City Weekly December 21, 2023 by Copperfield Publishing

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Corporate abuse and environmental harm dominate Project Censored’s Top 10 suppressed news stories of 2023

D E R O S N E C T C E J O PR

ul B y Pa berg, Rosen m R a nd o h t g n Le News

Part 1

A&E

DINE

CINEMA

MUSIC

salt lake

CONTENTS

Cover Story

PROJECT CENSORED, PART I

Corporate abuse and environmental harm dominate Project Censored’s Top 10 suppressed news stories of 2023. By Paul Rosenberg, Random Length News

Cover design: Anson Stevens-Bollen

6 10 14 17 22 24 29

OPINION A&E CW REWIND DINE CINEMA MUSIC COMMUNITY

2 | DECEMBER 21, 2023

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“Use of Force,” Dec. 14 Cover Story

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Being a police officer is one of the most demanding jobs there is. They’re constantly put in dangerous situations and have to make split-second decisions that could have life-or-death consequences. It’s no wonder that they experience a lot of mental wear and tear. What happens when they don’t have the support they need, are underfunded and overworked? That’s when mistakes happen. And that’s when the media jumps in, often taking snippets of videos out of context and sensationalizing situations.

I’ve had the chance to watch some body cam footage from start to finish, and it’s always a different story than the one you see on the news. You get to see the whole picture—the lead-up, the aftermath and everything in between. It’s important to remember that there’s always more to the story than what you see on TV. We need to support our police officers. We need to give them the resources they need to do their jobs safely and effectively. And we need to be critical of the information we consume, especially when it comes from the media. In the case of Salt Lake City, why in the hell are they using winter riot gear in the summer? If you asked me to dress up in winter gear in the middle of August, I would be cranky. I believe in accountability but also setting officers up for success, not failure. When budgets and corners are cut, problems will follow. Remember, it’s important to be respectful of all points of view, even if you disagree with them. And it’s always a good idea to fact-check any information you see online before you share it.

Positive change demands support, not subtraction. We often forget that behind the badge are human beings who face the daily reality of danger. The media rarely shines a light on the 98% of officers who serve with dedication and compassion. I recently watched body cam footage of an officer forced to use lethal force. Voice cracked, tears welled in his eyes, he whispered, “Why did he do that? Why did he make me do this?” It was gut-wrenching. Salt Lake City’s peer support program for police, a vital resource offering confidential support and stress management, was abruptly suspended in July 2023. Chief Mike Brown cited concerns over potential conflicts and training inconsistencies, but the move drew criticism from officers and the community. As of December 2023, the program remains on hold, leaving a crucial gap in mental health support for officers facing the emotional challenges of their work. The future of the program, or whether it will be replaced by another initiative, remains uncertain. JEFFREY WOOD

Via Facebook

“Unfinished Work,” Dec. 14 Private Eye

Sen. Mike Lee called Donald Trump “Captain Moroni” and got praise. It’s not just Lee—there are plenty of weasels in Utah politics and plenty of mindless, willfully ignorant followers to prop them up. In reality, they are worshiping the golden calf, and they love it. JASONSGRS

Via Instagram Sen. Mike Lee should be unemployed and disbarred. BEATJERKCHARLIE

Via Instagram I know this is a bold opinion, but I am just going to say it: U.S. Senator Mike Lee is just a horrible human. CURTIS HARING

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

THE WATER

COOLER All I want for Christmas is ... Wes Long

For broken relationships—both mine personally and others’ generally—to be healed, and for humanity to turn the page on greed and cruelty.

Kelly Boyce

My disabled Instagram account back! How is Santa going to know if I’ve been good if he can’t see what I’ve posted?!

Benjamin Wood

A Trax extension through The Granary, 24/7 Trax service to the airport and Sunday service on FrontRunner.

Scott Renshaw

To stop thinking about COVID, or any other respiratory disorder, for a few minutes. Put on your masks, folks. It’s crazy out there.

Katharine Biele

I know this sounds like a Miss America contestant, but peace on Earth.

Sofia Cifuentes

Peace and harmony for all!

Derek Carlisle

For the separation of religion from political power to actually be exercised. Secondly, can’t we just call it “giftmas” worldwide and get rid of the religious celebration of another unplanned birth?

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OPINION BY JERRE WROBLE

Standing By for Your Call

e’s a proud man, and rightly so. He’s been his own boss for over 40 years. In that time, he founded a publication that’s considered the alternative voice for Salt Lake City. He sought out writers, graphic designers, sales professionals and a delivery team that distributed newspapers to 1,800 racks and businesses throughout northern Utah every week. In so doing, he created jobs for dozens upon dozens of dedicated and talented souls, including his own family. In case you haven’t guessed, the man I’m talking about is my boss—John Saltas, founder of City Weekly. Saltas has always been proud of City Weekly’s independence. And rightly so. The paper is beholden to no one. Our publication is still free of charge for those who pick it up, with printing and delivery costs borne by advertisers. We have no paywall on our website, despite many of us urging our boss to employ a subscription model. City Weekly is basically Saltas’ gift to the community (courtesy of our advertisers), making coverage of local news, arts, dining and music available to one and all. Oh, and a crossword puzzle and astrology column are also yours for the asking. I was lucky enough to come to work for the paper in 2003, when City Weekly’s fortunes were on the rise. Our weekly editions were usually between 68 and 72 pages in those days (a reflection of the ads booked). We employed two to three fulltime newswriters who each produced a weekly news story or column, plus a monthly 4,000-word cover story (twice

the length of the typical cover stories you read today). We had an A&E editor, a music editor and an editorial assistant (which was me back then), plus a full quiver of freelancers. I eventually attained the job of managing editor (a new position), and we added a web editor, listings editor plus a robust internship program with two or three interns per semester. I made editor during the years 2009 to 2013 and later served as relief pitcher when future editors would come and go. Now I’m a part-time contributing editor. In the late teens, Saltas seized upon the idea to publish two monthly magazines: Devour Utah, a foodie publication and Vamoose Utah, an outdoor and travel publication. These eye-popping publications were printed and distributed free of charge up through the early days of COVID. COVID was indeed a turning point. Like all print media, we’d already started to scale back. And by then, John Saltas bequeathed the publisher duties to his son, Pete, who has ably taken the reins and moved us all forward. There may be fewer of us but the edit staff we have is still the best: The politically savvy Benjamin Wood is our news editor; Scott Renshaw, the longest-tenured member of the edit staff, remains A&E editor. We also love having Emilee Atkinson as music editor and Wes Long as listings editor. Of course, where would we be without our dining reviewer, Alex Springer, and our resident beer nerd, Mike Riedel? Katharine Biele brings the snark with her Hits and Misses column while Babs De Lay scribes a weekly column on housing and city developments. And, of course, Saltas continues to prod and provoke via his Private Eye column. Online, we groove to the columns of Chris Smart and Michael Robinson. Our newsroom is sadly rather quiet these days, as most of us work remotely. We depend on our beloved freelance writers to fill many editorial columns. Many jobs have been combined, with some folks wearing multiple hats. City Weekly’s internship program remains on hiatus. Yes, it hurts my heart, not just to see the shrinkage of our once grand newsroom but for the general decline of print news in our fair city. Between all the layoffs at local print outlets, and with many newer hires brought in via grant

funding that only allows them to cover certain niche topics, it is little wonder that print news is not getting the job done like it used to do. Now, to be relatively informed, one must go on a veritable Easter egg hunt of local websites, blogs, podcasts plus scanning the news hours of TV and radio. And even with all that, most of what we glean seems a mile wide and an inch deep. Many publications have made valiant efforts to survive. Some achieved it with massive reductions in staff. Others, like the two local, formerly daily, papers, have drastically reduced their print frequency. The Salt Lake Tribune became a nonprofit and now must dedicate considerable financial resources to fundraising while working with a “many masters” board of directors that, like it or not, makes independence even more difficult. Saltas did see fit to establish a nonprofit arm of City Weekly. Called the Galena Fund (a nod to his roots in the Bingham copper mines), he still doesn’t have fundraising staff in place to fill the coffers as they should be filled. So, lucky you: You don’t have to put up with those annoying commercial breaks like you see on public broadcasting stations. You know the ones—where enthusiastic volunteers rave about the benefits of public broadcasting, noting that people are “standing by for your call,” while promising you T-shirts and mugs for your pledge. Such antics somehow make it rain. It’s just not Mr. Saltas’ style. He’s too proud to ask. But I’m not. City Weekly has a vital role in this community, and it needs your help. If City Weekly is not at the top of your “donate-to” list, please make it so. We’re not offering mugs or T-shirts, but a hell of weekly paper will be your reward. It’s simple to give: Just visit our website at cityweekly.net and click on the “donate” button at the very top of our home page. Or snail mail a check (P.O. Box 2755, Salt Lake City, UT 84110). Show us the money and feel the good vibes. CW Private Eye is off this week. Reply to comments@cityweekly.net

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HITS & MISSES BY KATHARINE BIELE |

@kathybiele

BY BRYAN YOUNG

HIT: Wrong Side of the Tracks

Blame the Legislature

Salt Lake City is really two cities, a fact not lost on the City Council. The council recently decided to increase incentives to bring more density to the city—read: the east side. But that’s a story for another time. Density is less the problem than alienation. The west side of Salt Lake has long been cut off from access and basic services. The late Mayor Deedee Corradini tried to solve some of the problem when she helped fund Salt Lake’s first Trax light rail line and lobbied to relocate the Union Pacific Railroad tracks dividing the city. It wasn’t enough. The west side still suffers as a “food desert” and destination pariah. Now there is a plan to bury the rail lines in a massive tunnel at a cost upward of $5 billion. “When we’re done, we can be one city again, one city around the Rio Grande,” civil engineer Christian Lenhart told a crowd in the Granary District, KSL reports. It would open green space and help solve the pollution issue, too. Sure it will cost, but the downside is to kick the problem down the road blocked by long, lumbering trains.

MISS: People, Places, Things

Not that we want to be selecting The Salt Lake Tribune’s Utahn of the Year for them, but let’s weigh in anyway. The Trib posted a list of candidates selected by their editors and board members, and it’s just a little odd. Many were either things or couples and groups involved in things. The rest were more or less evenly split among men and women, one of whom is drag queen Tara Lipsyncki—not to be overshadowed by another nominee (and thing) the “Southern Utah Drag Stars.” The men are largely big names in religion or sports, although sexual abusers were among them. Abuser accusers earned two separate nominations. The women—except for two obvious politicians—are all athletes. So, it appears that things like the 9th & 9th Whale, the unsheltered population and even pelicans stand a good chance of being named Utah Thing of the Year.

