There’s only been one team hotter than the Utah Jazz since the All-Star break: the Houston Rockets. Through a series of unlikely events, the two teams face each other in the first round.

Early in the season, the Rockets looked vulnerable. They started the season 11-14. Chris Paul looked to have significantly slowed, Eric Gordon couldn’t make a shot, Carmelo Anthony was so bad that the team moved him after only 10 games, and injuries hit hard in the season, taking out Paul, center Clint Capela and others for significant chunks of time.

That’s when James Harden stepped up, carrying the Rockets. He scored 40 points or more in five straight games in late December. He scored 50 or more in three out of five in January. As teams double-teamed him, sent help from every which way, Harden scored and scored some more.

Then the Rockets got healthy, and since then, they’ve been ablaze: a 20-5 record since the All-Star break, the league’s best. Two of those losses came by one point, one came by two. One came to the league’s best team in Milwaukee.

But as much as their record in the last two months has been reminiscent of their 65-win campaign of 2017-18, this is a different squad than last year.

Yes, they still rely on Harden and Paul. But Harden’s taken a bigger load of the scoring, having expanded his game even further with more step-back threes and more floaters than ever before. He averaged 36.1 points per game this season, the best scoring season since Michael Jordan’s peak. The step-back three is rocking, the floater game is working, and he has driven the Rockets to becoming the league’s second-leading offense.

Meanwhile, Paul has looked a little bit sketchy at times. His scoring is down while his assist numbers have stayed largely stagnant, but a loss of vertical athleticism means that he’s not much of a threat attacking the rim: every time it looks like he’s going to take a layup, he’s going to pass it. That being said, his mid-range game is as dangerous as ever.

Gone are Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute, defenders that gave the Jazz and especially Donovan Mitchell problems. Mitchell, a religious film-watcher, says he “kind of memorized” each play of Games 1-through-5 of last season’s playoff series, trying to glean some insight.

“The more I watched, the more I realized that it’s not going to do me any good to watch last year’s tape, because last year they had Trevor Ariza. For me, that was the main factor, trying to break down that,” Mitchell said. “Now, it’s more about tendencies as a whole.”

P.J. Tucker is in, but so are smaller defenders like Danuel House, Austin Rivers and Iman Shumpert. Gordon has moved to the starting lineup, something he’s grown more accustomed to throughout the season.

But the size decrease has meant Houston has been more reluctant to switch absolutely everything this season, as the defense suffered in the early part of the year. Instead, the Rockets started to play more standard pick and roll defense rather than switching every pick. Will they continue that against the Jazz, or go back to the policy that caused the Jazz so many problems last season?

Likewise, the Rockets brought tremendous physicality in last year’s series, but are less well equipped to do that again this year. Beyond their perimeter defense, they also haven’t done a good job cleaning up the defensive glass: they’re the third-worst defensive rebounding team in the league this season. Because the Rockets have become a somewhat slow team, there might not be as significant a downside to sending someone to the offensive glass to try to get extra possessions for the Jazz.

While the pieces around the Rockets’ superstars have changed, they’re still defined by one unique force who has only improved: Harden.

"There’s a lot about their team that is different, but who they are is still James,” Snyder said. “There’s no better player in the league, and that’s not something that even needs to be discussed or debated.”

Given more time on the clock, Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley may have completed a sixth straight touchdown drive between the two teams in the first half of Saturday’s Red-White Game at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The only flaw of that steady, efficient offensive performance was not creating enough opportunities for the kickers to attempt field goals. That’s mostly a good problem, considering the results of Utah’s offense in recent years. But a miss by each kicker left questions about that element of the Utes’ outlook in 2019, after the Red’s 21-14 victory.

Chayden Johnston missed a 43-yard try to end the first half. Jadon Redding then hit the left upright on a 31-yard attempt in the fourth quarter as the teams went scoreless in a second half that was played with a running clock and included only four possessions.

Those kicks were “both very makable, obviously,” Ute coach Kyle Whittingham said. “And that's disappointing, but it's still a work in progress.”

Otherwise, Whittingham sounded satisfied with Saturday’s event and the team’s progress this spring, amid questions to be answered in August about the makeup of the first-team offensive line and depth at linebacker.

Going against defenses that included only a few potential starters, both offenses looked sharp from the start. Huntley fired a pass down the middle for a 59-yard completion to Bryan Thompson on the White's first play and finished his day's work at halftime, having gone 8 of 9 for 158 yards. The one incompletion was a pass that probably could have been caught.

Not even the Idaho State defense that visits Rice-Eccles Stadium in September will be as accommodating as the group that Huntley faced Saturday, with a simplistic scheme and mostly reserves. Yet Huntley’s performance over 15 sessions of spring practice made a convincing case that he’ll “play the best football of his career,” offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig said. “It’s my job to put him in that position.”

Huntley missed the last five games of 2018 with a broken collarbone. He exited the stadium feeling good about his grasp of the new scheme, so far. “Once I get every aspect of the offense locked down, it’s going to be a great season,” he said. “For what [Ludwig] installed, I’ve pretty much got all that under control; just looking forward to what’s going to come in the fall.”

Ludwig added a considerable amount of his playbook in the last two weeks of the spring, but only a portion of it was displayed Saturday.

The Red's Devin Brumfield got the bulk of the work among the running backs, with 12 carries for 67 yards and a touchdown. Red quarterbacks Jason Shelley and Cameron Rising went a combined 15 of 20 for 164 yards, with one touchdown each. Tight end Brant Kuithe made a leaping catch of Shelley's pass along the sideline for a 24-yard gain on the opening drive and later made a 27-yard reception.

Utah is awaiting an NCAA ruling about Rising's eligibility in 2019 as a transfer from Texas.

The Utes’ first practice of preseason camp is scheduled July 31. The team’s season opener is Aug. 29 at BYU, the home opener is Sept. 7 vs. Northern Illinois and the Pac-12 opener is Sept. 20 at USC.

Punctuation, anticipation and expectation. Donation, too.

Those are the four words that best encapsulated Utah’s Red-White game on Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium, and they had no complete connection to what actually transpired on the field. Only a partial.

The entire affair ended the Utes’ spring football practices with the closest thing to a party that could be extracted from what, in theory, was a controlled scrimmage. Before play even began, school administrators announced that the Ken Garff Family had contributed $17.5 million to aid expansion and upgrades to Rice-Eccles. So, everybody on hand was in a good mood about that.

The announcement was symbolic of the increased optimism surrounding Utah football, as a whole.

When the action commenced, many starters, just as Kyle Whittingham had predicted, stood and watched while less established players did much of the work, played the game, entertained the 6,000 fans on hand, made their mark.

And those marks were made.

Cameron Rising — a transfer quarterback who might not even be eligible to play in the fall — threw 10 passes, completing eight of them, for 77 yards and a touchdown. And the fact that he’s drawing first notice here, as a possible third-string option, underscored the main point:

The Utes are loading up for a promising run in the fall.

