Police say man stabbed and killed a woman, then turned the knife on himself

Chief Deputy Dale Ward says Tremonton police arrived at a home in Box Elder County on Sunday and found a 53-year-old woman who had been stabbed to death. She was identified as Maria De Jesus Cervantes.

At the scene, officers also found a 39-year-old man suffering from a knife wound to the neck. Identified as Jose Guiterrez-Torres, he was taken to a hospital, stabilized and transported to another hospital for surgery.

Police say that Guttierez-Torres had stabbed Cervantes and then turned the knife on himself. He will be taken to the Box Elder County Jail once he’s released from the hospital.

Critics may complain that Utah’s toughest-in-the-nation drunken driving law limits individual liberties, but the decision is “ethically justified,” according to a new paper published in the American Journal of Public Health.

“Ultimately, our analysis suggests that BAC [blood alcohol content] 0.05 laws are ethically desirable because they are likely to prevent substantial harm with minimal restrictions,” wrote Stephanie Morain, assistant professor at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine.

“Policymakers in other states,” she added, "should follow Utah’s lead to reduce alcohol-related traffic deaths and Congress should incentivize these changes.”

On Dec. 30, 2018, a new law took hold in Utah, lowering the state’s BAC standard — used to determine when drivers are considered legally drunk — from 0.08 to 0.05 percent. Utah is the first state to approve the stricter standard.

Morain predicts other states will follow, since a lower DUI measure was one of several strategies recommended by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for reducing alcohol-impaired driving deaths.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that even a relatively small amount of alcohol — well below the 0.05 limit proposed by NASEM — hinder driving performance, Morain notes in the paper titled “Ethical Acceptability of Reducing the Legal Blood Alcohol Concentration Limit to 0.05.”

“By the time BAC of 0.05 is reached," the paper notes, “predictable effects on driving include reduced coordination, impaired ability to track moving objects, difficult steering, increased speed, greater inattention and reduced response to emergency driving situations.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that a 160-pound man would need to drink about three alcoholic drinks within an hour to reach the 0.05 BAC level.

One drink is equal to 1.5 ounces of liquor, 12 ounces of beer or 5 ounces of wine.

After the NASEM recommendations were published, Hawaii, New York, Washington and Delaware proposed legislation to lower the legal BAC level to 0.05. None of those states, however, has approved the lower DUI level.

Critics of the lower level say it inappropriately restricts individual freedom and criminalizes moderate and responsible social drinkers."

But Morain, whose work examines political and ethical issues concerning the scope of governmental authority in public health, said it generally is permissible to restrict individual freedom to prevent harm to others.

“A person can still drink as much as they like, just not get behind the wheel,” she said in an interview from Houston. “Our society has made it increasingly easy to find a safe ride home through ride-share applications and other resources.”

The American Beverage Institute said Morain’s paper relies on the premise that implementing 0.05 laws will significantly reduce traffic death, “an assertion that is questionable at best,” explained Jackson Shedelbower, the group’s communications director.

“Cited studies revealing this drop are deeply flawed,” because they rely on a so-called “broad deterrence effect,” he said. That means "drivers at all BAC levels, especially high ones, would be persuaded to not get behind the wheel after consuming too much alcohol after a 0.05 law is implemented. This is an argument that defies logic.”

Jackson said that rather than targeting moderate and responsible social drinkers, traffic safety policy should focus on the high-BAC and repeat drunken drivers who are responsible for the vast majority of alcohol-related traffic fatalities.

“The authors even admit that targeting high-BAC drivers could yield fatality reductions of about 50 percent — progress that surpasses even the most ideal scenario authors describe for 0.05.

“The problem with 0.05 laws isn’t that they’re morally unjustifiable,” he added. “The real issue is that lowering the legal limit is an ineffective policy that will only siphon limited traffic safety resources away from the real problem of high-BAC and repeat drunken drivers."

Morain said that alcohol consumption is hardly the only practice in which government could restrict individual freedom to prevent harm.

She pointed to laws that raise the minimum age for tobacco purchases to 21. Six states — Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Oregon, Maine and Massachusetts — already have adopted these “Tobacco 21” laws.

Two Utah cities also have boosted the minimum age to 21 and a bill, HB324, that increases that age statewide currently is working its way through the Utah Legislature. The vast majority of adult smokers begin before 21, and advocates hope upping the minimum age will prevent many from ever forming tobacco addictions.

Guns, Morain said, are another health issue that fits the “greater good” theory.

In February, the Florida Legislature passed a firearm and school safety bill that raised the minimum age to purchase long guns to 21. If such a restriction had been in place a year earlier, it would have prohibited the 19-year-old shooter from legally buying the rifle that was used at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Morain said, as a researcher, she welcome these state-by-state changes. “It’s helpful when you have these variations," she said, "you can compare measures and see what works.”

Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, who sponsored Utah’s initial BAC limit bill in 2017, says the thesis of Morain’s paper cuts to the heart of another bill he is sponsoring this year, HB94, which prohibits police officers from carrying a weapon while intoxicated. The current law gives cops and exemption.

“It’s the same idea,” Thurston said. “People have a fundamental right to freedom and liberty until it starts to affect the health, safety and welfare of the people around you.”

When that happens, he said, “government should step in.”

In the case of HB94, “we don’t allow drunk people to carry weapons,” he said. “It’s not good idea.”

Neither, he says, is drinking and getting behind the wheel of a car.

Two years ago I had the opportunity to float the “Mighty Muddy,” or, as the trip came to be known, “Muddy Murder.”

Muddy Creek cuts a meandering path through the San Rafael Swell and only has enough water to raft for a few weeks a year, and that’s in a good year.

It was sheer misery. I skippered a two-man raft carrying my two dogs, one deathly afraid of water and wanting nothing more than to abandon ship. Not that there was a lot of water to be afraid of, and I ended up dragging the boat for a good chunk of the trip.

I’d show you pictures, but on the one legitimate rapid, I flipped the raft and it turns out the dry bag wasn’t quite dry enough to keep my phone from being destroyed.

So you’ll have to take my word that the scenery was incredible, with towering cliffs, narrow slot canyons and rolling redrock bluffs.

Perhaps even more incredible than that scene is that last week Congress actually passed a bill.

And more incredible still is that the legislation they passed managed to unite Republican Reps. Rob Bishop and John Curtis, Gov. Gary Herbert, Utah legislators and rural county commissioners along with their natural nemesis, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance to support a breakthrough compromise on the management of public lands in Emery County — including protection for the “Mighty Muddy.”

It wasn’t easy. Emery County Commission Chairman Lynn Sitterud said his predecessors worked for 24 years in the tug-of-war over the package.

Where they ended up is groundbreaking.

