In a small studio in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, a slight man sitting in a chair watches six dancers shift together. Each dancer moves deliberately, relying on the others to catch him here or push her there. Every now and then, Stephen Koester puts on his glasses to write in his notebook. Then he takes them off to continue to watch the dancers.

After the rehearsal is complete, Koester shares his notes. In a precise but compassionate tone, he explains what he wants the dancers to change, after complimenting them on what he likes. It seems apparent from his cadence and demeanor that he’s been doing this very thing for a long time.

Koester has choreographed more than 140 dances for companies across the world. But this is the last one he’ll create while a professor of modern dance at the University of Utah.

Koester, who is retiring from the U. in May, made this piece for “Bloom,” a production by Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company scheduled Thursday through Saturday at Rose Wagner. Formerly the co-artistic director of the New York all-male dance company Creach/Koester, he — with his partner, Terry Creach — has received five consecutive choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, plus a choreographic fellowship from the New York State Foundation for the Arts.

Koester has moved from the world of private dance studios to academia and back again; each have their own aesthetic and beliefs about what dance is meant to be, he said. While he admits he doesn’t know the studio system as well, he believes it has more flash.

“It’s more about trying to impress people with virtuosic and known moves. The steps are the important thing. For me, that’s not enough,” Koester said. “The steps are just the means. What’s the purpose of them? How are they serving the bigger picture?”

His piece for “Bloom” is titled “Departure – A Last Song, Perhaps a Final Dance Before a Rest.” He describes watching it as akin to sitting in Yellowstone National Park, waiting for bison and other wildlife to appear.

“They don't come out to perform for you. They come out and they do whatever they are doing. They do their life,” Koester said. “And what we as witnesses get to watch is that life which unfolds amongst us, in front of us, without them being aware or being performative about it.”

In a similar way, he starts with the landscape — the music — and then envisions organic movement, he said. Koester shuns concepts like choreography or steps.

“So instead of OK, now I move, (it’s) I'm aware. Here I am, I choose to start moving,” Koester said. “I'm listening to what it feels like to move. I am seeing the landscape before I enter it or decide to change it.”

His ideas change with what the dancers bring and what Koester himself feels.

“Process is indescribable. It’s not as methodical as, ‘These are the steps that I went through.’ It’s a constant choice of making decisions in the moment and then taking time to reflect upon them,” he said.

In “Bloom,” Koester focuses on dancers working together.

“It’s another device for me to figure out, how can I make these people interact? How can I approach partnering in a slightly different way? How can I build community?” Koester said. “Because if I need you to be able to do this to that person, who is then going to do that to me, then there is a coordination and cooperation and a community.”

Koester took some of his first dance classes with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company founders Joan Woodbury and Shirley Ririe, the company noted in a news release. He’s moved from learning in its summer workshops to serving as a teacher there and creating for its dancers as a choreographer.

Even though he is retiring from academia, Koester hopes to continue making dances — which despite his years of experience, he feels he is still learning to do.

“I don’t know if anyone knows how to make a dance, because each dance needs to be discovered for what it is,” Koester said. “The rules that apply to the last dance may not have anything to do with serving you in the next dance, so that curiosity, it’s still a mystery that I love.”

—

SEEING THE ‘BLOOM’

In its final performance of the 2018-2019 season, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company presents “Bloom."

What: Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company performs “Departure – A Last Song, Perhaps a Final Dance Before a Rest,” choreographed by Stephen Koester; “Dance for a Liminal Space,” choreographed by artistic director Daniel Charon; and Bulgarian-born choreographer Tzveta Kassobova’s “The Opposite of Killing.”

When: April 18-20 at 7:30 p.m.; Moving Parts Family series at 1 p.m. April 20

Where: Leona Wagner Black Box Theater at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South Salt Lake City

Tickets: $35 ($40 day of); student/senior $15; family matinee $10 or 5 for $45; tickets do not include box office fees. Tickets can be bought online at ArtTix.org, by calling the box office at 801.355.ARTS (2787), or by visiting any ArtTix box office.

Learn more at https://artsaltlake.org/production/bloom/

—

Coverage of downtown Salt Lake City arts groups is supported by a grant from The Blocks, a cultural initiative of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County.

Imagine you were pursued for months by the government for crimes you didn't commit - or for actions that, at worst, most people wouldn't know were criminal, and that most people wouldn't even know were criminal. Now imagine that government officials overcharged you, so that in the face of hundreds of years in prison, the option of pleading guilty to the lesser crimes and a comparatively light sentence was an offer no reasonable person could resist.

So far, this is unfortunately common in the criminal-justice system. But now imagine one more twist: In exchange for allowing you to plead to the lesser crimes that bring the lighter sentence, the government also swears you to secrecy. You can never claim that you were actually innocent. You can never discuss the overcharging, the ambiguousness of the laws, or the tactics that were used to bully you into admitting guilt.

Now imagine that the agency that did this to you does something similar in nearly every case resulting in a plea. It would be a good way to guarantee a boast-worthy track record. "Look, we've put all these people away, and not one has protested his or her innocence!" And it would be an easy way to cover up misconduct, wouldn't it?

This is the pattern that two libertarian organizations - the Cato Institute and the Institute for Justice - allege is happening at the Securities and Exchange Commission. In January, they filed a lawsuit on behalf of an anonymous client who was investigated both criminally and civilly by the agency. The client settled the civil case and was led to believe that doing so would also make the criminal case go away.

As part of the civil settlement, he also agreed to a gag order about his case. To his surprise, the Justice Department then indicted him anyway, on charges that could have brought several hundred years in prison. He took a plea bargain on charges that resulted in less than two years in a minimum-security prison. Now the client has written a book about his experience and about how unfairly he believes he was treated. The Cato Institute wants to publish that book. But the gag order prevents it from doing so. That's why Cato and the Institute for Justice filed their lawsuit.

The gag order was part of the man's civil settlement with the SEC, not the plea bargain in his criminal case. Given that most regular people aren't investigated for securities fraud, you might be tempted to dismiss this as a minor injustice imposed on traders and bankers, a class of people who generate little public sympathy these days. But Clark Neily, Cato's vice president for constitutional studies, argues it's a mistake to give the SEC a pass. "The criminal and civil cases had so much overlap, they were virtually indistinguishable," Neily says. "So there's no way he can talk about one without talking about the other."

Neily also says that not only have gag orders become standard practice at the SEC, but also he's seeing similar practices from more conventional law enforcement agencies. "I doubt you'll see anything quite as blatant as a gag order policy from DOJ, because they know that in a criminal case, the courts would shoot it down in a heartbeat," he says. "But there are other ways that we're seeing federal prosecutors use plea bargains to cover up misconduct."

