Paris • A massive fire engulfed the upper reaches of Paris’ soaring Notre Dame Cathedral as it was undergoing renovations Monday, threatening one of the greatest architectural treasures of the Western world as tourists and Parisians looked on aghast from the streets below.

The blaze collapsed the cathedral's spire and spread to one of its landmark rectangular towers, but Paris fire chief Jean-Claude Gallet said the church's structure had been saved after firefighters managed to stop the fire spreading to the northern belfry. The 12th-century cathedral is home to incalculable works of art and is one of the world's most famous tourist attractions, immortalized by Victor Hugo's 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

The exact cause of the blaze was not known, but French media quoted the Paris fire brigade as saying the fire is "potentially linked" to a 6 million-euro ($6.8 million) renovation project on the church's spire and its 250 tons of lead. The Paris prosecutors' office ruled out arson and possible terror-related motives, and said it was treating it as an accident.

As the spire fell, the sky lit up orange and flames shot out of the roof behind the nave of the cathedral, among the most visited landmarks in the world. Hundreds of people lined up bridges around the island that houses the church, watching in shock as acrid smoke rose in plumes. Speaking alongside junior Interior minister Laurent Nunez late Monday, Gallet noted that "two thirds of the roofing has been ravaged." He said firefighters would keep working overnight to cool down the building.

Late Monday, signs pointed to the fire nearing an end as lights could be seen through the windows moving around the front of the cathedral, apparently investigators inspecting the scene. The city's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said the significant collection of art work and holy objects inside the church had been recovered. Remarkably, only one of the about 400 firefighters who battled the blaze was injured, officials said.

The fire came less than a week before Easter amid Holy Week commemorations. As the cathedral burned, Parisians gathered to pray and sing hymns outside the church of Saint Julien Les Pauvres across the river from Notre Dame while the flames lit the sky behind them. Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit invited priests across France to ring church bells in a call for prayers.

French President Emmanuel Macron was treating the fire as a national emergency, rushing to the scene and straight into meetings at the Paris police headquarters nearby. He pledged to rebuild the church and said he would seek international help to do so.

"The worse has been avoided although the battle is not yet totally won," the president said, adding that he would launch a national funding campaign on Tuesday and call on the world's "greatest talents" to help rebuild the monument.

Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, Notre Dame is the most famous of the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages as well as one of the most beloved structures in the world. Situated on the Ile de la Cite, an island in the Seine river, its architecture is famous for, among other things, its many gargoyles and its iconic flying buttresses.

Among the most celebrated artworks inside are its three stained-glass rose windows, placed high up on the west, north and south faces of the cathedral. Its priceless treasures also include a Catholic relic, the crown of thorns, which is only occasionally displayed, including on Fridays during Lent.

French historian Camille Pascal told BFM broadcast channel the blaze marked "the destruction of invaluable heritage."

"It's been 800 years that the Cathedral watches over Paris," Pascal said. "Happy and unfortunate events for centuries have been marked by the bells of Notre Dame."

He added: "We can be only horrified by what we see."

Reactions from around the world came swiftly including from the Vatican, which released a statement expressing shock and sadness for the "terrible fire that has devastated the Cathedral of Notre Dame, symbol of Christianity in France and in the world."

In Washington, Trump tweeted: "So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris" and suggested first responders use "flying water tankers" to put it out.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said he was praying "to ask the intercession of Notre Dame, our Lady, for the Cathedral at the heart of Paris, and of civilization, now in flames! God preserve this splendid house of prayer, and protect those battling the blaze."

Associated Press writers Elaine Ganley, Sylvie Corbet and Danica Kirka contributed.

Want to travel to Las Vegas from Salt Lake City for just $4.99 — less than a regular round-trip cash fare ticket on local Utah Transit Authority buses or TRAX trains?

FlixBus, a European company that launched in the United States a year ago, is offering tickets for that price as it launches service on Friday on a line with stops in Salt Lake City, Provo, Cedar City, St. George and Las Vegas. It also connects in Las Vegas to other FlixBus routes to California and Arizona.

Ticket sales incur a $2 transaction fee, so the full final price for one ticket is $6.99. (But if many tickets are bought in one transaction, one $2 fee covers them all).

The company will offer once-a-day trips in each direction on the Salt Lake to Vegas line Fridays through Tuesdays. The $4.99 fares are offered until May 3, when Salt Lake to Las Vegas listed fares then start at $14.99 or $19.99 depending on the day and demand. The company says tickets will sometimes be as low on the line as $9.99.

It offers competition to Salt Lake Express, whose listed fares are between $19 (for the first few tickets available on selected trips) and $103 depending on time and demand, and Greyhound, whose listed fares between Salt Lake and Las Vegas are between $54 and $113.

FlixBus will offer service at the intermodal hub in Salt Lake City, at the corner of 300 South and 600 West. In Las Vegas, buses stop in front of Caesar’s Palace on the strip or downtown across from the Bonneville Transit Center.

“We are modernizing the traditional American road trip,” said Pierre Gourdain, managing director of FlixBus USA. “Our equipment is equipped with Wi-Fi, power outlets at every seat, ample legroom, free onboard movies and TV, and the eco-friendliest form of transportation available.”

FlixBus was launched in Germany in 2013. After it expanded to 28 countries in Europe, it started service in the United States last May connecting major hubs in the Southwest. In March, it also expanded with Southern routes in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Gourdain said the company has been serving Las Vegas for nearly a year from California and Arizona, and many of its customers requested that it extend service to Salt Lake City.

“Everyone was asking for Salt Lake City,” he said. “There is a big community of Utah people in Vegas, a lot of students, and many really wanted a stronger line to the home state.”

Gourdain said FlixBus also soon hopes to open a line from Salt Lake City to Reno and San Francisco, and perhaps more.

He said the company is able to provide cheap service in part by filling its buses — saying it can make money with a full bus with tickets sold at $15 to $20 between Salt Lake and Las Vegas.

Also, it owns none of the buses itself — but offers franchises to existing bus tour companies. “So they just add a few buses," he said. “We don’t have to add maintenance yards or middle management."

Also, the company promotes itself as environmentally friendly, which Gourdain said he expects will help attract riders in Utah.

“Each bus takes about 30 cars off the road,” he said. Also, the company operates only new buses that pollute less than old models. And the company allows passengers to choose to donate part of their fare to charities that plant new trees, and help eliminate a carbon footprint for their trip.

With that, Gourdain says his company tends to attract people who normally drive cars on their trips — rather than people who usually take the bus. He said that 65 percent of all FlixBus USA passengers to date have never taken a long-distance bus previously.

Tickets may be purchased at FlixBus.com or by downloading its online app.

Regarding April 12’s article by Nate Carlisle about “Panel decries ‘fashionable’ intolerance toward religion,” I continue to be frustrated by the religious right’s portrayal of so-called “religious intolerance.” Have you ever seen anyone protest church-sponsored homeless shelters, food banks, clothing drives or soup kitchens? No, only acts of hate and discrimination based on gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race and place of origin are met with vocal criticism, and if needed, legal challenges.

Church leaders and believers need to ask themselves if they subscribe to a faith based on a foundation of hate and discrimination or a foundation of love and compassion. I fear this unholy alliance between organized religion and political conservatism will be the downfall of our country.

