The Utah man behind a popular YouTube science channel was killed in a paragliding crash late Monday near Hurricane.

The pilot, 38-year-old Jonathan Grant Thompson of South Jordan, died in a remote area of Washington County in southern Utah. A news release from the sheriff’s office there said the cause of the accident is under investigation.

The county’s dispatch center had received a report of an overdue paraglider who had taken off in the morning near Sand Hollow State Park, the news release said. Police from Hurricane and an agent from the Bureau of Land Management responded. The caller was able to provide the paraglider’s last known GPS coordinates.

A medical helicopter was able to follow those and discovered Thompson’s body. The news release said the search team also recovered the crashed paraglider and video taken during its flight — and said no foul play was suspected.

Thompson was known on YouTube as “The King of Random.” His channel included videos with explosions or fire, as well as guides to making a rope out of a soda bottle, making a silicone mold of a chicken and making steak with “molten salt.” His most popular clip, with more than 34 million views, showed how to make gummy candy in the shape of Legos.

Many have taken to his page to express their sadness over his death. “Such a shame we don’t get videos like these anymore,” one user wrote. Another posted: “RIP, you’ll be greatly missed. My condolences to the family.”

“Rest in peace brother. The world will never be the same without you,” said one person. Many said the same: “Legends never die.”

Thompson’s channel boasts hundreds of videos of his experiments and 11 million subscribers. He had been making videos and putting them on YouTube since 2010. In May 2018, he was agreed to make safety videos after a plea deal resolved allegations that he had improperly used an explosive device in his backyard.

His YouTube biography said: “We make videos dedicated to exploring life through all kinds of life hacks, experiments, and random weekend projects.”

His channel posted an “in memoriam” video of Thompson late Tuesday. And YouTube’s Twitter page wrote that the company was “deeply saddened to learn of the tragic loss.”

We're deeply saddened to learn of the tragic loss of Grant Thompson, a gifted, passionate and endlessly curious creator. We send our deepest condolences to his loving family, The King of Random team and fans. https://t.co/pUY4q1EWcU pic.twitter.com/oL3VVSXacf

— YouTube (@YouTube) July 30, 2019

Overwhelmed by its popularity as a tourist destination, Moab’s City Council has adopted a new land-use code which blocks construction of new hotels, condos and houses intended for short-term rental such as through Airbnb.

A temporary moratorium on such construction was put into place in February but that was set to expire next month. Instead, the council voted last week to put into place a new code that removes overnight accommodations from all zones. It would require council action to again permit such uses.

The building ban is not intended to be permanent, said City Manager Joel Linares. Over the next six months, staff will come up with recommendations for allowed use of overnight accommodations in different city zones and present their findings to the council. The council will then phase buildings back in as it sees fit, Linares said.

Moab is not alone in its move. At a special meeting on July 18, the Grand County Council approved a countywide ordinance for a land use regulation that prohibits permits for new overnight accommodations for the next six months.

Moab has faced pressure from growing numbers of tourists, three million at last count, amid a housing crisis. Linares told The Tribune in July that the city was engaged in long-term planning for how it can grow as a community in a responsible manner. The pause on new buildings for short-term use is intended to allow the city’s roads and utilities to keep up with its growth.

Although new structures for short-term rental can not be built, existing structures can continue to operate and expand. Anyone who applied for a building permit before the February moratorium was allowed to proceed as usual, said Linares.

When asked what the city would do if an individual were to operate a nightly rental in a building zoned for long-term use, Linares said the city would have to notify them that they are in violation of city codes.

But monitoring and stopping such activity would likely prove difficult.

The explosion of short-term rentals in private residences has become a statewide issue and cities have reacted in different ways in attempting to regulate the practice, often without success. A 2017 state law prohibits local authorities from using online ads as an enforcement tool in the absence of a complaint. This means cities must wait for a neighbor or another individual to speak out before they can go after illegal short-term rentals.

Paul Smith, executive director of the Utah Apartment Association, said his group has seen more and more people interested in short-term rentals, and that he expects the trend to continue even in cities that ban or refuse to license them.

“When cities are unreasonable, it drives people to do it unlicensed, unfortunately," Smith told The Tribune in an earlier interview. "They shouldn’t require such a ridiculous, onerous process that people just throw up their hands and give up.”

Utah officials are reworking how to distribute medical marijuana amid concerns that current plans to use county health departments as pickup points might violate federal law and essentially make local government employees drug dealers.

Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, said Tuesday that state leaders have been hearing those concerns for months so they have been exploring alternatives — and may seek a special session of the Legislature to enact changes. He said because officials are still discussing several options and ideas are fluid, he is not yet ready to talk about them publicly.

“I think we’re pretty close to having a solution that would minimize if not eliminate risk for the local health departments,” he said. Some possible solutions would entirely avoid involvement by counties, while others would alter their proposed roles.

Utah’s law only allows for seven private “cannabis pharmacies,” with a state “central fill pharmacy” handling the remainder of the distribution by delivering marijuana orders to local health departments for pickup by patients. Only that state-run pharmacy is affected by prosecutors’ concerns.

Voters approved Proposition 2 last year to legalize medical marijuana in Utah and use a network of private dispensaries. However, the Legislature overrode that — and came up with a compromise distribution system — in a bill known as the Utah Medical Cannabis Act. This system included some use of county health departments as cannabis pickup points from a central fill location.

The Utah Department of Health said Tuesday in a statement that it is also aware of concerns from prosecutors, adding that it would work with counties, lawmakers and the governor’s office “to find solutions that will ensure patients statewide have access to medical cannabis within the timeline set out in the Medical Cannabis Act."

Vickers said it may be ideal to have a special session of the Legislature to discuss and enact changes well before a state-run dispensary is expected to be up and running by April. If Gov. Gary Herbert decides to call such a session, Vickers said preferences would then be made public and public comments would be sought.

“Myself and everybody that’s involved in this project want to make sure that patients are able to receive cannabis medication in medicinal form delivered through medical professionals as soon as possible,” Vickers said.

While Vickers said state leaders have heard from counties about concerns for months and have been negotiating changes, two leaders made those concerns public this week — Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill and Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings.

Gill said in an interview Tuesday that he knew nine months ago when the Legislature replaced Prop 2 that the system created “puts us in direct conflict with federal law,” would not allow the county or its health department to certify that they comply with federal laws — something needed for federal grants..

“That puts millions and millions of dollars in grants at risk,” he said. Also as an attorney, “we cannot knowingly advise a client to violate the law.”

Gill said after discussing the problem with leaders of counties, they approached Vickers as sponsor of the bill that replaced Prop 2 and other leaders. “To my surprise, they were open to the concerns we were raising — especially Sen. Vickers. He has listened to our concerns.”

Gill said he has been told preliminarily that “counties are probably not going to be part of the equation. That allows me to do my job to my health department, to my county and my taxpayers and say we wll not take this unnecessary risk and at the same time affirm the commitment of unfettered access by the patients” to cannabis.

