Sacramento - A year ago, the #MeToo movement went viral.

First came the naming, shaming and ousting of powerful men accused of sexual misconduct. Then came awareness of the prevalence of such misconduct, and of the intricate methods — the threats, the legally enforced silence — used to keep victims from speaking out.

Then came the righteous fury.

But, to date, the expulsions and outrage have not coalesced into anything resembling a successful federal policy agenda — to, you know, keep such problems from happening again.

In fact, over the past year, Congress has done (almost) nothing to address the systemic problems that lead to workplace sexual misconduct.

Here in California, however, where the governor just signed several laws addressing workplace sexual harassment, things look different. Also in Vermont, Michigan, New York, Tennessee, and at least six other states and three localities.

As with other popular policies that Congress has been unwilling or unable to pursue — including raising the minimum wage and passing paid family leave — states have led the way.

The jurisdictions have taken different approaches to strengthening workplace protections, many of which are summarized in a new report from the National Women's Law Center.

Some have simply expanded the universe of workers covered by anti-harassment legal protections. Federal workplace anti-harassment law generally does not extend to employers with fewer than 15 employees, or to independent contractors, interns, volunteers or grad students. Five jurisdictions (four states and New York City) have plugged some of those gaps.

Four states newly bar or limit the ability of employers to force sexual harassment victims into arbitration, an often secret process whereby arbitrators are incentivized to be friendlier to the side that offers repeat business (hint: it's not the employee). Forced arbitration clauses can also prevent multiple victims from banding together to bring a class-action suit.

Federal law limits states' abilities to legislate issues related to arbitration, however, and these new state-level provisions are likely to get challenged in court. Indeed, on the same day he signed some of his state's #MeToo legislation, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a bill that would have barred mandatory arbitration, on the grounds that it would have violated federal law.

Which drives home the need for Congress to actually do its job here.

Perhaps the most striking set of anti-sexual harassment laws that states have recently passed relate to nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). Some employers (including at least one political campaign) require workers to sign NDAs when they start a new job, and then much later dust off those agreements to muzzle speech about alleged harassment, discrimination or other bad behavior.

Which seems indefensible, particularly if we're talking about lawbreaking. Accordingly, five states have barred or limited the use of NDAs as a condition of employment.

Where things get trickier is in the use of NDAs as part of legal settlements.

What if an alleged victim wants to remain anonymous, given the risk of harm to her (or his) career? And if a complainant’s silence can’t be guaranteed, victims might get less money — since part of what’s being paid for is the silence.

Of course, that paid-for silence might benefit one victim, but it has externalities, too: It could harm future victims, who might have otherwise been warned off the employer. Or even past victims, who might come forward if they knew they weren't alone.

States have addressed these concerns in different ways. New York and California have limited the use of NDAs in sexual harassment settlements, more often letting victims decide whether to keep the facts confidential. It's unclear, though, how you make sure such a decision isn't coerced, says National Women's Law Center vice president Emily Martin.

New Jersey is considering a compelling solution that would allow NDAs in harassment settlements but give victims the right to change their minds. If a victim later decides to speak out, and says enough to identify the employer, then the employer would be free to speak as well.

As for protecting future victims, states are exploring new reporting requirements, such as mandating that employers report misconduct claims or settlements to a government office, to make it easier to identify patterns.

Incidentally, the Empower Act, a federal bill with bipartisan support in both the Senate and House, incorporates many of these features. Yet it languishes on Capitol Hill, a full year after the public learned how toxic the secrecy around sexual misconduct can be.

Voters next month would do well to remind federal officials that — to borrow a phrase — #TimesUp.

Catherine Rampell’s email address is crampell@washpost.com. Follow her on Twitter, @crampell.

Mia Love claimed during a debate Monday night that the Federal Election Commission decided she violated no laws by raising $1 million for a primary she never faced — and she urged reporters to call the agency to verify that.

On Tuesday, the FEC said it had no comment on the situation — neither verifying nor denying Love’s claim.

FEC spokesman Miles Martin told The Salt Lake Tribune that any official position on the matter would come in a letter, which would be posted online. He said no such letter has been written or posted.

Love had provided the name of an FEC analyst she said had called her campaign’s lawyer with the news. But Miles said those analysts are not allowed to speak to the press, and cannot talk on the record about any FEC positions.

In short, it leaves Democrat Ben McAdams still contending that Love raised and used $1 million illegally in their close race — and Love saying she broke no laws.

Andrew Roberts, campaign manager for McAdams, said Tuesday, “Representative Love continues to have a difficult relationship with the truth. She lied to Utahns and to the press last night. In fact, the FEC has not cleared her for raising over $1 million in violation of federal law. The investigation is ongoing.”

He added, “We expect D.C. politicians to lie when they're embroiled in scandal. Utahns expected better from Mia Love and we can do much better."

On Monday just before her debate with McAdams, Love had issued a statement condemning McAdams for “peddling lies about me” on the fundraising issue.

She said then, “He knew full well that no illegal fundraising had taken place…. I am asking McAdams to hold himself accountable by acknowledging and apologizing for his false commercials and mailers. My family and the voters deserve an apology.”

The controversy comes after the FEC wrote the Love campaign in August questioning the legality of $1 million she raised for a primary election she knew she would never face.

“Since the candidate will not participate in the 2018 primary election, any contribution received must be returned to the donors or redesignated to another election” with written permission of donors, the FEC wrote earlier.

Love won the Republican nomination without a primary and, in fact, no challenger filed to run against her in the GOP.

Matthew Sanderson, attorney for Love’s campaign, said on Tuesday, “I’m not surprised they [the FEC] are not making a reports division analyst available” to verify what they told the campaign. “There are very few people in the agency who are authorized to talk to the press.”

Still, he said the analyst had called to give the campaign a “heads-up” that agency lawyers had determined it violated no laws, and could keep money raised for the primary before the state GOP convention officially nominated Love.

“They will eventually memorialize that [in writing], but I don’t know what their timeline will be,” Love’s attorney said. “We are talking about a federal agency that operates kind of at its own pace.”

Meanwhile, the left-leaning Alliance for a Better Utah — which had filed a complaint with the FEC over the $1 million raised for the primary — said it had been notified that the FEC still had an open investigation into that matter.

“Let’s be clear: a conversation with an FEC staffer … is not an official clearance from the FEC,” said Chase Thomas, executive director of the alliance. “We call on her campaign to return all the money raised after the date of the convention as required by the law.”

Dave Hansen, Love’s campaign manager, said it has refunded or reallocated all the money raised for the primary — before and after she was nominated at the state convention.

“It’s not that we did anything wrong. The money certainly was not raised illegally. It’s a process you go through,” he said.

He noted that Utah law allows a potential of three races for federal candidates: a state convention, a primary election and a general election. For each one faced by a candidate, individual donors may give up to $2,700 and political action committees (PACs) may give $5,000.

If donors exceeded limits because they gave for three elections when only two were held, money was refunded, Hansen said. If they gave money designated for the primary, the campaign obtained letters allowing it to be reallocated to the general election, he added. If they gave money with no designation, it has been directed to the general election.

Meanwhile, both campaigns filed new quarterly financial disclosure forms late Monday with the FEC.

During the quarter ending Sept. 30, Love raised $1.06 million compared to $866,506 for McAdams. Love has raised $4.3 million during the two-year election cycle (including the disputed $1 million for the primary), compared to $2.5 million by McAdams.

In the last quarter, Love also outspent McAdams $1.8 million to $1.4 million. McAdams had more cash on hand on Sept. 30 for the final campaign push — $724,913 to $541,410 for Love.

