United States Attorney for Utah John Huber, Utah’s top federal law enforcement officer, recently said: “One important detail is being overlooked in the heated debate over medical marijuana. Marijuana is against the law, federal law. That very important aspect cannot be lost in this discussion.”

The proponents of Proposition 2 say that Utah voters must ignore the federal law because Congress will not reschedule marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug. Has anyone questioned why Congress has not rescheduled marijuana? Could it be that marijuana does not meet the test to make that determination?

According to established case law, Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics v. DEA, a drug may have a currently acceptable use in treatment in the United States if the drug meets the following five-part test:

1) “The substance’s chemistry must be scientifically established to permit it to be reproduced into dosages which can be standardized.”

2) “There must be adequate pharmacological and toxicological studies done by … experts qualified by scientific training and experience to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of drugs that the substance is safe for treating a specific, recognized disorder.”

3) “There must be adequate, well-controlled, well-designed, well-conducted and well-documented studies, including clinical investigations, by experts qualified by scientific training and experience to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of drugs. …”

4) “The drug has a New Drug Application (NDA) approved by the FDA or a consensus of the national community of experts, qualified by scientific training and experience to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of drugs.”

5) “In the absence of NDA approval, information concerning the chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and effectiveness of the substance must be reported, published or otherwise widely available, in sufficient detail to permit experts qualified by scientific training experience to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of drugs. …”

Marijuana does not meet any of these five elements necessary for a drug to have a currently accepted medical use. The chemistry of marijuana is not reproducible in terms of creating a standardized dose. Because of the varying chemical constituents, reproducing consistent standardized doses is not possible.

Even pursuing a “Utah way” cannot make medicine safe, especially untested and genetically modified plants that are being promoted as medicine. Whole plant marijuana will be sold in the medical marijuana stores. Legitimate studies have not been done on marijuana to determine its efficacy for specific conditions, potency or correct dosage.

Speaking before legislators, a Prop 2 leader talking about medical marijuana said, “This is not about science, this is a criminal justice issue; we are not making any scientific determination.”

That is why Prop 2 is recreational, not medical marijuana.

The products that will be sold under Prop 2 can be highly dangerous and definitely destructive to the developing brain of children. A major study published in 2012 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides objective evidence that marijuana is harmful to the adolescent brain. For this reason, the American College of Pediatricians opposes its legalization. Likewise, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry recently offered its own policy statement opposing efforts to legalize marijuana. It similarly pointed out marijuana’s deleterious effects on adolescent brain development.

Autism is one of the qualifying illnesses allowed in the initiative. Autistic children deserve the same opportunity as all children. Putting their brains at risk with marijuana experimentation could be disastrous. Most of these children grow up to be productive adults in their own way.

The marijuana products of today are not the same as the marijuana of the 1960s that was 2 percent to 3 percent THC, which is the psychotropic part of the marijuana plant. According to a newly released federal Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area report, in 2017 the average THC potency sold in the marijuana dispensaries in Colorado was 19.6 percent for whole plant marijuana and 68.6 percent for concentrates. That is 1,000 percent to 3,500 percent more potent. Under Proposition 2, both of these products will be sold in the Utah medical marijuana stores. This is not medicine. Vote no on Proposition 2.

Gayle Ruzicka is president of Utah Eagle Forum.

Does anyone really believe that the slaughter of 11 elderly Jews worshipping in Pittsburgh or nine African-Americans praying in Charleston makes the world a better place?

Jewish people strive for tikkun olam, to improve the world. On Saturdays we, like the congregants of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, were praying when an angry gunman shouted anti-Semitic slurs and shot them. They were killed before the customary prayer for our country. The Torah and liturgy urge us to observe the commandments, including Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy and Thou shall not murder, and to act righteously with compassion. We pray that God grant our leaders wisdom to make our country safe, peaceful and secure for everyone.

The men responsible for these tragedies had surely been taught that killing was forbidden and that murder was a terrible crime. What were they thinking? Were they thinking at all? If they thought their act was justified, what was the justification in a country founded on religious freedom? Did anyone praying threaten the shooter? Were they enemies at war? Wars are not fought in sanctuaries. Was this one virulent antisemitism?

Our choices seem limited to mental illness or strongly held belief. Prejudices like antisemitism, based on myth and misinformation, amplified by provocation are powerful. They may have made someone, able to distinguish right from wrong, unable to resist the bilious anger that drove him to shoot and vilify innocent Americans. We know that anti-Semitic incidents and threats rose by nearly 60 percent in 2017.

For someone incapable of understanding reality and the consequences of their actions, we should feel regret that that was not recognized or treated. Someone driven by racial and ethnic stereotypes and false allegations hasn’t learned to distinguish opinion from information and truth from fiction. We should teach these essential skills in school. We should help our legislators and leaders untangle the tortuous knot that makes freedom of speech and hateful rhetoric that inspires murder so hard to separate. We should react to armed assaults on our constitutional right to life, liberty and religious freedom. We should seek swift justice for those who violate our laws, identify the elements that motivate and enable them and address those.

Jews are sadly accustomed to slurs and threats but are horrified and frightened by the murderous antisemitism in Pittsburgh. We grieve our Jewish brothers and sisters, living with memories of the holocaust and dying in their beloved sanctuary in America. We extend consolation to the survivors, including policemen, who risked their lives to defend ours.

Shortly after the tragic attack in Pittsburgh our three largest congregations bravely held vigils to honor the victims and pray for survivors and families. Many people and leaders of all faiths consoled, supported and prayed with us. A monthly Jewish/LDS Dialog and the Interfaith Roundtable strengthened and united us in the face of this attack on religious freedom.

Our United Jewish Federation of Utah works to help Jewish communities everywhere. It helped bring survivors of Nazi genocide and Russian oppression to our state where they and other refugees are safe. In response to local threats it assembled a Task Force on Antisemitism and Community Relations to report and respond. It has alerted the University of Utah to anti-Semitic demonstrations and tactics on our campuses to ensure student safety. It will advocate for holocaust and genocide education in our schools.

Our federation is committed to maximizing the safety of our Jewish community. We are glad and grateful that we have supportive, responsive law enforcement agencies and many people and government leaders who have expressed solidarity, shared our sadness and felt our anger at injustice. We are ready to work with lawmakers, law enforcers, educators, media leaders, mental health professionals and concerned community members of all faiths to make us all feel peaceful, safe and secure. That is what we and those killed in Pittsburgh pray for on every Shabbat.

As President Lincoln said at one of our darkest times, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in.”

Jay Jacobson is emeritus professor of the University of Utah School of Medicine.

In the two years that have passed since the 2016 election, we have learned a lot about malignant disinformation campaigns in Western democracies. Special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted the Russian operatives who created fake identities and ran targeted advertising on Facebook. The ads themselves - supporting extreme anti-immigration groups and the phony "Army of Jesus" on the one hand, and fake "black lives matter" slogans on the other - have been made public. Reams of words have been written, studies have been made. We know how social media increases polarization, how fact-checking reaches only a narrow audience, how the lack of regulation enables false and opaque political advertisements, how algorithms favor angry and extreme views. Congress, Britain's Parliament and the European Union have all held hearings to discuss the problem. Facebook and Twitter have taken down some Russian-origin accounts.

We have learned a lot - and yet we have learned nothing. For these same distorting techniques are still in operation. They will affect the midterm elections. They continue to shape political debate in many countries around the world. They are being used by not just Russians, but people in the countries they seek to influence. These campaigners, often hiding behind fake accounts, continue to act with impunity, promoting false narratives and relying on the main platforms - Facebook, Twitter, Google, and especially YouTube - to amplify their messages.

What's worse, their messages are getting louder. After analyzing 2.5 million tweets and 6,986 Facebook pages, the Oxford Internet Institute has just found that the amount of biased, hyperbolic and conspiratorial "junk news" in circulation is actually greater than it was in 2016.

More importantly, the messages are no longer seen just by a small fringe but are much more likely to be consumed by mainstream users of social media. At the same time, only a tiny percentage of political information available on social media actually comes from political candidates. People are now more likely to see a targeted ad from an unidentified political group with an opaque agenda, in other words, than something written by the people actually vying for their vote.

Those who follow the news online are also very likely to see information not created by humans at all. A new tool created by a start-up called Robhat Labs found that as of late last week, about 60 percent of the conversation on Twitter is still driven by accounts that are probably bots (bits of code that can be programmed to mimic humans). Another survey, conducted by the Anti-Defamation League, has found that nearly a third of the anti-Semitic propaganda pumped out online also comes from bots, and there seems to be no way to tell who is behind it.

Even after being told many times about the problem, YouTube - which is owned by Google - still allows its algorithms to be manipulated by Russia Today, the Russian state broadcasting company. The network's ongoing smear campaign against the White Helmets, a Syrian humanitarian group, still features high in search results. Meanwhile, in Brazil, junk news was spread during the last election campaign on not only Facebook but WhatsApp, where it cannot be corrected, let alone traced.

We have learned nothing and we are doing nothing. The stopgap measures taken, voluntarily, by the social media companies are like Band-Aids on a gaping wound. Facebook and Twitter have both hired people to monitor their sites for "hate speech" - a term with an extremely wide range of definitions - to dubious effect.

But other, more obvious steps have not been taken. Social-media bots could be banned altogether. More rigorous procedures could prevent the creation of anonymous accounts. YouTube, and others, could change their algorithms so that known sources of disinformation don't keep floating to the top. Lawmakers could force online political advertising to meet higher standards of transparency.

But I am repeating myself and, more to the point, I am repeating many others. Calls for regulation without censorship have been made by many people and many groups - it's just that there is simply no political will to make an real change. Heavily televised hearings with a CEO celebrity such as Mark Zuckerberg are not a solution - they're a stunt. After the midterm elections are over, we need an informed national debate, a Congressional investigation that looks into all of the possible options, as well as a commitment by political leaders to take control of the information anarchy that will eventually consume them all.

Anne Applebaum is a Washington Post columnist, covering national politics and foreign policy, with a special focus on Europe and Russia. She is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and a professor of practice at the London School of Economics. She is a former member of The Washington Post’s editorial board.

