For the fourth year in a row, Glover Nursery in West Jordan conducted a food drive Saturday by smashing pumpkins. That included dropping pumpkins from a cherry picker, and having pumpkin bowling using buckets as pins.

Participants brought cans of food to participate, or made cash donations, with proceeds going to the Utah Food Bank. The nursery matched many of the donations. “People have a lot of fun, and it’s for a good cause,” said Crystal Lindsay, organizer of the event for the nursery.

It’s a good time to be an American worker — at least in a few ways.

The United States is essentially at full employment, so many workers can be picky about where they draw a paycheck. And there’s more information than ever to help job hunters make their selection.

Some of the insights can be found the same way you might look for a place to eat. You can also look up the employer with some of the same tools you’d use to check someone with whom you’re going on a date. Or you can do what journalists do when they need to research a company.

The restaurant method

It’s Friday night. You want to go out to dinner. Your friend or significant other suggests a restaurant that you don’t know. So what do you do?

You look it up on a site or phone app that has online reviews, right? You can do much the same thing in your job hunt.

Websites and apps like Indeed offer company reviews written by employees. Some sites even review the managers.

At a course for job seekers the Utah Department of Workforce Services hosted last month in Taylorsville, Amber Butler, 28, of South Salt Lake, said she uses the website Glassdoor to learn about a potential employer.

“It’s the best way to find out about the company,” said Butler, who was seeking a job in tech support.

Rebecca Ntshalintshali, a work success coach at Workforce Services, told people at the course that she likes the website Comparably for the way it ranks companies in various industries.

“It will kind of tell you where [an employer] is at,” Ntshalintshali explained, “and … where the rankings came from.”

The site FairyGodBoss offers reviews tailored to women, including topics that have greater impact on them, such as maternity-leave policies and whether companies offer work-life balance. Many review sites also include salary range information that can help you negotiate pay.

As with any online reviews, you need to consider the reviewer and the site hosting his or her review. As for the overall ratings a company receives, you will want to read how the website or app arrived at that. The employer rating site Great Places to Work explains how it uses surveys and data to rank businesses.

If you’re considering working for a company that offers a consumer product, like a restaurant or manufacturer, or something in the service industry, read the online customer reviews. How well a business treats customers might be an indicator of how well it treats employees. Besides, sometimes the employees, or former employees, themselves write reviews.

The dater method

You probably wouldn’t go out on a date without learning something about the other person first. Even if you two were matched on a dating app, you might try to augment your information with your own research.

And that research is probably going to focus on what that person does — not just for work but what hobbies or recreation he or she enjoys, or what causes the other person supports. You can research much the same for a potential employer.

Check social media and the employer’s website to see what’s been shared about workers and what happens within the company. Does the company recognize employees for outstanding contributions or when they get hired or promoted? Does it share photos from office parties or service projects? If the company does blue-collar work, does it promote a safety record?

You can research the people with whom you interviewed, or who may be your potential manager(s). What does a basic Google search tell you? What do their social media accounts show? Hey, they will probably do those same searches on you.

The investigative reporter method

Many journalists get years of training in how to dig into a company. Here’s that training in a few paragraphs:

Reporters often start by looking at whether the company has a ranking with the Better Business Bureau. After that, they will research what’s been filed in court.

Some states allow you to do this online. In Utah, the public needs to go to a state district courthouse and use a public terminal there. District courthouses are in all the county seats and a few of the state’s other populous cities.

You can also search federal court records. That will require you to visit a federal courthouse, and there’s only one of those in Utah — 351 S. West Temple in Salt Lake City.

Whether you are looking up an employer in state or federal court, you may find filings that have nothing to do with employment but are issues like seeking pay from a client that owes the company money or a dispute between two companies about whether one side lived up to a contract.

Lawsuits that could be of interest to potential employees would be discrimination claims or suits seeking unpaid wages. One issue that might also give a job seeker pause: if, in the past year, multiple vendors have filed debt collections against the potential employer. That could be an indication that the employer is having money problems or that the company doesn’t do business honestly.

If you’re concerned about whether the employer has been found to discriminate or harass, there’s good news and bad news.

In Utah, the state agency that investigates such allegations, the Antidiscrimination and Labor Division, does not publish those complaints or their outcomes. However, its parent agency, the Utah Labor Commission, does publish its appeal rulings and has a search tool.

Utah’s state government also doesn’t have an online search for employers found to have illegally withheld pay from workers. However, you can ask the agency responsible for those complaints, the Utah Labor Commission Wage Claim Unit, whether the company you’re considering working for has failed to pay employees. You can reach the unit by calling 801-530-6801 or emailing wcu@utah.gov.

You can also run a business through the U.S. Department of Labor enforcement database. This can tell you if the company has a record of safety violations, failed to properly pay workers or hasn’t lived up to government contracts.

Finally, journalists love to talk to people who used to work at a business. They know how the company operates and are usually free to speak candidly. If you find folks who left your potential employer in the past few years, reach out and ask them about their experiences. Ratings and documents are helpful, but sometimes there’s no substitute for real people.

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.

Logan • There’s no telling how quickly they’ll mesh, how swiftly they’ll be able to execute everything thrown at them in this new era of basketball in Logan. But ask around and you’ll find out the Utah State Aggies are ready for the real deal. It’s been seven months since new head coach Craig Smith took over, tasked with implementing a new style, a new look, a new energy.

“It’s impossible to know what’s going to happen with so many new guys, but I’m really confident in our system and I’m really confident in the culture that we have, meaning how hard we’re going to play, how tough-minded we’re going to be, how together we’re going to be,” said junior guard Sam Merrill. “That can make up for a lot of the inexperience that we do have.”

These Aggies are young. They return four players who started off and on a year ago, but they’re pups. All in all, there are five freshmen and four sophomores on this team that ushers in Smith’s time on the sidelines. They return Merrill, an all-Mountain West Conference selection from a year ago, who averaged 16.3 points per game and drilled 98 3-pointers a season ago; that’s the second-most in Aggies history.

Also back are senior forwards Quinn Taylor and Dwayne Brown Jr., as is junior guard Diogo Brito.

After that? Lots of youngsters and lots of unknowns.

“I like that,” Smith said. “As a coach, sometimes, I think it’s a refreshing thing to play young guys because they’re going to have to play and make an impact for us.”

The Aggies were recently picked ninth out of 11 MWC teams in the preseason media poll. Life in the MWC hasn’t been a breeze for USU. In fact, it has been a rough adjustment. Only once since entering the league in 2013 has the team finished with a conference record above .500. Enter Smith, who was hired in March, after an impressive five-year run at South Dakota.

He said the Aggies have made lots of headway in preseason practices.

“I love the strides that we’ve made,” he said. “We’ve had great buy-in and our chemistry is really, really good right now. Part of that is everybody thinks they’re going to play 30 minutes a game, but you have to see the big picture, you’ve got to surround yourself with great people.”

Merrill concurs with his new head coach. He has appreciated how player-friendly the system is. It allows players freedom to take advantage of mismatches and play to their strengths. But it all starts defensively, and with a fervor that’s demanded of every player on the floor.

“He is a very, very high-level coach in my mind. I think he understands all the little aspects of the game,” added Merrill. “He understands that there are so many opportunities in college, every possession counts. Obviously people know he’s very energetic, he’s very competitive.”

Like his players, Smith is eager for the first real jump ball. He’s had enough of his guys going head-to-head in practice after practice. He wants to get a taste of MWC basketball and see how the foundation laid this year can help in the near future.

“It’s big boy basketball,” he said. “You better be able to recruit some guys and play some guys that really know how to play and can really go blow-for-blow with that kind of competition.”

Though I tire of the toxic banter that has permeated American politics, I felt it appropriate to respond to the Oct. 23 letter "Say no to Democrats.”

As inept as I've felt the Democratic Party has become, I'm not yet ready to refer to it as the "liars club.” Republican politicians, within their third consecutive presidential administration, have implemented a series of "tax cuts" that has had, and probably will have again, dire consequences for this nation's economy.

To address this inevitable further deficit, they have admitted they will utilize their personal "piggy bank," the "entitlements" of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — all Democratic initiatives from decades past — to pay for their own ineptitude.

So, while I respect your position regarding Democratic politicians, C. Gene Sturzenegger, it won't be them who will have you looking over your shoulder in fear of losing your "entitlements" as you now know them.

