If you’ve been following this week’s news of the rich and famous, you know by know that millionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and charged with federal crimes of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

Many of the headlines since then have read that he is accused of “Sex with underage women.” Really? Why are we whitewashing? Why are we not calling it what it is? Rape of children. Trafficking of children. This man and many of his “friends” were allegedly raping children for their amusement.

How sick is it that these girls — these children — were not only raped and trafficked around the country and internationally, their abusers groomed at least some of them to become “recruiters.”

When some victims went to law enforcement with their abuse, they were offered hush money in one hand and threats with the other. It takes remarkable courage for these survivors to stay the course. They deserve the biggest of kudos. In the end, I believe their efforts will end up protecting many other potential victims.

Alexandra Wolfe wrote about what happened with Epstein’s circle of friends after he finished his slap-on-the-wrist sentence for “procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution.” Nothing. In fact, they circled the wagons. “The conventional wisdom among his friends,” Wolfe wrote, was that Epstein had been “victimized by greedy, morally dubious teenage girls and unscrupulous lawyers.” Darn those children for being raped.

Epstein, who already got one sweetheart of a “deal,” is looking for another. He promises to turn over the names of people in his network who paid for sex with underage girls. Um, people on his private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” people like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, wouldn’t have paid. The young girls were there as a “perk.”

On July 8, Clinton issued a statement regarding the charges against Epstein in which stated in part that the former president took “a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane” in 2002 and 2003. However, flight logs show Clinton had been on the plane 12 times, though it may be at least twice that amount. Donald Trump once called Epstein a "terrific guy" who "likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Yasmin Vafa, the executive director of Rights4Girls and an attorney recently addressed claims by Epstein’s lawyers it was not child trafficking because “there was no violence.” According to Vafa, under federal law, “there is no need to show force, fraud or coercion” when it comes to minors.

“Under the federal law, anyone who recruits, patronizes, solicits a minor under the age of 18 for the purposes of a commercial sex act can be found guilty of trafficking,” she said. “A commercial sex act is actually really broadly defined under the federal law. It encompasses any sex act that’s exchanged for anything of value.”

Lest we be under the illusion that this is something that happens to other people, from other places, federal data on sex trafficking within the United States show that upwards of 80 percent of all confirmed sex trafficking cases involve U.S. citizens.

Even when obscene amounts of wealth aren’t being thrown around to let the “rich and famous” skate, sexual assault convictions are absurdly low. According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), only five out of every 1,000 rapes ends in a felony conviction, while the Washington Post puts it slightly higher, at seven out of 1,000. Either way, the conviction to rape ratio is under 1%. That is abhorrent.

Angelina Jolie said “We must send a message across the world that there is no disgrace in being a survivor of sexual violence - the shame is on the aggressor.”

Every rapist, from the school bus driver, the college prep student, the Jeffrey Epstein’s of the world and even the presidents of the United States, must be held accountable.

Holly Richardson, a regular contributor to The Salt Lake Tribune, wants victims — survivors — to know that sexual abuse is not their fault, there is nothing wrong with them and there is hope and healing after the trauma. If you are currently not safe, please do whatever you need to get yourself to safety.

Late Friday night, President Donald Trump rejected recommendations from the Commerce Department that would have boosted the U.S. uranium mining industry in Utah and beyond, but he moved to create a working group to review the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain within 90 days.

Energy Fuels Inc. and Ur-Energy Inc., two Colorado-based companies that initiated the Commerce Department report, hoped Trump would require nuclear power plants to source 25% of their uranium from domestic mines. Even before the official announcement was made by the White House Friday, both companies saw their stock prices fall precipitously.

Energy Fuels Inc. ended down 36.5% for the day and Ur-Energy Inc., 34%.

Twenty-six members of Congress, including Utah Republican Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Stewart, signed a letter to Trump on Friday urging him to support the quotas.

"The U.S. has become too dependent on foreign powers for these essential components of our economy and defense,” the lawmakers stated.

U.S. nuclear power plants provide roughly 20% of the electricity in the U.S., but the vast majority of uranium fuels used in power generation are imported from Canada, Australia, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy filed a request with the Commerce Department in early 2018 under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, a provision that authorizes such quotas on the basis of national security.

The Commerce Department studied the proposal for nearly a year before Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross provided the White House a report on April 14, which recommended implementing quotas.

The memo signed by Trump on Friday stated the president did not concur with Ross’ finding that “uranium imports threaten to impair the national security of the United States as defined under section 232.”

Trump did, however, agree that impacts of the nuclear fuels supply chain on national security warrant further review. The order assigns a number of cabnet members including Interior Secratary a United States Nuclear Fuel Working Group, which will have 90 days to “develop recommendations for reviving and expanding domestic nuclear fuel production.”

The quota proposal drew criticism from environmental groups, who point to massive uranium-related cleanup operations dating back decades that are still underway across the Western United States.

On the Navajo Nation alone, there are over 500 abandoned uranium mines that have yet to see any significant remediation, including mines near homes and public buildings. Elsewhere billions of dollars have been spent cleaning up contaminated sites, such as at the massive Atlas tailings pile near Moab on the banks of the Colorado River.

Amber Reimondo, energy program director of the Grand Canyon Trust, said the quota request would have likely led to new mining activity around Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah and near Grand Canyon National Park.

“It’s a good thing the quotas were opposed," Reimondo said, “but the news that there will be a working group is something we’ll be keeping a close eye on.”

She added that the quota petition “underscores the need for a permanent mining ban around the Grand Canyon.”

The quotas were also opposed by the nuclear power industry, which the Trump administration has been working to support. Last year, the Nuclear Energy Institute commissioned a white paper that analyzed potential impacts of requiring power plants to buy American uranium. The report concluded the quotas would drive up the cost of nuclear power, and possibly force some nuclear power plants out of business. Fuel costs for nuclear plants would shoot up by at least $500 million and as much as $800 million, according to the report, increasing the cost of electricity by up to $1 per megawatt hour.

In a July 3 statement, Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy disputed those claims, calling them “outrageous.”

U.S. companies aren’t producing enough uranium to power a single reactor, Mark Chalmers, chief executive officer of Energy Fuels, told Bloomberg, adding that prices would need to more than double to make it profitable to boost production.

“We have essentially surrendered the entire fuel cycle to China and Russia,” John Cash, vice president for regulatory affairs at Ur-Energy, told Bloomberg.

Heidi McIntosh, managing attorney of Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountains Office, said the “lobbyist-led effort to drag us back 50 years” to a boomtime for uranium has never made sense.

“New uranium mining on cherished public lands in Bears Ears National Monument and around the Grand Canyon would be the essence of stupidity. … We need to keep that toxic chapter closed for communities in the Southwest.”

Some residents of southeast Utah hoped the petition would stimulate the local mining economy, which was a significant economic driver in the 1950s and 60s.

Even with the price of uranium low, Energy Fuels employs around 60 people at its White Mesa Mill, located between Blanding and the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in southeast Utah. It’s the only conventional uranium mill still operating in the country, and one of the largest private contributors to San Juan County coffers.

The White Mesa Mill is also the site of yearly protests held by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, whose members fear the aging mill could contaminate groundwater and air resources.

In addition to the mill, Energy Fuels maintains several idled mines, including Utah’s Daneros and La Sal complex mines, which the Bureau of Land Management has greenlighted for substantial expansion. The company has a stake in about 300 additional uranium claims on public lands that President Trump removed from Bears Ears National Monument, after Energy Fuels lobbyists requested the Interior Department to make adjustments to the monument’s boundaries in 2017.

This story will be updated.

Zak Podmore is a Report for America corps member and writes about conflict and change in San Juan County for The Salt Lake Tribune.