Connor Boyack, president of the Libertas Institute of Utah and a key player in negotiations between lawmakers, advocates and opponents of Prop. 2 for a new medical cannabis bill, said no matter what happens with the ongoing negotiations, there is “zero potential to undermine the overall program.”

“What’s happening now, the unwillingness of the counties to comply, the legal concerns about having the state directly being involved in violating federal law — these are all concerns that we raised during the negotiation. We went in to this with eyes wide open. None of this is a surprise for us,” Boyack said. “And in fact we’ve been discussing this for a few months now with most of the same stakeholders and folks involved in this to come up with some alternative.”

Boyack declined to elaborate on those alternatives because decisions hadn’t been finalized, but said he’d been discussing options that were “more patient- and more market-friendly.”

Also, written into the medical cannabis law is a failsafe that would allow for additional privately owned dispensaries to open if the “central fill” location — the state-run facility and subject of prosecutors’ concerns — never opened or if it closed, Boyack said.

The first of those locations — and what would be the eighth dispensary in Utah — could open January 2021 if the central fill pharmacy isn’t operational. A ninth could open six months later if the central fill location still isn’t open. A tenth could open in January 2022 if the central fill pharmacy still isn’t running.

Desiree Hennessy, director of the Utah Patients Coalition that pushed Prop 2, said her group is grateful that lawmakers “have been having discussions and are willing to fix problems” with distribution.

“The most important thing is we are always advocating for patient access,” and plans that will provide that. She adds her group had raised concerns about the central-fill facility plan and is grateful now that “we have legislative leaders who are willing to find a way that will work.”

She adds, as a suggestion, “We don’t think government should ever compete with private industry,” and says using a network of private facilities would work.

House Democratic leaders also issued a statement criticizing Republicans for changing the initial Prop 2 plans.

“Legislative leadership told Utah that Proposition 2 — Medical Cannabis, which the voters passed, needed to be replaced because it would not function. Now it looks like their replacement plan also will not function," it said.

"The Legislature cannot override the will of the voters with failed plans, like they also did with Proposition 3 — Medicaid Expansion, and hope to maintain any kind of trust with the people we are supposed to represent,” it added.

It could be another record year for alcohol sales in Utah.

Sales of beer, wine and spirits in the state topped $479 million for fiscal 2018-19, which ended June 30, according to preliminary numbers presented to the state liquor commission Tuesday.

If those numbers hold, it would represent an increase of 5.65%, or $25.6 million, over the previous year — when sales hit $453.69 million, said Man Diep, finance director of the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

The new sales figures include beer, wine and spirits sold at restaurants, bars and in Utah’s state-run liquor stores. They don’t include beer that contains less than 4 percent alcohol by volume, which can be purchased at grocery and convenience stores.

"The numbers are preliminary and are subject to change,” said Cade Meier, DABC deputy director. Official sales numbers should be available by September.

However, Utah liquor sales have been rising 6% to 7% annually for several years. It’s a trend that could end in 2019 because of recent changes to grocery and convenience store beer.

In addition to overall revenue, the DABC also looks at bottle sales each year, Diep said. Total bottle sales during the past year shot up from 48.2 million to 51.9 million, a 7.48% jump.

Diep said alcohol sales per day also rose 6% during the 12-month period, from $1.5 million to $1.59 million.

Alcohol continues to be a big business in Utah, partly because of the state’s strong economy and its flourishing tourism industry — both of which draw out-of-staters who are less likely to belong to Utah’s predominant faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which teaches members to abstain from alcohol.

On Tuesday, for example, 12 Utah restaurants received licenses from the DABC allowing them to serve liquor with food. In addition, the state approved contracts for small liquor stores — called package agencies — in the rural towns of Boulder and Ephraim; and the liquor commission granted manufacturing licenses to three new beer brewers, one each in Salt Lake City, Lehi and Heber City.

Despite all that, the DABC expects alcohol sales to flatten in fiscal 2019-20, because the state raised the allowable alcohol content of retail brews from 4% alcohol by volume to 5% ABV earlier this year.

When the law takes effect Nov. 1, about 50% of beers now sold in Utah liquor stores will shift to the retail stores. Several top-selling brews such as Icehouse, Stella Artois, Pacifico Lager and Sam Adams will move off the liquor store shelves, potentially slowing DABC revenue growth.

Transferring beer to retail stores, however, will open up space at the liquor stores for other products, which could make up the difference.

No matter how much the DABC makes, it doesn’t keep all that money. It used $45.6 million in fiscal 2018-19 to cover operating costs and employee wages and benefits.

The liquor agency returned $191 million to the state. Under Utah law, here is where the money went:

• $112.31 million to the general fund.

• $45.43 million to the school lunch program.

• $2.57 million to Parents Empowered, the DABC’s underage drinking prevention program.

• $1.75 million for underage drinking prevention programs in schools.

• $4.54 million to State Bureau of Investigation for liquor law enforcement.

• $24.46 million in sales taxes collected and disbursed to the state, local counties and municipalities.

The Utah attorney general’s office weighed earlier this year whether to prosecute the founder of a mismanaged charter school for possible financial misconduct. But, in the end, investigators determined there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction.

“The attorneys weren’t confident they were going to get anything,” said Richard Piatt, spokesman for the office, on Tuesday.

The decision to not charge Michael Farley, who created the American International School of Utah, was made in February. A law firm hired by the charter had reviewed Farley’s work after his controversial departure, and sent its allegations to the attorney general’s office. In a declination letter released this week, the director of the A.G.'s white collar and commercial enforcement division said it was “unlikely that a criminal conviction could be secured.”

Instead, the office will move forward with a lawsuit filed Friday against the school, as a whole, and the for-profit company that owns it — and it’s still related to the financial troubles there. The suit asserts that AISU improperly agreed to sell all its assets to the company rather than surrendering them to investors or to taxpayers, who are picking up the school’s debts.

The suit seeks the termination of that sales contract and a temporary restraining order, so the company cannot benefit financially as the school shuts down over poor performance.

Tasi Young, who succeeded Farley as director and has since left the post himself, is currently the head of the company. He said the school never owned the property and that the furniture was paid for by investors.

“This latest thing with the lawsuit, it borders on ridiculousness and utter waste of resources," he suggested. “I just don’t know if this is incompetence at the state level or if they have some larger strategy. I don’t think this is legal rocket science.”

Young said the agreement was actually meant to release any claims that the company had on the property; and he doesn’t intend to fight the lawsuit. But he said he’s frustrated that the state is stepping in now — instead of helping when the charter could have used advice and support.

“They denied us resources," he added. "They denied us help.”

Farley, though, was the one largely at the center of the many discussions involving the charter’s poor financial state since its board of directors voted to shutter it this spring under pressure to repay debts. AISU will officially be out of business on Aug. 15.

The institution was first placed on “warning status” late last year for the money it owed — which several administrators at the school have pinned on mistakes made by Farley, who left after three years of running the charter and the company that owns it. (He says he was forced out.)

After years of concern in Utah about the oversight of charter schools, the legal actions involving AISU are a rarity. The potential criminal charge against Farley, for instance, is one of the first times such a case has been considered.