They are talented, experienced at key positions, and deep. The defending champs of the South will be likely division favorites, maybe league favorites, as well, the reasons having already been noted.

That QB slot is indicative.

Senior starter Tyler Huntley looked sharp in new offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig’s partially installed attack — he hit on 8 of 9 passes for 158 yards and ran for a score — although on this occasion, the O was, indeed, rudimentary.

“You didn’t see nothing at all,” he said afterward, in classic Huntley style. When asked about this team’s potential, he responded: “The sky’s the limit because we got playmakers from Depth 1 to Depth 2 to Depth 3, so it’s going to be a great season.

“We’ve got so many players. We got Demari Simpkins. We got Henry-Cole. We got Zac Moss. We got [Britain] Covey. We got Samson Nacua. We got Bryan Thompson. We got … man, I could keep naming them. We got so many playmakers, you know what I’m saying?”

We know.

Ludwig’s fresh offense is bound to be an improvement over last season’s. Already, in the early stages, he and his mentorship feel like an upgrade over the contradicted, if not confused, offensive direction of the past couple of years, when the Utes sometimes passed when they should have run, and ran when they should have passed.

Huntley’s presumed backup, Jason Shelley, who stepped in as a redshirt freshman after Huntley got hurt toward the end of last season, has shown he can spin the ball around the yard and play with poise. In this scrimmage, he completed 7 of 10 passes for 87 yards and a touchdown.

And then, there’s Rising. The Texas transfer is waiting to hear whether he has to sit out the year or can join in right away. He’s stirred notice through his spring performances, and hopes to play as soon as he’s allowed.

When a team is that loaded at the single most important position on the field and in the program, the aforementioned anticipation is warranted.

And, as Huntley said, it builds from there.

One of the best running backs in the Pac-12 — Zack Moss — returns. Everyone knows what he can do. Ludwig said after the scrimmage that his offense requires numbers at running back, and a fistful of them played on Saturday.

The receivers were productive, too, despite an emphasis on the basics, the highlight among them coming from Thompson, who hauled in a 59-yard pass from Huntley early in the game.

And the Utah defense is … well, a Utah defense, same as it ever was.

““This is a good unselfish group,” said Morgan Scalley, defensive coordinator. “It was a productive spring. The thing about this game is, you can’t hide. You’ve got to go out there and play. We’ve got guys who want to be good. A lot of them want to move on and play in the NFL. They know they have to study, they have to prepare. Our best players are our best workers.”

Added safety Julian Blackmon, who did not play: “The ceiling’s high. Just watching the spring game, there were some fantastic plays made. The talent is amazing. And everybody’s close. The bond matters, it really does matter.”

Saturday’s Red-White game took on, then, the feel of a celebration of progress and potential, of the ground already covered and the ground yet to be conquered, for the Ute program. Many observers close to the team and those from afar are predicting positive gains for Utah football in the fall, some saying the Utes have a real shot at winning the Pac-12 and going to the Rose Bowl.

It is real. Real hard.

Those observers see what they see, they know what they know, they predict what they predict. And what they see and know and predict is not a concoction, not a mirage, not a fantasy. It is all grounded in the authenticities of a growing program.

“We’ve got a chance to be good,” Whittingham said. “We’ve got a chance.”

Even if the Utes don’t win the Pac-12 in 2019, the guesses that they will are formed out of sound reasoning.

And the pleasant mood to close out the spring reflected exactly that.

Oh, and the Red beat the White on Saturday, 21-14, in case anybody cared.

GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” with Jake Scott weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.

Logan • With hundreds of football alumni looking on, the Utah State team beat the Aggies team 38-14 on Saturday at Maverik Stadium to cap Gary Andersen’s first spring practice since returning to USU in December.

To no one’s surprise, quarterback Jordan Love commanded the most attention, throwing two touchdown passes in limited playing time, connecting with junior wide receiver Savon Scarver on an 11-yard completion and later with redshirt freshman wide receiver Sam Lockett on a 12-yard completion. Senior running back Gerold Bright also scored on a 1-yard run, while freshman running back Enoch Nawahine found the end zone following a 6-yard run.

“The offense put up a lot of points today, which is what we do, so today was a good day,” said Love, who led the Utah State squad. “We have a lot of playmakers on the field, so it is my job to try and get them the ball. The faster we can play the more it is going to wear on defenses.”

However, the spring game was just a small part of the weekend. Andersen welcomed back nearly 300 alumni, which included numerous current and former NFL players such as Chris Cooley, Greg Kragen, Nevin Lawson, Phil Olsen, Donald Penn, Al Smith, Robert Turbin and Bobby Wagner, among others. The group all got together Friday night, then took in the game on Saturday.

“It’s real special for all of those NFL guys to come back,” said Andersen. “For them to be able to come back and be a part of this was awesome. A lot of those guys are leaving here and driving down to Salt Lake and getting on an airplane and going to [NFL offseason practices]. They could have had two or three more days to spend with their families and do what they were doing in the offseason, but they came here. The event last night was special. It was four hours of great opportunities to reconnect and be around those guys."

Other offensive highlights Saturday included sophomore quarterback Henry Colombi, who also had a pair of touchdown passes during the scrimmage, as he completed a 6-yard pass to junior wide receiver Derek Wright and later found senior wide receiver Devin Heckstall on a 5-yard completion.

“We competed and one team was obviously stacked with personnel to beat the other team and that was reflected on the scoreboard,” Andersen said. “We stayed healthy for the most part, they had a lot of fun and competed like crazy, and there were a lot of plays made out there. The playmaking at the wide receiver position was good today. We saw some big plays, some yards after catch, and some fantastic catches in the end zone, and they were all contested balls, so that is good to see."

If you’re driving through Twin Falls, Idaho, anytime soon and see a “driveway full of kids jumping rope,” you will have come across the home of national Golden Gloves boxing champion Kendra Reeves, who has started a training gym with her fiancee, Jason Samargis.

But the story gets better.

Weighing more than 220 pounds, Reeves, 25, took up boxing in January of 2017 as a way to lose weight. She’s dropped more than 74 pounds and now loves the sport so much she teaches it to dozens of youngsters in southern Idaho.

She had been boxing only a little more than a year when she went into the National Tournament of Champions last year in Omaha, Neb., ranked ninth in the country. Naturally, she won the championship, upsetting the No. 1-ranked contender, Stephanie Malone, in the 152-pound weight division final.

Reeves dominated Deseree Jamison of Louie’s Boxing Club of Salt Lake City on Saturday afternoon in the Golden Gloves Rocky Mountain Regionals at the Salt Palace and is headed back to nationals, which are in Chattanooga, Tenn., next month.

“I get excited for all my fights, but especially this one,” Reeves said of the rematch with Jamison.

The Reeves-Jamison bout was the only one Saturday in the event held in conjunction with Fitcon that featured female fighters.