Neily points to a Justice Department practice of offering plea bargains that prohibit suspects from ever filling an open-records request to obtain the prosecutor's case file. "They claim that when they negotiate plea bargains, the suspect has all the information prosecutors have, including any potentially exculpatory evidence," he says. "If that's true, what's the point of barring someone from later using open records laws to obtain the prosecutor's file? What do they have to hide?"

It's worth noting here that there's one other way that the Justice Department hides misconduct and puts suspects at an informational disadvantage when discussing plea bargains: internal discipline. The Justice Department investigates all prosecutor misconduct complaints internally, referring them to the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). Even when OPR finds misconduct, it refuses to make the misconduct public. Even the Justice Department's Inspector General isn't privy to OPR investigations.

If you were a suspect, wouldn't it have been beneficial to know before you accepted a plea bargain that your prosecutor had a history of, say, withholding exculpatory evidence? (Or, perhaps more accurately, a history of accusations of withholding exculpatory evidence. According to what little information it has released, the Justice Department seldom disciplines federal prosecutors.)

The whole imbroglio brings to mind the case of Siobhan Reynolds, an advocate for chronic-pain patients who tragically died a few years ago in a plane crash. Reynolds had been advocating for a doctor in Kansas whom the government was pursuing for allegedly overprescribing opioids. Reynolds lined up a slew of pain patients who attested that, contrary to the government's portrayal of him, the doctor had dramatically improved their lives. In response, an assistant U.S. attorney opened a grand jury investigation into Reynolds's shoestring operation. That person issued an incredibly broad subpoena demanding a massive cache of emails, phone calls and other documents. Merely complying with the demand would have bankrupted Reynolds' organization. She sued, but the Justice Department succeeded in imposing a gag order.

Reynolds took her case all the way to the Supreme Court, where she lost on both the subpoena and the gag order. Reynolds was never accused of any criminal wrongdoing, but the legal fight all but crushed her organization's ability to advocate for pain patients. And she was barred from talking about any of it. Perhaps the most troubling part of the case is that in requesting the gag order, the Justice Department cited the secrecy of grand jury proceedings. But grand jury secrecy is supposed to protect those who are being investigated. The Justice Department turned all of that upside down, and used the secrecy requirement to prevent the target of an investigation from discussing what she believed was government harassment.

In theory, the SEC could now reneg on its agreement with the man at the center of the Cato/Institute for Justice case, because by seeking legal help and filing a lawsuit to overturn the gag order, he likely violated it. So far, that hasn’t happened. But Neily says there’s probably a good reason for that. “For now, they still don’t know who he is.”

Radley Balko blogs and reports on criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties for The Washington Post. Previously, he was an investigative reporter for the Huffington Post and a writer and editor for Reason magazine. His most recent book is “The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South.”

@radleybalko

Gov. Herbert and members of the Utah Legislature,

I dare you to raise your hands and welcome some of those homeless migrants as a caring Republican “safe city”! Don’t let the Democrats outshine you all with their acceptance, as the mayor of Oakland has done.

John Schneider, Salt Lake City

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The world is an easy place to navigate, as long as you remember that all decisions we need to make, large and small and between right or wrong, or more dramatically, good or evil, all choices are binary and none of us have the choice of, well, not choosing. And please don’t protest that it’s more complicated than this formulation. There is no gray outside the crayon box. Those who champion its existence in the moral realm are always trying to get away with something that their own binary sense tells them is flat-out wrong.

Let’s play our game. Good is 1, evil, 0, or rather, since evil is never neutral, let’s make evil a negative one, -1.

Donald Trump stating that there were “very fine people on both sides” at a white supremacist rally in 2017 where one woman was killed by, not coincidentally, a white supremacist? Remember, only 1 or -1, and, please, no “I don’t know” responses. You do know. -1 is the honest answer.

Donald Trump and his Department of Homeland Security placing children in cages at the Mexican border and forcibly separating them from their parents? -1 again, do you see a pattern?

We all have a choice to make. Mine is 1. What is yours?

Michael J. Lombardi, West Jordan

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When Elizabeth Warren visited Salt Lake City recently, why didn’t any reporters ask her to comment on the college admissions cheating scandal and compare it to her application to Harvard Law School with a claim to be a descendant of Native Americans?

D. James Croft, Midway

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Primarily due to the increased influence of money in politics, America’s representative democracy is devolving into a form of competitive authoritarianism. Democratic candidates must fully acknowledge this trend and realize that Republicans play this game much better than they do.

Within a competitive authoritarian system:

• The trappings of democracy remain in place, but democratic norms and the rule of law are undermined; democratic institutions are severely weakened; constitutional checks and balances are rendered increasingly ineffective;
• The considered preferences of the majority of citizens are ignored; the major political parties compete for donor dollars and base support; when elected, empowered politicians make little effort to achieve democratic compromises; they instead attempt to impose the policies favored by donors and base on the citizenry as a whole;
• And government officials, in an unprecedented manner, abuse state power in order to aid their allies and disadvantage their adversaries; these abuses of power go well beyond those associated with traditional political patronage.

Competitive authoritarianism demoralizes the electorate. A cynical and demoralized electorate eventually neither understands nor treasures its democratic heritage.

But of course such demoralization could never happen here.

Andrew G. Bjelland, Salt Lake City

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I would like to hold the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those who created them, accountable for a great many suicides of unaccepted and desperate people in the church.

They preach love, but condemn the lifestyle of the LGTBQ people who did not make themselves that way, and neither did anyone else.

The way they throw God's rules in their faces, which caused a lot of suffering, and then reverse them is absolutely unacceptable and can not be from an eternal, loving God.

The real love of Jesus Christ is missing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's all about meeting quotas and achievements. Jesus said, “What thou hast done to the least of my brethren, thou hast done it unto me.”

Ria van Lent, Woods Cross

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Rich Lowry’s April 13 column chastising city councils from excluding Chick-fil-A restaurants from their airports did not touch on one major factor that likely contributed.

Lowry inexcusably focused on inciting Christian and anti-LGBTQ organizations by telling them that they were under threat of a “McCarthyite” campaign.

Chick-fil-A corporate management chooses to close their restaurants on Sundays, for religious reasons, whereas airports function seven days of the week and passengers need to be fed.

I remember traveling a while back for business, through Detroit on a Sunday, very hungry and in a hurry to catch my connecting flight. When I got to the Chick-fil-A stand, was quite disappointed to find them closed for purposes of allowing their employees to attend religious services.

My employer still required me to travel on Sunday, and I still needed to eat. The airports have a limited number of restaurant spaces available, so why not pick a fast-food restaurant that serves customers all week over one that is open only six days a week?

Opposing gay marriage and contributing money to anti-LGBTQ groups is of itself reason for me to avoid supporting this restaurant chain, but that does not make me anti-Christian or any less spiritual.