A higher percentage of Love’s money came from PACs, which is not unusual for an incumbent — but McAdams has attacked that as a sign that Love is too beholden to special interests. PACs have now given her $947,430 during the cycle, compared to $331,33 for McAdams.

Video: What you need to know about Jared Kushner’s ties to Russia. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

“Two princes: Kushner now faces a reckoning for Trump’s bet on the heir to the Saudi throne”

— Washington Post headline, Oct. 15

[Excerpted from: “Salmanella and the Glass Orb: How Prince Charming Met His Prince Charming”]

Once upon a time in the year 2017 — before Ulysses S. Grant was recognized as a great general, before Frederick Douglass was recognized for his amazing work and before Napoleon had his extracurricular activities — there lived a handsome young prince by the name of Jared. Some called him Jared the Silent, but most used his preferred name, Prince Charming.

And what a charmed existence Jared led! He earned a fortune from his family's investments in commercial palaces but paid almost no federal income taxes. He made a bad investment and lost money, but lenders bailed him out. Around the world, other princes and dukes thought Prince Jared was ignorant and easily manipulated. But what others thought about the prince did not matter, for Jared's father-in-law was the king — the ruler of the House of Orange.

But for all Prince Jared possessed, he did not have what he wanted most dearly: Saudi money. With envy, Jared saw how the Saudis spent millions at his father-in-law's hotels. Could he not obtain their money, too? "Please, father," Jared beseeched the king. "Take me to that wonderful land."

Now, Saudi Arabia was not really the paradise of young Jared's imagination but the dark kingdom that produced Osama bin Laden and his evil hijackers. The country persecuted women and made war on innocent people. But the Saudi leader, King Salman, waved a wand for Jared's royal visit, and the despotic country was magically transformed into the peaceful, reforming society of Jared's fantasy. King Salman threw a great ball, and Jared was captivated by the military bands, the fighter-jet flyover and, especially, the magic sword dance.

King Salman waved his wand again and there, at the ball, was a ball: a great, glowing glass orb — the prettiest in the whole world! When Prince Jared touched the shimmering orb, a spell came over him. He came to believe that King Salman's heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or Salmanella, was the fairest of them all. The glass orb told Prince Jared that Salmanella, nearly as charming as Jared, was not the bloodthirsty climber some feared but rather a young reformer who believed in human rights. The orb led Jared to believe that if he embraced Salmanella, his land would be blessed with $270 billion in Saudi arms payments, Saudi investments and lots of cheap oil.

Prince Charming had found his Prince Charming. Or so he thought!

It came to pass that Jared did everything he could to make the beautiful image of Salmanella he saw in the glass orb fit reality. He looked away when the Saudi prince killed civilians in Yemen, imprisoned rivals in the dungeon of the Ritz-Carlton, kidnapped the Lebanese prime minister and made mischief in Syria. Jared and his friends did all they could to win Salmanella's heart: busting up Middle East diplomacy and tearing up an agreement with Iran, incurring the wrath of the world — whatever it took to charm the charming prince.

But when the clock struck midnight on the day the arms deals were to be signed, there was no $270 billion. There wasn't even $110 billion. The Saudi promises amounted to rags. And when Jared presented his new Middle East peace plan — a plan he had written himself, with love — King Salman and Salmanella rejected it.

Just then, when it seemed the sad prince’s despair could not be deeper, Jared learned that Salmanella — his Salmanella — was suspected of ordering 15 evil henchman to Turkey to kidnap a journalist living in Jared’s own land, and kill him. Salmanella denied it, but there were, reportedly, tapes. To his horror, Prince Jared discovered he was in the wrong fairy tale: His Prince Charming had turned into a beast!

Ridicule rained on the disgraced Prince Jared for his naive trust in the bad prince. And here our story might have ended, had a revelation not occurred to Jared in the depths of his sorrow: Salmanella may be unscrupulous, but he was still super rich! And so Jared decided that, Prince Charming or not, the shoe fit.

Prince Jared and Salmanella did real estate deals together. They didn't pay taxes. They got recognized more and more. And they lived happily ever after.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.

Video: Columnist David Ignatius, Jamal Khashoggi’s longtime friend, and Karen Attiah, Khashoggi’s editor, talk about the ‘kind, gentle’ Post contributor, who disappeared after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

Four seasons ago, Utah linebacker Chase Hansen was asked what his goals were in football. His response:

“I’m not one to brag, but for me, I’ve always felt that it’s not really a choice. I have to be the best. And whether that’s here at Utah, in the conference or in the country, I’ve always set my goals pretty high. My goals are set as high as anyone can set a goal.”

And what is that goal?

“Can’t tell you,” he said. “It’s lofty.”

That was before Hansen had played a single down of college football, all the way back when he was a quarterback-in-waiting for the Utes. He laughed about those days after practice on Monday, allowing for a moment the thought of throwing touchdown passes to ricochet through his mind, like a Super Ball chucked in a shower stall.

“I tell people I could have played quarterback if I’d wanted to,” he said, half-laughing, half-serious. “… I tried to make it clear, I could have thrown a better ball than [Britain Covey].”

It was Covey, a receiver who reached outside his normal position — like Hansen, he also played quarterback in high school — to throw a 58-yard touchdown pass to QB Tyler Huntley in Utah’s win over Arizona on Friday night.

Back in the day, the inexperienced Hansen said: “That’s one of the things I love about playing quarterback. People look to the quarterback to be [a certain] type of guy. On the field, I’m not angry, but I’m instantly ready to play, to be a football player, to do whatever it takes to win.”

Which in this case meant moving to … defense.

Since Hansen was switched to the other side of the ball, he’s thrived, becoming — just as he said he had no choice in the matter — one of the best defenders in the Pac-12. First, he starred for the Utes as a strong safety, and then when the need became apparent, he stepped in at linebacker this season, making what might have been a weak spot a strength, anchoring Utah’s typically rocksteady resistance.

Hansen said the move was “pretty natural.”

“I’ve always loved hitting,” he said. “At the same time, there was a lot I had to learn.”

One of the items on the agenda for Hansen was learning how to deal with injuries. Prior to this season, shoulder problems had bedeviled Hansen, placing in front of him the biggest challenge of his college career. Through the initial half of this season, though, those issues have subsided, enabling his talent, his presence to solidify the Ute defense, a group that has given up just 96 points, fewer than any other unit in the Pac-12.

“It’s been a huge blessing to be halfway through the season and to be feeling good,” Hansen said. “Knock on wood, i’ve been able to make it this far.”

That means more to him this season than in any other, considering it is his last one in a Utah uniform. And while his football future might be bright, his college experience is in its stretch run, the ongoing punctuation to a period in his life that has taught him much, and which he intends with his Ute teammates, to make the most competitively.

“We know what we’re capable of,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep rolling.”

After losing their first two conference games and winning consecutive games over Stanford and Arizona, Hansen said his team is in position for a strong finish, one in which it might be able to win the South division, something the Utes have never done.

“We’ve never lost confidence,” he said. “There were a few things we wished we could have done differently against Washington and Washington State. But we understand, if we play our best ball, we don’t think there’s anybody who can beat us.”

That includes Saturday night’s game at Rice-Eccles against division-rival USC, which will be a huge deal for the Utes, a must-win.

