City Weekly December 18, 2025 by Copperfield Publishing

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UTAH' S INDEPENDENT NE WSPAPER

YEAR IN, YEAR OUT

CITY WEEKLY’S REVIEW OF THE STORIES, SCANDALS AND OCCASIONAL SILLINESS THAT DOMINATED LOCAL HEADLINES IN 2025. BY CITY WEEKLY STAFF

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CONTENTS

Cover Story

Year In, Year Out City Weekly’s review of the stories, scandals and occasional silliness that dominated local headlines in 2025.

By City Weekly Staff Cover art by Steve Bugsby

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PRIVATE EYE A&E CINEMA DINE MUSIC COMMUNITY

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SLC FORECAST Thursday 18 48°/42° Cloudy Precipitation: 20%

Friday 19 57°/44° PM showers Precipitation: 31%

SOURCE: WEATHER.COM Saturday 20 51°/44° Showers Precipitation: 59%

Sunday 21 55°/47° Showers Precipitation: 57%

Monday 22 59°/45° Cloudy Precipitation: 16%

Tuesday 23 60°/47° Mostly cloudy Precipitation: 3%

Wednesday 24 60°/46° PM showers Precipitation: 33%

STAFF Publisher PETE SALTAS News Editor BENJAMIN WOOD Arts & Entertainment Editor SCOTT RENSHAW Contributing Editor WES LONG Music Editor EMILEE ATKINSON Executive Editor and Founder JOHN SALTAS

Editorial Contributors ZACH ABEND, KATHARINE BIELE, ROB BREZSNY, MARK DAGO, ANDREA G. HARDEMAN, CHRIS JONES, BILL KOPP, GRACE X. MAYA, MATT PACENZA, MIKE RIEDEL, ARICA ROBERTS, CONNOR SANDERS, ALEX SPRINGER, LEE ZIMMERMAN Graphic Artists SOFIA CIFUENTES, CHELSEA NEIDER

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Salt Lake City Weekly is published every Thursday by Copperfield Publishing Inc. We are an independent publication dedicated to alternative news and news sources, that also serves as a comprehensive entertainment guide. 16,000 copies of Salt Lake City Weekly are available free of charge at more than 1,000 locations along the Wasatch Front. Limit one copy per reader. Additional copies of the paper can be purchased for $1 (Best of Utah and other special issues, $5) payable to Salt Lake City Weekly in advance. No person, without expressed permission of Copperfield Publishing Inc., may take more than one copy of any Salt Lake City Weekly issue. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the written permission of the publisher. Third-class postage paid at Midvale, UT. Delivery might take up to one full week. All rights reserved.

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Free Press

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In 1800, the United States—then a young nation of just over five million people— supported roughly 200 newspapers. That same year, London, the cultural and intellectual center of Britain with a population of one million, had only four, proportionally just one-tenth of the American total. Only a few decades later, the United States boasted more than 2,500 newspapers serving 23 million readers. A broad, independent press has always been essential to human freedom. When

many voices compete, citizens gain a more honest understanding of the world. To see why, consider a grim hypothetical: Imagine if, in the early 1800s, a conglomerate of slaveholders joined forces to create thousands of newspapers, using them to justify and defend slavery. They then used the money from these papers to buy out or put out of business other independent media sources, censuring all of them to create a fictional idea of the virtues of slavery. Fortunately, in our timeline, what really happened was that thousands of abolitionists risked their safety and spent their own money to expose slavery’s brutality through books, pamphlets and newspapers—work which would have been impossible under a media monopoly. Now consider a different scenario, one not hypothetical at all. Forty years ago, about 50 companies owned 90% of U.S. media. Today, just six corporations control that same share.

Six companies determine what the vast majority of Americans read, watch and hear. Some may soon merge, concentrating power even further. If concentrated media power was alarming in the 1800s—and it would have been catastrophic—why should we shrug at it now? We consume national news the way we watch sports or reality TV, cheering for “our side” and forgetting that the most important decisions, the ones that shape our daily lives, happen locally. What our schools teach; how our cities are planned; which roads are built or ignored—these issues rarely make cable news, but they define our communities, much more than what some senator in DC or a New York-based political pundit most recently tweeted. And without independent local media, they go uncovered, unnoticed and unchallenged. That is why an informed citizen must do more than scroll and skim. Because a free press is not something

a nation “has.” It is something its people maintain. And if we don’t invest in the diversity of voices that once made America the most literate, self-governing society on earth, we will wake up to find that six corporations—or possibly even fewer— now speak for 330 million of us. A nation that forgets how to question power will learn what it’s like to live under it. JONATHAN WHITE Saratoga Springs Correction: “Women’s Work,” the cover feature for the Dec. 11 issue, included comments from writer Heather Sundahl about the Latter-day Saint stance on abortion that were misattributed to another source. A corrected version of the story can be found at cityweekly.net. 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 Do you have any fun holiday traditions? Eric Granato

Enjoying red wine on Temple Square.

Wes Long

We would pick a couple of families per year and anonymously deliver a nightly gift that corresponded with each letter of “Christmas Love,” the last night being our reveal with a carol.

Arica Roberts

I celebrate the 12 nights of Yule, which starts on Winter Solstice (around December 20th through January 1st). I make a Yule Log each year for it. This year I am also participating in Julebukken SLC (the Yule Goat parade) hosted by the Norse Community of SLC.

Aimee Cook

We celebrate with extended family on Christmas Eve and always play Left, Right, Center with dollars.

Zach Abend

We buy ornaments from places we’ve been that year and add them to the tree.

Paula Saltas

We make (aka Eleni makes) Loukoumades, the Greek honey-soaked donuts, on New Year’s. It symbolizes and ensures the sweetness of the old year and the new year coming—a popular tradition in Greece.

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PRIVATE

EYE BY JOHN SALTAS

Johnny’s Blues

n April 29, 1981, the great local band CowJazz performed at the Cowboy Bar on Main Street in Park City. For those who don’t recall that era, CowJazz was legendary, perhaps as talented a group to ever come out of Utah. No doubt the Cowboy Bar was full that night with CowJazz fans. But I do surmise that most of them left with their minds blown—not by CowJazz, but by Utah newcomer Joe Ely, the headliner that evening. In early 1981, I had moved to Chicago, where I somehow got my first writing jobs as a freelancer, then as the associate editor for the country music magazine, CountryStyle. Those jobs led me to meeting Kirk West, the quintessential Chicago photographer, with whom I often worked and whose three life loves were Chicago blues, country music and the Allman Brothers Band. Kirk knew everyone, it seemed. So of course, he knew who Joe Ely was. Like nearly every Joe Ely fan I’ve ever met, he’d made it a mission to spread the Ely gospel. One day, Kirk decided to make me a convert. I sometimes crashed at his Lincoln Park West basement apartment, chock full of files of pitch-perfect black and white photos of what seemed to be all of Chicago’s musicians, plus stacks and stacks of albums. Kirk had a wry, mischievous tact and one day he determined to fill me—a certifiable Utah rube—with music that would fully blow me away, which it did. He rummaged through his albums. The first one he played was by Bobby “Blue” Bland. I was instantly transformed into a Chicago blues fan on the spot, with the song

“Two Steps from the Blues,” remaining my all-time favorite blues ballad. In that moment, I committed myself to blues music. Kirk next set upon his turntable a new album by “a great player you’ve never heard of.” The artist was Joe Ely. The only “Ely” I ever heard of was Ely, Nevada—home to casinos, cat houses and a giant copper mine. So with Bobby Bland still swimming in my head, I was like, “whatever, Kirk.” Then, upon hearing the very first notes of Musta Notta Gotta Lotta, I knew my marriage to the blues would not be monogamous. In that moment, I committed to two honeymoons, not one. Blues and country are sisters, anyway. By the time the album was over—through such great songs as “Dallas,” “Rock Me My Baby” and “Road Hawg”—I knew Joe Ely’s music would forever rank high on my music playlist. I became a zealot, soon spreading Ely’s music with others, same as Kirk did with me. I only had one other friend in Chicago, Janis Durr, who was born in a tiny, small town in Illinois. In Utah, I’d only known one person from Illinois, a Libby glassware salesman who was from a tiny, small town in Illinois. Out of about 11 million living in Illinois, they were classmates in a school of just a couple hundred and I’d met both of them. Life is funny. To boot, Janis worked for MCA records (Ely was on an MCA sub-label) and I was soon the possessor of the full Joe Ely music catalog—Musta Notta Gotta Lotta, Down on the Drag, the self-titled Joe Ely plus Honky Tonk Masquerade. Having become a certified Ely proselytizer, I sold my editor on doing a story on Joe Ely—a real boot up since nearly all country music coverage at the time was about Dolly Parton or Kenny Rogers. Ely was hardly the coverboy for the sugar-coated country imagery of that era. An interview was arranged for April 28, 1981. Joe Ely, by whatever weird coincidence, was in Utah that evening. He told me the following night he was playing at the Cowboy Bar in Park City.

Ely said he was looking forward to it, because he’d heard of this great Utah band who would open the show, CowJazz. I’d become friends with a couple CowJazz members—principally Brook Langton, their proficient pedal steel guitarist—so that led to talking beyond the interview that I simply recall as friendly, humorous, honest and warm. I saw him live for the first time a couple of months later at the former Poplar Creek Music Theater in Chicago suburbia. He opened for Linda Ronstadt, my favorite female voice of that era. I’ve seen plenty of concerts. Joe Ely live in that era ranks among the very best. Lloyd Maines, father of The Chicks’ Natalie Maines, played pedal steel guitar. Ely had an accordionist and piano and everyone rocked hard—“Fingernails” live, top that, anyone. Or his rendition (tribute, actually—Ely and Holly shared the same music roots in Lubbock, Texas) of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”? Sweet Jesus! A band of similar fun, live music energy, The Mavericks, lost their lead singer this week with the death of Raul Malo. Malo and Ely were collaborators in the group Los Super Seven. Joe Ely was by any account a good guy. When he died yesterday it struck me particularly hard, since hardly a day has passed that I’ve not considered listening to his music or thinking of my introduction to him. I was lucky to meet him several times. He told me he remembered that interview as well, made ever more weird since the story I wrote was never published—CountryStyle folded just before it was set to run in print. I kept the layout boards, though. That single, nonpublished story led me to many roads that have shaped everything I’ve done since—yes, everything—right up to typing these lines. I think what I’ll do is have that 44-year-old story posted into the City Weekly website— after all, the “Road Goes On Forever,” as Joe did sing. CW Send comments to john@cityweekly.net

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HITS & MISSES BY KATHARINE BIELE |

MISS: Taking Shelter

You may have missed a kind of Christmas story involving Utah’s unhoused community. A nonverbal autistic man who’d been missing for 24 days was found after moving among the homeless. “It is almost certain that people who have very little themselves stepped forward to help him survive,” his mother told The Salt Lake Tribune. Those people had better be vigilant as the government is coming after many of them. Gov. Spencer Cox wants to force homeless addicts into a barracks-like camp on the west side. A medical doctor opined in the Trib that the governor’s plan “to expand forced substance use treatment is lacking in ethics—and supporting evidence.” The Canadian Journal of Addiction reviewed the idea and concluded there lacks credible evidence for involuntary treatment. But the governor seems determined to disappear the unsightly homeless camps anyway.

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MISS: Big Government

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Number nine on the Republican platform to “Make America Great Again” is to “end the weaponization of government against the American people.” How’s that working for Americans these days? On the Salt Lake County front, day-care and senior centers are in the line of fire as Republicans seem to be weaponizing government against them. Councilmember Aimee Winder Newton dismissed parent angst by saying the subsidies are “not helping enough kids in the valley.” Of course, there is no intent to help other children. But money is always a major problem for the GOP when it’s aimed at helping people. Take a minute to watch the drama in Congress over how to provide health care to a nation in need. According to The Commonweath Fund, the U.S. has ranked last since 2006, “despite its high levels of healthcare spending” and consistently falls short in “critical areas such as access to care, affordability, and health outcomes.” Republicans intent on targeting fraud are aiming at denying coverage to all the vulnerable.

