Herriman • By now, it’s no secret: Real Salt Lake has no problems getting physical.

After all, the club does employ a few bona fide bruisers. Midfielder Kyle Beckerman is the all-time Major League Soccer leader in both fouls committed (713) and yellow cards (113). Coach Mike Petke, who played 13 years in the league, is tied for fourth all-time in yellows with 70.

The early part of this 2019 season has been no different. RSL is the most penalized team in MLS. It ranks first in yellow cards (15) and red cards (4), and fifth in fouls committed (60). The teams with the next-highest number of yellows are Los Angeles Football Club and the New England Revolution, which both have 12. The Colorado Rapids have committed a league-high (78) fouls and have three reds.

Everton Luiz, in his first year in MLS, has already amassed three yellow cards in five games. He has 110 yellows in his soccer career across all matches, per soccerway.com. Even Sebastian Saucedo has gotten in the mix this year. He already has three yellow cards after earning only one all last season.

Add it all up, and Real seems to be putting itself in difficult positions. But it’s the red cards that are hurting them most. In the last three games, the team has finished with less than 11 players on the field due to red cards, and lost all three of those games. In that span, four players have been suspended in subsequent games.

When RSL has had its full complement of players, the results on the field have been largely positive. But a season that started with promising play has turned into one in which RSL has only four points and sits eighth in the Western Conference standings.

"It’s been tough just because of all the red cards, so we haven’t been able to play with the full 11 and how we want to," defender Justen Glad said. "But it’s cool to see how we adapt when we do go down. We get on our block and we defend with everything we have. So hopefully, once we have a full 11, we can put a game together and get some results.”

The rash of red card ejections has made it somewhat difficult to evaluate how good RSL is and can be moving forward. Keeper Nick Rimando looks to the first two games of the season, which tell him what Real is capable of, he said.

“I see what we have out here on the training grounds and we have a good team,” Rimando said. “We just have to go out there and work hard for each other and keep 11 on the field and give us the best opportunity to win.”

Coach Mike Petke said Friday that with the season only five games deep, evaluating the team is a multi-pronged, daily exercise. The team has not dealt well with less than 11 players on the field, he said, making the evaluation process “somewhat difficult.”

He added: “But then you just look at different things to evaluate them on."

After the game against FC Dallas, Nedum Onuoha said he wasn’t too worried about the team’s red cards because he feels many of them we not warranted. Corey Baird echoed that sentiment this week when he called all the reds “kind of flukey.”

But Baird suggested that RSL is looking at the red card situation seriously.

“It’s definitely a concern,” he said. “It is something we’ve addressed as a team where that’s something that we have to solve and I think it’s something where we put ourselves in holes.”

With another difficult road game against the Seattle Sounders coming up Saturday, midfielder Albert Runsák made it clear how paramount it will be to have RSL’s full squad available.

“It’s tough to play at least a man down for almost every game that we played,” Runsák said. “So it will be extremely important to keep 11 guys on the field for us coming up this game. We will have a much more better chance to get something out of a game if we stay with 11.”

A former Utah firefighter is suing her supervisors, the town and the county they worked in, saying the assistant fire chief who allegedly raped her was protected from discipline — allowing further abuse for years — because his father was both the fire chief and a sheriff’s deputy.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Utah’s U.S. District Court, alleges Austin Corry sexually harassed the woman soon after she started at the Kanosh Volunteer Fire Department and that the abuse continued until Corry, an assistant fire chief, was arrested in September.

The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

Aside from quitting her job, the lawsuit said the woman’s only recourse was reporting to Corry’s direct supervisor, his father, Scott Corry.

“As might be expected, Plaintiff’s complaints to the Fire Chief about his son’s egregious behavior were dismissed out of hand with instructions to ‘not be alone with [Austin],’" the lawsuit said.

The allegations were further quashed, the lawsuit says, because Scott Corry was a sergeant with the Millard County Sheriff’s Office, the agency that would investigate the accusations.

Austin Corry was investigated by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and charged in 2018 in two rape cases concerning the woman and another woman who alleges she was raped when delivering cookies to him at the fire department.

Before those allegations came to light, the lawsuit filed by the female firefighter alleges, Austin Corry’s “sexual behavior escalated and became violent." He is accused of raping that woman three times at the fire department, according to the lawsuit. He was charged in September with two counts of rape, two counts of object rape, five counts of forcible sexual abuse and five counts of sexual battery.

In the case involving the second woman, he was charged with one count of felony rape.

Millard County Sheriff Richard Jacobson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but according to the Millard County Chronicle Progress, Scott Corry stopped working at the sheriff’s office in October.

It’s unclear if Scott Corry is still the Kanosh Fire Department chief. Attempts to reach the fire station and Kanosh Mayor Frank Paxton were unsuccessful.

The female firefighter claims the alleged conduct by the father and son violated her rights to equal protection and substantive due process. She also accuses Austin Corry of false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, battery and sexual assault. She also filed two claims of negligent hiring, supervision and/or retention, one against Kanosh and one against Millard County.

She is seeking more than $300,000, in addition to harassment, discrimination and retaliation training for Kanosh Town Fire Department and Kanosh town employees; an independent hotline and service for victims of sexual abuse to come forward; and a mandate to investigate all claims of harassment or discrimination against the fire department.

Attempts to reach representatives from Millard County were unsuccessful. Attorneys for Austin Corry and the plaintiff also didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.

Austin Corry is scheduled to appear in court in connection with his criminal rape cases on April 10.

Utah’s sixth-ranked gymnastics team didn’t have its best meet, but even an average effort was good enough to easily advance the Utes to the finals of their NCAA Regionals in Baton Rouge, La.

The Utes won their session with a 196.8. Minnesota was second with a 196.3, Arkansas third with a 196.175 and BYU was fourth with a 195.55.

Utah and Minnesota advanced to Saturday’s finals at 6 p.m. MDT where they will meet the top two finishers of Friday evening’s session that includes LSU, Auburn, Arizona State and George Washington.

Saturday’s meet will be carried by SECN+ and ESPN 700 radio.

The top two teams from Saturday’s finals advance to the NCAA Championships April 19-20 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The judging was tight in the afternoon session, leading to Utah’s lowest score of the season, even though the Utes went 24 for 24 in routines.

Utah coach Tom Farden was satisfied with the team’s effort, noting the Utes achieved the main goal of moving on.

“We weren’t as perfect as we could be, but I’m happy,” he said. “We came out a little tighter than normal, but we were on different equipment and in a different environment.”