Maryguenn Vellinga-Hinz (112), Stephanie Mendoza (125), Jackie Barco (132) and Madeline Waltman (178) were unopposed and will also represent the Rocky Mountain Franchise in Tennessee.

The most dominant male boxer Saturday was 21-year-old Felipe Nino of Louie’s, a Granger High graduate who is also on the United States Marine Corps boxing team. Nino won by TKO over Martin Gordo of Razor’s Edge Boxing in Idaho in the 141-pound division.

Nino has been boxing since he was 12 and has the goal of making the U.S. Olympic team and then turning professional.

Reeves wasn’t the only national champion on Saturday’s 10-bout card.

Ogden’s Diego Alvarez advanced to nationals for the third-straight year with a decision over Antonio Landeroz of Wyoming in the 132-pound division. Alvarez, 19, won his national championship in 2016 at the Salt Palace when Salt Lake City hosted nationals.

Alvarez is still trained by Lalo Lopez, whose Los Gallitos Boxing Club has moved to North Ogden.

Clearfield’s Jon Bryant of Lights Out Boxing Club and Salt Lake City’s Danny Galloway also won bouts to advance to nationals, as Bryan beat Daniel Bestie of Idaho and Galloway downed Austyn Branco of Idaho.

Matt Searle (114), Jay Wright (123), Halatoa Piutau (178), Robert Martinez (201) and Juan Higurera (201-plus) were unopposed and will represent the region’s male team in Tennessee.

In exhibition bouts, Utah’s Jayden Lopez defeated Utah’s Robert Chairez at 135; California’s Chris Valdes defeated Thanjhae Teasley of Foley’s Gym in Utah at 145; Alizon Ramos of Fullmer’s Gym in South Jordan defeated Fernando Gutierrez, also of Fullmer’s, at 130; Jonathon Garcia of Idaho defeated Elijio Fernandez at 160; Matt Searle of Fullmer’s defeated Jay Wright of Foley’s at 123.

Washington • The Democrats’ presidential aspirants seem determined to prove that their party’s 2016 achievement — the election of the current president — was not a fluke that cannot be repeated. But the Republican Party, whose last remaining raison d’etre is to frustrate Democrats, seems to be thinking: We are determined to lose the 2020 election in order to foil Democrats’ attempts to lose it.

The Democratic aspirants radiate unseriousness about things they speak about with notable solemnity. By their words of endorsement, many of them said that the Green New Deal is a matter of life and death — for the planet, no less. But their actions — zero Senate votes for the GND — say something else.

Among the reasons these aspirants give for promising to abolish the Electoral College is one reason that virtually guarantees that it will not be abolished: Because each state gets two electoral votes for its senators, the system advantages the least populous states. Opposition by 13 states will extinguish any constitutional amendment. If the legislatures of any of the 13 least-populous states (Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Idaho, West Virginia) fail to oppose an amendment abolishing the electoral-vote system, other legislatures — those of, for example, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Utah, Mississippi — probably will ensure defeat.

Competition in the Democrats' frivolity sweepstakes is intense. Beto O'Rourke contemplates amending the Constitution "to show that corporations are not people." Conceivably, he has not thought through why corporate personhood has been in Anglo-American law for centuries: For-profit and nonprofit (including almost all progressive advocacy groups) corporations are accorded rights as "artificial persons" (William Blackstone's phrase) to enable them to have lives, identities and missions that span generations and produce a robust civil society of freely cooperating citizens.

Donald Trump must secretly admire Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's thoroughly Trumpian proposal — made where pandering is perfected: Iowa — to ban foreigners from buying U.S. farmland. Lest diabolical foreigners take our loam home? No, Warren says foreigners threaten "food security," hence "national security," too. Warren and Trump — he who sees a national security threat from imported Audis — are together at last.

"I wore my Planned Parenthood pink!" exclaimed Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar at a recent Washington cattle call for Democratic candidates. She, who is supposed to represent the sensibility of flyover country in her disproportionately coastal party, told the conclave that a "major priority" for her, one that she would emphasize in her presidency's first 100 days, is statehood for the District of Columbia, a peculiar promise to facilitate retaking Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Julian Castro — former mayor of San Antonio, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development — said that when he is the 46th president he will favor making Congress subject to the Freedom of Information Act. This is perhaps a good goal but not uppermost in the electorate's mind.

The Financial Times notes that in 2018, exit polls showed that a plurality of voters — 41% — ranked health care as their foremost concern. That was the year when it became obligatory for all candidates to promise that health insurance shall not be denied because of a person's preexisting health problems. But Trump ("Nobody knew health care could be so complicated") evidently is going to seek reelection saying: Trust me, there will be "a really great" Republican health care plan — after the election, and after my administration has convinced a court to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act (including guaranteed insurance coverage for those with preexisting conditions), which now enjoys the support of a narrow majority.

Voters might wonder why the coming health plan's greatness will not be unveiled as an election asset. And voters might remember that in 1968 Richard Nixon said: Trust me, I have a plan to end the Vietnam War. When, seven years later, in April 1975, the last helicopter lifted off the roof of the besieged U.S. Embassy in Saigon, more than 21,000 Americans had died in combat since Nixon's inauguration — approximately 37% of those killed in the war since the early 1960s.

The eventual Democratic nominee is probably among the many already running. So the party, with its mosaic of factions to placate (affluent progressives, faculty club socialists, suburban women, African Americans, Hispanics, climate worriers, identity-politics warriors, etc.) and its aversion to winner-take-all primaries, should remember 1972 or 1984. Its nominees, George McGovern and Walter Mondale won 25% and 38%, respectively, of the nominating electorate's votes. In the two general elections, they lost 98 states.

George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

Utah Republicans have been experiencing tumultuous times — a congressional district and several state legislative seats turned blue in the 2018 election, their party infighting has made headlines and some worry their messages aren’t resonating with young people.

Now, competing factions are struggling to take control of the Utah GOP and put it on firmer ground before the next statewide election. On one hand are purists who blame the party’s woes on a weakened caucus-convention system and a gradual drift from conservative principles. On the other are sitting officials and establishment Republicans who want to move past divisive debates over the election process and refocus on aiding GOP candidates.

“I would love to see the fighting stop,” Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton said Saturday at the county’s GOP organizing convention. “We need to get together and unite.”

Newton was among about 60 county residents at the convention vying over 29 spots on the state central committee, the body that will help steer the party for the next couple of years. To vote on these positions, more than 700 county delegates packed into the Cottonwood High School auditorium, many clutching stacks of flyers that advertised the candidates and separated them into slates of allies.

For instance, there was the “Big Tent Slate,” a 31-person group that included Newton, six sitting state legislators, a couple of Capitol Hill staffers and former House Speaker Greg Hughes.

"I think there's a big desire amongst elected officials to get our party to help lead the charge on getting Republicans elected," said Rep. Jim Dunnigan, one member of the slate. "The state party has not been as helpful as they might be because of all the infighting."