Update: Unified police said Bryan Royal was found safe Saturday morning. They did not release any additional information.

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Unified police are asking for help in finding a 46-year-old man who went missing Friday in Salt Lake City.

Bryan C. Royal was last seen around 5:30 p.m. walking away from Liberty Dialysis, 3701 S. State St., according to a news release from the state Department of Public Safety. Royal left the facility when his ride — someone with Wasatch Rehab — was more than an hour late picking him up. He hasn’t been seen since, and his cellphone is off.

Royal has an “extensive medical history," including diabetes, renal failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and mental illness, according to a Unified police news release, and police believe he is in danger.

He is described as white, about 5-foot-5 tall and weighs 190 pounds. He has blond hair and blue eyes, and was wearing blue jeans and a black shirt with white stripes.

Anyone with information can call UPD at 801-743-7000.

Hill Air Force Base • The Air Force is about to start a series of detonations of surplus rocket motors and sold fuel for ballistic missiles on the Utah Test and Training Range in western Utah.

The sprawling range is located between Great Salt Lake and the Nevada line.

An announcement says the detonations will start Monday and continue through August as part of an effort to comply with international treaty limits on the number of ballistic missiles.

The announcement said detonations will be conducted two or three times weekly but will be delayed if base officials determine that atmospheric conditions mean that the noise would be louder than permitted levels along the Wasatch Front.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Taylor Cole and Felix Pena of the Los Angeles Angels pitched the second combined no-hitter in franchise history, beating the Seattle Mariners 13-0 Friday night in the team’s first home game since the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs.

It is the second no-hitter in the majors this season. Oakland's Mike Fiers no-hit Cincinnati on May 7. It is the 13th combined no-hitter in MLB history and the first since the Dodgers did it against San Diego on May 4, 2018, in Monterrey, Mexico.

Mallex Smith ended the game with a sharp grounder to second baseman Luis Rengifo, who threw to Justin Bour for the final out and the 11th no-hitter in Angels franchise history.

The Angels charged from the dugout and gathered in celebration near home plate. Then, all the Angels players, who were wearing Skaggs' No. 45 on their jersey, covered the pitching mound with the jerseys as a tribute to Skaggs, on the eve of what would have been his 28th birthday.

"I feel like this is partly Skaggsy's no-hitter," manager Brad Ausmus said. "I don't think it's something that even crosses your mind, on a night that you're honoring a fallen teammate that you could score 13 runs or throw a no-hitter."

Skaggs, a former Salt Lake Bees pitcher, was found unresponsive in his hotel room in Texas on July 1. Skaggs’ mother, Debbie, threw out the first pitch during an emotional pregame ceremony which included a 45-second moment of silence after a tribute video was played.

Skaggs' close friend, Mike Trout, was the offensive hero for the Angels with three hits and six RBIs. In his first at-bat, he hit a Mike Leake sinker 450 feet over the wall in center field on the first pitch for a two-run homer and his AL-leading 29th of the season as the Angels put up seven in the opening frame.

Trout added a two-run double to left later in the inning to extend the lead to 7-0. He was the first LA player to have two extra-base hits in the first inning since Jim Edmonds in 1994.

"You can't make this stuff up. He's probably up there saying we're nasty," said Trout, using what was one of Skaggs' favorite sayings.

Right-handers Cole and Pena combined for eight strikeouts and retired the first 13 batters. The only Seattle player to reach base was designated hitter Omar Narvaez, who walked with one out in the fifth inning.

Cole was the opener and went two innings, striking out two on 22 pitches, including 13 strikes. Pena worked the final seven innings and struck out six with one walk. The right-hander has thrown 81 pitches, 52 strikes.

Pena got some help in the sixth inning when third baseman Matt Theiss made a diving stop to glove Mac Williamson's grounder and throw him out at first.

"For sure I felt him," said Pena of Skaggs. "Every time I was on the mound, I was trying to remember the words he said to me. Focus, focus."

It is the first Angels no-hitter since Jared Weaver accomplished the feat against Minnesota on May 2, 2012.

The only other combined no-hitter by Los Angeles was by Mark Langston and Mike Witt, which also happened against. Seattle on April 11, 1990. The Angels join the Orioles as the only franchises to have multiple combined no-hitters

It is the fourth time that the Mariners have been no hit and the first since Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox threw a perfect game on April 21, 2012.

Los Angeles sent 13 batters to the plate in the first and had eight hits. It is the first time in 283 major-league starts that Leake has not made it out of the first inning. The right-hander allowed seven runs (four earned) on eight hits.

It was the first time since Aug. 7 of last season against Detroit that the Angels had scored seven runs in the first.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Mariners: OF Mitch Haniger (ruptured testicle) has a doctor's appointment next week and has not done any baseball activities. ... RHP Félix Hernández (right shoulder strain) will throw a bullpen session on Monday.

Angels: C Jonathan Lucroy was placed on the seven-day concussion list retroactive to Tuesday. Kevan Smith was activated from the injured list and will split time with Dustin Garneau at catcher. ... IF Zack Cozart (torn labrum) will undergo season-ending surgery on his left shoulder Wednesday. The surgery will not fix the labrum but will fix the area around it to help ease the pain.

UP NEXT

Mariners: Will go with an opener before handing the ball to LHP Wade LeBlanc (5-2, 4.66 ERA). LeBlanc is 3-0 with a 2.97 ERA in seven appearances following an opener.

Angels: RHP Matt Harvey (2-4, 7.50 ERA) will make his first start since May 23. He has been on the injured list with an upper back strain.

There are some things that should go without saying. Pizza is delicious. We really do not deserve dogs. There was absolutely, positively room for Jack on that door at the end of “Titanic.” Until fairly recently, “Men who sexually exploit and abuse children are bad, regardless of their political affiliations” seemed like it sat firmly among such self-evident statements.

But last weekend brought the news that Jeffrey Epstein, a longtime fixture of the moneyed New York and Palm Beach social scenes, had been arrested at New Jersey’s Teterboro airport; in a joint effort between the FBI and the public-corruption and sex trafficking departments of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, he was charged with the sex trafficking of minors in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005, crimes to which he pleaded not guilty.

And as more details about Epstein ooze into the news cycle, the most buzzed-about names are the two presidents, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, with whom he was known to keep company. Which means there's been a battle underway in the media (and on social media) to portray the arrest as somehow good for one political party and bad for the other. It's understandable that the involvement of two of the most polarizing figures in modern history in a global story involving what prosecutors call the systematic exploitation of young girls is a high-stakes issue. But the only people who view sexual predation as a partisan problem are those who treat victims as nothing more than rhetorical cudgels.

As was once the case with other wealthy, smirking men for whom time is now up, Epstein’s network of powerful friends and enablers in media, politics and law enforcement let him continue allegedly abusing and silencing girls as young as 13. And just as the behavior Epstein is accused of was an open secret, so too are the boldface names who associated with him: In 2015, the now-defunct website Gawker published details from the flight logs of Epstein’s private plane, known as the “Lolita Express”; prominent passengers included Britain’s Prince Andrew, law professor Alan Dershowitz, and former Harvard president and treasury secretary Lawrence Summers.

Epstein’s alleged penchant for soliciting “massages” from underage girls, subsequently coercing them into sex by offering cash and then paying them to recruit more underage girls has been a matter of media record since at least 2006, when the Palm Beach Police Department, after a year-long investigation, filed a probable-cause affidavit recommending that Epstein be charged with four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and one count of lewd and lascivious molestation. Instead, he was given a remarkable secret non-prosecution, and just 13 months in jail, by then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta in 2008. Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown estimates that it was “one of the most lenient sentences for a serial sex offender in U.S. history.”

