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Show A-10 The Park Record Salt Lake City to host vice presidential debate in 2020 Candidates to spar at the U. a month before polls open Associated Press WASHINGTON – The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has announced sites and dates for three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate, to be held just weeks before Election Day in 2020. The presidential debates are set for Sept. 29 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana; Oct. 15 at the University of Michigan, and Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. One vice presidential debate has been scheduled, for Oct. 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The commission says to qualify for the debates, candidates must appear on enough state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority in the Electoral College, and have at least 15 percent support nationally in five national polls chosen in advance by the commission. Experts say it’s impossible to gauge if blackouts work California utility attempted to stop wildfires JONATHAN J. COOPER JOCELYN GECKER Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO — Millions of Californians spent part of the week in the dark in an unprecedented effort by the state’s large electrical utilities to prevent another devastating wildfire. It was the fifth time Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has preemptively cut the power but by far the largest to date in the utility’s effort to prevent a deadly wildfire sparked by its power lines. But do the power shut-offs actually prevent fires? Experts say it’s hard to know what might have happened had the power stayed on, or if the utility’s proactive shutoffs are to thank for California’s mild fire season this year. “It’s like trying to prove a negative,” said Alan Scheller-Wolf, professor of operations management and an energy expert at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. “They can’t prove they prevented a disaster because there’s no alternative universe where they didn’t try this.” The winds that prompted the mass outage that affected nearly 2 million people in northern and central parts of the state shifted southward by Thursday, where a wind-driven wildfire led officials to order the evacuation of 100,000 people from their homes in foothills of the San Fernando Valley. California is experiencing the first major fire activity of the season after two years that brought some of the most devastating fires on record, many of them caused by utility equipment. Until Monday, fires had covered only about 5% of the acreage burned by that date last year, and only about 13% of the average for the last five years. But it’s too early — and maybe impossible — to tell if that can be attributed to increased measures to cut power. “We have good reason to be skeptical, and the reason is that PG&E bears the costs of starting a fire, but they don’t bear the costs of shutting off power,” said Severin Borenstein, faculty director of the Energy Institute at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He noted that weather forecasting is notoriously difficult, “so even if PG&E were doing the best possible job, it would not get it right sometimes.” PG&E said in a statement Saturday that employees located 50 spots where parts of its systems were damaged during the strong winds, and repairs were either completed or underway at those sites. Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted PG&E for what he called decades of mismanagement, underinvestment and lousy communication with the public. He pointed to San Diego Gas & Electric, which pioneered proactive power shutoffs following a devastating 2007 fire sparked by its equipment, as a model for responsibly shutting off power in bad weather. “Specifically as it relates to their predictive analysis, their weather station, I had a chance to visit it a few months ago,” Newsom said. “It’s exceptional, it’s at another level.” SDG&E, which serves 3.6 million people, has spent about $1.5 billion to better predict bad weather and update its equipment, said Chief Operating Officer Caroline Winn. The company hired meteorologists, data scientists and fire experts and deployed an extensive array of weather monitors, she said. It replaced about 18,000 wooden poles with steel, installed new conductors and increased the wind tolerance in remote areas, using data from weather sensors to know which equipment was most at risk. The company also sectionalized electrical circuits so power managers could target outages more precisely to the lines facing danger. “We didn’t have all the answers then, but what we did know was we had to change and we had to do things differently,” Winn said. A decade of data and the refined grid have helped SDG&E to narrowly target outages when they’re necessary, she said. Of its 14 outages since 2013, only two affected more than 20,000 customers and most have been significantly fewer. Outside California, other large Western utilities in Nevada and Utah said they, too, are considering proactively shutting off power to avoid sparking fires. “We want to make sure our system isn’t the cause of one of these devastating fires,” said Tiffany Erickson, a spokeswoman for Rocky Mountain Power in Utah, which