Gary D. Ruiz, Murray

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Tempe, Ariz. • The scoreboard told the story of the Pac-12 South’s altered landscape and the empty sleeve of Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley’s jacket said even more about the state of the Utes’ season Saturday afternoon.

Huntley walked glumly down the ramp toward the locker room with a collarbone injury, as Ute athletic director Mark Harlan tried to encourage him after a day that radically changed the outlook of a remarkable season in the making.

Even if there were bound to be more bumps in No. 16 Utah’s road to the program’s first division championship, nobody would have forecasted this change of course. The Utes’ 38-20 loss to Arizona State at Sun Devil Stadium left absolutely no doubt that this program is under some kind of November curse.

Troubling losses have spoiled Novembers in Utah’s recent past with the Rose Bowl in view, but Saturday’s sequence of events took the trend to another level. Not only do the Utes need help from one of Arizona State’s remaining opponents to earn a berth in the Pac-12 championship game, but they’ll have enough troubles of their own against Oregon and Colorado without Huntley. He’s not their best player, but he’s their most indispensable player, and he’s “most likely done for the season,” Ute coach Kyle Whittingham said.

Huntley’s absence makes redshirt freshman Jason Shelley the No. 1 quarterback. Shelley’s first drive Saturday ended with a field goal that cut ASU’s lead to 21-20 late in the third quarter, but the Utes crumbled both offensively and defensively after that point.

The Sun Devils’ 536-yard production suggests they would have won this game, even with Huntley remaining healthy. The question now becomes how much of this season the Utes can salvage. The loss means Utah (6-3, 4-3 Pac-12) is tied with Arizona for first place in the Pac-12 South, pending USC’s outcome at Oregon State. ASU (5-4, 3-3) is a half-game behind the Utes, owning the tiebreaker between the teams.

This season likely will be remembered for the Utes’ seemingly perfect position going into November, an opportunity now filed under “Lost.” Huntley’s absence skews any judgment of Utah’s future, that’s for sure.

As for Saturday’s episode, Whittingham was disappointed with a defensive effort he labeled “unusual, unlikely, uncharacteristic.”

ASU’s big plays by quarterback Manny Wilkins and receiver N’Keal Harry didn’t bother him as much as Eno Benjamin’s 175 rushing yards on 27 carries. Once a Ute recruiting target, Benjamin topped the 128 yards (on 18 attempts) of Utah’s Zack Moss, whose job will become considerably more demanding without Huntley’s passing ability.

Utah showed resilience Saturday, scoring 17 straight points after falling behind 14-0. Yet even before Huntley’s injury, there signs that this was just not the Utes’ day — partly, their own doing.

Already trailing 7-0 after a targeting penalty extended ASU’s first drive, the Utes got a bad break on their first possession. Huntley escaped the rush and launched a long pass that bounced off receiver Jaylen Dixon’s chest and into the arms of ASU’s Aashari Crosswell at the goal line. His return to midfield started the Sun Devils toward another touchdown, making it 14-0.

After the Utes later went ahead 17-14 on Huntley’s 5-yard pass to Samson Nacua, the Sun Devils answered quickly with Harry’s second TD catch of the game to make it 21-17 at halftime.

If the Utes had any hopes after cutting the lead to 21-20, with Moss running well and Shelley showing poise on the drive to a field goal, they were doused immediately. Harry’s third TD reception, a 61-yarder, preceded Shelley’s two three-and-out sequences and the Sun Devils just kept coming.

The Utes again were left to regroup, as they did successfully in October, following a discouraging September. The trouble is, this is November.

The Weber State Wildcats under Randy Rahe might just be the steadiest, most predictable men’s college basketball program in the state. Every season it seems like the 'Cats win at least 20 games, win or contend for the Big Sky Conference title and, in their best years, make it to the NCAA Tournament.

The Wildcats will try to do it again this season after going 20-11 and finishing an unaccustomed third in the Big Sky in 2017-18.

Weber State is in position to make noise in the Big Sky this season due to returning some of its most important names on the roster, starting with Rahe, who holds the school records for wins and conference wins, and is the winningest coach in the Big Sky.

The Wildcats also have seven players from last year’s roster in 2018-19. None of those could be more important than junior guard Jerrick Harding.

After starting only six games his freshman season, Harding made a meteoric leap as a sophomore, starting all 31 games and averaging 22.0 points while shooting 42.5 percent from 3-point range in 32.9 minutes per game.

Harding was the conference’s second-leading scorer and third in free throw percentage at 88.2 percent. He was picked unanimously for the All-Big Sky and All-District first teams last year.

Another returner to watch this upcoming season is senior center Zach Braxton. The Minneapolis native averaged 7.8 rebounds per game in his junior season — second in the conference — and averaged 12.3 points to boot, which was third on the team. He also earned a third team All-Big Sky nod last year.

Additionally, Braxton has been Weber State’s iron man. In his entire career at Weber State to date, he has missed only one game. His production in points, assists and rebounds have increased in each season with the Wildcats.

Weber State has high expectations once again. The Wildcats were picked to finish second in Big Sky, according to preseason polls done by head coaches and media. Montana was picked to finish first.

Hardick was also a fixture on both polls. The league’s coaches and the media chose to put him on the Preseason All-Conference team.

The Salt Lake Tribune published an op-ed about Rep. Mia Love (“Mia Love says everything but does nothing”) on Oct. 26.

Any insinuation that Mia Love is all hat and no cattle warrants a response. In recent weeks, the race for the 4th District has taken on national implications, in large part because Love is a leader of consequence in D.C. She is regarded with respect in Congress because she is effective, her word is good and she delivers for constituents. Nowhere is this more apparent than with respect to Love’s support for clean energy solutions.

In addition to illustrating her desire to work across the aisle as a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus, Love has also cosponsored the Public Land Renewable Energy Development Act, a bipartisan proposal that would make it easier to expand wind and solar projects on federal lands. Love has also supported legislation that would allow clean energy groups to tap into investments used by fossil fuel companies.

Rep. Love can be counted on to put the needs of her constituents first and deliver results by working across the aisle to get things done.

Heather Reams, managing director, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, Washington, D.C.

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How long has Luke Walton been coach of the Lakers?

It’s 2018, so to answer this question, you might Google it. But when you do a search for “Lakers hire Luke Walton," Google thinks you’ve made a mistake.

“Did you mean: Lakers fire Luke Walton?”

Ouch.

But maybe Google, in its algorithmic wisdom, knows this: the Lakers have rotated through some coaches since Phil Jackson’s departure in 2011. They let Mike Brown coach for one season, then fired him five games into his second. Mike D’Antoni coached most of the rest of that year plus the next season before getting canned. Byron Scott coached two full seasons before getting fired.

Now Luke Walton has made it exactly eight games into his third season before rampant speculation of his firing has begun. That he’s set the coaching longevity record for this decade of Lakers basketball is probably little consolation after facing an “admonishment” from his boss, Lakers president Magic Johnson, this week according to ESPN.

Johnson is said to be frustrated with the new-look Lakers' 3-5 record to start the season, and is putting “intense and immediate pressure” on Walton to find a quick turnaround, or else his job security is on the line. After doing the legwork to sign LeBron James, Johnson apparently expected the Lakers to be a contender right away.

But if Johnson consulted Google, he might also know this: teams signing LeBron James just haven’t been immediate successes in the regular season. After signing James in 2014, the Cavaliers started with a 5-7 record. The 2010 Heat, with three of the best players of this era, began the season with a 9-8 start. James has one of the highest basketball IQs of any player ever, but still: it takes time to understand and integrate a player of James' unique impact into a system.

Both of those teams ended up going to the NBA Finals in that initial season, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect that to happen this time. James has moved to the Western Conference, which is just a significantly harder playoff test than the Eastern Conference presents. Heck, no one knows that better than James: he’s navigated through the East competition nine times, but only defeated the Finals opponents from the West thrice.

Lakers management should also just look at the roster they’ve put together: it’s not contender quality. Who is the second best player on this team? Former Ute Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram can both score, but both can get tunnel vision on offense and are really poor on the defensive end right now. Even beyond all-world Golden State, their Western Conference competition has legitimate no-doubt stars as their second-best players: Chris Paul, Donovan Mitchell, CJ McCollum, Jrue Holiday, Karl-Anthony Towns, LaMarcus Aldridge. Memphis' Mike Conley is a better second banana than what the Lakers have.

