North Ogden • American flags lined the street leading to North Ogden City’s municipal center where a small cluster of flowers were laid in memory of Mayor Brent Taylor, a major in the National Guard killed Saturday in an insider attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.

A similar display of flags was set outside the Taylor family’s home, where friends and family gathered with Taylor’s wife, Jennie, and the couple’s seven children, ages 11 months up to 13 years.

“When I asked Jennie what she would like me to say when we came out, she said that there is heartache but no regret,” said Taylor’s sister-in-law Kristy Pack, who spoke to members of the media on behalf of the family.

“It would be hard to find a family that loves our country more than this family,” Pack said, “and that has the desire to serve our country more than this family.”

Political leaders, colleagues, friends and family are remembering Taylor as a man of service and principle, who valued transparency and sought to move beyond the common divisions in society.

Oscar Mata, a political consultant and former executive director of the Weber County Democratic Party, said the news of Taylor’s death was “heartbreaking.” Taylor was a “proud Republican,” Mata said, but also someone with a natural ability and interest in bringing people together to serve the broader community.

“He just had a way of helping people see the things that they have in common rather than the things they disagree with,” Mata said. “It was a skill that was just amazing.”

Mata and Taylor co-chaired Weber County Forward, a group pushing for a restructure of the county’s three-member commission governance model.

While Taylor had never discussed his future ambitions with Mata, his name was often listed among the potential candidates for higher office. And Mata said he had hoped Taylor would run to be the county’s mayor if their Weber County Forward effort was successful.

“I had a lot of hope for the future of politics here in Weber County knowing that Brent Taylor was going to be playing a critical role in it,” Mata said.

At a media event in Draper early Sunday, Utah National Guard Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert discussed the limited details they knew about Taylor’s death.

Taylor, a trainer of Afghan commandos, died while on a foot patrol when an Afghan soldier attacked. Other Afghan fighters killed the man quickly, according to NATO. One other soldier was wounded by the attacker’s small-arms fire, but is expected to recover.

Burton lamented Taylor’s death, calling the guardsman and mayor “a man of excellence.” He said Taylor’s remains will arrive at Dover Air Force base Monday evening, and that the funeral is still being planned.

“He is a heavy loss for us and he will be missed,” Burton said.

The major general described the attack as a betrayal and an incident of misplaced trust.

“I do believe that Major Taylor felt he was among friends with the people he was working with,” Burton said. “That is what is so, ultimately, painful about this.”

Burton said the circumstances of the attack remain under investigation.

In his Facebook updates, Taylor regularly complimented the Afghan soldiers he helped train. In his last post, dated Oct. 28, Taylor urged Americans to vote in the midterm elections this Tuesday and to remember that more “unites us than divides us.”

He wrote, “I am proud of the brave Afghan and U.S. soldiers I serve with.”

And nine days earlier, he wrote of the Afghan election, “We are working hard with our brave Afghan colleagues and our dedicated NATO allies to help ensure a safe parliamentary election.”

Back in June, he said, “I absolutely love working with the awesome soldiers of Afghanistan and my U.S. colleagues.”

Taylor, Burton said, was well-regarded as personable, highly educated and committed to the Afghan soldiers under his training.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert described Taylor’s death as a sad day for Utah and the United States.

“He was the personification of the love of God, family and country,” the governor said.

Taylor entered military service in 2003 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Military Intelligence Corp in 2006, according to biographical materials provided by the National Guard. He held a bachelor degree in political science from Brigham Young University, a masters degree in public administration from the University of Utah and was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Utah in international relations.

Previous staff positions held by Taylor in the National Guard include platoon leader, battalion plans officer, vulnerability assistance officer, explosive ordinance disposal office, mobile training team chief, selective service officer and recruitment sustainment program coordinator.

Taylor’s current deployment was his fourth, after previous tours in Iraq and Afghanistan beginning in December 2006. His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, as well as various service and achievement medals.

Herbert said the war on terror has been difficult for the nation.

“It’s been excruciatingly long,” Herbert said. “It’s hard to identify who the enemy is.”

Herbert said it can be easy to forget that America’s military personnel continue to serve in very difficult situations. He commended that selfless service to represent the state and nation and to provide better lives for their fellow man.

“They’re being sent into harm’s way and casualties still occur,” Herbert said, “as we see here today.”

Taylor served as a city councilman in North Ogden and then was elected as mayor in 2013 and re-elected in 2017. North Ogden Councilwoman Cheryl Stoker will remember Taylor as a man who “respected everyone’s opinion” and saw political disagreements as an indication that our democracy was working.

She said he improved the morale of city employees and worked to better his community, including pushing through a revamp of the city amphitheater that is still underway.

“He was very fair and open-minded,” she said. “And he was huge on transparency. He wanted the residents to know everything that was going on.”

She said his love to serve was matched only by his love of family.

Taylor was last home in August, when he had a two-week leave. On Aug. 26, he posted “Reporting back to duty.”

“As a family, we are proud to do our part for America. I can’t wait to be home for good early next year, and will keep you updated on how and what I am doing. In the meantime, please be kind in this group, respect our city and each other, and disagree and debate without falling into the negativity and contention that are sweeping across politics in our country. God bless you all and see you on the flip side!”

Taylor has five brothers who have also served in the Utah National Guard.

Pack identified the Taylor children as Megan (13 years old), Lincoln (11), Alex (9), Jacob (7), Ellie (5), Jonathan (2), and Caroline (11 months). Those children “along with his parents, siblings and other family members — we would like to express our sincere appreciation for the outpouring of love and support during this unspeakably difficult time.”

“As one of many, many military families to give the ultimate sacrifice, we also want to express our love for this great nation and the pride that we feel knowing that Brent gave his life in service to his country — the country he and Jennie both love so much," Pack said.

Toby Mileski, former mayor of neighboring Pleasant View, was also present at the Taylor family home Sunday while Pack addressed members of the media. Asked for his thoughts on Taylor’s death, Mileski said “Brent was a hero — bottom line. And he’s going to be missed.”