has notified 5,000 households and businesses that shutoffs are possible during dangerous weather. Last month, Southern California Edison shut off electricity to 14,000 customers in the remote Mammoth Lakes area along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada because of forecasts of extreme winds and extremely dry vegetation. Winds reached 88 mph, and the California Highway Patrol banned trucks and campers from traveling along a highway after gusts blew over big rigs, the utility said. The winds toppled power poles and damaged electric circuits. “It’s abundantly clear that the conditions that were in place up there were so severe that they could likely have caused a spark to occur,” said Don Daigler, a company spokesman. “We’re not going to do this willy-nilly.” Stephen Pyne, a retired Arizona State University professor and fire historian, likened the power line problem to challenges posed by railroads until the early 1900s, when steam engines and train wheels regularly threw sparks that ignited deadly fires. “Think about the railroads then,” Pyne said. “They were enormously powerful — economically, politically, socially. And we took it on. Railroads ceased to be a source of regular or lethal emissions (of sparks).” Cooper reported from Phoenix. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco; Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho; Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City; and Brian Melley in Los Angeles. 1355 Lowell Ave., Park City, UT INTRODUCING TACO TUESDAYS FISH FRY FRIDAYS 2 Ta c o s w / R i c e a n d B e a n s Marinated Asada Smoked Chipotle Chicken Spicy Pork Vegetarian Black Beans $9.95 Get Hooked! Fish and Chips R o s a r i t a B e a c h Ta c o s Fish Filet Sandwich F r i e d S h r i m p Ta c o s $12.95 FIND US ON FACEBOOK! H O U R S : Tu e s d a y - T h u r s d a y 1 1 : 3 0 a m - 3 : 0 0 , 5 : 3 0 - 9 : 0 0 p m Fri, Sat, Sun 11:30am-9:00pm 435-649-2252 Core Samples Wed/Thurs/Fri, October 16-18, 2019 By Jay Meehan Out of season “In darkness, there is light” ~ Henerishi Lost expectations can be a drag, of course. However, the upside of having my Dodgers, Trojans, and Rams perform so dismally in recent weeks has allowed me to feed my reading habit with much more fervor and focus. For a good while, now, I’ve come to deal with depressing outcomes in the sporting world by boycotting my favorite media outlets. Oh sure, I’d love to see those highlights one more time of all 11 missed tackles improvised by my lads dancing like St. Vitus on the defensive side of the ball. In fact, put it on a loop! And, please, if you’re able to dig them out of your greatest blooper compilations, how about throwing in an assortment of our longtime ace serving up gopherballs down the middle of the plate during crunch time. And, if that gets too boring, you can always throw in a random assortment of our quarterbacks trembling in the fetal position. Where once I drifted off to bleary images of home-run trots and QBs hitting wideouts, of late it’s been the likes of Edward Abbey’s “Confessions of a Barbarian,” Jim Harrison’s “Selected & New Poems 1961—1981,” and Ernest Hemingway’s “The Complete Short Stories.” The four of us, all vying for geographic entitlement upon limited space, share the bed each night – a situation that should last at least until “wait ‘til next year” arrives. Heavy “thuds” announce any accidental jettisons during the overnight darkness. Lately, it seems, I choose to remain unconscious right on through the commotion – content, as a favor to my friends down in forensics to draw chalk outlines around the corpses of the hardbound volumes, as, the following morning, I slosh coffee about the crime scene. Being a creature of habit, upon arising each day, the first thing that crosses my mind is our POTUS, Big Orange, and which assaults on decency he may have come up with during his early morning Brazilian full-body wax. The second thing is which of my teams remain in intensive care and which are currently scheduled for lobotomies. This past weekend, along with a couple of quite-close friends, I was fortunate to And, wouldn’t you know it, right out of the chute, with no warning at all, another lost expectation occurred.” find myself enveloped in the restorative glow of Sundance Resort. And, wouldn’t you know it, right out of the chute, with no warning at all, another lost expectation occurred. The true horror and unjustness of the situation unfolded without preamble. As I perused the lunch menu at the wondrous Owl Bar, it became quickly evident that their world-renowned tortilla soup was nowhere to be found. Whether or not I actually began to tremble, we’ll let pass. An inquiry concerning the plausibility that the soup might be “out of season,” ensued. A reply in the affirmative followed suit. With that newly acquired knowledge, I realized a nefarious plot, targeting whatever post-Dodger playoff stability remained, as nothing more than the work of rampant paranoia. Having previously witnessed Kershaw’s breaking pitches being obviously out of season only a week earlier, I accepted the response in the spirit it was offered. Both in lieu of and in response to such a state of affairs, I ordered two Moscow mules. Actually, having also boycotted all things Russian since that rumor of Vladimir