I don’t know that Luke Walton is an above-average NBA coach. The book on him in his first season with the Lakers was that he was tactically limited: he didn’t have the anywhere near the mastery of a Brad Stevens, a Gregg Popovich, a Quin Snyder. He makes strange, seemingly politically-driven lineup choices at times. But by all accounts, he’s improved as a young coach; getting last year’s core to rank 12th defensively is a real accomplishment. And he’s still 38, there’s room to grow.

If the Lakers did fire Walton, though, who would they replace him with? Brian Shaw is his lead assistant, but he had a nightmare two seasons in Denver. The Cavaliers just fired Tyronn Lue, who obviously has experience with LeBron: experience enough to lead the Cavs to the second-worst defense in the league last season. There’s a lot of talk about Mark Jackson, who is presented by Klutch Sports Group, the agency ran by James' friend/agent Rich Paul. Jackson, the current ESPN commentator former point guard with a catastrophic stint in Utah, somehow managed to bring down Golden State when he coached them. I am not optimistic about how a Jackson-led Laker squad would end up.

Frankly, most other coaches would recognize they’re being set up to fail: with no training camp, an uneven roster, and sky-high expectations, the Lakers job has earned a reputation as one of the hardest jobs in the NBA. D’Antoni, a well-respected coach, couldn’t last more than two seasons there, remember? Walton is flawed, but the replacement options are worse.

Any coach that would agree to the Lakers job now isn’t qualified to be the coach.

There is promise and potential for this Lakers squad, but it will take patience. The free agency market of the summer of 2019 figures to bring at least one legitimate star to Los Angeles: even if they strike out on Kawhi Leonard or Klay Thompson, they should be able to lure a Khris Middleton or Kemba Walker. Better center options than Javale McGee will make themselves available too, either by free agency or trade. The Lakers might be able to gain defensive bite in the same way.

And the odds are good that at least one of the Lakers' young pieces — Ingram, Kuzma, or Lonzo Ball — will develop into a contributor on both sides of the ball. That will take time and player development resources, sure, but should be worth it in the end.

Letting Walton go mid-season would jeopardize all of that. Google’s prophecy might well come true, but now is not the time.

After he got his orders in January to deploy to Afghanistan, North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor went live on Facebook to tell his constituents he’d be gone and what to expect.

It was an easy choice for him, one that was months in the making, rooted in decisions he’d made years ago to serve God, his family and his country.

“While I am far from perfect in any of these respects,” he said, “I have given my life to serve all three of these loyalties whenever and however I can.”

The plan was to be gone one year. Family learned Saturday he'd never return.

Taylor was killed during an apparent insider attack early Saturday in Kabul. The attacker was immediately killed by Afghan Forces, according to NATO. The Utah National Guard hasn’t confirmed Taylor was killed in the attack, but Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, the adjutant general, in a news release, said: “My heart breaks for the loss and sacrifice of our soldier, particularly for the family. I wish them all the comfort and courage to face the difficult days ahead."

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said in a statement that he was heartbroken by Taylor’s death, calling the North Ogden mayor a “brave and selfless soldier."

“The entire Herbert family mourns with this soldier’s family and we pray that their burdens may be lifted, and that the hearts of all Utahns will reach out to comfort them in their grief,” Herbert said.

Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, echoed Herbert, writing on Facebook, “We lost a genuine hero and one of the best people in our state. We must rally around his sweet family.”

Taylor, a major with the Utah National Guard, deployed as part of an advisory team that trains members of an Afghan commando battalion. In his Facebook Live video announcing his deployment, Taylor said his service would help fulfill President Donald Trump’s order to increase troops and expand the capabilities of the Afghan units.

“Serving as the mayor of North Ogden city has been one of the greatest honors of my life and the highlight of my civilian professional career,” he said at the time. “Service is really what leadership is all about.“

On the day of his deployment in mid-January, North Ogden police escorted Taylor and his family around town as hundreds of residents lined the streets to see him off.

“I think it proves what a great leader he is that he’s willing to sacrifice and leave his family to fight for his country. I think it’s really honorable,” Jeremiah Jones, deputy fire chief for North View Fire District, told ABC4 at the time.

North Ogden City Councilman Carl Turner said he was in shock Saturday after getting the news of Taylor’s death. Turner said he and Taylor would talk about the mayor’s mission in Afghanistan. Turner said Taylor would always tell him how fun it was.

“And he loved the people over there, and he loved working with them,” Turner said.

During his deployment, Taylor often posted about the Afghan soldiers he interacted with, saying he was inspired by their dedication to the cause.

“Things are going great here,” he wrote in June, “and I absolutely love working with the awesome soldiers of Afghanistan and my awesome U.S. colleagues.”

In his last Facebook post, written on Oct. 28, Taylor wrote about the recent Afghan election, saying: “The strong turnout, despite the attacks and challenges, was a success for the long-suffering people of Afghanistan and for the cause of human freedom. I am proud of the brave Afghan and U.S. soldiers I serve with. Many American, NATO allies, and Afghan troops have died to make moments like this possible; for example, my dear friend Lt. Kefayatullah who was killed fighting the Taliban the day before voting began.

“As the USA gets ready to vote in our own election next week, I hope everyone back home exercises their precious right to vote. And that whether the Republicans or the Democrats win, that we all remember that we have far more as Americans that unites us than divides us. ‘United we stand, divided we fall.’ God Bless America.”

Taylor is survived by his wife, Jennie, and seven children. Taylor documented his deployment on Facebook, posting that through Skype he was able to watch his youngest daughter learn how to walk and that he missed his 15th wedding anniversary this year. On Sept. 18, he posted: “My rock star wife has been superwoman through birthing and raising seven children, and through four deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and over five total years of separation for military service.”

During a deployment to Iraq in 2007, Brent and Jennie Taylor led an effort called “Feed Uncle SAM,” which saw Jennie gather about $75,000 in care packages, toys, educational materials and humanitarian supplies in Utah. Then Taylor led 14 other Utah soldiers to the rural Iraqi villages of Qudeela and Ankawa to distribute the donations.

"I want you to know you put smiles on the faces of the Iraqi people today," Brent Taylor said in a statement to the Utahns who donated.

Jennie Taylor, at the time, said, “To see the good our soldiers are doing among the local Iraqi people reminds me why my husband and I ever decided he needed to go over there in the first place.”

Turner said when Taylor and his wife were first dating, they bonded over their shared love for the Constitution. He said Jennie Taylor was “over-the-top supportive" of her husband’s military service.

“That’s how they are. They’re God and country first,” Turner said. And that, he said, means they’re family-first, too.

North Ogden City Councilman Phillip Swanson said he’d just spoken with Taylor two days ago, and that he and Taylor’s friends and family are “all just heartbroken” over the news.

“He’s one of a kind, one of a kind both in his public service, his private life and in his political life," Swanson said. “We’ve lost a really good man.”

Swanson, who said he and Taylor had gotten close as “political crazies” in North Ogden over the past six years, said city officials are still trying to wrap their heads around the news, but are planning some kind of ceremony to honor Taylor. He said he’d have more information Monday.

Taylor was elected to the North Ogden City Council in 2009 and then as mayor in 2013. He was re-elected in 2017. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 2006, and went on to get a master’s degree from the University of Utah in 2012, according to his biography on the North Ogden city website.

He was also a vocal critic of the Utah Transit Authority, even as he served on the UTA board. Members of that board initially tried to block his appointment by the Weber Council of Governments, since his father is a train operator. State Auditor John Dougall disagreed that the conflict was disqualifying and Taylor took his seat. He then voted against UTA’s budget, the only member to do so. That UTA board has been disbanded, replaced with a new three-person board.

Before his death, Taylor served more than a decade in the U.S. Army National Guard, including seven years on active duty. He had served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, not including this most recent tour.

Taylor was the first Utah politician to take advantage of a law that allows elected officials to keep their position while deployed overseas, giving temporary control to someone else until they return. Mayor Brent Chugg had been serving in Taylor’s absence.

North Ogden city administrator and attorney Jon Call said Saturday that he’s not “exactly sure” what will happen to the mayor’s position. He said there are two options: Either Chugg stays in office, or he will automatically lose the position — since Chugg was essentially a placeholder for Taylor — and the council will appoint a new mayor until the next election in November 2019.

