If there is a school district that epitomizes the challenges of public education in Utah, it may be Jordan.

A decade ago, the district covered the southern third of Salt Lake County, bringing in both the mature and more tax-producing east side to help with school costs on the blossoming, family-fueled west side. But then the east siders walked in 2009, and Jordan was left to absorb its growing school population with a tax base that is mostly bedrooms. In a state of low school spending, Jordan is one of the lowest.

Yet, that hasn’t stopped Jordan from investing in its most important asset, teachers.

The district this week announced another round of raises as it opens contract negotiations with the Jordan Education Association, which represents teachers. The district’s proposal gives every teacher a $2,500 raise, and new teachers would start at $42,800 instead of $40,000. It also sets aside money for grants for teacher-led initiatives.

Despite our last-in-the-nation per-pupil spending, growth in the economy has allowed Utah to pay its teachers better. Jordan even started a salary “war” of sorts last year when it raised starting salaries to $40,000. Other districts made similar moves. That $40,000 is not Easy Street, but it helps to justify four years of college.

The rising pay provides a contrast to other states with low spending. Our teachers may not make any more than those who are in revolt in Oklahoma and Arizona, but the upward trend appears to keep them from taking to the streets.

Jordan’s proposal is also about de-emphasizing the experience-based compensation model, and that is where the challenge will come in contract negotiations. The across-the-board $2,500 means a higher percentage raise for the less experienced people. That is intended to address the flight of good teachers who leave after a few years for better paying jobs outside education. The money put into grants is also aimed at paying productive teachers more, regardless of their years of service.

Teachers need more merit pay, and Jordan is doing the right thing. It’s about making teaching into a more rewarding pursuit that provides not just economic opportunity but also professional growth.

The Jordan School Board doesn’t have a lot to spread around. They are wise to spend it on quality.

The Tribune’s Tony Jones breaks down the Western Conference semifinals ahead of Game 1 in Houston on Sunday afternoon.

Point Guard

Saturday’s news that Ricky Rubio will miss Game 1 and potentially a few weeks with a hamstring injury is a hammer blow to a Jazz team that needs him at full strength to compete. Chris Paul is one of the best point guards in NBA history, and needs a title to cement his legacy. To combat his brilliance, the Jazz need every healthy advantage they can get — but who will handle the load in Rubio’s absence?

ADVANTAGE: Rockets

Shooting Guard

Donovan Mitchell has superstardom written all over him after a brilliant Game 6 to close out the Thunder — but James Harden may be the league’s best offensive player and will be this season’s MVP. Harden is an efficient scorer, brilliant off the dribble, a lethal passer, and imaginative in getting to the free-throw line. He’s almost indefensible. It figures to be a fascinating matchup.

ADVANTAGE: Rockets

Small Forward

Like OKC’s Paul George, Houston’s Trevor Ariza is a terrific defender. He’s athletic with long arms and great anticipation and the ability to bother Joe Ingles. That said, Ingles figured George out toward the end of the OKC series. Unlike George, Ariza isn’t a great offensive player. He’s a terrific shooter, but Ingles won’t have to expend as much defensive energy as he did in the first round.

ADVANTAGE: Push

Power Forward

Can the Jazz make PJ Tucker pay for guarding Derrick Favors? Tucker is a terrific defender and 3-point shooter. Favors will have to be big in the paint and rebound the basketball. He will have to defend on the perimeter as well when Tucker stretches the floor. It figures to be another really good matchup, and one the Jazz have to win to have a chance in this series.

ADVANTAGE: Push

Center

Clint Capela is a terrific rim-running center, who has become a good defender and rebounder. But he’s not Rudy Gobert, who dominated Oklahoma City defensively and give the Jazz a take control in the paint. Gobert will have to continue his great play on defense, and get as much offense as he can contribute, to give the Jazz an opportunity in this series.

ADVANTAGE: Jazz

Bench

Eric Gordon is a great shooter with explosive scoring ability, and may be the best sixth man in the NBA. Ryan Anderson, and Luc Mbah A Moute, and Gerald Green make Houston’s bench a game-changer. Utah’s bench is good, but nowhere as deep. The Jazz will rely mostly on Jae Crowder and Royce O’Neale. Finding positive minutes from Dante Exum may be gravy.

ADVANTAGE: Rockets

Coaches

Mike D’Antoni and Quin Snyder are two of the best coaches in the league. D’Antoni mostly relies on his terrific offensive system, and is great at making adjustments over the course of a series. Snyder has it all: Preparation, in-game adjustments, between-game adjustments, and lineup management. He’s the complete package on the bench.

ADVANTAGE: Jazz

Intangibles

It’s hard to have more intangibles than Chris Paul at this point. He’s one of the best leaders the league has seen in the past decade. For the Jazz, how much does the short turnaround affect them on Sunday after Friday night’s exhausting victory?

ADVANTAGE: Houston

Series Prediction

This won’t be the mismatch it was for the Jazz last season against the Golden State Warriors in the semifinals. Still, winning this series will take Utah playing at peak level.

THE TRIBUNE’S CALL: Houston should take this in five games.

The TribPreps staff each week will choose standout performers and key numbers from the previous week’s action in Utah and showcase them. Here are this week’s picks.

Brady Arbon

The Grantsville senior went 5 for 6 in a pair of wins over South Summit in baseball action earlier this week. He scored three runs and drove in three in a 2-for-2 showing in Tuesday’s 11-0 win. Earned the win on the mound by allowing one hit and striking out eight over five innings. He then finished 3 for 4 with three runs scored and three RBIs in Wednesday’s 13-1 win. He doubled and homered in Wednesday’s game.

April Visser

The Herriman senior collected at least three hits in a softball game for the seventh and eighth times this week. She went 3 for 4 with a double in Tuesday’s 22-9 loss to Taylorsville before collecting three hits in three at-bats in Thursday’s 13-1 win over West Jordan. She homered and scored three runs in the game. She is batting .638 with nine home runs and 26 runs scored for the Mustangs this season.

9

The number of feet North Sevier’s Kenzie Mason won the discus title by at Tuesday’s North Summit Invitational. She won the title with a throw of 99 feet, 8 inches, while North Summit’s Brecklyn Murdock was second with a throw of 90-7. Mason also won the javelin (103-10) and shot put (33-6.25).

7

The number of hits in 10 at-bats for Union’s Weston Walker in three wins this week for the Cougars baseball team. He went 2 for 3 with two runs scored in Tuesday’s 7-5 win over Providence Hall then 2 for 3 with two RBIs and a run scored in Wednesday’s 7-3 victory vs. North Sanpete. He capped the week by finishing 3 for 4 with two doubles, three RBIs and two runs scored in a 12-6 win over Providence Hall.

5

The number of goals junior Joe Paul scored in the Judge Memorial boys’ soccer team’s two wins this week. He pumped in four in Tuesday’s 6-1 decision vs. Summit Academy then ended his week with another goal in Friday’s 4-1 win over Morgan. Paul’s 18 goals this season helped the Bulldogs grab the Region 13 title.

Boys’ soccer state tournament schedule

CLASS 4A

Thursday’s first round (all games at 4 p.m.)

Bear River at Park City

Salem Hills at Snow Canyon

Pine View at Orem

Juan Diego at Mountain Crest

Desert Hills at Mountain View

Ben Lomond at Logan

Sky View at Bonneville

Spanish Fork at Dixie

CLASS 3A

Thursday’s first round (all games at 4 p.m.)

Providence Hall at Judge Memorial

Maeser Prep at Manti

South Summit at North Sanpete

South Sevier at Delta

Union at Emery

Summit Academy at American Leadership

Richfield at Carbon

Grand County at Morgan

CLASS 2A

Wednesday’s first round (all games at 4 p.m.)

North Summit at Rowland Hall

Gunnison Valley at TBD*

Wendover at APA West Valley

TBD* at Beaver

TBD* at Layton Christian

Merit Prep at Millard

Diamond Ranch at TBD*

Parowan at Waterford

* — Regions 16 and 17 still have regular-season games remaining, which will impact seeding.

Washington • Trey Gowdy’s emotions sometimes bubble disconcertingly close to the surface but, unlike many members of the political class, he is not all surface. At a breakfast four years ago, the South Carolina Republican had tears in his eyes as he explained when he would leave Congress: after Tim Scott, a Republican congressman who had been appointed to the Senate in 2013 when Jim DeMint resigned, had been elected in his own right. This, Gowdy said at that breakfast, would close the circle of his state’s history.

