Hawaii authorities say coastal waters off the wildfire-stricken town of Lahaina pose no significant risk to human health and it’s safe to surf and swim there.
The state Department of Health announced the decision Thursday after reviewing water sampling test results collected by groups including University of Hawaii researchers, the Surfrider Foundation and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Authorities are continuing to limit access to some coastal areas off the Maui town’s burn zone as the cleanup from the Aug. 8 wildfire continues, and recreation won’t be allowed in these places.
MAUI WILDFIRE REPORT DELAYED DUE TO SUBPOENAS OF COUNTY AGENCIES
Officials have been telling residents and visitors to limit their exposure to waters off Lahaina ever since the deadly fire destroyed the historic town. They’ve also told people to avoid eating fish from Lahaina’s waters. The department’s announcement didn’t address the safety of eating fish and other marine species.
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An aerial view shows destroyed homes and buildings that burned to the ground around the harbor and Front Street in the historic Lahaina Town in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023.(PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Lahaina’s waters are popular with surfers, swimmers and snorkelers. Before the fire, tour companies would often take snorkelers to see coral reefs off the town. Since the fire, tours have been frequenting West Maui reefs to the north or south instead.
The department said it was particularly interested in test results for metals because of their elevated concentrations in wildfire ash and the possibility that rain and runoff could carry them into the ocean.
Measurements taken by University of Hawaii included assessments of nutrients, metals and carbonate chemistry. The Surfrider Foundation tested for metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which are a class of chemicals occurring naturally in coal, crude oil and gasoline.
The state analyzed harbor sediment samples for metals, dioxins, total petroleum hydrocarbons and other contaminants.
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Scientists say there has never been another instance of a large urban fire burning next to a coral reef anywhere in the world. They are using the Maui wildfire as a chance to study how chemicals and metals from burned plastics, lead paint and lithium-ion batteries might affect delicate reef ecosystems.
When Diane Metoyer, the office manager for Albuquerque-based Affordable Solar, asks for a customer’s Social Security number to help them apply for the state’s solar tax credit, they tend to balk.
The hesitancy doesn’t usually last long: All Metoyer has to do is explain the process they would face to apply for the credit themselves. “And then they just give me the social,” she said.
Affordable Solar is one of a handful of solar installation companies that walk clients through the rigorous application process for New Mexico’s tax incentive for home energy systems. The credit, revived by the state Legislature in 2020, offers up to $6,000 or 10% of the cost to install a renewable energy system at a residence or business.
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With the Dec. 31 expiration of a larger federal tax credit — which covered 30% of a solar project’s cost — New Mexico solar companies are seeing a decline in business. In the absence of a federal credit, increased focus is on the state counterpart, which some lawmakers are seeking to increase during the current legislative session to make up for the lost federal incentives.
Santos Torres of Affordable Solar prepares solar panels to be installed onto the roof of a home in Albuquerque on Wednesday.
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Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican
A fiscal analysis for Senate Bill 55, which would increase the New Mexico income tax credit from 10% of a project’s cost to 30% and the individual reimbursement cap from $6,000 to $15,000, says the more enticing offer could lead to higher demand for the state program.
Solar companies and consultants say the federal credit was simple to apply for, but the state’s version may be more difficult for homeowners to navigate. Funds for the program initially were too low to meet demand, creating further frustrations for applicants.
“It’s supposed to be an incentive,” said Daniel Baker, who owns consulting firm EnviroKarma in Santa Fe. “So why should this form be so hard to use that someone has to hire me to do it for them?”
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The state requires proof of ownership of a property where a system was installed; a building code inspection report; an itemized invoice for the installation, including labor, equipment, permitting and materials; the system’s schematic and specs; a bird’s-eye-view site plan; and an electrical diagram.
For the federal tax credit, before its expiration, documentation was only required if an applicant’s income tax return was audited.
Bill could boost demand
The state previously had a solar tax credit that expired in 2016. Lawmakers brought it back four years later.
Homeowners and businesses couldn’t get enough. A cap for the program, initially set at $8 million and later at $12 million, was met in fiscal years 2020, 2021 and 2022, leaving many applicants behind.
