A wildfire on a mountain in south Provo has burned 250 acres, though firefighters say no structures are threatened.

Smoke from the wildfire was visible Wednesday morning across Provo and the neighboring cities. The fire is burning along Provo’s boundary with Springville near Oregon and Alaska avenues. The latter street has given the blaze its name: The Alaska Fire.

The Provo Police Department said in a Facebook post that reports of the fire arrived just after 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The Utah Fire Info Twitter account, operated by the state’s wildfire managers, tweeted the blaze is being fought on the ground by hand crews and fire engines. A helicopter was also ordered. The fire burned uphill during the night, according to the Twitter account.

#uwcnf #Alaskafire located east and north of Springville, approx 250 acres. Fire continues to move uphill in grass and brush. cause under investigation. additional resources ordered 5 Hotshot crews, 1 type 1 helicopter, 2 SEATS, air attack and 6 engines. pic.twitter.com/UG1VwslG08

— Utah Fire Info (@UtahWildfire) July 31, 2019

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Rain is possible in Provo on Wednesday, and that could assist firefighters.

Ogden • An Ogden police officer early Wednesday shot and killed a man who used a hammer to burglarize a Roy medical clinic and pharmacy and then charged officers with a knife, police chiefs from two cities said.

The suspect’s name was not released Wednesday morning. No police officers were injured nor was the janitor who called police. The burglary and shooting happened at Tanner Clinic, 3443 W. 5600 South in Roy, though it was an Ogden police officer who killed the suspect.

At a joint news conference later Wednesday at Ogden’s Public Safety Building, Roy Police Chief Carl Merino described how about 1:30 a.m. a janitor at the clinic saw a masked burglar break into the clinic with a hammer.

“She was in a terrible situation,” Merino said of the worker. “She saw him burst through a window masked up with a hammer.”

The woman barricaded herself in an office and called 911, Merino said. Roy police as well as officers from the county sheriff’s office, Ogden and Weber State University responded to the clinic.

Ogden Police Chief Randy Watt said officers quickly decided to enter the clinic to protect the janitor. An Ogden officer and his or her K9 were among those who entered to look for the suspect. Watt said the officers were sure to take “less lethal” weapons with them.

Watt said officers found the suspect in a hallway and gave him multiple commands to drop the hammer. An officer also fired bean bag rounds from a shotgun, Watt said. The rounds deliver a blow to the body without penetrating it.

The suspect ran into an office. As officers were looking for him again, Watt said, the man emerged from the office with a knife he was holding in what Watt called a threatening manner as he approached officers.

“The contact was at such close quarters,” Watt said, “the officers had no choice but to fire rounds from the pistols to defend themselves.”

Watt said one Ogden officer fired from a 9 mm pistol. Watt and Merino said they believed an officer from another department, though not theirs, also fired, but they seemed unsure. The Weber County Attorney’s Office is investigating the shooting. The Ogden officer is on administrative leave pending that investigation.

Watt said the suspect fell to the floor with the police dog biting his leg. The dog had to be pulled away so officers could aid the suspect.

The man was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Merino said after breaking into the clinic, the suspect stole medications from its pharmacy. Merino didn’t know what kind of medications were taken.

Watt said his officers and those from Roy had body cameras and those are being reviewed.

Investigators were still at the clinic late Wednesday morning. The clinic was closed and yellow police tape cordoned the building and half the parking lot. The clinic’s emergency lights were still flashing on the exterior fire alarms.

Tribune reporter Scott D. Pierce contributed to this report.

Detroit • The signature domestic proposal by the leading progressive candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination came under withering attack from moderates in a debate that laid bare the struggle between a call for revolutionary policies and a desperate desire to defeat President Donald Trump.

Standing side by side at center stage on Tuesday, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren slapped back against their more cautious rivals who ridiculed "Medicare for All" and warned that "wish-list economics" would jeopardize Democrats' chances for taking the White House in 2020.

"I don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for," said Warren, a Massachusetts senator, decrying Democratic "spinelessness."

Sanders, a Vermont senator, agreed: "I get a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big ideas."

A full six months before the first votes are cast, the tug-of-war over the future of the party pits pragmatism against ideological purity as voters navigate a crowded Democratic field divided by age, race, sex and ideology. The fight with the political left was the dominant subplot on the first night of the second round of Democratic debates, which was notable as much for its tension as its substance.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "We are the Democrats. We are not about trying to to take away healthcare from anyone. That's what the Republicans are trying to do. And we should stop using Republican talking points." #DemDebates #DemocraticDebates pic.twitter.com/jmCeOv8Pf0

— The Hill (@thehill) July 31, 2019

Twenty candidates are spread evenly over two nights of debates Tuesday and Wednesday. The second night features early front-runner Joe Biden, the former vice president, as well as Kamala Harris, a California senator.

While much of the debate was dominated by attacks on the preferred liberal health care policy, the issue of race emerged in the second hour. The candidates, all of whom are white, were unified in turning their anger toward Trump for using race as a central theme in his reelection campaign. Sanders called Trump a racist, while others said the president's rhetoric revived memories of the worst in the country's history, including slavery.

"The legacy of slavery and segregation and Jim Crow and suppression is alive and well in every aspect of the economy and the country today," said former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, adding that he supported the creation of a panel to examine reparations for the descendants of slaves.

The marathon presidential primary season won't formally end for another year, but there was an increasing sense of urgency for many candidates who are fighting for survival. More than a dozen could be blocked from the next round of debates — and effectively pushed out of the race — if they fail to reach new polling and fundraising thresholds implemented by the Democratic National Committee.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is working to keep her campaign alive, aligned herself with the pragmatic wing: "We are more worried about winning an argument than winning an election."

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, in his first debate appearance, took a swipe at Sanders: Working people "can't wait for a revolution," he charged. "Their problems are here and now."

While he avoided any direct confrontations with his more liberal rivals, Pete Buttigieg tried several times to present himself as the more sober alternative in the race. He rejected extreme positions, quoted scripture and abstained from calling out his opponents.

The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also subtly emphasized the generational difference between himself and Sanders, the candidate 40 years his senior standing to his side.

Perhaps no issue illustrates the evolving divide within the Democratic Party more than health care.

Sanders' plan to provide free universal health care, known as Medicare for All, has become a litmus test for liberal candidates, who have embraced the plan to transform the current system despite the political and practical risks. Medicare for All would abandon the private insurance market in favor of a taxpayer-funded system that would cover all Americans.

In targeting Medicare for All, the more moderate candidates consistently sought to undermine Sanders and Warren. The moderates variously derided Medicare for All as too costly, ineffective and a near-certain way to give Republicans the evidence they needed that Democrats supported socialism.

"They're running on telling half the country that their health care is illegal," said former Maryland Rep. John Delaney.

"We have a choice: We can go down the road that Sen. Sanders and Sen. Warren want to take us, which is with bad policies like Medicare for All, free everything and impossible promises," he continued. "It will turn off independent voters and get Trump reelected."

Yet Sanders and Warren did not back down. While they are competing for the same set of liberal voters, there seemed to be no daylight between them.

"Health care is a human right, not a privilege. I believe that. I will fight for that," Sanders said.

Buttigieg called on his party to stop the infighting.

"It is time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say," Buttigieg declared. "It's true that if we embrace a far-left agenda, they're going to say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they're going to do? They're going to say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. So let's just stand up for the right policy, go out there and defend it."

A new set of candidates, none with more to lose than Biden, will face off on Wednesday.

There, Biden will fight to prove that his underwhelming performance during last month's opening debate was little more than an aberration.

