of the question.

Barr himself went further than Mueller in his summary letter, declaring that Mueller's evidence was insufficient to prove in court that Trump had committed obstruction of justice to hamper the probe.

Democrats say they want to know much more about both conclusions and they want to see the evidence unfiltered by Barr.

Republicans have said the Democratic demands are overreach.

“Judiciary Democrats have escalated from setting arbitrary deadlines to demanding unredacted material that Congress does not, in truth, require and that the law does not allow to be shared outside the Justice Department,” said Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary committee.

Utah organizations aren’t immune from the lure of April Fools’ Day jokes, posting what can literally be called “fake news.”

The Utah Army National Guard took to Twitter first thing Monday morning with an announcement that Donovan Mitchell, the star shooting guard for the Utah Jazz, was going to enlist in the Guard.

The Guard’s Twitter thread said Mitchell “will be enlisting as a cannon crewmember (MOS 13B) for his love of teamwork and shooting.” The tweet ended with the hashtag #AprilFools.

PRESS RELEASE:
"Shooting guard to National Guard."

Utah Jazz shooting guard Donovan Mitchell @spidadmitchell has decided to enlist in the Utah Army National Guard, reaffirming his earlier declaration: "New year, new me." @UtahJazzPR (1/2) pic.twitter.com/mijv4GmqF8

— Utah National Guard (@UTNationalGuard) April 1, 2019

The Utah Symphony took advantage of the day to announce a collaboration with Utah’s Hogle Zoo and Tracy Aviary to bring animals — from cockatoos to elephants — onto the Abravanel Hall stage to perform classical music.

”Several species of birds from the Tracy Aviary will be on the percussion and woodwind sections. The elephants at Utah’s Hogle Zoo will also be joining the orchestra on ‘Pines of Rome’ and ‘Carnival of the Animals,’” Utah Symphony announced in a press release.

The announcement came with an accompanying video, which suggests everything may not be on the up-and-up.

Meanwhile, parents of students at Salt Lake City’s West High School received an email Sunday from principal Ford White, thwarting an attempted April Fools’ prank.

A rumor spread via social media that the school would open at 7:45 a.m. Monday, the time school opens on Tuesdays through Fridays, rather than the regular 9:45 a.m. Monday “late start.” In the email, White said that one of the school’s social media sites was hacked with the incorrect schedule.

Out in Daggett County, Flaming Gorge Resort, about a 200-mile drive east of Salt Lake City, announced on Facebook that it was selling tags for the annual jackalope hunt, set for April 31. (Double-check that date, and remember the rhyme: “Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. ...”)

Rangers at Zion National Park put up a prankish Instagram post, announcing plans to install a zip line from the top of Angels Landing starting in 2020.

“Finally, our visitors will be able to soar like a California condor!" the post reads, before giving in with a more serious tone: “These places are protected for their natural beauty and historical significance. Amusement rides and most modern additions would only distract from that significance and could not improve these magnificent places.”

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Zion National Park announces plans to reduce crowding on Angels Landing by installing a zipline at the top. The new zipline, scheduled to open in 2020, would make the hike a loop and reduce the need for people to walk back along the narrow ridge to the trailhead. Finally, our visitors will be able to soar like a California condor! • Spurred by increasing wait times and congestion on the narrow Angels Landing Trail, the National Park Service plans to build a 1,500-foot tall zipline route that, if constructed, would be the first ever in a national park. The contract was awarded to Xtreme HoaX Industries to begin drawing up plans this week. • "We figured that if visitors were going to wait in lines like it was an amusement park, we might as well put a ride in!" said an unnamed Park Ranger. • "Also, happy April Fools' Day!" . . . It might be fun to think about, but the NPS would not install a zipline in a National Park. These places are protected for their natural beauty and historical significance. Amusement rides and most modern additions would only distract from that significance and could not improve these magnificent places. • Angels Landing is crowded. The park is working on a Draft Visitor Use Management Plan that will be open for public comment later this year. It will attempt to address crowding issues like this one. In the meantime, you can read the preliminary information on our website. • Image created from photo by Doug Hay; CC-BY #aprilfools #hoax #angelslanding #zion #trails #zipline #nationalpark

A post shared by Zion National Park (@zionnps) on Apr 1, 2019 at 6:07am PDT

Provo • As they broke their huddle at the conclusion of every football practice in March, BYU players chanted the same two words in unison each time: “Beat Utah.”

They say it is because the rival Utes are the next opponent on their schedule. The showdown is 150 days from Monday — Aug. 29 at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo. But it is obvious that the Cougars and their coaching staff are still smarting over the 35-27 loss to Utah on Nov. 24, a loss that seriously exposed BYU’s lack of depth.

The Cougars were bulldozed in the fourth quarter after several starters left the game with injuries, and other players simply wore down and had nothing left in the final few minutes as the offense sputtered and the defense yielded yardage in huge chunks.

That’s why the past month has been all about building depth, coach Kalani Sitake said last Thursday when the Cougars wrapped up spring practices.

“Overall, I thought we took a huge step forward in getting ready to where we need to be for the fall, so I was really pleased with all 15 of them,” Sitake said. “On offense, defense and special teams, we are way further ahead than we have been.”

Sitake said the Cougars were able to create depth through competition, both in the spring scrimmage March 23 and in the “team” sessions — the 11-on-11 drills — that concluded each practice.