Since Taylor has been the only elected official in Utah to use the statute, Call said he’s not sure what will happen.

Without naming Taylor, the Utah National Guard said in a release that the soldier who was killed was a “trained professional, fully committed to the community, the country, and the mission.”

“The selflessness and sacrifice of our service members define the Utah National Guard. Our priority right now is to take care of the family, ensuring they have all the resources they need during this critical time,” the release said.

The last Utah National Guardsman killed in action was 27-year-old Staff Sgt. Aaron Butler. He died on Aug. 16, 2017 in an explosion while clearing buildings in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province.

Before Butler, two other Utah National Guardsman were killed in action in Afghanistan: Sgt. 1st Class James Thode in 2010 and 2nd Lt. Scott Lundell in 2006.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help support Jennie Taylor and her family. To donate, visit bit.ly/MayorTaylor.

Tribune columnist Robert Gehrke contributed to this report.

After the Utah Valley University men’s basketball team enjoyed a solid 2017-18 season, this next one coming up could include some growing pains.

The Wolverines lost eight letterwinners, including two starters, and will have seven new additions to their roster in the upcoming 2018-19 season, which kicks off Tuesday against Westminster at the UCCU Center at 7 p.m. If Utah Valley wants to get close to last season’s 23-11 overall finish, it will have to find a way to the new faces to gel right from the start.

So far, the Wolverines are off to a good start. They beat Dixie State 88-70 in an exhibition game Tuesday. Their two leading scorers that game were Jake Toolson and Connor Toolson, who were both fixtures on last year’s team and returned this season for their junior and senior years, respectively.

Connor Toolson averaged 12.1 points per game and shot 45.4 percent from the field, including 39.5 percent from 3-point range. Jake Toolson scored 10.9 points per game and shot nearly 50 percent from the field.

Connor Toolson and was named to the Preseason All-Western Athletic Conference first team in polls by the media and the league’s coaches. Jake Toolson was named to the second team in the same two polls.

With roster continuity coming at a premium this season, Utah Valley retained its head coach, Mark Pope, who inked a six-year deal worth more than $1.2 million over the summer. Pope is entering his fourth season with the Wolverines, and led the team to a school record in wins and a second postseason bid last season.

But after Connor Toolson, Jake Toolson and Pope, the Wolverines will feature a slew of first-year players. Four of them are transfers in Isaiah White, TJ Washington, Connor MacDougall and Baylee Steele.

Three other players will join Utah Valley but will be in their redshirt season, and three others — Wyatt Lowell, Drew Cotton and Cache Fields — are true freshman who could see playing time this year.

Despite all the changes, the league’s coaches and media expect the Wolverines to be in the mix of top WAC teams. The media predicted Utah Valley to finish third in the conference, while coaches picked it to finish fourth. That is likely based on the Wolverines finishing second in the conference with an 10-4 record and the roster changes heading into this season.

But Utah Valley will have something else going for it this season. The Wolverines were practically unbeatable at home last year, boasting a 16-1 record at the UCCU Center. In the last 13 years, Utah Valley is 162-46 at home.

Sandy • Before they officially got started with training on Saturday, Real Salt Lake’s players engaged in a game of handball. They cheered. They laughed. They playfully jeered at teammates who made a mistake.

To the untrained eye, one would think these types of shenanigans would only be for teams with not a care in the world. But the moments of levity were by design for a team that starts a two-leg Western Conference semifinal round just three days after pulling an upset to advance in the first place.

“We can smell it. It’s obvious,” Sunday “Sunny” Stephen said. “The changing room right now is a lot of laughter, a lot of happiness, a lot of anxiety and a lot of energy right now.”

That nervous energy came from RSL’s stunning 3-2 road win over Los Angeles Football Club in the MLS Cup Knockout Round on Thursday. Now Salt Lake faces a Sporting Kansas City team with which it has a checkered past.

They met in a 2011 preseason game that ended in a brawl. They met in the MLS Cup final in 2013. They’ve met three times already this season.

Each time the two teams play, there always seems to be a little extra energy. A little extra physicality.

Case in point: In three games, there has been a combined 69 fouls, 11 yellow cards and two red cards.

“I think it’s just been two teams that have just been going at it and playing in games that mean something,” Kyle Beckerman said. “That usually turns up the intensity.”

RSL coach Mike Petke doesn’t seem to put much weight to the idea of a RSL-SKC rivalry. He expects his team to play hard regardless of the opponent, especially in a playoff setting.

“I don’t care if we’re playing the U-14 Sparta team from Utah tomorrow night,” Petke said. “We need to approach this the same way that we would approach any team — not just because it’s Kansas City. Because it’s the playoffs.”

RSL has the luxury of getting the first home game of the two legs. Real was 11-2-4 at Rio Tinto this season.

But Kansas City could have the antidote to Real’s home formula. SKC tied for the best road record in the West in the regular season.

One of the team’s main focuses against Kansas City is not to concede goals at home. With the aggregate scoring model in the MLS playoffs, a tie is broken by the team that scored more road goals in the two legs.

“We cannot leave ourselves vulnerable at home,” Petke said. “We cannot allow them to dictate the game, get a goal and be very stingy so we’re going back in to Kansas City not only having lost this game, but giving up a home goal. We can’t do that.”

Petke added that the same defensive mentality RSL showed against LAFC must carry over against Sporting KC.

Damir Kreilach knows about the history between Salt Lake and Kansas City. But he wants the team’s motivation to stem from the realities of the postseason, not the rivalry.

“Playoff time has to be extra motivation from every one of us,” Kreilach said. “Every one of us has one target and we have to go step by step to this target. The mood in the locker room cannot be better.”

Real has matched up well against Sporting KC this season. The two teams are 1-1-1 against each other in the three meetings.

And even with some bad blood attached, Petke thinks the game will ultimately be a continuation of that.

“I think that they’re a team that historically has brought (out) the best — since I’ve been here — in us,” Petke said of SKC. “Whether that means that we’ve won, lost or tied, the players and the style of play brings out the best in us because it forces us to work harder and it forces us to do things a little more cleaner.”

Washington - Until last week it seemed that the Division 1 college basketball industry could produce nothing more risible than its pieties about cherishing the amateurism of the “student-athletes” who generate, but get mere crumbs of, the industry’s billions. Last week, however, a New York jury, which perhaps had a sense of humor, embraced this novel argument by the federal government: Basketball factories such as Kansas, Louisville and North Carolina State are actually victims of the operatives — representatives of shoe companies, and actual or aspiring agents — who use unsavory methods to direct “blue chip” recruits to the schools' lucrative basketball programs.

The three men convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the first of at least three similar trials face imprisonment because of this supposed crime: The three schools mentioned above gave athletic scholarships to five elite recruits whose families had received — presumably, but perhaps not really, unbeknownst to the schools — through the three men (one of them a former consultant for Adidas shoe company) payments, one of $90,000, to purchase their help in directing their sons to those schools, which receive much larger payments to advertise, by wearing, Adidas gear. (Nike and Under Armour also compete in the auction for schools' allegiances.)

Might the federal government's finite law enforcement resources serve more deserving victims? And why is it a federal crime to evade the NCAA's lackadaisical enforcement of its nonsensical rules by paying families? About schools maintaining (to borrow a phrase from politics) "plausible deniability" about the meat market in tall teenagers, Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins notes: "Defense attorneys presented text messages between [former Adidas consultant T.J.] Gassnola and Kansas coach Bill Self that showed the coach was well aware of Adidas' efforts to steer recruits to him, if not the method. Gassnola assured Self that Adidas was 'here to help' in getting players for the school, which was finalizing a 12-year, $191 million sponsorship deal with the sneaker company." Not bad compensation for Kansas-the-victim.

An NBA program announced last month might somewhat diminish college basketball's stench, which the NBA made worse with its 2005 rule that teams could not sign players younger than 19. This created the "one and done" charade of players sort of attending, say, Kentucky for one season, then turning pro. Elite 18-year-olds will now be able to receive $125,000 for a season in the NBA's developmental G League, draining some talent from the pipeline sustaining the cartel of college basketball powerhouses.