Scott, an African-American, was born in 1965, 44 days after the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. The 1960 census had recorded South Carolina as 34.8 percent African-American. It was only about 27 percent African-American when Scott was elected in 2014 to complete DeMint’s unfinished term, and was elected to a full term in 2016. So, at the end of 2018, Gowdy, after eight years representing northern South Carolina’s booming Greenville-Spartanburg area, will put Washington in his rearview mirror. The nation’s capital will be duller because of the departure of him and his myriad hairstyles. He will not miss it but will miss his weekly dinners with Scott, almost always at the same table in the Capitol Hill Club, a Republican hangout.

A former prosecutor, Gowdy ran for Congress in part to get a respite from things that prosecutors must stare at unblinkingly. There was the 9-year old girl with cerebral palsy who was beaten to death by her mother’s boyfriend. Gowdy’s eyes are moist as he says that the girl’s picture is on his desk in his congressional office. Staring down such evils is, he says, particularly arduous for someone like him, because “if you’ve got no faith, you’ve got nothing to lose.” He, a devout Christian, thought it was “time to do something else.”

When he first ran for public office, a friend congratulated him for being up to 20 in polls that showed him losing 80-20. When in 2010 he ran for Congress against a six-term Republican incumbent, he surfed into office on that year’s tea party wave. And he was immediately “miserable,” until he began his friendship with Scott.

As a member of three key committees (Oversight and Government Reform, Judiciary, and Intelligence), Gowdy has been at the — sometimes he has been the — epicenter of controversies. These have included Benghazi (honestly, do you remember what that was about? Didn’t think so), the two parties’ dueling memos about Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the Mueller investigation. When his fellow Republicans on the Intelligence Committee faulted the FBI, CIA and NSA for concluding “with high confidence” that Russia preferred Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, Gowdy said that the committee’s own evidence showed that Russian involvement in the election was “motivated in whole or in part by a desire to harm her candidacy or undermine her presidency had she prevailed.” Gowdy has never met Trump and might leave Washington without having done so.

Politics as he envisioned it would be a vocation in which participants asked themselves: What cause do I believe in strongly enough that I am willing to lose for it? Now, Gowdy says, the dominant question is: What am willing to do to win? At 53, he says he wants to go somewhere “where facts matter.” So, he probably will not teach in a university.

South Carolina has been punching above its weight recently. Former Gov. and now U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, daughter of immigrants from India, is disproving the plausible — until she came along — rule that no one could have sustained transactions with the current president without being diminished. Former South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney is director of the Office of Management and Budget. James Clyburn, the most senior member of the state’s otherwise all-Republican House delegation, is assistant minority leader, the third-ranking position in the Democrats’ House leadership. It is difficult to say how, but it is also difficult to doubt that, the social soil of South Carolina has something to do with the state’s success in seeding national politics with talent.

Gowdy and Scott have co-authored a book (“Unified: How Our Unlikely Friendship Gives Us Hope for a Divided Country”) that is dedicated to one of Scott’s grandfathers and one of Gowdy’s grandmothers: “In the segregated age in which they lived, the two never met. But two generations later, their grandsons became the best of friends.”

George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

The Utah Royals supporters group, The Court, has come under fire for a statement the group’s twitter account posted ahead of Saturday’s match at Rio Tinto Stadium against the Portland Thorns.

“There is nothing we won’t do in support of our team, our players and coaches,” the post read in part. “This also means that we want away teams to feel as uncomfortable as possible. Traveling supporters take away from what we hope to achieve within the confines of our fortress. We do not welcome them or their supporters into our home.”

@sltrib @sltribsports Did you happen to see this statement from the Utah Royals supporters group? The tweet has since been deleted but screenshots attached. pic.twitter.com/ju6OSvTifn

— Misty Schymtzik (@WomensSportsFan) April 28, 2018

The statement prompted outrage from supporters around the NWSL. In response, The Court deleted the statement and posted out a “clarification” statement and said in a separate post that the person who posted the original strongly-worded statement has lost his or her admin status for all Court social media accounts.

So last night Russ said Utah fans are the worst and then the Utah royals supporters group put out an insane statement about being hostile toward away fans and players. 🤷🏽‍♀️👍🏽

— Liv (@heyitslivagain) April 28, 2018

We feel that a strong rivalry is the lifeblood of any sport, and we are all about stoking the flames,” the second statement read. “This morning’s approach was certainly on the poorly worded side, and apologies to anyone who felt personally attacked in any way.”

A well-needed clarification re-statement. pic.twitter.com/AK0lSLz3kh

— The Court (@CourtofRoyals) April 28, 2018

The Court did, however reiterate they would not be hosting joint tailgates, explaining the group, in its second home match, was still working out the kinks in organizing such event. The group would be open to changing its stance in the future, The Court said in its statement.

President Donald Trump called for Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., to resign Saturday over the release of allegations that led White House physician Ronny Jackson to end his bid to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Trump tweeted that the Secret Service told him that allegations against Jackson were “not true,” and he suggested that voters should punish Tester, a vulnerable Democrat who is defending his seat in a state that strongly supported the president in 2016, at the polls this year.

The president suggested on Twitter that the Secret Service has found all of the allegations released Wednesday by Tester’s staff to be untrue. However, in a public pronouncement Friday, the agency said only that a review of records offered no evidence of an allegation reported by CNN that agents had to intervene on an overseas trip in 2015 to prevent Jackson, who was found banging on the hotel room door, from disturbing then-President Barack Obama.

“Secret Service has just informed me that Senator Jon Tester’s statements on Admiral Jackson are not true,” Trump tweeted as he left the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, for a rally in Michigan. “There were no such findings.”

Officials at the Secret Service and the White House did not immediately respond to questions about Trump’s tweets.

Jackson, a Navy rear admiral and former combat physician who served in Iraq, remains under heightened scrutiny as the president’s doctor after the release of the allegations last Tuesday, including accusations that he drank on the job, improperly prescribed and dispensed medications and contributed to a toxic work environment.

While Trump, Jackson and other White House officials have vehemently denied the allegations, they have been difficult to prove or disprove. Tester’s staff has released no documentation for the accusations, offering only that each charge is supported by the accounts of at least two individuals.

Even in the case of the CNN report, the Secret Service’s statement does not prove that the incident didn’t happen. According to one former employee of the White House Medical Unit, as well as a Democratic aide with knowledge of the allegations that Tester released, the CNN report, which claimed that the alleged incident occurred in 2015, was incorrect; it was in 2014, they said. The Secret Service pronouncement specified only that records from 2015 showed no evidence of such an incident.

More allegations have continued to trickle in since Thursday, when Jackson ended his bid to lead the VA, and they are now being referred to the inspector general’s office within the Department of Defense, according to a Democratic aide. The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, where Tester serves as ranking Democrat, no longer has jurisdiction over Jackson’s performance now that his bid to run VA has ended.

The tweets appeared poised to intensify the conflict between the White House and Tester over Jackson’s failed nomination - and to spill into election-year politics.

“Tester should lose race in Montana,” the president tweeted. “Very dishonest and sick!”

The Democratic aide said that aides to the committee’s chairmen, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., sat in on some of the interviews with current and past colleagues of Jackson’s, and that what those aides heard helped prompt Isakson to call for the postponement of Jackson’s confirmation hearing, which was supposed to take place last Wednesday. Isakson did not object to the release of the allegations.

While The Washington Post has interviewed numerous current and former employees of the White House Medical Unit who claimed to have observed Jackson drinking and improperly prescribing and dispensing medications, no evidence has emerged to support one of the more damaging allegations, that he had crashed a government vehicle after drinking at a Secret Service going-away party.

On Friday, White House officials said they had thoroughly reviewed Jackson’s vehicle records and found three minor incidents but no evidence of the crash as described in the allegations last week.

Tester declined to directly address Trump’s attacks or a White House claim that there was no crash. Instead, his office issued a statement saying that it is his “duty to make sure Montana veterans get what they need and have earned.”

“I’ll never stop fighting for them as their senator,” he stated.

Other senators involved in confirming a VA nominee to lead the VA were mostly silent Saturday about the latest developments. Aides to Isakson declined to provide another statement Saturday. Requests for comment from other members of the committee, including Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, were not returned.

The Washington Post’s Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

Ogden • At 14 years old and 5 feet 5 inches tall, cowboy poet Thatch Elmer may have to physically look up to many of his cohorts, but there are plenty who admiringly look up to him.

His young age is an attention-getter in a genre most followed by cowboys older than 55, followers say. But Thatch also holds his own when called upon to perform his classic poetry.

The Harrisville cowboy travels throughout the country to cowboy poetry events each year, causing him to miss about a month of school days this year at Wahlquist Junior High where he’s an eighth-grader.