MISS: Not a Drop to Drink

For a moment, let’s focus on the Colorado River instead of the Great Salt Lake. The river provides water for some 40 million people, and the fact that it’s drying up leaves Utah with less and less. As the annual meeting of the Colorado River Water Users Association sought to find compromise before 2026, commissioners acknowledged that it won’t be easy. Meanwhile, the Biden administration will divert $295 million in water infrastructure funds to California, and California will agree to conserve 643,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead, a Salt Lake Tribune story said. Of course, California takes more water than any other state while it, Arizona and Nevada agree to cut water use. Utah has no mandates yet, except from climate change itself. A major concern is the drying up of federal funds for “compensated conservation.” There’s an understanding that there’s a slow drip toward disaster, but the solutions are more like band-aids than surgery.

t’s understandable folks don’t know how government works. We don’t teach meaningful civics classes anymore—they’re too “woke,” apparently. It gets frustrating, though, watching fully grown adults yell at the wrong people. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall received so much abuse over the city’s unhoused population—usually from elitist NIMBYs who gag at the sight of poverty, but also from wellmeaning folks who really have no idea where to direct their ire. Salt Lake City does what it can with what it has. Mendenhall and her director of homeless policy, former City Council member Andrew Johnston, toil endlessly to make the situation better with the tools at their disposal. But dealing with homelessness isn’t a problem the city is equipped to solve. It must use its budget for other things, too, like roads, parks, snowplows, protecting the watershed, fire service, waste and recycling, libraries—which have been turned into warming or cooling shelters—and a whole lot more. It’s actually Salt Lake County’s Health Department that oversees the camp abatements the city gets blamed for. Did you know the city has a team of social workers that tries to get folks sheltered before an abatement? But some of these folks, whether they’re dealing with addiction or mental health issues or something else entirely, simply can’t afford the help they need. Why? Because our Legislature won’t expand Medicaid. Officials would have an easier time helping the unhoused if the Legislature accepted the federal dollars on offer and expanded eligibility. Salt Lake City is fighting the symptoms, but the Legislature is where we should be aiming our ire. They’re the ones actively making the underlying issues worse and taking away the tools the city might use to address them. Did you know the Legislature made it illegal for cities to set a different minimum wage than the federal one? Did you know they did the same thing to prevent Salt Lake City from establishing any system of rent control for affordable housing? These tools would help keep people in their homes instead of on the streets. We’re growing, and the city wields the sticks it can to force developers to include “affordable” housing. It’s just not enough. And it’s because the Legislature has taken away all of the city’s power tools and replaced them with plastic Fisher-Price facsimiles. There’s a delicate dance our city government walks—go too far and the Legislature will undermine and overturn it, every single time. Most of Salt Lake’s representatives in the Legislature are on the level. I can call them and ask them to fight until I’m blue in the face, but it’s not going to add to their ability to do anything. They’re too outnumbered by lunatics. Maybe we can direct our anger at those who are actively doing harm, instead of yelling at those who are doing their best in a bad situation. CW

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2023’s Geek Elite The best books, movies, TV and more for all your nerdy delights BY BRYAN YOUNG comments@cityweekly.net

very year, I wonder how we could get any more spoiled in the world of geekdom, and every year we seem to get some of the best nerdy content the world has ever created. I feel lucky to be alive at this particular moment in history, because all of the things I love are in something of a new golden age. So, without further ado, here are some of the best things to come out in the world of the nerds in 2023. Star Trek: Picard - Season 3 [Paramount+]: When Patrick Stewart agreed to return to the character of Jean-Luc Picard, he had some stipulations, chief among them that it would not turn into a reunion for Star Trek: The Next Generation. By the time the third season rolled around, however, that reunion felt right for the story and for Stewart himself, and we were treated with a season of television where I don’t think there was a single episode that didn’t elicit tears. Star Wars: Ahsoka [Disney+]: Star Wars

wasn’t going to let Star Trek get all the credit on this list. The problem with Star Trek and Star Wars on TV is that it’s hard to just pick one show, but Ahsoka takes the crown for Star Wars on TV this year, giving us an emotionally-moving continuation of Star Wars Rebels and bringing Grand Admiral Thrawn into live-action and back to a galaxy far, far away. More than that, it put Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker in the midst of the Clone Wars, interacting in live-action with his Padawan who had heretofore only been seen in animation. Loki [Disney+]: Not to be outdone, Marvel brought us a second season of Loki that bent time, space and a character we once thought would be irredeemable. Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson bring such a natural and fun chemistry to the show; throw in Ke Huy Quan, and you have something truly magical and unique in the Marvel universe. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny [Disney+]: Lucasfilm really knows how to do clever and meaningful deconstructions of characters whose heydays are behind them, and who have to come to grips with the wrongs they’ve done before passing things off to another generation. This fifth Indiana Jones installment, directed by James Mangold, brings Indy into the 1960s—and he’s not quite equipped for it.

Indiana Jones

LUCASFILM

Ahsoka

DISNEY+

PARAMOUNT+

Star Trek: Picard

Equal parts action-packed and emotional, it’s the perfect coda for our favorite adventuring archeologist. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves [Paramount+ / Amazon Prime Video]: This movie was far better than it had any right to be. Starring Chris Pine and Hugh Grant at the top of a brilliant cast, it showcases the feeling of actually playing Dungeons & Dragons in a way that makes you want to leave the theater and play more. It’s full of pathos and fun, never committing the sin typical of previous filmed adaptations of the property: taking itself too seriously. And let’s be honest, Pine’s charisma could float Atlantis back to the surface. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse [Netflix]: Marvel’s best movie this year was easily this sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, with The Marvels coming in at a close second. (Seriously, go see The Marvels, it’s actually terrific). There were a lot of hopes riding on this film and it exceeded all of the heavy expectations. The only downside is that we might have to wait until 2025 now to get the conclusion to the trilogy. Star Wars: Jedi Survivor [Electronic Arts]: In the world of video games, there was only one I played all the way through and finished, and that was Star Wars: Jedi Sur-

Honor Among Thieves

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

A&E

Big Shiny Robot

vivor. The reason is simple: It was such a terrific story. With so much replay-ability and customizability, it’s a standout in roleplaying games of this nature. Bookshops & Bonedust, by Travis Baldree: I didn’t think Travis Baldree could top his incredible novel from last year, Legends & Lattes, but he managed to create a prequel novel (featuring a tantalizing look into the future of the series) that offers all of the same cozy fantasy vibes as the first book, but in an all-new setting, opting for a bookstore instead of a coffee shop. It’s a wondrous piece of art, and one of the most comforting reads I’ve had all year. The Narrow Road Between Desires, by Patrick Rothfuss. For Rothfuss fans still awaiting the third book in the epic fantasy Kingkiller Chronicles, our thirsts were slaked—at least for the moment—by The Narrow Road Between Desires. This novellalength work follows Bast on a fascinating journey through a moral dilemma, and asks us to be more patient for that last book. This work reminds me that The Doors of Stone is worth waiting for, because Rothfuss really knows what he’s doing. That’s all the space I have for some of my favorites of 2023. I hope you’ve been able to find some common ground with me, or a new favorite to check out for yourself. CW

The Arch-Hive: Public Dreams / Private Myths

COURTESY PHOTO

Broadway at the Eccles: Mamma Mia!

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EMILY TOPPEN

In case you’re not obsessively immersed in news from the Walt Disney Company, plans are already in development for not one but two additional sequels to the 2013 animated feature Frozen, on top of the 2019 Frozen II. This shouldn’t be particularly shocking to anyone who had or knew any elementary school-age girls circa 2014, when Anna and Elsa costumes became ubiquitous and tiny voices were belting out “Let It Go” with gusto. Frozen was a phenomenon, which that might be easy to forget as we’re now a decade out from its theatrical release. But Utah Symphony is giving the next generation a unique chance to see Frozen on a big screen with some big sound. Utah Symphony offers the original Frozen in concert this week. Fans young and old get a chance to share in the complicated relationship between Arendelle’s sister princesses Elsa and Anna, which grows even more complicated when Elsa’s mystical powers turn the kingdom into a perpetual winter wonderland. Josh Gad’s snowman Olaf provides the comic relief, but the special component here comes from the chance to hear the orchestral score by Christophe Beck and the beloved original songs by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. And for an added pre-concert treat, the Sons of Norway will give attendees a chance to learn about Norse traditions. Utah Symphony’s presentation of Disney’s Frozen in Concert comes to Abravanel Hall (123 W. South Temple) for three performances, Thursday, Dec. 21 - Saturday, Dec. 23 at 7 p.m. nightly. Tickets are $15 - $110; visit utahsymphony.org for tickets and additional event information. (SR)

DECEMBER 21, 2023 | 11

It’s not easy to take a bunch of songs by a musical artist—in this case, the beloved hits of 1970s pop superstars ABBA—and craft a narrative that makes some sense as a scaffold to support those songs. Still, you’ve got to hand it to Catherine Johnson, who somehow heard in the disco-tinged harmonies of the Swedish quartet a narrative about a young woman getting ready for her wedding in Greece, trying to determine which of her mother’s former suitors is the birth father she’s never met, and inviting three of them for what will inevitably be an awkward reunion. The thing is, that weird combination of elements somehow works. In both stage form and in the successful 2008 film adaptation, Mamma Mia! builds an engaging story filled with humor and warmth in addition to the farcical components. The central appeal, though—especially for those of a certain age—is a chance to revisit some of the most infectious tunes of the 1970s, in a greatest-hits package that supports the story. “The Winner Takes It All,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “S.O.S.,” “Money, Money, Money,” “Dancing Queen,” the title song and more are all part of the soundtrack, guaranteeing a sing-along, dance-along celebration of ABBA in a package that it took a very creative mind to dream up. Broadway at the Eccles hosts the current North American touring production of Mamma Mia! at the Eccles Theater (131 S. Main St.) Dec. 19 – 24. Tickets are $79 $219, and availability is limited for many performances. Visit arttix.org for specific performance dates and times, to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (SR)

Utah Symphony: Disney’s Frozen in Concert

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In developing its latest group exhibition, the Arch-Hive art collective—a group of artists, musicians, writers and thinkers exploring the unique perspectives and peculiarities of Utah, Mormonism and the American West, inspired in part by the Art and Belief movement of the 1960s—was drawn to a quotation by the celebrated mythology scholar Joseph Campbell: “Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.” According to a statement by curator Laz. “By asking these artists to interpret a well-known folk belief, or create a new legend, we uncover a view into the modern psyche surrounding this religion and culture.” The exhibition features work by 10 artists, representing American angels, charlatan spirits, seagulls in the skies and monsters under the water, Kolob glimmering in the night, Boy Scouts delving into darkness, a vision of a future powered by spirit matter, and even strange, newlydiscovered relics suggesting new mythologies. The show spans many mediums, from mixed media assemblages to sculptures to digital artwork to film. Writes participating artist Rusden Scott (whose work is pictured), “Mormon folklore bypasses the starched self-awareness of approved and correlated doctrine and the manicured messages of general conference, cutting to the core of how the faith is being inhabited and interpreted by Brother and Sister Jones from down the street.” Public Dreams / Private Myths runs through Dec. 23 at Writ and Vision Gallery (274 W. Center St. Provo), on display during regular operating hours, 4 – 8 p.m. Wednesday – Thursday, noon – 8 p.m. Friday – Saturday. Visit writandvision.com for additional information. (Scott Renshaw)

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DISNEY SLASH UTAH SYMPHONY

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12 | DECEMBER 21, 2023

Corporate abuse and environmental harm dominate Project Censored’s Top 10 suppressed news stories of 2023.

