City Weekly November 9, 2023 by Copperfield Publishing

WEEKLY Down in C I T Y W E E K LY. N E T N O V E M B E R 9 , 2 0 2 3 — V O L . 4 0

Uncovering how two Utahns died on the job at Magna’s Northrop Grumman plant. BY TAYLOR BARNES

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CONTENTS

Cover Story

DOWN IN THE PIT Uncovering how two Utahns died on the job at Magna’s Northrop Grumman plant.

By Taylor Barnes Cover photo by Taylor Barnes

6 10 21 23 29 30 37

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Church and State

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Many people are against atheists, and they even somewhat insultingly pray for their “lost” souls. However, when one looks at history— going back through the Crusades and up through today in the Middle East—there have been religious wars as long as there have been religions. A big part of the Old Testament was God urging his special tribe to smite the other tribes, even recommending that the infants from the opposing tribes be killed by grabbing them by their little feet and smashing their heads against rocks.

And apparently, God was OK with human sacrifice, goading his buddy Abraham to kill his son, Isaac, but saving the son in the nick of time. God was such a kidder. Fortunately, for the U.S., our wise forefathers set up our system of separating country from religion. Many fundamentalist would like to change this and saw Trump as their savior. Interestingly, the U.S. Bible Belt has the most crime. If you get bored, Google and find out the crime rates among atheists. The horror in the Middle East is not unlike a young boy boasting that his dad can beat up the other kid’s dad. It’s also very sad and stupid. It’s like the Hatfields and the McCoys on a larger and more deadly scale. TED OTTINGER

Taylorsville

Cease Fire

This is what happens when the war power of a democratic nation like the United States is taken over by one cankered, political soul. Joe Biden, like several presidents before him, has usurped the Constitution-mandated war powers of Congress and now exercises it by himself, excluding the people’s representatives from decision-making. Joe Biden said on Oct. 23—more than two weeks into the massive devastation delivered by Israel in Gaza—that he will not even consider a cease-fire until Hamas releases all of the hostages it has taken. In other words, Joe Biden supports bombing the snot out of Palestinian children until Israel’s autocratic leader gets what he wants. The two autocrats together make a stupendously inhumane and uncompromising team. KIMBALL SHINKOSKEY

Woods Cross

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NOVEMBER 16 “Mormonwood Magic” “Best of Utah coming Nov. Nov. 2 Cover Feature 16!” Online Ad I’d rather staple my scrotum to the floor than even read about [Mormon cinema’s] bullshit movies. ADAM HATCH

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THE WATER

COOLER Who is your celebrity doppelganger Chelsea Neider

Cameron Diaz, specifically from The Mask. That’s what everyone has told me since I was little.

Wes Long

In the past, I’ve been told I looked like Topher Grace, but I don’t know if I see it.

Eric Granato

When my hair is cut short, Macklemore.

Benjamin Wood

At times I’ve been compared to Adam Sandler, Nicolas Cage and Shia Labeuf.

Kelly Boyce

I’ve been told by my friends with little humans that I look like Blippi from the kids show Blippi. He’s ridiculously sexy.

Carolyn Campbell

My celebrity doppelganger is Julia Child. I was glad to learn that she used to be a spy, because I always wanted to be one.

Scott Renshaw

I am a completely unique snowflake, and have literally never once in my life been told I look like anybody famous.

Paula Saltas

When I was in my 20s, the Flashdance girl (Jennifer Beals). Now 100 years later, where did I go?

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PRIVATE BY JOHN SALTAS

Who Luvs Ya

hen we moved our office downtown in the early 1990s, Palmer DePaulis was completing his second term as Salt Lake City’s mayor. I think I met him once, but I’m not really sure. All I remember about that era is that there wasn’t much to downtown Salt Lake City at the time, lest we would not have been able to find a rentable space at around $300 per month. If the building were still standing—it lies in the metallic rubble heap that is now the Orrin G. Hatch U.S. Courthouse on the corner of 400 South and West Temple—it would rent for many thousands of dollars per month. After DePaulis came Deedee Corradini as Salt Lake City’s mayor. She served eight years and was revered for being the first woman to hold that position, a further signal that despite all else, Utah may be as red as the devil himself, but Salt Lake City was a blue zone. Corradini was the third consecutive Democratic mayor of Salt Lake City, preceded by DePaulis and the guy who started the streak, Ted Wilson. Wilson moved the city forward, remains a likable fellow, was not embroiled in any kind of scandal or personal saga and, in my view, deserves a statue. Corradini, who died in 2015, will be forever remembered in two of Salt Lake City’s major scandals, the Bonneville Pacific fraud trials (where she was a crown jewel) and the subsequent City Hall mess known as “Gift Gate.” It would be remiss not to credit Deedee Corradini for her role in securing the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics. It would also be remiss to forget that the Olympic bid process and the story of how Salt Lake secured the games became an international scandal in their own right. So, there you go. Corradini was three for three when it came to Salt Lake City’s biggest scandals. If there is a No. 4

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major scandal in Salt Lake’s history, it predates the memory banks of anyone under 80 years old. Next came the first mayoral term of Rocky Anderson, just in time for him to become the city’s face of the 2002 Winter Games and, also, just in time for him to create a working relationship with the head of those games, Mitt Romney. They got along great, by all appearances—so much so that when Rocky crossed a picket line of public workers in Boston one year to participate in an event with Romney, all hell broke loose locally among Democrats who felt betrayed by that action, including yours truly. That really set me off—and it’s mostly documented on our pages from that era when I assailed him to no end—to the point that Anderson and I didn’t speak for years. Good guy, bad guy, I really don’t give lots of thought to what happened in my youth. Anyway, a number of years back, we began talking again, to the point that I can indeed say Anderson is a friend of mine—and had been since the mid-1990s, when he represented this newspaper as legal counsel in all types of matters, up to and including libel and First Amendment advice. This newspaper has only endorsed two candidates for any political race, ever. The first was before we even moved downtown, when we endorsed Aaron Kennard for Salt Lake County Sheriff. He won. Next came an endorsement for Rocky Anderson in 1998, when there were several Democrats in the race. He won. We’ve not endorsed since. If we believed in the superpowers of a newspaper endorsement, we’d certainly aim higher than a mayor’s race. However, I will rebut the ink on our own pages from an op-ed by Salt Lake Councilman Chris Wharton. Rocky Anderson—the first SLC mayor to head the annual Pride Day parade—absolutely did not “weaponize” his police department against the gay community. He did however, weaponize his department to be kinder to the ferret-toting drum

circle drummers after former Mayor Corradini’s police chief, Ruben Ortega, swept them up in a horseback roundup in Liberty Park. Remember that? Despite real issues for transportation, the homeless, re-creating the SLC brand, and residential and business growth, the city mayor’s race is focused on love-or-hate personalities. The rap on Rocky Anderson is that he’s abrasive and a bugger to work with—yet his life accomplishments are 10 miles long. The rap on current Mayor Erin Mendenhall is that her administration is not connecting with downtown merchants or residents, yet she is indeed a political force with a reliably strong and forward-looking base. The rap on unknown Michael Valentine is that he only has one issue: his disdain for Mendenhall over the loss of the historic Pantages Theater. What all the big smart people point to is that Mendenhall can work with the Utah Legislature. They say Anderson cannot. Valentine? Not unless he finds kinship with a building preservationist on the Hill. Who cares? The Utah Legislature will not be kind to Salt Lake City anytime soon, and the warm fuzzies that come with thinking so are not even very warm. They are the folks who deny our blue capital city meaningful representation in Washington D.C., via gleefully gerrymandering House districts that cut SLC in two (and Salt Lake County in four). Like they care who is mayor of Salt Lake? Salt Lake is the pet spider they pull legs from. If you’re having a drink anywhere downtown, vote for Anderson. If you’re riding or walking to that drink, vote for the energized Mendenhall. If you’re toasting a building that no longer exists, vote for Valentine. Just vote for the candidate you sincerely believe might actually get something done and toss that hooey about getting along with everybody, especially the Utah Legislature. CW Send comments to john@cityweekly.net

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HITS & MISSES BY KATHARINE BIELE |

@kathybiele

MISS: See You in Court

REP DANCE 1/12 H

Homelessness is still a huge problem in the state, and it’s not getting any better. Enter disgruntled businesses, who are blaming Shelter the Homeless Inc. and The Road Home for problems related to fights, vandalism and defecation around the area. They are so upset with these “unlawful acts” that they are suing the two nonprofits because they can’t stop the drug use of the burgeoning homeless population. “Some may also question the motives of the business owners, who maintained they have ‘no issue with the unsheltered,’ or with ‘responsible’ facilities for the homeless,” a KUTV 2News report said. No doubt, the situation is bad. There’s not enough state funding for homeless intervention, and no matter how groups try to help, no good deed goes unpunished. The balance between enforcement and aid is precarious at best while politicians battle over how to handle this humanitarian problem.

HIT: Don’t Tread on Me

Federal overreach wins again, and Utah isn’t happy. Gov. Spencer Cox and a gaggle of off-roaders filed legal challenges to a new Bureau of Land Management rule closing large swaths around Labyrinth Canyon to motorized use. That’s about a quarter of the area in the Gemini Bridges and Labyrinth Canyon area near Moab. Cox called it unacceptable because the area has been open for generations. Of course, off-roading has changed a lot over the years. The BLM took 10,000 public comments before restricting the area and left 96% of the Jeep Safari routes open. The Southern Utah Wilderness Association noted problems from powerful off-road vehicles, whose noise and dust disproportionately impacted most public land users. “This brings balance to the outdoors the way Anakin Skywalker brought balance to the force by killing all the good guys,” sniped Off-Road Trail Defenders member Patrick McKay. Apparently, the general public are not “good guys.”

MISS: Apples and Oranges

Despite the pretzel-twisting, these two things are not the same: Esteemed right-wingnut and #anticommunist Rep. Trevor Lee compared a Massachusetts law on co-ed sports to Utah’s ban on trans athletes in a triggering post. Lee has been thanking Morgan Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland for saving Utah children from trans athletes, as he reposted an X-tweet from swimmer Riley Gaines about how a female high school athlete was injured by a male field hockey player. First, the Massachusetts incident was not about trans athletes, although the repost came from Gaines, a famed anti-trans swimmer—who is not from Massachusetts. “Student safety has not been a successful defense to excluding students of one gender from participating on teams of the opposite gender. The arguments generally fail due to the lack of correlation between injuries and mixed-gender teams,” wrote the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. And finally, the injury was during field hockey. Argue about whether that game is safe.