Perhaps schools should give candor a try, paying their basketball and football players as value-adding employees who create almost all of the $8 billion that college sports generate. Undergraduate music majors are not forbidden to earn money with their talents while in school. Kentucky head coach John Calipari’s salary is $8 million, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski’s is $9 million, and 44 other head coaches earn more than $2 million, so perhaps something could trickle down to the “student-athletes” who now receive only tuition, room, board and small cost-of-living stipends. Taylor Branch, writing in The Atlantic in 2011, noted that the NCAA minted the phrase “student-athlete” to deflect the threat of injured athletes making workers' compensation claims.

In a California trial (a ruling is pending), some former athletes challenged the NCAA's strict price controls on labor as antitrust violations that prevent competitive bidding. Amazingly, the NCAA manages to say with a straight face: "Maintaining amateurism is crucial to preserving an academic environment in which acquiring a quality education is the first priority." To which journalist Patrick Hruby, writing in The Washington Post, responds: "A 2015 survey found that athletes in the Pac-12 conference spent an average of 50 hours per week on their sports and were often 'too exhausted to study effectively.'" And: "A University of Georgia assistant men's basketball coach taught a course, mostly for his players, with a final exam that began by asking: 'How many goals are there on a basketball court?'"

The lesson of this tawdry story is that if you graft a multibillion dollar entertainment industry onto academic institutions, the discordance will leave the latter soiled and the former indulging in shady practices that serve the pretense that the industry is somehow something other than it is. The sentencing of the three men convicted last week is set for March 5, two weeks before the NCAA basketball tournament, which CBS and Time Warner pay nearly $1 billion a year to televise. It is called March Madness. Actually, the madness is a 12-month-a-year, every-year business.

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

Denver • On a night the Jazz finally found the defense gone missing so long ago it was about to go on the side of a milk carton, they saw their shooting touch disappear.

On a night initially buoyed by the return of Donovan Mitchell from a hamstring injury, it turned scary when he came down awkwardly after a contorting fourth-quarter layup attempt resulted in him twisting his ankle and being carried to the locker room.

On a night where there were so many encouraging signs for Utah, things still managed, somehow, to get worse.

Mitchell eventually returned, but far too late to make a difference, as an absolutely dominant fourth quarter by Denver resulted in a 103-88 Nuggets victory that sent the Jazz to their third straight loss and dropped them to 4-5 this season.

The Jazz shot just 40.7 percent from the field for the game, and made only 6 of 31 from deep (19.4 percent) in the loss.

Utah’s otherwise strong defensive effort fell apart late, as Denver outscored Utah 35-15 over the final 12 minutes.

“Our offense put a lot of pressure on our defense as the game progressed; you don’t get the ball to go in the basket, it makes it harder to defend,” coach Quin Snyder said afterward. “I thought our resolve was there. … We competed tonight, and I’m proud of the way we competed.”

After the loss to Minnesota, and again after the loss to Memphis, Jazz players and coaches bemoaned the team’s dearth of defense.

Apparently, it just got shipped out to the Pepsi Center a couple nights early.

On Saturday night against the Nuggets, Jazz hands were everywhere, racking up 12 steals. Derrick Favors looked reinvigorated, closing down the lane. And Denver’s vaunted offensive attack was disjointed for most of the night — committing 17 turnovers and making just 9 of 28 from deep.

Of course, the operative word there was most.

“Our whole goal is 48 minutes of defense, and when you have a letdown like that, that’s what good teams do. They take advantage of that, and that’s what Denver did tonight,” said Dante Exum. “We’re gonna keep working to make sure that it’s not just 36 minutes as it was tonight. It needs to be 48.”

Mitchell said when he twisted his ankle in the fourth, it was “not a great feeling.” And while he allowed that he should be OK, vowing to start taping his ankles now, his feelings about the game were decidedly mixed.

Like Snyder, he attributed the fourth-quarter defensive lapse to the team’s offensive issues finally manifesting problems on the other end of the court. He said his 7-for-22 effort was a big part of the problem. And yet, counterintuitively, because of that, he actually came away feeling encouraged.

“If we keep playing the way we played today, shots are gonna fall. We missed a bunch of shots. I took a lot of bad ones and missed a lot of bad ones,” Mitchell said. “… If we’d hit more shots, it would have changed the course of the game.”

He may be on to something. Joe Ingles was 1 for 5. Ricky Rubio was 3 for 10. Only Jae Crowder (8 for 15), Derrick Favors (6 for 10) and Rudy Gobert (5 for 9) hit over half their attempts. And two of those three are not exactly adept at spacing the floor.

The Jazz had actually taken control by the end of the third quarter, going on a 14-5 run to grab a 73-68 lead. It didn’t last, however.

Malik Beasley’s 3-pointer with 9:20 to go gave Denver back the lead. Then Mason Plumlee beat the shot clock by draining the first 3 of his career over a sagging-off Gobert. Trey Lyles hit free throws, Juan Hernangomez hit free throws, Beasley drained another 3, and suddenly the wheels came off, as the Jazz had nothing to counter it.

“I think we competed the fourth quarter; the score didn’t reflect our effort,” Snyder said. “Ultimately, you gotta put the ball in the basket, and we weren’t able to do that in the fourth quarter. I don’t think that was a reflection of our execution. But we gotta get it to go in.”

Still, while the Jazz lamented their continuing inability to put a full game together, and acknowledged that there are frustrating inconsistencies to their game, Mitchell reiterated that it’s too early yet to panic.

“This is Game 9 — it isn’t March or April, it’s not time to freak out,” he said. “Obviously, we can’t have that same mindset all year, and go, ‘Oh, it’s only Game 20,’ but we’re building.”.

Tempe, Ariz. • Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley’s four-interception day in a loss to Arizona State last season was discouraging enough, but his experience Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium was even rougher.

Huntley injured his collarbone and likely will be sidelined for the season, coach Kyle Whittingham said. ASU tacklers drove him into the grass after he launched an incompletion under pressure late in the third quarter of the Sun Devils' 38-20 victory.

Needing to win their two remaining Pac-12 games vs. Oregon and Colorado and get help from one of ASU's opponents to win the Pac-12 South title, the Utes will turn to redshirt freshman Jason Shelley. He had never played in a meaningful situation for Utah until Saturday, when he completed his first two passes on a drive that led to a field goal, bringing his team within 21-20.

Shelley went 2 of 9 after that, with his last pass being intercepted as ASU's Kobe Williams wrestled the ball away from Ute receiver Samson Nacua in the end zone.

Former walk-on Drew Lisk becomes Utah's No. 2 QB; former high school quarterbacks Chase Hansen and Britain Covey could be trained for emergency use. The Utes have a vastly different depth chart than last season, when then-senior Troy Williams started three conference games in two stints while Huntley was injured.

Lisk is “the only other quarterback in the program,” Ute coach Kyle Whittingham said wryly, in reference to freshman Jack Tuttle's mid-October departure.

Tuttle is gone, partly because Utah’s coaching staff ranked Shelley above him. Shelley had played in three games prior to Saturday, appearing in the fourth quarters of wins over Weber State, Arizona and UCLA with mixed results.

Shelley “has complete command of the offense,” Whittingham said.

“I was confident this game; I’m always confident,” Shelley said of his fill-in role against ASU.

Shelley is from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Ute receiver Jaylen Dixon was his high school teammate. Shelley made an impressive debut against Weber State in August, although the outcome was decided by then. He produced a 40-yard completion and a 40-yard run on two of his first seven snaps in college. The Utes will need everything he can give them, the rest of November.

A Twitter List by sltribsports

Tempe, Ariz. • As a former defensive line coach, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham was much more disappointed with his team’s inability to stop Arizona State’s running game than with a secondary that was shredded by ASU quarterback Manny Wilkins and his receivers.

Whittingham did say the pass coverage “wasn’t anything to write home about” in a 38-20 loss, and his strategy at the end of the first half said enough about his trust of the secondary. Whittingham could have had Matt Gay, the reigning Lou Groza Award winner, try a 60-yard field goal. Instead, he ordered a punt. If Gay had missed, the Sun Devils would have taken over at their 42-yard line with about 25 seconds remaining.

Whittingham cited a slight wind against Gay — 3 mph at kickoff, according to the game book — and ASU’s offensive capability for his decision.

That’s hardly an expression in confidence in a Ute secondary that went into the season with a goal of being regarded as the best group in school history. Utah’s defense played better in the third quarter, with safety Marquise Blair returning from a first-half targeting suspension and cornerback Jaylon Johnson making his third interception of the season. But the secondary relapsed, giving up Wilkins’ 61-yard touchdown pass to N’Keal Harry on the first play of the fourth quarter, and the Sun Devils posted 205 total yards in the fourth period.