HIT: Mountains of Money

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So, let’s move to the fraud problem. The federal government just uncovered a massive ski-pass fraud in Utah and neighboring states involving stolen credit cards and illegally discounted ski passes. The scams may have meant millions of dollars in losses. Admittedly, the fraudsters were aiming at a wealthier crowd than those needing health care. But let’s say fraud is fraud, and this scam probably ended up costing resorts and ultimately skiers more for their passes. Meanwhile, the Utah Investigative Journalism Project and KUER have been drawing attention to a land deal for a Highway 89 expansion that potentially put millions of dollars in the hands of the Senate president. Whether it was fraud or good old business wrangling is anyone’s guess. But the transactions that benefitted a sitting legislator should be transparent and subject to scrutiny at least. That journalists pursued the truth is admirable even if the practice continues. CW

BY ANDREA G. HARDEMAN

This is the Place

hen Brigham Young declared, “This is the place,” he likely wasn’t considering people like me. He opined that servitude was justifiable in an address to the Utah Territorial Legislature in 1852. His contemporaries in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were at odds about slavery—on the fence, if you will. Since the 19th century, Utahns have struggled, to varying degrees, in their racial understanding and inclusion. My third year living in Utah, I was working with families who adopted transracially. One of the White moms told me about an incident at Alta High School where a White student put a white pillowcase over his head with eye holes cut out. If you read through press coverage from 2011 about the incident, you will come across sentiments expressed by the hooded boy’s parents who say it was blown out of proportion. I thought back to when I was 6 or 7, waking up one morning to firemen at our door. I was nosy and promptly nestled myself between my parents’ legs. There was a shape burned in our front yard. We were in Missouri at the time. My Papa came up from Texas shortly after to visit. I excitedly pointed out the burned circle in our yard. I told him that someone had tried to burn down our house while we were asleep, but a neighbor called the fire department. No one tried to burn down our home. That circle was the remnants of a cross the Ku Klux Klan burned in our yard. For that White teenager at Alta—and for so many other local examples— “not knowing” is no excuse. Depictions of slavery, hangings and the KKK are in history books, or at least they were in the nineties and early aughts when I took U.S. History. So, what are we failing to teach our kids? I remember one Sunday, between 2008 and 2010, when I was leaving the campus of Brigham Young University and overheard a group of White students recounting a story, during which one of the young men used a racial slur. I saw red. I had already walked past them, but turned back to curtly call them out. A year or two later, my roommate— who was close to age 30—told me that she’d read Gone with the Wind and that “the Blacks were happy back then.” But, you know, all these folks probably didn’t know. So, let’s be like Oprah— you get a pass, and you get a pass. It’s funny that racially offensive incidents roll off the tongue and occur with frequency in this “land of milk and honey.” So when I see incidents like a construction sign in Alpine, reprogrammed in October with an expletive and a racial slur, it’s just another day as a Black person living in Utah that ends in “y.” Despite what many Utahns may believe, racist incidents happen more frequently than they think, committed by the people they sit next to every week. And those incidents can define this state as much as its mountains and endless spires. But we are here to stay—after all, “this is the place.” CW

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Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience

Joy to the World

Two shows guaranteed to leave holiday audiences with smiles on their faces. BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

n any year, and perhaps particularly in this one, it’s understandable if folks’ preferences for December viewing—whether television, movies or live performance— turns to comfort food. But that doesn’t necessarily mean something specifically holiday themed; you’re just looking for that infusion of high spirits that comes from smiling ear to ear. And local theater companies certainly have that idea in mind with their offerings this season. For Pioneer Theatre Company, that means Noises Off, Michael Frayn’s classic 1982 backstage farce that has become the company’s single most-produced show. And it’s easy to understand why: When a cast nails it, it’s simply one of the most entertaining pieces of theater ever created. Structurally, it’s brilliant, using the first act to introduce the principal cast and crew of a touring British theater production—director Lloyd (Robert Mammana), veteran lead actress Dotty (Linda Mugleston), ingénue

Brooke (Olivia Kaufmann), stage manager Tim (Kilty Reidy), etc.—and their various complicating relationships and character traits through the final dress rehearsal. Then, post-intermission, we get one scene from a backstage perspective of the chaos as those relationships disintegrate, then a third act providing an audience’s-eye-view of the final disaster. It is by no means an attempt to diminish the rest of the show to suggest that the execution of Noises Off’s second act is the key to whether the entire thing works. Unfolding almost entirely through physical performance as the cast members sabotage one another, search for lost contact lenses, go into jealous rages and the like while the production takes place on stage, it’s a kind of theatrical magic trick when pulled off well. And director Shelley Butler’s remarkable choreography pulls it off exquisitely, to the point where there’s so much hilarious business going on at any moment that you hardly know where to look. Nothing besides live theater can make something like this look both so effortless and so impossible. That wonderful second act could make what follows come off as an anti-climax, but there are still plenty of wonderful performance moments to experience. It feels almost unfair to single one out in such a rock-solid cast, including Belinda Blair as the one member of the cast whose stalwart professionalism has her trying to put many broken pieces back together, and David Manis as the unreliable, hard-of-hearing

NICK FLEMING

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Noises Off

Selsdon. But then Rhett Guter—who plays can’t-complete-a-thought leading man Garry, and also serves as the show’s fight captain—takes a pratfall down a flight of stairs that might be the single most impressive stunt I’ve ever seen performed on a stage. It’s the kind of thing that inspires an audience to burst into an applause break in the middle of a scene—and shows just how committed this show is to leaving that audience happy. It might in some ways be a tougher job to leave an audience of kids happy, but that’s what Salt Lake Acting Company pulls off annually with its family-friendly holiday productions, including this year’s Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience. Like last year’s Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, it’s a musical adaptation of a Mo Willems book with songs by composer Deborah Wicks LaPuma, this one following a naked mole rat named Wilbur (Joseph Paul Branca) who runs the risk of alienating himself from his resolutely naked colony after he realizes that he might like wearing clothes. The thematic elements are nothing groundbreaking—it’s mostly a minor variation on the time-honored Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer kid-lit plot of an outcast learning that it’s okay to be themselves, and maybe even change a few hearts and minds along the way—but this one offers a particularly bouncy variation on that theme. LaPuma’s songs are both musically catchy and lyrically witty; the “putting on clothes for the first time” anthem “Time to Get

Dressed” includes the lines “It feels good / Like a brand-new friend / If I had a friend that was a cotton-poly blend.” And the sixmember cast provides tremendous energy that makes the 60-minute production feel done far too soon. Perhaps best of all, Naked Mole Rat is a show that invites its viewers into the experience, with audience-participation components and a chance to both answer and ask questions at the end. Part of what a theater experience like this can do is help people feel connected—and this holiday season, joining in that communal experience is one more thing that can provide a few muchneeded smiles. CW

NOISES OFF Pioneer Theatre Company 300 S. 1400 East Through Dec. 20 $44 - $57 pioneertheatre.org NAKED MOLE RAT GETS DRESSED: THE ROCK EXPERIENCE Salt Lake Acting Company 168 W. 500 North Through Dec. 30 $17 - $27 saltlakeactingcompany.org

theESSENTIALS

ENTERTAINMENT PICKS, DECEMBER 18-24, 2025 Complete listings online at cityweekly.net

Over the course of its 30-year history, Odyssey Dance has been synonymous with holiday-themed celebration—but for many people, that particularly holiday-themed celebration is the immensely popular Halloween show Thriller. That is not, however, the only such occasion-based production on the company’s calendar, as they reminded us last year when founder Derryl Yeager returned from a two-year sabbatical, including the Christmas spectacular aptly titled Spectacular. In the fine tradition of Thriller, the show blends together a whole heap of some of the most familiar pop-culture icons of the season: A Christmas Carol, It’s a Wonderful Life (pictured); The Nutcracker, Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Story and White Christmas, plus the kick-line splendor in the tradition of the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. Along with snippets of all of your favorites, you’ll get a wide-ranging demonstration of dance prowess ranging from ballet and modern dance to jazz and hip-hop, showcasing some of Utah’s most talented performers. And once again this year, the cast will feature David Osmond, scion of the legendary Osmond performing family. If you’ve been looking for a one-stop, family-friendly Christmas live performance experience with the funkiest Santas you’ll find anywhere, this is the show for you. Odyssey Dance’s Spectacular comes to the Grand Theatre (1575 S. State St.) Dec. 17 – 23, with performances every daily except Sunday at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Dec. 20. Tickets are $37 - $57; visit odysseydance.com/spectacular for additional event information and to purchase tickets. (Scott Renshaw)

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Odyssey Dance: Spectacular

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ENTERTAINMENT PICKS,

Complete listings online at cityweekly.net

The Sting & Honey Company: This Bird of Dawning

COURTESY PHOTO

Back in 2008, Sting & Honey Company founder Javen Tanner created a Nativity-themed holiday play that he believed at the time would be a one-time fund-raiser. Nearly 15 years later, This Bird of Dawning is still going strong—including showings of a recorded performance at Megaplex Theatres locations in previous years—in part because those who love the annual tradition don’t want to let it go away, particularly the students at Waterford School, where Tanner teaches. “Some students do it all four years,” Tanner told City Weekly in 2021. “And every year, the students who did it the year before, they’re introducing it to students who are doing it for the first time.” Employing theatrical mask, This Bird of Dawning tells the Nativity story in a way that draws from theater’s ancient connections to religious ritual. “I’m fascinated by how theater all over the world … evolved out of ritual, out of religious practices,” Tanner said. “One of the things that’s so fascinating is how close this piece gets to that. The audience just connects to it. ... I’ve never been interested in it as a proselytizing piece, but I am interested in how deeply it connects with an audience, even people who are not Christian or not religious.” This Bird of Dawning plays at the Regent Street Black Box (144 Regent Street) of the Eccles Theater for three performances: Friday, Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $18.50 - $25; visit saltlakecountyarts.org for tickets and additional event information. (SR)

The Lord of Misrule The “lord of misrule” tradition has its roots in an upending of the social order, with a beggar granted dominion over holiday festivities with an opportunity to force those in power to do his bidding and give to the poor, or else face the consequences. Such a mission of giving consideration to the less fortunate and encouraging charity is part of the mission of Misrule Theatre, and its trademark holiday production of The Lord of Misrule. This interactive theatrical experience begins with a televangelist character encouraging donations from his audience, before a mob hijacks the show and forces those in power to follow that old Lord of Misrule tradition as the televised Christmas pageant unfolds. In this variation, however, it’s the audience that can decide what orders the Lord of Misrule will give, by making donations in real time—benefitting the 2nd and 2nd Coalition, including Our Unsheltered Relatives—from a list of challenges provided to the attendees. Come inspire a little live theater chaos, all while benefitting a worthy cause for the holiday season. The Lord of Misrule runs at The Beehive (666 S. State) for regular performances Sunday, Dec. 21 and Monday, Dec. 22 at 7 p.m., and “gonzo” performances Dec. 23 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 24 at 1 p.m. Tickets are on a pay-what-you-can basis, with $10 admission including a “stocking pack” with throwable items, noisemakers and treats, and a $20 admission including the “stocking pack” plus mocktail drink ticket and collectible keychain or bracelet. Visit misruletheatre.com for additional event information. (SR)

COURTESY PHOTO

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theESSENTIALS DECEMBER 18-24, 2025

Avatar: Fire and Ash BB1/2

If you’re making an animated feature about the Biblical King David, whose gift of song was a key part of his story, it only makes sense to turn it into a musical—and if you can make those songs catchy enough, you might actually be on to something. The story closely follows the Old Testament

David

The Housemaid BB1/2

Director Paul Feig somewhat improbably has made the transition from women-forward comedies (Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy) to women-forward psychological thrillers (the A Simple Favor duo before this one), but in either scenario, it’s important having the right women be forward. This adaptation of Freida McFadden’s novel casts Sydney Sweeney as Millie, a desperate young woman living out of her car who takes a job as a live-in housekeeper for wealthy Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), her husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and daughter Cecelia (Indiana Elle)—a job that seems like less of a dream as Nina’s behavior grows increasingly erratic. Feig’s sense of pacing generally emphasizes playfulness over the sinister, which provides an interesting tonal counterpoint to the growing sense that Millie might be in danger. And Seyfried certainly does her part with finding the right pitch for all the various wild swings in Nina’s behavior. The problem is Sweeney, whose vibe is all wrong for the kind of character we’re supposed to see as more of her history emerges—and that performance isn’t helped by a script that doesn’t lay the necessary foundation for what feels like too improbable a personality pivot. As a narrative, McFadden’s story does a nice job of upending expectations, but a lot of that is because in this form, it doesn’t play entirely fair, or find the right actor to give you any reason to have expected that upending. Available Dec. 18 in theaters. (R) CW

