Bill Self Rips Team, Himself After Kansas’ Brutal Loss to Utah

Utah News! Image is of two women hikers overlooking Bryce Canyon.

The game was tied at 60 with 4:31 remaining, but Utah outscored Kansas 14-7 down the stretch, capitalizing on Kansas’ mistakes and closing out the win. Self pointed to the teams …

The game was tied at 60 with 4:31 remaining, but Utah outscored Kansas 14-7 down the stretch, capitalizing on Kansas’ mistakes and closing out the win. Self pointed to the teams …

Source: Utah News

Untangling the mystery of failed Altadena evacuations: ‘There should have been all sorts of red lights’

Utah News! Image is of two women hikers overlooking Bryce Canyon.

When flames bellowed up out of Eaton Canyon on the evening of Jan. 7, west Altadena did not, at first glance, seem to pose the most urgent challenge for evacuations. So why did it take so long for …

When flames bellowed up out of Eaton Canyon on the evening of Jan. 7, west Altadena did not, at first glance, seem to pose the most urgent challenge for evacuations.

The area was about 2½ miles from the fire’s ignition point. Unlike Pacific Palisades, a community built on the steep bluffs and canyons of the Santa Monica foothills with narrow — and limited — roads in and out, west Altadena presented few glaring topographical hurdles. The bulk of homes were in the flatlands, built on a grid with multiple escape routes.

Yet 17 people died in west Altadena, and many residents told harrowing tales of just barely escaping as flames converged around their homes, down their blocks.

What went wrong with L.A. county’s warnings and evacuations is now the subject of two different investigations after Times reporting found that emergency wireless alerts went out to west Altadena almost five hours after fire began to engulf homes in the neighborhood. In some areas, it took even longer.

Experts in emergency management said the struggle to coordinate evacuations is puzzling given the time and geography. But they also stressed that fast-moving fires in urban areas can be incredibly challenging and that we do not know enough yet to jump to conclusions about tactics.

Some law enforcement officers were spotted driving through west-side neighborhoods around 2 a.m. — before the formal alerts were issued — with loudspeakers telling residents to leave, but at that point, it appeared they did not have enough manpower to facilitate all necessary evacuations.

For some experts, the delay in wireless evacuation orders in west Altadena — and the ensuing lack of an explanation to the public — is confounding.

“There should have been all sorts of red lights on the dashboard for west Altadena, based on what was happening on the ground and the timeline of reports about fire in the neighborhood,” said Thomas Cova, a professor of geography at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who specializes in emergency alerts during wildfires. “Why were the boots on the ground warning people before the people in the office, whose job it is to warn them? That’s upside down.”

More than five weeks after the blaze swept through Altadena, officials have yet to explain why nine hours passed between the outbreak of the fire in Eaton Canyon just after 6 p.m. and the first wireless cellphone alert issued to the west side of Altadena.

The problem does not seem to be technical: A large swath of Altadena’s east side received multiple electronic evacuation orders, starting at 7:26 p.m, while those on the west side did not get orders until 3:25 a.m — well after the first radio reports of fire in west Altadena came in at 10:51 p.m.

For residents, Cova said, it can be frustrating when officials take so long to explain what went wrong.

“This is not that complicated,” Cova said. “There’s somebody who’s supposed to do this — and we know they did it for eastern Altadena, so it’s not like a technical malfunction. … The person knew how to use the system. They had already used the system a few hours before. Why didn’t they continue to use it?”

But Kevin McGowan, director of L.A. County’s Office of Emergency Management which sends out the wireless alerts, said there is not a simple answer.

“I don’t want to get into the details,” McGowan told The Times earlier this week. “I think there’s a lot to unpack between what is being reported by news organizations, what is understood within the different structures — both evacuations and alerts and warnings.”

McGowan characterized The Times’ reporting on the delayed alerts in west Altadena as an issue beyond just the alerts. “It’s evacuations in totality,” he said. He declined to elaborate further, citing the ongoing investigations.

For national emergency scholars like Cova, it is startling to see Los Angeles — home to some of the nation’s most experienced and highly trained emergency responders — struggle to issue timely emergency alerts and evacuate residents.

“They’re responsible for overseeing millions of people and have dealt with many fires,” Cova said. “They have a lot of resources, maybe the most. I mean, how much wealthier can you get than L.A. County? Not much. They have all the training. … they have the rock stars of emergency management, in fire, police and the EOC.”

L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna — whose agency played a key part in coordinating evacuations the night of Jan. 7 but was not responsible for sending wireless alerts — said conditions during the height of the Eaton fire were particularly challenging. Not only were deputies facing strong winds pushing large, flying embers that were erratically shifting the fire, they were doing so in the dark.

“It was complete chaos that night,” Luna said in an interview with The Times. “There was no electricity, it was in the middle of the night or the middle of the morning — not only is it pitch dark, but the smoke was so thick you couldn’t see two houses ahead of you.”

