Capturing and collaring mule deer
What: Mule deer will soar over different parts of the state during the next couple of weeks. Biologists from the DWR are working with two helicopter crews to capture dozens of deer — including bucks, does and fawns — in multiple locations. The helicopters will bring the animals to different staging areas, where they will receive health checkups and GPS tracking collars. At that point, they will be released back into the wild. This project is part of multiple studies to track deer survival, population growth and herd movement.
When and where: Now through Dec. 20. The tentative capture dates and locations are listed below:
· Dec. 8–9: Cache Valley (20 does, 20 fawns)
· Dec. 9: Eagle Mountain (40 adults)
· Dec. 10: North Slope of the Uintas (12–15 adults)
· Dec. 10–12: Chalk Creek/Kamas (50 adults)
· Dec 11–13: Vernon (60 adults)
· Dec 13–14: Tooele Valley (20 does, 20 fawns)
· Dec 15–16: Wasatch-Manti (15 does, 15 fawns)
· Dec 15–18: Zion area (80 adults)
· Dec 19–20: Parowan (50 adults)
What: DWR biologists have started their annual trips to check on all of the state’s deer herds and record how many bucks, does and fawns they see. The biologists use this post-hunt information to determine whether the herds are meeting the objectives in the state’s deer management plan.
Ride along on a raptor survey
What: DWR biologists want to learn more about the raptor species that winter in southern Utah. Reporters and photographers are invited to ride along with a biologist who will be looking for raptors and recording information about them. You might see as many as 10 different raptor species during the course of the three-hour trip. You will stop at each bird to get out a spotting scope and identify the species, sex, approximate age and other observable data.
Catch spawning Bonneville whitefish at Bear Lake
What: In early December, many intrepid anglers pay a visit to Utah’s northernmost lake. If you join them, you can hook a large, tasty native sportfish found nowhere else in the world. Bonneville whitefish live and spawn only in the stunning blue waters of Bear Lake. Adult fish can be up to 23 inches long and weigh around three pounds. The fish typically begin spawning just after Thanksgiving and continue through the middle of December. During this time, they move to shallow rocky areas off the shoreline and are fairly easy to catch. Reporters and photographers are invited to visit the lake during the spawn and learn how to catch and prepare Bonneville whitefish.
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The personal-finance website WalletHub today released its Q3 2018 Credit Card Debt Study, which found that consumers racked up $16 billion in credit card debt from June through September, sending outstanding debt to an all-time record level for the third quarter of a year. As a result, another Federal Reserve rate hike – which has a 70% chance of happening on Dec. 19 – would now cost credit card users an extra $1.56 billion in interest.
The debt picture is worrisome nationwide, but some areas have bigger payment problems than others according to WalletHub’s report on the Cities with the Most & Least Credit Card Debt entering 2019 (accompanying videos). WalletHub’s researchers drew upon data from TransUnion, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Census Bureau and WalletHub’s proprietary credit card payoff calculator to determine the cost and time required to repay the median credit card balance in more than 2,500 U.S. cities.
Below, you can find a handful of highlights from these reports.
Cities with the Least-Sustainable Credit Card Debt
Cities with the Most-Sustainable Credit Card Debt
Colleyville, TX
Carmel, IN
Darien, CT
Gainesville, TX
Park City, UT
Lake Forest, IL
Fairbanks, AK
Bastrop, LA
Summit, NJ
Allen, TX
Leawood, KS
Madison, MS
The Woodlands, TX
Coral Gables, FL
Mill Valley, CA
Frankfort, KY
Needham, MA
Russellville, AR
Sammamish, WA
Southaven, MS
Durango, CO
Troy, AL
Lafayette, CO
Millsboro, DE
Juneau, AK
Goshen, IN
Southlake, TX
Jackson, MO
Ridgewood, NJ
Grand Junction, CO
Hoboken, NJ
Tifton, GA
Westport, CT
Newton, NC
Winchester, MA
Montrose, CO
Highland Park, IL
Gulf Breeze, FL
Bethesda, MD
Abingdon, VA
A Requiem for Donald Trump
By Steve Klinger
765 words
Aug. 27, 2026
I attended Donald Trump’s funeral today in a half-empty Washington Cathedral, curious to learn how the 45th president, who of course resigned in disgrace in 2019, would be remembered by those who came to mourn him. The only living former presidents, Mike Pence, Barack Obama and 100-year-old Jimmy Carter, were in attendance but did not speak to eulogize him. (Pence was scheduled to speak but was overcome by tears.) That task fell to Donald Trump, Jr., just out of prison after his early release following his conviction in 2019 for lying to Congress and the FBI.