Charles Goodwin, Salt Lake City

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Ahead of a campaign visit Wednesday to Utah, Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren outlined a broad plan for protecting public lands and national parks that included a promise to restore the state’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments if she is elected in 2020.

In an essay published on Medium.com on Monday, Warren called President Donald Trump’s shaving of 2 million acres from the monuments’ boundaries in 2017 “the single biggest rollback of protected lands in U.S. history.”

“His move opens up Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah for mining and drilling, which will cause irreversible damage,” she wrote. “These lands are part of our national fabric, sacred to tribes and beloved by American families. As president, I will use my authorities under the Antiquities Act to restore protections to both monuments and any other national monuments targeted by this Administration.”

Supporters of the monuments are currently engaged in a legal battle to restore the Bears Ears southern Utah monument, set aside in 2016 by former President Barack Obama, to its original size. The Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante lawsuits have been administratively consolidated into two cases — one for each monument — that are currently pending in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Top Utah politicians — from Gov. Gary Herbert to the senior members of the congressional delegation to the Republican-controlled Legislature — celebrated Trump’s executive order shrinking the monuments.

The tribes that proposed the monument and several other groups allege presidents don’t have legal authority to shrink monuments designated by their predecessors. Advocates for the downsizing have argued presidents should set aside only the smallest area necessary to protect important resources and note that other monuments have been changed in the past.

Warren, a Massachusetts senator known for her populist message and focus on income inequality, is scheduled to host an organizing event at The Depot in Salt Lake City on Wednesday at 6 p.m. She is the third and most well-known of the Democratic candidates to visit this red state so far.

Julian Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and John Delaney, a former Maryland congressman, previously made campaign stops in Utah.

While not all of the policy positions outlined in her public lands agenda Monday ahead of her visit specifically mention Utah, many would greatly affect the state, where about two-thirds of the land is federally owned.

Warren pledged to sign an executive order on her first day as president to put a “total moratorium” on all new fossil fuel leases on public lands. She says she would reinstate a methane pollution rule to “limit existing oil and gas projects from releasing harmful gases that poison our air,” reinstate a clean water regulation and work to provide 10% of the country’s overall electricity generation from renewable sources offshore or on public lands.

She also stressed the importance of working with tribal stakeholders to incorporate indigenous ecology, to make provisions for their culture and customs on public lands and to explore “co-management and the return of resources to indigenous protection wherever possible.”

To address what she sees as “poor stewardship” of public lands due to a lack of funding, Warren also says she would fully fund public land management agencies, eliminate maintenance backlogs and restore crumbling bridges and roads in her first term.

Additionally, Warren wants to make entry into the parks free for American taxpayers — a proposal she says would increase access to public lands and strengthen the national economy.

“There’s no better illustration of how backwards our public lands strategy is than the fact that today, we hand over drilling rights to fossil fuel companies for practically no money at all — and then turn around and charge families who make the minimum wage more than a day’s pay to access our parks,” she wrote. “The National Park Service is funded by taxpayers, and it’s long past time to make entry into our parks free to ensure that visiting our nation’s treasures is within reach for every American family.”

Warren is one of more than a dozen declared Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 and is one of the Democratic Party’s highest-profile figures. She is scheduled to appear in Denver on Tuesday and come to Salt Lake City on Wednesday as part of her multistate campaigning efforts.

Houston • The Rockets’ defensive effort against the Jazz in Game 1 on Sunday night shocked and amazed plenty of people. Just don’t count the Rockets among them.

“It doesn’t surprise me that we can defend, at all,” Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said afterward.

It’s still taking others some getting used to.

And deservedly so. The Rockets, after all, have long been regarded as an offensively-oriented team — that’ll happen with D’Antoni (of “Seven Seconds or Less” fame with the Phoenix Suns) as the coach, and when James Harden averages 36 points per game, which is the seventh-best scoring average in NBA history.

Meanwhile, it’s not as though Houston was a season-long defensive juggernaut. Over their first 62 games, they allowed opponents 111.2 points per game.

The team did seem to figure out its issues over the final quarter of the season, however, as opponents’ scoring dropped to 102.8 ppg. Not coincidentally, during that stretch, the team went from outscoring opponents by 4.8 ppg to 12.8 ppg.

“We’ve been doing that for a while now. I don’t think it’s particularly against them,” D’Antoni said. “I just think that for the last two months, since everybody has gotten healthy, [we’ve] locked in.”

Of course, Houston seemed a little extra locked in against the Jazz, which resulted in a 32-point blowout — tied for the second-largest in Rockets’ playoff history.

Utah managed only 90 points for the game, which was just the 18th time in 83 games this season that the Rockets held an opponent under 100. The Jazz also shot just 39% from the field — which was the seventh time Houston kept a team under 40% in a game.

“That’s something we emphasize. When we are aggressive as a team, our defense goes to another level,” said forward P.J. Tucker. “You know, we’re being physical and … being aggressive, and getting up into people, making them drive. When you do that, it puts [them] on the offensive to try to make the right play.”

Houston’s players said the key to the defensive effort was making life difficult for Jazz star Donovan Mitchell.

The second-year guard totaled 19 points and five rebounds, but he shot only 7 of 18 overall, committed five turnovers, and didn’t get a single assist (some of which, admittedly, had to do with teammates not hitting shots).

The Rockets said that by making Mitchell uncomfortable and making him have to work harder than normal, they put themselves in a good position to shut down the Jazz offense.

“He is the one guy that can really get them going,” said guard Eric Gordon. “So you just have to try to break his rhythm up as much as possible.”

Can Democrats win over faithful Christians alienated by President Donald Trump’s treatment of migrants, minorities and the marginalized? It’s early, of course. But many of the party’s presidential hopefuls are talking about their Christian faith and how it has shaped their liberalism.

I wrote about Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., highlighting her Methodist roots and her Sunday school teaching to explain how they shaped her values. She also mentioned that in her favorite Bible passage, the parable of the sheep and goats, Jesus urges his followers to care for the vulnerable, saying, “When you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Warren said the passage taught her two things:

“The first,” she said, “is there is God. There is value in every single human being.”

And the second, Warren said, “is that we are called to action.”

Other candidates have echoed this message.

And at a CNN town hall earlier this week, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said:

“Faith is really important. . . . And if you’re coming at it from a Christian perspective, I would say the gospel doesn’t really leave anybody out. Are you feeding the poor? Are you helping the sick? Are you visiting the incarcerated? Do you believe in helping the least among us? Do you believe in ‘the golden rule?’ Do you treat others the way you want to be treated? I would argue that the Democrats are often better on those issues than Republicans. So there’s no reason you can’t be a person of faith in any political party.”

Cory Booker told The Washington Post’s Sarah Pulliam Bailey: “What people are looking for is not the symbols of faithfulness but the substance of faith and how you live your life and how you dedicate your life.” The Bible, Booker said, speaks to “the urgencies of dealing with poverty, urgencies of welcoming the stranger, the urgencies of compassion toward the imprisoned, the urgencies of love, the most radical durable force ever.”

Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind., has spoken frequently about the role his faith has played in developing his progressive politics — and how the policies of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence appear inconsistent with their Christian faith.

About Pence, Buttigieg said Friday to television show host Ellen DeGeneres: “I’m not critical of his faith. I’m critical of bad policies. I don’t have a problem with religion. I’m religious, too. I have a problem with religion being used as a justification to harm people, especially in the LGBT community.”