and Donald began to circulate, I switched the order to two Jalisco Mules. Tequila might not be just for lunch anymore, but it continues to walk the walk. I quickly made a mental note to check on the current seasonal availability of Deer Valley’s awesome turkey chili. (There exists a sense here of the neurotic grasping to gain at least a finger-hold upon the hem of the psychotic). But, remembering that it’s always been there for me year-around, I deleted that unnecessary chore from an already overworked hard-drive. Although each, in the vernacular of Hawaiian Pidgin, “break ya jaw, brah,” they really shouldn’t be compared. They are separate wonders holding individual distinctions. A calmness, of sorts, began to return. Until, that is, I spotted my amygdala and hippocampus sharing an adjacent table. In unison, they winked at me. Obviously, they were in cahoots. As past memories of fear and anxiety began dragging me once again into the abyss of darkness, a door burst open. Rather than a dame with a gun, as in most noire narratives, however, the inspiring and delightful pleasures of Sundance Resort with its blue sky, tall conifers, and rushing water re-emerged to reclaim me. I’m back! Just, wait ‘till next year! Jay Meehan is a culture junkie and has been an observer, participant, and chronicler of the Park City and Wasatch County social and political scenes for more than 40 years. Red Card Roberts By Amy Roberts Pondering the ‘what’s next’ I don’t know that it’s a documented condition, but I’m pretty sure I have something one might label ‘idle anxiety,’ a condition related to the addiction of being busy or constantly working on something. Project dependency of sorts. Despite all the benefits of mindfulness and rest and relaxation, when I attempt to implement any of these practices, my disorder only intensifies. I’ve tried yoga, massage, meditation — all of it. It simply doesn’t work for me. I spend the entire session making mental to do lists and willing the clock to move faster so I can escape ‘chill jail’ and begin tackling them. Friends have insisted I must be doing it wrong, and while I’m sure there is an incorrect way to lie on a mat and close your eyes, I’ve accepted the fact I’m just not down with the downward dog. Admittedly, I find my personal enlightenment and some form of peace in being restless. Which probably explains my last few months of discontent. I’ve been feeling edgy, bored, unsettled. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence I also haven’t had a personal project in the works for a while. I’m pretty sure there’s a direct correlation. As such, I’ve been giving some thought to the next unknown I can immerse myself in, which has turned out to be more difficult than I expected. I’m drawn to independent, aesthetic endeavors that require research, problem solving and adaptation. And ad- mittedly, my field of interest is somewhat limited. I have no desire to tinker with an engine or potentially electrocute myself. Relying on others or working around someone else’s schedule does nothing for me. I’m looking for something I can do on my own time, that requires self-teaching and results in some level of gratification. Planning a trip has long been my project of choice. I can spend months researching places I haven’t been, figuring out how to get from one cor- With nothing left to do to my house, I built another home, albeit a much smaller one.” ner of a country or continent to another, memorizing flight schedules and train tables, reading reviews and blogs, networking to figure out who I might know in the area, and learning some of the language. But right now, my upcoming trips are sorted; all of my PTO spoken for. If you’re itching to go somewhere and don’t mind traveling like you’re a competitor on The Amazing Race, my services are available. A few years ago I poured myself into writing a book. It filled up an entire year of my life, and I found the publishing process equal parts terrifying and fascinating. There was a lot of trial and error, mostly error. But I checked it off my list. Interior design and remodeling projects are my jam. I have no formal training in the field, but the dramatic before and after comparison photos have always been something I relish. Now though, after two decades of home ownership, every inch of my house has been updated or remodeled. There’s nothing else left to tear out, rearrange, or replace until my flooring goes out of style. Running out of upgrade options and home projects is one of the reasons I built a tiny house a few years ago. With nothing left to do to my house, I built another home, albeit a much smaller one. I spent half a year attending the University of YouTube and proudly (and sometimes painfully) figured out some of the construction process on my own. And while it was rewarding, building a tiny house is one of those things you really only need to do once. I’m glad I did it, mostly because I’ll never have to do it again. So here I am, impatiently looking for the next project, contemplating the next unknown. I can’t seem to settle on anything. For now, my next project seems to be deciding my next project. Amy Roberts is a freelance writer, longtime Park City resident and the proud owner of two rescued Dalmatians, Stanley and Willis. Follow her on Twitter @amycroberts. |
