As 2018 draws to a close, let’s make like the Emmys and the Oscars and do our own “In Memoriam” segment, running down the list of TV deaths that happened this year.

Not actual people. Not characters. A list of shows that died. It’s a long list — 112 shows.

Some of them clearly deserved to die. “Inhumans” couldn't go away fast enough, and the fact that an awful show like “Designated Survivor” hung on for two seasons does not speak well of the television industry.

They weren’t all bad, of course. In a world where quality mattered more than viewership, shows like “Alex, Inc.” and “Rise” would have survived.

Some shows went more or less willingly, voluntarily ending for one reason or another. “The Middle” signed off after nine seasons; “Scandal” after seven; “The Americans,” “House of Cards” and “The Mindy Project” after six each; “The Fosters” after five; and “12 Monkeys” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” after four apiece.

They were the exceptions, of course. The people who produce most shows aren't particularly happy when the ax falls.

A few were quickly resurrected. Fox canceled “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and NBC picked it up; Fox also canceled “Lucifer” and Netflix picked it up. Fox added “Last Man Standing” a year after it had been canceled by ABC. Amazon rescued Syfy castoff “The Expanse.” And ABC canceled “Roseanne,” then brought back everyone but the racist-tweeting star as “The Conners.”

Barring other resurrections, the list of shows that we already know will be ending in 2019 includes “The Affair” (Showtime), “Broad City” (Comedy Central), “Elementary” (CBS), “Game of Thrones” (HBO), “Orange Is the New Black” (Netflix) and “Veep” (HBO).

What follows is an alphabetical list of the shows that were canceled in 2018. You might want to hum somber music as you read through. And, just for fun, count the shows you never heard of.

TV SHOWS CANCELED IN 2018

• “Alex, Inc.” (ABC), “Alone Together” (Freeform), “The Americans” (FX), “American Vandal” (Netflix), “American Woman” (Paramount), “The Arrangement” (E!)

• “Being Mary Jane” (BET), “Beyond” (Freeform), “Blood Drive” (Syfy), “The Brave” (NBC), “The Break With Michelle Wolf” (Netflix)

• “Champions” (NBC), “Chance” (Hulu), “Chelsea” (Netflix), “The Chew” (ABC), “Code Black” (CBS), “Colony” (USA), “The Crossing” (ABC)

• “Damnation” (USA), “Daredevil” (Netflix), “Dark Matter” (Syfy), “Deception” (ABC), “Designated Survivor” (ABC), “Detroiters” (Comedy Central), “Dice” (Showtime), “Dietland” (AMC), “Difficult People” (Hulu), “Disjointed” (Netflix)

• “Everything Sucks!” (Netflix), “The Exorcist” (Fox)

• “Falling Water” (USA), “Famous in Love” (Freeform), “The Fosters” (Freeform)

• “The Get Down” (Netflix), “Ghosted” (Fox), “Girlboss” (Netflix), “Good Behavior” (TNT), “Good Girls Revolt” (Amazon), “Graves” (Epix), “Great News” (NBC), “Gypsy” (Netflix)

• “Hap and Leonard” (Sundance), “Haters Back Off!” (Netflix), “Here and Now” (HBO), “Hit the Floor” (BET), “House of Cards” (Netflix)

• “I Love Dick” (Amazon), “I’m Dying Up Here” (Showtime), “Imposters” (Bravo), “Incorporated” (Syfy), “Inhumans” (ABC), “Iron Fist” (Netflix)

• “Jean-Claude Van Johnson” (Amazon)

• “Kevin Can Wait” (CBS), “Kevin (Probably) Saves the World” (ABC)

• “Lady Dynamite” (Netflix), “The Last Man on Earth” (Fox), “The Last Ship” (TNT), “The Last Tycoon” (Amazon), “The Leftovers” (HBO), “LA to Vegas” (Fox), “The Librarians” (TNT), “Life Sentence” (The CW), “Love Is” (OWN), “Luke Cage” (Netflix)

• “Marlon” (NBC), “The Mayor” (ABC), “Megyn Kelly Today” (NBC), “The Mick” (Fox), “The Middle” (ABC), “Midnight, Texas” (NBC), “The Mindy Project” (Hulu), “Mozart in the Jungle” (Amazon), “Mr. Robot” (USA)

• “The Night Shift” (NBC), “9JKL” (CBS), “Nobodies” (TV Land)

• “Once Upon a Time” (ABC), “One Mississippi” (Amazon), “Outcast” (Cinemax)

• “The Path” (Hulu)

• “The Quad” (BET), “Quantico” (ABC)

• “Reverie” (NBC), “Rise” (NBC), “The Royals” (E!), “The Rundown With Robin Thede” (BET)

• “Salvation” (CBS), “Scandal” (ABC), “Scorpion” (CBS), “Sense8” (Netflix), “Seven Seconds” (Netflix), “Shades of Blue” (NBC), “Shadowhunters” (Freeform), “The Shannara Chronicles” (MTV), “Shooter” (USA), “Shut Eye” (Hulu), “Six” (History), “Stuck in the Middle” (Disney Channel), “Superior Donuts” (CBS)

• “Taken” (NBC), “Take Two” (ABC), “Teachers” (TV Land), “Ten Days in the Valley” (ABC), “Timeless” (NBC), “12 Monkeys” (Syfy)

• “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (Netflix), “UnREAL” (Hulu), “Valor” (The CW), “White Famous” (Showtime), “Who Is America?” (Showtime), “Young & Hungry” (Freeform)

In voting, we, the people of Utah, select political leaders we hope will represent our views and act with honor and integrity. In fact, we might pray for them using words such as pioneer Eliza R. Snow’s: “Let them seek for wisdom instead of power and they will have all the power they have wisdom to exercise.”

Democracy, we believe, provides assurance that the power and trust we invest in elected leaders will not be abused. To that end, George Washington, in his farewell address on Sept. 17, 1796, forewarned, “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

We invite all Utah voters to consider whether the political leaders involved in the Senate Bill 54 chronicles have honored the people’s trust or whether their fear of losing control has led them to “subvert the will of the people,” as Washington feared. That question then leads us to consider new possibilities for broader citizen engagement in the election process. Here’s the SB54 story.

In 2010, a group of mostly moderate community leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, met to “increase civic engagement and voter participation” and discuss alternatives to the caucus system in Utah. Republican Party stalwarts forcefully support this system, extolling its volunteer base and community orientation. However, a significant number of Utahns believe caucuses produce candidates with extreme views and leave citizens without a moderate choice.

In 2014, Count My Vote, the grassroots movement born out of the 2010 meetings, collected signatures for a ballot initiative replacing caucuses in Utah with a statewide primary. To avoid that possibility, Utah’s Republican-controlled Legislature and governor compromised with Count My Vote, and Senate Bill 54 was developed and passed. This law provided for a dual pathway to candidacy, via signatures or caucuses.

In the days when one’s word or handshake was their bond, all parties in the SB54 compromise would have moved forward, confident in their good-faith agreement. Instead, every year since SB54 passed, the Utah Republican Central Committee has appealed the law in state and federal courts. With the failure of those appeals, the SB54 law stands. Now, in 2018, the Republican party has turned to the Supreme Court, requesting that the federal court’s support of SB54 be overturned. In addition, Utah’s Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Rob Bishop, along with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, have submitted an amicus filing to the court advocating for the caucus system as optimal. These dogged efforts to undo SB54 disregard the call from the people of Utah for a more inclusive voice in the election process and bespeak a calculated resolve to maintain status quo and control.

The fate of Utah Senate Bill 54 lies in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, which has, in turn, requested a response from the state of Utah. We request that the response from Utah to the Supreme Court reflect forthright respect for the SB54 compromise and honor the people of Utah who seek a stronger voice in government.

Looking to the future, could the SB54 controversies generate discourse toward enhancing the voice of the people and “making our votes count”? The United Utah Party introduced an option for those desiring to end extreme partisanship. However, in our winner-take-all election system, third-party choices can cause what’s referred to as “strategic voting” or voting for candidates more likely to win instead of preferred choices. In this voting scenario, such winners are not likely to earn a majority of votes.

Another option, ranked-choice-voting, provides greater value for each individual vote by counting the voter’s preference in each consecutive tally. Such a process ensures a majority winner, motivates candidates to appeal to the broader electorate in order to win, gives weight to third parties and increases voter engagement.

We implore Utah political leaders to prioritize people over party by supporting and helping develop an open and fair election process involving the broadest possible citizen participation. Along with Eliza R. Snow, we, the people, say, “Let them seek for wisdom instead of power and they will have all the power they have wisdom to exercise.”

Camille Baker is a retired mathematics teacher. Linda Keyes retired as director of learning for life for The Great Salt Lake Council, Boy Scouts of America. Both are members of Mormon Women for Ethical Government.

The agency that oversees the government's civilian workforce is facing scrutiny after suggesting federal employees affected by the partial government shutdown barter with their landlords if they can't make rent payments, advice that has been called "laughable."

On Thursday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management tweeted sample letters to help the roughly 800,000 affected workers negotiate with creditors and mortgage companies. One letter, meant for employees to send to their landlords, discussed a temporary reduction in rent payments and further suggests "the possibility of trading my services to perform maintenance (e.g. painting, carpentry work) in exchange for partial rent payments."

Feds, here are sample letters you may use as a guide when working with your creditors during this furlough. If you need legal advice please consult with your personal attorney. https://t.co/t6h6OzALsS

— OPM (@USOPM) December 27, 2018

On CNN Saturday morning, Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, called the suggestion about trading services for rent payments "laughable" and "unfortunate."

“It’s disgusting, candidly,” Reardon said on “New Day.” He added, “It’s wrong to treat human beings this way.”

An estimated 350,000 workers are on furlough at home without pay due to the ongoing partial shutdown over Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. The rest are working without pay due to the “essential” nature of their jobs. The partial shutdown entered its eight day on Saturday.