“I don’t know if we were really that complicated on offense or defense,” he said. “We certainly weren’t on special teams. But I thought we were able to work on our fundamentals and our technique and when you do that you are able to see which guys perform well. So we know who we can count on, going into the offseason, to really provide some competition for the depth chart.”

Coaches don’t plan to make that depth chart public until the week before the Utah game, saying that a lot could change before then. A couple incoming freshmen and/or returned missionaries could challenge for spots in the two-deep, most notably returned missionaries Ryan Rehkow (punter) and Alema Pilimai (tight end) and 2019 signees Keanu Hill (receiver), Eric Eillison (cornerback) and Javelle Brown (athlete).

Also, last week BYU announced the addition of running back Emmanuel Esukpa, a graduate transfer from Rice who will be eligible to play this fall. He played in 29 games for Rice and had 778 yards and six touchdowns for the Owls.

“Emmanuel is going to have to catch up with learning the offense, but we have a really good group of guys who are willing to help, and willing to teach, so we will get going with him as soon as he graduates,” Sitake said. “We are really excited that he will come and join our group.”

Sitake said the 5-foot-11, 232-pound redshirt senior “lives this lifestyle already” that BYU requires, and will fit in perfectly.

“There are still some others out there that we may add to the roster,” Sitake said. “We will see how that goes.”

Even though they landed Esukpa, the Cougars are still pursuing running back Ty’Son Williams, the graduate transfer from South Carolina who visited Florida State last weekend. Still, running backs coach AJ Steward said the backs who got the bulk of the reps in spring practices improved a lot, while presumed starter Lopini Katoa sat out most practices recovering from a knee injury.

BYU RB Tyler Allgeier sides with me (surprise, surprise) in agreeing that the offense won the day. pic.twitter.com/BOmussKScB

— Jay Drew (@drewjay) March 24, 2019

Oft-injured redshirt senior Kavika Fonua and redshirt freshmen Sione Finau and Tyler Allgeier, a walk-on, all proved they belong, Steward said.

“I would say that everybody has had their moments of really good things, and some coachable moments as well,” Steward said.

The quarterback depth chart is also taking shape. Sophomore Zach Wilson, who didn’t throw a single pass in spring practices due to offseason shoulder surgery, is still the unquestioned starter. Redshirt freshman Jaren Hall was fantastic in the scrimmage and throughout the 15 practices and is obviously the top backup.

“He had an excellent spring, improved a lot, and he is one of the best athletes on this team,” quarterbacks coach Aaron Roderick said of Hall, who also continues to shine on BYU’s baseball team, having made several spectacular plays from center field in the recent sweep of Saint Mary’s.

In Thursday’s final practice, redshirt freshman quarterback Baylor Romney appeared to move ahead of sophomore Joe Critchlow as the No. 3 quarterback.

“It is really nice having that competition, having a room where the quarterbacks work together,” Sitake said. “I have seen a lot of progress with the three guys who got the bulk of the reps this spring, and Baylor was certainly one of them.”

The odd man out in the crowded quarterback room was freshman Stacy Conner, who didn’t get any reps the entire month and has entered the transfer portal.

“We just really wish him the best where ever he ends up,” Sitake said of the 6-6 Conner, who picked BYU over UNLV a year ago. “Playing time is something he really wants, and it is a loaded quarterback room here.”

Key offensive developments

• Starting quarterback Zach Wilson sat out after shoulder surgery, while redshirt freshman Jaren Hall emerged as the top backup QB

• Emmanuel Esukpa, a graduate transfer running back from Rice, signed with the Cougars and will be eligible to play this fall

• Freshman Darius McFarland emerged as a possible replacement for hybrid tight end/fullback Dallin Holker, who left on a church mission

• Redshirt freshman Harris LaChance apparently will replace graduated starter Austin Hoyt at right tackle on the offensive line

Rapid City, S.D. • Some South Dakota landowners are outraged over liens hitting their property related to the Keystone XL crude-oil pipeline.

Iowa-based Brandenburg Drainage filed 23 liens totaling more than $1 million against Meade County landowners last month, the Rapid City Journal reported. The lien amounts ranged from about $3,600 to nearly $244,000.

Brandenburg Drainage is a subcontractor of a company that developer TransCanada hired to improve county roads during the construction phase of the Keystone XL pipeline project.

The long-stalled pipeline would move crude oil from tar sands in Canada, through western South Dakota, and eventually to the U.S. Gulf Coast. President Donald Trump issued a new presidential permit last week to speed up development of the pipeline. The move comes after a federal judge in November blocked the project, saying the Trump administration hadn't fully considered potential oil spills and other environmental impacts.

Brandenburg Drainage completed some road improvement work last fall before a dispute arose with contractor Diamond Willow Energy. Brandenburg Drainage filed mechanic's liens against the landowners to recover money the company claims they're owed by Diamond Willow.

Mechanic's liens are a product of state laws that date back to the 1870s and are usually placed on property owned by the person who ordered the work. The liens are unusual because the affected landowners aren't involved in the projects.

If legitimate, they'll remain in place until someone pays the subcontractor to release it, which could complicate an owner's attempts to sell their property or use it as collateral for a loan.

