The BYU-Utah rivalry is moving to the boxing ring Saturday.

As part of its Third Annual Executive Fight Night at FitCon on Saturday at the Salt Palace Convention Center, Lehi-based Legends Boxing is putting on a pair of bouts pitting former BYU and Utah football players.

Former BYU quarterback Riley Nelson will face off against former Utah kicker Andy Phillips and former BYU linebacker Bryan Kehl will fight former Utah linebacker Boo Anderson in three-round bouts which have been sanctioned by USA Boxing.

“Any opportunity you have to go toe-to-toe with somebody from the Team Down South, that is always exciting,” Phillips said. “That wasn’t my full motivation, but anything rivalry-related, there is always some extra energy, and it perked my ears up a little bit.”

A third Utah vs. BYU bout was to pit former Utah receiver DeVonte Christopher against former BYU defensive back Skye PoVey, but PoVey sustained an injury a few weeks ago and had to withdraw, so Christopher will fight a coach from Legends Boxing.

Bouts begin at approximately 7 p.m. and will held in conjunction with a dozen or so other bouts matching up executives, influencers and business owner. Ten percent of all ticket sales will go to benefit the Athlete Strong Foundation, a charity co-founded by former Utah football players Stevenson Sylvester, Matt Martinez and Dallin Rogers, who is also the owner of FitCon.

Like Phillips, Nelson, 30, jumped at the opportunity when he learned he could get eight weeks of free boxing training and then climb in the ring with a former Ute. Coincidentally, Nelson and Phillips, 29, have been friends since their college playing days.

Former BYU offensive lineman Braden Hansen, who played with Phillips at Alta High, got the rivals together for some golf and their friendship blossomed. Nelson said he has a lot of respect for what Phillips has done athletically — he was a member of the U.S. Ski Team before walking on to the Utah football team — but that won’t matter when they step in the ring.

“I want to score and the best way to score is to land power punches and control the ring and kind of hurt your opponent. I guess that’s your answer,” Nelson said with a laugh. “It is a friendly competition, but man, if he leaves his hands down and lets me land a good straight left or a nice hard upper cut, I am not going to pull that punch back, by any means.”

Neither has been in a real fight before, although Nelson has boxing in his heritage. Two of his great grandfathers were boxers: George “Doc” Nelson is in the Utah Sports Hall of Fame and Bert Danford opened the first boxing gym in the Cache Valley in the 1920s.

When they started training 8-10 weeks ago, Nelson weighed 190 pounds and Phillips was at 220, so the former has had to gain weight and the latter drop a few pounds so they are within eight pounds of each other to get USA Boxing sanctioning.

“We’re good friends, but when the lights are on and we are in the ring together, I won’t be thinking about our friendship,” Phillips said.

On Friday and Saturday at the Salt Palace, the Idaho-based Snake River Sumo Association (SRSA) will team up with FitCon to present the inaugural FitCon Sumo Cup, believed to be the first ever Sumo event in Salt Lake City.

The main event is Friday at 6 p.m. and will feature the biggest athletes, including Kelly Gneiting, who weighs more than 400 pounds but has ran three marathons and swam distances of more than 20 miles. A beginners clinic will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. and a women’s competition is slated for 1 p.m. Saturday.

Las Vegas • Nevada agriculture officials say horses that competed at an equestrian center in Las Vegas earlier this month may have been exposed to an equine herpes virus.

One horse from California and another from Clark County tested positive for the virus known as EHV-1 and were placed under quarantine after competing in the National Reined Cow Horse Association Stallion Stakes at the South Point Equestrian Center from March 30 to April 6.

As a result, state veterinarian Dr. JJ Goicoechea recommended Thursday that Nevada horse owners do not travel or compete with their animals.

Three other Nevada horses were quarantined earlier this year after at least one was believed to have contracted the virus in March at the state high school rodeo in Pahrump.

Since then, Nevada Agriculture Department officials say an additional unrelated case has been confirmed in an unvaccinated horse in Clark County.

Goicoechea said Thursday the South Point center is not under quarantine.

Steve Stallworth, general manager of the South Point Arena and Equestrian Center, said they will "exercise extreme caution" but will continue to host upcoming events as scheduled.

"Safety and security are a priority," Stallworth said in a statement. "We are working closely with the state veterinarian and our own in-house veterinarian to ensure all precautions and necessary disinfecting measures have been made to the entire facility."

Goicoechea first warned horse owners in Nevada and surrounding states in early March to watch for signs of fever, cough or runny nose in any animals that may have been exposed to EHV-1.

It can cause respiratory disease in young horses, abortions in pregnant mares and neurologic disease in older horses. It can be spread through contact with exposed animals, people, equipment and vehicles.

Earlier quarantines were lifted at the end of March.

A man punched by a Clearfield convenience store owner during a fight in the gas station Wednesday afternoon has died.

Police said Brandon Stufflebean, 39, of Layton, went into the store at 680 N. Main St. at 1 p.m. and got into an argument with the store owner about buying a drink, according to a police department news release. The store owner eventually punched Stufflebean in the face.

Stufflebean was found unconscious in the parking lot soon after. He had a “serious head injury." According to the news release, he died just before 3 p.m. Thursday.

Police have not arrested in anyone in the case, and said the store owner is cooperating with the ongoing investigation. Assistant Chief Devin Rogers said investigators are trying to determine if the store owner acted in self-defense, among other things.