“In the Pac-12, every game is a dogfight,” Hansen said. “We’re going to get the best of a great team. One loss can set you back, one win can push you forward. We understand that it’s up for grabs in the South. We just got to prepare and be ready to go. … These are the games I’ll look back on. That’s what I love about it. Lining up against some team that you know is going to be a battle. USC always has a lot of great talent at the skill positions. They always have a great offensive line. And the quarterback is always a big deal.”

On Saturday night, Hansen plans on introducing himself to freshman Trojan quarterback JT Daniels. Perhaps he’ll see in him the reflection of a long-ago frosh QB who had nothing but open road in front of him.

“Sometimes I think about what would have happened for me at quarterback,” Hansen said. “But I try not to look back too much.”

No reason to when there’s yet so much for the linebacker to look forward to, whatever his lofty, unspoken goal is.

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

Las Vegas • Nevada authorities say a legal pimp who gained popularity for an HBO series about his business and a Republican candidate for the state Legislature has died.

Nye County sheriff Lt. David Boruchowitz said an employee at Dennis Hof’s Love Ranch brothel outside of Las Vegas summoned authorities a little before 11 a.m. Tuesday after Hof was found unresponsive and not breathing.

Boruchowitz says there is no sign of foul play.

Hof was the Republican nominee this year for a heavily GOP legislative district. Ballots have already been printed in the race and it wasn’t immediately clear how elections officials would handle Hof’s death.

Hof owned a handful of brothels in Nevada, the only state that allows them to legally operate.

A Navy veteran in Utah will stay behind bars after being charged with sending letters to President Donald Trump and other leaders containing substance from which the poison ricin is derived.

KUTV reports that a lawyer for William Clyde Allen III said Monday the 39-year-old is needed at home to care for his sick wife and she would ensure that he obeys any court-ordered restrictions.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead said he was worried that Allen could still be a danger and kept him in jail.

Authorities say the envelopes containing ground castor beans were intercepted after being mailed to Trump, the FBI director, secretary of defense and the Navy’s top officer. They allegedly had Allen’s return address.

Allen is charged with threatening to use a biological toxin as a weapon and other counts.

Sandy • Real Salt Lake midfielder Damir Kreilach did not shy away from the importance of the team’s game Thursday against the New England Revolution.

“This is the most important game in the season for us,” Kreilach said Tuesday after training. “We have to win this game.”

With just two games left in the regular season, RSL is still in the sixth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The L.A. Galaxy are only two points behind RSL in the West standings.

The Revolution, on the other hand, were eliminated from the playoffs over the weekend.

Damir Kreilach said the game against New England is the “most important” of the season for #RSL. I asked him why. He explains: pic.twitter.com/MqXv9JzSpA

— Alex Vejar (@AlexVReporting) October 16, 2018

Forward Corey Baird said the team tries to stay away from all-or-nothing scenarios, but he echoed Kreilach’s comments.

“We don’t really like to use the term ‘must-win’ because at the end of it, our lives aren’t at stake. It’s not like we have to win this,” Baird said. “But if we want to be a playoff team, these are the games we have to win.”

While no one’s lives are literally at stake against New England, RSL’s playoff lives might be. After not coming away with wins in its last two home games, the team has left points on the table.

Corey Baird on the importance of #RSL’s next game. pic.twitter.com/roNThFbrxR

— Alex Vejar (@AlexVReporting) October 16, 2018

But RSL coach Mike Petke is focusing on the quality of his team’s play and not on a specific result.

“We don’t have to win,” Petke said. “We have to go out and show up and play and see what happens in the result.”

Taking a break

By the time RSL plays New England on Thursday, the team will have had 12 days between games. Some players said the layoff was good for the team as a whole.

“I think it gave guys a little bit of time to just kind of get their heads right, get away from it a little bit and just relax,” Baird said. “It’s a long season, so getting this little break towards the end of kind of is nice and refreshing.”

Throughout the season, RSL has had four instances in which the Major League Soccer schedule created gaps of at least 10 days in between games. RSL is 1-1-2 in games played in those situations.

The long layoff gave the team an opportunity to start preparing earlier than normal for playing the Revolution, which RSL has not faced yet this season. Petke said the team has been figuring out its approach for the game since last week.

Three years ago, Unified Police Department officer Lance Bess was duck hunting in Box Elder County when another hunter fired three shots in his direction.

With his police-issued pistol in one hand and his hunting shotgun in the other, Bess — depending on one’s point of view — either investigated the errant shotgun blasts or confronted the other hunters. A jury later convicted Bess of a misdemeanor count of threatening or using a weapon in a fight or quarrel.

The Utah Supreme Court heard arguments Friday over whether Bess received a fair trial, and, if he did, what the impact could be for police officers who respond to danger.

Paul Cassell, a former federal judge who is representing Bess in his appeal, argued that Bess had a legal presumption of innocence because he was a police officer responding to danger. Cassell said Bess’ conviction means police officers — even when on duty and in uniform — can be convicted of brandishing a firearm when they are performing their official duties.

“Every time a law enforcement officer shows up at a bank robbery with a gun drawn," Cassell said, “he’s committed a crime” under the prosecution’s theory.

Utah law allows police officers to present as a defense that they were performing their job or defending themselves. Another aspect of Bess’ appeal contends he wasn’t properly allowed to raise those defenses at trial.

In his instructions to the jury at the start of the trial, 1st District Judge Brandon Maynard did not describe Bess’ ability to make that affirmative defense. After receiving an objection from the prosecution, Maynard decided Bess’ lawyer needed to make that argument in open court first.

Before jurors deliberated, Maynard described to them the legal elements Bess needed to meet, but Utah Supreme Court Justice Deno Himonas wondered aloud Friday whether the jury was able to “contextualize” the trial evidence without similar preliminary instructions.

According to transcripts and records from 1st District Court in Brigham City, an inexperienced, 24-year-old hunter at the Salt Creek Waterfowl Management Area was firing at a duck and peppered Bess’ location. When Bess approached with firearms, according to courtroom testimony, he was using profanity as he asked who fired at him. The hunter who fired and his family tried to calm Bess.

There’s also a dispute as to whether a dangerous situation existed. Assistant Utah Solicitor General John J. Nielsen on Friday pointed out there was a five- to 10-minute delay between the shots and when Bess approached the family. No one was injured.

James Wolfe, whose nephew fired the shots in Bess' direction, was also duck hunting at the bird refuge that day in October 2015, and he attended Friday’s arguments. After the hearing, Wolfe said he’s generally a supporter of the police but added that Bess didn’t volunteer that he was a police officer until Wolfe threatened to call police. Bess then refused to show a badge, at first.

“All he could do was yell and swear at me," Wolfe said.

Bess pleaded not guilty, but a jury convicted him of Utah’s highest-level misdemeanor in May 2017.

Maynard sentenced Bess to two days in jail, 18 months of probation, 40 hours of community service and to pay $493 in fines — all of which he has served. Bess still has his police officer certification, but UPD moved Bess into a civilian job pending the resolution of his case. Bess now works for the new Herriman Police Department, again as a civilian.

Local police unions as well as the Utah chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police have filed amicus briefs supporting Bess.

Outside the Utah Supreme Court chambers, Cassell read aloud a statement on Bess’ behalf.

“I served as a law enforcement officer for nearly 14 years,” the statement said. “I can’t believe I’m now being forced to prove my innocence, and I hope it doesn’t happen to other law enforcement officers.”

Civil liberties advocates are faulting Operation Rio Grande for an overemphasis on policing Salt Lake City’s homeless population, reporting the initiative has so far yielded about 13 arrests for every new treatment program placement.

