City Weekly February 20, 2025

CITY WEEKLY salt lake FREE

Political Paydays

Utah lawmakers pulled in $5M in donations— here’s how they’re spending the cash

BY SYDNEE CHAPMAN

S AP

BOX

Veterans Memorial

I am writing to provide some information about the construction of a new memorial in the Beehive State that is being designed to honor a unique group of veterans. Americans have a long history of building memorials to honor the sacrifice of service members who died fighting to preserve our way of life. In addition to paying tribute to military personnel of past conflicts, memorials serve as tangible reminders of the tremendous cost of war in human and material resources. Memorials also help promote healing by

providing comfort to family members, friends, and comrades-in-arms who survived a conflict.

Utah’s new veterans memorial will be constructed in Davis County and will fill a void in veteran recognition by honoring Vietnam veterans who have died from exposure to Agent Orange. To learn more about the new memorial, please visit agentorangeheroes.org. Additionally, the Facebook page of the Utah Agent Orange Veterans Foundation contains information about the memorial and veterans it will honor.

NELSON THIBAULT Salt Lake City

American Decline

America is a big lie. There is nothing about our 21st century story that is reminiscent of the authentic America of the previous 225 years.

America once was a nation ruled by honest law, decided by the people. Now, autocratic force and disinformation rule the day.

The nation is no longer trustworthy in foreign affairs, and its domestic institutions are in a steep state of decline. Corporations have never heard of corporate responsibility; schools and media have become propaganda venues rather than educational agencies; entertainment pushes the limits of behavioral sanity; political parties and legislatures are wedded to self-destructive partisanship rather than negotiated compromise; and churches have become hotspots for sexual predation and financial misconduct.

Our problem is simple human treachery. America’s leaders are not faithful to good, but increasingly to evil.

The ultimate power in America has always been an educated electorate, which no longer exists. The vacuum the people have left behind on their pathway into chaos is being filled by criminal, prettyboy and pretty-girl politicians, rogue philosophers, corporate billionaires, white power organizers, anti-law judiciaries and Congressional hooligans.

KIMBALL SHINKOSKEY Woods Cross

“Penny for your Thoughts,” Feb. 12 Online

We didn’t vote for this [county sales tax increase]. We were very explicit last November that we didn’t want to expand an already bloated police budget for more “public safety” and jail beds.

TINA EXCOBAR-TAFT Via Facebook

I hope UTA can get more funding for buses up the canyons. Locals are tired of all the congestion.

GINGERDANGLE Via Instagram

Should have put in a subway system back in 2002. That was the time to do it, before all the growth. Now we’re screwed!

MIGHTY1JP Via Instagram

Care to sound off on a feature in our pages or about a local concern? Write to comments@ cityweekly.net or post your thoughts on our social media. We want to hear from you!

THE WATER COOLER

What was the first car you purchased? How much was it?

Paula Saltas

A used 1979 Mustang hatchback. I paid $1600 for it, loved it but the color was pukey green.

Wes Long

A 1998 Acura TL. I can’t recall how much I paid, but I don’t think it was very much. What I subsequently paid for in innumerable repairs more than made up for the discounted price.

Scott Renshaw

A 1992 Toyota Corolla, probably around $10,000, and my parents co-signed on the loan. Thirty-plus years later, and I’ve got a different Toyota Corolla. They’ve served me well.

Kayla Dreher

A Subaru Tribeca for $4,500. You might say “I’ve never heard of a Tribeca” ... yeah, they’ve been discontinued because they suck.

Benjamin Wood

A used Subaru Outback, and it would’ve been around $15K when I bought it. I loved that car, but I sold it in 2020 to buy my ebike and I’m never going back.

Katharine Biele

I had one of those old Chevy Corvairs— the ones with bad safety records. It couldn’t have cost much because I was in college at the time.

OPINION

BY JIM CATANO

No Bucks, no Buck Rogers

Human imagination has long been fascinated by the possibility of space travel. As early as the 2nd century AD, the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata contemplated voyaging to the moon and encountering beings there. In 1865, French sci-fi author Jules Verne envisioned space launches that employed a large cannon. By late 19th Century, Russian mathematician and inventor Konstantin Tsiolkovsky had come up with rocket designs to reach space.

The comic strip Buck Rogers first appeared in U.S. newspapers in 1929, and his competitor in the funnies and later on film, Flash Gordon, showed up five years later to further tantalize us with the prospect of space travel. However, it wasn’t until the Soviets launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin for one Earth orbit in 1961 that space voyages became a reality. American astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders were the first of our species to move beyond Earth’s dominant gravity by escaping orbit in 1968 onboard Apollo 8 and circling the moon 10 times.

A s a child, my personal interest was sparked by those early exploits, and like it is for many, the heroics of space travel are etched in my psyche. The 1983 film, The Right Stuff, is for me the high-water mark of lionizing the pioneering efforts in space travel. Apollo 13 from 1995 follows closely on its heels.

One of the more memorable lines from The Right Stuff comes when the first seven Mercury astronauts are facing the possibility of the safety of their program being compromised by limiting costs. The person who would become the second American in space, Gus Grissom, expresses his

colleagues’ frustrations by warning government scientists, “No bucks, no Buck Rogers,” meaning, “Loosen the purse strings to give us what we need, or you can forget sending us into space.”

Despite my own support for manned (no, I don’t have a better term, and “humanned” sounds weird) space travel, NASA’s exploits these past few decades have shifted my thinking. As I’ve witnessed the unexpected long-term longevity and efficiency of the Mars rovers and Ingenuity helicopter drones to collect, analyze and send back data from the surface of the Red Planet, I’ve come to a stark realization. We simply don’t need Buck Rogers anymore.

We humans have evolved on this planet to operate in a fairly narrow band of environmental conditions. If we get too hot or too cold, if we don’t have just the right combination of gases to breathe, or if we lack food and water to sustain our metabolism, we “cease to function” rather quickly. However, devices that have been engineered for space can operate in far wider environmental ranges and make humans look like wimps in comparison while running on solar power or small amounts of nuclear material. They can also work around the clock and can, when controlled by artificial intelligence, accomplish exploratory tasks a lot faster and better than we can.

A n item on the Trump 2.0 agenda is to send manned missions to Mars. For an administration obsessed with reducing costs, this is a monumental boondoggle intended to benefit one person: Elon Musk. Harboring a delusion to establish a permanent colony on Mars, Musk is the prime mover behind Trump’s goal, but the idea of humans being able to survive long-term on Mars is highly speculative.

The fourth planet from the sun has only 38% of Earth’s gravity, putting into question how well humans would do there for extended periods. Heavily weighted suits might need to be worn constantly to avert muscle loss, and who knows how a human fetus and child would develop in such conditions. Without a global magnetic field, cancer-causing cosmic rays are 700 times stronger than on Earth.

Water may exist on Mars, but it’s thought to be miles below the surface. The average temperature on Mars’ equator

is -81 degrees Fahrenheit, and regulating that would run up a huge heating bill.

Carbon dioxide makes up 95% of the Mars atmosphere. On Earth it’s .04%, and that’s causing all sorts of problems. At concentrations above 1%, CO2 begins to be toxic. The idea of terraforming another planet remains the stuff of Star Trek fantasies, and probably won’t be realistic even in the 24th Century.

I don’t know how much of Musk’s Mars aspirations come from him wanting to flee a collapsing environment on Earth that would subsequently lead to a collapsing society. But, like others in the Billionaire Boys’ Club, he’d probably be better off using some of his vast fortune to build a fortified bunker in Northern Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, Russia or New Zealand rather than trying to colonize Mars, which, on its best day, will probably never be more livable than Earth on its worst.

A steady flow of resupply ships would be needed to maintain a human-friendly, artificial environment there. And if society on Earth collapses, Elon would then have to say goodbye to the necessary “Amazon” deliveries from his home planet anyway.

Musk’s newfound conservative buddies can continue funding his delusions by buying Teslas (especially since progressive buyers are switching to other brands in droves) and using Twitter/X (which also is swirling down the crapper.) And since a Mars Rover and helicopter cost about $2.7 billion to develop, launch and operate, and a manned mission is estimated to cost 10 to 20 times that, in the spirit of DOGE, they can also launch his Mars dream as a privately financed venture. I strongly oppose my government footing the bill for Elon’s fantasies.

His company SpaceX has done a credible job launching payloads into Earth orbit, and I don’t have a problem with him winning such contracts if they’re bid out fairly. However, my new mantra for manned space flight to Mars and beyond is, “No Bucks for Elon Musk.” CW

Private Eye is off this week. Send feedback to comments@cityweekly.net

HITS & MISSES

BY KATHARINE BIELE | @kathybiele BY

HIT: Strength and Weakness

There’s a meme going around that shows the women who are standing up to the all-powerful president of the United States. Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo didn’t whimper away. And if you didn’t know her before, meet the prime minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen. They know how to treat bullies who want to be in charge because they are—well—real men. In Utah, we are seeing Salt Lake’s Mayor Erin Mendenhall calling out legislators as they try to muscle their way into the city. Apparently, legislators think cleaning up the homeless problem is just a matter of “man-power.” “Legislation that requires cities to enter into this partnership and penalizes if we do not is not real collaboration,” she told them. Well, you know the Olympics are coming and so are all those sports teams, so we have to make things look good. San Francisco tried before the NBA All-Star Game. But rounding up the homeless and cleaning up the streets is only window-dressing. Utah was supposed to be looking at the root causes. Alas, it wants to bring in a big street sweeper. Mendenhall will be standing in the way.

MISS: Bargaining Power

Speaking of simpering—Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. The man who saw God working by simply grazing Trump’s ear thinks it’s all good now, no matter how bad the outcome. When Cox signed a new law prohibiting unions from collective bargaining, he added his own “disagree better” stamp of approval. “Utah has long been known as a state that can work together to solve difficult issues,” Cox said. This despite massive protests both in the Capitol and outside his office. It’s the way of the Republican world, as lawmakers tell the masses not to worry, be happy. “I’m disappointed that in this case, the process did not ultimately deliver the compromise that at one point was on the table and that some stakeholders had accepted,” the governor wrote. Ya think? Cox’s lack of will sends the issue back to the voters to rush through a referendum that will invalidate the law. Against all odds, it has been done before. But of course, there’ll be hell to pay later.