The legislation will ultimately protect some 700,000 acres of wilderness in the San Rafael Swell, including popular areas like Desolation Canyon and Labyrinth Canyon along the Green River.

It creates a new 217,000-acre recreation area in the San Rafael Swell, open to the public but not threatened by mining and mineral development. It will add 6,200 acres to the wildly popular Goblin Valley State Park.

And this deal can help schoolchildren in Utah too. Here’s how: it empowers the School and Institutional Trust Land Administration (SITLA) to swap about 115,000 acres of scattered parcels trapped in the San Rafael Swell for 90,000 acres of targeted piece of property, land that is already sought after for a half-dozen solar energy projects in Emery, Beaver and Millard counties; two parcels it wants for coal mining; other lands around the state with hardrock minerals, oil and gas; and some sections near Deer Valley with residential development potential.

The proceeds from those projects will go into the state’s school and trust lands account, most of it used to benefit Utah’s students.

“I think this is the product of a lot of input and maybe it doesn’t represent what any one party or constituent would feel is the absolute ideal, but it got to a place where everyone could say, ‘Yeah, this is a good idea,’” SITLA general counsel Mark Johnson told me Friday.

There have been similar efforts before: In 2006, Bishop passed legislation protecting wilderness in the Cedar Mountains. Three years later, Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Jim Matheson passed legislation resolving a number of land issues in Washington County. But those bills didn’t have the same sort of breadth and scope as the Emery County bill.

Sitterud said that he still has some reservations about parts of the bill. “But when I became a commissioner, I wanted to do what’s best for the county, not what’s best for me,” he said. It’s supported by most of the constituents and groups in his county, so he backs it, too.

Scott Groene, executive director of SUWA, said it took work. There were many iterations, and each one got better and better.

When Bishop’s Public Lands Initiative — an attempt to bundle lands bills together — blew up, it almost took Emery County’s bill with it. But Curtis and Sen. Orrin Hatch stuck with it. Hatch and his staff made one last push to get it passed before Hatch left office last year, making a deal with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin to get it to the floor, only to have it fall apart when Sen. Mike Lee blocked it.

The final bipartisan passage last week as part of sweeping legislation that includes a bundle of Utah-focused lands bills is a credit to the parties tenacious enough not to give up and flexible enough to compromise.

“We shouldn’t kid ourselves,” Groene said. “These will always be challenging, but we hope that, given the historic significance and magnitude of the bill, it will open the door to protect more land in the future.”

And now that we’ve seen how it can work, maybe more counties will follow the Emery County model — although maybe a little more expeditiously.

“I don’t know how many other counties will want to go through a 20-year process,” Sitterud told me. “But you could look at it as a roadmap for how you get it done.”

Last year, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and members of the City Council found themselves on different pages on a law creating a massive distribution hub in the northwesternmost part of the city. Biskupski declined to take part in those negotiations, and she forbade her staff from getting involved, as well.

That left council members to fend for themselves, without the assistance of the more than half dozen lobbyists the city employs, said City Council Chairman Charlie Luke. The council vowed it wouldn’t be put in that position again.

Now, in a split from administration that’s only happened twice in more than 20 years, the council has its own lobbyists working on Capitol Hill during this year’s state legislative session.

“Typically we’ve always just used the same city lobbyists,” Luke told The Salt Lake Tribune in a recent interview. “This year was a little bit different based on some of the events from last year with the administration. And so, you know, we felt that it was going to be important especially this session to have representation that we knew that we would always have access to.”

The council’s three new lobbyists join nine who serve both the City Council and the administration. Each of the six firms the city employs works on particular policy areas, which range from housing to water and airport issues, according to Matthew Rojas, a spokesman in the mayor’s office.

“All of these lobbyists work with the council,” he said. “They meet with the council on a regular basis, as they’re representing the city as a whole on Capitol Hill.”

Rojas said he couldn’t provide an exact number for how much the city spends on lobbying efforts, since the funding comes out of different departmental budgets. The council put aside $60,000 for lobbyists during its last annual budget process, according to council staff. (The council’s lobbyists did not show up on the state’s lobbyist list Thursday and appear to have registered later that day after The Tribune’s inquiry.)

Rojas praised the council’s lobbyists in this session for “doing a lot of the heavy lifting” on a proposal that would have altered state annexation law, giving Millcreek the upper hand in a boundary dispute between it and Salt Lake City over the Brickyard Plaza shopping center. The bill’s sponsor has since abandoned the measure.

Other issues the council’s lobbyists are working on include questions related to the inland port and to car sharing at the airport, Luke said, as well as general issues with the city’s regular contract lobbyists.

“Right now everyone’s working together, which, frankly, is how it should be,” said Luke, who is himself a registered lobbyist for service providers for people with intellectual disabilities. “And so you know, [the council’s lobbyists] are just an added member to an already really good team.”

But the council and administration, who have often butted heads in the past, may be glad they have separate lobbyists after a bill was introduced Tuesday by Rep. Francis Gibson that would make changes to the inland port bill that first divided the two branches.

Lawmakers unveiled and passed the original bill creating the inland port board late on the eve of the final day of last year’s legislative session. The city fought the bill, protesting state overreach, loss of millions of dollars in tax revenues and a worrisome precedent for future state land grabs. The most controversial provision of the most recent proposal would remove the city’s ability to bring a legal challenge forward on the development.

While Luke told The Tribune the council’s lobbying team has been working with Gibson to “resolve some of the concerns we have” with the proposal, Biskupski said in a statement that the new bill shows that “any attempt to negotiate in good faith over this unprecedented bill will be met with goal shifting on the part of the State, designed to incrementally force Salt Lake City to bend to the Legislature’s will under the cover of cooperation.”

Relationships, relationships, relationships

It has become common in recent years for cities to employ lobbyists to represent their interests during the state’s 45-day legislative session — a practice that has come to be seen as a necessity.

Every city in Salt Lake County employs at least one lobbyist, and St. George is the only one of the state’s 10 biggest cities that has none, according to information on the Utah lieutenant governor’s office’s lobbyist database. Three cities have decreased the number of lobbyists they employ over the past five years, while Orem, Provo, Salt Lake City and West Valley City have upped their count.

“Cities hire lobbyists because of the fact that we are regularly reminded that cities are political subdivisions of the state,” Luke told The Tribune. “There are always going to be issues that impact cities and our residents and businesses located therein, we need to make sure that we’re staying on top of every single issue.”

Former Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan was the first Utah leader to decide that a big lobbying team was the key to success. He hired his first lobbyist about three years after he was first elected in 1994, and the city for years fielded the biggest crew of any local government at the Capitol, employing 13 lobbyists in 2015.

That number has decreased slightly after now-Mayor Kurt Bradburn defeated Dolan in 2017 and proceeded to eliminate four city lobbyist positions.