He declined to release any more information on the case. The state medical examiner will determine Stufflebean’s cause of death.

Garfield County was forced to pay a ransom to gain access to their own data after a massive ransomware attack hit their computer systems. According to FOX 13, county officials weren’t able to access their computers for weeks.

“All of our data had been taken,” Garfield County Attorney Barry Huntington told FOX 13.

The attack occurred after someone clicked on a phishing email earlier in the year that launched the ransomware attack. The computer virus stole data from a number of county offices and then locked it away.

Huntington said files from the Assessor’s Office and the Recorder’s Office had been taken and no one knew how or why.

“Eventually we received an email stating that some terrorists had taken our information and if we wanted it back, we had to pay them,” he said.

After the state severed access to its systems, the FBI became involved.

“We were told to leave our computers off while the FBI and the state looked into it,” Huntington said. “We tried to do the best we could with handwritten files and things like that. Computer-wise, we were shut down.”

Garfield County eventually paid the perpetrator the ransom in Bitcoin in order to regain access to their files, phones and systems. While the FBI would not comment about the Garfield County attack, the agency said the county was not alone in being a victim of this type of hijackings.

“It really happens to everyone,” FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeffrey Collins said in an interview with FOX 13 on Thursday. “An individual person at home, small businesses, corporations, everyone can be affected by this.”

The FBI does not encourage paying the ransom in these type of situations, but acknowledges some may feel they have no other options.

In order to protect yourself, Collins said people need to double-check their emails, even if they look like they come from somewhere safe.

“Even if it looks like somebody you trust, you should be suspicious of it. Especially if it has an attachment or a link,” he said. “Don’t automatically click that or assume it’s safe.”

See more at FOX 13.

Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX 13 are content-sharing partners.

Washington • Forget everything else for a moment and behold infinity.

On Wednesday, scientists unveiled a fuzzy image that should blow every mind on the planet: the first-ever picture of a black hole, which is a region of space so dense that nothing can escape its gravitational pull, not even light. Black holes were predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, and their existence has been inferred from decades' worth of indirect observation. But we've never actually seen one until now, and the experience is humbling.

Indulge me. I’m just back from vacation. Before charging back into the frenzied melee of the 24/7 news cycle, let’s pause to reflect on the majesty of the cosmos.

Let’s take a moment to marvel at how weird and wondrous the universe turns out to be. Black holes, which are not rare — one lurks at the center of our own galaxy, the Milky Way — can be thought of as portals that lead to some other realm that lies forever beyond our reach. They are places where space and time cease to exist, where the familiar parameters that define our reality lose all meaning.

To see such an object is to gaze into the ultimate abyss. Dumbstruck awe is the only reasonable response.

The black hole in question, known as M87, lies at the heart of a galaxy far, far away — 55 million light-years distant, to be a bit more precise. That an international team of astrophysicists was able to snap its photo is a reminder that while so many of our institutions have lost their way and squandered the public trust, science is still capable of doing miraculous things.

To see M87, they needed a telescope as big as the earth itself. To simulate such a thing, they trained existing radio telescopes at eight widely separated sites around the globe on the target simultaneously, gathering mountains of data — so much that the files were too large to be sent through the internet and had to be shipped around on high-capacity hard drives. Winter observations from a telescope in Antarctica were delayed until the weather abated and the drives containing the data could be flown out.

All of that information was combined and analyzed, a process that took many months. The image that emerged was revealed at coordinated news conferences, including one at the National Press Club led by Shep Doeleman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Doeleman served as director of the Event Horizon Telescope project, named after the spherical boundary that surrounds a black hole and marks the point of no return for anything unfortunate enough to venture closer.

Another key member of the team was computer scientist Katherine Bouman, 29, soon to be an assistant professor at Caltech, who developed an algorithm that made it possible to combine the massive amounts of data produced by the participating telescopes. Those of us who believe in the power of diversity predicted that science would greatly benefit by opening its doors to women. We were right.

The greatest contribution, of course, came from Einstein. A century ago, he described gravity not as a force of attraction between masses (Isaac Newton's view) but as a warping of spacetime. His equations made predictions that were counterintuitive and even preposterous — that the path of light from a distant source would be curved by passing near a massive object, for example, or that time would pass more slowly near a strong gravitational field. On all counts, however, he turned out to be right. Your mobile phone's GPS would send you careening into brick walls if compensation were not made for the time distortion that Einstein described.

But even Einstein was disturbed when Karl Schwarzschild, another German physicist, used the equations of general relativity to work out that if matter became too dense it would collapse into a black hole. The idea seemed absurd. But Schwarzschild's math turned out to be right.

How is it even possible to take a picture of a black hole against the inky blackness of space? How do you capture an image of nothing? It turns out that some black holes, including the massive M87, are surrounded by infalling material that circles rapidly like water going down a drain. All of that material reaches such high speeds that it forms a hot, glowing disc — a blazing doughnut around the voracious hole.

Which is exactly what M87 looks like. Just wow.

Humans are capable of epic screw-ups that endanger our very existence. But sometimes, somehow, we still get it right.

Eugene Robinson’s email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.