A GoFundMe page to support his wife, Jennie, and their seven children has already raised more than $180,000.

Tribune editor Matt Canham contributed to this report.

If you want to understand the latest trends in Salt Lake City office spaces, look at some of the effects of a sizzling economy.

Utah could gain as many as 50,000 jobs this year — and workers need workplaces. Salt Lake County is expected to absorb up to a million square feet of new office digs, on par with its growth trajectory in recent years.

Utah County will add about 1.5 million square feet, if the latest projections are a clue, with rapid office growth driven by the magnet of Silicon Slopes as a tech hub and the county’s relative edge over its neighbor to the north in terms of available land and large office projects already in the pipeline.

But top real estate brokers who specialize in office spaces say Utah’s capital city is under intense demand as a place to work, with a premium — thanks to TRAX — on locations in the central business district. That’s true of startup companies, existing firms looking to grow, or corporate giants like Amazon, Facebook and Goldman Sachs, all expanding in the Beehive State.

“People are excited to move here and be a part of our downtown area,” says Eric Smith, senior vice president and office market specialist with CBRE, an international commercial real estate firm with offices in Salt Lake City.

Another key factor for the look and mix of Salt Lake City offices is the jobless rate. In Utah, that’s hovering at a near-record low of 3 percent — close to full employment.

The more competition for top talent heats up — particularly in knowledge-based sectors of the economy — the more important it is to fashion workspaces with architectural and design appeal, along with higher-end finishes and plenty of amenities, according to the experts.

Keeping workers happy — and costs down

Brokers say fitness rooms are now standard in many high-end offices in Utah’s urban markets, as are comfortable lounge areas, game rooms, bike lockers and patios. Trendy decor — high ceilings, natural light, top-notch finishes — is as much about making workers comfortable and productive as it is about honing and conveying a company’s image.

A decade ago, many saw square footage of office space as a commodity. Today what an office looks like can be key to a company’s survival and success and is increasingly part of how firms brand themselves — both to the outside world and to their own employees.

“Office space nowadays is very much, particularly for large companies, a tool for retention and recruitment. It’s hugely important,” says Casey Mills, vice president of office leasing and sales at Salt Lake City-based Newmark Grubb ACRES, a top local broker in commercial real estate.

Another force shaping workspaces along the Wasatch Front is the rising cost of construction.

The same trends that have been squeezing affordability in Utah’s housing and apartment markets — shortages of labor and land along with surging prices for building materials — are making it harder to build new offices these days, pushing up office rents, especially downtown.

Regional demand for construction workers is at something of a peak, with labor supplies gobbled up by the $3.6 billion overhaul of Salt Lake City International Airport, work on a new state prison and several large private-sector distribution centers underway.

“It’s a labor issue,” says Dana Baird, executive director at the commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, of rising office building price tags. “Steel and tariffs are impacting costs, but labor is the biggest issue.”

While new office towers are expected to rise in Salt Lake City within three to five years, economic boosters at City Hall say the capital lacks a wide selection of larger office spaces — about 50,000 square feet or more — suitable for a larger employer. Whether for cost reasons or for lack of size in available spaces or both, many new firms are picking offices farther south in the county.

“That’s what we’re struggling against,” says Lara Fritts, the city’s director of economic development. “When a company comes to Salt Lake City that needs 50,000 square feet, 100,000 square feet, I have no product to show them.”

At the same time, high demand and costs in the heart of Salt Lake City’s cultural and business district are forcing creative uses of space.

More people, less room

Developers are combining infill — reuse of downtown land among existing structures — with seeking additional height on buildings in their quest to make more of space, bringing several new high-rises to the Salt Lake City skyline, most recently 111 Main.

That same quest for value is on display in the interior of new office spaces.

“Companies are trying to utilize their space very efficiently," says CBRE’s Smith, “so that they’re not wasting any space and their people per square feet is optimal.”

Traditional ratios of employees and square footage are, in many cases, out the window, with some new firms in Utah’s urban core packing as many as 10 offices workers per 1,000 square feet. Instead of fully built-out offices, floor plans are made up of cubicles mixed with meeting spaces and small huddle rooms in a more open approach.

“And these are not tech companies,” Smith says.

Those higher densities in offices are also raising the importance of proximity to mass transit as company managers search for new spaces and negotiate office leases. With land at a premium, parking stalls and garages are increasingly less available, forcing the option of transit.

Many executives raise concerns about regional air quality in connection with their workers’ commute, says Chris Kirk, managing director for the downtown Salt Lake City office of Colliers International — along with the fact that many millennial employees are less dependent on cars.

“Proximity to TRAX is super important,” says Kirk, echoing other office brokers. “I get asked about that just about every tour I do.”

Some landlords are even offering shuttles from their offices to TRAX lines.

Shared spaces, remodeled places

Cost pressures and a demand for historic character have prompted a spate of renovations of older industrial buildings in downtown Salt Lake City as developers convert them for use as office spaces, often while preserving many of their legacy features.

This trend has brought new life to Salt Lake Hardware, the Crane Building, the Kearns Building, the Boston Building, the Clift Building, the Newhouse Building and others. Interior decor commonly includes collaborative spaces with exposed beams, brick and utility features along with high ceilings and refurbished historic elements.

“There’s huge demand for that creative tech look, though it’s not cheap to do,” says Mills, with Newmark Grubb ACRES.

Salt Lake City has also seen a proliferation of so-called coworking spaces. These take various approaches, but all offer a kind of entry-level office presence, with affordable subscription-style access to desks and office services such as Wi-Fi, phones, printers, conference rooms and coffee machines.

Open and collaborative by design, these business incubator spaces are well-suited to startup companies by lowering cost barriers, while also representing the way downtown is evolving to suit the preferences of enterprising millennials.

Traditional office space brokers see these coworking spaces as a way for startups and established companies alike to gain a business foothold in Utah, usually before expanding into more conventional spaces.