Piatt said he didn’t know the specifics of why there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward with it — whether it was a problem of records not being kept or a matter of not having witnesses. But AISU has had issues since its founding five years ago. And Farley was the only person investigated with connection to the school, Piatt added.

“I never had any concern on legal issues,” Farley responded Tuesday. “But there’s nothing I can say that’s going to tilt the balance.”

He said he’s become the scapegoat for the school’s ongoing problems. And he contemplated filing a wrongful termination suit at one point.

“I don’t accept at all the characterization they’ve made of me,” Farley said. “They, for the last two years, have been repeating this narrative that I think is self-serving and not accurate, and it’s damaged my reputation.”

The school is indebted to the state and federal government for $415,689 for funding that was supposed to be used for special education. AISU, according to a scathing audit published by the Utah State Board of Education, spent that money instead on salaries and health benefits or otherwise didn’t properly document it. The debt, due on June 26, has not been paid.

The school also faces potentially millions of dollars in other unspecified debt, according to Jordan King, its spokesman before the closure.

Close the charter has been messy. Earlier this month, the Utah State Charter School Board voted to remove Young from the school. Members unanimously decided, too, to replace him with state Auditor John Dougall to finish out the process of shutting down the school.

At the same time, every member of AISU’s board of directors — which had already signed the July 11 sales agreement with the company — resigned.

After less than a week, Dougall stepped down from the school position. Now, Royce Van Tassell, the executive director of the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, is overseeing the closure and trying to recoup some of the money owed.

The lawsuit filed by the attorney general’s office last week has that same aim. The lawyers worry that desks, chairs, computers and other property there will be handed over to AIS LLC instead of to the state or other debtors who are owed.

“They didn’t have the authority to do that [agreement] under statute,” said Assistant Attorney General Alain Balmanno. “We feel fairly strongly that we’re right.”

He suggested the board may have signed it to help the LLC benefit financially from the closure. Balmanno filed the request to terminate that contract last week and for a temporary restraining order Monday.

The new board headed by Van Tassell, Balmanno said, has informally agreed to hold off on turning over the assets. And Van Tassell said he views those assets as maybe the only way to pay off the charter’s debts.

"As far as the current board is concerned, we’re Switzerland,” Van Tassell said. “But that property could reduce those obligations.”

As the process of closing the school continues, the Utah Board of Education will have a chance to weigh in Thursday and the state auditor intends to release the results of an investigation into the finances at the charter in December.

Kerstin Fotu surged ahead on her last nine holes Tuesday and became the stroke-play medalist in the 113th Women’s State Amateur at Logan Country Club.

Fotu shot 71-70 for a total of 3-under par 141, two strokes better than Southern Utah University golfer Poy Prasurtwong (68-75), the first-round leader.

Fotu, a Lone Peak High School graduate, will join BYU’s golf program in September. She started the second round on the back nine and was 1 over on that side, then made three birdies on the front nine.

“The main goal was just to get to match play,” said Fotu, who reached the quarterfinals as a 12-year-old in 2012, when Logan Country Club last hosted the State Am.

BYU golfer Naomi Soifua, who also finished on No. 9, triple-bogeyed that hole and barely made it into match play. Soifua (78-78) advanced, even with three 7s on her scorecard in two days. The cut came at 12 over par, with no playoff required to determine the 16 qualifiers.

Scores were much lower Tuesday than in the first round, with several golfers making nice comebacks. Carissa Graft, the Class 6A state tournament medalist from Bingham High School, went from 79 to 72 and tied for fifth with 15-year-old Grace Summerhays, who went from 80 to 71. Other big moves came from Laura Gerner (80-72) and Xena Motes (82-73) as they made the match-play field.

Two rounds will be staged Wednesday, followed by the semifinals and finals Thursday.

Provo • Before Robert Lyman set his lighter to a wood pile that would end up burning out of control and torching 71,000 acres in Brian Head, he had tried to take some precautions.

He had two buckets of water nearby and a hose fed from a spring was at the ready. He had raked away debris and wet the ground beforehand — the things that officials say should be done before trying to ignite burn piles.

But it wasn’t enough.

Within five minutes, the flames had grown out of control and started what was dubbed the Brian Head Fire, a June 2017 blaze that torched 13 homes and forced about 1,500 people to evacuate across Iron and Garfield counties. It took a month to extinguish and cost about $34 million to fight.

But were Lyman’s actions that day reckless?

That’s the question at the heart of a preliminary hearing held Tuesday, where prosecutors elicited testimony from two fire investigators in an effort to show that Lyman committed a crime when he set the fire that burned through brush and beetle-killed timber during the hot, dry summer days two years ago.

Lyman is charged with reckless burning and burning during a closed fire season, both misdemeanor counts. If convicted of reckless burning, he could face a maximum penalty of up to a year behind bars.

His attorney, Andrew Deiss, argued that his client’s choices to bring water to the burn area and rake debris away showed that he was trying to mitigate the inherent dangers. Ironically, Lyman had been burning those debris piles to protect his home from wildfires, Deiss argued — he had been trying to make a “fire break,” a barrier of open space that works as an obstacle and protects homes from spreading wildfires.

That, in part worked, Lyman’s cabin didn’t burn in the massive blaze.

Weiss argued that in the aftermath of a fire that caused pain, fear and anger among the people who lived there, Lyman became someone to pin the blame on.

“Mr. Lyman is not a villain,” he argued as he asked a judge to toss the case. “He was a man trying to do the right thing and took multiple steps to accomplish that goal.”

But Deputy Iron County Attorney Shane Klenk argued Tuesday that Lyman’s precautionary measures proved that he was being reckless.

“Mr. Lyman was in fact aware of a risk,” he argued, “that the fire could spread up hill to brush and trees.”

Fourth District Judge James Brady ultimately found the case should move forward, and a jury should decide whether Lyman was, in fact, reckless.

Iron County Fire Warden Ryan Riddle testified during the Tuesday hearing that he rushed from Cedar City to Brian Head after he received report of a fire on June 17, 2017 and found 80 to 100 foot flames.

“We were doing everything we could to minimize any damages to structures or infrastructure,” Riddle testified, but noted that within the first few hours, a cabin had already burned.

The fire continued to burn for weeks, before officials declared it officially contained on July 15, 2017.

During this time, Bureau of Land Management fire investigator Dan Barnes was called to figure out how the blaze was started. He testified that he quickly came in contact with Lyman, who had called 911 and reported that his fire had gotten out of control.

He described Lyman as cooperative, saying the cabin owner was helpful in describing what he was burning and took responsibility for starting the fire. But he noted that while it wasn’t intentional, Lyman didn’t do enough to prevent the flames from getting out of control.

“The fact that the forest caught on fire would indicate those precautions were not even near appropriate,” he testified. “Those preparations were not adequate for what he was burning.”

After the judge ruled that there was enough evidence for Lyman to go to trial, he pleaded not guilty to the two charges.