Cowboy poetry is a type of folk poetry associated with the lifestyle of cattle ranching in western North America. The subjects are usually about how people, horses and cattle do or don’t get along.

Sam DeLeeuw, Roy “cowgal” poet and winner of the Cowboy Poetry Book of the Year by the Western Music Association, said she first met Thatch when he was 9, right before his first public performance at a cowboy poetry gathering open mic in Heber City.

“He was so short, all I saw was the top of his cowboy hat,” DeLeeuw said.

He approached her and invited her to hear him recite his poetry, she said.

“I about dropped my cookies,” she said about her reaction to hearing him, noting her surprise at his natural ability. “Here’s this little guy with so much poise already.”

In the five years since he’s done nothing but grow, she said.

“Right now, he’s the 14-year-old and some people might think it’s a novelty, but I think he’s as genuine as he could be,” said Tom Swearingen, a noted cowboy poet from Tualatin, Oregon, near Portland.

“When the cute kid wears off, he’ll still be one of the best reciters and writers of the poetry.”

The winner of the Western Music Association male cowboy poet of the year for the past two years, Floyd Beard of southeast Colorado said Thatch was “the real deal.”

“He’s an excellent cowboy poet,” Beard said. “He’s also working really hard at being a good hand.”

Beard said a year ago some poor health kept him from being able to do a performance. He sent Thatch in his place.

“He stepped in and did my night show for me because I couldn’t make it,” Beard said. “I heard from some that he did an excellent job.”

Thatch says his career, which he started at age 9, is well worth the effort.

“I didn’t realize it was going to take me this far,” Thatch said. “I’ve seen so many cool places and met cool people.”

In the past year, he’s traveled to Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico and all around Utah.

Last year, Thatch was booked for 55 performances, said his father, Brad Elmer. The year before, he was asked to perform 60 times.

Thatch has performed for gatherings, festivals, celebrations, fairs and private shows all across the United States.

A working ranch cowboy and horseman, Thatch trains four of his own horses and five of a neighbor’s. He enjoys ranch horse programs and team roping.

“I live the cowboy life every day,” Thatch said.

“I want people to know there are still cowboys out there. Cowboys are not just something you see in movies. If there weren’t cowboys, you wouldn’t be able to go eat a steak.”

Thatch said he enjoys exposing people to the western lifestyle.

Sometimes that exposure is sorely needed, Elmer said.

“It’s pretty sad when you go somewhere in your boots and hat and people tell you they like your costume,” Elmer said. “It’s not a costume. It’s a way of life.”

Thatch was one of three cowboy poets featured this week during performances at the Weber County Library’s Cowboy Poetry Week.

Some of his more notable performances include reciting the National Anthem at the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo last summer on the night of the National Day of the American Cowboy, Elmer said.

He was featured during a pops concert as part of the Days of ’47 Rodeo, performing with the Utah Symphony and the Choral Arts Society of Utah, Elmer said.

Thatch received his first scholarship in his first year of performing on the stage at 9. He was the first recipient of the Rod McQueary/Sue Wallis memorial scholarship, Elmer said. He was given a $500 award to help travel to become a cowboy poet.

Among the most noteworthy recognition was an article in the Western Horseman Magazine.

“We call it the Sports Illustrated of the western world,” Elmer said.

Washington • Praying for the poor is now apparently a firing offense in the corridors of power.

House Speaker Paul Ryan did not give a reason when his chief of staff this month told the Rev. Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest and House chaplain, to resign or face dismissal.

But we know this much: Ryan’s office complained to Conroy about a prayer he offered on the House floor during the tax overhaul debate that those who “continue to struggle” in American would not be made “losers under new tax laws.” Ryan admonished the priest after the Nov. 6 prayer, saying, “Padre, you just got to stay out of politics,” Conroy told the New York Times.

He was warned. He was given an explanation. Nevertheless, he persisted.

Over the five months since Ryan’s warning, Conroy dared to continue to preach the teachings of Jesus on the House floor:

He prayed to God that lawmakers would help “the least among us.”

He prayed for them to follow the example of St. Nicholas, “who fed the hungry, brought hope to the imprisoned, gave comfort to the lost.”

He admonished lawmakers “to serve other people in their need,” and “to pray for the unemployed and those who work but still struggle to make ends meet.”

After an immigration deal collapsed, he urged “those who possess power here in Washington be mindful of those whom they represent who possess little or no power.”

He prayed for lawmakers to be “free of all prejudice” and, after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, to “fulfill the hopes of those who long for peace and security for their children.”

But such “political” sentiments are apparently no longer compatible with service as House chaplain. “As you have requested, I hereby offer my resignation,” Conroy, named chaplain seven years ago by John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote to Ryan on April 16. The ouster became public Thursday.

Only in this perverted time could a priest lose his job after committing the sin of crying out for justice for the poor.

But then, look around: Everywhere are the signs of a rising kleptocracy. The $1.5 trillion tax cut did make winners of corporations and the wealthy. And actions since then show that the Trump administration is making losers of the poor.

In a speech to bankers last week, Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney spoke of the “hierarchy” that he followed when he was in Congress: “If you were a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you were a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.”

Also last week, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was on Capitol Hill, defiant as lawmakers grilled him about his lavish expense account (at a time when Trump wants to cut the EPA budget by 25 percent) and coziness with corporate lobbyists — most notably renting a condo at a sweetheart rate from the wife of an energy lobbyist. “I simply have not failed to take responsibility,” Pruitt said after blaming bureaucrats and others. “I’ve simply recited the facts.”

Meanwhile, Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development, last week proposed to triple the rent charged to the poorest families living in subsidized housing. “It’s clear from a budget perspective and a human point of view that the current system is unsustainable,” Carson explained. It’s hard to sustain help for the poor when you’re proposing to cut HUD spending by 14 percent next year — and when you’ve borrowed $1.5 trillion to give tax breaks mostly for the wealthy.

Conroy, of course, didn’t preach about such truly political things; he prayed, generically, for compassion. In the prayer that earned him Ryan’s reprimand, he merely reminded lawmakers that “the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle.” He prayed that lawmakers “guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”

Such heresies continued. He prayed for “peace and reconciliation where those virtues are so sorely needed.” He prayed for them to rise above “self- interest” and “immediate political wins.” He prayed for them to promote “justice, equity and truth.”

He admonished them to “show respect for those with whom they disagree.”

On Friday morning, in the well for one of his last remaining prayers, Conroy prayed “for all people who have special needs” and “those who are sick” and for those “who serve in this House to be their best selves.”

Best selves? Respect? Reconciliation? No can do. Later Friday, Rep. Joseph Crowley of New York, a Democratic leader, rose to request an investigation into Ryan’s dismissal of Conroy. Republicans moved to quash the proposal — and, to nobody’s surprise, they prevailed.

If you preach about the poor in today’s Washington, you don’t have a prayer.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.

At first, Monta Thomas was just annoyed.

An administrative evaluation of her geography class at Brighton High School had noted that several boys sitting in the back of the room spent the entire period playing games on their smartphones.

But when she got dinged with the same critique in her report the very next year, well, now she was beyond annoyed — she was irate.

“All these things I already have to juggle, then getting called out for not being on top of [monitoring illicit phone usage] at the same time …” Thomas said, recalling her exasperation. “It made me mad. I was mad they were not aware enough that they should put their phones away.”

These days, she isn’t leaving it up to her students. She’s one of myriad teachers around the country using Yondr pouches — small canvas bags designed to temporarily lock away cellphones.

As each student walks into class, he or she grabs a pouch, slides the phone in, snaps the lock shut, then sets it aside. When the bell rings at period’s end, the students swipe their pouches over an unlocking station, freeing the phones.

While Yondr would not confirm how many teachers in Utah are using the devices, Thomas said she’s one of four using them at Brighton alone.

And she knows of more who’d like to join their ranks.

“There’s been a lot of interest from teachers in this school, and a lot of teacher friends of mine from other schools are interested, too,” Thomas said. “It’s a game-changer. This way, it’s on the student’s desk, but it’s out of commission.”

Deploying countermeasures

What exactly to do about her problem was a question the teacher didn’t have an answer to at the time.

Surely, there was some statewide policy she could adopt. Except, “All of the districts have such varying policies on cellphones,” Dwight Liddiard, executive director of the Utah Association of Elementary School Principals, wrote in an email.

OK, so, she’d just adopt the policy put in place by Canyons School District, then. Except, “The district policy is very classroom-based,” said Brighton Principal Tom Sherwood. “So it’s basically up to the teachers themselves to determine how that goes.