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The lack of cultural “stickiness” of James Cameron’s Avatar franchise has become something of an ironic punchline by now—no movies have been talked about more in terms of how they’re never talked about—but I remember this much about 2022’s The Way of Water: It created an entirely new environment on Pandora as a canvas for its characters. And this one … does not. It picks up hard on the heels of Way of Water’s events, as the family of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña) copes with the death of their oldest son, while still facing the ongoing threat from the Na’vi-avatar reincarnation of Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and the humans invading Pandora. There’s also a new threat in the form of the marauding “Ash” tribe of Na’vi, led by the vicious Varang (Oona Chaplin), and she’s by far the most compelling figure here. That’s important, because the many, many other plot threads here start to become a drone of background noise punctuated by sparkling bits of dialogue like “That’s right, buttholes!” More disappointingly, however, is the fact that virtually everything from a visual and action-sequence standpoint feels recycled, with the notable exception of a climactic fight that makes great use of Pandora’s floating mountains. When you’re spending another three hours in a place where you’ve already spent six, it would be nice to feel you’re getting something new—or maybe, just maybe, something that you’d still remember another three years from now. Available Dec. 19 in theaters. (PG-13)

20TH CENTURY STUDIOS

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tale of the young shepherd David (Brandon Engman) being anointed by the prophet Samuel (Brian Stivale) as future king of the Israelites, fighting his legendary battle with the Philistine warrior Goliath and, as an adult (Phil Wickham), coming into conflict with the envious King Saul (Adam Michael Gold). As faith-based cinema goes, this one works the idea of trusting in God’s guidance and support into the narrative organically, even leading to some fairly rousing moments of people rising up against threats. Mostly, though, it wisely takes some of the tropes from the Ashman/Menken school of animated musical-making and weaves some solid songs into the snappy visual storytelling by directors Phil Cunningham and Brent Dawes. It’s true that a few of the songs feel thematically similar—addressing some variation on how to deal with challenges and uncertainty—and the CGI character design runs to the low-budget/purely functional. But there are far worse ways to experience a little inspirational messaging that comes in the form of an ear-wormy tune. Available Dec. 19 in theaters. (PG)

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YEAR IN, YEAR OUT BY CITY WEEKLY STAFF

mal tour of local indoor cycling gyms, takes his fitness on the road. And Zach Abend, who reported in August on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people, heads back down to the Four Corners, where law enforcement is routinely hobbled by a lack of resources, personnel and community trust. Wherever these stories find you, we hope that you are in good spirits, good health and good company. And with the holiday gift-giving season upon us, we encourage readers to shop locally to the

degree that they are able, particularly at the fine businesses that advertise in this paper. It is their support that allows City Weekly to provide free, alternative, communityfocused reporting, both online and in 52 issues each year. We thank them and we thank you, the readers, for sticking with us through 2025 and for all the years to come. —Benjamin Wood

DECEMBER 18, 2025 | 15

the embarrassing repeal of that same ban in December, with so much more in between. And Connor Sanders shares the highlights of Utah sports, from the naming of the Mammoth to the launch of a professional women’s volleyball franchise. After writing in June about his family goal to live a more analog life, Chris Jones describes his ongoing battle with social media addiction and shares a warning to adults and children trapped by the infinite scroll. Matt Pacenza, fresh off an infor-

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ith 2025 drawing to a close, City Weekly asked a few of its top contributors to revisit their work from the last year. For some, that took the shape of direct follow-ups to standout cover stories. For others, it meant trying to round up 12 months of headlines, debate and intrigue under a fairly tight word limit. In the pages that follow, City Hall reporter Grace X. Maya runs down the year in government news, from the Legislature’s ban on publicsector unions in January to

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16 | DECEMBER 18, 2025

Civil rights came under fire during the state’s Legislative session.

Growing Pains A year of fraught politicking in Salt Lake City brings social, political divides to light. BY GRACE X. MAYA COMMENTS@CITYWEEKLY.NET

alt Lake City’s changing demographics exacerbated long-simmering tensions between the state and city in 2025. On Capitol Hill, Utah lawmakers sought to legislate higher education, LGBTQ+ rights, street design, local policing and taxation. At the same time, the Salt Lake City Council punched back with new, “official” Pride flags and public works funding. With a new police chief, major zoning reforms and a redrawn congressional district that elevates urban voters, Salt Lake City is sure to face continued change in 2026.

Push and Pull Against a backdrop of income tax cuts, environmental legislation and election modifications, a few bills stood out dur-

ing Utah’s famously short legislative session (just 45 days long). HB265, introduced by Clinton Republican Rep. Karen Peterson, cut funding from higher education institutions like the University of Utah, holding 10% of the schools’ budgets hostage until university leaders agreed to “strategic reinvestments.” Republican lawmakers claimed the cuts would ensure that Utah universities remain nationally competitive, while critics argued the cuts represented an ongoing crusade against the humanities and social sciences. In August, the U announced plans to cut several programs in line with the Legislature’s desires, including the Chemistry and Biology teaching majors, a large portion of the Middle East Studies program and several Business School degrees. HB257 also passed, further restricting transgender individuals. The bill, introduced by Morgan Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland (who has since resigned) imposed fines on public institutions found to admit transgender individuals to bathrooms and locker rooms not matching their assigned sex. That bill claimed to protect children. Meanwhile, the Legislature failed to pass SB173, which would have provided free breakfast and lunch to public school students. HB267, from Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, was briefly signed into

Salt Lake County property owners will see a tax rate hike next year.

law. The bill would have eliminated collective bargaining for public employees like teachers, firefighters and civil workers. However, more than 320,000 Utahns signed petitions and triggered a referendum, which in turn prompted lawmakers to hastily repeal their work in a December special session.

New Faces, Old Problems Brian Redd took over as SLC’s Chief of Police in March, promising to detangle crime, homelessness, mental health and addiction. Four months into his tenure, he ousted three higher-ups in the department, including two deputy chiefs. Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson turned heads in October when she proposed a nearly-20% property tax hike to fund criminal justice reform, among other initiatives. District Attorney Sim Gill stated that the new funding would help his team develop and expand pretrial diversion programs for low-level crimes, with the ultimate goal of bolstering rehabilitation over mass incarceration. The County Council ultimately approved a rate hike closer to 14%. But the path to reform has hardly been smooth sailing. Salt Lake City made national news in June when Afa Ah Loo was shot and killed at the No Kings protest. Utah’s “constitutional carry” and self-defense laws muddied the issue,

leading to a six month delay before any charges were filed. Laura Ah Loo—Mr. Ah Loo’s widow—announced her plans to sue the city in an attempt to force the District Attorney’s office into action. Then, in December, Gill announced that his office would file one count of second-degree manslaughter against Matt Alder, the peacekeeper who fired the shot that killed Mr. Ah Loo, but would not file charges against Arturo Gamboa, whose decision to legally carry an AR-15 at the demonstration triggered the series of events that ended in chaos and Ah Loo’s death. Further national attention came from the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. In October, a Salvadoran woman was forcefully arrested by plainclothes ICE agents at the SLC Airport. Marta Leiva had spent nearly two decades in the U.S. after arriving as a refugee in 2007. A press release from Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s office stated that SLCPD had not been informed of ICE’s intent to enter the airport or to arrest Leiva, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

Leading the Charge

The Salt Lake City Council took on a wide variety of issues over the course of the year. Some were purely reactive, while others represented thoughtful planning for the city’s future.

Continued on page 18

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Salt Lake City approved new “official” Pride, Juneteenth and Transgender Visibility city flags in defiance of a state ban sponsored by Layton Republican Rep. Trevor Lee.

Continued from page 16 One such event came in the wake of HB77, a bill by Layton Republican Rep. Trevor Lee, which banned most flags from display in public spaces. The bill was crafted to target Pride flags, although Lee claimed his goal was “political neutrality.” The Council responded by designating new official city flags at Mayor Mendenhall’s request, replicating Pride, Juneteenth and Transgender Visibility designs with the addition of a white sego lily emblem. In June, the Council approved a consolidation of its mixed-use zoning codes. Beginning in October, simplified rules will allow property owners greater freedom in lot sizes, building heights and mandatory setbacks, with the goal of facilitating more medium- and highdensity housing construction. Similarly, the new city budget seeks public trail and street developments, partially funded through increased parking rates and utility fees. Not all changes have been popular. Dissatisfaction with the Delta Center entertainment district remains high. In April, the Council agreed to lease the Delta Center property to Smith Entertainment Group for the yearly sum of $1. The city also agreed to take on the cost of major utility and infrastructure upgrades, funded through a 0.5% sales tax increase. While the venue is popular for concerts and professional sports, and is a primary driver of economic activity downtown, the Council has repeatedly drawn public rebuke for the terms of the deal.

Dissatisfaction about the project—as well as west-side housing shortages— led Stephen Otterstrom to challenge District 1 Councilmember Victoria Petro in the November election. Otterstrom ultimately lost to Petro by a slim 3.5 percentage points, though one Council seat did change hands. District 5 will now be represented by community advocate Erika Carlsen following Darin Mano’s retirement from the Council. Further progressive change will likely come from Utah’s new First Congressional District. After a seven-year political and legal battle, the Utah League of Women Voters and Mormon Women for Ethical Government succeeded at striking down the state’s partisan gerrymander. The lengthy standoff—which included a citizen ballot initiative, the creation of a redistricting committee, a Utah Supreme Court case, a voided ballot initiative and several rejected congressional maps—ended in November when the court ultimately selected a map drawn by the Utah LWV. The new map will create a congressional seat that includes all of Salt Lake City and the bulk of Salt Lake County— which was previously divided into four rural-dominated voting districts—and is expected to be one of the bluest in the nation, forecasted somewhere between D+14 and D+24. Several Democratic candidates have since announced their intent to run for the new district in what is expected to be a blockbuster primary for the state’s minority party. CW

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Quitting Time Knowing the harms of social media, an addict struggles to break the habit. BY CHRIS JONES COMMENTS@CITYWEEKLY.NET

have a confession—I’m an addict. Not to alcohol or drugs, I quit those years ago. This addiction is harder to break than whiskey or wine. It’s TikTok. TikTok lures me in every day. I tell myself I can quit. I do not quit. The longer I stay on the app, the more I see how the system works. My feed repeats itself every night: politics; movies; occasional sports; the same voices; the same loops; the same patterns. Repetition is not accidental. Research shows TikTok narrows your feed, fast. It strips away most topics and pushes the ones you linger on. This creates tight loops that feel familiar and hard to break. The repetition keeps you watching. Instead of opening you up to more ideas and experiences, it narrows your focus until you see the same subjects again and again. The “For You” page acts like a mirror. It responds to tiny signals. It watches viewing speed and it tracks pauses down to fractions of a second. It senses

when interest rises. It predicts when interest drops. It adjusts within minutes. The system learns faster than I do. I tried to pull myself out. I reached for analog life. I bought real books. I picked up Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. The writing is dense, sharp and demanding. I used to read works like this with focus. Today, my mind drifts. My attention has changed. Long articles feel harder to finish. I skim paragraphs that deserve patience. I look for novelty. I jump between tasks. I start to read, then I reach for my phone out of habit. My wife, Niki, shares many of my political views. Her feed looks similar to mine, except for the steady stream of plant videos. She walks into the room and asks about a certain clip, one that I watched just minutes earlier. Our digital diets overlap more than I assumed. Research backs this. A Pew study found spouses often see overlapping political content, with differences showing up in hobbies and small viewing behaviors. Be careful where you linger, because it matters. I watched one short video about the ideology of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes. Within minutes, my feed filled with creators who echoed his vile views. I swiped past them as fast as I could in an attempt to give my algorithm a speedy cleanse. The system still tried to pull me in. Again, research shows this reaction is common. TikTok reads even brief viewing as interest and tests more extreme variations within minutes.