After the hearing, his attorney said Tuesday was the first time the public was able to get a glimpse of what really happened that June day. He said rumors have been flying for the past two years about the fire — primarily that Lyman had been warned about burning debris piles before, and that he had used a weed torch to start the blaze. The latter rumor was even tweeted by Gov. Gary Herbert days after the fire had started, but Weiss said neither were true.

The fire, he said, was started with a lighter and some lighter fluid.

“The outcome is terrible,” he said, “but his mental state was he wanted to do the opposite of what he’s charged with.”

Lyman’s case is being heard in a Provo courtroom after a judge in Iron County found it was unlikely that he could receive a fair trial there.

His attorneys wrote in a motion that he would not get a fair trial because of “hatred” the rural community expressed in online comments and social media posts for the “outsider” who lived in Taylorsville. They further argued that the fire affected so many Iron County residents — it’s likely some would have to drive past the damage just to get to the courthouse to report for jury duty — that it would impossible for him to get a fair trial.

Prosecutors did not oppose the motion, and the case was moved to Utah’s second largest county.

Albuquerque, N.M. • The mother of a Navajo girl who was kidnapped and killed in 2016 urged tribal officials and children’s advocates Tuesday to take advantage of tools and funding under a law that expands access to the nation’s Amber Alert system.

Pamela Foster spoke during a training at Isleta Pueblo, south of Albuquerque, for tribes seeking to implement the alert system. Despite a 2007 pilot project, it was not in place on the Navajo Nation when her daughter Ashlynne Mike was abducted near Shiprock, a town in northeast New Mexico. Her disappearance was a catalyst for the state to fully implement Amber Alerts.

"I want you to know there was nothing worse than finding out there were no Amber Alert systems on the reservation at the time when we needed it most. No roadway digital signs, no text alerts," Foster said.

A federal law signed last year expanded the child abduction alert system to tribal land, giving tribes direct access to federal grants that law enforcement agencies use for Amber Alert systems. The law was named in memory of Ashynne, whose memory has been evoked during Congressional hearings in Washington and marches in tribal communities that aim to shed light on the disappearances of Native American women and girls.

The 2018 law also makes permanent a pilot program that offers training to tribes. It's unclear how many of the more than 570 tribes in the U.S. participate in the Amber Alert system.

In 2007, the Navajo Nation was among 10 tribes that had participated in the pilot project through the U.S. Justice Department to expand Amber Alerts into Indian Country. But while other tribes, including the Pueblo of Laguna west of Albuquerque, found success in issuing alerts and establishing systems in coordination with state authorities, the Navajo Nation became what one expert called an "outlier."

Swaths of three different states — Utah, Arizona and New Mexico — are within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the U.S., and that has complicated coordination efforts, said Jim Walters, who leads the federally funded training program.

In Ashlynne's case, family reported her and her brother missing to police in the early evening, and police learned before nightfall from her younger brother that a man in a red van had taken both of them into the desert. The boy had been able to run away and meet an elderly couple along the road who took him to police.

Shiprock police sent a basic description of the suspect and his vehicle to partnering agencies about an hour later, but it wasn't until 2 a.m. that an Amber alert was issued, a delay that officials blame on getting information from the tribe to outside authorities who could issue an alert.

Ashlynne's mother recalled on Tuesday how she and her family had turned to agencies seeking help in their search.

Since 2016, New Mexico has become the first state in the county where all tribes have access to the Amber Alert plan, said Chyrl Jones of the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The state has 23 total tribes and pueblos.

Nationwide, a 2018 survey included in a Justice Department report to Congress found that out of 100 tribes questioned, 76 participated in their state's Amber Alert plan, while 25 tribes reported having a system to disseminate information about abductions.

At the federally funded training held in New Mexico this week, representatives of more than 20 tribes are participating, organizers said.

“Although I’m proud to announce that tribes from 34 states are represented at this year’s symposium, what we want is every tribe from every state to be a part of the Amber Alert network,” Jones said.

I saw a sign last February for a fire prevention meeting with the Bureau of Land Management in our rural Castle Valley of southeastern Utah. At the meeting, the BLM told us they were going to issue an environmental assessment for removing up to 75% of the pinyon and juniper trees on 1,300 acres in the valley to protect our town from wildfire. A public comment period would start soon.

Within a few days, a half dozen of us set out to look at the areas mapped for removal of pinyon (of 4 inches or less in diameter) and juniper (of 8 inches or less in diameter). We noticed that about half of the valley’s pinyon — young and old — were dead or dying from drought. We noticed that most of the juniper that were making the forest too dense were less than 4 inches in diameter. We noticed that juniper on some of the blackbrush areas were mostly older and scattered, with not much in between.

We asked the BLM to come see what we were seeing. They did. Twice. We jointly devised a better plan: leave all the pinyon — they’re already in trouble, and our pinyon jays (who are also in trouble) need them. Cut only juniper of 4 inches diameter or less. Leave the blackbrush openings alone. The resulting EA flew forward to the BLM’s final decision with approval by the town council and interested residents.

For decades, this kind of public involvement has been the norm for both BLM and the U.S. Forest Service. Now the Forest Service, manager of our nation’s 154 national forests, has decided that they could be much more “efficient” if they simply quit communicating with the public.

Under their current proposal (open for comments until August 12), 93.3% of all Forest Service decisions will lose all the current advance notice and public comment requirements.

This change includes the 80.1% of all Forest Service projects and permits that are approved under what is called a Categorical Exclusion, meaning the agency figures the project or permit will have no individual or cumulative significant effects on the environment.

It proposes to stop giving advance notice of these projects and an opportunity to tell the agency that it’s missed an important harm (e.g., dying pinyon). The proposed change also converts projects that were EAs due to their greater potential for harm (13.2%), into categorical exclusions. No analysis; no public input.

The Forest Service gives examples of what they will consider a categorical exclusion:

• Commercial logging of up to 4,200 acres of trees for “resilience activities” even if the harvest does not meet the forest plan’s “goals, objectives, or desired conditions.”
• Constructing five miles of new Forest Service roads. Converting a route that was created by illegal off-road vehicle driving into a new Forest Service motorized route “when determined appropriate.” (How’s that for an incentive to drive off authorized routes?).
• Approving a surface-use plan for four more oil and/or gas drill sites plus one mile of new road plus three miles of pipelines.
• Issuing a permit to commercial companies to park thousands of honeybee hives (at 10,000-30,000 non-native bees per hive) on the forest where the honeybees will outcompete native bees and transmit diseases to them.

You won’t be told the permit is being issued, and the Forest Service won’t need to write a memo or keep a file on the decision.

The list goes on and on with the result that only 6.7% of all Forest Service decisions will require any public comment whatsoever. And the BLM? With Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt (a former oil industry lobbyist) at the helm, expect to soon be cut out of commenting on nearly all BLM decisions as well.

These are your public lands. Sometimes you know where the pinyon are dying and the agency doesn’t. Sometimes you have a suggestion or research on how fire can be managed without clearcutting your valley.

Public involvement is what keeps the Forest Service (and BLM) somewhat tied to science and all of the nation’s public. Comment now, or you won’t be able to comment in the future when it’s in your backyard. One good portal for sending comments is OurForestsOurVoice.org.