It won't be easy.

The 76-year-old Democrat is expected to face new questions regarding his past policies and statements about women and minorities — both key constituencies he needs to claim the Democratic Party's nomination and ultimately defeat Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump said earlier in the day that he would watch Tuesday’s prime-time affair from the White House. But his Twitter feed was uncharacteristically silent throughout the debate.

Peoples reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.

Don Gale hits the mark again with his wise opinion piece, “Stillbirth, abortion and miscarriage need compassion, not judgment!”

I agree with everything he says about what we should do to bring about acceptable results when it comes to helping women prevent the heartbreak of abortion, miscarriage and stillbirth.

I would, however, add one thing. Let’s make sure all options for avoiding pregnancies women do not want, are readily available at a reasonably low cost, and whenever possible, no cost.

Fares Arguello, Salt Lake City

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Enrollment at public colleges and universities in the Utah System of Higher Education increased to more than 184,000 for the 2019-20 academic year. But, while enrollment increases have been consistent, there has been a hidden chasm widening beneath the surface at colleges and universities within USHE — a growing opportunity gap in postsecondary education.

Utah’s population is projected to grow to over 3.5 million by 2065 and the percent of minorities in Utah (ages 18-35) is expected to nearly double. The existing enrollment and completion gap in postsecondary education between minority populations and the white population at Utah’s public colleges and universities will only increase as the state’s demographic makeup changes and access is not addressed.

The potential impact of predicted changes in Utah’s demographics would be 22,377 lost enrollments and 11,265 lost completions in the year 2065 alone according to USHE’s Growing Opportunity Gap Study found on ushe.edu. We must do more to improve access to higher education across the state to stop Utah’s growing opportunity gap.

USHE has already taken steps to move toward increased outreach and access to Utah’s underserved populations through a new scholarship program and the introduction of college access advisers in high schools across the state.

The Utah Promise Scholarship, created during the 2019 Legislative Session and sponsored by sponsored by Rep. Derrin Owens, is Utah’s first statewide needs-based scholarship program aimed at expanding access to postsecondary opportunities for all students who face financial barriers in paying for college. The Promise Scholarship will cover up to full tuition and fees for up to two years for students in qualifying circumstances. The scholarship is available at all public colleges and universities in Utah, including technical colleges beginning in fall 2019.

As another step toward increasing college access for all Utahns, the Utah State Board of Regents has expanded on the University of Utah’s Utah College Advising Corps program which has already been proven to increase college enrollment and college graduation (or completion) rates, helping to close the opportunity gap:

• For every meeting with a college access adviser, students are 13% more likely to enroll in college.
• For every meeting with a college access adviser, students are 5% more likely to graduate from college.

These full-time college access advisers will be in 34 Utah high schools for the 2019-20 academic year guided by four regional coordinators housed at Utah’s public colleges and universities. The Board of Regents is committed to continuing this initiative into every high school in the state by the 2021-22 academic year.

The college access advisers will:

• Help students register for and complete college entrance exams
• Assist students in submitting college applications, applying for scholarships, and financial aid
• Connect students to first-year experience programs to ensure a smooth transition from high school to college

Though the Utah Promise Scholarship and college access adviser initiative will surely greatly impact enrollment of underserved populations for the better, more must be done.

The board is working to set a postsecondary attainment goal for the state, consistent with projected demographic changes. This goal will direct the Board’s efforts in their commitment to closing Utah’s growing opportunity gap and increasing access to postsecondary education in the state.

Dave R. Woolstenhulme, Ed.D., became Utah’s interim commissioner of higher education in July. Previously, he served as vice president of statewide campuses for Utah State University, as Utah commissioner of technical education, executive vice provost of Utah State University and president of Uintah Basin Applied Technology College. He received his bachelor and master’s degrees from Utah State University, and his doctorate of education from the University of Wyoming.

Having sent linebackers Cody Barton and Chase Hansen to the NFL after their highly productive senior seasons, Utah's football coaching staff was consoled in the spring by Penn State transfer Manny Bowen's performance.

But now, as preseason camp begins Wednesday afternoon, Utah apparently will have to find a replacement for him. Bowen is giving up football with one year of eligibility remaining, the Ute Zone site of 247Sports reported late Tuesday. Utah’s players have reported for camp, with a team meeting taking place Tuesday night.

Ute coach Kyle Whittingham will address the media after practice.

Bowen arrived on campus in January, participated in spring practice and went through offseason conditioning before making his decision this week.

Utah’s depth chart lists Stanford transfer Sione Lund behind Bowen at one linebacker spot, but the likely replacement is Devin Lloyd, who was scheduled to play behind Francis Bernard at the other position. Ute defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley said Lloyd was the defense’s most improved player in the spring.

Utah's scheme generally uses two linebackers, but depth will become an issue in Bowen's absence. Trennan Carlson, a late addition to the 2019 recruiting class as a junior college transfer, will have a bigger role than expected.

This story will be updated.

Utah gymnastics star MyKayla Skinner, as expected, has elected to defer her senior year of college competition to pursue a USA Gymnastics Team berth for the the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.

With a final year of NCAA eligibility left, the two-time NCAA champion says she intends to return for her senior year and compete for the Red Rocks during the 2020-21 season. Skinner, a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection, also plans on returning to finish her degree in communications from the U.

Skinner, one of the most decorated gymnasts in school history, has claimed two NCAA titles (vault, floor), eight NCAA regional titles, and seven Pac-12 individual titles. Skinner is also Utah’s all-time leader in All-America awards with 26, ranks second with 28 career all-around victories, and third with 111 individual victories.

In her previous quest to earn an Olympic berth, Skinner was named an alternate for the 2016 USA gold-medal Olympic team after placing fourth in the all-around at the 2016 Olympic Trials. The 2016 Glasgow World Cup all-around champion put a pause on her international career by entering signing on to compete for the Utes.

Skinner will continue to train at her home gym in Arizona, Desert Light Gymnastics, to prepare for elite competition. She will next compete next at the 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships on Aug. 8-11. The four-day event will be held at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

It was the Detroit Donnybrook. Tuesday’s Democratic debate was choppy but passionate, opening up wide philosophical divisions within the party’s presidential field and providing sound bites critical of progressive ideas and candidates that Republicans are certain to use in 2020.

Moderate candidates trailing in the polls went in determined to upend Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the two strongest candidates on the stage and leaders of the party's left. Warren and Sanders were still standing at the end. Warren was consistently crisp, displaying the mastery-on-the-run that has lifted her in the polls. Sanders pushed back again and again against rivals he cast as insufficiently open to change. But several of those running behind — South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock — broke through the noise, of which there was a lot. CNN's moderators kept trying to stop candidates from speaking, and the candidates did their best to ignore them.

It gave the debate a disjointed feel, and a randomly selected group of candidates representing half the party's field created a very particular dynamic.

Before the encounter began, Democratic National Chairman Tom Perez spoke of the party having “the most diverse field in our nation’s history.” But all of Tuesday’s candidates were white. The five candidates of color will appear in the second debate Wednesday, which will feature the other leaders in the race, former vice president Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris. They were probably smiling as they watched the first half of the field tear each other apart.

Having the two staunch progressives onstage together did not create the fight many expected: a showdown between a rising Warren and a Sanders who has been falling behind her. Instead, the two worked almost as allies in a different battle, pushing back against others who challenged progressive ideas, including a single-payer health-care system and the Green New Deal.