Continued on page 22

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22 | DECEMBER 18, 2025

Continued from page 20 Then there are the ads. TikTok watches micro-behaviors. It tracks pause length, swipe speed, replays, hesitation and how often you look at products. It builds a high-resolution profile of what you are likely to buy. It shows ads at moments when you look tired or distracted. If you buy once, the system increases how often you see similar products. Ask my wife about my large backstock of BYLT Basic Tees. This isn’t random. Back scrubbers. Tire inflators. Dent pullers. Products I do not need. I buy them anyway. TikTok knows the exact moment to tempt me. Worse, I see a new trend. Popular creators are getting sliced up by anonymous accounts. I watch a commentator talk for 40 seconds, then the video cuts in the middle of his next sentence. I wonder, “why would they post such a nonsensical clip?” It’s because they didn’t—content cannibals did. Researchers call this “content scraping.” Investigations by major news outlets found that anonymous accounts repost clipped videos because the system rewards engagement, not originality. The algorithm treats each repost as new content, so the thieves grow faster than the people who made the original work. I wish I had my son’s self control. He is 11. Ironically, I broke him out of his screen habit three years ago. He used to sit in front of YouTube Shorts, Roblox and video games for hours. I pulled the plug. He went cold turkey. Today, he gets 30 minutes of a narrative show. No scrolling. No feeds. My son has thrived in the space left behind. His social interactions improved. His behavior at school got better. His grades and assessment scores went up. He plays piano. He is now an avid reader of real books (50 and counting since 2023). He completed eight weeks of Cotillion, a structured social program for young students where they learn manners, etiquette, basic social skills and partner dancing. He hated the dancing. Check that—he loathed the dancing; however, he still did it. I wish I were as strong as he is. I wake up around three o’clock each morning and scroll when I can’t get right back to sleep. Bright screens delay melatonin. Middle of the night scrolling disrupts memory. I wake up tired. I fall back into the cycle the next night. I start scrolling. I lose whole hours. I hear similar stories from friends and neighbors. We sit in the dark and feed the addiction. The social media oligarchs know exactly how to keep us coming back for more. Facebook studies showed that angry reactions were weighted more heavily than likes. Facebook internal

memos described how engagement systems rewarded hate, misinformation and political conflict. Anger kept people engaged. Anger kept people on the app. Those posts kept people clicking. The algorithm predicts your political leanings. It feeds you content that matches those leanings. This creates echo chambers. Opposing views get filtered out. Social media platforms fuel body dissatisfaction in teens. Girls face pressure around beauty standards. Boys face pressure around fitness and muscle. Teens who spend more than three hours each day on social media have double the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms. That came from a 2023 CDC report. You might counter that social media is free. It is not. You pay with your time and attention. These systems use design tricks: infinite scroll creates no stopping point; variable rewards keep you chasing responses; notifications pull you back into the app; algorithmic feeds give priority to strong emotion; social validation taps into your need for approval. More time on these platforms means more comparison, more stress, less sleep and fewer real connections. School Counselor Careen Johnson tells me the same things: kids struggle to sit still; homework takes longer; social conflicts rise; friendships weaken; sleep declines. Facebook wants to take its addiction worldwide. They have explored building censorship tools for the Chinese government to gain access to the Chinese market. A former Meta executive said the company hid these efforts from Congress. My son’s childhood looks different than mine. I grew up with boredom, outdoor play and long afternoons with nothing to do. That boredom built patience, imagination and social skills. Social media removes that space. Short videos reduce attention spans. Late-night phone use reduces sleep. Online interactions replace real conversations. Kids lose chances to practice empathy. They struggle to focus in class. They feel more tired. Their social skills stall. Adults are not spared. We lack protective systems. We carry credit cards. We fall into political manipulation. We lose hours we never recover. These systems are designed with intention. Companies hire behavioral psychologists. Growth teams run tests on user behavior. Attention engineers measure what keeps people hooked. None of this is accidental. This is the world my son is growing up in. This is the world I am trying to grow out of. He stepped away from it. I still struggle with it. CW

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DECEMBER 18, 2025 | 23

Big climbs, gravel races and GLP-1 injections push a Salt Laker’s health journey to the next level. BY MATT PACENZA COMMENTS@CITYWEEKLY.NET

ver the past five years, I have written six City Weekly cover stories, from a deep dive into the factors limiting affordable housing development in Utah to a data-driven look at the University of Utah’s lack of athletic success in the Pac-12. Which of those six stories generated the most feedback? The one from last March, when I wrote about my personal health journey, focusing on local cycling gyms. For the first time in my journalistic life, my photo was featured prominently with a story I wrote—as was the word “FAT” in big letters. I tell you what, folks, that caught the attention of my friends, my students and a few lovely weirdos on the street. And now, City Weekly news editor Benjamin Wood wants me to update you all on how I’ve been doing the past nine months. Well, here goes: Still fat! And still kinda fit. Let’s start with the good stuff: I loved my experience taking group cycling classes last winter. And yes, I particularly loved Chvrch Cycle, at 126 W. 900 South. I took dozens of classes at their homey gym between November and March, and once the weather was warm enough to ride outside, I was in much better shape. Cycling outdoors is my favorite exercise. I’m not one of those svelte arrows that shoot effortlessly up canyons, but I can ride for hours. My “go-to” Salt Lake Valley ride is a pedal from my home near Liberty Park, through Millcreek and Holladay to the mouth of Big Cot-

tonwood Canyon, returning primarily along Wasatch Boulevard. It’s a 25-mile ride, with more than 1,200 feet of elevation gain, taking me more than two hours to complete. It’s perfect for breaking a sweat while listening to an audiobook, or catching up with my wife or my buddies. Speaking of friends, I love these fellows … but I also hate them. Like me, they are in their 50s. But unlike me, they are fit bastards—charming, friendly, generous, slender bastards. I’m fortunate that my cycling buddies are also my best buddies. But I do wish one of them would relentlessly overeat for a decade, so I wouldn’t stick out like a sore, swollen thumb in our photos. This past spring and summer, I rode my new gravel bike (a hybrid road bike with knobbier tires) with a goal in mind: Finishing a gravel race with the clever name of “Rebecca’s Private Idaho,” up in Sun Valley. I would tackle the one-day, 58-mile, 4,000-feet-ofclimbing option. The ride worried me, because I’d never ridden that far on dirt before. So I stepped up my training, including joining two of those aforementioned slender buddies in August on my first-ever climb of Big Cottonwood Canyon. It’s a tough ride, but I finished it. And it turned out to be more taxing than the Idaho gravel race in September, which I completed without difficulty in six hours. Woo hoo! (A great ride, by the way. Thanks to the Avenues Bicycle Club for their support.) Now, on to the less exciting news. Even though 2025 was an excellent exercise year (Strava tells me I’ve ridden about 1,300 miles, which doesn’t count my 150-plus daily commutes), I have only lost a few pounds. I remain a big dude, a big dude who continues to take four blood pressure medications and who—sexy alert—wears a CPAP device when he sleeps at night.

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24 | DECEMBER 18, 2025

Leg Day

Matt Pacenza recently took up gravel cycling and particpated in the “Rebecca’s Private Idaho” race earlier this year.

And for the last few months, I have been injecting myself with whatever the hell GLP-1 is. I talked to my doctor about getting on Wegovy or Ozempic (those ads work!), aka the skinny shot, aka Hollywood’s Best Kept Secret. You’ll be shocked to find out my insurance company—normally such a kind industry, right, Luigi?—balked at paying the hefty fee for the hefty shot. But it ultimately agreed to cover liraglutide, which turns out to be the less-effective, more-annoying cousin of its better-known relatives. Instead of shooting myself up once a week, I do it every day, which sucks. What sucks worse is that it isn’t working that great, at least not so far. I have occasional bouts of nausea, but

I find my appetite is only slightly reduced. I may have lost a few pounds, but I haven’t been on a scale for a while—so who knows? I wish I could end this update on a happier, fitter note. However, as with all journeys, my recommitment to health has had its ups and downs. It felt awesome to reach the The Brighton Store & Cafe that day in August, after climbing 5,000 feet on a bicycle. But it doesn’t feel awesome when I poke around for a spot to inject an ineffective potion into my bruised gut each morning. Allow me one small insight: Don’t assume your friends and loved ones who struggle with their health aren’t trying. I am. I’ve started classes at Chvrch again, and I’ll keep plugging along. CW

THANK YOU, salt lake city

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DECEMBER 18, 2025 | 25

Why justice for MMIP cases stalls out in the Four Corners. BY ZACH ABEND COMMENTS@CITYWEEKLY.NET

n August, I wrote about murdered and missing Indigenous people (MMIP) for City Weekly. Since that story was published, several additional Indigenous families have offered to share their stories. That’s how I learned about Tobey Baker, a 28-year-old Goshute man who disappeared on September 1, 2011, after checking into a motel in St. George. His sister, Michelle Sanchez, said that Baker had a bright future ahead of him. “Tobey had just gotten paid from the tribe to go to school in the fall,” Sanchez said. The motel where Baker was last seen later burned down, leaving his family with only more questions. For David Adams—a former assistant U.S. Attorney who acted as tribal liaison in New Mexico—a glaring issue for unsolved MMIP cases is the lack of resources available to law enforcement, as well as the limitations of the Indian Civil Rights Act. The Act, and its amendments, provides for enhanced sentencing by tribal courts. But it also requires enhanced due process for defendants, which remains out of reach for most tribal justice systems. “This inequity places a lot of pressure on the feds to do more,” Adams noted. But the federal government doesn’t act, Adams added, because crime in tribal areas tends not to directly impact non-native communities. The impact is felt, however, throughout the Indigenous communities and peoples, who describe a pattern of silence and delays. Red Dawn George, a Diné activist, is still looking for answers after receiving the dismembered body of her murdered son, DeVaughn Dion Yazzie, in a white trash bag from the Office of the Medical Investigator for New Mexico, after he disappeared from their home in Kirtland, NM on December 16, 2022. “They assumed he had no family so they cut him up,” she said. Supervisor Dale E. West of the Navajo Criminal Investigations Division (CID) stressed the lack of personnel in his office—three investigators, down from a high of nine. “It’s ridiculous, the amount of manpower we have,” West said. “We used

to do drugs and gangs, we used to network, we used to be a lot more proactive. Now we are reactive.” Crime-scene resources are woefully shortchanged as well, according to West. Lab processes can take six months to a year, or more. The State of New Mexico is three years behind on its rape kits, and tests at the FBI lab only get processed if they are going to trial. “Good luck doing DNA analysis or cross references, because the funding isn’t there,” West said. “We have gone backwards in serving our communities and being able to provide answers.” These chronic shortages also impact missing person searches, forcing families to shoulder the burden themselves. Cindy Hayes, a Diné woman, recovered the skull of her missing brother, Leon Hayes, after a volunteer-led search organized by Bernadine Beyale. Hayes’ brother was last seen in Shiprock, NM, on February 1, 2022, and the case is still open. Like Navajo CID, the Navajo Police are stretched too thin. Daryl Noon, a Navajo Police commander and former police chief, said tribal law enforcement is chronically shorthanded. The Shiprock precinct, which covers an area roughly the size of Connecticut, has one sergeant and two or three officers. Noon said that when he was chief— from January 2022 to June 2024—there were a little over 200 officers on the force. Even then, an outside consultant recommended a minimum of 500 to do basic police work. Noon added a liaison to the missing person unit who was tasked with creating an MMIP database and coordinating quarterly meetings with state and federal law enforcement. But under the current leadership, the liaison was removed from her position. Asked to describe the current state of the MMIP database, Noon said that it was “rudimentary.” Keeping families informed about the status of investigations remains a sticking point. Celeste Henderson, a Diné woman, has had to prod the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office for updates on her late husband Candrick Begay’s unsolved murder, which took place in Farmington, NM, on April 5, 2023, at a salvage shop where Begay worked. Similarly, Monisha Black, a Diné woman, still waits for information after her sister Brigitte B. Johnson was stabbed to death 64 times on December 13, 2023, in her Farmington apartment. The hunt for resources is ongoing. Amber Kanazbah Crotty, Council Delegate for the 25th Navajo Nation Council, has been in talks about the U.S. Mar-

TIM WATSON

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26 | DECEMBER 18, 2025

Waiting for Answers

shals Office assisting in searches. And Deb Haaland—former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and a candidate for governor of New Mexico—said that pay parity for tribal officers, compulsory MMIP training and integration into the NAMUS missing person database would be a good start, given budget constraints. “It’s all part of collaboration,” Haaland said. “We need to be more diligent about sharing information.” The gridlock that Indigenous people face goes hand in hand with other types of exploitation, according to Raven Nyx, an Outreach Coordinator with Durango Sexual Assault Services Organization. Traffickers are believed to move their victims over county lines, Nyx said, because they know it becomes a jurisdictional quagmire. “We get people snatched from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and then are trafficked to various man-camps,” Nyx explained. “We have resorts and casinos with people who buy our relatives to ‘service them’ while they are in the area.” The ongoing violence fuels intergenerational trauma. The murder of Claudia Benn, a Paiute leader in Cedar City, UT, shocked her daughter, Benita Yracheta, as well as Benn’s niece, Sarah China Azule, who felt “traumatized” by the news and said she’d grown up seeing violence against

Native women. Benn’s killer was found and brought to justice—a rarity in MMIP cases. Similarly, the murder of Zachariah Juwaun Shorty, who was found shot to death after he disappeared from a motel in Farmington, NM, on July 21, 2020, devastated his mother, Vangie RandallShorty, a Diné community advocate. Shorty’s alleged killer was recently arrested as part of Operation Not Forgotten—a temporary federal effort to surge enforcement support of MMIP investigations. Randall-Shorty credited the support of her family and other MMIP families for helping her cope with the tragedy. “All my sisters of the missing and murdered, we all stand together,” she said. The scarcity of women in tribal leadership is indicative of a larger problem, according to Adams, who is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Michigan. If women and children aren’t protected, Indigenous sovereignty erodes. “Poor foundations trickle down,” he said. “If a woman doesn’t have a say in the law, then men can get away with doing awful things to them.” In the meantime, Sanchez waits for her brother. “You’re waiting and you don’t know if he will come back in a coffin or come back walking through the door,” she said. CW

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28 | DECEMBER 18, 2025

CONNOR SANDERS

Ryan Williams celebrates after landing a double backflip at the X Games in Salt Lake City.