On Nov. 6, Utah voters can approve Proposition 4. This citizen initiative is a response to the Utah Legislature’s inability or refusal to allow truly competitive democratic elections.

Utah legislators have, over the years, chosen not to respect the democratic process. Our democracy is in danger. Arguably, the No. 1 problem confronting our nation’s lawmaking process is partisan gerrymandering. This problem is 230 years old. Today it has grown like cancer. If we do not act, then our democracy may die.

Competition is good in the marketplace, in athletic contests, in political campaigns and, I tell my students, in dating. Unfortunately, each 10 years, so many of our legislators who have praised competition in public will conspire in private to redraw their districts in order to prevent competitive challenges to their governmental positions. This problem results in communities being divided and weakened.

The Founding Fathers at the 1787 Constitutional Convention approved the new U.S. Constitution by a vote of 38-3. Elbridge Gerry was one of the three delegates who voted no because he opposed a sharing of a state’s power with a new central government, and because he was suspicious of representative democracy.

In 1812, 25 years later, Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry approved an election map that would benefit the privileged few over the struggling many. One drawn district included 12 counties and had the look of a monstrous creation. Critics called it a “gerrymander” — and the name has haunted Americans for over two centuries.

President George Washington’s first veto was an act of Congress that would have allowed drawn congressional districts that favored the incumbent members’ re-election.

Years later, President Ronald Reagan called for “an end to the anti-democratic and un-American practice of gerrymandering congressional districts.” Reagan declared: “The fact is gerrymandering has become a national scandal and a conflict of interest.”

I am a citizen and taxpayer in Utah who wants problems solved by lawmakers who vote on solutions resulting from a competitive process. When we lack competition, then eventually we see corruption. So I support competitive elections where voters choose their elected officials rather than incumbent politicians acting behind closed doors to draw districts that guarantee their re-election.

In 2011 I served as vice chair for the Salt Lake County Citizens Advisory Commission on reapportionment of districts (based on the 2010 federal census) covering 40 percent of Utah’s population. Our seven-person board drew council districts that were nonpartisan and kept communities united rather than divided.

In 2017 I signed the “Better Boundaries” citizen initiative petition that was submitted to and approved by the lieutenant governor — Utah’s state elections officer. Nearly 200,000 Utah voters signed this initiative petition — far more than the required 113,143 signatures required.

Nov. 6, Utah voters can approve Proposition 4. If approved, then I believe it will be a win-win-win for democracy in Utah. An independent seven-person commission authorized to draw legislative districts in public rather than behind closed doors is transparent democracy.

Utah communities such as Holladay and Murray and Millcreek, as well as South Jordan and West Jordan, deserve to be represented in the Legislature by one lawmaker focused on a city’s concerns — rather than have those communities divided and weakened.

Utah deserves better government. I urge a yes vote on Proposition 4.

Tim Chambless, Ph.D., is a retired associate professor/lecturer at the University of Utah, where he taught for the Hinckley Institute of Politics and Political Science Department. He has taught current issues for the U.’s Osher Lifelong Institute for 12 years.

With mail-in voting nearly statewide this year, many Utahns have already cast their ballots.

But for those traditionalists who prefer to vote in person on Election Day, stragglers, and residents of Carbon and Emery counties (who don’t have by-mail voting), Tuesday’s trip to the polls will mean choosing sides on a long list of candidates, judges, tax increases, amendments and propositions that makes up the 2018 ballot.

Here’s what you can expect to see in the voting booth.

Candidates

The most closely watched race in the state is the neck-and-neck contest in Utah’s 4th Congressional District between incumbent Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, and her Democratic challenger, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams.

Love won her last election to Congress with a comfortable majority, but has seen her lead in the heavily conservative district slip in the polls amid a national political climate that is expected to see Democratic gains in the U.S. House, and possibly a new majority.

Recent polling has shown either a tied race or a Democratic lead in the district, and prominent national political handicappers have rated the election as a “toss-up.”

Less competitive are the state’s three remaining congressional races and U.S. Senate race, in which polling indicates commanding leads for Republican incumbent Reps. Rob Bishop, Chris Stewart and John Curtis, and GOP Senate candidate Mitt Romney. Their Democratic challengers are Lee Castillo, Shireen Ghorbani, James Singer and Jenny Wilson, respectively.

Bishop is also challenged by United Utah Party candidate Eric Eliason, who carried enough support as a third-party candidate to qualify for the only televised debate in the 1st Congressional District.

“Eric makes this race unique,” Eliason’s campaign manager, Jack Darrington, said. “He is running for Congress because he, like so many others, is tired of divisive partisanship and the special-interest stranglehold that has left Congress incapable of solving problems.”

There are also 90 legislative races on the ballot throughout the state. Only about five appear to be truly competitive, although, based on fundraising, a larger group of nearly 20 could end up close.

Voters will elect members of the Utah Board of Education and county offices. In Salt Lake County, Sheriff Rosie Rivera, a Democrat, is challenged by Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal, a Republican, and Democratic District Attorney Sim Gill is challenged by Republican prosecutor Nathan Evershed.

Utahns can find a sample ballot listing the candidates for their area at vote.utah.gov, and additional information on positions and qualifications at individual candidate websites.

Judges

Unlike some states, judges in Utah do not participate in traditional candidate elections. But voters do have the opportunity to remove judges from their positions when they come up for a retention vote every six years, or during the first general election after a judge’s appointment to the bench.

A total of 44 judges are up for retention this year, roughly 60 percent of whom were appointed to the bench since 2016, according to Jennifer Yim, executive director of Utah’s Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, or JPEC. Another nine judges who would otherwise be up for retention votes elected to retire or resign from the bench this year.

The commission — an appointed panel of 13 members — conducts evaluations and issues recommendations for each judge on the ballot. Those recommendation reports can be found at judges.utah.gov.

For 2018, all 44 judges on the ballot statewide were positively recommended for retention by JPEC.

“This is the most comprehensive, thorough evaluation by people who have actually been before these judges in court,” Yim said.

Bonds

In Salt Lake City, voters are asked to approve an $87 million road bond intended for repairs and improvements. The 20-year bond would add $5 in annual property taxes to the average home, as taxes would otherwise drop by more than $40 as the city pays off previous bonds for the Main Library and Leonardo museum.

A pavement survey commissioned by the city rated two-thirds of Salt Lake City’s roads in poor condition, or worse. City leaders attribute the maintenance backlog to aging streets and a lack of prioritization and funding in city road budgets before and after the Great Recession.

In a prepared statement regarding a recent road construction project, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski said her administration is committed to transportation and utility repairs and improving life for residents.

“By fixing our failing roads and properly maintaining our good roads,” Biskupski said, “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.”

Several Utah cities are also adopting tax increases after going through the state’s Truth in Taxation process. Those increases are not subject to a public vote.

Also, school bonds across the state total about $600 million in proposed local property tax increases, with Nebo School District accounting for about half that amount.

Amendments, questions and propositions

Atypical for this year’s election is the number of questions, propositions and constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot.

A nonbinding opinion question and three propositions stem from initiative campaigns, with voters being asked whether gas taxes should be raised 10 cents per gallon to generate funding for schools, whether medical marijuana should be legalized, whether Medicaid should be fully expanded in the state and whether an independent and unelected panel should be commissioned to draw Utah’s voting maps.

Three proposed amendments to the Utah Constitution deal with an adjustment to a property tax exemption for active-duty members of the military, the creation of a new property tax exemption for property leased by a government entity, and empowering the Legislature to convene itself in special session with a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate.

If approved by voters, constitutional amendments generally take effect on Jan. 1 of the next calendar year, according to Justin Lee, the state’s director of elections. But any successful propositions would become law one month earlier, on Dec. 1, Lee said, five days after the official canvass of statewide election results is released Nov. 26.

“There has to be an official certification of the results of the election,” Lee said of the roughly one-month delay before any proposition would take effect.

The timing of the canvass is already tripping up plans for a special session to debate medical marijuana legislation. Utah’s governor and legislative leaders had previously announced that a session would be convened in November to consider compromise legislation as a replacement for Proposition 2, but an email to members of the House from Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, said that effort may be delayed until December to finalize the election results.

"For this reason, the anticipated special session will likely either occur on our regularly scheduled interim day, Wednesday, November 14th, if the proposition fails, or Monday, December 3rd, if the proposition passes,” Hughes wrote.

The words “truth” and “fact” have been used liberally by the combatants for and against a ballot initiative that would establish a full-fledged medical cannabis program in Utah.

One side suggests the initiative, Proposition 2, would turn Utah into a virtual Wild West of cannabis use. Recreational users could walk the streets, their pockets stuffed with marijuana, with near impunity. Dispensaries would sell toothsome, cannabis-laced candies and brownies appealing to youngsters. Patients would be allowed to stockpile marijuana in their homes without any legal repercussions.

The groups supportive of the ballot initiative envision the post-Prop 2 world much differently. Cannabis distribution would be controlled, so the substance would end up only in the hands of patients at the recommendation of a doctor.

So what’s a voter to believe?

To help, we sifted through a few of the claims and checked them for factual accuracy and honest presentation of information.

All the below statements are from the websites for Drug Safe Utah, one of the groups dedicated to defeating Proposition 2, and the Utah Patients Coalition, which sponsored the ballot initiative.

“Prop 2 creates a short-term recreational free-for-all. For 19 months — until July 1, 2020 — recreational marijuana use will be virtually impossible to prosecute. Prop 2 would allow individuals to use, possess and manufacture marijuana just by informing law enforcement that they are sure they will qualify for a medical cannabis card when it is available in 2020.” — Drug Safe Utah

Free-for-all? That’s probably a bit alarmist, says Paul Cassell, a criminal law professor at the University of Utah.

The ballot initiative would create an “affirmative defense” for certain people caught with marijuana before the state’s medical cannabis program is fully functional. The provision wouldn’t strip away an officer’s authority to arrest someone who is carrying the substance, Cassell explains, but could enable that person to fend off a criminal conviction.

