Sometimes as an advice columnist, you receive e-mails offering a different take on a given situation. Here are a few recent examples.

On burying pets in the backyard

We are the unhappy owners of a house where the previous owners had buried a pet in the backyard. They had double-bagged it in black garbage bags, and I can tell you that this is a terrible idea. After 18 years (we don’t know when it was buried — only how long we’ve owned the house), it had not decomposed fully and was mostly an intact but unrecognizable blob of spoiled flesh. The local police came to make sure we hadn’t dug up a buried baby.

If you want to bury a pet, skip the garbage bags so it will naturally decompose and not become a nasty surprise down the road for the next homeowner … or skip the backyard altogether.

On accommodating a relative with an allergy to pet dander

I’m weighing in on your answer to “In a Quandary.” Entitled little brat? Here’s my story. My husband and I had several cats early in our marriage, so we are not “cat haters.” When our firstborn son was 5 years old, we discovered that he was severely allergic to cats, so when we went out of state to visit my parents, we gave him Theophylline so he could be in their house. It soon became apparent that he would end up in the hospital if we stayed, so we went to a nearby motel for the rest of the vacation. His asthma was severe, so we continued with the medication. Turns out he should have had his blood levels checked (the pediatrician did not direct us to do this). Our son ended up having two seizures because of the medication. The doctors at the time told me to put him on phenobarbital, saying they did not feel Theophylline was to blame. Well, I chose not to and he never had another seizure. (He’s 40 now.)

What I am saying is that some people are severely allergic to cats, and taking massive medication may not be adequate or even healthy for them. The son-in-law said he would not be able to be in the mother-in-law’s home. She didn’t say he wouldn’t visit her at all. Maybe he is willing to visit and stay elsewhere. That wasn’t made clear from her letter.

On dealing with an elderly relative whose filters have disappeared

Your column today TOTALLY MISSED THE MARK. A senior who has started strange behavior and, more important, inappropriate speaking and language should be seen immediately by a health care professional. There are many things that could be causing this behavior, and simply watching and talking to the dad is not the answer. Strokes, vascular dementia, prescription drugs, along with many other problems, could be the cause for this behavior.

I have read your column many times and wonder why you are still giving advice, because it is often wrong. But this time you really did miss the mark.

And in a follow-up e-mail from the same reader

Maybe you should stick to answers that only require Dr Pepper as the response.

Got a question for Ann? Email her at askann@sltrib.com or visit the Ask Ann Cannon page on Facebook.

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - Here in the state’s southeast, which calls itself the Bootheel and nurses a genial distrust of Missouri’s metropolitan fleshpots (St. Louis, Kansas City), the loudspeaker is blasting out John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” as Josh Hawley’s cowboy boots alight from his campaign bus at this stop on the “Stop Schumer Fire Claire Tour.” Before he became a Senate candidate, and before he became Missouri’s attorney general — after Stanford, Yale Law School (where he met his wife Erin; they clerked together for Chief Justice John Roberts) — Hawley grew up in a rural Missouri county.

Erin, the daughter of fifth-generation New Mexico ranchers, also is comfortable speaking beneath slate-gray seeping Midwestern skies, in front of enormous bins of rice, to a small but grateful gathering of farmers.

Hawley reminds them that he has litigated against the Waters of the United States rule, by which the federal government torments farmers, treating any occasionally soggy parcel of land as ripe for regulation. While in private practice he supported the Hobby Lobby company's successful appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that its free exercise of religion was denied by Obamacare's requirement that employers provide employees with all kinds of contraception, including abortifacients. This keenly interests whoever filled a field alongside Interstate 55 with little white crosses for victims of abortions.

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill might soon be relieved of the strain of pretending to not be what she is — much more liberal than her state. Until recently, Missouri was America's bellwether: It voted with the winner in all but one 20th century presidential election. (In 1956, it favored Adlai Stevenson, who hailed from across the river.) But in 2008, John McCain won Missouri narrowly (3,903 votes), Mitt Romney won by 9 points in 2012 and Donald Trump by 18.5 points, so it now is much more Republican than the nation.

McCaskill, 65, has been in politics almost as long (36 years) as Hawley, 38, has been alive. The timing of her first Senate campaign was lucky, and her second campaign illustrated the axiom that luck is the residue of design. In 2006, a blue tsunami washed her into the Senate. In 2012, she selected her opponent by funding ads that solemnly warned Republican primary voters, many of them very conservative, that Todd Akin was very conservative. They nominated him, and he self-immolated with the interesting physiological theory that "legitimate rape" rarely results in pregnancy.

McCaskill boasts that she supposedly ranks as "the fifth-most-likely Senator to break with my party." But the difference between the fifth-most-likely and the least likely is insignificant in an era when the Senate votes on almost nothing. And on something that mattered, the Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch, she was conspicuously not one of the three Democrats who voted for him. Her campaign has run an ad featuring a make-believe conversation between Two Ordinary Guys, one of whom says, "Claire's not one of those crazy Democrats." This, which drove Missouri Democrats crazy, was probably a response to the post-Kavanaugh backlash against Democrats, which has probably propelled Hawley to a mid-single-digit lead.

If elected, Hawley will be the youngest senator (two years younger than Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton) in a body where today the average age is 63. Although never is heard a discouraging word from Hawley about his party's leader, Hawley is educated and thoughtful, so it is possible to hope that he is as insincere in his praise of the president as McCaskill is in her insistence that she is really not like those anti-Kavanaugh hysterics led by almost all of her Senate Democratic colleagues. She supported the gross violations of due process that were mandated by the Department of Education in response to hysteria about the fictional "campus rape culture."

This is an era of “let’s pretend” politics, as Republicans who control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue run trillion-dollar deficits during full employment while pretending to believe in fiscal rectitude, and Senate Democrats pretend to be thoughtful while their combined votes on two Supreme Court and 29 appellate court nominees are 391 for and 1,084 against. Hawley, who hopes to serve on the Judiciary Committee (a Republican seat is opening: Utah’s Orrin Hatch is retiring), is an actual, not a pretend, conservative — although he has written a serious but too-admiring book mistakenly calling Theodore Roosevelt a conservative. Hawley can be part of the GOP’s intelligent future, if it chooses to have one.

George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

Glen Allen, Va. - Listening to the conversation at Robert Jones' Parkside Barber Shop and Grooming Lounge, you’d never know we live in a deeply divided country that seems incapable of discussing everyday challenges.

Jones, a successful local entrepreneur, hosted a group of business leaders and educators here to ponder how to prepare the millennial workforce. They offered their ideas to Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Democratic congressional candidate Abigail Spanberger.

Both are on the ballot Nov. 6, but the hour-and-a-half exchange on a Saturday evening didn't sound like what we think of as politics these days.

It was all about how educational institutions at all levels — and employers themselves — could endow students with the skills to succeed and provide enterprises large and small with the well-trained labor they need to thrive. The dialogue was detailed and practical, with a "we're all in this together" spirit.

It had nothing to do with the 2018 campaign. And it had everything to do with the 2018 campaign.

As voting approaches, President Trump is doing all he can to drive the national dialogue away from such concerns and toward the ethno-nationalist themes he hopes might scare enough voters into backing Republican candidates.

There he was on Wednesday morning, back to tweets about his favorite topic, the immigrant "Caravans" from Central America, and charging — without any evidence, of course — that they are "made up of some very bad thugs and gang members."

Any normal president would be ashamed of ripping the nation apart on this issue soon after the slaughter at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The attack was unleashed by an anti-Semitic gunman who appeared motivated by the work of a Jewish group on behalf of refugees. But Trump is an abnormal — and normless — president. This is all he has.

Yet on the ground, Democratic candidates are not taking the bait. They are insisting that the country is exhausted by acrimony, by the cries of right-wing ideologues, and by the evasion of the day-to-day issues — health care, education, job training — that they believe most Americans want their politicians to grapple with.

