• Utah’s attorney general defends his backing of a federal case seeking to roll back LGBTQ job protections

    Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is defending his decision to join legal efforts before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of limiting job protections for LGBTQ workers.With Reyes’s authorization, Utah has joined Nebraska and 14 other states in urging the nation’s high court to review a federal ruling in Michigan against a funeral home over its firing of a transgender employee — a move that has drawn criticism from at least one Utah group as wrong-headed and dangerous.In a state
  • Family and friends celebrate Rachael Runyan, the 3-year-old whose 1982 killing inspired Utah’s Amber Alert system

    Sunset • The balloons — purple and pink, Rachael Runyan’s favorite colors — were handed out to the 30 or so people assembled Saturday in the park that bears her name.It’s the same park where, on Aug. 26, 1982, someone — their identity still a mystery — abducted 3-year-old Rachael. Her body was found three weeks later in Morgan County, 20 miles away.People wrote messages in marker on some of the balloons. Rachael’s mother, Elaine, wrote on hers: &ldq
  • Bingham’s highly-recruited defensive trio strikes fear in their opponents

    South Jordan • Imagine you’re a big-name high school quarterback.If movies and TV shows have taught us anything, you’re probably the biggest thing going on campus. You’ve earned the adulation of your peers. You’re having fun along the way, especially on the football field, where you dismiss challengers with style and ease.That all changes when you step on the field against the Bingham defense. All of a sudden, you’re facing one of the best high school defenses
  • Hurricane Lane continues to drench Hawaii, causing floods, landslides and power outages

    Kona, Hawaii • A powerful hurricane that already has dumped more than two feet of rain on parts of the Big Island is expected to keep soaking the state through the weekend, exacerbating dramatic flood conditions as residents hunker down and wait for the storm to pass.Officials downgraded Hurricane Lane to Category 2 on Friday morning but say threats of landslides, storm surge and flooding remain a major concern because the storm has slowed in speed. The crawl along the island chain's edge g
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  • Reggae festival gets off to a wet start with lightning and rain

    Music fans braved a brief lightning storm and rain delay to hear the band Rebelution close out the first day of the Reggae Rise Up festival at the Rivers Edge in Heber City on Friday night.Stephen Marley, Hirie and Zion I performed, along with four other bands.The three-day festival continues through Sunday evening with seven bands playing each day, including Steel Pulse, Fortunate Youth and Atmosphere on Saturday; and, J Boog, The Original Wailers and Soja on Sunday night.
  • Royce O’Neale was a revelation for the Jazz last season. Now, he’s planning his encore.

    When the Jazz signed Royce O’Neale to a three year contract last summer, most of their fans scrambled to find out who the small forward out of Baylor really was.Not many expected him to make the final roster. Few could’ve predicted an undrafted rookie would not only make the team, but become a valued rotation piece by midseason, and play well enough to become almost invaluable by playoff time.Yet, that’s the impact O’Neale made on the Jazz. Two years ago, he was clinging
  • The three illegal acts that may have helped Trump win the presidency

    The nation heard this week accusations that President Donald Trump was personally involved in the decision to offer two women money shortly before the 2016 election to keep them from sharing stories of alleged affairs. Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, admitted under oath to having been instructed by Trump to work with David Pecker, chairman and chief executive of American Media Inc., to arrange a payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. He also admitted to having bee
  • SUU made history with last year’s championship and playoff run, but questions at QB and on defense will make a repeat difficult

    Southern Utah coach Demario Warren isn’t looking to change his expectations after arguably the best season in SUU’s football history.“We always have the same goals, it doesn’t really matter the year,” Warren said. “We want to have a winning record, we want to make the playoffs, we want to win the conference championship, and we want to win a national championship.”Last season featured a 9-3 overall record, including a 7-1 run in Big Sky Conference play t
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  • Safest level of alcohol consumption is none, worldwide study shows