When Operation Rio Grande launched last August, its creators said they were seeking to reduce lawlessness around the city’s homeless shelter through a two-year effort that would target the “worst of the worst” for arrest and expand treatment options and job training for others. But the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah says many minor offenders are also getting caught in the law enforcement net.

“Being homeless is not a crime, yet thousands of individuals living in or frequenting the Rio Grande neighborhood were detained, jailed and released with no additional help and the added burden of warrants, fines and a criminal record,” the ACLU wrote in an eight-page report released Tuesday.

Since Operation Rio Grande’s launch in August 2017, police have made more than 5,000 arrests as part of the initiative, more than three-quarters of them for misdemeanors or active warrants. That figure dwarfs the number of new beds added to local social service agencies (243) and the number of people who have pleaded into drug court (120) during the operation’s first year, the report states.

Jason Stevenson, an ACLU spokesman, said the imbalance exists because Operation Rio Grande was “designed as a hammer” and has had a law-and-order emphasis since its inception. Granted, he said, it’s easier to send squad cars to the Rio Grande neighborhood than to create new treatment beds. But it’s not the most efficient tactic in the long term, he said.

“It’s not necessarily cheaper to focus on law enforcement, but that machine is much easier to ramp up than the treatment side,” he said.

House Speaker Greg Hughes, one of the main architects of Operation Rio Grande, said he was disappointed by the ACLU report and felt it mischaracterized the operation as a heavy-handed effort. It has helped numerous people get back on their feet, he said.

“Not only am I proud of the work that people have done, I’m happy for and inspired for the people who have been able to turn their lives around,” he said.

Operation Rio Grande’s three-pronged plan began with law enforcement to address crime around the city’s homeless shelter, said Nate McDonald, spokesman for the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

“We definitely knew it could not just be about law enforcement, but there was a need to get things going right away,” he said.

The operation’s second and third phases aim to help people access mental-health services, recover from addiction and find jobs.

Officials involved in Operation Rio Grande have pointed to sinking crime statistics as evidence of success. Crimes decreased by 26 percent across the city in the operation’s first year, with the biggest drop documented in the Rio Grande area.

Hughes noted that the neighborhood drew national attention in the summer of 2017 after a Las Vegas minor league baseball player was attacked in broad daylight by a homeless Salt Lake City man wielding a tire iron.

“We were making USA TODAY in terms of urban chaos going on,” Hughes, R-Draper, said.

Because of the past year’s work, people now feel secure entering the Rio Grande area to seek help from service providers, he added.

However, the ACLU report states that officials often improperly conflate issues of homelessness and crime, a symptom of the law enforcement-heavy approach that the group says has underpinned Operation Rio Grande.

Many of the individuals who have landed in jail have been released because of space shortages, The Salt Lake Tribune has reported. Often, this brush with the justice system serves only to lengthen people’s criminal records and make it more difficult for them to find secure housing and permanent employment, Stevenson said.

“A lot of people are being arrested, but it’s a revolving door,” he said. “They’re not getting the help they need.”

But McDonald said an arrest can steer people into treatment programs and divert them into drug court. On Wednesday, Salt Lake County officials will hold a graduation ceremony for the first batch of participants in its Operation Rio Grande drug court program.

Many of the people who end up in treatment at First Step House come by way of the criminal justice system, said Shawn McMillen, the organization’s executive director. The nonprofit provides residential and outpatient treatment services for low-income men, and McMillen said quite a few clients have been referred through Operation Rio Grande.

He’s witnessed program participants express gratitude for their arrests, which gave them a chance to detox in jail and pursue recovery.

“You see men cry out of gratitude,” he said. “So I get that perhaps the number of arrests was beyond the capacity of the system, but I also know that there’s another side to the story.”

Matt Melville, homeless services director for Catholic Community Services, said he does wish that treatment beds had come online sooner through Operation Rio Grande. The spate of arrests is also problematic for his nonprofit, as it seeks to get people off the streets, he said.

“Anytime there’s more barriers being put up to get people to employment or housing, it’s concerning for us,” he said.

He recognizes the Rio Grande neighborhood had hit a crisis when the operation started; drug dealing and violence had become such a problem that some of his volunteers no longer felt safe enough to show up, he said.

“There were definitely some predators that were down here and a heavy, heavy drug trade,” he said.

The two-year operation precedes the expected 2019 closure of The Road Home shelter and the planned opening of three smaller shelters. State, county and city leaders have partnered on the project, which carries an estimated $67 million price tag — some of that represents reallocated resources, and about $15 million to $20 million of the total is new spending, McDonald said.

Stevenson said his group’s goal is to start a conversation about Operation Rio Grande so its leaders can adjust the effort during its final months.

“We believe the data we’ve analyzed shows we’re heading in the wrong direction, but there is still time to change course,” he said.

The organization is hosting a panel discussion on Operation Rio Grande at Centro Cívico Mexicano Thursday evening, with participation from service providers, a defense attorney and the deputy chief for the Salt Lake City Police Department.

This Pat Bagley cartoon appears in The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. You can check out the past 10 Bagley editorial cartoons below:

• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/10/15/bagley-cartoon-trumps/" target=_blank><u>Trump’s BFFs</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/10/12/bagley-cartoon-first-2/" target=_blank><u>First Ladies</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/10/11/bagley-cartoon-face/" target=_blank><u>The Face of the Supreme Court</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/10/07/bagley-cartoon-general/" target=_blank><u>General Conference Closed Captioning&nbsp;</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/10/02/bagley-cartoon-scary/" target=_blank><u>Scary for Young Men</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/10/01/bagley-cartoon-new-trail/" target=_blank><u>A New Trail of Tears</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/09/28/bagley-cartoon-believe/" target=_blank><u>Believe Her</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/09/27/bagley-cartoon-womens/" target=_blank><u>Women’s Work</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/09/26/bagley-cartoon-kavanaughs/" target=_blank><u>Kavanaugh’s Gang</u></a>
• <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2018/09/25/bagley-cartoon-love-money/" target=_blank><u>Love and Money</u></a>

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FOX 13 has found a new anchorwoman for its flagship newscasts — and it’s a familiar face. As of Monday, Kelly Chapman will anchor the 4, 5, 5:30 and 9 p.m. shows.

“Kelly is a dedicated journalist and an outstanding communicator whose personality shines through the screen,” said KSTU news director Marc Sternfield. “She has been an important part of our successful morning newscast and will be a strong addition to our afternoon and evening news.”

Chapman replaces Hope Woodside, who recently left the station after nearly 23 years behind the anchor desk.

A Utah native who was Miss Utah USA in 2003, Chapman signed on with KSTU in 2013 as a weekend morning news anchor, later moving to weekdays. She previously worked at KUTV-Channel 2 in Salt Lake City and two sister stations in Sacramento, Calif. — KMAX and KOVR.

She will co-anchor FOX 13’s 4 p.m. news with Max Roth, and the 5, 5:30 and 9 p.m. newscasts with Bob Evans.

“Kelly is not only a great news anchor, she also cares deeply about the community,” said Tim Ermish, FOX 13’s general manager. “Whether she is emceeing fundraisers for local nonprofits, joining her co-workers at public outreach events, or helping individuals through FOX 13’s ‘Dream Team’ stories, Kelly is always looking for ways to give back.”

Jerry Sloan’s teams were known for tough, physical defense.