To exercise the defense, a person would have to show in court that he or she would've qualified for a medical cannabis card if the state were issuing them. Basically, it provides legal coverage for cannabis patients while Utah officials are revving up the medical marijuana program.

It is true that the provision could complicate marijuana prosecutions, Cassell says, especially if the courts give a broad interpretation to the affirmative defense language. And it would be challenging for police officers in real time to separate patients from potheads.

Still, as Cassell, a former federal judge, reads Prop 2, the affirmative defense wouldn’t shield everyone — only ill people in possession of small amounts of marijuana.

“Somebody with a kilo of marijuana would not have a defense under this, as I understand it,” he says. “Does it make possession-level prosecutions impracticable? I think it certainly makes them significantly more difficult. I don’t think it makes them impossible.”

Gayle Ruzicka of Drug Safe Utah says she’s spoken with a number of police officers who told her they’d stop arresting people for pot possession if Prop 2 passes.

“Because they know what would happen if they go to court. They go through all the problems with arresting and booking. ... Then, it’s up to the judge. And under the affirmative defense provision, the judge will let them go,” she says, adding that she stands behind her organization’s warning about a recreational free-for-all.

A spokesman for the Utah Sheriffs' Association says that the provision would complicate but not preclude enforcement of possession laws.

“It would be more difficult to enforce, but to say that law enforcement is just not going to enforce marijuana laws, I don’t think we’d say that,” Reed Richards, the Utah Sheriffs' Association spokesman, says.

“Passing Proposition 2 will increase traffic fatalities in Utah. In Colorado in 2017, 1 out of 5 traffic fatalities were marijuana-related, compared to 1 out of 10 in 2009 before medical marijuana. Marijuana is the most common illegal drug in fatal automobile accidents.” — Drug Safe Utah

Traffic fatalities have increased in Colorado over that time period, but there’s debate about how much marijuana use is to blame.

The numbers cited by Drug Safe Utah come from a law enforcement coalition formed through the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program. This group’s tally classifies a fatality as marijuana-related if any trace of the substance shows up in driver drug tests, according to Sam Cole of the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The problem, says Cole, is that marijuana can stay in a person’s system for weeks, long after its effects have worn off. Cole says his department crunches its numbers based on the state’s definition of driving under the influence — getting behind the wheel with five nanograms or more of active THC in the system.

By the department’s count, marijuana was a factor in 35 traffic fatalities in 2017; by comparison, the police task force linked cannabis intoxication to 138 traffic deaths that year.

But here’s the other thing: Colorado is a recreational state, so it might not be the best predictor of what’ll happen if Utah adopts a medical program. Especially because medical marijuana programs are actually associated with a drop in traffic fatalities, some researchers have observed.

One Columbia University study found states that passed medicinal cannabis laws experienced an average 11 percent decline in traffic deaths (although some states saw increases). The reason for this is unclear — it might be because people are turning to cannabis instead of alcohol, says Benjamin Hansen, a professor at the University of Oregon.

Hansen says his research on medical marijuana laws has yielded similar results as the Columbia study.

“On net, we find traffic fatalities fall, and that this ... is largely driven by decreases in drunk driving,” Hansen writes in an email.

Ruzicka defends her group’s use of Colorado as an example, saying that state has a lot in common with Utah. The neighboring states have rugged landscapes and similar ways of life, and she notes that both are covered by the Rocky Mountain High High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.

“Use of marijuana by adolescents significantly lowers their IQ according to the National Institute[s] of Health. There is a reason it is called ‘dope.’” — Drug Safe Utah

Teens who use marijuana do tend to lose some IQ points along the way, that much is backed by scientific evidence. But there’s a twist: Cannabis might not be the culprit, some researchers say.

At least, that’s what researcher Joshua Isen took away from a multiyear study of hundreds of twins in California and Minnesota. Isen, a professor at the University of South Alabama, did observe an IQ drop among young people who reported using marijuana in their teen years. But when he examined situations in which one identical twin smoked pot and the other didn’t, he found no difference — he saw the same IQ declines for both siblings.

This phenomenon suggests that there’s another factor (maybe family environment or genetics) at play, one that’s both affecting the teens' IQ and increasing their likelihood of marijuana use. In other words, as Isen puts it, the marijuana might be the symptom and not the cause.

However, Madeline Meier, an Arizona State University professor who has also examined teen cannabis use, says her research has looked into other potential causes. Her 2012 study showed IQ decline from childhood to adulthood among teen cannabis users and took into account alcohol and other drug use, low socioeconomic status and other factors.

“None of these factors could explain why adolescent-onset persistent cannabis users showed IQ decline,” she writes in an email.

A large, ongoing study funded by the National Institutes of Health is looking at whether cannabis interferes with adolescent brain development, she notes.

“According to a review of more than 10,000 scientific abstracts released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in January 2017, ‘There is conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective' in the treatment of chronic pain in adults, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and multiple sclerosis spasticity.” — Utah Patients Coalition

Yup, that’s what the review concluded. There was also moderate evidence that medical cannabis could treat sleeplessness associated with a variety of conditions and limited evidence showing its effectiveness for dealing with anxiety, increasing appetite in HIV/AIDS patients and treating other ailments.

The same paper found there was little or no evidence that cannabis or marijuana products helped with cancer, epilepsy, symptoms associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and an array of other conditions. Some of these are listed as qualifying conditions in Prop 2 and the legislation that Utah lawmakers are poised to consider, likely next month.

But Donald Abrams, who was part of the large review from last year, says it’s important that people understand why there’s a shortage of evidence in many cases.

“There is a real lack of funding to be able to study it as a potential therapeutic intervention,” says Abrams, an oncologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

And he notes that since the review came out last year, other papers have come out with more evidence of marijuana's therapeutic benefits.

“Some of the things are currently being studied or never will be studied but show benefit in people’s anecdotal experience,” he says.

“Can medical cannabis help address the opioid epidemic in Utah? Yes. A 2014 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that, between 1999 and 2010, states with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8% lower rate of opioid overdose deaths than states without medical cannabis laws.” — Utah Patients Coalition

This is an accurate summary of the study’s findings. But the jury is out on whether medical marijuana laws help combat opioid addiction.

This and several other studies “can’t show that medical marijuana legalization caused the decrease in deaths or that pain patients changed their drug-taking behavior,” the National Institute on Drug Abuse states on its website.

Moreover, there is some evidence suggesting cannabis use actually increases the risk of developing an opioid dependancy. More research is in the works to see whether medical marijuana is an effective tool in the battle against opioid abuse.

DJ Schanz, director of the Utah Patients Coalition, stands behind his group’s assertion and says the American Medical Association is the foremost authority on the issue, so what it says should carry a lot of weight.

The available evidence shows cannabis does not serve as a gateway to addiction, he argues.

“We think it’s not a gateway in but a gateway out from potentially fatal and much more addicting drugs that are out there,” he says.

My second term as Kentucky’s governor ended almost three years ago, yet strangers still thank me for saving their lives.

These Kentuckians don’t want to talk politics. They just want to tell me how access to health coverage gave their families hope and the opportunity for good health for the first time. Many of them give me a hug. And many of them wind up crying.

As Utah voters weigh their vote on Proposition 3, they need to understand what happened in Kentucky after I expanded Medicaid in 2013.

Many politicians – including Kentucky’s current governor – see this as a political game. But their vision and priorities are skewed.

This issue is about people.

With Medicaid expansion, Utah voters can change the trajectory of the lives of hundreds of thousands of their friends and neighbors in a positive way.

Critics talk about people who are uninsured as if they’re aliens from another planet and suggest that they’re “bad” or lazy people who don’t deserve health care.

That’s insulting.

In Kentucky, expanding Medicaid brought health coverage to over 400,000 working-class people, people like farmers, substitute teachers, nurses’ aides, construction workers, restaurant servers, and retail workers.

They lacked health insurance not because they didn’t have jobs but because their employers didn’t offer it, or it was too expensive to buy.

So these Kentuckians would get up every morning and go to work, hoping and praying that they didn’t get sick or hurt. They chose between food and medicine. They ignored checkups that would catch serious conditions early. They put off doctor’s appointments, hoping a lump or a pain turned out to be nothing. And they lived knowing that bankruptcy was just one bad diagnosis away.

Furthermore, their children went long periods without checkups that focused on immunizations, preventive care, and vision and hearing tests.

Expanded Medicaid changed all that. And according to dozens of studies and health-care advocacy groups, it has started to improve health outcomes in a meaningful way.

Expansion worked – and it continues to work, despite my successor’s attempts to burn the system down. He has worked furiously to strip health coverage from Kentuckians, devising a system that clearly demonstrates he has no idea why families struggle financially and what it’s like to be in that position.

And contrary to baseless claims, expanded Medicaid didn’t hurt Kentucky’s economy or its state budget.

Before I made the decision, I consulted health-care experts and accounting experts like PricewaterhouseCoopers, and I listened to the pleas of over 100 organizations. They all urged me forward.

And then, after Medicaid expansion’s first year, we hired the internationally recognized accounting firm Deloitte Consulting to study performance data. In the first year alone, Deloitte said, Medicaid expansion resulted in 12,000 new jobs in Kentucky and gave providers here $1.3 billion in new revenues. Deloitte also predicted that expansion would create a $300-million positive impact on the state General Fund in the next two-year budget cycle.

Bottom line: Whether you consider facts or anecdotal evidence, expanding Medicaid was both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.

Access to health care should not be a partisan issue. On Election Day, voters in Utah should put people over politics.

Vote “yes” on Proposition 3.

Steven L. Beshear was elected governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 2007 and served until December 2015.

When chicken fried steak shows up on the weekly menu at Trebo — the on-site restaurant at Salt Lake City’s O.C. Tanner Co. — Blake Irvine and his co-workers start the countdown.

“It’s like Christmas," said the design engineer. "The eggs Benedict is good, too.”

In addition to generous health benefits and 401(k) packages, savvy Utah Top Workplaces, such as O.C. Tanner, have learned that food — whether it’s an on-site cafe, stocked refrigerators, an occasional free lunch or a “treat trolley" — can boost employee morale, productivity and longevity.