“Different teachers manage it in different ways,” added Sherwood, who is in his first year at Brighton but spent the previous nine as the principal at Sandy’s Jordan High School. “There’s no great one-size-fits-all solution.”

He rattled off various methods that teachers he’d overseen have used over the years, including one that was particularly inventive.

“I had a teacher at Jordan who welded a steel box together and put a padlock on it, and if he saw your cellphone out, it was going in the box,” Sherwood recalled. “It was cheap, it was simple, and it drove students nuts.”

With Thomas’ welding skills a bit rusty, though, a colleague of hers suggested an alternative. That teacher had been to a concert at which attendees had been required to put their phones in lockable pouches made by Yondr. The proprietary device meant that the phones wouldn’t have to be out of their owners’ possession, but they’d also be inaccessible until the company’s unlocking mechanisms came out at show’s end.

The other teacher had reached out to Yondr immediately afterward and been allowed to purchase a classroom set on the cheap. Thomas tried to do the same, but by that time, the word was out and the price had gone up.

“It was only when news of our concerts came out that schools put two and two together and started to reach out,” said Yondr founder Graham Dugoni.

It took Thomas a year and a half of procuring funds piecemeal to acquire enough for an entire classroom. She used two years’ worth of her small legislative stipend, then applied for a grant from the PTA to get the remaining balance.

Upon finally completing her full set about a month ago, everyone’s phone now automatically goes in a pouch at the beginning of class and doesn’t come out until the end.

“I don’t have to be constantly vigilant in keeping an eye out,” Thomas said. “Now I can focus on teaching rather than being the phone police.”

‘A big conversation’

As an assistant professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Communication, instructing mostly 18- and 19-year-olds, Avery Holton sympathizes with Thomas’ struggle to find a way to keep students constantly engaged.

But as someone who specializes in studying social media and personal identity, he also sympathizes with the students and their alleged inability not to be on their phones at every opportunity.

After all, it’s not just teenagers, is it? He noted that studies into “cellphone addiction” have shown the average person with a smartphone handles it about 100 times a day and performs some kind of action on it — opening an app, making a call, checking a message, taking a picture — about 3,000 times a day.

“If we’re using it that much, it’s that much in our lives, and then we’re asked to stop doing something that’s become that much a part of our lives, it’s like we’re having an addiction withdrawal,” Holton said. “Especially in the beginning. It’s very similar to the symptoms of a drug withdrawal.”

While Holton conceded, “The amount of use for teenagers is much, much higher — in some cases exponentially higher — than for adults,” he attributed some of that to variances in hormone and dopamine levels, noting teenage and adult bodies simply don’t react to stimuli the same way.

Even beyond that, he argued, there’s a fundamental difference in perspective to consider.

“This idea is somewhat generational. Some people didn’t necessarily grow up with these, so they see all the benefits, but also the distractions,” Holton said. “But you have to remember that for [young people] who grew up with these, cellphones are embedded with them. Is something that’s embedded truly an addiction?”

Sherwood, meanwhile, sees a certain level of hypocrisy in adults making sweeping criticisms of kids these days always being on their phones.

“This is a big conversation. Our technology is moving faster than our humanity. In the past, there was always a social agreement about manners, and I don’t think we’ve developed a courtesy system about cellphones,” Sherwood said. “It’s hard to teach digital literacy and manners when there isn’t a standard. People will reply to an email midconversation. People will check Facebook while they’re driving. It really is a 21st-century problem that hasn’t been addressed — not just by schools, but by society at large.”

Dugoni very much agrees with that sentiment but would add that the existence of his product is perhaps an indication that our collective ethos, while still acknowledging cellphones’ usefulness, has started to push back against their omnipresence.

“With Yondr, we’re saying, ‘Here are a few places where it’s healthy to be disconnected for a little while,’” Dugoni said. “We hear from dentist’s offices, we do a lot of weddings — a lot of random places where people just want you to put your phone away for a while.”

Changing times and lingering issues

A school is just such a place, if not a particularly random one. It goes without saying, Sherwood said, that “phones make cheating a big problem. There are apps now where you can take a picture of a math question and get the answer.”

Products such as Yondr pouches certainly could help avoid cheating. They also hold another tangential benefit for teachers: “Cellphones are so expensive now,” Thomas said, that “I don’t want to have it and be responsible for it.”

“Teachers have the right to take cellphones,” Sherwood agreed, “but they don’t want the financial liability.“

So then, it’s settled — Yondr pouches for every classroom!

Which sounds like a fine idea, if not for its total impracticality. Utah, after all, is not exactly known for its education-funding largesse.

Thomas’ set of 40 pouches ran $15 apiece, plus she shelled out $50 each for two unlocking stations, and another $10 for a bag in which to store everything. That’s $710 just for her class — not including the shipping and handling. Furthermore, Yondr has since discontinued the practice of selling to individual classrooms and will now rent the pouches only on a schoolwide basis.

Sherwood doesn’t need an app to do the problematic math.

“Is it a priority when you have limited resources? If they’re $15 each and I have 2,000 kids [at Brighton], that’s $30,000. Is that the best use of $30,000?” he asked rhetorically. “If I use that money on Yondr pouches, I can’t use it for an extra guidance counselor, or to go to a teacher’s salary, or for three part-time teachers’ aides.”

The principal sees one other impediment, as well — namely, he doesn’t subscribe to a blanket all-phones-in-schools-are-bad worldview.

“What’s appropriate in one class might not be in another,” he said. “I see benefits to restricting their use, but also benefits to involving them in some ways. It’s really hard to draw a line in the sand.”

If this past decade as a school administrator has taught him anything, he said, it’s that there must be some room for nuance.

“Anecdotally, it’s obviously a problem — you see kids on their phones all the time. But then again, you can’t say kids aren’t smarter,” Sherwood said. “I don’t see our test scores going down even though everyone has a cellphone.

“This is a really gray area right now in schools. We’re trying to teach students how to think critically, trying to teach them about things they can’t learn on Google,” he added. “In terms of fact-based education, it’s become harder to justify teaching kids those things, because they’re so accessible, and these phones are so ubiquitous. Is there a point to teaching the Monroe Doctrine in class now? Kids can look it up on their phones and be reading it to me in 10 seconds. So I understand [smartphones’] usefulness.”

Thomas, on the other hand, sees the usefulness of keeping a tight rein on them. And she believes her students, if they’re being honest, do, too.

“I’ve had no complaints from parents at all, and fewer than you’d think from students,” she said. “Some have even said they like it. Every time their phone buzzes, they’re just dying to see who or what it is. Once that temptation is taken away, they don’t have to worry about it. They probably wouldn’t do this on their own, but they like it.”

The first thought after seeing “Avengers: Infinity War,” the superhero jam session bringing together the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, is one of cinematic awe.

It’s quite a feat for directors Anthony and Joe Russo to bring together a couple dozen of Marvel’s biggest superheroes — Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Panther, Falcon, the Guardians of the Galaxy and a bunch more — into a single epic adventure.

What’s more, they do so in a story — scripted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who worked with the Russos on the last two “Captain America” movies — that delivers action, emotion and a dramatic conclusion that will leave fans floored.

Buckle up, folks, because this is the movie Marvel has been building toward for a decade, and it’s astonishing.

What reunites the heroes — some, like Iron Man Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), stopped speaking after “Captain America: Civil War” — is the villain of all villains. He’s Thanos, a monstrous purple humanoid (performed through motion-capture by Josh Brolin) with a plan to “bring balance” to the universe by making half of its population disappear.

To meet that end, Thanos must collect six Infinity Stones, some of which Marvel’s characters have encountered in past installments of the franchise. To get them, Thanos’ minions first travel to Earth and then to various planets, wreaking destruction at every turn. At many of these stops, some of our heroes, often in new and fascinating combinations, are there to try to stop him.

Along the way, we get fleeting glimpses of the lives our heroes hoped to live in a world that isn’t being attacked by a galactic terror. That’s how we find Stark and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Vision (Paul Bettany) and Wanda Maximova, aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), and “Star-Lord” Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his first mate, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who as Thanos’ adopted daughter holds the key to it all.

The Russos find in their telling of this sprawling story the thing Thanos says he wants most of all: perfect balance. The story brings old-line Marvel characters, like Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), together with more recently introduced heroes, like King T’Challa, alias Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). The team-ups are often refreshing and exciting, allowing us to see our old friends in new ways.

And then there’s the ending, a shattering 15 minutes that upends all we think about the Marvel universe and will leave audiences in shock. (Yes, there’s a post-credits scene, and you don’t want to miss it.) The end result is an emotional ride that will make Marvel fans laugh and cry, and deliver a cliffhanger that will —

[The end of that last sentence will appear next year, when the second part of the “Avengers” saga arrives in theaters. Sorry.]