Unfortunately, that often meant just fouling the hell out of people. From 2000-01 to 2011-12, the teams run by Sloan and protege Ty Corbin finished either dead-last or second-to-last in free throws allowed in 10 of 12 seasons; in those other seasons, they finished 24th and 25th. That meant a parade of opposing trips to the free-throw line, and a ton of efficient points scored as a result. It really limited how good the Jazz could be defensively, and they never ranked higher than 10th in the new millennium.

By the time Quin Snyder took over, the Jazz were last in the league defensively. Snyder wanted to change the Jazz’s defensive culture, and the first matter of business was teaching his players that being tough and physical wasn’t enough: they also had to play smartly as well.

So he set about creating new habits. Players were instructed repeatedly to keep their hands wide in order to show them to the officials, to demonstrate they weren’t fouling. It’s hard to defend without using your hands, but it was something players like Derrick Favors had to learn.

“It’s about showing my hands and getting good body position,” Favors said. “I’m not going to be able to stop every guard from attacking me or going downhill, but just trying to show my hands on every drive, and try to get a good contest, not necessarily try to block it every time. Then they have to make a tough shot over me.”

That new approach has also gotten Favors in significantly less foul trouble than he used to. As a rookie, Favors averaged 8.5 fouls per 100 possessions, but even as late as his fourth season (Corbin’s final year), he committed 5.6 per 100 possessions. It’s hard to stay in a game that way. But last year, Favors fouled just 3.8 times per 100 possessions, a much better and more sustainable rate.

That being said, the Jazz still aren’t exactly where they want to be with their foul situation. They were exactly league-average last season, allowing opponents to have a free-throw rate of 24.7 percent. But how often they fouled changed drastically depending on who was in the game. If Favors was in the game, opponents had a free-throw rate of 21.7 percent, which would have placed second-best of all NBA teams last year. (Gobert was similar, 21.8 percent.) But when Favors and Gobert were off the court, the free-throw rate spiked to 27.8 percent, which would have ranked 26th overall. That’s a difference of a few free-throw attempts over the course of a game.

The good news: if the Jazz’s big man combo stays healthy this season, nearly all Jazz minutes should feature at least one of Favors and Gobert on the court at all times. And that should make things easier on the perimeter players who can be foul-prone without the safety valve of Favors or Gobert behind them. In particular, Ricky Rubio, Royce O’Neale, Dante Exum, and Jae Crowder have been guilty of this in the past.

The Jazz’s foul rate can be somewhat inflated, too, by their tendency to take “Euro-fouls,” the intentional fouls in transition that stop fast break opportunities for the other team. While ideally those fouls don’t immediately send the opposition to the line, it may mean that the Jazz reach the penalty earlier than they otherwise would.

But Snyder doesn’t want to lose what makes his defense special by avoiding fouls, either. Sometimes, as in the case of Eurofouling, fouls can mean dictating the terms of a possession.

“There’s always give and take. You want to be aggressive defensively and try to dictate, that’s what good defenses do. We try to pick our spots with that. We want to maintain fundamental position, and at the same time we want to be disruptive,” Snyder said. “We talk about disciplined disruption.”

It’s not only discussed, but drilled heavily in Jazz practices. Knowing the right times to set the terms of a possession versus when not to can be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful defense.

“It’s something we believe in, and we continue to try to find those areas where you can be aggressive. But there are high-risk foul situations, where contesting vertically, and showing your hands on the drives, [that’s] the emphasis. All the while, we’re still not trying to take away guys’ freedom to make plays on defense.”

Four women who say the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office mishandled their sexual assault reports are asking for an unprecedented step: They want the Utah Supreme Court to assign a special prosecutor to bring their cases to court.

One woman was 17 years old when she says another student sexually assaulted her while they worked on a school project. Another says she was abused by a former coworker. A third says the former Provo police chief raped her. And the fourth reported she was assaulted by a massage therapist.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill’s office has declined to file charges against each of the accused men, their petition said.

University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell said the petition filed Tuesday highlights a troubling gap in the criminal justice system: Alleged victims have limited ways to challenge decisions by prosecutors.

“If prosecutors don’t file charges, victims don’t get rights at all,” he said.

The petition is based on a provision in Utah’s original constitution that allowed for the appointment of a lawyer if a county attorney failed to prosecute “according to law.” That appointment power was transferred from district courts to the state supreme court in 1984.

Multiple sexual violence prevention groups issued statements in support of the request for a special prosecutor, calling it an innovative remedy to what they describe as systemwide reluctance to charge sex crimes.

But Gill and attorneys in his office argue the petition ignores multiple options that victims have, and they criticize its timing — three weeks before the general election. Gill is facing a challenger from within his office, deputy district attorney Nathan Evershed.

Gill said Cassell, a former federal judge representing the women along with other attorneys, didn’t try other avenues — including seeking a meeting to ask prosecutors to reconsider — before filing the petition.

Cassell’s strategy “is as irresponsible as it is self-serving,” Gill said in a statement.

Cassell said lawyers had been working on the petition for months and filed it when it was complete. And three of the four women petitioning the state supreme court said they did meet with prosecutors after their cases were declined, asking the office to re-evaluate.

Crystal Madill said she and the officer investigating her case repeatedly asked prosecutors to reconsider and file charges.

Madill, now 30, told police she was assaulted by a massage therapist in Salt Lake City during a February 2017 appointment. She said prosecutors’ refusal to file charges made her feel “unsafe.”

“It made me feel like anything bad could happen to me anywhere and I’d have to have my own back because the justice system doesn’t,” she said.

She and a second woman in the group told The Salt Lake Tribune they unsuccessfully sought help from Utah Attorney General’s Office, another option listed by Gill.

‘There was nothing’

Madill reported her alleged sexual assault to Salt Lake City police two days after her appointment. As she was lying on a table, naked with a sheet over her, she said, the therapist repeatedly touched her genitals and pressed his genitals against her arm.

“I just froze because I didn’t know what to do,” Madill said. “I was naked on a table with a man bigger than me.”

She said she didn’t plan to file a report at first, but then decided to, hoping to prevent the therapist from hurting another client.

A nurse who specializes in sexual assaults found a laceration in Madill’s anus, she said, and prosecutors had that report. Madill said she repeated her account to several prosecutors, reliving the painful experience each time.

“It was almost harder than the assault,” said Madill, who agreed to the use of her name.

Two months after Madill’s initial report, prosecutors concluded there was “insufficient evidence” to move forward, she said.

“I did everything that I needed to do and I did it as strongly as I could and there was nothing,” she said. “I didn’t realize how disappointing and heartbreaking it would be.”

Prosecutors questioned why she sought a massage that would be performed while she was nude, and asked her to think about the impact of charges on the man’s future, she said.

“It was like they were trying to find a vulnerability in me to just accept that I shouldn’t go forward with this,” she said.

The officer she was working with pushed back and met with a senior deputy district attorney, who told him in an email that a prosecution likely wouldn’t be successful, she said. The officer tried again, noting that Madill had a rape kit pending, but prosecutors said even a positive result wouldn’t be enough proof for a conviction, she said.

Madill said she called the Utah Attorney General’s Office, hoping it would pursue charges, but never received a response.

Filing the petition, Madill said, has been encouraging because she’s felt part of a team of women trying to change the process.

‘It’s discouraging, frustrating’

The woman who reported being sexually assaulted as a 17-year-old initially didn’t want to go to police, she told The Tribune, because she was afraid her classmate would retaliate. She said only made a report because she was worried about pregnancy, and she believed she couldn’t tell her pediatrician without mandatory reporting laws forcing a police investigation.

Sure enough, she said, her classmates found out.

“It turned everybody against me,” said the woman, now 18. “I lost all of my friends.”