BY BENJAMIN WOOD

Off Track

here’s big train news out of the Unified Transportation Plan, a one-stop-shop for all of Utah’s long-term highway, transit and trails projects (find it at unifiedplan.org). Between now and the year 2032, Salt Lake City and the Utah Transit Authority intend to finally push the S-Line Streetcar to Highland Drive, via Simpson Avenue. The Streetcar is a bit of an odd duck that feels disconnected on both ends. This extension will mitigate that, making it somewhat easier to visit the Sugar House Shopping Center without a car. But for anyone who’d like to one day take the train to Sugar House Park, that’s still not in the plans—at least not before 2050—so remember to wear your walking shoes. But wait, there’s more. By 2042, the plans call for the first new Trax lines in Salt Lake City since the Green Line extension to the airport. A few blocks of rail on 400 South will facilitate the Orange Line, with a direct connection between Salt Lake Central and the University of Utah. And an extension along 400 West will add connections around Pioneer Park and the Granary. And … that’s it. To be fair, the state is planning several Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes, including one on State Street. A streetcar on Highland Drive linking Holladay and Millcreek to Salt Lake City is at least noted on the plans, albeit without any expected timeline or funding source. And throughout all of this, UTA will continue its slow, steady march toward a double-tracked Frontrunner, while eyeing eventual extensions to Payson and Brigham City. But the long and short of the Unified Transportation Plan is that Salt Lakers should expect some change, but not very much, to the city’s passenger rail map over the next 20 years. Did I say “big” train news? I meant there is some train news. Much bigger news are the plans to widen highways during that same time period. Sure, 20 years can only buy us a couple new Trax stops but for drivers, the next two decades will see rounds of widening on interstates 15, 80 and 215; Highway 201 and Legacy Parkway, the extension and widening of the Mountain View Corridor and “operational improvements” on 2100 South, 1300 East and Foothill Drive. The research on induced demand tells us that each of those highway projects will worsen traffic congestion and pollution while displacing residents and businesses and increasing the danger to pedestrians and cyclists near those corridors. The research on transit tells us that a high-frequency train with meaningful connections provides the most appealing and efficient alternative to driving. Here’s hoping the 2070 plans start to take this all seriously. Or maybe it will be our third Olympics that finally prompts us get our act together, if we’re still around by then. CW Small Lake City is home to local writers and their opinions.

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A&E

THEATER From the Belly of the Beast Timothy White Eagle’s The Indigo Room finds ritual in a recurring myth. BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

s performance artist Timothy White Eagle relates it, one of the most common myths around the world is the “swallowed man”—tales, like the Biblical story of Jonah, that recur in every culture, telling of emergence from trial into rebirth. It’s fitting then, that The Indigo Room, which explores that particular mythology, was itself born from a time of confinement and fear. White Eagle—a University of Utah theater department graduate now based in Seattle—traces the origins of The Indigo Room back to the aftermath of an earlier installation piece called The White Room. Inspired in part by White Eagle’s upbringing as a person of Native American ancestry adopted into a white Latter-Day Saint family, it found him offering individualized one-on-one experiences with visitors exploring “what we’re taught as children that isn’t true.” “It was based on the LDS temple celestial room—an inner sanctum where only the most pure of heart can attend,” White Eagle says. “I wanted to reclaim the idea that I wasn’t pure, but I made myself a priest of that room.” It was from a viewing of The White Room that someone in Seattle offered White Ea-

gle the chance to develop a show—which was about to go into technical rehearsals when COVID hit in early 2020. “My collaborators and I [on The Indigo Room] continued to meet virtually every week,” White Eagle says. “I asked them, ‘What is the ritual performance we want to go to when this is over?’ One of them was an elder who worked in a nursing home; he wasn’t even allowed to go out of the building. So it had this really intense development period.” Out of that development period came The Indigo Room, an immersive theater experience with ritualistic components and audience participation. While much of White Eagle’s artistic journey has been informed by his own rediscovery of this Native roots in his 20s, he emphasizes that The Indigo Room isn’t a show built specifically on Native ritual traditions, which could have been seen as a kind of cultural appropriation for a non-Native audience. “From the beginning, it’s intended to be a universal space,” White Eagle says. “That’s part of why I tell the story I tell, because it’s so universal. All of the stories I tell have roots in old stories, but they’re new versions that I’ve altered, or changed, or completely imagined. They’re actually brand-new stories. I know sacred songs, but I would never sing them for a ticketed audience; I specifically have a way of being with my voice inside a performance space that is not relying on something I know from Native ceremony space. So it’s crafted for its universal accessibility.” For White Eagle, that idea of attendees knowing what The Indigo Room is—and is not—is clearly important. He notes, for example, that the show contains queer content, which is something that some previous audiences have found unexpected, and in some cases unwelcome. “Some people come expecting a stereotype of a

Creator/performer Timothy White Eagle Native American, and when they confront a complex contemporary being, they’re offended,” he says. “I’m not your fantasy of a Native storyteller.” Similarly, he believes it’s important for potential attendees to come aware of the immersive component, which he considers a key to the deepest level of connecting with the experience. “When people arrive at the theater … they’re first confronted with a requirement of them to create something together,” White Eagle says. “That’s literally the buy-in to the show. What it is, is a ritual; I’m inviting people in. In order to do that, you don’t just drop your $40 and come on in. If it’s a real ritual, you have to buy in. You have to participate before you come into the room.” The Indigo Room consequently can be something that pushes attendees from their comfort zone—and marks White Eagle’s ongoing attempts to push himself, as well. With much of his initial training consisting of stage design and other behind-the-

scenes theater work and later, creative avenues like photography, being on stage has been a different kind of artistic expression. “It’s becoming more part of my comfort zone,” he says. “I consider myself a storyteller; that’s what I’m good at. I’m not trained as an actor. I keep getting offers to be an actor, and so far I’ve turned those offers down, because I like the freedom of storytelling—the freedom to change the language or the structure a little bit each night, depending on the audience. I know how to be present, and that’s important, and I know how to tell the truth.” CW

TIMOTHY WHITE EAGLE: THE INDIGO ROOM Kingsbury Hall 1395 E. Presidents Circle Nov. 9 – 11 7:30 p.m. $40 utahpresents.org

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Audra McDonald with Utah Symphony

ALLISON MICHAEL ORENSTEIN

There are any number of ways to measure the trajectory of performer’s rise from “who’s that” to “legend.” Take the case of Audra McDonald, for example, and her elevation to the status of Broadway superstar. It took literally a year from the time she graduated from Juilliard to winning her first Tony Award, for the Lincoln Center Theater (see below) revival of Carousel in 1994. She then earned Tony Awards for Featured Actress again in 1996 (for Terrence McNally’s Master Class) and in 1998 (for the original Broadway production of Ragtime), making her the first actor in Broadway history to earn three such awards before the age of 30. That could safely be considered a pretty great career by any standard—except that McDonald was only getting started. Three more Tony Awards would follow: in 2004 for A Raisin in the Sun; in 2012 for Porgy and Bess; in 2014 for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Not only does that make her the most awarded actor in the history of the Tony Awards, but the only actor to win in all four competitive acting categories: Lead and Featured in a Musical, and Lead and Featured in a Drama. There are stars, there are legends, and then there’s Audra McDonald. Audra McDonald joins the Utah Symphony with conductor Andy Einhorn for three performances, beginning Thursday, Nov. 9 at Ogden’s Austad Auditorium (3750 Harrison Blvd.) at 7:30 p.m., then on Nov. 10 – 11 at Abravanel Hall (123 S. West Temple) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets begin at $42; visit utahsympony.org or arttix.org to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (Scott Renshaw)

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Art + Wellness: Mindfulness @ Utah Museum of Fine Arts

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Charlotte Bell is no newcomer to yoga and mindfulness practices, with training that stretches back some 40 years. Nor is she inexperienced when it comes to visual art, with an extensive family history of artists and her own college study. Still, it presents a unique challenge to combine those two areas, as she does when leading “Art + Wellness” classes in mindfulness at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Bell prepares for her classes by exploring the museum before each session, getting ideas about how to connect the works currently on display with the particular mindfulness concept—mindfulness of breath, of thought, of the body, etc.—she is working with for that session. And it can lead to some interesting discoveries, as happened with a recent session on body mindfulness. “The Dutch had one particular concept about the body, where it was basically cover it up, in this particular time period,” Bell says; “in the same basic time period, the French were totally different. Then look at East Indian depictions of gods and goddesses, again, it’s totally different. The point was to help people understand that the way we look at the body is based on an idea, and maybe it’s not really true. To experience it from the inside is the point of mindfulness.” Mindfulness sessions at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (410 Campus Center Dr.) continue Thursdays through Dec. 7, 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. Sessions are free with museum admission, and free to university students, faculty and staff. Visit umfa.utah.edu for schedule and additional event information. (SR)

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Lincoln Center Theater: My Fair Lady

JEREMY DANIEL

Some shows take their place in an elevated tier of the American musical theater canon: The King & I, South Pacific, My Fair Lady. For more than a decade, the Lincoln Center Theater and director Bartlett Sher have set themselves the goal of mounting sumptuous revivals of these beloved shows, and My Fair Lady is the most recent of these to tour around the country. But by no means should they be thought of as creaky artifacts from a bygone age. Indeed, the narrative has been given a decidedly contemporary twist. The familiar story, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, remains the same: a Cockney flower girl named Eliza Doolittle becomes a bit of a pawn in a wager made by Professor Henry Higgins, who believes he can turn someone of low birth into someone who could believably mingle in high society. The songs by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe are still some of the earwormiest ditties ever to grace a stage, from “The Street Where You Live” to “I Could Have Danced All Night” to “Wouldn’t it Be Lover-ly.” But here you’ll also find an Eliza who’s no mere victim; as NYT’s Jesse Green put it during the initial 2018 New York run, Sher’s production “uses the current climate of re-examination not only to restore the show’s feminist argument … but also to warm it up considerably.” The Lincoln Center Theater production of My Fair Lady comes to the Eccles Theater (131 S. Main St.) for eight performances, Nov. 12 – 18. Times vary by date, and tickets begin at $55. Visit arttix.org to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (SR)

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Uncovering how two Utahns died on the job at Magna’s Northrop Grumman plant.

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Down in the Pit

STORY AND PHOTOS BY TAYLOR BARNES | comments@cityweekly.net The following report was originally published by Inkstick, a nonprofit news platform, on Oct. 10. It is reprinted here with permission.