"I think you're more likely to pull people together in the context of solving problems," Kaine said in an interview after the labor-force session. It's a formula that has worked for him this year as he has built a large lead over Republican Corey Stewart, the chair of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. Stewart may be, as Kaine noted, one of the "most pure" Trumpian candidates on the ballot this year, given Stewart's long-standing anti-immigrant activism.

Kaine said that he is looking for a particular kind of wave next week, "a wave of dignity and compassion and respect and community."

Spanberger is a 39-year-old veteran of the CIA, a mother of three, and one of four Democrats in Virginia with a chance of taking a Republican seat. She faces tea-party Republican incumbent Dave Brat. It has become a neck-and-neck race in an area where, until recently, Democrats were barely a presence.

She doesn't bring up Trump and doesn't have to. Should her campaign and the Democrats prevail, the victory "will be about decency, modeling good behavior, being enthusiastic about who we are as a people and what this country has to offer; it will be about solving problems and working with other people and working across party lines." Citizens, she said, are tired of politicians "who are just ideologues, and trying to stop things."

Asked about the synagogue killings, she argues that the massacre underscores the obligations of "anyone of influence to denounce bigotry and hatred and anti-Semitism" and to "model constructive, respectful and measured behavior."

The key word here may be “measured.” What often looks nationally like a split-level campaign — Trump railing about groups he seeks to marginalize, Democrats talking about economic mobility and the right to see a doctor — is actually one campaign. Its closing days highlight the two very different approaches to politics voters confront.

The pipe bombs sent in the mail and the tragedy in Pittsburgh brought home the costs of Trump's style of politics. Our nation is paying a steep price for a form of leadership that knows only how to set Americans against each another.

The dialogue in a suburban barber shop brought together people across racial and ethnic lines to consider how to lift up the next generation. It illustrated the other way of doing politics. That's the approach citizens have a right to expect from their leaders.

E.J. Dionne’s email address is ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne.

“I am sick and tired of this administration. I’m sick and tired of what’s going on. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I hope you are, too.”

— Joe Biden

I'm sick and tired too.

I’m sick and tired of a president who pretends that a caravan of impoverished refugees is an “invasion” by “unknown Middle Easterners” and “bad thugs” — and whose followers on Fox News pretend that the refugees are bringing leprosy and smallpox to the United States. (Smallpox was eliminated about40 years ago.)

I’m sick and tired of a president who misuses his office to demagogue on immigration — by sending 5,200 unnecessary troops to the border and by threatening to rescind by executive order the 14th Amendment guarantee of citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

I’m sick and tired of a president who is so self-absorbed that he thinks he is the real victim of mail-bomb attacks on his political opponents — and who, after visiting Pittsburgh despite being asked by local leaders to stay away, tweeted about how he was treated, not about the victims of the synagogue massacre.

I'm sick and tired of a president who cheers a congressman for his physical assault of a reporter, calls the press the "enemy of the people" and won't stop or apologize even after bombs were sent to CNN in the mail.

I'm sick and tired of a president who employs the language of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish financier George Soros and "globalists," and won't apologize or retract even after what is believed to be the worst attack on Jews in U.S. history.

I'm sick and tired of a president who won't stop engaging in crazed partisanship, denouncing Democrats as "evil," "un-American" and "treasonous" subversives who are in league with criminals.

I'm sick and tired of a president who cares so little about right-wing terrorism that, on the very day of the synagogue shooting, he proceeded with a campaign rally, telling his supporters, "Let's have a good time."

I’m sick and tired of a president who presides over one of the most unethical administrations in U.S. history — with three Cabinet members resigning for reported ethical infractions and the secretary of the interior the subject of at least18 federal investigations.

I'm sick and tired of a president who flouts norms of accountability by refusing to release his tax returns or place his business holdings in a blind trust.

I’m sick and tired of a president who lies outrageously and incessantly — an average of eight times a day — claiming recently that there are riots in California and that a bill that passed the Senate by 98-1 had “very little Democrat support.”

I'm sick and tired of a president who can't be bothered to work hard and instead prefers to spend his time watching Fox News and acting like a Twitter troll.

And I’m sick and tired of Republicans who go along with Trump — defending, abetting and imitating his egregious excesses.

I’m sick and tired of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., acting like a caddie for the man he once denounced as a “kook” — just this week, Graham endorsed Trump’s call for rescinding “birthright citizenship,” a kooky idea if ever there was one.

I'm sick and tired of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who got his start in politics as a protege of the "bleeding-heart conservative" Jack Kemp, refusing to call out Trump's race-baiting.

I'm sick and tired of Republicans who once complained about the debt adding $113 billion to the federal debt just in fiscal year 2018.

I'm sick and tired of Republicans who once championed free trade refusing to stop Trump as he launches trade wars with all of our major trade partners.

I'm sick and tired of Republicans who not only refuse to investigate Trump's alleged ethical violations but who also help him to obstruct justice by maligning the FBI, the special counsel and the Justice Department.

Most of all, I'm sick and tired of Republicans who feel that Trump's blatant bigotry gives them license to do the same - with Rep. Pete Olson, R-Tex., denouncing his opponent as an "Indo-American carpetbagger," Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis warning voters not to "monkey this up" by electing his African American opponent, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., labeling his "Palestinian-Mexican" opponent a "security risk" who is "working to infiltrate Congress," and Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, accusing his opponent, who is of Indian-Tibetan heritage, of "selling out Americans" because he once worked at a law firm that settled terrorism-related cases against Libya.

If you’re sick and tired too, here is what you can do. Vote for Democrats on Tuesday. For every office. Regardless of who they are. And I say that as a former Republican. Some Republicans in suburban districts may claim they aren’t for Trump. Don’t believe them. Whatever their private qualms, no Republicans have consistently held Trump to account. They are too scared that doing so will hurt their chances of re-election. If you’re as sick and tired as I am of being sick and tired about what’s going on, vote against all Republicans. Every single one. That’s the only message they will understand.

Max Boot, a Washington Post columnist, is the author of “The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right."

Red All Over is a weekly newsletter covering University of Utah athletics. Subscribe here.

The signature season of Kyle Whittingham’s head coaching tenure didn’t require any salvaging, as Utah went 13-0 in 2008. Yet a case could be made that Whittingham has done his best work in years when his football team recovered after struggling in the first half of the season, and 2018 is shaping up as another one of those examples.

The media get three weekly snapshots of Whittingham — in his postgame news conference, his formal session Monday and a less formal briefing after Tuesday’s practice. Judging his level of satisfaction is always tricky, but his demeanor Tuesday suggested he’s happier with this team than any he has coached in a long time.

That makes sense. The Utes produced the program’s most dominant October performance since 2004, responding admirably after an 0-2 start in Pac-12 play. The obvious question becomes whether they can finish a drive to their first Pac-12 South title. I would say this: The Utes may lose a game in November, possibly Saturday at Arizona State, but it wouldn’t stem from a flat performance by Utah. There’s something different about this team, and an opponent will have to outplay the Utes to beat them.

Weekly roundup

It was a remarkable October for the Utes, ending with a strong showing at the Rose Bowl. (TRIB)

Utah teams of the past may have let UCLA hang around, but not this one. (TRIB)

After playing Friday, the Utes got Saturday off and witnessed chaos in the Pac-12. (TRIB)

Like every program, Utah takes some recruits away from other schools and loses some, including Arizona State running back Eno Benjamin. (TRIB)

Utah cornerback Javier Guidry is making a bigger impact than you may have realized. (TRIB)

Once a fixture in the College Football Playoff rankings, the Utes are back in the first standings of 2018. (TRIB)

Freshman tight end Brant Kuithe might be Utah’s biggest surprise this season, while his twin brother can only watch. (TRIB)

Other voices

Pac-12 expert Jon Wilner did an enterprising study of how the Utah and other football coaching jobs rank in appeal in the conference. (MERC)

The Utes not only have risen to the top of the Pac-12 South, but they’re making a league-wide impression. (ORE)

Freshman receiver Solomon Enis will make a hometown appearance Saturday. (DNEWS)

Here’s a look at the Utes, from a Sun Devil perspective. (SPARKY)

Other sports

• Welcome to basketball season. The Ute women’s team showed a fast-paced, entertaining style in a 118-80 exhibition win over Westminster College on Wednesday, and the Ute men’s team will stage its only exhibition contest Thursday (6 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) vs. College of Idaho at the Huntsman Center. The Runnin' Utes are expected to live up to their basketball-specific nickname, with a deep, athletic roster in coach Larry Krystkowiak’s eighth season.