Susan Day, Draper

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The White House wanted to “dump” the refugees on “sanctuary cities.” (Of course, this president forgets that he is the president of the United States, not just the president of Republicans, so he said he wanted to “dump” them on Democratic states.)

Of course, Utah would likely be considered a “Republican state” but, because Utah is truly a “family values state,” I’m pretty sure that, as a sanctuary-minded state, we would welcome these unfortunate people only seeking to make a better life for their families.

Holly Rio, Draper

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History — particularly Utah history — is a favorite pastime. I love reading old newspapers as a way of seeing what everyday life was like in earlier times.

A lot of the news wasn’t pretty. Crime, racism, religious spats and other behaviors were alive and well in a society that, like today, was similarly incapable of getting over itself.

Dire warnings issued by religious and social experts predicted all sorts of calamities if women were given the vote (or even allowed to become doctors), if miscegenation were permitted, and if vagrancy were decriminalized.

Of particular interest to me is Utah’s 1909 attempt to outlaw football. That’s right. Football was considered one of the most evil and dangerous of public indulgences. It ranked right up there with whiskey, cocaine, prostitution and murder.

During the 1909 Legislature, a bill was introduced to criminalize the playing of football in any public place — especially the University of Utah and the agricultural school in Logan.

HB165 was sponsored by state Rep. W.S. Hansen, of Box Elder County, largely because of the death of Thomas J. Evans, 22, who broke his neck playing guard for the Utah Agricultural College during a game against the Colorado School of Mines the previous fall.

According to Hansen’s statistics, the average yearly death toll from this nefarious game was 15, with 388 serious injuries.

It’s unclear if Hansen was referring to local or national statistics, but the fever against football was such that Rep. William Archibald, of Summit County, said “more people were killed and injured every year on the gridiron than were killed and injured by the railroads.”

Archibald was, as you may have guessed, full of it. Deaths from getting “ground to pieces” by trains were a daily occurrence in America (and semiweekly in Utah) during this time.

Another lawmaker declared that the same spirit that existed in the murderous hearts of highwaymen and killers lurked in the hearts of football players when they took the field. Although this may have been a prophecy about a future team known as the Oakland Raiders, he insisted it was the truth.

Hansen also worried about the academic impact of football, saying that he was aware of students in Logan “who did not study once during the entire year on account of the superior attractions of the game.” (The Daily Chronicle, March 15, 1909.)

Then there was the immorality caused by football games. Archibald said “there was more cussing, blaspheming, and swearing during a football game than any other sport of which he had knowledge.” (Salt Lake Telegram, March 9, 1909.)

Hansen’s bill had its detractors, including the University of Utah student body, which sent a letter requesting that he back off the beloved sport.

The letter was given to Hansen by a fellow legislator who formally “moved that wherever the word football occurred in the bill that the word ‘tiddlywinks’ be substituted.” Since that lawmaker couldn’t get a second, the House passed the bill, 25-15.

But cooler heads prevailed in the Senate, where the measure was essentially laughed off the floor.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but historical episodes like this make me wonder if what we earnestly pursue today will be the tiddlywinks of tomorrow.

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

As an art collector and gallery owner, Diane Stewart wouldn’t dare attempt to distill the breadth of modern art in the American West into a single work — but if pressed, Jean Richardson’s “Tumbleweed” might do the trick.

“This tumbleweed represents, in many ways, the new West, and what’s happening to the West, in good and bad ways,” Stewart said of the artwork, the first one a visitor sees when entering Modern West Fine Art’s new location on downtown Salt Lake City’s western edge.

It’s the work of a transplant: Richardson is Scottish, now living in Utah. It bridges the natural, a tumbleweed, with the human-made, in the form of bits of pink plastic-foam packing material.

And, like the gallery, it’s on the move.

After living for its first five years in “a fishbowl” at 200 South and 200 East, Stewart said, Modern West has found a new home at 412 S. 700 West, in the shadow of the 400 South overpass that links the city to the Interstate 15 onramp.

To celebrate the new digs, the gallery is opening a group show, “The New West,” now through June 8. (An opening reception is set for Friday, April 19, from 7 to 9 p.m., as part of the monthly Salt Lake Gallery Stroll.)

The title is a play on words, Stewart said, denoting both the gallery’s move a mile-and-a-half west of its former location, and its focus on works by 30 artists who represent a wide variety of modern art from the western United States.

“We’ve never been a cowboy-and-Indian gallery,” Stewart said. “We’ve always been about an interpretation of the West, in a contemporary way, by artists who have been inspired by [the West], who have lived by [the West], or the West has impacted them in some way."

Some of the exhibition’s works are quite serious, such as Day Christensen’s bronze renderings of aspen tree trunks, or John Bell’s “You Are Here,” which took 12 years for Bell to place some 150,000 white-tipped pushpins in patterns that reflect the ups and downs in his life, including a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.

Other pieces are more whimsical. Another work by Richardson is a five-foot-wide soccer ball made of umbrellas. Helper painter Ben Steele’s “Mormon Rockwell” parodies a classic Norman Rockwell illustration of a sailor getting his latest girlfriend’s name tattooed on his bicep — but here the figure is Brigham Young, early leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the tattooed names are those of his plural wives.

The exhibition also showcases Stewart’s gallery itself, and its role in a changing art world.

“Brick-and-mortar galleries have really evolved,” Stewart said.

Galleries on the coasts, she said, have had to contend with the rising popularity of art fairs, pop-up events where artists turn their exhibitions into Instagram-friendly happenings. Fine-art galleries like Modern West have to compete with such events to attract art collectors, just as major coastal galleries do. (Stewart acknowledged that the bulk of the collectors who pay the thousands of dollars for her artists’ works are from out of state.)

At the same time, Stewart said, her gallery is part of Salt Lake City’s cultural scene. “We are not on a coast, we’re grounded in our community,” she said, adding that she has invited an array of nonprofit groups to use the space. “We want the community here. … We throw a pretty good party.”

The building boasts 10,000 square feet on two floors, about 50% more than the old location, Stewart said. There’s a sculpture courtyard in the back that can be used for events in fair weather. And there’s a living room-like space with a library of books by Taschen, a high-end publisher of art books; Stewart boasts it’s the only such space for Taschen books not on the coasts.

A key to attracting younger art patrons is to cater to social media, said Katherine Hébert, publisher of Gallery Fuel, a web publication that advises fine-art dealers.

“As a marketing strategy, it is essential to get people in the gallery to see art in person,” Hébert said in an email interview. “If their events offer a unique, fun experience then, of course, having attendees share it on Instagram is gold.”

Stewart thinks moving west will bring other business along. “Artists change areas,” she said. “When you support art, what you’re actually doing is supporting the economic driver of a city."