That liberal candidates are laying claim to Christianity is not surprising. Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote in The Atlantic that no political tribe can claim ownership over the Christian faith.

“To say that Christianity points you in a progressive direction is in effect to say that Christianity and progressivism are synonymous. They aren’t. Neither are Christianity and conservatism. Christianity stands apart from and in judgment of all political ideologies; it doesn’t lend itself to being put in neat and tidy political categories,” he wrote. “But the temptation, always, is to politicize faith in ways that ultimately are discrediting.”

It’s also, some analysts say, a refreshing pivot from 2016. Though Hillary Clinton, a Methodist, talked about her faith often, she did not reach out to more conservative Christian communities as aggressively as did President Barack Obama.

That may have been a missed opportunity. Two-thirds of Democratic voters self-identify as Christian, according to a recent Public Religion Research Institute survey, which suggests the intersection of faith and politics will be relevant to multiple voters in 2020.

It is still too early to tell how liberal Christians are responding to this approach — and which particular candidate appeals to them the most. As Michael Wear, faith outreach director for Obama’s 2012 campaign, said earlier, actions must follow those words — and soon:

“What will be important though, beyond a capacity to respond about faith when asked, is whether these campaigns are willing to invest in hiring staff who can do faith outreach and help the campaign navigate religious issues,” Wear said. “These hires should be made by this summer, not after the primary.”

But what 2020 appears to be revealing is that Trump and Pence will not have a monopoly on discussing the value of the Christian faith, particularly when it comes to policymaking and public life.

You might have heard that President Donald Trump is sending migrant detainees to so-called sanctuary cities. Or maybe he’s not? Figuring out the proposal’s status was hard enough when the president first contradicted his administration’s initial claims that it had already been rejected. In the days since, things have become even more muddled, to the point that the proposal has become a paradox, being both the president’s policy and not his policy at the same time.

On the one hand, Trump tweeted Saturday evening, "Democrats must change the Immigration Laws FAST. If not, Sanctuary Cities must immediately ACT to take care of the Illegal Immigrants." He later dropped the "if": "The USA has the absolute legal right to have apprehended illegal immigrants transferred to Sanctuary Cities. We hereby demand that they be taken care of at the highest level, especially by the State of California." That sounds like a president who has picked his desired policy.

But apparently the president didn’t tell his staff that things were so definite. “Look, this is an option on the table,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week.” But “that’s not our first choice, probably not even our second or third choice,” she added. After all, “that was brought up at a staff level, and it was determined at that time that, logistically, there were a lot of challenges and it probably didn’t make sense to move forward, and the idea did not go further.” It was a similar story from Sanders over on “Fox News Sunday,” where she said, “Nobody thinks this is the ideal solution.” For counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the plan wasn’t so much dead as nonexistent, with Conway barely mentioning the proposal until prompted by host Chuck Todd.

Why the gulf between the president and his most prominent spokespeople? Perhaps they realize, even if the president doesn’t, that such a plan is legally, logistically and ethically questionable, not to mention self-defeating. Transporting detainees would take up time and personnel the government doesn’t have, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s own lawyers already rejected the idea, and making policy based primarily around hurting political opponents is a terrible precedent. Beyond that, the plan’s premise that residents of these sanctuary cities are secretly as xenophobic as the president is simply wrong; mayors of Seattle, Oakland, California, and other such cities have already said they would welcome these migrants. And providing migrants transportation to these cities would make it easier for them to settle in the United States long term, again running counter to Trump’s anti-immigrant goals. When ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pointed this out to Sanders, she replied, “Again, this isn’t the president’s plan.”

Or perhaps the gulf exists because Trump’s flacks and lackeys realize it doesn’t really matter what they say. After all, this president has promised his base a border wall for years; as long as he says, “We’re building it,” his supporters will believe him and blame anyone other than him for the inconvenient fact that there’s no countrylong border wall. Similarly, the immense legal and logistical barriers to the sanctuary cities idea seem to matter little, as long as Trump says he’s doing it. What a way to run a country.

Provo • Noticeably missing when Mark Pope was introduced at BYU’s Broadcasting Building last Wednesday were the guys who will play for the new head men’s basketball coach next season.

There was a reason for that, senior wing Zac Seljaas said a few days later.

“We actually had a meeting with him right before that,” Seljaas said. “We were scheduled to go play pickup in the Annex and we asked him if he wanted us to go to the press conference or go play pickup, and he told us to go get on the court and play. He wants us to be on the court as much as we can.”

Seljaas said after the news conference Pope walked over to the Annex — where his new office overlooks the practice courts — and watched the players do their thing. Their absence at the Broadcasting Building should in no way be seen as a sign that they are unhappy with athletic director Tom Holmoe’s choice, Seljaas said, although he acknowledged that it would have been good, too, if four-year assistant coach Quincy Lewis had gotten the job, for continuity’s sake.

“It was kinda frustrating, not knowing who was the coach for a while, waiting and wondering who it was going to be,” Seljaas said. “You hear all the rumors going around and so it was hard during that time. Once it was finally announced that Coach Pope was going to be the coach, we were all way excited and ready to go.”

Lewis, the former Lone Peak coach, had told BYU administrators that he wasn’t interested in any position but head coach, so he obviously won’t join Pope’s staff now. Lee Cummard and director of basketball operations Andrew May have said they would love to stay on, but it appears Pope is going in a different direction.

With Los Angeles Lakers assistant Mark Madsen introduced Monday as UVU’s new coach, it is likely that Pope will go after UVU assistants Chris Burgess and Cody Fueger and Seattle assistant Nick Robinson (the former SUU head coach) as his new assistants at BYU, sources say, with UVU’s Bobby Horodyski the new director of basketball operations in Provo.

“We all have a good relationship with coach Lewis and he has been around for a few years,” Seljaas said. “He was a big part of our lives, so we wanted him to stay because it was nothing new, something that we already had. We have been able to lean on him and kinda keep things going the way they were.”

Cummard was a BYU graduate assistant in 2016-17 and 2017-18, and the third assistant last season. He was around the program a lot when he wasn’t playing overseas before 2016 and was extremely popular with the players.

“Every single one of us has a great relationship with him and he is a great coach and a great person, someone you can always call and talk to, even if it is not about basketball,” Seljaas said of Cummard. “He is just a great guy who has always helped us through a lot of things. It would be awesome to have him still around. But if that doesn’t happen, he’s going to still have a great career in whatever he does.”

Seljaas said the current players were not introduced to any of the candidates, but some were familiar with Pope because he was retired coach Dave Rose’s assistant from 2011-15. The rising senior said Pope’s first message to the team was full of hope and optimism.

“It is clear that he has a vision for this team and this program,” Seljaas said. “We are all-in for what he has in mind. He keeps telling us that we are going to go shock the world, and we all believe him. We are going to do things in a whole new way and at a whole new level.”

With Jahshire Hardnett and Rylan Bergersen entering the transfer portal, Yoeli Childs moving on to professional basketball and Luke Worthington and McKay Cannon graduated, Pope will have a scholarship or two available for this fall, depending on what happens with rising senior Nick Emery, who wasn’t on scholarship last year.