• The Ute women’s soccer team has produced a solid regular season that will end Friday at Colorado. Utah (8-8-2, 5-4-1 Pac-12) is tied for fifth place in the conference, one point behind fourth-place Colorado. The Utes, coming off a 0-0 tie with conference co-leader USC, can make an NCAA Tournament case for themselves in Boulder.

• Utah’s women’s volleyball team completed a season sweep of a good Washington team last weekend. The Utes (13-10, 5-7) are tied with Washington for eighth place, but are only one game out of fifth place. Conceding a loss Sunday at Stanford, with the Cardinal unbeaten in conference play, Utah needs to avenge a September defeat by beating California on Friday.

BYU defensive back Michael Shelton wasn’t supposed to talk to the media after the Cougars practiced on Tuesday night. No reporters asked for an interview with the fifth-year senior.

But after a couple of players who were requested were not available, BYU’s sports information staff pulled Shelton out of the locker room to talk to some media members — myself not included — who were still there.

My guess is BYU officials are probably wishing their people had found someone else.

When asked by Jared Lloyd of the Provo Daily Herald a rather innocuous question about why the Cougars have a better road record than home record this season, Shelton unleashed some pent-up frustration. That came after Shelton claimed to have forgotten who the Cougars are playing this week. So the group interview was off to a disingenuous start.

“I am going to give you an honest opinion,” he said. “I like playing on the road, just because, to me, I think that the atmosphere is a lot better than our atmosphere at home. I like playing at home, but sometimes our fans can be a downer and it brings us down. But I think we feed off the energy when we play away.”

Sean Walker of KSL.com tried to give Shelton an out by asking if he really liked to be hated during road games, but the cornerback didn’t take the parachute.

“That’s what I mean by feeding off of the energy at away stadiums and stuff like that,” he said. “Just feeding off that, and it gives us something to look forward to whereas when we’re home, we don’t get many cheers and we don’t get many boos. So it is like, ‘what are you really playing for?’ And stuff like that.”

My take: It was refreshing to hear a student-athlete speak his mind. Shelton, one of the friendliest players on the team, has never turned down an interview request in the five seasons he’s been in Provo. That deserves respect.

But he’s also one of the most emotional players on the team, and he let those emotions get the best of him. It’s never a good look to criticize the fans who invest good money and time into the program, especially after a loss.

A subtle dig at the thousands of fans — and a large portion of the ROC — who stayed away on a picture-perfect Saturday afternoon in Provo may have been warranted.

But complaining about the atmosphere when the home team gave fans precious little to get excited about for the third time in four home games? That’s uncalled for. Shelton’s timing couldn’t have been worse.

Rounding Them Up

In case you missed them, here are some of the stories, player profiles and columns The Tribune has brought to you this past week:

• BYU linebacker Riggs Powell won’t take no for an answer. Cut at least three times, the walk-on is now the Cougars’ starting flash linebacker, filling in for Zayne Anderson. The walk-on shared his story with me, and even let a photographer show up at his place of employment to snap a few photos of him at work. Trib

• Tribune columnist Gordon Monson is losing faith that Kalani Sitake can get the BYU football program turned around. The coach is 17-17 overall. Trib

• Why can’t the Cougars piece together back-to-back wins? Are they overconfident after a win? They say they aren’t, but they are a woeful 1-6 in games following wins the past two seasons. That’s not good. Trib

• My analysis of the 7-6 loss to Northern Illinois focused on the Cougars’ inability to run the football and how the offensive line didn’t get the job done. Trib

• Butch Pau’u hasn’t been effective, largely due to a fractured hand, and Zayne Anderson is out for the season with a shoulder injury. BYU’s linebacking corps isn’t what we thought it would be, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Coaches have been creative, and guys such as Isaiah Kaufusi and Riggs Powell have stepped up. Trib

Views from elsewhere

• KSL.com contributor Patrick Kinahan says BYU football isn’t what it used to be heading into November in the state’s hierarchy of football programs. KSL

• Boise State coach Bryan Harsin gets a $10,000 bonus for beating BYU in Boise and $15,000 for winning in Provo, but isn’t quite ready to refer to the Cougars as rivals. Yeah, right. Two of the top three crowds in Albertsons Stadium history were for BYU games (2012 and 2014). Statesman

Quotable

Before Shelton spouted off Tuesday, BYU coach Kalani Sitake was asked about the relatively low turnout for Saturday’s game. Announced attendance was around 51,000, but actual attendance was probably closer to 40,000.

“I love the fans. I appreciate everything. I mean, we have great support. And we just need to do better on the field. I would like to see all of our fans be happy,” Sitake said. “I am disappointed that we haven’t had the success at home that we need to, and I am looking forward to changing that. So, I am not really concerned about the numbers. I know we have some great support out there. We see it at away games and home games. My job is to make all the fans happy. And so, I aim to do that. I love the challenge. That’s my job and I accept it. I understand the frustration is part of it, because they care. Our fans really care. And I love the passion they have for the game, and the passion they have for this team, and I look forward to making sure they have good moments.”

Around campus

• BYU defensive back and special teams standout Gavin Fowler is one of 69 players nominated from around the country for the 2018 Burlsworth Trophy. The award is given to the most outstanding football player in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FCS) who began his career as a walk-on. A senior, Fowler has been BYU’s holder the past two seasons and has also played on the kickoff and punt cover teams.

• BYU’s men’s basketball team tunes up for Tuesday’s season-opening showdown at No. 7 Nevada with a final exhibition game against Westminster College on Thursday night at the Marriott Center. Freshman forward Kolby Lee is expected to play after missing the 92-71 win over Saint Martin’s last week with a sore foot.

• BYU’s women’s soccer team clinched the West Coast Conference’s automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament with a 2-0 upset win over No. 6 Santa Clara on Saturday at South Field in Provo. The Cougars (12-4-1, 7-1 WCC) play at Loyola Marymount this Saturday and will learn their NCAA Tournament seed and destination on Sunday during the Selection Show.

• BYU golfer Peter Kuest tied the lowest three-round score in school history, a 16-under-par 197, to win the Visit Stockton Pacific Invitational golf tournament last week. It was Kuest’s second victory of the season. The Cougars placed second as a team.

• BYU’s No. 1-ranked women’s volleyball team (22-0, 12-0 WCC) will host second-place San Diego on Friday at the Smith Fieldhouse. The Cougars probably need to finish running the table to get a top four seed for the NCAA Tournament and the right to host first and second-weekend matches.

America is “indebted” to the free press for its work reporting on the Vietnam War, Watergate and sexual crimes committed by priests and other men in power, Senate candidate Mitt Romney wrote in an essay released Thursday.

“The free press dispelled the false conspiracies about the 9/11 attacks, President Obama’s birth, and Joe McCarthy’s lurking communists,” Romney wrote. “The work of a free press is essential.”

The former Massachusetts governor and two-time presidential candidate describes in the essay how media consumption has changed in his lifetime — from a reliance on daily newspapers, national publications and a limited number of television networks during his youth in Detroit to the modern proliferation of curated online content that reinforces biases and in some cases contains propaganda from campaigns, political parties or foreign adversaries.

The result of those trends, Romney said, is that America’s political disagreements now lack a shared understanding of basic facts.

“This represents a growing challenge for democracy, dependent as it is upon a citizenry informed by fact and truth,” Romney wrote. “It also underscores the vital role played by professional news organizations. They may be more critical today than ever before.”

Romney’s essay, the latest in a series of written statements posted to the Republican candidate’s campaign website, follows renewed attacks on the mainstream media by President Donald Trump. The essay references a Monday tweet by the president, in which Trump appeared to respond to a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh by attributing anger in the country to “The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People.”

