Viral News

Seldom in this nation’s history has a new Congress come to town facing such an urgent need for action. Thursday is the opening of the 116th Congress . It begins with a federal government that is in partial shutdown because its predecessor had not been able to agree — among its own members or with the White House — on the most basic responsibility it has, to pass the appropriations necessary for all government agencies to do their jobs. Among the new leaders coming to Washington are two from Utah: Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney . Both are in the majority party of their body and so have a chance to be part of a solution. Romney, particularly, has the potential to make an immediate difference, given his status as a not only a senator but also as an experienced and respected politician whose personal gravitas could well overcome his rookie status. The main point of disagreement stopping approval of the necessary spending bills has been the insistence by th...

As many longtime supporters of Jazz point guard Dante Exum noted on social media Saturday night, the price of real estate on “Exum Island” is skyrocketing. Against the Knicks, he registered 13 points and 13 assists for the first double-double of his career. The prior game, against the 76ers , he scored 20 points while hitting 3 of 5 shots from deep. He had two strong games against the Blazers recently — totaling 15 points (on 7-for-9 shooting) and four assists on Christmas , and eight points and eight assists on Dec. 21 . He’s had one or zero turnovers in eight straight contests. Exum finally seems to have unlocked some of the potential that led the Jazz to select him No. 5 overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, to have become a fully productive rotation piece. Of course, Jazz fans — and coaches, and teammates, and front office personnel — have seen this all before, though never for such an extended duration. Dante, on his recent improvement: "I've always been invested, I'm a...

Phoenix • A proposed monument at the Arizona Capitol would recall the migration story of thousands of Mormon settlers who made difficult treks from Utah to Arizona in the 19th century. Legislation authorizing the monument died last spring but is expected to be considered anew in 2019. Supporters hope they can erect the monument at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza in Phoenix to honor settlers whose journeys included crossing the Colorado River at Lees Ferry near the Grand Canyon. The Arizona Republic reported this week that the centerpiece of the privately funded monument would be a school bell that once hung at the small settlement of Lees Ferry and that was rung to summon ferry operators when a wagon train approached the riverbank. To reach the river, settlers dispatched by church leader Brigham Young had to cross hundreds of miles of desert and canyon. In Arizona, they established communities such as Mesa, Gilbert, Safford and Snowflake. The idea for the monument started with Fred D...

San Diego • Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley’s return to the field in Monday’s Holiday Bowl “would take a miracle,” Ute coach Kyle Whittingham said Sunday. During his appearance at a news conference with Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, Whittingham labeled Huntley's case “by all definitions, a game-time decision.” Asked after the formal session about who would make that call, Whittingham said the school’s medical staff would determine whether Huntley was ready to absorb hits, eight weeks after his collarbone was broken in a Nov. 3 game at Arizona State. Huntley has practiced for three weeks and has looked good lately, but “there’s a difference between ‘function’ and all that, and taking shots,” Whittingham said. That’s when Whittingham clarified that Huntley’s being cleared to play would “take a miracle — a couple miracles, maybe.” Utah has listed Huntley as a co-starter with Jason Shelley , who replaced him for Utah’s last four games in November – wins over Oregon, Colorado ...

Orem • A retired U.S. Army sergeant from Utah has written a pair of children’s books to help families cope with the deployment of a parent. Leslie Zimmerman said she was inspired to write the books after seeing her nieces and nephews struggle when her older sister was deployed, the Daily Herald in Provo reports . Zimmerman said children of deployed parents can suffer depression, anxiety and anger. Zimmerman is now a mother but didn’t have children when she was deployed to Iraq in 2003. She was a combat medic before being honorably discharged after developing post-traumatic stress disorder. She said writing the books is a way to continue to support military families. The books, titled “When Dad Deploys” and “When Mom Deploys,” are designed to help families know how best to communicate during the separation and let the children know they can still enjoy things while their parent is gone. They are the same story, just with different pronouns and illustrations, which were done by her y...

Federal and state investigators are scrutinizing the employment documents of immigrants without legal status who allegedly worked at President Donald Trump's golf club in New Jersey, according to their attorney. Anibal Romero, a Newark attorney who represents five undocumented immigrants who say they worked at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, said in an interview Saturday that he met with investigators from the New Jersey state attorney general's office and two FBI agents in November, before the workers began to go public with their stories. Romero said he turned over fake green cards and Social Security numbers that supervisors at the golf club allegedly gave one of his clients, Victorina Morales, a 44-year-old Guatemalan national. He also gave investigators the pay stubs of Sandra Diaz, a Costa Rican native who now has legal status but said she was undocumented when she worked at the club for three years. The FBI agents told him they would "coordinate"...