With former Maryland congressman John Delaney serving as a middle-of-the-road bomb thrower, attacking rivals for not understanding health care, getting their math wrong and threatening to destroy the private insurance system, Warren and Sanders got increasingly impatient. At one point, Warren turned to Delaney and said: "I don't know why anyone goes to all the trouble to run for president of the United States just to talk about what we can't do and can't fight for." Sanders expressed exasperation, as well. "I get a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big ideas. Republicans aren't afraid of big ideas."

The debate opened with an extended scuffle about the Medicare-for-all proposal that Sanders popularized and Warren has endorsed. Supporters of the plan no doubt cheered the defenses offered by Warren and Sanders — that it would cut paperwork, end co-pays and deductibles, take corporate profit out of the health-care equation and guarantee everyone coverage. But their foes rehearsed all the arguments Republicans will use against it, among them that it could end private health insurance (including, said Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, the generous plans negotiated by unions) and force large tax increases to pay for the new system.

Buttigieg and Klobuchar both defended the alternative of adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act. Buttigieg argued that if the public system worked best, Americans would flock to it and create Medicare-for-all by choice. Klobuchar spoke of the urgency of getting everyone covered and cast the public option as "the easiest way to move forward quickly."

Democrats would do well to act like a sports team, watch the film of this encounter and consider how well Medicare-for-all would hold up on the 2020 battlefield. Tuesday's test should be sobering.

As the debate wore on, many onstage seemed frustrated at the collective portrait the candidates were presenting. "We are more worried about winning an argument than winning an election," Klobuchar said. Buttigieg said that, "It's true that if we embrace a far-left agenda, they're going to say we're a bunch of crazy socialists." But the GOP would do the same, he said, if Democrats "embrace a conservative agenda." The lesson: "Stop worrying about what the Republicans will say." Author Marianne Williamson, who also had effective moments, including a moving plea for racial justice, expressed frustration with the divisive policy thicket simply: "Yada, yada, yada."

For Bullock, it was his first debate and an effective one. He stressed his successful fight in Montana against big money in politics, his success in a state carried by Donald Trump and spoke movingly of his conversion on gun control.

In the end, it was a substantive discussion, very unlike anything Trump would engage in. But it was also an evening during which Democrats watching in their living rooms confronted the possibility that the long fight between now and next summer could be irritable, difficult and fractious.

E.J. Dionne is on Twitter: @EJDionne.

One shouldn’t go into “Hobbs & Shaw” — officially, “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,” for those who can’t get enough ampersands — expecting a mental chess match or clever plotting or Shakespearean acting.

No, “Hobbs & Shaw” is a meat-and-potatoes — or should that be “meat & potatoes”? — action movie, with more cars than a Hot Wheels set, more guns than an Army shooting range, and more body slams than star Dwayne Johnson threw in his entire wrestling career.

Johnson returns as Luke Hobbs, the L.A.-based super cop who has been battling Vin Diesel for custody of the “Fast and the Furious” franchise since the fifth installment in 2011. When we first see Hobbs this time, he’s sharing a split screen with his nemesis from the last two films, British ex-spy and assassin Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). Both of them are punching and kicking their way through the usual den of iniquity with dancing girls in the front and mob types in the back. And that’s just the appetizer.

Director David Leitch, (“Atomic Blonde,” “Deadpool 2”) handles these kinds of fight scenes easily, cutting quickly and energetically to get the fists, feet and guns all at the precise point of impact. Leitch, it’s handy to remember, got his start as a stunt coordinator on “John Wick," and few directors handle action with sharper impact.

Oh, but then people have to talk, and that’s where things get messy in a patchwork script by Chris Morgan (who has been writing “F&F” movies since No. 3, “Tokyo Drift”) and Drew Pearce (“Hotel Artemis”). The CIA needs Hobbs and Shaw to work together to retrieve a deadly super-virus that could kill a large chunk of humanity. The thief, supposedly, is a rogue British intelligence agent — who happens to be Shaw’s sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby, who played Princess Margaret in “The Crown”).

What we know, and the characters figure out, is that Hattie is being set up by the real villain, a part-mechanical, part-human wrecking crew called Brixton, played by Idris Elba. Brixton, who has some bad blood with Shaw, is working now as a super-soldier for an all-powerful biotech conglomerate whose unseen Director wants to use the super-virus to cull humanity down a few billion.

Leitch and the script move briskly from London to Moscow — where Shaw has a connection with a lingerie-clad arms dealer (Eiza González), because nothing makes sense here — to Samoa, which brings Hobbs home to his estranged family. Yes, even without Vin Diesel around, this franchise likes to beat the audience over the heads with the importance of “family.”

The action is outrageous, of course, but slickly handled. It’s the comedy that falls flat, between the not-so-clever augmented reality of Brixton’s high-tech fighting — does he really need a computer screen to flash “attack imminent” when Statham’s fist is coming near his face? — and the stream of insults between the two leads. When that’s not enough yuks, the movie stops the story dead with a couple of big-name comic cameos (who will remain unnamed) that go on uncomfortably long.

But, as is obvious from start to finish, “Hobbs & Shaw” isn’t a movie built for detailed intellectual parsing. It’s a big, loud, dumb explode-a-thon, and on those own limited ambitions, it fills the bill.

——

★★ ½

‘Fast & Furious Present: Hobbs & Shaw”

• Dwayne Johnson throw punches and one-liners with equal force and finesse, in an action movie that works if one doesn’t think about it.
• <b>Where</b> • Theaters everywhere.
• <b>When</b> • Opens Friday, Aug. 2.
• <b>Rated</b> • PG-13 for prolonged sequences of action and violence, suggestive material and some strong language.
• <b>Running time </b>• 135 minutes.

Video: Author Marianne Williamson often makes headlines for saying things like ‘dark psychic forces,’ but her stances on reparations are gaining traction. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

Washington • Marianne Williamson for president!

It is perhaps not the best sign for Democratic prospects in the 2020 election that on a stage packed with senators, governors and the odd congressman and mayor, the one who repeatedly soared above the others Tuesday night was the New Age author and spiritual adviser to Cher.

But, again and again, this impossibly youthful 67-year-old with a comical patrician accent broke through with a cut-the-crap sensibility. She kept pushing her higher-profile competitors to think, and talk, in deeper perspective and sweeping context.

Goaded by CNN’s Jake Tapper, the candidates spent the first half hour of the debate — the only part of the 2.5-hour extravaganza many will have seen — arguing angrily about their competing health plans. It was desultory, and about as practical as debating how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.

Then came Williamson. "Everything that we're talking about here tonight is what's wrong with American politics," she said. "When it — when we're talking about health care, we need to talk about more than just the health care plan." She advised against getting hung up committing to a Medicare-for-all plan, "because if that's our big fight, then the Republicans will so shut us down on everything else."

The other nine on the stage resumed their squabbles, making big deals of small differences, until fairness required a question be directed at Williamson — as chance would have it, about the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. She drew applause for saying this "would not have happened in Grosse Pointe," a wealthy Michigan enclave, then brought this back to her theme: "This is part of the dark underbelly of American society, the racism, the bigotry. And the entire conversation that we're having here tonight — if you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I'm afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days."

Williamson went on: "We need to say it like it is. It's bigger than Flint. It's all over this country, it's particularly people of color. It's particularly people who do not have the money to fight back. And if the Democrats don't start saying it, then why would those people feel that they're there for us? And if those people don't feel it, they won't vote for us, and Donald Trump will win."