“It gives them opportunities for a touch-down spot as they evolve,” Kirk says. “It puts people on the streets and makes downtown a more dynamic place.”

A 2014 wave of six small coworking firms in downtown Salt Lake City — including Impact Hub and Church & State — has been followed by several larger national franchises such as Kiln, WeWork and Industrious, all locating offices on the Wasatch Front.

This time next year, a company called Spaces, owned by the workplace company IWG, will move into a 47,000-square-foot office space in the nine-story Traverse Ridge Center III, in what is to be the tallest building in Lehi when fully built.

From there, Spaces says it hopes to provide coworking and temporary-office space options to employers across Utah, centered on tech companies on Silicon Slopes. Michael Berretta, vice president of network development for IWG, says the firm is seeing “an increase in demand from businesses of all sizes looking for flexible working solutions which can be easily scaled up or down.”

Small, portable — and recycled offices

Depending on how small and portable you need your new office to be, a Salt Lake City company might have a solution for you — with a little recycling.

Little City, the brainchild of Salt Lake City residents Tim Sullivan and Michael Yount, offers access to refurbished shipping containers — those ubiquitous metal boxes hauled worldwide by trucks and trains — as a portable, affordable option for small businesses looking for a pop-up presence at street level.

The 40-foot containers — sometimes discarded after only one transoceanic trip — sell for as little as $2,000 to $5,000 and offer about 160 square feet inside, after some interior framing and drywall are installed. Small and mobile, the units could prove ideal for locating on underutilized urban land in advance of wider development, says Yount.

Little City has two modified containers, painted bright blue and currently located street side on the northwestern corner of Fleet Block, the expanse between 800 South and 900 South from 300 West to 400 West. The parcel is owned by the city’s Redevelopment Agency, on the eastern edge of the Granary District, a neighborhood targeted by the city for urban improvements.

Yount and Sullivan, both former Salt Lake Tribune employees, say they are focusing on recruiting tenants from among the Granary District’s network of craftspeople, in hope of helping the area’s nascent business community to grow.

The pop-up offices and stores are also intended to help activate neighborhoods, says Yount, a designer, and Sullivan, an urban planner. They are working with city officials in using the portable office containers as gathering spaces in blighted neighborhoods to help catalyze pockets of urban renewal.

Fritts, the city’s economic development director, says the small commercial spaces and others like them are vital "for incubating local businesses that often do not need or cannot afford a larger space.”

“This concept will allow for more innovation,” she says, "which we want to see in Salt Lake City.”

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.

The Utah Supreme Court is about to issue a ruling that can be a victory for the people of Utah.

Either the court will affirm the Holladay City Council’s enthusiastic approval of the planned redevelopment of the old Cottonwood Mall site, or it will authorize a voter referendum on the plan.

Either way, the Holladay Quarter project presents a model of smart growth, not just for Holladay but for the entire state.

While plans for the new ways to use that ground received unanimous approval from the City Council, some Holladay residents have voiced concerns. That is understandable. Many of us hold a nostalgic fondness for “the way things used to be.” But that human tendency can diminish our perception of the constant change that is the real world and blind us to the reality of our accelerating growth.

Utah’s population grew by an estimated 57,000 residents last year. Our state now has more households than available housing units. Those additional households were created mostly by our own children, not by transplants from somewhere else.

The Cottonwood Mall that once occupied those 57 vacant acres opened more than a half century ago. In just another 50 years, Utah will need homes for 2.5 million additional residents.

So, we aren’t facing a question of growth versus no growth. Rather, the question is whether we will champion smart growth or tolerate dumb growth as we create new housing and living patterns for the coming generations of Utahns.

Holladay Quarter will be a demonstration of how the thoughtful mixed use of land in walkable neighborhoods, clustered with shopping, restaurants, office space and parks can be a superior use of resources to create a higher quality of life.

Plus, the development’s range of housing types — from single-family homes with a variety of yard sizes to townhomes and apartments — will increase how many people can afford suitable housing in a desirable neighborhood over the changing phases of their lives.

That’s still a new concept for many of us on the Wasatch Front who grew up in the suburban sprawl made possible by the invention of the automobile. Because we are so accustomed to that temporary pattern of land use, we may think it is the only way — or at least the ideal way — to live. That perspective can make it hard to see the disadvantages of that way to use land in an urban environment and to recognize how unsustainable it is.

Nevertheless, more and more of today’s homebuyers no longer even want big yards, long driveways and mandatory car trips to the places they need to go each day. The diminishing size of the average building lot in Utah is not simply the result of the sharply rising price of land. Many homebuyers simply do not want to spend an inordinate percentage of their time and money caring for an oversized yard. They choose other ways to pursue an active lifestyle in communities that provide other ways to enjoy open space.

Single-family lots in Holladay’s new development will average one-quarter of an acre. That is fully a third larger than today’s average building lot in Salt Lake County. Such a choice remains attractive to some homeowners who still want an expansive garden or lawn. Others will have the choice to live in aesthetically pleasing homes where they are not directly responsible for maintaining the shared open space that surrounds them.

New individual home prices in Holladay Quarter, projected to range from $450,000 to more than $1 million, reflect the project’s compatibility with the existing upscale neighborhood.

The project will be a win for Holladay with the return of a retail tax base to what is now an empty weed patch. In the process, Holladay Quarter’s mixed-use design will generate less of a traffic impact than the old mall ever did.

Yes, redeveloping what has been an eyesore for the past 10 years will bring change. But it is change that addresses Utah’s growth in many smart ways — with walkable neighborhoods, a range of attractive housing opportunities and choices that enhance an attractive community with a strong sense of place.

I urge all Utah communities to embrace the future with similar thoughtful, careful plans.

Scott N. Howell, Salt Lake City, is a former Utah Senate minority leader.

A huge opportunity awaits Utah on Nov. 6 -- an opportunity to vote yes on Proposition 4 and slay one of the great plagues of American democracy, gerrymandering.

