Recession rumbles on as recovery sputters

The Great Recession remains in search of a Great Recovery. Waves of layoffs sweep across Utah's business landscape. Large companies such as ATK, Autoliv and Rio Tinto drain their employee rolls by the hundreds. Small businesses shed a manager here and a line laborer there. Unemployment rockets past 6 percent, twice as high as several years ago, but well below the nation's double-digit rate. That offers little solace to the 86,000 Utahns without jobs, up 64 percent from 2008. Thousands of workers lucky enough to keep pocketing paychecks see their wages frozen or clipped and benefits such as 401(k) contributions reduced or removed. On the home front, bankruptcies leap by 60 percent. House values suffer the fourth steepest drop in the nation, down 10.5 percent. More than 36,000 Utah families fall behind on their mortgages, and 13,000 are undergoing foreclosure. The plunging prices, low interest rates and generous tax credits combine to create buying opportunities. Real estate agents see a pickup in sales, but many Utahns, shaken by the wobbly labor market, remain reluctant (Cash for Clunkers aside) to borrow for big-ticket items. All of this and more bite into government revenues. The state, counties and cities order across-the-board cuts. The Legislature balances a nearly $11 billion budget partly on the back of federal stimulus money (more than $2.3 billion flows into the state). But Washington's pipeline will dry up, so the governor and lawmakers brace for even deeper pain in 2010. If the recovery is under way, as many economists say, it has a long way to go.

A kiss and an embrace

Buckle up for the roller-coaster ride that is the drive for gay rights. Advocates rally to a post-Prop 8 statement from the LDS Church (which had tossed its support to the California measure barring gay marriage) that the Salt Lake City-based faith doesn't oppose some rights for same-sex couples. Equality Utah and liberal lawmakers trot out Common Ground legislation protecting LGBT Utahns from, among other things, housing and job discrimination. Then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. goes beyond that, endorsing civil unions, but does little lobbying for the bills. They fizzle at the Legislature as Sen. Chris Buttars famously, or infamously, dubs the gay-rights movement America's "greatest threat." Then Matt Aune and Derek Jones are handcuffed after sharing a summertime kiss on the LDS Church's Main Street Plaza -- although the church insists it was "much more" and involved "groping" and cussing. "Kiss-ins" in support of the gay couple erupt around Mormon temples. The city refuses to prosecute the pair for trespassing, saying the rules are too vague, so the church toughens its plaza signs. Behind the scenes, negotiations between LDS officials and gay-rights advocates begin and eventually lead to a landmark pronouncement. The church publicly embraces Salt Lake City's proposed ordinances shielding gays from job and housing discrimination. The City Council quickly adopts the laws in November and, with an LDS apostle suggesting the protections could work elsewhere, Salt Lake County and Park City are poised to follow suit. Meanwhile, gay-rights backers are prepping for another go at the Legislature. Ready to ride that coaster again?

Huntsman out, Herbert in

Barely six months after cruising to a second term by a record margin, Utah's Republican governor moves on and his top lieutenant moves up. Jon Huntsman Jr. accepts the call in May of the new Democratic president to become U.S. ambassador to China. His No. 2, Gary Herbert, takes over at the Utah Capitol in August. Huntsman explains his return to his diplomatic roots simply: "When the president of the United States asks you to step up and serve ... that, to me, is the end of the conversation and the beginning of the obligation to rise to the challenge." That challenge, overseeing ties with the world's most-populous nation, makes Huntsman one of the highest-profile U.S. diplomats (status reinforced when President Barack Obama visits Beijing in November). Back in Utah, his successor faces challenges of his own with a recession-swamped budget bathing in red ink and an election looming large in 2010. Herbert, a former Utah County commissioner seen as more conservative than Huntsman, picks a moderate, Greg Bell, as his lieutenant governor, succeeds in fending off potential heavyweight GOP challengers, takes on Washington in a showdown over shipments of depleted uranium and sculpts a stripped-down budget, complete with across-the-board cuts and no tax increase. His next big hurdle: steering his spending priorities through the 2010 Legislature.

Elizabeth Smart tells her story

With grit and grace, Elizabeth Smart takes the stand Oct. 1 and calmly tells a federal judge, a packed courtroom and a waiting world how her accused kidnapper abducted her at knifepoint at age 14 from her east Salt Lake City home in June 2002, held her captive for nine months and raped her three to four times a day. She describes defendant Brian David Mitchell as "evil, wicked, manipulative, sneaky, slimy, selfish, greedy" and, despite his claims to be a prophet, "not spiritual, not religious, not close to God." Days later, the poised 21-year-old departs for an LDS mission to Paris. Smart's one-day testimony, her first public account of her ordeal, highlights a weeks-long competency hearing for Mitchell, who, more than six years after his arrest, has yet to face trial for his alleged crimes. In a separate courtroom drama, Mitchell's wife and accused accomplice, Wanda Barzee, pleads guilty to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor and agrees to testify against her husband. "I'm so sorry, Elizabeth," Barzee says in federal court. "... It is my hope you will be able to find it in your heart to forgive me."