Seattle-area point guard Pierre Crockrell II mentioned on Twitter this Sunday that Pope recently had an in-home visit with him; Also, UVU graduates Jake Toolson and Baylee Steele recently entered the transfer portal and could foreseeably follow Pope to BYU, although it is not likely. The 6-foot-11 Steele visited Duquesne on Sunday and told Pittsburghsportsnow.com that he is drawing interest from several high majors.

Great in home visit with Head Coach Mark Pope of BYU!!! pic.twitter.com/mKe4W3ziWx

— Pierre Crockrell II (@CrockrellP) April 15, 2019

BYU’s likely basketball departures in 2019

• Point guard Jahshire Hardnett is in the transfer portal as a grad-transfer.

• Junior wing Rylan Bergersen is in the transfer portal.

• Senior forward Yoeli Childs has hired an agent and put his name in the NBA draft.

• Guard McKay Cannon has exhausted his eligibility and plans to work on the family’s farm in Idaho after his wife’s eligibility as a member of BYU’s track team ends next winter.

• Forward Luke Worthington has exhausted his eligibility and was planning to be a graduate assistant coach before Dave Rose’s retirement. His status on Pope’s staff is unclear.

When the players on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team embarked on the SheBelieves Cup, they honored a host of women they deemed influential not only to themselves, but women everywhere. And they did it by putting the names of those influencers on the backs of their jerseys.

Some examples of the women honored by the USWNT were Sally Ride, Serena Williams, Doris Burke, Maya Angelou and Mother Teresa. The three Utah Royals FC players — Becky Sauerbrunn, Christen Press and Kelley O’Hara — sported the names of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sojourner Truth and Heather O’Reilly, respectively.

A few of the trailblazers shared their gratitude on Twitter, including former women’s soccer players Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm. But it was Ginsburg who thanked the entire national team with a more personal touch.

Ginsburg, one of the nine Supreme Court justices, sent a letter to the team on official stationary thanking it for a “surprise package” — presumably the jersey with her initials “RBG” on the back — and specifically mentioned Sauerbrunn in the letter.

Notorious pic.twitter.com/nnjAzhKcnp

— Becky Sauerbrunn (@beckysauerbrunn) April 12, 2019

Sauerbrunn said in March that she chose Ginsburg for her jersey because the justice is “a complete rock star.”

“Dissenting opinion, battling cancer and then showing up to vote… what can’t she do?” Sauerbrunn said in a release. “I just think she’s amazing."

For the past decade, governments around the world lined up to legitimize the regime of Omar Hassan al-Bashir in Sudan — even as it continued to attack civilians in Darfur, burn Christian churches, deny food to areas of the Nuba Mountains, provide support to extremist groups, and arrest and torture protesters. Instead of confronting these abuses, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the African Union, China, Russia and Persian Gulf countries all sought ways to strengthen relations with his government.

Only one constituency stood up to Bashir and his allied generals: the Sudanese people themselves. After years of organizing and resisting, Sudan's pro-reform social movement catalyzed protests across the country, resulting in a "palace coup" on Thursday. Bashir was replaced by his ally and defense minister, Awad Ibn Auf, who has been sanctioned for his role in genocidal crimes in Darfur. The next day, he was replaced by another military leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.

This chain of succession is a move straight out of the autocratic playbook, in which a regime perpetuates itself by changing the figurehead at the top without changing the violent, corruption-fueled system beneath.

The protesters were not fooled, and they have continued their mass demonstrations despite warnings and curfews from Ibn Auf and conciliatory appeals from Burhan. Though Burhan has said the military council would name a civilian prime minister and Cabinet, he has not committed to installing a civilian president. Allowing the army to oversee a transition to democracy, even in a more limited capacity, would be like having the foxes oversee improvements to the henhouse and could undermine efforts at rooting out corruption and state-sponsored violence, the twin hallmarks of three decades of military rule in Sudan.

The threat of major violence is real. For more than a dozen years, we have traveled together throughout war-torn areas of Sudan, hearing stories of death and destruction. The main perpetrators of nearly every violent assault that survivors described were the dreaded "Janjaweed" militias, government-supported gangs incorporated into the regime's security services and recently deployed to protester strongholds.

Despite these concerns, Bashir's removal is evidence of a crack in the foundation of the diseased system. The international community now has a second chance to correct its past policy failures and side with the Sudanese people's demands. Regime change at the top is not enough: The time has come for systemic change.

World leaders have urged Sudan to respond to the protesters with restraint. The United States, EU and African Union are vaguely pressing the regime to support a transition to democracy. But if the international community only urges change without taking action, Sudan could become like Egypt, where the corrupt, military-led system remains in place despite changes in leadership. The international community must instead build leverage to persuade the military to turn over full executive power to a civilian-led transitional government.

Sudan's generals have a financial vulnerability. Disastrous government policies have left the country in crushing debt and in need of aid and debt relief. Sudan's aid lifeline has consisted of emergency donations from gulf countries and European assistance aimed at reducing the flow of immigrants to Europe - a task the regime assigned to some of its brutal militias. Now, all nonhumanitarian aid should be suspended until civilian rule is in place and the militias are disbanded.

Additionally, the regime's quest to obtain debt relief has been blocked for more than two decades by its placement on the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list. In the past year, the United States moved forward with a process to remove Sudan from that list, which would open the door to major debt relief. The State Department announced after Bashir's removal that it was suspending that process temporarily, and its resumption should be contingent upon the completion of a genuine democratic transition - not simply the announcement of one.

But the most potent form of leverage would be to go after the assets laundered by Bashir and his allies through the international financial system. Bashir's military and commercial network has been siphoning off the country's resources for decades, reportedly stuffing bank accounts, purchasing real estate and underwriting shell companies globally. As a result of the documented corruption and lack of adequate anti-money-laundering controls recently highlighted by the Sentry, regime elites are likely expanding their efforts to hide their illicitly obtained wealth outside Sudan.

Pursuing this capital flight would provide real support to Sudanese protesters. The U.S. Treasury Department and other regulators around the globe should issue public advisories to their financial and real estate sectors warning of the risk of asset flight from Sudanese “politically exposed persons” to their jurisdictions. And the United States should use Global Magnitsky Act sanctions against officials responsible for mass corruption and rights abuses.

Sudan's courageous protesters need more than words: They need strong international action for real change to have a chance.

George Clooney and John Prendergast are co-founders of the Sentry.

Jared Ward surpassed another career milestone Monday.

At the Boston Marathon of all places, too.

The former BYU and Davis High runner finished eighth overall at Monday’s 2019 Boston Marathon, running a career-best 2 hours, 9 minutes, 25 seconds. The mustachioed distance runner was the second-highest finishing American male, coming in just 15 seconds behind fellow U.S. runner Scott Fauble. Ward, who finished sixth overall at the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, was coming off a sixth-place finish at the 2018 TCS New York City Marathon in November, where he ran a 2:12:24.

The 30-year-old distance runner doubles as an adjunct statistics professor at BYU, his alma mater. Ward led for a portion of the race Monday in Boston.

“Fun day,” Ward said on a video he posted on his Twitter account soon after he finished the marathon. “2:09, that’s been my goal for a long time, so I’m excited for that. And I do not regret leading that race. That was one of the funnest moments.”