Every 10 years gerrymandering raises its ugly head and blights the fairness upon which our democracy is predicated. At that time, the state’s ruling political party, using United States Census data, redraws the state legislative and federal congressional districts to secure their political advantage.

In 2010, the pernicious effects of gerrymandering accelerated as big data and powerful mapping software allowed the ruling political party to draw district lines ever more precisely, thereby more fully entrenching their political advantage, and, in the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, “insulating officeholders against all but the most titanic shifts in the political tides."

In effect, gerrymandering allows politicians to pick their voters, rather than voters picking their politicians. It’s un-American. And it exists in every state with multiple congressional districts, including our own.

There are certain federal standards that those drawing redistricting maps must follow. Each district must contain the same population and not discriminate on the basis of race. Other traditional redistricting principles include limiting splits among cities and counties, preserving communities of interest, making districts compact and contiguous and not favoring or disfavoring incumbents.

With 2010 Census data in hand, Utah lawmakers appear to have willfully ignored traditional redistricting principles and proceeded to gerrymander both state legislative and federal congressional districts. One goal was to defeat 4th District Rep. Jim Matheson, Utah’s lone congressional Democrat. Using the classic gerrymandering technique, cracking, they divided Salt Lake City (a Democrat stronghold) among three districts to drown out its Democratic voters with neighboring heavily Republican turf. While Matheson won that year by less than 1 percent, Republicans finally captured his seat when he retired in 2014.

At the state level, the Associated Press found that Republicans, by creatively drawing districts, won an average of 64 percent of the votes in each district, while GOP candidates won 83 percent of all the legislative seats. The AP analysis concluded that redistricting helped Utah Republicans win three more seats than they likely would have if districts had been drawn more objectively.

Stories similar to Utah’s are playing out in states throughout the country. Unfortunately, gerrymandering’s pernicious effect runs deeper. It is a principle cause underlying the hyper-partisan politics in Washington. Why? Because gerrymandering frequently makes the primary election of the ruling party more important than the general election.

Politicians of the ruling party know that their party has drawn their districts to give them a huge advantage in the general election against any opposing party politician. So all that a ruling party politician has to do is win his primary’s election. Because citizens who vote in primary elections have more extreme views than the average voter, they choose politicians with more extreme views. As a result, in Republican states like Utah we tend to elect very conservative politicians, and in Democratic states such as Massachusetts, they elect very liberal ones.

Gerrymandering makes moderate politicians on both sides of the aisle uncommon. Accordingly, durable bipartisan legislation, the type requiring compromise, is now increasingly rare.

While the United States Supreme Court has dithered (2004, 2017), other states have taken up the challenge. In 2010, Californian voters decisively supported Proposition 20, mandating that California’s congressional districts be drawn by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission in a non-partisan, open, and transparent process.

Currently, independent redistricting commissions exist in five additional states — Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana and Washington. In this election, Missouri, Michigan and Colorado will join Utah in having ballot initiatives proposing independent redistricting commissions.

It is very hard to make a difference as an adult in a nation of 326 million. But, by voting yes on Proposition 4, you are saying to politicians in Utah and throughout the United States that you will not be denied by politicians who strive to drown your voice, and that you will contribute in a meaningful way to a better functioning democracy.

As a physician, I have spent my whole adult life in the service of my patients’ health. The health of our democracy is failing, and requires immediate treatment. Utah, let’s show America we know that to help heal our democracy we must eliminate gerrymandering. Vote yes on Proposition 4.

Justin F. Thulin, M.D., is a dermatologist practicing in Salt Lake City,

Robust, well-functioning and effective government has an implied duty of good faith on the part of its representatives and officials. It requires mutual respect, tolerance, a level of cooperation and a level of humility and humbleness that enables an elected official to actually listen and sincerely consider diverse points of view.

Though government officials of all stripes fail to adhere to the criteria set forth above, the Republican Party in particular, at both the state and national level, has been an egregious offender. Consider some recent examples:

* The Republican Party initiated a compromise with the Count My Vote citizen initiative (that looked certain to make the ballot), and passed legislation to enable a signature gathering path to the primary ballot, only to then litigate against the law they just passed based upon an allegation it was unconstitutional.

* Doing violence to the adage that “elections matter,” congressional Republicans refused to even consider, much less vote upon, President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court. It was an egregious refutation of practice and custom. Just because you legally can do something that infuriates half the country doesn’t mean it’s sound leadership and good governing to do so.

* Mitt Romney in early 2016 made an emphatic speech decrying Donald Trump as a presidential candidate, and warned that a Trump presidency would be terrible for the country. Romney went on to describe Trump as a phony and a fraud. Today Romney professes a level of acceptance of Trump as president that is a monument to hypocrisy relative to Romney’s 2016 description of Trump. Romney’s current acceptance of Trump is unreconcilable with Romney’s description of Trump in 2016. Romney has abandoned his principles, his sincere and accurate beliefs and his dignity in a quest for election and acceptance in today’s Republican Party. His apparent conclusion that he must go along to get along is a disgrace.

* Republicans across the country (albeit thankfully not in Utah) have passed laws and enforced rules in the ostensible name of election security while really seeking to suppress the vote of minorities and the poor. It’s another example of being able to legally do something that’s nevertheless corrosive to the cooperation and good faith needed to actually govern.

The Wall Street Journal recently chronicled that many large private companies have come to the realization that the most effective and valuable managers in business are those that exhibit humility and humbleness. Subordinates respond very positively to bosses that really listen, and really consider other points of view, and who admit, at times, that they are wrong.

The most recent example of the Republican Party’s arrogance, its hubris, its lack of humility and humbleness are the pronouncements of Utah state Sen. Jacob Anderegg. In the event that Medicaid expansion (Proposition 3) passes, Anderegg intends to promptly seek to repeal what has just been passed by the citizens of Utah. Anderegg alleges that Utah can’t afford Medicaid expansion. What he really means is that in his view expanding health insurance for thousands more Utahns is not worth the expense and sacrifice that would be required from the rest of Utah’s citizens. Anderegg apparently believes that his views should trump the will of the citizens of Utah.