Feds crack down on artifacts trade

An undercover operative, known only as "the Source," spends two years buying and selling jars, pots, pipes, knives, baskets, blankets, even a menstrual-pad loincloth -- hundreds of ancient artifacts illegally swiped from federal lands and American Indian graves in the Four Corners region. Wired for sound and pictures, this operative amasses evidence against a slew of suspects in the largest-ever investigation of illegal antiquity trafficking. Federal agents descend on the area in early June and bust dozens of people, most of them Utahns, spurring cries of heavy-handed federal tactics. The case quickly takes a deadly twist: Hours after being indicted, James Redd, a popular Blanding physician, kills himself. A week later, another suspect, New Mexico resident Steven Shrader, does the same. To date, three Utahns stand guilty: Jeanne Redd and her daughter, Jericca, are on probation after admitting to multiple felonies. Another, Blanding resident Charles Denton Armstrong, admits to threatening to beat up the Source with a baseball bat. He awaits sentencing in February. More guilty pleas and arrests, the feds say, are expected next year.

Shots heard 'round the state

Thousands upon thousands of Utahns tilt back their heads or roll up their sleeves in an effort to combat -- through the nose or through the needle -- one of the most sweeping public health threats in decades: H1N1. The 2009 outbreak claims more than 40 Utah lives and forces 1,100-plus to be hospitalized (some for seasonal flu but most for H1N1). In early fall, Utahns at highest risk for the virus (pregnant women, young children, chronically ill seniors and health-care workers) line up for hours to receive the first squirts of limited Flu Mist vaccine. By fall's end, hundreds of thousands of H1N1 shots are available for all Utahns, although fewer than 20 percent of Utahns stand vaccinated. Beyond the inoculations and the illness itself, the flu's effects spread to virtually all facets of everyday life. Some schools shut down. Others postpone football games. Businesses, already battered by the recession, struggle to fill in for ill employees. Church members stop shaking hands and sharing communion cups. Some cancel worship services altogether. Purell pops up everywhere. Frequent hand-washing, always sound health advice, takes on added emphasis. Folks even master a new way to cough or sneeze: into their elbows.

Deadly canal break reveals regulatory holes

An irrigation canal -- one that spawned repeated safety warnings -- gives way July 11 above Logan's "Island" neighborhood, unleashing a mudslide that buries a rented house at 915 Canyon Road. Inside the home are a mother and two children. It takes crews days to recover the bodies of Jacqueline Leavey and her kids, Victor and Abbey Alanis. It takes longer -- and thousands of dollars from Logan City -- to clean up the mess. It will take longer still -- and millions of dollars -- for lawmakers and regulators to survey Utah's 6,600 miles of irrigation canals and ensure they are made safer. (A bill to begin that process is set to go before the 2010 Legislature.) It may take even longer -- if ever -- to know how and why the Logan Northern Canal failed. No agency is investigating the cause. In the end, no Utah canal may merit a collapse-proof guarantee. After all, warns a top state water official, "you don't know where the gopher is going to be."

Utah rolls Tide

Undefeated Utah rolls into the Big Easy a decided underdog and rolls out with a big, (surprisingly) easy triumph in the Sugar Bowl over SEC powerhouse Alabama. Clutch quarterback Brian Johnson directs a precision passing assault as the Utes build an implausible 21-0 lead in the first quarter. The Crimson Tide slices the margin to four with 17 unanswered points, but the Utes bounce back with another touchdown drive and never are threatened again as a swarming defense suffocates any Alabama comeback hopes. Final score: Utah 31, 'Bama 17. Take that, Tide. Take that, SEC. Take that, BCS. After their second BCS-busting bowl win in five years, the Utes return home to a victory parade, a No. 2 ranking in the final AP poll, renewed calls in Congress to break up the BCS and lingering dreams of what might have been if big-time college football had playoffs.

RSL reigns in Seattle

It's an unlikely title matchup with an even more unlikely outcome. The Galaxy boasts an international icon, an American superstar, a stadium in the glitzy L.A. market and the league's second-best record. Real Salt Lake has the youngest coach, a journeyman roster, a home in suburban Sandy and the worst won-loss mark of any playoff team. The squads play to a 1-1 tie through regulation and overtime before 46,000-plus at Seattle's Qwest Field. But when Robbie Russell's penalty kick finds the back of the net, RSL completes the most stunning post-season run in Major League Soccer history after a sweep of defending champ Columbus and shootout victories over Chicago and L.A. The Galaxy's David Beckham and Landon Donovan go home bridesmaids while RSL's Jason Kreis and Clint Mathis go home champions. Goalkeeper Nick Rimando wins the MVP trophy, Robbie Russell wins a place in Utah sports lore, Robbie Findley wins the moniker "rising star," and RSL wins the state's first major pro sports championship since 1971.

Drinks are on the House -- and Senate

Perhaps only in Utah do changes to liquor laws make a list of the year's top stories. Then again, only in Utah do restaurants have a so-called "Zion Curtain" to keep servers from passing drinks across a bar. And only in Utah do bar-goers have to join a "private club" before imbibing. Well, no more. The Legislature, led by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and with a nod from the LDS Church, pulls the curtain on the Curtain and scraps the club requirement in the most dramatic overhaul of Utah's alcohol policies in four decades. Tourism officials toast the move, expecting the reforms to help sell the state and stoke their $6 billion-a-year industry. Salt Lake City follows the state's lead, junks the longtime limit of two bars per block downtown and maps out plans to bring taverns to neighborhood commercial patches. But all isn't well in the Land of Liquor Loosening. State liquor licenses are tapped out, and lawmakers seem queasy about swallowing new rules to open the spigot. If they do dump the population-quota system, liquor reform could return to another top 10 list.

noyce@sltrib.com