Dark evacuations are always harder, Luna said, because every neighborhood is different. Deputies have to make sure they don’t miss backyard ADUs or any apartments in a multiunit buildings, not to mention help with vulnerable residents in senior homes.

“There were deputies who said they were disoriented,” he added. “This fire was crazy, this was literally a hurricane of flames without water.”

Typically in a major fire, sheriff’s officials work in step with fire and county Office of Emergency Management officials on evacuations, but Luna said fire personnel take the lead because they are tracking fire behavior, the blaze’s movement and associated weather.

“We are included in the decision making, but they’re the lead,” Luna said. “Even though it’s unified command, I depend on the experts.”

Once a decision is made to evacuate an area, Luna said, there’s a two-layered process: OEM sends out the electronic alert and deputies in the field are alerted to begin making sure the order is carried out.

“Our deputies are literally going down the streets, they’re on public address systems, they are getting out of their cars, they’re knocking on doors,” he said. “They’re doing everything they can to alert the public that they need to go.”

But they also don’t have to wait for that order to be formally issued.

“If they’re in the field and they see something burning … they’re taught to take action,” Luna said. “The deputies have discretion as they’re making evacuations. If they see another neighborhood or another block burning that’s outside of their area, they’re going to do everything they can to try and prioritize life … and that’s what happened this night.”

Some residents told The Times that some deputies were seen trying to to evacuate parts of western Altadena around 2 a.m. — before the area’s first evacuation order was issued — but it’s unclear how widespread those efforts were. Many west Altadena residents said that when they ended up evacuating, they didn’t see any emergency officials or sirens nearby.

Luna declined to comment on specific timing, location or manpower issues in the Eaton fire evacuations, choosing to wait for the ongoing after-action review. But he said that when deputies decide on the ground to begin evacuations due to dangerous conditions, it would be standard procedure for them to call in the situation to the fire’s unified command. He declined to say if that happened in this specific circumstance.

However, Luna did say he is not yet aware of any Sheriff’s Department missteps or issues from the first 12 hours of the Eaton fire.

L.A. County Deputy Fire Chief Al Yanagisawa, who became one of the lead incident commanders for the Eaton fire at about 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 7 and remained in that post for the next 42 hours, said the Eaton blaze was the worst he had seen in his 24-year career.

“The most destruction, chaos,” Yanagisawa said. “Difficult decisions.”

While Yanagisawa was not on the team that determined where evacuation alerts were needed or the team sending them out, he said that process was a team effort between L.A. County Fire, the Sheriff’s Department and the OEM.

“We recommend [evacuation alerts] to law enforcement by standing next to each other at the command post and saying, ‘Look, this is what the fire’s doing, this is where it’s projected to go, we need to get these people out,’” he said.

Yanagisawa said there was a clear division — and coordination — of responsibilities. The operations team in charge uses paper and digital maps to continuously draw out the fire’s movement and evacuation zones. Then, it reports that back to a representative from the OEM, either in-person or over dispatch, and the OEM sends out any wireless alert and updates the county’s online notification system, operated by Genasys.

He declined to comment on why alerts appeared to have been delayed in west Altadena.

Mark Ghilarducci, the former director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services who developed the state’s 2019 Alert and Warning Guidelines, said there are many ways in which evacuations and sending of timely and accurate alerts can be hampered during erratic, fast-moving wildfires.

Sometimes officials are reluctant to alert too many people. Other times they do not coordinate quickly enough and get overtaken by a rapidly changing firestorm. They could also be stymied by technological failures such as power outages and disrupted cellphone signals.

Some west Altadena residents said they lost cellphone service and power on the night of Jan. 7. However, in this case, that doesn’t mean emergency responders sent alerts that didn’t get through: If officials sent out alerts, they would still show up in the PBS WARN database, which they do not.

But cellphone outages indicate that west Altadena evacuation failures did not hinge entirely on officials’ failure to send wireless alerts; even if they had tried to send evacuation orders, some or many residents would not have received them.

“The public, they’re basically use these cellphones for everything now, and we’re pushing data and information over these systems, but it’s only as good as the system that supports it,” Ghilarducci said, noting that lawmakers have pushed cellphone companies to have backup power for towers in high risk fire areas.

While it is tempting to think a single person made a mistake or forgot to push an alert, Ghilarducci stressed that alerts involve coordination from multiple emergency managers and responders.

“It does take a team to do this,” Ghilarducci said. “It’s not like one person sitting in a closet who makes the decision they’re going to issue an alert.”’

While Ghilarducci stressed he did not know how commanders made decisions during the Eaton fire, he said he could imagine a scenario where commanders were looking at polygons about where fire is going to move and then quickly had to pivot as new fires erupted.

“Things are changing by the second. And I think that — I don’t know this for sure — what will end up coming out in the after-action report is that the conditions were such that maybe situational awareness was lost on the part of what areas were impacted and what areas weren’t impacted. Things were moving so rapidly that that area got missed.”