Mostly in the past, there have been prominent examples of the kind of respectful, tolerant, open-minded politicians that are needed to create effective government. Barry Goldwater, in the latter stages of his career, was such a person. Goldwater impressed, among others, Al Franken. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan had deep respect on both sides of the aisle.

I believe today that Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., meets this criteria. Significantly, and not coincidentally, Flake is a Trump critic and is sadly retiring.

I didn’t personally know any of these politicians. I choose to call them statesmen because of the enlightened way they conducted themselves. I felt through knowing their public personas that they were, in a manner of speaking, friends of mine because of their constructive approach to governing.

To paraphrase a certain vice presidential debate: I know Flake, et al. They are/were friends of mine. Sen. Anderegg, you’re no statesman, and you’re certainly no friend of mine.

Eric Rumple, Sandy, has an MBA from the University of Chicago and is the author of the novel “Forgive Our Debts.”

As part of my doctorate in health policy and economics, I spent the last four years studying the impacts of the Affordable Care Act and specifically, Utah’s decision not to expand Medicaid. Several recent news articles have misrepresented the facts on the impact of Medicaid expansion in other states, particularly related to the health and economic benefits of expansion. Here are a few checks:

Since 2014, Utahns have paid taxes to fund Medicaid expansion in other states. To be exact, every day Utah leaves $796,789 tax dollars on the table that does not come back to the Utah economy. The question is not whether states want to pay for the care of low-income Americans, but rather whether they also want those taxpayer dollars to return to Utah.

The returned tax dollars have the potential to contribute to the growth of the Utah economy due in part to what economists call the “multiplier effect,” the concept that a dollar entering the economy returns more than a dollar of economic activity. Medicaid expansion dollars fund the provision of health care, promote financial stability and increase employment in the health care sector. These effects are multiplied as those dollars bolster health care businesses and pay wages to employees who support the local economy through their everyday expenses.

Studies report that Medicaid expansion supported 31,075 additional jobs in Colorado, 40,000 in Kentucky and 39,000 in Michigan, enough to offset the costs of Michigan’s expansion through 2021. Contrary to common rhetoric, adults with disabilities in expansion states are less likely to be unemployed compared to adults with disabilities in non-expansion states. Medicaid expansion also reduces state spending on health services provided through correctional health and state mental health programs, which reduced spending on such programs in Michigan by $235 million.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA realized budget savings, revenue gains and overall economic growth. Evidence also shows no significant reductions in spending on education, transportation or other states programs. In Louisiana, expansion saved the state $199 million.

Utah is responsible for 10 percent of the costs of covering 155,000 low-income Utahns. Proposition 3 was designed with a built-in funding mechanism: a 0.15 percentage point tax increase, or.15 cents on $100 (of non-food items). In the ballot language, the tax is described as a 3% percent increase. A 3 percent increase does not mean the tax rate increases by 3 percentage points, but rather that it increases by 3 percent of its’ original value, or 0.15 percentage points.

Claims that the Legislature has already passed an expansion are misleading, as their limited expansion wouldn’t cover as many people and is extremely likely to be rejected by the Trump administration, which has declined similar proposals from two other states.

The majority of those who fall in in the coverage gap work part or full time but simply do not have a way to access affordable coverage. They make too much to qualify for existing Medicaid but not enough to get coverage through the state’s private Marketplace.

The documented benefits of expansion are innumerable; from fewer personal bankruptcies, improved cancer screening, prescription drug adherence, access to surgical care, improved chronic disease management, depression outcomes, self-reported health and reductions in mortality.

Evidence demonstrates that Medicaid expansion is a viable pathway to provide coverage for uninsured Americans, support the Utah economy, and improve population health.

There are many disheartening facts about the U.S. health care system, but Medicaid is one of the bright spots that also happens to provide a safety net one out of every five of your neighbors relies on.

Sarah Gordon is a visiting scholar at the University of Utah’s Department of Population Health and in the final year of study for a doctorate in health economics and policy.

Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018, will be an especially poignant Veterans Day for remembrance, marking as it does the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

I’ll remember the regrets that my grandmother expressed about her brother, my great-uncle, killed in action in France during the last days of that war. The only son of immigrants, he left his widowed mother and five sisters when he volunteered. He felt a responsibility to serve this country.

On a day that honors all veterans, I’ll remember my father, who went ashore on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Grievously wounded, he came home to convalescence that lasted years and a permanent disability. He served because it was his duty.

I’ll remember my own service starting in the last days of the Vietnam War and continuing through Desert Storm that, while paling in comparison to theirs, was my effort to serve and do my duty.

Responsibility, duty, service and sacrifice are contributions all veterans make to their country. Not everyone serves in the military; not everyone needs to. But everyone needs to take up their share of responsibility and do their duty to this country. On Nov. 6, remember to vote. If you do not vote, you fail your duty and dishonor the memories of all veterans.

Lt. Col. James F. Janda, U.S. Army (Ret.), Sandy

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In response to inquiries about the redevelopment of the Cottonwood Mall site, the status of Utah Supreme Court’s ruling and the referendum before Holladay’s voters, we felt it was important to share the following with readers and broader public:

In the absence of a ruling by the Utah Supreme Court, Ivory Homes and the Woodbury Corp. have chosen not to campaign in support of our redevelopment of the former Cottonwood Mall site. As a reminder, our companies did not seek a zoning change, but rather administrative adjustments informed by the input from 21 public meetings. We agree with the mayor and City Council of Holladay that this matter is administrative and not subject to referendum.

As such, we choose not to campaign in support of our position. The rancor and discord have been difficult on our staff and families. We do not want to cause more division or contention in Holladay. This is now a legal matter with implications much larger than this development.

We are hopeful the court will soon issue an opinion that will support private property rights and provide a clear and workable framework for cities and property owners to follow going forward. We appreciate the many individuals and businesses who continue to express their support.