Right now, many GOP meetings devolve into disorder and bickering, Dunnigan said, arguing that this internal drama reduces the party’s overall effectiveness and alienates grassroots Republicans.

“There’s a strong desire to reclaim our party and have it function well again,” the Taylorsville lawmaker said during an interview at Saturday’s convention.

But putting government officials in party roles is a problem for Cherilyn Bacon Eagar, who billed herself Saturday as a grassroots choice for reelection to the state central committee.

“I think it’s a serious conflict of interest to have elected officials on a state central committee, which is the governing body of the party, that is supposed to be the check on elected officials,” she said.

First voted onto the central committee two years ago, Eagar and likeminded party members have fought tooth and nail against SB54, the 2014 election law that allows candidates to qualify for the ballot by collecting signatures and/or through the traditional caucus-convention system. The Utah Republican Party waged a lengthy legal battle seeking to reinstate the caucus system as the only path to election but ultimately failed to persuade federal judges to overturn SB54.

Though the case fizzled earlier this year, Eagar said the state party shouldn’t give up, perhaps pressing forward by convincing legislators to scrap the signature path or by filing another lawsuit.

Some Republicans view the SB54 battle as a distraction, pulling the party away from its core mission to put GOP candidates in office. But Eagar says Republicans are losing seats because of a hostile media, an "increasingly liberal" state legislature and the signature path to the ballot.

Her flyer encouraged county delegates to support “grassroots” central committee candidates such as Helen Redd, an incumbent member who helped manage the party’s lawsuit against SB54.

Redd said the signature path to the ballot has undoubtedly weakened the party caucuses and she predicts continued efforts to quash the dual pathway. But while SB54 is the law, she’s not in favor of stripping election candidates of their party membership if they choose to collect signatures, a more radical idea that has surfaced inside the GOP.

Speaking to the Salt Lake County delegates, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox exhorted fellow Republicans to unite around the mission of bringing young people into the fold.

“This younger generation, we’re losing them,” he said. “And one of the things that concerns me is how divided we are as a party. ... We have to come together because the only thing that will defeat us as Republicans is us.”

Newton, Dunnigan, Hughes, Eagar and Redd each landed one of the 29 state central committee seats up for grabs Saturday. Since each local party elects members to the committee, the final makeup of the roughly 180-person state committee won’t be decided until later this month, when the county organizing conventions are complete.

Once the snow melted into the sand, Utah successfully staged the first home tournament in the school’s three-year history of beach volleyball.

The results were as mixed as Saturday's weather: The Utes took a 3-2 win over Colorado Mesa and dropped a 4-1 match to Boise State.

Merely being able to play seemed like a victory, after snow covered the Lassonde Courts – nicknamed “Ute Beach” – in the middle of the campus in the morning. “Oh, my gosh. I was like, ‘Are you serious?' When we were warming up, my feet were numb. I’m glad it definitely thawed by the end,” said Ute star Dani Drews.

Coaches and players raked the snow into the sand and competed as scheduled. The conditions were ideal in the evening, when Drews and partner Tawnee Luafalemana outlasted their Boise State opponents 26-24 in the second set to close out Utah's only win over the Broncos.

“We're getting a little bit more consistent each time we play, which is nice,” Utah coach Brenda Whicker said. “We're getting closer to beating people. … We do some good things. Can we cut back on errors? Yes, but we're making progress. The sad part is our season's not very long.”

The Utes (5-7) will join eight other schools in the Pac-12 tournament, April 25-27 in Los Angeles to end the season.

Drews/Luafalemana also beat their Colorado Mesa opponents in two sets. Utah’s other wins came from Lauren Sproule/Jessica Villela and Kenize Koerber/Megan Yett.

Four of Utah's athletes are beach-only players. Drews was a second-team All-America indoor player as a sophomore in 2018. She likes the variety of beach competition and believes it helps develop her all-around game. In a two-woman event, Drews said, “Everyone has to be able to do everything.”

Beth Launiere, who oversees the program as Utah’s longtime indoor coach, keeps analyzing how to mix offseason practice with beach competition. The Utes are likely to have more beach specialists in the future, she said. Club programs are emphasizing the sport, now that the NCAA’s sanctioning of beach volleyball has created more opportunities for players.

Sandy • Damir Kreilach stood just off the grass of Rio Tinto Stadium on Friday and conveyed the sentiment that Real Salt Lake was looking to turn over a new leaf after starting just 1-4-1 in its first six games and losing four straight.

“Tomorrow starts [a] new season for us,” Kreilach said.

On Saturday against Orlando City SC, RSL started its “new season” on the right foot. Kreilach and striker Sam Johnson each scored to lift Real to a 2-1 win over the City.

“Every one of us knows that we didn’t start very well,” Kreilach said after the game. “We want to just leave those negative things and those games behind us. … Because of that, it was for us like home opener or like first game.”

Coach Mike Petke said the game looked different throughout – sometimes gritty, sometimes well-played, sometimes “nervy.” But until he sees what transpires in subsequent weeks, he won’t characterize the win as something that portends future success.

“I don’t have that answer,” Petke said. “That’s yet to be seen.”

Here’s Damir Kreilach talking about why he thought tonight was the start of a “new season” for #RSL. pic.twitter.com/xrFKqmuPYg

— Alex Vejar (@AlexVReporting) April 14, 2019

Petke did like the way his team answered the challenge of Dom Dwyer and Nani — two of Orlando City’s best players — entering the second half.

“I thought we contained them very well, I thought we got back, I thought we did enough to deny them at times,” Petke said.

Johnson’s goal, which came in the 17th minute, marked the first goal of his Major League Soccer career. Earlier this week, he lamented that he hadn’t been able to score in five appearances with his new club, but said it felt like a matter of time until he got one.

He did it in when, while well within the 18-yard box, he tripped and fell to the ground. The ball squirted free, but no Orlando City defender cleared or took possession of it. Johnson got up, found the ball and shot a rocket that found the back of the net for a 1-0 RSL lead.

Johnson credited Albert Rusnák on the sequence because he played the initial ball to Johnson. Petke said the way Johnson stayed with the play after falling down was “a snapshot of an example that personifies what I want out of my players.”

Johnson said it felt good to score his first MLS goal, and that it was important for a player at his position to get that first one out of the way. He added that strikers scoring goals are what fans what and expect out of them.

“I don’t care how much you dribble or you do anything with the ball,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, they say, ‘Oh he can do everything, but he can’t score.’ So scoring a goal as a striker is very good, it makes you more confident and it makes you safe out there on the field.”

Kreilach’s shot came in the second half and from a clinical sequence. Aaron Herrera, who started at right back, played a long ball to Jefferson Savarino. The Venezuelan nutmegged a pass through his defender and right to Kreilach, who scored from around the penalty spot to put Real up 2-0 in the 55th minute.