Avengers: Infinity War<br>★★★1/2<br>Earth’s mightiest heroes take on a universe-altering threat in this epic adventure that builds on a decade of Marvel amazement.<br>Where • Theaters everywhere.<br>When • Opens Friday, April 27.<br>Rating • PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, language and some crude references.<br>Running time • 149 minutes.

It may seem as though Ben McAdams has been running for Congress against U.S. Rep. Mia Love, but the Democratic Salt Lake County mayor first must clear the field of three challengers within his own party hoping for a spot in the race.

It might also feel as if there’s been an ongoing race between Democratic Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson and Republican Mitt Romney, but Wilson must beat three fellow Democrats at the party’s state convention on Saturday or in a primary: Larry Livingston of Bountiful, Mitchell Vice of Salt Lake City and Jeff Dransfield of Logan.

Democrats will meet at the Salt Palace and decide if they’ll send McAdams and Wilson off to the races or give them another stop on the way, as hundreds of party delegates make their top picks in what will be the state’s biggest elections come November.

U.S. Senate: Republicans gave Romney his own primary challenge at their convention last weekend, setting up a June 26 showdown with state Rep. Mike Kennedy.

On the Democratic side, Wilson, a two-term councilmember, has pushed ethics reforms and open-space preservation. Wilson also championed the drive to extend health benefits to LGBT employees’ families.

Mitchell Vice is a self-described progressive who, on his website, said he “is seeking to challenge career politicians and carpet-bagging billionaires.” He views universal health care as a right, advocates passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and says that sexual orientation should be added to the Civil Rights Act.

Larry Livingston is a former IRS agent, former schoolteacher and onetime investment banker who has run for county commissioner and the Legislature multiple times. He says at one time or another he has been a Republican, Democrat and Libertarian and was once vice chairman of the Utah Libertarian Party.

Jeff Dransfield, of Logan, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

4th Congressional District: All candidates in the race not named Ben McAdams tout credentials as standard-bearers for the more-progressive, non-establishment wing of the party. All three are first-time candidates spurred to run by the same concerns that have prompted a wave of progressive-minded newcomers across the country to enter the political arena on the heels of Donald Trump’s surprise 2016 presidential victory.

Each says the Democratic nominee in the race should run true to party principle, not as a moderate alternative trying to appeal to Republicans estranged from their own party. Two of them started running more than a year ago.

Sheldon Kirkham, 40, a postal service employee from Taylorsville, grew up in southeastern Utah and graduated from the University of Utah with a political science degree. He announced plans to run in February and says he wants to “confront the influence of the donor class inside the Democratic party.”

Kirkham said he’s focused on national policy more than local or state-level affairs and believes someone from the party’s left wing needed to run in the race to “challenge the presumptive nominee.” He said he was “deeply concerned” about McAdams’ chances to unseat Love if he employs the same middle-road strategy that has led to Democratic losses nationally for years.

“There’s a path to victory, and it isn’t working around the margins to try to get a few disaffected Republicans to vote for the Democrats,” he said. The nominee should “take a strong message of reform directly to the unaffiliated electorate to convince them to support the Democrat.”

Darlene McDonald, 50, of Millcreek, is a technology analyst and project lead for Oracle who has lived in the city for 15 years. Originally from Cincinnati, she announced her plans to run a year ago, drawn to the race by Republican animus toward the Affordable Care Act and by her concerns about immigration, education and environmental policy.

As a young mother in her 20s, McDonald lost a young son who had been born with health issues. The family was able to enjoy a better quality of life with him because of her workplace insurance and Medicaid, and the prospect of other families managing similar challenges without a health-care safety net prompted her to run.

“I cannot be silent about this anymore,” she said of her decision. “I’m the progressive candidate in this race. It’s not that we can’t win. We can win if we run a progressive candidate that can tap into our Democratic base.”

Another Millcreek resident, Tom Taylor, 33, is an engineering contractor with a Ph.D. in robotics engineering who filed to run on Tax Day last year — a nod to his concerns about the country’s “wealth inequality crisis.” He sees an “urgent deadline” for dealing with climate change — he wants a carbon tax and subsidies for green-energy technologies — and supports a “Medicare for All” system of health care.

Taylor said Utah Democrats lose elections when they run “so-called moderates”— candidates who embrace liberal positions on some issues, such as climate change and the environment, but conservative positions on others, such as tax and social policy. The district’s voter makeup, he said, favors the right kind of Democrat.

“Democrats for a long time here in this state have tried to run candidates that basically don’t stand up for anything,” Taylor said. “The key here is to make the case to the delegates that not only can a real Democrat win here in this district, but someone who is a real Democrat, that doesn’t shy away from values and boldly proclaims those things, actually has a better shot in the general election than the candidates that we’ve been running for a long time.”

There are two Democrats in each of the remaining districts, all held by Republicans.

1st Congressional District: Kurt Weiland, a business consultant, is running against Lee Castillo, a social worker, for the right to face U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, a Republican serving his eighth term representing the northern Utah district.

2nd Congressional District: What historically had been a toss-up seat long held by both Republicans and Democrats has become safely Republican, held by Rep. Chris Stewart since it was created after redistricting in 2012. Two progressive Democrats are running to unseat Stewart.

Shireen Ghorbani of Salt Lake City and Randy Hopkins of Farmington both said they would support federal land and work to keep it public.

“Many Utahns feel unrepresented,” said Ghorbani, who said she got in the race after continued attacks on the Affordable Care Act by Stewart and other Republicans. “Our representatives are out of touch with our values.”

3rd Congressional District: Two Democrats are hoping to run for the seat held by Rep. John Curtis – who has his own primary battle.

James Singer is a Navajo and Mormon living in West Valley City. Singer had announced a run for the U.S. Senate before backing off, saying he couldn’t contend with Sen. Orrin Hatch’s $3.5 million campaign war chest. Hatch since announced his retirement.

Kent Moon, of Cottonwood Heights, formerly worked in financing for the U.S. Small Business Association. He says, “You simply cannot get further from Utah Values than Donald Trump.”

Three contested, rural legislative races: Six Democrats are looking to run in sweeping, rural districts that each include portions of liberal havens.

Senate District 26, which includes the oil country of northeast Utah plus Park City, has attracted Republicans and Democrats looking to replace outgoing Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal. Democrats Eileen Gallagher, a Park City pediatrician, and Pat Vaughn, who lives in Midway, are running for the spot.

Two Democrats are running for another district that includes rural towns and also Park City. Park City residents Meaghan Miller and Roberto Lopez are hoping delegates pick them on Saturday for House District 54, currently held by Republican Tim Quinn, of Heber.

House District 69, which runs from Duchesne County to Grand County, attracted Democrats Tim Glenn, of Green River, and Danielle Howa Pendergrass, of Price. The seat is held by Republican Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, who faces a primary runoff with Carbon County Commissioner Jae Potter.

Sandy • Surrounded by three defenders, Utah Royals forward Amy Rodriguez made it look like she had all the time in the world.

First, she took a touch to her right to evade Portland Thorns goalkeeper Britt Eckerstrom, who then collided with defender Kelli Hubly. Then, Rodriguez took a second touch to get away from defender Meghan Klingenberg before sliding a shot into the net.

It was the first goal for Rodriguez since an ACL tear last season and the first home goal for the Royals in franchise history, but the Thorns rallied to force a 1-1 tie at Rio Tinto Stadium, keeping the Royals winless on the season.

“I think this is the most frustrated I’ve been I think after a game,” said Royals coach Laura Harvey, “just because I felt that we knew what it was going to take to break them down, we just didn’t do it well enough and often enough. But when we did do it, it caused them a problem.”

Rodriguez was planning on only playing 45 minutes, but took advantage of a change in plans when she got the ball in the 53rd minute for the score.

“I just remember staying calm in the moment,” Rodriguez said, “taking my time, being patient, waiting for the right shot to come out.”

The Thorns’ tying goal came in the 67th minute. Portland midfielder Christine Sinclair’s pass to Tobin Heath left the forward in on goal for a one-on-one with Royals goalkeeper Abby Smith, and Heath scored in her second match back after offseason ankle surgery.

Rodriguez said her she and the staff are building up her playing time based on how she feels in each outing. She has no set timetable for returning to playing a full 90 minutes.

“We see how hard she’s been working,” said Royals captain Becky Sauerbrunn of Rodriguez. “I know how hard it was to lose her in the [FC Kansas City] season last year … and you could see the excitement on her face, that [goal] meant a lot to her. And it’s just really unfortunate that it couldn’t have been the game-winner, that we couldn’t make it [that] for her.”