An OPM spokesperson acknowledged receipt of the emailed questions but said a response would be delayed.

The internet provided a much quicker response. The Internet Archive's "Wayback Machine" shows that OPM has offered similar advice for furloughed workers in the past, such as in 2015 when Barack Obama was president, as some pointed out.

Critics also called OPM's tweet tone-deaf for telling furloughed workers to "consult with [a] personal attorney," for legal advice.

The partial shutdown is expected to last until at least the start of the new year. On Friday, Trump issued an order to freeze federal employee salary rates at their current levels in 2019. In a statement, Reardon likened the order to “pouring salt on the wound.”

San Diego • With all the comparisons between Utah and Northwestern pointing toward a slog-a-thon, a punch-you-in-the-mouth defensive struggle, the question then becomes this: From an entertainment standpoint, will the Holiday Bowl end up being a forgettable snooze-fest, an ugly game only Buddy Ryan could like?

It might.

That’s not this particular bowl’s tradition, what with final scores in past games being notable for their explosion of offense and points. In nearly half of the bowl’s 39 games since its inception, the teams have combined for 60 or more points. In 14 of the games, one of the participants has scored at least 40 points. In five games, a team has scored 50 or more points.

Some of the contests were downright ridiculous, such as three consecutive games from 1979-81, when BYU lost to Indiana, 38-37, SMU lost to BYU, 46-45, and BYU beat Washington State, 38-36. In 1986, Iowa defeated San Diego State, 39-38. In 1989, Penn State took out BYU, 50-39. Oregon edged Texas in 2000, 35-30. The following year, Texas slipped by Washington, 47-43. Texas outscored Arizona State in 2007, 52-34. In 2014, USC beat Nebraska, 45-42.

There have been some exceptions, but there must be something in the air in San Diego in late December, and usually it’s a spiraling football.

The lowest scoring game ever in the bowl was a dull-as-a-doorknob 13-13 tie, thrown up in 1991 by Iowa and BYU.

Despite the bloated scores, many of the games have been close, 20 of them decided by a touchdown or less.

Utah-Northwestern, though, is neck-deep in slowing the scoring, not inflating it. Six of the Utes’ opponents were held to 10 or fewer points this season. The Wildcats can’t match that resistance numerically, but they do not score a whole lot of points. The biggest number they posted, twice, was 34, once in a loss, once in an overtime win.

The Utes, conversely, scored 40 or more points five times, so they did show that when the wind blew right, when the stars aligned, when the karma came together, when the aura on the field was just so, when they executed properly, they could push or fling the ball into the end zone.

It’s just that when they ran up against a quality defense, the offensive going on a few occasions got rough, including against Northern Illinois and in the two games against Washington, the most recent coming in the Pac-12 title game, when Utah went for all of three points.

A defensive battle would favor the Utes because, despite defense being Northwestern’s strength, Utah’s defense is better. If by some chance the ball-in-the-air-in-San Diego thing happens again, that would favor the Utes, as well, considering that Utah is better on the attack than the Wildcats.

The Utes will be hurt by the absence of receiver Britain Covey, who was injured in the Washington game. But they could benefit by the return of quarterback Tyler Huntley. Some reports have indicated that the original Utah starter is a go, although coach Kyle Whittingham said Sunday that it would take “a miracle” for Huntley to play.

Whoever plays — Huntley or freshman Jason Shelley — will have to be precise when passing the ball against Northwestern’s zone coverage, a defensive structure that forces opponents to dissect it with high efficiency. Which is to say, the Wildcat D stresses keeping the ball in front of that secondary, stopping longer passes and bigger gains.

Overall, Northwestern finished 40th in the country in scoring defense, allowing 36 touchdowns in 13 games, and a total of 305 points. By comparison, Utah was 16th in scoring defense, yielding 31 TDs and a total of 241 points.

On offense, the Utes ranked 66th in scoring, averaging 28.7 points a game. The Wildcats ranked 106th, averaging 23.7.

Northwestern was particularly ineffective in running the ball, ranking 117th nationally in that category, getting just 117.5 yards a game. If the Wildcats can move the ball on the ground, that would be surprising and troubling for Whittingham, who always emphasizes as a top defensive strategy stopping the run. That means pressure will be on a Wildcats passing attack that averaged 239 yards. Utah’s defense allowed 213 passing yards per game.

Northwestern has played its opponents relatively close this season, staying within two touchdowns of all of its regular-season opponents, and usually within one. In games against Notre Dame and Michigan, the Wildcats lost by a combined 13 points. The only team to smoke Northwestern was Ohio State in the Big Ten title game, and that game was blown open late, on account of turnovers, after the Wildcats closed to within three points in the third quarter.

The guess here is that the game will buck the trend and tradition in the Holiday Bowl and be somewhat southernly in scoring, but more for Northwestern than for the Utes. Short of blowing their own toes off with mistakes, Utah should win this game by a touchdown or two, no matter how low or high the numbers go, regardless of what’s in the air in San Diego.

GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” with Jake Scott weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.

Coral Gables, Fla. • Mark Richt stepped down as Miami coach on Sunday, an announcement that caught the school off-guard and comes just days after the end of an underachieving season.

Richt, 58, said he was not forced out, and that the decision to retire was his.

"My love for The U is simply great," Richt said. "My true desire is for our football program to return to greatness, and while terribly difficult, I feel that stepping down is in the best interests of the program."

Richt said he informed Miami athletic director Blake James of his decision "a few hours" before the school sent out a news release shortly before 1 p.m. announcing the move. The Hurricanes scheduled a news conference for later Sunday to discuss the situation and where the program will go from here.

Miami struggled to a 7-6 record this season, falling to Wisconsin in the Pinstripe Bowl on Thursday night. The Hurricanes have lost nine of their last 16 games going back to a 10-0 start last season, were horrendous on offense at times in 2018 — totaling just 100 passing yards in their last two games — and saw several recruits who were committed decide to either sign elsewhere or re-open their college decisions.

Richt was 26-13 at Miami, and 171-64 in 18 seasons between Georgia and the Hurricanes.

"I want to express my sincere appreciation to the entire Hurricane family for welcoming me back home and for supporting the outstanding young men in our program," Richt said in the news release. "I only wish that we could have achieved greater things in return."

Defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, who likely would have been a strong candidate for the job, left Miami earlier this month to take over as coach at Temple. Several underclassmen also are considering leaving Miami early for the NFL draft.

Richt gave no indication that he was considering an early exit. He arrived at Miami in December 2015, spearheaded the building of an indoor practice facility that opened earlier this season and signed an extension in May that kept him under contract through 2023. He was making just over $4 million annually.

“The decision came after a great deal of thought, discussions with my family, and prayer,” Richt said. “This was my decision.”

2018 has been the kind of year that makes you hunger for good news in almost any arena, so it’s no surprise that feminist observers of the entertainment industry this month seized on a new analysis that implied that starring a woman boosts a movie’s prospects at the box office.

The research, compiled by Creative Artists Agency and the company shift7, is a sensible attempt to use the only true leverage point in Hollywood. (For all the industry’s liberal platitudes, the past few years have demonstrated that the entertainment industry’s barons don’t actually feel anything like shame when it comes to gender equality).

What the numbers mostly made me feel, though, was exhaustion with a long-running feminist measuring unit that started out as a withering critique of Hollywood but, like most things that come into contact with the entertainment industry, was co-opted by the very business it intended to condemn.

The so-called Bechdel Test, which emerged from one of cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s “Dykes to Watch Out For” comic strips, tests a simple thing: Does a movie feature two women who talk to each other about something other than a man? There’s nothing wrong with Bechdel’s acerbic and despairing assessment of the mainstream movie industry of 1985; her condemnation could apply equally to the moviegoing landscape of today.

But the Bechdel Test doesn’t even get close to reorienting the entertainment industry toward women’s stories, or to subject matter and emotional tones that have been traditionally considered female rather than excitingly masculine. I’d be delighted if I never heard anyone connected with Hollywood invoke the Bechdel Test again.

As the report notes, every movie released between 2014 and 2017 that made a billion dollars or more at movie theaters around the world passed the Bechdel Test. But, beyond the basics of the test, what does this factoid really tell us about the world’s most popular and widely seen movies?

Mostly, it suggests that movies with reasonably prominent female characters can make a bundle of money as long as they aren’t very different from movies that star mostly men. Of the 11 movies that crossed the billion-dollar mark, eight of them — “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Jurassic World,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Furious 7,” “The Fate of the Furious,” “Captain America: Civil War” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” — were installments of existing action or disaster movie franchises.

Some of these movies incorporate private concerns and allow both male and female characters to display vulnerability as well as strength. (Invocations of family show up in the “Fast and Furious” movies so frequently that you could use them as the basis for a fairly risky drinking game.) The “Star Wars” movies, which star Daisy Ridley as Rey, arguably do the most to shake up their genre by featuring plot points and characters that call into question traditional models of strength and leadership.

But even a very mildly innovative “Star Wars” movie is still a “Star Wars” movie. The franchise’s recent financial success is hardly about to overturn the hierarchy of moviegoing concerns that prioritizes exploding skyscrapers and battleships over more domestic and intimate — what have traditionally been seen as more feminine — concerns.

The three remaining movies on the list don’t say much more about moviegoers’ hunger for films that don’t simply star female characters, but that address women’s concerns and inner lives. “Zootopia,” Disney’s terrific animated movie about a bunny who wants to be a police officer and ends up confronting her own implicit biases about predator animals, is a zingy and slyly subversive delight, but it’s also fundamentally a much-cuter remake of “Chinatown.”

Which leaves us with “Beauty and the Beast” and “Finding Dory.” Both movies are about women and their identities and independence (OK, one woman and one female fish), but are based on pre-existing intellectual property. In “Beauty and the Beast,” Belle, played here by Emma Watson, is the live-action incarnation of the Disney animated feature, while Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) graduated from a supporting role in “Finding Nemo” to be the star of her own picture.