The food perks are as different as the companies that offer them.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals • This biotechnology company that moved into its news Salt Lake City headquarters at The Gateway in October provides a free lunch for all 100 employees each workday. Plus, it keeps a kitchen area full of snacks and drinks. Also free.

Workfront Inc. • The Lehi software company has Food Truck Fridays. Employees receive a voucher for a free meal from their truck of choice.

Rhodes Bake and Serve • Employees of the Murray-based frozen-dough company can get free bread and rolls. To offset all those carbs, the company also has fruits and vegetables, a nutritionist, a personal trainer and exercise classes.

MX • No one goes hungry at this Lehi financial technology company. There are free bagels on Monday, catered lunches every Tuesday and Thursday, and smoothies on Wednesday. All that on top of the break room that’s stocked with healthy — and not-so-healthy — beverages and snacks.

‘Heart of the company’

O.C. Tanner — which initially produced high school rings and pins when it started in 1927 — has had an employee eatery for decades, said Denise Page, director of employee relations. In the beginning, it was cafeteria-style catering to the manufacturing employees, who had 30-minute lunch breaks.

Through the years, the Salt Lake City company has expanded its reach and now offers recognition and service award programs to companies across the globe. More than half of its 1,200 Utah employees work in client services, marketing, sales and finance.

Twelve years ago, to go along with the business change, the company remodeled the cafeteria and created an on-site restaurant with food stations, an expanded menu and an updated dining area. Open for breakfast and lunch, it’s called Trebo — Obert spelled backward and a nod to founder Obert C. Tanner.

Chef Frank Mendoza, who previously worked at Log Haven, Stein Eriksen and the now-closed Metropolitan, runs the kitchen with about 18 employees.

The company subsidizes the restaurant, paying for the cost of the building, equipment and labor, Mendoza said. Employees cover the food costs. All the drinks — from coffee to tea to soda — are free.

Depending on the day, employees can get grilled salmon for $5, lemon fettuccine for $4 or a Reuben sandwich for $3.75.

It’s no wonder employees often say they eat better at work than at home, Mendoza said. “Employees appreciate what we do here.”

Troy Roberts, a machinist, agrees: “It’s a lot nicer than leaving the building,” he said. “They have a lot of variety, and the prices are great.”

Warm and welcoming, Trebo features a long wall of windows that look east onto State Street and the Salt Lake County Government Center across the street. Between meals, it’s a gathering place for workers who want to celebrate a birthday, hold team meetings or host potential clients.

”It’s the heart of the company,” said Pam Moser, who has worked in the Trebo kitchen for more than a decade. “Employees can come and relax and be well-fed."

A connected culture

Food is a central part of the culture at CHG Healthcare, a health care staffing provider based in Midvale.

“There’s no shortage of food and celebration,” explained Christine VanCampen, senior director of talent management. “It’s a big part of how we connect and celebrate with each other.”

When CHG was planning its new company headquarters, which opened in August 2017, it conducted extensive surveys to find out what employees wanted. There was a clear message that they wanted food options that were convenient, healthy and varied, VanCampen said.

The result was the creation of a subsidized cafe called The Kitchen. Soup, salads, sandwiches and pizza are available every day, with a rotating menu of entrees, many with international flavors such as kung pao chicken and vegetable curry. Refrigerators and microwaves are on hand for those who bring their lunch. There also is a market area with self-serve yogurt, grab-and-go lunches and meal bars.

“We hit the gamut on what people need in the workplace,” VanCampen said.

Once CHG employees get their food, they head to the People Hub, a large open area with high ceilings and walls of windows. Besides being a place for lunch, it’s where people have staff meetings and the company hosts large celebrations.

“Everyone is dealing with a rapid rate of change at work and their daily lives,” VanCampen said. “Every opportunity we have to make even one thing easier, even if it seems small, we want to do it.”

The new company cafe at Recursion Pharmaceuticals helps employees who work on an array of biotechnology projects feel connected, said Brooke Clark, director of talent acquisition.

“There are 100 of us in a 100,000-square-foot facility,” she said. “Eating together really helps bind our culture and maintain relationships. We’ve had a lot of really great ideas come out of a brainstorm at lunch."

Coming together

Food plays a different role at BambooHR, the human resource technology company in Lindon, said HR director Cassie Whitlock. “We used food when we are coming together.”

Having a food-filled break room or an on-site cafeteria didn’t make sense, she said, because about 30 percent of the employees work remotely. But once a month, the midsize company with about 350 employees gathers for a company-paid lunch.

That’s not to say that there aren’t the occasional office treats, like flavored sodas or Creamies, CEO Ben Peterson’s favorite made-in-Utah frozen ice cream treats.

Giving food to those less fortunate seems to fit the Bamboo culture. During the past few years, said Whitlock, employees have packed about 500,000 meals for starving children, mostly in developing countries, as part of its Rise Against Hunger service project.

Trolley time

Employees at Veritas Funding in Midvale never know when the treat trolley might roll through the mortgage lending office. But when it does, it has workers doing a happy dance in their cubicles.

“There’s no set day that the cart shows up,” said HR manager Salome Douglas. “It’s just a little surprise we bring out on stressful days or special occasions.”

Just like the airplane drink carts, the trolley is filled with “every treat you can imagine,” said Douglas, from candy and fruit to chips and nuts.

Employees know when the trolley is on its way because it’s always accompanied by music over the office sound system. The treat trolley showed up on Michael Jackson’s birthday with “Thriller” blasting over the speakers; it also made an appearance when the latest “Star Wars” movie was released.

New employees push the trolley around the office, Douglas said, handing out bags of Sour Patch candies, peanut M&M’s and pistachios as a way to introduce themselves.

Veritas offers other food perks, too. The kitchen is stocked with a soda machine and various syrups as well as free coffee, tea and chocolate. There are monthly luncheons, ice cream socials, potluck parties and a chili cook-off fundraiser.

But it’s the treat trolley that employees are always anticipating. “It’s not just the treats and the music,” Douglas said. “It’s the appreciation. It’s our way of saying, 'Hey, we recognize your hard work, and it’s time to take a little break.’”

“If my budget ever gets cut,” she added, “that’s the last thing to go.”

For the fifth straight year, The Salt Lake Tribune has partnered with Energage, an employee research firm, to determine Utah’s Top Workplaces.

To see the 2018 list, click here.

A few weeks ago I saw an alarming headline in the Tribune: “Jesus is offended every time people use the word Mormon.”’

Not wanting to offend Jesus, but too lazy to say “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” every time I referred to anything Mormon, I began to search for another way.

Several years ago the recording artist Prince was embroiled in a dispute with his record company and no longer wanted to be known as Prince. He became “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” Because that was a mouthful, everyone began using the acronym TAFKAP.

Similarly, I propose “The Utah Religion Formerly Known as Mormon,” or TURFKAM. TURFKAM admittedly sounds like some kind of device used during NFL broadcasts, but it is mercifully short and kind of sporty sounding.

Just as Prince finally settled his differences with his record company and went back to being Prince, I am hopeful that in a prophet or two, the dispute with Jesus can be settled and Mormons can go back to being Mormon.

Randy Astill, Salt Lake City

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Larry Krystkowiak marveled how easily Utah's basketball players drove into the lane, making plays. Naturally, that worried him, recognizing how his defense was being exploited in practice.

That snapshot captures the 2018-19 Runnin' Utes quite well. This team can do things that Krystkowiak's clubs have never done, leading to this question: Can these Utes also do what his teams have always done?

The two phases are intertwined. As Krystkowiak likes to say, this is not football. The Utes' ability to run and score hinges on stopping opponents and rebounding the ball. That point was driven home in the contrasting halves of Thursday's 96-76 exhibition win over NAIA opponent College of Idaho. The theory that defense leads into offense is true with this team, because the Utes can score points in bunches when they're not in-bounding the ball after an opponent's basket.

Undoubtedly, the ’18-19 Utes will be more entertaining than any of Krystkowiak’s past teams. Not even the Sweet 16 team of 2015 was always fun to watch. Beyond that, with a freshman class featuring forward Timmy Allen and guard Both Gach, the Utes have a strong foundation for the future.

Those two are capable of becoming All-Pac-12 players. The immediate question is how long it will take this team to develop. Krystkowiak’s upgraded nonconference schedule will provide some answers in November and December, and then the Utes will launch Pac-12 play as the conference’s eighth-place pick in the preseason media poll.

The asterisk is that Utah usually finishes above expectations, and the freshmen should improve by January. “We’re still growing, simple as that,” senior guard Sedrick Barefield said after the exhibition game. “I think you’ll see us take a lot of big jumps as the season goes.”

🎥Recap | Utah vs College of Idaho (Exhibition) #GoUtes🏀🔴 pic.twitter.com/2o4PNR3TZy

— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) November 2, 2018

Utah senior Sedrick Barefield, on his team's trajectory. pic.twitter.com/zCBAAmEYB2

— Kurt Kragthorpe (@tribkurt) November 2, 2018

Krystkowiak always has relied on a structured offense to generate shots. This season, Utah’s roster will dictate more freedom — as long as defensive success enables the Utes to get out and run. In advance of Thursday’s season opener vs. Maine, Krystkowiak recognized he needs to install a few more half-court sets for the possessions when the opposing defense is set.

Prior to the exhibition game, Krystkowiak had said, “We have a team where we can keep things simpler. We'll be able to score more off our defense and we'll be able to score more in transition. … We can afford to have less play calls, and then you'll have less confusion.”

There's no doubt the Utes are deeper and more athletic than his teams of the past. Krystkowiak used 10 players in his basic rotation Thursday, even with center Jayce Johnson sidelined by a foot injury, and they all looked like they belonged on the court. The coaching staff is evolving, trying to maximize this group's skills with more trapping and pressing, especially among the reserves.

I have known Ben McAdams since before he became mayor of Salt Lake County. I have traveled with Ben. The first time we really got to talk, he was in the back seat of my truck on a road trip to southern Utah and I was amazed to meet a politician who really wanted to hear what I had to say — and didn't complain about being squeezed into a tight back seat.