A key lesson from the Eaton fire and other powerful and erratic fires that have swept through California in the last decade, Ghilarducci said, is that officials should act more swiftly to alert and evacuate.

“We’re erring more on the side of do it sooner rather than later to take into account these extreme events,” Ghilarducci said. “But we’re still learning in this particular area, and there’s more to do, more training to be done.”

Over the last month, Luna said, he’s continued to hear stories of “absolutely heroic work” from his deputies in unprecedented conditions, but many have also expressed guilt about the 17 lives lost. One is always too many.

“They wanted to believe they saved everybody,” he said of conversations with deputies who were out that night.

Luna said he looks forward to the after-action report.

“If something comes up that’s absolutely legitimate,” he said, “we’ll learn from it so we can get better.”

Times staff writer Summer Lin contributed to this report.

More to Read

Source: Utah News

Madsen scores 24 and becomes Utah’s career 3-point leader in 74-67 win over No. 17 Kansas

Utah News! Image is of two women hikers overlooking Bryce Canyon.

Gabe Madsen scored 24 points and became Utah’s career leader in made 3-pointers as the Utes beat No. 17 Kansas 74-67.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Gabe Madsen scored 24 points and became Utah’s career leader in made 3-pointers as the Utes beat No. 17 Kansas 74-67 on Saturday night.

Madsen’s fifth and final 3-pointer of the game with 1:58 to play gave him the Utah career record of 288 made 3s. He then hit two free throws with 26 second to play to clinch the game for the Utes.

Utah (14-11, 6-8 Big 12) never trailed but Kansas tied the game at 60 before the Utes’ big finish.

Zeke Mayo had to leave the game briefly with a lower leg injury but led Kansas (17-8, 8-6) with 15 points while Dajuan Harris Jr. had 14 points and Hunter Dickinson added 12.

Ezra Ausar scored 12 points and Jake Wahlin had 10 points and 12 rebounds to help Utah get its first Quad 1 win in 10 tries.

Kansas coach Bill Self got a technical with 11:37 to play and the resulting free throws by Madsen gave Utah a 60-49 lead. The Jayhawks scored 11 consecutive points after that.

Takeaways

Kansas: In the first game for the Jayhawks at Utah, Kansas committed 12 turnovers which led to 22 Utah points. Kansas has now dropped three of its last five games.

Utah: Despite a second-half drought of 7:17 and Lawson Lovering going 1 for 9 from the free-throw line, the Utes finally found a way to win against a top-flight opponent.

Key moment

Capping a late 7-0 run, Madsen hit a stepback jumper after a head fake with 1:58 remaining to pass Nick Jacobson and top the school 3-pointer list.

Key stat

Utah has 16 offensive rebounds and a 46-36 overall edge on the boards.

Up next

Utah hosts Kansas State on Monday night while Kansas plays at BYU on Tuesday night.

___

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Source: Utah News

3 takeaways from Utah’s win over No. 17 Kansas

The Runnin’ Utes beat No. 17 Kansas 74-67 Saturday night in the blue blood program’s first visit to the Huntsman Center, outplaying the Jayhawks down the stretch to earn their first win over a top 25 …

Utah finally has its first Quad 1 win of the year — and it’s a memorable one.

The Runnin’ Utes beat No. 17 Kansas 74-67 Saturday night in the blue blood program’s first visit to the Huntsman Center, outplaying the Jayhawks down the stretch to earn their first win over a top 25 program since Dec. 1, 2022, when they beat No. 4 Arizona in Salt Lake City.

3 takeaways

Utah had a strong start to each half, as they brought energy both times. The Utes pushed out to a 13-5 lead early, making 5 of 8 shots in the game’s first four minutes, along with outrebounding Kansas 6-1 early.

Then in the second half, after Kansas tied the game at 42-42 on a Rylan Griffen 3, the Utes went on a 10-3 run.

That included Lawson Lovering scoring an and-one and Gabe Madsen with a steal and slam. Then after another Griffen 3, Jake Wahlin scored on a fastbreak layup off a steal and Madsen had his own and-one to make it 52-45 Utah.

Utah eventually pushed that lead out to 60-49 after a pair of Madsen free throws that came courtesy of a Bill Self technical.

Those great starts — and some solid defense — helped Utah weather extended droughts in both halves before the game was tied at 60-60 with five minutes to play.

Utah owned the boards and created second chances. The Utes finished with a 46-36 edge in rebounding, including a dominant 16-6 advantage in offensive boards.

That helped Utah score some crucial second-chance points and own a 14-9 edge in that category, even though the Utes were outshot 40% to 36.5% from the field.

There was a five-point stretch in the first half when Keanu Dawes had two offensive rebounds on one possession, and it led to two Dawes free throws. Then, Caleb Lohner came down with an offensive rebound off Madsen miss before kicking back out to Madsen for his third 3 of the night.