Orlando City forward Nani scored in the 81st minute off a free kick to cut RSL’s lead to 2-1. Real held on for its second win of the 2019 season.

Notes

Everton Luiz sufferd an injury to his left knee in the 23rd minute and left the game. Petke said he will receive an MRI.

Alachua, Fla.• A large, flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea attacked and killed its owner when the man fell on his farm in Florida, authorities said Saturday.

The Alachua County Fire Rescue Department told the Gainesville Sun that a cassowary killed the man Friday on the property near Gainesville, likely using its long claws. The victim was apparently breeding the birds, state wildlife officials said.

"My understanding is that the gentleman was in the vicinity of the bird and at some point fell. When he fell, he was attacked," Deputy Chief Jeff Taylor told the newspaper. He said first responders got a call at 10 a.m. Friday and rushed the man to a hospital for trauma care but he died.

The county sheriff's office identified the victim as Marvin Hajos, 75, and said a death investigation has been opened.

"Initial information indicates that this was a tragic accident for Mr. Hajos," said Lt. Brett Rhodenizer, a sheriff's office spokesman, in an email to the paper. "The cassowary involved remains secured on private property at this time."

Cassowaries are similar to emus and stand up to 6 feet tall and weigh up to 130 pounds, with black body feathers and distinctive, bright blue heads and necks.

The San Diego Zoo’s website calls the cassowary the world’s most dangerous bird with a dagger-like claw on each foot. “The cassowary can slice open any predator or potential threat with a single swift kick. Powerful legs help the cassowary run up to 31 miles per hour through the dense forest underbrush,” the website states.

Cassowaries are eaten in parts of New Guinea. The birds are not raised for food in the U.S., but are sought after by collectors of exotic birds, according to authorities.

To obtain a mandatory permit, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission requires cassowary owners to have "substantial experience" and meet specific cage requirements, spokeswoman Karen Parker told the newspaper. She said the commission lists the cassowary as a type of wildlife that can "pose a danger to people."

Wildlife officials did not answer phone calls late Saturday from The Associated Press and it wasn’t immediately known what would happen with the bird.

In the 24 hours since President Donald Trump escalated an attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar by tweeting a video of her spliced with footage of the burning twin towers, Democrats have accused him of Islamophobia, inciting violence and politicizing one of America’s gravest tragedies.

The swift condemnation started Friday afternoon, after Trump shared the video with his millions of followers, along with the caption "We Will Never Forget."

WE WILL NEVER FORGET! pic.twitter.com/VxrGFRFeJM

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019

Omar, D—Minn., a Somali refugee who made history as one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress last year, has been the target of conservative criticism this past week, after right-wing media outlets began sharing comments she made about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to a largely Muslim audience last month.

At a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) event, Omar spoke about the discrimination Americans Muslims faced after the terrorist attacks.

“For far too long, we have lived with the discomfort of being a second -class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it,” she said.

"CAIR was founded after 9/11," she went on, "because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. So you can't just say that today someone is looking at me strange and that I am trying to make myself look pleasant. You have to say that, 'This person is looking at me strange. I am not comfortable with it, and I am going to talk to them and ask them why.' Because that is the right you have." (CAIR was actually founded in 1994.)

Conservatives began circulating a snippet of the 20-minute speech, highlighting the phrase “some people did something” to suggest Omar had played down the significance of 9/11.

As the clip spread, several Republicans questioned Omar's patriotism and loyalty. Things got uglier Thursday, when the New York Post ran a photo of the burning, smoking twin towers on its cover with the headline "Rep. Ilhan Omar: 9/11 Was 'Some People Did Something'."

Beneath that, in large bold letters, it said: "Here's your something."

A day later, Trump weighed in with his tweet.

Democrats responded swiftly, defending Omar and accusing the president of fomenting violence.

“Members of Congress have a duty to respond to the President’s explicit attack today,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted hours after Trump’s missive. “@IlhanMN’s life is in danger. For our colleagues to be silent is to be complicit in the outright, dangerous targeting of a member of Congress. We must speak out.”

Members of Congress have a duty to respond to the President’s explicit attack today.@IlhanMN’s life is in danger. For our colleagues to be silent is to be complicit in the outright, dangerous targeting of a member of Congress.

We must speak out.

“First they came...” pic.twitter.com/ygOX1vhE9j

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 12, 2019

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D—Mass., responded forcefully as well: “The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman — and an entire group of Americans based on their religion,” she tweeted.

The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It's disgusting. It's shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 13, 2019

"It's disgusting. It's shameful," she went on. "And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it."

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan, also responded late Friday night.

"Now, a president uses that dark day to incite his base against a member of Congress, as if for sport. As if we learned nothing that day about the workings of hate," Buttigieg wrote on Twitter. "The president today made America smaller."

It's not the first time Trump invoked 9/11 for personal or political gain.

On the day the towers fell, Trump mused on a radio show that he now had the tallest building in downtown Manhattan. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he claimed to have helped clean up the rubble, though there is no evidence of him doing so. He also said he lost hundreds of friends in the attack, but could never name one. And he claimed that he saw thousands of Muslims in Jersey City cheering the buildings coming down, something that never happened.

The president also has a long history of denigrating Muslims. He often suggested President Barack Obama, who is a Christian, was really a Muslim, insinuating that if he were that it would be a negative. In his race for president, Trump declared that "Islam hates us." He also formally proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States during the presidential campaign. His administration has implemented policies barring citizens of certain Muslim—majority countries from traveling to the United States.

“The function of a president is bringing our people together,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told voters in Gary, Indiana, on Saturday. “Even conservative presidents have understood that.”

Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won't back down to Trump's racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 13, 2019

"George W. Bush — I didn't have a lot in common with him. His views were very different than mine," he told the crowd. "But remember what he did after 9/11? He walked into a mosque to say that criminals, terrorists, attacked the United States. Not the Muslim people. That was a conservative Republican. We now have a president who for cheap political gain is trying to divide us up."

At a Saturday morning town hall near Charleston, S.C., former congressman Beto O’Rourke described the president’s tweet to the crowd, then denounced it in a monologue that lasted several minutes.

As he recounted the video, crowd members gasped. Then they applauded when O'Rourke said the video echoes the rhetoric the president and his administration have used against Mexican immigrants, asylum seekers and other marginalized groups.

"This is an incitement to violence against Congresswoman Omar, against our fellow Americans who happen to be Muslim," O'Rourke added.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., didn’t mention Omar specifically in her comments. Instead, she focused on the president’s politicizing of the terrorist attacks.

"The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence. The President shouldn't use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack," she said in a statement. "It is wrong for the President, as Commander—in—Chief, to fan the flames to make anyone less safe."

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D—Mich., the other Muslim woman in Congress, seemed to agree with a tweet criticizing Pelosi's statement for not referencing Omar by name.