The authors of the study are candid about how little the Bechdel Test actually means. “The test itself is an admittedly low bar — e.g., films can pass with a single line of dialogue,” they wrote in a footnote. “That fact makes it perhaps even more surprising that so many films still fail to pass this low bar.”

The fact that even a few billion-dollar movies cleared this hurdle is really what did it for me. The thing about criteria such as the Bechdel Test is that they can so easily move from exasperated challenge to the status quo to fig leaf that helps preserve the existing order. If all the entertainment industry has to do to pass the Bechdel Test is to slap a few lines of dialogue onto a 140-minute compilation of CGI explosions, then I’m done accepting Bechdel Test results as proof of anything other than Hollywood’s desire to wring as much profit out of feminism with as little effort as possible.

Helena, Mont. • The sharp scrape of steel on ice cut through a rare windless December morning at the Silos on Canyon Ferry Reservoir as a quartet of skaters moved briskly across the smooth frozen surface.

A mild reflection grew across the ice as they approached, slowing to a stop near the shore before a few pushes on the skates sent them gliding once again, becoming only specks against the outline of Mount Baldy in the background.

"It's so graceful and the possibilities are endless," said Dale Livezey from Helena, skating backward as he spoke. "When the ice is smooth like this, it's the closest thing to flying on the ground."

Several years ago Livezey and some “wild ice” skating enthusiasts started an online group to network and share their passion. About five years ago the group moved to Facebook under the name “MT icebuds,” which has grown to include a sizable network of photos and videos, ice reports and invitations to come out and skate.

"It's great because the conditions are so dynamic, there's such a short window, and to be able to communicate about the ice is so important. Plus it's great to share these experiences with people that enjoy them," Livezey told the Independent Record .

While MT icebuds is not the only organized skating group in Montana — Flathead-based Wild Ice Montana operates in the northwest — it has quickly grown as the go-to place for Helena and Bozeman skaters.

"It's been growing each year little by little, and there's a dedicated group here," said Dave Gluek of Bozeman. "It's just the freedom of it. There're no boundaries, and you can just go up the lake on that big marble floor and there's nothing like it."

In Bozeman, Gluek and others prepare and maintain a skating pond in town, but always enjoy making the trek to Canyon Ferry or Ennis Lake in the pursuit of open ice. The popularity of skating has ebbed and flowed over the years, he said, recalling up to 100 people in the 1980s out skating and ice boating at one time.

Most skaters use Nordic skates with long blades conducive to gliding. With days that may include shuttles and up to 20-mile skates, the design is far superior to figure skates, especially on rough ice.

Heading out onto lake ice means safety is a priority. The first freeze of the year is often a hard freeze, and they will skate on as little as 2 inches of ice, which they check beforehand. Most skaters also wear helmets, bring a throw rope and all carry ice picks in case they fall through and must pull themselves out.

Skating on the wild ice of Montana’s lakes and reservoirs can only happen when the atmospheric stars align. While cold temperatures are the biggest part of the equation, skaters also need a lack of snow to keep the surface clean.

The Helena area's propensity for early cold but little snow gives it an advantage over places such as the Seeley-Swan, where mounting snow quickly narrows the skating window if they get any window at all.

"Helena is unique in how it's situated for skating," Livezey said. "We're in this high mountain desert and have all this public access; I can't think of someplace better that has this quality of ice and a variety of places to go."

With shallow water freezing first, the ponds on the southern end of Canyon Ferry typically present the earliest opportunities to skate. The Helena Valley Regulating Reservoir and Lake Helena are also early to freeze, and then the southern end of Canyon Ferry in the bays out into the main lake, with ice moving north as the season progresses. Depending on conditions, Livezey says even areas such as Gates of the Mountains have become skateable. This year, the Causeway on Hauser has been a popular spot.

MT icebuds includes members in the northwest and eastern part of the state providing updates on those waterbodies.

"We're looking for more people all the time to give us information on all the lakes out around Helena but really anywhere in the state," Livezey said.

Among those skating several Montana lakes this year and etching turns across Canyon Ferry with Livezey and his wife Amy were Rachel and Stephanie Robey from Maryland. The sisters and former figure skaters decided to enter a contest from KOA Campgrounds pitching an outdoor adventure. Their proposal to come out West in search of wild ice won the grant award.

When deciding where to go, Livezey found the pair online and encouraged them to make Montana their destination.

"I didn't even know Nordic existed, but with our background I just figured we'd apply," Rachel said. "It's been awesome but definitely a little weird because we were used to skating on those contained rinks, and out here it's just a bigger standard."

MT icebuds is happy to see new skaters on the ice. Members recommend getting involved with the local skating community by following the Facebook group, talking with those who are organizing outings, and coming to the lake to give it a try.

"It's in the big wide open and you can move around so effortlessly," Amy Livezey said. "The community is really fun too. When you find that commonality, it's instant camaraderie."

Federal and state investigators are scrutinizing the employment documents of immigrants without legal status who allegedly worked at President Donald Trump's golf club in New Jersey, according to their attorney.

Anibal Romero, a Newark attorney who represents five undocumented immigrants who say they worked at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, said in an interview Saturday that he met with investigators from the New Jersey state attorney general's office and two FBI agents in November, before the workers began to go public with their stories.

Romero said he turned over fake green cards and Social Security numbers that supervisors at the golf club allegedly gave one of his clients, Victorina Morales, a 44-year-old Guatemalan national. He also gave investigators the pay stubs of Sandra Diaz, a Costa Rican native who now has legal status but said she was undocumented when she worked at the club for three years.

The FBI agents told him they would "coordinate" with the New Jersey state attorney general's office, Romero said.

The materials collected by law enforcement agencies, first reported by the New York Daily News, indicate that investigators may be launching a probe into the hiring practices of the president's golf club.

A spokeswoman for New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said the office's policy is "to neither confirm nor deny investigations." The FBI declined to comment.

Trump Organization officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Morales and Diaz first went public in interviews with the New York Times earlier this month. Morales said she had worked at the Bedminster club for the last five years — even making Trump’s bed and ironing the president’s clothes at times. She told the Times that managers at the club had taken steps to help her evade detection as an undocumented worker.

“The important point that I think has been left out is that Americans think these hard-working women get these jobs on their own — that’s not what happened,” Romero said. “People employed by the golf club recruited her and made her the phony documents.”

In an interview Saturday, Morales said decided to come forward in part to highlight Trump's "hypocrisy."

As president, Trump has pushed hard-line immigration policies and has insisted on $5 billion in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, which has caused a partial shutdown of the federal government. He has sought to make it harder for migrants to obtain asylum and backed a policy that has led to the detention of immigrant children separated from their parents.

Trump Organization officials have declined to comment on the specific allegations about Bedminster's hiring practices. But spokeswoman Amanda Miller, responding to questions about the case earlier this month, said in a statement: "We have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices. If any employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately."

Romero said he first contacted the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in late October seeking guidance on the workers' allegations. Several weeks later, he received a call from the FBI, Romero said.

"The agent told me that he had received a referral from Robert Mueller's office and that he had been briefed on the case and he wanted to meet with me in person," Romero said.

A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment.

Morales said she left Guatemala, where she worked as a corn farmer, and entered the United States illegally in 1999. She said she started working at the Bedminster club in 2013.

During her interview at the club, Morales said she was told that "her status didn't matter."

Morales said she decided to come forward because she was receiving abusive comments from a supervisor, who she said called her stupid and pushed her against a wall. The supervisor said because she wasn't documented and worked for the president, she couldn't do anything about it, Morales said.

"I was humiliated. I just wanted to come of the shadows," she said. "I was trapped and threatened with deportation if I spoke out against my boss, who was so abusive. No one should be treated this way in the United States of America."

Morales was also upset by Trump's comments about Latin American immigrants being criminals. She said the president was "demanding, but sometimes tipped with a $50 or $100 bill." She was making $10 an hour.

She is still paid by the golf club but stopped going to work after her story was made public, her attorney said.

Orem • A retired U.S. Army sergeant from Utah has written a pair of children’s books to help families cope with the deployment of a parent.

Leslie Zimmerman said she was inspired to write the books after seeing her nieces and nephews struggle when her older sister was deployed, the Daily Herald in Provo reports. Zimmerman said children of deployed parents can suffer depression, anxiety and anger.

Zimmerman is now a mother but didn’t have children when she was deployed to Iraq in 2003. She was a combat medic before being honorably discharged after developing post-traumatic stress disorder. She said writing the books is a way to continue to support military families.

The books, titled “When Dad Deploys” and “When Mom Deploys,” are designed to help families know how best to communicate during the separation and let the children know they can still enjoy things while their parent is gone. They are the same story, just with different pronouns and illustrations, which were done by her younger sister.

“This gives parents and children a little bit of control over how they feel,” said Zimmerman, of Pleasant Grove. “They sometimes have the fear of moving on and enjoying their life when their parents are gone.”

Zimmerman said her niece thought her mother was dead during her two-year deployment and would have her toy animals die when she played.

“Every time my sister would leave, when she came back from war, they’d cry,” Zimmerman said. “They didn’t want her to go because they didn’t know what to expect.”

Zimmerman previously wrote a children’s book about a turtle who dreams about what he’ll do when he grows up.

San Diego • Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley’s return to the field in Monday’s Holiday Bowl “would take a miracle,” Ute coach Kyle Whittingham said Sunday.

During his appearance at a news conference with Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, Whittingham labeled Huntley's case “by all definitions, a game-time decision.”

Asked after the formal session about who would make that call, Whittingham said the school’s medical staff would determine whether Huntley was ready to absorb hits, eight weeks after his collarbone was broken in a Nov. 3 game at Arizona State. Huntley has practiced for three weeks and has looked good lately, but “there’s a difference between ‘function’ and all that, and taking shots,” Whittingham said.