(c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group

A former vice president for the Salt Lake Stallions has filed a class action lawsuit against the Alliance of American Football league, arguing it violated federal law in how it disbanded the company and that it owes its employees pay and benefits.

Richard Muirbrook was hired as the vice president of ticket sales and services for the Stallions on Sept. 10, 2018. He and more than 90 others were left without work when the company announced it was folding on April 2, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Utah’s U.S. District Court, joins at least two others filed against the AAF after it announced it was suspending football operation, according to ESPN.

The decision to shutter the league came after the NFL Players Association rejected AAF majority investor Tom Dundon’s proposal to allow NFL players to participate in the AAF.

The AAF — which included teams in Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Orlando, Fla.; Tempe, Ariz.; San Antonio and San Diego — issued a statement April 5, saying, “We understand the difficulty that this decision has caused for many people and for that we are very sorry. This is not the way we want it to end, but we are also committed to working on solutions for all outstanding issues to the best of our ability.”

Muirbrook’s attorneys argue that giving employees only one-day notice that they would be laid off violates the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification — or WARN — Act. The act mandates any company with more than 100 full-time employees must give workers written notice of their termination within 60 days of their last day of work.

“The lack of notice of termination caused significant harm to Plaintiff and Claimants who were unable to properly plan for a job transition or make plans for the unexpected and immediate lack of income caused by the reckless actions of the Company,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit is asking the league to pay employees wages, 401K contributions and other benefits for the 60-day period after their official termination.

Last week, 98% of you knew about a change in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ policy on the children of LGBTQ people, but only 48% knew Utah’s best cup of coffee comes from La Barba. Think you kept up with the news this week? Take our quiz to find out. A new one will post every Friday morning. You can find previous quizzes here. If you’re using The Salt Lake Tribune mobile app, click here.

For clarification and fact checking — but hopefully not cheating — purposes, you can find the stories referenced in each question here: Question 1, Question 2, Question 3, Question 4, Question 5, Question 6, Question 7, Question 8, Question 9, Question 10, Question 11 and Question 12.

The urgent need to replace aging and increasingly obsolete police and firefighter two-way radios in Utah has prompted the state’s head of emergency communications to start negotiations on a $50 million contract even as a losing bidder has gone to court to block the deal.

Motorola Solutions, the longtime supplier of Utah’s emergency radios, has protested the bid awarded to competitor Harris Corp. by raising allegations of bid-rigging and procurement irregularities. Those protests were rejected first by the agency in charge of the project — the Utah Communications Authority (UCA) — and earlier this month by the state Procurement Policy Board.

Now the Chicago-based company has taken its dispute to the Utah Court of Appeals. Company spokeswoman Kathy VanBuskirk, contacted Thursday, had no comment.

Normally, the ongoing bid protest would keep the project on hold — as it has since December. But UCA Executive Director Dave Edmunds has issued a written determination that finalizing the contract without further delay is in the best interest of the state.

“UCA is rapidly approaching a time when replacement parts and equipment will simply be unavailable and, despite the best efforts of UCA and its expert technicians, the current radio system will begin to fail, compromising coverage for public safety agencies across the state," Edmunds wrote in his April 9 order unfreezing contract negotiations. “Indeed, after a piece of existing Motorola equipment recently failed, leaving a number of public safety answering points without service, Motorola itself stated that the equipment had outlived its lifespan and that Motorola could no longer supply the part.”

Asked for additional details on that breakdown, Edmunds said in a statement that it occurred in central Utah and prevented some call centers from communicating with first responders using radio consoles. “Operators were able to rely on backup radios during the pendency of the outage, which lasted less than an hour.”

Although it was short-lived and there was backup communication available, he said, "the outage highlights the need to move forward with a new system to reduce future outages and ensure replacement components are available for timely repairs.”

Since Motorola stopped making the older radios or supplying parts for them years ago, UCA has been forced to keep the system going with parts purchased on eBay. And Edmunds has previously described Utah’s first-responder radio system as “potentially at the verge of collapse."

The P25 radio network that Utah intends to purchase offers several benefits, including a doubling of the network capacity and a broader range of compatibility that allows for purchase of radios from different manufacturers at competitive prices.

Full implementation of the upgrade is expected to take several years and with seasonal considerations — UCA radio towers throughout the state are erected on mountaintops that can be inaccessible in winter — Edmunds said timing is “critical.”

The first order of business is for the agency to seal the deal with Harris, a Florida-based company that has been aggressive in recent years attempting to cut into Motorola’s 80-percent market share.

It will be a big switch for UCA, which has relied on Motorola as its supplier for more than two decades. The transition to a new vendor has had its critics, including from some local public safety departments that have raised questions about the bid process.

Former state Rep. Brad Dee, who was the sponsor of much of the legislation over the years creating UCA and overseeing its operations, told The Salt Lake Tribune that a number of local governments and first response agencies “are concerned on how this was handled.”

One of the questions raised was whether UCA put too much emphasis on price and too little on technical aspects. Motorola had an edge in its technical bid score but lost out because of what UCA said was a $30 million savings from the Harris offer.

Motorola protested that those calculations ignored its offers of several discounts, which would have narrowed that price gap to a few million dollars. The company also complained about several other factors, including that Harris had failed to properly disclose litigation in other markets.

Dee echoed those concerns and called for a “last and best” bid to settle lingering questions about equipment compatibility and bottom-line price.