“W

e have made the planet inhospitable to human life.” That’s what the lead researcher in Project Censored’s No. 1 story this year said. He wasn’t talking about the climate catastrophe. He was talking about so-called “forever chemicals,” perand poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer and additional health risks, and the study he led found unsafe levels in rainwater worldwide. Even though this story received some corporate media attention—in USA Today and the Discovery Channel—the starkly shocking bottom line clearly didn’t come through to the general public. Have you heard it before? Has it been the subject of any conversation you’ve had? No? Well that, my friend, is the very essence of what Project Censored’s signature “Top 10” list is all about: Exposing the suppression (active or passive) of vitally important information from the public, which renders the public unable to act in the way that a healthy democratic public is supposed to. They’ve been doing it since Carl Jensen began it with a single college class in 1976, inspired in part by the way the Watergate story got this same sort of treatment until well after the election cycle it was part of. But there’s a second story intertwined with the “forever chemicals” pervasive presence: the revelation that companies responsible for them have known about their dangers for decades, but kept those dangers hidden—just like fossil-fuel companies and climate catastrophe. The intersection of environmental/public health and corporate criminality is typical of how certain long-standing patterns of censored news weave together across the years, even decades, and how the spotlight Project Censored shines on them helps to make sense of much more than the individual stories it highlights, as vitally important as they are in themselves. In previous years, I’ve highlighted the multiplicity of patterns of censorship that can be seen. In their introduction to the larger 25-story list in their annual book, The State of the Free Press, Andy Lee Roth and Steve Macek describe these patterns at two levels. First, invoking the metaphor that “exemplary reporting is praised for ‘shining light’ on a subject or ‘bringing to light’ crucial facts and original perspectives,” they say:

The news reports featured in this chapter are rays of light shining through a heavily slatted window. Each of these independent news reports highlights a social issue that has otherwise been dimly lit or altogether obscured by corporate news outlets. The shading slats are built from the corporate media’s concentrated ownership, reliance on advertising, relationship to political power and narrow definitions of who and what count as “newsworthy.” Censorship, whether overt or subtle, establishes the angle of the slats, admitting more or less light from outside. But in addition, they say, it’s important to see the “list as the latest installment in an ongoing effort to identify systemic gaps in so-called ‘mainstream’ (i.e., corporate) news coverage.” They go on: “Examining public issues that independent journalists and outlets have reported but which fall outside the scope of corporate news coverage makes it possible to document in specific detail how corporate news media leave the public in the dark by marginalizing or blockading crucial issues, limiting political debate, and promoting corporate views and interests.” On the one hand, all that is as true as it’s ever been. But on the other hand, the two-story themes in the No. 1 story—environmental harm

and corporate abuse—so dominate the Top 10 story list that they send another message as well, a message about the fundamental mismatch between our needs as a species living on a finite planet and a rapacious economic system conceived in ignorance of that fact. The climate catastrophe is just the most extreme symptom of this mismatch—but it’s far from the only one. Corporate abuse figures into every story in the list—though sometimes deep in the background, as with their decades-long efforts to destroy unions in story No. 6. Environmental harms “only” show up in seven of the 10 stories. There are still other patterns here, to be sure—and I encourage you to look for them yourself because seeing those patterns enriches your understanding of the world as it is, and as it’s being hidden from you. But this dominant pattern touches us all. The evidence is right there, in the stories themselves.

1. ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Rainwater: A Global Threat to Human Health

Rainwater is “no longer safe to drink anywhere on Earth,” Morgan McFallJohnsen reported in Insider in August 2022, summing up the results of a global study of so-called “forever chemicals,” polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Researchers from Stockholm University and the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics at ETH Zurich concluded that “in many areas inhabited by humans,” PFAS contamination levels in rainwater, surface water and soil “often greatly exceed” the strictest international guidelines for acceptable levels of perfluoroalkyl acids. They’re called “forever chemicals” because they take so long to break down, “allowing them to build up in people, animals and environments,” Insider reported. Project Censored notes, “Prior research has linked these chemicals to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer and additional health risks, including developmental delays in children, decreased fertility in women and men, reduced vaccine efficacy and high cholesterol.” “PFAS were now ‘so persistent’ and ubiquitous that they will never disappear from the planet,” Ian Cousins, a professor of environmental chemistry at Sweden’s Stockholm University, told Agence France-Presse. “We have made the planet inhospitable to human life by irreversibly contaminating it now so that nothing is clean anymore.” He added, “We have crossed a planetary boundary,” a paradigm for evaluating Earth’s capacity to absorb harmful impacts of human activity. The “good news” is that PFAS levels aren’t increasing in the environment. “What’s changed is the guidelines,” he said. “They’ve gone down millions of times since the early 2000s, because we’ve learned more about the toxicity of these substances.” All the more reason the second strand of this story is important: “The same month,” Project Censored writes, “researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, published a study in the Annals of Global Health using internal industry documents to show that the companies responsible for ‘forever chemicals’ have known for decades that these substances pose significant threats to human health and the environment.” There’s been limited corporate media coverage that rainwater isn’t safe to drink—specifically from USA Today, the Discovery Channel and Medical News Today. But the general public clearly hasn’t heard the news. However, there’s been more coverage of the series of lawsuits developing in response to PFAS. But the big-picture story surrounding them remains shockingly missing.

BY PAUL ROSENBERG, RANDOM LENGTH NEWS comments@cityweekly.net

2. Hiring of Former CIA Employees and Ex-Israeli Agents ‘Blurs Line’ Between Big Tech and Big Brother

“Google—one of the largest and most influential organizations in the modern world—is filled with ex-CIA agents,” Alan MacLeod reported for MintPress News in July 2022. “An inordinate number of these recruits work in highly politically sensitive fields, wielding considerable control over how its products work and what the world sees on its screens and in its search results.” “Chief amongst these is the trust and safety department, whose staff, in the words of former Google trust and safety VP Kristie Canegallo, ‘[d]ecide what content is allowed on our platform’–in other words, setting the rules of the internet, determining what billions see and what they do not see.” And more broadly, “a former CIA employee is working in almost every department at Google,” Project Censored noted. But Google isn’t alone. Nor is the CIA. “Former employees of U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies now hold senior positions at Google, Meta, Microsoft and other tech giants,” Project Censored wrote. A second report focused on employees from Israel’s Unit 8200, its equivalent of the CIA, which is “infamous for surveilling the indigenous Palestinian population,” MacLeod wrote. Using LinkedIn, he identified hundreds of such individuals from both agencies, providing specific information about dozens of them. “The problem with former CIA agents becoming the arbiters of what is true and what is false and what should be promoted and what should be deleted is that they cut their teeth at a notorious organization whose job it was to inject lies and false information into the public discourse to further the goals of the national security state,” MacLeod wrote. He cited the 1983 testimony of former CIA task force head John Stockwell, author of In Search of Enemies, in which he described the dissemination of propaganda as a “major function” of the agency. “I had propagandists all over the world,” Stockwell wrote, adding: “We pumped dozens of stories about Cuban atrocities, Cuban rapists [to the media] … We ran [faked] photographs that made almost every newspaper in the country … We didn’t know of one single atrocity committed by the Cubans. It was pure, raw, false propaganda to create an illusion of communists eating babies for breakfast.” MacLeod noted later that “None of this means that all or even any of the individuals are moles—or even anything but model employees today. But the sheer number of them “certainly causes concern.” Reinforcing that concern is big tech’s history. “As journalist Nafeez Ahmed’s investigation found, the CIA and the NSA were bankrolling Stanford Ph.D. student Sergey Brin’s research—work that would later produce Google,” MacLeod wrote. “Not only that but, in Ahmed’s words, ‘senior U.S. intelligence representatives, including a CIA official, oversaw the evolution of Google in this pre-launch phase, all the way until the company was ready to be officially founded.’” This fits neatly within the larger framework of Silicon Valley’s origin as a supplier of defense department technology. “A May 2022 review found no major newspaper coverage of Big Tech companies hiring former U.S. or Israeli intelligence officers as employees,” Project Censored noted. “The most prominent U.S. newspapers have not covered Google, Meta, Microsoft and other Big Tech companies hiring former U.S. and Israeli intelligence officers.” Individual cases may make the news. But the overall systemic pattern remains a story largely censored by mainstream silence.

3. Toxic Chemicals Continue to Go Unregulated in the United States

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DECEMBER 21, 2023 | 13

Read Part 2 of Project Censored’s annual Top 10 list next week, in the Dec. 28th issue of Salt Lake City Weekly.

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“The forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading certifier and used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations are largely worthless and could make global heating worse, according to a new investigation,” The Guardian reported on Jan. 23, as part of joint nine-month reporting project with SourceMaterial and Die Zeit. “The analysis raises questions over the credits bought by a number of internationally renowned companies—some of them have labeled their products ‘carbon neutral’ or have told their consumers they can fly, buy new clothes or eat certain foods without making the climate crisis worse.” “About 90 percent of rainforest carbon offsets certified by Verra, the world’s largest offset certifier, do not reflect real reductions in emissions,” Project Censored summed up. Verra, “has issued more than 1 billion metric tons worth of carbon offsets, certifies three-fourths of all voluntary carbon offsets.” While “Verra claimed to have certified 94.9 million credits” the actual benefits “amounted to a much more modest 5.5 million credits.” This was based on an analysis of “the only three scientific studies to use robust, scientifically sound methods to assess the impact of carbon offsets on deforestation,” Project Censored explained. “The journalists also consulted with Indigenous communities, industry insiders and scientists.” “The studies used different methods and time periods, looked at different ranges of projects, and the researchers said no modeling approach is ever perfect,” The Guardian wrote. “However, the data showed broad agreement on the lack of effectiveness of the projects compared with the Verraapproved predictions.” Specifically, “The investigation of 29 Verra rainforest offset projects found that 21 had no climate benefit, seven had significantly less climate benefit than claimed (by margins of 52 to 98 percent less benefit than claimed), while one project yielded 80 percent more climate benefit than claimed. Overall, the study concluded that 94 percent of the credits approved by these projects were ‘worthless’ and never should have been approved.” “Another study conducted by a team of scientists at the University of Cambridge found that in 32 of the 40 forest offset projects investigated, the claims concerning forest protection and emission reductions were overstated by an average of 400%,” Project Censored reported. “Despite claims that these 32 projects together protected an area of rainforest the size of Italy, they only protected an area the size of Venice.” While Verra criticized the studies’ methods and conclusions, an outside expert—Oxford ecoscience professor Yadvinder Singh Malhi—had two Ph.D. students check for errors, and they found none. “I wish it were otherwise, but this report is pretty compelling,” he told The Guardian. “Rainforest protection credits are the most common type on the market at the moment. And it’s exploding, so these findings really matter,” said Barbara Haya, director of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, who’s researched carbon credits for 20 years. “But these problems are not just limited to this credit type. These problems exist with nearly every kind of credit,” she told The Guardian. “We need an alternative process. The offset market is broken.” “There is simply nobody in the market who has a genuine interest to say when something goes wrong,” Lambert Schneider, a researcher at the Öko-Institut in Berlin told SourceMaterial. “The investigations by The Guardian, Die Zeit and SourceMaterial appear to have made a difference. In March 2023, Verra announced that it would phase out its flawed rainforest offset program by mid-2025,” Project Censored reported. But they could only find one brief mention of the joint investigation in major U.S. newspapers: a Chicago Tribune op-ed.