Helena, Mont. • The sharp scrape of steel on ice cut through a rare windless December morning at the Silos on Canyon Ferry Reservoir as a quartet of skaters moved briskly across the smooth frozen surface. A mild reflection grew across the ice as they approached, slowing to a stop near the shore before a few pushes on the skates sent them gliding once again, becoming only specks against the outline of Mount Baldy in the background. "It's so graceful and the possibilities are endless," said Dale Livezey from Helena, skating backward as he spoke. "When the ice is smooth like this, it's the closest thing to flying on the ground." Several years ago Livezey and some “wild ice” skating enthusiasts started an online group to network and share their passion. About five years ago the group moved to Facebook under the name “ MT icebuds ,” which has grown to include a sizable network of photos and videos, ice reports and invitations to come out and skate. "It...

2018 has been the kind of year that makes you hunger for good news in almost any arena, so it’s no surprise that feminist observers of the entertainment industry this month seized on a new analysis that implied that starring a woman boosts a movie’s prospects at the box office. The research, compiled by Creative Artists Agency and the company shift7, is a sensible attempt to use the only true leverage point in Hollywood. (For all the industry’s liberal platitudes, the past few years have demonstrated that the entertainment industry’s barons don’t actually feel anything like shame when it comes to gender equality). What the numbers mostly made me feel, though, was exhaustion with a long-running feminist measuring unit that started out as a withering critique of Hollywood but, like most things that come into contact with the entertainment industry, was co-opted by the very business it intended to condemn. The so-called Bechdel Test, which emerged from one of cartoonist Alison Bechdel’...

Coral Gables, Fla. • Mark Richt stepped down as Miami coach on Sunday, an announcement that caught the school off-guard and comes just days after the end of an underachieving season. Richt, 58, said he was not forced out, and that the decision to retire was his. "My love for The U is simply great," Richt said. "My true desire is for our football program to return to greatness, and while terribly difficult, I feel that stepping down is in the best interests of the program." Richt said he informed Miami athletic director Blake James of his decision "a few hours" before the school sent out a news release shortly before 1 p.m. announcing the move. The Hurricanes scheduled a news conference for later Sunday to discuss the situation and where the program will go from here. Miami struggled to a 7-6 record this season, falling to Wisconsin in the Pinstripe Bowl on Thursday night. The Hurricanes have lost nine of their last 16 games going back to a 10-0 start ...

San Diego • With all the comparisons between Utah and Northwestern pointing toward a slog-a-thon, a punch-you-in-the-mouth defensive struggle, the question then becomes this: From an entertainment standpoint, will the Holiday Bowl end up being a forgettable snooze-fest, an ugly game only Buddy Ryan could like? It might. That’s not this particular bowl’s tradition, what with final scores in past games being notable for their explosion of offense and points. In nearly half of the bowl’s 39 games since its inception, the teams have combined for 60 or more points. In 14 of the games, one of the participants has scored at least 40 points. In five games, a team has scored 50 or more points. Some of the contests were downright ridiculous, such as three consecutive games from 1979-81, when BYU lost to Indiana, 38-37, SMU lost to BYU, 46-45, and BYU beat Washington State, 38-36. In 1986, Iowa defeated San Diego State, 39-38. In 1989, Penn State took out BYU, 50-39. Oregon edged Texas in 200...

The agency that oversees the government's civilian workforce is facing scrutiny after suggesting federal employees affected by the partial government shutdown barter with their landlords if they can't make rent payments, advice that has been called "laughable." On Thursday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management tweeted sample letters to help the roughly 800,000 affected workers negotiate with creditors and mortgage companies. One letter, meant for employees to send to their landlords, discussed a temporary reduction in rent payments and further suggests "the possibility of trading my services to perform maintenance (e.g. painting, carpentry work) in exchange for partial rent payments." Feds, here are sample letters you may use as a guide when working with your creditors during this furlough. If you need legal advice please consult with your personal attorney. https://t.co/t6h6OzALsS — OPM (@USOPM) December 27, 2018 On CNN Saturday morning, Tony Reard...

In voting, we, the people of Utah, select political leaders we hope will represent our views and act with honor and integrity. In fact, we might pray for them using words such as pioneer Eliza R. Snow’s: “Let them seek for wisdom instead of power and they will have all the power they have wisdom to exercise.” Democracy, we believe, provides assurance that the power and trust we invest in elected leaders will not be abused. To that end, George Washington, in his farewell address on Sept. 17, 1796, forewarned, “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” We invite all Utah voters to consider whether the political leaders involved in the Senate Bill 54 chron...