Mary O’Brien lives in Castle Valley and serves as Utah Forests Program director for the Grand Canyon Trust.

It would seem the federal government has shortchanged the Utah Legislature again. It has denied the Utah partial Medicaid plan, virtually forcing our Legislature to adopt what their constituents voted for in the first place.

Errol Remington, Salt Lake City

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A former Mormon bishop’s arguments that his previous attorneys were ineffectual and hurt his case didn’t convince the Utah Supreme Court to throw out convictions for sexually abusing two women.

The decision will likely keep Keith Robert Vallejo, 45, in prison until at least 2022. Vallejo was sentenced to one-to-15 years and five-years-to-life in 2017 after being convicted of 10 counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and one count of object rape, a first-degree felony.

The two women accused Vallejo, then a bishop at his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ward, of touching them inappropriately when they spent the night at Vallejo’s Provo home in 2013 and 2014.

The case made headlines when 4th District Judge Thomas Low allowed Vallejo to remain free on bail after he was convicted, saying that because Vallejo was not a risk because of his large family and community works. That same judge became emotional during the sentencing.

“The court has no doubt that Mr. Vallejo is an extraordinary, good man. But great men sometimes do bad things,” he said.

Vallejo, through his attorney, declined to comment on the state Supreme Court decision.

He appealed the conviction with five arguments:

• His attorney should have tried to sever the case into two, one for each victim, for the chance at less prison time.

• His attorney should have objected to testimony — which Vallejo considered hearsay — from one of the woman’s friends.

• His attorney should have objected to religious testimony from one of the victims’ mothers, which he argues could have swayed “Utah County” jurors into believing the allegations against him were true.

• Testimony from a friend about Vallejo’s statements about inappropriate sexual conduct with one of the women was protected by attorney-client privilege and therefore inadmissible.

• In-court references to the two women as “victims” — including once from the judge — before he’d been convicted were improper and prejudiced the jury.

Justice John Pearce wrote the opinion, saying Vallejo must prove that his attorneys’ performance fell below an objectively reasonable standard to prove counsel was ineffective.

Pearce said Vallejo failed to do that.

In response to Vallejo’s first argument that his attorney should have tried to sever the cases, Pearce wrote, “In many cases, Vallejo might be right. There very well may be circumstances in which there is no reasonable basis for trying two cases together that could be tried separately. But this is not such a case.”

A reasonable attorney could choose a “strategy that seeks to minimize prison time” by trying two cases — one of which had more perceived advantages for the accused than the other — separately.

Or, Pearce wrote, the attorney could reasonably try the “all-eggs-in-one-basket” approach and play the weaknesses of one victim’s case against the strengths in another, hoping the jury would acquit on all charges.

“And it is logical to conclude that an attorney charged with representing a man in his forties, with no criminal history, and a position of relative esteem in his ecclesiastical community, might prefer a strategy that is designed to avoid any conviction and prison time,” Pearce wrote.

Vallejo’s attorney used spirituality as part of the defense’s argument. Pearce wrote that a reasonable attorney could not be expected to object to similar religious testimony on the other side because doing so could make their own case more difficult.

The court also was not swayed that every juror, by virtue of being from Utah County, would “draw the conclusion Vallejo fears” from the mother’s testimony.

Additionally, the court decided that the conversations Vallejo had about the case with a friend with a law degree — but without a license to practice law — weren’t subject to attorney-client privilege, because Vallejo himself had conceded under cross examination that he wasn’t going to retain the man as an attorney. Thus, the court ruled, the friend’s testimony was admissible.

The court also found that Vallejo “didn’t suffer prejudice” from references to the women as “victims." Pearce wrote that while the judge’s use of “victim” on one occasion was “ill-advised and unfortunate,” the judge also tried to correct the error.

It wasn’t likely the trial’s outcome would have changed if the term weren’t used, Pearce wrote, since the jury had heard “extensive and detailed” testimony about the abuse from the women, as well as the testimony of the friend who said Vallejo had told him about one instance of abuse.

According to court records, a family member of the victims reported the sexual abuse to police in January 2015. A lawyer with the firm that represents The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also reported the allegations to police during that time.

Vallejo was released from his bishop duties as soon as local leaders learned of the allegations in 2015.

---

Editor’s note: Utah Supreme Court Justice John Pearce is the husband of Salt Lake Tribune Editor Jennifer Napier-Pearce.

Portland, Ore. • CJ McCollum has agreed to a three-year contract extension with the Portland Trail Blazers.

The 27-year-old McCollum averaged 21.0 points last season, helping Portland make it to the Western Conference finals. The 6-foot-3 shooting guard, who was selected by the Trail Blazers with the 10th overall pick in the 2013 draft, has averaged at least 20.8 points over the last four years.

The agreement keeps McCollum under contract through the 2023-24 season. McCollum’s agent told ESPN the extension is worth $100 million.

President of basketball operations Neil Olshey says McCollum “is a franchise cornerstone and a critical part of our future.”

McCollum has career averages of 17.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 411 games with Portland over six seasons. He also is a 40.1% shooter from 3-point range and makes 83.9% of his foul shots.

The deal was announced on Tuesday.

Regarding Chris Herrod taking to task Paul Mero, Curt Bramble and David Irvine for their recent immigration opinion piece.

Herrod decried the three for reinforcing the Utah Compact and the friendly immigration policy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As a citizen of this state, I am proud of the Utah Compact and the church's stand on immigration, as I'm sure the majority of Utahns are. Herrod's fear-mongering seems to be totally in line with the disaster in the White House.

Incidentally, Herrod was the pick of the Republican caucus over the more moderate John Curtis, who overwhelming beat Herrod in the Republican primary.

Thank God for Count My Vote. Otherwise, Herrod could’ve been representing positions in Congress not in line with the majority of Utahns.

Jon Bischoff, Salt Lake City

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In the last two weeks, President Trump has demanded that minority members of Congress go back to where they came from or criticized their districts as rat-infested hellholes.

It’s a refrain that’s all too familiar to Japanese Americans who remember how they and their families were treated before, during and after World War II.

The one organization that championed our rights at the time was the Japanese American Citizens League, which celebrates its 90th anniversary with its annual convention this week at the Little America in Salt Lake City, Utah.

JACL brought together people to help combat the hatred stirred up against Japanese immigrants and their families living in the United States.

The organization holds a special spot in my life because its first president, Saburo Kido, was the lawyer who helped my grandfather, Iyekichi Higuchi, buy our family’s farm in San Jose. Kido was a master at using the legal system to get around the racist laws that prevented immigrants from buying land; the Higuchi farm was placed in the names of two of my uncles, James and Kiyoshi.

Japanese immigrants like my grandparents were told they could not assimilate into the overall American population, did not value democratic values and believed in an alien religion. Many were constantly told to go back to where they came from.

JACL’s leaders told the rest of the country that Japanese Americans were proud U.S. citizens. Its first executive director, Mike Masaoka, led the creation of the all-Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Brigade, the most-decorated U.S. military unit during World War II. During the war, JACL’s leaders worked out of their headquarters in Salt Lake City.

