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Departing from long-standing department policy and practice, Attorney General William Barr’s latest pronunciamento has “authorized” Justice Department prosecutors “to pursue substantial allegations of voting … irregularities” — before states certify their elections. Stripped of the mumbo-jumbo, the memorandum allows zealous U.S. attorneys to go overt. They may, for example, immediately issue subpoenas, obtain search warrants, interview witnesses, sign off on arrests, even make news releases — all actions likely to attract media attention. And media attention is what Barr wants. What is wrong with that? you might ask. Nothing, if Barr intends to streamline voter fraud prosecutions. But he does not, not really. U.S. attorneys could always prosecute voter fraud miscreants. But they used to be instructed not to do anything public that might affect the election process before certification, the idea being that prosecutors ordinarily should not mess with an ongoing election process withou...

This Pat Bagley cartoon appears in The Salt Lake Tribune on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020. You can check out the past 10 Bagley editorial cartoons below: Too Little Too Late Party Animals Power Grabber Fer Heck’s Sake Snipe Hunt Big News Pants on Fire Waiting in the Wings Vote! Look for the Helpers Want more Bagley? Become a fan on Facebook. from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/3eW9AA2

Utah Jazz execs Dennis Lindsey and Justin Zanik were their typically cagey, elusive selves Friday morning, speaking for nearly 22 minutes to local media via Zoom about the coming unlike-any-other NBA draft without ever giving much actual insight into what they might do with the 23rd overall pick this coming Wednesday night. Is there a specific position they’re targeting? “With this draft in particular, there are a variety of prospects at all three positions — guards, wings, and bigs — that are good kids who we like,” said Lindsey, the team’s executive vice president of basketball operations. After two straight years of being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, do they maybe have a preference for a player who could maybe contribute from Day 1 as opposed to a player who’s a bit more of a project? “The draft is one of our many tools to continue to move forward, so we’ve always tried to do ‘best player available,’” added Zanik, the general manager. How about the possibili...

Putting problems cost Tony Finau a lot of ground Friday, so he chose to sleep on a 12-foot birdie attempt on the par-3 No. 12 at Augusta National Golf Club. Finau is in the half of the field that has yet to complete the second round of the Masters, stemming from Thursday’s rain delay. Play will resume Saturday at 5:30 a.m. MST, then the 36-hole cut will be made and the third round will begin. Finau, a West High School graduate, and Sandy resident Mike Weir have some work to do Saturday morning. Each player is 2 over par for the second round. Finau is 1 under for the tournament, tied for 45th place. Weir is 1 over through 27 holes, tied for 61st. The top 50 players (plus ties) will advance. Teeing off in the mid-afternoon Friday in Georgia, Finau scrambled well enough to par the first three holes. But then he three-putted for bogeys on Nos. 4 and 7, while also bogeying the par-4 No. 5 after a drive into the left rough. He regrouped with a birdie on the par-5 No. 8. In the twilight, ...

Connie Coyne, a rough-and-ready journalist who dispensed her wisdom and gruff wit to Salt Lake Tribune readers and colleagues for nearly two decades, has died. Coyne’s death was announced Friday on Facebook by her friend and former Tribune colleague Sheena McFarland. Coyne was 76. No cause of death was announced, but Coyne had suffered from back problems and heart ailments over the past few years, including a stroke in 2012. David Noyce, interim editor of The Tribune, called Coyne “a dedicated, hard-nosed journalist. But she had a joyous, infectious sense of humor and the deepest, most delightful laugh.” Coyne joined The Tribune in June 1993, relocating from Minot, N.D. She started on the copy desk, was named assistant state editor in 1994, and moved into the weekend editor position the same year. Noyce recalled working with Coyne on the desk, “batting around headline ideas — many of which we would never dare publish. She never stopped ribbing me about my habit of running around th...

When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in 2010, millions of disabled Americans, myself included, breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, we no longer would be punished for illnesses outside of our control. No longer would we face higher costs or coverage lockouts due to preexisting conditions. No longer would we struggle to find plans that actually cover essential health benefits like mental health services, prescription drugs, hospitalization and rehabilitative services. No longer would we face annual or lifetime caps if our life-sustaining care cost insurance companies too much. Unfortunately, that sense of relief did not last long. The ACA was immediately subject to legislative and legal challenges. For years, patients have fought against attempts to undo the protections that barred discrimination against people with chronic illness, mental illness and a variety of other disabilities. Now, with another pending legal challenge heard by the Suprem...

Some Democrats are losing their leads in Salt Lake County races according to the latest round of ballot tallies. The incumbent for the an at-large seat, Shireen Ghorbani, is now just 84 votes ahead of Republican Laurie Stringham. Democratic Party officials elected Ghorbani to the council in 2019 to replace Jenny Wilson when she became county mayor. Other Democrats have fallen behind. The party’s candidate for county assessor, Jennifer Fresques, previously held a lead by a few percentage points over Republican Chris Stavros. She now lags by just over one point. The Republican incumbent Treasurer, K. Wayne Cushing, once locked in a close race with Democrat Michael McDonald, now leads by about five points. Recorder Rashelle Hobbs continues holding an edge over Republican challenger Erin Preston, although it has narrowed from 12 points on election night to just two points as of Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, County Council candidates Dave Alvord and Dea Theodore have widened their leads...