    To minimize health risks, the optimal amount of alcohol someone should consume is none. That’s the simple, surprising conclusion of a massive study, co-authored by 512 researchers from 243 institutions, published Thursday in the prestigious journal the Lancet.The researchers built a database of more than a thousand alcohol studies and data sources, as well as death and disability records from 195 countries and territories between 1990 and 2016. The goal was to estimate how alcohol affects
  • Bad blood between McCain, Trump lingers, even as Arizona Republican nears end

    Washington • It got off to a bad start, and President Donald Trump’s venomous relationship with Sen. John McCain probably won’t end well either.The president was reportedly disinvited to McCain’s funeral months ago, after McCain’s battle with brain cancer took a turn for the worse, and now the veteran Arizona Republican senator has decided to discontinue medical treatment.Throughout McCain’s illness, Trump has continued to publicly snub him — including a
  • Utes know they’re good, but they also know they still have something to prove

    The Cheez-It Bowl? The Rose Bowl? Or something in between?Varied postseason possibilities are in a play for a Utah football team that will start the 2018 season just outside of the Top 25, with the program’s best collection of talent in the Pac-12 era. The Utes have an opportunity to exploit a disheveled division — ESPN ranked the Pac-12 South the worst of the nine divisions in Power Five conferences — and win its first South championship in eight years of membership.The Utes h
  • With an experienced cast and a rapidly improving quarterback, Aggies have visions of a 2012-type breakthrough

    Logan • After every practice in fall camp, and after every scrimmage leading to the opener at Michigan State, the Utah State Aggies have broken almost every huddle with the same mantra: “1-2-3, Mountain West Champs!.”With seemingly indomitable Boise State in the league, and Fresno State and San Diego State coming off 10-win seasons, dreams of a title seem far-fetched, especially with Utah State needing a late season rally to become bowl eligible last season with six wins.At the
  • .@BucketsONeale00 & @NazzyJML joining in the Zumba class at @bewellutah 💃 https://t.co/NPBnAuTTew

    .@BucketsONeale00 & @NazzyJML joining in the Zumba class at @bewellutah 💃 https://t.co/NPBnAuTTew
    .@BucketsONeale00 & @NazzyJML joining in the Zumba class at @bewellutah 💃 https://t.co/NPBnAuTTew
  • Utah Attorney General defends his backing of a federal case seeking to rollback LGBTQ job protections

    Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is defending his decision to join legal efforts before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of limiting job protections for LGBTQ workers.With Reyes’s authorization, Utah has joined Nebraska and 14 other states in urging the nation’s high court to review a federal ruling in Michigan against a funeral home over its firing of a transgender employee — a move that has drawn criticism from at least one Utah group as wrong-headed and dangerous.In a state
  • [Fansided: The J-Notes] - Utah Jazz need Victor Oladipo-esque breakout from Dante Exum

    ... ponsibility – but him having an impact off the bench will be crucial for the Jazz. Hey everyone. This is Dante Exum… https://t.co/19aaMDJvAd pic.twitter.com/B ...
  • Utah Jazz need Victor Oladipo-esque breakout from Dante Exum

    With the start of the 2018-19 season quickly approaching, Utah Jazz guard Dante Exum would do well to aim to follow the example of reigning Most Improved Player Victor Oladipo. As we get closer to the end of August and the start of September training camp draws ever nearer, it’s hard to contain the excitement […]
    Utah Jazz need Victor Oladipo-esque breakout from Dante Exum - The J-Notes - The J-Notes - A Utah Jazz Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More
  • BYU has a lot to prove after last season’s collapse. Whether the Cougars have the talent to turn it around is anybody’s guess.