Bingo. She seemed to grasp what others on the stage didn't as they argued over small differences. As Trump proved in 2016, voters don't much care about 10-point policy plans — what Williamson calls "wonkiness" — nor even about whether a politician's promises are realistic. They like candidates who speak plainly and passionately.

In a sense, Williamson has the luxury of speaking plainly and passionately because she has zero chance of being the Democratic nominee. But those who do might take notice, and stop squabbling about the finer points.

Asked about her plan to make college free for all, including children of the wealthy, Williamson turned against the wonks again. "I've heard some people here tonight, I almost wonder why you're Democrats," she said. "You seem to think there's something wrong about using the instruments of government to help people. That is what government should do."

Asked about gun safety, likewise, she turned against her competitors, saying that because they accept contributions from corporate donors, "I don't think the Democratic Party should be surprised that so many Americans believe yada, yada, yada."

Her ideas are, often, utterly impractical. On guns, she blithely proposed a constitutional amendment. Otherwise, "it's just the same old, same old." On slavery reparations, she said, "anything less than a hundred billion dollars is an insult and $200 billion to $500 billion is politically feasible."

But she's right about one big thing, which she returned to in the closing moments of the debate. "Our problem is not just that we need to defeat Donald Trump," she said. "We need a plan to solve institutionalized hatred, collectivized hatred and white nationalism. And in order to do that, we need more than political insider game and wonkiness and intellectual argument."

Williamson will not be the Democratic nominee. But hopefully the one who will be is taking note.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.

Cincinnati • Major League Baseball is reviewing video of the latest fight between the Pirates and Reds, with Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle expecting suspensions on both sides.

Reds manager David Bell faces a significant suspension for running onto the field and going after Hurdle during the ninth inning of Pittsburgh's 11-4 win Tuesday night. Bell already had been ejected from the game.

Base-brawl in Cincy

(via @FOXSportsOH)pic.twitter.com/5nIjhE5Hc1

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 31, 2019

Hurdle spoke with Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre on Wednesday before an afternoon game against the Reds that concludes their raucous series. Hurdle said MLB was reviewing video of the numerous confrontations during the game, which turned into a fight in the ninth when Reds reliever Amir Garrett charged the Pittsburgh dugout.

Four from each team were ejected, including about-to-be-traded Yasiel Puig.

Miami • Pro Football Hall of Fame middle linebacker Nick Buoniconti, an undersized overachiever who helped lead the Miami Dolphins to the NFL’s only perfect season, has died at the age of 78.

Buoniconti died Tuesday in Bridgehampton, New York, said Bruce Bobbins, a spokesman for the family. A cause of death was not immediately given.

Buoniconti was bypassed in the NFL draft but went on to a 15-year career. He helped the Dolphins win back-to-back Super Bowls, including the 1972 team that finished 17-0.

Following retirement, Buoniconti and his son, Marc, worked to raise more than a half-billion dollars in the search for a cure for paralysis. The younger Buoniconti was paralyzed from the shoulders down making a tackle for The Citadel in 1985.

Marc Buoniconti said his father was his biggest hero.

"He could have been sitting on the beach sipping champagne for the rest of his life," the younger Buoniconti said in 2017. "But what did he do? He went around and gave the rest of his life to help his son."

Nick Buoniconti was chosen for the all-time AFL team in 1970. He was chosen for the NFL Pro Bowl in 1972 and 1973.

Following retirement, Buoniconti worked as an attorney, as president of U.S. Tobacco and as an agent to such athletes as Bucky Dent and Andre Dawson. In recent years he struggled with symptoms of CTE, a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated blows to the head.

A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, Buoniconti played guard on offense and linebacker on defense for Notre Dame. But at 5-11 and 220 pounds, he was small for an NFL linebacker.

He was taken in the 13th round by the Boston Patriots of the upstart AFL and played for them from 1962 to 1968. He made the AFL All-Star Game six times and had 24 career interceptions for the Patriots, including three in a single game in 1968.

Buoniconti played for the Dolphins from 1969 to 1974 and in 1976. He was the leader of Miami's famed "No-Name Defense" and in 1973 he set a team record with 162 tackles. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.

In 1985, he and Marc Buoniconti helped to found the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, which has become the world’s largest spinal cord injury research center.

Provo • Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the man charged with killing 18-year-old Riley Powell and 17-year-old Brelynne “Breezy” Otteson in 2018.

Jerrod Baum, 42, is accused in court papers of forcing Breezy to kneel before a mine shaft and watch as Baum beat and stab her 18-year-old boyfriend to death. He then allegedly cut the girl’s throat and threw them both into an open mine.

The deaths, authorities have said, were driven by Baum’s anger that the teen couple had come to his Mammoth home on Dec. 29, 2018 and smoked marijuana with his then-girlfriend, Morgan Lewis.

Lewis — who has been a key witness to investigators and led them to the mine where the bodies had been stashed — testified at a preliminary hearing earlier this year that Baum had forbidden her from having male friends.

Baum is facing two charges of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, and other crimes. Utah County Attorney David Leavitt’s Wednesday announcement about seeking the death penalty came as the legal deadline for that decision neared.

Lewis, who has also gone by the name Morgan Henderson, told a harrowing tale from the witness stand during Baum’s preliminary hearing in March.

She detailed how Baum had tied up the two teens and put them in the back of Riley’s Jeep, before driving Lewis and the young couple to the abandoned mine shaft known as Tintic Standard No. 2.

The woman recounted how Baum forced her to her knees in what she described an "execution style" pose, and pushed Breezy down to her knees as well.

Lewis testified that she looked on as Baum began stabbing Riley multiple times until the young man stopped breathing.

Baum then turned to Lewis and Breezy, the woman testified, and went behind them. He held the teen girl in his arms, Lewis said, then slit her throat.

Baum threw the teens’ bodies down the 1,800-foot mine shaft, according to Lewis. The bodies landed on a ledge about 100 feet down.

Lewis initially lied to police after they came to question the couple once Riley and Breezy had been reported missing.

But after she was pulled over by police for an unrelated reason, she decided to tell investigators what she saw.

In late March 2018, Lewis led investigators to the mine shaft and authorities were able to extract the teen’s bodies.

She testified against Baum as part of a plea deal, after she pleaded guilty to 10 counts of obstructing justice for lying to police as they tried to investigate Riley and Breezy’s disappearance. She is now serving a three-year sentence in the Utah County jail.

Utah prosecutors are currently seeking the death penalty against a handful of defendants — including an Ogden couple accused of starving and beating their 3-year-old daughter until she died and a Utah prisoner who is accused of beating and stabbing to death a rival gang member in the Draper prison in 2016.

The death penalty is often threatened in aggravated murder cases in Utah, but rarely carried out. It’s been more than a decade since Utah prosecutors have secured a death penalty conviction, and cases more often resolve with a plea deal that takes the possibility of execution off the table.

The last person to be sent to death row was Floyd Maestas, who was sentenced to die in 2008 for stomping a woman to death. He was not executed. Maestas died last December of natural causes.

There are eight men currently on death row, all with ongoing appeals in state or federal court and no set execution date. Two of those inmates, Douglas Carter and Douglas Lovell, have been granted evidentiary hearings exploring issues involving their convictions.

The last execution in Utah was carried out in 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad for the 1984 murder of attorney Michael Burdell during Gardner’s failed escape attempt from a Salt Lake City courthouse.

Bring an appetite and a party spirit to Salt Lake City’s third annual Food Truck and Brewery Battle.

The all-ages bash takes place Saturday, Aug. 4, at The Gateway, 100 S. Rio Grande St.