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The Legislature decided to approve some supplemental funding, said Rebecca “Puck” Stair, director of the Energy Conservation and Management Division, which administers the tax credit. That led to a spike in the number of approved projects in fiscal year 2023, Stair said, which she thinks might create an artificial appearance of a decline in interest in following years.
The cap was also raised to $30 million in total credit value starting in fiscal year 2024. Distributions were about $8 million that year, far under the cap. In fiscal year 2025, about $6 million in credits have been claimed so far.
But Stair said that’s not necessarily an indication interest has declined; the department typically sees an influx of applications in the months before the tax deadline.
“I don’t want to speak for the legislators, but I suspect their intent was to set the cap high enough that we would never hit it again,” she said. “Because it was frustrating for a lot of folks involved.”
Not every New Mexican who installs solar on their home or business applies for the credit. The vast majority of the projects certified by the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department connect with Public Service Company of New Mexico’s power grid. Each year of the program, the number of people connecting their residential solar into PNM’s network has exceeded by a few thousand the number of projects receiving state credits.
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According to the fiscal analysis for SB 55, demand from New Mexicans for the federal tax credit exceeded that for the state credit. Increasing the credit value could bring claims closer to that $30 million cap, the analysis stated.
“While the existing state credit resulted in only about $9 million claimed in FY25 with roughly 3,500 claims on average over the last three years, the substantially larger level of prior federal participation — about 12,500 federal claims totaling nearly $60 million in tax year 2023 — suggests a much larger pool of households and businesses have recently demonstrated demand for a solar incentive at or near a 30 percent credit rate,” the report states.
Stair said the state’s solar tax credit was cut when a federal incentive was put in place. SB 55, if adopted, would actually restore the tax credit to its previous levels, she added.
Stansfield said incentives remain an important part of the residential solar business. After the larger, federal tax credit expired at the end of the year, the Albuquerque-based solar company let go of about half its staff, predicting a decline in business of about 60%.
January is already the slow season for a solar company, Stansfield said — not many people are thinking about solar in the short, cloudy winter days. Although the business is still likely overstaffed due to projected declines, he added, it is closely watching the outcome of SB 55.
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“We are putting a lot of eggs in that basket. We have maybe kept staff … in hope that that comes through,” he said. “If that doesn’t come through, then we’re going to be facing more challenges.”
System tough for some
Some solar energy professionals say helping clients apply for the New Mexico incentives — especially with the loss of the federal tax credit — has become important part of their business.
Affordable Solar already has a lot of the client information the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department requests for certification of eligible projects, general manager Wayne Stansfield said.
“We felt that in lieu of sending the information and … leaving them to fend for themselves, we could kind of shepherd that process through and probably just make it more efficient for both parties,” he added.
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While some of the requested details may be foreign to a homeowner, he said, the process is relatively speedy when a company has all the documents in hand.
Dionne Shirley, permit and inspections coordinator and “jack of all trades” for Positive Energy Solar, which serves customers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, said the company has adjusted its pricing to include the tax credit application.
When the credit was brought back in 2020, Shirley said, her colleague noted the employee-owned company would be “inundated with calls by customers for help” and suggested they get ahead of the curve.
At first it took at least an hour to apply, she said, but she’s been able to automate some of the process and cut that time in half. Without automation, she added, the process would be “so overwhelming.”
Metoyer said the process was “kind of nerve-wracking” when she first started about a year ago, due to the amount of information required from the state agency. But over time, she’s developed her own system, and the online technology has improved.
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Stansfield, meanwhile, recalled when applications were only done on paper.
The online system had some kinks when it was first rolled out, he said, adding it’s a vast improvement over the previous system.
Though, he acknowledged, “Change is never easy.”
Baker, of EnviroKarma, is more critical. It’s always been difficult to get the 10% tax credit from the state, he said, and he doesn’t believe the online application has made the process easier.
“It’s been on the books and legislated and funded,” Baker said. “But the hoops that a homeowner has to go to get that 10%, it’s incredible.”