Lyle Weiss owns one of the largest stretches of land near the vicinity of a planned Keystone XL pump station, workforce camp and pipe yards. He received the biggest lien for nearly $244,000 and he's growing worried about its potential impact on the operating note for his ranch.

"They're messing with our livelihood," Weiss said.

Several of the affected landowners said they've been assured by TransCanada that the issue will be resolved soon.

Diamond Willow official JC Johnson said he's working to get the liens released. Johnson claims that Brandenburg Drainage underbid, overspent and underperformed on the job.

"It's not by our doing that they're trying this," Johnson said. "They didn't bid the job right and they're losing money. It's plain and simple."

Brandenburg Drainage declined to comment.

When rapper Nipsey Hussle — a Grammy-nominated artist from the Los Angeles area — was shot and killed Sunday outside of a clothing store he owned, it had an immediate impact on the NBA community, including the Utah Jazz, with dozens of tributes on social media Sunday night.

At Monday morning’s shootaround, when Jae Crowder and Rudy Gobert explained some of that impact, Hussle’s music was mentioned only in passing. Instead, it was his charity work in the Los Angeles area that brought a bigger response.

“It’s a lot of guys who, well, we have a lot of money obviously. Sometimes we don’t do the right thing with it,” Crowder said. “He was trying to influence the other side of it, to do the right thing with it, and to help your community and help your family, to just do things the right way.”

“He was an African American who came from poverty, and really made something of himself and tried to help the community where he was from,” Crowder said. “Obviously, without even what he does on the music side, him being a mogul and showing kids that you can become something if you come from poverty and that you can change your ways, that’s bigger than what his music stood for — for me, for the world. He was a very positive influence on the community for the kids of L.A.”

Rudy Gobert agreed.

“I think it’s just the impact he had, the vision he had for his community. Not only his community, but other communities, for young kids in the projects and all of that, he had a great vision. It’s just sad,” he said.

Derrick Favors and Donovan Mitchell tweeted about Hussle’s death as well. For Favors, Hussle was the first artist he saw perform live, and also his favorite.

Damn man, @NipseyHussle was the first concert I ever went too and my favorite artist RIP # legend

— Derrick Favors (@dfavors14) April 1, 2019

RIP NIPSEYMAN GONE TOO SOON! TRYNNA DO GOOD IN HIS COMMUNITY🙏🏾🙏🏾 @NipseyHussle

— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) April 1, 2019

Jazz injury report grows

Derrick Favors and Kyle Korver missed Monday night’s game against the Hornets. Favors, who departed after the first quarter in the Jazz’s last contest against the Wizards, is suffering from back spasms. Meanwhile, Korver is reported to have experienced right knee soreness, explaining his absence.

Raul Neto, who needed three stitches to his lip after a first-half collision against the Wizards, dealt with concussion-like symptoms in the wake of the injury Friday, but passed the tests given to him in time to play in Monday’s game.

President Donald Trump spoke out strongly Monday in favor of a contentious citizenship question that his commerce secretary added to the 2020 Census, asserting that the survey would be “meaningless” without the addition.

In a morning tweet, Trump blamed "Radical Democrats" for trying to remove what he termed "the all important Citizenship Question" that has been derided by advocates for immigrants.

Can you believe that the Radical Left Democrats want to do our new and very important Census Report without the all important Citizenship Question. Report would be meaningless and a waste of the $Billions (ridiculous) that it costs to put together!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2019

"Report would be meaningless and a waste of the $Billions (ridiculous) that it costs to put together!" Trump said in his tweet.

Two federal judges have already ruled against the question. The Supreme Court is set to hold a hearing on it April 23 and is expected to rule on it by June, shortly before the survey forms are due to go to the printer.

Publicity materials distributed at a Census Bureau news event Monday included the citizenship question on a list of questions the survey asks, with no mention of the fact that it would be illegal to ask the question on the decennial census.

At the event, Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham declined to discuss the president's tweet about the question.

Opponents have characterized the question as a political maneuver by the Trump administration. They say its inclusion, particularly at a time when noncitizens feel targeted by the government, will deter many immigrants and their family members from participating, reducing the count’s accuracy and harming people who live in areas with large immigrant populations.

Census data is used to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding and to determine apportionment and redistricting.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has maintained that the information is important for several reasons, including enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, and that he carefully considered the advantages and disadvantages of adding the question before making his decision.

Ross was grilled during a House hearing last month on his rationale for adding the question, which was generally defended by Republicans.

Democrats pointed to congressional hearings last spring at which Ross testified that his move to add the question came solely in response to a December 2017 request from the Justice Department.

Litigation around the question later produced emails showing that Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, had been pushing for the question for months before that.

One of the federal judges who ruled against adding the question also took issue with Ross's motives and said the secretary broke a "veritable smorgasbord" of federal rules by overriding the advice of career officials to not include the question.

Trump's tweet drew criticism Monday from Democrats, including Rep. Adam Schiff of California.

Doing what the Constitution requires and counting every person is not “meaningless” and it is surely not a “waste.”

Including a citizenship question will only suppress participation and, inevitably, result in inaccurate data. But, of course, that’s exactly why you want to do it. https://t.co/qJtQTO7ov3

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 1, 2019

"Doing what the Constitution requires and counting every person is not 'meaningless' and it is surely not a 'waste,' " he wrote in a tweet directed at Trump. "Including a citizenship question will only suppress participation and, inevitably, result in inaccurate data. But, of course, that's exactly why you want to do it."