"They put us in photos when they want to show our party is diverse. However, when we ask to be at the table, or speak up about issues that impact who we are, what we fight for & why we ran in the first place, we are ignored," she said. "To truly honor our diversity is to never silence us."

This is not the first time Omar has been targeted by the right.

Before her congressional term had even begun, Republicans demanded she be removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee because she had criticized the Israeli government and its treatment of the Palestinians.

Then, Omar made two comments about U.S. support for Israel that ignited fresh controversy. Democrats and Republicans accused her of perpetuating anti—Semitic tropes. Pelosi and others condemned Omar's comments about Israel. Republicans, including Trump, have continued to use Omar's comments to try to paint the Democratic Party as anti—Semitic.

Omar has said she has received several death threats since taking office. Last weekend, a New York Trump supporter was arrested after he called Omar’s office and threatened to put a “bullet through her [expletive] skull.”

Omar has said she won't be deterred by Trump or anyone else. On Saturday afternoon, she tweeted that she would not be silenced and would not sit on the sidelines.

“No one person — no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious — can threaten my unwavering love for America,” she said. “I stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans.”

Take a step back, James T. Kirk. Move aside, Jean-Luc Picard. There’s a new captain atop the “Star Trek” leaderboard.

The best captain in “Trek” history is a new iteration of the first captain in “Trek” history — Christopher Pike, who’s in temporary command of the U.S.S. Discovery during Season 2 of “Star Trek: Discovery.”

(The Season 2 finale of “Discovery” streams Thursday on CBS All Access.)

That’s not a slam on Kirk, Picard, Benjamin Sisko, Kathryn Janeway or Jonathan Archer. But, as portrayed by Anson Mount, Captain Pike is practically perfect in every way.

He’s smart. He’s capable. He’s loyal. He has a sense of humor. He’s a great leader who quickly wins the loyalty of his crew. He listens to his subordinates and takes their advice. He’s brave. He’s not afraid to buck authority when necessary, but he doesn’t make a habit of it.

Pike is a stabilizing influence for a crew that struggled through the first season while led by [SPOILER ALERT if you didn’t watch Season 1] the alternate-universe doppelganger of Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs).

Executive producer Alex Kurtzman pointed to the Season 2 premiere when members of the Discovery bridge crew introduced themselves to Pike “and some of them have very complicated names, and then Pike spits them back out verbatim. And it tells us that this is a captain who’s really paying attention and is nothing like Lorca. And is actually interested in each person individually.”

Two episodes into Season 2, Isaacs tweeted, “Even I prefer Pike.”

Ducked out of the ugliness of the world to watch @StarTrekNetflix ep2 last night and felt proudly in awe of what superbly talented storytellers all my Discovery family are. Odd because I remember you all as idiots. And you, @ansonmount, just stop it will you? Even I prefer Pike. pic.twitter.com/gL32ClkEAU

— Jason Isaacs (@jasonsfolly) January 30, 2019

Mount is the third actor to play Christopher Pike. Jeffrey Hunter originated the role; he starred in the original 1964 pilot, “The Cage,” which NBC rejected. (It was later incorporated into The Original Series episode “The Menagerie.”) And Bruce Greenwood played Pike in the alternate-timeline movies “Star Trek” (2009) and “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013).

(Sean Kenney didn’t really get to act in “The Menagerie,” as he played the heavily scarred, immobile, non-verbal version of Pike after he was horribly injured by radiation while saving a group of cadets.)

It’s surprising that, on “Discovery,” Mount as Pike has overshadowed the third incarnation of Spock. That’s not a knock on Ethan Peck, who’s following in the footsteps of Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto, but Pike has been instrumental in turning a good “Star Trek” series into a great “Star Trek” series. In its second season, it’s gripping sci-fi drama — and, with a budget reportedly in excess of $8 million per episode, it’s gorgeous to look at.

“I think Ethan had a tougher job than I did, because there’s so little of Pike that’s been established,” Mount said. “I really got to go in and play around in a big, empty second act of that character’s timeline.”

“Discovery” takes place about three years after the events in “The Cage” and about a decade before The Original Series begins. Pike took over the Discovery while his heavily damaged Enterprise was being repaired, leading his new crew on a series of adventures involving the “Red Angel” from the future and an artificial intelligence that threatens to end all sentient life in the galaxy.

For Mount, it’s a role he’s been dreaming of since he was a kid — “a matter of joy.”

“I grew up with Kirk as my captain,” Mount said. “I’d playact. My make-believe character was Captain Kirk.”

(Although Kirk is not his favorite character, which “would probably be Data,” he said.)

Here’s a ranking of Starfleet captains from best to worst. (And the list includes only the seven who have been regularly featured in TV series and in movies — not the dozens who have made guest appearances.)

1. Christopher Pike (“Discovery,” 2018) • He’s No. 1 for all the reasons listed above. Personally, I’d love to see a series with Captain Pike and the crew of the Enterprise, circa 2258. (No, it’s not a spoiler that Pike won’t be back on Season 3 of “Discovery.” He’s got his own ship to command.)

2. Jean-Luc Picard (“The Next Generation,” 1987-1994; movies, 1994-2002) • Picard (Patrick Stewart) was supremely competent and capable, and his behavior was always above reproach. An inspiration to his crew, he never let his ego get in the way of his duty and, more often than not, found a way to solve conflicts without battle. Except with the Borg, who did assimilate him for a while.

3A. James T. Kirk (“Star Trek: The Original Series,” 1966-1969; movies, 1979-1994) • Kirk (William Shatner) is the iconic “Trek” captain — an explorer/warrior who beat insurmountable odds and saved the Federation over and over again while delivering dramatic, inspiring speeches. He was, perhaps, a bit too arrogant. (Or maybe that was just the actor who played him.)

3B. James T. Kirk (“Star Trek” movies, 2009-16) • This younger version of Kirk (Chris Pine) was everything we loved about the original, only more daring, more physical and more bold. Unfortunately, we only got to see him three times. (And we may not see him again.)

4. Kathryn Janeway (“Star Trek: Voyager,” 1995-2001) • Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) got kind of a bad rap when “Voyager” was on the air. (Surprise! There’s sexism in science fiction.) But she commanded a crew that combined Starfleet personnel and Maquis rebels; defeated the Borg; and got her crew home from the other side of the galaxy.

5. Benjamin Sisko (“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” 1993-1999) • Sisko (Avery Brooks), a commander when the show began, was promoted to captain at the end of Season 3. And he had to balance his duties to Starfleet with his religious role as the Emissary to the Prophets for the planet Bajor. The character warmed up over the years, and he did play a major role in the Federation’s victory in the Dominion War.

6. Jonathan Archer (“Star Trek: Enterprise,” 2001-05) • Archer really did boldly go where no one had gone before — his NX-01 Enterprise was a prototype and his pre-Federation, Earth crew were neophytes. A little laid-back at times, he was handicapped by a show that didn’t figure out what it should be until its fourth and final season.