Those familiar with Epstein’s social notoriety — he hosted celebrity-packed parties at his Manhattan townhouse, and his private Caribbean island, Little St. James, was informally known as “Orgy Island” — know that both Trump and Clinton are long rumored to have benefited from his sleazy largesse. Gawker began covering Epstein as early as 2006 in part because of his ties to Clinton, regularly referring to him as a “billionaire Bill Clinton pal.” Vicky Ward, who wrote a 2003 Vanity Fair profile of Epstein, has said that Graydon Carter, then editor of the magazine, assigned the profile because Clinton’s trip to Africa aboard the Lolita Express had sparked curiosity about the wealthy financier’s murky background. And a 2011 episode of “Law and Order: SVU” titled “Flight” earned its ripped-from-the-headlines bona fides with a lead character known for being both a “billionaire pervert flying in underage girls for sex” and the buddy of “a former president.”

Trump, meanwhile, is on record with a 2002 quote about his friendship with Epstein — “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side” — that was already unsettling but is now a lot more so. One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Roberts, said she was lured into his ring when she was a 16-year-old spa employee at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club; speaking on the record as part of the Miami Herald’s investigative series about the Epstein case, titled “Perversion of Justice,” Roberts recalled with heartbreaking straightforwardness her trajectory of being “trained” to please Epstein and eventually “lent out to politicians, and to academics, and to ... royalty.”

But if it’s not surprising to see a sprawling case like this recast as one more arena for Republicans and Democrats to take potshots at one another, it’s a depressing confirmation of how easily horrific crimes against vulnerable young women are weaponized for political score-settling. On Sunday, Noah Shachtman of the Daily Beast, one of the first outlets to report Epstein’s arrest, issued a breathtakingly cynical tweet: “I’m seeing lots of folks on the left and the right who seem absolutely sure that Epstein is going to give up their political enemies. Hot tip: he’s just as likely to give up your allies.”

Christine Pelosi, a Democratic National Committee official and the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), warned — also via Twitter — that it was “quite likely that some of our faves are implicated” in Epstein’s trafficking operation. Trump defenders have, predictably, mobilized on social media to argue that if their man had any involvement in Epstein’s sleazy enterprise, “his enemies would have played that card” in 2016. Just as predictably, Fox News personalities have been so eager to blame Epstein’s sweetheart plea deal on Barack Obama that they haven’t bothered to check whether he was president at the time. (Spoiler: He was not.) And Tuesday’s news of new sex trafficking charges against businessman, gay activist and Democratic donor Ed Buck is contributing to the tennis match about the allegations of Epstein’s horrifying sexual predation.

Epstein’s indictment may end up implicating big names other than the ones we already know. And though I wish this didn’t need repeating, the fact that people on “the other side” may have been enablers of and participants in Epstein’s crimes does not make enablers and participants on “our side” any less guilty — and vice versa.

Indeed, anyone who lobs out "Guess what? Your political allies are sexual predators, too!" as though it's some kind of magnificent gotcha is conveying more about their own concerns than about anyone else's. Having a long record of accusations of exploiting and abusing minors should disqualify Epstein from being counted among anyone's political allies, just as the charges against Buck should persuade politicians to rethink campaign donations from him. But as we learned from Roy Moore's Alabama Senate campaign last year, there's an unnerving number of people who look at allegations of sexual coercion not as a criminal or ethical matter but as a partisan one.

Of course, powerful people engaging in a pattern of sexual misconduct is always small-p political, and the Epstein case is a nauseatingly clear illustration of how power, wealth and connections weave a protective ring around awful men. When “Perversion of Justice” was published in November, it focused largely on Epstein’s plea deal with Acosta, which unavoidably pointed to White House connections: Trump made Acosta secretary of labor in 2017, and Epstein’s defense attorneys included Dershowitz, now a noted Trump defender and media surrogate, as well as former Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. But Brown, for one, has been clear that she refused to let go of the story in the hopes of long-overdue justice for Epstein’s many victims, who were never informed about the deal. (Acosta resigned from his role as secretary of labor on Friday morning.)

A reasonable person can recognize that sexual predation isn’t unique to one political party or allegiance, and you would think that the near-constant abuse-of-power revelations over the past few years might have convinced even the less reasonable. And yet a constant current of anger and suspicion hums beneath party politics, a sense that the wrong people are apologizing because the right ones won’t. A not-insignificant number of Democrats, for instance, remain mad that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., pushed former Minnesota senator and staunch progressive Al Franken to resign in 2017 over sexual misconduct allegations; a glut of Twitter accounts are surely gearing up to tweet BUT WHAT ABOUT BILL CLINTON?!?! at anyone daring to suggest that Moore might do well to end his 2020 Senate bid.

Women are used to seeing our lives, bodies, careers and very humanity leveraged as political capital or thrown under the proverbial bus according to the whims of the politicians, institutions and systems that claim to represent and stand for us. But in such a polarizing time, it’s increasingly important for everyone — especially those who consider themselves progressive — to recognize that demanding accountability from sexual abusers isn’t a political weakness but a promise to those who are abused that we see and hear them. Those who can’t or won’t are not allies worth keeping.

Andi Zeisler is the cofounder of Bitch Media and the author of “We Were Feminists Once.” She speaks frequently on the subjects of feminism, activism and popular culture.

@andizeisler

I watch with increasing dismay the suffering of immigrant children in U.S. custody. They are given poor food and live in overcrowded squalor without education or play. Even the smallest children are not cared for. Their parents are held in similar situations. Prison inmates in our country have better sanitation, food and water, education and recreation.

The immigration and asylum system in place for the past 50 years wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t abusive and rarely resulted in family separation — certainly not as a systematic, deliberate form of oppression that reeks of human rights abuse. Remember when our country was a shining beacon for human rights around the globe?

There’s a lot of money being made off these asylum seekers. According to one figure, private prison companies are being paid $750 a day for interning each immigrant child — and they can’t spare $25 of that to avoid Oliver Twist-type conditions?

In opulent contrast, Donald Trump turned the nation’s Independence Day celebration into a political rally, handing out VIP tickets to his major donors and demanding a Putin/Kim Jong Un-esque tank and troops parade with a fighter plane flyover.

This rally is costing a fortune, a figure the administration refuses to share, though we know the beleaguered National Park Service is scraping together more than $2 million for the event (the entire cost of previous celebrations).

This event is one of the many ways Trump has turned the presidency into his own private and profitable playground, with the support of Mitch McConnell’s Senate. (Remember checks and balances?)

Help the children. Restore our democracy. Stop pretending all of this is OK. And yes, throw the bums out.

Kate Coombs, Bountiful

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In the next two weeks, ballots should be mailed out to vote for the Salt Lake City mayoral candidates. There are a wide range of candidates and, based on my experience of politics in the city, these are my takes on the candidates.

Utah state Sen. Luz Escamilla is a long-time legislator with around 50 bills that she has helped pass into law. She is endorsed by Democrats, Republicans and business professionals. She has also, from the start, agreed with the mayor that the state’s inland port is wrong and deserves to be fought in court.

Former Salt Lake City Councilman Stan Penfold impressed me with his knowledge of the city’s finances. It seemed at times that he knew more about RDA finances than most of the RDA staff. He also has a community activist background and has been chair of his Greater Avenues Community Council. His reputation for helping affordable housing started before anyone else was concerned about it and his efforts to organize efforts to keep people in their homes has garnered him respect.

Former state Sen. Jim Dabakis, who is also a former chair of the Utah Democratic Party, is one of the best communicators I know of. But in the senate his reputation for refusing to go with the flow only allowed one of his bills to become law. He says he supports the inland port lawsuit, but he helped organize the agreement on the inland port. Because the city needs someone that can actually accomplish things, I think that he should consider focusing on helping the Democratic Party instead of running for mayor.