The Washington Post’s Robert Barnes contributed to this report.

As immigration officials started accepting applications Monday for the 85,000 H-1B visas available to foreign workers this year, a new report — led in part by former Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah — says U.S. companies really need more than twice that many.

“Last year, employers filed 190,098 petitions—of which 95,855 were filed on behalf of foreign-born professionals who had earned a graduate degree from a U.S. university— but only 85,000 of these petitions could be approved,” Hatch wrote in the forward to the study. “Thousands of talented professionals who employers have selected for hire and who are poised to make contributions to our economy are being turned away, including the very people who already know our language and understand our culture and who have conducted research here as graduate students.”

Hatch wrote that in a report entitled “Barriers to recruiting and retaining global talent in the U.S.,” issued jointly by FWD.us, a think tank created by the tech industry, and the new Orrin G. Hatch Foundation.

It calls for changes in the immigration system that Hatch unsuccessfully sought for years, including raising the cap on H-1B visas and creating a new type of green card for highly skilled workers that would not require them to obtain a temporary work visa first.

“We haven’t updated our high-skilled immigration system in over 25 years, and we’re clearly seeing and feeling the consequences,” said FWD.us President Todd Schulte.

The report said high-tech industries are having difficulty filling open positions amid low unemployment rates, and 75 percent of companies say candidates do not have the necessary science, technology, engineering and math skills.

“Filling unfilled jobs like these is precisely the role immigration should play, but this is proving increasingly more difficult as employers use a 20th-century immigration system to meet the needs of a 21st-century economy,” the report says.

It says that is driving foreign skilled workers to other countries, and even makes it difficult to retain many foreign workers now here.

“Trying to sponsor an employee for a green card today often takes years, sometimes longer than a decade, before the employee can be cleared to work in the United States,” the report said. “To hire these skilled workers, employers have no choice but to sponsor them for temporary work permits so that they can bring them into the country and then petition for their green card.”

But keeping them here on extended temporary status restricts their ability to change jobs, earn promotions, travel back home or start a company — so the report says many “are increasingly packing up and moving to countries with more generous immigration policies, particularly countries that offer fast-track startup visa programs.”

It adds, “While the United States has the opportunity to remain the top destination for the best and brightest, our current immigration infrastructure must be able to retain these talented individuals or capitalize on their contributions.”

It says policies now do not do that. “The overburdened immigration system is making it difficult for U.S. employers to compete in increasingly global markets.”

Hatch said, “Unless we fix our broken immigration system, our workforce — and our economy — will fall behind.”

As it now stands, there’s little momentum in Congress to increase the number of available H-1B visas.

Leonard Bagalwa, a Congolese immigrant who helps Utahns find health insurance through federal programs, said he was excited when voters approved Proposition 3 last year, believing it would mean Medicaid coverage for his family beginning April 1.

“Making enough money to survive is not always easy for us,” Bagalwa said.

But on Monday, he said he continues to lack access to affordable health care after Utah lawmakers replaced Proposition 3 with a partial Medicaid expansion that leaves him and many low-income Utahns to purchase private insurance.

“I do this every day, enrolling people, and we shouldn’t be fooled by our politicians,” Bagalwa said. “There is a reason why [full expansion] was put on the ballot and a reason why people voted it for. And it should be respected as well.”

Beginning Monday, Medicaid coverage is open to between 70,000 and 90,000 Utahns who earn up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. And under a federal waiver approved Friday, the state is responsible for 30 percent of the cost for those beneficiaries.

But had Proposition 3 taken effect, Utah would have paid 10 percent of the cost for roughly 150,000 Utahns earning up to 138 percent of poverty.

“We’ll be spending more of Utah’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars, yet covering fewer people,” said Jessie Mandel, senior health policy analyst for Voices for Utah Children. “That should give us all pause.”

While a roughly $90 million sales tax increase was included in Proposition 3 to support full expansion, lawmakers argued the longterm costs would threaten the state’s budget, and that changes were needed to maintain sustainability.

The state expects to eventually achieve the same 90-10 cost share with the federal government for its smaller enrollment population by requesting a series of concessions from federal administrators. But critics say those concessions, if approved, are legally questionable and impose unnecessary hurdles on otherwise eligible people.

“We started off with Proposition 3,” said Stacy Stanford of the Utah Health Policy Project, “and instead we have our new broken bridge.”

Stanford said the state plan’s combination of work requirements, caps on the number of people enrolled and to-be-requested per-capita funding from the federal government will exclude some low-income people, creating new health care coverage gaps.

And because Utah stopped short of the income level established in federal law — 138 percent of poverty — Utahns who expected coverage under Prop 3 must now wait until the next open enrollment period to purchase insurance on the Affordable Care Act individual marketplace.

“There’s a whole lot of people that thought they were eligible,” Stanford said. “And now they have to wait until next January because they’re falling through this missing plank.”

The approval for Utah’s wavier came one day after a federal judge struck down work requirements in Kentucky and Arkansas, which had led to thousands of otherwise eligible patients being removed from the Medicaid rolls.

Nate Crippes, an attorney with the Disability Law Center, said he was disappointed that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) followed that court decision by approving Utah’s waiver, which includes a requirement that beneficiaries prove they are working, looking for work, or engaged in educational and workforce training.