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Baker said one of his clients had two eligible solar systems on one property, but when he tried to apply for tax credits for the second system, the online form wouldn’t take the address because it was tied to an existing an application.
Michael Standridge carries a solar panel to his crew during a installation at a home in Albuquerque on Wednesday.
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Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican
While some other solar installers said the online form was an improvement over the previous system, Baker thinks it’s now worse because there’s no paper workaround if the form glitches or people encounter other challenges.
Baker’s client, who declined to be named due to concerns his future applications could be stalled by the state, lives on a property with two small homes and installed solar energy systems on both in 2024. The promise of both state and federal rebates made the installation cost affordable, he said, but he encountered problems with the state system.
A delay in receiving the tax credits made repaying a loan for the project more difficult. On Wednesday — about a year after he had started the process — the solar project on the second building was finally certified.
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State: Process streamlined
Stair said the state has streamlined the tax credit application process as much as possible, given statutory requirements.
Santos Torres hands off a solar panel to Michael Standridge during an installation at a home in Albuquerque on Wednesday.
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Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican
Her division manages 10 of the state’s energy and conservation tax credits, with four full-time staffers overseeing all of them.
“When we went from paper to digital, we really took a hard look at everything that we were asking and tried to reduce it to the absolute minimum, to make it easy for everyone,” Stair said. “And I think it’s gotten a lot more streamlined.”
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Department spokesperson Sidney Hall said he’s heard questions from some customers who have had their installation company go out of business and have struggled to find some of the needed documentation. The department tries to guide them to support.
Stair said applicants are welcome to come to the office in Santa Fe, at 1220 S. St. Francis Drive, if they need assistance, a computer or a better internet connection. She also encourages New Mexicans interested in installing solar to apply for the credit early and review the requirements, even before putting in a system.
“We obviously have to follow the law,” Stair said. “So there’s certain things we have to request in the paperwork. … We really encourage people to read the user guide, which is like a step-by-step ‘what you’ll need.’ ”
Shirley, of Positive Energy Solar, said she thinks the new online form is easier. But she still gets calls from people who had their system installed by another company that doesn’t provide the same support.
“So, I think it’s still very difficult for customers to take this on themselves,” Shirley said. “… You have to know what the output is on the inverter, and that’s not on the plans, necessarily. So it’s challenging.”
On Feb. 3, 1987, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5606, declaring Feb. 4, 1987, National Women in Sports Day.
Every year since, National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) celebrates female athletes’ accomplishments and honors the progress women in sports have made toward equality in participation and access.
Wednesday, Feb. 4, was the 40th NGWSD.
A year ago, longtime high school sports writer René Ferrán unveiled for High School On SI a list of the 50 greatest girls athletes in Oregon high school sports history.
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Headed up by St. Mary’s Academy legend Anna Maria Lopez through No. 50 Ashley Smith of Oregon City, the list celebrated the rich history of the state’s top female athletes on the 39th anniversary of the creation of NGWSD.
Now, with NGWSD turning 40 this month, The Oregonian/OregonLive tasked Ferrán with adding to the list another 50 athletes who have made significant contributions to the state’s high school sports scene.
We’ll be counting down all week, continuing today with No. 70 through No. 61. (The year listed beside each name is the year she graduated from high school.)
Let’s celebrate together the best of the best and their many achievements in their favorite sports.
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70. Caroline Inglis, Churchill, 2012 (golf)
Inglis has the distinction of finishing atop the 5A state leaderboard four consecutive years as a high school golfer.
But she did not win four titles. Instead, she lost out in her bid to become the state’s first four-time state champion when she signed an incorrect scoreboard after the final round at Trysting Tree as a senior.
She shot a 3-under 69, which would have secured a nine-stroke win. She mistakenly signed for a 68 after her playing partner recorded a par-4 on the 18th hole rather than the bogey-5 she scored — which under the USGA rules at the time led to her disqualification.
In a cruel twist of fate, her father, Bill, also signed for an incorrect score at the 1971 state tournament, costing South Eugene a chance to win a team trophy.
Inglis had to rally from three shots down as a freshman for her first title, shooting the best round of the tournament — a 4-over 76 — for a two-shot win.