From 4 to 10 p.m., there will be 18 food trucks serving burgers, burritos, barbecue and more.

Six of the trucks will vie for the title of Best New Food Truck in two categories. They are Balabe Senegalese Cuisine; Hayat’s Afghan Grill, Hungry Hawaiian, Raclette Machine, Sgt. Pepper’s Fat Burrito and Traditions Mobile Cafe.

Rolling in next to them will be 12 seasoned mobile food favorites: Chedda Burger, Family Squeezed Lemonade, Fatty Tuna Sushi & Ramen, Fry Me to the Moon, Havana Eats, Jamaica’s Kitchen, Mama Lau, Salty Pineapple, Shylo’s Mobile Cafe, Smokin’ Star Barbecue, Umani Pizza Truck and Yoshi’s Enso Grill.

Along with the food, 12 Utah breweries will be pouring brews for those 21 and older. Identification required. Three of Utah’s oldest producers — Squatters, Wasatch and Uinta — will be joined two of the state’s newest brewers, Level Crossing Brewing Co. and Toasted Barrel Brewery.

Kiitos Brewing, which was named “Best New Brewery” in 2018, will be pouring its Earth-friendly beers again. They will be joined by Bohemian, Epic, Hoppers, Moab, Proper and Strap Tank Breweries, as well as Mountain West Hard Cider.

Guests will vote by text for People’s Choice awards, while Editors’ Choice awards will be given by The Salt Lake Tribune, one of the event sponsors, along with The Food Truck League, U92 and The Gateway. Winners will be announced at 9 p.m. on the Olympic Plaza stage.

Rounding out the party will be DJs and karaoke on two stages.

Admission is free, but bring your wallet to buy food and beer. For more details, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/340734976549573/.

If the election for Utah’s next governor were held today, 41% of Republican voters would cast their ballot for Spencer Cox, according to the results of a poll released Wednesday by the Salt Lake Chamber.

The results show Cox, currently the state’s lieutenant governor, well positioned ahead of his expected and potential rivals for the 2020 Republican primary, including ambassador to Russia and former Gov. Jon Huntsman at 26%. Former Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes trails far behind at 6%.

And the poll suggests Cox maintains his lead when the race is narrowed to a head-to-head matchup with Huntsman, who is reportedly considering a return to the state and a potential campaign for a third term as governor.

In that hypothetical race, Huntsman pulls ahead among all voters (43% to 37%) while Cox maintains first position (45% to 34%) among the Republican voters who will be decisive in awarding the party’s nomination, according to the poll.

“As a candidate for the Republican nomination, these are the numbers that matter,” Cox said in a prepared statement. "We’ll continue working hard, visiting every city and town to meet as many Utahns as possible. But we are very encouraged that so many Utahns believe in our conservative vision for the state.”

The poll was conducted by Dan Jones and Associates between June 11 and July 1 for the chamber’s quarterly Utah Outlook report, and includes responses from 801 likely voters. For some of the gubernatorial questions, the sample size drops to either 758 or 759 as a result of responses being excluded after former Congressman Jason Chaffetz announced he would not run for governor in 2020.

The Chamber’s information does not include the sample size of Republican voters, making the margin of error for those portions of the poll unknown. Only registered Republicans are able to vote in the Utah Republican Party primary.

Chamber representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the poll’s methodology.

Other potential gubernatorial candidates included in the poll were former Utah Republican Party Chairman Thomas Wright, at 8% of Republican voters, and Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton, at 1%. The poll did not include Provo businessman Jeff Burningham, who is exploring a run and conducting a statewide listening tour.

Seventeen percent of Republican voters indicated they don’t know who they’d vote for, and 1% said they would support “The Democratic nominee” for governor.

The chamber also polled voters on this year’s election for Salt Lake City mayor. With a sample size of 149, 30% of voters said they would vote for former state Sen. Jim Dabakis, 15% said Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, 12% said city Councilwoman Erin Mendenhall, 8% said businessman David Ibarra, 5% said environmental lawyer David Garbett and another 5% said former city Councilman Stan Penfold.

One-fourth of Salt Lake City voters indicated they don’t know who they’d vote for if the election were today.

Editor’s note: Ambassador Jon Huntsman is the brother of Paul Huntsman, owner and publisher of The Salt Lake Tribune.

The Salt Lake Tribune will update this story.

Provo • Mady Sissoko, a rising senior at Wasatch Academy and widely considered to be one of the top 100 prep basketball prospects in the country, sustained a significant hand injury while on an official recruiting visit to BYU last weekend and will likely miss a portion of the upcoming 2019-20 season.

According to Mike Clayton, a Provo ophthamologist and Sissoko’s legal guardian in the United States the past three years, the 6-foot-9, 230-pound basketball star fractured his right hand in an accident involving an all-terrain vehicle known as a “Razor” at Daniels Summit above Heber City last Friday.

During team-sponsored activity, Sissoko was a passenger in the ATV driven by a current member of the BYU basketball team whom Clayton declined to identify. The ATV flipped on its side while attempting a turn and Sissoko put out his hand to brace for the fall and struck a rock, causing the fracture.

BYU basketball spokesperson Kyle Chilton said Wednesday that the school cannot comment on the situation due to NCAA rules because Sissoko is a recruitable athlete.

Wasatch Academy coach Dave Evans called the accident “incredibly unfortunate,” wondered aloud why BYU puts its own players and recruits at risk with recreational activities that could be considered dangerous, and referred all other questions to Clayton.

Clayton, an administrator at the Utah Valley Eye Center, said Sissoko underwent surgery Saturday and doctors are expecting a full recovery. BYU has accepted responsibility for the mishap and offered to pay for all medical expenses, according to multiple sources.

“There is no tendon or nerve damage or anything. It is all bone. Bones heal, and they heal quickly and strongly. It is going to be a little bit of rehab during these next few months so he can get back and play like he was before,” said Clayton, who was on the excursion but did not see the accident.

“It was just unfortunate that we went on this activity,” he continued. “In hindsight, you are thinking, ‘why did we do that?’ Now, we will just move forward. He is still going to have a successful collegiate career. Luckily, it is in the summer and he still has a year of high school left and we believe he will recover completely.”

Sissoko, from Mali, West Africa, is a huge national recruit, with scholarship offers from most of the top college basketball programs in the country. Clayton said he has visits scheduled to Memphis, Kansas and Michigan State and is also talking to Duke and Kentucky about possible visits to those blue-blood programs.

In May, new BYU basketball coach Mark Pope made a 27-hour trip to West Africa for a 90-minute visit with Sissoko’s parents, who are devout Muslims, like their son.

Sissoko averaged 12.5 points and 8.9 rebounds per game in 2018-19 and carried a 3.56 grade point average, according to Wasatch Academy’s website.

Clayton said he doesn’t believe the accident will affect BYU’s chances of landing Sissoko, who was rated as one of the top overall performers at June’s NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp in Charlottesville, Va.

“Other than that, it was a really good visit,” Clayton said. “They did a remarkable job pointing out the strengths of going to a place like BYU.”

BYU is also recruiting several of Sissoko’s high-profile WA teammates, including Caleb Lohner, Richie Saunders and Leo Colimerio, who is from Brazil.

Clayton said Sissoko has been staying at his Provo home while he recovers, and the family has been driving him 57 miles to summer school classes in Mount Pleasant the last few days. During that time, several BYU players and coaches have paid him a visit to offer support and encouragement.