Stalkerware—consisting of up to 200 surveillance apps and services that provide secret access to people’s phones for a monthly fee—“could become a significant legal threat to people seeking abortions, according to a pair of articles published in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion,” Project Censored reports. “Abortion medication is safe. But now that Roe is overturned, your data isn’t,” science reporter Rae Hodge wrote for the tech news site CNET just two days after the Dobbs decision. “Already, the digital trails of abortion seekers can become criminal evidence against them in some states where abortion[s] were previously prosecuted. And the legal dangers may extend to abortion seekers in even more states.” The next month, writing for Slate, University of Virginia law professor Danielle Keats Citron warned that “surveillance accomplished by individual privacy invaders will be a gold mine for prosecutors targeting both medical workers and pregnant people seeking abortions.” Invaders only need a few minutes to access phones and passwords. “Once installed, cyberstalking apps silently record and upload phones’ activities to their servers,” Citron explained. “They enable privacy invaders to see our photos, videos, texts, calls, voice mails, searches, social media activities, locations—nothing is out of reach. From anywhere, individuals can activate a phone’s mic to listen to conversations within 15 feet of the phone,” even “conversations that pregnant people have with their health care providers—nurses, doctors, and insurance company employees,” she warned. As a result, Hodge cautioned, “Those who aid abortion seekers could be charged as accomplices in some cases,” under some state laws. It’s not just abortion, she explained, “Your phone’s data, your social media accounts, your browsing and geolocation history, and your ISP’s detailed records of your internet activity may all be used as evidence if you face state criminal or civil charges for a miscarriage.” “Often marketed as a tool to monitor children’s online safety or as device trackers, stalkerware is technically illegal to sell for the purpose of monitoring adults,” Project Censored noted, but that’s hardly a deterrent. “Stalkerware and other forms of electronic surveillance have been closely associated with domestic violence and sexual assault, according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence,” Citron noted. In addition, Hodge explained, “third-party data brokers sell sensitive geolocation data—culled through a vast web of personal tracking tech found in apps, browsers and devices— to law enforcement without oversight.” And “bounty hunter” provisions adopted by states like Texas and Oklahoma add a financial incentive. “Given the inexpensive cost of readily available stores of personal data and how easily they can be de-anonymized, savvy informants could use the information to identify abortion seekers and turn a profit,” she noted. “The law’s response to intimate privacy violations is inadequate, lacking a clear conception of what intimate privacy is, why its violation is wrongful, and how it inflicts serious harm upon individuals, groups and society,” Citron explained. “Until federal regulations and legislation establish a set of digital privacy laws, abortion seekers are caught in the position of having to create their own patchwork of digital defenses, from often complicated and expensive privacy tools,” Hodge warned. While the bipartisan American Data Privacy and Protection Act is still “slowly inching through Congress” it “is widely thought toothless,” she wrote. The Joe Biden administration has proposed a new rule protecting “certain health data from being used to prosecute both clinicians and patients,” STAT reported in May 2023, but the current draft only applies “in states where abortion is legal.” “Corporate news outlets have paid some attention to the use of digital data in abortion-related prosecutions,” Project Censored reports. While there have been stories about postRoe digital privacy, “none have focused specifically on how stalkerware could potentially be used in criminal investigations of suspected abortions.”

5. Certified Rainforest Carbon Offsets Are Mostly ‘Worthless’

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The United States is “a global laggard in chemical regulation,” ProPublica reported in December 2022, a result of chemical industry influence and acquiescence by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a period of decades, according to reporters Neil Bedi, Sharon Lerner and Kathleen McGrory. A headline example: Asbestos, one of the most widely recognized toxic substances, is still legal in the U.S., more than 30 years after the EPA tried to have it banned. “Through interviews with environmental experts and analysis of a half century’s worth of legislation, lawsuits, EPA documents, oral histories, chemical databases and regulatory records, ProPublica uncovered the longstanding institutional failure to protect Americans from toxic chemicals,” Project Censored reported. ProPublica identified five main reasons for failure: 1. The Chemical Industry Helped Write the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). A top EPA official “joked the law was ‘written by industry’ and should have been named after the DuPont executive who went over the text line by line,” ProPublica reported. The law “allowed more than 60,000 chemicals to stay on the market without a review of their health risks” and required the EPA to always choose the “least burdensome” regulations. “These two words would doom American chemical regulation for decades.” 2. Following Early Failures, the EPA Lost Its Resolve. In 1989, after 10 years of work, the EPA was banning asbestos. But companies that used asbestos sued and won in 1991, based on a court ruling they’d failed to prove it was the “least burdensome” option. However, “the judge did provide a road map for future bans, which would require the agency to do an analysis of other regulatory options … to prove they wouldn’t be adequate,” but rather than follow through, the EPA simply gave up. 3. Chemicals Are Considered Innocent Until Proven Guilty. For decades, the U.S. and EU used a “risk-based” approach to regulation, requiring the government to prove a chemical poses unreasonable health risks before restricting it—which can take years. In 2007, the EU switched to a “hazard-based” approach, putting the burden on companies when there’s evidence of significant harm. As a result, ProPublica explained, “the EU has successfully banned or restricted more than a thousand chemicals.” A similar approach was proposed in the U.S in 2005 by New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, but it was soundly defeated. 4. The EPA Mostly Regulates Chemicals One by One. In 2016, a new law amended the TSCA to cut the “least burdensome” language, and created a schedule “where a small list of high-priority chemicals would be reviewed every few years; in 2016, the first 10 were selected, including asbestos,” ProPublica reported. “The EPA would then have about three years to assess the chemicals and another two years to finalize regulations on them.” But six years later, “the agency is behind on all such rules. So far, it has only proposed one ban, on asbestos, and the agency told ProPublica it would still be almost a year before that is finalized.” Industry fights the process at every step. “Meanwhile, the EU has authored a new plan to regulate chemicals even faster by targeting large groups of dangerous substances,” which “would lead to bans of another 5,000 chemicals by 2030.” 5. The EPA Employs Industry-Friendly Scientists as Regulators. “The EPA has a long history of hiring scientists and top officials from the companies they are supposed to regulate, allowing industry to sway the agency’s science from the inside,” ProPublica wrote. A prime example is Todd Stedeford. “A lawyer and toxicologist, Stedeford has been hired by the EPA on three separate occasions,” ProPublica noted. “During his two most recent periods of employment at the agency— from 2011 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2021—he was hired by corporate employers who use or manufacture chemicals the EPA regulates.” Citing stories in The Washington Post and The New York Times, Project Censored noted: “A handful of corporate outlets have reported on the EPA’s slowness to regulate certain toxic chemicals. However, none have highlighted the systemic failures wrought by the EPA and the chemical industry.”

4. Stalkerware Could Be Used to Incriminate People Violating Abortion Bans

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14 | DECEMBER 21, 2023

Rewind Vo l u m e 18: 200 1 t o 2 0 0 2 years of

salt lake

CITY WEEKLY BY WES LONG wlong@cityweekly.net

fall in New York and winter in Utah bookended City Weekly’s 18th year, with events that commanded an international audience. Respectively, the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games showcased terror and pageantry, heroism and greed, depravity and humanity. Between these bookends were memorable stories for the interested reader. Tiffs ensued over the advertisement of alcohol in newspapers and billboards, while liquor law enforcement was temporarily loosened. Construction was halted on the Legacy Parkway’s advance through sensitive wetlands over UDOT’s inadequate environmental review. A Catholic shrine in Taufer Park was defaced. Utah’s elected Democrats lost seats in government, and Salt Lake City was carved into pieces through state lawmakers’ redistricting effort. The cover features by City Weekly’s writers add further color to this period. Jared Blackley tackled the experiences of gay BYU students; Katharine Biele wrote of the political influence of Reagan Outdoor Advertisers; and Julie Trevelyan explored Utah’s herbal industry. Bianca Dumas profiled Zen master Dennis Merzel, Dave Candland covered lucid dreaming and Ben Fulton reported on Utah’s Palestinian-American community, as well as the mullet haircut.

Remembering Vol. 18: In the aftermath

“There’s so much to be said. So much to be felt,” wrote Wally Greenwell in a Sept. 20 letter. “Emotions never before imagined are being discovered, felt and processed with the speed and intensity of an atomic explosion. And what will ultimately come of this? Broken hearts. Lives changed forever. And, to some degree, the erosion of humanity.” The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon shattered the calm of a beautiful September morning and plunged American citizens into a nightmare that many others around the world had long experienced themselves. “We are no longer aloof,” observed John Saltas, “we are amidst.” The shock and destruction of the attacks elicited numerous letters to City Weekly, but

one in particular responded to the remarks of President George W. Bush that the United States had been attacked for being “the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity.” To this assertion, Michael Homel provided some prescient words of caution. “It must be acknowledged,” he wrote, “that we are the target for attack because we achieved our status at the expense of much of the rest of the world, and we must work to change this in order to achieve sustainable development at the expense of no one. “We must be wary in the aftermath of this attack,” he continued, “that our leaders don’t use the fear and anger we all feel to get us into a war ... or lead us to give up some of our personal freedoms in exchange for greater totalitarian-like security measures. Instead of calling for a military retaliation, it would be more prudent to reassess our role in the world theater and try to make fewer enemies.” This advice was not likely heard easily, for in the wake of the terrorist attacks, both paranoia and xenophobia reared their heads in full force. Northwest Airlines booted three Arab Utahns off a flight home from Minneapolis at the insistence of their fellow passengers. And in keeping with nationwide sweeps of immigrants—often held without criminal charges or in some cases legal representation—69 undocumented workers at the Salt Lake City International Airport were indicted and more than 200 others were terminated in December on the grounds of providing false information. Scott Renshaw pointed out, however, that such ugly actions were not the only impulses to come through in the wake of the terrorist attacks. The sacrifice of rescue workers was the most apparent example, but there were others who were providing light and hope both before and after the tragedy, be they victim, helper or bystander. “Remember the name of everyone you know who gave blood, money or time in the middle of this tragedy,” Renshaw exhorted on Sept. 27. “Remember the lost, and remember those who lifted us up in the wake of that loss. Wrench the world back into the sharp focus of human faces.”

Renshaw noted that Pakistani immigrant Yaser Nisar’s Salt Lake restaurant Curry in a Hurry was targeted by an attempted firebombing following Sept. 11, but members of the community then flooded his establishment with support and flowers. Renshaw didn’t want such acts to be lost in the tidal wave of darkness. “Horror of this kind happens when the abstract—America, Arabs, gays—distracts people from the personal. Whisper those names softly to yourself, and swear to whatever name you give your God that you will never forget every life you touch has a name.” Such counsel would be timely in the years to come, for U.S. and British forces began bombing raids on Afghanistan that October and the “War on Terror” apparatus revved up for campaigns around the globe. The Sept. 20 issue featured a dedicatory note to those who had lost family and friends, and a special tribute to the Rev. Mychal Judge (1933-2001), a New York City Fire Department chaplain and the parish priest to David Ferraro, then-classified ad manager with City Weekly.

In one quote

“The far right doesn’t want to make their case through persuasion and prevail in the hearts and minds of the public. They want all discussion stopped and decisions made by an authoritarian system behind closed doors and then handed to an obedient public for a sustaining vote. This is exactly what the Constitution was written to prevent. This is what religious scriptures—especially Mormon scriptures—warn against. This is the road to totalitarian oligarchy—rule by cliques and gangs.” —Alexander Nibley, Aug. 16, 2001

In the spotlight

“Well, the Games are here,” John Saltas announced on Feb. 7. “As Utahns, we’ve waited, we’ve skipped meals, we’ve built, we’ve watched the scandal, we’ve buried the scandal, we’ve gotten lots of snow and we’ve been the subject of all sorts of attention from the world’s media. … In the next

few weeks we consummate our relationship with the world. We’ll soon know if the world consummates back.” After years of preparation and bombast, the party had begun, as 80,000 nightly visitors, 9,000 journalists and 3,500 athletes and coaches descended upon Salt Lake City. Over three special issues, City Weekly was there to cover the proceedings, from the parades to the protests. Prices were raised, scalpers were afoot and soup kitchen lines were rerouted out of public view. For some, it was a vacation while, for others, it meant being out of work and a home. There was a brawl between a drunken crowd and police in riot gear. Utah’s legislators got plenty of free tickets from lobbyists, which in no way affected how they’d cast votes in session. No, sir. There were fireworks and concession stands, nightly musical performances and friendly cultural exchanges. Bars were filled to the brim and a mountain of merchandise exchanged hands. The athletic competitions seemed to impress as well. “The Winter Games and all its accouterments is what you make of it,” Ben Fulton observed in the Feb. 14 issue. “It’s something that’s created anew with every moment.” Coming so close on the heels of the Sept. 11 attacks, security was tight. No organized demonstrations would be allowed within secure Olympics areas, to the dismay of groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Utah Animal Rights Coalition, which had pushed for larger “free speech zones.” They and other groups preferred to organize demonstrations around the city as a consequence, such as the mock Olympic torch run by the Citizen Activist Network, Saturday evening vigils against bombings in Afghanistan by Utah’s People for Peace and Justice and the Utah Tibetan Association march against the selection of Beijing as host city for the 2008 Summer Games. “If you stayed home, you’re one sorry dog,” Saltas wrote on Feb. 21. “In our lifetimes, Salt Lake City will likely never again rise to the scene it is just now witnessing. Being a part of that has been a great occasion that will not be soon forgotten.” CW