Hébert agreed. “As the saying goes ‘there is strength in numbers,’” Hébert said. “These districts offer variety and convenience for art lovers and for galleries. Being part of an art district community creates greater opportunity for collaborations and to share resources.”

Stewart points to thriving art-centric cities like Denver, Portland, Seattle and Austin. Hébert adds to that list Atlanta, where the Castleberry Hills Arts District has grown from a run-down industrial area to a home for galleries, artists’ studios, music venues, restaurants and art happenings.

That’s starting to happen around Modern West. Stewart has opened the second floor to The Foundry SLC, a co-working spot for artists that includes conference rooms, a photo studio and desk space. Next door, Saltgrass Printmakers has opened a studio, and several artists are renting space. Kings Peak Coffee Roasters is serving hot and cold drinks. And Stewart has met the gallery’s neighbors at FFKR Architects.

“We are really building this as a destination,” Stewart said, adding that she would like to attract a restaurant or two to the block. “Once people find us, we’ll be a natural stop for people who are coming through Salt Lake and people who live in Salt Lake. … People are now saying that something is happening on the west side of Salt Lake.”

——

Modern West, farther west

Modern West Fine Art opens at its new location, with the group exhibition “The New West.”

Where • Modern West Fine Art, 412 S. 700 West, Salt Lake City.

When • The exhibit runs through June 8.

Opening • A private ribbon-cutting happens Friday, April 19, from 6 to 7 p.m. A public reception runs from 7 to 9 p.m., as part of the monthly Salt Lake Gallery Stroll.

Hours • Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; or by appointment.

The pilot of a small airplane died Thursday night as he was taking off in Fullerton, Calif.

He was the only person on board, news outlets in California reported. His destination was the airport in Heber City, Utah, according to the flight plan he filed. The pilot’s name has not been disclosed, though KABC-TV in Los Angeles cited firefighters in reporting the man was in his 50s.

The plane was a twin-propeller Beechcraft Duke, the California outlets reported. Fullerton Fire Department Division Chief Kathy Schaeffer said at a news conference the plane was traveling about 80 mph and had just left the ground when it veered left, crashed and exploded, The Los Angeles Times reported.

KABC-TV said the Beechcraft had a full tank of fuel, leading to a fiery scene at the Fullerton airport.

This story will be updated.

Washington • The report from special counsel Robert Mueller III lays out in alarming detail abundant evidence against President Donald Trump, finding 10 “episodes” of potential obstruction of justice but ultimately concluding it was not Mueller’s role to determine whether the commander in chief broke the law.

Submitted to Congress on Thursday, the 448-page document alternates between jarring scenes of presidential scheming and dense legal analysis, and it marks the onset of a new phase of the Trump administration in which congressional Democrats must decide what, if anything, to do with Mueller’s evidence. The report suggests — though never explicitly states — that Congress, not the Justice Department, should assume the role of prosecutor when the person who may be prosecuted is the president.

"The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law," Mueller's team wrote.

Trump once feared Mueller could destroy his presidency, but the special counsel may instead define it. By releasing a thick catalogue of misconduct and mendacity that, if not criminal, is deeply unflattering, Mueller’s report may mean long-term political problems for a president seeking reelection next year.

Still, Trump's electoral base has not been swayed by such stories in the past, and he has already claimed victory on the investigation's bottom line: no conspiracy with Russia, no obstruction of justice.

Since Mueller ended his investigation last month, a central question facing the Justice Department has been why Mueller's team did not reach a conclusion about whether the president obstructed justice. The issue was complicated, the report said, by two key factors — the fact that, under department practice, a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime, and that a president has a great deal of constitutional authority to give orders to other government employees.

Trump submitted written answers to investigators. The special counsel's office considered them "inadequate" but did not press for an interview with him because doing so would cause a "substantial delay," the report says.

The report said investigators felt they had "sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the President's testimony."

Trump's legal team declared Mueller's report "a total victory" for the president. It "underscores what we have argued from the very beginning — there was no collusion — there was no obstruction," they said.

In their statement, Trump's lawyers also attacked former leaders at the FBI for opening "a biased, political attack against the President — turning one of our foundational legal standards on its head."

Trump said little publicly about the report's release. At an event Thursday, he indicated he was having a "good day," and adding that "this should never happen to another president again, this hoax." Ahead of the report's release, the president lobbed a familiar attack on the investigation. "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!" he tweeted. "The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats."

If Mueller's report was a victory for the president, it was an ugly one. Investigators paint a portrait of a president who believes the Justice Department and the FBI should answer to his orders, even when it comes to criminal investigations.

During a meeting in which the president complained about then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, Trump insisted that past attorneys general had been more obedient to their presidents, referring to President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert, as well as the Obama administration.

"You're telling me that Bobby and Jack didn't talk about investigations? Or Obama didn't tell Eric Holder who to investigate?" Trump told senior White House staffers Stephen Bannon and Donald McGahn, according to the report.

"Bannon recalled that the President was as mad as Bannon had ever seen him and that he screamed at McGahn about how weak Sessions was," the report said.

Repeatedly, it appears Trump may have been saved from more serious legal jeopardy because his own staffers refused to carry out orders they thought were problematic or potentially illegal.

For instance, in the early days of the administration, when the president was facing growing questions concerning then-national security adviser Michael Flynn's conversations about sanctions with a Russian ambassador, the president ordered another aide, K.T. McFarland, to write an email saying the president did not direct those conversations. She decided not to do so, unsure if that was true and fearing it might be improper.

"Some evidence suggests that the President knew about the existence and content of Flynn's calls when they occurred, but the evidence is inconclusive and could not be relied upon to establish the President's knowledge,' " the report said.

The report also recounts a remarkable moment in May 2017 when Sessions told Trump that Mueller had just been appointed special counsel. Trump slumped back in his chair, according to notes from Jody Hunt, Sessions’ then-chief of staff. “Oh my God, this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f-----,” Trump said. The president further laid into Sessions for his recusal, saying Sessions had let him down.

"Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency," Trump said, according to Hunt's notes. "It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me."

The special counsel's report on possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russians to interfere in the 2016 election is extremely detailed with only modest redactions — painting a starkly different picture for Trump than Attorney General William Barr has offered, and revealing new details about interactions between Russians and Trump associates.

Mueller's team wrote that though their investigation "did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," that assertion was informed by the fact that coordination requires more than two parties "taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other's actions or interests."

And Mueller made it clear: Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign, and the Trump campaign was willing to take it.

"Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," Mueller's team wrote.

The report detailed a timeline of contacts between the Trump campaign and those with Russian ties — much of it already known, but some of it new.