There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018

Romney wrote that all U.S. presidents have likely been frustrated with the media, but none before Trump has vilified news outlets as the enemy of the American people.

“And, more importantly, denigrating the media diminishes an institution that is critical to democracy, both here and abroad,” Romney wrote. “As a political tactic, it may be brilliant, but it comes with a large cost to the cause of freedom.”

In a prepared statement, Romney’s Democratic Senate opponent, Jenny Wilson, said it is no secret that Trump reacts inappropriately when he is held accountable, including by lashing out at members of the press.

“Investigative and thorough reporting must continue to be a check on those in power — regardless of who holds office,” Wilson said. “And, as citizens, we have to support our local press and regional news outlets, who have their fingers on the pulse of our communities.”

On Wednesday, Salt Lake Tribune owner and Publisher Paul Huntsman explained the paper’s endorsement of Romney on the “Trib Talk” podcast. He said Romney’s experience as a national political candidate makes him uniquely positioned to address challenges facing the state and nation as a freshman member of the Senate, if elected.

“This is a great opportunity," Huntsman said, “for not only our state but also for the country to have someone of that stature to be able to help solve some of these problems.”

Huntsman also criticized elected leaders, including some of Utah’s, who have failed to defend the media against Trump’s attacks.

Freedom of the press is a pillar of the U.S. Constitution, the publisher said, which members of Congress take an oath to defend when they are sworn into office.

“There are certain [representatives] that we have here in our state that like to claim that they’re experts on the Constitution,” Huntsman said. “Well, here we have a direct attack on the Constitution, and they don’t say a word about it.”

Romney’s essay ends with an anecdote from a campaign stop, in which a constituent asked whether he would take action in the Senate to shut down national news outlets like The New York Times. Romney said he answered “of course not” and found it disturbing that the constituent pressed the issue.

He said he is sometimes irritated by inaccurate reporting, particularly when he is the subject of that reporting. But a free press, even when it is biased, is guaranteed by the Constitution because of the role it plays in preserving democracy, he wrote.

“The media is essential to our Republic, to our freedom, to the cause of freedom abroad, and to our national security,” Romney wrote. “It is very much our friend.”

A spokeswoman for Romney declined to comment on the essay, or provide examples of inaccurate reporting that irritated the candidate.

A Logan funeral director has agreed to stop performing services, at least until he resolves 11 criminal charges accusing him of enticing a boy into sex.

Lonnie Kent Nyman faces up to 15 years in prison on each of the three most serious charges filed against him last week. Utah State University on Wednesday sent an alert to its students saying Nyman was free on bail and warning them about a “Potential Threat” posed by Nyman.

“Do Not Approach Him,” the alert said before directing students and staff to call 911 or police if Nyman arrives on campus.

The alert didn’t specify whether Nyman was suspected of offenses against anyone at USU or had threatened anyone there.

On Thursday, the Utah Department of Commerce provided a copy of an agreement it reached with Nyman, who owns Nyman Funeral Home. Nyman agreed to a suspension of his funeral director’s license until the outcome of his criminal charges.

According to charging documents filed in state court in Logan, Nyman in March used a dating app to meet an underage boy. Nyman knew the boy’s age, the documents allege.

Nyman and the boy exchanged explicit photos of each other, prosecutors allege. They also agreed to meet for sex, court document say, though the boy was disturbed by Nyman’s behavior and left the meeting before any sexual contact occurred.

Then in April, Nyman’s wife found the explicit photos on his iPad, the court document say. Nyman sent the boy messages saying police might find out and he should delete the messages and photos.

Nine of the 11 charges are felonies, including counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, dealing in materials harmful to a minor and witness tampering.

Washington • U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has been diagnosed with early-stage skin cancer and has been treated at a cancer hospital in Salt Lake City founded by his family.

Huntsman, a former Utah governor, flew to Utah a few weeks ago to seek treatment at the Huntsman Cancer Institute for Stage 1 melanoma. Huntsman is hopeful the doctors removed all of the cancerous cells.

“Ambassador Huntsman would like to thank his medical team, who were quick with their early diagnosis and provided excellent treatment,” a State Department spokesperson said Thursday under condition of anonymity to discuss the health issue. “The melanoma was detected early, and Ambassador Huntsman is already back in Moscow with his family and embassy colleagues, hard at work representing the United States.”

Stage 1 skin cancer is diagnosed as “no larger than 2 millimeters thick and/or an ulceration,” according to the institute, founded by Huntsman’s father, Jon Huntsman Sr.

The Deseret News first reported the news.

Gov. Gary Herbert, who was Huntsman’s lieutenant governor running mate and succeeded him as Utah’s chief executive when he became the U.S. ambassador to China in 2009, tweeted his concern about the diagnosis.

“Sorry to hear about the health challenges of my good friend, @JonHuntsman, who has taught and continues to teach me so much about honorable public service,” Herbert tweeted.

Sorry to hear about the health challenges of my good friend, @JonHuntsman, who has taught and continues to teach me so much about honorable public service.https://t.co/ePLY68dYE2

— Gov. Gary Herbert (@GovHerbert) November 1, 2018

Cancer has attacked Huntsman's family for generations.

Huntsman’s father died in February at age 80 after the elder philanthropist had fought against several onsets of cancer in his life.

Huntsman Sr.'s mother died of breast cancer in 1969 and his father died of prostate cancer in 1990.

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

A bit of magic — of the variety created by J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” franchise — is returning for the holidays to a Sandy shopping center.

The pop-up shop Christmas in the Wizarding World, with merchandise based on Rowling’s characters and settings, opened this week at The Shops at South Town, 10450 S. State St., Sandy.

Local actors — chosen by audition and approved by Warner Bros. — run the shops, portraying clerks at the wand merchant Ollivander’s and other landmarks. The installation aims to re-create the atmosphere of Rowling’s Diagon Alley.

Oliver Phelps, the actor who portrayed prankster George Weasley — not to be confused with his twin brother, Fred, played by Oliver’s twin, James — in the “Harry Potter” films, will appear Wednesday, Nov. 7. Phelps is scheduled to take questions at a Q&A session, and visitors can enter to win a meet-and-greet with the actor.

At its debut last year, the village was sometimes thronged with shoppers. The popularity of the “Harry Potter” universe in Utah was more than Warner Bros. expected, said Heather Nash, South Town’s marketing manager.

This year, Warner Bros. Consumer Products and GES Events, the companies that created and present the store, are stepping up with more merchandise, rotated rapidly, she said. Warner Bros. holds the licenses for Rowling’s creations.

And the village is opening earlier than it did last year, Nash said, to drum up enthusiasm for the newest movie in the series, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” which opens nationwide on Nov. 16. The shop will feature plenty of “Fantastic Beasts” merchandise to accompany the “Harry Potter” gear, she said.

“Christmas in the Wizarding World” will be open at The Shops at South Town until Jan. 21. The shopping center’s hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

The suspect in a Moab slaying was apprehended Wednesday after a 100-mile chase.

Irving Martin Verduzco-Armenta is suspected of killing Edgar Najera early Sunday, according to a news release from the Moab Police Department. He was arrested with two other men suspected of helping him evade police.

Officers from the Navajo Nation Police Department on Wednesday received a report of three suspicious men. The officers pursued the vehicle carrying Verduzco-Armenta and two other men, but lost the car on a dirt road near Tuba City, Ariz.

Another officer later spotted the car on the side of a highway and another pursuit began. The chase went on for about 100 miles, according to the news release. The suspects’ car overheated and they ran, the release said. Police were able to catch them and arrested them.

Moab police responded to a report of a fight about 1:30 a.m. Sunday in the 200 West block of Walnut Lane. One resident took officers to a trailer where Najera, 30, was found dead inside. He had multiple gunshot wounds.

Moab police found four people who had fled in a sports-utility vehicle, but were unable to find Verduzco-Armenta. A search of court records indicates he has not been formally charged with any crimes in Utah.

Thursday’s news release says Verduzco-Armenta and the two men who were with him are being held in Arizona on charges arising from the report of suspicious activity and the pursuit.