Edmunds earlier confirmed to his board that he had been contacted by a number of local agencies “afraid their radios won’t work." But he said there was no empirical basis for those fears and one of the most attractive features of the new system is its compatibility with radios from multiple manufacturers.

The UCA director acknowledged there are no guarantees about how Motorola’s appeal will turn out in court, but added, “the risks of further delaying this critical system outweigh that minimal risk.”

Emmy-winning writer Andrew Davies is not a fan of the musical version of “Les Misérables.”

“I hated the musical,” he said. “I just wanted to rescue it” from that “pathetic” version. You know, the one that won the 1987 Tony as best musical and has been touring the country for decades.

Davies, who has adapted “War & Peace,” “Little Dorrit,” “Sense & Sensibility,” “Bleak House,” “Doctor Zhivago” and “Pride and Prejudice” — among others — for television went back to Victor Hugo’s enormous 1862 novel for his retelling of the story of Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine and Cosette, ignoring the musical altogether.

“It wasn’t difficult for me, because I hadn’t seen the musical before I started working on this,” Davies said, “and I came fairly fresh to the book.”

He’d never read Hugo’s novel until he was pitched the idea of adapting it, and he came away impressed.

“I thought it was a terrific story that just resonated so much with the world we live in today, particularly,” Davies said. “I thought I’d just want to have a go at this.”

His enormous list of writing credits dates back half a century and includes everything from “House of Cards” (both the British original and the American remake) to “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and its sequel. And after reading Hugo’s work — translated into English from the original French — Davies enthusiastically signed on to script a six-part series, a co-production of PBS’ “Masterpiece” and the BBC. Six hours sounds like a lot, but it’s not much when you consider that an unabridged copy of the book runs as much as 1,500 pages, depending on the edition. But Davies was not intimidated.

“I’m an old man. I don’t get scared,” he said. “I’ve faced down many great books in my life. I thought, ‘This is just another great book. I’ll just do it the way I see it,’ which is the way I always do it.”

His “Les Misérables,” which premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. on PBS/Ch. 7, tells the tale without the histrionics of the musical. Set in the early 19th century, it’s the story of noble reformed criminal Jean Valjean (Dominic West) and single-minded Inspector Javert (David Oyelowo), who is determined to put him back in prison. And of the ill-fated Fantine (Lily Collins) and her daughter, Cosette (Mailow Defoy, Lia Giovanelli and Ellie Bamber).

The cast also includes Adeel Akhtar and Oscar-winner Olivia Coleman as Monsieur and Madame Thénardier; Josh O’Connor as Marius; David Bradley as Marius’ grandfather; and Derek Jacobi as the Bishop of Digne.

Eventually, Davies did see the musical, and he came away considerably less impressed.

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s their take on it,’” Davies said, suddenly sounding somewhat more diplomatic. “I thought, ‘Well, I would like to show people my take on it.’”

OPPOSING VIEWPOINT • Oyelowo, who is both one of the stars and an executive producer of this adaptation of “Les Misérables,” was aghast when Davies let slip how much he hates the musical. “Noooooo,” he said.

“Can I just say — I love the musical,” Oyelowo added later. “For the record. But that’s me.”

TV MAGIC • The “Masterpiece” production of “Les Misérables” includes, of course, Valjean escaping through the Paris sewers. The scene looks pretty miserable, but according to West, it was filmed in a rather pleasant studio.

“It was actually lovely heated water with tame rats swimming in it, and a rat wrangler in case any of the rats went astray,” he said.

Just weeks before Utah commemorates the historic meeting of the rails 150 years ago, federal and state land managers have leased lands along the first transcontinental railroad route west of the Great Salt Lake for oil and gas drilling at bargain-basement prices — 26 parcels to a single obscure company with no known history in the energy business.

The parcels are either on or near the historic Central Pacific rail corridor about 40 miles west of the Golden Spike National Historical Park, recently upgraded under a massive public lands bill signed in March by President Donald Trump. These remote lands remain largely unchanged from the days when Chinese and other laborers laid rails across northwestern Utah in the spring of 1869 before tying them into the Union Pacific track coming from the east on May 10 at Promontory Summit, according to the Bureau of Land Management’s environmental assessment of these leases.

“Visitors to the [Central Pacific route] today can essentially experience the area as it was in 1869,” the assessment states. The stretch under lease is considered the most pristine section that remains of this historic rail corridor that began in Sacramento, Calif., climbed over the Sierra Nevada and crossed the Great Basin.

“Within this central portion, scenic values and undisturbed quality of the recreational setting are particularly valuable for providing visitors with a vicarious experience of viewing the railroad grade the way it most probably looked in 1869 when first constructed.”

Drilling — if it ever actually happened there — would inflict unacceptable damage on the historic fabric of this largely unmolested landscape, according to groups that oppose leasing.

“The area is so flat that the BLM admitted that anything that goes on there will have an impact because you can see for 50 miles,” said Landon Newell, staff attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “They know that, but for some reason they look the other way. The law requires them to think it out first, then offer parcels.”

Along with the National Parks Conservation Association, SUWA has formally protested the BLM’s leasing decision.

While the BLM’s assessment acknowledges drilling could have adverse impacts, it points out that the leases come with stipulations that would limit access across the rail line. Subject to additional environmental analysis, proposed development may leave no surface disturbance within the 200 feet on either side of the rail grade.