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tah is big on celebrating the pioneer spirit, so it’s only natural that we take a moment to reflect on the legacy of Curry In A Hurry. After twenty-five years in operation, this Salt Lake institution has weathered many storms, but it continues to be a beacon of warm hospitality and delicious food for its community. To commemorate this twenty-five year anniversary, I sat down with the Nisar family to discuss the ups, downs and everything in between that make Curry In A Hurry the local delight that it is today. Though it’s likely that Mona and Rana Nisar didn’t consider themselves pioneers when they decided to open this Salt Lake institution, its presence in our dining community had an enormous cultural impact. As Utah’s first halal restaurant, Curry In A Hurry created a welcoming environment for our Muslim community that has continued to blossom over the years. When asked how it all started, however, the answer was quite simple–Mona Nisar just loves feeding people. Rolling back the clock those twentyfive years and then some, the concept for Curry In A Hurry was born at the 9th and 9th Street Festival. “A friend of mine introduced me to the festival, so I made some vegetarian samosas and other food,” Nisar says. “Everyone that stopped by kept ask-

Usman and Salman Nisar who were helping manage the restaurant while exchanging tidbits of restaurant management experiences. As it turns out, the secret to running a family restaurant for twenty-five years is consistency and a deep love of feeding one’s community. “We’ve seen a lot of ups and downs, but the quality of food has stayed the same,” Saifar says. Even during the rough patches such as an incident of post-9/11 vandalism and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nisars have been able to maintain an even keel in the restaurant world. “The community has always been very supportive,” Mona says. “After the incident after 9/11, the whole community really stepped in to help us.” Saifar is quick to add, “We appreciate our community and our community appreciates us, I think.” It’s this focus on community and opening their doors to all comers that has helped Curry In A Hurry gather an elite clientele that includes politicians, actors and professional athletes. In the few minutes it takes to get your food, you can peruse the myriad photographs of these celebrity visits beneath the glass counter top. “We actually had Tom Cruise come in one night, but we didn’t have time to take a picture,” Saifar says. According to Mona, Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn still sends Rana gifts from time to time. When I ask what brings the celebrities to Curry In A Hurry, Saifar chuckles and points to his mother. “She does. She just loves to feed people. She loves to see people come in happy and satisfied.” This proclamation is the heart and soul of Curry In A Hurry–a family business that followed an uncompromising vision for twenty-five years and has become a bastion of warm food and friendly service in Salt Lake City. CW

BY ALEX SPRINGER comments@cityweekly.net @captainspringer

ing me where my restaurant was. I told them I didn’t have one, but that gave me an idea–I should open a small kitchen.” They secured their location from a colleague at neighboring business O.C. Tanner where Mona and her husband Rana worked at the time, and the rest is Utah dining history. The food that we’ve come to know and love from Curry In A Hurry began even further back than that. “I grew up in Kenya. My grandmother taught me how to cook and I started cooking when I was really young,” Mona says. “It soon became my hobby.” This East African take on traditional Pakistani dishes is what makes Curry In A Hurry stand out. You can get curry from a variety of different restaurants, but nothing quite captures the signature flavors of Mona Nisar’s family recipes. Those of you who have been longtime fans of Curry In A Hurry know exactly what I’m talking about. The chicken curry is light, buttery and just smoky enough to remain interesting with each bite. The curry potatoes–endorsed by former Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. no less–have been stewed to perfection in a flavorful, coriander-infused broth. While they remain my personal favorite combo, they only scratch the surface of the soulful offerings you can get at Curry In A Hurry. About midway through my conversation with Rana and Mona, their son Saifar arrived to talk some shop. He managed the now-closed Curry In A Hurry location on Main Street which opened around the time Utah hosted the Winter Olympics–it was this location that became a favorite for City Weekly staffers when your favorite altweekly was still operating out of its Main Street digs. “We’re doing everything from our heart,” he says. “Our chicken curry is so good that people just get hooked on it because they can’t get it anywhere else.” At this point, the evening evolved into a familial dinner as we were also joined by

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Curry In A Hurry Turns 25

Burgers so good they’ll blow your mind!

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BEER + PIZZA = <3

SUN-THU: 11am - 10pm • FRI-SAT: 11am - 11pm

Level Crossing Brewing Co. 2496 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: Down the Road - West Coast IPA

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

Level Crossing Brewing Co., POST 550 So. 300 West #100, SLC LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: You-Tah Coffee Uncommon

RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com On Tap: Crisper Drawer Golden Ale

Bewilder Brewing 445 S. 400 West, SLC BewilderBrewing.com On Tap: ESB - English Amber

Moab Brewing 686 S. Main, Moab TheMoabBrewery.com On Tap: Golden Sprocket Wit

Bohemian Brewery 94 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale BohemianBrewery.com

Mountain West Cider 425 N. 400 West, SLC MountainWestCider.com On Tap: Winter Solstice Wassail Cider and Bee Sting Cyser Hops

Roosters Brewing Multiple Locations RoostersBrewingCo.com On Tap: Identity Crisis Session West Coast Hazy Cold IPA – the name says it all!

2 Row Brewing 6856 S. 300 West, Midvale 2RowBrewing.com Avenues Proper 376 8th Ave, SLC avenuesproper.com On Tap: Midnight Especial- Dark Mexican Lager

Bonneville Brewery 1641 N. Main, Tooele BonnevilleBrewery.com On Tap: Peaches and Cream Ale

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Chappell Brewing 2285 S Main Street, Salt Lake City chappell.beer On Tap: WarPig - Cascadian Dark Ale Craft by Proper 1053 E. 2100 So., SLC craftbyproper.com On Tap: Purple Rain - Marionberry Helles Desert Edge Brewery 273 Trolley Square, SLC DesertEdgeBrewery.com On Tap: La Playa-Mexican Style lager

Offset Bier Co 1755 Bonanza Dr Unit C, Park City offsetbier.com | On Tap: DOPO IPA Ogden Beer Company 358 Park Blvd, Ogden OgdenRiverBrewing.com On Tap: Injector Hazy IPA Park City Brewery 1764 Uinta Way C1 ParkCityBrewing.com On Tap: Peanut Butter Porter Policy Kings Brewery 223 N. 100 West, Cedar City PolicyKingsBrewery.com

Epic Brewing Co. 825 S. State, SLC EpicBrewing.com On Tap: 2023 Big Bad Baptist BarrelAged Imperial Stout Variants

Prodigy Brewing 25 W Center St. Logan Prodigy-brewing.com On Tap: Cached Out Hefeweisen -Now available to go!

Fisher Brewing Co. 320 W. 800 South, SLC FisherBeer.com On Tap: A rotation of up to 17 Fresh Beers!

Proper Brewing 857 S. Main, SLC ProperBrewingCo.com On Tap: Whispers from Krakatoa Helles Lager with Habanero and Mango Proper Burger: Sour Ranger - Blackberry and Lemon Sour

Grid City Beer Works 333 W. 2100 South, SLC GridCityBeerWorks.com On Tap: Cask Nitro CO2 Helper Beer 159 N Main Street, Helper, UT helperbeer.com Hopkins Brewing Co. 1048 E. 2100 South, SLC HopkinsBrewingCompany.com On Tap: Winter Ale Kiitos Brewing 608 W. 700 South, SLC KiitosBrewing.com

Proper Brewing Moab 1393 US-191 Moab, Utah 84532 On Tap: Angus McCloud- Scottish Ale Red Rock Brewing 254 So. 200 West RedRockBrewing.com On Tap: Gypsy Scratch Red Rock Fashion Place 6227 So. State Redrockbrewing.com On Tap: Munich Dunkel

SaltFire Brewing 2199 S. West Temple, S. Salt Lake SaltFireBrewing.com On Tap: Deep Dive Series - Rice Lager Draft Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com On Tap: Huldra and Holle: Rum barrel aged Imperial Stout with Chaga Mushroom Scion Cider Bar 916 Jefferson St W, SLC Scionciderbar.com On Tap: Ciders of Spain Good Clean Funk - 6.5% ABV Second Summit Cider 4010 So. Main, Millcreek https://secondsummitcider.com On Tap: Pear Pink Peppercorn & Tarragon Cider Shades Brewing 154 W. Utopia Ave, South Salt Lake ShadesBrewing.beer On Tap: Slim Shady Gluten Friendly Light Ale Live Music: Thursdays Shades On State 366 S. State Street SLC Shadesonstate.com On Tap: Foggy Goggle Winter Lager Silver Reef 4391 S. Enterprise Drive, St. George StGeorgeBev.com Squatters Pub Brewery / Salt Lake Brewing Co. 147 W. Broadway, SLC saltlakebrewingco.com/squatters On Tap: Salt Lake Brewing Co.’s Grandma’s Cookies Nitro Stout

Squatters and Wasatch Brewery 1763 So 300 West SLC UT 84115 Utahbeers.com On Tap: Tree Beard IPA w Fresh Spruce Tips and Simcone, Citra & Ekeanot Hops Strap Tank Brewery, Lehi 3661 Outlet Pkwy, Lehi, UT StrapTankBrewery.com On Tap: Wake-Up Call Coffee Stout. Collab with KBER 101 and Kings Peak coffee. Strap Tank Brewery, Springville 596 S 1750 W, Springville, UT StrapTankBrewery.com On Tap: Bananza Hefeweizen Stratford Proper 1588 Stratford Ave., SLC stratfordproper.com On Tap: Yacht Rock Juice Box Juicy IPA TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC TFBrewing.com On Tap: Dunkel Lager Talisman Brewing Co. 1258 Gibson Ave, Ogden TalismanBrewingCo.com On Tap: Witches Brew Top of Main Brewing 250 Main, Park City, Utah saltlakebrewingco.com/wasatch On Tap: Top of Main’s Warmer Winter Spiced Ale Uinta Brewing 1722 S. Fremont Drive, SLC UintaBrewing.com On Tap: Was Angeles Craft Beer UTOG 2331 Grant Ave, Ogden UTOGBrewing.com On Tap: Golden Grant 5% ABV. Vernal Brewing 55 S. 500 East, Vernal VernalBrewing.com Wasatch Brew Pub 2110 S. Highland Drive, SLC saltlakebrewingco.com/wasatch On Tap: Top of Main’s Mother Urban’s Parlor Blonde Ale Zion Brewery 95 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale ZionBrewery.com Zolupez 205 W. 29th Street #2, Ogden Zolupez.com

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18 | DECEMBER 21, 2023

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

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iitos - Appleweizen: This collaboration between Kiitos and Second Summit Cider is a hybrid ale known as a graff. A graff is simply mixing apple juice with beer wort, and then fermenting it with ale yeast to produce something new. I had this on tap at the brewery, and it’s actually really fantastic. It has a nice golden glow and some mild haze beneath a good-sized white head. The nose is fresh apples, halfway between juice and cider. The result is really nice because it’s all fruit and no spice—just right. The taste is the same; not overpowering yet fresh-tasting, the ale starts true to its name. There is little here to remind me that this is beer, but I think that’s the purpose of a graff, is it not? It’s not too sweet either, but rather a little like the apples themselves. Maybe a touch of wheat malt is detectable in here, but it’s simple and subtle. The finish is long and lightly fruity, a really nice twist from, say, the likes of Shock Top. Carbonated like soda pop, I think this does exactly what it sets out to do: Make a highly drinkable beer that blurs the line between cider and beer. I like what they have going on here. Verdict: For those people who enjoy fruit beers and have a bit of an open mind, do yourself a favor and check out this one. I think the more traditional beer-drinker may have an easy time