    Provo • Two days after BYU cruised past Hawaii last November in a mostly meaningless season finale, coach Kalani Sitake relieved offensive coordinator Ty Detmer and most of the other offensive coaches from their duties and called a heated team meeting in which players saw a different side of the usually affable, easygoing coach.“He was breathing fire, pretty much,” said safety-turned-linebacker Zayne Anderson.And so began a program overhaul in which six new assistant coaches wer
  • After breakthrough last season, big things are expected of Weber State in 2018

    Ogden • Weber State coach Jay Hill didn’t want to hear about past success.Frankly, the Wildcats have only had that success for one season. Hill, as would any other coach who has experienced a breakthrough, wants more. And at this moment, with Weber State having not yet played a game, Hill doesn’t want his players buying into the hype.“Right now, we’re not good enough,” said the man heading into his fifth season at a place not many thought could reach its curren
  • Holly Richardson: The stats on the well-being of women in Utah

    If you were to take a guess at the percentage of Utah women in the workplace, what would you say? 25 percent? 35 percent? Would it surprise you to learn that 59.8 percent of all women in Utah are in the paid workforce? That number is higher than the national average.That was just one of the statistics Chandra Childers, a senior research scientist from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research presented at the Utah Women’s Policy Conference on Thursday, speaking on “The Well-Bei
  • Commentary: An open letter to Sen. Hatch

    Dear Senator Hatch,As an organization of over 6,000 women, many of whom are your constituents, share your faith, and have worked closely with you and your staff, we are dismayed at your continued defense of things that are fundamentally indefensible. Knowing that you aspire to be a man of honor, we are puzzled by your frequent wresting of truth and logic as you excuse our current administration.You defended President Trump when he retweeted anti-Muslim videos. You minimized evidence that Donald
  • Jonathan Capehart: I used to be afraid to call Trump a mob boss. Not anymore.

    My rule of thumb for months now has been to not think of the Trump White House as a presidency, but to think of it as a crime family like "The Godfather" and President Donald Trump as a mob boss.I don't say it lightly. When the words issued from my lips on MSNBC a few months ago, I hesitated in that way we used to do when we talked about once-taboo subjects, like being gay or cancer. But now that Trump has waxed fluent in the language of La Cosa Nostra, I feel liberated to let 'er rip.During an
  • Paul Waldman: Trump is in trouble, so he’s reaching for his ace in the hole: Hate

    This is a perilous political moment for President Donald Trump, which means that it's time to pay a visit to the well of resentment and hatred that got him to the White House.This week, the president has promoted two stories — an imagined oppression of white farmers in South Africa and the murder of an Iowa woman named Mollie Tibbetts. His actions offer a vivid illustration of how he and the entire conservative movement use race-baiting to keep the Republican base in a state of agitation a
  • Noah Feldman: With his quote about a Manafort pardon, Giuliani is on thin ice

    It’s bad enough that President Donald Trump is flirting with obstruction of justice by suggesting that he’s thinking of pardoning Paul Manafort as a reward for Manafort’s refusal so far to cooperate with the special counsel. But Rudy Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney, is part of the effort — and his latest comments are so close to the line of obstruction that they actually may have crossed it.Giuliani, now one of Trump’s personal lawyers, told The Washington Post on
  • Rideshare diaries: What happens when you mix e-scooters, the sidewalk and me? Blood and swear words.

    A couple of Sundays ago, I had just returned from Virginia, where my co-authors and I finished writing our third book, “My Calamity Jane” (due out in 2020! You can find our earlier Lady Janies books online). It was Sunday night, which means bar trivia at Piper Down. A short 17 blocks or so from where I was.I know what you’re thinking: It would be a really great idea to rent one of those Lime scooters and ride it 17 blocks down State Street. Well, reader, my boyfriend and I were
  • Here are 3 things Salt Lake Valley schools are doing this year to improve safety

    After two of the most horrific school shootings in the nation’s history, there’s been near-constant debate this year over what can be done to protect classrooms and prevent future attacks.Should schools hire more police officers? Should teachers carry concealed guns? Should students walk through metal detectors?Here in Utah, a statewide school safety commission studied the issue, and Gov. Gary Herbert says he’ll make it a priority in his next budget.But administrators in a hand
  • Stanford’s Bryce Love is our MVP and Washington is the team to beat: Your Pac-12 primer for the 2018 season