Logan

When Jordan Love is on the field, he thinks about his many blessings. He thinks about his mom, Anna, and especially about his dad. Not all the time, but enough of it to remind him that if it hadn’t been for the influence of Orbin Love, he might not be playing football at all.

First, Jordan has his father’s athleticism. Orbin was a running back and quarterback that made it to the JC level before moving on to other important pursuits, such as becoming a police officer, a sergeant in the Bakersfield (Calif.) Police Department for 27 years.

Second, his dad encouraged his scrawny, gangly kid to play quarterback. Early on, Jordan played other positions, too, including wide receiver. But he longed to be on the other end of the passes because that’s where all the offensive action initiates. Orbin wanted his son to be an initiator.

He had no clue how good an initiator his son would become. Neither did Jordan himself.

They would be happily surprised together, smiling in combination at the younger Love’s remarkable success this season at Utah State had Orbin Love not died, not taken his own life, when Jordan was 14 years old. Even now, when Anna attends Jordan’s games in Logan and wherever else the Aggies play, she sits in the stands, alone, unable to suppress the thought: “Damn you, Orbin, for not being here. This is such an amazing thing. You would be so proud, so, so proud.”

The tragic event of that horrible day, July 13, 2013, is frozen in Jordan Love’s consciousness, pushed deep, where it causes as little pain as possible, where it now just kind of exists. Love was playing in a basketball tournament on that Saturday morning. Anna was there, in a high school gym, waiting for Orbin and one of the couple’s three daughters to arrive.

When the daughter walked in and said Dad had dropped her off, having forgotten something at home and was going back to retrieve it, Anna, a veteran officer of the California Highway Patrol, had an impression that something wasn’t right. She immediately tried calling her husband. No answer. She bolted home.

That’s where Anna found Orbin, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. It was the second time he had attempted to take his life, the first unsuccessful try coming the previous year. The elder Love, who was a gregarious man, an officer who often stopped and chatted with strangers on the street, who sometimes subbed in at his church as a fill-in pastor, had been under stress and duress only he understood, struggling to get certain medications balanced, working with a psychiatrist, at one juncture having stayed for a week in a mental hospital for treatment.

Whatever worked under that care did not last.

When Jordan Love arrived at his aunt’s house from his basketball game, Anna sat her children down and explained, as best she could, what had happened: “I told them the truth,” she said. “I remember Jordan sitting on the couch, crying. It was tough. He broke down so bad.”

“That was the hardest thing I’ve ever faced,” Love said. “It was a hard day, the hardest day of my life. I loved my dad.”

Jordan subsequently went into a shell. He didn’t want to see anyone, didn’t even want to go outside. And he wanted to quit football because it hurt too much to be reminded of his father. Now, he plays it, at least in some measure, to remember and honor and connect with him.

“He’s the reason I play quarterback,” Love said. “He was a huge influence in my life.”

Still is.

After the initial shock and sorrow, that pivotal moment, along with the support of his tight-knit family — “We hold onto each other,” he said, hurtled Love forward through his high school years as an accomplished athlete and student straight through to college. The memory of his father stays with him, on off days and on game days, in quiet moments and in loud ones, in times of struggle and in times of great achievement.

Of late, there have been a whole lot more of the latter — games, loud moments, achievements.

Love is the absolute centerpiece of the 7-1 Aggies, a team that has thrown shock and awe at the Mountain West Conference this season, after being picked to finish fourth in their division, and caught the attention of observers of college football around the country. A program that had lurched a bit in recent seasons had energy and optimism breathed back into it a year ago, when the Aggies ascended to a 6-6 regular season, led by a redshirt freshman quarterback out of Bakersfield’s Liberty High School, a player no other Division I school wanted.

The only D1 offer he got was from Utah State. “I got overlooked,” Love said.

He came to Logan for a football camp the summer before his senior year, and committed a week later. “I liked it here,” he said.

After sitting out a season, building up a body that at 180 pounds needed building, and studying film, learning how to play college football, Love took over, never having taken a live snap, bumping and skidding as he went. There were games in which Love’s promise was apparent, others when it was buried a couple of layers deep.

He did not play well in the Aggies’ bowl game, a loss to New Mexico State that easily could have been a victory — but, looking back, it was a win for the lessons it taught Love, the effect it had on him.

Through the offseason, the youthful Love — he just turns 20 on Friday — dove into the quarterback position, having had his first real taste — both bitter and sweet — and driving himself to absorb every detail, every nuance of playing it the right way.

He went back and reviewed every play from his freshman season, some of them easy to watch, some of them hard, making notes as to what worked and what needed adjustment. That exercise sparked improvement.

“He’s accumulated his data base of information,” said David Yost, USU’s offensive coordinator. “He’s absorbed it and that helps him now spit out the right answer quicker, more accurately, in a highly efficient way. He’s to the point now where when we call a play, he’s already mastered it.”

Yost said if you watch Love’s head, as a play unfolds, he sweeps through progressions in an almost casual, relaxed manner. When Love threw a fourth-down-and-goal touchdown pass against BYU, the receiver was his fourth option.

“When he first got here, his head was in a blender,” Yost said. “Now, he’s processed it. We’ve got something here that’s going to be special. Jordan’s an NFL-type quarterback.”

Said USU head coach Matt Wells: “Jordan’s collected, calm and smart in our offense. And he’s got some swag, some mojo, and the other 10 guys sense that and they raise their game because of it. He’s leading with his production.”

There were hints of such advancement, but nobody expected what has unfolded in 2018. Love’s personal stats are proper ridiculous, throwing for 2,058 yards, 18 touchdowns, and leading an offense that averages nearly 500 yards and 50 points.

And those numbers would stack even higher if it weren’t for the fact that Love hasn’t played much in some of the games, once USU was up by an insurmountable number of touchdowns.

He’s now being mentioned as one of the nation’s top QBs.

“That’s cool and all,” he said, “but I just want to stay focused. It’s not just me, it’s the whole team.”

There have been times in the middle of games when Love has taken in what was going on around him, been congratulated by coaches and teammates, and thought about Orbin, finding solace and satisfaction in knowing how proud his father would be.

When Jordan was 12 years old, Orbin and Anna took their kids to a USC football game. As the plays transpired on the expanse of green at the Coliseum, Orbin leaned over to his son and said: “If you work hard, that could be you one day down on that field.”

And so, it is.

“Jordan has worked and worked,” said former USU quarterback great Chuckie Keeton. “He takes his job very seriously. He has a lot of arm talent, but it is the head on top of the shoulders that makes him what he is. He trusts his guys and lets the ball fly.”

There are similarities between the two QBs, although Keeton was a bit more mobile before suffering injuries to his knees. Love has a sweet delivery, a strong, accurate arm, extending out of a frame that has grown to 6-foot-4, 225 pounds. As mentioned, that’s just a part of it, along with his firm understanding not just of what he’s supposed to do as a quarterback, but of what and where every other player at every other position on the field is supposed to do and be.

Love doesn’t shout it to the mountaintops around the Cache Valley, but he is willing to whisper that he dreams of one day, after his work and winning is done with the Aggies, playing in the NFL. There was a time, like in the case of darn near every other kid with big ambitions, when that would have seemed preposterous.

Not anymore.

Turns out, Love is one of the foremost revelations of the 2018 college football season. He’s won numerous player-of-the-week awards, leads a team that could win a league title, is now on watch lists for major postseason awards and on the radar of pro scouts. Yost, who has worked with quarterbacks — Blaine Gabbert and Chase Daniel — who went on to pro careers, said his current pupil does have NFL potential.

And the way Jordan Love sees it, as his mom cheers him on from the stands, somewhere, in some hidden place, his dad, all healed up and happy, his big heart full, is smiling, too. He’d like, just one more time, to hear his voice, take in his counsel, feel his embrace.

But he can imagine it when he’s out on the field, the place where Orbin Love saw his son thriving, with a little hard work, all those years ago.

“I know he’s looking down on me, guiding me,” the son said. “He’s always there. And I’m grateful for that.”

GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” with Jake Scott weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.