Whittingham has praised his secondary’s No. 1 ranking in the Pac-12 in pass efficiency defense, but these numbers won’t help: Wilkins finished 19 of 24 for 285 yards and three touchdowns, all to Harry. Considered an NFL first-round draft pick, Harry caught nine passes for 161 yards. Brandon Aiyuk added six receptions for 101 yards.

The Ute defensive backs were looking forward to testing themselves against Harry, but “we lost the matchup,” Johnson conceded. “They came to play today and we didn’t.”

Julian Blackmon, Utah’s other cornerback, had a chance for an interception late in the first half, but he managed only to deflect the pass and ASU completed a touchdown drive for a 21-17 lead. That play could have extended the Utes’ momentum, after they had rallied from being down 14-0.

Ute cornerbacks coach Sharreiff Shah went into the game knowing Harry would make his share of catches. “You just hope they’re not back-breaking plays, game-changing plays,” Shah had said.

But that’s what exactly what Harry delivered.

Denver • The calm, composed tone of Thabo Sefolosha’s voice might have obscured the underlying anger if you weren’t paying attention to his actual words before Saturday’s game against the Nuggets.

He’s a tad bit miffed.

One, that he hadn’t played yet, and two, that the time he will eventually get may see him hindered on the court in ways that are beyond his control.

After a five-game suspension to start the season for violating the league’s anti-drug policy, Sefolosha appeared in the box score only as a “Did Not Play — Coach’s Decision” for the next three, before getting three first-half minutes Saturday (and badly bricking two wide-open corner 3s).

The plan was to split him between the three and four positions, but with minutes going to Joe Ingles, Derrick Favors, Jae Crowder, Royce O’Neale, and even a surprisingly productive Georges Niang, there simply haven’t been enough left for Sefolosha.

He’s trying to take his lack of playing time in stride, but as a 13th-year NBA player who’s averaged 23.2 minutes per game for his career, he concedes it’s difficult to be glued to the bench night after night.

“Frustrating in a way, but at the same time, I understand the mindset behind it,” Sefolosha said before the game. “Obviously, I want to be able to help; I’ve worked my ass off to be able to come back. But it’s a long season, I’m patient.”

He said he’s made it a point not to ask coach Quin Snyder about his potential role in the rotation, because he doesn’t want to be a problem player. Besides, he said, Snyder brought it up to him, so he’ll continue to stay ready.

“I’m kinda waiting for my turn — I know how long the season is, so I’m not stressing,” Sefolosha said. “… I’m here for when he needs me. And he’s been great talking, so I know what’s in his mind.”

Of course, once Sefolosha does get more time on the court, it’s going to be a big adjustment — generally getting re-acclimated to game speed, and specifically because of the league’s emphasis on “freedom of movement” rules.

Against Memphis on Friday, Utah was whistled for 29 fouls, leading to 24 Memphis free throws. While Snyder attributed much of that to the team’s own defensive breakdowns, Sefolosha said the way the game is being officiated now puts defenders in an almost impossible position.

“Some of the rule changes are making it harder and harder to play defense, period. I’m not sure exactly where the NBA is going with all of this. I personally don’t like it,” he said. “… Year after year, they try to give the offense an advantage, and it’s to the point where it’s an unfair advantage almost. You got offensive players pushing to get open and stuff you like that, and you can’t put your hands on them. They’ll have to re-think that, and maybe actually ask a few players who play defense. … I think it’s something they should look at. But it’s all a different league, different rules, different time, different era.”

An Idaho superintendent has issued a public apology to students and their parents after staff at a public elementary school dressed up as Mexicans and the border wall for Halloween.

The images began circulating on social media this week, and they depict more than a dozen adults dressed up in two groups at Middleton Heights Elementary School, a town of about 7,500 residents 30 miles west of Boise. One group is dressed up as stereotypes of Mexicans, replete with maracas, ponchos, sombreros and fake mustaches. The other group is dressed as a wall plastered with the slogan “Make America Great Again.”

“I want to say we are better than this,” Superintendent Josh Middleton said in a Facebook video Friday. “We embrace all students. We have a responsibility to teach and reach all students, period. Do I think that there was a malicious intent in this poor decision? No, I don’t. Was there a poor judgment involved? Absolutely. And we now have to own those decisions.”

The story quickly took off on Friday evening, drawing coverage in national news media outlets. Angry reactions flooded the school’s Facebook page. And social media responses were harsh.

“The fact that these elementary-school teachers thought this would be OK demonstrates how much more cultural competence training is needed in education,” Kevin Nadal, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, wrote on Twitter.

Middleton said that he had been alerted to the issue by a parent who expressed concern over the costumes and that he has since opened a district investigation into the matter.

“I was shown those photos and deeply troubled by the decision by our staff members to wear those costumes that are clearly insensitive and inappropriate,” he said. “Right now our time is going to be devoted to investigating those events and those poor decisions that were made.”

According to the Idaho Statesman, the photos were originally posted on the Middleton School District’s Facebook page with a caption reading, “It was a great day to be a Heights Hawk! We celebrated our RESPECT character winners, single and double marathon runners.”

The Halloween incident is another data entry in the long list of controversial, racially insensitive or historically ignorant costumes that inevitably get trotted out every year. But this incident also struck at the heart of an emotional political debate over immigration that has only grown more bitter in recent days in the lead-up to Tuesday’s elections, as President Donald Trump has warned of an immigrant “invasion” and released a misleading ad about immigrants that was widely criticized as racist.

Twelve advocacy organizations, including the ACLU’s chapter in the state, sent a letter to the district expressing concern about the costumes, the Statesman reported.

“Regardless of the intent of a teacher’s actions in the classroom, we must focus on and give weight to the impact of such actions on the students who rely on teachers and other school officials for guidance and support throughout their educational experience,” the ACLU of Idaho said in a statement. “School districts, their staff and other agents have obligations under federal law, state law and district policies to prevent and protect students, staff and others from discrimination, bullying, intimidation and harassment.”

The Idaho Commission of Human Rights, a state governing body, also weighed in on Friday night.

“Discrimination under these acts can occur when an employer or school allows a hostile environment to exist against persons because of their race, sex and national origin,” the commission said in a statement, according to the Idaho Press. “Simply because conduct takes place as a so-called joke does not excuse otherwise unlawful conduct.”

The school did not identify the staff members who wore the costumes.

About 13 percent of the students at the elementary school are Latino, according to data from Idaho Ed Trends.

Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 103-88 loss to the Denver Nuggets from Salt Lake Tribune beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Everyone injured themselves, but not too badly

It seems silly, but for me, the number one takeaway of this game is this: the Jazz dodged bullets on Saturday night like Neo in The Matrix. Several times, the Jazz’s players picked up knocks that it seemed could have impacted their upcoming schedule

The biggest injury was Donovan Mitchell’s, who went down after a drive and didn’t put any weight on his leg as he left the court. At first, there was a lot of confusion, and the first few camera angles on the replay didn’t show a twist of the ankle, maybe pointing towards a more dangerous Achilles injury. But then the baseline angle came (1:35 below), and showed that Mitchell put weight on his ankle as he landed.

Somehow, Mitchell quickly had his ankle taped and came back just a few minutes later, and in the mean time, a 5-point Denver lead had ballooned to 13.

His wasn’t the only one, though. Dante Exum had to leave the court after running into Jazz draft pick Trey Lyles with his right shoulder. While it wasn’t his surgically repaired left, it still was a scary moment, given how many games Exum’s missed in his career. But they ran tests on Exum’s shoulder, and he was diagnosed with just shoulder soreness.

At other points in the game, Joe Ingles and Rudy Gobert had knee-to-knee contact with other players, causing them to come up limping. They didn’t have to leave the contest as a result of their injuries, but I wonder if subpar performances after that were caused, in part, by the bumps they’d taken earlier.

This always felt like a schedule loss for the Jazz: a back-to-back, heading into Denver, meant that the Jazz didn’t get in their beds until 2 AM last night. Denver has had a fantastic early start to the season. The schedule loss happened the way it usually does: the team started strong through three quarters, then faded in the fourth, missing shots they’d normally make.