Crippes said those requirements fall outside the federal Medicaid law, which is intended to provide health coverage.

“Unfortunately, work requirements don’t do anything to provide health coverage," he said, "they really act as a barrier for people to access health coverage.”

Utah lawmakers say the state’s plan includes a work “effort” requirement, and includes various exceptions for students, parents and the mentally and physically ill.

But Crippes and other full expansion advocates say the problem lies in requiring beneficiaries to report their work effort to the state, creating an additional administrative hurdle that, if violated, can cost someone their access to health care.

“There’s nothing about seeking work that is health coverage,” Crippes said.

Bagalwa echoed that concern, saying the refugees he works with and other non-native English speakers already face challenges in accurately completing their Medicaid paperwork and requirements.

“Small things can make you lose your Medicaid if you didn’t understand the language,” he said.

And Mandel suggested the combination of Utah’s cost-saving provisions could create a domino effect for beneficiaries, as temporarily losing eligibility because of failing the work requirement could lead to a long-term loss of care when the state caps its overall spending.

“They could be eligible, miss a piece of paperwork, fail to comply with something, go to re-enroll and find out that they’re capped out,” Mandel said. “That’s what we’re left with.”

Stanford said she expects Utah’s next waiver — seeking the 90-10 split and per-capita funding cap — to be rejected by the federal government. If it is, a fallback provision in state law could see the state fully expand its Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of poverty.

But while she supports a full expansion, she said the delay while Utah exhausts its effort to restrict eligibly will have serious consequences.

“The people who are falling through these gaps have very real issues right now,” Stanford said. “And they can’t wait until a fallback plan that might come 18 months from now.”

Kolbi Young, a Utah Medicaid spokeswoman, said more than 19,000 Utahns were enrolled in the expanded program as of Monday afternoon. Of that group, most were part of the state’s Primary Care Network and automatically transitioned into Medicaid as part of the expansion, Young said, while roughly 1,500 were early applicants whose Medicaid eligibility had been authorized in advance by the Department for Workforce Services.

“Their benefits would start today,” she said. “We are monitoring it really closely.”

In a prepared statement, Chase Thomas, executive director of Alliance for a Better Utah, credited the work of advocates, activists and voters for getting the state to its current place of expanding health care access to low-income Utahns.

But Thomas added that the efforts of lawmakers means roughly as many people are left out of Medicaid expansion as are included in the current, partial program.

“The number of Utahns who would have been able to enroll in Medicaid today would fill the Vivint Smart Home Arena four times over," he said. "Yes, today is a win in many ways for those Utahns who will be able to see a doctor for the first time in years. But let’s not forget how hard the Legislature worked to keep that same healthcare from tens of thousands of Utahns.”

For more than 30 years, pieces of Garfield telephones kept washing ashore on the beaches of northwestern France, and no one quite knew why. Where was the lasagna-loving cartoon cat coming from?

The mystery would puzzle the locals for years. His plastic body parts, first appearing in a crevice of the Brittany coast in the mid-1980s, kept returning no matter how many times beach cleaners recovered them. Sometimes they would find only his lazy bulging eyes, or just his smug face, or his entire fat-cat body, always splayed out in the sand in a very Garfield fashion.

From the stray curly wires and the occasional dial pad, it was clear that the pieces came from the once-popular Garfield telephone, made by Tyco in the early 1980s, several years after Jim Davis first colored the famously lazy cat into his hit comic strip. The phone parts were in remarkable condition, considering they had been belched from the ocean, Claire Simonin-Le Meur, president of the environmental group Ar Viltansoù, told The Washington Post. Even Garfield’s black stripes were still painted onto his back, where the phone hooked.

She had been searching for the origin of Garfield for years, she said, out of concern for the damage the plastic phones may be doing to the ocean — and this month, after a chance encounter on the beach, she was about to get some answers.

Simonin-Le Meur said the common belief among locals was that the phones came from a wayward shipping container that must have sunk to the bottom of the ocean, leaving environmentalists to fear Garfield’s plastic toxicity would continue to pollute the ocean indefinitely. In 2018 alone, at least 200 pieces of Garfield had been found on beaches in northwestern France, Franceinfo reported.

If they could just salvage the long lost shipping container, Simonin-Le Meur said, perhaps Garfield would stop coming.

“We were looking for it, but we had no precise idea of where it could be,” Simonin-Le Meur said. “We thought it was under the sea. We asked people who were divers to look for it. We get a lot of submarines in the area too — it’s a military area. But they said it was not possible the container could be there and nobody saw it.”

This year, however, something changed. Simonin-Le Meur got a tip.

It came from a local farmer named René Morvan.

All of Franceinfo’s recent publicity of the bizarre phenomenon and its environmental impact had apparently sparked his memory. One day last month, Simonin-Le Meur said she met Morvan on the beach while cleaning up debris — including a Garfield part.

“Are you looking for Garfield?” the man asked.

Simonin-Le Meur said yes, she was — she always was.

“Come with me,” the man told her. “I can show you.”

Morvan started from the beginning. Back when he was 19 or 20 years old in the mid-1980s, he told her, a storm blew through the area — and before residents knew it, Garfield telephones were scattered all over the beach, just as Simonin-Le Meur had always been told. He and his brother were curious, Morvan said, and they decided to go exploring, touring the rocky coastline until they found what they were seeking.