JACL’s record is not perfect. During World War II, the group’s leaders accommodated the government that had imprisoned its members. They shunned the Japanese American men who resisted being drafted while they were incarcerated. More than 60 of those young men were imprisoned at the camp in Heart Mountain, Wyo., with my parents and grandparents.

JACL eventually apologized to the resisters for that treatment, thanks to Floyd Mori of Salt Lake City, who was then the JACL president. Mori remains one of the group’s influential leaders, along with Judge Raymond Uno, a former Heart Mountain prisoner who became the first Asian American judge in Utah.

The organization was at the front of the effort that led Congress and President Ronald Reagan to enact the 1988 Civil Liberties Act that apologized for the Japanese American incarceration during World War II and made reparations of $20,000 to each surviving incarceree.

JACL stood up for our community then and carries on that mission today. Its leaders realize that an attack on one group of Americans is an attack on all of us. After the 9/11 attacks, they opposed efforts to demonize Muslim Americans

Under Executive Director David Inoue, JACL sees how our current border policies widen divisions in our troubled country and the long-term mental health impacts on those subjected to those policies. It has opposed family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border and the use of the Army’s Fort Sill as a detention center for immigrant children.

This week JACL’s members will confront the challenges facing ethnic minorities in the United States and help Japanese Americans deal with the multigenerational mental health trauma that still affects us.

That’s why we value JACL and applaud its steps to atone for some of its past stumbles. We look forward to gathering with this group this week to continue our growth as a community and its advocacy for fairness.

Shirley Ann Higuchi is a Washington, D.C., attorney and past president of the District of Columbia Bar. She chairs the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (www.heartmountain.org), which runs an interpretive center at the site of the camp where her parents were imprisoned. Higuchi is the author of an upcoming book about the Japanese American incarceration during World War II. Follow her on Twitter at @HiguchiJD.

Happy Wednesday! Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were clearly the targets on stage at last night’s presidential debate with more moderate candidates taking aim at their liberal policy ideas. But both seemed to mostly hold their own while some lesser-known contenders were able to have a few breakout moments. Here’s a look at the winners and losers of the first part of the second round of debates. [WaPost]

-> The Democratic debate continues tonight with 10 other candidates taking the stage at 8 p.m. CNN is hosting and will air live the forum featuring former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris.

Topping the news: After Davis and Salt Lake county officials raised concerns about distributing medical marijuana, thus breaking federal law, state officials are seeking alternative routes. [Trib]

-> Rep. Chris Stewart said the “socialist” proposals being pushed by Democratic candidates would “bankrupt America” and “destroy it’s freedom.” [Trib] [DNews]

-> The Utah Transit Authority spent nearly half a million dollars on food for its employees at holiday gatherings, board meetings and other events. [Trib]

Tweets of the day: From @stepville: I’d like to see a debate moderated by a 4-year-old going through a ‘Why?’ phase.”

-> From @MEPfuller: “The one thing you can say about Marianne Williamson is that she is 100% the most qualified candidate on that stage to sell you healing crystals.”

-> From @AlexCKaufman: “Tim Ryan has strong ‘wood-paneled basement man cave’ energy.”

Happy Birthday: Former Utah GOP Chairman and Deseret News editor Joe Cannon.

Also in the news: Several of the Salt Lake City mayoral candidates have proposed plans to bring tech companies to Salt Lake City. [Trib] [DNews]

-> Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson and Attorney Sim Gill unveiled a new program that would allow those with little criminal history who commit misdemeanors and some nonviolent felonies to avoid a court system by cooperating with a caseworker to address underlying issues. [Trib] [DNews]

-> The Russian government has banned a U.S.-based think tank previously headed by former Utah governor and current U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, claiming the group is “undesirable.” [Trib]

-> The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is launching a mobile app that will help customers find a particular type of alcohol in any state-run liquor store. [FOX13]

Nationally: Ten candidates running to be the Democratic presidential nominee competed in the second presidential debate Tuesday evening. [NYTimes]

-> Members of the Trump administration are divided over a large tax cut for investors; opponents of the tax cut say it is a poor move before the 2020 election. [NYTimes]

-> Under a proposed rule by the Agricultural Department meant to tighten access to food stamps, more than 500,000 children would lose access to school lunches. [NYTimes]

-> A law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom would require presidential candidates to release their tax returns in order to qualify for the primary ballot. Trump’s campaign plans to fight it in court. [NPR]

Got a tip? A birthday, wedding or anniversary to announce? Email us at cornflakes@sltrib.com. If you haven’t already, sign up here for our weekday email to get this sent directly to your inbox.

-- Thomas Burr and Alison Berg

Like so many health care supporters in Utah, I was upset when the Utah Legislature chose to override the choice voters made to fully expand Medicaid.

Proposition 3, which was supported by 53% of Utah voters (with an astonishing nearly 75% voter turnout in a midterm election), was replaced by Senate Bill 96. SB96 was a complicated partial expansion which sought unprecedented waivers from the federal government to receive full ACA Medicaid expansion funding to cover only people up to 100% of federal poverty level (rather than the 138% threshold required by law, and covered under Prop 3), and added unwieldy work reporting requirements, enrollment caps and other changes health care advocates opposed.

Like most of my fellow advocates, I had serious doubts that the federal government would approve this waiver, despite the insistence of SB96 proponents that it had been all but promised. On Friday, a report in The Washington Post revealed that Utah’s partial expansion waiver would be denied.

There has been a wave of confusion among both supporters and opponents of Prop 3 and SB96 as we all sort out the aftermath of that rejection. But SB96 itself tells us what should happen, thanks to a provision wisely added by legislators in the final days before the vote: if the waiver was not approved, we would move to the backup plan of Rep. Raymond Ward’s HB 210, a bill advocates supported which would fully expand Medicaid as called for in Prop 3, but make some fiscal tweaks to assure that it was fiscally sustainable.

I applaud this move by legislators to anticipate the potential for denial of the waivers and appreciate the promise they made to Utah voters to assure that Medicaid expansion took place. I thank SB96 co-sponsor Rep. Jim Dunnigan, who voted against his own bill in committee to help force the inclusion of the backup plan.

The federal government has not honored supposed assurances they made to Utah’s legislative leaders. But legislators now have an opportunity to demonstrate a higher standard by holding themselves to the commitment they made in the law they passed. The fallback position in SB96 outlines a plan that guarantees to Utahns that if the waiver was rejected, their choice to fully expand Medicaid would be respected.

Now it is time for elected officials to show that they can be trusted to keep their word. Full expansion must be implemented without delay to extend coverage to tens of thousands of Utahns badly in need.

Utahns have waited more than long enough. A recently released study shows that nationwide, 15,600 deaths could have been prevented by fully expanding Medicaid in states that have not yet done so. We have felt the effects of this in Utah. My own aunt was one of these statistics, as she was forced to delay treatment for symptoms that turned out to be esophageal cancer. Before she passed away, her doctors and nurses told her that earlier treatment, which could have been possible if she’d had Medicaid coverage, likely would have made a major difference to the outcome.