    MVP Bryce Love, Stanford The 2017 Heisman Trophy runner-up's return for his senior season makes him an easy choice. Remarkably, five Stanford players have finished second in the Heisman voting since 2009. Love is one of those classic running backs with a knack for breaking long runs, after seemingly being contained. Utah understands, after Love's 68-yard touchdown run clinched the Cardinal's victory in Salt Lake City last October. Love will complete a degree in human biology in December, two qua
  • ‘She moves you with her words and touches you with her heart’ — Utah pastor at historic black church retires after a grueling but gratifying tenure

    The Rev. Nurjhan Blanch Govan, the longest-serving pastor at Salt Lake City’s historic Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church, is retiring. Sort of.Govan is stepping down at age 75, as is required by the AME denomination, and no longer will be receiving a salary.The truth is, though, the powerhouse preacher hasn’t taken a salary for some seven years — half of her 14-year tenure — and, until the regional AME bishop appoints a new Trinity minister, she still will be pre
  • [Fansided: The J-Notes] - Utah Jazz: Donovan Mitchell eyeing a trip to the NBA Finals

    ... est with you – I’m excited for this year, too, Donovan. Really excited. Utah Jazz's Donovan Mitchell surprises @KearnsHS students, sets goals of NBA Finals, M ...
  • Utah Jazz: Donovan Mitchell eyeing a trip to the NBA Finals

    When recently asked about how far the Utah Jazz can go this upcoming season, Donovan Mitchell made his intentions quite clear. It’s no secret that the current Utah Jazz squad has high aspirations. The likes of Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and others have made that quite clear. The 2017-18 season was a great run, but […]
    Utah Jazz: Donovan Mitchell eyeing a trip to the NBA Finals - The J-Notes - The J-Notes - A Utah Jazz Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More
  • Letter: Without curbside cleanup, Salt Lake City is becoming a landfill

    There are times when government makes me want to scream — and today is one of those times. Salt Lake City took our beloved curbside cleanup program and replaced it with Call2Haul, a breathtakingly inefficient program.I thought the whole point was to cut down on clutter. My neighborhood in Glendale actually looks worse than it did last year. With the old program, everyone left their trash in central locations. Now it’s all scattered hell to breakfast, each park strip being a mini-land
  • Letter: Utah’s representatives must speak out about climate change

    To the Utah Congressional Delegation:In June we spent a week in New Mexico. The streambeds were dry, and the national forests were closed to camping, hiking, even picnicking because of extreme drought conditions. In July we drove home to Salt Lake City from Missoula, Mont. There was a large grass fire in eastern Idaho that filled the air with smoke all the way into Utah. In August we drove to Wyoming, past the blackened hills of the Tollgate fire, past reservoirs drawn down below normal. The Tet
  • Letter: The rest of the world will still use ‘Mormon’

    It should be noted that the recent revelation from the prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (formerly the president of the LDS Church) lays no obligation on any other than those who accept him as the prophet, namely the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (formerly Mormons).If he thinks that the public in general is somehow obligated to adopt this mouthful of syllables because an old man says to, he is magnificently mistaken. His reach extends no furt
  • Letter: Romney will say anything

    Call me a cynic. Mitt Romney will say and do what he thinks it takes to get elected. When elected, he will say and do whatever he thinks it takes to stay elected.Those who expect otherwise are naive.Peter Harvey, Salt Lake CitySubmit a letter to the editor
  • Letter: It’s about time that Utah universities have women leaders

    Many of Utah’s major universities now have women presidents, which I applaud.In 1971, as associate dean of engineering at the University of Utah, I attended a dean’s meeting while the dean was away. All of the attendees were male. One of the agenda items was President Jim Fletcher’s harangue about the scarcity of women in leadership positions. After he singled out the university librarian for criticism, the librarian defended himself, “Most of our staff are women, except,
  • Is Utah coal bound for Baja California? Officials strike a deal with the Mexican state, where a port could ship it overseas.