Going over splits from my watch. Mags doesn't care.... pic.twitter.com/CZb8HhrLDH

— Jared Ward (@jwardy21) April 15, 2019

Ward’s marathon times continue to improve dramatically. He bested his time at the NYC Marathon last fall by three minutes and improved upon his 10th-place finish at the 2017 Boston Marathon (2:15:28) by six minutes. Ward’s sixth-place finish in Rio signaled his arrival in the running world as the former Cougar All-American stunned the field with his Top-10 finish.

He’s long had his sights set on an Olympic return. The USA Track & Field Olympic marathon trials are set for Feb. 29 in Atlanta. Ward qualified for Rio by finishing in the top three at the trials in Los Angeles three years ago. If he wants to be in Tokyo next summer, Ward will have to continue his hike upward in the sport.

Lawrence Cherono of Kenya won the men’s marathon while Ethiopia’s Worknesh Degefa won the women’s race Monday. Former Weber State runner Sarah Sellers, who finished second in the women’s marathon last year in Boston, finished 19th on Monday, in 2:36.42. The 27-year-old nurse anesthetist juggles her full-time job in medicine while training to run marathons and has aspirations for the upcoming Olympic trials in 2020 and beyond.

An Arizona county has approved an investigation to determine if voter fraud occurred during last year’s election where a polygamous sect kept control of a town council in a community on the Arizona-Utah border.

The Mohave County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Monday to spend $8,000 to allow a private investigator to look into allegations that people voted using addresses where they no longer live in Colorado City, Ariz. County attorney Matt Smith requested the funds to probe allegations that he says seem credible.

A livestream of the meeting showed board members noted that the investigation might validate the election results since many members of the polygamous group have been displaced from their homes but still live in the community.

Colorado City Mayor Joseph Allred cautioned the board not to chase rumors.

As a valiant commentator and member of the media, I have no more fervent wish than to talk of Substance. I feed on Substance. I love The Issues. A campaign of Substance, based on The Issues — that is the one dream of my heart.

I hate eschewing The Issues, although when I heard the word “eschew,” I did get temporarily excited because it sounds like “issue,” and, as stated, I love Issues so much. I feel about them the way Sarah Palin did about magazines (speaking of Issues!): I love them, all the ones that are in front of me. Issues are what the American people care about, after all.

I just wish that the campaigns were more focused on Issues of Substance. I would love nothing better than to see a Policy proposal about an Issue.

(Why is Elizabeth Warren waving at me? I am not finished yet.)

Really any Issue, as long as it was of Substance. Child care? Wealth inequality? Housing? Sure, those sound like Issues of Substance. I am not afraid to discuss Substance, and I’m definitely capable of discussing it; just because I am mostly forced — by circumstances beyond my control — to discuss the election as though it were a game, film or sport does not mean that my passion isn’t Policy. I love Policy. I have a Policy in Canada I’ve been in close correspondence with for many years, which is why you don’t see me talking about other policies more. I’m not avoiding Substance. It is just that, alas, no one is running a substantive campaign about The Issues. And no one regrets that more than I do.

There seems to be a disturbance behind me? It looks like maybe Elizabeth Warren is releasing a plan of some kind? For an ultra-millionaire tax? Please, do not let her distract you from my calls for Substance. Do not let the noise (“I have written eight policy plans that I would like to discuss!” “Here is my proposal for universal child care!”) distract you from the signal: my call for more substantive discussion.

*hastily mutes a ninth voicemail from the Warren campaign describing its plan for breaking up Big Tech*

I am devastated to note it, but it is true, and that is why I am pointing it out. It is very brave of me, I know. Every day I am forced to talk about politics as though it were baseball, instead of delving into the details of ... house-having policy?

Elizabeth Warren has a housing policy? Then, I meant, uh, the electoral co — Oh, come on! How many Policies does this campaign have? This seems like overdoing it, frankly. Talk about loading the bases.

What is that behind me? Is it Elizabeth Warren clambering into a jet plane to letter the details of another Policy, this one a plan for universal child care, plumb across the sky? Oh, God, I’m afraid to turn around. I mean, not afraid of Policy, just very — I — I’m just shaking because I’m so eager to discuss Substance.

She even has a proposal about ... agribusiness? (Am I pronouncing that correctly?) Well, great. Oh. Just. I’m crying because. Because I love Substance so much.

Alas, I would be discussing Substance right now if only it were available. I mean, yes, there are seven detailed proposals posted by Elizabeth Warren where I can readily and easily access them, but my computer broke and — no, no, please don’t print them out — it’s just I have a headache

Look, are we actually sure these are Policy? I have to say, I love Policy and Substance — I frequently tell anyone who will listen what a wonk I am, even if they did not approach me! — and yet I have no desire to talk about that whatsoever! Could it be that that isn’t a Policy?

That must be it. So don’t let yourself get distracted — by Beto O’Rourke jumping on counters, by Mayor Pete Buttigieg and “Ulysses,” by Elizabeth Warren’s “Leveling the Playing Field for America’s Family Farmers.” I think I speak for all of us when I say that if there were any actual Substance in this race, we’d all be talking about it.

Follow Alexandra Petri on Twitter, @petridishes.

Orem • There was no shortage of cheers or hollers or applause. There was plenty of that Monday morning. Because the guy in the green and white tie brought out a crowd, as one does when being introduced as the new men’s basketball coach at a university for the first time.

It just so happens that Mark Madsen arrives in Utah County with an NBA pedigree, a couple championship rings and dance moves unearthed decades ago that went viral before viral was a concept.

So as Utah Valley University President Astrid Tuminez introduced Madsen inside the school’s basketball facility, she interrupted herself as she listed the many reasons why she went with the 43-year-old former Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach to lead the Wolverines.

“I want to see that dance, actually,” Tuminez said. “Between a dancing queen president and a ‘Mad Dog’ dancing coach, all hell will break loose.”

Madsen’s nickname during his playing days was “Mad Dog,” bestowed upon him for his relentless style of play at Stanford and later with the Lakers in the NBA. Madsen, who was officially hired Sunday to replace Mark Pope, who moved a few miles south to Provo to take over the BYU head coaching job, didn’t shy away from the most lofty of goals.

“The goal here for Utah Valley University is to make the NCAA tournament and to make a deep run,” Madsen said.

Under Pope, the Wolverines were coming off back-to-back 20-plus win seasons for the first time ever. Last year, UVU won a program-record 25 games. Madsen reiterated several times Monday that job No. 1 is “re-recruiting” the players already in the program, convincing them to instill trust in the new guy and suit up for him. As is the case with all hirings, the last few days have been a daze for Madsen and his family.

He interviewed for the job Thursday and once further negotiations ensued he woke up at 4 a.m. Sunday to catch a flight from Los Angeles to Utah. Before his introductory news conference began, Madsen and his wife, Hannah, made the rounds introducing themselves to anyone they could find. His parents and in-laws were seated in the front row taking pictures on their cellphones as Madsen stood at the podium explaining his vision for the Wolverine program.

His style of play will be similar to what Pope ran, pace and space, open 3’s, attacking the basket, freedom on offense to create. With some added Madsen wrinkles, of course. Madsen said he loves in-state rivalry games and will pursue any and all options available. He said UVU basketball will not limit itself to recruit locally, adding it will prioritize Utah, have a say nationally and will keep an eye on the international basketball market, too.

“If talent is in South America,” Madsen said, “we’re going to go there.”