Derrick Rose dropped 50 points on the Jazz on Wednesday night at the Target Center. They, in turn, dropped the finale of their road trip after winning the first three.

It was decidedly not the way Utah wanted to finish its four-games-in-eight-days journey. Several players dressed quietly postgame, then slipped out of the locker room without uttering a word. Joe Ingles said he had nothing to say and stalked off.

Still, at least a few were able to find some perspective after completing their first multi-game trip of the season 3-1.

“You can’t win all of ’em, though we want to. Three out of four — we’ll take it every time,” said forward Jae Crowder. “You gotta learn from the good and learn from the bad. We’ll definitely try to learn from this and move forward.”

Jae Crowder, after the loss to the Wolves, on the road trip as a whole: “Three out of four — we’ll take it every time.” pic.twitter.com/tVzJx0rbNO

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) November 1, 2018

OK, so let’s start with the good, then.

First off, the Jazz showed their offense can be a force. While the trip started off with a meager 100-point effort against the Rockets, that was followed with a season-high 132 vs. the Pelicans, then 113 against the Mavericks, and 125 vs. the T-wolves.

Donovan Mitchell scored 20-plus points in each of the four games. Rudy Gobert finished the trip with three straight games of at least 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Further, the supporting cast demonstrated it can be a significant component of the offense. Crowder and Dante Exum had 18 and 14 points, respectively, in Minnesota. Georges Niang and Grayson Allen had crucial stretches vs. Dallas with 13 and 11.

“Our bench is good when they think collectively, and that was what happened against Dallas,” coach Quin Snyder said before Wednesday’s trip finale in Minneapolis. “We got a great effort ’cause they approached it as ‘us’ and not as ‘me.’ That’s one of the things that continues to get solidified.”

Ricky Rubio, meanwhile, said the players’ familiarity with one another is a major strength.

“It’s the beginning of the season, but we know each other, so we just have to pick it up a little bit,” he said. “It feels like it’s the middle of the season already and it’s only the first couple weeks, just because we know each other really well and we pick things up really quick and we’ve got really good players.”

So, onto the bad, then.

That one’s pretty simple, really — no one is happy with where the team’s defense is.

After starting the trip strong by allowing just 89 points to the (admittedly short-handed) Rockets, the Jazz subsequently surrendered 111 to the Anthony Davis-less Pelicans, 104 to the Dirk Nowitzki-less Mavericks, and 128 to the (also short-handed) Wolves.

There have been strong stretches, but entirely too many lulls. Perimeter defenders are getting hung up on screens and blown by far too often. And when Gobert is off the floor, opponents drive the lane with impunity. That was especially apparent vs. Minnesota when the center was whistled for a pair of dubious first-quarter fouls.

“We talked about how we want to make our mark with our defense, and [Wednesday] we weren’t able to do that,” Snyder said after the loss to the Wolves. “We weren’t able to get stops. That’s what cost us the game.”

Gobert added that Utah has the potential to be a very good team, but that it must regain its defensive identity in order to do so.

“We can control our destiny. When we start a game the right way, usually it ends the right way,” he said. “We’re a defensive-minded team, and we should never forget that. It doesn’t matter who we play — we should never give up 128 points.”

Rudy Gobert, assessing the road trip and where the Jazz stand after Wednesday’s loss pic.twitter.com/QPbjvF8B87

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) November 1, 2018

Yes, the trip concluded with disappointment. But the coach is hopeful that his team will be able to channel that into something productive.

“It’s obviously harder when you lose, but maybe easier to get better,” Snyder said. “That’s what we need to do with this, and that’s what we should take with us. There’s a lot of things we need to do better.”

And even though he came out on the wrong end of the equation Wednesday, Rubio wouldn’t trade his new team for his old one.

“I love it here — just a great atmosphere and a great group guys who come together to win,” he said. “I think we’re building something special.”

Another Southeastern Conference football team is coming to Provo.

BYU and Arkansas of the SEC announced a home-and-home football agreement on Thursday, with the Razorbacks playing at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Oct. 15, 2022, and BYU playing at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark., on Sept. 23, 2023.

BYU last hosted an SEC foe on Oct. 14, 2016, when it defeated Mississippi State 28-21 in overtime at LES. The Cougars are scheduled to host the SEC’s Missouri in 2020.

The 2022 game will mark the first meeting between Arkansas and BYU.

“I’ve been on the beautiful campus at the University of Arkansas and seen their state-of-the-art athletic facilities,” BYU director of athletics Tom Holmoe said in a school news release. “It will be a road trip BYU fans will not want to miss. I look forward to the Razorbacks and Cougars battling for the first time when we host Arkansas in Provo in 2022.”

Kickoff times and broadcast plans will be announced at a later date.

BYU’s home schedule in 2022 now includes games against Baylor (Sept. 10), Wyoming (Sept. 24), Utah State (Sept. 30) and East Carolina (Nov. 19) in addition to Arkansas.

In 2023, BYU is schedule to travel to Arkansas (Sept. 23), Houston (Oct. 7) and USC (Nov. 25).

If an award existed for the Pac-12 South's football coach of the year, Saturday's meeting between Utah's Kyle Whittingham and Arizona State's Herm Edwards would decide the winner.

Much more than a mythical trophy is at stake at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., where the Utes can move closer to clinching their first division title in eight seasons of Pac-12 membership. If the Sun Devils beat Utah (6-2, 4-2 Pac-12), they would own the tiebreaker with the Utes and be in position to qualify for the conference championship game by winning their three remaining contests vs. UCLA, Oregon and Arizona.

That’s not a sentence anyone figured to be writing in November. And if ASU (4-4, 2-3) loses Saturday, Edwards' first season will revert to merely a pursuit of bowl eligibility. The Sun Devils' place in the division race at this stage, though, is a commentary about the disheveled landscape of the South and a case of their mild overachievement.

In other words, Edwards has not messed up the operation. The only explanation for the Sun Devils being picked last in the South in the Pac-12′s official media poll is that voters believed his move from the ESPN campus in Connecticut to the practice field in Tempe was a mistake by ASU.

Nobody knows how his hiring will play out in the long term. What’s clear is that ASU is playing decent football, beating Michigan State and USC and never losing by more than seven points.

Whittingham became acquainted with Edwards in recent years through Under Armour events and was as intrigued as anyone when he returned to coaching. “It was interesting, because I wasn't sure he wanted to coach again,” Whittingham said, describing Edwards as “a great guy, smart guy, charismatic; he's a big personality.”

Whittingham regarded ASU's move as “surprising,” he said, “but not like, 'What are they doing?' ”

That was the media's almost universal reaction, and some words have been eaten this season. Considering that no team in the South has more than three conference losses through five or six games, the Sun Devils still could finish last, as forecasted. Yet that prediction seems short-sighted, at the moment. Voters overlooked how ASU finished second in the South with a 6-3 record last year, before coach Todd Graham was fired, and how the Sun Devils returned quarterback Manny Wilkins and receiver N'Keal Harry and had good personnel throughout the roster.

Edwards, 64, contended that he never really stopped coaching, even during his decade as an ESPN analyst of NFL teams. As he said this week, he’s enjoying being outside, as opposed to inside the television studio.

He likes “the teaching part of it, actually coaching on the grass, developing players and coaches, as well,” he said. “When you're a head coach, you actually coach the coaches.”

And he’s allowing his offensive and defensive coordinators to do most of the coaching, as they’re hired to do. His job description resembles the approach of the late LaVell Edwards at BYU, although Herm Edwards is more involved than he may appear on the sideline. He arrives at the office early, studies film and consults the coordinators — “always overseeing things, implementing certain things,” he said.

ASU’s methods are working. And if the Sun Devils beat Utah and advance to the conference title game, Edwards could go from being mocked last December to earning the Pac-12′s official Coach of the Year award in late November.

The U.S. Justice Department, which last month launched a federal probe into clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church, has sent a sweeping call to Catholic dioceses across the country to preserve documents related to abuse.