For example, Mueller's team asserted that in August 2016, Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the FBI has assessed as having ties to Russian intelligence, met with Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman, "to deliver in person a peace plan for Ukraine that Manafort acknowledged to the Special Counsel's Office was a 'backdoor' way for Russia to control part of eastern Ukraine."

The special counsel wrote that both men believed the plan would require candidate Trump's "assent to succeed (were he elected President)."

"They also discussed the status of the Trump Campaign and Manafort's strategy for winning Democratic votes in Midwestern states," the special counsel wrote. "Months before that meeting, Manafort had caused internal polling data to be shared with Kilimnik, and the sharing continued for some period of time after their August meeting."

Mueller's report suggests his obstruction of justice investigation was heavily informed by an opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that says a sitting president cannot be indicted — a conclusion Mueller's team accepted.

"And apart from OLC's constitutional view, we recognized that a federal criminal accusation against a sitting President would place burdens on the President's capacity to govern and potentially preempt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct," Mueller's team wrote.

That decision, though, seemed to leave investigators in a strange spot. Mueller's team wrote that they "determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes." They seemed to shy from producing even an internal document that alleged the president had done something wrong — deciding, essentially, that they wouldn't decide.

"Although a prosecutor's internal report would not represent a formal public accusation akin to an indictment, the possibility of the report's public disclosure and the absence of a neutral adjudicatory forum to review its findings counseled against determining 'that the person's conduct constitutes a federal offense.' "

Barr said during a news conference Thursday that Justice Department officials asked Mueller "about the OLC opinion and whether or not he was taking the position that he would have found a crime but for the existence of the OLC opinion."

"He made it very clear, several times, that he was not taking a position — he was not saying but for the OLC opinion he would have found a crime," Barr said.

Mueller did not attend the news conference.

Barr addressed the media before releasing the report. He made repeated references to "collusion," echoing language the president has stressed even though it is not a relevant legal term.

Barr also described how the nation's top law enforcement officials wrestled with investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice. He and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein "disagreed with some of the special counsel's legal theories and felt that some of the episodes did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law" but that they accepted the special counsel's "legal framework" as they analyzed the case, Barr said.

It was the first official acknowledgment of differing views inside the Justice Department about how to investigate the president.

Barr also spoke about the president's state of mind as Trump responded to the unfolding investigation. "As the Special Counsel's report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks," he said.

The report also said there was a critical distinction to be drawn when analyzing Trump's conduct — what he did before and what he did after The Washington Post reported in June 2017 that he was under investigation for potential obstruction of justice.*

"That awareness marked a significant change in the President's conduct and the start of a second phase of action," Mueller's team wrote in their report. "The president launched public attacks on the investigation and individuals involved in it who could possess evidence adverse to the President, while in private, the President engaged in a series of targeted efforts to control the investigation."*

Mueller's team said those efforts included attempting to remove Mueller as special counsel, pressuring Sessions to unrecuse himself from the investigation, and using "public forums to attack potential witnesses who might offer adverse information and to praise witnesses who declined to cooperate with the government."*

The Mueller report is considered so politically explosive that even the Justice Department's rollout plan sparked a firestorm, with Democrats suggesting that the attorney general was trying to improperly color Mueller's findings before the public could read them.

Barr is preparing to testify to Congress about the report next month, and Democrats are moving to secure Mueller's testimony soon after. The attorney general also notified Congress after the report's release that a small number of senior members of each party would get a chance to review a less-redacted version of the document next week.

Democrats, who have vowed to fight to get the entire report without redactions, as well as the underlying investigative documents, immediately panned the offer, calling it a non-starter.

Prompted by a reporter, Barr responded to a call earlier Thursday from the top two Democrats in Congress to have Mueller appear before House and Senate committees. "I have no objection to Bob Mueller personally testifying," the attorney general said.

In a letter, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said they wanted testimony "as soon as possible" from Mueller. And after Barr's news conference, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., released a letter to the special counsel seeking an appearance before his panel "no later than May 23."

The Washington Post’s Greg Miller, Spencer S. Hsu, Karoun Demirjian, Ellen Nakashima, Philip Rucker, John Wagner and Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report.

Paris • A “computer glitch” may have been behind the fast-spreading fire that ravaged Notre Dame, the cathedral’s rector said Friday, as architects and construction workers tried to figure out how to stabilize the damaged structure and protect it from the elements.

The fire burned through the lattice of enormous oak beams supporting the monument’s vaulted stone ceiling, dangerously weakening the building. The surrounding neighborhood has been blocked off, and stones have continued to tumble off the sides of the cathedral since Monday evening’s devastating blaze.

Speaking during a meeting of local business owners, rector Patrick Chauvet did not elaborate on the exact nature of the glitch, adding that "we may find out what happened in two or three months."

On Thursday, Paris police investigators said they think an electrical short-circuit most likely caused the fire.

The Parisien newspaper has reported that investigators are considering whether the fire could be linked to a computer glitch or related to temporary elevators used in the renovation that was underway at the time the cathedral caught fire. Chauvet said there were fire alarms throughout the building, which he described as "well protected."

Charlotte Hubert, president of a group of French architects who specialize in historic monuments, told BFM television that experts plan to spread a custom-made peaked tarpaulin across the cathedral's roof, with enough space to also shield workers rebuilding the frame.

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to set out reconstruction ideas during meetings Friday with officials from the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO.

Macron is moving quickly on the fire-ravaged monument's reconstruction, which is being viewed both as a push to make it part of his legacy and a way to move past the divisive yellow vest protests over economic issues in France.

Notre Dame's reconstruction is prompting widespread debate across France, with differing views emerging over whether it should involve new technologies and designs. Macron's office has, for example, said the president wants a "contemporary architectural gesture to be considered" for the collapsed spire, which wasn't part of the original cathedral.

Macron hasn't offered any specifics on his vision for the roof or whether the frame should be wood, metal or concrete, according to his cultural heritage envoy, Stephane Bern. He has named a general, Jean-Louis Georgelin, former chief of staff of the armed forces, to lead the reconstruction effort.

Over $1 billion has already poured in from people from all walks of life around the world to restore Notre Dame.

Judith Kagan, a conservation official at France's Culture Ministry, said the artworks inside Notre Dame had suffered no major damage from the fire and the pieces were being removed from the building for their protection.

The Notre Dame fire delayed Macron's long-awaited plans to quell anti-government protests that have marred his presidency. The French leader abandoned a planned TV address to the nation on the evening of the fire, heading to the scene instead and declaring: "We will rebuild Notre Dame."

According to an opinion poll by BVA institute published Friday — the first carried out since the fire — Macron has gained three points in popularity in the past month with an approval rating of 32%. That advance puts him back at the support level of September, before the yellow vest crisis, BVA said.

Although all French polls show that Macron's popularity has remain depressed since a tax increase on retirees last year, they suggest his party may be ahead in France's May 26 European Parliament election, with Marine Le Pen's far-right party, the National Rally, close behind.