The Tribune generally does not identify alleged victims in sex crimes.

A Sandy police detective interviewed the teen. The teen’s mother said she asked the detective what her conclusion was.

“She looked at me in the eye and said, ‘She was violently raped,’” the mother recounted.

But the accused classmate refused to interview with police, and the prosecutor’s office declined to file charges, the petition said.

In a six-page letter, the prosecutor who evaluated the teen’s case wrote that he and four other prosecutors agreed that they couldn’t prove a rape case. The teen had told police she froze in fear when her classmate began kissing her in her basement and then rapidly and aggressively removed her clothes.

“However, she failed to say or physically manifest any lack of consent at this time, other than not actively participating,” the letter states.

It is “reasonably possible,” the prosecutor concluded, that the teen’s classmate “liked” her and “wanted to have sex, began kissing her, didn’t notice her giving any indication that she didn’t consent, quickly moved into sex, and still never noticed any lack of consent, as [she] simply didn’t participate.”

The petition for a special prosecutor argues that the district attorney’s office downplayed an important factor: The woman suffers from muscular dystrophy, and her classmate knew that she couldn’t physically fight him or run away.

“She’s delayed physically, she’s home alone in the basement with this individual, and she also has delayed speech as well, so her physical limitations are [significant] in all regards,” said Greg Ferbrache, the woman’s attorney.

Ferbrache asked the Utah Attorney General’s Office to review the case; it found prosecutors had not abused the discretion they have to decide whether to file cases. The woman’s parents met with Gill and another prosecutor to ask why charges were declined. The mother said, “Sim Gill had no answers.”

Gill said his prosecutors reopened the case and re-examined the evidence. They asked the parents for medical records, he said, and when the family refused to provide them, prosecutors couldn’t move forward.

The woman’s mother said collecting hundreds of pages of medical records after years of surgeries and therapies wasn’t realistic, and the family was dubious that prosecutors would take the case seriously, even with those documents. They told Gill they believed enough information about the woman’s disability already had been provided and referred prosecutors to Ferbrache, who said he has received no further contact.

“It didn’t seem to matter to anybody, because a male wanted to do something,” the mother said. “How do you put ‘He liked her’ into a declination [letter]? … She did everything that was asked, and basically was told, ‘Yeah, it happened and we’re not going to do anything.’”

The woman said it’s dangerous for a prosecutor to hold that someone may lawfully escalate sexual contact as long as he or she moves “too fast to notice” signs that a person does not consent — especially from a victim with a disability.

“It’s discouraging, frustrating … and it’s making me regret my decision [to report],” she said.

After her experience, she said, she’d encourage victims to report “only if it were more productive, and not just humiliating.”

Two additional cases declined

The petition also describes the case of a woman who accused former Provo police chief John King of raping her in 2017, when she was volunteering with the department. She was one of five women who this summer settled a lawsuit with the city over sexual misconduct allegations against King, who was asked to resign in March. King had been forced out of the Baltimore Police Department in 2012 after a report that he had sexually assaulted a coworker.

Salt Lake County prosecutors reviewed the woman’s case and declined it because of “evidence problems,” the petition states.

The fourth woman, a 38-year-old who has cerebral palsy, said she was assaulted by a former coworker multiple times in his apartment in 2016. According to the petition, he told her he was a sex offender; he later made inconsistent and evasive statements to police; and DNA samples from the woman’s sexual assault exam matched him. Prosecutors would not charge him, “citing an alleged lack of evidence,” the petition said.

Gill noted that of the sexual assault cases presented to his office by Salt Lake County police agencies over the past two years, his office has filed charges in roughly 39.5 to 45.5 percent, similar to state and federal averages.

His office is ethically obligated to not prosecute if there is insufficient evidence, in order to protect taxpayer resources and to respect the due process rights of the accused, he said.

"The biggest disservice we could do is file every case that’s brought to us and let the system figure it out,” Gill said.

Appointing a special prosecutor for these four cases raises “a bunch of questions and potential problems that I don’t see the answers to right now,” said Steve Burton, president of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

“How do you remove a special prosecutor who oversteps his bounds or abuses his power? How is the person funded? Can a judge remove a special prosecutor?” Burton asked. “It sure seems like it has the potential to create grave disparities between suspects. Everybody else’s case in Salt Lake County is handled the same except for a handful of cases that this one attorney is asking to be looked at and handled differently.”

Sometimes, Burton said, cases simply aren’t provable beyond a reasonable doubt.

“For the D.A.’s office to decline cases, there really must be a dearth of evidence," Burton said. He added: “It seems unethical to accuse someone of a crime, force them to get an attorney, bring public allegations against them … if you as prosecutor believe there’s simply not enough evidence to prove the case.”

But groups supporting the petition said often, the quality of evidence is not the problem.

“We know too well that the analysis that leads prosecutors to the decision that a sexual assault case is ‘unlikely to succeed,’ despite sufficient evidence, is rooted in the myths and misconceptions which decades of research has debunked,” wrote leaders of Legal Momentum, a national women’s legal defense and education nonprofit.

The low prosecution rate for sex offenses “denies victims of these life-altering and devastating crimes from having any type of justice; likely contributes to a public perception of a prevalence of false reports; and prevents other victims from reporting similar crimes,” wrote Karen Baker, CEO of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

“As a result, public safety is compromised, perpetrators continue to victimize people, and victims are further silenced and traumatized,” her statement said.

Gill defended his prosecutors and said they make themselves available if a survivor wants to challenge a decision. He said those dissatisfied with a charging decision can talk to him, or the Utah attorney general, or can petition for a grand jury. He noted the attorney general pursued a rape case in 2017 after Gill’s office declined to file charges, adding it was later dismissed by a judge.

He critiqued Cassell’s approach of seeking a special prosecutor from the Supreme Court as too expensive, making that kind of aid “available only to victims of wealth" with connections to lawyers or the money to hire them. Gill said he’s willing to work with the professor and lawmakers to draft other solutions.

Petitionby on Scribd

As he drove one of his out-of-state clients to the Salt Lake City International Airport, local businessman David Shipley tried to explain the abandoned clubhouse and dead grass in an adjacent parcel that was once home to a “world class” golf course.

Wingpointe, operated by Salt Lake City, was shuttered in 2015 after a series of events involving land use costs and the federal government, Shipley told the businessman, and it has since fallen into disrepair.

“And he looked back at me and he just kind of said, ‘Well, why don’t you do something about it?’” Shipley recalled. “And so that was the motivation for me to get involved.”

Shipley is now the president of Wingpointe Community Inc., a private sector group that’s working to resurrect a golf course once thought dead.

It won’t come cheap. The irrigation system will have to be rebuilt, the course redesigned, cart paths pulled up, greens resurfaced and bunkers replaced — all to the tune of around $10 million or $15 million, Shipley said. But he said he and other investors are committed to putting in the money needed to return the course to its former glory, without any cost to taxpayers.

“We want to make sure that when this renovation is completed that the redesign of the golf course, the enhancement of the facilities, is going to be something that will be commensurate with the entrance to a $4 billion airport project,” Shipley said after a public announcement of the plans at a news conference on Tuesday. “The gateway to the city.”

The Arthur Hills-designed links-style course, which lies south of the airport, opened in 1990. The airport bought the site in the 1970s and was leasing it to the city for $1 per year before the Federal Aviation Administration stepped in, in 2012, to insist the airport charge a fair-market rate for the property.