“He was a great dad,” said a tearful Don, Jr. “He set an example that made me into the man I am today.”
Also speaking his praises was an elderly Rudy Giuliani, who said Trump had gotten a raw deal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller and had nothing to be ashamed of. “I admire President Trump for many things, but most of all for never backing down. He did nothing wrong and he stood his ground. By the way, is this on live TV?”
A parade of convicted felons followed Giuliani to the stage, all of them pardoned by Trump before he left office under the cloud of a pending impeachment for obstruction of justice and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Former Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, speaking from a wheelchair at age 93, praised Trump for his tough stance on immigration. (“He treated those criminal migrant families a lot better than I would have.”) Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort said the president had stood behind him through thick and thin before pardoning him on the eve of his own resignation. (“He and I were on the same page, even when the whole world thought I was lying.”)
Korean dictator Kim Jung Un did not attend but sent a video of his latest nuclear ballistic missile test, and thanked Trump for making his nuclear arsenal possible.
Saudi King Mohammed Bin Salman sent an Instagram with a photo of a bone saw, along with the receipt for the 500 rooms his staff rented at the newest Trump hotel in Washington, DC, and Vladimir Putin sent condolences to Melania Trump, even though she divorced Trump more than five years ago and did not attend the funeral. The former Mrs. Trump was seen walking on Fifth Avenue in New York earlier today in her legendary “Do You Really Care? I Don’t” jacket.
Presidential historian Jon Meacham described Trump as an anomaly among presidents: “He redefined what normal was and, unlike every president before him in recent memory, made it routine to depart from reason and truthfulness on a regular basis. As far as anyone can recall, he never issued an apology because he felt he had nothing in his life to apologize for.”
Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who rode his horse into the cathedral, said the world has Trump to thank for bringing coal back from the brink of extinction as a major fuel for power and source of jobs and praised him for rolling back a decade of Environmental Protection Agency rules that Zinke said were stifling the energy industry. In the 109-degree heat of Washington in August, Zinke mocked people fanning themselves in the cathedral and said there was no proof that human activities have contributed to the warming of the planet. “We need to open a few more national monuments to mining,” Zinke concluded.
Protesters outside the cathedral outnumbered mourners, according to police estimates, and DC officers on horseback fired teargas canisters into the crowds to keep them away from the cathedral. The chemical fumes seemed to make little difference in the heavily polluted air of the nation’s capital.
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, of course, could not attend the funeral as they are still serving prison sentences for conspiracy connected with Russian hacking of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s friend and confidant Roger Stone offered to show the gathering his latest tattoo, a portrait of Trump. “As you all know, I’ve got Richard Nixon on my back, so Donald is a little bit lower down,” Stone said, before security escorted him to an exit.
The most mysterious aspect of the day’s events appeared in the crawl of FOX News’ television coverage of the funeral in the form of an anonymous tweet just as the ceremony was concluding:
“Don’t believe the failing New York Times. The Cathedral Crowd was HUGE, the biggest ever for a Presidential Funeral. I was watching from Above, I can tell you that. Disgraceful! Witch Hunt. No Collusion!!!”
-end-
Steve Klinger is a veteran community journalist/editor/satirist and college English instructor based in southern New Mexico.