    The West’s coal country has long sought to offset declining domestic coal consumption through exports to Pacific Rim countries. But politically liberal West Coast cities and states have gotten in the way, obstructing proposals for new coal-handling terminals.Now, Utah is looking south of the U.S. border to ship its coal and possibly natural gas overseas.On Thursday, the Utah Office of Energy Development (OED) signed a memorandum of understanding with economic development officials for the
  • Rep. Mia Love brings big names (like Mitt Romney) to Lehi rally

    Facing a tight re-election race in a district Democrats hope to flip, U.S. Rep. Mia Love tapped Mitt Romney and other boldface Republican names at a rally in Lehi on Friday.“We’ve got to make sure the Democrats don’t get their hands on this seat,” Sen. Mike Lee said. “We need Mia Love to get re-elected. We need her very, very badly.”She’s being challenged by Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, a moderate who is well-known in the politically mi
  • Bingham cruises past East, 30-8, in rematch of last season’s 6A title game

    Bingham is still the undisputed king of Utah high school football. The defending 6A champion Miners proved that again Friday night, walloping mistake-prone East 30-8 at the home of the Leopards in a rematch of last year’s 6A state championship game. In extending their winning streak against Utah teams to 29 games, the Miners dominated the Leopards with a stingy defense that allowed the home team just 54 yards of offense until East’s final drive. “It was all crazy,” said B
  • Utah man sues LDS Church, Chevron for Red Butte Creek oil spill he says gave him cancer

    A Utah man who was diagnosed with cancer after working six years as a groundkeeper for his church in water contaminated after the Red Butte Creek oil spill is suing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the oil and gas company responsible for the leak for his medical expenses.Allan Flandro’s acute myeloid leukemia is now in remission, but in July 2016, when he was first diagnosed, physicians were worried he wouldn’t survive. Flandro underwent multiple surgeries and inva
  • U.S. Open ’18: Roger Federer tries to end decade drought in New York

    New York • Even with all the times Roger Federer held the U.S. Open trophy, he still can’t forget the time it slipped through his fingers.He had won five titles in a row in Flushing Meadows and was a game away from a sixth in 2009 when Juan Martin del Potro pulled out a fourth-set tiebreaker, then won the fifth set.“I still wish I could have played that match again,” Federer said Friday.He’s never been that close to winning the U.S. Open since, just once even reachin
  • Vince Carter, at 41, not quite ready to call it a career

    Atlanta • Vince Carter can’t say his 21st NBA season will be his last.At least not yet.Carter signed a one-year veteran minimum contract Friday with the rebuilding Atlanta Hawks, his eighth team, in what could be his final stop before starting a career in broadcasting.It appears to be the right mix for Carter, the league’s oldest active player. He turns 42 in January and wants to be ready for a television job when his playing days end.Atlanta, home to Turner Broadcasting and NBA
  • IndyCar’s head of competition says Wickens’ car performed as it was designed

    Madison, Ill. • The head of competition for IndyCar said Friday that Robert Wickens’ car performed exactly as it was designed when it tore to pieces during a frightening wreck at Pocono, leaving the Canadian driver hospitalized with serious injuries to his spinal cord and extremities.Jay Frye also acknowledged that a host of improvements could be made — to the car itself, to the fencing that shredded the car and even to the injury reporting process that some criticized as being
  • Street performers took center stage at downtown Salt Lake City festival

    It got off to a bit of a rainy start, but then the sun came out and so did the street performers, a group that included daredevil jugglers, musicians, magicians, dancers, comedians and even animal enthusiasts. The Salt Lake Arts Council presents the first Busker Fest along Regent Street in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday. It celebrated the tradition of street performance and observing the city’s vaudeville roots, young and old were drawn in to observe and participate.
  • Man pays fine for scratching graffiti into Utah’s Corona Arch, says he hopes ‘others can learn from my mistakes’