Game Plans Mammoth decisions, an Xtreme summer, and new hope for the Utah Jazz. BY CONNOR SANDERS COMMENTS@CITYWEEKLY.NET

s Ryan Williams stood atop the dirt mound, helmet lifted over his head, he let out a primal scream to the heavens. The electricity of landing a double backflip—a trick that had never been done on a dirt ramp before—seemed to pulse through him. He jolted along the barrier of the course and high-fived every fan he could reach, grinning and shouting along the way before climbing the ramp to take it all in. While 2025 was a bit of a sleepy year for Utah professional sports, there were some truly unforgettable moments. Chief among them was the 35th anniversary of the X Games, held at the Utah State Fairpark, where Williams accomplished his double backflip and where action sports legends like Nyjah Huston, Garrett Reynolds and Colby Raha wowed crowds with high flying stunts. Even Tony Hawk made an appearance. For the teams and athletes who call Utah home, it was a year of many firsts. The Utah Hockey Club found its permanent identity as the Utah Mammoth, the Salt Lake Bees cut the ribbon on a shiny new ballpark in South Jordan, and League One Volleyball brought Olympiclevel players back home to bump, set and spike on American soil.

A Fandom is Born

The novelty of namelessness for the newly-relocated Arizona Coyotes in 2024 was certainly fun (some National Hockey League fans will never let the nickname “Clubbers” die), but it was about time to settle on a permanent identity for the Utah Hockey Club. Owner Ryan Smith and team spent months deciding on the name. The process involved four rounds of fan surveys and more than 850,000 votes cast, team officials said. The options were narrowed down to three: remaining as the Utah Hockey Club; the Outlaws; and the Mammoth, which was announced as the winner on May 7. “Tusks up!” is the team’s new slogan, and the light blue, black and white color scheme from the first season was made permanent. On the ice, the then-Club finished 11th in the Western Conference at the start of the year with 89 points, seven short of a playoff spot. And so far in the 2025-26 season, the Mammoth finds itself in a similar position, on the fringe of the playoffs.

The Utah Jazz’s Best Prospect in Years

Despite having the best odds of getting the No. 1 draft pick and a chance at highly-touted prospect Cooper Flagg, the Utah Jazz fell to fifth position at the NBA lottery on May 12. The Jazz used that pick to select Rutgers forward Airious “Ace” Bailey, who was viewed as a top-three prospect before some dubious predraft shenanigans by his (now former) advisor.

Continued on page 30

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Utah’s newest professional sport is women’s volleyball, with matches at Salt Lake Community College.

Continued from page 28

While there have been some bright spots in a stronger-than-expected start to the 2025-26 season (Keyonte George has been excellent), it appears that the team is poised to move All-Star Lauri Markkanen for a haul of future picks around the trade deadline in February. That means fans are in for a whole lot more rebuilding. The Jazz will get another bite at the apple in what is shaping up to be a stacked 2026 draft, including star BYU forward AJ Dybantsa.

A Real(ly) Underwhelming Soccer Season With two of the team’s best attacking players out the door at the end of the 2024 season, and no significant signings made to replace them in 2025, expectations were low for Real Salt Lake coming into the season. Head coach Pablo Mastroeni deployed one of the youngest rosters in all of Major League Soccer week in and week out. Their inexperience showed. And yet, Mastroeni managed to lead the squad to a ninth-place finish in the Western Conference before RSL bowed out to the Portland Timbers on Oct. 22 in a winner-takes-all match for a spot in the playoffs. The Real fanbase isn’t particularly pleased with Mastroeni or the front office, especially given the lack of signings to bolster the attack. All indications are that the same staff will be back for 2026, though. On the bright side, Diego Luna is the highest-performing pro athlete in the state—full stop. Luna balled out once again in 2025, scoring nine goals and

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THREE OPTIONS IN 2026 • RESERVE NOW!

adding seven assists across all competitions. All signs are pointing to Luna making the roster for the United States Men’s National Team in next year’s World Cup. A name to watch in the future: Zavier Gozo, an 18-year-old academy product who performed well at the U-20 World Cup in October. On the women’s side, the Utah Royals once again finished outside of the playoffs with just 25 points on the season. The Royals traded star prospect Ally Sentnor to the Kansas City Current on August 1.

Professional Volleyball in the Beehive State

Salt Lake’s League One Volleyball squad were the new kids on the block in 2025. LOVB (pronounced love) is one of a few efforts to bring professional women’s volleyball to the United States after decades of exporting college stars to Europe to play as pros. It would appear that LOVB is the most well-funded and organized effort, though, as the local team gets ready for its second season starting in January. LOVB Salt Lake’s roster includes 2020 Olympic gold medalists Jordyn Poulter and Haleigh Washington, as well as local legends Roni Jones-Perry (BYU) and Dani Drews (U of U). The team plays its matches at Bruin Arena on Salt Lake Community College’s Redwood Campus. LOVB Salt Lake’s inaugural season ended in disappointment after a five-set heartbreaker against eventual champions LOVB Austin in the first round of the playoffs on April 10. CW

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DECEMBER 18, 2025 | 31

DINE

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Getting Steamy Noodle and Dumpling serves up fresh Chinese favorites in Midvale and Millcreek.

BY ALEX SPRINGER comments@cityweekly.net @captainspringer

32 | DECEMBER 18, 2025

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italianvillageslc.com

(801).266.4182 5370 S. 900 E. SLC

’ll always dig a turkey dinner with stuffing for the holidays, but something about that traditional spread doesn’t quite evoke the year-end joy like it used to. These days, I tend to seek out stacks of bamboo steamer baskets and their pillowy dumplings, or bowls filled with piping hot broth and slippery noodles. This is the stuff that makes me grateful for another year’s worth of wisdom, and makes me hopeful for what is in store for the year to come. Perhaps this is what led me to Noodle and Dumpling this month. It’s one of the few restaurants that tells you exactly what you should order in its title, which is honestly kind of nice sometimes. The restaurant is located in Midvale and Millcreek, and I checked out the latter. The menu has plenty to offer, from American Chinese classics like orange chicken ($13.99) and kung pao beef ($14.99) to a wide range of steamed and pan-fried buns. Your best bet is to stick to the items that the restaurant so boldly advertises in its name. It’s the soup dumplings in particular that make this restaurant a must-visit. They come stuffed with beef ($11.99), pork ($10.99) or chocolate ($10.99)—the latter option will definitely

ALEX SPRINGER

Braised beef with noodle from Noodle and Dumpling

be a hit for younger foodies. I’d recommend the pork soup dumplings, as that’s the protein that provides the most flavor to the rich broth inside. Most of my soup dumpling experiences have been a bit lacking in the broth department, but the soup dumplings here do not have that problem. Placing one on your spoon and piercing the doughy exterior reveals a deep, flavorful concoction that is endlessly slurpable. On top of that, the ground pork is seasoned just enough to let the protein’s natural flavors take the forefront. You could get a few orders of these for lunch or dinner and leave perfectly satisfied. Of course, that would leave your experience distinctly devoid of noodles, which would be a shame. You’ll find the restaurant’s signature noodle options in the chef’s recommendation section. The sliced noodle with tomato sauce ($13) is the dish you’ll want if you like your noodles tossed in a stir fry, but I went with the braised beef with noodle ($13), as it’s served in broth. This section of the menu also has tteokbokki ($12), which is always a crowd pleaser. The braised beef with noodle is a total win, especially since we’re knee-deep in soup season. Like any good beef noodle soup, the foundation of the dish comes from the broth. Each sip of this hot liquid packs an unfiltered rush of beef flavor. It has an ever-so-slight chili oil kick, and more can be added tableside. The noodles have just the right texture— toothsome enough to retain their stability in the broth and yielding enough to feel pleasant on the tongue. The cubes of braised beef bring everything together, of course. Extremely tender and perfectly complementing the broth, it’s what ends

up making this dish stick to your bones and warm you up from the inside. I figured the dumplings and noodles would be up to the task, but it’s hard to see such a wide variety of bao on the menu without ordering some. You can get both pan-fried and steamed buns on the menu; both options can be stuffed with beef, pork or a bok choy and shiitake mushroom mix for plant-based eaters. I was craving that golden, crunchy texture, so I ordered the pan-fried buns filled with beef ($13.99). These were excellent versions of a classic dish—the beef was cooked with plenty of onion and the exterior had the right balance of doughy chew and fried crispness. It was this point when I turned my attention to the other condiments at the table. In addition to the chili oil, soy sauce and vinegar, I spotted a little porcelain jug that contained a soy sauce and sugar mixture swimming with sesame seeds. The server told me it was the restaurant’s dumpling sauce, and it’s great—a little drizzle of this stuff on your dumplings or bao adds just the right amount of sweetness, acid and subtle sesame flavor. I’m happy to add Noodle and Dumpling to the ever-expanding list of Chinese restaurants that lean into steamed dumplings and bao. As Noodle and Dumpling does this while serving up a great menu of other flavorful Chinese classics, it’s definitely worth a visit for anyone who likes to ring in the new year with luxurious soup dumplings and a bowl of hot noodle soup. CW

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A list of what local craft breweries and cider houses have on tap this week 2 Row Brewing 73 West 7200 South, Midvale 2RowBrewing.com On Tap: “Juicequake” Juicy Style IPA Avenues Proper 376 8th Ave, SLC avenuesproper.com On Tap: Apricaldera (Jalapeño Apricot Wheat Ale) Bewilder Brewing 445 S. 400 West, SLC BewilderBrewing.com On Tap: Pink Boots - Pink Pony Pilz Bohemian Brewery 94 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale BohemianBrewery.com NEW Releases: Kölsch, Dusseldorfer “Alt” Bier Bonneville Brewery 1641 N. Main, Tooele BonnevilleBrewery.com On Tap: Peaches and Cream Ale Chappell Brewing 2285 S Main Street Salt Lake City, UT 84115 chappell.beer On Tap: Pie Hole - Strawberry Rhubarb Tart Ale Corner Brew Pub Sugar House 2110 S. Highland Drive, SLC cornerbrewpub.com On Tap: Top of Main Yuzu Bruzu Wheat Beer Craft by Proper 1053 E. 2100 So., SLC properbrewingco.com On Tap: I Am The Vvitch - golden ale with pumpkin and spices

Heber Valley Brewing 501 N. Main Street, Heber City, UT hebervalleybrewing.com Freshly Canned: ‘435’ American Pale Ale 6% ABV

Proper Brewing Moab 1393 US-191, Moab properbrewingco.com On Tap: Gungan Sith Lord (Czech Dark Lager)

Helper Beer 159 N Main Street, Helper, UT helperbeer.com

Red Rock Brewing 254 So. 200 West RedRockBrewing.com On Tap: Gypsy Scratch

Hopkins Brewing Co. 1048 E. 2100 South, SLC HopkinsBrewingCompany.com On Tap: Tall Timber Kiitos Brewing 608 W. 700 South, SLC KiitosBrewing.com On Tap: Winter Ale, Kernza Lager Kiitos Brewing Sugar House Bar 1533 S. 1100 East, SLC KiitosBrewing.com NOW OPEN! Level Crossing Brewing Co. 2496 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: Hefe Goldbloom Hefeweizen Level Crossing Brewing Co., POST 550 South 300 West, Suite 100, SLC LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: Vienna Lager Moab Brewing 686 S. Main, Moab TheMoabBrewery.com On Tap: “Big Drop” West Coast Pilsner Mountain West Cider 425 N. 400 West, SLC MountainWestCider.com On Tap: Eternal Sunshine Hard Cider (Clementine and anise)