Escalante • A man who died in an estimated 400-foot fall from Willow Gulch in the Escalante Arm of Lake Powell in Utah last month has been identified, authorities said Tuesday. Kane County Sheriff’s officials said the victim was 49-year-old Cory James Christensen and his last known address was Flagstaff, Arizona. They said information and keys found inside the backpack Christensen he was wearing when he fell on Oct. 8 led to a search for a vehicle. It was located in a Garfield County parking lot about eight miles south of Escalante and about 35 miles from the location of the fall. Based on conversations investigators had with eyewitnesses elsewhere in his travels, it’s believed Christensen was traveling alone. Sheriff’s officials said bicycle parts were found in Christensen’s backpack and investigators are considering the possibility that he rode an off-road bike from his vehicle to an area near Willow Gulch. The fatal fall remains under investigation by the county Sheriff’s Off...

Republican Burgess Owens maintained his lead over Rep. Ben McAdams for the fifth day in a row on Wednesday as new ballot results were posted from Salt Lake County. Owens now has a 1,697 vote advantage over McAdams, with 47.50% of the vote to the Salt Lake City Democrat’s 47.03%. But it may not be clear who’s won the closely-watched race until the final canvass Nov. 17. Still, Owens' campaign said Wednesday that his camp is feeling “very optimistic” about the results that have come in so far. “We’re confident when the race is called that Burgess Owens will be representing the 4th district in Washington,” Owens' campaign spokesman, Jesse Ranney, said in a written statement. McAdams' campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. McAdams, the former Salt Lake County mayor, took an early lead in the close race on Election Day and held onto it for much of last week. But Owens, a former NFL player and frequent Fox News commentator, pulled ahead Saturday and h...

It certainly looked like Democrats had picked up at least three seats in the Utah House on Election Day, but those races have tightened as more results have rolled in. And in another race a Democratic challenger for other Salt Lake County seat remains tantalizingly close to the Republican incumbent. New results were added Tuesday and more votes are expected to be tallied in the days to come. The closest race right now is in House District 39 between Republican Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, and Democrat Lynette Wendel. On election night, Wendel led by about 300 votes, but Dunnigan erased his deficit and pulled ahead on Tuesday by just 22 votes in this district that covers Taylorsville and Kearns. Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, has stormed back after falling behind Democrat Wendy Davis on election night by more than 700 votes. Davis’ lead is now just 181 votes after the latest update in this district which covers parts of Midvale, Cottonwood Heights, Sandy and South Jordan. Eliason...

The Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness is closing in on two overflow sites to house unsheltered people experiencing homelessness this winter — but at least one of the spots is coming under fire. Midvale Mayor Robert Hale said Tuesday that he’s opposed to the proposal to use a hotel on 7200 South to move people off the streets this winter, arguing the location has not been “not well thought out.” “It’s within a half mile that we try to protect [because of] our homeless shelter,” he told The Salt Lake Tribune in an interview Tuesday, referencing the city’s Midvale Family Shelter. “It’s also in a high crime area. We’ve got extra officers working 7200 South, the freeway. We’ve got other motels in the area that accept cash for payment, which brings its own crime element. And we’ve got a brand new multi-hundred-unit apartment building going up right across the back fence.” Jean Hill, co-chair of the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness, said Tuesday that the group b...

Rumors swirled that Sen. Mitt Romney is being considered for Joe Biden’s Cabinet — which is perhaps not too surprising since he is among few GOP leaders who acknowledge Biden as president-elect , and he scolded President Donald Trump for saying the election is being stolen. Romney tried to quash such talk Tuesday in a phone call to Utah news reporters. When asked if Biden has approached him for his Cabinet, Romney said, “I have not been approached, nor will I be approached. And I’m not going to be part of the Biden administration.” He said that as far as he can tell, rumors spread when a Buffalo, N.Y., newspaper reported that he was under consideration as Biden’s secretary of health and human services. “I have no idea who made that story up,” Romney said. “I commented at the time: I’ve not been approached by the Biden team. I will not be approached by the Biden team. And I would never take a job where I had to follow in the footsteps of Michael Leavitt,” the former Utah governor wh...

After the National Basketball Players Association announced Monday night that it had agreed to terms with the NBA on an amended Collective Bargaining Agreement that will allow the 2020-21 season to proceed, the league’s Board of Governors followed suit with their approval Tuesday — making the deal official. A joint statement from the NBA and NBPA issued late Monday night announced the formalization of both some already widely-reported details — for instance, that the season will commence on Dec. 22 and will entail a 72-game schedule — as well as some new items agreed to, including that free agent negotiations will begin on Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. ET, and signings can take place starting at 12:01 a.m. ET on Nov. 22. There is not yet a date on lifting the moratorium in place on trades, but sources told both ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and the New York Times’ Marc Stein that it is expected to be lifted two or three days before the draft. Meanwhile, team schedules will be announced at a futur...