No second-chance point was as critical as Ezra Ausar’s jumper with 4:20 to play. The Utes had gone seven-plus minutes without a point and faced a shot clock under two seconds coming out of a timeout.

Madsen missed a 3, but Ausar rebounded the ball and got the putback.

That started a 7-0 run for Utah.

Utah made the key plays down the stretch. In the Utes’ last two games, they had been outplayed in the game’s final moments in losses at West Virginia and Cincinnati.

This time, though, they were the aggressors and the ones who came up with critical stops.

With Utah nursing a 64-60 lead, even after some missed free throws, Wahlin came up with a steal with 2:20 to play, and on the ensuing possession, Madsen drilled a stepback 3 to make it 67-60 for the Utes.

He became Utah’s all-time leader in 3-pointers with his 288th on that bucket.

Mike Sharavjamts also attacked the rim and scored a layup with 54.2 seconds to play to make it 69-62.

While a Hunter Dickinson 3 made it 70-65 with under 30 seconds to play, the Utes held off the Jayhawks as Madsen made two free throws on his way to a 24-point effort.

What’s next

The Utes (14-11, 6-8 Big 12) will stay at home for a quick turnaround, hosting Kansas State on Monday night (7 p.m. MST, ESPN2).

The Wildcats lost to BYU 80-65 in Provo Saturday night, snapping a six-game winning streak for Kansas State (13-12, 7-7 Big 12).

Source: Utah News

Kansas at Utah odds, picks and predictions

Analyzing Saturday’s Kansas at Utah odds and lines, with college basketball expert picks, predictions and best bets.

The No. 20 Kansas Jayhawks (17-7, 8-5 Big 12) and Utah Utes (13-11, 5-8) meet Saturday. Tip-off from the Jon M. Huntsman Center is at 10 p.m. ET (ESPN). Let’s analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s college basketball odds around the Kansas vs. Utah odds, and make our expert college basketball picks and predictions.

The Jayhawks are No. 20 in the USA TODAY Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches PollThey have not won consecutive games since winning 2 straight Jan. 18 and 22, beating Kansas State at home and TCU on the road, respectively. They are coming off a 71-59 win over Colorado Tuesday, failing to cover as 17.5-point home favorites.

The Utes have lost 2 straight games and 3 of their last 4. They are coming off an 85-75 loss at Cincinnati Tuesday as 8-point underdogs.

This is the second all-time meeting between these teams, with the last one coming in 2014.

– Rankings: USA TODAY Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll

Stream select live college basketball games and full replays: Get ESPN+

Kansas at Utah odds

Provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated at 11:40 a.m. ET.

  • Moneyline (ML): Kansas -275 (bet $275 to win $100) | Utah +225 (bet $100 to win $225)
  • Against the spread (ATS): Kansas -6.5 (-110) | Utah +6.5 (-110)
  • Over/Under (O/U): 145.5 (O: -105 | U: -115)

Kansas at Utah picks and predictions

Prediction

Kansas 74, Utah 63

Moneyline

Utah is 12-3 at home this season. Kansas is only 3-5 on the road and has lost its last 2 away games.

But the Jayhawks allow only 66.3 points per game (PPG), while Utah has averaged 61.0 points in its last 5 losses.

It’s been a little bit since the Jayhawks had a 2-game winning streak, but expect the win Saturday, although -275 odds don’t give you enough value to bet them on the ML.

PASS.

Against the spread

Ten of Kansas’ last 11 wins have been by double digits.

Utah’s last 10 losses have been by at least 7 points, and 7 have been by double digits.

BET KANSAS -6.5 (-110).

Over/Under

Seven of the last 9 games for Utah have not reached 146 points.

Three of Kansas’ last 4 wins have not reached 146 points. The Jayhawks are averaging 76.4 PPG this season.

BET UNDER 145.5 (-115).

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Source: Utah News

Your property taxes pay for your local schools. Utah lawmakers might change that.

The way Utah schools get their money may soon change — if a bill in the Utah Legislature, which would require local property taxes to go through the state’s general fund, passes.

When Utahns pay their property taxes for local schools, the money raised goes directly to their local school districts — but a bill moving through the Utah Legislature could redirect those dollars to a fund state lawmakers control, allowing them to use the money for other purposes.

SB37 would require school districts to deposit all property tax revenue into Utah’s general fund. The state would still have to pay districts the minimum funding amount — set at $4,494 per student for fiscal year 2025 — but could use income tax revenue to do that, freeing up the local property tax dollars for other state purposes.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, argued the bill “establishes a framework to provide additional resources to expanding school districts by redirecting revenue from districts with declining student enrollments.”

“While we are protecting education funding in this bill, it also allows the state the flexibility to be able to make sure that we can adequately fund other priorities like social services, transportation, public safety,” Fillmore said.

However, education organizations say there’s no guarantee those local property tax dollars would make it back to schools.