But longer-term injuries would have made this loss worth more than just one in the standings. While the Jazz didn’t come away with the win, it could have been much, much worse.

2. Jazz up the defensive pressure and intensity

You may remember Friday night’s Triple Team, in which I made pretty clear that the reason for the Jazz’s loss against Memphis was their lackluster individual and team defense.

The Jazz’s defensive performance against the Nuggets was much better. Perhaps looking to get his team involved and engaged in defensive possessions, Jazz head coach Quin Snyder had his team play a much more aggressive style of defense on Saturday, playing high up on screens, getting in the face of Nikola Jokic, and generally making life much more difficult for the Nuggets.

It worked. The Jazz held the high-powered Nuggets to 106 points per 100 possessions, their second-lowest offensive performance of the season so far. The Jazz also picked up 12 steals, including five from Mitchell and four from Rubio. Both players did an excellent job of staying in the passing lanes that Denver likes to use, keeping their hands in play as they tracked Denver’s runners. Jae Crowder also deserves a ton of credit for his performance: he was everywhere tonight on the defensive end picking up loose balls and causing havoc.

I thought it was also interesting how lineup-dependent the Jazz’s defensive performance was. In 27 minutes where the Jazz played Crowder and Gobert together at the four and five, the Jazz allowed only 91.5 points per 100 possessions. Meanwhile, when Derrick Favors was in the game, the Jazz allowed 125 points per 100 possessions; 116 when it was both Favors and Gobert. The Nuggets fourth-quarter run came when the Jazz had to sit Gobert after playing him in the entire third quarter.

Truthfully, conceptually, the Nuggets should be one of the teams that the two-big Jazz should be able to hang with: they play a lot of lineups with both Mason Plumlee and Nikola Jokic out there, and even when they play small-ish, the power forwards are Paul Millsap and Trey Lyles, both of whom Favors is very familiar with.

Favors did look much springier on offense Saturday night, but still, the Jazz missed Crowder’s 3-point shooting and defensive disruption when he wasn’t in the game. Crowder’s been one of the most consistent Jazzmen so far, and the Jazz would do well to get him in the lineup as much as possible when he’s playing the way he is right now.

So despite the loss, I feel pretty comfortable with what happened in that game. The Jazz got much closer to their identity defensively. Offensively, played well but were hurt by tired/injured legs that were missing layups, free-throws, and threes at the end of the game.

For what it’s worth, Snyder agrees. “I thought we were better defensively. I think we did a much better job of that tonight. I thought the resolve was there. I thought we competed tonight and I’m proud of the way we competed,” Snyder said. “I thought we competed in the fourth quarter, and the score didn’t reflect that effort.”

3. Getting Donovan Mitchell an easy basket at the end of the half

Given that, let’s use the third point of the Triple Team to highlight a nifty piece of scouting and playcalling by the Jazz’s coaching staff. In particular, Mitchell finished his first half off with this layup at the rim. How did it unfold?

It’s the last play of the half, and normally, the Jazz would have Mitchell running things up top just trying to create in the last few seconds with a pick and roll. But this time, they put Mitchell in the corner, with Rubio creating. Why?

Because the Jazz noticed while scouting the Nuggets that they like to do something called “pre-switching.” Here’s the idea: The Jazz want to execute the play in the final few seconds, giving the Nuggets no time to score on the other end. In those late shot clock situations, the Nuggets switch pick and rolls, betting on containing penetration and making Rubio beat the switch.

And because the Nuggets know they’re going to switch when Gobert goes to set the screen, they do something called a “pre-switch,” which means a wing (Torrey Craig) goes up with Gobert. That way, Rubio can’t exploit Plumlee on the perimeter with the ball.

But as soon as Ricky Rubio sees the Nuggets do this switch, he fires a fastball to Mitchell in the corner. Then, Plumlee has to rotate out, and Mitchell can attack downhill against a stumbling, bumbling big man. That’s easy money.

So just to conclude, the Jazz made an adjustment (Mitchell in the corner) to combat a Nuggets adjustment (pre-switching) that counters a typical strategy used (attacking the big on a switch up top) against the Nuggets' gameplan (late shot-clock switching) that was needed because they knew what the Jazz wanted to do (attack late in the clock).

The NBA isn’t checkers, it’s chess.

Half Moon Bay, Calif. • John Muller steered his tractor left onto Main Street, four Atlantic Giant pumpkins in tow, and thousands of people at the pumpkin parade screamed with delight.

But there were many others, spread throughout the festival that day, who feared the famous farmer had led the city down an uncertain path, demanding changes that couldn't be undone and attempting to enrich himself in the process.

They are determined to stop “Farmer John,” even if it means putting him — and his pumpkin patch — out of business.

On Tuesday, Nov. 6, residents of this small, coastal city will vote on whether Muller, 72, can use a section of his 21-acre farm to grow thousands of young marijuana plants.

Muller and his wife, Eda, said they need this revenue to save their property, Daylight Farms. If voters don’t approve Measure GG, the Mullers could be forced to sell everything before next year’s harvest.

“If that doesn’t pass, there won’t be a pumpkin farm,” Eda Muller told critics at a recent city council meeting, muttering under her breath, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.”

U.S. farmers last year harvested 2 billion pounds of pumpkins, many of which were later carved into spooky or silly faces for Halloween. The economics behind these jack-o’-lanterns can be as messy as their gunky guts, with everything hanging on six weeks of sales. But these and other iconic American holiday symbols exist in an often overlooked economy with hidden pressures and pain.

For California farmers — many struggling like the Mullers — the state’s legalization of marijuana has offered the prospect of raising a lucrative crop that could keep them on their land. They must first win the approval of their communities, and the debate dividing Half Moon Bay has also paralyzed other parts of the state.

Local governments, particularly in remote rural areas, are deciding whether cannabis should be treated like any other crop or banned, out of concern that it could lead to crime and other unwanted social change. Calaveras County, for instance, allowed the cultivation of cannabis, collecting millions of dollars of taxes, only to backtrack. Now growers are suing.

Here in Half Moon Bay, 130 miles west, John Muller’s plans are straining the entire city, pitting neighbor against neighbor, past against future. The choice is about more than farming and economics, reaching into the community’s sense of values. Voters must decide whether to welcome commercial cannabis inside their community and help the farm or stand firm against marijuana and possibly smash the Mullers’ pumpkin business.

In a city that calls itself the World Pumpkin Capital, losing the Mullers’ gourds could be a devastating turn of events. Their iconic roadside plot draws wealthy visitors from San Francisco and Silicon Valley for more than a month each autumn.

And the Mullers are the only local farmers who have shown the ability to raise Atlantic Giants, pumpkins that can gain 40 pounds each day and grow to the size of small cars. These orange boulders give the city a connection to its agricultural past, something many residents are scrambling to protect.

Some competitors have boosted revenue by adding haunted houses, hayrides and corn mazes to their farms, but the Mullers have eschewed such agritourism, describing themselves as purists.

Giant-pumpkin farmers, though, are known for being secretive and wily, and many residents don’t trust the Mullers’ motives despite their increasingly desperate pleas.

Opening Half Moon Bay to commercial cannabis could change the city forever, they worry, normalizing pot for teenagers, luring outside investors with nefarious motives and drawing federal scrutiny upon farm laborers, many of whom are undocumented Mexican workers.

“To say there are no other crops that a farmer could grow in Half Moon Bay is ridiculous,” said Virginia Turezyn, who works at a business advisory firm and is running for city council on the same ballot as Measure GG. “They could grow brussels sprouts. They can grow other stuff. … Everybody thinks [cannabis] is a cure-all and a panacea, but I’ve read tons of research that highlights tons of negative implications for the community, for crime, for youth and for the stench.”

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Eda”s father, Al Adreveno, purchased Daylight Farms in the 1950s, growing flowers for buyers in San Francisco, just 30 miles away. He built glass greenhouses to protect some of the plants, a decision that is central to November’s vote.

His daughter Eda married John, a Vietnam War veteran, in 1969, and they went to work in the family flower business. Adreveno served three terms on the city council and four years as mayor.

During one of those stints, Adreveno challenged the leaders of another pumpkin town, Circleville, Ohio, to a weigh-off. The California community put up the biggest plant, and it has proclaimed its pumpkin dominance ever since.