Wedged inside a cave, tucked into the seaside cliffs, there it was: a metal shipping container — and a cache of Garfield telephones, Morvan claimed he saw.

The story struck Simonin-Le Meur as too good to be true. The tide was too high to bring her to the cave that day, Morvan realized, and so she would have to wait to find out if he was telling the truth. The shipping container, Morvan told her, was lodged so deep in the cave that it was nearly submerged, making the trip a dangerous expedition.

But finally, last week, it was safe. The tide was low. And Morvan, Simonin-Le Meur said, ultimately was not kidding.

Filming the discovery, a group of journalists and environmentalists, Simonin-Le Meur included, climbed up the rocky shore to the cave’s narrow opening, finding snippets of a bright orange phone cord along the way. Garfield was scattered all about, just like on the beach.

But when the group entered the cave, ready for the big reveal, they didn’t find what they expected. It was clear the plastic cats had been there, Simonin-Le Meur said, but clearer still that most were already gone.

“Our preoccupation was to understand why we had so many Garfields everywhere. We thought it would be helpful to find the container so we can stop it. But that was unfortunately not the case,” Simonin-Le Meur said. “What we found was the remainder of the shipping container. And it was empty.”

It seemed the group had solved the mystery, she said, but not the problem.

The “Téléphone Garfield,” as it is known in an online catalogue for ubiquitous ocean debris, is just one plastic item among countless others that litter the ocean and the shore every year. In the region of northwestern France, the Garfield phone has become like an unwitting Smokey Bear, the mascot for the importance of ocean cleanup and the dangers of microplastics polluting the ocean. Lionel Lucas, who developed the online Ocean Plastic Tracker that catalogues discoveries of Garfield, told Franceinfo the Garfield phone was a “symbol” for the movement.

“It is no longer garbage but evidence,” Lucas said.

Simonin-Le Meur said that she has tried to use Garfield particularly as a way to interest children in ocean pollution, given its allure compared to pieces of plastic trash. And while the recent purported discovery of Garfield’s origins has drawn renewed interest, Simonin-Le Meur said, the discovery didn’t change much in her eyes.

“We found plastic last Friday and Saturday and Sunday, and we have found a lot of pieces of Garfield,” she said. “Things are just exactly the same.”

The alleged crime occurred on April Fools’ Day 2017, when a corral gate was closed on Lime Ridge in Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, a move San Juan County prosecutors described as a calculated attempt to kill cattle and disrupt a livestock operation.

Not exactly a capital offense but worthy of a felony conviction and prison time, in the eyes of local authorities who see attacks on ranching as a threat to southeastern Utah’s culture, custom and commerce.

The case came to an end exactly two years later in a Monticello courtroom Monday, when the alleged malefactor, Mark Franklin, pleaded “no contest” to two misdemeanors in a deal with the prosecution. The “plea in abeyance” means the charges will be dismissed after one year if Franklin commits no other offenses.

It would be inaccurate, however, to say Franklin, a 63-year-old resident of Durango, Colo., and his wife, environmental activist Rose Chilcoat, have not paid a hefty price for what they see as a trivial act that was trumped up into a major criminal case as payback for her years of pro-wilderness activism.

“I am innocent of all charges. Nothing I did was malicious, evil or criminal. I think the prosecutor was trying to keep local ranchers and local politicians happy by showing he was willing to go after me even if there was no evidence that I intended to or caused any harm,” Franklin said in a prepared statement immediately after the deal was accepted by 7th District Judge Don Torgerson. “I regret there will be no trial where the full facts and truth of the incident would be brought to light.”

San Juan County Attorney Kendall Laws said he, too, regretted there would be no trial but felt the plea agreement was a “fair” conclusion to the case, which blew up like a political bombshell, highlighting the contentious divide over Utah’s public lands.

“A lot of times your most just resolutions come from a negotiated plea,” he said Monday. “We weren’t worried about the facts we had. You never know what a jury is going to do. There is some unknown that goes with it. Our office believes there was enough evidence for a reasonable expectation of conviction at trial.”

The case arose after rancher Zane Odell discovered a gate had been closed on his corral on state trust lands just off U.S. Highway 163 west of Bluff. According to court testimony, a trap camera he had rigged to the fence captured an image of a trailer he presumed to belong to the gate-closer, who he suspected was trying to keep his cattle from their water source inside, even though a section of the corral fence was down.

Two days later, Franklin and Chilcoat, while heading home from a weekend trip to the southeastern Utah’s Valley of the Gods, stopped by the corral, pulling the trailer that appeared to be the same as one in the picture.

Odell and his hands confronted the couple, barred them from leaving and summoned a sheriff’s deputy, who let Franklin and Chilcoat depart after taking Franklin’s statement. A few weeks later, Laws filed a slew of criminal charges against the couple, leading with “attempted wanton destruction of livestock,” a second-degree felony that can be punished by up to 15 years in prison.

After two years of silence on the matter, Franklin now acknowledges closing the gate, an act that had no impact on the safety of Odell’s cattle since another gate was open.

“I pulled off the highway to relieve myself on public land near a prominent, overbuilt corral and turned my vehicle and trailer around in front of an open wire gate,” he said. “When leaving, an unusually large tire in the corral caught my eye.”