“This is just dishonest,” said Lexi Cunningham, executive director of the Utah School Superintendents Association and the associate executive director of the Utah School Boards Association.

“Putting it in the general fund, that is money that the legislators control, and then they can decide what to do with that money. … It may or may not go to education,” Cunningham said.

During a House Revenue and Taxation Committee hearing on SB37, several district administrators, school board members and educators spoke against it.

“I still have concerns about local control,” Linda Hanks, a member of the Juab School Board, said Thursday. “As those local funds come in, whether it’s at the base basic rate or the local levy rate, why shouldn’t those revenues be kept within the community?”

Fillmore countered that the bill would not change local control over the funds.

“It does not touch any property tax levy that is initiated by a local school district,” Fillmore said. “It does not change the timing, the amount or the permitted uses of any education dollars that school districts will receive.“

The House committee passed SB37 unanimously Thursday. The bill has already cleared the Senate, so if the full House passes it, it would then go to Gov. Spencer Cox.

(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)

How schools are funded in Utah

Utah’s Minimum School Program (MSP) is the primary way the state funds K-12 public education. It ensures that all schools receive a baseline level of funding, regardless of local wealth, by combining state and local tax revenues.

Here’s how it works:

Each year, the state sets a “Weighted Pupil Unit” (WPU), which determines a minimum amount of money spent for each student. Schools receive funding based on the number of students they serve, with adjustments for factors like grade level and special education needs.

There are other funds the state distributes that are not included in the MSP or the WPU, but these are the primary funding mechanisms.

School districts must levy a basic property tax rate, which helps fund the MSP. If a district’s local property tax revenue isn’t enough to meet the per-student minimum, the state provides extra funds to make up the difference.

These additional funds come from revenue raised through the state’s income tax. And while the money in the state’s general fund can be used for any purpose lawmakers choose, the Utah Constitution limits the uses of income tax revenue to three areas: public education, higher education, and services for children and individuals with disabilities.

Last year, lawmakers tried to pass Amendment A to remove that earmark from the Utah Constitution. That amendment would have let the Legislature use income tax revenue for “other state needs,” but only after meeting the minimum per-student funding requirements.

Lawmakers had hoped voters would decide on Amendment A in last November’s election. However, a judge voided the amendment, ruling the Legislature violated another part of the Utah Constitution — Article XXIII — that requires ballot language be published in newspapers statewide at least two months before an election.

How does SB37 change school funding?

When local property taxes are collected in November, each county deposits that revenue into a “Public Treasurer’s Investment Fund,” which school districts can access.

This fund allows districts to earn interest on local property tax revenue, currently at a rate of about 4.5%. Eventually, though, districts spend these funds, along with state revenue, leaving their coffers low by the following year, said Alan Kearsley, business administrator for the Salt Lake City School District.

“But we get a boost when the next year’s tax bill arrives,” Kearsley said.

If SB37 were to become law, local property tax revenue wouldn’t go directly into that investment fund. Instead, it would go into the state’s general fund. The State Board of Education would have 35 days after receiving the money to transfer an equivalent amount — taken from the income tax fund, not the general fund — into each district’s investment account.

“The bill is essentially taking our income tax dollars, funding the weighted pupil unit and freeing up property tax dollars to be used for general state purposes,” said Todd Hauber, business administrator for the Granite School District.

The intent of Amendment A, Hauber said, “was to be able to access income tax revenue after public education commitments were taken care of. … That’s where this starts to feel the same.”

An effort to ‘equalize’

Some districts generate much higher property tax revenues and don’t need state funding, while others, particularly rural districts, depend heavily on state contributions.

Fillmore argued Thursday that SB37 will help the state equalize funding across districts.

Fillmore highlighted the Park City School District, saying it generates nearly $13,000 per student in local property tax revenue — more than double the current weighted pupil unit.

“In the Alpine School District, that number is about $800 per student,” Fillmore said. “This would treat all school districts equally from that standpoint.”

Under the current system, when districts generate more than the WPU requires, the money goes back to the state, which helps supplement its portion of the Minimum School Program for other districts, Hauber said.

Fillmore added the bill would allow property tax-poor districts to benefit from interest accrued by wealthier ones.

“We recognize the intent of the [bill] is to minimize the interest lost to local school districts,” said Randy Upton, business administrator of the Park City School District, “but until we know the mechanics of how that would play out, we remain concerned.”

A ‘volatile’ source of revenue

Hauber said the proposed system “works so long as there are more income tax dollars coming into the revenue picture.”

However, lawmakers have cut income taxes for four consecutive years, and are set to do so again for a fifth time. The 2024 Utah Legislature passed SB69, lowering the income tax rate from 4.65% to 4.55% percent, representing $167 million in cuts.

This session, a lawmaker has introduced HB106, which proposes lowering the rate even further to 4.45%, another $195 million in cuts. That bill has yet to have a hearing in the House.