I hear people say that all politicians are crooks and can't be trusted. After spending time with Ben, I can assure you that that is not true. Ben is honest, hardworking, smart and has an intense desire to make the world a better place. He is sincere, curious and a lot of fun to be around. He will make a great representative for all Utahns.

I don't know if I will always agree with him, but I respect his tremendous ability to bring people together, find reasonable solutions and be a statesman. He listens to his constituents. I look forward to Ben representing me in Congress.

Paul Diegel, Salt Lake City

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Friday came and went without answering big questions for voters on a controversial high-density development planned for the old Cottonwood Mall site in Holladay.

Nor is it clear if those answers will come before polls open Tuesday.

And that means some voters will likely weigh in without knowing for sure if their votes will be counted, and if they are counted, if that vote will mean anything.

Six weeks ago, the Utah Supreme Court expedited its hearings and seemed to signal a quick ruling on the legality of a ballot initiative to overturn the city’s approval of the massive planned housing, office tower and retail project near 4800 S. Highland Drive.

Holladay’s elected leaders, builders with Ivory Homes and Woodbury Corp. and residents in support of and opposed to the 57-acre, $500 million development known as Holladay Quarter left a packed courtroom in Salt Lake City all but sure the high court would issue its ruling well before Election Day.

But the justices have been silent, keeping those key players and observers of the high-profile zoning dispute guessing.

“People ask me all the time about what’s taking so long. I can think of a dozen theories, but the fact is that I have no clue,” said Alan Sullivan, a top attorney in the case. “That’s totally up to the Supreme Court.”

And this is no legal softball. The case in question, called Baker v. Carlson, pits issues of property rights and city authority to regulate land use in Utah against rights of citizens to hold their elected officials accountable.

Still, Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen, whose office oversees elections, said Friday she was “kind of surprised” the high court hadn’t rendered an opinion, as her staff and city officials explored their options for last-minute maneuvers should the court rule Monday or Tuesday.

Though there’s every reason to think the vote will go ahead as scheduled, Swensen said should a legal order come down even late Tuesday, election officials had the ability to block invalidated counts from being released.

During the delay, only one side has been campaigning. The city and developers haven’t reached out to voters these six weeks, even as an energized opposition group called Unite for Holladay has pressed its message with yard signs, mailers and automated calls urging residents to vote the city’s Proposition 14 down and essentially force a restart to the planning process.

“We’re advocating the position we’ve always advocated, that this project doesn’t make sense for Holladay,” said lead organizer Brett Stohlton.

‘It’s frustrating’

Holladay Quarter would bring a spread of retail outlets, restaurants and office towers over a choice piece of empty land where the Cottonwood Mall once stood. Those commercial buildings would be combined with a 775-unit high-rise apartment complex and 210 single-family homes, including what Ivory Homes says will be luxury condos, brownstones and manor houses.

“It’s taken a lot of time, a lot of effort,” said Clark Ivory, CEO of Ivory Homes, Utah’s largest homebuilder. “It’s been a little more challenging than any development we’ve ever done.”

Unite for Holladay has been fighting the project for almost a year, claiming it is too big, too dense and too heavy on housing for Holladay’s economic and community needs.

After more than 18 months of public hearings, community rancor, zoning and legal minutiae, and, more recently, lawsuits and countersuits, to say folks at Holladay City Hall are a little perturbed at the Supreme Court’s inaction is putting it mildly.

“We all thought that we’d have a decision by now and we would have been able to put the issue to rest and move forward one way or the other,” a dejected Mayor Rob Dahle said as the election neared. “I don’t know what else to say about it, other than it’s frustrating.”

Legally, the case boils down to whether the Holladay City Council made new and more widely applicable law when it voted to approve the plan to develop Holladay Quarter, or narrowly applied its existing zoning rules.

New lawmaking, or “legislative” actions, can be second-guessed by citizens at the polls through the initiative process, while using zoning already on the books is considered “administrative” and not legally subject to referendum.

Thousands of Holladay residents signed petitions over the summer seeking a citywide ballot to challenge the City Council’s approvals, but the city invalidated them, saying the council’s decisions were administrative. Residents Paul Baker and Stuart Stephens sued City Clerk Stephanie Carlson over that call, and, with election deadlines for mail-in ballots already looming, 3rd District Judge Richard McKelvie heard the case in early September.

Turning aside the city’s arguments, McKelvie found Holladay’s site master plan vote was legislative and subject to the referendum, while approval of its contract with Ivory, he agreed, was administrative. That decision confirmed Proposition 14′s spot on the ballot, but it was also appealed to the Utah Supreme Court, the state’s legal venue for emergency ballot issues.

Whatever happens now with a vote, said Todd Godfrey, attorney for Holladay, “We’ve got to have that legal answer. The worst circumstance I can think of is for something to happen where we didn’t get an answer to that question.”

‘Move ahead or move on’

Developers thought they had a deal clinched in May with the council’s go-ahead — only to see an attempt at “zoning by referendum” potentially kill it, Clark Ivory said Friday.

“We get approval. We get tenants. We get everyone working with us in a direction helping to make it successful — then we are delayed by a petition on a project we thought was already zoned,” Ivory said.

The company fielded its own legal team in arguments in 3rd District and the Supreme Court, backing the city’s claims.

Ivory and Jeff Woodbury, executive vice president of Woodbury Corp., issued a joint statement in late October saying they hoped the high court would rule soon, nixing the public vote. Now, with the prospect of the referendum going ahead Tuesday, Clark Ivory said Holladay Quarter could fall through even with a court ruling in Ivory’s favor.

“What we’re looking for is clarity so we can have confidence to move ahead — or know that we need to move on,” he said. “If we believe we’re going to be delayed too much and that the citizenry is against the project, then we are likely to just say we’re done, even if we receive a decision from the court.”

In their statement, the developers said they chose not to publicly lobby for their positions in favor of Proposition 14. “We do not want to cause more division or contention in Holladay,” they wrote. “This is now a legal matter with implications much larger than this development.”

“It’s true we haven’t run a campaign and haven’t had the ability to impact individual thinking when it comes to a vote,” Ivory added in an interview. “But that doesn’t change the fact that a lot of people want to see a development happen at the Cottonwood Mall and are very excited about our particular development.”

‘We’re cool’

Stohlton, with Unite for Holladay, said the group has mounted a hard but thoughtful campaign since McKelvie, the district judge, upheld one part of the referendum petition.

As the last legal word on the matter until Supreme Court justices chime in, Stohlton said McKelvie’s decision gave Unite for Holladay what it needed to rally community support. Instead of worrying about a high court reversal, he said, “we’re encouraging everyone to get out and vote and if they feel like we do, to vote against Proposition 14.

“We can control what we can control,” Stohlton said. “We’re here and until somebody tells us otherwise, we’re cool.”

According to recent reports filed with state election authorities, Unite for Holladay has taken in over $160,000 in campaign donations.

The group’s opposition doesn’t just spring from the project’s high density or taller buildings, Stohlton said. Given the loss of Cottonwood Mall to online shopping, Holladay Quarter — with its prospect of adding up to 3,000 new city residents to a population of 33,000 — represents the wrong mix of homes and commercial development to keep the city’s tax base afloat.

“We’re effectively converting our best development opportunity and transitioning into high-density residential housing while giving developers a subsidy to do that,” he said, adding that the referendum is also about public accountability.

“We wouldn’t be having this Supreme Court conversation if city officials took a breather and said, ‘I actually represent these people. This is a substantial part of my community that wants to be heard on this Cottonwood Mall plan.’ ”

‘Dragged through the mud’

Early voting records as of a week before Election Day showed at least 4,600 Holladay residents had already mailed in ballots. If there’s not a last-minute ruling, Salt Lake County will handle the vote count Tuesday night, with the result later certified by the Holladay City Council.

“I can’t imagine them ruling on Monday,” Dahle said. “It’s just a mess.”

The mayor acknowledged that with the prospect of a high court decision dangling these past six weeks, there’s been little public effort in support of Prop. 14, which appears on the city ballot as a for-or-against vote on “the amended Site Development Master Plan.”

And though city leaders believe in the economic promise of Holladay Quarter and feel strongly the council’s 6-0 approval of the plan should be upheld, the mayor said state law prevents the city from spending taxpayer funds on persuading voters.

“Almost certainly the vote will go against the project now,” he predicted, “because there just hasn’t been any activity on the part of the developer or any citizens to campaign for the changes or the approved project.”

University of Utah police saw Lauren McCluskey’s extortion complaint as one that could wait. She wasn’t telling officers that she felt she was in danger, Chief Dale Brophy has said, and his detectives had other cases to work.

But as a team of independent investigators begins examining the department’s decisions and policies in the wake of McCluskey’s slaying, experts in dating and domestic violence say there were signs that the 21-year-old senior and track athlete was at risk.

McCluskey told police she had dated Melvin Shawn Rowland for a month before discovering he was a registered sex offender who had lied about his name and age while concealing his criminal history. Just before she ended their relationship, she said, he had peeked into her campus apartment window and scared her, and he was “really upset” about their breakup.

Three days later, she received messages falsely claiming he was dead and it was her fault, a police report shows. The next day, Rowland demanded $1,000 to delete compromising photos; she told an officer she was scared because she didn’t want them to appear online, another report said.

Rowland’s behavior fits a pattern of stalking and threats of harm, experts said, though not every police force is trained to recognize that, or that harassment and extortion can represent threats of violence.

“People are quick to label it harassment when in actuality it’s stalking,” said Jennifer Landhuis, director of the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center of AEquitas in Washington, D.C.

And the distinction is important because stalking is often a predictor of intimate partner homicide, said Jenn Oxborrow, executive director of the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition.

University murders are relatively rare events that spur people who work in campus safety to take notice and look for ways to prevent future cases, said Christopher Brown, a senior consultant for the safety firm D-PREP and a detective at a university in California.

“I guarantee you,” he said, “an agency, when they get a report like [McCluskey’s] in the future, they are going to look at it with a more critical lens.”

Hours after McCluskey was fatally shot on Oct. 22, police found Rowland dead by suicide in a Salt Lake City church.