7. Gabriel Lorca (“Star Trek: Discovery,” 2017-18) • Well, he was a fake and a villain from an alternate universe. Which easily puts him in last place on this list.

Peter Kline was 53 before he ran his first marathon in 2006. Since that time he has run races all over the country — Washington, San Diego, Chicago, even Boston.

That doesn’t include the 100-mile ultra-marathons. And earlier this year he ran rim-to-rim and back along treacherous snow-covered trails at the Grand Canyon, you know, for kicks.

Some mornings he is up at 4 a.m. churning out miles before the sun has even thought about rising.

And while all that would be enough for even the most avid running fanatic, what has brought Kline the most joy is pushing children with various disabilities — rider-athletes, he calls them — along 26.2 mile marathon courses.

“I love it. I love the kids and the excitement of the family, the excitement of the children and the happiness they get,” Kline said last week, as he prepared to run the Salt Lake City Marathon on Saturday. “It just changed me and I don’t want to go back to anything other than that.”

Over the past seven years, Kline has run about 40 marathons with rider-athletes, including four ultra-marathons.

“They get to feel included and involved and special,” he said. “Other runners will come by … they’ll want to give them high fives. They’ll talk to them. It’s their Super Bowl... they get that medal around the neck and tell [friends] they ran the race, and it’s true.”

On Saturday, Kline’s companion for the day was Brianna Heim, or Bri, an exuberant 13-year-old born with glutaric acidemia type I, a rare disorder that means her body is unable to break down certain proteins, causing amino acids to build up in her brain.

Her mind is sharp. She’s a straight-A student, but she is unable to walk and talks mostly with the help of the speech program on her iPad.

“She’s an adrenaline junkie. She’s been paragliding a couple times, indoor skydiving,” Wendy Heim said of her daughter, who was the 2015 National Miss Amazing Preteen Queen. “She has the need for speed.”

How did the Heims and Kline connect? It started at a Utah Grizzlies hockey team. The Heims are big fans and they sit next to a man who works for Bank of America, the firm Kline works for in Bellevue, Wash.

“Bri was pretty excited about the idea of being in a marathon,” Wendy Heim said.

Before the race Saturday, Bri Heim said she looked forward to “running and going fast.” Kline sheepishly said he hoped she was OK with “old man fast.”

No, they didn’t break any world records. Even with a new, lighter, $5,000 chair Kline bought not long ago, he still pushed a 50-pound chair holding an almost-grown person up and down hills on a course that snakes all across the city, and at an elevation that is about 4,100 feet higher than his home.

Kline is responsible for keeping his riders hydrated on the journey. Oftentimes the kids have feeding tubes and some have needed to have their throat suctioned. Potty breaks are not uncommon.

It’s not easy for the rider-athlete, Kline said.

“[They] are physically invested in the sport,” he said. “It’s not a smooth ride. There’s no suspension system on this jogger. You may be in the elements, it may be raining, it may be cold. They’re using their mind and they’re using their bodies.”

Still, Kline usually averages between 12- and 13-minute miles, so he’s certainly not the last to finish. In fact, he said, near the end of the race an interesting thing happens: Runners who have hit the wall and are struggling get a second wind when they see Kline and his passenger approach. Often, they run those last miles together.

On Saturday, Kline and Bri started out in a dark morning chill. Bri was bundled in a blanket and gloves and a hat but it warmed up as the day went on, aside from a light rain that hit around mile 15. They finished the race at about 1 p.m., covering the course in a little over six hours.

“I loved being in my first marathon. It was so much fun! I loved how all the people cheered and congratulated me,” Brianna wrote afterward. “Being in that big awesome chair was comfy.”

But was it fast enough?

“It’s never fast enough for this adventurous girl!” she said. “But I really liked the speed we were going.”

“We had a great time. … Brianna was fabulous. A lot of fun. It was a perfect day,” Kline said. “A lot of runners ran with me and afterwards they would come up and tell me they were inspired by the run.”

Kline is flying home Sunday (he pays all of the expenses — the chair, hotel, airfare, meals, race registration — himself) to prepare for his next race, the San Diego marathon in June. Then Seattle a couple of weeks later. Then Chicago. Then Charlotte. Then an ultra-marathon in Florida in December, with different rider-athletes in each city.

But for Peter Kline, it’s not about the expense or time or all those countless miles of pavement. It’s about going the extra mile to put a smile on the face of a kid like Bri who gets to feel the joy of “running and going fast.”

Camilla D’Errico has a few rules about drawing female characters in comic books.

“I’ve never drawn female characters whose outfits are basically spaghetti on their bodies,” D’Errico said in a phone interview from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. “I’m too logical that way. ... My characters wear clothing that is very functional.”

D’Errico is a painter and comic-book artist and writer who is part of a growing movement to expand “fan culture” — that space for superheroes, space aliens, vampires and other fantastical beings found in comic books and genre TV and movies — past the stereotype as a clubhouse for nerdy boys and men.

And conventions, like the spring FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention that runs Friday and Saturday at the Salt Palace Convention Center, are where some of that expansion is happening.

“Fanboys may have started it, but it’s not just for them any more,” said D’Errico, a featured artist at FanX. “The fanboys are excited that there are girls at the comic cons.”

“Ten years ago, girls being involved in fandom was still an oddity,” said Utah-based author M.K. Hutchins, adding that notion was more about perception than reality. “Women and girls have always been a part of fandom.”

Still, those perceptions of fandom as a men-only bastion die hard. Hutchins, who wrote the fantasy novel “Drift,” is a fan of board games and tabletop role-playing games — and she’s endured sexist commentary from men.

“I knew people who would say, ‘She only plays because her boyfriend plays,’” Hutchins said, adding that when she attended Brigham Young University, women-only game nights with her roommates and neighbors were common.

FanX has made progress on gender equality issues since last year, when a prominent author was accused of inappropriately touching a woman at a convention event. FanX has strengthened its anti-harassment policies, and created a community council to monitor those policies. Meanwhile, co-founder Dan Farr made a donation to the Time’s Up campaign. (A FanX spokesman declined to say how much Farr donated.)

Which is not to say full equality has been achieved. Of this spring’s 34 celebrity guests listed on the event’s website, nine of them — or 26.5% — are women, the most recognizable being Lynda Carter, TV’s Wonder Woman. Women represent 11.8% of the artists and comics creators booked for FanX, 28.1% of the authors and 37.3% of the listed panelists.

“There are a lot more male panelists than female panelists,” said Charlie N. Holmberg, an author in Salt Lake County whose books include “The Paper Magician” and “Smoke & Summons.” “But there are a lot more panels about women in fiction, and about feminism.”

D’Errico — creator of the comic book series “Tanpopo” and the “HelmetGirls” images — said she’s noticed fewer comic artists drawing buxom, scantily clad female figures, because reactions and sensibilities have changed. They still exist, she said, but “the people who are offended by that kind of art, they just avoid those booths.”