“I think he felt like we were overspending on lobbyists and felt like these resources could have been directed to other things,” said Sandy Deputy Mayor Evelyn Everton. “For instance, last year because we did cut back on those we were able to increase salary pay for police and fire.”

But that doesn’t mean the city, which spends $200,000 per year for state lobbying efforts and $60,000 at the federal level, doesn’t see the value in maintaining a robust team.

“We’re continuing to see the same return on investment in terms of securing state and federal funding for road projects and transportation,” Everton said, noting that the city’s lobbyists are also working to support legislation that would streamline annexation processes and to get state funding for the Sandy Arts Guild. “We feel like we’re spending less but we’re getting just the same amount of value that we were before.”

Even cities that don’t hire a contract lobbyist still have representation on Capitol Hill, thanks to the Utah League of Cities and Towns, which represents all 248 cities in the state. The League is currently tracking 316 bills that impact local government in some way and has six full time employees and one intern dedicated to tracking bills, according to Cameron Diehl, a spokesman for the organization.

“We’re very busy," he said.

Lobbyists are necessary, Diehl says, because lawmakers may not understand the impacts a proposal could have on the ability of cities to function and provide services to residents. Much of his work, then, is to “tell the story” for cities on issues that range from land use to public safety and transportation.

Among the many bills the League has taken a stance on this year include a proposal that would prevent someone from serving on both a city council and a county commission at the same time (supporting), another that would help cities enforce their anti-idling ordinances (supporting) and a bill that would permit cars to run red lights in some conditions (opposing).

“Our objective is to help cities work,” Diehl said. “And our objective is to make sure that we have a strong partnership between state and local governments to ensure the quality of life that all the residents expect.”

Lobbyist and Murray City Councilman Dave Nicponski understands both sides of the coin and has a diverse client list that includes Taylorsville City, the Utah Humane Society and Intermountain Healthcare. With more than 30 years of experience on Capitol Hill, Nicponski said he has good relationships with many lawmakers and sees his job as “accessing the lawmaker in order to present them the city’s perspective — and hopefully in a fashion that they’re able to make a decision based on what you’ve represented.”

As bills get more complex at the state Legislature, Nicponski argues there’s a continued need for cities to employ lobbyists who understand the process and have relationships with the players so they can articulate how a particular policy would affect cities.

But the increased willingness of cities to employ their own lobbyists is also a function of these contractors proving their worth, he said.

“We had to work at showing that we were ethical, proving that we were effective," Nicponski said. "And that’s why at the beginning you didn’t see a lot of lobbyists representing cities. But over time, because we’ve proven these things — our ethics, our capabilities — you’ve seen cities hire lobbyists.”

Happy Monday!

Some presidential candidates, or those likely to join, favor legalizing sex workers, drugs and sports betting. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced a bill last week to legalize marijuana nationally. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., favors legalizing sex workers, complaining that current law ends up hurting women more than customers and pimps. And Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is among those pushing for legal sports betting. So CNN says, “The 2020 election is shaping up to be a new chapter in the end of vice.” [CNN]

Topping the news: A bill that would impose a robust tax overhaul on Utah businesses passed committee after a lengthy public comment period during which a number of Utah business owners testified against it. [Trib] [Fox13] [DNews] [ABC4]

-> The sponsor of a bill to ban conversion therapy on minors — the widely discredited practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual preference or gender identity — warns that any changes to its delicate balance could lead the LDS Church to drop its agreement not to fight it. [Trib] [Fox13] [DNews]

-> A controversial culinary education program is back in line seeking $400,000 more in state money despite a critical audit and declining enrollment numbers. [Trib]

-> Utah’s United Methodist pastors say they are disappointed over their church’s LGBTQ vote, as question arise whether their congregations will bolt because of it. [Trib]

Tweets of the day:

-> From @jm_miller “Somehow managed to find time this week to wade into the controversial topic of civil asset forfeiture, after Utah police came out in force defending the law that lets them take cash from suspects. Is it "highway robbery" or a way to fight drug cartels?”

-> From @ShireenGhorbani “Expanded mass transit and improvements in active transportation must be part of the solution. #slco #Utpol”

-> From @RepAStoddard “I haven't heard the word widget used this frequently since law school. #revandtax #utpol.”

-> From @utahsenate “Did you know? Senator @KarenMayneUT5’s favorite movies are “Tremors” and “War of the Worlds!” She’s a huge fan of science fiction. #utpol #utleg.”

Happy Birthday: to State Rep. Stephen Handy, Taylorsville City Recorder Cheryl Cottle, Rep. Chris Stewart’s executive assistant Mark Coffield and Rep. Timothy Hawkes

In other news:

-> Legislators sent to Gov. Gary Herbert a bill to legalize driverless autonomous vehicles on Utah roads. It is expected to attract open road testing of those vehicles here, as it has in a few other states. [Trib] [DNews]

-> Tesla has announced that it will move all car sales online, reducing dealerships nationwide to a small number of galleries. This comes after years of court battles to allow Tesla to have a manufacturer-owned dealership in Utah. [Trib]

-> The Utah House voted down a bill that would require seat belts on all new school busses. Opponents said the change would put too much fiscal burden on the school districts. [Trib] [DNews]

-> Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told Utah legislators that while he believes a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico southern border exists, he does not believe any president should have the power to sidestep congressional funding. [Trib] [DNews]

-> A bill to require tax legislative hikes to have standalone hearings that would allow for extensive public comment received preliminary approval after a unanimous vote in the Utah Senate would [Trib]

-> Planned Parenthood staged a protest at the state Capitol against two bills that restrict abortion, one which has already passed both chambers and awaits signature from Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and another which is on it’s way to the senate after passing the House. [Trib]

-> A bill that would increase Utah’s legal marriage age from 15 to 16, require parental consent and judicial approval for anyone under 18 and impose a 7 year maximum age gap for anyone marrying a minor, passed the House and is on its way to the Senate. [Trib] [Fox13] [DNews]

-> The Utah House passed a bill aimed at increasing free speech on college campuses in the state by prohibiting institutions of higher learning from punishing students for any form of speech unless it falls under the supreme court definition of harassment. [Trib]

-> After passing the House, a bill to increase the age of legal tobacco purchase in Utah from 19 to 21 is on its way to the Senate. [Trib] [DNews]

-> If an increase in funding for the arts proposed by Utah Gov Gary Herbert is approved at the end of the legislative session, a growing number of organizations in the state are hoping to see a piece of the pie. [Trib]

-> A celebration of life was held for prominent Utah civil rights leader, Archie Archuleta, who died last month at age 88. A number of Utah lawmakers as well as community leaders came to honor his life’s work. [Trib]