Steinke and Tran died on Jan. 30, 2023, but Inkstick Media is reporting their names and cause of death for the first time. The company never publicly revealed their identities or cause of death, contributing to an air of secrecy that Julie Steinke said bothered her. M.K. Fletcher, safety and health specialist at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, told Inkstick that every workplace fatality is individual, and it is best to ask families their wishes, and that families tend to want their loved one remembered as a person with a name. She added that sharing workers’ names after they have died on the job helps to humanize the loss and keep the worker’s death from “fading away into the background.” In a brief statement broadcast on local television in Salt Lake City, an unnamed Northrop Grumman spokesperson was quoted saying that the company was not releasing details of the deaths, “out of respect for the privacy of the employees and the families.” A similar statement about privacy was made in a GoFundMe, which requested that users donate to

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There was a barricade at the stairway entrance and a sign that read: “Confined space entry can be fatal. Entry by permit only,” according to UOSH. The warning sign notwithstanding, UOSH later fined Northrop Grumman for having reclassified the area as a non-permit space; the permit designation would have required the company to perform a series of controls and safety measures to protect employees, such as atmospheric testing and providing workers breathing equipment. (A spokesman for the Utah Labor Commission, Eric Olsen, said that Northrop Grumman is appealing the UOSH citations. The company did not respond to phone calls and emails with detailed questions from Inkstick, including why it is appealing. The adjudication process is ongoing, and, to date, there has been no final finding of negligence.) Two co-workers later told police they had expected to see Steinke and Tran in the locker room or showers during shift change; when they didn’t show up, they went searching for them. They swept building 2440 twice and couldn’t find their

‘If they’d just been responsible, nobody would be dead.’

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Witnesses would later tell investigators from the Utah Occupational Safety and Health Division (UOSH) that the area of building 2440 where his body was found at the end of his shift had a history of gas leaks. Employees even knew about the leaks on the day of the deaths: According to the UOSH report obtained by Inkstick through a public records request, Steinke and a co-worker—Ken Tran, 48, who would also perish there— had been in the same area on the morning of their deaths, accompanying a maintenance crew to examine pressure switches to see if that was what was causing the leak of argon. The gas, used for welding, is heavier than air and displaces oxygen. Before they died, Jonathan Steinke and Ken Tran each walked down four flights of stairs alongside an autoclave, a vessel used to subject materials to high pressure and heat. A former co-worker said it looks like a giant, upright pipe. They reached an underground area that workers called “the pit,” from which they could look up and see the bottom of the autoclave and perform work on the electrical connections and steel tubes on it.

co-workers; that’s when one noticed that the machinery Steinke and Tran operated appeared to be in the middle of a leak safety check. He stepped down into the pit and immediately noticed the smell of argon, he told police. He ran out to call for help while the second co-worker then tried to descend into the pit to rescue Steinke and Tran; that employee started to get dizzy within seconds, turned around and crawled up the final steps gasping for breath, according to the police report; his colleague told UOSH that he had to pull him to safety. On the stairs next to Steinke and Tran’s slumped bodies, witnesses told UOSH they saw a pair of sonic ears, a device a former employee described to Inkstick as headphones and a ray gun-like instrument used to listen for the hissing sound of leaks. Julie Steinke was in bed at 8:30 p.m. and feeling like Jonathan should have been home already when her other son heard a knock on the door from police. She was numb in the hours after learning of her youngest child’s death, she told Inkstick. A supervisor attempted to comfort her, she said, telling her that Jonathan and Ken Tran “were making the hypersonic missiles that were to defend our country” and that “they were heroes on the other side” of this life. “My thought was, well, why didn’t you protect him?” Steinke said.

ulie Steinke didn’t see her son, Jonathan, 24, the morning he left their home to go die on the job at America’s third-largest defense contractor. Jonathan worked taxing 12-hour shifts starting at 6 a.m. at a Northrop Grumman plant in Magna, Utah, earning about $24 an hour. He had used the money to buy his mother a new roof; he’d been hoping to still buy her a deck.

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“I don’t want people to not talk about him, like he’s a shameful secret, becasue he’s not. Maybe that’s why I’m angry at Northrop, because they do treat it like it’s a secret. And it is a dirty secret.”

COURTESY OF JULIE STEINKE

—Julie Steinke, whose son, Jonathan, right, died on the job in January.

the families of the deceased but named neither the workers nor the relatives who would receive the funds. One local reporter—KUTV 2News’ Lincoln Graves—who arrived at the gates of the plant and photographed emergency vehicles thronging the area tried fruitlessly over the following days to get more information. He penned a short article three days later: “Authorities provide no answers in deaths of two West Valley Northrop Grumman employees.” Inkstick pieced together the story through public records requests, including for the UOSH report that took nearly six months to be released, and by speaking with families, a coworker and an expert on workplace safety. Spokespeople for Northrop Grumman did not respond to numerous requests for comment from Inkstick made by phone and email regarding the workplace hazards and alarming circumstances surrounding the men’s deaths described in the reports and by the families and co-workers. Both Julie and Robert Steinke—Jonathan’s father—said they never told the company that Jonathan’s name needed to be kept secret. Julie told Inkstick the secrecy bothered her, as though it implied that her son had done something wrong. “I don’t want people to not talk about him, like he’s a shameful secret, because he’s not,” she said. “Maybe that’s why I’m angry at Northrop, because they do treat it like it’s a secret. And it is a dirty secret—because if they’d just been responsible, nobody would be dead.” The widow of Ken Tran spoke briefly with Inkstick by phone and text message, saying the loss had devastated her family. The men’s deaths blotted a moment when their employer’s local political clout and economic power were on the rise. Northrop Grumman is the largest defense contractor in Utah, performing more than $2 billion in weapons work there in 2021, according to the Pentagon’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. Its executives routinely appear in public relations photos alongside state political leaders and congressional representatives. In 2020, the company—and, by extension, Utah—received a major financial boost when the federal government awarded it a $13 billion contract to restock hundreds of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles in the United States nuclear weapons arsenal. Key to getting that contract was the company’s acquisition of Orbital ATK, one of just two solid-fuel rocket engine makers in the US. The acquisition drew scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, since it gave Northrop Grumman such a dominant position in the rocket market—indeed, its only would-be competitor for the ICBM contract, Boeing, dropped out of the bidding, calling it unfair. But the government allowed the acquisition to go through; Northrop Grumman ended up being the only company to bid on the lucrative ICBM contract, and won it. The company is manufacturing the weapons in Utah. That acquisition changed the management in building 2440. A former maintenance employee who worked in the building for 19 years told Inkstick he had been evacuated from building 2440 just a few months before Steinke and Ken’s death after what appeared to be a valve failure; Julie told Inkstick that Jonathan had also told her about the evacuation.

The employee, who asked Inkstick not to use his name to avoid jeopardizing employment opportunities, was fired a few weeks before Steinke and Tran’s deaths in what he said was retaliation for raising safety concerns on the job. (Spokespeople for Northrop Grumman did not respond to any questions from Inkstick, including why the employee was fired.) Robert Steinke got news of his son’s death late at night at his home in Virginia. Also a defense contractor, he was, by extraordinary coincidence, a safety specialist trained on confined space entry in environments like submarines and aircraft carriers. “It’s both a good thing, and, in my case, I think it’s a terrible thing,” he told Inkstick, “because I have 15 years of training and knowledge of how he died.” The next morning, he drove 30 hours nonstop to Magna, and began conducting his own parallel personal inquiry alongside official investigators. Co-workers quietly approached Robert Steinke and his friends at Jonathan’s viewing and funeral, eager to tell him what had gone wrong. The company was fined $172,350 by UOSH, but the Salt Lake County District Attorney, Sim Gill, has not at this time determined whether to pursue criminal charges in the deaths. Gill told Inkstick in an emailed statement that his office had discussed the case with UOSH but had not received an official referral from them.

‘My son died a senseless death’ Terry Krug, a former OSHA compliance officer and an expert on confined space entry who has written a book on the topic, reviewed the UOSH reports at Inkstick’s request. He said they painted a picture of a confined space program that was “severely deficient,” with inconsistent practices and unclear procedures regarding entry into the dangerous space. For example, one Northrop worker told UOSH investigators that employees received confined space training annually on the computer. The company did not respond to questions from Inkstick about whether they also received hands-on training, such as simulated rescues and training on how to use MSA gas meters, which require special calibration in order to be accurate. One employee told investigators that they used gas meters in the space; another said that gas meters were “not always used.” Another said that personal protective equipment was supposed to include supplied air. Krug noted that UOSH used its most serious classification— “willful-serious”—to describe Northrop Grumman’s failure to classify entering the “pit” as Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health, or an IDLH. “It doesn’t seem to me like that contractor knew what they were doing as far as proper controls, as far as testing, as far as training the people that would be going in there, and monitoring them to see that they’re following their confined space program,” Krug said. “And I don’t even know if they had a confined space program.” Robert Steinke’s first encounter with the danger of confined spaces came when he was a few months into his new

career in shipbuilding, nine stories down on an aircraft carrier. He saw a co-worker welding while jet fuel pooled below his workspace. Robert Steinke imagined the fireball those sparks would create leaping up through the narrow staircases he’d just come down and how he wouldn’t be able to outrun it. “I could have been a crispy critter,” he told Inkstick. That was the moment he decided he could get killed if he didn’t become an expert in workplace safety, he said. He went through training to become what OSHA calls a Competent Person, an employee capable of evaluating workplace hazards and eliminating them. Those safety checks can become a bottleneck for supervisors eager to move ahead with their work, Robert Steinke said, recalling a story of when he evacuated a whole submarine because he discovered that an incorrect bottle was being used to bump test a gas meter. He waited hours to receive the correct bottle, then scrambled into the vessel to use the meter and check that workers could safely breathe in its confines. “It becomes expensive” to idle a workforce for procedures like that, he told Inkstick. “It’s a pain in the ass.” Armed with his training and years of work experience, Robert Steinke had no inclination to believe his son died a hero’s death. “My son died a senseless death” he told Inkstick, a “death that should not have occurred.” If Julie Steinke had asked the supervisor who called her son a hero how the hypersonic missiles Jonathan died working on defended the country, he may have struggled to give her details. That’s because the U.S. military has no official mission for these weapons. Hypersonics are missiles that travel at least five times faster than the speed of sound, something traditional intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) loaded with nuclear warheads have long done. But differently from ICBMs, which travel on predictable arcs across the globe, hypersonics can maneuver en route to their destinations. According to a February 2023 report from the Congressional Research Service, the Department of Defense hasn’t decided yet whether it will acquire such weapons and instead is just developing prototypes. In other words, Steinke and Tran died making a weapon that may be in the arsenal of tomorrow—or may end up in the dustbin of history and the discarded weapons of the arms races of yesteryear. Northrop Grumman did not respond to any questions from Inkstick, including any additional details about the types of hypersonic missiles the men were building components for. Jonathan Steinke wasn’t allowed to tell his mom much about his weapons industry work, since he held a security clearance. Julie and Robert Steinke didn’t even know their son’s job title. She said their time to chat was usually in the evenings, after they’d each gotten home and could relax. She told Inkstick that, one day, without giving specifics, Jonathan began to speak ominously about his workplace, telling her about broken equipment and pressure on the job. Julie, through tears, told Inkstick how that conversation ended. “I remember looking at him and saying, ‘Don’t you die.’ And he just looked at me and didn’t say anything.” CW