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She won by one stroke as a sophomore, finishing as the only golfer under par after two rounds. The next year required another comeback — albeit from only a one-shot deficit — to win by two.
Churchill’s Caroline Inglis was Oregon’s first four-time individual state champion golfer — on the course.Steven Gibbons
She played collegiately down the road at the University of Oregon, where she won the program’s first Pac-10 individual title in 2015 and led the Ducks to a tie for fifth in the team standings at the NCAA Championships as a senior, when she tied for 16th with an even-par 288 total.
She played nine years on the LPGA Tour, making 124 starts with 17 top-25 finishes, including a tie for ninth at the 2024 Women’s PGA Championship. She retired at the end of the 2025 season in part because of recurring back injuries and took a job with the Oregon Golf Association.
69. Kiana Brown, Triangle Lake, 2014 (basketball, volleyball, track and field)
As Brown approached becoming the state’s all-time basketball scoring leader, she told her father and coach, Chad, that she didn’t want to chase the points.
She just wanted to play.
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It turned out she could do both. A couple days after scoring a personal-high 53 points against Mohawk, she made a 3-pointer midway through the second quarter against Siletz Valley to pass Trisha Stevens atop the all-time Oregon list.
Brown kept pouring in points the rest of the season, which ended with the Lakers placing fifth at the 1A state tournament and Brown having scored 2,894 points. She scored 835 points as a senior and 833 as a junior, the second- and third-most points in a season in state history, and she made a state-record 590 free throws in 733 attempts to go with a 1A-record 413 assists.
If Kiana Brown was on a basketball court for Triangle Lake, it was inevitable — she was going to score a lot of points.Scott Larson/PSU Athletics
She was a 1A co-player of the year as a junior and a first-team all-state selection as a senior. She was a second-team all-state selection in volleyball as a sophomore and a district champion in the 200 meters and high jump as a freshman.
Brown played basketball for Eastern Washington, Humboldt State and Portland State, averaging 11.8 points as a redshirt junior for the Vikings in 2017-18 and finishing seventh in the nation in free throw percentage (.898).
68. Haley Vann, Cleveland, 2023 (wrestling)
Growing up, Vann got into jiu-jitsu, which eventually led her to take up wrestling heading into high school.
She placed third at the OSAA state championships as a freshman, when she went 23-4. After suffering an early-season loss during the COVID-19 spring 2021 campaign, she became indestructible, winning 77 consecutive matches to finish as a three-time state champion with a 101-5 record.
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Once she fell in love with wrestling, Cleveland’s Haley Vann was unbeatable on the mat.Mark Ylen
“I think after freshman year, I just really started to love the sport,” Vann said after winning title No. 3 with a 10-0 major decision over Forest Grove’s Renae Cook. “I really wanted to get better at it and just like pursue it like I did.”
Vann decided to wrestle for North Central College in Illinois, where as a freshman she placed fifth at 59 kilograms at the U20 Women’s Nationals.
67. Kara Braxton, Westview, 2001 (basketball)
Braxton and her twin sister, Kim, lived in Beaverton as infants before the family moved to Michigan. When their mother, Chris Brown, moved back to the Portland area in the summer of 1998, the fortunes of the Westview program changed.
After considering a move to Oregon City and a chance for them to play for coach Brad Smith (who moved on to Vanderbilt University in the meantime), Brown decided to enroll her girls at Westview after hearing good things about coach Mark Neffendorf.
At Westview, the twins blossomed, with Kara achieving greater success.
She twice was named 4A player of the year and won Gatorade state player of the year honors after her junior season, when she led the Wildcats to their only state championship by averaging 15 points and 8.2 rebounds in four state tournament games. She finished the season averaging a double-double (17.8 points, 10 rebounds) and four blocked shots per game.
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Westview might have won back-to-back state championships had Kara Braxton (right) been able to play her entire senior season.Dana E. Olsen
Kara and Kim signed with the University of Georgia in the fall of 2000, but their excitement was muted when they had to sit the first three months of their senior season because they were academically ineligible. They ended up playing just six games, with Westview unable to defend its state title by missing the playoffs by one game.