The family’s flower business relied on the San Francisco market, and they lost roughly 25 percent of their customers by the mid-1990s because of the AIDS crisis. California flower growers were also becoming crowded out by foreign competition.

In the late 1990s, the Mullers pivoted to pumpkins as a way to save their farm. This quickly made them local legends, in part because the Mullers moved in when others were moving out.

In 2008, San Mateo County growers raised pumpkins on 263 acres. By 2017, pumpkins grew on just 167 acres. There were fewer pumpkin farms but still plenty of buyers, particularly each October during Half Moon Bay’s Art & Pumpkin Festival, a two-day celebration that can draw 200,000 people, clog roads for miles and raise millions of dollars for nonprofit groups and vendors.

Pumpkins, which local farmers call “punkins,” are difficult to grow profitably on a small farm. They must be farmed on different plots every two to three years, or they can become diseased. Seeds are planted after Mother’s Day in May, and harvest comes four or five months later. Buyers typically want pumpkins only during a six-week stretch, leading up to Halloween. That puts enormous pressure on growers to cash in during a small window.

The Mullers grow 60 varieties of pumpkins, gourds and squash, including Cinderellas, Fairytales and Tonda Padanas. They plant 80,000 seeds each spring, and each seed can produce up to four pumpkins. Harvest takes one month, and then the pumpkins are sold at a plot called Farmer John’s Pumpkins on the Pacific Coast Highway, where visitors can see the ocean peeking across a crest of trees.

Muller has always been more than just a farmer, though. In 2008, he served his first of two terms as mayor, helping steer the beleaguered city away from bankruptcy. He also served in other local government posts and advised the U.S. Agriculture Department during the Reagan administration.

At his pumpkin patch, he’s a dusty blur, working as greeter, cashier, wheelbarrow pusher and parking director. He’s 5½ feet tall and wears a deep tan on his face from farm work.

On a recent Friday, he was constantly in motion, sporting torn green coveralls and a sweat-stained hat, hugging visitors and pulling wagons and directing people to a tepee past the hay bales.

He looked at times joyful and at times exhausted, saying he had been up at 4 a.m. discussing the farm’s future with Eda. The Mullers still care for Adreveno, now 95, and his wife, who is 90.

“The family estate is dwindling — we’ll have to make some very, very life-altering decisions,” he said. “We worked hard all our lives, but our little bodies are slowing down a bit.”

A lifelong Republican, John Muller voted against the statewide measure in 2016 that legalized the recreational use of marijuana by adults. He was an outlier in Half Moon Bay, where 69 percent of voters backed it.

Shortly after that vote, Muller was approached by Eric Hollister, a chef and acquaintance from the local farmers market. Hollister wanted to refurbish the Mullers’ dilapidated greenhouses, grow cannabis “starts” — young, nonflowered plants — and market the products to individual consumers and other commercial growers.

The Mullers were strapped for cash. Health care for Eda’s mother was nearing $10,000 a month. Hollister said he planned to pay the Mullers nearly $1 million a year in rental fees and spend around $3 million rehabbing the greenhouses, which they would still own. Hollister said he could sell between 100,000 and 150,000 plants a month, grown in 65,000 square feet of greenhouse space. Each plant would fetch between $5 and $10, perhaps more.

Because the plants would be “starts,” they wouldn’t have an intense odor and could not be immediately used as recreational marijuana. For struggling pumpkin farmers, Hollister’s offer made it appear their financial rescue was imminent. And it nearly was.

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Half Moon Bay’s city council, on which Muller and Adreveno had served for years, met the evening of June 5. On the agenda: an ordinance that would allow certain farms with existing greenhouses to grow young marijuana plants.

California law legalized the recreational use of marijuana, but counties and cities can establish their own rules, particularly regarding how it is grown.

The Half Moon Bay ordinance was written in a way that would benefit only three farms, including the Mullers’ land. They needed just three votes, and they would be in business.

But word spread fast, and the council meeting was packed. Two children were the first to speak, reading statements about how the ordinance could lead more kids to become hooked on drugs.

Then came local Latino leaders, worried that cannabis would lead to raids from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because the federal government still considers it illegal. The local Catholic Church and public school leaders wanted the measure blocked, too, saying it would erode the community in a way that can’t be easily reversed. People were holding up signs. The backlash had begun.

By the time it was Hollister’s turn to speak, he was livid.

“We cannot listen to the hypocrites or fearmongers who stand up here and tell the whole city that John … and myself and our families are drug dealers,” said Hollister, who is 42 and has two young children. “Drug dealers are the very trash that we are trying to keep out of our community, out of cannabis and away from children.”

Council members appeared willing to buck opposition and approve the ordinance, but several backed down as debate stretched toward midnight.

The proposal died, and the council instead put it on the ballot in November. The politicians would let the voters decide.

The Mullers’ problems had only begun. They had planted six Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds, hoping for a huge showing in the city’s October world championship, but by July, it was clear that cold weather and bad luck would lead to one of their worst showings in years. Their biggest pumpkin would top out at less than 400 pounds, 800 pounds smaller than their record.

As it grew, the Mullers’ critics had months to mobilize.

A growing list of local leaders and prominent residents began urging voters to oppose cannabis farming, even if it meant the end of Farmer John.

Some longtime acquaintances were wondering how hard off the Mullers really were, speculating that this could be a get-rich-quick scheme that benefits only a few, something they’ve seen in neighboring Silicon Valley for years.

Critics pounced on the fact that Hollister and the Mullers haven’t identified the investors who planned to pump millions of dollars into the operation, a detail Hollister said in an interview would be quickly resolved once the vote is concluded. He said the backers are reluctant to commit until the legality is settled.

“‘You better be careful, Johnny,’” flower farmer Louie Figone said he warned Muller recently. “They can’t borrow it from the bank. He’s going to have to borrow from these industry people, and those people don’t mess around.”

But Figone, who has known the Mullers for 50 years, acknowledged he had other concerns. Hollister said he plans to pay workers in his cannabis greenhouses between $15 and $16 an hour, which would lure labor from farms like the one Figone runs.

“Do you think my men are going to work for $12 an hour if the guy next door is paying $20?” Figone asked, appearing to inflate the cost. “I’m going to have to match that pay.”

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Muller has tried to brush aside such criticism in recent weeks. He’s a pumpkin salesman and a politician, and he avoids looking rattled.

The faultfinding, especially from friends, appears to infuriate Eda Muller, however, who said they are simply doing everything they can to save the family farm. She said Figone recently asked her why the Mullers couldn’t find a way to make money in farming like other locals, to which she said she replied, “That’s great, Louie. I guess we are the only losers.”

Some of the Mullers’ other friends, though, say they believe critics are completely distorting Half Moon Bay’s past and future. John Szabo, whom John Muller taught to grow Atlantic Giants, said he first bought marijuana in the photo lab at Half Moon Bay’s high school in 1968. He thinks people have smoked pot in town longer than they’ve grown pumpkins.

The tension only ballooned ahead of the parade, where “Farmer John” is showcased each year.

Near the beginning of the route, Lisa Warner-Carey, pastor of Community United Methodist Church, was helping her parish sell turkey legs to onlookers. She had moved to Half Moon Bay eight years ago from another place in northern California, where she said there was a lax drug culture. Her move was driven in part by a desire to escape an environment she felt wasn't safe for raising kids.

“If we really legalize cannabis grows in Half Moon Bay, we are running the risk 20 years down the road of following on the path of tobacco farmers, where it’s discovered to be detrimental but we are reliant on it as part of the economy,” she said.

Most of the parade watchers were tourists who had no idea about the local rift. Hollister and a few others walked through the festival wearing green shirts that read, “Let Our Farmers Grow,” a phrase that probably didn’t resonate with most.

As John Muller slowly steered the tractor down the street, a grandchild in his lap, he waved, mostly hidden in a shadow, more cautious than jubilant.

Eda sat near the back of the float, behind the four giant pumpkins they had borrowed because their Atlantic Giants were too small. Her mother’s health was failing, she knew, and maybe the farm’s fate was beyond her control. Two weeks after the festival, her mother died.

At times during the parade, Eda Muller waved, but at times, she also just sat there, staring out at the crowd behind large sunglasses. The vote is the Tuesday after Halloween, and the Mullers will know their fate then. In a text message a few hours later, she wrote that the whole parade was “bittersweet because we don’t know if it’s our last one or not.”