Rewind Volume 12: 1995 to 1996 years of

salt lake

CITY WEEKLY BY WES LONG wlong@cityweekly.net

Through their respective columns, Katherine Biele and Ron Yengich provided lively commentary on the political happenings of 1995 and 1996. What follows are samplings of their observations: Biele: “[1995] came to a close on a conflicted note as men and women alike tried to sort out the personal and political violations of the Enid Greene Waldholtz campaign. Enid held a press conference unparalleled in emotion and exhaustion, ostensibly to explain just how husband Joe had duped her into believing he was a millionaire and was handling the complicated finances of her campaign legitimately. Truth or consequences aside, the public was left wondering at the apparent contrast between Enid, a capable attorney taking Congress by storm, and Enid, the willingly submissive wife who never questioned the red flags surrounding her husband’s activities.” (Jan. 4, 1996) Yengich: “It seems that we here at the Private Eye Weekly have offended the sensibilities of Utah’s Walter Winchell and Ann Landers. I am speaking, of course, of [Salt Lake Tribune columnists] Paul Rolly and Joann Jacobsen-Wells ... . In recent columns, Rolly and Wells have referred to the Private Eye Weekly as a ‘tabloid’ paper. For those unaware of newspaper-speak, this would be the journalistic equivalent of the playground taunt ‘yo momma.’ It was also suggested that the ‘writers’ at the Private Eye Weekly might ‘get real jobs.’” (Jan. 11, 1996) Biele: “In 1996, the pollsters have not only shaped the character of the campaign, but they’ve influenced who’s campaigning as well. Politics in Utah is focusing less on a candidate’s message than on his or her profile. To the voter, it’s a little like a computer dating service.” (March 28, 1996)

“I’d hoped all along that this would be quiet and anonymous,” said Kelli Peterson in Ben Fulton’s cover story for Feb. 15, 1996. “Then somebody had to go ask [Utah Eagle Forum’s] Gayle Ruzicka what she thinks. I thought to myself, ‘Oh God, why now?”

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In the schools

Peterson—founder of East High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance—had been launched into a media frenzy when Ruzicka’s legal threats and the proceedings of an illegal closed-door meeting at the State Capitol were shown to public view. During that meeting—at which Utah Democrats were silent—Republican senators Howard Stephenson, Charles Stewart and Leonard Blackham summoned state education officials to castigate them for supposedly “promoting” homosexuality in schools. “Flush with concern,” Fulton wrote, “Stephenson displayed the children’s book ‘Heather Has Two Mommies.’ Stewart treated those in attendance to the anti-gay film Gay Rights/Special Rights, but apparently not until toying with the idea that all noncurricular high school clubs be sacrificed in order to stop groups like East High’s GayStraight Alliance dead in their tracks.” This all-out club ban was indeed the tack undertaken by the Salt Lake City School District to avoid violating the federal Equal Access Act. Peterson and her friends received support from groups like the ACLU and the state’s LGBTQ community, but the experience remained nerve-wracking and stressful. “I formed this organization to end the misery and isolation of being gay in high school,” she said at a Capitol rally. “We’re going to be 18 pretty soon and voting, so don’t think we’re going to forget what you [lawmakers] did to us.” Fulton reported that Peterson’s home was barraged by crank calls, and she took to wearing a whistle and carrying pepper spray. And yet, through it all, she retained her sense of humor as well as a conviction that her opponents have just as much a right to protest as she does. “I’m tired of this idea that I need help. Help with what?” she asked. “I’m not the one with the problem. My problem is not being gay, it’s how I’m treated.” After a years-long legal battle, a landmark 1999 court ruling declared that banning all non-curricular school clubs did in fact violate the Equal Access Act. The following year, the Salt Lake City School Board reinstated the clubs. CW

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Environmental concerns surfaced often. From air to animals to trees, there was much going on that was of concern to our readers and writers. A “Hits & Misses” column for June 29, 1995, noted that Utah had received a high liveability ranking, to the delight of Gov. Mike Leavitt. “But when the American Lung Association says Salt Lake County has the 13th worst particulate air pollution, Leavitt finds it hard to believe.” Forests and wildlife were at the center of other controversies, as seen in an Oct. 5 cover story by Kristen Rogers about the actions of state managers during the hunting season. But the most frequent figure in these conflicts was Jim Hansen (1932-2018), who represented the state’s First Congressional District from 1981 to 2003.

In their words

Remembering Vol. 12: In the wild

“Hansen,” noted Katharine Biele on Sept. 7, “has become inextricably enmeshed in bills to decrease Utah’s wilderness acreage, to hand over to the state all lands belonging to the Bureau of Land Management, and to close or privatize the nation’s parks.” As chairman of the subcommittee on Parks, Forests and Public Lands, Hansen sought to assemble a National Parks Closure Commission. Working with U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, he successfully gave 1,320 acres of National Forest land to developer Earl Holding—a regular campaign donor—on the pretext of the 2002 Olympics for Holding’s Snowbasin Resort. Hansen’s Utah Wilderness Act proposed to unlock millions of acres of protected area to mining, oil, gas, ranching and timber interests. Speaking of timber, another controversial action was taken this year by means of an amendment to the lengthy Rescissions Act of 1995, ostensibly devoted to disaster relief and anti-terrorism initiatives. Known as the Salvage Rider, the amendment created an “emergency salvage timber sale” program that allowed federal agencies to turn over forest land to timber companies without regard for the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act or the National Forest Management Act. “As long as the logging operation is labeled a ‘salvage sale,’ it is exempt from public review or any prognosis of environmental impact,” wrote Ben Fulton. Claimed to be a means of preventing fires and bark beetles, the Salvage Rider defined “salvage sale” so broadly that any national forest could potentially be open for logging operations at taxpayer’s expense. As Fulton reported, the Forest Service would not only pay for costs of administering sales to the companies but also for cleanup and road construction for greater logging access. “Sidney Valley isn’t the only Utah forest on schedule for salvage logging,” Fulton concluded. “Forest officials have scheduled logging next summer of more than 6,000 acres of conifer and aspens in Dixie National Forest near St. George. Fish Lake National Forest and forests near Manti, Price and LaSalle aren’t far behind.”

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welve years into the Private Eye Weekly’s run, Utah was experiencing massive population and economic growth and housing affordability was a looming concern. State leaders were drooling over the prospect of a Micron computer chip plant, white supremacist groups were festering, and Utah was criticized for its 1996 execution of John Taylor by a firing squad. There were profiles of Sima Vaghti, a tutor to low-income children, and of James Moore Jr. (1977-2006), who educated young people about gangs and violence. Reporter Ben Fulton’s story of Louis Coray’s (18621949) quest to locate Utah’s original constitution—which had been misplaced for 20 years—was another highlight of this year. Nationally, prices within the telecommunications industry were going up after deregulation, and a government shutdown occurred over a proposed Republican budget plan that slashed social program funding and cut taxes on the wealthy. As for the paper itself, Private Eye introduced a new section for mind, body and spiritual needs called “Soul Survival.” The office relocated two doors east to 60 W. 400 South, and its staff won three first-place awards from the Utah Press Association.

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LULU’S HOT OVEN 10949 S. Redwood Road 385-327-4992 lulushotoven.com

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f you’re a fan of Mexican food and you live anywhere along the Wasatch Front, you know about Mi Ranchito. The Armenta Family has expanded their empire of traditional Mexican dishes into five locations all over the valley. I noticed that their South Jordan location recently expanded into the space left behind by a defunct Godfather’s Pizza, making way for Lulu’s Hot Oven. It’s a slight departure from the Mi Ranchito brand, but their concept is Mexican fusion pizza with a solid menu of traditional tortas. What’s not to love? Before we get to the tasty ways Lulu’s Hot Oven is experimenting with their pizza, let’s take a moment to talk about their tortas, shall we? Their current menu offers four options stuffed with all kinds of savory delights. I can happily recommend the Torta Cubana ($14.99) all day; it’s a bit of a departure from the traditional Cubano sandwich, but it’s spectacular nonetheless. It’s the torta that packs the biggest wallop from a “how much meat can we fit in there” perspective. By my count, there are around six varieties of meats—everything from sliced ham to chorizo to pork carnitas are along for the ride. Sometimes such a grand gathering of meats can cause some balance issues

swaps out traditional red sauce with Lulu’s homemade mole, topped with lots of shredded chicken and their house blend of cheeses. Essentially, you’re getting a kind of deconstructed enchilada de mole, with a delivery system that is thicker and crispier than a traditional tortilla. The mole is rich, smoky and offers just a hint of sweetness that complements the shredded chicken nicely. Overall, it’s an excellent innovation in the field of pizza technology. Even moreso, in my humble opinion, is the birria pizza. Saucy, melty birria tacos with a side of beef consommé are a hot foodie trend at the moment, but this glorious pie is the one we need to be talking about. It starts with the traditional pizza build of crust, sauce and cheese before a liberal dose of thinly sliced onion, cilantro and heaps of tender beef birria. It arrives at the table with a side of luscious beef consommé, and once you take your first dip, the true genius of this dish starts to hit you. If you fold each slice up New York-style, you’ve got a platter of delicious birria tacos that absolutely nail the flavor fusion that takes place when tender roast beef collides with onion and cilantro. Though you can put pretty much anything on pizza and get a decent result, the birria pizza at Lulu’s is in a league of its own. As a longtime fan of Mi Ranchito, it’s fun to see the owners go off the rails a bit and get experimental with their craft. In this case, I think Lulu’s is already a success. Mexican fusion pizza is something I didn’t know I needed until I gave it a try. CW

BY ALEX SPRINGER comments@cityweekly.net @captainspringer

when it comes to the dish as a whole, but I thought each of this torta’s components contributed to a successful whole. Part of this success comes from the creamy mozzarella cheese and mayo paired with the tomato and avocado. These fresh strokes of flavor and texture help cut through the savory-on-savory innards of this torta, allowing you to fully appreciate each meat for its individual contribution. The chorizo is crumbly and spicy, the ham is salty and the carnitas melt in your mouth. Lulu’s also offers a traditional Torta Milanesa ($12.99) with thin slices of fried chicken breast and a Torta del Chavo ($10.99) which goes all in on ham. The Torta Tradicional ($11.99) is a build-yourown option that lets you add your very own mix of Lulu’s bounteous proteins to your torta. You can’t really go wrong with any of these options if you’re a fan of traditional tortas—all of them hit that perfect balance between flavor and texture. Okay, let’s talk about Lulu’s pizza. The foundational elements of a good pizza joint are there with your basic cheese pizza ($9.99) and an option to choose your own toppings. When you dig into the menu a bit, you start seeing items like the Haidi ($10.99), with its blend of pepperoni and sliced jalapeños, or the Hugo ($13.99), which adds carne asada to a traditional meat-lovers pizza. It’s not long before you notice that Lulu’s offers birra ($13.99) and mole ($12.99) pizzas as well, at which point you might be questioning how you got so lucky. The basic roster at Lulu’s is great— crispy crust, even cheese distribution, balanced red sauce and they get a plus for using fresh pineapple on their Hawaiian ($10.99). But I am here to tell you that the birria and mole versions are insane. As you may have guessed, the mole pizza

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Mangia Meets Mexico

Burgers so good they’ll blow your mind!