Councilwoman Erin Mendenhall has six years of experience on the City Council, and, like Penfold, could hit the ground running the city. But some have questioned her efforts to increase taxes, including the parks bond from a few years ago, and several tax increases in the last year for Salt Lake City citizens. She has also encouraged efforts to extend the S-Line to 400 South, which would require hundreds of millions of local taxpayer money. Her behind-closed-doors decision to put a homeless shelter in the Sugar House created a big backlash. A more recent controversy was her efforts to lead the council to ignore the mayor’s efforts to fight the state’s inland port land and tax grab and reach agreement on the port.

Businessman David Ibarra has an incredible reputation with other businessmen and high-level elected leaders. He has been on many boards, has built several successful businesses and created a successful scholarship program. His potential solutions create more questions than answers. I have watched him answer separate questions on parking and transit and transportation with the same answer, electric autonomous vehicles will solve the problem. I am not sure that that is enough to solve the city’s problems.

Businessman and former Southern Utah Wilderness attorney David Garbett has been helping lead the Pioneer Park Coalition, which has been instrumental in pushing many of the homeless out of the downtown area and into the rest of the city. That reputation may not sit well with voters.

Rainer Huck and Richard Goldberger do not seem to be realistic candidates. Huck has tried to focus on the recent tax increases and police brutality, legitimate questions in an election, but his suggestion to put homeless in a camp in the northwest section of the city seems to be unrealistic. Goldberger’s message on homeless walking the streets also seem to be questionable.

My realistic candidates who have the best potential for the future success of Salt Lake City are Escamilla, Penfold and Mendenhall.

There will be debates with the candidates on July 15 at noon that will be broadcast on local news channels, and on July 16 at Westminster Jewitt Center, 1700 S. 1250 East, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., that will be live on Facebook. From 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. there will be a meet and greet with the candidates.

Please listen and consider their positions and then vote.

George Chapman is a former candidate for mayor of Salt Lake City and writes a blog at georgechapman.net

As Erik Neumann wrote in his article for KUER, titled “New Emails Show Link Between Utah Governor’s Office and Lobbyist on EPA Air Quality Rule,” the emails demonstrate how the lobbyists for fossil fuel companies are a prioritized source of direction over the public by Gov. Gary Herbert, which is an endangerment and dishonor of public trust.

Utah’s public opinion on the written policies is being withheld from them by the lobbyists. Pollution, environmental harm and human health risks are being given permission to occur, through loopholes without the public’s awareness, input or consideration.

In other words, the lives and health of the public are being put aside as meaningless. The decision process is oriented toward the short term with high public and environmental risks.

The overall message and progress trends are becoming increasingly crisp. Facts are being withheld, mistranslated and morphed. Power for clean energy is being used dysfunctionally in the long term.

The individuals in power are fueling themselves instead of society. Contact Herbert and tell him that as a representative for all of the people in Utah, he should represent the opinions of Utah’s residents and not just those of special interest groups.

Marcus Benoff, Ogden

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Ol’ Bone Spurs, that lying, puffed-up buffoon who wishes to emulate those he admires most (Putin and Kim Jong Un) has now usurped our nation’s celebration by having a military parade in his honor, a la his idols.

So where’s Congress? The spineless ones have gone missing, but not without their unearned paychecks.

Glen V. Ruff, Springville

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In the next week or so, Congress will have the opportunity to give 488,000 working Utahns a substantial raise.

The Raise the Wage Act will increase the wage to $15 an hour over the next six years to alleviate the rising economic stress workers are facing. With rising costs of living and flatlining wages, this congressional legislation on behalf of the working class is long overdue.

It’s been nearly 10 years since the minimum wage was last increased. Today the minimum wage is worth 15% less than it was in 2009, meaning that low-income employees now have to work longer hours to reach what we viewed the minimum standard of living 10 years ago. The minimum wage was designed to create a minimum standard of living for workers, but with rising inflation it’s no longer accomplishing that (and we believe that $7.25 per hour even in 2009 did not meet that minimum standard).

Today, there is nowhere in the United States where a person earning the minimum wage can afford a two bedroom apartment. In Utah, working at the minimum wage of $7.25, an employee would have to work 82 hours to afford rent for a modest one bedroom. For economically vulnerable groups (like single mothers and low-income families), attempting to live at this wage level is untenable.

But there is an easy way to fix this: Raise the minimum wage.

For years business leaders and lawmakers preached about the destruction that will be brought down upon our economy if we dare raise the minimum wage. It’s been three years since Arizona raised its wage, two years for Washington and one year for Massachusetts. And yet the business community is still operating robustly, businesses haven’t shut down en masse, restaurants are still serving customers, and the sky hasn’t fallen.

And it’s not just states that are getting behind raising the minimum wage. In the last year, Amazon, Target, CVS, and Walmart (public pressure can bring about positive change!) have all announced higher wages for their employees. Even the company whose low wages spawned the Fight for 15 movement, McDonald’s, halted their lobbying efforts against raising the minimum wage and now supports it.

Former minimum wage adversaries are recognizing that both workers and business benefit from a higher minimum wage. Contrary to what these business used to say, increasing the minimum wage has boosted job growth for small business and retail and hasn’t negatively impacted employment.

Our economy is 70% consumer driven. Increasing the minimum wage puts money directly into the hands of those who need it the most, who will almost immediately invest it back into our economy by paying for essentials like rent, groceries, clothing, and gas, and non-essentials like movie tickets, and the occasional meal at a restaurant. It’s this kind of consumer spending that drives our economy forward. When people have more money, they spend more money. An economy where more people are spending benefits everyone, not just those at the top.

Congress passing the Raise the Wage Act would increase the spending power of millions of Americans and the effects would ripple throughout our economy. When workers aren’t smothered by overwhelming expenses, it is indeed a win-win for all. Investing in our workers is investing in our future. So please call our congressmen — Ben McAdams, (801) 999-9801; John Curtis, (801) 922-5400; Chris Stewart, (801) 364-5550; and Rob Bishop, (801) 625-0107. Let them know how important it is for all of them to vote for the Raise the Wage Act.

Jonathan M. Ruga and Scott F. Young are members of the Patriotic Millionaires, a nonprofit group which focuses on promoting public policy solutions that encourage political equality, guarantee a sustaining wage for working Americans and ensure that wealthy individuals and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. They are both the co-founders and executive management of Sentry Financial Corporation, Salt Lake City.

Josh Kanter is the founder of Alliance for a Better Utah.

Earlier this year my partner and I drove to the remote desert town of Calexico, Calif., to visit a detained Honduran migrant (who I will call “Pedro” here).

Pedro had just turned 18, a boy really, and he hadn’t had a single visitor since he’d turned himself in at the border seeking asylum several months before. We’d been asked to visit by his boyfriend, another Honduran migrant living in Salt Lake City, who was working tirelessly to get him released.

The Imperial Regional Detention Facility is located along a dusty road in the Imperial Valley. The barbed wire fencing looked strange and imposing amongst the irrigated fields. We entered through two steel gates and metal detectors, then we sat to wait for the visitation. That’s when we saw a familiar face.

Right there on the wall of the detention facility was a portrait of one of Utah’s most prominent progressives: Jane Marquardt.

Jane Marquardt is well known for, as her website states, serving “on many community boards in the areas of education, legal services delivery, and civil rights,” and for being “a voice for the LGBTQ movement in Utah.”

But Jane Marquardt is also the vice chair of Management and Training Corporation (MTC), a for-profit prison company that operates 22 “correctional facilities” throughout the United States, including the Imperial Regional Detention Facility where Pedro was being held. Her brother, Bob Marquardt, is the president and CEO of MTC and serves on the boards of the Utah System of Higher Education and Rowland Hall.