The Catholic news site whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com Friday posted an Oct. 9 letter to Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, noting that the Justice Department “is investigating possible violations of federal law.” It requested to DiNardo that the nearly 200 U.S. dioceses “not destroy, discard, dispose of, delete or alter” documents related to its probe.

Rocco Palmo, the author of the site, only published the first page of the letter to DiNardo from William McSwain, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, so details of what McSwain is seeking weren’t detailed. However, Palmo wrote in his Friday post that he has the full document and it references “a host of records pertaining to personnel in general, and abuse — and its related claims — in particular.”

The report comes a few weeks after the Justice Department confirmed it is investigating alleged sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy across the state of Pennsylvania — a major escalation of government scrutiny of the church long sought by victims of pedophile priests. The list of state attorneys general announcing investigations grew last week to 13, plus Washington, D.C.

Earlier this year, the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City reported that it has received “credible allegations” of sexual abuse involving 16 priests during the past three decades. Two of those allegations were received this year.

The federal and state investigations were sparked by a scathing report from a Pennsylvania grand jury in August that found more than 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania had sexually abused about 1,000 children over seven decades, protected by a hierarchy of church leaders who covered it up.

Palmo told The Washington Post that the letter is asking all U.S. dioceses to preserve all documents pertaining to personnel and abuse — not only those pertaining to the Pennsylvania dioceses being investigated.

Such a preservation request does not decisively mean that federal prosecutors will ultimately seek or review documents from dioceses outside Pennsylvania, but it does mean that bishops around the country are now on notice not to destroy any such records, because federal prosecutors could seek them at a later date.

A person familiar with the Pennsylvania investigation told The Post last month that federal subpoenas seek records including any evidence of church personnel taking children across state lines for purposes of sexual abuse, any evidence of personnel sending sexual material about children electronically and any evidence that church officials reassigned suspected predators or used church resources to further or conceal such conduct.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Ann Burke, who led the bishops’ National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People in the early 2000s, said Wednesday that the request to retain documents appears to “mean they’re looking at a larger criminal enterprise.”

Burke said she believes the Justice Department may be looking at whether the Bishops’ Conference itself is a criminal enterprise. The conference oversaw the creation of a charter, or set of procedures, in 2002 to address allegations of sexual abuse by clergy of young people.

The bishops’ conference declined to comment in detail, issuing only a statement from its general counsel, Anthony Picarello. “We have transmitted the U.S. attorney’s letter at his request and in the spirit of cooperation with law enforcement.”

The Washington Post’s Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.

Salt Lake City officials highlighted the completed $3 million Gladiola Street reconstruction project on Thursday, days before voters were set to weigh in on the $87 million road bond on their ballot.

Construction began on the complete rebuild of the roadway between 500 South and 900 South back in June. The finished product includes wider lanes, and the addition of bike lanes and sidewalk enhancements, like new ramps. To celebrate its completion, Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Councilman Andrew Johnston joined project team members in planting a ceremonial tree along the corridor, with an additional 40 trees expected to be planted in the coming months.

“My Administration is committed to repairing our City’s aging infrastructure in order improve the lives of residents and businesses,” Biskupski said in a written statement. “By fixing our failing roads and properly maintaining our good roads, we can drive down costs for residents and create opportunities for new bike lanes and transit enhancements to get people out of their cars to help clear our air.”

City officials also announced that the Streets Division will hire a new street maintenance crew, funded as part a sales tax increase approved by Biskupski and the City Council in early 2018. The new crew will allow the city to double the number of lane miles maintained on an annual basis, including resurfacing and pothole repair.

Salt Lake City voters will have the final say on Tuesday on a road bond city leaders say is needed to fix failing streets.

Two-thirds of Salt Lake City’s roads are in poor or worse condition, according to a pavement survey the city commissioned last year. The backlog is a result of aging streets, coupled with a lack of prioritization and underfunding in city budgets for maintenance before and after the Great Recession.

If voters give it a green light, the bond would likely add $5 in annual property taxes per household. If it fails, the city estimates that average property taxes would decrease by $41.35. That’s because the city is paying off existing bonds in 2019 for the Main Library and the Leonardo museum, so residents will no longer see tax bills for those.

The roads won’t stop deteriorating if the bond measure doesn’t pass, but Biskupski and Council Chairwoman Erin Mendenhall have said they want to see what happens with the bond before coming up with a Plan B.

Provo • After several sleepless nights last December, 18-year-old quarterback Zach Wilson made the most important decision of his young life, and the most difficult telephone call.

The senior at Draper’s Corner Canyon High who was set to graduate in the next few weeks called Boise State coach Bryan Harsin and decommitted to the program he had pledged to sign with six months ago.

A little more than a week later, Wilson signed with BYU and said, “If you can play in front of your family, there’s nothing better than that.”

Wilson got the first two starts of his college career in the friendly confines of LaVell Edwards Stadium last month, defeating Hawaii and falling short against Northern Illinois. But in an ironic twist of fate, his first road start will come Saturday at 8:15 p.m. against those same Boise State Broncos he left at the altar nearly 11 months ago.

Wilson, now 19, says he has no regrets about the decision, which isn’t exactly a news flash since he became the youngest player to ever start at QB for BYU and he’s quickly become one of the most beloved players on the team. The more interesting element to the story is that Harsin doesn’t seem to be holding a grudge, either.

“That’s part of recruiting,” Boise State’s fifth-year head coach said Monday. “There are guys that we have played against that we recruited. I wouldn’t say every game, but quite a few teams. So I think that’s just part of the process. It works both ways. No, it isn’t an awkward deal. That’s how the cycle of recruiting goes, and guys end up at different places.”

BYU and Boise State are certainly different, in plenty of ways, but especially in the way their football programs have performed the past two seasons. The Broncos are 6-2 and playing well again after going 11-3 last year and beating the Cougars 24-7 in Provo. BYU is 4-4 and seemingly on the precipice of another nosedive similar to last year’s overall 4-9 disaster.

But Wilson is glad he came.

“I can’t ask for anything more,” he said Wednesday. “I am here with the opportunity to play as a freshman, and it is an opportunity I know a lot of people wish they could have. I am so grateful for it every day and I hope I can take advantage of it. … I love it here.”

Harsin said he offered Wilson relatively early in the process because he liked the way the youngster threw the ball, ran with the ball, and handled himself. He moved on long ago, he said.

“The thing for us is we don’t worry about the ones we get, and we try to develop them. That’s all that really matters,” he said. “That’s how it goes. That’s our mindset in recruiting.”

Coincidentally, another offensive player who could have a big impact in Saturday’s game, senior running back Squally Canada, also once committed to BSU before signing with Washington State and eventually transferring to BYU.

Wilson said he doesn’t know, nor care about, what kind of reception he will get from Boise State fans.

“Whatever it is, you kind of block it out and don’t pay attention to it anyway,” he said. “You just ignore it.”

He said he approaches every game with a chip on his shoulder and the mindset that he has something to prove, and this one is no different. The Cougars are 0-4 on the blue turf.

“It will be cool to go against them because I know a lot of them,” Wilson said. “They are a great program. Great school. I think this week will be fascinating to go down to a place where I was committed to. But I won’t approach it any differently than any other game.”

Grimes also has many ties to Boise State’s program, having coached the offensive line there in 2000, four years before his first stint at BYU. He’s friends with at least seven members of the current BSU coaching staff.

“There are a lot of guys on that staff that I know and maintain friendships with,” Grimes said. “It means a lot to me that we go play well.”

The Gateway in Salt Lake City took a major leap this week in its evolution into something more than a retail center, with the addition of Recursion Pharmaceuticals as a core tenant.

The 5-year-old biotechnology company has moved its headquarters from the University of Utah’s Research Park to a new 100,000-square-foot facility in the downtown shopping and entertainment center and will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday.

“Ultimately, we hope to be part of a larger ecosystem of biotechnology companies in the area,” said Tina Larson, Recursion’s chief operating officer, who added that The Gateway provides a central location for its employees who live along the Wasatch Front.

In occupying the two-floor space once filled by Dick’s Sporting Goods, Recursion now joins Kiln, a coworking company providing office space to startups, as a Gateway office tenant focused on technology.