-> Utah police departments adamantly opposed a bill heard in committee that would seek to ensure that individual officers would not receive incentives for money obtained during asset forfeiture cases where drug activity is suspected. The bill was delayed by the committee and sent for further study to take place over the next year. [Trib]

-> Tribune Columnist, Robert Kirby, pens a personalized history of United States Presidents that have served during his lifetime. [Trib]

-> A Tribune editorial says cleaning up Utah’s air will be expensive, so it is time to begin now [Trib]

-> Pat Bagley illustrates the pledge of allegiance. [Trib]

-> Frank Pignanelli and LaVarr Webb look at the biggest issues remaining in the Legislature’s final two weeks. [DNews]

Nationally:

-> As Republican Sen. Rand Paul joins the list of opponents, the Senate appears poised to vote to block President Donald Trump’s declaration of national emergency at the nation’s southern border with Mexico, likely forcing him to veto it. [NYTimes] [WaPost] [Politico]

-> In an op-ed published for USA Today Utah Rep Ben McAdams makes an argument for a moderate approach to politics that favors pragmatic lawmaking in a split government. [USATODAY]

-> Utah Rep. Chris Stewart says on CCN that it is “extraordinarily unlikely” that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not know about the treatment of American Otto Warmbier that lead to his death, directly disputing President Donald Trump’s statements last week. [UtahPolicy]

-> The New York Times interviews women who have experienced sexual assault both during migration to the United States from central American countries and after they crossed the U.S-Mexico border. The abuse in some cases was not committed by smugglers but rather by border agents and immigration officers. [NYTimes]

-> President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Sunday declaring that his failure to negotiate a nuclear deal with North Korea was a result of the congressional testimony his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. [WaPost]

-> Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, announced Monday that he is joining the presidential race. [TheHill]

-> Got a tip? A birthday, wedding or anniversary to announce? Send us a note to cornflakes@sltrib.com.

Lee Davidson and Christina Giardinelli

twitter.com/LeeDavi82636879; twitter.com/C_Giardinelli

Plastic bags are an environmental nuisance. They don’t decompose and they continue to pollute oceans and landfills. Why not ban plastic bags and substitute paper bags, like we did in 1970? Better yet, create bags from materials that decompose, such as compressed leaves or other plant products. That could be a great science fair project. We are an innovative nation — let’s get on it.

Peggy Clark, Salt Lake City

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Rep. Cheryl Acton’s assertion that her punitive legislation, to ban abortion after 18 weeks, is in support of women’s health falls flat, especially in light of her break from her constituency to support SB96, the repeal of the Medicaid expansion initiative.

Clearly, it is best for women to have access to all available information, procedures and support when facing a medical decision.

Despite a complete lack of credibility, Acton presented an arbitrary definition of medical viability intended to erect meaningful barriers for women. Apparently, Acton’s extraordinary ability to arrive at the sole solution to every possible pregnancy situation gives her the confidence to attempt to trample on the individual rights of anyone seeking medical alternatives.

While I would not wish the personal heartbreak of a late-term pregnancy problem, compounded by malicious legislation, on even the most pandering, moralistic, legislative sycophant, I suggest that Acton might gain sorely needed empathy from hearing the stories of those impacted by this type of pejorative message bill.

One would hope that someone so concerned with women and children’s health would choose to direct the money sure to be wasted on yet another unnecessary lawsuit toward legitimate medical programs for both groups.

Unless that is not really the concern.

Keith Roberts, Salt Lake City

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I have a solution to the Catholic Church’s sex abuse problem: Let women be the pope and the priests, and men be the nuns.

In my 33 years as a criminal defense attorney, l represented many sex offenders and none of them were female.

I know that a few women commit sex offenses, almost invariably with teenage boys, but their numbers are minuscule compared to men abusing females and males of all ages. I’m sure God the Mother would be OK with my proposed solution.

Manny Garcia, Salt Lake City

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I have heard it all now.

Our Utah lawmakers killed a bill that would ban the use of hand-held cellphones while driving — but advance another to allow running a red light in certain circumstances.

What?

That is right up there with U.S. Sen. Mike Lee’s bill that would remove “unnecessary” federal regulations currently attached to silencers on firearms, to protect the hearing of gun owners. I just don’t get it.

Scott G. Schley, Taylorsville

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I am responding to George F. Will’s Feb. 24 commentary on Maryland’s 1925 Peace Cross.

Mr. Will, your charge that people who are concerned that the cross violates the Establishment Clause are “cranky, persnickety, hairsplitting secularists” motivated by “hair-trigger rage” is hypocritical to the max. Let me remind you that you are paid to twice weekly ball yourself into a polysyllabic wad in order to provide persnickety, hairsplitting, entertaining, sometimes enlightening commentary. (Note that I haven’t indicted you as secularist.)

We Americans have traditions and mores that are inconsistent with our Constitution and our essential values. We are a civilization in process. Civil rights, women’s rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, statues honoring Civil War traitors, and — God bless your thesaurus — religious rights are still in play.

Those who are concerned about the Peace Cross have a point. Not the only point, but a valid perspective. Those who fought and died in WWI weren’t fighting for the supremacy of the Christian religion but for our nation.

I suggest a compromise. How about letting the cross remain the nucleus of the highway roundabout, but include a plaque explaining how it honors our heroes, how it became an impediment to traffic and a statement explaining and respecting the varying perspectives on its legitimacy?

It’s the American way. Sort of.

Tom Foster, Millcreek

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Thank you, Salt Lake Tribune, for two articles Sunday that clearly show why HB93 allowing residents of a county to create their own “Community of Interest” by forming a new county makes sense.

The article “Disgruntled S.L. County cities talking divorces?” outlines the issues the south end of Salt Lake County face — growth, transportation, economic development — and recent examples where Salt Lake County has not represented the interests of local residents — approval of Olympia Hills ultra-high density housing and killing the Facebook data center project.

The article “Ready to get to work” outlines the priorities of Shireen Ghorbani, elected to Salt Lake County Council by the Democratic Central Committee — affordable housing, with high density, using tax-increment policies that municipalities across the county must share.

Here is a clear contrast. Duly elected leaders of communities struggling to manage growth without equitable allocation of resources from Salt Lake County, compared with our newest Salt Lake County Council member who reflects the same Salt Lake City and East Bench bubble and utter lack of understanding what a large segment of her constituents care about.

Might I suggest we name our new county Jordan River, and can we get it done by 2020?

Troy Rushton, Riverton

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A dog in Layton bit a 4-year-old boy reaching under a fence, severing the child’s arm above the wrist, FOX 13 reported Sunday.