Though my partner and I were amazed and a little bit disturbed to see her smiling face in such a horrific setting, there was no time to process the irony before the visit began.

We saw a teenager walking hesitantly towards us with a shy smile. We sat with Pedro and discussed his boyfriend, family and legal case. He told us he was very depressed, but trying to keep hope. Hope that he would get out and be with his love, that he would not be sent back to the homophobic violence and gangs in Honduras.

Before we left we were able to give Pedro a hug. He hadn’t hugged anyone in a long time, and we all came away from the embrace in tears. It broke our hearts to leave this boy, whose only crime was wanting to live, in a prison where he wouldn’t have access to a lawyer, free phone calls or visitation from loved ones.

We didn’t know it then, but we wouldn’t see Pedro again. He was deported just a few weeks later.

It was clear to us, as it should be clear to anyone reading the news these days, that these detention facilities are cruel, unnecessary and dangerous. Anyone should be ashamed to be associated with them. But the Marquardts are not.

When my partner and I were leaving the MTC facility we noticed an Orwellian sign near Jane Marquardt’s portrait that reminded employees to wear their “BIONIC” pins. BIONIC stands for “Believe It Or Not I Care.”

This superficial “I care” is the standard defense that the Marquardts and MTC give when asked how they can stomach making their fortunes imprisoning migrants, many of whom have not even been charged with a crime?

When a dozen protesters occupied MTC’s offices in Centerville a year ago, the company responded with a statement saying, “Our hearts go out to anyone separated from their family,” and, “that the detainees are treated with great care, respect and dignity.”

What exactly is the definition of “respect and dignity” when boys who’ve fled discrimination and violence are sitting in cages, isolated from loved ones and essential resources?

How can Jane Marquardt be a “a voice for the LGBTQ movement in Utah” when gay and transgender detainees at the MTC-run Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico face what lawyers called “rampant sexual harassment, discrimination and abuse”?

MTC is a Utah company. Jane and Bob Marquardt are prominent members of our community. As so many of us see the atrocities occurring on the border and ask ourselves, “what can I do,” here we have an answer:

We can make it clear that MTC and the Marquardt’s prison-for-profit schemes are not our values. Institutions should refuse these actors’ charitable donations, remove them from their boards and put all possible pressure on them to change their business model to one that does not profit off the suffering of human beings.

You can learn more and sign a petition at shutdownmtc.org.

Easton Smith, is a writer and community organizer in Salt Lake City.

To Jill and Matt McCluskey and others,

Please allow me to say publicly what I expect many of us feel, but what the University of Utah administration too often has been too slow or unwilling to say clearly and unambiguously: I’m sorry.

I’m sorry most of all for the loss of your daughter, Lauren McCluskey. At least the U. now expresses sorrow, too, as evident in the comments of then-Vice President of Student Affairs Barbara Snyder on NBC’s “Dateline.”

No parent should have their child murdered — least of all, when that murder was reasonably foreseeable and preventable. That you were on the telephone talking to Lauren when it happened, knowing it was happening, and were unable to stop it, although desperately wanting and trying to — it staggers the imagination. I am sorry for your pain.

I’m sorry that so many people failed so repeatedly to act appropriately on your daughter’s legitimate concerns (“…She kept calling police. But risks went unrecognized…” The Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 19, 2018).

The recordings of Lauren’s and others’ requests for help to the U. police and Salt Lake City police are heartbreaking. (“...University of Utah releases audio of calls to campus police…” Tribune, Jan. 17, “Audio of Lauren McCluskey’s calls for help…” Tribune, Dec. 21, 2018).

Lauren was cogent, clear, and convincing, and obviously and rightly worried. As a straightforward matter of basic human decency — never mind professional responsibility — it is unconscionable that her repeated requests were in essence dismissed and that responses were unduly delayed, sometimes under the premise that Lauren’s safety was someone else’s job. In situations involving clear and imminent danger and illegal acts and threats, it’s everyone’s job. And it’s a job for now — not later.

I’m sorry that the U. subsequently mischaracterized the true circumstances leading to Lauren’s death, deepening your sorrows. Repeatedly, the U.’s mishandlings have been more worthy of rebuke than of multiple, self-serving awards (“…Lauren McCluskey’s name on the program for awards…” Tribune, June 5).

To its credit, the U. commissioned an external report, which ultimately noted some positives. But University President Ruth Watkins’ claim that “the report does not offer any reason to believe that this tragedy could have been prevented” is stunningly counterfactual, inappropriate and inexcusable (“It’s time for the University of Utah to accept its failures…” Tribune, July 3).

Watkins’ disingenuous whitewashing undermines the very improvements that the report proposes, and seriously damages her credibility and the U.’s. Why implement ineffectual changes that would make no difference? Such doublespeak is a poor way to regain trust. Similarly, the stalking, harassment, and ultimate slaying of Lauren were by no means random or unpredictable, as Snyder seemingly implied on “Dateline” (“…The U. made itself look worse…” Tribune, June 14).

I’m sorry that the U. leaders who have the ultimately responsibility, Watkins and Police Chief Dale Brophy, were unwilling to address “Dateline” themselves, and instead substituted a soon-to-be-retired subordinate as an expendable sacrificial lamb. I’m sorry that Watkins and some other U. officials reportedly refused to answer your later emails (“…The University of Utah never apologized—and has stopped talking to them…” Tribune, Jan. 25).

Perhaps stonewalling is a good corporate legal strategy. But it’s a horrible humanitarian one — especially for a U. president publicly promoted as a student-centered, people-first leader (”For Ruth Watkins … the job centers on students…” Tribune, Jan. 28, 2018).

I’m sorry that the U. has too often focused more on public relations and image management than on the unembellished truth (“The University of Utah spent nearly $60,000 for public relations…” Tribune, June 27). Trying to look good rather than do good, the U. has failed at both — much as it failed your daughter.

That the U.’s positions and framings of the case were often scripted in advance only exacerbates the problem. These were not spontaneous, ad-libbed mistakes.

It nearly defies belief that anyone could not be, or should not be, sorry for all that, and more.

The views expressed here are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the U.’s.

I’m sorry that the U’s misdirected positions make that difference hold true here in fact as well as in principle.

Gregory A. Clark is a member of the University of Utah faculty.

Colonial Flag’s Paul Swenson thinks that those people who don’t buy his company’s “Betsy Ross” flag are “losers.” This is typical language from a Trump far-right extremist.

If Swenson did some research, he would have found that this version of the American flag is used by such white supremacist groups as the American Identity Movement and the Patriot Front, to name just a couple. Or maybe Swenson has done his research and supports these hate groups. Sad.

These white supremacist groups want to take America back to when it was ruled by white males and where slavery was practiced. The Betsy Ross flag was flown during those times. I can understand why any African American would be offended with this version of the American flag being celebrated.

It is disturbing that Swenson’s company wants to make a buck while pushing the agenda of white supremacists and insult Americans who don’t agree. Sounds just like the agenda of Donald Trump.

If Swenson must assign the label of “loser” to anyone, he should first look in the mirror and assign it to that person. Clearly there is no one more deserving.

Ryan Hinkins, Salt Lake City

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Letters in the July 2 Tribune from Phil Neelands and Marci Esparza prompt me to respond.

First, Marci, a “concentration camp” is defined as “a place where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities.” That definitely seems to describe those holding areas at the southern border.

As for Donald Trump’s performance, his approval rating stands in the low 40s, which may explain the rash of “anti-Trump” letters The Tribune receives instead of perceiving that The Tribune is biased.

Phil has praised Trump’s policies, but neglected to mention his immigration policies that have exacerbated the border situation, namely the separation of children and parents, the threat to close the border and the elimination of foreign aid to Central American countries.