The massive tire was filled with water and apparently used as a cattle trough. Franklin, who terms himself a “curious persons,” entered the corral to inspect the unusual watering trough and closed one gate to minimize contact with the long-horned animals milling around. Odell’s cattle did not appear or behave like typical beef animals, he said, and seemed rather intimidating.

“As I walked towards the trough, one of the cows turned and gave me the ‘stink eye.’ At the same time, two other cows began to move behind me,” Franklin said. “That made me concerned, so I pulled the unlatched pipe gate closed to prevent them from surrounding me. I did this for my personal safety and the safety of my vehicle and trailer, and to avoid any conflict with the cows.”

Franklin said he was relieved to get the case behind him, although it loomed over his family during one son’s wedding and another’s college graduation.

“I pled ‘no contest’ because I did nothing wrong. I would never have pled guilty to these charges because they are not true,” Franklin said. “As a biologist, I firmly believe all animals have the right to food, water and habitat. It is unthinkable that I would harm any animal for any reason. I do not hunt. I do not trap. I do not even fish. In fact, I rescue animals. It is just who I am.”

The case has taken a toll on Franklin’s reputation, not to mention the family’s finances. He said his printing business lost customers, and numerous death threats were made on Facebook and The Petroglyph, a news blog run by a conservative Monticello commentator.

Chilcoat estimated they have spent $130,000 and made eight trips to Salt Lake City and five to Monticello during the two-year prosecution. Hundreds of supporters helped defray some of their expenses, which included polling San Juan County residents in a successful bid to have the planned trial moved to Price and a polygraph examination that they said supports Franklin’s assertions of innocence.

Those costs do not count the hours University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell devoted for free, according to Chilcoat. A former federal judge, Cassell helped the couple’s Salt Lake City lawyers Jon Williams and Jeremy Delicino prepare various motions and argue an interlocutory appeal.

Charges previously were thrown out against Chilcoat, a longtime staffer with Great Old Broads for Wilderness, after appellate judges ruled prosecutors lacked evidence to support the counts against her — other than her activism which frequently upset San Juan County leaders, who alleged it proved she wants to rid cattle from public lands. Her efforts to close Recapture Canyon to motorized use made many enemies in Blanding, including County Commissioner-turned-state-legislator Phil Lyman, who was himself convicted of a federal charge for leading a protest ride through the archaeologically rich canyon east of town.

“Who could have imagined that a day recreating in Utah could turn into such a nightmare,” Franklin said. “As I have learned, it was never about me. This case was meant to punish my wife for her years of successful conservation advocacy and to intimidate and silence those who speak out for protection of their public lands.”

In Franklin’s deal, he entered a no contest “plea in abeyance” to a class A misdemeanor of trespassing on state trust lands and attempted criminal mischief, a class B misdemeanor. A felony charge of trying to kill livestock was dropped.

Laws rejected the notion that politics played any role in his decision to charge Chilcoat and Franklin.

“Our office tries hard to be apolitical, certainly when it comes to criminal cases," he said. “We looked at the facts, at what was presented and then we looked at the code, and we determined these facts get these crimes per the state Legislature.”

Lyman actively politicized the case from the beginning, using Facebook posts to accuse Chilcoat of trying to deprive Odell’s cattle of water. His posts alleged Chilcoat filed a complaint against Odell’s cattle operation with the Bureau of Land Management in retaliation for his reporting her to police.

Chilcoat’s BLM complaint was later used as the basis for an additional felony charge against her, but Laws dropped it.

The prosecutor said Odell was fine with the Monday’s resolution.

“I feel like the situation was handled justly," Laws said, “and appropriately by our office.”

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Monday that the agency will need additional funding to meet a White House mandate to land people on the moon by 2024. But he did not say how much more money NASA would need or provide any specific details of how it plans to accomplish the mission.

Speaking at a town hall meeting at NASA headquarters, Bridenstine made it clear NASA was scrambling to figure out how to get to the lunar surface before the presidential election in 2024. He said he was fully aware that past administrations have set bold goals to explore the moon or Mars, only to pull them back as Congress fails to provide funding or a new administration comes in and cancels previous plans.

During the presidency of George W. Bush, NASA was directed to go to the moon. Under Barack Obama, reaching an asteroid and Mars were the missions. Now, under President Donald Trump, it's the moon again. Many in the space community compare that record to the scene in the cartoon strip "Peanuts" when Lucy pulls the football away just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it.

"I hear the comment all the time about Lucy and the football," he said. "This is not Lucy and the football. In the executive branch, people are very serious, we are going to the moon and going fast."

Bridenstine's comments came several days after Vice President Mike Pence called for NASA to return to the moon within five years, an ambitious goal that took many at NASA by surprise. In a speech before the National Space Council last week, Pence said that the agency needed to have a much greater sense of urgency. He took aim at Boeing and other NASA contractors building the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is supposed to be used in the moon missions but is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

Pence also fired a salvo at NASA itself, saying if it can't get astronauts to the lunar surface in five years "we need to change the agency, not the mission."

The questions NASA employees posted on the agency's website ahead of the town hall gave voice to the skepticism that has reigned since Pence voiced his new goal. Under the previous plan, NASA was looking at sending people to the moon by 2028. Moving it up by four years came as a shock.