This is Madsen’s first collegiate head coaching job, but he isn’t worried about being able to connect with players. As he explains, he was in their shoes once, and he knows what they’re going through. It helps, too, having played with — and won with — Hall of Famers like Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. There won’t be a disconnect in age, either, Madsen said. In recent years with the Lakers, he worked with young lottery talents like Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball.

Once his news conference concluded, UVU administrators thanked attendees for coming, adding that the floor inside the NUVI Basketball Center needed to be cleared. In a couple of hours, the Wolverines were going to practice and Mark Madsen would have the whistle.

The protests that have now led to the ouster of Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, have been dominated by women. Day after day, on the streets of Khartoum, as many as two-thirds of those who turn out have been women. Photos of women — angry, defiant, now celebratory — have become the emblems of the uprising.

Various segments and groups of Sudanese society have taken part in the protests - and are still demonstrating out of concern that Thursday's military coup will not usher in the freedom, justice or peace that the protesters seek. People from different political, ethnic, religious and social backgrounds have participated in the protests, culminating in a historic sit-in at the headquarters of the Sudanese Armed Forces. But women - always - have been at the forefront.

There is an overarching reason, stemming from the role of women in Sudanese society. But there are particular reasons, too: the ferocious oppression that women have experienced under Bashir's government as well as the hardships that they felt as the economy deteriorated.

Throughout Sudan's history, women have played a central role in society. In the ancient Sudanese Nubian kingdoms, women were queens and queen mothers, and they were referred to as "Kandakat," or strong women. In the Darfur region, and western Sudan more broadly, women who write poems in support of virtues and traits such as bravery in times of war and generosity in times of peace have historically played a significant social and political role. This tradition has helped give strength to and inspire those leading the current uprising.

But perhaps a stronger motivation is the oppression that women, especially young women in Khartoum and other major cities, have experienced under Bashir's government. Under the provisions of the public order law (passed in 1992 and amended in 1996), women have been arrested, detained, beaten and imprisoned for wearing indecent clothes, such as trousers or short skirts, going out with their male friends, or not covering their hair when in public. Especially victimized by this law were women from poor communities who worked, for instance, as tea and food vendors. Having typically fled conflict zones, they are more vulnerable than most and can rarely afford bail when arrested. Unlike women from affluent communities, they have not drawn much attention from the local or international media.

In conflict areas outside Khartoum, the oppression of Bashir's government against women was more severe, as most of the human rights violations in these districts were committed against women and their children. They have been subjected to sexual violence by government forces or government-supported militias. They have been driven from their homes and now live in miserable conditions in camps for internally displaced people in Darfur and elsewhere. It was because of this that displaced people, the majority of whom are women, joined demonstrations in support of the uprising.

As they took part in the protests, women were especially targeted by the security forces and the militias of the ruling National Congress Party. Women's participation was itself an affront to the pro-Bashir forces, and stern action may have been designed to force the families of women to insist that they stay at home. But instead of accepting subjugation by Bashir's security forces, women became more defiant and determined to continue.

Economic hardships may have further driven women to play a leading role in the protests because they shoulder most of the burden in maintaining the day-to-day finances of their families. They know that the economy is faltering under the weight corruption and nepotism. Whether staying at home to care for their children or working to contribute financial support to their families, women daily feel, more than men, how life is becoming difficult.

Their sons, brothers and husbands can leave the country to work abroad in the Gulf or elsewhere; and many do, because there are few employment opportunities in Sudan, and most of the jobs go to the supporters of the National Congress Party or to those with relatives in powerful positions in the government. But as women stay behind to care for their families, they have developed a stronger sense of obligation to challenge the government that has caused their suffering.

Courageous, defiant and determined to participate in protests in large numbers, Sudanese women are in fact continuing to assume roles they have historically played in their communities and country. Bashir’s government just gave them additional motivations to take to the streets, and for doing so, they have experienced the brutality of Bashir’s government. As protesters continue their sit-in at the army headquarters, demanding a transition to a civilian government, they will face the possibility of a violent crackdown. But as one woman, named Wifag al-Gorashi, told the BBC about the torture and mistreatment she and other women endured: “We know why we have taken to the streets. No bad thing that happens to us can make us back down on what we are doing.”

Nasredeen Abdulbari is a doctoral researcher at the Georgetown University Law Center.

They call them balanced-budget bills, but they’re more like cries for help.

Freshman Rep. Ben McAdams has joined many others before him, including a couple of Utahns, in introducing a bill to push a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to make sure federal spending matches revenue every year.

The national debt was about $5 trillion 20 years ago. Now it’s more than $20 trillion and rising faster than it ever has. Even at today’s low rates, just paying the interest on that debt is a major drag on the economy. If the rates were to climb, it could snuff much of our prosperity.

McAdams, who wants to burnish his conservative credentials as a Democrat in a Republican district, made a balanced-budget amendment one of his first bill introductions, joining a coalition of “Blue Dog” Democrats. Sen. Mike Lee years ago made a similar amendment his first bill introduction. Utah’s other freshman, Sen. Mitt Romney, also promised to make the debt a top priority during his campaign.

They’re right that their colleagues on Capitol Hill have not been doing their jobs. Raising and allocating taxpayer money is Congress’ core function. The endless string of short-term debt-limit increases make it a core dysfunction. This has been true regardless of which party is in power. Whatever claims Republicans had to fiscal prudence have long been squandered.

But preventing Congress from borrowing money could hurt more than help. In past times of war or other economic uncertainty, borrowing over the short term has avoided disaster over the long term.

In fact, McAdams’ bill includes several exemptions for such circumstances as a safety valve, but that only makes the amendment that much more unnecessary. If Congress could still pass an unbalanced budget just by claiming one of the exemptions, it becomes one more avenue for avoidance.

Congress doesn't need a new law to lower the nation’s debt. It needs courage and resolve. Passing a law to try to force courage and resolve is not courage and resolve.

Here’s a better idea for McAdams, Lee and Romney: Tell us where you’d start balancing. Would you raise taxes, lower spending, or both? Please include specifics.

Health care? The political fight is still over Obamacare, but the big prize is cost control. Health care consumes roughly a quarter of the nation’s GDP and growing. How can Congress make health care more affordable to make it more accessible?

Social Security and Medicare? The key to heading off long-term insolvency is early intervention. We’ve already let these go on too long, but addressing them soon will require smaller nudges that waiting 10 years.

Defense? We spend five times more than China and six times more than Russia, and it’s not clear we’re making the right choices to face 21st century enemies. Weapons procurement is driven as much by defense contractors delivering manufacturing jobs to congressional districts as it is military need.

The challenges are immense, and give McAdams, Lee and Romney credit for recognizing the importance. How we tax and spend says everything about who we are and where our priorities lie. But Congress doesn’t need an amendment. It needs members who will face their fears.

“We have seen what we thought was unseeable,” the astronomer said, like someone who knows history’s ear is pressed against the door. He stood in the hushed attention of the room in Washington as he called up the image on the screen behind him. You know it by now: a smoke ring, an orange doughnut, a blurry circlet of light closed around a profound darkness. By the end of the day, it would be familiar to millions of people as the first photo ever taken of a black hole.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a collaboration of eight radio telescopes around the world, pieced together this picture from observations made from Antarctica and Arizona. Because no single telescope is powerful enough to distinguish a detail as relatively small as a 55 million-light-year-distant black hole, scientists harnessed these eight observatories together to simulate a much greater instrument, one as large as the Earth itself. It took two years and more than 200 people sifting and refining the data gathered on four days in April 2017 to bring the final famous image into focus.