As 2018 draws to a close, let’s make like the Emmys and the Oscars and do our own “In Memoriam” segment, running down the list of TV deaths that happened this year. Not actual people. Not characters. A list of shows that died. It’s a long list — 112 shows. Some of them clearly deserved to die. “Inhumans” couldn't go away fast enough, and the fact that an awful show like “Designated Survivor” hung on for two seasons does not speak well of the television industry. They weren’t all bad, of course. In a world where quality mattered more than viewership, shows like “Alex, Inc.” and “Rise” would have survived. Some shows went more or less willingly, voluntarily ending for one reason or another. “The Middle” signed off after nine seasons; “Scandal” after seven; “The Americans,” “House of Cards” and “The Mindy Project” after six each; “The Fosters” after five; and “12 Monkeys” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” after four apiece. They were the exceptions, of course. The people who produ...

Winter Olympics i n Salt Lake City in 2030 ? Fantastic. The eyes of the world will be on us, and it will be a great opportunity to showcase our state. However, what will visitors think as they fly into the beautiful new Salt Lake International Airport and are unable to see our city through the smog? How embarrassing will it be when the TV cameras show a city looking more like Beijing than the beautiful valley and mountains that viewers expected? Simply hoping there will not be a pollution-trapping inversion in February 2030 is not a good plan. Now is the time to start taking steps to reduce the emissions that are the source of the smog and that threaten the health of our children and our long-term economic viability. There are steps each of us can take to reduce smog-producing emissions but, ultimately, we have to look to our business and legislative leaders at the city, state and national levels to take action now if we want to see cleaner air in 2030. At the state level, a tax o...

This Christmas, Hollywood’s major film releases are competing for Americans’ entertainment time with a slew of new shows on Netflix — and all those television series that slipped through the cracks during the year. Yet many of those films — “Aquaman,” “Bumblebee,” “Mary Poppins Returns” — are projected to do big business in theaters, with “Aquaman” already winning the weekend with a strong $68 million opening through Sunday. Their success will cap a record-breaking year at the box office, upending the conventional wisdom that movie theaters’ relevance is fading. Movie-ticket revenue in the United States has risen 8 percent in 2018. That puts the industry on track for the largest year-to-year increase of the domestic box office in nearly a decade and suggests that, surprisingly, theaters can more than hold their own in the age of widespread at-home entertainment. But the news also comes with significant dark clouds. Industry experts say that a future for the movie theater — a venue t...

San Francisco • Jason Burnett said he detected a faint feeling of disappointment from his wife when California Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned him for an old drug crime less than two weeks after the couple lost their home in the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century . Heather Steels Burnett had applied for a pardon, too, but didn’t receive it last month like her husband. "She's like, 'I didn't get mine,'" Jason Burnett, 44, playfully recalled her reaction. That changed Monday when Brown also erased an old drug conviction for Heather Burnett, saying she had lived "an honest and upright life" since completing her sentence more than 15 years ago on a charge of possessing ephedrine with the intent of making methamphetamine. Brown noted that Heather Burnett now works as a drug counselor. She was among 143 pardons and 131 commutations Brown issued on Christmas Eve. Another person who lost his home in the fire, Kyle Hathaway, was among those pardoned. T...

Dear Ann Cannon • I have been married nearly two decades. My husband’s job requires him to travel alone for long periods of time and for our family to move a lot. When he is working locally, his hours are weird and inconvenient for family time. I have been mom AND dad for years. There has never been infidelity on either of our parts, but I find myself no longer connected to this marriage. The old song “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” feels like my current situation. My husband still loves me. He still wants us to be together, but doing things together is not on his priority list. He likes things the way they are — comfortable and familiar. We’ve read books, gone through marriage training that his company has offered, etc. Is there anything I can do to find that love again? Our marriage is stagnant and I feel done. I hate this feeling. He has five years before he retires from his job. Can I make it? And then what? — Lost in the USA Dear Lost • If they’re being honest with themsel...