"Please explain in detail what 'We'll change the Agency, not the mission' entails," one employee wrote.

"Accelerating our return to the moon is an unfunded mandate," asked another. "How will we do it without gutting our other important missions?"

Bridenstine offered few specifics during his Monday presentation. He said the agency planned to use what's known as a Gateway, a sort of space station that would be placed in orbit around the moon. But the agency has yet to award a contract to build it. It also does not have the landing craft needed to carry astronauts from the Gateway to the lunar surface and back again.

NASA is also struggling with its moon rocket, the SLS. Frustrated with the constant delays, Bridenstine told a Senate hearing last month that he would look at using other, commercial rockets for the upcoming test flight of the Orion spacecraft that would ultimately be used to fly astronauts to the lunar Gateway.

But the possibility of sidelining NASA's main rocket, the construction of which provides thousands of jobs in many congressional districts, led to a withering backlash from Congress, and Bridenstine has since backtracked, saying it just was not technically feasible to use commercial rockets for the mission.

Bridenstine told the town hall Monday that he was confident that the White House would push for additional funding since returning to the moon was a mandate "from the top."

"We're going to need additional means," Bridenstine said. "I don't think anyone can take this level of commitment seriously unless there are additional means."

But the White House's budget request of $21 billion for NASA for next year is $480 million less than what Congress appropriated in this year's spending plan.

Still, Bridenstine said he was confident the agency would achieve the White House's goal, whatever the difficulties.

“I’m not suggesting there are not holes here,” he said. “The reality is we’re moving quickly, and we’re looking at all options. There is nothing off the table.”

LuAnn Adams, the first woman to lead the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, will retire later this month, the governor’s office announced Monday.

Deputy Commissioner Scott Ericson will serve as the department’s interim leader until a replacement can be appointed by Gov. Gary Herbert and approved by the Legislature.

Adams’ last day as commissioner will be April 16.

Herbert picked Adams in 2013 while she was serving as Box Elder County commissioner. Before that, she had spent 16 years serving in positions as Box Elder County’s clerk, recorder and surveyor.

“I am grateful to Commissioner Adams for her dedicated service to my administration and the people of Utah,” Herbert said in a news release. “She leaves a great legacy in her service to Utah’s agriculture producers. Her subject matter expertise and commitment will be greatly missed.”

As agriculture commissioner, Adams oversees nearly 200 employees from eight state divisions responsible for — among other things — livestock grazing; weed eradication; soil conservation; meat and poultry safety; homeland-security issues; and even some consumer-protection policies, such as ensuring that the gas pump fills your tank with the correct amount of fuel.

During her tenure, she accomplished a number of internal agency reforms that have created efficiencies in operations and budgets.

“It has been a wonderful life-changing opportunity to serve in Governor Herbert’s Cabinet,” Adams said in the release. “This experience has been the highlight of my career, and I have been honored to work among amazing leaders.”

Adams said she would miss working with colleagues, staff and “the great people in the agriculture industry.”

“I am proud of my accomplishments as commissioner,” she said, “and the opportunity it provided me to promote the determination and grit of those living and working in the agriculture industry.”

This Pat Bagley cartoon appears in The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday, April 2, 2019. You can check out the past 10 Bagley editorial cartoons below:

• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/29/bagley-cartoon-gop-health/" target=_blank><u>GOP Health Care to Die For</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/28/bagley-cartoon-medicaid/"><u>Medicaid Expansion of Our Own Design</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/27/bagley-cartoon-millenials/"><u>Millennial’s World</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/26/bagley-cartoon-our/"><u>Our National Dinosaurs</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/25/bagley-cartoon-no/"><u>No Collusion</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/22/bagley-cartoon-mueller/"><u>The Mueller Report</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/21/bagley-cartoon/"><u>Legislative Wrap Up</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/20/bagley-cartoon/"><u>Safeguarding the Public Trust</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/19/bagley-cartoon-strong/"><u>A Strong Leader</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/18/bagley-cartoon-trumps/"><u>Trump’s Following</u></a>

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Nineteen students and employees at Park City High School have reported feeling ill — and one of them has been taken to a hospital — after exposure to pepper spray at the school, district officials said Monday.

A student has admitted to releasing the pepper spray in the school, fire officials said.

A gas leak was reported at about 1:55 p.m. Monday, about 10 minutes after classes were dismissed at the school, said Tricia Hazelrigg, spokeswoman for the Park City Fire District.

Crews tested for carbon monoxide and explosives — but got no positive readings, Hazelrigg said. Medics arrived to find several students and employees with “respiratory issues,” said Park City Police Capt. Phil Kirk. Some people in the school also reported abdominal cramping, said Melinda Colton, communications director for the Park City school district.

Anyone who was at or near the school and has experienced similar symptoms should call a doctor, Colton said.

Some of the patients at the school were tested for carbon monoxide exposure and showed “elevated readings,” but responders weren’t certain of the chemical’s source, as it wasn’t detected in the air, Hazelrigg said.

One person was taken to a hospital, Kirk said, but he did not know the patient’s condition or whether the person was a student or employee at the school.

A crew that was checking the school and the attached Eccles Center theater for hazardous chemicals detected the pepper spray a few hours after classes dismissed, Colton said. Classes will take place at the high school on Tuesday.