Late last month, the BLM offered 20 parcels there, but none attracted the minimum $2-an-acre bid, which meant they could be leased for $1.50 an acre over the counter in the agency’s state office in Salt Lake City. A company called FIIK Exploration did just that within days.

In October, this company obtained six leases on state trust sections intermixed with the BLM parcels for $2 an acre. Meanwhile, the BLM will offer seven more parcels there at its next lease auction in June.

FIIK incorporated as a Utah company last August, listing a Millcreek residential address as its headquarters. A man named Sean Bullis, the principal of a turf and lawn-care businesses listing the same address, registered as FIIK’s bidder for the March auction. Efforts to reach Bullis were unsuccessful.

If history is any guide, however, Utah’s northwestern corner will not likely see much drilling. Through the years, hydrocarbon prospectors drilled 13 wells in Box Elder County; all but two were dry, according to the assessment. There is no energy development anywhere near the leasing area, which was subject to seismic exploration from the 1950s to the 1990s. A decade ago, when oil prices were spiking, two wildcat wells were proposed on private lands there, but the plans were dropped.

The lack of energy potential has observers scratching their heads, wondering why a new company with so little history in oil and gas would be amassing leases in this spot.

"What is the genuine interest that a company can go in and nominate these parcels and change so much of the landscape, yet we don’t know much about when, where and why they would do that, particularly in an area where there is not a lot of oil and gas development happening,” said Jerry Otero, the Southwest energy program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “How does it benefit the public if you can anonymously nominate parcels and then turn around and lease them for $1.50 an acre. Is that really in the public’s best interest?”

Nonetheless, critics say, leasing lands that won’t see development obligates the BLM to manage the land for one resource at the expense of others.

“We often hear the argument that they haven’t put a drill rig there, so there is no impact. But the BLM now has to manage that land for an extractive use," Otero said. Lessees “have 10 years that the parcels are theirs.”

Some of the leases directly overlap or straddle the Central Pacific Railroad, which the BLM now maintains as the Transcontinental Railroad National Backcountry Byway, stretching 90 miles west from Promontory Summit to Lucin near the Nevada line.

This span is “the longest contiguous section of the original transcontinental railroad that remains in existence,” covering 4.7 percent of its 1,912 miles, the assessment says. It had fallen into disuse after the Lucin Cutoff, built in the early 1900s across the Great Salt Lake, bypassed it. The rails were taken up in the 1940s to provide steel for the U.S. war effort at the time.

These days, about 25,000 people a year drive the byway, fitted with interpretive signs at 16 spots, to learn about the building of the historic railroad, considered an epic achievement that tied the West to the rest of the country at a time when the North and South were reuniting in the wake of the Civil War.

The BLM designated a 400-foot-wide corridor along the route as an “area of environmental concern,” totaling 4,364 acres. Also covered are wooden trestles, stone culverts and “wyes,” or wishbone configurations of track designed to turn around locomotives so they can go in the opposite direction. The route still features 150 examples of these 19th-century railroad structures.

For press-freedom advocates, Julian Assange has long been a polarizing figure.

And his arrest Thursday in London once again ignited the seemingly endless debate:

Is the WikiLeaks founder, who until Thursday had been holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for years, essentially a publisher — though a notably strange one — who believes in taking radical steps to expose government secrets, and who thus should be afforded the same First Amendment protections given to news organizations?

Or is he a reckless traitor — and by no means a journalist — who deserves no such consideration and who should be prosecuted without worrying about free-press concerns.

The nature of the charge from the U.S. government will make a difference.

Assange is being charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, with the government saying that he conspired with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning — and that he helped Manning crack a classified Defense Department password.

He is not, notably, being charged under the Espionage Act, which has been used in recent years to go after journalists and their sources. Manning was imprisoned for seven years, in part for being found guilty of violating that act.

The question hinges on this: Did Assange cross a crucial line by allegedly encouraging the password hack — a line that no legitimate journalist would, or should, cross?

Assange's attorney certainly doesn't think so.

The charges, Barry Pollack said, "boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source." And some journalists were quick to agree.

The prominent First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams said Thursday that he hadn't made up his mind fully on the case but that one thing relieved him. The indictment is narrow in scope, not based on what journalists do all the time: receive and publish classified information, he told CNN.

What Assange is accused of — breaking into secure government computers — “is fortunately not commonplace journalistic conduct.”

Still, there's a substantial gray area here. And a troubling one.

"The indictment discusses journalistic practices in the context of a criminal conspiracy: using encryption, making efforts to protect a source's identity, and source cultivation," said University of Georgia media law professor Jonathan Peters.

Those practices, he told me, are not only routine and lawful, "they're best practices for journalists."

In fact, WikiLeaks and Assange — and certainly Edward Snowden’s 2013 leak of vast amounts of government information, bringing widespread government surveillance to light — have helped to usher in a new era for journalists.

News organizations now provide secure drop boxes for sources.

They wisely use encryption applications such as Signal to converse with, and receive information from, sources.

That these practices are cast as part of the conspiracy "should worry all journalists, whether or not Assange himself is seen as a journalist," Peters said.

What is distinct, though, is the conspiracy to break the password on a secure network.

"That would distinguish Assange in practice from traditional journalists."