That led to an agreement under which the city, via its dedicated Golf Fund, would pay an increasing annual lease to the airport starting at $55,000 in 2014, rising to a full market-rate price of $150,000 the next year.

City officials said last year that a fair-market rent for the property could be as high as $2.4 million per year — more than twice Wingpointe’s highest-ever annual revenues.

Besides the lease payments, the City Council had in 2016 authorized $67,000 to keep up watering and other minimal maintenance to prevent the course from reverting to its natural state. But last November, the council voted to stop putting money into the course altogether, since it seemed unlikely to ever see action again.

President Donald Trump, however, recently signed a bill that included language from Utah Rep. Chris Stewart allowing the federal government to waive a property tax requirement on property like Wingpointe — making it much more feasible to reopen the course.

“Our objective was just to reauthorize the federal government to waive that property tax requirement,” Stewart told The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday. “We want to have that beautiful course back. It’s a beautiful thing for the city and for the community.”

The only obstacle that remains in the way for a projected 2020 reopening of the course — timed with completion of the first phase of reconstruction of the Salt Lake City International Airport — is Salt Lake City’s approval of a long-term land lease for use of the property.

Mayor Jackie Biskupski said she’s been working with Stewart for years on efforts to reopen Wingpointe and is excited to have a conversation with business leaders about what comes next now that Congress has weighed in on the issue.

“That first hurdle was a big hurdle that had to be overcome, and now that we have accomplished that, now we can sit down and work together on what is possible,” Biskupski said. "And that’s an exciting thing for me. It’s an exciting thing for many people in this community and in this state who were big fans of Wingpointe.”

While the project is still in its early phases, Shipley said he wants to see the new course become a permanent, dedicated home for the First Tee of Utah, a nonprofit organization dedicated to getting young people involved in golf. He’d also like the course to become home to the University of Utah’s golf team and to provide anti-recidivism landscaping programs for inmates from the new nearby state prison.

“This golf course is something more than just another course in the city,” Stewart said. “It really had a reputation of being one of the great courses in the country, and I look forward to going out and I want to be there the first day it opens and golf with those guys as we bring back this great course and one more reason for people to visit Salt Lake City.”

Thanks to boasting an ebullient and upward-trending star guard, the NBA’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, one of the most respected coaches in the game, and arguably their deepest bench in years, there’s an awful lot of optimism surrounding the Utah Jazz.

Most pundits are projecting the team to finish top-four in the West, maybe fifth at worst, and one even forecast Utah’s first NBA Finals appearance in two decades.

So, as the Jazz prepare to build on their surprising 48-win campaign of a season ago when they kick off the 2018-19 season Wednesday night in Sacramento, they all realize they’re not going under the radar this time.

Exactly what that means differs greatly depending on who you ask, though.

Second-year guard Donovan Mitchell said how the team perceives itself is far more important than the fickle whims of former critics now jumping on the bandwagon.

“I always say this — the same people that have us on the radar [now] were the same people that didn’t have us on the radar last year. We’re gonna take that for what it’s worth,” he said. “We’re not gonna look and say, ‘Ohhhh, now we’re — what is it? — five or six in the power rankings. Oh yay!’ We’re the same team that people overlooked and we’re the mindset, the same character. The only difference now is we play on TV a little more.”

Veteran forward Joe Ingles took a more pragmatic approach on the subject.

The issue, as he sees it, is not one of tuning out the noise or avoiding getting caught up in others’ expectations, or lack thereof.

Rather, it’s about the ability to recognize and adjust to and respond to the increased efforts from opponents that the Jazz will surely encounter this season.

“I think we were going into places, and teams were probably either not worried about us or weren’t too concerned, or whatever their thoughts were,” Ingles acknowledged. “We know we’re gonna be scouted, we know Donovan’s gonna be scouted better, or more I should say. That’s just the way it is as you go through years and years and years in the league. It’ll be good for him. But we’ve got to worry about our group. And if we’re prepared like we are, I think we’ll be fine.”

And they all insist they are, indeed, prepared.

“I’m never gonna say we’re where we wanna be, because we can always get better, but we’re where we want to be for starting the season,” said Rudy Gobert. “The goal is to keep getting better, but … I think we’re in a good place.”

Perhaps both figuratively and literally.

After all, starting the season off in Sacramento, the place where the Jazz annihilated their final preseason opponent, would seem to bode well.

While nobody is taking anything for granted, the team does enter its season opener with confidence. Not because of the result itself, but because of how it was achieved.

Gobert cited the team’s “mindset of being physical and trying to stop everything they do. And when we do that, we’re not gonna be easy for anyone to play.” Ingles noted that the Jazz “got better as [preseason] went on.” And Mitchell was pleased that “we played our best basketball the last game,” and expects he and his teammates to “come up with that same type of fire.”

That shouldn’t be a problem.

They’re all eager to start playing games that actually matter.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun. … Even though there were five preseason games, it felt like a long preseason,” Ingles said. “It was really not that long, but yeah, we’re ready to get going. We’re mentally ready, we’re physically ready.”

“The main thing is, it counts now,” added Mitchell. “… Obviously, we’re excited for the season starting. I’m excited to watch basketball too, to be honest with you — to turn the TV on as much as playing. At the end of the day, we cannot come out there and say, ‘Oh, we’re happy to be back.’ We gotta be ready from the beginning.”

Because, this time around, you know everyone will be ready for them.

When Salt Lake City Councilman Charlie Luke saw the puppy, he and his family “fell in love.”

They didn’t know anything about owning a dog, Luke said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, but they brought him home and made him part of their family. They were at a loss when, two days later, their new pet went into a coma with giardia, an upper respiratory infection and pneumonia.

“I called the pet store back and I’m like, ‘Look, you know, we just got this dog. Can you help us?’” he recounted. “And they said, ‘Well, yeah, you can bring him back and we’ll give you a refund.’ I mean, he’s a puppy. My kids had fallen in love with it, I fell in love with it, my wife was totally attached. You know, it’s not a commodity, yet the pet store treated it as such.”

The family was able to nurse the dog back to health with the help of a veterinarian. Nine years later, he cited the story as a reason he plans to support a new city ordinance that would prohibit pet stores from selling animals not obtained from an animal shelter, control agency, humane society or nonprofit rescue organization.

If passed, the restrictions would aim to prevent “puppy mills” from taking hold in the city, reduce pet overpopulation and ensure animals sold in commercial animal establishments are treated “appropriately and humanely,” according to council documents.

“I think moving in this direction is smart because not only is it the right thing to do, but I think there are a lot of folks who don’t know better,” Luke said.

Pet rescue organizations, including the Humane Society of Utah, have advocated for such an ordinance to the Mayor’s Office and City Council.

“The motto ‘adopt, don’t shop’ is more than a moral and ethical issue, it is a public health and community safety issue as well as fiscally responsible move to avoid tax money used to shelter additional animals in local shelters that already face the challenging endeavor to control pet homelessness,” Gene Baierschmidt, the executive director of the Humane Society of Utah, said in a news release.

Before the council’s meeting on Tuesday, Biskupski’s office welcomed rescue animals from the Humane Society in an effort to promote the proposed regulations. Biskupski has adopted two dogs from local rescue organizations this year — Ava and Ember — and said they are two of the “strongest proponents of this ordinance” in her life.

“I believe there’s tremendous support for this,” she told The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday. “We are a community that has very strong values around our pets, and I see this as in line with those values. I’m very excited to see what happens with the council, but I believe that we’ll see full support from the council on this and be able to move it forward quickly.”