Junior MyKayla Skinner led the Utes Friday with a 39.525 in the all-around, a score that netted her third regional all-around title. Her best mark was a 9.925 on the floor, which was good enough for her third regional floor title. MaKenna Merrell-Giles was third in the all-around with a 39.525.

“I’ve said it all year that those two have been leaders for us, and they were great today,” Farden said.

The Utes were in command from the start on Friday, opening with a 49.2 on the vault, paced by Skinner’s 9.9. Skinner posted another 9.9 on the uneven bars, along with Missy Reinstadtler, to help the Utes to a 39.325 effort.

The two combined event efforts gave the Utes a comfortable lead at the halfway mark with a 98.525 while Arkansas had a 97.95 and BYU and Minnesota both had 97.825.

“We didn’t stick our vaults like we have been, so we have to improve there,” Farden said.

Utah was solid throughout on the balance beam, earning a 49.075, as every gymnast posted a 9.8 or higher. Kari Lee, the leadoff gymnast, led the team with a 9.85.

The Utes wrapped up the meet with a 49.2 on the floor, led by Skinner’s 9.925.

Farden was optimistic that the Utes could advance to the NCAAs. Utah will start on floor.

“As long as we do what we have been doing and have clean routines we should be good,” he said.

Even though the Cougars didn’t advance, their effort on Friday was still a solid showing for a team that has steadily improved under coach Guard Young, who was named the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference Coach of the Year.

Shannon Evans led the Cougars with a 39.225 in the all-around. She had a 9.85 on the vault, 9.725 on the bars, 9.775 on the beam and 9.875 on the floor.

In the Corvallis Region, Southern Utah finished fourth with a 195.35 behind Denver (196.975), Boise State (196.225) and Washington (195.9).

Lehi • Rep. John Curtis just returned from Mexico, El Salvador and Colombia where he saw extreme poverty, hunger and the results of gang violence — and accompanied a congressional delegation that interviewed presidents from all three countries.

The Utah Republican said the presidents agree on one thing: “The people are fleeing our country not because they want to, but because they are desperate for economic opportunity.”

Curtis said a key to creating such opportunity abroad — and help slow the flow of immigrants to America — is to continue U.S. foreign aid and development programs. But the Trump administration just proposed a 24 percent cut to such assistance and has threatened to cancel all aid to nations generating the most emigrants.

Curtis said Friday that could backfire, and that continuing aid “actually saves us money” by creating stability, avoiding wars and creating markets for U.S. exports. He quoted former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who once told Congress, “If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition.”

Curtis made the comments at a foreign policy forum at Thanksgiving Point hosted by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a national group of businesses and foreign policy experts. The forum pushed to continue foreign aid and tried to show how it would benefit Utah.

“Our economy is not the largest, most innovative economy in the world by accident,” said Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber. “It is directly the result of that global world order that the United States created with NATO, with the Marshall Plan.”

He added, “Why would we ever undo that?”

The leadership coalition said nearly 353,000 jobs in Utah — 18.3 percent of the total here — are supported by trade. In 2017, Utah exported $11.6 billion in goods to foreign markets, including $684 million to Mexico.

Curtis, a member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that if America retreats from giving aid worldwide, China is eager to rush in to fill the void.

“Global leadership matters,” he said. “I emphasize that if we don't fill that role as a country, China will. In every country I have visited … China has a presence and it is trying to change who's leading around the world. And it's not the type of leadership that we want.”

Miles Hansen, president and CEO of World Trade Center Utah, noted that 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the United States, and “in order to advance American interests in these markets, we rely on repeated investments in diplomacy and economic development.”

He said continuing such efforts “benefits not only our own companies and our own individuals in our own country but it has a leavening effect on the rest of the world.”

Curtis said about 1 percent of the U.S. budget goes to foreign aid and the State Department. “It sounds like we are spending 1 percent of our budget on someone else,” he said. “In my opinion, we are spending it on ourselves…. We are saving, in my opinion, our men’s and women’s lives who would otherwise have to fight battles.”

The congressman said an example of the good America can do in the world through diplomacy and aid was seen from the Camp David accords that Jimmy Carter negotiated 40 years ago between Israel and Egypt, which created decades of stability between them.

“It shows you that we can do hard things,” he said. “It shows you the power of diplomacy.”

This Pat Bagley cartoon appears in The Salt Lake Tribune on Sunday, April 7, 2019. You can check out the past 10 Bagley editorial cartoons below:

• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/04/04/bagley-cartoon-church/" target=_blank><u>Church Approved</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/04/03/bagley-cartoon-brexit/"><u>The Brexit Knight</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/04/02/bagley-cartoon-national/"><u>National Security Crisis</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/04/01/bagley-cartoon-troubling/"><u>Troubling Downturn</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2019/03/29/bagley-cartoon-gop-health/"><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>

Want more Bagley? Become a fan on Facebook.

Calexico, Calif. • Declaring “our country is full,” President Donald Trump on Friday insisted the U.S. immigration system was overburdened and illegal crossings must be stopped as he inspected a refurbished section of fencing at the Mexican border.

Trump, making a renewed push for border security as a central campaign issue for his 2020 re-election, participated in a briefing on immigration and border security in Calexico before viewing a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) see-through steel-slat barrier that was a long-planned replacement for an older barrier — and not new wall.

"There is indeed an emergency on our southern border," Trump said at the briefing, adding that there has been a sharp uptick in illegal crossings. "It's a colossal surge, and it's overwhelming our immigration system. We can't take you anymore. Our country is full."

As Air Force One touched down in the state, California and 19 other states that are suing Trump over his emergency declaration to build a border wall requested a court order to stop money from being diverted to fund the project. But Trump, who ratcheted up his hard-line immigration rhetoric in recent weeks, declared that his move, which included vetoing a congressional vote, was necessary.

Also on Friday, House Democrats filed a lawsuit preventing Trump from spending more money than Congress has approved to erect barriers along the southwestern border. Congress approved just under $1.4 billion for work on border barricades. Trump has asserted he can use his powers as chief executive to transfer an additional $6.7 billion to wall construction.

Trump, who earlier in the week threatened to shut down the border over the high numbers of migrants trying to enter the U.S., appeared to walk back his comments Thursday. He said Friday that it was because Mexico had gotten tougher in stopping an influx of immigrants from moving north.

"Mexico has been absolutely terrific for the last four days," the president said as he left the White House. "I never changed my mind at all. I may shut it down at some point."

The president's visit came a day after he withdrew his nominee to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Longtime border official Ron Vitiello appeared to be cruising toward confirmation, but Trump said Friday that he wanted to go in a "tougher direction."

Trump, as he so often does, mixed fact with fiction when warning of the threat at the border. When complaining about the Flores legal settlement that governs treatment of migrant children and families, he blamed "Judge Flores, whoever you may be." But Flores was an unaccompanied 15-year-old girl from El Salvador.

He also downplayed the claims of people seeking asylum at the border, declaring without evidence that many are gang members while comparing some of their efforts to find safety in the U.S. to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

"It's a scam, it's a hoax," Trump said. "I know about hoaxes. I just went through a hoax."

As the president showed off the renovated section of the barrier to reporters, a balloon depicting Trump as a baby floated further down the border. And as Trump landed in California, the state's governor ripped the president's push for Congress to pass legislation that would tighten asylum rules to make it harder for people to qualify.

"Since our founding, this country has been a place of refuge — a safe haven for people fleeing tyranny, oppression and violence. His words show a total disregard of the Constitution, our justice system, and what it means to be an American," said Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Trump has been increasingly exasperated at his inability to halt the swelling number of migrants entering the U.S., including thousands who have been released after arriving because border officials have no space for them. Arrests along the southern border have skyrocketed in recent months, and border agents were on track to make 100,000 arrests or denials of entry in March, a 12-year high. More than half of those are families with children, who require extra care.

The southern border is nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) long and already has about 650 miles (1,050 kilometers) of different types of barriers, including short vehicle barricades and tall steel fences that go up to 30 feet (9 meters) high. Most of the fencing was built during George W. Bush's administration, and there have been updates and maintenance throughout other administrations.

Trump has yet to complete any new mileage of fencing or other barriers anywhere on the border, though he declared Friday that at least 400 miles (650 kilometers) of the border barrier would be erected over the next two years. His administration so far has only replaced existing fencing. Construction for that small chunk of fencing cost about $18 million, began in February 2018 and was completed in October. Plans to replace that fence date back to 2009, during President Barack Obama's tenure.

Administration officials had been studying ways to minimize the economic impact of a potential border closure in case Trump went through with his threat, including keeping trucking lanes open or closing only certain ports.

But even absent that extraordinary step, delays at border stations have been mounting after some 2,000 border officers were reassigned from checking vehicles to deal with migrant crowds.

After the border visit, Trump was slated to travel to Los Angeles, where he was set to hold a pair of fundraisers in the deeply liberal city. He was then poised to travel to Las Vegas for another re-election fundraiser and an address to the Republican Jewish Coalition, which is backed by GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.

___

Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Alan Fram contributed to this report from Washington.

Too much salt — and not enough whole grains, fruits and vegetables — may be shaving years off our lives, a new analysis suggests.

In a study published Wednesday in the Lancet, researchers looked at people’s eating habits across 195 countries to estimate how much poor diets contribute to mortality. Their findings? That 11 million people die each year around the world due, at least in part, to certain foods or lack thereof, according to the study.

Lead author Ashkan Afshin, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, said the researchers estimated that overall, poor diets are responsible for more deaths around the world than any other risk factor, including cigarette smoking, known to be one of the greatest threats to public health.

The problem, he said, is not only what people are eating; but it's also what they're not eating. The study estimated that globally, 3 million deaths were attributed to too much sodium — but another 3 million deaths were attributed to too little whole grains and another 2 million deaths to too little fruit.

Experts say it confirms what health professionals have been teaching for years — a balanced diet is important for a long, healthy life.

Afshin, an assistant professor in the University of Washington's Department of Health Metrics Sciences, said researchers evaluated survey data on dietary consumption, sales of food products and household expenditures over the past three decades to estimate the impact of a poor diet on death from noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease.

The researchers estimated that in 2017, cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of diet-related deaths around the world, followed by certain cancers and diabetes.

"The results are based on limited data and assumptions, but conclusions are consistent with major reports from public health and medical authorities," said Marion Nestle, professor emeriti of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. Nestle noted that the researchers seem to be recommending a largely, but not exclusively, plant-based diet, "and that's what everybody is saying these days."

Afshin, lead author of the study, said countries where people eat a Mediterranean diet — high in heart-healthy fats and fiber — scored the best using the researchers' model, with Israel ranking No. 1 in terms of the least number of diet-related deaths. France and Spain ranked second and third, respectively, according to the research. Afshin defined the Mediterranean diet as one with a high intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts and healthy oils, such as olive oil.

The United States ranked No. 43.

Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic where refined carbohydrates such as bread and pasta are staples, scored the worst, with a death rate of 891 per a population of 100,000.

Bruce Lee, associate professor of international health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and executive director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center, said the research provides further support that poor diets are associated with noncommunicable diseases, which have become a leading killer across the globe, but he noted that nutrition is not the only factor. Physical inactivity, as well as various environmental, economic and social factors, are major contributors, he said.

"Diet can contribute to noncommunicable disease (NCDs) via increased body weight and obesity, elevated blood pressure, hyperlipidemia or high levels of fat in the blood, and conditions that lead to high blood sugar levels," Lee said in an email. He added that one problem is that "unhealthy foods such as those that are highly processed with artificial ingredients are often cheaper to make, store, ship, and prepare. Therefore, such food have replaced more natural and healthy foods in food systems around the world."

But is a poor diet really responsible for more deaths than even cigarette smoking?

Nestle, with New York University, suggested that it makes sense that dietary risks are higher because everyone eats — but not everyone smokes. So, she said that "diet is a risk factor for everybody."

The researchers did not find a country that consistently performed well in all forms of diet. For instance, Israel, which scored the highest overall, ranked closer to the bottom when it came to intake of processed meats. But, Afshin said, the findings should urge people to try to eat better and policymakers to create and promote policies that aim to increase consumption of healthy foods.

Seven women who said Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them decades ago and then labeled them liars by denying it have settled defamation lawsuits against the imprisoned actor.

Court documents filed Friday in Springfield, Massachusetts, show a settlement has been reached since Cosby went to prison last fall in a separate Pennsylvania sex assault case. Cosby, 81, is serving a three- to 10-year prison sentence.

Cosby's spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said Cosby did not authorize the settlement reached between the women and American International Group Inc., and "vehemently denies the allegations."

"Mr. Cosby did not settle any cases with anyone. He is not paying anything to anyone, and he is still pursuing his counterclaims. AIG decided to settle these cases, without the knowledge, permission and/or consent of Mr. Cosby," Wyatt said in a statement.

Courts had ruled that AIG had to pay for Cosby to defend the defamation lawsuits as part of his coverage. Cosby had homeowners and other coverage through AIG.

The judge overseeing the defamation case in Massachusetts must still approve the settlement. The terms were not disclosed in the filings Friday. A message left with AIG's corporate press office was not immediately returned late Friday.

The plaintiffs are among the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct. They include Tamara Green, Barbara Bowman and Therese Serignese. Cosby, in a 2006 deposition, acknowledged giving Serignese quaaludes that made her "high" before a sexual encounter in Las Vegas in 1976, when she was 19. Some of that deposition testimony was aired in his criminal case.

"I don't think he has much to contest the cases with, given his conviction," said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. "I don't know how much resources (he has left). It probably makes sense for both sides to resolve it."

Joseph Cammarata, an attorney who represents the women, told The Associated Press on Friday that "each plaintiff is satisfied with the settlement." He declined to comment further.

However, he warned in a status report also filed Friday that his clients would seek to depose Cosby and gather other documents and evidence if Cosby does not drop counterclaims that accuse the women of harming his reputation through their accusations. Wyatt said that Cosby still intends to pursue those claims.

Cosby's wife, Camille, had been ordered to give a deposition in the defamation case in 2016, after a heated fight over her testimony.

Lawyers for the Cosbys tried to quash her subpoena to testify, saying she didn't have any relevant information on the women's claims and that any marital conversations she had with her husband of 50 years were confidential. The judge agreed that marital conversations were private, but the women's lawyers noted she also served as his business manager throughout their long marriage.

The case had largely been put on hold amid the Pennsylvania criminal case, which involved charges that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted a woman at his home in 2004. The first trial ended in a deadlock in 2017, but a second jury convicted Cosby last year.

Cosby is appealing the conviction. He is being held at a state prison in Montgomery County, outside of Philadelphia.

The Jazz’s defense holding the Kings without a point for the first 3 minutes of Friday’s game and without a basket for the first 51/2 may have been enough to determine the outcome.

And if it wasn’t, well, rookie guard Grayson Allen dropping 19 of his career-high 23 points in 10 first-half minutes — on 8-for-8 shooting, no less — may have simply shocked Sacramento into submission.

An efficient outing for Utah on both ends paved the way for a not-that-close 119-98 victory — the Jazz’s seventh in a row and their 12th win in their past 13 games.

The team improved to 49-30 on the season — surpassing last year’s win total with three games yet to go.

“Overall, I’m happy with the way I played, happy with where I’m at now at the end of the year compared to the beginning of the year,” Allen said. “I still have in my mind plays where I did wrong, those stick out to me, but I’m very happy with the improvement that I’ve made.”

This matchup could hardly have started much better for the Jazz.

Rudy Gobert opened the scoring by cutting down the lane for a dunk off an assist from Donovan Mitchell. Ricky Rubio followed with a floating jumper. Then Mitchell drove in for a layup. Rubio added a free throw when Kings coach Dave Joerger was whistled for a technical foul for protesting his team getting four fouls called in less than 21/2 minutes of action. On the ensuing possession, Joe Ingles drained a 3. When Jae Crowder added another triple out of a timeout, every Jazz starter had scored, and Utah held a 13-0 advantage.

Sacramento wound up missing its first nine shot attempts before Buddy Hield finally connected on a 3-pointer with 6:37 to play in the opening quarter.

“I like how we came out defensively,” said coach Quin Snyder. “… Everybody guarded early, so I liked that. We built a lead and we were able to continue to play the right way, which was good to see.”

Quin Snyder, on Grayson's improvement: "I feel like he’s giving effort defensively and working — he’s made that important. I like seeing him compete, and that’s what he’s been doing. And when you’re a good player and you do those things, good things happen." pic.twitter.com/EDkH52rYFP

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) April 6, 2019

Not quite a minute after the Kings finally made a basket, Allen checked in for Ingles, ostensibly hoping merely to see his solid play from Wednesday night in Phoenix continue.

He wound up doing a bit more than that.

A mere 13 seconds after entering the game, he got on the scoreboard by banking in a floater. Two minutes later, a jumper connected. Less than a minute after that, Mitchell found him for a 3-pointer. After another minute or so, he’d connected on another trey. And about a minute after that, he spotted up in the corner, received a crosscourt fastball from Ingles, pump-faked the close-out defender into the air, sidestepped, reset, and sank his third triple of the opening period.

Less than 50 seconds into the second quarter, he added the Jazz’s two opening baskets of the period on a pair of layups through traffic — including one in which he contorted his body, absorbed contact, hung in the air, and got the ball to crawl over the rim.

He impressed his teammates with his efforts on both ends, though.

“He did his thing tonight. This is just the beginning. You see the way he’s creating, the way he’s poised; I think there’s a lot more,” Mitchell said. “The biggest thing we all see is his competitiveness on the defensive end — one possession, maybe two where his guy scored on him. I think he takes pride in that; that’s really where his focus has been. Once you play defense, the offense takes care of itself.”

Donovan Mitchell, on the play of Grayson Allen: "This is just the beginning. You see the way he’s creating, the way he’s poised — I think there’s a lot more. The biggest thing we all see is his competitiveness on the defensive end… I think he takes pride in that." pic.twitter.com/dZp4qVuTZI

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) April 6, 2019

Of course, Allen was hardly doing it by himself.

Gobert added to his running total of double-doubles with 17 points and 12 rebounds, while adding four blocks. Mitchell just missed a double-double of his own, finishing with 23 points and nine assists — against zero turnovers. Ingles contributed 17 points and seven assists.

In all, Utah hit 51.8 percent of its shots, and connected on 15 of 33 attempts from deep. The Jazz also totaled 30 assists on 44 made baskets.

The defensive numbers were nothing to look askance at, either, though.

While the Kings were undoubtedly hamstrung by second-year point guard De’Aaron Fox picking up three first-quarter fouls, and ultimately departing in the first half with a sore right foot, they simply could never get much going against Utah’s defense.

Sacramento shot just 41.3 percent for the game and made only 5 of 21. Hield led them in scoring with 17 points.

Still, it wasn’t all good news for the Jazz, whose injury woes continued. Derrick Favors (back spasms) and Kyle Korver (knee soreness) each sat out for a third straight game. Reserve guard Raul Neto, who played Wednesday vs. the Suns, sat out against the Kings with left ankle soreness. Meanwhile, starting point guard Ricky Rubio, who did not play in Phoenix, began this game in the lineup, but exited in the first quarter after just 4 minutes, 54 seconds of action due to a quad contusion.

Mitchell was big, filling in at point guard yet again. But this night belonged to Allen.

“He was nothing short of amazing. That kid works so hard and relentlessly at his craft every day,” said bench mate Georges Niang. “… I gotta give the kid a lot of credit. I’m happy for him, I know how hard he works, and it’s just super-awesome for him to get out there and contribute and be successful.”

Georges Niang, on Grayson: "That kid works so hard and relentlessly at his craft every day. Has to go down to the G League, goes on road trips, travels through the night, and comes in and has had a heck of a two games. … It’s just super-awesome for him to … be successful." pic.twitter.com/hEFACK3nSc

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) April 6, 2019

Utah running back Devonta’e Henry-Cole took a handoff, bounced to the outside and ran for 10 yards to begin the Utes’ second major scrimmage of spring football practice Friday at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

That first play of the day produced a bigger gain than any of the first-team offense’s basic runs last weekend, when the No. 1 defensive line dominated the No. 1 offensive line. The return from injury of tackle Nick Ford and a better overall performance by the linemen made the session more encouraging for offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig.

“It was more enjoyable to watch than it was last week,” he said, “so we’re getting better. That’s what spring football’s all about.”

Ute offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig after Friday's scrimmage. pic.twitter.com/ZhmSOequtc

— Kurt Kragthorpe (@tribkurt) April 6, 2019

The scrimmage consisted of 94 plays, considerably more than last weekend. The event marked the last live work for most front-line players this spring. About one-third of the starters will participate in next Saturday’s Red-White Game, coach Kyle Whittingham said, and they’ll play only about half of the game. The Utes will have “physical practices” Tuesday and Thursday, Whittingham said.

First-team offensive players were not tackled to the ground Friday — the same format as in the first scrimmage, in an effort to keep everybody healthy. With the quick whistles preventing any tackle-breaking opportunities, Henry-Cole’s statistics were modest. He was able to show an initial burst, though, unlike last weekend when the defensive linemen stuffed nearly every up-the-middle run.

The offensive line “did a lot better job,” Whittingham said. “The running backs did a nice job of hitting the holes; that was part of it as well.”

Henry-Cole is the No. 1 back this spring, with Zack Moss rehabilitating his knee. TJ Green ran 45 yards for a touchdown with the No. 2 offense and caught a 26-yard pass from Jason Shelley.

Transfer quarterback Cameron Rising took some snaps with the No. 2 offense Friday and ran twice for 37 yards on zone-read option plays, including a 17-yard touchdown. Starting quarterback Tyler Huntley ran for an 8-yard score.

All four quarterbacks were efficient, with only a few long passes attempted. The last play of the day was an exception, with Drew Lisk hitting Jaylen Dixon down the middle for a 32-yard touchdown.

Huntley looked sharp in two-minute drill and finished 10 of 16 for 93 yards. His unofficial two-scrimmage totals are 20 of 28 for 191 yards, with one interception. Lisk was 5 of 6 for 93 yards Friday, Shelley was 4 of 8 for 51 yards and Rising was 2 of 3 for 17 yards.

The biggest disappointment for the offense came in the scripted red-zone portion of the scrimmage, as the defense usually forced field goals. “Not efficient enough. … We’ll get that tightened up,” Ludwig said.

The offense didn’t have any turnovers, though. That means the defense didn’t force any takeaways, summarizing the nature of spring football. Otherwise, defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley again was satisfied with the work of his No. 1 group.

In the ongoing place-kicking competition, Chayden Johnston may have moved back in front. He made field goals of 39, 25 and 37 yards. Jadon Redding hit from 25 and 29 yards, but missed from 42 and 44 yards.

Whittingham, who coaches the specialists, said the kickers and punter Ben Lennon have improved after “a couple awful days early in the spring.”

The standards are high in a program that has produced a series of stars in those roles. The specialists are gradually “looking more like we’re used to,” Whittingham said.

Toledo, Ohio • Dan Robbins, an artist who created the first paint-by-numbers pictures and helped turn the kits into an American sensation during the 1950s, has died. He was 93.

Robbins, whose works were dismissed by some critics but later celebrated by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, died Monday in Sylvania, Ohio, said his son, Larry Robbins.

He had been in good health until a series of falls in recent months, his son said.

Robbins was working as a package designer for the Palmer Paint Company in Detroit when he came up with the idea for paint-by-numbers in the late 1940s. He said his inspiration came from Leonardo da Vinci.

"I remembered hearing that Leonardo used numbered background patterns for his students and apprentices, and I decided to try something like that," Robbins said in 2004.

He showed his first attempt — an abstract still life — to his boss, Max Klein, who promptly told Robbins he hated it.

But Klein saw potential with the overall concept and told Robbins to come up with something people would want to paint. The first versions were of landscapes, and then he branched out to horses, puppies and kittens.

"I did the first 30 or 35 subjects myself, then I started farming them out to other artists," said Robbins, who mainly stuck to landscapes.

While the Craft Master paint-by-numbers kits weren't embraced initially, sales quickly took off and peaked at 20 million in 1955. Within a few years, though, the market was flooded, sales dropped and Klein sold the company.

Together, Robbins helped create slices of Americana that are still collected and are found framed in homes across the nation. Palmer still sells at least two kits: one remembering the Sept. 11 attacks and the other depicting the Last Supper.

"We like to think dad was one of the most exhibited artists in the world," said Larry Robbins. "He enjoyed hearing from everyday people. He had a whole box of fan letters."

He noted his father's accomplishments are still on display at the Detroit Historical Museum, "right down from Henry Ford," his son said.

Robbins, who spent much of his life in the Detroit area, was modest about his work and didn't get too bothered by those who mocked the paintings.

Critics came to view the paint-by-numbers kits as a metaphor for a commercialized, cookie-cutter culture and fretted that they far outnumbered the original works of art hanging in American homes, said William Lawrence Bird Jr., curator of the 2001 exhibition at the National Museum of American History.

Some within the museum questioned the idea of celebrating the paint-by-numbers craze and its impact on art, at least until the crowds showed up, Bird said.

"He would say, 'I didn't think of this, Leonardo did,'" Bird said. "He was amused that people were collecting them."

When his paint-by-numbers days were over, Robbins continued to work in product development, including designing Happy Meal toys for McDonald's, Bird said.

Robbins, who wrote a book, "Whatever Happened to Paint-by-Numbers," said at the exhibition's April 2001 opening in Washington that his creation survived despite the critics.

"I never claim that painting by number is art," he said. "But it is the experience of art, and it brings that experience to the individual who would normally not pick up a brush, not dip it in paint. That's what it does."

Robbins is survived by his wife, Estelle, sons Michael and Larry, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

___

This story has been updated to correct the artist’s name to Leonardo da Vinci, not Leonardo de Vinci.

Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 119-98 win over the Sacramento Kings from Salt Lake Tribune beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. The Kings defense didn’t exactly bring a lot of resistance

We’re to the point of the season that a major factor, maybe the major factor, in some of these games is whether or not the teams that the Jazz play care or not. Tonight, the Jazz faced the Kings on a second night of a back to back, already assured of missing the playoffs, without their starting center, and with their best player De’Aaron Fox earning three fouls in four minutes.

So Donovan Mitchell gets the ball in the corner, pump fakes, and drives baseline. All of a sudden he realizes, “hey, wait, nobody’s preventing me from scoring here, let’s score!" and gets the easy layup.

Next play, the Jazz run Spain pick and roll. Normally, success on this play means a drive or a pass, but watch what Marvin Bagley, No. 35, does on the play. Rudy Gobert sets the screen to force Joe Ingles left — the Jazz always try to get Ingles to go left — but for some reason, Bagley is hanging out on the right side of the screen. What? Why are you doing this? (The answer is that he’s a rookie, and rookies are usually bad at defensive things, but anyway.)

So the Kings call timeout, down 10-0. This is their chance to try to sort out their defense and call their next play. They run pick and pop for Bagley, who sees Rudy Gobert on him and thinks “Now is my time to isolate the defensive player of the year.” A goofy floater and a goofy tip-in attempt followed. Neither were successful.

In Bagley’s defense: this is the time of the year when young promising rookies should just throw stuff against the wall and see if it sticks. Random wild isos against Gobert aren’t going to stick, but hey, maybe he needed to learn that first hand. But in terms of a competitive game, it doesn’t mean much.

2. Rudy Gobert’s interior screens

There’s no chance these are counted in Rudy Gobert’s league-leading screen assist totals, as detailed by ESPN, but I think they matter just as much. With their defense floundering, Dave Joerger tries to switch to a zone defense. So the Jazz do what you do against zones: you swing the ball around the perimeter until you get space to shoot or attack.

But I like what Gobert does next: he prevents Bagley from making the rotation in time to stop Mitchell in the paint with a screen. That means by the time he is able to get around Gobert, Mitchell’s already in the air to make the layup happen. Not everyone would be able to finish around him anyway, but obviously, Donovan Mitchell is very good.

That’s the thing about Gobert: he just does a lot of little things so well. (I know full well that the phrase “little things” makes me sound like a ex-player in the color commentary spot.) There are a lot of shot blockers in this league that are secretly terrible at a lot of these things. Hassan Whiteside loves leaping for blocks he has no chance at, as does Mitchell Robinson. Tons of bigs just love slipping screens, all the better for scoring themselves with.

Gobert wants the recognition, yes, but he wants to win more. So he’ll help Mitchell on this kind of a play, knowing that it will help his team. He’ll tap rebounds out to teammates, knowing he won’t get credited for it. And yeah, he’ll just be there nearly every time defensively when his teammates are counting on him.

He’s just really, really good. I talk about it all the time, and it’s still not nearly enough. He’s the biggest reason why the Jazz are very likely to be a 50-win team this year.

3. Grayson Allen new career-high, and end of rookie year surges

Wait, didn’t he set a career high on Wednesday? Yes, then he scored 14 points, and it was pretty good. But now, he scored 23 points, and it was even better.

Allen went 10-14 from the field in 26:22 on the floor on Friday night to get those 23 points. Yes, he also had six turnovers, also a new career high, so that’s bad. But I’m starting to get a little bit intrigued with the number of different ways he can score the ball.

So there’s the talented finishes in transition where he’s splitting defenders — who, admittedly, don’t do a good job of staying square and making Allen’s job difficult. There’s the stepback three after a closeout, a difficult shot to master. There’s two really tough finishes in traffic, one a wide finish high off the backboard, another a power layup through contact. And there’s the snake pick and roll that we saw in the last game. That’s quite the toolset!

The defense has also improved from horrific to playable, at least against bad teams. That’s a big leap.

And here’s the required caveat: there are a lot of young players who do this at the end of their rookie seasons. Trey Lyles, who has been a non-factor in his fourth year, played very well at the end of the 2015-16 campaign. Trey Burke scored 32 points in the final game of his rookie season, after averaging nearly 16 per game in April. Eric Maynor scored 15 on eight shots, Dee Brown had 13 on seven shots.

There are some positive Jazz examples, though: Gordon Hayward scored 34 points on the final night of his rookie season, wildly improving in the end. So it might yet turn out well for Allen, and we do have to regard this as a positive sign.

Davy Ratchford worked at resorts in Colorado and California before coming to Utah and starting a job at Snowbasin this year. He couldn’t have more perfectly timed the move.

The ski resort, tucked into the mountains east of Ogden, is on track for a near-record season with almost 400 inches of powder. And more is still expected It’s been so good, in fact, that as the new general manager, Ratchford has decided to keep the slopes open for an extra week.

“It could not have been a better year,” he said Friday.

Ski resorts around the state have shared in the spoils, too, with some getting double and others nearly triple the powder compared to last year — one of the worst for snow in state history. All 13 in Utah have surpassed their averages. Four have broken records for accumulation.

For what was largely expected to be a rebound season, it’s turned into a banner year.

At Snowbasin, the extra white has put the resort enough in the green to bump its closing date from April 14 to April 21. “The right thing to do is to stay open and give people another week of skiing,” Ratchford said.

Alta and Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon are both approaching the 600-inch mark for snow, which has only been crossed once by one resort — Brighton — in the last decade.

“It’s been the season we all hoped and prayed for,” said Snowbird spokesman Brian Brown.

Snowbird has reported its closing date as “to be determined” and intends to remain open the longest of all the resorts in the state. Brown said it wouldn’t be unreasonable to still see skiers on the slopes on Memorial Day. And, if the cool conditions last, there could be enough powder left for special runs on the Fourth of July. The last time that happened was in 2011.

This season, the popular ski and summer resort has seen 588 inches of snow, the most of any in the state. Last year, it got 403.

The resort doesn’t have a final count of how many visitors have gone there with the additional powder (15 feet more than 2018), but Brown said there’s definitely been an increase in local skiers using their season passes. Utahns, data shows, prefer powder days to bluebird conditions.

Brown noted, “Ever since December, we had a very frequent series of storms that have come through.” Each time, it’s been followed by a crowd ready to slide down the fresh slopes.

The state’s ski scene is a $1.1 billion-per-year industry. With a drought like last year — which required resorts to do more snowmaking — the numbers can slide significantly and the costs to operate can increase. But with the extra help from the flurries this year, it’s expected to be a boon to the state economy.

“Snow is one of the things that draws people to Utah,” said Caitlin Furin, spokeswoman for Ski Utah, the marketing arm for the state’s resorts. “So-called ‘powder hounds’ book more trips with the snowfall.”

Last year, resorts might not have opened until February without snowmaking machines; this year, many were done with those before January.

While the powder was certainly enticing, another change this year was the rise of multiresort passes, including the Ikon Pass and the Epic Pass. Alta’s visitors have jumped more than 25 percent, for example, in the last 15 years. And the resort is expected to total half a million guests this winter.

“When it snows, people follow,” added Brighton spokesman Jared Winkler; the resort is currently at 575 inches, and “we have our fingers crossed that we’ll hit 600, too.”

Ratchford added that there’s been a 35 percent increase in the number of season pass holders at Snowbasin coming to the resort this year, and people are already buying passes for next year with the hope for more great turns courtesy of nature. He hopes they’ll take advantage of the extra week, too, because after years of skiing in Colorado and California, he’s excited to still be on the slopes by Easter himself.

Only two resorts — Eagle Point and Nordic Valley — closed at the end of March. The other 11 will remain open into April, at least. And all will slide into summer events by June with mountain biking and disc golf, stargazing and geology hikes.

This weekend, tens of thousands will gather in downtown Salt Lake City to hear talks from leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while millions more listen and watch online.

For the faithful — and even just the curious — General Conference can be a time of spiritual guidance and renewal. Under church President Russell M. Nelson, General Conferences have also been a time of exciting and sometimes stunning changes.

Changes are still coming, like Thursday’s reversal of the policy of not allowing children with LGBTQ parents to be baptized until age 18, or the changes to the Church of Jesus Christ’s temple ceremony, unveiled inside temples beginning in January.

Nelson wasn’t kidding when he quipped last fall: “Eat your vitamin pills. Get some rest. It’s going to be exciting.”

I haven’t known much about Nelson except that he was a heart surgeon in his professional life, had 10 children with his wife Dantzel and that his second wife, Wendy Watson Nelson, has a Ph.D., a 25-year practice as a marriage and is an accomplished author. I have learned a lot more recently abut just how remarkable he is.

Last week, I read the new book “Insights From a Prophet’s Life: Russell M. Nelson” by author Sheri Dew, a close personal friend to Nelson and his wife, Wendy.

As Russell was growing up, his family was not active in any church. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ as a 16-year-old high school senior. He graduated as valedictorian at East High in Salt Lake City in 1941. He did not serve a church mission but instead went to school at the University of Utah in a joint bachelor’s degree/medical doctor program. Astonishingly (to me, anyway), he graduated with both degrees in August of 1947. He was 22 years old.

While in his medical residency, he decided to also get a research-focused Ph.D., which he did simultaneously with the residency. He joined the research team that invented the first heart-lung machine, a machine that would allow surgery on a heart that could be stopped and then restarted. Now, we almost take for granted that hearts can be operated on, but when Nelson trained to be a surgeon, it was an absolute no-no.

In one of his textbooks for school, published in 1913, the author declared that “a surgeon who would attempt such an operation [on the heart] should lose the respect of his colleagues.”

When asked how he went from a total prohibition on touching the human heart to being a world-renowned heart surgeon, he replied simply: “I was curious.”

I was struck not only by Nelson’s brilliance — he also speaks multiple languages — but at his kindness. He became a surgeon to help people. He was kind in his operating room, when often doctors are not. As he began serving in the church, his mantra was “How can we help?” He helped open Eastern Europe through his patience and persistence — and his sincerity in wanting to help the people of those countries.

In Romania, for example, he and Elder Hans B. Ringger met the head of religious affairs after dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu was deposed in 1989. This official told him what they most needed help with was their orphans. This led to Dr. Alvin Price and his wife Barbara being called to serve in Romania, where I met them in 1991. The Prices helped organize the first Special Olympics in the country. (And, they are the parents of former state Rep. Becky Edwards. Service runs in the family.)

Nelson walked away from his career when he was called into the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the April 1984 General Conference and focused on living a life devoted to a different kind of service. Nelson now leads a global church of millions and does so in love, kindness and sensitivity to others, something he has worked on perfecting his entire life. Oh, and he still skied black diamond runs into his 90s, until church security finally insisted he stop.

I took my vitamins this week. I’m ready for the weekend!

Holly Richardson is a regular contributor to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Perhaps another perspective will help Sen. Mike Lee understand the folly of his recent Senate floor performance, and provide a reason for population conservatives to rethink their ideas about growth.

Notwithstanding the certainty of sooner-than-we-think global and local calamities due to limited Earth resources versus accelerating population, another factor comes into play, namely, the loss of personal liberty.

As more people occupy the same space, your idea of personal liberty becomes increasingly limited by your neighbor’s idea of peaceful living. Will you enjoy outdoor adventures as much when you have to plan around a reservation system? Canyon escapes once freely available to us are now encumbered with fees, traffic congestion and unavailable parking. Did you know you have to pay a parking fee in the Uintah mountains?

How will you feel when (not if, when) these adventures fall under a quota system, just like those for places in Zion National Park? Not to mention when the quotas become a lottery. Only the lucky (or wealthy) can visit.

The ingenuity we need going forward is not how to deal with more population. Rather, it is how can we imagine economic, social and political structures that lead to thriving zero population growth?

Don Wilhelmsen, Draper

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For roughly 25 years, the movement against abortion has been predominantly incrementalist. Its focus has been on restricting abortion in relatively modest ways rather than on amending the Constitution to prohibit it altogether.

In the 1990s, the anti-abortion movement began to campaign to ban a method of abortion they called "partial-birth abortion." More recently they have sought to ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation.

The theory behind this strategy is that changes to the law would reduce abortion rates, and debate over these changes would turn public opinion against abortion. Small victories today would enable bigger ones tomorrow.

That day has come, in the eyes of some in the anti-abortion movement. Writing for National Review Online, for example, David French argues that incrementalism undermines both the political and the legal goals of the movement: "It cultivates a degree of comfort with the persistence of abortion in American culture, and it sends a clear message to the judiciary that there is no true public outcry against the fundamental right to kill a child."