At a convention in Chicago once, D’Errico said, her table was across the way from a man whose art featured highly sexualized, nearly nude women. D’Errico commented about them in an interview, and the man overheard her. His response: “I’m sorry that this offends you, but I have to pay my bills.”

Ali Cross, a fantasy author from West Jordan who wrote the “Desolation” trilogy and her current “Minnie Kim: Vampire Girl” books, is less troubled by such sexist artwork. “They’re no different than portraying all the men with giant muscles,” Cross said. “They’re just caricatures of the ideal.”

D’Errico praises the move toward equality between women and men in fandom, and in the art sold at conventions. But that’s only the first step.

“What I’d like to see more of is cultural diversity in art,” D’Errico said.

D’Errico recalled selling works at one convention where an African American girl bought prints of every work D’Errico had made that showed girls of color. The girl’s grandmother, D’Errico said, “was crying. She had never seen [the girl] so excited about art before.”

“I try to put in more diversity, people of color and [different] body types,” D’Errico said. “Not all of us look like Barbie dolls.”

One area where gender equity is most pronounced, Cross said, is in cosplay. Crossplay, where women dress as male characters and vice versa, and gender-bends — where, for example, a woman will create a female version of a male character — are becoming more popular.

“The men tend to dress in evocative female costumes — I’ve seen men freer to express themselves,” Cross said.

That expression, Cross said, is the core of what makes conventions popular. “It’s the only place where being wildly different is celebrated,” she said.

———

FanX returns

The spring 2019 edition of FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention, a two-day convention celebrating movies, TV, comic books, games and other nerdy pursuits.

Where • Salt Palace Convention Center.

When • Friday and Saturday, April 19-20.

Tickets • Individual tickets and two-day passes available at fanxsaltlake.com.

This is about Kyle Korver and that white lady on the plane.

The former is an NBA veteran, a sharp-shooting forward for the Utah Jazz. The latter edged past my seat on the way to her own on a crowded flight about two weeks back. A button on her shirt caught my attention. "Black Lives Matter," it said.

Seeing that particular woman express that particular sentiment lifted me. I tapped her and pointed to the button. "Thank you," I said. The line moved forward and whatever she said in response, I didn't catch it.

Which brings us to Korver. Last week, The Players Tribune, which publishes first-person essays by athletes, posted a thoughtful piece called “Privileged” in which he grapples forthrightly with what it means to be a white man in America and a white player in the mostly-black NBA.

Korver zeroes in on the night in 2015 when a black teammate, Thabo Sefolosha, was arrested outside a nightclub by New York City police, who broke his leg in the process. Writes Korver: "Want to know what my first thought was? About my friend and teammate? My first thought was: What was Thabo doing out at a club on a back-to-back??

"Not, How's he doing? Not, What happened during the arrest?? Not, Something seems off with this story. Nothing like that. Before I knew the full story, and before I'd even had the chance to talk to Thabo ... I sort of blamed Thabo."

A jury would acquit Sefolosha of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after deliberating less than an hour and New York would end up paying $4 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging false arrest and excessive force. But Korver’s reflexive response told him something about how we are programmed to assume the worst of black people — and about his own privilege.

The piece has made waves in the NBA fraternity. LeBron James tweeted "Salute my brother!!" NBA analyst Kenny Smith tweeted that the essay by "my new favorite player" left him teary-eyed. Former Lakers guard Byron Scott said simply, "Preach."

Indeed.

It has been my experience that there are few things harder than to get some white people to wrestle with — or even concede — their own racial assumptions and privilege. There is no asininity they will not embrace, no rationalization they will not employ, no illogic they will not apply, to avoid confronting how racist America was — and is.

"Only a racist would call someone a racist," an anonymous someone, presumably white, tweeted last week. Another chided me that calling white guys "white guys" was "name-calling."

And so it goes.

So if one is black, it is refreshing — it is downright redemptive — to encounter a white brother or sister unafraid to be honest, to confirm that no, it’s not just your imagination. But this is about more than validation.

Korver and that woman will never know as much about being black as a black person does. Yet, counterintuitive as it may seem, their voices carry a weight on matters of race that a black person's will not, if only because white people can't dismiss their advocacy as self-interest. They will be heard in ways and places black people never will. Similarly, men can be more effective advocates for women and straights for gays.

But becoming that sort of advocate takes moral fiber, a willingness to shut up, listen, learn, self-examine — and speak out. It’s heartening to be reminded that such courage still exists. In an era of progress under assault, African-Americans have every reason to feel anxious, angry and betrayed.

Nice to see we have a few reasons to feel hopeful, too.

As a junior in high school, I find that college has become a daily conversation. However, in numerous households, financial burdens are a barricade to college dreams.

It is outrageous to find that a respected education costs families tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, putting many into never-ending debt.

I was shocked when I first heard the total American student loan debt is around $1.5 trillion, which is surprisingly $521 million more than credit card debt. To this day, student loan debt impacts 45 million Americans and is creating an unnoticed crisis.

Families are not only burdened, but also have to be blindly directed by lenders. As I researched customer service interactions, I found that communications are simply infuriating. Many servicers pressure customers to pursue plans that only augment their debt.

Even with the Truth in Lending Act in place, it is not adequately enforced. This act requires lenders to lay out all financial plans to students but only gives a three-day period to cancel. Even with this act in place, families still suffer from liability of debt.

Utah has the lowest student loan debt in the nation, but this doesn’t mean that we can ignore the situation as many Utahns prefer out-of-state colleges as well.

Education is not only crucial in increasing our knowledge, but it is also a place to further our social skills and establish our personality. Yet with an unattainable education, students are forced to choose between finding prosperity in their interests or avoiding the detriment of future debt.

Tala Shihab, Cottonwood Heights

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Thank you, President Trump, for recognizing that “our country is full.”

Does that mean abortion is now totally legal and sex education (including contraception) will now be fully supported by the administration?

Andy White, Salt Lake City

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If only unintentionally, Sen. Mike Lee could be onto something in calling for more babies. By enlarging the gene pool, the odds increase that someday we might get a mentally stable U.S. senator from Utah.

Let’s get crackin‘. It can’t happen soon enough.

Steve Camp, Murray

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I don't know why the prison cost overrun is news. We all knew it was about lining the pockets of certain legislators and developers.

There was no good reason to move the prison. It could have been built where the prison stands now. Just build it on the open space there, walk the prisoners over to the new buildings, then tear down the old.

But if there is money to be wasted, our legislators are sure to be there with their hands out.

Paul Jerominski, Salt Lake City

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The myriad Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 is interesting. The spectrum is fascinating and the way in which they will sort themselves out by election time will be telling.

Perhaps the most significant caveat for them is to ignore President Donald Trump’s diatribes. Getting into a semantic battle with him at an early date is counterproductive.

The time for political campaigning is months away.

Louis Borgenicht, Salt Lake City

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