Assessing the threat

University police appear to have been basing decisions about how to proceed, at least in part, on McCluskey, rather than focusing on Rowland’s criminal history and how he was treating her.

At a news conference three days after her slaying, Brophy repeatedly pointed out that McCluskey never told officers she felt she was in danger.

• Her mother had asked the department about arranging an escort to help McCluskey retrieve her car from Rowland after their Oct. 9 breakup, Brophy said, adding that McCluskey told dispatchers “she didn’t feel uncomfortable with Rowland coming up to her apartment.” 
• After McCluskey reported the extortion threat, he added, "We did believe that Rowland and/or his associates both were threatening her financially and reputationally, but there was no indication from Lauren to us at any point during this investigation that he was threatening physical harm. And that was evidenced by, ‘Oh, he can bring the car to my apartment.’ He was very good at getting people to trust him, and Lauren was no different.”
• Brophy said he believed his officers “made every attempt to make sure Lauren, throughout this process, if she felt physically threatened or if she felt like she was in personal harm, that she needed to tell us so we could help her. Unfortunately, that just didn’t happen for us.”

But experts say victims often don’t recognize the danger they’re in, and there were clear warning signs in Rowland’s behavior that officers could have seen.

The Lethality Assessment Program promoted by the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, for example, focuses on what a current or former partner is doing, not on a victim’s actions, Oxborrow said.

“Instead of blaming someone for not doing all that they could, or choosing a dangerous partner, or for refusing help at certain points, what it does it teaches … why someone would be reacting this way,” she said.

She said she is talking to U. administration about joining the program, and has moved the campus police to “the top of the list” for training.

With no record of Rowland specifically threatening physical violence against McCluskey prior to the murder, she probably didn’t realize she was at risk, said Jeff Temple, a professor at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston who studies dating violence.

But dating violence can start with psychological forms, he explained, and Rowland had multiple risk factors.

First, McCluskey had just ended their relationship, and that rejection can trigger aggressive responses. Rowland had already shown a willingness to commit violence against others. In 2004, he pleaded guilty to a felony count of attempted forcible sexual abuse and to a count of enticing a minor over the internet. He had been in and out of prison for parole violations since he was first released in 2012.

The false text messages about Rowland’s death also could have been interpreted as a suicide threat, Temple said, which he calls “a real strong red flag.”

"You're saying you're OK with ending your life,” Temple said, “which probably means you're OK with ending someone else's life.”

Temple and Landhuis also say law enforcement should recognize that harassment and extortion can represent threats of violence.

In some departments, a high-risk team coordinates with community partners, such as victims’ advocates and the courts, to gauge the likelihood of homicide and prevent it, said Lundy Bancroft, a Massachusetts expert who has written about domestic violence abusers. Team officers often carry cards that list warning signs for a domestic violence homicide.

“If there were a high-risk team” at the U., Bancroft said, “and they got information about this case and looked into it, it probably would have taken them a number of hours and not a week to identify it as a high-risk case, and maybe this girl would still be alive.”

Connecting victims with advocates

For Oxborrow, the most glaring missed opportunity in the days and weeks before McCluskey’s death was that she apparently never spoke with a victim advocate.

Initial reports released so far by campus police don’t indicate officers offered to connect her with an advocate or other services.

“It could have raised her level of awareness (about the danger she was in). It could have raised her awareness with her friends. She could have told roommates and friends, teachers,” Oxborrow said. “She could have gone back to law enforcement and told them.”

It’s not surprising that McCluskey didn’t feel she was in danger, Oxborrow said, because Rowland appeared to be trying to manipulate her into doubting herself. Even after she confronted him about his deceptions, he tried to argue he was 30, not his actual age of 37, police said.

Coordinated community response teams are one way to improve how police respond to dating and domestic violence, Temple and Landhuis said. They aim to ensure communication among agencies and with victims, a broader focus than high-risk teams. When police on coordinated teams receive a report like McCluskey’s, Temple and Landhuis said, they easily connect the victim to an advocate.

An advocate can explain risk factors and possibly help a victim seek a protective order or a stalking injunction, they explained. A victim might also disclose details to an advocate that he or she didn’t share with police, Temple and Landhuis said — and with the team approach, the advocate can quickly update police, who might step up their response.

The U.'s police force does not belong to a high-risk or a community response team. The domestic violence coalition’s training, Oxborrow said, teaches law enforcement how to identify high-risk victims, and how to connect victims with advocates and other resources, such as emergency shelters, legal advocacy and crisis counseling.

Tapping the power of parole

McCluskey reported the extortion threat — and that she had sent the $1,000 Rowland demanded via an app — on Oct. 13. The department didn’t formally open a case until Oct. 19, after McCluskey reported another suspicious message.

At that point, university police had known for days that Rowland was a registered sex offender. But the released reports give no indication they knew he was still on parole; Brophy has said the department did not know.

“Our current investigative process is to gather evidence that supports the claim and then make contact with the suspect,” he said at the Oct. 25 news conference. “It’s during that phase we would have reached out to [Adult Probation and Parole] for assistance.”

He added: “We didn’t want to lose any of our evidence before we had any of our suspects. In order to get digital information from spoofed websites, or real websites, we need subpoenas.”

But with Rowland on parole, officers could have searched his electronic devices without a warrant. The terms of Rowland’s parole prohibited him from using social media, and he had been returned to prison for that before.

Bancroft, more critical of the department’s handling of McCluskey’s case than other experts who spoke with The Salt Lake Tribune, said officers should have immediately determined whether Rowland was on parole or probation. If a suspect is being supervised by law enforcement, Bancroft said, his or her agent should be contacted and information should be shared.

“That was a clear dropped ball,” Bancroft said.

If McCluskey had obtained a protective order against him, that would not have necessarily sent Rowland back to prison, said Kaitlin Felsted, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.

But a parole agent would have looked into the circumstances and could have incarcerated Rowland for 72 hours before deciding whether the parole board should issue a formal warrant for his arrest, Felsted said.

Brophy has explained the delay in opening a case by saying his detectives have many cases, and were working others. While such delays aren’t unusual, Brown said, his chief sends a daily email alerting officers to critical incidents, and those incidents can receive priority.

Brown said a revenge porn case, as the extortion McCluskey faced is often called, should be considered a critical incident because photos and electronic trail can quickly be deleted.

A U. spokesman last week did not confirm whether police there have such a critical incident alert system. University President Ruth Watkins said Friday that two former commissioners of the Utah Department of Public Safety, John T. Nielsen and Keith Squires, and former University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Chief Sue Riseling will investigate campus police policies and the handling of McCluskey’s case.

Brown also encourages campuses to educate students on domestic and dating violence. He says most students are away from home for the first time and may not realize all the ways they need to protect themselves.

“We’re dealing with a subset of the population that are extremely vulnerable,” Brown said.

The U. does offer prevention and awareness materials to educate students, faculty and staff about dating violence and stalking, according to its most recent Fire and Safety report. That training, however, is not mandatory.

Additionally, all students in the athletic department — including McCluskey — must attend a sexual assault prevention training every fall, university spokeswoman Annalisa Purser said.

Still, Oxborrow said, dating violence is “difficult to understand and see. And then when you realize that’s happening, it can be really devastating to try to talk to the people you love and trust about this.”

That’s why having law enforcement and advocates trained to identify red flags is so important, she said.

As the U. continues to add student housing, she hopes the department develops a unit dedicated to domestic and dating violence.

The more people living on campus, “the more [domestic and dating violence] needs to be a priority for them,” she said, “because it’s a reality.”

Like a launched spinning deep 3, a question that rises up every year at this juncture rotates and rises again: What is to be made of Larry Krystkowiak’s Utes this time around? And like most years for the past seven, nobody knows the answer with much certainty until the ball splashes the net or rattles around the rim and drops or falls away.

Krystkowiak has made guessing what Utah basketball will do, what it will be, a difficult proposition. It frequently is undersold in the preseason, thought less of than it actually should be. And nearly as frequently, Krystkowiak finds a way to surprise those who do the projecting. Not always, but often. This season, for instance, the Utes are picked to finish eighth in the Pac-12.

They’ll do better than that.

Last season, they were picked to finish seventh, and instead climbed to the third spot, finishing with a 23-12 record.

On the other hand, surprising is not the aim of a basketball tradition as accomplished as Utah’s. That aim would be … consistent winning. Qualifying for the NCAA Tournament is always the intent, if not the absolute expectation.

It’s been a while.

Nobody around here takes much satisfaction in making the JV tournament, even after last season’s trot to the NIT championship game in Madison Square Garden. That was good for who it was for and all, beating UC Davis, LSU, Saint Mary’s and Western Kentucky, before losing to Penn State. But it brought only an empty kind of fulfillment. It was as much an indictment of earlier failings as it was a celebration of present achievement.

Either way, that outcome was preferable to the previous March, when the Utes lost to Boise State in the NIT’s opening round at the Huntsman Center.

If you remember, prior to that, Utah lost in the second round of the NCAAs to Gonzaga, it lost to Duke after making the Sweet 16, it lost to Saint Mary’s in the first round of the NIT, and before that were … well, the dark, unmentionable years.

Since Krystkowiak was hired prior to the 2011 season, his teams have finished 11th, 10th, eighth, third, second, fourth, and third in the Pac-12. How you evaluate that overall performance, how much satisfaction you take from it, depends on your frame of reference for what Utah basketball should be.

Should it conquer the Pac-12 or should it be content with hanging somewhere within shouting distance of a league title, always falling short? What’s realistic? What’s unreal?

As those standings indicate, Krystkowiak hauled the Utes out of the dumps upon his arrival, bringing them back to respectability. Getting to the Sweet 16 was the pinnacle of his tenure here, along with developing three players — Delon Wright, Jakob Poeltl and Kyle Kuzma — enough for them to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft in three consecutive years.

That draft succession hadn’t been seen at Utah since the competitive glory years, when Keith Van Horn, Michael Doleac and Andre Miller were first-round picks from 1997 to 1999, sandwiching the Utes run to the NCAA championship game in 1998.