Macron is now expected to detail his new measures next week. Macron earlier was planning to respond to demonstrators' concerns over their loss of purchasing power with tax cuts for lower-income households and measures to boost pensions and help single parents.

Despite the destruction of Notre Dame dominating the news in France, a new round of yellow vest protests is planned on Saturday across the country, including in Paris.

In a hopeful development Friday, 180,000 bees being kept in in hives on Notre Dame's lead roofing were discovered alive.

"I am so relieved. I saw satellite photos that showed the three hives didn't burn. I thought they had gone with the cathedral," Nicolas Geant, the monument's beekeeper, told the AP.

Geant has looked after the bees since 2013, when they were installed as part of a city-wide initiative to boost declining bee numbers.

Since the insects have no lungs, Geant said the CO2 in the fire's heavy smoke put the bees into a sedated state instead of killing them. He said when bees sense fire they "gorge themselves on honey" and protect their queen. He said European bees never abandon their hives.

Thomas Adamson contributed.

Undertaking a huge overhaul at the heart of Utah, the LDS Church will close its landmark Salt Lake Temple for four years starting Dec. 29 to strengthen the 126-year-old structure against earthquakes, replace several adjoining buildings and give a face-lift to the adjoining plaza and Temple Square, the state’s most visited attraction.

On Friday, top leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unveiled details about their previously announced plans to upgrade the faith’s pioneer-era temples in Salt Lake City, Logan, Manti and St. George.

At the center of the makeover in Utah’s capital is an effort to dig deep beneath the iconic granite temple for a seismic retrofit.

The global faith’s president, Russell M. Nelson, spoke about the closure and renovation plans at a news conference complete with historic photos, computer renderings and video simulations of the revamped result.

“This temple and others built in Utah by these pioneer forebears represent some of the finest examples of architectural design, engineering and use of materials then available,” said Nelson, accompanied by his two counselors in the governing First Presidency. “We have a sincere desire — yes, a sacred responsibility — to care for them, that they may continue to serve as sacred houses of the Lord for many generations to come.

“You will love the results,” the 94-year-old Latter-day Saint prophet pledged. “They will emphasize and highlight the life, ministry and mission of Jesus Christ in his desire to bless every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.”

The plans were heartily welcomed by state and city officials, with Gov. Gary Herbert, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, City Council Chairman Charlie Luke and several Utah legislators in attendance on Temple Square for the media event.

Church leaders declined to put a price tag on the overhaul. But, by any measure, it amounts to a major investment to attractions that draw up to 5 million visitors a year to the downtown core.

“To some extent, buildings are like people. Not only is the aging process inevitable, but it can also be unkind," Nelson said. "The good news is that buildings can be renovated. The bad news is that needed renovation takes time, and it also takes the buildings out of commission for a season.”

The Salt Lake Temple, begun by Mormon pioneers in 1853 and dedicated 40 years later, will reopen in 2024, church officials said, with a public open house — allowing outsiders to see for the first time since 1893 what previously only faithful Latter-day Saints have ever seen — followed by a rededication.

The temple’s granite exterior and gilded Angel Moroni at its crown will be restored. An addition made in the 1960s on its north flank for “sealing rooms” will be demolished and rebuilt. Latter-day Saints believe they can be “sealed” to live with their families in the eternities.

Significant renovations are planned to the temple’s baptistry. Live performances that attend the “endowment” ceremony inside the temple will be preserved but with additional capacity to show the ordinance in 86 languages.

The highly symbolic endowment includes ritual reenactments of the creation, Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden and humankind’s mortal journey and ultimate return to God’s presence. In the Salt Lake and Manti temples, live actors have portrayed these scenes for decades. In all other Latter-day Saints temples, the story is told through film. In January, the church altered the endowment to contain more inclusive language and more gender equity.

Members consider temples houses of God, places where the faithful can perform their religion’s highest sacraments, including eternal marriages, for themselves and, vicariously, for their ancestors.

Beyond restoration of some of the Salt Lake Temple’s original historic aspects, the feel and character of its rooms, murals and interior architectural flourishes will be unchanged.

A major motivator of the project — and much of the reason it will take four years — is the earthquake retrofit and protecting the temple and church members in the event of a major temblor along the time-is-ticking Wasatch fault.

In complex work involving reinforcements threaded from underground through the temple and its 223-foot-tall spires, crews with Jacobsen Construction plan to restructure the foundation and install a series of base isolators to lessen the effects of seismic shifts, similar to work done on the nearby Tabernacle in 2006.

Digging around the base will have to be done in careful stages to ensure the temple’s stability, church engineers said.

A base isolation system will be installed, digging deep under the temple to protect it from seismic forces, said Brent Roberts, managing director of special projects for the church. The system “is a collection of structural elements which should substantially decouple the temple from the earth."

“Once complete,” he added, “it will help protect people, the historic building and the beautiful interior finishes in the event of an earthquake.”

Underscoring safety, Nelson and other church officials outlined a series of rigorous fire precautions to be in place during the construction work to prevent a repeat of Monday’s devastating blaze at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

“We understand," Roberts said, “that construction puts any project at greater risk for a fire incident."

Like Notre Dame, the Salt Lake Temple sits at the heart of a major city, with all Salt Lake City’s street coordinates in its grid system emanating from that spot.

"The Salt Lake Temple is the center of Temple Square and the church headquarters campus,” said Dean M. Davies, first counselor in the church’s Presiding Bishopric, which oversees the faith’s vast real estate, financial, investment and charitable operations.

Other renovations to the church’s 10-acre downtown campus will center on the eastern part of Temple Square, with the brunt of the work running through the middle of the block from North Temple to South Temple. The east gate will be closed for the duration of the work, while other gates will remain open.

The South Visitors’ Center will be torn down and replaced with two new, smaller centers.

“It is expected that the North Visitors’ Center, Tabernacle and Assembly Hall will remain open to the public during construction,” the church said in a news release. “Tours by missionaries from the Temple Square Mission will continue to be available for guests during construction.”

The North Annex, built in the 1960s as a place where devout Latter-day Saints can enter the temple, will be razed and replaced with two new member-entry buildings, along with renovations to connecting underground areas and a parking garage beneath that portion of Temple Square.

Those parking at the Conference Center to the north will be able to walk underground to the temple entrance. And a new skylight over the below-ground temple reception area will offer patrons glimpses of the temple’s majestic spires above.

Mechanical, plumbing, electrical and heating and cooling facilities will also be upgraded throughout.

The Temple Square renovation is designed to bring a more welcoming, open and transparent feel, with extensive landscaping to refresh its grounds.

Crews will add new fountains and flower beds, upgrade walkways and replace portions of the perimeter walls with metal fencing along North Temple and South Temple to create new street views of the site’s crown jewels.