Recently, my friend and I were discussing the travails of online dating and he said, if Tinder were a place, it would be a seedy bar where the time of day is always 2 in the morning. I remarked that most of the conversations in this bar would contain threats of buying someone a drink, but then never really following through with it. Everyone would wander around and nobody would make eye contact or talk — until it was 2:30 a.m., and then some man would ask every woman left, “Hey, wanna come over and then never speak again?” I liked this game, so I put this question wide. If Tinder were a place, what place would it be? One of my besties said, “It would be Tatooine.” At first I agreed because as every (nerd) knows, Tatooine is a desert, and when you’re looking for love, the field can look like a desert. But then he specified that Tinder was Mos Eisley. For those of you who might be “Star Wars”-challenged, Mos Eisley is the cantina where Obi-Wan Kenobi takes a young Luke Skywalker to hi...

Even a casual glance at the headlines reveals a staggering number of places where humans and the Earth are being challenged by overpopulation and/or climate change. People, animals, insects and even plants are migrating because of a warming planet. Competition for limited land, food, water, energy and minerals is causing conflicts across the globe. We know that human population will be controlled at some point by a combination of war, famine, disease or the difficult political and individual choices that we make. The more we choose to limit our population, and the sooner we mitigate our production of greenhouse gases, the less mass migration, war, famine and disease will play into the equation. Human overpopulation and global warming are hurting us by destroying ecosystems that support not only us, but also other life on Earth. By subverting a growing amount of the world’s resources to our needs and changing our climate, we are slowly destroying the interconnected web of life in whic...

Utah is getting hit with a different kind of New Year’s gift for 2019: stricter drinking laws. Utah is now the first and only state in the nation with a law banning individuals from driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.05 percent or above; every other state has a 0.08 percent limit. And while the debate continues over whether this law will have any real impact on road safety, the lowered legal limit has less-publicized consequences that need to be addressed. Specifically, the new law will expand the pool of people who can be charged as criminals, hurting their ability to live normal lives. A major problem with the 0.05 limit is that people often won’t know when they hit that point. As demonstrated by reporters from The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX 13, everyone experiences the 0.05 BAC limit differently. Robert Gehrke hit 0.05 after four gin and tonics, but showed no signs of impairment, according to the police who examined him as part of the study. Mike Rank drank eight beers wit...

As I read Merrill Nelson's commentary in the Dec. 23 Tribune, rebutting Rocky Anderson's claim of legislative overreach in passing compromise legislation on medical marijuana, two words came incessantly to mind: "Dude, really?" It was a nauseating read and epitomized the arrogant, paternalistic, holier-than-thou attitude that pervades our Legislature. He basically made the argument that we Utah voters passed the inherently "flawed" proposition "because they had no alternative for a better plan." Our wise legislators only stepped in, as is their constitutional right, to save us from ourselves. It seems never to have entered his elevated mind that we may have voted for the proposition because we supported it as written. Luckily for us, though, our wise legislative fathers have ridden out on their white horses to save us from our own sinful ignorance. What would we do without you? Greg Tayler, Heber Submit a letter to the editor from The Sal...

During this phase of his life, he’s spent most of it persuading people to let him get punched in the face. In a fight on New Year’s Eve inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, there will be no shifting of that narrative. There he’ll be, fists balled up, ready to rampage, willing to accept the outcome, because when you’re Sean O’Connell, you’ve been used to such a scenario for, well, forever. Only this time, there’s a ton more at stake. Like, $1 million big. That’s the payout for this title fight, a matchup that, fittingly pits O’Connell, the smiley underdog, against a guy he calls, “a jiu-jitsu master.” “He’s bigger, stronger, faster, better looking than me,” O’Connell said. “I have to make the fight ugly and draw him outside of his comfort zone, which is on the ground. I need to land some good combinations, make him feel my power, and I’ll get that $1 million.” It is nowhere close to that easy, and O’Connell knows it. When the bell rings Monday night in MSG, the light heav...

For a genre that’s so popular among readers of all ages, young adult lit is surprisingly young: The term was only coined in the 1960s, introducing an official way to describe books aimed at kids 12 to 18. In the relatively short time since, change has come — again and again. At its inception, there was a goal of realism that’s remained relatively consistent, but along the way, there have been so-called problem novels, pastel-covered paperback romances and fantastical fiction. “That’s a pretty fast evolution,” says Teri S. Lesesne, a professor of library science at Sam Houston State University. “I think it far surpasses what we see in adult land.” Here's a look at the evolution of YA lit through nine books that span 50 years. ‘The Outsiders,’ S.E. Hinton (1967) Hinton was a teenager herself when she wrote this timeless, gritty tale of class conflict and parental abandonment. It’s widely considered the first real YA novel. “The appearance of ‘The Outsiders’ was both a turning poin...