Desert Edge Brewery 273 Trolley Square, SLC DesertEdgeBrewery.com On Tap: Centennial Steamer, California Common Lager

Offset Bier Co 1755 Bonanza Dr Unit C, Park City offsetbier.com/ On Tap: DOPO IPA

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

Ogden Beer Company 358 Park Blvd, Ogden OgdenBeerCompany.com On Tap: 11 rotating taps as well as high point cans and guest beers

Etta Place Cidery 700 W Main St, Torrey EttaPlaceCider.com On Tap: Legendary Cider, MangoHabanero Session Mead

Park City Brewing 1764 Uinta Way C1 ParkCityBrewing.com On Tap: Meet me at the Provo IPA *Now available in cans togo*

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

Prodigy Brewing 25 W Center St. Logan Prodigy-brewing.com On Tap: 302 Czech Pilsner

Grid City Beer Works 333 W. 2100 South, SLC GridCityBeerWorks.com On Tap: Barrel-aged Imperial Brown Ale

Proper Brewing/Proper Burger 857 So. Main & 865 So. Main properbrewingco.com On Tap: Gungan Sith Lord (Czech Dark Lager)

Red Rock Fashion Place 6227 So. State Redrockbrewing.com On Tap: Grand Bavaria

Squatters Pub Brewery / Salt Lake Brewing Co. 147 W. Broadway, SLC saltlakebrewingco.com/squatters On Tap: Salt Lake Brewing Co. Big U Pilsner Strap Tank Brewery, Lehi 3661 Outlet Pkwy, Lehi, UT StrapTankBrewery.com On Tap: “Virgil the Guide” (Italian Pilsner); “Smiles und Sunshine” (German Leichtes Weizen)

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

Strap Tank Brewery, Springville 596 S 1750 W, Springville, UT StrapTankBrewery.com On Tap: “Orange Hopsicle” Hazy Pale; “Trouble” American Sour with Mango and Passionfruit

RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com Brewers Select: Petal Power Jasmine IPA

TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC TFBrewing.com On Tap: Twelve taps and high point cans available.

Roosters Brewing Multiple Locations RoostersBrewingCo.com On Tap: Peacan Pie Ale

Talisman Brewing Co. 1258 Gibson Ave, Ogden TalismanBrewingCo.com On Tap: Goggle Fogger - Hazy IPA

SaltFire Brewing 2199 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake SaltFireBrewing.com On Draft: Big in Japan - NEIPA

Thieves Guild Cidery 117 W. 900 South, SLC thievesguildcidery.com NEW: Thunderclap - Juicy tropicalhopped cider | 6.5%

Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com On Tap: OPEN ROAD SERIES #3 - Barrel Aged Grand Cru Scion Cider Bar 916 Jefferson St W, SLC Scionciderbar.com On Tap: Scion Cider Penpal 6.2% ABV Second Summit Cider 4010 So. Main, Millcreek https://secondsummitcider.com On Tap: Coconut Stout Cider 7% ABV Shades Brewing 1388 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City ShadesBrewing.beer New Batch: Raspberry Pistachio Sour Ale Shades On State 366 S. State Street, Salt Lake City Shadesonstate.com On Tap: Six Wheat Under Hefeweizen Silver Reef 4391 S. Enterprise Drive, St. George SGBev.com Squatters Corner Pub – Valley Fair 3555 Constitution Blvd, West Valley City squatterscornerpub.com On Tap: Salt Lake Brewing Co. Dog Lake Pale Ale

Top of Main Brewery 250 Main, Park City, Utah topofmainbrewpub.com On Tap: Top of Main Yuzu Bruzu Wheat Beer Uinta Brewing 1722 S. Fremont Drive, SLC UintaBrewing.com On Tap: Was Angeles Craft Beer UTOG 2331 Grant Ave, Ogden UTOGBrewing.com On Tap: Bar Down IPA Vernal Brewing 55 S. 500 East, Vernal VernalBrewing.com Zion Brewery 95 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale ZionBrewery.com

MIKE RIEDEL

Winter Warming Staying cozy with a hoppy pint and a malty pint. BY MIKE RIEDEL comments@cityweekly.net @utahbeer

Open Late

Gluten Free, Vegetarian & Vegan Options AREMPAS_BAR • www.arempas.com • Downtown • Midvale • Orem

| CITY WEEKLY |

DECEMBER 18, 2025 | 35

rid City - Maple Whiskey Barrel Aged Imperial Brown Ale: This Imperial Brown ale is aged in maple syrup barrels that had previously held bourbon or rye whiskey. From the very first swirl of the glass, this beer has an unmistakable bourbon presence. The aroma rises—rich, warm, and inviting. While the CO2 level is light, the bourbon character is anything but. It expands across the nose with a velvety intensity, giving off waves of maple, soft oak and a touch of whiskey heat that makes the first sip feel inevitable. It’s the kind of aroma that draws you in slowly, promising depth rather than aggression. On the palate, that promise is fulfilled with great balance. The malt profile immediately evokes the spirit of a barleywine, though this beer heads into its own direction. Instead of leaning heavily into sticky toffee or caramelized sugar, it works in a more refined, less cloying space. The sweetness comes through as nougat-like—creamy, subtle, and welllayered—providing both richness and restraint. This shift makes the beer feel mature rather than indulgent, a keen interpretation of malt sweetness rather than a sugary overload. The bourbon barrel influences blend very well with the malt core. Maple syrup threads through each sip, softening the oak but never obscuring it. The oak itself brings a clean, structured dryness that prevents the beer from becoming overly sweet, while adding a faint tannic snap that nods toward the maturity of the barrel. The interplay between these elements is what nudges the beer into barleywine territory without ever fully settling there. Verdict: What really elevates this beer is its body and drinkability. Despite its richness, the mouthfeel is smooth and

full without being syrupy. Each sip lingers, but never weighs you down. It’s both luxurious and surprisingly easy to drink—an impressive feat for a bourbon-forward creation. Epic - Small Batch Series (Powder Panic): This “Winter IPA” wastes no time announcing exactly what it is: a coldseason crusher built on the backs of the classic hops—Centennial, Chinook and CTZ. Anyone who’s spent time with these legendary C-hops knows what’s coming, and this beer delivers it with unapologetic force. From the first pour, the aroma is a rush of citrus peel—grapefruit rind, orange zest and even a touch of pithy lemon—layered over a resinous backbone that brings you right back to the heyday of West Coast bitterness. Centennial shows up bright and confident, pushing that signature grapefruit profile. Chinook slides in with its sharper pine-and-spice edge, grounding the aromatic burst with something slightly more rugged and winter-appropriate. And CTZ? It brings the punch. Dank, earthy, a little bit wild—its presence ties everything together with that unmistakable “classic IPA” foundation. There are minor tropical hints swirling underneath, but they’re more like fleeting glimmers than center-stage flavors—subtle melon, maybe a brush of papaya—quickly overtaken by the commanding citrus chorus of those C-hops. What really makes this IPA stand out, though, is the addition of juniper berries. Instead of fighting the hop character, the juniper adds a surprisingly elegant counterbalance. Its herbal, slightly pine-sweet complexity complements the citrus so naturally that it feels perfect. The berries soften the bitterness just enough to round the edges while contributing a fruitiness that reads crisp rather than tropical. Verdict: In the end, this Winter IPA is bold, aromatic and unapologetically rooted in classic American hop character. The juniper addition elevates it from familiar to distinctive, making it the kind of cold-weather beer that feels both nostalgic and refreshingly new. At 7.5 percent ABV, Powder Panic is drinkable and approachable, while the 9.6 percent alcohol from the Maple Whiskey Barrel Ale demands more respect. Visit their individual breweries to enjoy, or take home. As always, cheers! CW

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NERD

BEER

the

BACK BURNER BY ALEX SPRINGER |

Michelin Guide Comes to Utah

One of the most nationally renowned guides to restaurants and dining, The Michelin Guide recently announced plans to include Utah’s Wasatch Front in the Michelin Guide Southwest. This expansion to the existing publication’s restaurant guide will also include Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. With this new region available to Michelin’s scouts and reviewers, Utah restaurants have a shot at being included in one of the most prestigious collections of restaurants in the whole country. The first restaurant selection from this region will be announced at a ceremony that will take place later in 2026. With Utah’s rapidly evolving restaurant scene getting better and better, it will be interesting to see how we rank with our Southwestern neighbors.

Winter Programming at Grand Hyatt Deer Valley

Christmas is rapidly approaching, and the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley is preparing for all kinds of Yuletide fun. Visitors this week can enjoy all the holiday cheer of carols, Christmas movies and ornament decoration at various spaces within the resort. Next week is when you can gather the kiddos for brunch with Santa Claus at Remington Hall, and will continue the festivities with plenty of games, crafts and art projects. In the days leading up to New Year’s, visitors can attend a New Year’s Eve dinner complete with countdown, and partake in some New Year’s Day yoga on Jan. 1. Check out hyatt.com for all the details. AS SEEN ON “ DINERS, DRIVE-INS AND DIVES”

• BEST AMERICAN DINER • BEST RESTAURANT PATIO • 2ND PLACE: BEST BISCUITS & GRAVY + BEST EGGS BENEDICT 2 02 5

Spend the Holidays with Ruth

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Christmas Eve Dinner with Mar | Muntanya

Chef Tyson Peterson and his team at Mar | Muntanya (mar-muntanya.com) will be preparing a Christmas Eve dinner on Dec. 24, and reservations are now open. The menu promises to put Peterson’s signature Northern Spanish spin on some holiday classics: Think pan-seared foie gras and roast duck paella. Chef Peterson’s ability to infuse American classics with vibrant Basque flavors is always a hit, and it’s hard to think of a better way to enjoy yourself on Christmas Eve. Those planning to wait for Santa at the Hyatt Regency Downtown will want to check out The Salt Republic for a Christmas brunch complete with a hot chocolate bar. Quote of the Week: “You know you’ve had too much to eat for Christmas dinner when you slump down into the beanbag and realize there is no beanbag.” – David Letterman

Yanni’s Greek Express 2761 Highland Drive 801-466-6525

Protect Your Loved Ones

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Burgers so good they’ll blow your mind!

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801.355.0667

Richsburgersngrub.com

DECEMBER 18, 2025 | 37

30 east Broadway, SLC

38 | DECEMBER 18, 2025

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Talia Keys, Lisa and the Missing Pieces, Pdubba-U and Cera Gibson cover ’80s and ’90s hits. BY EMILEE ATKINSON eatkinson@cityweekly.net @emileelovesvinyl

he CW music section’s Christmas gifts to you are a few more mentions of amazing covers by locals. There is so much incredible original music from these artists, but it’s fun to see them stretch their creative chops and reimagine some of the greats in their own styles.

Lisa and The Missing Pieces, “No Rain”: “No Rain” by Blind Melon is one of those songs you would probably recognize instantly if you heard it, but might struggle to remember the title and name of the band. This song permeated the ‘90s and ‘00s; being heard in movies, TV shows and on the radio, it became a classic of that time period. Local band Lisa and The Missing Pieces feature an eclectic mix of their own great tunes and covers. The group features experienced musicians who listen to a wide variety of music and bring those influences into their own work. Lisa and The Missing Pieces are also a super upbeat and fun group, making “No Rain” a perfect song for them to cover.