That Assange is such a strange and, to many, unsympathetic character may enter too much into the debate. He's hard to defend.

“When governments are trying to restrict press rights of any kind, the inclination is not to go after the most popular kid in the room — it’s to go after the least popular,” Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told me last year.

What WikiLeaks has consistently done, Timm said, "is publish information that is true and that the government considers secret."

Recall the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of the Vietnam War, which Daniel Ellsberg nearly 50 years ago stole from the Pentagon and delivered to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Even before the attempt to crack the password, Manning had given WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified records, prosecutors said. The material allegedly included four nearly complete databases, comprising 90,000 reports from the Afghanistan war, 400,000 reports from the Iraq War and 250,000 State Department cables, The Post reported Thursday.

The American Civil Liberties Union's director, Ben Wizner, remains firmly in Assange's corner.

Prosecuting him "would be unprecedented and unconstitutional and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations."

I'm inclined to agree.

Yes, Assange crossed a line if he indeed conspired with his source to break a secure government password.

But the risks to news organizations of prosecuting him remain very real.

Before we turn our backs on Assange, we ought to think deeply about what's at stake.

Casting him to the wolves as nothing but a narcissistic bad actor — “not like us,” of course — may seem tempting.

But organizations that aren't so very different in their aims may suffer the consequences.

The gray area here is bigger than it looks — and so are the dangers to traditional journalism and the public interest.

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

I don’t know about you, but I could use an extra $500 to $1,000 dollars a month.

With the housing crisis Utah is experiencing, it has become inconvenient to live anywhere but your car or with multiple housemates. A majority of us can’t afford to buy a home with a $300,000 price tag.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports Utahns need to have an average income of $36,952 to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rate, which seems an impossibility for those of us who earn less than the average median household, which is most of us.

In 2017, the average per-capita income for Utahns was $28,085, while the rest of the country’s per capita income was $32,397.

Utah, we have an economic problem. We also have hope, in the form of a couple of presidential candidates who have plans to make Universal Basic Income a priority policy for all Americans. I have heard one candidate mention $500 a month for citizens over 18 years old and another who says $1,000 a month is realistic, affordable and necessary. That is $6,000 to $12,000 per year per person in your home.

Before you scream “Socialism!,” invent stories about how others will abuse this sort of entitlement or become appalled by how Universal Basic Income is an idea of the political party you absolutely cannot agree with and ultimately justify writing the idea off, consider how something like this could move you and your family into stability and financial security. Just consider it.

Szudia Bragg, Tooele

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In a 2011 study, teachers gave red shirts to half a group of preschoolers and blue shirts to the other; they then wore them for three weeks.

Teachers neither discussed the shirts nor incorporated the colors into exercises. Yet when asked which color was better, kids chose their own, saying people with their color were smarter than the others.

Biases start early. But as adults, we learn to base opinions on facts. Or do we?

Consider climate change. More than 90% of the world’s scientists believe climate change is real. Yet deniers exist, group together and support their opinions with articles that mirror their views. And when people with group-think biases are in positions of power, problems such as climate change turn dangerous.

Nature, however, doesn’t care whether you are liberal or conservative. Continue pumping carbon into the air, and nature will respond with natural catastrophes. It’s that simple.

Fortunately, some leaders put biases aside. The House’s 70-member Climate Solutions Caucus has equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, and a conservative carbon bill (HR763) is backed by both parties.

It’s great to join your tribe at a local sports event. But when it comes to climate, do your own research. Because we need everyone on the same page on this one.

Marjorie McCloy, Salt Lake City

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met recently for its General Conference. Their prophet, and other leaders, spoke to members to ready themselves for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

That phrase got me thinking. With close to 100% of our state legislators being members of this church, could that be the reason for legislators to be dragging their heels when it comes to really taking climate change seriously? Just saying.

Anne Stringham

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It isn't often that a person reads two commentaries in one edition of The Salt Lake Tribune that say clearly and indisputably what needs to be said. I had that experience April 5.

The commentary by Ron Molen, a retired architect, headlined “How do reasonable people become gun zealots?” describes the chokehold (my terminology) the NRA has on our Legislature.

And the commentary Dr. Doug Douville, headlined “No good reasons for rejection of Medicaid,” clearly and factually disputes every reason members of the Legislature set forth for rejection of Medicaid.

I have a challenge for any legislator (good, bad or indifferent). Write a commentary editorial of approximately the same length in clear, precise and simple language disputing the above-mentioned columns explaining your side of the story. It is my sentiment that you cannot do it.

Julia J. Erickson, Salt Lake City

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I just read the warning given by Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that the Second Coming is near. Not only did the warning apply to members who had left the church, it was extended to those of us who had never seriously considered joining it.

I’ve always taken exhortations given by religious leaders with a grain of salt. But this time I paid attention. Not that I believe in the proverbial “second coming of Christ,” but because our Earth is under assault by human beings.

I’ve often wondered why so many conservative lawmakers, especially here in Utah, deny that climate change is human-caused and not only refuse to take any meaningful measures to slow the damage but also welcome the return of some of the most polluting industries, such as coal. No one seems to care now about seriously cutting car emissions or getting good gas mileage. Making money (lots of it) trumps environmental concerns every time. Even so, one would expect conservatives to care about the future of their children and grandchildren.