MISS: Judge and Jury

Another thing we’ve learned from the Dictator-in-Chief is that if you don’t like a court ruling, change the court. Now the state’s Republican-led Legislature wants to add more justices to the Utah Supreme Court because they’re mad at it. The high court unanimously ruled against the Legislature’s bold attempt to gain total control over gerrymandering. Never mind that it was a constitutional issue—the decision hurt lawmakers’ feelings. There’s always talk of adding extra seats to the courts after an unfavorable ruling. It happened when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade But a true democracy shouldn’t work that way. Legislators are also talking about changing the way Utah’s judges are chosen. In other words, if you don’t like the law, make it up. CW

Credit Unions

On Capitol Hill, a bill is very much like the proverbial shark—it moves forward or it dies. And for one week in early February, it looked like Utah’s unions might have killed a bad bill. HB267, which bans collective bargaining in the public sector (teachers, police, firefighters, etc.), passed the House in a relatively tight 42-32 vote. When it reached the Senate for the first of two required debates, several lawmakers voiced reservations and the bill’s sponsor indicated compromise language was being drafted ahead of final passage, expected the next day. As that final vote went from “tomorrow” to “next week” and then to “sometime soon,” opponents had reason to believe that the rising tide of public opinion was working to curb the worst habits of state government.

But then, on Feb. 6, the Senate spiked any notion of a compromise and, on a tight 16-13 vote, voted to send the ban to Gov. Spencer Cox, who signed HB267 into law on Valentine’s Day. Glimmers of resistance continued, but it was clear that legislative leaders considered the matter settled. The bill had the votes.

It’s a crushing blow to organized labor, already on the ropes after decades of anti-union lawfare. But it demonstrates how little public opinion and debate ultimately matter when one party secures control. In the Utah House, Republicans occupy 61 out of 75 seats. A simple majority is 38 votes; a two-thirds majority is 50 votes. The Senate has a similar dynamic, with Republicans holding 23 out of 29 seats. And the majority caucuses maintain a formal hierarchy where individual members are incentivized to go with the flow and are punished for defiance.

It’s also a credit to the hard work of union organizers—present in large numbers on Capitol Hill, with capacity crowds spilling out daily from galleries and committee rooms—that so many lawmakers defected on HB267. The bill failed to clear the two-thirds bar and is thus vulnerable to a longshot citizen referendum. But even if opponents were to succeed at placing a referendum on the ballot, and even if a majority voted to override the ban, the same anti-union Republican supermajorities would just return to their seats, hungry for the next opportunity to stab organized labor in the heart.

Sure, a handful of vulnerable lawmakers could fall to challengers in the next election—but to what real consequence? The Senate president and House speaker, secure in their offices for as long as they choose to hold them, could lose 20 Republicans without breaking a sweat. And that kind of turnover takes more than a “wave” election, it requires a Biblical flood. Protests and demonstrations matter. Showing up to fill rooms and provide testimony matters. But as the 2025 session winds down, remember that our state government is not built to achieve the best results. It is built, above all else, to maintain incumbency and the aims of a partisan apparatus dominated by ideologues who care little for what you think as long as the machine keeps running. CW

BENJAMIN WOOD

A&E

Keeping it Local

The Lost Acorn art gallery and studio offers a new series for the homies.

BY ARICA ROBERTS comments@cityweekly.net

Tucked away on the corner of 6th Ave and L Street, Lost Acorn Gallery is one of the few spots left in Salt Lake City fully dedicated as a community art space. The owners, Mitchell Harned and Parker Thompson, stay busy. While these places are fewer and farther between nowadays, the venue has been open for four years, and is in full swing.

Harned and Thompson sat down with City Weekly to discuss the gallery, which is

divided into a working area for artists in the back and a small-sized gallery area in the front Harned teaches his glass-making passion through classes. “Our main income is teaching classes about stained glass, fused glass and blown glass,” Harned explains.

Additionally, Harned and Thompson have thrived opening up the space for other events, from comedy performances like Chandler Hatch’s “Don’t Tell Utah” last May, art exhibits like “Afro Magik, a Juneteenth Exhibition” last June and charity events like “Art Market for Palestine” last July. They also host events like tea-tasting and tea blend-making; “Movie Mondays,” where different films are shown in the evening; and feature their specialty Trap Kitchen SLC burgers. They even support small businesses with their “Moon Market” full of local artisans. It truly is an eclectic spot.

In the past, Lost Acorn also included space for DJs to spin at art events, as well as dedicated music shows. Local R&B singer, Lady Infinity, debuted her song “Earthquake” in 2023 at Lost Acorn, along with a lineup of local musicians including JT Hiskey, Hyrum Stephens and Gavanni.

Unfortunately, the venue is not allowed to host live music events anymore due to its location in the Avenues neighborhood, there having been noise complaints in the past. However, Harned’s and Thompson’s view of art has always extended to local music events as well. The aforementioned burger catering Trap Kitchen SLC, also run by Harned and Thompson, is regularly present at the electronic music after-hours warehouse Plumhouse.

Now, their newest monthly series, “The Homies,” offers a local art showcase for all of Harned’s and Thompson’s friends. The series is scheduled to continue every first Friday of the month following the inaugural event on Friday, Feb. 7. They hope for new talent to be displayed across artistic mediums, ranging from upcycled clothing by Si-

erra Hisle to wall murals by Ash Amos.

“All the artists included are people we have worked with at the Acorn previously, or people they know personally,” Harned notes. For this last event, artist Comi Mahak—who has been bicycle-riding buddies with Thompson for 12 years—showcased his street art, calligraphy art and tattoo art. This makes the events special, because it gives Harned and Thompson a chance to show off their close friends and curate a creative hangout. Other artists included this past month were Kayleigh Hermansen, Myka Vela, Mia, Still Grimey, Cam Lund, Acadia Herbst, Andrew King, Yetti Glass, Simone Gordon, Annie D, Devin Mitchell and Nicolette Dolan.

“We hope it grows to be a way for the participants to be able to count on a sale or two each month—help everyone pay their bills and feel validated as artists,” Harned adds. Artists across all media know only too well how challenging it can be to thrive, especially when times are economically tough. It’s also times like these when it is most crucial to keep creating art.

Harned further explains that he believes the purpose of Lost Acorn is “to give people a place to feel validated as an artist. It’s incredibly difficult to feel like an artist these days. It’s nice to have a place to make a sale every once in a while to make it feel like you’re still an artist.”

Along with “The Homies” monthly series, Lost Acorn is hosting an upcoming group exhibition depicting the challenge and celebration of women and LGBTQ+ life called “What It Feels Like” on March 21. Meanwhile, “Glass 101” classes will be held all Tuesdays, Thursdays and most Wednesdays in February. This is the perfect date night or gift idea for the one you love, even after Valentine’s Day.

Check out the hidden gem of Lost Acorn Gallery (752 E. 6th Avenue)—especially “The Homies” monthly series. You can stay up to date with their events on Instagram @lostacorngallery. CW

PARKER THOMPSON

Lost Acorn Gallery JAKE

Mitchell Harned and Parker Thompson

theESSENTIALS ENTERTAINMENT

Pygmalion Productions:

The Big Quiet

While the pop-culture perception of the LDS missionary is overwhelmingly male—from the “Mormon cinema” of the early 2000s to Broadway’s The Book of Mormon and beyond— sister missionaries are having a bit of a moment. The 2024 thriller Heretic prominently centered the experience of two female missionaries, and now we have the local premiere of playwright Morag Shepherd’s The Big Quiet, inspired by her own experience as a missionary.

Set in 2005 San Diego, The Big Quiet focuses on missionary companions Sister Roberts and Sister Garcia, addressing their relationship and the tensions that emerge over the distinctive views of faith, God and following the rules. “I think there was a story sitting inside of me about my mission for years, and eventually it just had to come out,” Shepherd noted in a press release. “… as a way to process my own mission, but also because these sisters really had a story to tell. … I think we have seen a lot of stories about the Mormon mission through the male lens, and not so much about the female experience, which is so different and unique.”

Pygmalion Productions’ presentation of Morag Shepherd’s The Big Quiet runs at the Rose Wagner Center Black Box Theatre (138 W. 300 South) Feb. 21 – March 8, with performances Thursday – Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. The Sunday performance on Feb. 23 will include a post-show conversation with the playwright. Tickets are $17.50 - $22.50; visit saltlakecountyarts.org to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (Scott Renshaw)

City Weekly Winter Soirée

If we here at Salt Lake City Weekly are about anything, it’s about community—informing you of what’s going on in your community politically, socially and artistically, sure, but also trying to build a sense of being part of a shared community. We’ve extended that mission into our events, like our Best of Utah party and recognizing creators and lovers of beer at the City Weekly Beer Festival. Now, at a time when folks might be suffering from a mix of seasonal affective disorder and cabin fever, we’re inviting you to mix it up a little and find more community at our firstever Winter Soirée.

Live music, tasty bites and craft cocktails will be just part of the fun as City Weekly sets up an opportunity to bust out of the winter doldrums. Eight local distilleries—Ogden’s Own, Dented Brick, Vintage, Spirits of the Wasatch, Salt Flats Distilling, Salt City Vodka, Proverbial Sprits and Mountain West Cider—will be on hand, creating cocktail options unique for this event, with a seasonally-appropriate sensibility. Meanwhile, you can enjoy music throughout the evening from Vinyl Koala, who describe themselves as “a 3-piece psych blues fusion band.”

The 1st annual City Weekly Winter Soirée comes to The Clubhouse (850 E. South Temple) on Saturday, Feb. 22 from 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. Entry tickets are $10 advance, $15 at the door; cocktails will be sold a la carte, but you can also get an advance package for $40 including three full-size or six sample-size cocktails, plus a souvenir whiskey glass. Visit cwstore.cityweekly.net to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (SR)

Ed Yong: Becoming a Birder @ Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2/25

Understanding complex scientific ideas is hard; being able to explain those ideas to a layperson might be even harder. It was that particular skill that earned writer Ed Yong a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Writing in 2021, honoring his work on stories explaining the COVID-19 pandemic in The Atlantic. And it’s also been characteristic of his books: 2016’s I Contain Multitudes about the world of microbes, and his most recent work, 2022’s An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us.

An Immense World deals with the many different ways animals perceive the world, from scent to electromagnetism, from changes in air pressure to complex kinds of vision. Yet for all his expertise on the creatures of the natural world, Yong hasn’t always felt integrated with them. “I’ve written about nature for pretty much my entire career, but I felt a little bit disconnected from it,” Yong said in an interview earlier this year with Living Bird magazine. “I wanted to remedy that.” As a result, he immersed himself in the world of birding, relocating to California in the process. He wrote about his new passion for The New York Times in 2024, and will share stories in an upcoming local appearance.

Ed Yong discusses “Becoming a Birder: Immersion in the True Reality” as part of the Tanner Humanities Center series at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts’ Dumke Auditorium (410 Campus Center Dr.) on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public; visit thc.utah.edu for additional event information. (SR)

City Weekly’s Best Of Utah Top 10!

MUST HAVE APPETIZER

What better way to stimulate one’s appetite for a night out than a delicious bite of something you can share? Whether breaded, fried, seasoned or whipped, these unique items are a must upon any visit. Go ahead, give them a try! They’re a terrific complement to whatever your evening holds.

Ancient as the practice of distilling may be, it requires a special person to embark upon the trade. To our good fortune, though, plenty of Utahns have answered the call, as the following ten standouts make clear. However you like your flavors and fermenting, these folks have got you covered!

Scared Silly

Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey works through the absurdity of capricious death through humor.

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

It’s one of the more publicized parts of filmmaker Osgood Perkins’ biography that he’s the son of legendary Psycho actor Anthony Perkins, which made it easy to talk about his connection to a serial-killer thriller like last year’s Longlegs. There is, however, a less-well-known part of his history involving his mother, model Berry Berenson: She was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11, which hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. And if you’re wondering how an artist might introduce such an experience into their work, I submit to you as one possible example Perkins’ The Monkey In theory, The Monkey is an adaptation of the 1980 short story of the same name by Stephen King, but it retains only the most rudimentary plot similarity of a character trying to escape the legacy of a monkey toy that seems to cause a death every time it plays its music. Part of that thematic idea, in the sense of death being chaotic and inexplicable, feels profoundly connected to someone processing the loss of his mother in a seemingly unimaginable way. Yet this version of The Monkey takes it a bit farther, by including the notion of how futile it is try to make death seem controllable. And along the way, he makes the audience response to death part of a surprisingly goofy entertainment.

The tale is narrated by Hal Shelburn (Theo James), as he reaches back into his past to examine the legacy of his absentee father (an uncredited Adam Scott)

on him and his twin brother, Bill (both played as middle-schoolers by Christian Convery), as well as their mother Lois (Tatiana Maslany), particularly related to the aforementioned, apparently-cursed wind-up monkey that was among dad’s possessions. Twenty-five years later, Hal is dealing with his own messy relationship with his son, Petey (Colin O’Brien), when it seems that the monkey has returned to play more fatal music.

The resulting deaths are almost uniformly played as broad comedy—even the eulogies by a fumbling, ineffectual minister are hilarious stuff—marking a radical tonal shift from the dread-soaked Longlegs. There’s more than a touch of Final Destination to the Rube Goldberg-esque processes by which people meet their demise, allowing the build-up towards the inevitable catastrophe to become part of the fun. Perkins also intentionally shoots the death sequences with an emphasis on the kind of over-the-top gore that wouldn’t feel out of place in Monty

likely to inspire yelps of laughter than screams of fright.

The horror genre definitely has had a long history of employing gallows humor with the grislier moments, but the way Perkins leans into that mix in The Monkey feels like it shows a real understanding of how those two ideas intersect. There’s a running reference to the fact that Hal’s planned father-son outing with Petey involves going to an amusement park, one of those places where rollercoasters combine the thrilling sense of cheating death with shrieks of glee. While this film certainly is attempting something that nods to the long history of Stephen King adaptations—from the “kids grappling with primal fear” stuff to the Stand By Me-style narration to naming one character “Annie Wilkes”—Perkins is also exploring something personal in confronting capricious tragedy not with bitterness, but with a recognition of its inherent absurdity.

It’s kind of a bummer that The Monkey

gets sidetracked from its mommy issues to focus a lot of its time on daddy issues; a whole lot of the character dynamics here are predicated on people feeling abandoned by their fathers. That’s a perfectly valid subject for exploration, but it ultimately feels like a distraction in a story that’s so much more interesting when it’s about how we deal with loss of a more concrete kind. Yes, death comes to us all, and sometimes it comes in ways that seem to defy all sense of justice and normalcy. Here’s a thriller that recognizes one of the best ways to handle the randomness inherent in that manifestation of Death is to laugh in its face. CW

Python, as bodies explode in showers of blood and viscera, more

The Monkey NEON FILMS

POLITICAL PAYDAYS

UTAH LAWMAKERS PULLED IN $5M IN DONATIONS— HERE’S HOW THEY’RE SPENDING THE CASH

BY SYDNEE CHAPMAN COMMENTS@CITYWEEKLY.NET

The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with Salt Lake City Weekly

A$3,000 stay at a French chateau; a wedding registry website; a $900 visit to a steakhouse, TopGolf, a bowling alley, hunting and pickleball clubs, carwashes and phone repair services. These are a few of the ways Utah lawmakers spent $5 million in campaign funds last year, according to a review of lawmakers’ 2024 campaign finance reports by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project. State law requires lawmakers to file detailed reports about their campaign funds, including all contributions and expenditures as well as the total amount in their account.

By the end of 2024, lawmakers had a cumulative $2.8 million in their accounts—almost $500,000 less than the start of hte year. The three biggest spenders were: Sen. Don Ipson, R-St. George; Sen. Karen Kwan, D-West Valley City; and Rep. Jill Koford, R-Ogden. All were up for election in 2024. They spent $195,800, $190,500 and $187,000, respectively. The median amount of spending among all state lawmakers was far lower, however, at $34,900.

Lawmakers also received $5.2 million in cash contributions last year. A dozen lawmakers’ contributions were six-figure sums. Kwan, a Democrat, was the only legislator to raise more than $200,000. The median for total contributions was $37,000.

Nine lawmakers ended the year with six figures in their accounts; all were Republicans. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, had the largest year end balance at $163,000, followed by Kirk Cullimore, R-Cottonwood Heights, at $142,000 and Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, at $118,700.

Only two lawmakers—Rep. Jake Fitisemanu, D-West Valley, and Sen. Ron Winterton, R-Roosevelt—reported ending the year in the red, with campaign balances of -$10,700 and -$47,700,

respectively. Fitisemanu ran his first legislative campaign last year, spending $107,000 after serving on the West Valley City Council. Winterton was not up for reelection, but spent $135,600.

The Lt. Governor’s Office, which oversees elections, said there is no deadline to rectify a negative balance, but reporting contributions late may be subject to a fine. Fitisemanu said the negative balance on his report was due to four donations totaling $16,050 that were erroneously omitted.

“While the ledger was maintained by a third-party contracted for financial management, the accountability for the unintentional accounting discrepancy is ultimately mine; the appropriate reporting and mitigating processes have already been initiated,” he said.

Fuzzy Figures

Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, made headlines in December after a complaint alleged he violated reporting requirements by listing his credit card company—rather than the actual recipient of spent funds—for thousands of dollars in payments.

Adams denied any wrongdoing and the Lt. Governor’s Office later admitted it had given Adams contradictory guidance and would notify all officeholders of updated guidance. The office did not respond to a question about whether it had sent the updated guidance.

A review of campaign finance disclosures, however, shows Adams was far from the only lawmaker to report that way. Dozens of lawmakers listed credit cards, banks or apps like Venmo as the recipient. Such payments added up to nearly $42,000 in expenses. Some legislators included notes on these self reimbursements that identified the final recipient but the majority did not.

Sandall, for instance, disclosed about $17,000 in travel expenses where the recipient is listed as Amex.

When asked to clarify the purpose and destination of the trips, he said, “These amounts were disclosed this way under previous guidelines. New directives indicate that we will include both Amex and the final payment recipients listed.”

Rep. Norman Thurston, R-Provo, likewise, reimbursed himself for exactly $4,700 in travel expenses that he said were mostly for lodging in Salt Lake City during the legislative session.

“Reporting was complicated by the way legislators are reimbursed for our housing expenses,” he said, adding a personal contribution of $3,766 was tied to him being “reimbursed personally for part of those expenses.”

Donations to political parties and campaigns also made up a large portion of spending. However, the final recipient of those funds wasn’t always clear. Spending on platforms like ActBlue and WinRed totaled more than $16,000.

Broad, limited categories on the report can also make it difficult to get a full picture of a candidates’ spending. A meal could be listed under campaign expenses, constituent services, travel expenses or other. For example, a $1,000 payment to USA Climbing from Sen. Jon Hawkins, R-Pleasant Grove, was marked as “other.” A $140 payment to Team USA was also listed under “other,” but Hawkins included a brief description: “Team USA Gear for Olympic Bid Trip.” An $85 charge at Sephora, mean-

while, was marked as an office expense. Hawkins did not respond to a request to clarify the payments.

Likewise, Sen. Keith Grover, R-Provo, had a nearly $3,000 charge to “Sportsmans” that was categorized as a campaign expense. When asked if he could specify what the funds were used for, Grover only said the charge was for “campaign and fundraising expenses” and did not elaborate.

Frequent Flyers

Travel expenses cost lawmakers more than $500,000 last year. Travel was the fifth highest expense behind consulting firms, advertising, miscellaneous campaign expenses and political donations.

Cullimore, for example, spent $38,000 on travel, including a trade mission to Asia and a trip with state education and industry leaders to Galway, Ireland, to see how the city’s medtech model could be replicated in Utah. He said trips out of the state “were directly tied to economic and workforce development efforts that have had a meaningful impact on our state.”

“Importantly, these expenses were not paid for with taxpayer funds but rather from my campaign account,” Cullimore said over email. “Many countries value government representation in business discussions, and as policymakers, we also engage with foreign government officials to learn from their

Continued on page 19

JAYME BOWEN

approaches to key challenges such as economic development, homelessness, and environmental policy.”

Likewise, travel made up a majority of Adams’ spending, which totaled nearly $73,000 last year. Two large charges—nearly $3,000 at a French chateau and $1,400 at a luxury resort in Mongolia—were for accommodations during a trip to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy and a Mongolia trade mission.

Aundrea Peterson, Senate deputy chief of staff, said the trip organizer arranged the accommodations and that Adams chose not to use state funds in both cases.

“Strategic trade missions and visits open doors for Utah businesses to thrive in key industries such as aerospace, life sciences, healthcare and more,” Peterson said. “The statute allows officeholders to use their campaign account to fulfill a duty or activity of an officeholder. President Adams made the decision to use his campaign account, rather than state funds, to help support these trade missions.”

Keeping It in the Family

The UIJP identified a number of payments that went to legislators’ children, spouses or other family members. The payments totaled more than $21,000, with lawmakers often listing the purpose of the money as a campaign expense. The UIJP reached out to lawmakers to clarify how the funds were spent, but most did not respond.

Rep. Verona Mauga, D-Taylorsville, paid family members just over $6,000 and spent $4,400 at a bakery she owns. She said those payments reflected the nontraditional campaign she ran, which focused on community involvement and her Polynesian roots. She said her family members took on a number of campaign staff roles, ranging from shopping for food and supplies to organizing entertainment, cooking and making costumes.

“I understand why there might be questions about payments to my business and family members, and I welcome them. In my culture, service is ever-revolving,” she said. “These weren’t just campaign events; they were cultural gatherings where my community showed up for each other in ways that go beyond politics.”

Mauga added that she did not profit off the food from her business used at campaign events. The payments, she said, covered the cost of the food and did not include her family’s time preparing it. Fitisemanu said two payments to his mother totaling $1,500 reimbursed her for fronting the bill for catering at his campaign kickoff event.

Kera Birkeland, a Morgan Republican who recently resigned from the Utah House, made several payments to her husband and children in 2024, totalling nearly $3,000. She did not respond to an email asking about the expenses. Other payments to family were much smaller.

Rep. Nelson Abbott, R-Orem, for example, made two $50 payments to his adult daughter. He said the payments were for her time driving him to the Capitol from Orem after an ankle surgery prevented him from driving.

“My daughter, who is an adult and lives on her own, also drives for Uber. Rather than hiring an Uber, I hired her,” he said in an email. “It worked out because she gave me a discount on what Uber would charge and she actually made more money because Uber did not take a cut.”

Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, made a handful of payments to his wife that he said were reimbursements for babysitters she’d paid in cash and parking. He also paid his nephew $170 to put up campaign signs.

Sen. Calvin Musselman, R-West Haven, said he reimbursed his daughter-in-law, Donna Musselman, $100 for campaign mailers. CW

Rep. Nelson Abbott R-Orem

Sen. Kirk Cullimore R-Draper

Sen. Keith Grover R-Provo

Rep. Jill Koford R-West Valley

Sen. Ann Millner R-Ogden

Sen. Stuart Adams, R-Layton

Sen. Lincoln Fillmore R-South Jordan

Rep. Jon Hawkins R-Pleasant Grove

Sen. Karen Kwan D-West Valley

Sen. Calvin Musselman R-West Haven

Rep. Norm Thurston R-Provo

Former Rep. Kera Birkeland R-Morgan

Rep. Jake Fitisemanu D-West Valley

Sen. Don Ipson R-St. George

Rep. Verona Mauga D-Taylorsville

Sen. Scott Sandall R-Tremonton

Sen. Ronald Winterton R-Roosevelt

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Demonstrators fill the steps of the Utah Capitol, protesting the Donald Trump Administration.

Work in Progress

Debates around on-campus housing, nuclear energy and the end of mail-in voting dominate the first half of the 2025 Utah legislative session.

BY JOSI HINDS COMMENTS@CITYWEEKLY.NET

One month and a little more than half-way into the legislative session, Utah has seen bills targeted at higher education, elections and energy production move through the Capitol. Here are some of the most notable so far.

Higher Education

Two key higher education bills have steadily made their way through the House and Senate, with one already signed into law by the governor. HB269 restricts how college and university students can be assigned to gendered dorms. It stipulates that a student’s biological sex determines what sex-designated on-campus housing they can live in. Sex is also required to be deter-

mined by an unaltered birth certificate—altered birth certificates can be used only if they were changed to correct an error.

While some legislators argued the bill protects women and female-only spaces, others argued it unfairly targets transgender students.

“Bills like this that we run and that we have come before us are not to discriminate against one individual or groups of marginalized people. But it’s to protect the daughters and those who want their own privacy as well,” Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Riverton, said before the bill’s final vote in the House.

Several Democratic lawmakers argued against the bill during floor debates. After the bill passed both legislative chambers, Senate Democrats released a statement urging Gov. Spencer Cox to veto it.

“This bill isn’t about safety—it’s about exclusion,” the Democrats’ statement read. “It echoes past mistakes of ‘separate but equal’ policies, creating unnecessary barriers instead of fostering inclusion.”

But Cox signed the bill into law on Friday, and it will take effect in June.

Housing policies aren’t the only changes higher education is facing this session. After Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, called for 10% budget cuts to higher education last fall, HB265 was drafted to address the way universities are funded.

The bill establishes a “strategic re-

investment” plan for Utah’s universities. It does this by taking 10% of each university’s instructional budget and moving it into a strategic reinvestment fund.

Universities will have to develop a plan to reinvest this 10% to keep access to these funds.

“We have a great system, but that doesn’t mean our system can’t be a little bit better and it can’t meet the needs of our students and our taxpayers a little bit better,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clearfield, said while introducing the bill to the House floor earlier this month.

The bill establishes a three-year process in which funds from programs, departments, positions and more, which don’t adequately meet the bill’s criteria, can be taken and reallocated to other programs and departments that merit further investment. Enrollment dates, graduation rates, professional outcomes, workforce demands, program costs and a particular university’s role in the state system are all to be considered when reallocating funds.

The bill also tasks the Utah Board of Higher Education with developing quantitative and qualitative metrics to guide the reinvestment process.

However, the bill has faced scrutiny. During a House debate on the bill in early February, some representatives raised concerns that the proposal would unfairly target humanities

Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, takes the dais on the first day of the 2025 session.

and arts programs and that the bill’s guidelines are too vague.

“I know that there’s a lot of fear and heartburn among staff and faculty at our institutions of higher education,” said Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, DSalt Lake City. “I’m still not entirely certain how I personally feel about this bill.”

Dailey-Provost’s district includes the University of Utah. She argued that the bill’s priority should be to lower the cost of education.

Rep. Neil Walter, R-St. George, said it is wrong to characterize the bill as an “attack” or to suggest that some academic fields are valued more highly than others.

“I think that’s absolutely the wrong way to look at this,” Walter said. “Our humanities, our performing arts, our liberal arts, they’re a critical part of our education infrastructure.”

HB265 passed out of the House with a 63-9 vote. At press time, it was awaiting a hearing in the Senate Education Committee.

Election Law

Another bill, HB300, would change Utah’s universal mail-in voting system, making it considerably more difficult for voters to cast their ballots.

“The 2024 election was interesting in many ways,” said Salem Republican Rep. Jefferson Burton, the bill’s sponsor, during a committee hearing. “One

Members of the UEA and other public employees filled the Rotunda to oppose a union-busting bill.

of the things that came out of it was a lot of concerns and questions about the way we vote and how we collect votes and count votes.”

To address election concerns, this bill would require voters to present a valid form of identification in person at a ballot drop box or polling place, manned by poll workers, when submitting their ballots. In consequence, the bill removes the option of returning ballots via outgoing mail.

As the bill stands, polling places would be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on certain days, but the sponsor is working on an amendment to extend these hours.

“I think we’re committed to turning out a bill that will make our voting better and more secure, but also not overly egregious on people’s time,” Burton said.

Voters could apply for the privilege to return their ballots by mail under this bill. However, that application must be submitted in person to a county clerk’s office alongside a valid voter ID.

This application must be resubmitted every two years, and all the above regulations are subject to change in future amendments to the bill.

The bill has been met with pushback. During the proposal’s hearing in the House Government Operations Committee on Feb. 4, several members of the public expressed concerns about how these changes could affect voter accessibility.

For example, Ann O’Connell, a Salt Lake City resident, shared that mail-

in ballots help to make voting accessible and easy for the elderly.

“If you fell down the stairs and broke your pelvis, you still could send your ballot in,” she said. “It’s the uncertainty of aging that can be difficult for so many.”

Others echoed similar concerns, arguing that the bill would reduce voter participation.

“We just implore [you], do not take this kind of drastic action that would reduce our current participation rate and disenfranchise target populations of our voting electorate,” said Helen Moser, representing the League of Women Voters of Utah.

However, others spoke in support of the added security the bill would give to elections.

“You need an ID to rent a car, to fly on a plane, to purchase a gun,”

Jordan Hess, a Republican precinct chair in Washington County, said.

“It shouldn’t be hard to require an ID when we cast our vote, which is a sacred duty as Americans.”

The bill passed out of committee on Feb. 4 and at press time is waiting for discussion on the House floor.

Nuclear Energy

Energy was one of legislative leaders’ top priorities for the 2025 session. And HB249, sponsored by Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, looks to meet this priority by establishing a pathway for Utah to begin working toward nuclear energy production.

The bill allows Utah counties and municipalities to apply to be desig-

Fire and emergency personnel watch as senators debate a ban on collective bargaining.

nated as an electrical energy development zone.

“These zones are identified for their suitability and hosting energy infrastructure projects based on factors as far as energy resources and their proximity to transmission lines,” Rep. Albrecht said while introducing the bill to a Senate committee last week.

The bill also establishes two advisory bodies to oversee energy projects in Utah. The Nuclear Energy Consortium is to “provide expertise on nuclear energy technology, safety and policy,” Albrecht said. Another entity, the Utah Energy Council, would be responsible for facilitating the development of energy generation facilities.

The bill doesn’t directly refer to renewable energy sources as a means of electrical generation, but it doesn’t exclude the possibility, either.

“I think what people don’t understand is 20% of energy that is generated east of the Mississippi is from nuclear,” said Sen. Ann Millner, ROgden, the bill’s Senate sponsor. “We are behind in the West, and if we don’t catch up, we’re not going to find ourselves in a very good place.”

Albrecht also emphasized that the creation of nuclear power will not be immediate. “This bill is a start to get us to nuclear energy down the road, whether that be SMR, small modular reactors, or a full-fledged nuclear facility,” he said.

The bill passed the House and earned the recommendation of a Senate Committee. At press time, it is waiting for debate on the Senate floor.

Other Bills

HB81, Fluoride Amendments, is currently awaiting a final debate on the Senate floor. It prohibits adding fluoride to public water systems. However, it does allow pharmacists to prescribe fluoride with guidance from the Division of Professional Licensing.

HB120, Time Change Amendments, passed through the House and is to be heard in the Senate Business and Labor Committee. This bill would commit Utah to observing Mountain Standard time year-round—ending the practice of twice-annual time changes—until federal law permits the state to permanently observe Mountain Daylight time.

Both the House and Senate passed HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, which Gov. Cox signed into law on Friday. It prohibits collective bargaining within the public sector, a major blow to union activities for teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public employees.

The bill generated significant opposition—with the daily presence of union members and organizers on Capitol Hill—and was briefly held up while work on a potential compromise was attempted. But those negotiations fell apart, leading lawmakers to revert back to an outright ban, and Senate leaders have repeatedly stressed their disinterest in revisiting the issue.

The bill did not secure a referendum-proof majority, and there is talk of a potential campaign to ask voters to overturn the law and its unionbusting effects. CW

BENJAMIN WOOD

BENJAMIN WOOD

Continued from page 21

The Hamburdog Cometh

MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes is crafting burger behemoths.

BY ALEX SPRINGER comments@cityweekly.net @captainspringer

When you look back at the litany of scientific and technological accomplishments achieved by the human race, none of them compare with our ability to push the limits of how much stuff can fit between two hamburger buns. Such epic feats of culinary engineering are always a fun challenge for me, as I have an inflexible rule about not setting a burger down once I pick it up. So, when I visited the Sandy location of MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes, I was expecting a bit of a test of that principle.

MOOYAH is a national chain that started out in Texas back in 2007, and it has grown to more than 80 locations throughout the country. The fast-casual burger restaurant first came to Utah with its Provo location in 2016; the Sandy location opened in the fall of 2024. MOOYAH had been on my radar since it opened in Provo, but I only recently learned that the restaurant serves a meaty abomination known as The Hamburdog ($10.99). As the name implies, this dish is a combination of a hamburger and a hot dog, and it’s truly something.

Before we go any further, keep in mind that this burger is a cyclopean nightmare of meats; it doesn’t quite beat the scope of a Triple Street Burger at A Lo Maracucho, but it’s close. In addition to the Certified Angus Beef patty, you’re getting a beef

hot dog and bacon as far as protein goes. It’s then further modified with melted cheddar cheese, jalapeños and fried onions. This burger is also not included on the menu that is hanging above the cash registers, but you can find it on a paper menu as part of the restaurant’s Hall of “Dang!” section. There are plenty of other monstrosities to explore here, but I only had eyes for The Hamburdog.

On the engineering side of things, The Hamburdog is fairly well constructed. Keep in mind that this is both a hamburger and a hot dog, so it’s important to adopt hot dog-eating protocols when planning your point of entry. If you bite into this thing with the lengthwise side of the hot dog facing your mouth, the majority of your burger will blast out of the opposite end like a shotgun. Provided you make the correct approach, you’ve got a wild ride ahead of you.

I’m not usually one to mix burgers and hot dogs on the same sandwich. Both meats are the respective lords of their domains, so you can get some beefy infighting when they’re both slapped on a bun together. However, The Hamburdog does a good job at keeping both flavors distinct and complementary. A lot of that relationship management comes from the spicy jalapeños and crispy fried onions. These supporting cast members do a lot to provide some acid and textural contrast to the rich, meaty flavors of the main proteins. This is where I question the addition of bacon, which honestly doesn’t add much to the party, and really doesn’t need to be there.

For those who want to visit MOOYAH and not get the gargantuan Hamburdog, there are plenty of menu items that are a bit more low-key. I liked the mushroom Swiss burger ($8.49) because you really can’t go wrong with a mushroom Swiss burger, and MOOYAH does plenty to make

it unique. I think the signature potato bun that MOOYAH puts on all its burgers does a great job here. Its flavor and texture go well with the savory goodness of sauteed mushrooms, melty Swiss cheese and fried onions.

Every burger fan knows that adding fries and a milkshake to a burger will be a win, and MOOYAH’s combos net you a pretty decent value. The sides include regular fries, housemade potato chips and sweet potato fries, and they’re all perfectly serviceable. Getting a combo means half of the tray on which your burger arrives will be covered with the side of your choice, so keep that in mind. I like MOOYAH’s regular fries just fine—they’re strictly middle of the pack—but the restaurant’s sweet potato fries are far superior.

I’ve tried a few shakes ($5.49-$6.99) from MOOYAH, and you can’t really go wrong with any of them. I’m always a sucker for a mint chocolate chip, so that’s my current favorite. However, the Hershey’s chocolate and the Reese’s PB Cup are great alternatives. I also appreciate that they are served with those big boba tea straws, so you can drink them while you drive.

All in all, MOOYAH is a solid option for those who are after either an unnatural burger/hot dog hybrid or just something tasty and satisfying. I noticed that their burgers could be swapped out for plant-based or turkey variations, and they can also be served with lettuce buns for a low-carb option. I’m sure we’ll see more MOOYAH locations sooner rather than later, as the restaurant seems to be catching on pretty quickly along the Wasatch Front. CW

ON TAP

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

2 Row Brewing

73 West 7200 South, Midvale

2RowBrewing.com

On Tap: Piney Peaks “West Coast IPA”

Avenues Proper 376 8th Ave, SLC avenuesproper.com

On Tap: Steamy Wonder Rye Steam Ale

Bewilder Brewing

445 S. 400 West, SLC

BewilderBrewing.com

On Tap: Belgian Pale Ale, Cosmic Pop IPA, Lord of the Ryes Stout

Bohemian Brewery

94 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale BohemianBrewery.com

On Tap: Cali ‘Steam’ Lager, ‘BrewSki’ German Pilsner

NEW: ‘I.P.L.’ India Pale Lager

Bonneville Brewery 1641 N. Main, Tooele BonnevilleBrewery.com

On Tap: Peaches and Cream Ale

Chappell Brewing 2285 S Main Street

Salt Lake City, UT 84115 chappell.beer

On Tap: Playground #13 - Hazy Pale with Lemondrop and Sultana

Craft by Proper 1053 E. 2100 So., SLC properbrewingco.com

On Tap: Steamy Wonder Rye Steam Ale

Desert Edge Brewery

273 Trolley Square, SLC DesertEdgeBrewery.com

On Tap:  High Pressure Haze, Hazy Pale Ale

Epic Brewing Co.

825 S. State, SLC EpicBrewing.com

On Tap: 2024 Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stouts

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

Etta Place Cidery

700 W Main St, Torrey www.ettaplacecider.com

On Tap: Wassail Cider, Pineapple Passion Fruit Session Mead

Fisher Brewing Co.

320 W. 800 South, SLC FisherBeer.com

On Tap: A rotation of up to 17 Fresh Beers!

Grid City Beer Works

333 W. 2100 South, SLC GridCityBeerWorks.com

On Tap: Cask Nitro CO2

Helper Beer

159 N Main Street, Helper, UT  helperbeer.com

Hopkins Brewing Co. 1048 E. 2100 South, SLC HopkinsBrewingCompany.com

On Tap: The Hunter: Kölsch

Kiitos Brewing

608 W. 700 South, SLC KiitosBrewing.com

Now with a full bar license & draft beer cocktails!

On Tap: Fonio - 100% gluten free beer; Schwarzbier

Level Crossing Brewing Co. 2496 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake

LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: Kolsch

Level Crossing Brewing Co.,

550 South 300 West, Suite

LevelCrossingBrewing.com

On Tap: Vienna Lager

Moab Brewing 686 S. Main, Moab TheMoabBrewery.com

On Tap:  Arnie (Co-Lab with 2 Row brewing): cream ale base with Lychee black tea and fresh pasteurized lemon juice.

Mountain West Cider 425 N. 400 West, SLC MountainWestCider.com

On Tap: RasPerry Vanilla Hard Cider

Offset Bier Co

1755 Bonanza Dr Unit C, Park City offsetbier.com/ On Tap: DOPO IPA

Ogden Beer Company

358 Park Blvd, Ogden OgdenBeerCompany.com

On Tap: 11 rotating taps as well as high point cans and guest beers

Park City Brewing 1764 Uinta Way C1 ParkCityBrewing.com

On Tap: El Jefe - Hefeweizen

Policy Kings Brewery 223 N. 100 West, Cedar City PolicyKingsBrewery.com

Prodigy Brewing 25 W Center St. Logan Prodigy-brewing.com On Tap: 302 Czech Pilsner

Proper Brewing/Proper Burger 857 So. Main & 865 So. Main properbrewingco.com

On Tap: Steamy Wonder Rye Steam Ale

Proper Brewing Moab 1393 US-191, Moab properbrewingco.com

On Tap: Blizzard Wizard Hazy Pale Ale

Red Rock Brewing 254 So. 200 West RedRockBrewing.com

On Tap: Gypsy Scratch

Red Rock Fashion Place 6227 So. State Redrockbrewing.com On Tap: Munich Dunkel

Red Rock Kimball Junction 1640 Redstone Center Redrockbrewing.com On Tap: Bamberg Rauch Bier

RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com On Tap: We love LA IPA

Roosters Brewing Multiple Locations RoostersBrewingCo.com

On Tap: Cranberry Sour, London Porter

SaltFire Brewing 2199 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake

SaltFireBrewing.com

On Tap: Peach Rice Lager on draft

Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com

On Tap: Winter Amber with notes of Vanilla and Brown Sugar

Scion Cider Bar 916 Jefferson St W, SLC Scionciderbar.com

On Tap: Scion Fuji La - 8.4% ABV

Second Summit Cider 4010 So. Main, Millcreek https://secondsummitcider.com On Tap: Imperial 8.2%

Shades Brewing 154 W. Utopia Ave, South Salt Lake ShadesBrewing.beer On Tap: Fresh Hop IPA (with homegrown local hops)

Shades On State 366 S. State Street SLC Shadesonstate.com On Tap: Six Wheat Under Hefeweizen; Black Cloud Lager

Silver Reef 4391 S. Enterprise Drive, St. George SGBev.com

Squatters Corner Pub – Valley Fair 3555 Constitution Blvd, West Valley City squatterscornerpub.com

On Tap: Salt Lake Brewing Co. Glinda’s Blackberry Sour

Squatters Pub Brewery / Salt Lake Brewing Co.

147 W. Broadway, SLC saltlakebrewingco.com/ squatters On Tap: Salt Lake Brewing Co. – Coconut Stout

Squatters and Wasatch Brewery 1763 So 300 West SLC UT 84115 Utahbeers.com

On Tap: 20 beers with 12 rotating small batch releases: Black Tea English Porter, Hazelnut Brown Ale, and

Strap Tank Brewery, Lehi 3661 Outlet Pkwy, Lehi, UT StrapTankBrewery.com

On Tap: Redeemer Rauchbier, God of Thunder Roggenbier

Strap Tank Brewery, Springville 596 S 1750 W, Springville, UT StrapTankBrewery.com

On Tap: Candy Cap English Mild

TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC TFBrewing.com On

BEER NERD

Draft Picks

Tart fruit and Crispy hops come through in this brew duo.

BY MIKE RIEDEL comments@cityweekly.net @utahbeer

Uinta - The Juice Is Loose: This new IPA was found at Uinta’s brewery pub, and was identified on Uinta’s “Limited” tap handle. From what I understand, this new Juicy Session IPA will go into a larger production schedule, and will even find itself packaged in cans around Utah.

A light orange coloring has a good clarity factor, with a centralized source of effervesce. An off-white head adorns the top of the shaker glass, providing a slight ring band of lacing around the vessel. Fresh citrus was dripping wet on the nose, juicy with some pine indications. Damp floral emerged, along with some fresh tropical pineapple, mingling with a light citrus-lime note. Good strength overall, including some damp oranges and floral blossoms on the fade. The flavor is bright and tart, as tangy oranges have some slightly dry floral leaf hopping as a complement. Some pine and sweet grains are present, with a light, dry citrus grind finish. The distinct bright orange glow comes on strong mid-drink, along with some dank hop appeal, then a finish of dry peach and fruity floral. The light mouthful is session style, offering some honey grains, smooth feel and a medium stickiness—lightly creamy, with good depth as it builds.

Verdict: You get a nice hop experience from a session ale that offers a bright burst of juicy hops featuring a wide variety of flavors. Brightly hopped, very strong drinkability, and worthy of respect in regards to its 5.0 percent ABV.

Proper - Kentucky Common: The Kentucky Common style is an old American style that was almost exclusively

produced and sold around the Louisville, Ky. area from the Civil War up to Prohibition. Some modern versions can have a slight lactic sourness to them; this offering, from Proper Brewing, does not.

This brew pours a polished color of dark copper with a constant stream of bubbles rising to the surface in support of the creamy finger of off-white head. It dissolves to a thin film across the top, with large bubbles that collect and hold around the edge of the glass. A light swirl revives the cap, producing some faint strings of lacing on the glass.

The aroma of this brew has a touch of corn straight out the gate as the bottle is being poured. The maize aspect lasts, but gets overtaken by some sweet grainy scents and a light fruited quality—possibly a product of the hops, but more likely a bit of the yeast is coming across to accent this fruited aspect. Once this brew approaches room temperature, a swirl creates a light nutty cheese scent that seems a bit out of place here, but adds an interesting twist to this brew.

The taste is grainy, with lots of residual sweetness that turns to a biscuit aspect as the brew warms. There is a mild bitterness of hops, slightly herbal trying to balance out the sweetness but it isn’t overwhelming. Some minor corn is evident, with a sweet flavor that couples with the herbal hops and lasts into the finish with a slight grassy taste and some nuttiness. Fairly crisp for the style, with a lasting taste of that fresh grain appeal.

Verdict: This is a medium-to-lightbodied brew with a modest amount of carbonation, and the 5.0 percent alcohol seems perfect for the style. The focus here isn’t to be a historically accurate beer, but rather just to give you an idea of what this style is all about.

Kentucky Common is on draft at all Proper locations; try it with Proper’s Steamy Wonder, a California Common, to see if you can find differences. Of course, we’ll keep you up to date on the distribution on The Juice is Loose when all that happens. As always, cheers! CW

BACK BURNER

BY ALEX SPRINGER | @captainspringer

Hell’s Backbone Acquires Boulder Mountain Lodge

Hell’s Backbone Grill & Farm (hellsbackbonegrill.com) recently announced the exciting news that it had acquired the Boulder Mountain Lodge property in Boulder, Utah. Blake Spalding and Jen Castle will continue to manage both properties, with the help of Boulder residents Nina Brownell, Morgan Reedy and Nick Barretta. The property acquisition was made possible with help from restaurant regulars, Boulder residents and other investors who helped the team raise the funds necessary to purchase the property. Hell’s Backbone’s 2025 season will kick off on March 14, and the newly acquired Boulder Mountain Lodge will be ready and waiting for all you road-tripping foodies.

Montage Deer Valley Reimagines its Aprés Lounge

Up at Deer Valley, Montage (montage.com) has officially unveiled the reimagined Aprés Lounge for the latter half of ski season. As part of this reimagining, Aprés Lounge will feature Veuve Clicquot champagne in its yurt-inspired environs. In addition to its renowned champagne list and its gorgeous views of Empire Village, Aprés Lounge will serve a menu of small bites that includes caviar, artisan charcuterie boards and Wagyu beef tartare. The new lounge will be open for lunch and happy hour from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will be an excellent aprés-ski option for those hitting the slopes at Deer Valley.

Mirazur Parrilla Colombiana Opens

In the wake of the now-closed Lulu’s Hot Oven in South Jordan comes a new spot called Mirazur Parrilla Colombiana (10949 S. Redwood Rd #400). While I liked Lulu’s, I did struggle with the combo of pizza and tortas, but it looks like Mirazur won’t make that same mistake. Currently, the menu includes some classics of Colombian fare like empanadas, arepas, fried plantains and plenty of grilled meats. I’m definitely digging this trend of South American restaurants popping up all over the place, and I will need to check this new SoJo spot out as soon as possible, because you just can’t beat a good Colombian grill.

Quote of the Week: “Cooking is an act of love, a gift to the soul.” – Leonor Espinosa

Music Mailbag

February 2025

New music from Josaleigh Pollett, Whisperhawk and Reaper The Storyteller

BY EMILEE ATKINSON eatkinson@cityweekly.net @emileelovesvinyl

Well, we made it through all 75 days of January and are chugging along steadily through February. How are you holding up? Hopefully your answer is that you’re well—and if not, what better way to assuage feelings of sadness and/or frustration than to listen to some great new releases from locals?

Josaleigh Pollett, Bro’s Bad January: SLC singer/songwriter Josaleigh Pollett has an incredible library of music consisting of everything from heartbreak to regrowth, but this new project is something entirely different. “In December, I decided that I was going to write a song every day in January to help keep some of the winter blues away, and maybe also make the songwriting process start feeling a little less precious to me,” Pollett said on BandCamp, where the album can be found. “It’s such a core part of my routine and my life, but sometimes it can cause me more stress than acting as an outlet. So I wanted to keep things really simple for the challenge so that I could put fun and creativity back at the center of writing.”

Pollett had friends online suggest prompts, which were then written on bits of paper to be pulled out and used as the basis for a song each day of the month. “I just put out 31 new poorly-recorded and impulsively-written songs based on prompts that YOU all gave me in January.

So this is actually your fault,” Pollett joked on Instagram upon the album’s release. Songs on Bro’s Bad January have titles like “Thinking About the Radio,” “Sewer Turtles,” “How Cool it is to be Bisexual” and “if u were a maraschino cherry.” The songs feel personal, like Pollett is calling you up on the phone to play something just for you, and they’re a fun listen for when you’re feeling down. “I am watching the world erupt into a fearful chaos around myself and people I love right now. I think finding something to add to your daily todo list that is just for you and just for fun is more important than ever,” Pollett said.

The album is a BandCamp exclusive, all proceeds going to SLC Mutual Aid. Check out the fun and creative songs, support a good cause and put a smile on your face with Bro’s Bad January.

Whisperhawk, “Handle With Care”: Singer/songwriter Michael Gross, AKA Whisperhawk, really hits home with his latest track “Handle With Care.” We all feel like we need to be handled with care from time to time, and this song echoes that feeling in a beautiful way. Gross offers a kind, comforting alt-rock sound that soothes and heartens with its upbeat, reverb-driven guitar and lively drum track. The lyrics of “Handle With Care” are the type that hit home and make you realize all of a sudden that you have emotions that have built up, which come crashing out while you’re listening. It’s very calming and introspective, so definitely give this one a listen.

Reaper The Storyteller, “HELP”: “This track is deeply personal, and reflects my journey through depression, suicidal thoughts and anxiety,” said Thomas Hurrington, AKA Reaper The Storyteller. “‘HELP’ is more than just a song; it carries a message of hope and reassurance

for anyone facing similar struggles. I want listeners to know they are not alone and that support is available. In a world where mental health challenges can feel isolating, it’s important to have open conversations about these issues. If you or someone you know needs someone to talk to, I encourage you to reach out to the 988 Lifeline. The counselors at the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provide compassionate support for a variety of challenges, including mental health issues and emotional distress.”

Hurrington’s beatboxing, beautiful harmonies and clean rap all combine well with lyrics that touch on real issues. “HELP” is a single off of Hurrington’s upcoming debut album T.H.C. (Things Have Changed), and offers a great taste of more to come. The lyrics to “HELP” are straightforward and don’t

mince words, but sometimes you need that directness when it comes to talking about heavy subjects like these. It’s refreshing to have someone tackle these issues head-on in a creative way that’s more palatable for people than sitting and having a hard conversation. This song can be a huge comfort for others feeling the same way, plus Hurrington’s sound is great and easy to listen to on repeat. “HELP” is only on YouTube at the moment, but can be found here:

As always, that’s just a fraction of the awesome releases from the local scene, so be sure to keep your eye out and support your favorite artists in these trying times. CW

Josaleigh Pollett

THURSDAY,

FRIDAY,

SATURDAY,

BEST BAR IN UTAH!

MUSIC PICK S

Les Femmes @ Velour 2/20-22, 2/27-28

Les Femmes de Velour is an annual celebration of female artists in Utah’s incredible local music scene. Since the beginning of the month, tons of great artists have taken the stage, and there are even more to come before we say goodbye to February. Shows earlier this month included Kenya, Drusky, Cannibal Queen, Anna Beck and Orcamind just to name a few. There are still five evenings packed with incredible artists to check out. Upcoming shows include Aurhe, Spirit Machines, Bat Brain and Lemonfern on Thursday, Feb. 20. Then, Jenn Blosil, Sarah June, Back Patio and Sasha Haydn on Friday, Feb. 21. The last three shows include Ysabelle Cuevas, Ashley Hess, Rachel James and Grace Wawro on Saturday, Feb. 22; Libbie Linton, Debra Fotheringham, Grace Peatross and Cesley on Thursday, Feb. 27; all leading up to the grand finale of Little Moon with some surprise guests on Friday, Feb. 28. You can catch these incredible artists for a bargain at $10 per show, with Feb 28 being $15. Don’t miss out on these incredible lineups and for the opportunity to support some of the fantastic female artists in SLC. Grab tickets for the all-ages show at 24tix.com. (Emilee Atkinson)

x Dylan Owen

John Craigie + Glen Phillips @ JQ Lawson Capitol Theatre 2/21

MUSIC PICK S

Storytelling, songwriting and a somewhat wicked sense of humor are the ideal elements when it comes to providing an evening of exceptional entertainment. As a result, a concert featuring two highly original and intuitive singer/songwriters such as John Craigie and Glen Phillips not only offers all those essential elements, but also an evening with two perceptive personalities to boot. For his part, Craigie is a wry and respected performer whose flair for sharing stories with wit, humor and intelligence has brought him comparisons to Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, while assuring his status as a modern-day troubadour flush with the prerequisite insights and intelligence. He’s released nine albums over the course of his career, but it is his live performances that exact a clear connection with appreciative audiences. For his part, Phillips boasts a vast resume that includes his ongoing stint as lead singer and primary songwriter with Toad the Wet Sprocket, as well as his own solo career and one-off efforts with Mutual Admiration Society— a supergroup of sorts that include members of the band Nickel Creek— and an experimental outing under the aegis of Remote Tree Children, which found him collaborating with composer/producer John Morgan Askew. Yet regardless of direction, his songwriting remains both clever and consistent. Given both men’s verve and versatility, it seems fair to say this ought to be one exceptional show. John Craigie + Glen Phillips at the JQ Lawson Capitol Theatre, Friday, Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $25 - $60 at saltlakecountyarts.org. (Lee Zimmerman)

John Craigie

Olivia Rodrigo Sparkle Horse

Olivia Rodrigo Sparkle Horse

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt

MUSIC PICK S

Jessica Audiffred @ BoxPac 2/22

The Mexico-City based DJ and producer Jessica Audiffred is the undisputed Queen of Mexico’s trap and bass scene, and the DJ Times referred to her as “a dominant force in bass music.” It’s fun seeing what color Audiffred’s hair will be at the next live show, as she continues to bring bigger and bigger crowds. Audiffred played at Mexico’s first-ever bass-centric radio show Back to Bassics, and has made a name for herself throughout North America, playing back-to-back shows and tours with industry giants like Excision, sold out arenas with Riot Ten, as well as the biggest festivals like EDC, Lost Lands, Beyond Wonderland and Forbidden Kingdom. And it’s all been a pretty quick climb towards the top. It was less than two years ago that she debuted on the powerhouse bass music label, Monstercat, with her song “You Found Me” in collaboration with Adventure Club. She was awarded the title of “#1 DJ in Mexico” by MDM, and it’s easy to hear why when you listen to her songs like “HERO,” or “Throw Your Hands Up” as well as “Around the World (La La La)” released this year. As Audiffred says in a TikTok caption this month, “I make songs for hot girls who love bass…” Come check out her Rave New World tour this Saturday, Feb. 22. Doors open at 9 p.m. This is a 21+ show by Mutiny Presents at BoxPac Project. Tier 3 tickets cost $30 at seetickets.us. (Arica Roberts)

Ronnie Baker Brooks @ The State Room, 2/22

Acclaimed blues guitarist and soul singer Lonnie Brooks had a stellar career, working in Chicago’s West Side and releasing scattered singles throughout the ‘60s, eventually landing an album deal in 1969. By the late 1970s, he would be featured on an Alligator Records compilation, and soon thereafter he joined the label. Between 1978 and 1999 he released nine albums for Alligator. He passed away in 2017, but his legacy has been carried on by son Ronnie Baker Brooks. Born like his father before him in the Windy City, the younger Brooks launched his recording career in 1998, recording for Watchdog and Provogue. In

a sense he has come home with his latest: Blues in my DNA finds him on Alligator Records. The album is an unabashed nod to Brooks’ father. With a variety of songs that touch on Chicago blues, Memphis soul and more, Ronnie Baker Brooks demonstrates that melodic guitar artistry runs in the family. A regular performer at the Odyssey East Lounge in Chicago’s South Side, Brooks is currently on a tour that takes him throughout the Western U.S. before a run of festival dates. Dad would have been proud. Brooks comes to The State Room on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. Tickets for this 21+ show are $36, available at axs.com. (Bill Kopp)

Hippo Campus @ The Union 2/24

Since 2013, St. Paul’s indie rock sensation Hippo Campus has been steadily putting out release after release, and each has got a bit of fire in its belly. From EPs to long-plays and a billion streams in between, sometimes you just need to spend some time away from your creations to get a sense of freshness from them. Hippo Campus made a bold decision just two weeks before the official release of their latest LP: They had scrapped years of previously written and recorded songs, and busted out Flood in just 10 days. “We realized that we were just repeating ourselves—the definition of insanity—recording the same songs multiple times over and over again, just beating our heads against a wall,” guitarist Nathan Stocker told GQ. “The music is only as good as it makes you feel. The honesty that you have to have with yourself where it’s like, is this what we want to release? Is this—not perfect, but is this right ?” Flood presents the signature, complex melodic riffs and hooks that define the band’s unique sound. Hippo Campus is a brilliant live band with great interaction with the audience. These musicians just keep on making good music without the requirement of being the flavor of the month. Mei Semones open. Catch these musicians on the FLOOD tour at The Union on Monday, Feb. 24. Doors at 7 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets for the all ages show are $35 and can be found at ticketmaster.com. (Mark Dago)

Jessica Audiffred

free will ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES

(March 21-April 19)

The Hindu holiday of Maha Shivaratri is dedicated to overcoming ignorance and darkness in celebrants’ own lives and in the world. This year it falls on February 26. Even if you’re not Hindu, I recommend you observe your own personal version of it. To do so would be in accordance with astrological omens. They suggest that the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to be introspective, study your life and history and initiate changes that will dispel any emotional or spiritual blindness you might be suffering from. PS: Remember that not all darkness is bad! But some is unhealthy and demoralizing, and that’s the kind you should banish and transmute.

TAURUS

(April 20-May 20)

The blue whale is the most massive animal that has ever lived. You could swim through its arteries. Its heart is five feet high and weighs 400 pounds. And yet, when diving, its pulse slows to four to eight times per minute. I propose we choose the blue whale to be your spirit creature in the coming weeks. May this magnificent beast inspire you to cultivate slow, potent rhythms that serve you better than hyperactivity. Let’s assume you will accomplish all you need by maintaining a steady, measured pace—by focusing on projects that require depth and diligence rather than speed. Your natural persistence will enable you to tackle tasks that might overwhelm those who lack your patience.

GEMINI

(May 21-June 20)

Over 10,000 years ago, someone walked for a mile through what’s now White Sands National Park in New Mexico. We know they did because they left footprints that were fossilized. Scientists believe it was probably a woman who mostly carried a child and sometimes let the child walk under its own power. Like those ancient footprints, your actions in the coming weeks may carry lasting significance—more than may be immediately apparent. I encourage you to proceed as if you are making a more substantial impact and having a bigger influence than you imagine.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

What’s the oldest known recipe? What ancient food product did our ancestors write down instructions about how to make? It was beer! The 4,000-year-old Sumerian text included a hymn to Ninkasi, the goddess of beer. It tells how to use the right ingredients and employ careful fermentation to concoct a beverage that lowers inhibitions and brings people together in convivial celebration. In that spirit, Cancerian, I encourage you to meditate on the elements you can call on to create merrymaking and connection. Now is a good time to approach this holy task with extra focus and purposefulness.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

In November 1963, the captain of a sardine boat sailing near Iceland noticed a column of dark smoke rising out of the water. Was it another boat on fire? No, it was the beginning of a volcanic eruption. A few days later, steady explosions had created a new island, Surtsey, which still exists today. I suspect you will have a metaphorically comparable power in the coming weeks, Leo: an ability to generate a new creation out of fervent energies rising out of the hot depths. Be alert! And be ready to harness and make constructive use of the primal force.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson was a 10th-century Danish king. He united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom. His nickname originated in the fact that he had a prominent dead tooth that turned bluish-gray. More than 10 centuries later, engineers who created a new short-range wireless technology decided to call their invention “bluetooth.” Why? Because they imagined it would serve a variety of electronic devices, just as the king once blended the many tribes. In the spirit of these bluetooth phenomena, I’m urging you Virgos to be a uniter in the coming weeks and months. You will have an enhanced capacity to bridge dif-

ferent worlds and link disparate groups. PS: An aspect that could be construed as an imperfection, like Harald’s tooth, could conceal or signify a strength.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Libran author Ursula K. Le Guin wrote, “Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake.”

I know from experience there’s truth in that idea. But I’m happy to tell you that in 2025, freedom will be less heavy and less burdensome than maybe ever before in your life.

In fact, I suspect liberation will be relatively smooth and straightforward for you. It won’t be rife with complications and demands, but will be mostly fun and pleasurable. Having said that, I do foresee a brief phase when working on freedom will be a bit more arduous: the next few weeks. The good news is that your emancipatory efforts will set the stage for more ease during the rest of 2025.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Always and forever, the world is a delicate balance of seemingly opposing forces that are in fact interwoven and complementary: light and shadow, determination and surrender, ascent and descent, fullness and emptiness, progress and integration, yes and no. The apparent polarities need and feed each other. In the coming weeks, I invite you to meditate on these themes. Are there areas of your life where you have been overly focused on one side of the scale while neglecting the other? If so, consider the possibility of recalibrating. Whether you are balancing emotion with logic, rest with work, or connection with independence, take time to adjust. If you honor both halves of each whole, you will generate fertile harmonies.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Ancient stands of cedar trees on Japan’s Yakushima Island have a special power. They create weather patterns for themselves, generating rain clouds from water vapor they release through their leaves. This ingenious self-nurturing provides them with the exact rainfall they require. I propose that we make these cedar trees your power symbol in the coming weeks. It’s an excellent time for you to dream up and implement more of the conditions you need to flourish.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Tardigrades are tiny, eight-legged animals colloquially known as water bears or moss piglets. Their resilience is legendary. They can thrive anywhere, from mountaintops to the deep sea, from Antarctica to tropical rainforests. They can withstand extreme temperatures, live a long time without water, and even survive in outer space. I propose we make the tardigrade your power creature for the coming weeks, dear Capricorn. Your flexibility and fluidity will be at a peak. You will be hardy, supple and durable. It will be a favorable time to leave your comfort zone and test your mettle in new environments. Seemingly improbable challenges may be well within your range of adaptability.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

In the coming days, playing games could be good practice for life. Breezy exchanges and fun activities could stimulate clues and insights that will be useful in making important decisions. What appears to be ordinary entertainment or social engagement may provide you with profound lessons about strategy and timing. How you manage cooperation and competition in those lighter moments could yield useful guidance about more serious matters.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

Have you been struggling to summon the motivation to start anew in some area of your life? I predict that some time in the coming weeks, you will find all the motivation you need. Have you been wishing you could shed the weight of the past and glide into a fresh project with an unburdened mind and heart? I believe that destiny will soon conspire to assist you in this noble hope. Are you finally ready to exorcise a pesky ghost and dash jubilantly toward the horizon, eager to embrace your future? I think you are.

Data Engineer II (DE2-RA) in Midvale, UT. Telecommuting permitted within the area of intended employment. Provide resolutions to an assortment of program problems moderately complex scope. Req Masters. Send resumes to Zions Bancorporation at ZionsCareers@zionsbancorp. com. Must reference job title & code in subject line.

Sr. Automation Test Engineer (SATE-CK) in Midvale, UT. Telecommuting permitted from anywhere in the U.S. Dvlp test plans, testing strategies & test cases & meeting proj schedules. BS followed by 5 yrs rltd prog exp. Send resumes to Zions Bancorporation at ZionsCareers@zionsbancorp. com. Must reference job title & code in subject line.

IHC Health Services, Inc. (dba Intermountain Health) seeks a Medical Laboratory Scientist – Registered in Park City & Heber City, UT. Variable shifts. Apply at https://imh.wd5.myworkdayjobs. com/IntermountainCareers or email resume to mary.hansen@imail.org.

Salary: $66,102 to $76,102.

Controller (Draper, UT) Prepare & analyze monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. Provide regular financial reports & forecasts to senior management to support strategic planning and decisionmaking processes. Monitor budget performance & identify areas for cost optimization and revenue enhancement. Establish & maintain robust internal control procedures to safeguard company assets and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Assist in the development of long-term financial plans and strategies aligned with the company’s goals & objectives. 40hrs/wk, Offered wage: $127,566/ yr, Master’s degree in Accounting or related required. Resume to CUPBOP CO Attn. Yeiri KIM, 12184 S Business Park Dr, STE C, Draper, UT 84020

Need a New Hive?

urban LIVING

Vacay Rental Rules

You may not pay much attention to the fact that our Utah Legislature is in session, which is happening at the Capitol building until midnight on March 7. I do, because a lot of what goes on up there has to do with housing issues.

One bill I’ve watched is HB256, which relates to zoning amendments in cities around the state. Basically, the intent of the bill is to clarify short-term rental processes for people owning Airbnbs or VRBOs here.

Why? Many owners of vacation or short-term rentals do not license their units with local cities and townships, and the bill would essentially allow any town in the state to use a listing on a vacation rental website to prove that the owners have an unlawful short-term rental and to go after them if they aren’t licensed. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Neil Walter, R-St. George, says the bill is not intended to tell cities what to do, but rather to help them make sure that rentals like these follow local rules and regulations.

According to VRBO, Utah owners can earn between $20,000 and $50,000 annually, depending on the location and size of their property. Obviously, such rentals will get more business near popular tourist destinations in the state, especially during peak seasons (summer, holidays).

Airbnb hosts in Utah made $130 million in 2019, the company claims, and most likely much, much more during the past several years, due to the popularity of our Big 5 national parks and the Ikon ski pass.

The bill, which passed the House on Feb. 10, is now under consideration by the Senate. There are tens of thousands of short-term rentals in Utah, and many locals patronize them for themselves and for visiting family and friends.

There are rules in place that previously passed at the Legislature, but more than most owners are not playing by the rules. This kind of shortterm rental impacts rental housing inventory for long-term renters and definitely needs more regulation.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ACROSS

1. Drive-thru drink extra

6. Goblet piece

10. Baby kangaroo

14. Pet problem?

15. Adidas rival

16. Killer whale

17. Valuable item

18. Novel-identifying digits

19. Mister, in M¸nster

20. Pail exclusively for celebrities?

22. Mad Libs prompt

23. Denver clock reading

24. Kong, e.g.

25. Tournament seeding

27. Pond dwellers

29. Encompassed by

33. Roll up

36. “Nick at ___”

38. More wintry

39. German attack craft of WWII

41. Swanson on “Parks & Recreation”

42. Play in the NHL

43. Metronome measurement

44. Italian beach resort

46. “What ___ can I do?”

47. Sneaky kind of horse?

49. One of Santa’s reindeer

51. Savage of “MythBusters”

53. Office machine still used by some businesses

54. Text messaging letters

57. On a grand scale

60. Squishy space shuttle propeller?

63. Lean and tall

64. Former Missouri Congresswoman Bush

65. Company behind “Space Invaders” and “Bubble Bobble”

66. Remote button

67. Reunion attendee

68. Acquired relative

69. Coin-op opening

70. Intense fury

71. Honeycomb units

DOWN

1. Twitch

2. Pushes to the limit

3. Held another meeting

4. Affirm with certainty

5. Home beverage center

6. Baby, for instance

7. Walrus feature

8. Add to a website, as a video

9. Repeated phrase

10. The average cricket player?

11. Cookie with a limited-edition Post Malone flavor

12. Grayish earth tone

13. Knitting store supply

21. Fairy tale’s second word

26. Author Kingsley

27. Cold-weather wear that’ll help you get off the ground?

28. Poker-faced

30. Old phone feature

31. Collectors’ completions

32. Ash, e.g.

33. Bounty hunter Boba

34. Over, in Hanover

35. Former Cowboys quarterback Tony

37. Theoretical stopping point

40. Mario Kart character

45. “The Wire” role

48. Org. with pit workers

50. Rare and unusual

52. Slangy cash

Short-term rentals have been found—in tourist destinations around the country—to drive up property values when the units are in high demand. There’s also something called the “externality effect,” where these properties can create nuisance and noise violations, thereby actually lowering property values.

If you’re looking at homes in a particular area, I suggest taking a walk in that area and asking neighbors about the area as well. If they know of rentals in their neighborhood, ask if they are well maintained or a nightmare. n

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.

54. Expertise

55. Mercury, for one 56. Puts in the overhead

57. Shade providers

58. Singer Anka

59. Engaged by 61. 1960s fad dance 62. Sugar source

NEWS of the WEIRD

BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

The Weirdo-American Community

A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Chicago was forced to divert to Denver on Feb. 9 after a passenger became unruly, LiveandLetsFly.com reported. The man was up out of his seat repeatedly and argued with flight attendants before demanding to know “Where are the Mormons?” One passenger said the incident “escalated into a big physical altercation and several passengers had to rush out of their seats to help the crew pin down this person.” Although the troublemaker was removed from the flight in Denver, the plane sat on the ground for about five hours before continuing to Chicago.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Domino’s Pizza UK has launched its first-ever eau de toilette, “Eau de Passion,” which is inspired by its Pepperoni Passion pizza and features notes of spice, pepper and a woody, warm base, the New York Post reported. The scent’s bottle is shaped like a slice of pizza, and the cologne is free from Domino’s website if you’re lucky enough to be chosen to receive one. British star Luke Debono, who’s promoting the scent, said it is “the perfect gift for passionate pizza-loving couples looking to spice things up this Valentine’s Day.”

News That Sounds Like a Joke

A high school teacher in Queensland, Australia, has taken to identifying as a cat, 7News-TV reported on Feb. 10. “Miss Purr,” as she prefers to be known, teaches children at Marsden State High School, where she “screeches and growls when (her students) don’t listen,” one person posted on Facebook. She also hisses and licks the backs of her hands during class and wears a headband with cat ears. One concerned mother said Miss Purr had made her daughter “purr for a lolly.” The Department of Education said the school was aware of the complaints and the principal is speaking with the teacher.

Cultural Diversity

On Feb. 10 in Inazawa, Japan, more than 7,000 men wearing only loincloths participated in the Konomiya Naked Festival at a Shinto shrine, The Mainichi reported. The event, which has been held for more than 1,200 years on the 13th day of the first lunar month, reportedly features a “god-man” who is thought to carry away misfortune if you touch him. This year’s “god-man” was 26-yearold Ryota Kato, who threw himself into the crowd as the men chanted and fought to touch him. About an hour later, he emerged from the crowd and entered the shrine.

Inexplicable

Law enforcement officers in South Holland, England, are repotedly stumped by a recent rash of pet cats returning to their homes with patches of missing fur, The Spalding and South Holland Voice reported on Feb. 12. The cats appear to have been shaved. “This behavior is completely unacceptable,” said inspector Matt Dickinson. “The cats in question are someone’s pet, part of their family.” Evidently, it’s not the first time that the mysterious cat shaver has struck; two Facebook commenters said their pet cats had also been shaved in past years.

It’s Come to This

A manufacturer of fortune cookies contacted the owner of a Vietnamese restaurant in Sydney, Australia, to announce they would no longer fill her orders for custom messages that are offensive or contain expletives. 9News reported that Nahji Chu, owner of Lady Chu, ordered profanity-laced cookies for Valentine’s Day. But after the manufacturer mistakenly sent some of Chu’s cookies to fulfill another order, causing distress with that customer, they changed their policy. Chu wasn’t happy: “If you’re getting it mixed up with other restaurants, that’s not my fault,” she said. Some of Chu’s more PG-rated cookie messages include, “You are capable of great things. But all you do is look at your phone all day.

You won’t be that great sorry! #ladychu” and “The year of the snake bears good fortune! Your divorce is coming soon.” She said she’ll “take out the profanities and be creative” with her next order.

Oops!

The Lee County (Florida, where else?) Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a Feb. 7 incident involving an allegedly intoxicated man riding on a lawnmower, WESH-TV reported. A video camera caught the mower plowing into a mailbox along the street; the man went heels over head and stumbled away from the mower, then returned and drove off, apparently hitting multiple other mailboxes along the way. Matt Clardy, whose mailbox was among the victims, called it “absolutely disgusting” but admitted, “It’s so funny. I can watch it 100 times.”

The man left behind a Pittsburgh Steelers hat and sunglasses at one of the scenes; police are still trying to identify him.

It’s a Dirty Job

Nath Wyld is a star at Magic Men, a strip club in Prahran, Australia—or at least, he was, until he discovered a more lucrative line of work. Metro News reported on Feb. 10 that Wyld now makes about 20,000 pounds each year by posting videos of himself passing gas on TikTok. The onetime carpenter joined the website OnlyFans in 2017 and soon began making enough money with his X-rated videos to quit his daytime job. About two years in, he got a request for a fart video, which he initially refused. “I was blown away (no pun intended) by the demand and I have been making them ever since,” Wyld said. “Some want to see my facial expressions; others just want to see me from far away,” he said of the custom videos he makes. Wyld said that he “starts bloated—kind of part of the process—and go through the video until I feel lighter by the end. ... I’ve been doing this long enough to know that everyone’s into their own thing, and that’s cool.”

Awesome!

n When Loretta, a 104-year-old resident of the Avon Nursing Home in Geneseo, New York, was asked what she wanted for her birthday, she replied that she’d never seen the inside of a jail. So, WHAM-TV reported on Feb. 11, the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office obliged, inviting her to the station and giving her a good look around, then celebrating with cake and coffee. Loretta paid back the favor by sharing some wisdom with Sheriff Thomas Dougherty: “Mind your business.”

n Officials in the Czech Republic had been planning to build a dam on the Klabava River for more than six years, Yahoo! News reported on Feb. 11, but were stymied by lengthy negotiations over land use. Instead, some industrious beavers solved the problem for them and saved taxpayers $1.2 million in construction costs. “They built a wetland with pools and canals,” said Bohumil Fiser of the Czech Nature Conservation Agency. “The area is roughly twice larger than planned. They do a brilliant job.”

Fish Story

It took Hayley Herzig, 22, of Van Dyne, Wisconsin, six years to harvest her first sturgeon, but when she did, it was newsworthy. WLUK-TV reported that on the first day of sturgeon-spearing season at Lake Winnebago, Feb. 8, Herzig landed a fish that was bigger than herself. The massive sturgeon weighed 180.5 pounds and was more than 79 inches long. “It was very exciting, did not feel real,” Herzig said. “I was in disbelief.” She and her boyfriend reportedly buried the beast in the snow behind their house and plan to deep-fry or smoke it.

“We’re probably going to get a replica ... and hang it up in the house because it’s ... a memory that’ll never be forgotten,” Herzig said.