And the withdrawal from the Paris Accord regarding climate change is inexcusable. The Climate Change Performance Index ranks India 11th, China 32nd and the U.S. 59th out of 60 countries measured. Instead, he is trying to revive the coal industry.

And now, in addition to authoring more than 10,000 lies, this narcissistic, egotistical misogynist used a Fourth of July celebration for his own aggrandizement.

Kermit Heid, Salt Lake City

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Let me paint a picture. You’ve thought and worked long and hard to understand who you are and what you’ll pursue. Finally able to articulate what makes you tick, they say “Really? I pegged you as a [insert stereotypical phrase here] person.”

(Drags self on floor back to drawing board.)

When who we are is not what society sees in us, do we give up or proceed? This was my dilemma for the past year.

I became a local titleholder in the Miss America program the weekend college final exams ended in May 2018. Shocked to have the new opportunity, I set three goals to frame my year of service: 1) Create an Instagram to inspire others to do kind acts and reach 1,000 followers; 2) Participate in at least 20 community events; 3) Complete 200 hours of community service. Little did I know, this was the easy part. I met my first two goals and more than doubled my third goal. The hard part was everything else.

I quickly realized I was on my own. My program director was constantly busy, my coach had prior commitments, I had limited funds, no car, a packed schedule, no prior experience in the program, and my usual support system was far away.

I was an emotional roller coaster trying to balance Miss Utah candidacy, course work, leadership roles, a prestigious internship, and a romantic relationship. Life felt hectic. I often wondered if the things I was pursuing were worth it.

Visiting home for Christmas reset my mind. I was ready to win when Miss Utah week arrived.

The exhausting week resurfaced the things that made me a little too different. The first signal was the private interview.

As I stood in front of the panel of judges, they spent at least half of the short interview shooting off questions similar to “How do you feel about immigrants considering the huge toll they put on our system? Why should we take in more people when the people here are overburdening us?”

I walked away confidently, having answered every difficult question clearly and calmly. Then, I remembered my first name was Spanish and my Filipino last name looked Spanish. Many people who don’t know me assume this means I am Latina.

The next signals were the talent and evening gown portions. As I started my 90-second solo with ancient Hawaiian culture, I looked at the panel of judges. I noticed that half of them weren’t interested. Things made more sense when a classical pianist and a ballet dancer won the talent award that night — talents some consider more noble and elegant.

The judges paid a little more attention when I walked out in my evening gown. But when someone else won the award that night, I remembered mine was the gown that, though stunning, was most modest.

Many of the 53 beautiful and accomplished candidates won awards that week, but I did not. You may wonder if it was lack of training, aging out of the competition, wearing a taboo engagement ring, being one of the few women of color, or choosing to live my faith by wearing sleeves throughout the competition. I’ve wondered the same thing.

However, what lingers is a realization of what I gained before the competition ended — a network of women ready to effect lasting change in our community, a feeling of satisfaction for surpassing all of my goals, and most of all, a sense of increased strength as I lived my truths.

We will all have moments in life when who we believe we are does not match what society sees in us. Though we may feel defeated or at odds with ourselves, these are opportunities to strengthen ourselves and move forward in living our truth. It will bring happiness more than anything else in life, even a bright twinkling crown.

The great minds and leaders in history did not achieve their goals by letting society dictate which life experience was a failure or a success.

Maya Angelou once said, “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”

Go and be amazing.

Lluvia Koali Santiago, Orem, is a presidential intern for inclusion and diversity at Utah Valley University and will receive a bachelor’s degree in communications in spring 2020.

After Holladay voters torpedoed a high-density development on the old Cottonwood Mall site last year, a new luxury proposal is beginning to advance through the city’s approval process.

It is billed as a top-of-the line commercial and residential development that may include some very expensive housing — such as $2.5 million penthouse condos that would be only 2,500 square feet in size.

That latest proposal, now called Holladay Hills, seeks to abide by old-but-still-existing terms approved by city leaders back in 2007 for a proposal that was abandoned when that developer went bankrupt. The new proposal has lower density, smaller buildings farther from streets and more open space than the last controversial plan.

So far, the new effort pleases at least one leader who led the charge against the defeated high-density plan — and has Holladay’s mayor predicting this proposal will finally reach the finish line after others fizzled.

“We would support a project that fits within the existing entitlements,” said Paul Baker, one of the founders of Unite for Holladay, the group that led the ballot challenge. “We knew what was coming in 2007, and it was pretty well accepted.” Voters blocked later changes attempted by the City Council.

Holladay Hills by on Scribd

While Baker says it is too early to formally endorse the new proposal, he said members of his group have met several times with the new developer and generally like the direction of the project.

Holladay Mayor Rob Dahle said the new proposal “certainly has gotten off on a different footing than the last application because it has applied to stay under the current property entitlements. ... This probably is a plan that is going to be much more acceptable to the general public.”

Last year, voters killed a proposal by Ivory Homes and Woodbury Corp. for a massive housing, office tower and retail development on the mall site near 4800 S. Highland Drive — including a 775-unit high-rise apartment complex and 210 single-family homes on 57 acres. Afterward, Ivory Homes abandoned the effort, but Woodbury Corp. decided to regroup and try again.

The new proposal calls for 614 residential units and up to 750,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and office space, and potentially a hotel and theater. The new developer is Holladay Hills LLC, a partnership involving Woodbury Corp., Millrock Capital and KBS Commercial Advisors.

“Our vision for this property is to create a high quality, best of class project,” Millrock developer Steve Peterson said at a public hearing before the Holladay Planning Commission this week.

He said Holladay Hills is willing to live within the 2007 entitlements, and maybe less. For example, he is looking at building 715,000 square feet of residential development, fewer than the allowed 775,000. The tallest proposed building would be 80 feet high, or lower than the 90-foot maximum allowed in 2007 (and much lower than the 136-foot-high tower originally proposed by Ivory).

Peterson said he is willing to discuss with Holladay residents raising building heights a bit to provide more open space.

By living within the existing rules, the developer would avoid any votes by the City Council on new zoning requirements — which the Utah Supreme Court ruled amounts to new laws that can be challenged by voter initiative, which happened last year.

Still, the city planning commission must sign off on overall conceptual plans, preliminary drawings for each phase, and final plans — each in separate steps — to ensure they follow the earlier entitlements.

The planning commission this week approved the conceptual drawing for the whole project and preliminary drawings for an early phase. Peterson said it will now move to more detailed preliminary drawings.

“There is overwhelming interest in this site,” Peterson said. For example, he said one potential tenant wants to repurpose the old Macy’s building and perhaps build an adjacent hotel. He said he could be back soon with preliminary drawings for that phase if deals are reached.

“There’s a lot of people who want to live here,” he added, but warned “it’s not going to be cheap.”

He predicted a 2,500-square-foot penthouse condo will cost $2.5 million, for example.

“But it’s going to be best of class,” he said. “In our community, if people want to downsize, where do we go? This is an option to have a small place, and a quality place.”

But resident Peter Monson wasn’t so sure about that in the public hearing.

“Who in Holladay has $2.5 million to downsize?” he asked amid laughter. “Holladay is getting younger. Holladay is growing. And a lot of us who are younger can’t afford $2.5 million to downsize because we can’t afford the prices of homes in Holladay already.”

He urged more affordable housing. “Where is the type of help to those types of residents who cannot afford luxury condos?”

Others expressed lingering concerns over traffic and the amount of green space — but Peterson pledged to continue to work with the community.

The developer said the project may also bring some much-needed tax revenue to Holladay. He noted that when the city incorporated, studies said the mall area was important to its financial viability.