The boy underwent surgery Sunday night. Layton Fire Battalion Chief Jason Cook told FOX 13 that the episode happened about 3:45 p.m. near 1000 N. 3575 West. The boy was in his backyard. He had a sock on his hand and reached under a vinyal fence to play with two huskies.

Cook told the station that one dog bit with enough force to sever the arm.

“He lost his hand from about this point down,” Cook said while pointing above his own wrist.

A helicopter flew the 4-year-old to Primary Children’s Hospital. Meanwhile, Cook said emergency responders were unable to find the limb.

“There is fear that it was probably ingested by the dog that bit him,” Cook told FOX 13. “So at this point it does not appear that reattachment is going to be an option for us.”

Animal control officers took both dogs. They are in quarantine pending an investigation.

Editor’s note: FOX 13 and The Salt Lake Tribune are content sharing partners.

The U.S. Supreme Court ended Monday five years of legal battles by the Utah Republican Party to quash a 2014 election law that allows candidates to qualify for the ballot by collecting signatures and/or through the caucus-convention system.

It refused to hear the party’s challenge of that law, called SB54, rejecting the party’s arguments that it unconstitutionally interferes with its right to choose how to select its own nominees.

The Utah Republican Party Constitutional Defense Committee, a party arm that was given power to control the lawsuit, said the fight to erase SB54 is not over, but will switch now from the courts to the Legislature.

“We call upon our legislators to do the right thing and repeal this controversial law,” its written statement said. “We ask all Utah citizens who seek to preserve precious First Amendment freedoms to ask their legislators to repeal SB54.”

It said the decision imperils “the rights of assembly and speech of all private expressive associations,” including “political parties, labor unions, private colleges and universities, religious organizations and many others. There is far more at stake here than just the future of Utah’s SB54.”

The court’s decision was hailed by Rich McKeown, executive co-chairman of Count My Vote, that initially sought a ballot initiative that would have replaced entirely the caucus-convention system with open primary but settled for SB54 as a compromise.

“The legal challenge is over and now establishes the dual path as the law of Utah,” McKeown said. “The law has proven to be popular and it has accomplished its purpose of increased voter participation.” A recent Salt Lake Tribune/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll showed Utahs oppose erasing SB54 by a 2-1 margin.

Meanwhile, Keep My Voice, a group that has fought SB54 and helped block last year a ballot initiative by Count My Vote last year that would have cemented it more firmly into law, said it will continue to fight legislatively.

“Despite the current legal setback, Keep My Voice will continue to advocate for giving every individual and neighborhood a representative voice, removing money as the dominant factor in elections and holding elected officials accountable,” said Phill Wright, executive director of the group.

Chase Thomas, executive director of the left-leaning Utah Alliance for a Better Utah, urged a complete end to battles over SB54. “As this prolonged and unnecessary controversy is put to rest, we strongly urge government officials and party leaders to move on and cease any legal and legislative attempts to dilute, amend, or repeal this popular law.”

The Utah GOP prefers the state’s old election system that relied only on the caucus-convention system to determine party nominees. If candidates won enough votes at a convention, they could skip a primary. The party said it allowed candidates with less money a decent chance of winning.

But critics said the old system gave too much power to delegates, who tend to be much more conservative than most voters. They say SB54 gave all party members more of a voice, and helped elect more mainstream candidates.

For example, arch conservative Chris Herrod defeated more moderate John Curtis at convention in a special 2017 race for Utah’s 3rd Congressional district seat — and under the old system would have been the party nominee. But Curtis had gathered signatures to appear in the primary, which he easily won before going on to win the general election.

Other signs of delegates not being in tune with overall GOP voters included that both Sen. Mitt Romney and Gov. Gary Herbert finished second at GOP conventions — but went on to win landslides in both primary and general elections.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal keeps in place an earlier decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld SB54.

“States must have flexibility to enact reasonable, common-sense regulations designed to provide order and legitimacy to the electoral process,” judges wrote in that decision.

They added that SB54 ”strikes an appropriate balance between protecting the interests of the state in managing elections and allowing” Republicans “to express their preferences and values in a democratic fashion and to form associations as protected by the First Amendment.”

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the Utah GOP argued the high court previously ruled that political parties have a First Amendment right “to choose a candidate-selection process that will in its view produce the nominee who best represents its political platform.”

Numerous right-wing groups supported the party position in friend-of-the-court briefs, including 19 current and former members of the Utah Legislature, some who voted for SB54; Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah; Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho; and a group of minor parties.

On the other side, Utah Solicitor General Tyler Green had urged the Supreme Court to reject the appeal, arguing it was the only way it could remain consistent with a half century of its own rulings.

“For nearly 50 years, this court has repeatedly recognized the states’ power to prescribe political party nominations by primary elections,” he wrote. “Not once has this court — or any other court — cast constitutional doubt on that practice,” which Green said led every state to now use primary elections, and not conventions.

SB54 has split the Utah Republican Party. Business groups and moderates applaud the law, and many of them quit donating to the party when they feared their money would go to the lawsuit.

Right-wing leaders, who dominate the party’s central committee, like the convention system that helped give them power, and they have pushed the legal challenges.

When Party Chairman Rob Anderson tried to stop the lawsuits by saying the costs were bankrupting the party, the central committee stripped him of such powers and created the Constitutional Defense Committee to make decisions on the appeal.

The party had once amassed a $410,000 debt in pursuing the case. But last year, Dave Bateman, CEO of Entrata software, stepped in and “acquired the debt” from party lawyers — who settled for about 40 cents on the dollar — with some strings attached.

Bateman said he paid the lawyers $175,000 to settle their bills and agreed to cover future costs of continuing legal battles against SB54. The catch was, the party would need to repay him if it ever dropped the lawsuit without his permission or before all appeals were exhausted — including the final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Count My Vote attempted another ballot initiative last year to help cement SB54 into law. It appeared to have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, but an effort funded by Bateman thwarted that by persuading enough people to withdraw their signatures.

The Salt Lake Tribune will update this story.

Cairo • Egypt’s top Muslim cleric has stirred up controversy after saying that polygamy is an “injustice” for women, but stopped short of calling for a ban on the practice.

"Those who say that marriage must be polygamous are all wrong. We have to read the (Quranic) verse in full, said Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Al-Azhar's Grand Imam.

He said that monogamy was the rule and polygamy a restricted exception. It is restricted in Islam and requires fairness and "if there is not fairness it is forbidden to have more than one wife," he said.

Al-Tayeb said the practice came from "a lack of understanding of the Quran and the tradition of the Prophet" and it is "often an injustice to women and children."

The Grand Imam also called for a broader revamp of how women's issues are addressed. "Women represent half of society. If we don't care for them it's like walking on one foot only," he said.