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24 | NOVEMBER 9, 2023

Proper Brewing Moab 1393 US-191 Moab, Utah 84532 On Tap: Angus McCloud- Scottish Ale

Level Crossing Brewing Co., POST 550 So. 300 West #100, SLC LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: Vienna Style Lager

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Offset Bier Co 1755 Bonanza Dr Unit C, Park City offsetbier.com/ On Tap: DOPO IPA Ogden Beer Company 358 Park Blvd, Ogden OgdenRiverBrewing.com On Tap: Injector Hazy IPA Policy Kings Brewery 223 N. 100 West, Cedar City PolicyKingsBrewery.com Prodigy Brewing 25 W Center St. Logan Prodigy-brewing.com On Tap: Cached Out Hefeweisen -- Now available to go! Proper Brewing 857 S. Main, SLC ProperBrewingCo.com On Tap: Whispers from Krakatoa Helles Lager with Habanero & Mango Proper Burger: Sour Ranger Blackberry and Lemon Sour

RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com On Tap: Pumpkin Black Pumpkin Spice Ale Roosters Brewing Multiple Locations RoostersBrewingCo.com On Tap: Identity Crisis Session West Coast Hazy Cold IPA – the name says it all! SaltFire Brewing 2199 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake SaltFireBrewing.com On Tap: Deep Dive Series - Rice Lager Draft Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com On Tap: Oktoberfest Vienna Lager Scion Cider Bar 916 Jefferson St W, SLC Scionciderbar.com On Tap: Colorado Cider Grasshop-ah ABV 6.5%

Second Summit Cider 4010 So. Main, Millcreek https://secondsummitcider.com On Tap: Pear Pink Peppercorn & Tarragon Cider

Stratford Proper 1588 Stratford Ave., SLC stratfordproper.com On Tap: Yacht Rock Juice Box Juicy IPA

Shades Brewing 154 W. Utopia Ave, South Salt Lake ShadesBrewing.beer On Tap: Slim Shady Gluten Friendly Light Ale | Live Music: Thursdays

TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC TFBrewing.com On Tap: Oktoberfest Märzen Lager

Shades On State 366 S. State Street SLC Shadesonstate.com On Tap: Hellion Blond Ale, an ode to Ellie, manager at Shades on State Karaoke: Wednesdays Silver Reef 4391 S. Enterprise Drive, St. George StGeorgeBev.com Squatters Pub Brewery / Salt Lake Brewing Co. 147 W. Broadway, SLC saltlakebrewingco.com/squatters On Tap: Salt Lake Brewing Co’s Batch 66 IPA Squatters and Wasatch Brewery 1763 So 300 West SLC UT 84115 Utahbeers.com On Tap: Squatters & Kiitos Collab: Ginger Rye Lime Sour, 5% Strap Tank Brewery, Lehi 3661 Outlet Pkwy, Lehi, UT StrapTankBrewery.com On Tap: Three on the Tree’ Hoppy Lager Collaboration with Proximity Malt and Roy Farms Hops.

Talisman Brewing Co. 1258 Gibson Ave, Ogden TalismanBrewingCo.com On Tap: Witches Brew Uinta Brewing 1722 S. Fremont Drive, SLC UintaBrewing.com On Tap: Was Angeles Craft Beer UTOG 2331 Grant Ave, Ogden UTOGBrewing.com On Tap: Golden Grant 5% ABV. Vernal Brewing 55 S. 500 East, Vernal VernalBrewing.com Wasatch Brew Pub 2110 S. Highland Drive, SLC saltlakebrewingco.com/wasatch On Tap: Wasatch Salt Lime Cerveza Zion Brewery 95 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale ZionBrewery.com Zolupez 205 W. 29th Street #2, Ogden Zolupez.com

Strap Tank Brewery, Springville 596 S 1750 W, Springville, UT StrapTankBrewery.com On Tap: Three on the Tree’ Hoppy Lager Collaboration with Proximity Malt and Roy Farms Hops.

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| CITY WEEKLY |

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A list of what local craft breweries and cider houses have on tap this week

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eer nerds are enjoying a new type of lager that takes some of the best parts of Pilsners and marries them with taste-popping hops associated with IPAs. The problem is that breweries don’t have an official name for these new hopped-up lagers. You’re likely to come across names like India Pale Lager (IPL), Cold IPA, West Coast Lager, Brut IPA, New Style Lager, American Hoppy Lager, etc. They’re all basically made the same damn way; I’m just hoping for a little agreement on the terminology soon. Regardless, we have two very new examples of hoppy-lager beers out right now that are quite interesting. Uinta - Violet Fire: This “New Style Lager” is described as “a reimagining of what a lager can be.” It showcases a balance between the clean crispness of a true American lager and the aromatic hop bouquet of a modern IPA. This beer is dosed with El Dorado, Sabro and Sultana hops. It pours a mostly-clear, unfiltered pale yellow color, with moderate amounts of fine active visible carbonation rising along the edges of the glass and a moderate amount of pale golden-yellow highlights. Moderate to strong aromas of juicy tropical/pineapple, honeydew melon, tangerine and coconut predominate, along with some piney hops. Up front, there are light to moderate flavors of toasty biscuit, followed by moderate to strong flavors of juicy pineapple, honeydew melon and strawberry. Some citrus/tangerine slides in next, along with some herbal and grassy notes to balance out the tropical hops. The end rolls in with coconut flavors, believe it or not, which impart a light amount of bitterness that fades away quickly, leaving moderate lingering herbal snap. It’s

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When cold lagers meet cool temperatures

just shy of medium-bodied, with moderate amounts of carbonation and a light amount of dryness in the finish. Verdict: Easy to drink, with well-hidden 5.0 percent alcohol and a pleasantly crisp mouthfeel. The nice tropical fruit salad of flavors makes for an enjoyable experience, and it demonstrates a nice use of Sabro—specifically, solid coconut presence without the suntan-lotion aspects. Saltfire/Ogden Beer Sweater Weather: This “cold IPA” lager is a collaboration between SaltIfire brewing and Ogden Beer Co. It features Idaho 7, Idaho Gem and Strata hops. It pours a golden-orange unfiltered color that is slightly hazed; the frothy head is sturdy with long life. A fresh hoppy and juicy punch begins teasing the nose with citrus, stone fruit, tropical fruit and melon on the first pass of the aroma. Hints of grassy herbs linger in the background. The taste begins with a light honey and caramel sweetness, a mild cereal tone and a general sense of toasted pastry crust. With the malt influence fading and the hops building on the middle palate, a bold citrus flavor circulates around the radiance of mandarin oranges and a hint of red grapefruit. As flavors of strawberry, apricot, cantaloupe and peach bring about a mix of tropical and orchard fruit, they seem to have a slight candied character about them. Trending moderately bitter, a peppery hop bite proves sharper than typical, and carries a hint of curaçao liqueur. Medium bodied and maltydry, this version of a cold IPA is a little brighter and more exuberant than in the aroma, but less creamy and smooth in the finish, allowing for a crisper, cleaner hop bite in a medium-long aftertaste of citrus peel and spruce bitterness. Verdict: An excellent 6.5 percent cold IPA. I’ve become fonder of them due to the rise in popularity of hazy and juicy IPAs, and this one is a very good example. If not for the gentle warmth on the palate, you’d never know it was a lager. You can find Sweater Weather at both Saltfire and Ogden Beer Co. in 16-ounce cans. Violet Fire is getting a wide distribution throughout Uinta’s footprint, and will be available in cans and on-tap everywhere. As always, cheers! CW

Hop

MIKE RIEDEL

Cold Comfort

MIKE RIEDEL

NERD

BEER

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26 | NOVEMBER 9, 2023

the

BACK BURNER BY ALEX SPRINGER |

@captainspringer

Eat Drink SLC Raises Over $50k for Local Nonprofits

While Eat Drink SLC is an excellent way to experience our local food scene, it’s also a fantastic opportunity to help raise some money for local nonprofit groups. This year’s event raised a total of $52,000 that was spread among three different local nonprofits. $27,000 went to Women of the World (womenofworld.org), an organization that provides assistance to forcibly-displaced women all over the world. $12,500 went to Tracy Aviary (tracyaviary.org), and another $12,500 went to SB Dance (curbsidetheater.sbdance.com). This is an event that never disappoints, and we like seeing our foodie community turn out to dine well and support a few local causes in the process.

Heber Valley Restaurant Week Starts

Heber Valley, our mountainous neighbor to the east, will be hosting their annual restaurant week from Nov. 6 - 12. That means everything from swanky spots like The Lakehouse at Deer Creek to neighborhood favorites like the Dairy Keen will be offering discounted specials throughout the week. With all the autumnal vibes in the air, combined with Heber Valley’s natural beauty, this is a great excuse to check out the Heber dining scene. You can check out a list of participating restaurants at gohebervalley.com/dining, and all you need to do during your visit is ask for their Restaurant Week Special. Go forth and eat local, friends.