The company also announced it would soon be bringing in The Store, a Utah-based fine-foods grocer, as well as another large entertainment-oriented tenant. The Gateway, at 100 S. Rio Grande St., is already home to The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah’s largest daily newspaper; Cicero Group, a management consultancy; and Artemis Health.

But the additions of Recursion and Kiln herald what The Gateway’s Phoenix-based owner, Vestar, sees as the once-ailing mall’s transformation into a hub for technology companies and an extension of Utah County’s tech-heavy Silicon Slopes.

The strategy of diversifying away from retail, according to one top Vestar executive, is partly a response to the increasing volatility that bricks-and-mortar retailers face with the dramatic growth of online shopping.

“The overall vision for The Gateway has always been to create this urban, vibrant destination, heavy on food and beverage, heavy on entertainment,” said Jenny Cushing, Vestar’s vice president for leasing. “In order for us to be competitive, the plan — and what we’ve successfully done — is to retrofit some of our larger blocks of space into creative office space.”

The shift is also being welcomed by officials at City Hall, who say The Gateway’s new approach will add significantly to the city’s inventories of attractive and open office spaces, with large square footages and high ceilings, along with proximity to TRAX and FrontRunner and hundreds of apartments.

“Recursion’s expansion is part of a larger renaissance of how business is done in Salt Lake City," said Mayor Jackie Biskupski, who credited the city’s 2-year-old Department of Economic Development for helping to bring nearly $1 billion in capital investment and 9,000 jobs to the city.

The new tenants arrive at The Gateway as Vestar is deep into more than $100 million in revitalization of the open-air shopping center that began in late 2016, when the privately held company bought the property. Vestar owns or operates nearly 70 retail centers across the southwestern U.S., including West Valley City’s Valley Fair Mall.

Built in 2001 with the help of taxpayer subsidies, The Gateway had been in an extended slump after years of problems with vagrancy tied to The Road Home shelter to its south and competition from City Creek Center, the upscale shopping center a few blocks east on Main Street.

Declining foot traffic and the loss of key tenants had at one point pushed The Gateway’s vacancy rate so high, it met some industry definitions of a “dead” mall.

Vestar has since sought to “de-mall” the site, converting it into a kind of urban lifestyle playground and creating social, cultural and artistic experiences to appeal to millennials — while also keying off existing tenants such as Wiseguys Comedy Club, Clark Planetarium, Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum, The Depot and Megaplex Theatres.

The company has tightened security, renovated building exteriors and upgraded common areas, and recruited several entertainment-oriented tenants, including Dave & Buster’s, which combines a full-service restaurant and video arcade. The Gateway’s spruced-up walkways and gathering spots now feature more than 30 art installations, many of them by Utah artists.

Cushing said Vestar had executed new leases covering nearly 200,000 square feet of The Gateway’s 1.4 million square feet of dining, retail and office space, and is in negotiations involving another 90,000 square feet. Other proposed additions include a four-star boutique hotel rising eight stories high and built onto historic Union Pacific Depot, along with new restaurants and entertainment tenants, and an extensive calendar of concerts and community events.

Recursion’s migration from the U. campus to downtown wrapped up last week and research is already taking place in the new first-floor laboratories, where scientist use something called “high-throughput screening” to conduct hundreds of cell experiments each day, according to Larson.

The process involves robotics, data processing, liquid handling devices and sensitive detectors — all deployed in the company’s quest to find new uses for known drugs and improve the lives of those with rare genetic diseases.

“We’re dedicated to improving human health through science,” said Larson, who predicted that Recursion’s presence at The Gateway would help attract other new biotech startups — something Recursion says it welcomes and will need for future growth.

About 40 percent of the 100 employees come from out-of-state, she said, and are used to living in urban areas with amenities including public transportation.

Larson said Recursion has doubled in size each year, and the new headquarters at The Gateway should accommodate further expansion and up to 300 employees. Its previous headquarters at Research Park was 15,000 square feet.

Not all the work at Recursion is done in a laboratory setting. Its new offices include open work spaces, where the lines between departments — as well as managers and employees — blur to foster collaboration.

“It reminds us that no one person is more important,” Larson said. “We all have a role to play.”

The new headquarters also features a kitchen and dining center, which employees have dubbed the “high-throughput feeding" area. The company has hired a professional chef and provides a free healthy lunch each workday. Plus it keeps a break room with a pingpong table, pool tables and a refrigerator stocked with snacks and drinks.

Earlier this week, workers were putting the finishing touches on the yoga studio and the quiet, meditation area. There’s also a two-story climbing wall — a remnant of the space’s previous tenant.

“Now no one wants to leave the building,” joked Larson. “We’ve got everything.”

Stars, stripes, flames and coffee cherries, all adorned in cheerful shades of red and green.

These are the four designs included in Starbucks's latest batch of seasonally themed cups, which will debut Friday as the company kicks off the holiday season. This year, the coffee-making titan said it wanted to "look to the past" and draw inspiration from its signature Christmas blend.

Straightforward enough, right? Well — for some reason — it isn’t.

The cups seem harmless at first, granting consumers a festive way to enjoy their favorite sugary — and sometimes over-the-top — beverages. But in recent years, watching some of Starbucks’s seasonal design choices trigger controversy has become a holiday tradition in itself.

In 2015, for example, the company introduced a plain red holiday cup, ending a string of designs that featured more explicit holiday symbols, such as ornaments and reindeer, dating to 1997. Upon introducing the minimalist cup, Starbucks Vice President Jeffrey Fields said it was a way to "usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories."

The biggest story emerged soon afterward, however, when self-described evangelist Joshua Feuerstein posted a now-infamous rant on Facebook, slamming the coffee chain's design choice. He exclaimed in the video, "Do you realize that Starbucks wanted to take Christ and Christmas off of their brand-new cups? That's why they're just plain red!"

Feuerstein wasn't alone in his ire. That same year, at a campaign rally, then-candidate Donald Trump also criticized the cups, suggesting that there was "No more 'Merry Christmas' at Starbucks. No more."

"Maybe we should boycott Starbucks," Trump added.

In 2017, Starbucks went a different route - crafting a white design with doodles that encouraged customers to decorate and color the cup to their liking. But the doodles included two interlocked hands that some interpreted as belonging to a same-sex couple. This upset some, who believed the cup's design unnecessarily promoted a "gay agenda."

Back then, Starbucks told the New York Times that it would leave it up to customers to interpret what was on the cup.

This year, the question from 2015 returns: Is Starbucks truly embracing Christmas?

A CNN article published Thursday morning suggests as much. In the article, titled "Starbucks is doubling down on Christmas with its new holiday cups," Chief Operating Officer Roz Brewer said the company had "listened to customers" and realized they "loved the tradition of Christmas."

Brewer said Starbucks realized that last year's cup design "didn't resonate with some, but it did resonate with others." She also told CNN that this year's cups are "not only retro, but true to who we are."

Beth Egan, an associate professor of advertising at Syracuse University, told The Washington Post that she doesn't think the latest batch of cups reflect Christmas or any one holiday in particular.

"They have a nice array of images that sort of play to Christmas from the red and green standpoint," Egan said. "But if you look at the star, it could just as easily be a Star of David."

Egan said she thinks some groups, such as conservative Christians, may be actively looking to pick fights with Starbucks's designs because of the stances the company has taken on certain issues, such as same-sex marriage.

"I find the ire interesting. I think some people are looking to be angry," Egan said.

On the controversy surrounding the hands on last year's cup, she added: "If you look at the overall design of that cup, they're cartoon hands. . . . How do you make a cartoon hand male or female?"

In a statement to The Post, Starbucks spokeswoman Sanja Gould said that, above all, the company aspires to create a "real sense of community and connection between our baristas and customers."

"As a brand that is intensely personal, we are humbled by how passionate customers are about our holiday cups," Gould said.

And for those who liked the plain red cup from 2015, don’t fret: Starbucks is giving out limited-edition reusable red cups to customers Friday while supplies last.