Cunningham, at the Utah School Superintendents Association, said property taxes are a “stable” source of revenue for districts, while income tax is “volatile,” as lawmakers continue to make cuts every year.

She added that SB37 could sow division between local school boards and their communities. Residents pay property taxes expecting to support schools, she said, but their money “may or may not” be used for that purpose.

“Taxpayers have a right to know where their tax dollars are going,” Cunningham said, adding that, at the end of the day, it’s school boards who have to answer to their communities.

Cunningham added, “let our local board members and our local districts make these decisions.”


Source: Utah News

Utah governor signs collective bargaining ban for teachers, firefighters and police unions

Utah News! Image is of two women hikers overlooking Bryce Canyon.

Utah’s Republican governor has signed a collective bargaining ban that experts are calling one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country, despite overwhelming opposition from union members.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Republican governor on Friday signed a collective bargaining ban that experts are calling one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country, despite overwhelming opposition from union members.

Beginning July 1, unions serving Utah teachers, firefighters, police officers, transit workers and other public employees will be banned from negotiating on their behalf for better wages and working conditions.

Gov. Spencer Cox announced his decision Friday evening following a week of rallies outside his office in which thousands of union members from the public and private sector urged him to veto the bill. The Republican-controlled Legislature had narrowly approved it last week after its sponsors abandoned a proposed compromise that would have removed the outright ban.

“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,” Cox said in a statement announcing he had signed the bill.

The measure did not pass with veto-proof margins, meaning that if Cox had rejected it, Republican supporters would have needed to pull in more support to override his veto.

Utah joins North Carolina and South Carolina as the most restrictive states for public sector unions, said John Logan, a labor expert at San Francisco State University.

Many educators, who are the state’s most frequent users of collective bargaining, view the new law as way for Republicans to curb the political influence of teachers unions and clear a path for their own education agenda.

Its GOP sponsors argued it was needed to allow employers to engage directly with all employees, instead of communicating through a union representative.

The Utah Education Association, the state’s largest public education employees’ union, criticized Cox for ignoring the many workers who urged him to issue a veto. The union is exploring a possible ballot referendum to try to overturn the law, though the effort would come with a high price tag.

“Despite overwhelming opposition, Governor Spencer Cox and the Legislature ignored the voices of thousands,” the union said in a statement. “This is a blatant attack on public employees and our right to advocate for the success of our profession and students.”

Cox’s decision comes as President Donald Trump is working to gut the U.S. Education Department to the greatest extent of his power by slashing spending and pressuring employees to quit.

The governor signed another bill Friday prohibiting transgender college students from living in dorms consistent with their gender identity.

Students at the state’s public colleges and universities will only be allowed to enter or live in a gendered space, such as a dorm building, locker room or bathroom, that corresponds with their sex assigned at birth. It’s the first transgender restriction explicitly aimed at university housing, though some states have broad bathroom laws that could be interpreted to apply to dorms.

Source: Utah News

Bill Armstrong and André Tourigny assess Utah Hockey Club at 4 Nations Face-Off break

Internally, GM Bill Armstrong and coach André Tourigny set a goal of playing meaningful games and being in the playoff hunt in March and April. A 14-game losing streak scuttled those plans in January …

Preseason predictions for Utah Hockey Club varied widely. Some media outlets had the team making the Stanley Cup Playoffs in its first season of existence; others had the UHC deep in the pool of NHL Draft Lottery teams.

Internally, GM Bill Armstrong and coach André Tourigny set a goal of playing meaningful games and being in the playoff hunt in March and April. A 14-game losing streak scuttled those plans in January and February of 2024, so the players and coaches vowed to learn from that slide and not replicate it.

Despite a litany of injuries to key players, Utah (24-23-9) entered the 4 Nations Face-Off break having won three of its past four games. That kept the team within six points of the Vancouver Canucks for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.

We caught up with Armstrong and Tourigny for their assessment of the team at the break. We also looked down the road at the team’s trade-deadline plans, and the goal for the remaining 26 games of the regular season.

How do your preseason expectations of the team’s performance sync with the current reality?

Bill Armstrong: “I saw a couple things online the other day where people were comparing us to last year (seven points better this year through the same number of games). The big difference is that we’re banged up this year. I think that’s an important point to remember for us is we kind of overcame it, we kept in the fight despite all our injuries, and now we’re finally getting our team back and we have a chance to go battle with everybody playing.

“Any time you have top guys out with injuries, it’s a battle, but I love what our team did. They didn’t roll over. They continued to fight, they found ways to hang in there, and we’re right in the race. I like where we’re at. If you come watch us play, and if you look at our analytics, you can see it starting to come. When you’re playing games in the rebuild and you’re not close to coming out of it, you’re beating teams because you play back-up goaltenders, and you steal games once in a while when nobody’s looking. Everybody sees us coming now but we’re still in games. That’s a good sign.”