Occasional sidewalk and road closures are expected as the huge construction project moves through a series of flexible phases.

During the extensive work on the temple, said Larry Y. Wilson, executive director of the temple department, members with “recommends” attesting to their adherence to certain beliefs and behaviors will be encouraged to take part in ordinances at nearby temples — from Bountiful to the north to three edifices in the south Salt Lake Valley (Jordan River and Oquirrh Mountain in South Jordan, and the Draper Temple). But that will mean no marriages at the Salt Lake Temple, a popular place for Latter-day Saint couples to wed, for four years.

These other temples are making preparations to welcome more patrons, Wilson said, and visitors should expect some added wait times.

Otherwise, church officials said, much of the busy yearly schedule of events on Temple Square and nearby buildings will continue, from choir performances and Christmas light displays to regular tours for millions of visitors, though some may be reduced in scale as work proceeds.

The Family History Library, Church History Museum, Church History Library, Conference Center, Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Lion House and Beehive House will be accessible to visitors during the renovation.

No major impact is expected to twice-yearly General Conferences — at the Conference Center across North Temple — beyond lack of access to some parts of the plaza during breaks.

Tribune editor David Noyce and reporter Sean P. Means contributed to this story.

Happy Friday! Kellyanne Conway is a staunch defender of her boss, President Donald Trump, and frequently appears on TV to tout his presidency. Her husband is another story. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, George Conway says it’s time to impeach Trump. He’s a conservative lawyer but says Congress needs to remove this “cancer” on the presidency. [WaPost]

Topping the news: A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction to stop Utah from enforcing a law that restricts abortion after 18 weeks until the court rules on its constitutionality. [Trib][Fox13][DNews]

-> Everyone is talking about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report although few are likely to have read all 448 pages of it. After its long-awaited release, Utah lawmakers took to social media to give their take on the report. [Trib][DNews][ABC4]

Tweets of the day: From @gopTODD: “Did Trump act immorally? Yes. Did Trump act unethically? Yes. Did Trump lie to the media? Yes. Was he angry and embarrassed? Yes. Did he want to fire Mueller? Yes. Did he want to fire Sessions? Yes. Did he welcome foreign support? Yes. Did he commit a crime? No.”

-> From @MikeLMower :“I looked out the window and what did I see? It looks like popcorn! It’s blossom time at the @UTStateCapitol. Run - don’t walk - to see them before they turn to leaves or it starts to rain again. You’ll be glad you did.”

->From @JeffStenquist: “In order to provide critical transportation investments we need to find more innovative sources of revenue to provide the funding. Our current model (gas tax, general fund etc.) is outdated and inadequate.”

Happy Birthday: On Saturday to former state Rep. Bill Wright and Suzanne Struglinski Broadfield. On Sunday to Dell Smith, district director for Rep. Chris Stewart and state Sen. Scott Sandall.

Behind the Headlines: Tribune editor Jennifer Napier-Pearce, and reporters Bethany Rodgers and Taylor Stevens join KCPW’s Roger McDonough to talk about the week’s top stories, including the state’s plan not to enforce an 18-week abortion ban while the courts review it. Every Friday at 9 a.m., stream “Behind the Headlines” at kcpw.org, or tune in to KCPW 88.3 FM or Utah Public Radio for the broadcast. Join the live conversation by calling (801) 355-TALK.

Friday Quiz: Last week, 91% of you knew about an Instagram account that’s taking aim at Brigham Young University’s Honor Code Office, but only 63% knew about an increased concern in legalized marijuana leading to tobacco use. Think you kept up with the news this week? Take our quiz to find out. A new one will post every Friday morning. You can find previous quizzes here. If you’re using The Salt Lake Tribune mobile app, click here. [Trib]

In other news: Former CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz will visit Utah as part of a “Heart of America” bus tour he has launched in preparation for an announcement on a potential independent run in 2020’s presidential election. [Trib]

-> Chadwick Fairbanks III, a candidate for leader of Utah’s GOP, deleted posts from his campaign website after they were found to be copied from another website without attribution. [Trib]

-> A group of Utah residents filed paperwork for a ballot initiative that would allow Utah voters to decide whether to levy a carbon tax. [Trib][Fox13]

-> The Salt Lake County district attorney ruled that a Unified Police Detective was justified in the shooting of a Utah man who ran towards him with a knife. [Trib][Fox13]

-> The father of a man killed by a Salt Lake City police officer is suing both the city and the police department claiming the officer was not properly trained to handle people experiencing a mental health crisis. [Trib]

-> Pat Bagley offers his take on the Mueller report. [Trib]

Nationally: While listing a number of incidents that may have qualified as obstruction of justice, the Mueller report concludes it was not the special counsel’s role to determine whether the president broke the law. [WaPost][NYTimes]

-> In light of the events described in the report, Democrats now face the difficult decision of determining whether they constitute grounds for Trump’s impeachment. [NYTimes]

-> Parts of the Mueller report could put a number of Trump’s associates, who testified against him, in an awkward position. [Politico]

-> The report paints a picture of a White House rife with paranoia, lies and fear surrounding the Mueller probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. [WaPost]

Got a tip? A birthday, wedding or anniversary to announce? Send us a note to cornflakes@sltrib.com.

-- Thomas Burr and Christina Giardinelli

twitter.com/thomaswburr, @C_Giardinelli

Police released body camera videos from an April 8 gunfight in the center of Salt Lake City on Friday, along with surveillance video from six different crime scenes that were part of a 4-mile chase that ended with more bullets and the death of the suspect.

The suspect cannot be seen on the video, but multiple officers can be seen firing their guns. Near the end of the videos, gunfire can be heard for a 25-second stretch — like something out of a Hollywood movie.

Salt Lake City police Capt. Jeff Kendrick said police received the first of 65 calls to 911 about a man firing a gun from a white pickup truck at 10:42 a.m.; the suspect — Harold Vincent Robinson, 37, of West Valley City — was killed at 11:01 a.m.

Police played several of those 911 calls and showed surveillance video and photos of the crime scenes, beginning with shots fired at the Sheraton Hotel at 150 W. 500 South and ending when Robinson crashed his truck into an alterations shop near 3300 S. State Street.

The video included police vehicles pursuing Robinson down State Street — at one point, 18 patrol cars are visible – and body camera footage from two police officers who were among those who fired at the suspect after he crashed his truck.

Officers can be heard yelling “Hands up!” in the video; one officer can be heard speaking into his radio: "Back off, guys, he’s firing.”

Police have yet to specify how Robinson died, and it’s not clear what Robinson’s motives were. His family has said he suffered from paranoia and delusions. The episode began, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera has said, when he robbed a convenience store in Taylorsville and then one in Millcreek. He was in Salt Lake City near West Temple on 500 South when he fired gunshots. Police began pursuing him.