Prime Corn Opens Pop-Up

After getting its start in the Spice Kitchen Incubator (spicekitchenincubator.org), Prime Corn (primecornfood.com) will be operating a restaurant space in the City and County Building (451 S. State Street) for the next few months. Prime Corn is a love letter to the cuisine of Mexico’s indigenous ancestors, seeking out ingredients and recipes that hearken back to a simpler—and tastier—way of looking at food. Owned and operated by Wendy Juarez, Prime Corn offers a menu of gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian and halal options that sound delicious regardless of one’s dietary orientation. You can visit Prime Corn at the City and County Building through Dec. 29. Quote of the Week: “If I could have dinner with anyone who lived in history, it would depend on the restaurant.” –Rodney Dangerfield

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CINEMA

FILM

REVIEW That ’70s Show The Holdovers offers a feel-good version of the cinematic era it evokes. BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

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into, which is basically an “inspirational teacher” movie crossed with an odd-couple buddy comedy. The cast is uniformly solid, with Sessa a charming discovery and Randolph nailing a nuanced portrayal of dealing with grief. The entertainment value is there; what’s missing is the kind of roiling confrontation with a changing world that characterized the best movies from the era The Holdovers attempts to evoke. Payne, Hemingson and company want the audience to feel good at the end of their movie, and that mission is accomplished. They just aren’t representing a time when what filmmakers wanted audiences to feel at the end of their movie was at least a little bit angry. CW

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for flunking the son of an angered wealthy donor, and his own backstory gradually reveals plenty of cause for feeling embittered about who gets the benefit of the doubt in our society, and who doesn’t. The problem is that Paul Hunham is ultimately kind of a weirdly constructed character. Hemingson’s script piles on several off-putting physical characteristics—a lazy eye, body odor, excessive sweatiness—that would make him something of a social outcast regardless of his class status, so the idea that his fate is exclusively a function of economics falls flat. And while this type of role as a guy with contempt for those who don’t have appreciation for excellence is firmly in Giamatti’s wheelhouse, just like his role in Payne’s Sideways, it’s unexpected to see his growing friendship with Angus softening up the concept’s skewering of spoiled brats. What do we make of something that flips on a dime from “eat the rich” to “nepo babies have feelings, too?” The thing is, The Holdovers winds up being fairly good at the kind of movie it turns

at a New England boarding school Barton Prep circa 1970. One faculty member is required to serve as chaperone for any students unable to head home for the winter break, and that task falls to Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a misanthropic ancient civilizations instructor. While several students initially are in his charge, the group is ultimately winnowed down to 17-year-old Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a troubled kid seemingly down to his last strike after getting kicked out of several other schools, and perhaps genetically engineered to test Paul’s patience. Also remaining at Barton is the school’s head cook, Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), still grieving the death of her son in Vietnam earlier that same year, and part of what initially feels like an interesting look at privilege in America. As a Black scholarship kid who couldn’t afford the college that would have allowed him a draft deferment, Mary’s son represents the counterpoint to Barton’s many entitled scions of wealth. Giamatti’s character plays into this notion as well, as he is placed in the role of babysitter in part as punishment

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

s Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers opens, the very first thing we see is a throwback “blue screen” MPAA rating card, the kind that accompanied the films of 50 years ago. From there we get an even more pointed gag, with the creation of a retrostyled logo for distributor Focus Features (one that never actually existed, given the company’s history going back only to the early part of this century). It even creeps into the opening credits—not just in the way everyone from the cast members to the hairstylists are included, but to the Roman numeral copyright date being indicated as “MCMLXXI” (1971, for the non-Romans among us). It’s one thing to set a story in the early 1970s, as Payne and screenwriter/ TV veteran David Hemingson do here; what they really want, though, is to make it clear that this story is of the early 1970s. And that’s why it’s a bit of a bummer that The Holdovers is so, well, nice. It’s not that there weren’t nice movies in the early 1970s, as the remnants of the old studio models bumped up against the auteurs of New Hollywood, but that this movie seems to want to evoke the former much more than the latter. Everything here seems set up for a tale with as much grit and grain as we see in the film stock, until all the roughest edges wind up sanded down. The setup feels primed for a particularly caustic sensibility, as the holidays approach

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

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30 | NOVEMBER 9, 2023

Native American artist Michael Gross—aka Whisperhawk—brings his heritage to his music. BY EMILEE ATKINSON eatkinson@cityweekly.net @emileelovesvinyl

elling a story on an album is usually an important part of the album itself. Maybe the story is chronicling of a tumultuous relationship, or a fun night out, or even just that there’s no story. Some of the most important stories though are about our lived experiences. Indigenous singer/ songwriter Whisperhawk’s latest collection of songs details his thoughts on Native American issues—specifically, those of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, to which he belongs. In 2018 Michael Gross, AKA Whisperhawk, was elected to the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation tribal council. That’s when he experienced a big push to dive into Native American politics, especially those that have impacted his tribe. “We were indigenous to northern Utah. We don’t have a reservation. Most other tribes in the country do, so that’s kind of unique about us,” he said. “Most of us were almost completely wiped off the face of the earth. We’ve just kind of been scattered all over the Wasatch front. We didn’t really have a home.” His latest collection of music, Keepers of the Earth Vol. 2, focuses on the issues of the Shoshone tribe from Gross’ perspective. “I can’t speak for everybody, but it’s just one guy’s point of view on events that happened in the past,” he added. Keepers of the Earth Vol. 2 was written, performed, recorded and mixed by Gross himself—a feat that didn’t come easy, but

the end result is satisfying enough. Gross has been fully producing his work since he became a primarily solo artist in the last five years. Wanting to be as self-sufficient as possible, Gross taught himself how to produce his own music, which wasn’t an easy feat. “It’s like learning a new language. It takes time to kind of get to a point where you’re competent in doing that,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been in university, or in college, or something, these last few years, just kind of teaching myself the ropes of being a self-sufficient musician.” Listening to the eight-song collection doesn’t feel like listening to someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, or like questionable choices have been made. Keepers is a steady, calming yet powerful body of work that has a lot to get lost in. The first track, “Keepers of the Earth,” is the perfect opener for the collection. It boasts a constant, calm and solid drumbeat throughout that feels like a beating heart. On top of that you get Gross’ soothing and emotional voice, paired with indepth lyrics that will have your arms filled with goosebumps by the time you get to the chorus. Gross uses an assortment of sounds on the album, offering a mix of acoustic and electronic elements that can appeal to a wide variety of listeners. Keepers is something you can listen to when you need a moment to center yourself, or for sitting around a campfire with loved ones. Featuring Native American themes in his music is something Gross indicates he wants to do more of going forward. Because he didn’t grow up on a reservation, Gross feels like he missed out on being part of a more tight-knit community. “Native people that grew up on reservations, the advantages of that are that they maintain their culture,” he explained. “At least for our tribe, some of that has been lost. It was probably when I got elected to be on the Tribal Council that I started to look at Native American life more deeply. I found that I discovered how attached I am to it,

Whisperhawk

MUSIC

how much it does mean to me.” Gross doesn’t want or need listeners to take away any specific meaning from the album; it’s okay if you just listen and have a good time. But because November is Native American Heritage Month, he did want to dedicate the work to his Native American brothers and sisters. “Even though I’m not trying to speak for all Native people in these songs, some of the themes people can relate to, in all Native Nations,” he said. “It’s not just for Native American people. I mean, it’s for everybody. It’s a side of history that doesn’t often get taught, especially in our schools. Many people aren’t even aware of a lot of Native American history. How could they be? It’s never really been taught.” If there are any non-Native listeners who pick up the album and want to know

how they can be more of an ally to their Native friends, education is a great way to start. “Native American people still exist. We’re still here,” he said. “Learn a little bit about their history and where they’re coming from. You learn about somebody, you start to understand maybe why they feel the way they do. Then, I think that’s where empathy can come in. We can start to have empathy for each other when we understand each other’s circumstances.” Keepers of the Earth Vol. 2 is a beautiful journey into Gross’ feelings about his culture, but also just a great collection of music. If you need something mellow and maybe your soul needs some help healing, it’s a perfect album for you. CW

WHISPERHAWKMUSIC.COM WHISPERHAWK.BANDCAMP.COM

WHISPERHAWK

Keeping Culture Alive

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Boardwalk’s Battle of the Bands @ Boardwalk Sound 11/9-11

There’s a lot to enjoy in the local music scene, but Boardwalk’s Battle of the Bands is one you won’t want to miss. The battle officially began on Nov. 7, but better late than never, especially with how many incredible nights are left. At each show you’ll catch four bands rocking it out to earn the crown. Night three features Hazel Paul, HASHA, bellagrace and Afternoon All Night. For bands participating in the contest, it’s the perfect time to show off their skills, workshop new songs and potentially gain new fans; for attendees, it’s an incredible chance to see a number of fantastic locals all in one place in one night—or several nights, if you go to each of the shows. In April, we saw HASHA release their latest EP Let Me Forget You, a five-song adventure chock full of smoothness, belting vocals and heartfelt lyrics. Perhaps a song or two off this EP will make its way to the battle. You’ll find more mellow, strippedback sounds with bellagrace’s tracks. With only four official tracks out right now, maybe she’ll play a few we already know, or unveil something new. Afternoon All Night will join the fray with melodic, mellow indie rock tracks that will have you swaying side to side with the first strum of a chord. There’s plenty to behold at each night of the battle, so head out and support all of the great participants. Boardwalk’s Battle of the Bands continues through Saturday, Nov 11. Each show starts at 6:30 p.m.; tickets for the all-ages shows are $8 at theboardwalksound.com. (Emilee Atkinson)

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Baroness

Baroness @ The Depot 11/9

It is undeniably very common for bands to run out of steam after four or five records. I don’t mind an artist shifting their sound, as long as the songs are still engaging. On their sixth studio album, Stone, Philadelphia-based heavy metal band Baroness doesn’t lose touch with who they are and what makes them special. They seem to always find a way to move forward while delivering pulverizing, cathartic moments. “In order to make it successful, we had to let the music speak through us,” frontman John Baizley told Loudwire in September. “I think that language can sound a little poetic, but in a tangible, scientific way, when you relinquish what you as a musician perceive as control ... you create something that’s twice as powerful as the sum of its parts.” Stone gets better with every listen—chuggy riffs, beautiful melodies, great harmonies and killer drums. I still think their 2009 release Blue is their masterpiece, however. If you don’t care much about genre, and you just want to hear a badass record with some depth and humanity, this is the one. Before the main event, be sure to catch Baroness at the Taylorsville Graywhale at 4 p.m. for a free acoustic in-store performance and signing (they will have albums on hand for purchase). If capacity is reached, entry for this event will be first-come/first-served. Wayfarer and Destiny Bond open. Catch these acts at the Depot on Thursday, Nov 9. Doors open at 6 p.m. and tickets for the 21+ show are $29.50. Grab tickets at livenation.com (Mark Dago)