André Tourigny: “We’re in the fight and that’s where we wanted to be. If you would have told me that this is where we would stand at this point with the injuries we have had, I would have taken that any day And now we’re getting healthy.

“The first portion of the schedule was demanding for us so we’re going into the second half with a lot of hope. We just beat the best team in the east (Washington) on a back-to-back where they were sitting home waiting for us. I’m really happy about the way the boys fought in that last week before the break to get us some big points.”

What is your assessment of the development of the 25-and-under player group that includes Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Barrett Hayton, Jack McBain, Josh Doan, Matias Maccelli and Michael Kesselring?

Bill Armstrong: “One really good thing you can say about our club is that the guys that needed to take a step as young players have. They’re driving forces for us every single night. People forget that we were in the draft, getting a lot of those guys just a couple years ago. Now they’re having an impact on the ice for us in a special way. There’s more work to be done. They’re still improving and they still have to get better every time they get on the ice, but what I like about our group is that it’s powered by our young guys.

“Logan’s really come along with this two-way game. He always played dynamic offensively, but I think he works on both sides of the puck now. It’s not easy playing center in the National Hockey League. He’s playing against the big boys, sitting on the No. 1 line every night, but I love what he’s done with his game. He’s added some more finish to his game, too, and he has continued to get stronger and faster. He’s unique. He’s got a chance to be a No. 1 center if he continues to make progress.

“And with Dylan, from the get-go, he’s been good. When he’s out of our lineup, we miss his goals. It’s the difference between winning or losing when that guy is in our lineup. He’s somebody that’s always attacked it and always tried to get better. He’s obviously got a natural shot. The way it comes off his stick, I think it’s hard for goaltenders to pick up. When he’s on, he’s a difference maker for us, and I think he’s worked to be more consistent this year with his game, and you can see it almost every night that he has an impact for us.”

André Tourigny: “We’re happy about the progression of those young guys. I think they have hit their stride. You never know if they will have a sophomore slump or something like that, but to be honest, right now, that’s a strong point of our season; the young guys. The performance of Cools, the performance of Gunner, all the guys you mentioned. I think Doaner had a strong training camp, a strong start, and then faded a little bit, but he’s back with us and playing really well.

“With Dylan, I think he’s even better than before he got hurt — seriously. It’s a challenge sometimes for young guys to not get carried away with trying to produce and going away from the little details in their game. But since he’s back, he is really detailed, playing really good on his 200-foot game.

“It depends where we draw the line on young players, but the progression of Michael Kesselring has been good, too, and he’s a young NHL player. We talked about Hayts before and how valuable he has been. Jack McBain has had a great progression. That young core had a really good first half.”

What has been the impact of the offseason or in-season additions including Mikhail Sergachev, John Marino, Ian Cole, Olli Määttä and Kevin Stenlund?

Bill Armstrong: “Well, first off, it’s been great to see Sergachev in there. He’s been a huge piece of our team; what we envisioned when we went and got him. With Marino coming back, he’s added a lot already and we got Olli Määttä and Nick DeSimone on the back end, too, so we’ve had some good additions for our team that have had some impact. We haven’t had all the pieces in place to see exactly how good we are. “That’ll be the interesting part down the stretch. There’s a good chance now, with everyone coming back fully healthy, that we can see how good we can be.”

André Tourigny: “Sergey is obviously the key piece with the minutes and situations he plays. John Marino just arrived in the lineup but he has had a significant impact right away.

“But we need to talk about Olli Määttä because it’s tough to imagine where we’d be without that addition. He bridged the gap. He was a rock for us in tough times where the schedule was tough, opponents were tough, injuries were there, and he came up big. He has been tremendous for us in terms of playing the right way and settling our team down and sending the right message.

“Our PK since mid-December is tops in the league. Stenny (Stenlund) and Kerfie (Alex Kerfoot) are two forwards who are near the top of the league in terms of minutes played on the PK (third and fourth). I know Kerfie’s not new to the team, but those guys have been exactly what the doctor prescribed.”

What is your assessment of the over-25 middle core that includes Clayton Keller, Lawson Crouse and Nick Schmaltz?

Bill Armstrong: “Kells has been steady, but some of those guys have had struggles getting going. I think those guys have found different ways to help out the team, but I don’t think it’s perfect. We’d like to see more points from them, but I do like the way that they’ve played and embraced our team, whether it’s blocking shots or playing good defense or just helping out when they can. I’m a firm believer that if you play the right way, good things will eventually happen so I think that it will click at some point in time — hopefully down the stretch here because we need those guys to be big for us. We haven’t had as much secondary scoring as we had in the past, but that’s also because our young guys have taken a little bit more ice time, too.”

André Tourigny: “There’s a group there that has not produced as much as last year. Having that said, guys like Matias and Crouser are in a different situation than last year and I could have told you that would be the case out of the training camp. Look at all the minutes those guys played last year versus the minutes they’ve played this year. Don’t tell me if I play 20 or 25 percent less, and in different situations, that will not affect my production. Crouser is playing three minutes per game less. It’s different. It’s an adjustment and you see that in a lot of teams where you bring young players in and now you play a different role.