Ten Salt Lake City police officers remain on leave as a result of the chase and shooting, though it’s not clear how many of those fired their guns. One video played Friday showed how a Salt Lake City officer waited for Robinson’s truck to enter the intersection at 3300 S. State St. As Robinson drove south, the officer rammed his patrol car into the back side of the truck, causing the truck to spin out into an alterations shop on State Street.

Only three Salt Lake City officers had their body cameras turned on during the chase and shooting, Kendrick said Friday. Why is part of the investigations into officers’ actions on April 8.

Only Salt Lake City police have released camera footage. Three Utah Highway Patrol troopers who responded that day also were placed on paid leave after the shooting, as were two officers from the Unified Police Department. All three departments are conducting reviews to determine if officers followed policies. West Valley City police are conducting an investigation into the officers’ use of force, and those results will be provided to the Salt Lake County District Attorney.

A Provo man who reportedly beat his puppy is facing a felony charge.

Eric John Taylor, 32, has been charged in Fourth District Court with torture of a companion animal, a third-degree felony.

According to charging documents, Taylor “repeatedly beat” his 9-month-old Labrador between March 1 and April 10. In one instance, he “beat the dog's head against the concrete floor of a garage, causing the dog to have a golf-ball sized lump on his head the next day.”

One of Taylor’s roommates reported that on April 10, he was awakened by the sound of the dog being beaten; he recorded video as the dog was thrown across a deck. Taylor then called the dog, and when it “refused to comply and cowered,” he pulled the dog and punched the animal several times.

According to police, in the video, “you can hear [Taylor] yelling at the dog, the dog whining and the sounds of the punches on the dog.”

Taylor was released on his own recognizance. He is scheduled to appear in court May 22.

The dog was taken in by an animal shelter.

“If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. ... And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.”

-- Hannah Arendt, interview in The New York Review of Books, October 26, 1978

This is what we are approaching, an era in which everything is so confusing and impossible to pin down that the public sphere just leaves people dizzy. So they leave it to others, others who can navigate the world of smoke and mirrors and rule over the people because most of us have just given up.

And it is happening with the active and willing assistance of some of the people Utahns have elected to represent them in Congress.

The president of the United States was the beneficiary -- though not, apparently, the architect -- of a deliberate and dastardly attack on American democracy by the Russian government. The then-candidate and his people were aware of what was happening, found joy in that knowledge, didn’t tell the world or call the cops.

But, because the campaign was only aware of the ongoing bank robbery, reasonably expected to be enriched by it only indirectly, and never actually pulled a gun or blew a safe, the cop on the beat concluded that those who were in the process of taking power in the United States of America couldn’t be charged with a crime.

And, because when the president cried, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest,” no one did, special counsel Robert Mueller decided that he could not bring a criminal charge of obstruction of justice against the president. Or, based on past Justice Department thinking, any president.

Until he leaves office. Or until Congress impeaches and removes him.

The release Thursday of (most of) Mueller’s report was maddening in that it outlined a long list of dirty deeds committed by and for the president but was never able to take a firm stand that the chief executive, or any of the people near him who have not already been indicted and/or convicted, did something clearly illegal. And that, even if the president is a crook, controlling legal theory holds that a sitting president can’t be charged with a crime by his own executive branch.

Absent the clear image of the president being led away in handcuffs, the remaining fog made it easy for his sycophants and hangers-on to claim that there was no crime or wrongdoing.

“The office of the attorney general and the special counsel have concluded that there was no collusion and no obstruction,” said Utah Rep. Rob Bishop. Falsely.

"Mr. Mueller conducted a detailed and thorough investigation that mirrors what we found in the House Intelligence investigation — no collusion or conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russia,” said Rep. Chris Stewart. Dancing along the edge of the truth.

“The Mueller report is finally available and it is definitive: there was no collusion,” said Sen. Mike Lee. Misleadingly.

What the report really said is easy to manipulate because its authors were responsibly tied down to narrow legal definitions -- no criminal conspiracy does not mean no common purpose, for example -- while politicians of all stripes are free to use whichever words and phrases suit them.

Among the report’s more definitive statements: “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

And, "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. We are unable to reach that judgment.”

The joke about liberal intellectuals is that they can be so open-minded that their brains fall out. That they won’t even defend their own point of view. Those who like to see themselves as thinking people brag that they can, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s phrase, “hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

But we find ourselves in times when those in power are out to bamboozle us, and significant sections of the mass media have no qualms about just fibbing all the time. So what would in normal times be a humble effort to reserve judgment, or an intellectually rigorous belief that you might be mistaken, gets weaponized against you.

And you become vulnerable to elected officials telling you not only that two plus two equals nine, but also that if you disagree with them you are disrespecting their right to express themselves.

The Mueller report did not give us the gift of a definitive answer to Richard Nixon’s standard: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.”

But for anyone who claims to hold the public’s trust, to state firmly that this president is not a crook is just not supported by any of the facts as we know them.

Let’s let the House Judiciary Committee do it’s job. Because it’s all just too head-spinning for the rest of us to take in.

George Pyle, editorial page editor of The Salt Lake Tribune, remembers the advice of the editor who wanted to hire a one-armed editorial writer because he would never say, “On the other hand...” gpyle@sltrib.com

Utah’s economy continues to be a powerful job creator — ranking No. 2 nationally between March 2018 and March 2019, data released Friday show.

Utah’s job growth rate was 3.0% in that time, ranking behind only behind the 3.4% in neighboring Nevada. Idaho was No. 3 at 2.7%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Utah added 44,500 jobs over that yearlong period, data show.

“Utah has led the nation in its rate of job growth during the nearly 10 years since the Great Recession,” said Mark Knold, senior economist at the Utah Department of Workforce Services. “The current 3.0% growth continues that trend, and there is little on the immediate horizon to suggest it will soon change.”

Nine of the 10 private sector industry groups measured in Utah showed net job increases in March. The other one, “other services,” lost 200 jobs.

The largest private sector employment increases were in leisure and hospitality (8,900 jobs); trade, transportation, and utilities (8,600 jobs); and education and health services (6,000 jobs). The fastest employment growth sector by percentage was information (6.7%); leisure and hospitality (6.0%); and natural resources (4.3%).

Data was also released Friday about unemployment in the states.

In Utah, March’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.0% was unchanged from February and marks the lowest rate in Utah since early 2008. About 47,200 Utahns were unemployed and were seeking jobs last month.

Utah’s unemployment rate was significantly lower than the 3.8% rate nationally.

North Dakota and Vermont had the lowest unemployment rates in March, 2.3 percent each. Alaska had the highest jobless rate, 6.5 percent.