Kara finished with 1,198 points — the first Wildcat to reach the 1,000-point milestone.
At Georgia, Kara was named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2002 and twice earned first-team all-SEC honors before being dismissed from the team because of repeated team rules infractions. The WNBA’s Detroit Shock drafted her No. 7 overall in 2005, and she made the All-Rookie team that summer and the WNBA All-Star team in 2007 during her 10-year career.
66. Amy Nickerson, Coquille, 1999 (track and field, cross country)
Nickerson dominated the middle distances in the late 1990s, becoming the first runner at any classification (boy or girl) to win four state titles in the 800 and 1,500 meters.
She set 3A meet records in both events — she ran the 800 in 2 minutes, 14.09 seconds, as a junior in 1998 and the 1,500 in 4:34.93 as a sophomore in 1997 — that stood until Philomath’s Brianna Anderson-Gregg broke both in 2003.
Coquille’s Amy Nickerson won a combined eight state titles in the 800 and 1,500 meters — Oregon’s first girl or boy to achieve that feat.Robert Kaiser
Nickerson won three cross country state championships, including twice as she battled severe sideaches. A third-place finish as a sophomore denied her of being the first four-time champion.
She ran at the University of Oregon for one year, with her 11th-place showing at the NCAA West Regional Championships pacing the Ducks to a fifth-place finish and a spot at the NCAA Championships, where Nickerson finished 65th.
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65. Laura Schott, Jesuit, 1999 (soccer, track and field)
Girls soccer was building statewide in the mid-1990s. Enough schools added the sport to split the state championships into two classifications in 1992, and two years later, Jesuit won the first of its 17 titles.
Two years after that, Schott arrived at the Southwest Portland campus and, as The Oregonian wrote, “took girls soccer to a new level in Oregon high school play.”
During her four seasons in the program, the Crusaders never lost to an in-state opponent — their only defeat was to Washington power Bellarmine Prep of Tacoma during her freshman season — as they went 72-1-4, including back-to-back 19-0 campaigns her junior and senior years. Schott won Gatorade state player of the year honors both seasons.
She scored 116 goals, which put her third on the all-time Oregon list behind Tiffeny Milbrett and Sarah Bagby (she’s since fallen to ninth), and received Parade All-American honors her senior year.
Schott starred at Cal-Berkeley, making the All-Pac-10 first team three times and earning All-American honors as a sophomore, when she tied the school record with 23 goals. She finished as the program’s all-time leader with 56 goals — a record that still stands — and went on to earn five caps with the U.S. national team and play for the Washington Freedom in the WUSA and the California Storm of the WPSL, winning titles with both.
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After her playing career, she started a second act as a coach, assisting at Portland State for three years before starting a nine-year term as head coach, winning four Big Sky titles. She joined the Portland Thorns staff in 2017 as the academy director, and she led the George Fox program for six seasons before stepping down in December.
64. Kaitlyn Dobler, Aloha, 2020 (swimming)
There have been four-time state titlists and Olympians who have come through the OSAA swimming championships over the years.
But only one four-time champion and Olympic hopeful also holds a national high school record. Dobler set the mark in the 100-yard breaststroke her senior year at Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center in her final high school race, with her winning time of 58.35 seconds breaking the record by five-hundredths of a second — a record that still stood entering this season.
Aloha’s Kaitlyn Dobler went out with a bang, setting a national record in her final high school race.Taylor Balkom
It was Dobler’s fourth state title in the 100 breast and came after she set a state record in the 50 freestyle — her third title in that event.
After her junior season, she joined Team USA at the World Junior Swimming Championships, swimming a leg on the gold medal-winning 4×100 medley relay and bringing home medals in the 50- (bronze) and 100-meter breaststroke (silver).
Dobler earned All-America status three times in high school before heading to USC, where she was the Pac-12 Freshman Swimmer of the Year and became the first Trojan to win five consecutive conference titles in the same event (the 100 breast) among her 11 career titles. She won NCAA and national championships in the 100 breast her sophomore year.