His comments, aired Friday on state TV, sparked a heated debate on social media, with some siding with scholars calling for a ban on the practice and others mostly Salfi people encoring men to marry more than one woman.

Egypt's National Council for Women welcomed al-Tayeb's comments.

"Islam honors women, treats them fairly and gives them numerous rights which didn't exist before," said Maya Morsi, the council's chairwoman.

Some users however argued that polygamy is good for women. "Polygamy is the social solution for (female) celibacy which has been horribly exacerbated," wrote Sameh Hamouda, a cleric from Alexandria, in a Facebook post.

Al-Azhar sought on Saturday to clarify the comments, saying that al-Tayeb wasn't calling for a ban on polygamy.

Islam allows men to take up to four wives on the condition that they're treated equally. Though polygamy is legal in most Arab and Islamic countries, the practice is uncommon. Regionally, polygamy is banned in Tunisia and Turkey, and for Arab Muslims in Israel.

In Egypt, the husband must disclose his current marriage, or marriages, if he hopes to marry more. Also, the first wife has the right to request a divorce within one year of learning of a second marriage if she objects to it.

In May 2018, lawmaker Abla el-Hawari drafted a bill to jail men who remarry without informing their current wife, or wives, in attempts to restrict and regulate polygamy in the most Arab populous country.

A Utah County woman was booked into jail, suspected of stabbing her mother repeatedly, after she went to a restaurant and told people what she’d done.

Jayde Lauren Altemeier, 31, of Saratoga Springs, is under investigation for attempted murder and aggravated assault.

Police responded to a report of a stabbing at the Extended Stay Hotel at 10715 Auto Mall Drive in Sandy on Saturday. When they arrived, they found Carla Orsini, 55, who had been stabbed twice in the chest, once in the neck and once to a finger and had lacerations on her left arm and lip. “Three of these injuries are in locations that are likely to cause death,” according to a probable cause statement.

Orsini was transported to a hospital. She was expected to survive.

Aletemeier — who had blood on her clothes — was arrested at an Olive Garden at 538 W. Main St. in American Fork, where she “made the statement that she had stabbed her mother.”

Beauregard, Ala. • Rescuers began tearing through the rubble of mobile homes and houses Monday in search of survivors of a powerful tornado that rampaged through southeast Alabama and killed at least 23 people, including children.

The trail of destruction was at least half a mile wide and overwhelmed rural Lee County's coroners' office, forcing it to call in help from the state.

"It looks like someone almost just took a giant knife and scraped the ground," Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said of the devastation during a Monday morning news conference.

Jones said children were among the dead, but he didn't know exactly how many. And he said the number of deaths may rise as the search continues.

"I have not seen this level of destruction ever in my time in Lee County," said Jones, who has been sheriff since 1998.

Drones flying overheard equipped with heat-seeking devices had scanned the area for survivors, but the dangerous conditions halted the search late Sunday, Jones said.

The Sunday tornado, which had winds that appeared to be around 160 mph or greater, was part of a powerful storm system that also slashed its way across parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.

Levi Baker, who lives near the hard-hit area in Alabama, took a chain saw to help clear a path for ambulances and other first-responder vehicles. He said he saw bodies of dead people and dead animals.

He said some houses were demolished and trees were uprooted or snapped in half. One house was swept off its foundation and was sitting in the middle of the road.

"It was just destruction," Baker said. "There were mobile homes gone. Frames on the other side of the road."

Jones said the twister traveled straight down a county road in the rural community of Beauregard reducing homes to slabs.

Scott Fillmer was at home when the storm hit in Lee County.

"I looked out the window and it was nothing but black, but you could hear that freight train noise," Fillmer said.

The National Weather Service confirmed late Sunday a tornado with at least an F3 rating caused the destruction in Alabama. Although the statement did not give exact wind estimates, F3 storms typically are gauged at wind speeds of between 158-206 mph.

In a tweet late Sunday, President Donald Trump said: "To the great people of Alabama and surrounding areas: Please be careful and safe. Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming. To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!"

Rita Smith, spokeswoman for the Lee County Emergency Management Agency, said about 150 first responders had quickly jumped in to help search the debris after the storm struck in Beauregard. At least one trained canine could be seen with search crews as numerous ambulances and emergency vehicles, lights flashing, converged on the area.

On a country road in Beauregard on Monday, a giant pieces of metal from a farm building were suspended 20 feet in the air, attached to the lower halves of pine trees, making loud creaking sounds as the wind blew them into the pine branches. The top halves of most of those trees were snapped off. For an entire mile down the road, the scene was the same — pine trees cracked in half. One mile down the road, a mobile home crushed by two trees marked the end of the mile-long path of destruction.

At the R&D Grocery on Monday morning in Beauregard, residents were constantly asking each other if they were okay.

"I'm still thanking God I'm among the living," said John Jones, who has lived in Beauregard for most of his life.

School Superintendent Mack McCoy said some buses were damaged in the storm and winds tore through the roof of Smiths Station Elementary School.

No deaths had been reported Sunday evening from storm-damaged Alabama counties other than Lee County, said Gregory Robinson, spokesman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. But he said crews were still surveying damage in several counties in the southwestern part of the state.

Numerous tornado warnings were posted across parts of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina on Sunday afternoon as the storm system raced across the region. Weather officials said they confirmed other tornadoes around the region by radar alone and would send teams out Monday to assess those and other storms.

In rural Talbotton, Georgia, about 80 miles south of Atlanta, a handful of people were injured by either powerful straight-line winds or a tornado that destroyed several mobile homes and damaged other buildings, said Leigh Ann Erenheim, director of the Talbot County Emergency Management Agency.

"The last check I had was between six and eight injuries," Erenheim said in a phone interview. "From what I understand it was minor injuries, though one fellow did say his leg might be broken."

She said searches of damaged homes and structures had turned up no serious injuries or deaths there.

Henry Wilson of the Peach County Emergency Management Agency near Macon in central Georgia said a barn had been destroyed and trees and power poles had been snapped, leaving many in the area without power.

Authorities in southwest Georgia were searching door-to-door in darkened neighborhoods after a possible tornado touched down in the rural city of Cairo, about 33 miles north of Tallahassee, Florida, on Sunday evening. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

Authorities said a tornado was confirmed by radar in the Florida Panhandle late Sunday afternoon. A portion of Interstate 10 on the Panhandle was blocked in one direction for a time in Walton County in the aftermath, said Don Harrigan, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.

Associated Press writers Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Bill Cormier in Atlanta; and Ryan Kryska in New York contributed to this report.

Cape Canaveral, Fla. • A sleek new American-built capsule with just a test dummy aboard docked smoothly with the International Space Station on Sunday, bringing the U.S. a big step closer to getting back in the business of launching astronauts.