Watching the story echo across the news on Wednesday, I was struck by the profound simplicity of this image, obtained through such complex means. Puzzled out through algorithms and vectors, the photo is not an artist’s rendering or a model — our previous stabs at picturing a black hole — but it is still a construction. The radio waves collected by the telescopes and assembled into the picture are translated into color for our benefit. You can’t pick up a telescope, even one the size of the Earth, and see it for yourself. And yet, over the course of the day, I heard one line repeated again and again: We are seeing a black hole. Not “detecting” it by its radio signature, not digging up more evidence of its existence — actually seeing it.

Far greater than its scientific value — besides its pure technological achievement, the experiment is perhaps most remarkable for not overturning the established rules of relativity — the picture seems to matter to us because it is a picture. Our certainty, rendered in undeniable orange and black, has a new heft.

We didn't lack proof that black holes existed. Ever since Albert Einstein reluctantly predicted them with his theory of relativity in 1916, we've been gathering evidence. In 1935, physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar hypothesized that a star might become so massive it would collapse under its own gravity. Then in 1969, Donald Lynden-Bell suggested that supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies could be responsible for the huge energy signatures detected there, far beyond what stars alone could generate. In 2015, near-definitive proof arrived with the cosmic "zing!" that was the sound of two black holes colliding, a billion light-years away. For most scientists, the detection of gravity waves cinched it: Black holes were out there, churning up spacetime, even if we never saw them.

Yet images of outer space have an uncanny power over us: These are sights so supernatural that they never quite fit our understanding. Naked, our eyes perceive the night sky as a cosmic swirl of dust and diamonds, hints of a greater complexity. In the early 1600s, Galileo and others pointed the first telescopes into the sky to describe the mountainous face of the moon, the dark-splotched sun turning slowly on its axis, the three gleaming moons of Jupiter wobbling in their distant orbits. Sight gave us irrefutable proof of the vastness of the universe, its chaotic, balletic physics. And, seeing all this for the first time, we believed in it.

I grew up under these cosmic visions. I remember napping beneath posters of the Pillars of Creation and the Cats Eye Galaxy at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, while my mom sorted through data and proofread grant proposals at her desk. When I was a little older, I would entertain myself by launching a toy propeller in the hallway, to watch it drift along the currents shifting above my head. My mom told me that looking into space with a telescope was like looking back in time. Nothing ever disappeared from the universe, she said, it just got farther away. I understood this to mean that everything could be known, if we could just see far enough.

Our telescopes are bigger and more powerful than ever. They are mirrors tilting at the sky from mountaintops and deserts, or drifting in orbit like huge insects on their stiff solar-cell wings. They swallow light, not only the visible spectrum of blues and reds but also the X-rays and radio waves we are blind to, revealing the intricate structures of distant galaxies and misty Technicolor nebulas. These are landscapes we could never see for ourselves, but, in seeing their images, they become real to us.

Even so, black holes had eluded us. They are the definition of unseeable: mass and volume turning inside out, cosmic sinkholes from whose irresistible gravity nothing can escape - not a single lousy photon.

But light has always helped us understand what we couldn't see: T.S. Eliot wrote of the "visible reminder of invisible light," tracing the seen and the unseen both. Early astronomers inferred the invisible presence of gravity by the arcs of stars around their pivots. Modern ones use the oscillating brightness of stars to guess at the planets that may orbit them, tugging these distant suns off balance. And Hubble's observations of an expanding universe, rippling with distorted light, have revealed the presence of dark matter, an idea so strange and slippery it's difficult to get purchase on it.

At the Space Telescope Science Institute, my mom studied black holes, too, the ones that scientists were beginning to understand sat at the center of most galaxies, spinning their skirts of stars around them like dervishes. We couldn't see them, but we could see the radiant clouds of light and energy surrounding them. The paradox of the black hole is that, while no light can escape its limits, the regions just beyond the event horizon are some of the most energetic and bright places in the universe. From her, I saw how you could follow the trail of the visible, hunting for signs of the invisible.

Behind the image of the halo at the center of Messier 87, one of two galaxies in the EHT's crosshairs, is a reminder of the challenges we face when looking for these unseeable objects. The second target of the EHT, Sagittarius A*, is the black hole at the center of our own galaxy. Though much closer to us than M87, it is also smaller and therefore more prone to shifting out of focus, like a fidgety student on picture day.

But, unseen, it makes itself known. In the brightly lit hub of the Milky Way, stars slingshot in tight orbits around a massive and invisible object, accelerating with each brush past the engine spinning there, then slowing again at the zenith before turning back again. We can see them clearly. We can discern, by their dance, what holds them in thrall. We cannot see it yet. But we know it’s there.

Amelia Urry is a science writer and poet in Seattle. She is also the daughter of two astrophysicists.

Taylorsville • Kaitlynn Lovelady didn’t realize she had applied to the wrong college until she opened her email and saw the acceptance letter.

It said: “Welcome to Salt Lake Community College.”

She said: “Where’s that?”

On Monday, the Louisiana native got her answer firsthand during an all-expenses-paid trip to Utah and a guided tour of the campus by top administrators. She walked through the library, the financial aid office and the basketball arena in Taylorsville. A pack of reporters followed closely behind.

“You’re kind of like a celebrity here,” said Ryker Low, 19, a SLCC student ambassador.

“I guess so,” Lovelady, 21, responded with a thick southern accent. “When I was walking downtown Friday night, some guy stopped me and said, ‘You’re that girl who applied to the wrong college.’ Now that’s what I’m known for.”

The identification still makes her laugh. Lovelady had been sitting in front of her laptop in February, admittedly a little bored, when she typed “business classes SLCC” into Google. She clicked on the first link and applied.

Lovelady, already a senior in business management at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, had wanted to to save money by finishing a few credits over the summer at her local community college — that is, South Louisiana Community College. When she realized the mistaken acronym, she posted about it on Twitter. And it quickly took off.

“I just applied to SLCC for summer class only to realize it’s Salt Lake Community College in SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH instead of SOUTH LOUISIANA COMMUNITY COLLEGE. GOODBYE $40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she wrote.

I just applied to SLCC for summer class only to realize it’s Salt Lake Community College in SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH instead of SOUTH LOUISIANA COMMUNITY COLLEGE. GOODBYE $40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

— Kaitlynn A. Lovelady (@KaitlynnLovelad) February 27, 2019

The Utah school said they’d refund her application fee — because apparently the mixup happens often — but some residents here had a little fun with it first. Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox responded that it “might be the best $40 you’ve ever spent.” One woman said, “try Cafe Rio pork and any second guesses you have will disappear.” Others mentioned skiing and fry sauce and the Jazz.

Meanwhile, the SLCC in Louisiana teased “it’s so much warmer here” and “#KeepKaitlynnInLA” trended on social media.

Lovelady, who plans to graduate in fall 2020, hasn’t decided where she’ll go yet. But having the chance to walk around Utah and SLCC’s campus in the rain on Monday did a bit to sway her, she said.

“Gosh, it’s so beautiful here," she said. "I’m kind of sad that I’m leaving.”