That’s when Whittingham clarified that Huntley’s being cleared to play would “take a miracle — a couple miracles, maybe.”

Utah has listed Huntley as a co-starter with Jason Shelley, who replaced him for Utah’s last four games in November – wins over Oregon, Colorado and BYU and a 10-3 loss to Washington in the Pac-12 championship game.

Huntley and Shelley both have said throughout December that they're preparing for a starting role Monday, although Huntley consistently said he would accept medical advice about not playing, knowing he has a senior season ahead in 2019.

Senior linebacker Chase Hansen has a “minimal chance” of playing, Whittingham said, due to an undisclosed injury. Many NFL draft prospects have announced this month that they are skipping bowl games for health reasons, but Hansen has not declared himself out of the Holiday Bowl. He has played in all 13 games this season, after missing last December’s Heart of Dallas Bowl with accumulated health issues.

Phoenix • A proposed monument at the Arizona Capitol would recall the migration story of thousands of Mormon settlers who made difficult treks from Utah to Arizona in the 19th century.

Legislation authorizing the monument died last spring but is expected to be considered anew in 2019. Supporters hope they can erect the monument at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza in Phoenix to honor settlers whose journeys included crossing the Colorado River at Lees Ferry near the Grand Canyon.

The Arizona Republic reported this week that the centerpiece of the privately funded monument would be a school bell that once hung at the small settlement of Lees Ferry and that was rung to summon ferry operators when a wagon train approached the riverbank.

To reach the river, settlers dispatched by church leader Brigham Young had to cross hundreds of miles of desert and canyon. In Arizona, they established communities such as Mesa, Gilbert, Safford and Snowflake.

The idea for the monument started with Fred DuVal, a member of the Arizona Board of Regents. The bell has been in DuVal's family for decades. His stepfather, Jack Whiteman, acquired it after he and a group of Phoenix businessmen bought the Lees Ferry property in 1964.

"The bell is now a powerful symbol of the migration story, and the hardships faced by the thousands who crossed the river in search of new lives," DuVal said.

The property was later sold to the National Park Service, and that stretch of river is popular for fishing and launching whitewater rafting trips.

Sen. Sylvia Allen, a Snowflake Republican whose ancestors crossed the river at Lees Ferry, plans to sponsor the monument bill next year.

"I think we just owe a lot of gratitude to those who came before us," Allen said. "It's just amazing to me how strong and resilient these pioneer people were. They would take on anything."

The proposal is not without a tinge of controversy.

Before the settlers' mass migration, church leaders sent John D. Lee, to create a ferry service at the relatively calm spot on the river. Lee was essentially exiled for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, when he and other Mormons in 1857 slaughtered 120 people on their way to California.

But monument supporters said its story would be about the Mormon settlers' migration and the hardships they faced.

Architect Greg Lambright, who designed the Mormon temple in Gilbert, has volunteered to design the monument. He said it would be shaped like the canyon at Lees Ferry, mimicking the area's vermilion cliffs.

“It wasn’t an easy journey to get here. They wanted to obey and find out what God had in store for them,” he said.

As many longtime supporters of Jazz point guard Dante Exum noted on social media Saturday night, the price of real estate on “Exum Island” is skyrocketing.

Against the Knicks, he registered 13 points and 13 assists for the first double-double of his career. The prior game, against the 76ers, he scored 20 points while hitting 3 of 5 shots from deep. He had two strong games against the Blazers recently — totaling 15 points (on 7-for-9 shooting) and four assists on Christmas, and eight points and eight assists on Dec. 21. He’s had one or zero turnovers in eight straight contests.

Exum finally seems to have unlocked some of the potential that led the Jazz to select him No. 5 overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, to have become a fully productive rotation piece. Of course, Jazz fans — and coaches, and teammates, and front office personnel — have seen this all before, though never for such an extended duration.

Dante, on his recent improvement: "I've always been invested, I'm always two feet in. It's just about locking in every night; that's the focus that I need to bring every night. Just getting to my spots, knowing what I can do, and being comfortable with what I can do." pic.twitter.com/ysXNfQlZds

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) December 28, 2018

“I’ve just been putting in a lot of work in the practice facility,” Exum said when asked the reason behind his recent success. “And then I’m just going out there and trying to play as comfortable as possible, get to my spots, try and do what I do.”

Derrick Favors, when asked what he’d seen from Exum in recent weeks, echoed one of those words.

“He looks comfortable out there. It looks like the game’s kinda slowed down for him. He’s making the correct read now without really forcing anything,” Favors said. “He doesn’t look timid — he looks like he’s having fun and not worrying about playing time and things like that.”

Not bad for a guy who, between the end of November through the first third of December, had fallen behind Raul Neto and was getting only sporadic gametime. Exum garnered just 6 minutes, 53 seconds vs. Brooklyn on Nov. 28; earned a DNP-CD against Charlotte on Nov. 30; was on the court for just 1:55 vs. Miami on Dec. 2; for 10:58 against the Spurs on Dec. 4, and 2:44 against them five days later.

“A couple weeks ago, there were a few games where he didn’t play well. It’s a time to be very honest with yourself about what you’re doing or not doing, and I think he’s been able to do that,” said coach Quin Snyder, who added of that prior stretch, “I think Dante was at a point where he really just needed to continue to invest” — a notion that Exum gently pushes back on.

“I’ve always been invested, I’m always two feet in,” he said. “It’s just about locking in every night.”

Much of that has come from his practice sessions with assistant coach Jeff Watkinson. “Wat” runs Exum through specific layup exercises — jumping off the wrong foot, finishing with his non-dominant hand, dialing in high-arcing floaters — all the while smacking him with a pad to simulate opponent contact. One day, he put Exum through a unique 3-point drill: seven spots behind the arc, a made shot enabling a rotation to the next station, a miss necessitating a return to the starting point and beginning all over again. Forty-five minutes later, Exum was breathing hard and sweating profusely, but he finally finished the sequence.

His teammates are pleased with the very tangible results.

Korver on Dante: "Man, I think he’s played really well the last couple weeks. He’s had a new level of aggression, he’s finishing around the basket, he’s making good reads. … He has an ability to get to the rim like very few guys I’ve ever been around." pic.twitter.com/JUJaWKLbOl

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) December 30, 2018

“Man, I think he’s played really well the last couple weeks. He’s had a new level of aggression, he’s finishing around the basket, he’s making good reads,” said Kyle Korver. “… He has an ability to get to the rim like very few guys I’ve ever been around. He’s a lot more athletic than I realized he was. And he’s just been playing at a really high level.”

Center Rudy Gobert, who got five of his eight first-half dunks vs. the Knicks off of Exum assists, was even more blunt: “The last few games, I think, has been the best stretch of his career.”

Exum recognizes there’s plenty of work yet to be done. He attributed much of his recent play to being in the lineup with Korver and Joe Ingles, noting that having two elite-level shooters “forces guys to stay with them, so I can get to the basket even more.” In the meantime, he said the next steps in his development entail improving his ability to read opposing defenses to enhance his playmaking, employing more ball-fakes, better utilizing his height for both shooting and passing, and — perhaps most importantly — bolstering his comfort level with consistency and confidence.

“Obviously, when you’re making shots, it’s working for you. It’s when I’m not making shots, it’s when stuff’s not going my way — how do I get out of that? How do I find something that works for me?” Exum said. “That’s something that I’m going to have to keep going through as I keep playing. It’s gonna be a battle every night.”

Snyder has hammered home the notion that, while yes, technically, this is Exum’s fifth season, that’s “deceptive” considering the Aussie missed all of the 2015-16 season with an ACL tear, and played only 14 games of the 2017-18 campaign due to a shoulder injury. Also, Exum is still only 23 years old. So, naturally, he remains a work in progress.

Quin, on Dante: "He did an excellent job tonight. … I thought he played the same way he’s been playing, he just was really efficient, and he was able to find other guys on the floor. He’s rewarded tonight with the results from a lot of the work that he’s put in." pic.twitter.com/uNCXufZUj6

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) December 30, 2018

“There’s gonna be volatility with a young player as they get better,” Snyder said. “… Some of it is there’s a tendency to evaluate Dante game to game, and I think that’s a mistake. He can play well or not play [in a given game], and to me it’s more about what he’s doing on the court, what he’s trying to accomplish, and his focus on the things he needs to do to keep getting better. Dante’s got a lot of growth left in him.”

Seldom in this nation’s history has a new Congress come to town facing such an urgent need for action.

Thursday is the opening of the 116th Congress. It begins with a federal government that is in partial shutdown because its predecessor had not been able to agree — among its own members or with the White House — on the most basic responsibility it has, to pass the appropriations necessary for all government agencies to do their jobs.

Among the new leaders coming to Washington are two from Utah: Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney. Both are in the majority party of their body and so have a chance to be part of a solution. Romney, particularly, has the potential to make an immediate difference, given his status as a not only a senator but also as an experienced and respected politician whose personal gravitas could well overcome his rookie status.

The main point of disagreement stopping approval of the necessary spending bills has been the insistence by the president and some members of Congress that the budget include $5 billion dollars for a particularly bad, expensive and pointless idea, a wall to separate the United States from Mexico. The president says the structure is necessary to stop a figment of his fevered imagination — a horde of dangerous brown people bent on overwhelming America with their drugs, diseases and disorder.

The fact is that illegal immigration has been on a downward trend for years. Many of those who are here without permission arrived legally but remained after — sometimes years after — the expiration of their visas. The well-known but little-understood “caravans” of people coming from war-torn Central American nations are, as required by American and international law, set on presenting themselves at border crossings and making application for asylum, not sneaking in through deserts or across rivers.

In none of those cases would a wall — a wall that would usurp private property, destroy fragile landscapes, harm wildlife and stand against centuries of America’s promise of a light onto the world — make any difference. Those who do wish us harm, or simply wish to slake our limitless appetite for illegal drugs, will find ways over, under or around any barrier that we can build.