“And for the last 10 years, we have lost out on the revenue stream that was projected,” he said as a variety of proposals fizzled. The developer expects to complete the project within five to 10 years, in different phases, if the city gives final approval.

Dahle, the mayor, said, “Most people are tired of the weed field and want to see something done. ... I am very optimistic that this one will finally get to the finish line.”

Every picture tells a story — and, sometimes, two pictures put together tell a different story.

That’s the idea behind a new exhibition at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, “Power Couples: The Pendant Format in Art,” which looks at paired artworks from the 1500s to today.

An artist might create two separate works, and pair them up as “a storytelling device,” said Leslie Anderson, curator of European, American and regional art for UMFA. “What couldn’t be represented by a single picture could be represented by works conceived as pairs.”

Anderson has gathered more than 30 pairs of artworks, mostly taken from UMFA’s permanent collection — some recently acquired, others sitting in storage for years. Anderson discovered many of them while exploring the permanent collection during UMFA’s 19-month closure for renovation in 2016 and 2017, just after she was hired.

“I envisioned the show, really, as a celebration of our collection,” Anderson said.

The term “pendant art” was coined in the 1800s, Anderson said, but the idea of paired paintings goes back to the 1500s — a secular version of the religious diptych and triptych paintings, which were connected by hinges so the complete work could fold out and amaze churchgoers.

The earliest paired works often showed spouses. The husband would usually take the “dexter” or right-hand position, as seen by the painted subjects (the viewer would see them on the left). The wife would appear in the “sinister” position, usually looking lovingly and subserviently at her husband.

One such pair in UMFA’s collection are the 1802 portraits of Philadelphia merchant Simon Walker and his wife, the former Marianne Ashley. They were painted by Gilbert Stuart, best known for the portrait of George Washington that graces the dollar bill.

Wealthy couples in the 19th century, Anderson said, often commissioned paired portraits. “They subscribed to the idea that two works are better than one, in terms of decorating their home. It’s a status symbol,” she said.

The style became easily reproduced, Anderson said, and traveling painters would create husband-and-wife portraits on commission. In part of the 19th century, she said, the majority of portrait paintings being created were in pairs.

The style has been adapted to modern times. Kerry James Marshall’s 2003 pairing, “Diptych Color Blind Test” (on loan from the Denver Art Museum), depicts an African American man and woman giving the Black Power salute. The color scheme, in dots resembling the Ishihara color-blindness test, is the red, green and black of the African flag proposed by early 20th century activist Marcus Garvey.

The paired portrait style also is easily parodied. In Nina Katchadourian’s 2015 self-portraits, a recent UMFA acquisition, the artist photographed herself in poses inspired by old Flemish masters. But she shot the photos on her cellphone in an airplane lavatory, and fashioned her old-timey collars from bathroom tissue and toilet-seat covers.

Landscapes are another popular subject of paired art, as “a way for artists to experiment with pictorial field, to suggest a continuity beyond the frame,” Anderson said. One example is Tom Rasmussen’s vivid portrayal of Bryce Canyon — on loan from the Salt Lake City International Airport — where the twin paintings “suggest the vastness of the American West.”

Anderson’s research found an odd Utah connection for one painting, a 1925 portrait of the silent movie star Rudolph Valentino, by the Cuban-born painter Federico Beltrán-Masses. (It hangs alone at one end of the exhibition’s main gallery; its mate, which Valentino also owned before his death in 1926, is held by a private collector.)

Valentino was married for two tempestuous years to costume designer Natascha Rambova, who was born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy in Salt Lake City, a member of a prominent Latter-day Saint family. Rambova’s mother, Winifred Kimball Hudnut, donated much of her estate’s art, including the Valentino painting, to UMFA in the 1940s.

In researching the paired works in this exhibition, Anderson often had to do some detective work.

Take a pair of portraits of Mr. and Mrs. David Austen, painted between 1811 and 1816 by the American artist Samuel Lovett Waldo. For years, Anderson said, these paintings were catalogued in UMFA’s collection as representing a different couple, the Wheelocks of Boston, who were related to the Austens.

“It was actually a confusion of provenance, and the history of the ownership of the work,” Anderson said.

Anderson was able to pinpoint the date the paintings were created because of the frames. They bore a label for a frame maker’s shop on New York’s Partition Street — which was renamed Fulton Street in 1816, in honor of steamship inventor Robert Fulton.

It’s not the first time Anderson has pieced together a new narrative for an artwork.

In 2014, before she came to UMFA, a scholarly journal of 19th century art published a paper by Anderson, in which she argued a famous work by the 19th century Danish painter Christian August Lorentzen had a lesser-known companion painting.

What’s more, the meaning of the famous painting, of a modeling class at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, changed when looked at in connection with the other painting, which showed a German monk discovering gunpowder before his shocked students. The juxtaposition, Anderson wrote, suggested Lorentzen was criticizing the academy’s “ossified curriculum.”

“We had only been reading half of the story,” Anderson said.

The exhibit is peppered with interactive elements, like paired frames where viewers can pose for selfies. Anderson said those participatory items make the exhibition fun, to match the approach artists often take with paired artworks.

“Throughout history, and definitely in contemporary art,” Anderson said, “artists have looked at this particular format, and engaged with it in a very playful way.”

—

Art, two by two

The exhibition “Power Couples: The Pendant Format in Art,” features paired artworks, many of them from the Utah Museum of Fine Arts’ permanent collection.

Where • Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive, University of Utah campus, Salt Lake City.

When • Now through Dec. 8.

Lecture • The exhibition’s curator, Leslie Anderson, will deliver a lecture, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 7 p.m., in the Dumke Auditorium at UMFA. Free.

Symposium • Scholars will present new research on pairs in visual arts and music, Friday, Oct. 4, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., in the Dumke Auditorium at UMFA. Free; register online at umfa.utah.edu.

Hours • 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays; open until 9 p.m. Wednesdays. Closed Mondays.

Admission • $12.95 for adults; $9.95 for seniors and youth (6 to 18 years old); free for children (5 and under), UMFA members, University of Utah students, staff and faculty (with valid ID), students at public Utah universities, Utah Horizon/EBT cardholders, and active-duty military families.

Discounts and free days • Admission is free on the first Wednesday and third Saturday of each month. Admission is $5 after 5 p.m. on most Wednesdays (except the first Wednesday of the month, when it’s free).

Wimbledon, England • Clutching her trophy 20 minutes after becoming Wimbledon’s champion, Simona Halep checked out the board inside Centre Court that lists tournament winners. Below all of the mentions of Serena Williams, her opponent in Saturday’s final, there already was inscribed: “Miss S. Halep.”

Halep was not concerned with preventing Williams from winning a 24th Grand Slam title. All Halep cared about was winning her first at the All England Club. And she played pretty much perfectly.

On top of her game right from start to finish, Halep overwhelmed Williams 6-2, 6-2 in stunning fashion for her second major championship. The whole thing took less than an hour as Williams lost her third Slam final in a row as she tries to equal Margaret Court's record for most major trophies in tennis history.

"She literally played out of her mind. Congratulations, Simona. It was a little bit 'a deer in the headlights' for me," Williams said. "So, I mean, whenever a player plays that amazing, you just kind of have to take your hat off and give them a nod of the head."

How good was the No. 7-seeded Halep?

She made a mere three unforced errors, a remarkably low total and 23 fewer than Williams.

Not bad for someone who has been frank about how jittery she has gotten in past big matches and began the day having lost nine of 10 matchups against Williams. But after losing each of her first three major finals, Halep now has won two straight, including at last year's French Open.

"Well, I had nerves. My stomach was not very well before the match," said Halep, a 27-year-old Romanian, "but I knew there is no time for emotions. I just came on court and I gave my best."