Now that Donald Trump has been defeated, let’s reflect on our “democracy” and the changes needed to make the United States a good example to the rest of the world, not the laughingstock we are today. Many citizens still think that America is the envy of the world. And that our president is the free world’s leader. Neither is remotely true. Trump’s approval rating in European countries averages in the low teens, lower than Russia’s Vladimir Putin or China’s Xi Jinping. Much has changed since the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787. We now have 50 states — not 13. We are the third most populous country on earth with the second largest land area. Women and nonwhites can now vote. We can communicate all around the world by telephone or live video. Our president can destroy any city in the world with the press of a button. We should be setting an example to the rest of the free world, not retreating from it, as Trump has done. Why persist with government systems that are 230 years old?...

The University of Utah men’s basketball team will open its season against a new in-state rival. The Utes are finalizing a deal to face first-year Division I program Dixie State on Nov. 25 at the Huntsman Center, multiple sources told The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday afternoon. Utah already has scheduled nonconference games against Idaho State (Dec. 8), at BYU (Dec. 12) and vs. Utah Valley (Dec. 15). The Utes will pay the Bengals $45,000 and the Wolverines $40,000 in one-off guarantees for their respective trips to the Huntsman Center. The guarantee figure going to Dixie State was not immediately known. Dixie State is coached by Salt Lake City native Jon Judkins, who has led the Trailblazers since 2005-06, at which time they were a junior college program. Judkins and Dixie State spent 14 years at the Division II level, during which time they went to the NCAA Tournament eight times, including a pair of regional finals. The Trib’s @Joshua_Newman joins The Drive to discuss the lates...

This Pat Bagley cartoon appears in The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020. You can check out the past 10 Bagley editorial cartoons below: Snipe Hunt Big News Pants on Fire Waiting in the Wings Vote! Look for the Helpers Captain Lunacy Zombie Logic Election Run Very Good Brain Want more Bagley? Become a fan on Facebook. from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/3lfCD3Z

Nearly all the 2020 ballots are counted. President Donald J. Trump received 47.7% of the popular vote to Vice President Joe Biden’s 50.6%. Liberals and progressives are staggered with disbelief. Those on the left overlook a very important fact. Republicans are united in their testing of a single hypothesis within the context of America’s ongoing democratic experiment. The Republican Party is a big tent, so it is difficult to ascertain what unites all of the GOP factions — what hypothesis they, as a united polity, are putting to the test. The GOP’s establishment base remains a constant 10-20% of the population: bankers, financiers, CEOs, small business owners, gentlemen farmers and retirees whose chief concern is that their 401k accounts remain ever on an upward trajectory. The GOP’s populist base includes: aggrieved members of the working class, real farmers, Christian fundamentalists, QAnon and other conspiracy theorists, Second Amendment gun-rights devotees, Bundyite sovereign ci...

For the first time in eight weeks, the BYU football team isn’t preparing for a game. Instead, the eighth-ranked Cougars are taking a much needed break with a bye week after playing seven consecutive games. BYU’s schedule will pick right back up next week for the North Alabama game on Nov. 21. But just because there’s no opponent to get ready for this week, it doesn’t mean the Cougars have hung up their cleats. They’re instead focusing on taking care of the bumps and bruises they’ve acquired throughout the season. For the last few weeks, junior wide receiver Gunner Romney has been dealing with a hamstring issue that caused him to miss the Texas State game. Out of precaution, and once the Cougars had establish a significant lead, coaches pulled Romney the second half of the game. Romney hasn’t been the only one to get banged up. Some of the other Cougars who have dealt with injuries so far have included Lopini Katoa, James Empey, Zayne Anderson and others. “For me, this weekend w...

Back-to-backs, typically a rarity in college basketball except in tournament play, will be the norm this year in the Mountain West Conference. Utah State and the league’s other 10 teams will play 20 conference games, the MW announced Monday. Those will be broken down into 10 back-to-back series against the same opponent with a one-day break between games. Five series will be at home and five series will be on the road. The move is intended to limit travel and make rescheduling games easier during this pandemic. MW play is set to begin in December and run through the last week of February. Schedules have not been finalized. “The format adjustments create flexibility throughout the season to potentially reschedule games, which may need to be postponed as the schedule plays out,” according to the MW news release. “This is a one-year model adopted specifically to address the unique challenges of the current COVID-19 pandemic.” Initially, USU was slated to open the season Dec. 29 at Air...

One of America’s greatest mistakes over the last century was the war on drugs, so it’s thrilling to see voters in red and blue states alike moving to unwind it. The most important step is coming in Oregon, where voters easily passed a referendum that will decriminalize possession of even hard drugs like cocaine and heroin, while helping users get treatment for addiction. The idea is to address drug use as a public health crisis more than as a criminal justice issue. In Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota, voters decisively passed measures liberalizing marijuana laws. Marijuana will now be legal for medical use in about 35 states and for recreational use in 15 states. But not all the country is onboard. In Alabama, a disabled military veteran named Lee Carroll Brooker, about 80 years old, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole because he was caught in 2011 growing marijuana plants for personal medical use. Because he had been convicted of...