Clark Ivory, CEO, Ivory Homes, Jeff Woodbury, EVP, Woodbury Corporation

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Utahns, please don’t send Ben McAdams to Washington. He will get lost or buried in the untenable tribalism that is ruining our nation.

If he is such a good man (and I don’t doubt this), he should stay in Utah and keep the balance of the two political faiths. There’s the Legislature, Salt Lake City mayor or the governor’s race. I feel it would harm his and Utah’s status in politics if he were elected to Congress. Consider our nation.

P.S.: Each candidate in the 4th Congressional District should be ashamed of approving the content of some of their political ads.

T. G. “Bud” Mahas, Salt Lake City

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It’s all over bar the voting.

Weeks, that sometimes seemed like years, of often nasty campaign ads on TV, yard signs cluttering up everything and politicians popping up everywhere you look.

It will all be over Tuesday night. That’s when the polls close and the counting — which may take several more days — begins.

The sentiment, “Don’t vote, it only encourages them,” may seem appropriate just now. But the truth is that the suffering of the campaign season will be for nothing if those who have the final word, the voters, don’t do their part.

Utah has made many efforts over the last few years to make it easier for eligibles to exercise their franchise. We have online voter registration, early voting, voting by mail and, this year for the first time in Utah, the option of registering to vote at the polls on Election Day.

But the ease in easier doesn’t always work when anything, however well-intended, is new.

In Salt Lake County particularly, the effort to make voting easier by providing everyone with a mail-in ballot backfired last time around when not as many people as expected took up the vote-by-mail option and instead showed up at a greatly reduced number of polling stations on Election Day, just as they always had.

This year, there were reports that some voters did not receive their mail ballots and concerns, not just by partisans, that there still are not enough early voting and Election Day polling places. That lines may be long and patience may wear thin.

Concerns that attempts to make voting easier have actually made it more difficult are worth discussing. And should be addressed soon, not two years from today.

But for right now, voters who haven’t already sent in their mail ballots or swung by an early voting location have to take some of this responsibility upon themselves.

If you want to mail in your ballot via the U.S. Postal Service, remember that it must be mailed in time that the postmark on the return envelope is on or before Monday, the day before the election, not on Election Day itself. Or you can drop it off as late as Tuesday at a your county clerk’s office, a polling place or in one of the many drop boxes to be found at public buildings, such as the Salt Lake City Main Library.

Registering to vote at the polls on Election Day is new in Utah. Anyone planning to do so should be sure and have a proper ID — something as simple as a Utah driver license or U.S. passport — with them. And, again, new processes can be difficult and time consuming. So expect to be there awhile if that’s your choice.

Americans are really kind of spoiled when comes to democracy. We expect voting to be quick and simple and, if that’s what we want, our public officials should do a better job of giving it to us.

But being able to vote at all, when so much of the world doesn’t have that chance, should be well worth a couple of hours out of anyone’s year.

If you haven't voted yet, especially if you're a senior, rely on Social Security and Medicare, and are in the habit of voting for whoever has an "R" by their name, please consider this: The current Republican-controlled Congress has promised to cut your earned benefits if they retain power after Tuesday's election.

Congressional Republican leadership claims that the increasing deficit they created with massive tax cuts for the very rich can only be fixed by cutting Social Security and Medicare. And Utah's Republican senators and representatives always vote with Republican leadership.

They voted for tax cuts for the rich; they have voted over and over to end ACA health care protections like coverage for pre-existing conditions. They will vote to gut the Social Security and Medicare benefits you've paid into your entire working life.

So please, just this once, demand that Congress respect regular Americans' lives, needs and voices. Vote Democrat or United Utah Party, and protect your Social Security, Medicare and health care protections for all.

Stephanie Asplund, Layton

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The Salt Lake Tribune’s editorial was titled “Love in the 4th.” It should have been titled “Fascism in 2018.”

Under the extremely dubious reasoning that “Love is just finding her way,” The Tribune ignores the fact that re-election of a Republican Congress would justify and reinforce Donald Trump and the Republicans’ belief that the future of the nation is white male supremacy, keeping poor people poor and unrepresented, stifling a free press, ignoring climate change at our peril, totally disrupting global relations, and catering to the oligarchs who now own our country.

In my 40 years of reading Tribune editorials, this one is truly the worst and the most short-sighted. I grieve for our country if people follow your lead.

Michael A. Kalm, Salt Lake City

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Tuesday is Election Day and, for a midterm election, it’s a big one!

In Utah, most of the election coverage is dedicated to medicinal marijuana. Yet in a time when dark money’s influence continues to grow, the U.S. Congress’ approval rating has hovered around 20 percent for a decade, and 100 million eligible Americans sat out the 2016 presidential election. Our democracy is in peril.

Fortunately, as Utahns, we have the power to take a big step in standing up for democracy and demanding that our voices count. Gerrymandering is one of many toxic tools being used (by both parties) across the country to dilute our representative government, which in turn reinforces voter apathy and diminishes faith in our institutions.

Proposition 4 may not be as exciting as medical marijuana or as topical as President Trump and his battle with blue America, but it is at least as important. If there is one issue that can unite our divided nation, it is to raise our voices in support of having our vote count by supporting Prop 4.

Jared Lounsbury-Decker, St. George

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On the eve of Election Day, 2016, I was run over by a Nissan while crossing the street. The next day, the entire country was run over by a big, orange bus.

Two years later, I’m mostly healed. The country, however, just keeps moving deeper into an intensive care unit staffed with butchers.

Small wounds are being wrenched open; broken legs are treated with hammers. Infections are encouraged to spread their filth. And the big orange bus keeps careening down whatever road meets its need of the moment, running down anyone bold enough to cross its path.

If you’re reading this newspaper, you care enough to support truth and probably have already voted. My request is that you find a friend less likely to vote and invite them to go to the polls with you. Offer them lunch after you’ve each driven a nail into one of the bus’ tires.

Just be sure to look both ways when you cross the street. There are more of those buses than ever, and some may be on your ballot.