Sissoko’s entire AAU basketball team — called Vegas Elite — leaves for Mali this Saturday, along with a team of Utah-based medical professionals such as Clayton, and will help open an academy where youngsters can learn English. Clayton makes annual visits to Mali to perform cataract surgery on West Africans with eyesight problems, free of charge, which is where he met Sissoko’s brother several years ago and eventually agreed to become the blossoming basketball star’s legal guardian in the U.S.

“Mady is the face of that effort,” Clayton said. “He hasn’t seen his family for a year and a half. It will be a great trip.”

Officials at the Utah Cold Case Coalition say a deck of playing cards could improve the odds of solving some long-dormant homicide and missing-persons investigations. And they are also upping the reward for tips leading to the closure of one of these hard-to-solve cases.

The coalition has compiled 54 cold cases, and had them printed on decks of playing cards that will be sold to the public, organizers announced Wednesday as a preview of “Cold Case Month,” which begins Thursday.

“Our goal is to get the word out, to help these families, to help them bring closure,” said Renee VanTussenbrook, an investigator with the coalition, who spearheaded the playing-card project.

The 54 cases — one for each of the 52 numbered cards, plus two jokers — were chosen from the coalition’s database of more than 400 cases, said Karra Porter, one of the coalition’s lead organizers. The cases chosen have “a great chance of being solved,” she said.

Some of the better-known cases include West Valley City mom Susan Cox Powell (queen of diamonds), 3-year-old Rachael Runyan (5 of clubs), and 6-year-old Rosie Tapia (9 of clubs) — whose case was an inspiration for creating the Utah Cold Case Coalition.

VanTussenbrook said 750 decks were printed in the first run, by Carr Printing in Bountiful. The decks will be sold for $10 each on the coalition’s Facebook page and on eBay.

Some decks will be sold to a specialized audience: Prisoners, through the commissaries of county jails and the state prison, for $1.60 each.

“The guys in prison, they play cards, and they hear things — different people talk,” said Lillie Allen, whose daughter Sheree was killed in 2005. Sheree, whose body was found behind a video-store dumpster in West Valley City, is printed on the 2 of hearts in the deck.

Bobbie Dodge, whose son Cody was shot in West Valley City in 2007 in a possibly drug-related crime, knows about the prison grapevine. “The day my son was killed, Pelican Bay had the word that he had been shot,” Dodge said, referring to the supermax state prison in California.

Cody’s case appears on the deck’s 4 of spades. “These cards will help,” Bobbie Dodge said.

Twenty other states have printed decks with cold cases, VanTussenbrook said, and they have helped generate tips. In Connecticut, for example, four editions of cold-case decks have been distributed in the correctional system, and arrests or convictions were made in 20 of the cases featured in the first three decks, according to the New Haven Register.

The cards were also inspired by decks produced by the military, VanTussenbrook said. During World War II, playing card companies hid maps and information in decks the Red Cross delivered to prisoners of war. A deck listing the most wanted Iraqi government and military leaders — with Saddam Hussein as the ace of spades — were given to soldiers in the Iraq war.

Porter said that for Cold Case Month in August, the coalition will double the reward — to $6,000 — for information leading to the closure of one of its cold cases.

The 86-year-old woman in rural Utah doesn’t usually answer solicitations from strangers, she said, but the young couple who knocked on her front door seemed so nice. Before long, she had handed over her Medicare and Social Security numbers — and allowed them to swab her cheek to collect her DNA.

She is among scores of older Americans who have been targeted in a scam that uses DNA tests to defraud Medicare or steal personal information. Fraudsters find their victims across the country through cold calls, door knocking, email, Facebook ads and Craigslist. They also troll low-income housing complexes, senior centers, health fairs and antique shops. Sometimes they offer ice cream, pizza or $100 gift cards. Some callers claim to work for Medicare, according to a fraud alert issued July 19 by the Federal Trade Commission.

The woman in Utah said she didn’t know the purpose of the DNA test she submitted to this month — “I’m too old to remember” — but the visit troubled her for several nights, she said.

“I’d lie awake thinking about it, saying, ‘You fool, you shouldn’t have done that.'” (She spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by other scams.)

In interviews with Kaiser Health News, seniors around the country reported feeling betrayed, exposed and confused.

Capitalizing on the growing popularity of genetic testing — and fears of terminal illness — scammers are persuading seniors to take two types of genetic screenings that are covered by Medicare Part B, according to experts familiar with the schemes. The tests aim to detect their risk for cancer or medication side effects.

The scammers bill Medicare for the tests. The patients, who might never receive any results, typically pay nothing. But they risk compromising personal information and family medical history. And taxpayers foot the bill for tests that may be unnecessary or inappropriate.

Scammers can really cash in: Medicare pays an average of $6,000 to $9,000 for these tests, and sometimes as much as $25,000, according to the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services.

DNA test scams appear to be ramping up: Complaints to the inspector general fraud hotline have poured in at rates as high as 50 per week, according to Sheila Davis, an OIG spokeswoman. That’s compared with one or two complaints a week at the same time last year, she said.

The inspector general issued a fraud alert in June, urging seniors to refuse unsolicited requests for their Medicare numbers and take DNA tests only with the approval of a doctor they know and trust. By Medicare rules, DNA tests must be medically necessary and approved by a physician who is treating the patient.

In cases that have gone to court, scammers were accused of breaking those rules by paying kickbacks to doctors who agreed to order DNA tests for patients without ever treating them. The front-line recruiters who solicit the tests might work directly for a lab, or as independent contractors who divide revenue with a laboratory in exchange for bringing in extra business.

Some solicitors try to scare seniors into cooperating, said Shimon Richmond, an assistant inspector general for investigations. They warn seniors that they could be vulnerable to heart attacks, stroke, cancer or even suicide if they do not take the DNA tests.

“That’s a pretty egregious form of patient manipulation and emotional abuse,” Richmond said.

Richmond said the two tests involved in the scams are: CGx, which tests for genetic predisposition to cancer, and PGx, a pharmacogenomic test for genetic mutations that affect how the body handles certain medications. They’re part of a new frontier of preventive genetic health.

In New Jersey, three people were sent to federal prison in May for a scheme that used a purported nonprofit called Good Samaritans of America to persuade hundreds of seniors to take DNA tests. The co-conspirators raked in $100,000 in commissions from labs that ran the tests, according to the government.

“This is a gold-rush area for folks. It’s leading to a big response by the government,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bernard Cooney, a prosecutor in the case.

This month, a Florida doctor was charged in federal court for his role in an alleged fraud scheme to order DNA tests for patients in Oklahoma, Arizona, Tennessee and Mississippi. Patients were recruited through Facebook ads offering $100 gift cards, according to court records. The doctor allegedly confessed that he was being paid $5,000 per month to approve these tests, even though he never spoke to any of the patients involved.

Some labs accused of billing Medicare for unnecessary genetic tests — including Millennium Health and Companion DX Reference Lab — agreed to repay the government but declared bankruptcy before doing so, leaving taxpayers on the hook.

Meanwhile, older Americans are encountering sales pitches that leave them feeling deceived.

In Weslaco, Texas, Will Dickey, a 71-year-old retired police detective, submitted to a DNA test at a health fair in February.

“I have a bunch of cancer in my family,” he recalled thinking, so “it’d help if I had an idea of what genes I had in me.” Three weeks later, he saw the same salesperson rounding up business at his RV park, where his wife and several neighbors got their cheeks swabbed. Dickey, who spent 10 years working with DNA tests in a police crime lab, said he was surprised at the cost: A lab in Mississippi charged Medicare $10,410 for his tests.