In an era when trust and approval of government leaders is low, Utah's leaders have a chance to earn respect and demonstrate integrity by immediately implementing the backup plan in the law they passed. It's time for all of us to call on them to do this. It's time for them to demonstrate to all that the "Utah Way" we so often hear about in local politics involves honesty and accountability. That it means when you make a promise to millions of voters, you keep it.

Paul Gibbs is an independent filmmaker, former Medicaid patient and health care activist who has campaigned for Medicaid expansion in Utah since 2014. He lives in West Valley City with his wife and two sons.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already stopped many bills passed by the House to benefit the American taxpayers: For example, one bill was to provide additional protection for persons with pre-existing conditions.There were many others, also blocked. Pure obstruction.

Now, McConnell blocked the advancement of legislation to secure our country’s weak and outdated election system. The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report addressing significant dangers facing our elections. Robert Mueller strongly supported the House legislation requiring voter-verifiable paper ballots, so recounts can be done accurately. And voting machines that don’t connect to the internet, thereby prevent vulnerability to hacking.

In the nearly three years since Russia’s attack, the Senate has not held a single vote on election protection legislation! Mueller was not alone with warning continued Russian meddling. Christopher Wray, the FBI director, stated: “The Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections.”

Clearly, McConnell isn’t afraid of Russian interference, he welcomes it!

Trump and company know they may lose the election without Russian interference. Where is love of country and protection of democracy? We are on a slippery slope towards a dictatorship. Does anyone care?

Maria Roberts, Park City

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• 1. Never use the word “Mormon” in describing anything Mormon. Doing so is a <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/10/07/members-offend-jesus/">win for Satan</a>.
• 2. Drink no coffee, tea or alcohol.
• 3. Eat meat sparingly. (Actually, scratch that. It’s in the <a href="http://local.sltrib.com/online/WoW/">Word of Wisdom</a>, but no one pays attention to it anyway, so bring on the burgers. You’re going to need to keep your strength up for keeping all the other rules.)
• 4. Eat a lot of vegetables and fruits in their season. And, yes, <a href="https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=54899180&itype=CMSID">funeral potatoes</a> totally count as a vegetable.
• 5. Go to church every Sunday, even when you’re on vacation. God gives you extra credit for this.
• 6. Accept any callings offered by the bishop. (But see also No. 40.)
• 7. Attend the temple once a month at the very least. Always keep a valid temple recommend.
• 8. Do your monthly visiting teaching/home teaching. Er, <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/04/02/no-more-mormon-home-and-visiting-teaching-outreach-will-be-a-holier-ministering/">ministering</a>.
• 9. Send out a homemade holiday gift and card/letter to neighbors.
• 10. Never use a curse word. If you need a library of faux swear options, watch “Napoleon Dynamite” multiple times and absorb its vocabulary.
• 11. Do family history work (genealogy) for your ancestors.
• 12. Show up for moving other people in and out of your ward. Lift with your legs! And keep plenty of ibuprofen on hand.
• 13. Sign up to bring meals to the sick or otherwise needy. These must be home-cooked. No KFC allowed!
• 14. Feed the missionaries — hefty portions. You don’t want emaciated elders or sisters around.
• 15. Volunteer to clean the church/temple when the sign-up sheet goes around. Remember to wear clothes you can get dirty in. You’re keeping the church clean, not yourself.
• 16. Attend ward activities like the Christmas party, the summer swim party, back-to-school parties, etc.
• 17. Hold a weekly Family Home Evening with your children. No crying allowed, from either parents or children!
• 18. Teach your children to do chores happily. (Good luck with this.)
• 19. Be grateful, even for your trials. Trials are really blessings in disguise. Also, they make great fodder for tearful testimonies in the future.
• 20. Keep a year’s supply of food in your basement, even if you never eat any of it. The family with the most wheat wins.
• 21. Do regular disaster planning with your kids, from fire drills to flood plans. You can never be too prepared for the end of days.
• 22. Know how to make important knots with rope. No one knows why this matters, but it does.
• 23. Learn how to build a fire without a match.
• 24. Know the stories of your pioneer ancestors, if you have them, to tell your children on Pioneer Day. (Don’t worry about the gruesome details — kids will love them!)
• 25. Invite nonmembers to attend church meetings and activities. Repeatedly.
• 26. Read the Sunday school and auxiliary lesson each week, so you can participate in lessons. But don’t monopolize the teacher, even if you’re the only one who prepared.
• 27. Figure out how to use beans in fudge making and wheat in chili-making.
• 28. Help with local fundraising activities for the youths, like allowing them to put a flag in your yard even if they break your sprinkler system.
• 29. God expects you to be happy.
• 30. Play “wholesome” games as a family. (Yes, Monopoly counts. The prophet Ezra Taft Benson taught that capitalism is holy, so it’s best to start ’em young.)
• 31. Donate to Sub for Santa or other Christmas charities as a ward/stake.
• 32. But don’t tell the children that Santa isn’t real.
• 33. Sing in the ward choir, even if you don’t sing well, because you can make a “joyful sound.”
• 34. Do NOT NOT NOT have sex before marriage — no making out, either. In fact, just try not to think about sex at all.
• 35. Root for BYU against the University of Utah — “bleed blue.”
• 36. Get your daughters to babysit for poor ward members for free.
• 37. Go on weekly dates with your spouse.
• 38. Don’t steal from the ward’s library or lost and found. (Return your crayons and chalk, dammit!)
• 39. Repent whenever you accidentally use a swear word, as I just did in violation of Rule No. 38.
• 40. Friends don’t let friends get called into the nursery.
• 41. Toddlers get only Cheerios in sacrament meeting. (No Capn’ Crunch or you’ll make the other toddlers jealous.)
• 42. Submit Primary children’s drawings as art for the ward bulletin, even if you can’t tell what it is.
• 43. Eat “better than sex” chocolate cake.
• 44. Drink sparkle punch.
• 45. Participate in <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/05/10/no-scouting-mormon-youth-culture-is-about-to-change-big-time/">Eagle Scout projects </a>no matter how stupid you think they are.
• 46. Have a favorite <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/06/18/mormon-church-creating-new-hymnbooks-for-adults-children/">church hymn</a> — preferably the same as one of the prophet’s.
• 47. Watch out for Gadianton robbers. Also, MLM schemes.
• 48. Know how to cook a marshmallow properly to make s’mores. They’re practically a Mormon invention.
• 49. Be able to make <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/11/21/mormon-land-funeral/">seven kinds of Jell-O salad</a>, at least one with carrots.
• 50. Save seats in a theater/amusement park where it’s not allowed, but do it politely.
• 51. Make sure you know how to make funeral potatoes. (Hint: with cornflakes!)
• 52. Drink root beer or milk if you are ever forced to be in a bar.
• 53. Turn regularly to sugar, in huge quantities, as your only vice.
• 54. Keep all church buildings at refrigerator temperatures year-round because men are in full suits and ties.
• 55. Drive to church no matter how close you live.
• 56. <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/04/01/with-church-growth/">Go on a mission</a> the moment you hit the requisite birthday.
• 57. Don’t go to the grocery store on the Sabbath. If you absolutely must, though, do it in another town so no one from your ward sees you.