Couldn't have been any better, really.

Williams also lost in straight sets against Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final a year ago, and against Naomi Osaka at the U.S. Open last September.

The 37-year-old American hasn't won a tournament since the 2017 Australian Open, when she set the professional-era record of 23 Grand Slam championships (Court won 13 of her titles against amateur competition). Williams was pregnant when she won in Australia and then took more than a year off the tour; her daughter, Olympia, was born in September 2017.

Since returning to tennis, Williams has dealt with injuries but still managed to remain among the game's elite. In part because of a bad left knee, she only had played 12 matches all season until Wimbledon.

"Just got to keep fighting," Williams said, "and just keep trying."

Didn't take long on Saturday for Halep to demonstrate this was not going to be easy for Williams.

Not by any means.

Showing off the talents and traits that once lifted her to No. 1 in the rankings, Halep never really gave Williams a chance to get into the match.

Halep tracked down everything, as is her wont. She didn't merely play defense, though, managing to go from retrieving an apparent point-ending stroke by Williams to lashing a winner of her own in a blink.

Her returns were exceptional, repeatedly getting back serves that left Williams' racket at 115 mph or more.

On this cloudy, cool afternoon, with the temperature in the low 70s (low 20s Celsius), Halep began with a pair of service breaks and even delivered the match's first ace, at 106 mph, which put her out front 4-0 after 11 astonishing minutes.

Halep won 14 of the first 18 points, with many in the crowd roaring for each of the rare ones that went Williams' way. Halep produced eight winners before a single unforced error, avoiding a miscue until the seventh game.

Williams, in stark contrast, came out looking a bit tight, short-arming shots and accumulating nine unforced errors before conjuring up a single winner. She spoke after her semifinal victory about trying to remain calm on court, and that she did, even in the face of a player who was at her very best.

Williams would place a hand on her hip. Or put a palm up and look at her guest box, as if thinking, "What can I do?" Williams' greatest show of emotion came after she stretched for a forehand volley winner on the second set's second point. She leaned forward and yelled, "Come on!"

But the comeback never came. Halep broke to lead 3-2 in that set when Williams pushed a backhand long, and there wasn't much left from there.

Halep only had been as far as the semifinals once at Wimbledon until now. But she was determined to change that and said she told the locker-room attendants at the beginning of the tournament she wanted to grab a title to earn lifetime membership in the All England Club.

“So here I am,” she said Saturday, the fortnight done, her trophy won. “It was one of my motivations before this tournament. So now I am happy.”

For security and public relations reasons, Troy Young will not identify the location of the out-of-the-way field where he’s constructing a greenhouse the size of a Walmart.

It is possible that within a few months, this building will be filled with the leaves, stems and buds of one of the first legal cannabis crops in Utah. His chances are roughly 1 in 8 — as his business, Moon Lake Farms, competes with 80 others for a handful of marijuana cultivation licenses.

“I’ve always wanted to get involved in this. I mean, there’s a financial opportunity and then, it’s also ... kind of a fun business,” said Young, a Salt Lake City entrepreneur with a penchant for new ventures.

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food put out its request for would-be cannabis farmers in late May and after a month had received 81 license applications — the largest response it has ever received to any one solicitation. Still, some industry onlookers were underwhelmed by the level of interest in the 10 grower licenses permitted by Utah’s new cannabis law.

“I think it’s smaller than in other places, probably just because of the unique climate of Utah,” said Tom Paskett, executive director of the Utah Cannabis Association.

And by climate, he continued, he doesn’t mean the growing conditions.

“I think there’s still some social and cultural buy-in the industry is going to have to work on doing,” he said.

Utah’s voters last year narrowly passed a medical cannabis ballot initiative, over the objections of powerful state interests such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. State legislators swiftly replaced the initiative with a more restrictive medical marijuana law that, among other things, reduced the initial number of cultivation licenses from 15 to 10.

A spokesperson with the state’s agriculture department said it expects to award the 10 licenses later this month, and stakes in that announcement are high for applicants who have poured time, energy and money into the business opportunity.

"There's going to be 71 applicants that are really upset," said Darren Johnson, a Saratoga Springs businessman who applied for a cultivation license.

Johnson, who owns a hemp processing company called Wasatch Extraction, described the recent application process as “all-encompassing.”

"It's all I've thought about for the last month," he said this week.

Originally from Oregon, Johnson said he’s long recognized the value of cannabis as a medical treatment and a safer alternative to opioids, having witnessed how the use of prescription painkillers can spiral into addiction. One of his former bosses got hooked on OxyContin after suffering a back injury and began stealing from the company till to feed his dependency, ultimately losing both his job and family.

Young, too, has personal motivations for forging into the medical marijuana industry, saying his mother died of an opioid overdose about 25 years ago.

He’s already broken into farming with hemp, raising his plants based on information gleaned from YouTube and a special method he invented on his own. Inside a squat North Salt Lake building — again, he doesn’t want to publicize the exact location — the hemp plants stand waist-high and are almost ready for transformation into CBD products. If Young and his Moon Lake Farms doesn’t score one of the cannabis cultivation licenses, he’ll focus on expanding his hemp farming business, he said.

The state is refusing to identify the 81 cultivation applicants, claiming their names are protected information under Utah’s public records law, but will release information on the license winners. Eight of the applicants reported a business address outside Utah, an agriculture department spokesman said.

J.D. Lauritzen, a cannabis law attorney based in Salt Lake City, said the emergence of the new industry is creating economic opportunities for the state’s farmers and entrepreneurs. But it remains to be seen whether out-of-state “Big Canna” companies — which often boast longer resumes and deeper pockets — will dominate Utah’s emerging market.

The state’s scoring system for evaluating the applications does award points based on community ties and a business’s plans to “build a positive connection to the local community in which you are based.”

“At least it was in the scoring system, right?” Lauritzen said.

Controversy has swirled around this selection process in some states, especially when a crowd of entrepreneurs are squabbling over a small handful of licenses, he added. Disgruntled cannabis retailers in Nevada even filed a lawsuit alleging the state’s selection process was biased and lacked transparency.

Sore feelings about the licensing outcome are also probable in Utah, considering the time and money applicants have invested, Lauritzen said.

Young said it took four of his employees two months to prepare the 400-page application. A consulting company would’ve charged him between $100,000 and $180,000 to get the submission ready, he said. Johnson said that’s consistent with the quotes he’s received, as well.

The application fee alone was $2,500 and he’ll have to spend another $100,000 per year on the license, assuming the state picks him as one of the 10 cultivators.

Young has also bought 15 acres of land where he’s building his 100,000-square-foot greenhouse for raising cannabis plants. Johnson has also selected a site for his potential grow outfit, and neither he nor Young is anticipating much municipal resistance if the state does green-light their cultivation businesses.

Lauritzen said he’s heard some in the industry are steering clear of Utah County, fearing it might be unfriendly to an incoming cannabis business; while 53% of voters statewide supported last year’s medical marijuana ballot initiative, only 35% of Utah County voters were in favor of it.

As a former nightclub owner, Young said he’s familiar with running a business that comes under heavy regulation in the conservative state.

“The difference between this and a nightclub is that when they come and inspect your nightclub, they come as undercover cops,” Young said.

Young and Johnson said the state has set an aggressive timeline for its chosen cannabis growers — they’re hoping to have the product available by early next year. To meet that deadline, both applicants had to get the ball rolling ahead of time, despite the risk that they wouldn’t be among the 10 winners.

“We knew that ... there was going to be a time crunch on things. And so we wanted to get things kind of in the works prior to actually getting the license,” Johnson said. “And so if we get the license, we can just pull the trigger and be on our way.”

The state will next solicit applicants for cannabis processing and pharmacy licenses.