But now Mr. Nelson and his ilk may have answered this question. Because they believe the end is near, they see no reason to discontinue their path of taking everything the Earth has to offer in disregard to how much destruction it may cause.

Why worry about future generations, when they will no longer be around after the Second Coming? How sad for those of us who still feel the Earth is salvageable.

Sandra Williams, Millcreek

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I want to bring a grave injustice to the fore that for some reason isn’t getting the attention it deserves. I’m talking about the underserved ire for denim, particularly from whoever decides what constitutes “business casual” attire.

Folks, we are facing a war on jeans here, and this pacifist has had enough.

I’ve been a lone ranger comfortably swaggering into work meetings in denim for some time now, but I’m realizing it’s time to take this justice wrangling to the next level.

Because while I’ve been quietly bending (more flexibly than others, I’d wager) the rules of work attire with smart, dark denim I’ve noticed that my satisfaction has sky-rocketed and my productivity has, too.

So I am becoming a dungaree warrior riding my horse into town to free our bodies of polyester and rayon like the courageous and unreasonable mid-level management professional I am.

I get that it’s kind of millennial of me to think we all deserve a little more respect at work — like being able to choose denim as legitimate, professional attire — but just because I might be a tad entitled doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

I mean, why does discomfort get to be the quality that defines dressing for success? Because I, for one, have never heard anyone say that feeling stuffy makes them measurably more productive, efficient or creative.

Even people who enjoy suits, slacks and unreasonable footwear might argue that everyone deserves to wear what they want (as long as general cleanliness and nudity norms were followed — nobody wants to see janties at the water cooler).

So as we identify what fabrics we want to drape on ourselves for the majority of our weekday hours, let’s not disregard such qualities as durability, comfort, fashion and general awesomeness.

Medical professionals do, and nobody’s harping on scrubs! Plus, if corduroy gets respect in biz caj circles then denim most certainly should.

Think about it. What has found its new home on the fashion runways of the world? Denim. What pairs well with a nice Ann Taylor blouse and some fun wedges for a totally put-together ensemble of fashion and function? Denim. And what allows me to high kick when I complete a task? YEAH DENIM!

Plus (and perhaps the most valid reason here), the more we reasonably expand what is considered appropriate work attire — especially to include that which may be more affordable — the fewer barriers we present in getting diverse employees into our businesses and organizations.

I wondered if I was alone in my Lee-nings, so I took to The Salt Lake Tribune’s Facebook page and my own to find out. Turns out, there are traditionalists who feel like rules are rules and this is how it’s always been so that’s how it shall always be, but there were others who advocate — and not just for pig farmers — on the inclusion of denim in the workplace and in other business casual environments.

There were qualifications in color (dark) and quality (no holes), but I think we’re on to something, chaps!

So let us unite to tell anti-denimites that it’s time they Levi their antiquated wardrobe notions at home and instead pull on their pants one leg at a time and march toward an inclusive, comfortable workplaces of jean justice.

Maybe it’s crazy (or maybe it’s jean-ius).

Marina Gomberg is a communications professional and lives in Salt Lake City with her wife, Elenor Gomberg, and their son, Harvey. You can reach Marina at mgomberg@sltrib.com.

My parents live in an assisted facility in South Jordan. Sagewood. They love it. I love it even more. Sagewood has been the best thing to happen to them since I got my military draft number.

Even though they’re in assisted living, they still require help from the children they permitted to grow into legal adulthood. We take turns being available to them.

Of all their progeny, I live the closest. When Mom needs groceries or when the Old Man confuses his wife of 66 years for a Viet Cong sapper, I go over and straighten things out.

We also drive them places because they a) don’t have a car, b) don’t have driver licenses, and c) the cops would force them off the road after a long pursuit during which speeds would approach 19 mph.

On Monday, my sister called and asked me to go to the apartment for Mom’s hearing aids. She was at the clinic for a hearing test and had forgotten them on the table.

I went over and couldn’t find the devices. I searched without luck. I called Mom and asked if she had checked her purse.

Her • “I’ve gone through it several times. I don’t have them. They’re on the table with the ceramic elephant, or the table with the ceramic owl, or the one with all my ceramic stuff.”

Me • “OK.”

Another two searches, including one in which I called her again and reported the specific inventory of each table. They were not there.

Her • “Do you want to talk to your father?”

Me • “OK … wait. Ask him where he is right now.”

The answer came back. “Saigon.”

Sagewood. Saigon. It’s easy to mix them up if you’re 87 years old and sometimes say “Nixon” when you mean “Trump.” But the last thing I needed in the confusion was his help.

Mom insisted her hearing aids were on one of six surfaces near her rocking chair. Would I please check again?

I love my mother even though ours was a rocky relationship when I was a kid. The fact that she let me live and didn’t leave any teeth marks means I owe her. She put up with a lot. So I looked. Again.

This time I “cop searched” the place. Stuff was all over the floor, drawers dumped and beds stripped. Condiment jars in the fridge were examined. I checked both toilets, light fixtures and thoroughly probed the contents of every wastebasket.

Note: The Old Man used to do this to the bedroom I shared with my brother, so it didn’t really bother me. Besides, I was going to clean it up, which he never did. The raid debris served as notice that he had his eye on us.

No #@%&! hearing aids.