French wants more states to pass "heartbeat bills" that prohibit almost all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected and fight for those bills all the way to the Supreme Court. "It's time to throw down the gauntlet, declare to the world (and to the Court) that the era of incrementalism is over, and show that the people are ready to embrace life," he writes.

Nearly everyone who is active in the movement agrees with French that its ultimate goal should be that, as the anti-abortion slogan has it, every child is "welcomed in life and protected in law," which requires that Roe v. Wade and its successors be overturned completely. People who agree on that goal are divided, however, on how to get there. French is underestimating the practical advantages of gradual, step-by-step progress.

It is true, as he suggests, that the Supreme Court can allow limited measures such as 20-week bans without dismantling its abortion jurisprudence. If it took up a heartbeat law, it would have to choose either to keep or scrap its precedents. A major anti-abortion objective would be in sight.

But since heartbeat laws are flatly inconsistent with the precedents, the justices might not have to take them up in the first place: Lower courts could strike them down, and the justices could merely decline to hear appeals.

Let's say, though, that a case reached the high court. French's argument presupposes that some justices are on the fence. If so, wouldn't they be less likely to uphold a more far-reaching abortion restriction than to uphold a limited one?

The upholding of a limited restriction would put future anti-abortion litigators in a stronger position to win more legal ground; the turning back of a more frontal challenge would put them in a worse one.

Polling does not suggest that anti-abortion activists' incrementalist approach has led to entrenched support for abortion in our culture. The movement's turn toward incrementalism coincided with a substantial increase in the percentage of Americans who identified with it.

In 1995, Gallup found that 56 percent of Americans favored abortion rights and only 33 percent considered themselves anti-abortion. Its latest finding was a much more even 49-45 plurality favoring abortion rights. There is some evidence that the recent attention to third-trimester abortion and to infants who survive abortions has shifted opinion toward the anti-abortion side as well.

Even if the Supreme Court were to declare that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, and thus put legislatures in charge of setting abortion policy, there would continue to be a political logic to moving gradually.

Anti-abortion activists would consider it morally obligatory to press for the maximum feasible legal protection for unborn children that could be sustained over time. But the risks of a backlash that set back that protection would be substantial, particularly in some states. At each time and place, the task of the anti-abortion movement will be twofold: putting into law those protections that command a consensus and working to change that consensus in the direction of more perfect justice. Each stage of this process of democratic persuasion will require difficult judgments of what is achievable.

One oddity of French's case against gradualism is that he doesn't follow it to its logical conclusion, which is that the heartbeat bills don't go far enough. Their sponsors almost certainly want to prohibit abortion from conception onward, even before a heartbeat is present.

They have chosen to make the presence of a heartbeat the dividing line, one assumes, on the theory that it makes for more politically attractive legislation. They have embraced incrementalism; they're just going for a very big increment.

But their ability to reach the right political judgment is hampered by their incorrect sense that it is morally wrong to make one in the first place. People against abortion should feel a righteous impatience, but should not let it have the last word.

Ramesh Ponnuru, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, is a senior editor at National Review, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The article by Brian Maffly looking at Cottonwood Canyon traffic and the Ikon/Epic passes was interesting.

The unfettered greed of the resorts is disappointing. They utilize sensitive public and watershed land plus public infrastructure. They are successful and prosperous because of their terrain and snow quality, yet continue to push for insatiable profits and neverending expansion. They are not demonstrating good neighbor practices toward our region. Their shortsighted values are degrading the benefits of living here.

In February, Arapahoe Basin in Colorado terminated its Epic pass relationship due to parking limitations and congestion. They wanted to preserve their experience and character. Why can’t our resorts do the same?

Alta’s dogged persistence to expand parking and resort boundaries in the name of “preserving the Alta experience” defies common sense.

If a successful restaurant has 20 tables it is under no public contract to increase capacity to 30 tables. Similarly, our crowded resorts are not obligated to increase capacity either. Yet they continually say they must, or they will perish. Hogwash.

“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell,” Edward Abbey said. And also, apparently, of our misguided resorts.

George Vargyas, Big Cottonwood Canyon

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It is no secret that Utah’s 2018-19 ski season will be remembered for great snow, but mostly for mind-boggling traffic jams, no parking and no seating at any of the resort restaurants. This problem is caused by the Epic and Ikon passes that have given people all over the nation special deals at multiple Utah resorts.

I’d like to offer a solution that doesn’t require massive new road construction. For the Cottonwood Canyon resorts (Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude) I ask that you follow the lead of Arapahoe Basin Ski Resort in Colorado.

For next season, Arapahoe will stop accepting the Ikon and Epic pass. Their management determined that the resort simply doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the huge crowds these passes bring. Neither does Alta and Snowbird.

Our canyons, particularly the Cottonwoods, are not conducive to massive crowds. Even The New York Times commented that their outdoor reporter was caught in a two-hour traffic jam in Little Cottonwood and decided to go to Colorado instead.

So, Alta and Snowbird, are you more interested in counting bills at the end of the day, or providing a great ski experience for your loyal customers who have spent lifetimes at your resort?

If you quit the Epic and Ikon passes, your parking lots will still be full, but we won’t see the lunacy we have seen this season.

Give your loyal customers a break. Drop the Ikon and Epic passes. The solution is simple. They have ruined Park City and they threaten to ruin your resorts.

J. Kevin Bischoff, Salt Lake City

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Every Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee voted last month to require that Attorney General William Barr hand over the full Mueller report to the committee, as well as a redacted version to the public. However, on April 3, every Republican, including all of the Utah representatives, voted against taking any action to actually make the report available.

They are all complicit and are again putting party over country and their constituents — 75% of the public as per an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. That included a majority of Republicans (54%).

Vote them out!

Linda Miller, Salt Lake City

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As I was planning my retirement in Salt Lake City from Southern California, many friends and family members wondered incredulously why I would want to move to Utah.

"Have you been there recently?" I asked them all.

I explained that Salt Lake City is a vibrant, mid-sized city with an admirable mass transportation system, rich cultural events, progressive political leanings and a surprisingly diverse population. And Utah is arguably the most beautiful state in our great Union.

For quite some time, I have been enlightening my friends and family as to the many positives to be found in Utah.

Then, to my great embarrassment, I witnessed the snide and snarky presentation Sen. Mike Lee made on the senate floor.

It seemed that all of my years of influencing opinions in my world were wiped out. Utah suddenly became once again a laughing stock.

Sen. Lee, please stop embarrassing us. You do our great state a gross disservice. If you have a salient alternative for dealing with climate change, by all means, share it with us. Otherwise, please button it.

Dale Palmer, Sandy

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