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The Band of Heathens @ State Room 11/10

While the indie ethos has become more or less a common form of branding, The Band of Heathens actually puts it into practice. The band was founded when three successful songwriters—Colin Brooks, Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist—shared a bill at Momo’s, a now-defunct Austin music club. Adding drummer John Chipman and keyboardist Trevor Nealon to the lineup, they found success even at the outset. After being named “Best New Band” at the 2007 Austin Music Awards, they released their first, self-titled studio album the following year, which subsequently went all the way to No. 1 on the Americana Music Association’s radio charts, and into the top ten of all AMA’s top albums of the year. From then on, each of their albums has received similar ranking on the Americana charts. Having turned down any number of record label entreaties, they recently marked another milestone by becoming one of the few unsigned outfits to attain gold status, courtesy of their version of “Hurricane,” originally recorded by Levon Helm in 1980. The Band Of Heathens’ version has amassed over 400 million streams, a remarkable feat considering that it originally appeared more than 40 years ago! The upcoming release of an acoustic offering aptly titled Simpler Things—a collection of songs culled from their recent album Simple Things, rendered in stripped-down settings—should further entice the band’s many faithful followers. The Band of Heathens with special guest Alex Jordan play The State Room at 9 p.m. on Friday, Nov 10. Tickets for this 21+ show cost $32 at AXS.com. (Lee Zimmerman)

Benda @ Soundwell 11/10

Dragonforce

By Emilee Atkinson

Ben-David, a.k.a. Benda, is one of the younger upand-coming dubstep artists you don’t want to miss. At only 18 years old, Ben-David is shifting the bass music soundscape. Originally from Miami but now based in Los Angeles, Ben-David mentored under the world-renowned Israeli DJ/producer Borgore, and has had success in the EDM scene since 2018. This performance is part of his “Beat the Block” tour promoting an EP released this year of the same name, featuring Simon Said. This is Brenda’s first headlining tour, which was kicked off at the major festival Lost Lands. His discography also includes EP’s Poison Control, Hostile Homicide, and Break Shit—all intent on showcasing his signature aggressive-style EDM. Any dubstep show at Soundwell is a good time, since the venue allows a more intimate environment with fans deeply committed to head-banging and moshing in a respectful setting. SLC-based promotion company Mutiny Music Collective has been at the forefront of creating high-quality shows for dubstep and EDM lovers. Anticipate new music, new visuals and an impressive support of openers for Benda—including HAMRO, inaktivity, Kliptic, SQISHI, RZRKT, beastboi and Algo—showcasing other young Dubstep artists on the rise. Benda performs at Soundwell on Friday, Nov 10. Doors open at 9:45 p.m. Tickets cost $20 at soundwellslc.com (Arica Roberts)

Dragonforce @ The Depot 11/15

Picture it: It’s 2007, you got Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock on your favorite gaming system, and you’re working your way through the campaign. Then, “Through the Fire and Flames” is the next song on the roster. You’re poised and ready. You’ve come this far in the game, right? As soon as the song starts, however, you realize how very wrong you are. For many of us, our first exposure to Dragonforce was this epic 2005 track, which became legendary in the game. When you Google the song, the first thing that comes up is a random dude on YouTube showing off how well he plays the song, missing nary a note. It’s quite the spectacle, actually—look it up if you want to relive some memories, or some trauma, from never being able to pass this song off. Anyway, the power metal band has been melting faces since Y2K times, and are legends not only for their difficult levels in Guitar Hero, but for epic-length songs that take you on a journey through space and time. Founders Herman Li and Sam Totman are still going strong in the group, but like any band that has been playing for more than 20 years, there have been lineup changes over time. Of course, Dragonforce has many more songs than “Through the Fire and Flames,” but ask anyone who played video games in the early aughts, and I guarantee that’s the first song they’ll tell you they know from the band—and how they realized there was no chance in hell to beat the song on any level besides extra-easy mode. Catch Dragonforce at The Depot on Wednesday, Nov 15 at 6 p.m. Tickets for the all-ages show are $60 at livenation.com. (EA)

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ARIES (March 21-April 19)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Your victories-in-progress are subtle. They may not be totally visible to you yet. Let me describe them so you can feel properly confident about what you are in the process of accomplishing: 1. A sustained surge of hard-earned personal growth is rendering one of your problems mostly irrelevant. 2. You have been redefining what rewards are meaningful to you, and that’s motivating you to infuse your ambitions with more soulfulness. 3. You are losing interest in a manipulative game that doesn’t serve you as well as it should. 4. You are cultivating more appreciation for fascinating and useful problems.

Taurus physicist Richard Feynman was a smart and accomplished person who won a Nobel Prize. He articulated a perspective that will be healthy for you to experiment with in the coming weeks. He said, “I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything, and there are many things I don’t know anything about.” Give Feynman’s approach a try, dear Taurus. Now is an excellent time to explore the perks of questioning everything. I bet you’ll be pleased with how free and easy it makes you feel.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

We need stories almost as much as we need to breathe, eat, sleep and move. It’s impossible to live without them. The best stories nourish our souls, stimulate our imagination and make our lives exciting. That’s not to say that all stories are healthy for us. We sometimes cling to the narratives that make us miserable and sap our energy. I think we have a sacred duty to de-emphasize and even jettison those stories—even as we honor and relish the rich stories that empower and inspire us. I bring these thoughts to your attention, Capricorn, because you’re in a phase of your cycle when you will especially thrive by disposing of the bad old stories and celebrating the good ones.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

I could be wrong, but I don’t think that I am: You are smarter and wiser than you realize about the pressing issues that are now vying for your attention. You know more than you know you know. I suspect that this will soon become apparent, as streams of fresh insights rise up from the depths of your psyche and guide your conscious awareness toward clarity. It’s OK to squeal with glee every time a healing intuition shows up. You have earned this welcome phase of lucid certainty.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

In Indigenous cultures throughout history, shamans have claimed they have the power to converse with and even temporarily become hawks, coyotes, snakes and other creatures. Why do they do that? It’s a long story, but one answer is that they believe animals have intelligences that are different from what humans have. The shamans aspire to learn from those alternate ways of seeing and comprehending the world. Many of us who live in Western culture dismiss this venerable practice, although I’ve known animal lovers who sympathize with it. If you are game for a fun experiment, Pisces, I invite you to try your own version. Choose an animal to learn from. Study and commune with it. Ask it to reveal intuitions that surprise and enrich you.

Go to realastrology.com for Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text-message horoscopes. Audio horoscopes also available by phone at 877-873-4888 or 900-950-7700.

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According to my deep and thorough analysis of your astrological rhythms, your mouth will soon be a wonder of nature. The words emerging from your lips will be extra colorful, precise and persuasive. Your taste buds will have an enhanced vividness as they commune with the joys of food and drink. And I suspect your tongue and lips will exult in an upgrade of aptitude and pleasure while plying the arts of sex and intimate love. Congratulations, Mouthy Maestro!

In her poem “Requiem,” Anna Akhmatova says, “I must kill off memory … and I must learn to live anew.” I think most of us can benefit from periodically engaging in this brave and robust exercise. It’s not a feat to be taken lightly—not to be done more than once or twice a year. But guess what: The coming weeks will be a time when such a ritual might be wise for you. Are you ready to purge old business and prepare the way for a fresh start? Here are your words of power: forgiveness, clearing, cleaning, release, absolution, liberation.

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Author Dan Savage advocates regular indulgence in sloth. He notes that few of us can “get through 24 hours without a little downtime. Human beings need to stare off into space, look out the window, daydream and spend time every day being indolent and useless.” I concur, and I hope you will indulge in more downtime than usual during the coming weeks. For the sake of your long-term mental and physical health, you need to relax extra deep and strong now—to recharge your battery with delicious and delightful abandon.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Your dog’s home away from home

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There are so many kinds of sweetness: zesty spicy sweetness; tender balmy fragrant sweetness; sour or bitter sweetness; musky piquant sweetness; luscious succulent sweetness. One of my favorite types of sweetness is described by Cancerian poet Stephen Dunn. He wrote, “Often a sweetness comes as if on loan, stays just long enough to make sense of what it means to be alive, then returns to its dark source. As for me, I don’t care where it’s been, or what bitter road it’s traveled to come so far, to taste so good.” My analysis of the astrological omens suggests to me that you are about to commune with at least three of these sweetnesses, Cancerian. Maybe most of them.

In my horoscopes for Scorpios, I tend to write complex messages. My ideas are especially thick and rich and lush. Why? Because I imagine you Scorpios as being complex, thick, rich and lush. Your destiny is labyrinthine and mysterious and intriguing, and I aspire to reflect its intricate, tricky beauty. But this time, in accordance with current astrological omens, I will offer you my simplest, most straightforward oracle ever. I borrowed it from author Mary Anne Hershey: “Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Play with abandon. Choose with no regret. Continue to learn. Appreciate your friends. Do what you love.”

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To earn money, I have worked as a janitor, dishwasher, olive picker, ditch-digger, newspaper deliverer and 23 other jobs involving hard labor. In addition, I have done eight artistic jobs better suited to my temperament and creative talents. Am I regretful or resentful about the thousands of hours I toiled at tasks I didn’t enjoy? A little. But mostly I’m thankful for them. They taught me how to interact harmoniously with a wide array of people. They helped forge my robust social conscience. And they motivated me to eventually figure out how to get jobs I really loved. Now I invite you to take an inventory of your own work life, Gemini. It’s an excellent time to evaluate where you’ve been and where you want to go in the future.

In addition to being a masterful composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) played the piano, violin, harp, bassoon, clarinet, horn, flute, oboe and trumpet. His experience led him to believe that musicians best express their skills when they play fast. It’s more challenging to be excellent when playing slowly, he thought. But I will invite you to adopt the reverse attitude and approach in the coming weeks, Libra. According to my astrological analysis, you will be most successful if you work gradually and incrementally, with careful diligence and measured craftiness.