Council Chair Erin Mendenhall and Councilman Chris Wharton also expressed support for the ordinance at the council’s work meeting on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately a lot of times the law treats animals, you know, as chattel or personal property the same as a lamp or a couch, but they’re not the same,” Wharton said. “And when we have laws like this that recognize and protect these members of the family — especially in District 3, where there are more pets in households than there are children — I think we send a message that we recognize that in Salt Lake City.”

The proposal mirrors regulations passed in unincorporated Salt Lake County and in Sandy, which in May became the first Utah city to prohibit the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores within city limits.

If adopted, pet store operators would have 90 days to comply with the new rules and any violations of the ordinance would result in a misdemeanor citation. But council staff said Tuesday that all licensed pet stores in Salt Lake City already meet the criteria established in the proposed ordinance.

The council is expected to approve the ordinance at its Nov. 13 meeting.

Houston • Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a grand slam, Nathan Eovaldi hushed Houston a day after some social media trash talk and the Boston Red Sox beat the Astros 8-2 on Tuesday to take a 2-1 lead in the AL Championship Series.

Steve Pearce hit a tiebreaking solo homer for Boston off Joe Smith in the sixth inning, a drive that sailed just inside the foul pole in left field for a 3-2 lead.

Bradley’s slam capped a five-run burst in the eighth against Roberto Osuna. The Astros closer got two outs but allowed two singles and plunked consecutive batters to force in a run. Bradley then crushed a 1-1 fastball into the right field seats to send Houston fans streaming toward the exits.

Game 4 is Wednesday night, with Boston’s Rick Porcello opposing Charlie Morton.

With his childhood hero and fellow Alvin, Texas, native Nolan Ryan sitting behind the plate, Eovaldi turned in another solid start. Red-hot slugger Alex Bregman had shared video Monday on Instagram of Houston hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs off Eovaldi in his previous outing against the Astros.

Los Angeles • Southern California outside linebacker Porter Gustin underwent surgery to repair a broken ankle Tuesday.

He is looking at a four-month recovery after having a metal plate and screw inserted in his right ankle, Trojans coach Clay Helton said Tuesday night, a timetable that would likely allow the talented pass rusher to participate in workouts ahead of the 2019 NFL Draft.

Gustin suffered the injury that ended his senior season late in the fourth quarter of USC’s 31-20 win over Colorado on Saturday night. He had 21 sacks and 33 tackles for loss during his college career, with seven sacks and 10 tackles for loss this season to lead USC in both categories, and projects as one of the top edge defenders available for NFL teams to draft next year.

Helton said it would be impossible for USC to replace Gustin’s contributions to the team on and off the field.

“There’s only one Porter,” Helton said. “I’ve been doing it 24 years and I can count on one hand guys you’ll always remember, and that guy, he’s the definition of what a Trojan is.”

This is the second straight season in which Gustin sustained a season-ending injury. He was limited to four games in 2017 because of toe and biceps injuries, missing the Pac-12 title game and Cotton Bowl.

Gustin graduated from Utah’s Salem Hills High School.

USC (4-2) plays at Utah (4-2) on Saturday night.

In its push to address affordable housing, the Salt Lake City Council voted Tuesday to loosen zoning rules on so-called mother-in-law apartments with hopes of opening up new, smaller dwellings across the city’s residential neighborhoods.

A common feature of the city’s housing stock decades ago, so-called accessory dwelling units — basement apartments, ones inside or above garages and those in separate buildings in yards — have for years been limited in Utah’s capital to locales a half-mile or less from Salt Lake City’s TRAX stops.

But after years of debate and public input, the City Council voted 5-1 late Tuesday to approve zoning changes that essentially allow such dwellings citywide, although with some conditions on permitting in certain areas dominated by single-family homes. Only Councilman Charlie Luke was opposed, calling the new rules “unenforceable.”

The city’s new approach also eases some requirements on entrances and setbacks for ADUs, as well as rules for parking by letting driveways and available street parking spaces suffice.

The new rules would require that a property owner live in either the accessory dwelling or the main residence, a move planners said was designed to curtail private absentee owners from buying up ADUs as commercial rentals. Accessory dwelling owners also would be licensed by the city.

The changes are welcomed by many city residents as a way of easing an ongoing housing crunch and helping give homeowners new flexibility. But many other residents have been deeply opposed, warning that large numbers of new pocket dwellings could disrupt parking and the quality of life in established residential areas.

Council Chairwoman Erin Mendenhall urged passage of the changes and praised her colleagues for the “blood, sweat and tears” in analyzing city policy on ADUs over the years. She said the issue not only centered on housing affordability but also would allow residents to “age in place” and not be forced to move as their housing needs change.

“This is not about cheap apartments created overnight, but rather access to housing for the longer term,” Mendenhall said.

After hearing public testimony Tuesday, Councilman Derek Kitchen rejected staff recommendations to delay final approval of the ADU changes for further review. He asked colleagues to overlook uncertainties and approve the measure, “see how it shakes out in our community” and then revisit the ordinance in a few years.

“This will not fix the affordable housing crisis,” but it was worth trying, Kitchen said, even if the dwellings it added to the housing market pushed down rents “only nominally.”

Councilman Chris Wharton said new ADUs spurred by the changes could also provide housing for students, young professionals and lower-income residents in “higher-opportunity” neighborhoods that were safer, had better schools and offered historic character.

Based on a study of similar zoning changes in Denver and Portland, planners estimate they could spur construction of between four and 25 new ADUs per year in Salt Lake City neighborhoods. Officials expect the first ADUs created under the new ordinances to be in homes, although the new rules cover attached and detached dwellings.

But Luke said that after years of discussion, the new rules remained too vague and “had the potential to drastically change the look and feel of neighborhoods.”

“In nine years [of debate],” Luke said, “nobody has been able to tell me how this is going to be enforced and how we’re going to protect the neighborhoods we have.”

LOS ANGELES - Cody Bellinger singled home the winning run in the 13th inning, lifting the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 on Tuesday night and tying the NL Championship Series at two games apiece.

Bellinger grounded a 3-2 pitch from Junior Guerra into right field, scoring Manny Machado, who slid home and touched the plate with his left hand to beat the tag and finally end an October thriller that took 5 hours, 15 minutes.

Game 5 in the best-of-seven series is Wednesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, with Wade Miley going for the Brewers against fellow lefty Clayton Kershaw. The teams return to Milwaukee for Game 6 on Friday.

With one out in the 13th, Machado had a broken-bat single to left field and went to second on Guerra's wild pitch. With first base open and slumping Yasmani Grandal on deck followed by the pitcher's spot, the Brewers chose to pitch to Bellinger — and it cost them.

"Honestly, I didn't think he was going to throw me a strike," Bellinger said. "And then once I noticed he was attacking me, I just tried to put the ball in play and hopefully find a hole this time."

Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said: "I thought it was worth the risk of trying to expand to Bellinger, and if the at-bat goes to Grandal, we walk Grandal."

Bellinger, who entered as a pinch hitter in the sixth, also had the defensive play of the game. He made a diving catch on his belly of a ball hit by Lorenzo Cain leading off the 10th, spreading his arms out and sliding like a snow angel in right field.

"I haven't been out there much," Bellinger said. "But I played right field in the minor leagues a little bit, so it was kind of second nature to me, and I just saw it up in the air, so I just tried to run and grab it."

Both teams used all their position players and wasted numerous chances. Los Angeles went through its entire bullpen.

The Dodgers struck out 17 times — all against Milwaukee relievers — and have whiffed 49 times in the series. The Brewers fanned 15 times.