Boston • Al Horford and Terry Rozier scored 26 points apiece, and even Giannis Antetokounmpo tipped in a basket for the Celtics on Saturday night to help Boston beat Milwaukee 112-96 in Game 7 of their first-round series and eliminate the Bucks and the Greek Freak from the playoffs.

Horford had eight rebounds, Rozier had nine assists and Jayson Tatum added 20 points for the Celtics, who rode the home-court advantage to win all four games in Boston and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second straight year.

They will meet the Philadelphia 76ers, with Game 1 in Boston on Monday night.

Khris Middleton scored 32, Eric Bledsoe had 23 and Antetokounmpo had 22 points and nine rebounds for the Bucks. Milwaukee has advanced from the first round of the playoffs just once since 1989, losing nine straight playoff series since Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson and Sam Cassell brought George Karl to the Eastern Conference finals in 2001.

Playing in their NBA-record 31st Game 7, the Celtics improved to 20-4 at home and 23-8 overall in best-of-seven clinchers. It was the second Game 7 at the TD Garden this week, with the Boston Bruins beating the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night to advance in the NHL playoffs.

Tatum had nine points in the first, when the Celtics scored 15 straight points — including a tip-in by Antetokounmpo into the Boston hoop — and 20 of the last 22 to end the quarter with a 30-17 lead. Milwaukee scored 11 in a row at the beginning of the second to make it a two-point game, but Boston answered with nine in a row to make it 41-30.

The Celtics led 50-42 at the half despite going 1-for-12 from 3-point range. Horford had 14 points and seven rebounds at the break, and Bledsoe had 12 points for the Bucks.

Milwaukee cut the deficit to three points early in the third but Boston scored 11 of the last 15 points in the quarter.

Hammy time

Jaylen Brown limped off to the locker room late in the second quarter, then came out to test his sore right hamstring just before the start of the second half. But he left the floor and went back into the tunnel; after riding the stationary bike for a few minutes and getting checked out in the locker room, the team said he was available to return, but he did not.

Bledsoe and Bledsoe

Bledsoe has been unpopular in Boston this series because of a trash-talking back-and-forth with Celtics point guard Terry Rozier. Rozier mistakenly referred to him as "Drew Bledsoe" — confusing him with the former New England Patriots quarterback — early in the series.

Since then, Bledsoe has pretended he doesn't know who Rozier is. Celtics fans joined in by chanting "Who is Bledsoe!" in the first half. And during a fourth-quarter break, the scoreboard showed a video of Drew Bledsoe holding up one of his Patriots jerseys and proclaiming himself "the original Bledsoe."

Tip-ins

Bucks: Have an 0-18 record in playoff series in which they've lost the first two games. They are 2-8 in Game 7s. ... Bledsoe picked up a technical foul in the first quarter after complaining about a foul call. ... C John Henson missed his fifth straight game with a sore back.

Celtics: Injured players Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving and Daniel Theis were all at the game. Theis, who has been out since March 11, recovered enough from left knee surgery to ditch his crutches for the first time on Friday. ... Also in the crowd: Red Sox owner John Henry and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. ... Red Sox manager Alex Cora and a bunch of players also filed into a pair of luxury suites after their game ended. ... Boston was 4 for 5 from 3-point range in the third. ... Rozier's 26 points were a career playoff high.

___

More AP basketball: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball

Arlington, Texas • Shaquem Griffin came back. The crowd loved it.

Players in attendance not selected in the first two days of the NFL draft usually head out of town before the fourth through seventh rounds.

Griffin, who sat through 100 names being called in the first three rounds, wasn’t in AT&T Stadium on Saturday.

Then he was after Seattle spent the 141st overall selection on the Central Florida linebacker who has no left hand.

That fifth-round choice, announced in Seattle, drew loud cheers from fans at Jerry’s World.

Griffin, whose left hand was amputated when he was young, has become the feel-good story this year and one of the most popular players in this draft because of his perseverance, outgoing personality and, of course, his talent.

“I mean that was amazing,” Griffin said. “To even have an opportunity to come back, I didn’t think I was going to be able to come back and do it ... I don’t remember seeing too many people who have left and came back.

“That was the most amazing experience of my entire life. Me thinking about it, that moment, to be up on that stage and having the crowd go crazy, it was like we had won the Peach Bowl all over again. It was nuts.”

Griffin helped UCF go undefeated last season, then blew through the NFL combine with a 4.38 in the 40, sensational lifting work with his prosthetic, and a can-do attitude.

Exactly the sort of player the Seahawks seem to find; they drafted his twin brother, Shaquill, out of UCF last year.

“It’s been a really good experience,” Shaquem said. “I would have been crazy to turn an experience down like this. I’m just glad I was one of the selected few to be here.”

Griffin had one of the more unusual ways of finding out he was chosen.

“I was using the restroom and my brother came and tackled me with my cellphone, saying ‘answer it, answer it,’ and I looked, and that’s when tears started pouring down,” Griffin explained.

“I literally went to use the restroom and that’s when my brother busted in and tackled me. I think I was more scared of him tackling me in the bathroom and not knowing what was happening than anything.”

Griffin received, by far, the biggest cheers of the day — louder even than when the Cowboys’ selections were announced. And he made a promise: “Great things are coming to Seattle.”

Griffin’s selection early in the fifth round enlivened a day in which most picks are relatively unknown or obscure players. Not all, though.

Michigan defensive tackle Maurice Hurst was taken one spot in front of Griffin by Oakland. The All-American would have gone much earlier, but a heart condition was discovered at the combine, dropping him far down draft boards.

He had 5½ sacks as an interior rusher and led all nose tackles and defensive tackles with 49 total quarterback pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.

“It’s tough thinking that you’re one of the top players in the draft and having good tape and everything like that, just having to wait,” Hurst said. “You believe you’re better than guys who go ahead of you is tough. I’m just happy to be in the right place and a great organization.”

As for his health, “I’m ready to go right now.”

Another All-American, Iowa linebacker Josey Jewell, was taken by Denver at No. 106. He’s not considered quick, but he is active and seemed to be in on every tackle for the Hawkeyes.

“A lot of that is instincts. A lot of film watching for me,” he said. “It really helped me because I did not run the fastest time ever, not even close. I had to be able to make up from somewhere else.”

Also:

• Michigan State extended its streak of having at least one player selected to 78 years when Brian Allen went to the Rams early in the fourth round. Only Michigan and USC have longer streaks, both extended to 80 years during the first two days of the draft.

• The Giants took the first quarterback of the third day, Richmond’s Kyle Lauletta at No. 109. The Giants passed on trying to get their quarterback of the future to replace Eli Manning in the first round, taking running back Saquon Barkley at No. 2 overall. Lauletta doesn’t have a big arm, but he showed good athleticism and accuracy playing at the FCS school.

• Other quarterbacks chosen: Western Kentucky’s Mike White to Dallas; Washington State’s Luke Falk to Tennessee; Nebraska’s Tanner Lee to Jacksonville; LSU’s Danny Etling to New England; Florida International’s Alex McGeough to Seattle; and Toledo’s Logan Woodside to Cincinnati.

• Dallas acquired wideout Tavon Austin from the Rams in a trade Saturday.

• Cleveland used a fourth-round pick, No. 105 overall, to take one of the draft’s most talented but troubled wide receivers: Florida’s Antonio Callaway. He had multiple suspensions while playing with the Gators, missing all of last season because of his part in a credit card fraud scheme.

When Callaway plays he is a deep threat receiver and dangerous return man, but he could be the next Josh Gordon, who has had many off-field issues and NFL suspensions with the Browns.

• Wisconsin tight end Troy Fumagalli, who is missing the index finger on his left hand, went to Denver in the fifth round.

• Three punters — yes, three — were taken in the fifth round.

Michael Dickson, the Australian from the University of Texas, was picked 149th overall by Seattle. Alabama’s JK Scott was drafted 172nd overall by Green Bay, a pick before Oakland took Johnny Townsend from Florida. Townsend was the NCAA leader last season with a 47.5-yard average on his 64 punts.

In 1988, there were three punters selected in the first 102 picks. Tom Tupa, who also went 4-9 as a starting quarterback during his 16 NFL seasons, and Greg Montgomery were both taken in the third round and became All-Pro punters. Barry Helton was a fourth-round pick.

One more punter, Logan Cooke of Mississippi State, was chosen by Jacksonville, and the only placekicker taken was Jason Sanders of New Mexico by the Dolphins.

President Donald Trump’s immigration policies continue to generate a lot of work for the federal judiciary.