He didn’t get results until he requested them by phone. The report, which listed results as “uncertain,” was “a bunch of gobbledygook that makes no sense to anybody who’s not in the medical field,” he said. He reported the case to authorities as possible fraud.

As in Dickey’s case, scammers often gain access to places that seniors trust by persuading gatekeepers to let them make presentations. Bev Beatty allowed a genetic testing company to run a booth at a senior health fair she organized in Oak Forest, Ill., last year. At least 10 seniors took the tests. Afterward, she was irate to discover they had been roped into a scam. Test-takers told her they never received their DNA results, even though Medicare paid thousands of dollars.

“If somebody’s going to be fraudulent and bill Medicare, it kind of riles me up,” she said. “I would like to see them hanged.”

In Paducah, Ky., Donald McNeill, a 72-year-old Vietnam War veteran, was persuaded at an event at his senior center in December to submit a cheek swab for a DNA cancer screening. The company never sent results, he said. But it billed $32,212.86 to his Medicare supplement insurance plan. He’s worried his personal information will be misused.

“I’ve lost my identity to these people,” he said. “They got my DNA and they got my information through this scam. I’m extremely upset.”

Others may face consequences for merely engaging with scammers. In Idaho, a woman in her late 60s said she responded to an online ad for free genetic testing and got a callback 20 seconds later. She received a cheek swab kit in the mail but, suspecting a scam, never sent it in. Now, she said, she finds her phone suddenly plagued by robocalls.

In California, 1 in 4 cases reported to the state’s Senior Medicare Patrol this year for potential fraud have been related to genetic tests, according to Sandy Morales, statewide volunteer coordinator.

Sherry Swan of Roseville, Calif., is one of many who have filed complaints. She said she was home one Sunday afternoon in early June when a man named Caleb knocked on her door, and said, “I’m here to do your DNA testing.”

“What are you talking about?” she recalled asking him. She said he failed to produce an ID when asked. “It was just a scam from the minute he opened his mouth.”

Swan said she spent five minutes arguing with the man, then called the police when he left.

“I’m aggressive. I work with homeless in the county,” said Swan, who is 64. But she said she worried about the more passive and trusting neighbors in her senior living complex. She later discovered that many had been persuaded to take the tests and divulge their family medical histories.

A man named Freddy, who answered a number on a flyer that Caleb had left at Swan’s door, said he supervised Caleb as part of a team from Whole Home Solutions. He said the operation was aboveboard because they enrolled only eligible Medicare beneficiaries, and that a teledoctor would consult with the person’s treating physician before the tests were sent in. The tests were handled by Pathway Labs in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Pathway Labs CEO Rene Perez confirmed his lab handled about 20 tests sent in by Whole Home Solutions. But he said he cut ties with the company on July 6 on the advice of his attorneys after receiving complaints about how seniors were being solicited for the DNA tests. The lab worked with the outfit for about 45 days, Perez said.

Such experiences make him “reluctant to take on new business” from similar entities sending in DNA tests, Perez said.

“We strongly advocate and believe in the benefits of genetic preventative health,” he said. “But the problem that we see right now is that it’s really picking up momentum on the national level. Unfortunately, when that happens, you get a variety of different sorts of groups that essentially may see dollar signs.”

To seniors curious about these DNA tests, Richmond of the inspector general’s office has this advice: “If anyone calls you, or sends you an unsolicited request for your Medicare number or to convince you or scare you into taking a genetic test, either hang up the phone or say no.”

Seniors interested in the tests should call their primary care provider, he said: “Don’t give into the manipulation or the scare tactics to get this health care test from someone you don’t know.”

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Claire Donnelly’s three kids have attended Catholic school in Salt Lake City since they were 4 years old and barely tall enough to see over the wooden pews in the chapel. But this fall, for the first time, they won’t be going back.

“It was a terribly difficult decision for us to make,” Donnelly said. “We’re sad to leave the community. But for our family, we had to take a stand against bigotry and intolerance and, frankly, hate speech.”

Over the past year in her parish in the foothills of Salt Lake City — which includes St. Ambrose Church and J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School — problems with priests have riled the small faith community and prompted some, like the Donnellys, to step away.

The previous priest there was charged last fall with patronizing a prostitute. The new priest starting this fall has a history of posting profane things online.

Previous priest Father Andrzej Skrzypiec, who pleaded no contest, is now being sent to another school. Father Erik Richtsteig, who will replace him at this church, was counseled about his online posts that promote hate of LGBTQ groups and mock women, and will lead weekly Mass for kids from 4 years old to 15.

More than 150 parents have signed a petition hoping to block Richtsteig’s move to their parish and school; he’s scheduled to start Thursday.

All of it, but especially the new father coming in, has pushed Donnelly over the edge. She’s mad about the previous priest. She had hoped the church would be more sensitive in choosing a new priest.

“As long as that man is there, I will not go back,” she said. “And I won’t take my kids there.”

Donnelly’s youngest would have been going into second grade. Her oldest finished up eighth grade there this year and might have gone to a Catholic high school next. But now both of them and their brother in seventh grade will be enrolled at public schools for the fall.

Controversial Facebook posts

Richtsteig, a longtime priest serving in Ogden, was assigned to replace Skrzypiec at the Salt Lake City parish after the sexual misconduct charge was filed. And Skrzypiec was moved to St. Olaf Catholic School in Bountiful.

Transferring priests is common in the church, which usually limits how long Catholic leaders can stay in a parish. Richtsteig had been in Ogden for 17 years — already five years longer than a typical assignment.

Jean Hill, spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City Diocese — which oversees more than 300,000 Catholics in Utah — said the church had no comment. As the faith and the nation have been rocked in recent years by reports of sex abuse of minors by priests, the church has promised to remove leaders with the potential for misconduct (19 have been reported in Utah since 1990).

A group of congregants at St. Ambrose and parents with children at the private school, which hosts preschool through eighth grade, created the petition to stop Richtsteig from coming to their parish over his social media posts, which they have documented with screenshots.

In one image on his blog, Richtsteig edited an assault rifle into his hands. In a post on Facebook, he said that images shared by LGBTQ individuals in June (which is Pride month) look “like a gnome vomited” and promised he wouldn’t accept a friend request from those with a rainbow filter in their picture. In other places online, he’s liked or followed pages that include “Male feminists are pu-----” and “Right wing extremist” and “Obama has to go.”

He shared one meme about slavery that suggested a black U.S. senator, who has advocated for reparations, should perform oral sex on a man. He also posted an article about a cardinal who instructed members of the faith to stop calling priests “father.” Richtsteig added the comment: “Bite me, Eminence.”

He has since deleted many of the posts. Or, at least, hidden them from public view. When reached by The Salt Lake Tribune, Richtsteig said he had no comment.

The concerned parents have asked the diocese and Bishop Oscar Solis, who presides over Utah Catholics, to rescind Richtsteig’s appointment. Solis has responded in two letters saying he will not change Richtsteig’s placement.

“I understand your fears having checked the postings on his Facebook account, and I am grateful to you for sharing your feelings about it,” he wrote in the first one dated June 21. “It was quite a surprise to me having known Fr. Richtsteig since I came to the diocese two years ago as a priest full of pastoral zeal and commitment to his priestly responsibilities.”

Solis went on to say he has “never heard any serious complaint” about Richtsteig and is confident that he will lead the parish with love and kindness. He included letters of support from individuals at the parish and school Richtsteig was leading in Ogden.

In his second letter, on July 16 — which he sent after sitting down with upset parents and board members for J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School — Solis said he talked to Richtsteig about the concerns and isn’t worried about the priest creating similar posts in the future. But it is against the diocese’s policies for a priest to be so outspoken on social media.