The real threat to America is the ongoing shutdown of the government, along with the president’s threat to close legal border crossings, all of which promise nothing so much as a major economic slowdown.

Solving the immigration problem, bringing members of both parties and all interest groups together in a Grand Bargain, was a key promise of Romney’s campaign. His ideas have included increased border security, more enforcement of laws requiring that employers verify the immigration status of their employees and granting extended legal residency to undocumented residents who were brought here as children — the Dreamers.

All that is a good starting point for an agreement that would make meaningful progress on the immigration debate, giving all who want it a chance to claim progress, if not total victory, and get the government back in business.

San Diego • Utah and Northwestern will kick off Monday afternoon in the California sunshine, playing one day earlier and 130 miles south of their preferred time and place for a bowl game.

The Rose Bowl practically was within sight of the Utes and Wildcats a month ago, playing in conference championship games that offered them the opportunity to qualify for one of college football’s most glamorous events. They both lost.

Yet as coaches Kyle Whittingham of Utah and Pat Fitzgerald of Northwestern appeared at a news conference on a spectacular Sunday morning in a hotel fronting the San Diego Marina, their programs hardly looked like losers. Yeah, San Diego will have to do.

Imagining the stories from Pasadena is irresistible, though. Whittingham would have faced former Ute coach Urban Meyer in Meyer's final game as Ohio State's coach, after Whittingham spent part of his childhood living about seven miles from the Rose Bowl, before his family moved to Provo.

From a Northwestern perspective, the theme would have been Fitzgerald's coaching in the Rose Bowl, after helping the Wildcats get there as a player but not taking the field himself, due to injury.

Oh, well. If the subject of Rose Bowl remorse was inevitable Sunday, the coaches were not about to play along in this setting.

“You get what you earn,” Fitzgerald said.

Not being in Pasadena “gives us something to shoot for in the future,” Whittingham said.

And the Holiday Bowl represents a reward for Utah’s first Pac-12 South championship, as an upgrade over the Utes' previous postseason destinations of this decade. Even before losing to Washington in the conference title game, Utah administrators were pushing for the Holiday Bowl bid, just in case. Their proactive approach was successful and should produce a strong turnout of Ute fans Monday to conclude the school’s 125th year of football.

The Holiday Bowl is the football equivalent of the consolation games the NCAA Tournament stopped staging long ago, but it is a good matchup between tough, defense-oriented teams that are a lot alike. Just look at the coaches, wearing comparable sports jackets and open collars for the news conference.

“Well, we’re told how to dress,” Whittingham clarified.

Monday’s biggest contrast? Quarterbacking. Northwestern senior Clayton Thorson, who badly injured his knee in last December’s Music City Bowl, returned to the field this season and will conclude his Wildcat career with a 53rd start Monday. Ute redshirt freshman Jason Shelley is expected to make his fifth start, with junior Tyler Huntley requiring “a miracle” to be cleared to play, Whittingham said, eight weeks after Huntley suffered a broken collarbone.

So the Ute offense, with Troy Taylor calling the plays one last time before moving to Sacramento State as head coach, likely will have its November look on the last day of December. Shelley, running back Armand Shyne and a cast of receivers that will be missing No. 1 target Britain Covey will have to perform better than they did against Washington. Covey had knee surgery this month; star linebacker Chase Hansen has only a “minimal chance” of playing Monday, Whittingham said.

Utah can only hope that Washington's great defense was the cause of problems that can be fixed Monday, although Northwestern brings one of the Big Ten's better defenses.

Having admired the Wildcats from a distance, Whittingham once sent some of his assistants to the Chicago area to study Fitzgerald’s program in the spring. That’s common practice in the coaching profession among schools that don’t usually face each other. “When they came back, they said it was like a mirror image of how we run things, how they run things — just the energy, the structure, the type of practices they have,” Whittingham said. “From what I get from my staff, there’s a great deal of similarities. I take that as a compliment. If we can be like these guys, that’s a big positive.”

Fitzgerald already had praised Whittingham's program, while bonding with him as former linebackers. But he saved the label of “pretty frickin' good” for Ohio State, the team that kept Northwestern out of the Rose Bowl. The Wildcats were within a touchdown early in the fourth quarter, before OSU pulled away to a 45-24 victory in the Big Ten championship game Dec. 1.

The previous night, Utah had come even closer to beating Washington. The Utes were driving in a 3-3 game late in the third quarter, when Shelley's pass bounced off receiver Siaosi Mariner's hands and leg and into the arms of Washington's Byron Murphy, who returned the interception 66 yards for the game's only touchdown.

Shelley will need a bounce-back game Monday, in what's being framed as an old-fashioned football battle. Asked for a key matchup, Whittingham said the winner would be “the team that controls the line of scrimmage.”

That’s exactly how he likes it. The same, of course, is true of Fitzgerald.

What a season for @Utah_Football.

And the good news is, there's still one more game to play. 😏

Take a look back before the Utes face Northwestern in the @HolidayBowl. pic.twitter.com/fELH83pM8k

— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) December 29, 2018

This #tbt is more like an #fbf as we celebrate 1️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ Seasons of @Utah_Football w/a look at the current decade.

Ike Armstrong & Cactus Jack Curtice would be proud as Utah achieved bowl success, #Pac12 ascension & an undefeated rivalry game record in the 2010s thus far. #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/V9uKBip2Vr

— University of Utah (@UUtah) December 28, 2018

Video: Catholic Opinions columnists and editors wrestle with their faith following the report that revealed rampant clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

Pope Francis did not have the year he thought he was going to have.

It began this way: marked by sniping about his reform tendencies, especially where Catholic Church teaching on the family is concerned. As the Vatican geared up for its 2018 synod assembly — a meeting of bishops from around the world who gather in Rome to advise the pope on different issues, this year on youth and vocations — talk that the 2014 and 2015 synod meetings on the family had been rigged in favor of a reformist agenda circulated among anti-Francis factions. Perhaps the Francis skeptics assumed they would get to press their case against the pope again when the October synod on youth came to pass. But even they couldn’t have predicted what sort of opportunities would present themselves in the meantime.

There have been plenty of those. Today, Francis's pontificate wavers in the wake of the explosive re-emergence of the sex abuse crisis. His popularity has dropped sharply among Americans at large. And though Catholics' views of the pope are steadier, the faithful are suffering. The pope has been called upon to resign and likewise advised strongly against it.

Pope Francis has — for the most part, though with notable exceptions — said the right things about the crisis. But saying the right things about it is easy, and despite all the encouraging remarks, Francis has taken little action so far. In February he will convene a worldwide meeting of key bishops in Rome to generate actionable solutions to the disaster facing the church. Will it change anything?

A brief recap: After an investigation led by the Archdiocese of New York found accusations of minor sexual abuse against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick to be credible, McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals and Pope Francis ordered him into a life of prayer and penance, effectively banishing him from public life. A few weeks later, an explosive grand jury report from Pennsylvania revealed the disgusting, almost unthinkable extent of clergy sexual abuse and its coverup in the state, implicating several prelates, including then-archbishop of WashingtonCardinal Donald Wuerl. Roughly a week later, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano released a long testimonial accusing Francis himself of having known of McCarrick's abuses and permitting him to continue in public ministry anyhow, loosening restrictions placed on him by Pope Benedict XVI in the process.

And so all hell had broken loose. Francis chose to remain silent on Vigano's accusations. As for Pennsylvania, Francis released a letter "to the people of God," vowing to take a zero-tolerance approach to abuse against "the integrity of children and of vulnerable adults, as well as implementing zero tolerance and ways of making all those who perpetrate or cover up these crimes accountable." And, on the McCarrick scandal itself, Francis agreed to open the Vatican's archives to permit a "thorough study" of his career of sexual abuse but declined to pursue a Vatican-led probe into that history. In October, Wuerl resigned as archbishop of Washington, a delayed aftershock of the Pennsylvania report. Francis accepted Wuerl's resignation but praised his performance in an apparent rebuttal to survivors and lay Catholics who had called for Wuerl to step down.

Since then, Francis has called for abusive clergy members to turn themselves over to civil authorities and prepare themselves for divine justice, declaring that the church will not protect them. Like most of his handling of the crisis so far, it was a puzzling, unsettling remark. Of course, rapists and sexual abusers should be prosecuted by civil authorities. But so should superiors who've aided and abetted them over the years. Francis seems prepared, in other words, to expose abusive priests to the full extent of civil justice. But the problem won't end until complicit members of the hierarchy are similarly exposed, and that still seems like a distant prospect.

Restoring the moral credibility of the church on the world stage following the mishandling of the 2002 revelations of the sex abuse crisis always seemed to be part of Francis' mandate. For a period after news of the crisis broke in the early aughts, the church still behaved as though it could rely on hardball legal tactics and brazen dismissal to weather it — victims were smeared and shamed in lawsuit proceedings, and church higher-ups blamed the entire disaster on sexual liberalism and anti-Catholic bigotry. But Francis was different: He instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He listened to survivors. He was compassionate. He cared.

But now the Pontifical Commission has withered, according to victim advocates and members of the panel itself, McCarrick sits silently in Kansas, and the February meeting of bishop-leaders remains a weak hook to hang hopes on. If Francis fails in handling the crisis going forward, the damage will be incalculable — first to the victims that are and the ones that will be, then to the struggling Catholics who have prayed for some honest action in this ongoing catastrophe since 2002, and then to the cohesion of the church stretching into the future.

This year was only a brief glimpse into what lies ahead. Now that multiple states are conducting investigations into the church inside their borders, there will be more Pennsylvania-like reports, more media coverage and more insight into which highly ranked prelates did what. Francis seemed caught off guard in 2018 and unprepared to play a decisive role in the crisis. Let us pray 2019 is different.