Women

• 58. Do feminine crafts like knitting, crocheting and quilting.
• 59. Learn how to bake bread, cook meals cheaply, and can foods. Bonus points if you grow the foods in your own garden.
• 60. Wear makeup, because even an old barn looks good with a little paint on it.
• 61. <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/08/01/mormon-land-podcast/">Do not nurse at church</a> except in the mother’s lounge in the women’s bathroom, which will also be where children’s dirty diapers are changed and disposed of. But modesty!
• 62. Attend monthly Relief Society meetings.
• 63. Decorate your house with Relief Society kitsch.
• 64. No porn shoulders.
• 65. Don’t<a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/05/03/latter-day-saint-womens/"> slam your purse or talk in a shrill tone</a>.
• 66. Be able to sew pioneer bonnets, dresses, aprons, etc., in bulk at a day’s notice.
• 67. Don’t chew gum in church (according to my mother — it’s not ladylike).
• 68. You can have up to one ear piercing per God’s instructions. Getting double-pierced ears is beyond the pale, so don’t push it.

Men

• 69. Sacrament must be administered and passed by young men in white shirts, only using their right hands. The patterns may vary from ward to ward, but are secret and only for men to know.
• 70. Do not shed tears in any scenario ever, except during testimony meeting, when it is 100% acceptable for you to cry.
• 71. Don’t abuse your children or your wife — except with dad jokes, which you may pile on freely.
• 72. Do play <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/07/15/utahs-supreme-court-says/">church ball hard enough</a> to get injured or injure someone else. Unless someone winds up in the hospital, the Spirit hasn’t spoken strongly enough.
• 73. Facial hair was fine for Jesus but not for you. The clean-cut look is definitely the Mormon, er, Latter-day Saint look. Oh, and man buns are flat out.

Editor’s note • The views expressed in this opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.

The recent closure of the American International School of Utah — a public-private hybrid charter — has displaced more than 1,300 students and left potentially millions of dollars in unpaid debts, including hundreds of thousands of allegedly misspent special education dollars owed to, but unlikely to be repaid to, the state of Utah.

A new board has been established to oversee the nitty-gritty of shutting down the AISU organization. But it says there’s little hope of recovering taxpayer dollars, and it’s unclear who, if anyone, will face consequences from the situation, as virtually no one with direct involvement in the public school was an elected official.

On this week’s “Trib Talk," Tribune education reporter Courtney Tanner and Royce Van Tassell, executive director of the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, join reporter Benjamin Wood to discuss the conditions that led to AISU’s closure and the fallout from its financial mismanagement.

Click here to listen now. Listeners can also subscribe to “Trib Talk” on SoundCloud, iTunes and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify and other major podcast platforms.

“Trib Talk” is produced by Sara Weber with additional editing by Dan Harrie. Comments and feedback can be sent to tribtalk@sltrib.com, or to @bjaminwood or @tribtalk on Twitter.

It’s been said nothing is certain in life, but on the continuum of risk, the Trump administration approving Utah’s request for a stripped-down version of Medicaid expansion was supposed to be a sure thing.

The sun would rise, the Harlem Globetrotters would win, the president would Tweet something stupid, demeaning or inflammatory.

That sense of certainty was what lawmakers used to justify upending the clear will of Utahns just months after voters approved a broader proposal to help low-income Utahns get access to health care, a proposal that was on the ballot in the first place because of frustration at those same legislators’ stubborn unwillingness to do it on their own.

The Legislature’s entire scheme hinged on the Trump administration agreeing to pay 90% of the cost of covering an estimated 150,000 Utahns living at or below the poverty level. It had never happened before. Every other state has had to cover a larger population — those making 138 percent of the poverty level — to get 90%.

It didn’t really make much sense, if anyone actually stopped to think about it, that the federal government would be so much more generous with Utah than it had been with other states.

Never mind that. This was Utah innovating, the way Utah does. Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, who sponsored the bill, was so sure it was a done deal, he told his colleagues: “They’ve told us we can basically count on an April 1 waiver approval.”

“Basically” was the key word. Because basically, April 1 rolled around and it looked like Utah might be on the receiving end of an April Fools’ joke.

In the meantime, Utah rolled out a limited expansion with the feds picking up 70% of the tab.

Then, over the weekend, The Washington Post broke the story that the Trump administration was refusing Utah’s request for the 90% — and they did it before Utah had even submitted its request to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It was like getting shot down for prom before you even asked.

In a statement to Modern Healthcare, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it would “continue to only approve demonstrations that comply with the current policy” of paying the 90% match to states that expand to 138% of poverty — in other words, not you, Utah.

It appears that President Donald Trump is gambling on a Texas lawsuit — which Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes has joined — that seeks to obliterate Obamacare, which is the law that created Medicaid expansion.

In December, a federal judge ruled Obamacare was unconstitutional, but the decision was put on hold pending an appeal. Earlier this month, attorneys argued the case in the 5th Circuit. Helping states like Utah implement a big part of Obamacare could conceivably undermine the case.

If Texas prevails, about 200,000 Utahns who bought plans on the Obamacare exchanges would lose their coverage. Protections for things like pre-existing conditions would also disappear. And Medicaid expansion. So be sure to thank Reyes for his part in that, too.

Regardless how the appeals court rules, it will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court — eventually.

Until then, Utah leaders have a real problem on their hands.

Gov. Gary Herbert and legislative leadership issued a joint statement saying those now covered by Medicaid expansion — as of Monday, 34,488 had signed up since enrollment began four months ago — will continue to be covered.

That means Utah taxpayers will still cover 30% of the cost (with the feds still picking up 70%) — three times as much per person as it would have if they had just left the voter-approved Proposition 3 alone.

The state has two other waiver applications queued up. One would impose per-capita caps to limit the growth in the program — something that was meant to sweeten the deal for the Trump administration in hopes of getting the 90% match.

The other is a work requirement, which has forced thousands of residents in other states to lose their health coverage. A judge in New Hampshire this week blocked a work requirement for that state’s Medicaid coverage.

There’s one other option: The Legislature included a fallback in their re-write of Proposition 3. If the waivers aren’t approved then they default to full expansion. And lawmakers appear to be out of options.

Christensen, the state senator, acknowledged as much to my colleague Benjamin Wood in a refreshing moment of candor.

“We probably have to implement the thing,” Christensen said. “We told everybody they were wrong and we were right. And then when ours doesn’t come through — if, in fact, it doesn’t come through — then they were right and we were wrong.”

The problem is that fallback doesn’t kick in until July 2020.

The governor and legislative leaders should recognize that, convene a special session, drop their waiver request, and accept full expansion and the federal dollars that come with it.

It would be the best solution for taxpayers, ensure coverage for tens of thousands more Utahns in need, and — oh, hey — give Utahns what they wanted in the first place.