“He is not a person without faults, much more a saint, but one with weaknesses and failings like anyone else,” Solis wrote. “Yet, his mistakes do not outweigh his love, fidelity and zeal for his priestly ministry.”

Get to know him; give him a chance, Solis pleaded. Because I’m not changing my mind, he added.

One of Richtsteig’s most recent comments on social media, though, said that he didn’t actually want the transfer either, as he apparently referred to the miter worn by the pope, cardinals and bishops in the faith.

“Not my choice, I would have been happy to stay here,” he wrote. “But, it is what it is. I don’t have a tall pointy hat.”

‘We feel threatened’

The Catholic faith has historically overlapped with conservatism. It has opposed same-sex marriage, civil unions and adoptions by gay couples; LGBTQ individuals, according to a 2005 statement from the church, should be treated with kindness but should live celibate lives to not be “sinful.”

But this parish and this school, parents say, have found a way to carve out a space for more liberal ideas and more welcoming views and more diverse voices in Salt Lake City, one of the bluer places in Utah.

In their online petition against Richtsteig, parents say J.E. Cosgriff Memorial School and St. Ambrose Church have taught adherents to “walk the path that Jesus, the Christ, has laid before us. It is a path of love, compassion, and unconditional regard and acceptance.”

“If he’s not following that, how can I in good conscience shake this priest’s hand?” asked member Amy Stevanoni. “How can I send my kids knowing they are going to go to church once a week with this person?”

The biggest issue for many parents about Richtsteig’s posts is the focus on LGBTQ individuals. There are several queer and transgender students at the school, and they worry that those kids will be targeted by the priest or made to feel less worthy.

Colleen Sandor and her wife are one of the few — and possibly only — gay parents at the school. Their twin daughters are 6 and starting first grade next year; they’ve been going to J.E. Cosgriff Memorial since they were 2. She fears that because of what Richtsteig has posted that the girls will be “retaliated against.”

“It’s been very painful,” she said. “The Facebook posts are pretty horrifying. And we feel threatened.”

Sandor said she and her wife enrolled their daughters there because they appreciated the caliber of the school, the teachers and principal. Sandor also attended a Catholic school when she was growing up and spent three years at a Jesuit college.

“The reason we chose Catholic school is because of the virtues that are woven into the lessons,” she said. “In his posts, though, [Father Richtsteig] is representing morals that are not things that we teach our children. They’re homophobic, misogynistic.”

She hopes the school will remain as it is. But Richtsteig will be in charge and will interact with students there at least once a week at Mass, as well as with first communions and confirmations.

Donnelly, who has pulled her kids from the school and whose sister is gay, said anyone in a business or other workplace would be fired for posting similar comments — “let alone being asked to be a spiritual leader for children.” As far as she can see, she said, Richtsteig has faced no consequences.

Richtsteig previously spoke out in 2007, too, when he protested a Catholic priest in Park City who was holding special Masses once a month for LGBTQ congregants and their families. He called same-sex attraction “a disorder” and “not something to be proud of.” He also protested a school performance of “Rent” in 2009 at Judge Memorial Catholic High because it included LGBTQ characters. He suggested that made it "morally destructive and offensive.”

Now, many parents are worried about what Richtsteig will say over the pulpit.

“I hope he’s not going to stand up there and preach hateful, hurtful things to a church full of children,” added Stevanoni, whose two kids, ages 7 and 12, go there. She’s been questioning if they should stay or leave.

More than 70 parents showed up at a private school board meeting in June, and The Tribune received a recording of the discussion from one of the attendees. There are slightly more than 300 students at the school.

The parents talked for more than two hours about their hesitation in accepting Richtsteig into the community. “It’s extremely concerning,” said one mom. “There are trust issues,” said another. “We disagree with his bigotry,” said a dad.

Others said they don’t feel comfortable with the priest talking to young kids and teens who may be questioning their sexuality. Some argued that he’s not fit to be a spiritual leader. A few more said these posts aren’t an anomaly; they go back more than a decade.

That includes two posts from 2008 on Richtsteig’s blog where he’s holding an automatic rifle — both appear to be edited into the image. In one of the photos, the gun is spitting flames and labeled “Easter fire.”

The priest has been an open advocate for guns since a man was shot and injured by a family member in Richtsteig’s church in 2013.

But with recent school shootings, some parents say it’s inappropriate for him to advocate for rifles and joke about automatic weapons.

Moving forward ‘with caution’

Parents say the only hope they have left is that Richtsteig will preserve the welcoming atmosphere at St. Ambrose Church and J.E. Cosgriff Memorial School. They pray that when he comes, he will act in accordance with how the parish has been run for years — liberally and diversely.

“I’ve been asked to move forward with this. And I certainly will with caution,” said the principal at the school, Betsy Hunt. “I just have to think positive about all of this and reassure the parents that it will be another great year.”

Ashley Gardner, who has one child going into second grade there and another starting prekindergarten, said the best thing would be if Richtsteig would apologize before coming to the parish.

“That would be huge for us,” she said. “We’re willing to give anyone a second chance.”

Other parents would like to see his talks checked first before he celebrates Mass. Some want him to promise not to mention anything about guns or LGBTQ individuals.

The divide is a microcosm of a larger split that’s happening nationally and globally in the Catholic faith. One faction has remained rooted in the church’s historic ways, while another has branched out — including Pope Francis, who has been accepting of LGBTQ individuals.

The parish Richtsteig will lead is named after St. Ambrose, who was known for settling conflicts. When members of the faith were fighting in the year 374, according to historical accounts, Ambrose stepped in to try to find common ground and prevent an uproar.

Because of that, he was appointed bishop. He is also credited with saying, “Follow the custom of the church where you are.”

Still, some parents say they can’t wait to see whether such a reconciliation occurs at St. Ambrose Church.

“It breaks our hearts to walk away,” Donnelly said. “But I won’t accept it.”

With Richtsteig coming in and the previous priest leaving after the prostitute charge, she added, “this parish already feels beaten up. It’s just too much.”

Utah will bring a Southeastern Conference football opponent to Rice-Eccles Stadium for the first time in September 2026, having agreed to a home-and-home series with Arkansas, Ute athletic director Mark Harlan announced Wednesday.

The Utes will visit Arkansas in 2028. The series gives Utah another set of games against a Power Five opponent in the upcoming decade, along with a 2023-24 series vs. Baylor.

Utah played Texas A&M in Salt Lake City 2004, when the Aggies were Big 12 members, but never has hosted a team that belonged to the SEC at the time.

"We will continue to look at the premier programs in the country as we build out our future schedules to bring value to our football program and to our fan base,” Harlan said in a school news release.

Utah’s schedules are booked through 2024, assuming the Pac-12 maintains a nine-game conference schedule. That’s the last contracted season for the Utah-BYU rivalry. Utah administrators will have a decision to make about a third opponent in 2026, when the Utes will visit Houston (and UH hopes to become a Power Five program by then). If the Pac-12 has moved to an eight-game schedule, though, that would create another nonconference opening.

Harlan has spoken about an occasional interruption of the rivalry “if it makes sense.”

If BYU or another FBS team becomes Utah’s only other nonconference opponent in 2026, that likely would mark the first time since 2015 that the Utes didn’t have an FCS opponent on the schedule. In 2015, Utah hosted Michigan and Utah State and visited Fresno State.

Wyoming is Utah’s only nonconference opponent currently booked for 2025.