This year’s team has many new additions — there are eight freshmen on the roster — mixed with a few familiar names, such as seniors Sedrick Barefield and Parker Van Dyke. Another senior, Novak Topalovic, is a graduate transfer from Idaho State.

Notable it is that all of those freshmen were born after the aforementioned national title game appearance.

And speaking of names to get accustomed to, the Utes have some doozies on their roster — newcomer Topalovic, sophomore Christian Popoola, freshman Both Gach, freshman Vante Hendrix, and freshman Lahat Thioune.

Also, the diversity on this Utes iteration is kind of cool. Among the players listed on Utah’s website, six are from California, one from Oregon, one from Michigan, three from Utah, one from Minnesota, one from Senegal, one from Serbia, one from Nevada, one from Colorado, one from Idaho, one from Arizona.

If there were a player from Antarctica who could D up, go left, and trigger the break, Krystkowiak would seek him out.

In the only early evidence of who might contribute what, in the Utes’ exhibition win the other night over College of Idaho, freshman Timmy Allen scored 18 points, grabbed seven rebounds and passed out four assists. The veteran Barefield had 10 points. Gach and sophomore Donnie Tillman had 12 points each. And Topalovic got 11 points and 11 boards.

One thing is certain with this group: It is more athletic than the Utes were a season ago. But to make Utah’s attack click, the ball will have to be shared and defense will need to spark early offense down the floor.

If the former steadily combines with the latter, Krystkowiak’s Utes once more will make prognosticators think and rethink their preseason picks next time around. Whether it satisfies the aim of a proud basketball tradition — that ball spinning in the air — is a different matter.

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

A reasonable definition of “Trumpism” would probably be believing or supporting anything that Donald J. Trump says or does as president. Unfortunately, Trumpworld is an ugly place where honestly, decency and integrity are brutal casualties of Trumpism in practice.

The most heartbreaking of these three casualties to the rest of us non-Trumpers is honesty. Any person who habitually lies cannot be trusted. And anybody who can’t be trusted can’t lead effectively or legitimately.

Trumpism notwithstanding, surely Americans should recognize that honesty, decency and integrity are still pillars of our culture and our national identity.

Come on, people. There is only one way to prevent Trumpism from eroding our true American greatness any further, and that is by voting Trumpism and all it represents to the sidelines once and for all, beginning Nov. 6.

Larry Eldracher, Salt Lake City

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Tallahassee, Fla. • What was supposed to be a routine Friday night ritual of socializing, dining and exercising in an upscale shopping center a few miles from Florida’s Capitol turned into a chaotic scene after a gunman shot two women to death and wounded five other people at a yoga studio before killing himself.

Tallahassee police say 40-year-old Scott Paul Beierle shot six people and pistol-whipped another after walking into the yoga studio that sits on the second floor of the small shopping plaza. Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said some in the studio showed courage and tried to stop him.

Witnesses at the shopping center described how people who had been in the studio, including one who was bleeding, ran away, seeking shelter in nearby bars and restaurants as shots rang out.

Police responded within a few minutes, but by then Beirele had fatally shot himself, leaving police to search for a motive and a community to wonder what prompted the violence near the city's fashionable midtown neighborhoods.

"It's a place that brings my joy and peace, and I think it's ruined," said Katie Bohnett, an instructor at the yoga studio who skipped her normal Friday practice to meet a friend for dinner. "This monster ruined it."

Police said Beierle acted alone but they were still looking into what prompted the shooting. He had been in the military and was a graduate of nearby Florida State University, but was living in Deltona, a town in central Florida east of Orlando. Authorities in that county were searching his residence there.

Witnesses told police that Beierle posed as a customer to gain entrance to the studio, then started shooting without warning. Police have not yet said what kind of gun he used. Bohnett said that those at the studio Friday were yoga devotees. She said she did not recognize Beierle.

The two slain Friday were a student and faculty member at Florida State University, according to university officials. The department identified them as Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61, and Maura Binkley, 21. Online records show Binkley was from Atlanta. Police said two other victims were in stable condition, and three had been released from the hospital.

Van Vessem was an internist who also served as chief medical director for Capital Health Plan, the area's leading health maintenance organization.

"To lose one of our students and one of our faculty members in this tragic and violent way is just devastating to the Florida State University family. We feel this loss profoundly and we send our deepest sympathies to Maura's and Nancy's loved ones while we pray for the recovery of those who were injured," FSU President John Thrasher said in a statement.

Court and FSU records show that Beierle had been previously arrested for grabbing women — and had once been banned from FSU's campus.

Beierle was charged by police with battery in 2016 after he slapped and grabbed a woman's buttocks at an apartment complex pool. Records show that the charges were eventually dismissed after Beierle followed the conditions of a deferred prosecution agreement.

Beierle was also charged with battery in 2012 for grabbing women's buttocks in a university campus dining hall. A FSU police report shows that Beierle told police he may have accidentally bumped into someone, but denied grabbing anyone.

In 2014, Beierle was charged with trespassing at FSU. He had been seen following an FSU volleyball coach near the campus gym and was told that he was banned from campus. A month later police found him at a campus restaurant.

The plaza where the shooting took place is home to popular restaurants, a jewelry store, a framing shop, a hair salon and other businesses.

Erskin Wesson, 64, said he was eating dinner with his family at a restaurant located below the yoga studio when they heard the gunshots above them.

"We just heard 'pow, pow, pow, pow,'" Wesson said. "It sounded like a limb falling on a tin roof and rolling."

The restaurant's owner came by a short time later, asking if anyone was a doctor, Wesson said. His step-daughter is an emergency room nurse and helped paramedics for about an hour, he said.

Melissa Hutchinson said she helped treat a "profusely" bleeding man who rushed into a bar after the incident. She said three people from the studio ran in, and they were told there was an active shooter.

"It was a shocking moment something happened like this," Hutchinson said.

The people who came in were injured, including the bleeding man who was pistol-whipped while trying to stop the shooter. They told her the shooter kept coming in and out of the studio. When he loaded his gun, people started pounding the studio's windows to warn people.

Both Gov. Rick Scott and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for governor, broke off from the campaign trail to return to Tallahassee. Scott and Gillum both visited gunshot victims, including one who had been shot nine times. Gillum said the two women he met "were in good spirits." Gillum also praised Scott, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, for his "care and consideration" in meeting with the victims.

The two candidates resumed their schedule Saturday. Scott is expected to join President Donald Trump for a Saturday evening campaign rally.

The Utah County Commission is suing Gov. Gary Herbert for refusing to appoint any of its nominees to a new board taking control of the Utah Transit Authority, with the goal of restoring trust in the scandal-tainted agency.

The new UTA Board, scheduled to be sworn in Monday, by law is supposed to have three members. Herbert has appointed only two, who were nominated by Salt Lake County and Davis County (in consultation with Weber and Box Elder counties).

Herbert refused to appoint either of the two nominees for the final slot sent by Utah County in consultation with Tooele County. The pair have been publicly criticized as unqualified political allies of Utah County Commissioner Bill Lee.

Herbert asked Utah County to send him additional names more to his liking — a request he also earlier made to Salt Lake County, which complied. The Utah County Commission refused, insisting state law requires Herbert to appoint one of its nominees.

Utah County’s lawsuit, filed directly with the state Supreme Court, also asks the court to rule that the new UTA Board is not legally formed until it has all three members mandated by law — which might throw into question any actions taken by just the two new appointees.

“Utah County followed the law as written that was also signed by the governor” by sending its two nominees, Lee said Saturday. “Then the governor didn’t follow his part of that.”

Lee added, “Now we [Utah County] are looking at being unrepresented, but still taxed. It’s unacceptable to us that we’re going to have a board that is potentially making budget decisions and so forth without a representative from Utah and Tooele counties.”

Lee also said, “If we just keep sending names until the governor likes one, I don’t know why we went through the process. He should just pick them. The law should have been written differently.”

The Legislature this year decided to replace UTA’s old part-time, 16-member board with one that has three full-time members, seen as better able to control the agency that has been criticized for big executive salaries and bonuses, extensive international travel and sweetheart deals with developers.

Paul Edwards, spokesman for Herbert, said Saturday that the governor’s office is reviewing the lawsuit. He said its policy is not to comment on pending litigation — so it has no new comment.

But in the past, Herbert’s office has said he “is confident that he is acting within his constitutional and statutory authority” and is under no obligation to appoint someone with whom he is uncomfortable. Also under the new law, the governor may fire new UTA Board members any time for any reason.

The two nominees sent by Utah County are Pleasant Grove City Council member Ben Stanley, who is also an attorney, and former Cedar Hills Council member Rob Crawley, owner of a consulting firm.

The pair have attracted opposition, including from former Cedar Hills Mayor Gary Gygi, who told reporters the pair are little more than political allies of Lee and questioning whether they had the required skills for the job.

Lee defended them Saturday.

“The two nominees are highly qualified. I will stack them up against any of the current board members … based on what they represent, what they can do and who they are. I think they are highly qualified individuals on any measurements,” he said.

One of those nominees — Stanley — has been conducting what he calls a “consensus building tour” visiting officials in cities in Utah and Tooele counties to help push his possible appointment. He also has been attending UTA and legislative transportation committee meetings.

The governor’s approved two appointees to the new board are Carlton Christensen, who has been directing the Salt Lake County Department of Regional Transportation, and Bountiful City Council member Beth Holbrook.

The Utah County Commission filed its lawsuit directly with the Utah Supreme Court, instead of district court, arguing that only it can provide a speedy enough resolution to ensure that UTA’s budget and other actions by the new board include representation from Utah County.

The UTA Board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on UTA’s 2019 budget on Nov. 14 and give final approval to it in December.

Logan • He knew absolutely nothing about Utah State. At first, it was just another scout on tape he had to cut through, another team he had to decipher how and where they had success against an upcoming opponent. Back then, Craig Smith was an assistant coach at Colorado State, and back then, USU had plenty of similar opponents to the Rams in non-conference play. But once he hit play, he couldn’t help but notice the electricity.

You know, that thundering noise, that massive wall of rowdy students synonymous with the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Every game he broke down, he heard it. It was impossible to miss. Even then it seemed like one of the most difficult places in the country to play, just through the TV.