Just about the time I was ready to ask the “Saigon” custodial staff if I could borrow a drywall saw, my phone rang. It was Mom.

“I found them.”

They. Were. In. Her. Purse.

Deeply embarrassed, she apologized for a good 10 minutes, repeatedly referring to herself as “a forgetful old woman.”

Strangely, I wasn’t bothered. It used to drive me out of my mind when she told me to clean my room, or mow the lawn. But I had just spent more than an hour looking for something that wasn’t there.

I don’t know how some people can’t get over what it took for their parents to raise them. Every relationship — especially the ones in which so much is owed — deserves to be maintained.

Having an aberrant personality, I once nursed a long list of grievances against my parents for the things they were forced to do to keep me alive. Today, I don’t hold any ancient grudges against them. They did the best they could with an almost impossible task.

Her • “I’m sorry. Please don’t write anything in the paper about what a crazy mother you have.”

Me • “I won’t, Mom. Love you, too.”

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

In the April 6 Tribune article about the double tracking of the Sugar House S-Line (“UTA celebrates completion of double track for Sugar House streetcar”), there were several statements that deserve more analysis.

The ridership of the S-Line is about 1,300 passengers a day, about 100 less than a year ago. The original UTA background on the S-Line projected 3,000 daily riders in 2014. When it opened it had 681 riders a day. Some proponents predicted up to 5,000 riders a day. Predictions now say it should have 2,200 riders a day by 2030. The UTA press announcement said that “The investment is estimated to attract approximately 1,000 additional daily passengers by 2030.”

The original double tracking proposal estimated that the $6 million cost would generate 10% more riders. When we complained about the millions needed for such a small increase in ridership, UTA changed the predicted increase to 20%. Now UTA is projecting over a 70% increase! The predictions appear to be questionable.

The cost could have been used to increase bus service, including later night and weekend service and could have resulted in more ridership. The 21st South bus now stops operating at 9:30 p.m., despite the fact that Sugar House is developing a reputation as an entertainment district. The $1.6 million annual operating cost of the S-Line could fund several bus route service expansions that would help restore the robust bus system that the last UTA audit recommended before starting new projects.

Several times in the past, UTA and several government leaders have claimed that the S-Line created all of the building in Sugar House. “ ‘The S-Line has been a catalyst for economic development, in a once ignored area along an abandoned freight train line,’ said Carlton Christensen, chairman of the UTA Board."

The first residential buildings utilized government funds to encourage development. The Vue at 2100 South and Highland received a $6.7 million loan and the mixed income Liberty Village utilized Utah tax credits.

I can make a pretty good argument that most of the development came about due to the many parks in the area, including the Parley’s Trail linear park that runs along the S-Line in Salt Lake City. Much of the development in the Sugar House area, I believe, has been because of the cachet of Sugar House, the La Jolla of Salt Lake City. That was due to the eclectic mix of artists, stores and amenities, along with a vigorous community activism, led by one of the most active community councils in the city (Sugar House Community Council).

The claim that the “S-Line helps attract much-needed affordable housing” is countered by the supergentrification of Sugar House that is causing long-time residents and eclectic stores to be priced out of the area. Residential rentals in the new buildings are about $2 a square foot. Studios start at $1,500 a month.

In 2017, a study in Los Angeles found that mass transit ridership had a minimal increase despite tens of billions in projects. The study found that people wanted the convenience and time savings of cars and the system also cut back on bus service to help pay for the projects. UTA seems determined to follow the misguided L.A. plans that people will ride rail if it is built.

UTA is starting a study to determine the best route for a Draper to Lehi TRAX line, despite FrontRunner and the big area of gravel pits that divide the counties. Instead of the promised bus service increase, UTA seems to be more interested in projects.

The idea that the S-Line is the start of a network of trolleys needs recognition that each line will require at least a hundred million of local taxpayer funds. Mass transit riders, in my opinion, want convenience but UTA bus service is 30% down from 15 years ago. Can we please restore a robust bus system as recommended by the last UTA audit before thinking about new rail lines or projects?

George Chapman is a former candidate for Salt Lake City mayor, a transit activist and writes a blog at georgechapman.net.

How did we get here?

Yes, it was highly improbable that the Jazz face the Houston Rockets, especially in the middle of the games Wednesday night. But it has come to pass, making the Jazz’s road in the playoffs as hard as it can be.

On this week’s edition of the Weekly Run podcasts, hosts Eric Walden and Andy Larsen start their breakdown of the Jazz/Rockets series.

Why might it be different than last year? Do we think those differences will help the Jazz? What does Ricky Rubio’s likely presence and Trevor Ariza’s absence do to the series? We break down how much the changes might matter.

Plus, the day after the regular season ends is always a bloody one. We talk about all of the firings in the NBA that took place Thursday.

At 5:00 • Where does this series stand compare to last year’s? Will Ricky Rubio’s return help?

At 12:00 • What the Milwaukee Bucks did against James Harden in their win in March. Can the Jazz copy that strategy?

At 16:31 • How much has Chris Paul slipped this year?

At 24:15 • Okay, what are the reasons for Jazz fans to hope?

At 30:00 • How might this impact the Jazz’s offseason?

At 37:55 • The coach and GM firings in the NBA.

You can subscribe and listen on iTunes. Or, for your convenience, we’ve enabled you to just listen below on SoundCloud: