Lithium producer SQM could face millions in fines after a Chilean court rejected its plan to reduce the amount of water the company extracts from the Salar de Atacama, an environmentally sensitive salt flat in the north of the country.
In a Dec. 26 ruling, Chile’s First Environmental Court based in Antofagasta upheld an appeal by indigenous communities living near the salt flat that a compliance plan presented by the mining company was insufficient to remedy the issues identified by environmental authorities.
Santiago-based SQM and U.S.-based Albemarle Corp. are investing to expand lithium production from northern Chile’s Salar de Atacama, the world’s richest lithium resource, to meet growing demand from the electric vehicle industry, which uses lithium-ion batteries.
However, SQM’s production technique, which involves pumping huge volumes of brine from beneath the salt flat’s crust into massive evaporation pools in order to extract the mineral, has been questioned for squeezing limited water supplies and reducing the environment of vulnerable species, such as the Chilean flamingo.
Company Considering Options
Under the $25 million plan, the largest ever approved by environmental enforcement agency Superintendencia del Medio Ambiente (SMA), SQM had agreed to reduce the volume of mineral-rich brine it extracts to below authorized levels to compensate for damage caused.
But court chairman Mauricio Oviedo, in the Dec. 26 ruling, said the company “failed to show that the actions and targets adopted were sufficient to contain or reduce the negative impacts generated through the company’s infractions in three of the six charges presented by SMA.”
SMA will now have to restart the sanction process—which could result in SQM having to present a stricter compliance plan—or the company could face multiple fines worth up to Chilean Peso 2.9 billion ($3.9 million) each. It also ultimately could risk the loss of its environmental license.
In a statement, SQM said it still believes the compliance plan “safeguards the protection of the environment,” and that it is studying possible legal action.
“In addition, the company is looking forward to its collaboration with the environmental authorities and incorporating the improvements pertinent to continuous strengthening of its environmental management system,” the company said.
A small Salt Lake City park popular for its artesian well water is being temporarily closed.
Construction barriers now surround Artesian Well Park, at 808 S. 500 East, and work has started to improve the look of the 0.10-acre green space, strip away some of the brick and improve access to the well’s waters.
“That whole corner is basically going to change,” said project manager Nancy Monteith, with the city’s Public Services Department.
The Central City neighborhood park has attracted people for over a century as a natural spring-fed source of drinking water. Historical records suggest early settlers replenished their oxen there while carrying granite cut from Little Cottonwood Canyon for construction of the Salt Lake Temple.
The $355,000 renovation project — developed by the city working with members of the Central City Community Council — will also add seating and other features to make the park more of a community hub, Monteith said.
(Courtesy of Salt Lake City) City officials are temporarily closing Artesian Wells Park in Salt Lake City at 808 S. 500 East, for a renovation and landscaping upgrade designed at making the small park more appealing and improve access to its popular artesian well.
The city expects work to be completed by March or April, depending on weather conditions, she said.
A 2017 survey about usage of the park drew responses from 220 area residents, with nearly 80% of them saying they lived outside the site’s 84102 ZIP code. Nearly a quarter of respondents said they have been visiting the park for more than 10 years.
“So here's this teeny little park with this incredible regional draw,” Monteith said. “And these are people coming to collect water.”
According to Luke Garrott, a former Salt Lake City Councilman who lived near the artesian well for nearly 15 years, the park’s design flaws made it “really dysfunctional as a public place, except for the well, which brings hundreds and thousands of people every month.”
“So it needed to function in both ways,” Garrott said.
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While construction work is underway, the city is referring residents to another artesian well located at the southwest corner of nearby Liberty Park, at 700 East and 1300 South, for their water collection needs.
The project also comes as Wasatch Community Gardens’ Salt Lake City campus, a block east of the park at 615 E. 800 South, is preparing for an expansion to add more gardens, a greenhouse, indoor classrooms, kitchen facilities, a community center, offices and an eight-unit affordable apartment complex.
Improvements planned at Artesian Well Park will focus on making its well accessible from all directions, reducing the need for residents to line up to fill containers.
Crews will add spigots to the well, which is said to draw from an underground aquifer with a recharge area that extends from Red Butte Creek beneath the University of Utah campus. That will include a high-capacity spigot to fill five-gallon jugs.
The project will also add new signs, benches, paving and plantings, while also removing some of the brick surface landscaping to make it more attractive and to better allow rainfall to permeate into the ground, Monteith said.
Garrott said he hoped to petition the city to rename the renovated park after the late W. Paul Wharton and Ethel C. Hale, community activists who lived nearby. Married for more than 50 years, Wharton and Hale were longtime anti-war and human rights advocates who helped create listener-supported radio station KRCL-FM, based in Salt Lake City.
“They were involved in a lot of great projects and inspired a lot of people,” said Garrott, who teaches political science at the U.
Hale and Wharton were said to love gardening and feeding birds and named their Central City property Singing Waters, according to their obituaries. They were also sometime critics of the design of Artesian Well Park, calling it “Brick Oven Park” due to its hardscape surfaces, Garrott said.
So naming the renovated park after them, he said, “is fitting. The redesign is meant to open all that up.”
SALT LAKE CITY — The line outside the Salt Lake Temple began to form at 4 a.m. on Saturday as eager members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sought to take part in the last ordinances to be performed in the temple until 2024.
When the day ended after a final “spiritually serene” session, the church’s Temple Department began to prepare the temple’s most sacred items for removal. On Monday morning, the temple — symbolic center of the faith — was decommissioned for four years of renovation.
The effort began Monday as workers removed sacred emblems and the temple president was released and left for the final time. Construction fencing is expected to appear any day now and the first demolition is expected in mid-January with the south visitors’ center, an annex and portions of the wall that surrounds Temple Square. Excavation is expected to begin at that time for the seismic work under the temple.
A sign on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Conference Center in Salt Lake City inviting guests to visit is pictured on Monday, Dec. 30, 2019.Steve Griffin, Deseret News
A sign on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Conference Center in Salt Lake City inviting guests to visit is pictured on Monday, Dec. 30, 2019.Steve Griffin, Deseret News
A bust of President Russell M. Nelson, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is pictured inside the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 30, 2019.Steve Griffin, Deseret News
Also Monday, workers began to change the face of the church’s Salt Lake City Conference Center, directly across from Temple Square. On Wednesday, it will become the largest visitors’ center in the church.
Matt Mendoza and Steve Kirkland of Identity Signs used heat guns and rollers to apply new vinyl adhesive banners in frigid air to the rough stone sides of the Conference Center. The signs declared, “Come on in, stay awhile” and “The Temple Square Experience.”
Minutes after they finished their work Monday — they will add more banners throughout the week — as darkness fell, President Jack Wixom packed his last belongings in his car, said his last farewells after he was released from his calling as temple president and drove away with his wife, the temple matron, Sister Rosemary M. Wixom, the church’s former general Primary president.
“We feel the deepest gratitude to the Lord and to the opportunity given us,” he said. “We’re very excited about what needs to happen. The building is very tired. We’ve seen the plans and we’re excited that it is going to strengthened, renewed and renovated.”
He called it “glorious” to watch church members come from all over the world in the final months, weeks and days to revisit the temple. Sister Wixom said those members “were savoring it.”
“I think people came back to be back in the temple again and see the sealing room where they were married or to feel that feeling of family or unity that they had here in the past,” she said.
President Russell M. Nelson, who is considered a prophet by the faith’s 16 million members, announced the temple’s closure in April and said it will reopen sometime in 2024.
“We promise that you will love the results,” he said.
“We’re grateful for a prophet and his vision for the Salt Lake Temple and the energy he has given this renovation,” Sister Wixom said Monday. “For our children and grandchildren and the generations to come, this temple will remain an icon of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
In the meantime, the Conference Center’s roof will become the place where visitors can get some of the best views into the work site.
Starting New Year’s Day, the Conference Center will be home to several new exhibits as part of the temple renovation:
— A new 8-foot version of the Christus statue is already on display in the Conference Center.
— An auditorium experience will allow visitors to see, hear and feel what it is like to attend a general conference session or performance of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square in the Conference Center, with its 21,000 seats and 7,708 organ pipes.
— The cutaway model of the Salt Lake Temple that was still in the South Visitors’ Center on Temple Square on Monday will move by Wednesday to what has been a hall of the prophets in the Conference Center, where it will be surrounded by touch screens with more information about the temple. The busts of the prophets of the church have been moved a few yards away to a west window on the same floor of the Conference Center. The South Visitors’ Center will be demolished beginning in mid-January.
— An orientation film called “Why Temples Matter” will run in the Conference Center Theater. The 17-minute film includes interviews with Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Bishop Dean M. Davies of the Presiding Bishopric; church historians Emily Utt and Jacob Olmstead; Andy Kirby, director of historic temple renovations; temple engineer Brent Maxfield; and Bill Williams, director of Temple Design.
The film portrays the original construction of the Salt Lake Temple, said Tanner Kay, the Temple Square guest experience manager.
“It shows the dedication of those who sacrificed to build this temple of God,” he said. “It changed the way I view the temple. It feels more sacred to me now. I understand better why it is at the center of Salt Lake City.”
He said the film includes rare footage of the original construction as well as renderings of what the renovation may look like.
“As the renovation begins, we can experience the story of the historic construction in a better light than ever before,” Kay added. “We can also learn about the amazing engineering designed to help protect the temple from earthquakes.”
The new banners on the outside walls and columns of the Conference Center will be removed during each of the church’s semiannual general conferences during the four-year renovation period, said Kirkland, one of the workers from Identity Signs.
The congregations assigned to the Salt Lake Temple district have been reassigned to four nearby temples — Bountiful, Jordan River, Draper and Oquirrh Mountain.
Volunteer temple workers were sad over the temple’s closing, President Wixom said, but worked tirelessly through the final weeks and days to squeeze in extra temple sessions so more church members could attend.
“The closing of the Salt Lake Temple was spiritually serene,” Sister Wixom said. “That last session, there was such a spirit there. It was tender.”
Plan to ring in the new year with heavy snow in the forecast.
The new year is blustering into Utah, with winter storms expected to bring snow to most of the state by Wednesday.
Look for 4 to 8 inches of snow in the cities along the Wasatch Front, with 10 to 20 inches projected in the Uinta and Wasatch Mountains down through the Wasatch Plateau and into central Utah, according to a winter storm watch issued Monday by the National Weather Service.
"Travel could be very difficult," the alert stated. "Plan on snow-covered or slick road conditions."
The storms are expected to begin New Year's Eve and continue Wednesday into Thursday. Light snow also is possible throughout southern Utah on New Year's Day.
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Daytime temperatures along the Wasatch Front are expected to hover in the mid- to high-30s throughout the week, with nighttime lows in the 20s.
Temperatures are projected to be extremely cold in southeast Utah, with lows in the single digits and highs around freezing in Moab. St. George will be warmer, with lows around freezing and highs in the mid-40s.
A lot happened in Utah in 2019. There were joyous stories that inspired hope and optimism for the future, and there were a few that broke hearts and sparked efforts for change.
The Salt Lake Tribune was there to cover them all — with help from the readers who support our work. Here’s a look at the stories that you read, shared, commented on and emailed us about.
These are The Tribune’s most-read stories of 2019.
Latter-day Saints were greeted with sweeping changes in temple ceremonies this year, like more inclusive language, more gender equity and more lines for Mother Eve. Attendees described the revisions as “empowering for women” and “healing” for those wounded by the previous wording.
(Leah Hogsten | Tribune file photo) Tilli Buchanan is seen in Judge Kara Pettit's Third District Courtroom with her attorney Randy Richards on Nov. 19, 2019. Buchanan is facing charges of lewdness involving a child after police say she took off her shirt while cleaning out the garage and her stepchildren saw her breasts.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, a Utah substitute teacher asked a fifth grade class: “What are you thankful for this year?” One boy said “I’m thankful that I’m finally going to be adopted by my two dads,” causing the substitute to reportedly snap, “Why on earth would you be happy about that?”
For the next 10 minutes she lectured the 30 kids in the class about her own views, how “homosexuality is wrong” and “two men living together is a sin.” She looked at the boy, too, and told him: “That’s nothing to be thankful for.” Three girls asked her multiple times to stop, but the substitute continued. They then walked out of class and got the principal.
(Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office via AP file) Ayoola A. Ajayi is accused of killing MacKenzie Lueck, a University of Utah college student.
(Rick Bowmer | AP file photo) The casket for Elizabeth "Lizzy" Shelley is carried following her funeral services in Logan on June 4, 2019. Alex Whipple pleaded guilty to killing his 5-year-old niece was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. The girl's relatives called him a "monster" during an emotional hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019.
Police officers and volunteers scoured Logan neighborhoods in search of a 5-year-old girl who was reported missing May 25. Family members told police they last saw Elizabeth “Lizzie” Shelley around 2 a.m. When they woke up at 10 a.m., she was gone. The girl’s 21-year-old uncle had disappeared as well, the family said.
The speed of the about-face, historian Matthew Bowman said, “reflects the turbulence that this policy and its implementation created among members, as well as among bishops and stake presidents."
Many readers expressed outrage — and some offered support — after an image of a Utah child dressed in tan pants and a brown shirt with a red arm band adorned with a black swastika went viral this year.
“[The district] does not tolerate speech, images or conduct that portray or promote hate in any form,” the statement read. “The district is taking the matter very seriously and is investigating every aspect of the situation.”
A whistleblower complaint to the IRS accused The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of building a $100 billion investment portfolio using donations intended for charitable purposes, potentially in violation of federal tax laws, according to a report published by The Washington Post.
The complaint was filed by David Nielsen, a former portfolio manager for the church’s nonprofit investment arm Ensign Peak Advisors, with the help of his brother Lars Nielsen, who spoke with and provided supporting documents to The Post.
Draper police had sought the public’s help locating Heber, who had walked away from the Salt Lake County Juvenile Receiving Center. Draper police said the boy had been diagnosed with autism, depression and anxiety.
The driver of the vehicle was described as cooperative.
(Rick Bowmer | AP file photo) Brenda Mayes walks with her sons after a news conference Tuesday, May 7, 2019, in Salt Lake City. Mayes, sued Utah school administrators, alleging that a school bus driver trapped her older son's backpack in the door and drove away in a racially motivated event.
They say there had been at least three other reports that the driver, John Naisbitt, targeted multiracial students before this. And while Naisbitt was never disciplined in connection with those prior allegations, they added, he quietly retired after the newest complaint.
"I don’t want to see a declaration of national emergency,” Romney told MSNBC. “I think that’s an action that would be taken in the most extreme circumstances, and, hopefully, we don’t reach that.”
In the end, there was no emergency declaration and Trump did not get his wall money.
Ed Smart, the father of kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart, came out as gay in October, sending a letter using Facebook Messenger to family and friends that mentioned that he planned to separate from his wife and no longer feels comfortable in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Smart confirmed he sent it and posted it publicly a day later. Court records indicate that on July 5, Lois Smart filed for divorce from Ed Smart, 64.
(Francisco Kjolseth | Tribune file photo) Legendary Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's illness is progressing, but the 76-year-old still gets joy from attending Jazz games as he recalls a few stories alongside his wife, Tammy, at their home in Riverton on Friday, April 27, 2018.
NBA hall of famer Jerry Sloan is a hero to many Utahns. And at 77 years old, wrote Gordon Monson, “the once-fierce lion’s eyes are tired now.”
In a touching tribute, Monson reveals that Sloan — who has Parkinson’s disease and dementia — is dying, and that those words “hit with the force of a swinging tire iron.”
The move from a for-profit model was spurred by Tribune owner Paul Huntsman, who, in agreeing to turn Utah’s largest paper into a nonprofit, is giving up his sole ownership.
“The current business model for local newspapers is broken and beyond repair,” said Huntsman, who also serves as The Tribune’s publisher. “We needed to find a way to sustain this vital community institution well beyond my ownership, and nonprofit status will help us do that. This is truly excellent news for all Utah residents and for local news organizations across the country.”
(Chris Caldwell | Special to The Salt Lake Tribune) Marty Jessop in Washington City, Utah, on Monday, Nov. 25, 2019.
While Marty Jessop trained to stay awake for days at a time, run in the sand, swim for long stretches in frigid water and pack everything from rubber rafts to comrades, memories of his time in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints kept him from quitting. He also thought about the woman he loved, and wondered if she’d wait for him to return from Navy SEAL training.
Jessop told The Tribune all about his history with the polygamous sect, what it felt like to leave it and how he’s working to create a good life for his family.
The audience cheered and applauded Matt Easton, who said coming out to his entire college was “a phenomenal feeling, and it is a victory for me in and of itself.”
“Our nation is operating concentration camps for refugee children. We need to stop denying that and decide if we are comfortable with that fact. And how we will explain it to our children.”
Bravo TV hasn’t announced who will be in the cast of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” its newest show in the channel’s franchise, but that hasn’t stopped the speculation. Showbiz Cheat Sheet claims to have a complete list of cast members, including Vida Tequila’s Lisa Barlow, Beauty Lab & Laser’s Heather Gay, The Fashion Fuse’s Angie Harrington, jewelery designer Meredith Marks, interior designer Sara McArthur-Pierce, Iris + Beau’s Whitney Rose and The Shah Squad’s Jen Shah.
Doctors at St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek performed heart surgery on Donnamay Brockbank in July 2018 to remove a medical device that was causing an allergic reaction, according to a lawsuit. After the surgery, the tube and needle — or cannula — returning blood to Brockbank’s femur was removed. But blood was still leaving Brockbank’s body through the other cannula, which was left in her body, unclamped, the lawsuit states. None of the medical professionals in the room addressed the tube piping blood out of Brockbank and into the garbage can, the lawsuit states. Eventually doctors reopened Brockbank’s chest and tried to manually manipulate her heart, but they could not revive her.
The South Salt Lake Police Department issued a Silver Alert on Monday night for an 81-year-old Latino man they say walked away from the 820 Apartments at 829 W. Creek Bend Drive (3900 South).
Oscar DeLeon — who is 5 foot 2, walks with a cane and has gray hair and a mustache — was last seen at 3 p.m. on Monday. He was wearing a brown hoodie, black jacket, gray pants, a beanie and black shoes with red sides. According to the Silver Alert, DeLeon is considered endangered because he has dementia and is out in the cold weather.
Police ask that anyone who has seen DeLeon or knows of his whereabouts call 801-840-4000.
Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson helped dedicate a new mural at the Salt Palace on Monday. The mural commemorates the 68th United Nations Civil Society Conference, which took place in Salt Lake City in August. The mural was created by Tooele-based Digital Gravy, which specializes in 2D design-based animation.
In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Sorghum & Salt owner Tres Jackson did not address the situation which immediately preceded the resignation of head chef Christian Hunter, front of house manager Joe Vidal and sous chef Alan Burgmayer. According to the men, Burgmayer on Saturday morning found the restaurant unlocked and sullied with bodily fluids; they allege Jackson was the last person to leave the building on Friday.
Regarding related allegations that he consistently undervalued Hunter’s work and talent, which ricocheted through social media, Jackson's statement said, “I have always tried to create a good and open work environment and also one of respect and open communication. There has never been a time that Hunter has asked me to talk about anything that I have not taken the time to listen to him. We may not always agree or see eye-to-eye, but I was always respectful of him and his opinions.”
But Jackson took strong exception to the claim that his menu contributions were in “conflict with what we wanted to do in promoting local foods,” as Burgmayer described it.
“The insinuation that I don’t adhere to the principles of local cuisine are inaccurate,” Jackson said in the statement. “I can tell you where everything in this restaurant comes from, and I’ve always believed in and worked to support the farm-to-table movement.”
Jackson responded directly to Hunter’s skeptical comments about his signature beet dessert, which appears on Sorghum & Salt’s menu regardless of whether beets are in season. He says he offers the beet, espresso and shiso leaf dish throughout the year because “it reminds me of a dessert my grandmother made.”
“Those beets were purchased and juiced by me in season from Grow Food,” the statement continues. “I see nothing wrong with having an ingredient in season that you preserve or put up in season for further use throughout the year. This is customary in many cultures throughout the world. My own mother did it with apple butter, okra and many other things.”
Hunter told The Post and Courier in an interview following his resignation that he received a $1 an hour raise during his tenure at the restaurant, bringing his final rate of pay to $9 an hour, plus a portion of the tip pool shared by all of Sorghum & Salt’s employees.
It’s typically illegal for kitchen employees to receive tips, but Jackson has arranged for them to also serve food so they’re eligible for the tip pool.
“We have always done (this) to help even the playing field for pay discrepancy between front-of-house and back-of-house employees,” he said in his statement. “We do this to create a team environment where everyone is accountable to each other.”
Through a publicist, Jackson declined to elaborate on exactly how the tip pool is administered or how much workers could expect it to yield.
“At the end of the day, I stand by the work that we do at Sorghum & Salt and look forward to continuing to serve my customers happily,” the statement concludes.
The agency reported that Utah’s population this year is 3,205,958 — up 16% in the decade, from 2,763,891 in 2010.
That increase of 442,000 people is roughly the equivalent of adding the combined populations of the state’s three biggest cities: Salt Lake City, West Valley City and Provo.
The next-fastest growing states were Texas, 15.3%; Colorado, 14.5%; and Florida, 14.2%. (Of note, the District of Columbia grew faster than Utah at 17.3%, but it is not a state).
Four states saw their populations decrease in the past 10 years: West Virginia, down 3.3%; Illinois, -1.24%; Vermont, -0.28%; and Connecticut, -0.25%.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Perlich also noted that Utah also usually leads the nation — and did again this past year — in “natural increase,” or the number of births minus deaths.
In fact in 2019, Utah’s birth rate was the highest in the nation (15.3 per 1,000 people) and its death rate was the lowest (5.5 per 1,000).
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“Birth rates have been falling everywhere pretty much since 2008” when the Great Recession hit, Perlich said. But the decrease was a bit slower in Utah
“And deaths have been increasing everywhere because of the aging of the population,” she said. But in Utah that was again a bit slower because its median age is low, so a greater percentage of its population is young.
Amid such factors, Perlich noted that Utah’s growth has been decelerating a bit recently.
While it was No. 1 in growth for the decade, it was only No. 4 for growth in 2019. Its growth rate was 1.4% for the year, behind Idaho (1.9%) and Nevada and Arizona (both at 1.5%).
The rate of people migrating to the state tied for No. 11 despite its strong economy.
Utah is now the nation’s 30th most populous state, moving up from No. 34 a decade ago — passing Iowa, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kansas.
Federal estimates use such things as tax and Medicare data plus phone surveys for its estimates. The state uses such other data as school enrollment, building permits and membership numbers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both use birth and death records.
“We're so far from the last actual census that to be this close in our estimates is just really a validation of both of our different approaches,” Perlich said.
She adds that it also shows the importance of the next once-a-decade census — which begins in March — to get accurate counts as a basis of planning, federal grants and more.
“It’s a big deal,” she said. “You see how it becomes the base for the whole next decade’s estimates. So, we’re very anxious that that’s an accurate and full count of our people.”
The latest Census data suggest that Utah is far from qualifying from an additional U.S. House seat after next year’s enumeration — but might qualify for another after the 2030 count.
Current estimates show that an average House seat after the next Census would have about 753,000 residents. Utah’s current population of 3.2 million easily allows the state four House districts, but would be roughly 324,000 people short of qualifying for a fifth.
Given Utah’s growth this past decade, making such gains compared to other states could be possible in the next 10 years.
People who are upset with the way they are being governed have taken to the streets by the tens of thousands in some of the world’s greatest cities — London, Paris, Hong Kong and Seoul. It is impressive but not, always, effective.
In another of the world’s greatest cities — Salt Lake City — a handful of people from across the political spectrum have launched an effort that is less spectacular but could lead to a significant achievement for democracy and good government.
Hard on the heels of the Utah Legislature’s passage of a sad hash of bad ideas that is being portrayed as tax reform, a bipartisan group of activists and concerned citizens activated the state law that allows acts of the Legislature to be beaten back through a process that starts with the circulation of petitions and could end with a vote of the people in November.
The law makes it possible. Not easy.
Sponsors must gather the signatures of 115,689 registered voters by Jan. 21 in order to stop the new tax code from taking effect, pending the November general election. To prove that the desire to overturn the Legislature is widespread throughout the state, the law further demands that the signatures be drawn from 8% of registered voters in at least 15 of the state’s 29 counties.
Such hurdles have been cleared before, but usually over a longer timespan and generally by employing paid signature-gatherers. One of the leaders of the revolt, former state Rep. Fred Cox, a West Valley City Republican, says the group will not pay for signatures but will, instead, count on a wide swath of public support to round up the needed names.
And, in a more traditional use of legacy media and political speech, there was a news conference to announce that just about everyone now running for governor — Republican and Democrat — opposes the tax reform plan and supports the referendum.
(Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, who announced his opposition to the bill before it was passed — and reminded us all of that on Twitter — understandably declined to join all the other candidates for governor on the question of a referendum because, as the state’s chief election officer, he will be refereeing it.)
The tax reform package is long, cumbersome and complex. The bottom line is a clear effort to make the state’s tax structure more regressive by cutting Utah’s already low income tax rate and dumping a huge increase in the sales tax rate charged on groceries.
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Promised rebates and credits are supposed to make the pill go down easier. But those provisions were obviously written by people who are used to filing forms and hiring accountants, not by anyone in a household where the parents are already counting every penny at the supermarket check-out.
The petition drive faces a huge uphill task, not because its cause is not just, but because the law is designed to make such things difficult. And overturning an act of the Legislature should not be routine.
But those seeking to nullify the Legislature’s tax reform package have right on their side. May they be successful.
The phrase dream home may be thrown about quite liberally, but in Tan France’s case, there is no more apt description for his Salt Lake City house. France, and his husband, artist Rob France, had scouted its neighborhood for seven years, fantasizing about the day when they’d be financially secure enough to own a home there. There was one street, and one home in particular, to which Tan France was drawn: “I always told my husband, ‘I'm going to give you this house one day,’” he recalls. “‘And I’m going to give you a life you could never have imagined.’” The area was known, however, for homes that were passed from generation to generation, with real estate hardly ever entering the market. “And so, I thought that maybe 20, 30, or 40 years [from now], hopefully, it will happen,” he says.
But fortune favors the bold, or in this case, those who canvass the neighborhood every two or three weeks. Seven years after first falling in love with the home, it landed on the market, and fortuitously, it was just a few weeks after France had begun filming the career-changing first season of Queer Eye. France called a real-estate agent friend of the couple’s and urged him to make an offer. “‘And he said, ‘You haven’t even seen inside,’” France says of the conversation. “I told him, ‘I don’t care. It’s my house.’’ Even a FaceTime with Rob decrying the interiors as “terrible” didn’t deter him: “I had such a strong vision for it,” France says. “I said, ‘As long as it’s structurally sound, I’m going to turn it into our dream home.’”
The couple purchased the house in the spring of 2017 and spent a full year on a gut renovation, which included updating the plumbing and rewiring the electricity. For France, who had never done a remodel of any kind, and was mostly away while filming, it was a true trial by fire. “I’d never worked with a contractor in my life. I didn’t even know that that’s what they were called,” he says, laughing. “This was a major, excellent learning experience for me.”
The finished project is a 3,000-square-foot home in a style that France dubs “modern-classic.” He wanted to preserve the integrity of the 1906 property, while updating it for life in 2020. The master bedroom, for example, had original molding that the couple wanted to keep, but structural updates to the house dictated that it be removed. “We took so many photos to make sure that we could redo it the exact same way,” he says. They also opted to paint the ceiling white to help the molding design pop even more. The living room received a similar treatment, with a dated popcorn ceiling smoothed out but the original sconces rewired and left intact.
The main floor of the home is designed in what France likens to an English cottage–style layout, where archways without doors delineate one room from the next. For France, who loves to entertain when he’s home, it’s ideal for large gatherings; as is the sunny dining room, whose table can seat 10. France, an accomplished cook, whips up meals in the home’s sleek kitchen, which is painted in Behr’s Falcon Gray. “I make a lot of Indian food and I bake constantly. I like to think I make the best éclair a person will ever have,” he says.
Indeed, the couple’s interests are on display all over the home. Many of the objets decorating the common spaces are ones picked up while France was filming. “My husband travels with me maybe 50% of the time and we hit up as many vintage stores as possible to hopefully just stumble upon a knickknack that might work somewhere in the house,” he says. During the renovation, they were particularly on the hunt for doorknobs. While most of the originals were still in the home when they purchased it, they sourced replacements for those that had been lost while the couple was on the road.
And, of course, France’s closet—which is really a whole floor of the house—is jaw-dropping. The attic room has space for everything from his white sneaker collection to all of his color-coded shirts. It is, however, still not quite big enough for his whole wardrobe. The couple is in the process now of turning the basement into France’s secondary closet. “I’m determined to make that one of the most beautiful closets you'll ever see,” he says. One of the most luxurious touches? France plans to put a bed in the center of the room, so he can sleep, occasionally, among all his finest pieces.
It’s clear that France has a talent for design and he doesn’t rule out exploring his passion more fully in the future. “Who knows, maybe I’ll have a career in interior design in a few years. I’ll leave fashion behind,” he says with a laugh.
The Salt Lake Tribune is examining the trends that have fundamentally changed the state in the 2010s. It is hard to ignore the seemingly ubiquitous vaping or the enduring tragedy of overdose deaths. Here are five major health trends from the the past 10 years:
Vape smoke surrounds Utah high school students
Sarcastic high schoolers often call school restrooms “vape rooms," and they hung out there more and more so as the decade went on.
Back in 2011, when Utah officials began asking teens about vaping, 1.9% self-reported they used e-cigarettes. By 2019, that number had jumped to 12.4%.
The same teens were asked about alcohol and tobacco use in the state’s Student Health and Risk Prevention survey, which is conducted in Utah public schools in the spring of odd-numbered years. The survey also asks questions about students’ mental and physical health, substance abuse and anti-social behaviors.
In the latest survey, Utah students were significantly more likely to report trying alcohol and e-cigarettes than conventional cigarettes. Teen use of cigarettes was highest in Uintah, Duchesne and Daggett counties, while e-cigarette use was highest in Weber and Morgan counties.
The Utah Department of Health has urged people to stop vaping THC — which is the psychoactive substance in marijuana — amid a recent outbreak of vaping-related lung injuries.
As of Dec. 9, there were 115 lung injury reports connected to vaping in Utah. There’s been one death. Most of those who became ill are in their 20s and 30s, with just over 15% of cases involving teens age 19 and younger.
Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,409 cases of vaping-related lung injury and 52 deaths.
Utah’s suicide rate continued to rise, but there’s hope it will improve
The number of Utahns who have died by suicide has steadily increased over the past decade.
There were 466 Utahns age 10 or older who died in 2010 — a rate of 20.6 deaths per 100,000 people. That number increased year by year, and, in 2018, there were 666 suicide deaths, a rate of 25.14.
That means Utah has the sixth highest suicide rate in the nation, according to the most recent data (2017) from the CDC.
But could this trend reverse in the next decade? State officials said in November that the year-to-year rate of suicide in Utah decreased this year — the first time in more than a decade. But they warned that the reduction isn’t statistically significant, and public health experts typically look for consistent reductions over three years before confirming a trend.
Kimberly Myers, the state’s suicide prevention and crisis services administrator, said the recent decrease is in line with statewide changes that began around 2013 to improve coordination among health care workers, schools and state agencies on mental health interventions. The Legislature provided funding for officials to develop this unified strategy.
“We, for the first time in many, many, many years, pulled together a group of stakeholders and wrote a state suicide prevention plan,” Myers said. “If you look at the science of prevention, it suggests once you start reducing risk factors, having a strategic plan and implementing it ... it’s usually about a three- to five-year process to when you start seeing reductions.”
Meth makes a deadly comeback as opioids remain a persistent killer
Prescription opioids hit Utah, and much of the nation, hard this decade but pill-related deaths have been declining in recent years. Heroin deaths are down, too, according to Meghan Balough, a state epidemiologist.
There has, however, been a huge spike in meth-related overdose deaths, more than doubling in the past five years. Drug overdose deaths involving meth rose from a low of 31 in 2010 to 217 in 2018, according to records from the Utah Department of Health.
In fact, meth-related deaths surpassed street heroin death for the first time last year. In many overdose deaths, multiple drugs are involved.
Brian Redd, the chief of the State Bureau of Investigation, said market factors could explain meth’s rapid rise. It’s about a tenth of the cost now that it was in the early 2000s, according to Redd — a pound costing between $1,000 to $1,500, with a single hit going for about $20.
In some cases, meth dealers are making their way into markets where opioid use is declining, Redd said. In others, it’s replacing costlier drugs like cocaine, which is now 10 times as expensive as meth.
Meth use has been rising nationwide but especially in the West, according to federal health data. Utah had the ninth-highest rate of deaths involving psychostimulants with the potential for abuse — chiefly meth, but that also includes ecstasy and some drugs for attention deficit disorder.
Sexually transmitted diseases became far more common
The rate for chlamydia infections was 240 cases per 100,000 people in 2010. The rate rose to 333 by 2018. Gonorrhea was less prevalent, but the rates for that STD skyrocketed — an 834.7% increase — from 2010 to 2018, rising from 11.2 cases per 100,000 people to 91.6 cases.
Chlamydia and gonorrhea are two of the more than 70 diseases that doctors, clinics and other providers are required to report to public health officials.
The Utah Department of Health said the increase in chlamydia rates could be attributed to increasingly sensitive diagnostic testing, efforts to boost reporting by providers and labs and improved information systems for reporting.
“Teens need accurate, realistic and comprehensive STD education,” he said, “whether that’s at home, at school, at church or in another venue appropriate for the discussion.”
More Utahns have at least some type of health insurance
In the past decade, few issues were as politicized as health insurance. First, the Affordable Care Act required people to buy insurance or face a fine and offered hefty subsidies for those who had a hard time affording private coverage and did not qualify for government programs like Medicaid.
That led to a decline in the number of Utahns who went without insurance, but Utah didn’t immediately expand Medicaid as the law pushed by former President Barack Obama allowed. Instead the issue became entangled in lengthy and arduous legislative debates, killed by conservatives who despised the new health care law and warned that Medicaid expansion could eventually bankrupt the government. Ultimately, voters approved a ballot measure to fully expand Medicaid — a move that was estimated to allow coverage for an additional 150,000 Utahns.
But lawmakers repealed and replaced the voter-backed law with one that allowed more modest expansion of Medicaid, enough to cover an estimated 90,000 more residents. Subsequently, the federal government rejected Utah’s requested waiver for the new partial program, but after some wrangling, signed off on a full Medicaid expansion with some work requirements. That starts Jan. 1.
All of this fighting over insurance and how much it costs took place while more people signed up. The number of Utahns without health insurance shrunk over the past decade, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Census’ American Community Survey found that 8.7% of Utahns reported that they did not have health insurance in 2017, the latest available data.
That was down significantly from 2010, when 15.5% of survey respondents in the Beehive State said they didn’t have coverage.
With full Medicaid expansion, the uninsured rate is expected to dip even further.
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