Jim Hayes, Salt Lake City

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Newspaper editorial board endorsements of political candidates and statements in favor of or opposed to ballot measures are, in the modern era, irrelevant and, quite frankly, a waste of newspapers' time and that of your readers. Maybe that wasn't the case decades ago, before the internet information age, but it certainly is the case now. I don't know a single voter who needs your input to decide how to vote. I know I don't.

Scott Christian Bauer, Salt Lake City

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Utah State received the school's highest football ranking since the Merlin Olsen era and Utah fell out of the AP Top 25, announced Sunday.

USU, a 56-17 winner at Hawaii late Saturday, moved up four spots to No. 14. The Aggies were ranked No. 10 in the final poll of the 1961 season after going 9-1-1 with a loss to Baylor in the Gotham Bowl. More recently, USU finished No. 16 in 2012, having gone 11-2 in the program's last season under coach Gary Andersen.

USU coach Matt Wells' team has an eight-game winning streak and is 8-1 overall, 5-0 in the Mountain West. The Aggies are No. 16 in the Coaches Poll. USU will host San Jose State on Saturday in its final regular-season home game.

The next checkpoint for USU is Tuesday's release of the second week of College Football Playoff rankings, which eventually will award a New Year's Six bowl bid and could determine the host site of the Mountain West championship game. The Aggies were not listed in the first CFP rankings; No. 12 Central Florida was the highest-ranked Group of Five team in the CFP last week and MW member Fresno State was No. 23.

Utah (6-3) dropped out of the AP Top 25 after a 38-20 loss at Arizona State, after being No. 16 last week. The Utes, who host Oregon on Saturday, remained in the Coaches Poll at No. 24.

Young people can cancel out old people’s votes

The latest polls have Ben McAdams more or less even -- or even ahead -- in Utah’s 4th Congressional District, and Shireen Ghorbani behind in the 2nd District but not out of range of a major upset if turnout is unusually high.

It would be a shame if either or both fall short of defeating their Republican rivals because thousands of young people couldn't be bothered to vote — and in this of all elections, inescapably in large part a referendum on Donald Trump's presidency.

If you are similarly distressed and know a young person who says “What's the point?” or “What's one vote more or less?”, make it personal.

Tell them: "That older guy down the street who watches Hannity every night and hangs on Trump's every nasty tweet? You can bet he'll be voting — for Stewart or Love. But if you also vote, you can have the satisfaction of knowing his vote is now canceled, zeroed out, gone. Whatever else happens, you have blocked a Trump supporter, while at the same time doing your duty as a citizen. And who knows, if your friends and their friends, and on and on, can be persuaded to do the same, maybe your vote really will make a difference this time."

Bill Dooley, Salt Lake City

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When does an excuse become a reason?

For fans, NBA schedule difficulties can sometimes sound like an excuse. NBA players are paid millions of dollars, the thinking goes, so why can’t they be ready to play and win two nights in a row? Even if they travel in between, they should be fine on their fancy private jets, right?

Cheri Mah, a physician scientist at the UC San Francisco Human Performance Center and someone who regularly consults with NBA teams on sleep-related issues, disagrees. In conjunction with ESPN, she’s created a formula, the Mah score, which takes into account game time, schedule congestion, travel required, recovery time, and game location for each NBA contest and then gives each game a 1-10 score. ESPN issues a “Schedule Alert” when the game has a Mah score of 8 or above.

It turns out that the Mah score of a game is insanely predictive of whether or not a team will win or lose. Since ESPN started the project, teams with a “Schedule Alert” have lost 74 percent of their games. Last year, it was 42 of 54 such contests, or 78 percent.

For a metric that doesn’t take into account team success whatsoever, this is an exceptionally significant result: The Warriors could be facing the Suns, but if the world champs didn’t get enough sleep the night before, they’d still get a “Schedule Alert." And if history is any indication, they’d be at significant risk of losing that game.

The Jazz are only part of two games with a Mah score of eight or above before the All-Star break, and both in the first week of November. Saturday night’s 103-88 loss to the Nuggets had a Mah score of 8.5. That was thanks to a contest against the Memphis Grizzlies the night before, the game being their third in four nights coming on the heels of a four-game road trip, and a late-night flight to Denver that didn’t see the Jazz get into their hotel rooms until 2 a.m.

“[It does impact us] a little bit with scheduling, because we got in so late the night before,” Jazz rookie guard Grayson Allen explained. “[We flew out] right after the game, so it kind of affects what we do the morning of the game. It was kind of different with our final walkthrough being at a later time, and not doing as much.”

And what do you know: They predictably started the game well, and faded in the fourth quarter as tired legs meant their open shots fell short. Even on layups, the Jazz didn’t always look like they had the extra inch of vertical that turn contested layups into easy ones. It was exactly what you’d expect to see in a Schedule Alert game.

On Monday, the tables will turn: Their matchup against the Toronto Raptors is a Schedule Alert for the Raptors, not for the Jazz. While it has a slightly lower Mah score — 8, not 8.5 — the factors still add up: The game will be the Raptors' third in four nights; they play the Lakers Sunday night in an 8:30 p.m. MST game, and then will have a late night traveling to Utah, even losing an hour due to the time zone change. To manage his workload, Kawhi Leonard will sit either against L.A. or Utah, though it hasn’t yet been determined which one.

That’s not to say that the Raptors won’t be a tough challenge for the Jazz, who are winless in their last three. But if the Jazz come through with a win on Monday, Raptors fatigue will be a legitimate reason — not an excuse — for the visitors.

Once again, with his mistaken claim about his ability to end birthright citizenship with an executive order, President Donald Trump has waded into the miasma of xenophobia and racism aimed at excluding immigrants from the rights enjoyed by all Americans.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution has been interpreted since its inception to allow the right of citizenship to all people born on U.S. soil. Now, spurred by misleading claims that illegal immigrants, most of them from Mexico and Central America, are sneaking into the country only to have babies who can “anchor” them to the United States, Trump wants to abolish the protections the 14th Amendment provides to those born here.