“Adding more depth to our team and having the growth of the young guys means more competition for ice time, competition for the minutes you want to be on the ice. Lawson Crouse used to play a lot in the PK and it helped him keep his legs moving. Now Stenny is there and took his ice time a little bit. Same thing for Hayts playing a little bit on the PK now. It’s a period of adjustment for those guys who lost a little bit of something.”

How has Clayton Keller handled the responsibility of being a captain?

André Tourigny: “I think he’s done a really good job. I don’t want to brag, but I think the organization did a really good job of doing it at the right time. I know we had a lot of questions in the past like, ‘Why not now?’ But we gave everybody the opportunity to grow, to get more mature, to get more experience, to be prepared to talk about different situations. I think Kells has handled it really well, from taking responsibility and taking ownership to stepping up at the right time. He’s way more mature as a person than three years ago. He was ready for this.”

What is your view of the goaltending tandem now that Connor Ingram has rejoined the lineup?

Bill Armstrong: “I love going at it with two goaltenders. I love the fact that both of them have had their time where they’ve done good things. It’s going to be key for us to have both those guys really clicking on all cylinders coming down the stretch. With Ingy injured, sometimes Veggie has had to hang in there and keep us going and he’s done that. He stole a game for us the other night. He was unbelievable. They’ve both had their moments. Now we’ve kind of got to fine-tune that coming down the stretch and see if they can be two really solid goaltenders for us.”

André Tourigny: “We have a good NHL goalie in the net every night. There will be periods where Veggie will be on the better streak. There will be periods where Ingy will be on the better streak. Remember at the start of the season when Ingy was winning every game and people wondered if Veggie would play? I was laughing and I was saying, ‘Settle down. It’s a long season. It’s a marathon.’ There will be bumps in the road, and now you see Veggie has played a majority of the games. But there’s a lot of play ahead of us.”

You have six games remaining before the March 7 (1 p.m. MT) trade deadline: What’s the plan?

Bill Armstrong: “Well, we’re still in the fight. We made a lot of our trades, more or less in the summer or in the fall, so our team is built to some degree. We’ve got to see what they can do, but I’ll probably have more to comment on as we come up to the deadline and see where we’re at. It’s a grind right now, but it’s a good grind. This is exactly where we want to be.”

André Tourigny: “I’m not concerned about that. What I’m concerned with is winning games. Everybody in the organization wants to win so we decide — the coaches and players — what happens at the deadline. If we’re in it, I know what will happen, and if we’re not in it, well, they will have to make decisions.

“But if we come out of the break and we win our games and we’re in by the trade deadline, or we’re two points out, what do you think will happen? I know. The fans know. The reporters know. The GM knows. The owner knows. And it’s like that on every team in the league. We just need to put our foot in the door, and then we know what will happen.”

What do you hope to see over the remaining 26 games?

Bill Armstrong: “Like I said before, I want to see us get healthy so we know what we’ve got before we do anything. With Cooley coming back, you’re getting McBain into the third [center] hole and Hayton has played well in the No. 2 slot. I think our guys are super excited about getting on that ice and playing together for the first time. Here we are in February and we’re finally gonna get that chance.

“It’s hard to evaluate the team. Our whole team hasn’t been in there so you don’t know what you have in some circumstances. We want to do a little bit of evaluation where everybody’s playing together and you get guys in the right holes. We’ve got a chance to get everybody into the right minutes, the right holes, and see where we build from there.”

If this team stays in the hunt and still doesn’t make the playoffs, is that progress?André Tourigny: “If we stay in the hunt, yes, absolutely, it is progress. Last year at this date, we were out. But there’s way more to it. If you looked at all the underlying numbers last year, everything was in the red all the time, even when we were winning games. Now it’s different. Now we’re fighting to be top-10, top-15 in underlying numbers; sometimes top of the league. Look at almost every game. With 10 minutes to go it was either tied or up or down a goal. We’re there every night. For sure, that’s progress, but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t play well in the second half.”

Do you have a sense of when Cooley and Durzi will be back?

Bill Armstrong: “I think we’ve got a chance coming out of the break to have everybody back.”

What do you make of all the rumors noting your ample cap space and the ability to spend big money this offseason in free agency?

Bill Armstrong: “I just want to make sure that everybody knows that if we spend all the money this year, that means we’re tied into it for the next how many years and then we don’t have any options to finish off the team when it’s time. It’s about spending money properly.

“Our ownership will spend money. If it’s Sergachev, they’re gonna go spend the money, but they’re not just gonna spend it to spend it and then all of a sudden we don’t have any room on the cap and we’re screwed. We’re gonna spend it, but we’re gonna spend it properly.”

Source: Utah News