Elizabeth Bruenig is an opinion columnist at The Washington Post.

@ebruenig

Denver • Philip Rivers and the Los Angeles Chargers recovered from a slow start to beat the Broncos 23-9 Sunday for their first win in Denver since 2013.

The Chargers (12-4) are headed to the playoffs for the first time in five years, but they’ll go in as a wild-card thanks to a last-second loss to the Broncos at home in November.

Were it not for that slip-up, the Chargers and not the Kansas City Chiefs would have earned No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs and the first-round bye that comes with it.

Rivers was just 14 of 34 for 176 yards and a touchdown and two interceptions. Both interceptions came in the first quarter, something that’s happened just twice before in Rivers’ 15-year NFL career.

Instead, the Chargers will hit the road on wild-card weekend.

The Broncos (6-10) careened into an offseason of uncertainty after posting double digit losses in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1966-67, an ignominy that could cost second-year coach Vance Joseph his job.

Denver pulled to 14-9 on fullback Andy Janovich’s 20-yard touchdown grab in the fourth quarter, the first TD of his career. Case Keenum’s 2-point conversion throw, however, was picked off by cornerback Casey Hayward Jr., who slipped a tackle attempt by receiver Courtland Sutton at the left pylon and rumbled 102 yards for a pick-2 that gave Los Angeles a 16-9 lead with 10:10 remaining.

Then, Rivers had his only sustained drive, capped by Austin Ekeler’s 1-yard TD run.

Neither team got much going offensively.

The Chargers took a 7-3 halftime lead thanks to a defensive touchdown . Rivers’ 3-yard TD toss to Mike Williams that made it 14-3 came after Joey Bosa’s fumble recovery at the Denver 16.

Broncos offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave’s script proved ineffective again — for the ninth straight week, Denver punted on its opening drive.

The Broncos also punted on their next three possessions before their fourth one ended in a fumble return for a Chargers touchdown. Their fifth ended with an interception in the end zone, and their sixth ended with a field goal after they gained just 10 yards on seven plays from inside the Chargers 20-yard line.

The Broncos failed to convert interceptions by rookie Isaac Yiadom and Will Parks into points in the first quarter.

The Chargers’ only first-half score came when Keenum hit Royce Freeman with a low screen that was ruled a backward pass. Freeman didn’t secure it and a hard hit by cornerback Desmond King II to a prone Freeman popped the ball loose.

Linebacker Kyle Emmanuel scooped it up and ran 11 yards for a 7-0 L.A. lead with 5:42 left in the first half.

Denver left tackle Garett Bolles was whistled for holding, his 10th and 11th of the year. His first flag negated a 54-yard touchdown run by Devontae Booker.

The Broncos were about to tie it when a pass glanced off tight end Matt LaCosse and into the hands of safety Jahleel Addae, who tried to lateral the ball as he was getting tackled, fumbling the football that was recovered by Broncos guard Elijah Wilkinson at the Chargers 20.

The Broncos reached the 6 but had to settle for Brandon McManus’ 28-yard field goal.

STRIP-SACK-RECOVERY

Von Miller pulled off the trifecta with his strip sack of backup quarterback Geno Smith, and his recovery of the loose ball in the final minutes. Miller had another sack that was negated by a holding call on Yiadom.

INJURIES:

Chargers: LB Jatavis Brown injured his right ankle tackling Royce Freeman on the final play of the first quarter and was helped to the sideline.

Broncos: WR Tim Patrick injured his right knee in the first half but returned after halftime. Right tackle Jared Veldheer left in the second half with a ribcage injury.

UP NEXT:

Chargers: Hit the road for wild-card weekend.

Broncos: Embark on another offseason of change with big questions yet again at coach and QB.

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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/tag/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP—NFL

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Follow Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton

The Utah women’s basketball team defeated Colorado 76-61 in a Pac-12 opener on Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, improving to 12-0 on the season.

Freshman Andrea Torres led the Utes with a career-high 18 points off the bench, going 7 for 11 from the floor, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Megan Huff recorded her sixth double-double of the season, with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Dre’Una Edwards added 14 points, and Dru Gylten scored 10 for Utah.

“I was really proud of our team because this is a really tough place to play,” Utah coach Lynne Roberts said. “I think defensively we were really good. We contained them. They are a good team and they are going to score, but I thought we were locked in. We have a lot of respect for them. They are a good team, so this is a good win for us.”

After a seesaw first quarter, the Utes took a 41-35 lead into halftime, going 8 for 11 from 3-point range in the first half.

Alexis Robinson scored 14 points to lead Colorado (10-2).

Utah will host Arizona State on Friday (7 p.m.), and Arizona Jan. 6 (noon) in Pac-12 games.

Baltimore • The Baltimore Ravens squeezed past the Browns and into the playoffs, using two rushing touchdowns by rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson and a late defensive stand to beat Cleveland 26-24 Sunday and claim the AFC North title.

Kenneth Dixon accounted for 117 of Baltimore’s season-high 296 yards on the ground, Jackson had 90 and the rejuvenated Ravens (10-6) ended a three-year playoff drought with their sixth win in seven games. Fourth-seed Baltimore will open the postseason next weekend at home against the Los Angeles Chargers.

A year ago, Baltimore missed the playoffs by losing its finale at home to the Bengals, who rallied with a last-minute touchdown.

Remembering that disappointing finish quite well, most of the announced crowd of 70,925 was on its feet as the Browns moved closer to field-goal range with the clock winding down. A 19-yard completion from Baker Mayfield to former Ravens top draft pick Breshad Perriman and a 16-yarder to Jarvis Landry pushed the ball to the Baltimore 39 with 1:30 left.

Following three straight incompletions, the Ravens blitzed Mayfield on fourth down and linebacker C.J. Mosley picked off a pass to clinch it. Baltimore finished a half-game ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Cleveland (7-8-1) was denied its first winning season since 2007.

STEELERS 16, BENGALS 13

PITTSBURGH • Ben Roethlisberger passed for 287 yards and a touchdown, newly acquired kicker Matt McCrane booted three field goals and the Steelers still fell short of the postseason.

The Steelers (9-6-1) saw their chance at capturing the AFC North end when Baltimore held off Cleveland.

A significant portion of the team remained on the field after the game ended watching Cleveland’s last-ditch drive while the crowd that stuck around chanted “Let’s Go Browns.” A massive groan arose when Cleveland rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield was intercepted in Baltimore territory in the waning seconds.

Pittsburgh still has a remote shot to reach the postseason for the fifth consecutive year, but needs Indianapolis and Tennessee to tie on Sunday night.

Roethlisberger finished the season with a career-best and NFL-high 5,129 yards passing — the first time in franchise history a Steelers quarterback has won the league passing title.

While Joe Mixon rushed for 105 yards, the Bengals (6-10) mustered just 196 total yards to lose for the seventh time in their final eight games. Driskel completed 12 of 24 passes for 95 yards and was sacked four times.

EAGLES 24, REDSKINS 0

LANDOVER, Md. • Nick Foles did it again, leading the Eagles to the NFC’s final wild-card berth when Chicago beat the Vikings.

The Eagles (9-7) will play at the Bears (12-4) next weekend.

Foles tied Philip Rivers’ NFL record by completing 25 straight passes and threw two touchdown passes before a chest injury forced him out of the game. Nate Sudfeld fired a 22-yard TD on his only pass.

It felt like a home game for the Eagles. Philadelphia fans filled FedEx Field, sang “Fly! Eagles! Fly!” and chanted “Let’s Go Bears!” There were several thousand empty seats and Redskins fans could only cheer for the Vikings to spite Eagles fans.

Foles, the Super Bowl MVP in Philadelphia’s win over New England last February, is 6-0 in must-win games filling in for Carson Wentz.

Foles stepped in after Wentz was sidelined by a back injury earlier this month and guided Philadelphia to an upset on the road against the Rams as a 13 1/2-point underdog. He set a franchise record for yards passing in a game with 471 in a 32-30 comeback win last week against Houston.

The Eagles dominated the Redskins, controlling the ball for 43:19. Philadelphia’s defense held Washington to only 89 yards total offense.

The Redskins (7-9) lost six of seven after leading the NFC East at 6-3.

BEARS 24, VIKINGS 10

MINNEAPOLIS • The NFC North champion Bears refused to let up, riding Jordan Howard for 109 rushing yards and two touchdowns and a relentless defense.

With the 24-0 win by Philadelphia at Washington, the Vikings (8-7-1) watched the Eagles claim the last wild-card spot and went home wondering what happened to their offense after signing Kirk Cousins for $84 million guaranteed to be the franchise quarterback.

Tarik Cohen scored the last touchdown on a short run with 7:46 left to cap a 16-play drive for the Bears (12-4), who posted their best regular-season record since the 2006 team finished 13-3 and reached the Super Bowl. They’ve won nine of their last 10 games.

The Bears began the afternoon with an opportunity, albeit unlikely, to get a first-round bye with a victory and a loss by the Los Angeles Rams. Rookie head coach Matt Nagy was unmoved by the big early lead taken by the Rams, though, keeping quarterback Mitch Trubisky in the entire game and only holding out the starters who were already previously injured.

COLTS 33, TITANS 17

NASHVILLE, Tenn. • Andrew Luck threw for 285 yards and three touchdowns and the Colts took the final spot in the postseason as the AFC’s No. 6 seed.

With the Texans winning the AFC South title earlier Sunday, that left the Colts and Titans playing for the second wild-card berth and a visit to Houston on Saturday.

Luck remained perfect against the Tennessee Titans, notching his 11th victory for the most wins by a quarterback since at least 1970 against one franchise without losing. He helped the Colts (10-6) — under first-year coach Frank Reich — earn the franchise’s first postseason trip since the 2014 season. At one point, Indy was 1-5.

The Titans (9-7) snapped a four-game winning streak with quarterback Marcus Mariota sidelined by neck and foot injuries. They missed a second straight playoff berth under first-year coach Mike Vrabel.