    An Idaho man will have to cough up cash and endure some public humiliation after pleading guilty to scratching graffiti into southern Utah’s Corona Arch.Ryan Bird Andersen, 45, has reached an agreement and pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of defacing a natural feature, U.S. Attorney for Utah John W. Huber’s office announced Friday.Andersen has agreed to pay the maximum fine of $1,000, as well as $858.32 in restitution to the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the arch f
  • Jake Fromm’s debut season as Georgia’s QB may be tough to top

    Athens, Ga. • Jake Fromm was only 10 years old when he talked his grandfather into taking him to a store in Macon that featured Georgia Bulldogs merchandise.It was there that the young Fromm spotted a Herschel Walker helmet. The sticker shock hit Bill Haskins but didn’t deter his young grandson. Fromm, already a big Georgia fan, was determined to own the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner’s helmet.“It was 200-something dollars,” Haskins said Thursday in a telephone interview
  • [True Hoop: Salt City Hoops] - The 10th Best Player Performance of 2017-18

    ... sh. With Mitchell out against the top ranked home defense in the league, the Jazz offense really had no business winning this game. Then Rubio’s career scorin ...
  • Tanner Mangum is BYU’s starting quarterback, according to two-deep chart released by team Friday afternoon

    Senior Tanner Mangum will be BYU’s starting quarterback when the Cougars line up against Arizona on Sept. 1 at Wildcats Stadium in Tucson, Ariz.Ending more than six months of speculation, BYU coach Kalani Sitake released his depth chart for the 2018 season late Friday afternoon, and it shows the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Mangum as the starter and freshman Zach Wilson as the backup.The announcement does not come as a huge surprise. Mangum received the bulk of the reps in the final week of preseas
  • 100 dogs are removed from a Utah home, and more are ‘burrowed in’

    One hundred small dogs have been removed from a Taylorsville home in what city officials say is “the biggest and worst” animal hoarding case they’ve seen.Officers from animal agencies removed from a house near 5700 Easton Street 68 of the dogs, mostly chihuahua and terrier mixes Thursday. They took 32 more Friday, said David Moss, director of animal services for Taylorsville and West Valley City.“They were all over the place,” Moss said. “Surprisingly, they&rs
  • Group suing Utah over medical marijuana initiative no longer says it would violate Mormon religious beliefs

    On the same day the LDS Church announced it does not oppose the use of medical marijuana — under controlled, physician-administered circumstances — the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging a Utah legalization effort pivoted away from assertions that proximity to cannabis use violates Mormon religious beliefs.The group’s lawsuit now focuses solely on the rights of property owners and landlords. Plaintiffs say landlords would be prohibited under Proposition 2 from denying housing
  • Paul Newberry column: Urban Liar is a perfect symbol for college athletics

    In less than a month, Urban Liar will be back on the job.Never mind the deceiving, the conniving, the covering up.Coach Liar (you might know him as Meyer, but let’s stick to a more suitable moniker) will return to the Ohio State sideline not much poorer for his troubles, with nothing to stop him from reclaiming his swagger before the leaves change colors.Such is the state of college athletics.Coach Liar is really the perfect symbol for the scoundrels and grifters that make it such a cesspo
  • Members of polygamous Kingston Group charged in alleged multimillion dollar IRS tax-credit fraud

    Two members of the prominent polygamous Kingston Group have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their part in an alleged $500 million fuel tax credit scheme.Washakie Renewable Energy officials Jacob and Isaiah Kingston, as well as Lev Aslan Derman (also known as Levon Termendzhyan), are accused of gaming an IRS tax-credit program that gave payouts to companies that produced renewable energy, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.From 2010 to 2016, the Kingstons and Der

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