RENT

BY DAVID LEVINSON WILK

DOWN

1.Online feed letters 2.“Big thumbs-down!” 3.Powders used to combat moisture 4.Common prom expenditure 5.Hello in São Paulo

Broker, Urban Utah Homes & Estates, urbanutah.com

Growing Pains

6.____ rage 7.Company that’s leased pre-owned vehicles since 1973 8.Offering, as an apartment 9.Depilatory brand 10.“____ we meet again” 11.Decision when looking for a place to live 12.Pedicurist’s target 13.Make a long story short, e.g. 14.On fire 21.Comic Margaret 23.Block 26.Thin batteries 28.“Silly me!” 29.Gobsmack 30.____ deco 31.Fashion designer Anna 34.Some Windows systems 36.Org. that first allowed girls to join in 2018 38.Trust 39.Clean Water Act org. 40.1969-74, politically 41.Upper limit 42.Inspiration for the card game Dos 43.Tranquilizing weapon 46.Purple Heart recipient

47.Oscar winner Mahershala 48.“Although ... “ 50.____ Grande 51.Win over 52.Under control 53.Abbr. for someone with just a first and last name 56.He replaced Jay before Jay replaced him 58.“Heavens to Murgatroyd!” 60.Quartet before Q 61.Cul-de-____ 62.“Where did ____ wrong?” 65.Galoot 66.WaPo competitor

Last week’s answers

Complete the grid so that each row, column, diagonal and 3x3 square contain all of the numbers 1 to 9. No math is involved. The grid has numbers, but nothing has to add up to anything else. Solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. Solving time is typically 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your skill and experience.

1.British singer with the hits “How We Do (Party)” and “Your Song” 8.Counting everything 15.Ankle-deep, say 16.City that’s home to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport 17.It’s breathed in by sailors 18.Melissa of “Little House on the Prairie” 19.Big 12 sch. in Fort Worth 20.Focus of many HGTV shows 22.Half of bi23.“Hot Shots! Part ____” (1993 movie spoof) 24.“Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. ____ 25.When tripled, a “Seinfeld” expression 27.Desired result 28.The ____ (collective term for two U.S. states that joined the Union in 1889) 32.Swiatek who won the French Open in 2020 and 2022 33.Aptly named Vt. ski resort 35.Moscow moolah 37.With 59-Across, campaign message of Jimmy McMillan when he ran for New York City mayor in 2005 and 2009 ... and the problem you’re going to run into while solving 4-, 7-, 8- and 11-Down 41.Cows chew them 44.Commercial prefix with Pen 45.On vacation 49.Actress de Armas 50.Enjoy, as a hot tub or hammock 54.Lager alternative 55.Popular soup mushroom 57.Deservingly 59.See 37-Across 61.Omen 63.Nine: Prefix 64.“____ Flux” (1990s MTV series) 67.Desierto’s lack 68.Squirrel’s cheekful 69.Delivery cart 70.Didi of “Grease” 71.Fix, as worn brakes 72.Like some pretzels

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38 | NOVEMBER 9, 2023

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute is unique to Utah. It develops and shares economic, demographic and public policy data and research, including massive real estate and construction research on our markets in Utah. Gardner himself was co-founder and president of The Boyer Co., a firm that has developed more than 20 million square feet of real estate projects in the Western U.S. He was also finance chairman of the Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee and is chairman of the Days of ’47 Rodeo. I pay close attention to his namesake institute’s constant findings of real estate data and recently listened to a report about real estate in our state that blew me away. To wit: —One-third of mortgage holders here have an interest rate on their primary mortgage/home loan of less than 3%. That number gives us an indication why so few homes are on the market because who would want to give up such a low interest rate to buy something new with an 8% interest rate? —We need 178,000 new housing units in the state by 2030 to keep up with demand. —Interest rates on home loans are not going to be coming down for a long, long time. —Apartment rents have been heading slightly downward. —Expect 30% of the state’s population to be made up of minorities by the year 2030. —61% of our growth in population is from in-migration. Those stats point to a vibrant economy, with many folks moving here. But they are going to find buying a home expensive, to say the least. While more people are moving to Utah than leaving the state, the Gardner institute finds that our school-age population (age 5-17) is declining, with a projection of 40,000 fewer school-age youth here by 2032, and that schoolage youth will make up a smaller share of our total population, dropping from 19.5% in 2023 to 15.9% in 2032. Generally speaking, when you have fewer children being born, there will be less property taxes generated, which is a major source of revenue for many school districts and local governments. Declining birth rates are not good for most economies as it has a negative impact on the size of our overall workforce. Interestingly enough, birth rates are declining nationwide, with research showing that women are pushing off having children from their 20s to their 30s. Also, Utah is suffering from not enough day care facilities, which impacts us daily in this state and must be addressed with so much more population growth expected. The most recent research by the institute finds that five counties— Utah, Washington, Cache, Davis and Wasatch—show projected increases of more than 4,000 school-age children from 2020 to 2060. Except for Davis County, all these increases exceed 30% growth. Projections show Utah County will grow immensely, adding nearly 75,000 school-age children by 2060. n Content is prepared expressly for Community and is not endorsed by City Weekly staff.

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NEWS of the WEIRD

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BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

Halloween Fun

At Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, a mystery occurs every year at Halloween: Two pumpkins become impaled on the twin spires of the clock tower in the middle of campus. United Press International reported that the pumpkins have appeared since the 1970s, but no one seems to know who puts them there or how they do it. “Conjuring the best, if far-fetched, tale on how it happens is a favorite campus pastime,” the university’s website reads. nIt could only happen in Utah: City officials in Grantsville

took to Facebook on Oct. 18 to demand that a Halloween display centered on a street sign be removed, Fox 13 reported. The tableau featured a skeleton pole-dancing while two other skeletons sat in folding chairs with dollar bills in their hands. “Displays like this are not acceptable as it is against city code to attach anything to a street sign,” the city wrote. And the pranksters complied: They moved the display to a front yard, with a new lighted pole, lights on the ground to make a “stage,” and a tip jar. One commenter on the city’s page gushed, “I salute the Halloween Decoration wizard that created this masterpiece.”

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I’ll Have the Coors Light

Someone posted a video on Weibo on Oct. 19 that captured a man climbing into a malt container at Pingdu, China, brewery Tsingtao and relieving himself, Sky News reported. The company, which identifies itself as the world’s sixth-largest beermaker, released a statement, saying: “The batch of malt in question has been completely sealed” and police are investigating. However, the company’s stock took a sizable hit, with share prices dropping 7.5% by Oct. 23.

Repeat Offender?

A particular house in Haddonfield, New Jersey, appears to be the victim of very bad luck—or a serial car arsonist, WPVI-TV reported. Police say the most recent attack, on Oct. 21 around 1 a.m., was the third at the house since 2017. But strangely, all three attacks have been on cars belonging to different homeowners. In the latest incident, security cameras captured a person pouring gasoline on a 2010 Toyota Highlander and lighting it up. Police say they don’t believe the attacks are aimed at the people who live there, who are “doing everything right. They have a camera system, they’re calling us. It just unfortunately keeps happening.”

Awesome!

Members of the Auburn (Massachusetts) Fire Department knew Debbie Virgilio well, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported on Oct. 25. First responders had transported her frequently during her final years, but when she passed last year, they had no idea of the plans she had made for them. Virgilio left the department $525,000 in her will; they used the money to buy a new ambulance and updated equipment. Fire Chief Stephen Coleman said, “It means a lot to me, as the chief, to know my people made such an impact on somebody, they’re willing to donate half a million dollars to us when they pass. It’s a testament to the men and women of this department.” Cheers to Debbie.

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Wait, What?

Jad K. Shipman, 48, of Longview, Washington, was arrested on Oct. 17 on two counts: soliciting a prostitute and first-degree attempted animal cruelty, Big Country News reported. A vice detective who had been monitoring an online forum identified Shipman in August. Allegedly, he offered $440 for a person to come to Longview and sexually touch him and his miniature horse. Shipman is out on bail and prohibited from being around animals. Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com

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NOVEMBER 9, 2023 | 39

Since Sept. 20, Alejandro Rios, 25, has become the target of a dive-bombing magpie who follows him as he rides his bike home from work. Fox News reported on Oct. 18 that the Brisbane, Australia, resident first felt something hit his head more than a month ago. “I ... thought a piece of fruit had fallen off a tree or someone had hit me,” he said. Rios’ helmet and eyewear protect him from injury, but the bird is persistent. Scientists say magpies remember faces and

Babs De Lay

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An 22-year-old man in Warsaw, Poland, outwitted mall security guards—for a time—after twice posing in a store window as a mannequin, The New York Times reported on Oct. 20. The man stood still next to two other mannequins and held a bag until the mall closed, when he stole jewelry from a kiosk. On another occasion, he ate at one of the mall’s restaurants, found a new set of clothing and headed back for another meal. Police arrested the suspect, who faces up to 10 years in prison.

Two men in Minnesota were shot on Oct. 22 in separate incidents involving child shooters who were participating in youth hunting events, CBS News reported. In the first case, a 45-year-old dad from Becker Township had his 12-year-old daughter in a deer stand, where she had just successfully shot a deer. But then she accidentally shot her father in the leg. Another family member applied a tourniquet until emergency personnel arrived. In the second incident, a 50-year-old man was trying to explain to a 10-year-old boy how to unload a hunting rifle when the child accidentally pulled the trigger, somehow hitting both of the adult’s buttocks. No news on the condition of either victim.

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While Amir Khan and Kat Warren of Washington, D.C., were visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Oct. 19, they became stranded along with other tourists at the top when a man was discovered climbing the structure. On hand with the couple was Associated Press reporter Pat Eaton-Robb, who was also visiting. Lucky for them, Eaton-Robb caught the moment when Khan decided to propose. He had been planning to do so later that evening at a restaurant, but “she always wanted to be proposed to on or under the Eiffel Tower. So I figured, ‘This is it, this is the moment,’” Khan said. While romance was in the air atop the tower, police were arresting the climber, who was inexplicably carrying a banner that said something about singer-songwriter Billie Eilish.

Saw That Coming

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nHellen Schweizer, 28, of Wooster, Ohio, embraced her vampirism two years ago on Halloween, The Columbus Dispatch reported. “Not every vampire is bad,” she explained. “I follow a higher path.” For instance: “I’m not interested in sucking anyone’s blood.” But living as a vampire, with fangs, white makeup and a black cloak, “just felt right” for the social media manager. Schweizer said the “sun makes me nauseous” and she gains most of her energy at night. “I came out of the coffin, as it were, and never felt so free in my life.”

this one is likely protecting his young. “It’s a bit of a friend and a bit of a nemesis,” Rios said of his attacker. “I want to say it’s my friend—but it really, really hates me.”

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40 | NOVEMBER 9, 2023

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