MUSIC Wesley Knight Jensen comes in. This might sound like just a regular old slowed down/ acoustic version of the track, but as you continue to listen, you’ll find much more. Their version builds, the chorus being full of beautiful backing vocals, harmonics on the acoustic guitar chiming and Jensen’s voice coming through so exquisitely. Later they sprinkle in some electric guitar soloing, creating an incredible listening experience. This is absolutely one of the best covers of this song out there. Cera Gibson, “Oops!... I Did it Again”: As previously mentioned (see Music Feature, Dec. 11), pop icon Britney Spears went a long time without getting the proper credit she deserves in terms of her influence on pop music and culture. Spears’ 2000 album Oops!... I Did It Again instantly became a beloved work, inspiring young women for decades to come. SLC

pop singer/songwriter Cera Gibson knows a thing or two about catchy pop beats. She’s put out incredible singles and EPs the last few years, but early on in her career, she covered “Oops!... I Did It Again.” The original falls more into the teenpop category, as was popular at the time. Gibson’s take on the song is more sultry, slowing down the tempo and giving it a dark pop vibe. It almost feels like this is an adult version, while Spears’ is for younger audiences. Which is not a bad thing by any means, but the maturity level on Gibson’s is taken up several notches. This take on the pop classic is a lovely reimagining, especially if you were (or still are) a big fan of the original. Scroll back in Gibson’s music library to find this one and see which version you like best. There you have it—a few more wonderful covers from some of the local scene’s most talented. Keep your eyes peeled, because there’s more where these came from. CW

Pdubba-U, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”: Local rockers Pdubba-U are a criminally underrated band. Overflowing with talent, the trio creates incredible, sweeping tracks with soaring vocals and ripping guitar solos. They also slow it down at times with an acoustic guitar, and that’s the route they took with this cover of the 1988 hit. While the song wasn’t featured on Billboard’s 100 Top Singles that year, (man, what competition!), it’s still a song that many would recognize today thanks to its inclusion in the 1993 movie Benny & Joon. It’s the Scottish duo The Proclaimers’ most popular track, even in 2025. The boys in Pdubba-U seem to have a wide range of musical influences, so it isn’t surprising this one caught their attention for a cover. Their version opens up with Preston Fairchild ripping a really cool riff on the acoustic guitar before vocalist

Talia Keys

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Talia Keys, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”: SLC resident badass Talia Keys is always rocking the local scene with her genre-bending style and overall coolness. Her music doesn’t fit solidly into one box or another, and that’s why she’s so great. Her original music is easy to jam to, but she surprised listeners with this cover in 2024. The original by Eurythmics is an iconic ’80s bop that has the signature punchy electronic elements of the decade with Annie Lennox’s incredible voice on top. The dance pop/electronica track is an earworm—you’ll probably have it stuck in your head for the rest of the day after reading this. Keys’ version of the song also has electronic elements but is heavier than the original, incorporating crunchy electric guitar in the background. The tempo is also slowed down a bit, making the journey a little longer, allowing you to really sink your teeth in and savor it. Keys’ voice is powerful and well-controlled. Her range is incredible and the tone is to die for. In

many photos, Keys is posed with her Gibson SG, and it’s easy to picture her ripping the rad guitar solo at the end of the track on said guitar. If you’re in the mood for a genre-bent classic, look no further.

MELAHN ATKINSON

Under the Covers Part 2

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DECEMBER 18, 2025 | 39

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GREAT FOOD Bella Woods, Black Cat Parade, Vernon Worthen @ Kilby Court 12/18

SLC singer/songwriter Bella Woods has captivated listeners with her sincere acoustic/ folk sound that offers relatable lyrics—and the songs are just beautiful in general. She has just one official release, but has still managed to capture thousands of streams across multiple platforms. The track, titled “Sometimes,” is a gorgeous song that highlights Woods’ soft and earnest voice and features lovely instrumentation. It has a bittersweet tone—a little morose, but not totally without hope. The addition of subtle violin throughout the track gives it great oomph and adds to its uniqueness. Also coming out to show off their stylings is alt/rock group Black Cat Parade. They have great songs with electric guitar, but their latest single “Vegas, Baby!” is an acoustic track that will complement Woods’ “Sometimes” incredibly well (assuming that they play it, of course). Also coming to party is Vernon Worthen, backed by his band of alt-rockers. This group has an addicting energy, captivating showgoers and keeping them engaged. This lineup is a triple-threat of local awesomeness. Come hang out at Kilby Court for this all-ages show on Thursday, Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. Tickets are $13 in advance at 24tix.com, or $15 at the door. (Emilee Atkinson)

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40 | DECEMBER 18, 2025

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A-Trak @ Sky SLC 12/18

Alain Macklovitch, known professionally as A-Trak, is a Canadian DJ and producer who is an anomaly in the music world. He has a unique résumé as someone who has jumped from playing club sets to headlining festivals, to touring sold-out stadiums with Kanye West. It’s a bit all over the place because he not only has the technical turntable skills, but also transcends genre. For example, he was the first to add hip-hop to techno tracks in the early 2000s as an international club DJ after winning the DMC World DJ Championship in 1997 at the age of 15, making him the youngest and first Canadian winner of the competition. You might have heard his track “Barbra Streisand” from his earlier album Quack, when he was the duo Duck Sauce with American DJ Armand van Helden. Then he came out with “We All Fall Down” in 2016 featuring singer Jamie Lidell. This track is a mix of electronic soul, Chicago house, and a poppy Y2K feel—making it a timeless piece. His newest singles released this year (“Bump,” “Can’t Stop,” and “Fallin in Love (Butch Remix)”) are on the warm, soulful and jazzy, groovy house/disco end of the spectrum. Macklovitch plays on Thursday, Dec. 18 at Sky SLC. Local DJs Justin Cornwall and GOYK will be the openers, so come early to support. Doors open at 9 p.m. for this 21+ show. General admission costs $17.03; go to skyslc.com for tickets. (Arica Roberts)

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MUSIC PICKS

Celtic Christmas @ St. Mark’s Cathedral 12/19 – 12/21

Needless to say, the spirit of Christmas is universal, regardless of specific circumstance. That’s especially true when it comes to Old World traditions, like the heritage gleaned from the rich musical heritages of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, the Isle of Man and Cape Breton. The musicians of that era were the rockstars of their day, and their latter-day descendants—fostered under the umbrella of Utopia Early Music, a series dedicated to preserving historically informed music for the ages—make it a point to revisit those past precepts in keeping with the holiday season. With Celtic Christmas, Utopia co-founders Emily Nelson (soprano) and Christopher LeCluyse (tenor) will be joined by local artists Monica Hymas (alto), Ricky Parkinson (bass), Bronwen Beecher (fiddle), Ben Spigle (Irish flute and whistle), Eleanor Christman (cello), Cindy Spigle (bodhrán) and visiting artist Therese Honey (Celtic harp) ensure that rich tradition lives on through the sound of celebration. The historical context notwithstanding, there’s entertainment galore, courtesy of mystic tales, Medieval chants, lively reels and fiddle tunes, foot-stomping jigs, comforting winter lullabies and centuries-old Welsh Christmas carols all in sacred, family-friendly environs. Now in its 16th season, Utopia brings past to present, providing a rebirth and revival for everyone to enjoy. Celtic Christmas takes place at the Cathedral of St. Mark (231 E. 100 South) Friday, Dec. 19 and Saturday, Dec. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 21 at 5 p.m. Pay as able; it’s a non-ticketed event (suggested donation: $20 general, $15 seniors and students). Go to utopiaearlymusic.org. (Lee Zimmerman)

Postmodern Jukebox @ Kingsbury Hall 12/19

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On paper, it seemed like an inspired concept: Assemble a top-notch band that can play anything, bring together a wildly varied collection of contemporary songs from a variety of genres, and recast those songs in the styles of yesteryear (hot jazz, swing, etc.). And as fate would have it, that concept conceived by pianist Scott Bradlee worked just as well on record. PMJ—a rotating cast headed by Bradlee—is nothing if not prolific.

Postmodern Jukebox

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Since debuting with a 2013 digital EP, the collective has released literally hundreds of songs via weekly online postings. PMJ has also put together something on the order of 45 albums, proving that their concept is not only inspired, but eminently flexible. There seems to be no song, no type of music to which Bradlee and his devastatingly talented and versatile musical associates can’t bend to their style. Though there may well be another release by press time, the prolific band’s latest, Lounge Language Models, features reinventions of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys are Back in Town,” Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe” and a reliably eclectic assortment of 12 other tunes. Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox comes to Kingsbury Hall on Friday, Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $60.50 and up, available from tickets.utah.edu. (Bill Kopp)

Living Legends @ The Complex 12/20

Living Legends’ music always takes me back to where I was, what I was going through, and what I was doing back in the day. Since the mid-’90s, California’s independent hiphop supergroup—consisting of The Grouch, Sunspot Jonz, Luckyiam, Eligh, Scarub & Bicasso—were always against the grain of the prevailing trends. Imaginative, insightful and stylistically off the wall, they were a complete one-of-a-kind. “There’s no bullshit. It’s not acting or anything like that, it’s just exactly how I feel as if I was having a conversation, as if I was giving an interview, and it’s just 100% real,” The Grouch told Rap Reviews. “That’s how I try to make the music and try to tell my stories, as I see them without anything sugarcoated or anything that blocks the reality that I know.” This crew is just mesmeric live, even extraordinary. I don’t feel like they’ve made a record as good as their live show. 2023’s The Return comes close as it solidifies their legacy. Go ahead and seek out the remix of the single with the same name, as it is six minutes of absolute magma. Hip-hop needs them right now. RIP Aesop. Cunninlynguists and Souls of Mischief open. Catch these acts on the How The Grouch Stole Christmas tour at the Complex on Saturday, Dec. 20. Doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Tickets for the allages show are $47.94 and can be found at thecomplexslc.com. (Mark Dago)

free will ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Nine hundred years ago, Sufi philosopher Al-Ghazali provided advice that’s not very popular these days. “To understand the stars,” he said, “one must polish the mirror of the soul.” Here’s my interpretation: To fathom the truth about reality, you must be a strong character who treasures clarity and integrity. It’s unlikely you can gather a profound grasp of life if your inner depths are a mess. Conversely, your capacity to comprehend the Great Mystery increases as you work on purifying and strengthening your character. Everything I just said is good advice for all of us all the time, but it will be especially potent and poignant for you in the coming months.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

The sound of a whip cracking is a small sonic boom. The tip breaks the sound barrier, creating that distinctive snap. In my astrological reckoning, Taurus, life has provided you with the equivalent of a whip. During the coming months, you will have access to a simple asset that can create breakthrough force when wielded with precision and good timing. I’m not referring to aggression or violence. Your secret superpower will be understanding how to use small treasures that can generate disproportionate impacts. What’s your whip?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

Researchers studying music theory know dissonance— sounds that feel “wrong” or create tension—is culturally determined. Indonesia’s gamelan music and Arabic maqam scales are beautiful to audiences that have learned to appreciate them. They might seem off-kilter to Westerners accustomed to major thirds and triads. Let’s use this as our starting point as we contemplate your future, Libra. Life may disrupt your assumptions about what constitutes balance and harmony. You will be invited to consider the possibility that what seems like discord from one perspective is attractive and valuable from another. My advice: Open your mind to other ways of evaluating what’s meaningful and attractive.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

In the Sonoran Desert of the southwest United States, Arizona bark scorpions are hard to see at night. Scientists who study them find them only by searching with flashlights that emit ultraviolet light. This causes the scorpions’ exoskeletons to fluoresce and glow a distinct blue-green or turquoise color. Let’s use this as a metaphor for you. In the coming months, you may reveal your best brilliance under uncommon conditions. Circumstances that seem unusual or challenging will highlight your beauty and power. What feels extreme may be a good teacher and helper. I urge you to trust that the right people will recognize your unique beauty.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

According to legend, genius composer Mozart heard entire symphonies in his imagination before he wrote down any notes. A slight exaggeration: The full truth is that he often worked hard and made revisions. His inspiration was enhanced by effort and craft. However, it’s also true that Mozart wrote at least five masterful works in rapid succession, sometimes with remarkably few corrections on the manuscript. They included his last three symphonies. I predict you will have a Mozartlike aptitude in the coming months: to perceive whole patterns before the pieces align. Trust your big visions!

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

To prepare for 2026, I’ve gathered quotes that address your most pressing need and urgent mandate. Tape this horoscope to your bathroom mirror. 1: “We cannot live in a world interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a hope. Part of the terror is to take back our listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.”— author Elaine Bellezza. 2: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson. 3: “The ability to tell your own story, in words or images, is already a victory, already a revolt.”—Rebecca Solnit.

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 18, 2025 | 45

The sculptor Louise Bourgeois was asked why she often worked with the image of the spider. She said it was a tribute to her mother; deliberate, clever, patient, soothing, helpful and useful—just like a spider. In the coming months, I invite you to embody her vision of the spider. You will have the wherewithal to weave hardy networks that could support you for years to come. Be creative and thoughtful as you craft your network of care. Your precision will be a form of devotion. Every strand, even fragile ones, will enhance your long-term resilience.

In Florence, Italy, the Accademia Gallery houses several of Michelangelo’s sculptures that depict human figures partially emerging from rough blocks of marble. They seem caught in the process of birth or liberation. These works showcase a technique he called non-finito (unfinished), in which forms appear to struggle to escape from the stone. In the coming months, Aquarius, I foresee you undergoing a passage that resembles these figures. The good news is, unlike Michelangelo’s eternally trapped characters, you will eventually break free.