The white, bullet-shaped Dragon capsule, developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company under contract to NASA, closed in on the orbiting station nearly 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean and, flying autonomously, linked up on its own, without the help of the robotic arm normally used to guide spacecraft into position.

Dragon's arrival marked the first time in eight years that an American-made spacecraft capable of carrying humans has flown to the space station.

If this six-day test flight goes well, a Dragon capsule could take two NASA astronauts to the orbiting outpost this summer.

"A new generation of space flight starts now with the arrival of @SpaceX's Crew Dragon to the @Space_Station," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted. "Congratulations to all for this historic achievement getting us closer to flying American Astronauts on American rockets."

Ever since NASA retired the space shuttle in 2011, the U.S. has been hitching rides to and from the space station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In the meantime, NASA is paying two companies — SpaceX and Boeing — to build and operate America's next generation of rocket ships.

SpaceX’s 27-foot-long capsule rocketed into orbit early Saturday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with a mannequin strapped into one of its four seats in a dashing, white-and-black, form-fitting SpaceX spacesuit. The test dummy was nicknamed Ripley after the main character in the “Alien” movies.

Ripley and the capsule are rigged with sensors to measure noise, vibration and stresses and monitor the life-support, propulsion and other critical systems.

As the capsule closed in on the space station, its nose cap was wide open like a dragon's mouth to expose the docking mechanism. In a docking with a crew aboard, the capsule would likewise operate autonomously, though the astronauts might push a button or two and would be able to intervene if necessary.

The three U.S., Canadian and Russian crew members aboard the space station watched the rendezvous via TV cameras. Within hours, the capsule's hatch swung open and the three astronauts floated inside to remove supplies and take air samples, wearing oxygen masks and hoods until they got the all-clear.

Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques pronounced the docking flawless and called it "a beautiful thing to see."

"Welcome to the new era in spaceflight," he said.

Dragon will remain at the space station until Friday, when it will undock for an old-school, "Right Stuff"-style splashdown in the Atlantic, a few hundred miles off Florida.

As part of Sunday's shakedown, the space station astronauts sent commands for Dragon to retreat and then move forward again, before the capsule closed in for good. SpaceX employees at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, cheered the docking, then burst into applause again when the Dragon's latches were secured.

The two astronauts set to fly aboard Dragon as early as July, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, witnessed the Florida liftoff, then rushed to Southern California to watch Sunday's maneuver.

"Just super excited to see it," Behnken said minutes after the linkup. "Just one more milestone that gets us ready for our flight coming up here."

Next up, though, is Boeing, which is looking to launch its Starliner capsule without a crew as early as April and with a crew possibly in August.

SpaceX already has made 16 trips to the space station using cargo Dragons. The version designed for humans is slightly bigger and safer.

It can carry as many as seven people and has three windows, emergency-abort engines that can pull the capsule to safety, and streamlined controls, with just 30 buttons and touch screens, compared with the space shuttle cockpit's 2,000 switches and circuit breakers.

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Washington • President Donald Trump said Sunday that the congressional testimony of Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer and fixer, was in part responsible for the collapse in negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program last week — continuing to vent about the investigations encircling him and his associates.

During seven hours of testimony Wednesday, Cohen said that Trump manipulated financial records and that Trump knew in advance about WikiLeaks’ efforts to release damaging information about his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 campaign, among other allegations.

The testimony unfolded as Trump had traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam, to try to forge a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over curbing the North Korean nuclear program.

While in Vietnam, the president said he walked away from the summit with Kim because of a disagreement about economic sanctions on North Korea. But he gave another explanation for the failure of the talks on Twitter on Sunday evening.

"For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the 'walk,' " he tweeted. "Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!"

Lanny Davis, Cohen's attorney, declined to comment on Trump's tweet Sunday night.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., had gone through multiple dates for its highly anticipated hearing with Cohen, who has been called to appear before several congressional panels and is scheduled to go to prison in May.

Cohen had been slated to appear publicly before the Oversight Committee on Feb. 7 but canceled, citing potential threats against his family. On Feb. 20, the committee said that it had rescheduled Cohen's testimony for Wednesday. The president had announced the dates for his second summit with Kim during his State of the Union address on Feb. 5.

Some of Trump's closest allies similarly criticized Democrats for holding a hearing with Cohen while the president was overseas. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called the scheduling a "new low" and accused Democrats' "hatred of Trump" of undercutting the nuclear talks.

A spokeswoman for the Oversight Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night.

Trump has repeatedly complained about the Cohen testimony and the escalating investigations of him since he returned from Hanoi without an agreement with Kim. He derided "bull----" investigations and mocked the "collusion delusion" in a long-winded speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington on Saturday afternoon.

Earlier Sunday evening, he tweeted — as he has done many times before — about “Presidential Harassment” from “crazed” Democrats, calling it at the “highest level in the history of our Country.”

Washington • The House Judiciary Committee is launching a sweeping new probe of President Donald Trump, his White House, his campaign and his businesses. The panel is sending document requests to 81 people linked to the president and his associates.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler says the investigation will be focused on obstruction of justice, corruption and abuses of power. The aggressive, broad investigation could set the stage for impeachment, although Democratic leaders have pledged to investigate all avenues and review special counsel Robert Mueller's report before taking drastic action.

Nadler said Monday's document requests are a way to "begin building the public record" and the committee has the responsibility to investigate.

The White House says it has received the House Judiciary Committee's letter requesting documents related to the Trump administration, family and business as part of an expanding Russia investigation.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday that the White House counsel’s office and relevant officials will review the letter and respond at the appropriate time.

Washington • The majority of ponds and landfills holding coal waste at 250 power plants across the country have leaked toxic chemicals into nearby groundwater, including a 340-acre landfill at the Hunter Power Plant in east-central Utah, according to an analysis of public monitoring data released Monday by environmental groups.

The report, published jointly by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, found that 91 percent of the nation’s coal-fired power plants reported elevated levels of contaminants such as arsenic, lithium, chromium and other pollutants in nearby groundwater.

In many cases, the levels of toxic contaminants that had leaked into groundwater were far higher than the thresholds set by the Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water, the groups said.

Three electrical-generating stations operated by PacifiCorp, parent company to Utah’s largest utility, appear on the report’s top 10 list of most contaminated coal-ash sites, with Hunter near Castle Dale at No. 8.

Data show Hunter’s landfill is an active source of coal-ash contamination, according to the report. Levels of cobalt, lithium and molybdenum in the groundwater there far exceed federal safety standards.

PacifiCorp spokesman David Eskelsen acknowledged high levels of dangerous minerals do occur at Hunter, but he said the plant is nowhere near drinking-water sources and that the groundwater is naturally rich in lithium and other minerals associated with coal ash.