As a third-generation Japanese American, I am too familiar with the havoc caused by this kind of anti-immigrant fervor. If its most fervent adherents had gotten their way, my parents, the son and daughter of Japanese immigrants, would have been denied citizenship.

While the circumstances now are different than when my grandparents moved to the United States in the first two decades of the 20th century, the same sentiments exist — xenophobia, economic competition and misplaced fears about disease and the inability to assimilate into overall American society.

In the first half of the 20th century, Japanese immigrant farmers were denied the chance to buy their own land or gain access to profitable farmland. They often were forced to make their farms on marginal land close to factories, railroad tracks or electrical lines. They almost always turned those farms into success stories that incurred the jealousy of white farmers, who resented how Japanese immigrant farmers succeeded while they often did not.

As I have learned while researching my upcoming book about my family’s experience before, during and after the Japanese American incarceration during World War II, these spurious claims have often been used against immigrant groups. Chinese immigrants who helped build the transcontinental railroad were targeted by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited their immigration to the United States and opened the door for Japanese immigrants, who were then banned from immigrating here by the 1924 immigration law.

In both cases, the reasons for exclusion were based on bad science, such as the pernicious and discredited discipline of eugenics, and racism. Chinese and Japanese immigrants looked different from white Americans and were easier to target.

But as I look at where my family has gone since my grandparents moved here, I see a quintessentially American story that would have been lost if we had been denied citizenship. My father has led the pharmaceutical sciences departments at two major American universities, developed drugs that helped millions of people around the world and employed thousands of Americans. My uncle Takeru, also the son of immigrants, has a building named after him on the campus of the University of Kansas, deep in the American heartland. My uncle James served as a doctor in the Army during World War II, helping heal the wounds of soldiers while his parents remained incarcerated in Wyoming. My uncle Kiyoshi helped develop top-secret weapons while working for the Army as a chemist.

They are all immigrant success stories who have blessed the country, because their parents fled an impoverished Japan to seek a better life. They found it, and their children and grandchildren have continued to make this a stronger, richer and more diverse nation.

The man accused of murdering 11 innocent people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27 was driven by the rabid conspiracy theory that Jews were trying to replace “real Americans” with immigrants and therefore had to be stopped. Just days after that, Trump has added to that anti-immigrant fervor with his claim about birthright citizenship.

All of these moves contribute to a worsening attitude of intolerance and misunderstanding about the role of immigrants in society. As my family and the millions of other immigrant families have shown, there is no test to becoming an American and to contributing to the one nation that truly allows immigrants to come here and succeed, regardless of their race and national origin.

As a nation, we owe it to ourselves not to impose such a test or have one forced on us by a politician catering to the bigots among us.

Shirley Ann Higuchi, J.D., is chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.

Megyn Kelly has further fallen from grace after verbalizing bigoted ideas in apparent ignorance. Now again we hear the resounding natter of disagreement between the two ideological sides. On the one hand, we are appalled that a mature and educated woman lacks insight about the troubling racist history of white blackface. On the other, we are enraged that the PC police, once again, is shaming a nice woman over an innocent comment.

We conflate ignorance and innocence.

Socrates said that there is only one good — knowledge — and one evil — ignorance. Unlike modern Americans, he would say that ignorance does not absolve us of culpability for the evil we perpetrate on others. He would say that innocence is actually the only face of evil, and that our only real moral obligation is to discover the ways that our ignorant acts harm others. That’s what he meant when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Of course, this contradicts our modern shared ideas of evil. Most of us think evil is a cosmological force, perhaps personified by a red and horned boogeyman, insidiously gaining control over the hearts of those whose beliefs are different from ours. We disregard the common-sense truth that, like us, most people view themselves as essentially good. Because we fail to see the fork-tailed monster in ourselves, we believe that he must be in others.

As for Socrates, we could be astonished that such insight about evil came from a mind that also believed that some men are born to be free and others to be slaves. How can we tell the difference? Simple. Those with slave natures are born into slavery. Cognitive dissonance, apparently, is our natural state.

Had he lived in our modern world, would Socrates have seen the evil in himself?

I recently had a conversation with an old friend who asked why he shouldn’t use the N-word. To his credit, he said “N-word” instead of actually saying the N‑word, which argues for a possible charitable viewpoint: Maybe he was just trolling me. But the uncertainty highlights a sad fact about the state of our moral educations.

The necessary skills to live Socrates’ examined life were not features of our public, familial or religious educations. We came of age in red states with predominantly white middle classes. I can count on two fingers the number of African-Americans I spoke to before adulthood, and that may be an overestimate — I’m not sure I actually spoke to them. My early education in all things African-American came from — can you guess? — “The Cosby Show.”

Speaking of Bill Cosby, the cautionary tale of his life illustrates the link between ignorance and evil. His decade of greatest fame (not counting his current decade of greatest infamy) was also an era when rape was normalized in blockbuster movies like “Sixteen Candles,” “Revenge of the Nerds” and even “Blade Runner.” Given those cultural norms, should it surprise us that Cosby could have deluded himself into thinking it was acceptable to drug and rape women? If he was ignorant, would that have made it less evil? Socrates would say he had a moral obligation to discover how his ignorance could cause harm. He would say that an incredible capacity for cognitive dissonance is no defense.

The same can also be said of racism and all other forms of bigotry.

We are living in a time of rapid social change. Our understanding of what harms others is growing so fast that we are leaving too many behind. This may be the whole reason for our nation’s apparently unbridgeable ideological divide. But a lack of insight does not absolve us of the responsibility to avoid evil acts. It only highlights that education must be a lifelong process.

We simply don’t reach adulthood knowing everything that we’ll ever need to know.

We need educations that provide skills for living examined lives, as Socrates advised. But first, we’ll have to rid ourselves of the persistent belief that evil is a cosmological force external to us. We’ll have to learn to see it in ourselves.

Joanne LaFleur is a flawed human, a scientist and an educator who lives and works in Salt Lake City.