BY MIKE RIEDEL comments@cityweekly.net @utahbeer

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Finding bliss in these polar opposites

with this one because of its simple approach; the beer nerd will also like it due to its hybridization. Appleweizen is a seasonal offering, so you won’t be able to find this one year-round. Templin Family - Saving Gracie Dunkel: It pours a huge, creamy and thick rich head that rises up to three fingers before I have to stop pouring, and it fades semi-slowly with nice fizzy bubbles popping and soapy lacing—a very hazy dark maroon, slight chestnut-colored beer. The nose brings some dusty brown malts, light toasted bread and grain, mild brown sugar and caramel, into a mild, grassy and slight earthy herbal hop aroma, as well as a mild toffee nuttiness and creamy brown malt. The taste starts with more brown malts—toasty and quite creamy, too—a hint of oats, mild coffee, milk and maybe lactose, with a slight nutty toffee-like flavor. You get some sweetness as well— a little brown sugar/coffee milk flavor. Some grassy, earthy herbal hops emerge, but not a lot, with mild to fair bitterness. The finish is fairly bitter as it dries, and it gets a little dried lactose-like feel, with more earthy herbal hops lingering. Mouthfeel is medium, creamy, lighter on the carbonation, though, which does help the creamy feel. Verdict: This tastes pretty on-point for the style, and one that I’ve rarely seen around. The result offers a refreshing break from the pales and IPAs, and a good one to share with a friend who is more partial to the malt. Very easy to drink, and the clean finish and lingering bitterness really fill this one out. Saving Gracie Dunkel is available at TF in 16-ounce cans or draft. This is a limited seasonal offering, so don’t wait too long. The Appleweizen is available at Kiitos and Second Summit Hard Cider. If you’d like to try the apples used in this beer on their own, Second Summer has a cider pouring on draft now that utilizes the apple blend. As always, cheers! CW

Hop

MIKE RIEDEL

The Graff and the Dunkle

MIKE RIEDEL

NERD

BEER

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20 | DECEMBER 21, 2023

the

BACK BURNER BY ALEX SPRINGER |

@captainspringer

The holidays are upon us once more, so I’ve compiled a tasty list of some dining-out options for Christmas and Christmas Eve. Make merry, friends!

Pizza Party at Forty Three Bakery

The team at Forty Three Bakery (733 W. Genesee Avenue) will be hosting an all-you-can-eat Christmas pizza party on December 22, 23, and 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. A mere $15 gets you a ticket to as much Sicilian-style pizza as you can handle, and another $6 secures all-you-caneat dessert pie–vegan options are included. Nothing quite makes one ready for the holidays as eating an absurd amount of pizza and pie, and this is a tradition I hope will endure for the years to come at Forty Three Bakery. While you’re there, you can snag some additional pastries to go–you’ll only be hungry again, after all.

Brunch at Sundance Resort

For all you brunch fans who want to make things nice and rustic, Sundance Resort is hosting a Christmas Brunch (8841 Alpine Loop Road) on December 24 and 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundance in the winter is already filled with cozy alpine vibes, and their brunch menu featuring everything from gingerbread pancakes and s’mores waffles to honey glazed ham and herb roasted prime rib will be served. This one is perfect for those who fit into the Venn diagram intersection of not wanting to cook on Christmas and still wanting to create super festive memories for the family.

Buffet at Grand America

Those who are after the high-end buffet vibe for Christmas or Christmas Eve can check out the buffet at The Grand American Hotel (555 S. Main Street) in Downtown SLC this year. This annual yuletide feast will take place on December 24 and 25 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature plenty of classic holiday eats along with a few new surprises. Anyone whose Christmas must-list includes posh dining arrangements in the heart of Salt Lake’s metro area will want to book this experience. It’s tough to beat the joys of munching on quiche and french toast while enjoying the opulent decor of The Grand America. Quote of the Week: “Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.” – Samuel Pepys

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coppercommon.com • 111 E. Broadway, Suite 190, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 Open 7 days a week at 5pm. Sunday brunch from 10:30am-3:00pm

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

Poor Things BBB½

Many classic films have been driven by this satirical concept: We take for granted certain things in our world which, if viewed from a perspective seeing them for the first time, are clearly ridiculous. In their adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s novel, director Yorgos Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara craft a unique sort of feminist fable. What would a world built around the desires and expectations of men look like to a woman trying to understand it as a blank slate? Bella Baxter (Emma Stone)—salvaged from the Thames in Victorian London as an unidentified nine-months-pregnant corpse—is revived by Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) through an experimental transplant of her fetus’s brain into her body. The resulting creation begins with the physical and mental capacity of an infant, and Stone’s performance is hilarious both as a full-sized baby and as a person learning the codified, gendered rules of her society. Lanthimos leans into an exaggerated design and color palette for his world (once it emerges from the black-and-white of Bella’s early existence) that evokes vintage Terry Gilliam, and does occasionally go over-the-top with the fish-eye lenses that emphasize a distorted view of things. But the great supporting performances and the wicked humor throughout the picaresque narrative allows for a delightfully naughty skewering of whether the way things have always been makes any sense at all. Available Dec. 22 in theaters. (R)

The Iron Claw BB½

The problem with writer/director Sean Durkin’s story of the real-life Von Erich wrestling family isn’t that he goes excessively bleak; if anything, he reins in the actual parade of tragedy these people endured. Even dialed back to about 80% of true-to-life awfulness, though, this narrative starts to feel punishing once its thematic notions have become clear. We get the backstory about patriarch

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Three new high-profile releases head into theaters for the holidays.

Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) as a one-time professional wrestler who has passed his obsession on to his sons—Kevin (Zac Efron), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson) and Mike (Stanley Simons)—in a way that shapes their entire lives. And we get a great flavor of life on the mid-tier wrestling circuits of the early 1980s, and how a wrestler like Kevin who’s great in the ring might not get a chance at the big time if he’s bad on the microphone. But while every performance is solid and Durkin brings some style to what might have been a rote biopic, there’s not a lot more to be gleaned from the story ’round about the point where Fritz makes it clear he has a ranked order for which son is his favorite, depending on how they’re following Fritz’s plan for their lives. Toxic masculinity and bad parenting—which also includes Maura Tierney as the passive mother—certainly make for dramatic conflict, up to the point where the mounting consequences are almost too much to stomach. Available Dec. 22 in theaters. (R)

The Color Purple BB½

For nearly 40 years, the conventional wisdom has been that Steven Spielberg was the wrong filmmaker to adapt Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel; after this filmed version of the stage musical interpretation, perhaps the real problem is that the novel lends itself to questionable adaptation decisions. The same narrative structure remains, beginning in early 1900s Georgia where Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi as a teen, Fantasia Barrino as an adult) is married off to “Mister” (Colman Domingo), beginning a decades-long struggle with abuse and being able to find her own personhood. This version does at least recognize the full-on sexual relationship between Celie and Mister’s mistress, jazz singer Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson), and nails the casting pretty much from top to bottom; it’s hard to imagine a better choice than Domingo to take the place of Danny Glover. The real issue is that people keep trying to fashion this edgy story into feel-good melodrama, which is certainly what happens when you turn its scenes into musical production numbers. It’s not even that those numbers are poorly crafted, because some of them are quite exceptional as directed by Blitz Bazawule, including the movie-style fantasy Celie imagines for her feelings about Shug. They simply don’t feel right for this story, which—while it is about surviving pain and finding unexpected happiness—feels better served by quiet dignity than by the swelling of an orchestra. Available Dec. 25 in theaters. (R) CW

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Mutiny Music Collective brings novelty to the EDM scene through passion and risk-taking BY ARICA ROBERTS comments@cityweekly.net

f you’re an avid raver in Salt Lake City, chances are that you’ve been to a Mutiny Music Collective show. While Mutiny popped up during the pandemic, they have firmly solidified themselves as a top-tier local production group. Their success has coincided with the influx of population in Salt Lake City—and the demand for more electronic dance music (EDM) is greater than ever. Daniel Krotz and Alex Prevatt, the duo behind the magic of Mutiny, put on their first show in spring of 2021 with no prior professional experience in the music industry, nor financial backing to support them. “We threw our first show, Roll’n Rave, which was a socially distanced drive-in concert at the Utah Motorsports Campus in Tooele that ended up being the nation’s single largest electronic music drive-in concert during the pandemic,” Krotz said. Since then, Mutiny has continued to grow and garner supporters. Their success in creating fun EDM events can be attributed to not only their passion and work ethic, but also their skills to meet the high demands of thirsty ravers by curating taste. Two years ago, their first New Year’s Eve afterparty flier contained question marks without any artists listed, but that mystique added interest to the event, which ended up having some of the top international bass artists. This tactic helped Mutiny develop trust with the local community. “If we booked what we thought

NEW RELEASE ROUND UP Olivia Rodrigo Sparkle Horse Linda Ronstadt

everyone wanted us to book (or what they asked for) then we would be sacrificing what has made us special. We’ve been working really hard to ‘show people what’s cool,’ and then delivering on that with a really phenomenal show,” said Prevatt. This idea of taste-making is a risk that has paid off for Krotz and Prevatt. From the Roll’n Rave, to the first ever concert at Fear Factory this year, the duo knows how to throw a party. Now, their highlyanticipated New Year’s Eve event titled SATURNALIA is next on the docket. This is the third year that Mutiny has held this two-day event, and they vow to continue investing in new ideas, artists, show concepts and venues. This year, the event features ATLiens, Barely Alive and Kompany on Saturday night Dec. 30, and MARAUDA and Deathpact on Sunday night Dec. 31. SATURNALIA is named after the ancient annual Roman celebration that marked the last great harvest of the year. “It was a time that everyone in the city, regardless of rank or status, would dress the same and offer their bounty to the community as a way to celebrate and mark the closing of another year, while removing the importance of status to encourage the idea of equality,” explained Krotz. This concept functions well within the EDM community, which prides itself on togetherness and acceptance. “The dance floor is a place where a lot of people tend to shake loose their inhibitions and express the best version of themselves, whatever that may be,” Krotz said. The past success of SATURNALIA has helped put Utah on the map for EDM. While raves started out as secretive spaces for self-expression, these alternative scenes are more accepting now than ever. Mutiny isn’t the only group that encourages alternative art in SLC; Downhaus is another group that has a hand in the scene, and they will also showcase art for the upcoming NYE celebration, which will be a mind-blowing event. One of the main attractions is the

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One Last Dance

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FEATURE

cords Re

24 | DECEMBER 21, 2023

MUSIC

uniquely set up 360 room. Here, a DJ performs in the center of the room with minimal setup. Patrons will surround them in all directions, blurring the lines of attendees and performers. Ravers can expect both international and local performances, and, of course, plenty of lights and lasers. Experiencing SATURNALIA will surely win over those who haven’t been to a Mutiny event; the need to come back for more will be overpowering. Luckily, there is much more in store for 2024, including a new space for events called the Boxpac Project. “Two months ago, we opened up a warehouse concert venue to deliver on the need that we’ve seen in the market. It’s a 1,500[-person] capacity industrial warehouse out by the airport, and every show there in 2024 will be unique,” said Krotz. The novelty Mutiny brings to Salt Lake City’s EDM scene comes not only from their risk-taking, but also their unwaver-

ing passion. Both Krotz and Prevatt have developed a love for Utah since moving and meeting here. “Utah has a ton to offer— its landscape is beautiful and unique, and because of this, we’re lucky enough to have some amazing outdoor venues. The culture here is also very tight knit— we have very active groups within the scene, and we are welcoming new people every day. The late-night underground scene thrives as well. It’s very well-rounded, and we feel fortunate to be here,” Krotz said. They both also have an immense love for the EDM community and have combined their pure love for the music and culture to build Mutiny from the ground up. “This is all that both Alex and I ever think about; it’s what keeps us up at night and wakes us early in the morning. It’s our favorite thing in the world and neither of us would be doing anything differently if we had the choice,” said Krotz. CW