She landed in Utah on Friday and ended her trip Monday with the campus tour. In between, she went to the state Capitol, ate a shake “bigger than my head” at Iceberg, walked around Temple Square downtown, saw snow and mountains for the first time at Alta Ski Resort and visited Antelope Island.

“Watch that puddle,” Ryker said as they walked to the Student Center at SLCC under the school’s signature blue umbrellas. “It’s like the Great Salt Lake.”

He couldn’t help pressing Lovelady on how she got through her the college application, though, without realizing which state it was in. “What did you think about the questions asking if you’re a Utah native?” he asked.

“I was oblivious. It was just a little blonde moment.”

Her friend and sorority sister, Brooke Miramon, came with her on the trip and laughed. “Yeah, but that’s pretty bad.”

“Well, there are a lot of blondes in Utah,” comforted Provost Clifton Sanders, who met with the student as part of her tour. He showed her his collection of saxophone paintings in his office and tried to convince her to sign up for classes. Overall, though, the school’s staff has said they’re just glad she’s pursuing an education — whether here or in Louisiana.

“It was cool to see the whole community rally behind her,” said Sarah Reale, who first responded to Lovelady on Twitter and who helped arrange the tour Monday.

If Lovelady came to the SLCC in Utah, she’d pay about $6,000 in tuition per semester as an out-of-state student. That’s about how much she’s already paying at the University of Louisiana.

Salt Lake Community College admissions advisor Salote Brown-Halatoa walked her through the different financial aid packages and scholarships — and about how she could take classes online wherever she wants.

And the textbooks are cheaper. Lovelady spends about $4,000 on books per semester. Most students at SLCC in Utah don’t spend more than $300 because the school rents them out at the library and scans them so they’re available online.

As they walked through the library, one of the tour leaders noted: “Last week, we had a cake competition here.”

Lovelady’s friend turned to her. “So why’d you go to Utah?” Miramon said as a joke.

“Cake, obviously,” Lovelady responded.

She met with the school’s student body leaders, had a private meeting with the business department’s advisor, got a list of the best places to find free food on campus, wore a SLCC backpack and cheered when she heard about the $10 massages offered at the campus’ health center.

She also asked about the school’s bear mascot, which hung on the walls of nearly every building they went in.

“We don’t have one,” Lovelady said about her current school.

“Yes, we do. It’s a cayenne pepper,” Miramon corrected.

“Yeah, but we were rated the worst mascot in America, so don’t talk about it.”

The trip was paid for by an anonymous donor, and it was Lovelady’s first time on a plane and first time outside of Louisiana. She said she was “never expecting it to get this big.”

“I tweeted it to give everyone a laugh,” she noted. “But it was a good mistake. Now I know there are other opportunities for me."

Free tickets to the Golden Spike 150th Anniversary Celebration concert will be distributed online beginning Tuesday morning.

The O.C. Tanner Gift of Music event is scheduled for Friday, May 10, at 8 p.m. in the Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It will feature performances by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, the Utah Symphony and Broadway and TV stars Brian Stokes Mitchell and Megan Hilty.

Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Tuesday at 9 a.m. at ChurchofJesusChrist.org/events. The website requires patrons to register and create an online profile before requesting tickets.

Tickets are free but are required for admittance. Admission is open to anyone age 8 or older.

Mitchell has been nominated for Tony Awards four times; he won as best actor in a musical in 2000 for a revival of “Kiss Me Kate.” His Broadway credits include “Jelly's Last Jam,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Ragtime” and “Man of La Mancha.” His television credits include “Roots: The Next Generation,” “Trapper John, M.D.,” “Mr. Robot” and the sitcom “Fam,” currently airing on CBS.

Hilty’s Broadway credits include “Wicked,” “9 to 5,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Noises Off.” On television, she has starred in “Smash” and “Sean Saves the World.”

Two Utah cities will forgo a primary this year and hold their general elections in November under a voting method that’s never before been tried in Utah.

Four other municipalities backed out of the project ahead of a final deadline Monday, so it’s up to Vineyard and Payson to pilot the new system. The two cities experimenting with the new model are in Utah County, which has faced a number of election-related problems in years past and which Gov. Gary Herbert last year called the “epicenter of dysfunction.”

“We’re a little bit nervous [about ranked-choice voting] if we’re honest,” Payson City Recorder Sara Hubbs told The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday. “We don’t want to have voters lose faith in the election system. Last year was kind of a terrible year for the county. I mean, their voter turnout was huge so it was probably a perfect storm for them. We’re nervous, but I think we’re also excited.”

But Utah County Clerk-Auditor Amelia Powers, who was elected to the post last year, says she’s confident the county can effectively implement ranked-choice voting under her new leadership.

The vendor that’s running the elections has worked with this voting type in other states, she said. And the county has recently hired three additional elections professionals and a new elections director, upping the experience in the office from a collective 12 years to about 60.

“Utah County elections are going to be night and day in 2019,” Powers said Monday. “Rather than lagging behind the state, we will be at minimum on par if not ahead of the curve. Coming into this, we knew that we had to evaluate everything from the ground up, and we’ve literally gone through the last 10 years of elections to identify problems and what caused those problems and we’re working to solve those.”

Under the ranked-choice election system, voters will see a full slate of candidates in the general election and rank their favorites, rather than choosing from the survivors of a primary contest.

The candidate with the fewest first-place votes in a crowded field is eliminated and those voters’ second pick gets his or her votes. The person with the fewest votes is then dropped again and those votes are allocated to the remaining candidates. That process repeats until there’s a candidate with a majority of support.

Advocates of the method say it could decrease voter apathy because people would feel their vote matters more. And because the system would eliminate a primary, it could also save money and change the dynamics of the election, with candidates focusing more on issues than on their opponents.

Still, the new system comes with plenty of challenges, such as voter education and implementation ahead of the 2019 election. Those concerns led Salem, Cottonwood Heights, West Jordan and Lehi — all of which had originally expressed interest in the system to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office — to back out of the pilot project before Monday’s deadline.

Payson, which has two council seats up for grabs in this election, and Vineyard, which has two, were among the smallest of the originally interested cities and say they’re looking forward to leading the way for other municipalities in the state.

“I personally am excited," said Vineyard City Recorder Pamela Spencer. “I don’t feel like we’re guinea pigs because it’s been done in other cities in other states. It’s been done in other countries, so I feel like we’ve never done it in Utah, yes, but we’ve got other models to look at that have done it."

As they move forward, both cities and the county said they plan to conduct extensive voter education before the election on their social media accounts, websites and in newsletters. They also plan to possibly hold a mock election (in which “voters” would rank their favorite holidays) to create familiarity with the system and to work out any potential bugs.

“We are working very closely with the two cities and voter education will be a large part of this initiative,” Powers said. “When I talked to both of the cities to let them know I was willing to do it, that was kind of a caveat is, ‘Hey, we’re going to work together to do voter education’ because I think that’s one of the biggest success factors.”

The future of ranked-choice voting in Utah could hang in the balance, as it’s likely more municipalities would adopt ranked-choice voting in subsequent elections if all goes well in Payson and Vineyard. If it doesn’t go well, all bets are off.

“This will be a new trail,” said Hubbs, Payson’s recorder. “Hopefully we don’t go down in a blaze.”