Two of those policies have had divergent fortunes in the courts. The Supreme Court, which just heard arguments about Trump’s ban on the entry of people from several countries to the U.S., is widely expected to uphold it. But a federal district court has ruled that the president has to resume his predecessor’s policy of granting quasi-legal status to people who came to the U.S. illegally as minors.

The legal issues in both cases are distinct, but in both cases the courts should probably back off and let the administration have its way — even if the resulting policy is unwise or unfair.

The “travel ban” looks more like an attempt to thread a political needle for Trump than an effort to make an appreciable improvement to national security. The administration wanted to be able to say Trump was delivering on the “Muslim ban” he promised during the 2016 campaign without getting struck down for religious discrimination, and so came up with a ban on travel from several Muslim and a few non-Muslim countries as a legally viable face-saver.

In the case of the child migrants, even the administration concedes that it is not right to subject people who have spent their whole lives in the U.S., and came here illegally through no fault of their own, to deportation. It argues that it’s up to Congress to change this policy, and that President Barack Obama should not have done it on his own.

A key issue in the travel-ban case is whether the courts should use Trump’s campaign statements targeting Muslims as evidence that the policy has a discriminatory intent. In an earlier stage of the litigation, Judge Paul Niemeyer, writing in dissent, highlighted some of the dangers of such a judicial practice.

By making it possible for a judge to cherry-pick candidate statements and interpret them uncharitably, he wrote, it would “enable any court to justify its decision to strike down any executive action with which it disagrees.” It would also have a chilling effect on candidates’ communication with voters during an election, since “any statement made may be used later to support the inference of some nefarious intent when official actions are inevitably subjected to legal challenges.”

During the argument at the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts got Neal Katyal, the lawyer arguing for striking down the travel ban, to admit that President Trump could solve the alleged constitutional problem by disavowing his prior statements and re-issuing the ban. (If he then disavowed the disavowal, would the courts, on Katyal’s argument, then have to strike it down again?) The Supreme Court should avoid this absurdity by leaving the policy in place.

Federal Judge John Bates, meanwhile, in opposing the administration’s move to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, has embraced a different absurdity: that one president may make a unilateral change to immigration policy at his discretion that his successor may not undo.

Obama shielded illegal immigrants who came here as minors from deportation by purporting to be exercising discretion over enforcement. He was, supposedly, merely saying that their deportation should not be a priority for the immigration bureaucracy. The Trump administration questioned the legality of Obama’s action, in part because federal courts had blocked another move of his that was similar to it — a grant of quasi-legal status for many illegal immigrants who came here as adults.

Bates does not think that the Trump administration has shown that the amnesty for people who came here as minors was illegal. But it’s not clear that should matter. There is no dispute that subjecting these people to deportation and denying them work permits, cruel though it may be, is consistent with the immigration statutes.

Nobody argued, before Obama’s policy, that the courts could stop them from being deported or give them work permits. Either the president’s enforcement discretion does not go as far as Obama claimed, in which case the Trump policy is obligatory. Or it does go that far, in which case the Trump policy is permissible.

Liberal writer Mark Joseph Stern has argued that in siding with the administration on the travel bans, the conservatives on the Supreme Court are providing “judicial deference to a president who has done nothing to deserve it.” But Trump has done something to deserve it: He won the 2016 election. Courts ought to recognize that this fact gives Trump a great deal of power over immigration policy, whether they like it or not.

Ponnuru is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is a senior editor at National Review, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and contributor to CBS News.

Oakland, Calif. • Kevin Durant had 26 points and 13 rebounds, Draymond Green dazzled all over the floor with his fourth career postseason triple-double, and the Golden State Warriors thoroughly overmatched the New Orleans Pelicans for a 123-101 win in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals Saturday night.

Green finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists, three steals and two blocks and just with his hustle and energy helped the defending champions pull away with a superb, decisive second quarter.

Now, they likely get Stephen Curry back for Game 2 on Tuesday night and all that he brings — even if in a limited role initially.

Anthony Davis had 21points and 10 rebounds, scoring 10 in the first quarter before having a tougher time generating shots the rest of the way to finish 9 for 20. Jrue Holiday was held to 4-for-14 shooting and 11 points.

Golden State again played without two-time MVP Curry, who has been sidelined since March 23 with a sprained left knee. Coach Steve Kerr called it "very likely" Curry would play Game 2 in the best-of-seven series.

Klay Thompson, who led Golden State with 27 points, hit back-to-back 3-pointers late in the first half that made it 76-48. But New Orleans ended the second on a 7-0 run and Darius Miller's 73-foot heave at the halftime buzzer counted after review, getting the Pelicans within 76-55 at the break. They hit another buzzer-beater to end the third but it was way too late.

Rajon Rondo had nine points and dished out 11 assists for New Orleans.

But once Golden State got going in transition, Oracle Arena started rocking and the Pelicans couldn't keep pace — with tempo being something the Warriors know is key this series. They opened the second with a 13-5 burst and were on their way.

Davis, who averaged 33 points, 12 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in a first-round sweep of Portland, made 5 of 7 shots in the opening period.

Green has been brilliant on the boards as Golden State keeps taking its defense up a level. He had games of 19 and 18 rebounds in the final two matchups of a five-game series with San Antonio in the first round.

Nick Young started at forward for the Warriors while 2015 NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala remained in the starting lineup in place of Curry as Golden State won a franchise-record 13th straight postseason home game.

The Warriors swept the Pelicans in the only other playoff meeting between the franchises in the 2015 first round as Golden State went on to capture its first championship in 40 years.

High-flying W’s

Golden State had its highest scoring postseason first half as well as second quarter. The 76 points topped 73 against Phoenix on May 4, 1994, while 41 in the second bested 40 scored against Utah on May 11, 2007.

Golden State shot 13 for 20 in the second, making four 3s and 11 of 14 free throws.

Pals

Kerr and Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry shared a nice greeting and laugh before the series got going. As general manager in Phoenix, Kerr worked with Gentry and then made him the first call to be his top assistant when Kerr became head coach of the Warriors before the 2014-15 season.

Curry out

As usual, Curry insisted he "feels great and he's ready to go," said Kerr, who is encouraged his superstar point guard feels so good.

"Just made the decision based on giving him the extra few days and the fact he only scrimmaged yesterday," Kerr said. "You've been out five weeks and we're playing in the playoffs, I don't think one scrimmage is enough, even though he feels great, he wants to play and pleaded his case. But we're going to sit him tonight and very likely he'll play Game 2."

Curry returned to full practice with contact Thursday and only scrimmaged 5 on 5 for the first time Friday, and Kerr prefers that Curry get additional on-court time at full speed Sunday.

Tip-ins

Pelicans: The Pelicans' 126-120 win April 7 in Oakland snapped a 10-game losing streak to the Warriors. "We approach the game as if everybody's washed their hands of everything that has happened," Gentry said. ... Gentry received a technical at the 8:43 mark of the first quarter. ... The Pelicans shot 7 for 23 in the second. ... New Orleans surrendered 110 or more points in the last 11 regular-season games against Golden State.

Warriors: Green topped Tom Gola's three playoff triple-doubles for most in franchise history. ... Young, who played 21 minutes, made a 3 on his first shot and another late in the game on his second attempt. ... Golden State has won 25 of the last 27 meetings overall vs. the Pelicans. ... Jay-Z and Beyonce sat courtside.

Las Vegas • Logan Couture’s second goal of the game, on the power play at 5:13 of the second overtime, lifted the San Jose Sharks to a 4-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night, tying their Western Conference semifinal series at one game apiece.

Moments after Vegas’ Jon Merrill was called for hooking, Couture found the back of the net, as the Sharks stole home-ice advantage from Vegas.

The Golden Knights, who lost for the first time in six playoff games, thought they won in the first overtime when Jonathan Marchessault’s backhand sailed past Jones with 3:02 left, but officials ruled there was goaltender interference when Marchessault ran into Jones’ blocker and spun him around before his shot.

Brent Burns also scored two goals and Martin Jones stopped 26 shots for San Jose, which was playing without suspended forward Evander Kane.

William Karlsson scored twice, while Nate Schmidt got his first of the postseason to tie the score at 3-3 with 6 1/2 minutes left in the third period. Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 43 saves.

Game 3 is Monday night at San Jose.

It was the second straight series the Golden Knights went into double overtime in Game 2, with their opponent missing a key player due to suspension. Los Angeles was missing Drew Doughty in the opening round.

Unlike the first game of this series, which saw the Golden Knights become the third NHL franchise to score at least seven goals in a playoff game during its inaugural season, Game 2 was much more physical, something that seemingly took Vegas out of its rhythm in the second period.