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All Systems Fail in 2003

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Bad Luck Brigade, Muskies, Sunny Day Soap Opera @ Kilby Court 12/22

As we get closer to Christmas, events are dwindling a little, but there are still plenty of great events to attend before and after jolly old St. Nick comes to town. This trio of energetic local groups delivers a great variety of sound, and leading the charge is Bad Luck Brigade, a group who offers an intriguing combination of smooth indie jams paired with rap lyrics. Bad Luck Brigade is high-energy and rowdy at times, a perfect combo for a night out with friends. The combo of live instruments with rap beats is unique and not heard often, plus might be an appeal to those who don’t usually dabble in rap/hip-hop. Joining BLB is “pike psych” group Muskies, who bring all of the dreamy, otherworldly jams. Their debut single was the fitting “Out on the Water,” a perfect introduction to the lighthearted nature of the group. They hit us with brand-new single “Atomic Avenue” on Dec. 15 along with an accompanying video, and it was a great send-off for 2023. Rounding out the bill is Sunny Day Soap Opera, who describe themselves as “Ogden art rock”—very different from the two aforementioned groups, so this show really features a wide range of Utah talent. If you’re looking for something new and fresh, head out to Kilby Court on Friday, Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the all-ages show are $10 at 24tix.com. (Emilee Atkinson)

Endless Struggle, All Systems Fail, Yaotl Mictlan, Filth Lords @ Aces High Saloon 12/22

When you think “Christmas,” metal might not be the next thing you think of—but what’s better than headbanging on a cold winter night with a room full of excited metalheads? This Friday night brings a four-course meal of hardcore music that will tide you over until after the holidays. Headlining is veteran punk group Endless Struggle, who celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2023 with an EP including never-released tracks remastered for the modern day. All Systems Fail also marked two decades of rocking out in 2023. “United by a passion for punk music and a commitment to human and animal rights, the band has taken their message from small underground venues to major stages, sharing the spotlight with punk legends and newcomers alike,” Grid City Music Festival posted about All Systems Fail. “Through benefit shows and activism, their music serves as a call to action for positive change. Beyond the stage, All Systems Fail has become a tight-knit family, growing together through shared experiences. As they continue their journey, their music remains a powerful force for unity and justice in an ever-changing world.” Also on the menu is Mexican black/death metal group Yaotl Mictlan, who incorporate indigenous pre-Hispanic instrumentation and lyrics about pre-colonial Mayan culture. Their name translates to “Warrior[s] from the land of the Dead.” Pretty damn metal. Last but not least is Filth Lords, a postpunk group from SLC who know how to bring the noise. Come jam for Christmas on Friday, Dec. 22 at 8 p.m. Tickets for the 21+ show are $15 at the door. (EA)

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G R A C I E S S L C . C O M • 8 0 1 - 8 1 9 -7 5 6 5

DECEMBER 21, 2023 | 25

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Experience a fusion of house music, hip-hop and Arabic beats by Palestinian-American DJ and producer Habibeats. Originally from the Bay Area, Habibeats (aka Ibrahim Abu-Ali) proudly embraces his culture by integrating Arabic-language music and creating his own unique sound. Abu-Ali’s decision to showcase positive cultural representation in his music was something he developed over time during his residencies at night clubs across San Francisco and Los Angeles. After gaining success on TikTok for innovative hip-hop sample breakdown videos, he began touring in major cities throughout the country and focused on his own music production. By incorporating his Arab identity at shows, Abu-Ali uses his platform to share his culture and connect with people. For example, his first remix combined popular Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram’s “Ya Tabtab” with Brazilian rhythms, and has since gained over twomillion views. He also hosts parties at the famous venue Avalon in Los Angeles, called Habibi’s House. These parties feature music blending a range of genres and sounds from Arabic, hiphop, Latin, Indian, African and house music. Rather than conforming to traditional Western house music, Habibeats invites the audience to recognize and celebrate Arab culture and music, challenging social norms and stereotypes that have diminished diaspora communities often feared or misunderstood. Join the healing music of Habibeats at Sky SLC on Saturday, Dec. 23. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets cost $20 at skyslc.com (Arica Roberts)

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There has always been a huge geek contingent among metal fans, and anyone who knows anything about music wouldn’t be shocked at metalheads being all “metallectual” about it. I doubt that influential rock/metal act Iceburn is concerned about what box they are placed into by obsessive Wikipedians. Since their first LP that dropped back in 1992, Iceburn has continued to create and push music and change ideas of music. After all, it’s their modus operandi. “We are lucky now to be able to constantly evolve and reexamine our music while playing it in a way many others don’t have the luxury,” vocalist/guitarist Gentry Densley told Veil Of Sound. “Never playing things exactly the same way forces us to be in the moment and constantly creative in a way that is pretty unique to our way of doing it.” It can be challenging to categorize an act when it isn’t rule-bound to a given genre. Iceburn’s sound is huge, and you can’t discount the riffage. The stringed shredding is a throughline for some folks, whereas the virtuosity might not quite scratch that itch. The current Iceburn collective is Gentry Densley (guitar/vocals), Cache Tolman (bass), Jamie Holder (guitar), Joseph “Chubba” Smith (drums)—basically the same lineup for the past 20+ years. Iceburn is a band I never get tired of listening to. Eagle Twin and DØNE open. Catch these artists at the Urban Lounge on Friday, Dec. 22; doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets for the 21+ show are $12 at 24tix.com (Mark Dago)

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Iceburn

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DECEMBER 21, 2023 | 27

Casio Ghost

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas @ Urban Lounge 12/23

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Live Music

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28 | DECEMBER 21, 2023

TOMMY KRAUSE

Our Heated n O p P U a y ti z o

This week is all about pre-Christmas bashes, and this is going to be a good one, as another collection of excellent SLC acts comes together for a perfect holiday party. At this show you’ll be able to catch Casio Ghost, Seeking the Sun, Miicah, Club Mungo and Angie Petty. If you’re involved in the local scene, you’re probably familiar with psych-surf quartet Casio Ghost. It’s hard to go wrong with any of their music, so if you haven’t heard them, give them a listen. Their most recent album, Postmodern Blues, is some of their best work yet. Seeking the Sun is another SLC favorite whose music has a unique, funky and exciting sound. On my first listen, my mind was taken to the sounds of supergroup The Dead Weather; there are a lot of interesting technical things happening, but the music is also very loud and in your face, in the best possible way. Also on the docket is Miicah, whose indie gazepop vibes took the internet by storm earlier this fall. Miicah’s debut album bad holiday dropped in September, gaining more than 100k streams in just a few months. This show offers a wide variety in sounds, especially with Club Mungo joining the mix. Their smooth-as-hell hip-hop tracks are addicting, and their number of streams is criminally low. Last but not least comes SLC-based R&B/pop artist Angie Petty. There’s no way you can be bored before the holidays with shows like these. Head out to hang out and vibe on Saturday, Dec. 23 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the 21+ show are free, but visit 24tix.com to reserve your ticket to ensure entry. (EA)

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free will ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Aries educator Booker T. Washington advised us, “Do the common thing in an uncommon way.” That’s a useful motto for you in the coming months. If you carry out ordinary activities with flair, you will generate good fortune and attract excellent help. As you attend to details with conscientious enthusiasm, you will access your finest inner resources and exert constructive influences on the world around you. Be thorough and unique, persistent and imaginative, attentive and innovative. Adore your chores in 2024!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Taurus philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) was among the smartest people who ever lived. As is often the case with geniuses, he believed in the supreme value of liberty for all. He was a feminist long before that word existed. Like another genius, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, he thought that “individuality realized is the supreme attainment of the human soul, the master-master’s work of art. Individuality is sacred.” I nominate Mill to be a role model for you in 2024, Taurus. This could be a time when you reach unprecedented new heights and depths of unique self-expression and liberation. PS: Here’s a quote from Mill: “Eccentricity has always abounded where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor and moral courage which it contained.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

In my fairy tale about your year ahead, I see you searching for treasure. It’s not a wild and wandering exploration, but a diligent, disciplined quest. You are well-organized about it, carefully gathering research and asking incisive questions. You ruminate on the possibilities with both your logical and intuitive faculties. You meditate on how you might make adjustments in yourself so as to become fully available for the riches you seek. Your gradual, incremental approach gives you strength. You draw inspiration from your sheer persistence and relentless inquiry. And it all pays off by the second half of 2024.

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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

“All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening,” quipped Capricorn author Alexander Woollcott (1887–1943). Since he was never arrested, I conclude he didn’t get to enjoy some of the activities he relished. Was he immoral? Not exactly, though he could be caustic. Offering his opinion about a famous pianist, he said, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with Oscar Levant that a miracle couldn’t fix.” The good news for you, Capricorn, is that 2024 will be mostly free of the problems Woollcott experienced. You will be offered an abundance of perfectly legal and moral enjoyments. They may sometimes be fattening, but so what?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Author Augusten Burroughs is a devoted urban dweller. He says, “When I get a craving for nature, I turn on TV’s Discovery Channel and watch bear-attack survivors recount their horror.” Martial arts master Morihei Ueshiba had a different perspective. “Mountains, rivers, plants, and trees should be your teachers,” he advised. “Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks.” I recommend Ueshiba’s approach to you in 2024, Aquarius—not Burroughs’. Here are my predictions: 1. You will have no dangerous encounters with nature; 2. You will learn more than ever from the wild world; 3. To the degree that you wander in the outdoors, your spiritual life will thrive.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

A study done at Union College in New York found that being fraternity members raised students’ future income by 36%, but lowered their grade point average by 0.25 points. Would you make a similar trade-off, Pisces? Would you pursue a path that made you more successful in one way but less successful in another? I suspect you will encounter unusual decisions like this in 2024. My job is not to advise you what to do, but to make you alert for the provocative riddles.

Go to realastrology.com for Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text-message horoscopes. Audio horoscopes also available by phone at 877-873-4888 or 900-950-7700.

DECEMBER 21, 2023 | 29

In 1916, most women in the world could not vote. Many men considered women to be inferior—lacking in courage and initiative. It was the Dark Ages! That summer, two sisters named Augusta and Adeline Van Buren rebelled against the stereotypes by riding their motorcycles across America. Roads were poor, rains were frequent and police arrested them frequently for wearing men’s clothes. Male-dominated media derided them, with one newspaper criticizing their escape from “their proper roles as housewives.” I nominate them to be your role models in 2024, no matter what gender you are. It will be a favorable time to transcend conventional wisdom, override decaying traditions and be a cheerful rebel.

I suggest we choose the brilliant Scorpio physicist and chemist Marie Curie (1867–1934) as your role model in 2024. She is the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different fields. She managed to pursue a rigorous scientific career while raising two children and having a fulfilling marriage. Being of service to humanity was a central life goal. She grew up in poverty and sometimes suffered from depression, but worked hard to become the genius she aspired to be. May the spirit of Marie Curie inspire you, dear Scorpio, as you make dramatic progress in expressing your unique soul’s code.

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Writer Janet Champ speaks about the joy of locating “the big wow, the big yesyesyes.” It happens when you find something or someone you regard as “better, greater, cuter, wiser, more wonderful than anything you have ever known.” I’ll be lavish and predict you will encounter a big wow and yesyesyes like this in 2024. Will you know what to do with it? Will you be able to keep it? Those possibilities are less certain, but I have high hopes for you. For best results, cultivate a vivid vision of how the big wow and big yesyesyes will benefit others as well as you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

| COMMUNITY |

Indigenous people study the intelligence of animals and incorporate it into their own lives. If you’re game to do that in 2024, I suggest you choose elephants as a source of teaching and inspiration. Have fun studying and meditating on their ways! Here are a few facts to get you started. Problem-solving is one of their strengths. They are experts at learning how to get what they need and passing that knowledge on to their offspring. They seldom suffer from sickness, but if they do, they often self-medicate with plants in their environment. Elder females are the knowledge keepers, retaining inner maps of where food, drink and other resources are located.