“You could sense the passion and the energy through the television monitor through the screen,” Smith said. “You don’t always get that. You could have a packed house, but not a packed vibe. The Spectrum magic, you could feel.”

This isn’t lip service, either, he says. He recalls watching those games more intently, more enthralled, more engaged, thinking even back then the Rams were lucky to avoid a place like that on the non-conference slate. Now, all these years later, he’s in a corner office in the Wayne Estes Center, just across the parking lot from The Spectrum, a pristine view of Cache Valley in the fall beyond his row of windows in front of his desk.

This is home. This is Craig Smith’s program now. He was hired as the USU head coach in March. Now it’s his turn to experience the raucous environment first-hand. First things first, though. First comes the build. The Aggies aren’t where they were a decade ago, not one of the most dominant programs in the Intermountain West.

“I’m a big history guy,” said Smith. “I’m a big believer in where you were, where you are, where you’re going, and it’s been enjoyable to really get a better grasp for our rich tradition and our history and certainly we want to keep that thing moving forward.”

History and that noted “Spectrum magic” run hand-in-hand in Logan. And it’s been missing for a bit. Smith knows of only one way to bring the noise back.

Setting the bar high

You have to give them a show. Smith points out his windows north toward Maverik Stadium and finds an easy local analogy for how you get fans to fall in love with your team. Win. Score points. Lots of points. Make it look fun. Make it look hard for the opposition. Win the crowd. These aren’t cliches, he vows, they’re actually bullet points in his blueprint.

Be the first on the floor. Be the first to an offensive board. Be the first to fly into the stands to save an errant pass.

“Everywhere we’ve been in my 22 years,” Smith said, “we’ve always had to flip programs and make them go.”

Utah State is the latest project. It took something special to get him out of the Midwest. After spending four years as head coach at South Dakota where the Coyotes went 79-55 and 38-26 in Summit League play, Smith felt this was an offer he just couldn’t refuse. South Dakota’s set up for the long-term, he said, with strong recruiting classes incoming. Now in Logan, he’ll have to get off the ground with just four key returners from last year and nine underclassmen.

His recruiting style will be, as he explains, “inside-out,” meaning USU will vie for the best in-state talents there are who will fit his style of play.

“I’m a really picky guy,” Smith said. “You have 13 scholarships. I’m recruiting guys all the time. I think our staff might get a little sick of me sometimes. When an 18-year-old young man or a 20-year-old young man decides to come to Utah State, he should be thrilled and be doing jumping-jacks, as should the coaching staff. Because they’re going to be part of this.”

USU assistant coach Austin Hansen joined Smith in Logan after coaching alongside him in South Dakota. So while from the outside-in, it might seem like the hike northward in the talented Mountain West Conference will take some time — and it very well might — the staff has staunch faith in its ability to mold a program to fit Smith’s specific style.

“It’s expectations,” Hansen said. “We set the bar really high from the beginning, and we worked really hard to get there every day.”

Smith said his teams check all the boxes of team-first basketball. Unselfishness, up-tempo, tenacious defensively. This isn’t an iso-based offense. Far from it. The ball will be zipping around. He draws back on the movie “Miracle,” about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that stunned the USSR in the Lake Placid Games. There’s a scene in which the late Herb Brooks sees something special in a few players who just click on the ice. They were famously nicknamed “the Coneheads.”

“Basketball’s like … it’s almost like an art,” Smith explains. “I can’t draw, I can’t sing, I’m the least-artistic person you’ll ever find, but it’s a thing of beauty when it’s done right. We’re looking for our Coneheads. It’s a nostalgic thing, it’s freedom of movement, it’s playing as a team.”

Then, there’s one last bullet point. One that is not negotiable.

“You better bring toughness,” Smith said.

GATA

There is a championship belt making the rounds around the USU basketball team each week. A literal title belt. Like, a professional wrestling belt. And whoever wins each week, gets to tote it around campus, to and from practices, and deservingly gloat because on that given week, they won. It’s called the GATA belt.

GATA means: “Get After Their Ass.”

It’s a mantra Smith picked up while coaching under longtime college basketball mind Tim Miles. This is how you establish that you’re tougher than the opponent. Every day hustle plays are charted in practice. Tips, deflections, charges, dives on the floor, offensive rebounds. They all become stats and at the end of each week, whoever has the highest stats gets the belt. When Smith was at South Dakota, he and his staff were tuned into the much-hyped Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquaio fight in 2015. Mayweather walked into the ring with a belt and that’s how the GATA belt came to be.

Since arriving in Logan, they huddled with USU administrators and chose between three different heavyweight belts and eventually ordered their customized GATA belt online.

This weeks GATA BELT award goes to @nemi1599!! 🇵🇹🏀💪🏿😤😤#AggieAllTheWay #GATA pic.twitter.com/AQrJwZZqnK

— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) October 23, 2018

“It’s a way of life,” Smith said.

It’s also how he hopes to expedite the growing process on this young, inexperienced team that has the odds stacked against it in 2018-19.

“He understands that college basketball can be hard and anything at a high level is not easy and you have to find ways to continue to grind but to make it fun at the same time,” said junior guard Sam Merrill. “[Smith] has done a great job of motivating of us. I don’t think our team needs as much motivation as maybe it did in the past, but he does a good job of giving us energy, and like that GATA belt, that’s just another thing that helps us understand what our culture wants to be and how we want to play.”

It’s been going on eight seasons since the Aggies made the NCAA Tournament. That’s when they were a postseason mainstay whether in the Big Dance or in the NIT. From 1998 to 2011, Utah State made nine NCAA Tournament appearances and four appearances in the NIT. The last postseason tournament USU was in was the CBI in 2012.

So, naturally, Smith made it a point to find time to talk to the man who kept USU on the map for decades. A couple of months back, he and former Aggies coach Stew Morrill met and spoke for nearly three hours. Asked what tidbits of advice Morrill might’ve sprinkled the new USU head coach with, Smith took a deep breath and said: “Quite a few of them.”

Morrill repeated this: “You’ve got to be who you are.” Smith predictably asked a ton of questions, because that’s what you do when you get a chance to break bread with the legendary figure who once held your job.

Those close to Smith say that’s ironically been his mantra all along. And it’s led him to that corner office in Logan, where he’s now just a few footsteps away from the Spectrum where a decade ago, he was captivated by what USU basketball was, and is still captivated by what it could be once again.

“He’s just an everyday guy,” Hansen said. “He grew up in small-town Minnesota in the Midwest and has had to work for everything he’s got and he’s appreciated every position that he has. I think that reflects back on his coaching style and who he is.”

Please stop! Please, editorial board! Please quit endorsing candidates who are or have been lap dogs for the amoral and corrupt man in the White House.

One of the most powerful weapons residents of Utah have in getting our beleaguered democracy back is to vote for those who will share our values and represent our best interests, not carry water for an administration that vows to start to examine Medicare, Social Security and health care as places to slash in order to balance the budget.

Mitt Romney is basically a carpetbagger who no longer believes that President Donald Trump is a no-good con man. Rep. Mia Love has voted for the president's agenda 97 percent of the time. That includes trying to repeal health care and abolishing protections for pre-existing conditions.

I am tired of The Tribune. It used to stand up for those with fresh ideas and common sense, but has become nothing more than a ward newsletter from days gone by.

Nancy Roblez, Murray

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Provo • After West Coast Conference basketball officials trimmed the league schedule and made some other changes last spring to keep Gonzaga from bolting to the Mountain West, BYU basketball coach Dave Rose and his staff added a couple more difficult games to an already challenging non-conference schedule in hopes of impressing the NCAA tournament selection committee.

Now comes the hard part. The Cougars have to win the majority of those games to get back to the Big Dance for the first time since the 2014-15 season.

“That’s the plan,” said Rose, who enters the 14th season of his head coaching career with a relatively experienced team centered around junior forward Yoeli Childs, a WCC Player of the Year candidate.

The coach saw what happened to Saint Mary’s last spring after the Gaels won 30 games but were left out of the NCAA tournament, and vowed to upgrade his non-conference schedule, even if it meant “biting the bullet” and playing some games on the road without the guarantee of a return game at the Marriott Center.

The Cougars open the 2018-19 season with one of those uber-challenging games on Tuesday, facing No. 7 Nevada at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno. They will play three other Mountain West Conference foes — Utah State, UNLV and San Diego State — and added a road trip to No. 17 Mississippi State with one of the openings created by the WCC scheduling change.

“Getting the best games we could get is how we approached it,” Rose said. “Other [WCC] teams approached it a little bit differently depending on what’s best for their schools.”

Childs, who tested the NBA draft waters last spring before deciding to return for what quite likely will be his final year in Provo, said making the NCAA tournament after a three-year absence “is the ultimate goal above anything else” this season.

The Cougars lost leading scorer Elijah Bryant, now playing professionally in Israel, off a team that went 24-11 last year and fell to Stanford in the first round of the NIT. But six players with starting experience return, most notably Childs, junior guard TJ Haws, senior center Luke Worthington, junior sharpshooter Zac Seljaas and junior point guard Jahshire Hardnett.

Those five started in both exhibition games. Junior forward Dalton Nixon has been the first player off the bench and adds versatility and excellent defense.

Another former starter, junior guard Nick Emery, has been reinstated by the NCAA after missing all of last season, but must sit out the first nine games and will return for the Dec. 5 home game against Utah State.

“Hopefully we have won a few games and Nick doesn’t feel like he needs to come in and save the season, because that’s not a healthy thing,” Rose said. “Hopefully we are in a position where the guys are excited to add another player who can help us.”

Although 11 letter-winners return, three newcomers should have an immediate impact, judging by how they performed in the exhibition games.

Freshman returned missionaries Gavin Baxter, Connor Harding and Kolby Lee are all ready to contribute, Rose and Childs said recently. Baxter and Lee, both listed at 6-foot-9, will be needed right away because this will be one of the shortest BYU teams in recent memory after 6-10 junior Payton Dastrup transferred to Oregon State last summer.

"We could play four guards a lot, much like we did a few years ago," Rose said. "Rebounding will be a big factor for us this season."