The Colts intercepted two of Blaine Gabbert’s passes in the final 9:05 to finish off their 13th win in the last 15 games in the series.

Marlon Mack ran for 119 yards and a TD for the Colts.

TEXANS 20, JAGUARS 3

HOUSTON • The Texans clinched the AFC South title as Deshaun Watson threw for 234 yards and ran for a touchdown, and DeAndre Hopkins had 147 yards receiving.

The Texans (11-5) won nine in a row after starting 0-3 to save their season and will make their fifth playoff appearance after winning the division for the fifth time in franchise history. Houston returns to the postseason for the third time in four years after bouncing back from last year’s 4-12 record in a season where Watson and J.J. Watt sustained season-ending injuries.

Houston built a 14-point lead in the first half behind rushing touchdowns by Watson and Lamar Miller and made it 20-3 on a 24-yard field goal with about 11 minutes left. The Jaguars had a chance to cut the lead later in the fourth period, but Blake Bortles was intercepted in the end zone by Andre Hal.

Jaguars owner Shad Khan issued a statement urging his director of football operations, Tom Coughlin, the keep the status quo with coach Doug Marrone and general manager Dave Caldwell — even though the team flopped from a spot in the AFC title game to last place.

The Jaguars (5-11) returned to Bortles as starter after benching the quarterback following a loss to Buffalo on Nov. 25. But he did little to get Jacksonville’s offense going, the Jaguars managing one first down in the opening half and finishing with six. Bortles was 15 of 28 for 107 yards.

Watt sacked him 1 1/2 times to give him 16 this year for his fourth season with 15 or more sacks, second most in NFL history to Reggie White (5).

PATRIOTS 38, JETS 3

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.• Tom Brady threw for three first-half touchdowns and New England clinched its ninth straight first-round bye in the playoffs. The Patriots (11-5) finished the season as the NFL’s only undefeated team at home, where they’ll have at least one playoff game.

After back-to-back December losses left the Patriots with a losing record on the road, they finished with two straight home wins to avoid playing in the wild-card round for the first time since 2009.

In what could be the final game for Jets coach Todd Bowles, New York (4-12) lost for the ninth time in 10 games. Rookie Sam Darnold, who had been playing well since returning from a foot injury, completed 16 of 28 passes for 167 yards, but he also had a fumble that gave New England a touchdown.

Brady completed 24 of 33 passes for 250 yards and four scores overall, bouncing back from his worst performance since 2006 — a 48.3 passer rating in a 24-12 win over Buffalo. After punting on their first possession, the Patriots scored on three straight drives.

CHIEFS 35, RAIDERS 3

KANSAS CITY, Mo. • The Chiefs finally clinched their third consecutive AFC West title and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, and Patrick Mahomes and the rest of Kansas City’s offense continued to shatter records.

Mahomes threw for 281 yards, highlighted by a 67-yard TD pass to Tyreek Hill and an 89-yard TD toss to Demarcus Robinson. That gave the first-year starter 5,097 yards and 50 touchdown passes, joining Peyton Manning as the only QBs to hit 5,000 and 50 in the same season.

Manning had 5,477 yards and a record 55 TD passes for the Broncos in 2013.

Hill finished with five catches for 101 yards, becoming the Chiefs’ single-season leader for yards receiving with 1,479, while adding a fourth-quarter touchdown run. Damien Williams added 51 yards and a score on the ground as the Chiefs (12-4) beat the Raiders (4-12) for the eighth time in nine games.

The decisive win came after Kansas City squandered a chance to clinch the division with a fourth-quarter collapse against the Chargers and again in a shootout loss last weekend in Seattle.

RAMS 48, 49ERS 32

LOS ANGELES • Brandin Cooks and Josh Reynolds caught two touchdown passes apiece from Jared Goff, and the Rams secured a first-round playoff bye.

Cory Littleton returned one of his two interceptions for a TD as the Rams (13-3) forced four turnovers and wrapped up their winningest regular season since 2001 with a six-game sweep of their NFC West rivals.

Goff passed for 199 yards for Los Angeles, which needed a win over the Niners or a loss by Chicago to clinch the No. 2 seed in the NFC postseason. The Rams didn’t mess around, playing nearly every starter except Todd Gurley and jumping to a 14-0 lead in the first five minutes before stretching it to 28-3 midway through the second quarter.

Nick Mullens passed for 282 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions for the 49ers (4-12), who wrapped up their fifth consecutive non-winning season. San Francisco went winless on the road for the first time since 1979, Bill Walsh’s first season in charge.

George Kittle set the NFL’s single-season record for yards receiving by a tight end with 1,377 when he caught a 43-yard touchdown pass from Mullens with 2:20 left.

COWBOYS 36, GIANTS 35

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. • Dak Prescott threw a 32-yard fourth-down touchdown pass to Cole Beasley on a play that was reversed by video replay and added a winning 2-point conversion pass to Michael Gallup with 1:12 to play.

In what might have been quarterback Eli Manning’s final start for the Giants, Prescott passed for 387 yards and the season-high four touchdowns, the first three to tight end Blake Jarwin. The Cowboys (10-6) won for the seventh time in eight games.

The game was meaningless for the NFC East champion Cowboys, who will host a wild-card game next weekend. Coach Jason Garrett rested NFL leading rusher Ezekiel Elliott and two of his top offensive linemen, but kept Prescott (27 of 44) on the field the whole game to build momentum for the postseason.

It worked, although the Giants (5-11) did their best despite losing their third straight game.

Saquon Barkley capped a record-setting rookie season with a sensational 2-yard touchdown dive with 3:21 to play to put the Giants ahead 35-28.

However, Prescott engineered a nine-play, 70-yard drive that he ended with an arching pass to Beasley in the back of the end zone. There was no doubt he caught the ball, and a review showed he got his knee down in bounds.

CHARGERS 23, BRONCOS 9

DENVER • Philip Rivers and the Los Angeles Chargers recovered from a slow start for their first win in Denver since 2013.

The Chargers (12-4) are headed to the playoffs for the first time in five years, but they’ll go in as a wild-card thanks to a last-second loss to the Broncos at home in November.

Were it not for that slip-up, the Chargers and not the Kansas City Chiefs would have earned No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs and the first-round bye that comes with it.

Rivers was just 14 of 34 for 176 yards and a touchdown and two interceptions. Both interceptions came in the first quarter, something that’s happened just twice before in Rivers’ 15-year NFL career.

Instead, the Chargers will hit the road on wild-card weekend.

The Broncos (6-10) careened into an offseason of uncertainty after posting double digit losses in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1966-67, an ignominy that could cost second-year coach Vance Joseph his job.

SEAHAWKS 27, CARDINALS 24

SEATTLE • Sebastian Janikowski made a 33-yard field goal on the final play, wrapping up the No. 5 seed in the NFC playoffs and a matchup at Dallas.

Seattle (10-6) took a 24-21 lead earlier in the fourth quarter on Janikowski’s 42-yard field goal, but watched Arizona answer with Zane Gonzalez’s third field goal of the game, from 55 yards with 1:49 left to tie it. Gonzalez hit earlier from 36 and 50 yards.

After converting a third-and-1 early in the drive, Russell Wilson hit Tyler Lockett for 37 yards to the Arizona 25-yard line. After a couple of running plays, Jankowski hit the winner to give Seattle 10 wins for the sixth time in Pete Carroll’s tenure.

Josh Rosen was 18 of 34 for 149 yards and threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald. But Rosen was sacked six times and the loss ensured the Cardinals (3-13) the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft.

LIONS 31, PACKERS 0

GREEN BAY, Wis. • Matthew Stafford threw for 266 yards and two scores to T.J. Jones and kicker Matt Prater tossed a touchdown pass after faking a field-goal try.

With Green Bay trailing 21-0 at the half, quarterback Aaron Rodgers never returned after walking to the locker room early in the second quarter, having suffered a concussion. Both teams had long been eliminated from playoff contention.

Zach Zenner had a 13-yard touchdown run for the Lions (6-10), who have won four straight against their NFC North rival for the first time since 1982-83. They got a little positive push at the end of Matt Patricia’s first season as coach.

The Packers (6-9-1) were also without receiver Davante Adams, who missed practice this week with a knee injury. Adams finished the season with 111 catches, one shy of tying the single-season franchise record set by Sterling Sharpe in 1993.

PANTHERS 33, SAINTS 14

NEW ORLEANS • Undrafted rookie Kyle Allen passed for 228 yards and two touchdowns before injuring his shoulder against a Saints squad looking ahead to the playoffs.

Allen, a third-stringer pressed into service with Cam Newton and backup Taylor Heinicke out, also ran for a short touchdown as Carolina snapped a seven-game slide. He led the Panthers to three TDs and a field goal on the first four drives of his first NFL start. He played until the fourth quarter, when he was hit hard by Saints rookie end Marcus Davenport while releasing an incomplete pass.

Carolina (7-9) led 23-0 at halftime, marking the first time since coach Sean Payton was hired by New Orleans in 2006 that the Saints (13-3) were shut out at home in a first half.

Allen’s touchdowns went for 53 yards to receiver Curtis Samuel and 8 yards to tight end Ian Thomas.

Having already clinched the NFC’s top seed, Payton scratched several healthy offensive starters, including record-setting quarterback Drew Brees and dynamic second-year running back Alvin Kamara.

FALCONS 34, BUCCANEERS 32

TAMPA, Fla. • Matt Ryan’s first career reception went for a touchdown and the Atlanta quarterback also threw for 378 yards and two TDs.

Matt Bryant’s second field goal, a 37-yarder as time expired, provided the winning points after Jameis Winston rallied the Bucs (5-11) from a 31-20 deficit to a one-point lead with just over five minutes to go.