Percolating through Mancos Shale, aquifers there are not fit to drink with or without the presence of heavy industry.

“Environmental responsibility is a corporate value here,” Eskelsen said. “We want to do everything we can to mitigate impacts. We know there are impacts from our operations.”

Other examples span the country. At a family ranch south of San Antonio, a dozen pollutants have leaked from a nearby coal ash dump, data showed. Groundwater at one Maryland landfill that contains ash from three coal plants was contaminated with eight pollutants. In Pennsylvania, levels of arsenic in the groundwater near a former coal plant were several hundred times the level the EPA considers safe for drinking.

The voluminous data became publicly available for the first time last year because of a 2015 regulation that required disclosures by the overwhelming majority of coal plants.

“At a time when the EPA — now being run by a coal lobbyist — is trying to roll back federal regulations on coal ash, these new data provide convincing evidence that we should be moving in the opposite direction,” Abel Russ, lead author of the report and an attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a statement.

In Wyoming, PacifiCorp’s Jim Bridger and Naughton plants were listed as the nation’s third and fourth-most contaminated sites, respectively, where levels of lithium and selenium were 100 times the safe limit. These plants also showed unsafe levels of arsenic, boron, cadmium, fluoride, lead, radium and thallium.

For groundwater under Utah’s Hunter plant, lithium levels exceed drinking-water standards by 228 times.

According to Eskelsen, however, it would be fairer to compare lithium and metal levels found in monitoring wells against naturally occurring levels.

“If you do that, they are less than one times background levels for lithium for two wells that registered exceedances and in one well for molybdenum,” he said. “That reduces the scary nature of the report.”

Even so, Eskelsen added, PacifiCorp is taking steps to reduce potential environmental impacts by removing groundwater from under Hunter’s coal-ash landfill.

The report acknowledges that the groundwater data alone do not prove that drinking-water supplies near the coal waste facilities have been contaminated. Power companies are not routinely required to test nearby drinking-water wells. "So the scope of the threat is largely undefined," the report states.

However, according to the EPA, nearly 90 million people rely on groundwater for their drinking supplies. Groundwater is also widely used in agriculture for irrigation. Monday's report also details multiple instances, largely in rural areas, in which residential tap water has been affected by coal ash.

Coal ash ranks among the nation's largest industrial waste streams. According to the EPA, in 2012, coal-fired electric utilities burned more than 800 million tons of coal in the United States, generating about 110 million tons of coal ash.

The Trump administration has sought to overhaul portions of the Obama-era requirements for handling the toxic waste produced by burning coal. For instance, the agency last year put in place changes aimed at providing more flexibility to state and industry officials in implementing the 2015 restrictions.

The 2015 regulations, which dictated how coal ash must be stored across the country, were finalized in the wake of two high-profile spills in Tennessee and North Carolina, which collectively contaminated waterways and damaged nearby homes. The Obama administration negotiated for years with environmental groups, electric utilities and other affected industries about how to address coal waste, which can poison wildlife and poses health risks to people living near storage sites.

Changes made under President Donald Trump would extend the life of some existing ash ponds, empower states to suspend groundwater monitoring in some cases and allow state officials to certify whether a facility meets adequate standards. EPA officials estimate that the rule changes will save the industry tens of millions of dollars a year in compliance costs.

The administration also has said it plans to make an additional proposal that would further dilute existing coal ash regulations.

But that effort has been complicated by an August ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which found that parts of Obama-era regulation around coal ash storage were not stringent enough to adequately protect public health. For instance, the court tossed provisions that would have allowed some unlined or clay-lined coal ash pits to continue operating, as long as testing revealed no leaks.

Monday's report, which included information from thousands of groundwater monitoring wells, suggests serious questions remain about the long-term safety of coal ash ponds and landfills that dot the country.

The analysis found that a majority of the country's more than 250 coal plants have unsafe levels of at least four potentially toxic substances, including arsenic, which the EPA has classified as a human carcinogen. In addition, the report found that few coal-ash waste ponds have waterproof liners to prevent harmful substances from leeching into groundwater, and that more than half are built beneath the local water table or within 5 feet of it.

Lisa Evans, an expert on coal ash and a senior attorney for Earthjustice, said in an interview that the findings raise only more questions about the impact of the leaks.

"With all of these, the contamination is really not in dispute. It's the industry's own numbers," Evans said. "The question now is, where is the contamination going? Who's in the path of a plume? Is it people? A waterway?"

Among the most striking examples cited in Monday's report were near the San Miguel power plant located an hour south of San Antonio. The groundwater samples from beneath a family ranch there showed that at least 12 pollutants had leaked from the electric coop's coal-ash dumps.

The report also found that in Belmont, N.C., Duke Energy’s Allen Steam Station’s coal ash dumps were built beneath the water table and had leaked cobalt — which can cause thyroid problems and other health issues at high exposures — into groundwater at concentrations well above those considered safe. The power plant also reported unsafe levels of eight other pollutants.

At recent meetings, some residents have pushed for Duke to remove coal ash from the site.

The issue flared up last year when Hurricane Florence unleashed flooding at coal ash sites alongside Duke Energy's L.V. Sutton power plant, spilling coal ash into the nearby Cape Fear River. The company at one point estimated that flooding washed away the equivalent of more than 150 dump trucks full of coal ash, but further flooding later caused the collapse of a dam separating more ash from the river.

James Roewer, executive director of the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, which lobbies on coal ash issues on behalf of electric utilities, said the groundwater monitoring disclosures are a sign that the industry is adhering to EPA regulations.

"I'd look at these reports as a visible, public demonstration of the industry working to comply with these rules and protect the environment," Roewer said.

He said that where there is evidence of contamination that exceeds EPA standards, companies are required to take corrective measures. "It's going to be a very public and transparent process," he said. Roewer added that just because contaminants are detected near a coal ash storage site, "that doesn't necessarily translate into people's drinking water being contaminated."

Cleaning up coal ash is costly. In December, a member of the Virginia State Corporation Commission said that it could cost ratepayers as much as $3.30 a month over 20 years — between $2.4 billion and $5.6 billion — to clean up Virginia-based Dominion Energy’s 11 coal-ash ponds and six coal-ash landfills in the state. And five Dominion facilities continue to churn out coal ash.

Monday's report relies on data that was made public starting in March 2018 as required by a 2015 regulation known as the coal-ash rule. The information was collected by a variety of environmental groups including the Sierra Club and Prairie Rivers Network. The data cover 265 coal plants and include more than 550 coal-ash ponds and landfills that were monitored by more than 4,600 groundwater wells.

About a quarter of coal plants did not register data because they either closed their coal-ash dumps before the regulation took effect or because they received extensions or exemptions.

Tribune reporter Brian Maffly contributed to this story.