For hundreds of years, European nations stole land and resources from Indigenous people all over the world. Among the thefts were art, ritual objects, cultural treasures and human skeletons. Museums in the West are still full of such plunder. But in recent years, some museums have begun to return the loot. Germany sent back hundreds of artifacts to Nigerian museums. France restored many objects to the African country of Benin. Let’s apply this scenario as a useful metaphor for you in 2024, Libra. Is there a part of your past that was hijacked? Your memories appropriated or denied? Your rightful belongings poached, or your authentic feelings infringed upon? It’s time for corrections and healing.

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Emotionally and spiritually, you will ripen at a robust rate in 2024. Your intelligence will mature into wisdom in surprising and gratifying ways. Harvesting rich lessons from longsmoldering confusions and long-simmering mysteries will be your specialty. PS: Some of you Geminis joke around and say you never want to grow up. But I hope you minimize that attitude in the coming months.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

STOP

BY DAVID LEVINSON WILK

DOWN

1. Southwestern sights 2. Bacteriologist with a namesake dish 3. Urban Dictionary content 4. Falcons or Hawks, on a scoreboard 5. McClanahan of “The Golden Girls” 6. Suffix with direct or deposit 7. Start of “The Alphabet Song” 8. Journalist who was the first woman to guest-host “Jeopardy!” 9. Neighbor of Francia

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Santa Cox

10. Like a baby born after being in utero from 38 to 42 weeks 11. According to 12. Pola of silent films 13. Fully get 18. NYC neighborhood near Greenwich Village 22. Chicago-based cable superstation 24. Doofus 25. “Family Guy” creator MacFarlane 26. Morales of “Ozark” 29. Body shop fig. 30. “I do,” e.g. 31. “What ____ missing?” 33. Sketchy show? 35. “____ the ramparts ...” 36. Four-time WNBA champion Bird 37. TikTok, e.g. 39. High number? 40. Purell target 41. “I Am ____” (“Keeping Up With the Kardashians” spinoff) 42. St. Louis landmark 47. Certain NFL linemen 48. Like a radio aside 49. “You’re the One That I Want” musical

51. They’re tapped 52. Word with boot or spaghetti 53. ‘90s candidate ____ Perot 54. “Champagne Supernova” band 55. Big name in pest control 56. Constant critic 57. 1981 hit song “____ a Rainy Night” 58. Coke alternative 63. Middle of dinner? 64. “Who am ____ judge?” 65. Blue Jays, on scoreboards

Last week’s answers

Complete the grid so that each row, column, diagonal and 3x3 square contain all of the numbers 1 to 9. No math is involved. The grid has numbers, but nothing has to add up to anything else. Solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. Solving time is typically 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your skill and experience.

1. U.K. lawmakers 4. Like someone who experiences neither romantic nor sexual attraction, for short 10. Long, pointed tooth 14. Moray ____ 15. Engines with oomph 16. One with a log-in 17. Sports trophy named after a Canadian governor general 19. Women’s grp. that tries to avoid hazards 20. River visible from the Uffizi 21. Folks with Southern accents 23. Tourist’s excursion 27. Has unsettled debts 28. Walking aid 29. “2 Fast 2 Furious” actress Mendes 32. “Take ___ a compliment!” 34. Civil rights icon Parks 38. “Sorry, I got pulled away at the last second ...” 43. Left/Right candy bar 44. Legendary TV producer Norman 45. Gym unit 46. ____ rock (music genre) 50. Morty’s mate in animated adventures 52. Speak without taking time to think 59. Go to a new school 60. Powerful wind 61. Flower with thorns 62. “I can’t take any more of this!” (or, when parsed differently, a hint to solving 17-, 23-, 38- and 52-Across) 66. Phrase of clarification 67. Has a passion for 68. Chargeable cars, for short 69. [Hey, look over here!] 70. One with a bleeping job 71. Retailer whose logo features a tree and mountains

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| COMMUNITY |

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30 | DECEMBER 21, 2023

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

The governor just released his proposed 2024 budget for the Legislature to pick apart. It calls for $29.4 billion in total spending, which is an increase of $1.3 billion (4.5%) over 2023. He’s looking like Santa Cox with his ideas, like giving every Utah teacher a $6,000-per-year raise, a tax cut for families who have been hit hard by inflation, more money for infrastructure and innovative solutions for water issues—including the Great Salt Lake— and more money for mass transit. Since most folks will never read the 188-page proposal, here’s some highlights that may interest you: $132.9 million for helping the Great Salt Lake, with another $561 million for water conservation and $200 million for agricultural water optimization. There’s $53.5 million for mental health resources and $38.3 million allocated to policies to support families, $200 million going toward teacher salaries—including a $4,600 salary bump and benefits every year (totaling the $6,000 in new compensation mentioned above). For parents, there’s $70.7 million allocated for at-risk students and $40.8 million toward optional all-day kindergarten. His budget includes money for tuition for national guard members, $84 million in tax cuts directed to pregnant women and families. But the money you might be most interested in has to do with a proposed $1 billion in tax relief for all Utahns, through a reduction in the income tax rate from 4.85% to 4.75% because revenues have skyrocketed as a result of our booming economy and $11.5 million for first-time home buyers. And if you’re in school, there’s a call for the Utah Board of Higher Education to freeze tuition at all of the state’s public colleges and universities. There continues to be a strong demand for housing by new Utahns and first-time buyers. The Guv wants to give $2,500 toward vets who are first-time homebuyers, and there’s an $11 million appropriation that will hopefully help 730 Utahns purchase a home by providing an average grant of $15,000 for a down payment. There’s a similar program being offered for law enforcement officers as well. Folks getting a VA loan don’t have to put any money toward a down payment but do have closing costs of their own. Non-vets generally pay 2% to 3% of the sales price as a charge of lender closing costs in addition to a down payment, so that $15,000 will come in handy for those 750 Utahns hoping to buy their first home. And there’s a proposed $100 million to go toward deeply affordable housing units and $25.5 million to go to a pilot program toward zero fares for a year on all public transit. Oh, Santa Cox, we want to believe! Hopefully, you can convince your legislative elves to agree to not just this kind of spending, but to permanently end mass-transit fees for riders and keep funding monies for first-time homebuyers! Ho-ho-ho! n Content is prepared expressly for Community and is not endorsed by City Weekly staff.

Information Systems Manager (Draper, UT) Responsible for (1) developing & implementing IT strategies that align with the overall business goals of the franchise; (2) ensuring that the franchise’s IT systems are compliant with data privacy regulations; (3) managing relationships with vendors who provide ITrelated products & services to the franchise. 40hrs/ wk, Offered wage: $96,117/ year, Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems or related required. Resume to CUPBOP CO Attn: Yeiri Kim, 12184 S Business Park Dr #C, Draper, UT 84020

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NEWS of the WEIRD BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

The Passing Parade

Rosemary Hayne, 39, lost her temper (and rice, and sauce, and everything else) when she berated a Chipotle manager in Parma, Ohio—and then threw a bowl of food at her—in September, Food & Wine reported. Hayne then tried to run out of the restaurant, but other Chipotle diners captured her car’s license plate number and contacted police, who arrested her on Sept. 5. On Nov. 28, Judge Timothy Gilligan offered Hayne one of two sentences as punishment for her “not acceptable” behavior: the standard sentence of a fine and 180 days in jail, or 60 days in jail and working 20 hours a week at a fast-food restaurant for two months. Hayne apologized to the court and the victim and accepted the custom sentence. “She could have punched me in my face or pulled a gun out,” said the victim. “I’m lucky that I only got a bowl thrown in my face.” She has found a job at another restaurant.

Awkward

The Way the World Works

Animal Antics

The mystery of who has been slashing tires in the southern Italian city of Vastogirardi has been solved, The Guardian reported. The wave of damaged tires began in July and ramped up again in October in the town of about 600 residents, forcing police to place undercover cops on patrol. Finally, they mounted surveillance cameras, and in late November, they collared their suspect: a dog named Billy, who was suffering from a painful case of gingivitis. “It is a peaceful village—we knew it couldn’t be anyone from outside as we are always aware of any suspicious movements,” said Deputy Mayor Remo Scocchera. “It’s a positive thing that the perpetrator wasn’t a person in the village.” Still, Billy’s owner will probably have to pony up for the damaged tires—not to mention dental work.

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The Golden Age of Air Travel

Yeah, yeah, another flight diverted because of unruly passengers. This story gets bonus points: On Dec. 5, just before a Breeze Airways flight took off from Orlando, headed to Providence, Rhode Island, a couple on board got into a heated argument, News4Jax-TV reported. It seems the man was unhappy because he wanted to get off the plane—which wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but during the discussion, the word “bomb” came up. Passenger Rachael Corrigan said, “The people were talking about or claiming the other person had a bomb ... The people around them ... reported it to the airline, and they’re obligated to land the plane.” The pilot diverted to Jacksonville, Florida, where the man and woman were met by FBI agents and arrested. Breeze Airways canceled the flight.

| COMMUNITY |

Can’t a grandma send her grandson home with an early Christmas gift without raising suspicions among the TSA? No, she can’t. Actor Brett Gaffney headed back to Los Angeles on Nov. 25 after spending Thanksgiving in his native Kansas, People reported. At Kansas City International Airport, he said, “I got stopped at the airport security, and ... it was because of this briefcase my grandma gave me as an early Christmas gift, and she said don’t open it until you get to California.” Gaffney followed her directions, but TSA wasn’t having it. “They asked me what was inside, and I said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know.’ They said, ‘What do you mean? You’re bringing a briefcase and you don’t know what’s inside?’” Turns out, Gaffney’s nana had gifted him a vintage Smith-Corona typewriter. “Who am I, Tom Hanks?” Gaffney joked. He continued his story on TikTok: “I didn’t think I’d use this, but here we are. It’s so calming. All I want to do is stay home and type on my typewriter.” Thanks, Grandma.

After getting a Waffle House logo tattooed on his calf on Dec. 2 in St. Petersburg, Florida, 33-year-old Max Alexander Krejckant “refused all options to satisfy his debts,” police said—which amounted to $250. As a result, The Smoking Gun reported, he was arrested at the Ink Godz shop; police found only $6 and a driver’s license on his person when he was frisked (although they noted he was under the influence of something). Krejckant bonded out and pleaded not guilty (huge Waffle House tattoo evidence notwithstanding). Wonder what the charge is for bad inking decisions?

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

Arnaldo Chamorro, chief of staff for Paraguay’s Agriculture Ministry, lost his government position on Nov. 29 after an embarrassing episode in which he signed a “proclamation” in October with the United States of Kailasa, Fox News reported. Trouble is, the USK doesn’t exist; the fictional country is the brainchild of a fugitive guru, Nithyananda, who is wanted in India on several charges including sexual assault. Chamorro admitted during a radio interview that he was not familiar with Kailasa but said he signed the agreement because the country offered to help Paraguay with a variety of issues, including irrigation. News of the Weird has reported before (March 2023) about the posers, who have also fooled the United Nations and Newark City Hall in New Jersey, which signed a sister city agreement with the country.

Crime Report

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News You Can Use

In Stenlille, Denmark, a vehicle fire also damaged a nearby house on Dec. 2, InShort reported. Police issued a warning to the community after the fire, cautioning people against using toasters under the front of cars to keep EV batteries warm. While there were no injuries, the car was heavily damaged, and the owner likely will have to pay a fine. Send news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com

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