In Game 1, Vegas blocked 26 shots, to the Sharks’ 13, but San Jose held a 36-26 edge in Game 2.

And after being whistled for 10 penalties in first series-opener, as opposed to Vegas’ five, the Golden Knights found themselves in the box more than San Jose, 11-6.

The Golden Knights got on the board late in the first period after Colin Miller’s slap shot from the point sailed wide of the net, off the end boards and right to Karlsson, who found the back of the net from a tight angle.

Karlsson notched his second goal when he took advantage of a turnover forced by Reilly Smith, overlooked passing it back to Smith, skated in and beat Martin Jones from the circle to put Vegas up 2-0 just 26 seconds into the second period.

Burns brought an end to the Sharks’ 82-minute scoring drought when he picked up the puck off the draw and blasted a slap shot from the point to cut Vegas’ lead in half.

Couture tied the game at 2 with a goal that conceivably could have been avoided. After blocking a shot by Dylan Demelo, Fleury pushed the puck to Deryk Engelland behind the net, rather than covering it up. Tomas Hertl got ahold of it and fed Couture, who one-timed in with just under nine minutes left in the second.

Three minutes later, Burns gave San Jose a 3-2 lead after he snagged the puck off a faceoff, circled the back of the net and tucked it in on a wraparound.

Schmidt tied the game when he took a pass from Shea Theodore and one-timed it from the blue line in the third.

NOTES: Burns’ second-period goal ended Fleury’s scoreless streak of 143:51, dating back to Game 3 of the opening round versus Los Angeles. ... Vegas surpassed its season-high 13 penalties in minutes with 22 PIM. ... The 18,671 in attendance was a new team record at T Mobile Arena. ... Kane was suspended Friday because of a cross-check to the head of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in Game 1.

Heber City • She’s moving forward for the sake of her daughter.

A little more than two years after her husband was murdered at their Park City home, Griselle Trujillo is determined that their 19-month-old girl has a bright future.

Most days she drives from Heber City to Park City in time to drop Luna Faith Fernandez at day care at 7 a.m. Then Griselle is off to work at a resort hotel, where she can put in long days as a banquet server, often picking up the youngster in late afternoon or evening.

But this day, Griselle stayed home because her daughter isn’t feeling well and must visit the doctor. Normally, the little girl is curious and outgoing, her mother explains, as the youngster clings to her with sleepy eyes.

It’s a challenging life for a single mom with a toddler. It’s made more difficult by the fact that her dream of a good life with her husband was stolen so violently by a senseless act. An acquaintance, James Enoch Henfling, 29, fatally shot 36-year-old Jose Fernandez on Feb. 22, 2016, after the two men argued and fought during an evening that included alcohol.

Griselle was pregnant with her daughter at the time of the shooting. The youngster knows nothing about her father. It’s something that weighs on Griselle. Someday she will tell Luna about Jose and how he died.

The couple tried for years to conceive. But not long after that blessing came, Jose was killed. In the aftermath, Griselle had a difficult pregnancy and racked up a lot of bills. The challenges she faced were overwhelming as she mourned the loss of Jose.

Fortunately, Griselle has the support of her sister and brother-in-law. After Jose’s death, she moved from Park City to their home in Heber City.

“Without them,” she said, “I don’t know where Luna and I would be.”

Griselle is now focused on her daughter and a future that will fulfill what she and Jose had dreamed.

“My goal now is to raise my daughter,” she said. “We have a purpose here. And I want her to be whatever she wants.”

The Bible tells us not judge one another. The Book of Matthew 7:1-2 says straight up that whosoever judges someone will themselves be judged.

Not only will we be judged (presumably by God), but we’ll also be judged in exactly the same way we judge others.

The exact same way? Spiteful, petty, sneering and completely biased judgment hardly seems to be what one would expect from a loving, omnipotent being, but that’s what the Bible says. We can’t argue with that.

The hell we can’t. Never mind what the Bible says. We’re practically required to judge others if we wish to keep our children safe, our money from being stolen, and people who think they’re god out of the White House.

Despite my biblical skepticism, I tried using it to prevent being chosen for a jury. I insisted that judging a case was against my religion (although not against my occupation) and therefore I should be excused.

Didn’t work. I was ordered to report Tuesday morning to 3rd District Court. Truthfully, it was more of a threat than a summons. If I failed to report, I was subject to a large fine, jail time or being eaten alive by squirrels.

I showed up. The odds against being selected would be heavily in my favor. Only someone with a law degree from Sears would want an ex-cop, newspaper columnist and known fool to be on a jury.

The vetting process was remarkably easy. In Room W19 at the Matheson Courthouse, I was handed a questionnaire, a miserable excuse for a pen and sent into a room with a hundred other people.

This would be the easiest way to get out of jury duty. All I had to do was answer truthfully.

For example, “Have you or a loved one ever been involved in a car accident? If yes, what was the person’s relationship to me, and the nature of the accident and injuries, if any.”

My answers: Yes. Best friend. Hit him with my car because he threw a rock through the back window. Six stitches, dislocated shoulder and a medium-to-serious muffler burn.

Question • “Do you have chronic pain?”

Answer • “Did you even bother to look at my age?”

Question • “Name three people you admire most.”

Answer • “My wife, Jon Huntsman Sr. and Santa.

Question • “List three people you admire least.”

Answer • “Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and whoever happens to be speaking in church.”

We turned in the questionnaires and then watched a short video in which KUTV reporter Cristina Flores explained just how important the jury system is to America. In this case, I didn’t believe her anymore than I did the Bible (no offense, Cristina).

Then Salt Lake County Deputy Adam Alfaro collected a bunch of us, put numbered lanyards around our necks and herded us to market in 3rd District Judge Kara L. Pettit’s courtroom.

Things were getting scary now. Crammed into seats and inspected by the attorneys in the case, as well as the judge, I tried to keep a low profile. Occasionally questions were asked about our fitness for service.

Did any of us have an extra leg? Were we in fact native to Earth? Had any of us ever been lobotomized? Would we have any hesitation in rewarding someone the money amounting to the gross national product of Brazil while we would get only $40 a day?

I kept my head down and didn’t say anything. Fat lot of good it did me. Judge Pettit singled me out and said that the only thing she wanted to hear from me during the next three days was, “Yes, your majesty.”

With that, Paul, Shelley, Rick, Brian, Sarah, Tresa, Alex and — worst of all — me were on the jury in an accident case. #%$@!

On Tuesday, I’ll let you know just how difficult it is to be a watchperson at the Pearly Gates.

For many Americans, prom night brings back memories of starched collars, gallons of hairspray and that breathless moment of seeing a date for the first time in their best duds.

But for students in Utah’s virtual schools, who connect and learn online during the school year, prom might mean seeing dates, classmates and teachers for the first time ― ever.

Three virtual charter schools, Utah Virtual Academy, Utah Connections Academy and Mountain Heights Academy, co-hosted a prom Friday for their students to get a shot at the teenage tradition usually associated with brick-and-mortar schools.

The virtual prom had all the right flavors of a typical high school experience ― a king and queen, the theme “A Night in Paris” and a snazzy venue at the Utah Capitol.

Still, some students traveled from remote, rural corners of Utah, sometimes four to five hours away from Salt Lake City, to finally pair faces with the voices only heard during weekly class conference calls or with names seen in a chat window.

Junior AJ Heath has been to the “virtual” prom before and said the dancing and partying are exactly as he expects they would be at a public high school. This year, his mom fashioned him a boutonniere and matching corsage for his date, with rosebuds and sprigs of baby’s breath.

Prom has also sprung some surprises on the 17-year-old, such as the time he first met a teacher he had only seen through his computer screen.

“She was a little shorter than me,” Heath said.

Brittney Wanlass, a lead teacher at Utah Virtual Academy, has worked for several years to help organize the annual prom. While she is a firm believer in the virtual schooling model, having that social aspect for teens is still valuable for the education process, she said.

“We get more out of the students when they feel like they’ve become a part of something,” Wanlass said. “We try to find ways we can build this relationship throughout the school year. We’re able to get more out of the students when they see it’s just not a name in the computer.”

Twins Maddie and McKenzie Horrocks knew classmates might have a hard time telling them apart when the big event arrived Friday night. After all, they did pick out the same dress.

So the 18-year-olds dyed their hair different colors, just to give their classmates a little help in telling them apart when they finally met.

That shaky experience of trying to keep names straight is not foreign to the sisters either.

“Sometimes it’s fun to see them because you don’t know what they look like in person,” McKenzie Horrocks said. “You try to match their voices with what they look like.”