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Every 11 years, the Sun reverses its magnetic polarity. North becomes south, and south becomes north. The last switch was completed earlier this year. Let’s use this natural phenomenon as your metaphorical omen for the coming months, Leo. Imagine that a kind of magnetic reversal will transpire in your psyche. Your inner poles will flip position. As the intriguing process unfolds, you may be surprised at how many new ideas and feelings come rumbling into your imagination. Rather than resist the cosmic acrobatics, I advise you to welcome and collaborate with them.

In Greek mythology, Proteus was a sea god famed for an ability to change shape endlessly to evade capture. Now and then, a persistent hero was able to hold on to Proteus through his transformations, whether he became a lion, serpent, tree or flame. The god would bestow the gift of prophecy on the successful daredevil. In the coming months, you will have exceptional power to grasp Proteus-like things. As a result, you could claim help and revelations that seem almost magical.

| COMMUNITY |

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

A fair-weather cumulus cloud typically weighs over a million pounds and yet floats effortlessly. Let’s make that one of your prime power symbols for 2026, Cancerian. It signifies that you will harbor an immense emotional cargo that’s suspended with grace. You will carry complex truths, layered desires, and lyrical ambitions, but you will manage it all with aplomb and even delight. For best results, don’t overdramatize the heaviness; appreciate and marvel at the buoyancy.

Intermountain Christian School, Salt Lake City, UT, Seeks Middle School English and Social Studies Teacher Duties: Prep lessons and teach English and Social Studies to middle school grade level (grades six to eight) students, participate in school events, provide Christian guidance to students, communicate student progress with parents and guardians. Reqs: Bachelor’s degree or higher in education, or a foreign equivalent. Send resumes to: tbaskett@intermountainchristian.org

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Japanese potters practice yohen tenmoku. It’s a technique to create a rare bowl with shifting, star-like iridescence on deep, dark glaze. The sublime effect results from a process that’s unusually demanding, unpredictable and hard to control. Legend says that only one in 1,000 bowls achieves the intended iridescence. The rest, according to the masters, are “lessons in humility.” I believe you can flourish by adopting this experimental mindset in the coming months. Treat your creative experiments as offerings to the unknown, as sources of wonder whether or not your efforts yield stellar results. Be bold in trying new techniques and gentle in self-judgment. Delight in your apprenticeship to mystery. Some apparent “failures” may bring useful novelty.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

University of Utah Health and the Moran Eye Center will be destroying medical records created prior to 01/01/2004 for all patients. UUH and Moran will also be destroying medical records created prior to 01/01/2016 for deceased patients who passed away prior to 01/01/2016 and who were over the age of 18 at the time of death. If you would like to request a copy of your records prior to destruction, or if you have a legal right to access a deceased relatives medical information and would like a copy of their records, you must contact the facility at 801-5812704 before 01/01/2026. After that date, records will no longer be available.

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alt Lake City has more than 100 public parks, with the official city website listing various types—like regional, community, neighborhood and mini- (or pocket) parks. The city manages different park sizes, from large ones like Liberty Park (80 acres) to smaller neighborhood spots, and many amenities like playgrounds, fields and trails. The oldest city park is, of course, Liberty Park, created in 1881 when the City bought the land from Brigham Young’s estate for $27,000. In the early 1900s the “City Beautiful” movement emerged, which called for “well-planned urban spaces that could improve the civic and moral character of their residents.” In the early 1900s, greenhouses were added to grow plants for the park. Then came the zoo, tennis courts, picnic areas, etc. The Chase Mill—in the middle of the park—was given to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers as a “Relic Hall” and in the ‘30s, the Aviary was built in the original Zoo area, followed by a swimming pool, bathhouses and tennis courts on the west side of the park. The biggest park in the city is Sugar House Park, which has a massive history as a beet sugar processing plant and a state prison, with Highland High being built at the east part of the land and, now, a popular green space for humans, dogs and ducks. The city just completed an update to the old Raging Waters/Seven Peaks water park at 1375 W. 1700 South. The beloved 17-acre waterpark in the Glendale neighborhood was famous for having the first wave pool in the state (the “Wild Wave”) and was only the third such pool in the country. There were water slides for littles and adults as well as picnic areas. During some summers, they would show movies on a big outdoor screen, where you could float and watch Jaws with your friends and family. The water park closed in 2018 due to competition, broken equipment and vandalism. The cost to replace the pools and slides was estimated to be $20 million, but the city reached out to neighbors and found out that folks wanted a safe and welcoming gathering space, providing access to nature, recreational opportunities, improvement of natural resources and connections to the Jordan River and neighboring parks. Phase One of the new Glendale Regional Park is officially open and offers an all-abilities playground, basketball courts for kids and adults, walking paths, shaded canopies, a native wetland, open lawns, a food truck promenade for community events and 12 pickleball courts. This first phase meets the sustainable SITES Initiative and is the first in the state to receive the designation of Gold. Further development plans include a skating ribbon, public art, sledding hills, interactive water features, a skatepark, pump track, event stage, boardwalks and a kayak/canoe launching area. The second phase will be complete in 2028, but readers should drop by now— it’s already a popular place for Glendale folks and the rest of us to play! n Content is prepared expressly for Community and is not endorsed by City Weekly staff.

HIT THE BRICKS

BY MATT JONES

ACROSS

1. Snaky letter 4. Aristotle’s teacher 9. “Grand Ole” venue 13. Pickleball divider 14. Bottom-of-the-page section 15. ___ gin fizz 16. “Club” for hockey players who’ve won the Stanley Cup, World Championship, and Olympic titles 18. Fireworks-admiring sounds 19. How potatoes may be served 20. Slalom slider 21. Bigger than big 22. Detox diet 26. Exam in “Legally Blonde” 27. Art exhibition hall 29. Extra attention 30. Request permission 33. Speed demon 35. Painful activity in the dark (also represented by the letters above the circles) 39. Ireland, to the Romans 40. Reel Big Fish genre 41. Certain Wall Street trader, slangily 42. Nixon veep Spiro 44. Skating champion Lipinski 48. Smarten up 50. Morphine and codeine, for two 53. Author McEwan 54. Relaxing soak at the end of the day 55. “Star Wars” fighter 57. Rumors 59. Iowa college town 60. Cell transmitter 61. “La-la” lead-in 62. Go over, in blackjack 63. Edible garden green 64. “Hallow” suffix

DOWN

1. Require 2. Some skin care products 3. Black mark 4. Versifiers 5. Emmys : U.S. :: ___ : Australia 6. Like ___ of bricks 7. ___ Aviv (city on the Mediterranean) 8. MDW counterpart in Chicago 9. Japanese port on Honshu 10. Smooth feature of some boots 11. “Ruh-___, Shaggy!” 12. “That’s right”

14. Caramel-glazed dessert 17. Record for future broadcast 20. “Where the Wild Things Are” author 22. Infomercial psychic Miss ___ 23. Bank offerings 24. Difficult journey 25. “Plasm” prefix 28. Aquarium buildup 31. Ankle injury 32. Sacramento’s NBA team 34. Result of a lot of crunching, maybe? 35. ‘70s carpet style 36. Wear out 37. Outgoing flows 38. Muse count 43. Ones who court 45. Just one little bite 46. Call it a career 47. Fireplace receptacle 49. Jeans measurement 51. Dances to punk 52. “Bring ___!” 54. Furnace pipe

55. Poke with a stick 56. Bird featured in Liberty Mutual ads 57. “Monsters, ___” (Pixar film) 58. ___ Spiegel (German publication)

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.

WITH BABS DELAY

Broker, Urban Utah Homes & Estates, urbanutah.com

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

SUDOKU X

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46 | DECEMBER 18, 2025

urban LIVING

NEWS of the WEIRD BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

‘Tis the Season

Leavenworth, Washington, has become a tourist destination because of the Bavarian theme businesses have adopted there, NPR reported. One shop, the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum, houses the world’s largest nutcracker collection, thanks to 101-year-old Arlene Wagner. Wagner started the collection in 1976, and soon after, she and her husband were going to estate sales and auctions in the U.S. and Europe to find rare examples. Once they’d collected 7,000, Wagner said, “It was time to share it with people,” and they opened the museum. The oldest nutcracker she has is a bronze device made between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. Now, Wagner is training a new “Nutcracker Lady,” Michelle McMullen.

The Aristocrats

On Dec. 7, The Washington Post reported, a drone flew over the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South Carolina, and dropped the ingredients of a swishy holiday dinner: steak, crab legs (along with a small container of Old Bay seasoning), two bags of marijuana and a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. The contraband was picked up by law enforcement before reaching its intended recipients, the South Carolina Department of Corrections said. Spokesperson Chrysti Shain said the prison receives “nightly attacks” of drones trying to drop drugs into the prison yard, “but this was a bit unusual, even for us. I’m guessing the inmates who were expecting this package are a bit crabby.”

Truth Is Stranger Than Netflix

Weird Science

Broker/Owner 801-201-8824 babs@urbanutah.com www.urbanutah.com

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Animal Antics

Andrew Mackay, a politician in Sydney, Australia, was surprised in early December when he checked in on his dogs via a pet-cam, CBS News reported on Dec. 10. His dog Thunder nuzzled open a sliding glass door to get outside, but a couple of typically outdoor animals took advantage. A steer named Sue and a horse named Cricket soon appeared on the camera. “Over the next hour and a half,” Mackay said, “they took turns playing inside, knocking things off cabinets. The fish tank has been drunk from.”

Least Competent Criminal

A clumsy 20-year-old burglar bungled his effort to break into a home in Spanaway, Washington, on Dec. 5, KIROTV reported. Homeowners called police because someone was banging on their front door, trying to get in. The intruder then moved to the back of the house and tried to break a window. As he attempted to escape, deputies said, he tried to crawl under a fence, but got his foot stuck. Law enforcement used bolt cutters to free his foot before arresting him on charges of residential burglary.

Awesome!

Among the 80,000 items traded in to GameStop for store credit during the retailer’s first-ever “Trade Anything Day” on Dec. 6 were a goose, a framed dog portrait and a tiny Jesus, KENS-TV reported. But a store in Corsicana, Texas, may have received the weirdest item: a lounging taxidermic bobcat. A company spokesperson said the stores gave out about $400,000 in trade-in credit vouchers. “Our customers showed up with big imaginations ... We are very happy with the turnout.” Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com

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No one was seriously injured on Dec. 8 in Brevard County, Florida, when a small plane crashed into a moving 2023 Toyota Camry on I-95 around 5:45 p.m., Spectrum News 13 reported. The 27-year-old pilot was attempting an emergency landing, Lt. Tara Crescenzi said. He and his passenger remained at the scene. The 57-year-old driver of the car was taken to the hospital. Jim Coffey and his son, Peter, were in the car behind the Camry; Peter said, “I thought it might maybe aim around and not hit the car, but bam, the wheel just smacked right dab on the back of the car.”

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In October of 2024, an Idaho man was scratched by a skunk on his property, The New York Times reported on Dec. 6. Weeks later, he collapsed and died, presumably from a heart attack. The man’s family donated several of his organs, and a Michigan man received one of the kidneys. But a week later, he was hospitalized with fever, difficulty swallowing and fear of water—symptoms of rabies. He died after a week in the hospital. Doctors believe the skunk that scratched the Idaho man had contracted rabies from a bat, but organ donations are not typically tested for rabies, according to the CDC. “Overall, the risk is exceptionally small,” said Dr. Lara Danziger-Isakov, a board member of the American Society for Transplantation.

Officers stopped a speeding car on Dec. 5 in Door County, Wisconsin, WBAY-TV reported. The sheriff’s office said the car was also missing a front headlight on the driver’s side, but no worries: A handheld flashlight had been jerry-rigged in the spot where the headlight should have been. “A flashlight is not a safe or legal replacement for proper headlights,” authorities said.

ELVES ON THE SHELF!

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When law enforcement questioned Calvin Johnson, 36, about the stolen BMW he had just crashed in Ormond Beach, Florida, they got an earful, The Smoking Gun reported. Investigators say Johnson took the car on Dec. 8 and drove it at speeds exceeding 100 mph before the crash, but Johnson had a different explanation. He said he was “teleported into the vehicle” and told officers, “You saved me from the aliens.” He was charged with grand theft auto and driving on a suspended license.

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