The Falcons (7-9) escaped a 17-0 hole with Ryan leading scoring drives on five consecutive possessions from late in the second quarter until early in the fourth. He began the comeback with a 19-yard scoring throw to Julio Jones and also tossed a 7-yarder to Calvin Ridley.

In between, Ryan caught a 5-yard TD pass from receiver Mohamed Sanu, Bryant kicked a 49-yard field goal and Tevin Coleman scored on a 23-yard run.

Ryan finished 31 of 44 with one interception, a fourth-quarter pick that led to Winston’s second TD pass of the day — to Chris Godwin for Tampa Bay’s brief 32-31 lead. Mike Evans also caught of a pair of TD passes from Winston, who was 22 of 35 for 345 yards and four TDs with one interception.

Jones finished with nine receptions for 138 yards. Sanu had seven catches for 90 yards, in addition to throwing his fourth career touchdown pass.

Godwin had six catches for 114 yards and Evans had six receptions for 106 yards for the Bucs, who finished last in the NFC South for the seventh time in eight years. Tampa Bay dropped to 19-29 in three seasons under coach Dirk Koetter, whose job could be at stake after consecutive 5-11 finishes.

BILLS 42, DOLPHINS 17

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. • Bills rookie Josh Allen had a career-best three touchdown passes and scored two more rushing, and defensive tackle Kyle Williams closed his 13-year career in Buffalo with a win.

Williams had a tackle for a loss and was part of a defense that forced four turnovers, including three by Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill, in a game between two AFC East teams already eliminated from playoff contention.

The 35-year-old Williams has been the team’s unquestioned leader and was honored before the game by being the last player out of the tunnel, and then was greeted on the field by his wife, Jill, and their five children. Williams announced on Friday that he was retiring.

The Bills then called timeout with 1:19 left, when Williams walked off the field for the final time and hugged coach Sean McDermott on the sideline.

Leave it to Allen, who represents the Bills’ future, to put the finishing touches on a 6-10 season in which Buffalo won four of its final seven games. The 42 points scored were the most by Buffalo since a 45-16 win over San Francisco on Oct. 16, 2016.

The Dolphins (7-9) now enter an offseason of uncertainty, with questions raised about the futures of coach Adam Gase and vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum as well as Tannehill, who has two years left on his four-year contract.

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Who wants to go to Vegas? Because I’m feeling lucky.

This time last year, I offered my definitive prognostications for 2018 and boldly predicted Sen. Orrin Hatch would run for another term in the Senate.

The day that column ran, Hatch announced his retirement. I like to think I provided that final nudge, so you’re welcome, Utah.

The rest of my predictions, however, were the best since the old Psychic Friends Hotline shut down: I had Ben McAdams winning the 4th District in a squeaker, Democrats gaining three state House seats and a Senate seat (on the nose!), Republicans losing the U.S. House but keeping the Senate, and the Utah Jazz rallying to make the playoffs.

I also predicted that Utah’s medical marijuana proposition would fail under the weight of attacks from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That wasn’t too far off. We ended up with the replacement law negotiated by the church and proponents of the initiative and, were it not for that deal, Proposition 2 would’ve likely been voted down.

All-in-all, a decent showing. But predictions aren’t about the past (they would be a lot easier if they were), so here’s what Gehrke’s Crystal Ball forecasts for 2019.

Salt Lake City Mayor Jim Dabakis

No, seriously.

Throughout his political career, Dabakis has made a living throwing more bombs than Tom Brady. And while his mischievous cage-rattling hasn’t always served him well in the Republican-controlled Legislature, it has made him a favorite among some liberal Salt Lake City Democrats.

Now he has announced he is running for mayor in a field that is already filling up — the incumbent Jackie Biskupski, businessman David Ibarra, former Council Chairman Stan Penfold, former Pioneer Park Coalition Executive Director David Garbett and probably a few others will run.

What Dabakis has going for him, apart from a big personality, is name recognition in a crowded field and a built-in following. It’s hard to see how that doesn’t get him through a primary, probably against Biskupski, whose tenure — aside from Salt Lake being named a bid city for the Winter Olympics — has been marked by the mayor being rolled on homeless shelters and the inland port.

Dabakis is beatable if a candidate can rally the west side and the hundred or so remaining Salt Lake City moderates — Ibarra may be in the best position to do that. But as the race is shaping up right now, it looks like its Jim’s to lose.

Governor’s race heats up

The field to replace Gov. Gary Herbert after 2020 will be one of the most crowded and experienced we’ve seen.

We already know Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox is raising money, so he’s running. Look for House Speaker Greg Hughes to start fundraising within the next month or so, and to do it in a big fashion. Both of them will be flush with cash by mid-year.

Greg Miller, the son of Larry and Gail Miller, will get into the race, too. Obviously he brings a lot of his own cash and deep connections to the table, but he’s new to campaigning and may have a hard time establishing his brand in a deep field.

Attorney General Sean Reyes will probably run; State Auditor John Dougall may, as well.

Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz will skip it. His abrupt retirement right after his last re-election still doesn’t sit well with voters and he’s got a pretty good thing going as a Fox News contributor. Chaffetz could hold off in order to take a shot at the U.S. Senate in 2022 if Sen. Mike Lee decides not to run again.

By the end of the year, Cox and Hughes will distance themselves from the rest of the field and the next governor of Utah will be … revealed in my 2020 predictions this time next year.

4th District jockeying

Don’t count on Ben McAdams getting much of a honeymoon as the new congressman from the 4th District. Despite having several factors — anti-Trump furor, huge Prop. 2-driven turnout, mail-in voting — break his way, he won by the narrowest of margins. That makes him a juicy Republican target in 2020.

After Mia Love lost by a whisker to Jim Matheson in 2012, she was quick to make clear that she wanted a rematch — one Matheson spoiled by retiring. Love will probably take a little bit of time to heal, but her bitter “concession” speech showed there is bad blood between her and McAdams and I think she’ll want another shot.

She won’t be the Republican nominee without opposition. Look for state Sen. Dan McCay and possibly state Reps. Kim Coleman or Ken Ivory to get into the race and maybe even Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton, unless she has committed to running for county mayor by then.

Other odds & ends

• No matter how much Utah liberals want him to be the Senate’s new resident Trump-basher, Sen. Mitt Romney won’t rock the boat except in very, very rare circumstances. And when he does, it will come in the form of high-minded policy speeches at odds with the president rather than direct attacks.

• Rep. Rob Bishop has said he doesn’t plan to run again in 2020, which means he’s moving from a committee chairmanship to playing defense for Republicans now in the minority. Faced with spending his final two years in legislative purgatory, he’ll find a way out. He has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, but that probably won’t happen. If another juicy offer comes along, though, he will leave before his term is up.

• There will be legal challenges to the voter-passed Proposition 4 and its independent redistricting commission. The Legislature won’t fiddle with it while those cases are in the courts, but still could dismantle key portions before redistricting occurs in 2021.

• At the end of 2019, we’ll see a federal ruling in the lawsuits challenging Trump’s demolition of the Grand Staircase and Bears Ears national monuments. The district court judge will probably rule against the Trump administration, but it won’t matter much because it will be immediately appealed.

• The Utah Jazz have had a tough schedule so far but haven’t seemed to be able to fire on all cylinders yet. Last year, when they were scuffling through the first half and dogged by injuries, I predicted they would get healthy and make the playoffs. This year, despite being healthy, they have been inconsistent and I think they miss the playoffs. I hope I’m wrong.

Washington • Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday took the first major step toward launching a widely anticipated campaign for the presidency, hoping her reputation as a populist fighter can help her navigate a Democratic field that could include nearly two dozen candidates.

"No matter what our differences, most of us want the same thing," the 69-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a video that highlights her family's history in Oklahoma. "To be able to work hard, play by the same set of rules and take care of the people we love. That's what I'm fighting for and that's why today I'm launching an exploratory committee for president."

Warren burst onto the national scene a decade ago during the financial crisis with calls for greater consumer protections. She quickly became one of the party’s more prominent liberals even as she sometimes fought with Obama administration officials over their response to the market turmoil.

Now, as a likely presidential contender, she is making an appeal to the party's base. Her video notes the economic challenges facing people of color along with images of a women's march and Warren's participation at an LGBT event.

In an email to supporters, Warren said she'd more formally announce a campaign plan early in 2019.

Warren is the most prominent Democrat yet to make a move toward a presidential bid and has long been a favorite target of President Donald Trump.

In mid-December, former Obama housing chief Julian Castro also announced a presidential exploratory committee, which legally allows potential candidates to begin raising money. Outgoing Maryland Rep. John Delaney is the only Democrat so far to have formally announced a presidential campaign.

But that's likely to change quickly in the new year as other leading Democrats take steps toward White House runs.

Warren enters a Democratic field that's shaping up as the most crowded in decades, with many of her Senate colleagues openly weighing their own campaigns, as well as governors, mayors and other prominent citizens. One of her most significant competitors could be Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who is eyeing another presidential run harnessing the same populist rhetoric.

She must also move past a widely panned October release of a DNA test meant to bolster her claim to Native American heritage. The move was intended to rebut Trump’s taunts of Warren as “Pocahontas.” Instead, her use of a genetic test to prove ethnicity spurred controversy that seemed to blunt any argument she sought to make. There was no direct mention of it in the video released Monday.

Warren has the benefit of higher name recognition than many others in the Democratic mix for 2020, thanks to her years as a prominent critic of Wall Street who originally conceived of what became the government's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

She now faces an arduous battle to raise money and capture Democratic primary voters' attention before Iowa casts its first vote in more than a year. She has an advantage in the $12.5 million left over from her 2018 re-election campaign that she could use for a presidential run.

Warren's campaign is likely to revolve around the same theme she's woven into speeches and policy proposals in recent years: battling special interests, paying mind to the nexus between racial and economic inequities.

"America's middle class is under attack," Warren said in the video. "How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. And they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice."

Associated Press writers Juana Summers in Washington and Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed to this report.