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63. Lisa Gibson, Southridge, 2007 (water polo, swimming)
Gibson was born in Chichester, England, but moved to Beaverton in grade school, beginning to play water polo at age 12 for the Tualatin Hills Water Polo Club.
She played for Southridge in high school, twice earning Metro League MVP honors — including her senior year, when the Skyhawks won the league title with an 11-0-1 record and reached their first (and only) state final, where they lost to Newberg 8-2 amidst the Tigers’ run of five consecutive championships.
At the same time, she was traveling back to England to play for the Great Britain junior team. She debuted for the senior national team at the 2007 European Championships at age 17, and she moved back to England to attend the University of Manchester, where she earned a degree in biomedical sciences while continuing to play for the British national team.
She competed at the London 2012 Olympic Games for the host team, and she played on the World Championships team in 2013. She returned to the Portland area for shoulder surgery and she got into coaching, eventually taking over the Lincoln program in 2014.
62. Jenny Mowe-Joseph, Powers, 1996 (basketball)
Mowe grew up on a 100-acre ranch in a house her parents, Patty and Jerry, built in the small town just outside the Siskiyou National Forest in Southern Oregon, and she took part in all the duties one would expect a farmhand would undertake.
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At her tiny high school, considering no one else could match her 6-foot-5 frame, an assistant coach would hold up a broom on which the staff drew a head and added hair and nicknamed Jan the Broom to simulate a defender.
Jan had about as much success stopping Mowe as the overmatched opponents the Cruisers faced during Mowe’s four-year run, which ended with her scoring a then-1A-record 2,187 points, grabbing a still-1A record 1,155 rebounds and leading the team to back-to-back state finals. They won the school’s only title in 1995 during Mowe’s junior year, when she averaged 25 points, 16 rebounds and six blocked shots per game.
Nothing could stop Jenny Mowe during her days at Powers — not even Jan the Broom.The Oregonian/OregonLive archives
As a senior, she averaged 32.5 points in leading Powers back to the state final, where the Cruisers lost to Ione 60-46 (Mowe fouled out), and she earned Gatorade state player of the year honors — the only time a player outside the state’s top two classifications won the award.
She played for the University of Oregon, where she averaged 8.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game during her five seasons that included a medical redshirt year. Her 222 blocked shots rank third in program history, as does her .573 field goal percentage.
Mowe became the first Ducks player drafted by a WNBA team when she was selected in the second round by the Portland Fire in 2001. She played with the team until it disbanded in 2003; she played two more seasons in China and South Korea before retiring from basketball.
She and her husband, Loran Joseph, moved to Baker City in 2007, where she operates her bakery, Sweet Wife Baking.
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61. Kim Hill, Portland Christian, 2008 (volleyball, basketball)
Hill transcended being “just” a 2A wunderkind to become the best volleyball player in the state regardless of classification — just one stop on the road to Olympic stardom.
She made the 2A all-state team all four years with the Royals, earning third-team honors as a freshman before making the first team the next three seasons — including player of the year as a junior and senior.
During her final campaign, she amassed a state-record 952 kills with 137 blocks, 104 digs and 97 aces in leading Portland Christian to a 31-1 record and a second consecutive state title. Her achievements also led to her being named Gatorade state player of the year — the only time in the 30 years of the award that a 2A player won it.
Although she competed for 2A Portland Christian, Kim Hill was the hands-down best volleyball player in the state.Motoya Nakamura
Hill also starred on the hardwood for the Royals, winning 2A player of the year honors as a junior and senior and leading them to the 2007 state championship.
Based on her play at Portland Christian and with the national champion Nike Northwest Junior Air Elite club team, Hill signed with Pepperdine University, where she became the first college player to earn All-American honors in both indoor (2011) and beach (2012-13) volleyball. She played professionally in Poland, Italy and Turkey.
She started her national team career during that time, winning gold at the 2014 World Championships (where she was selected the tournament’s Most Valuable Player), bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics and gold at the 2021 Tokyo Games, after which she retired from the U.S. National Team.
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The Oregonian/OregonLive will be counting down the state’s 100 greatest girls athletes throughout the week. Check back Friday for Part 5 of the series.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Members of the Utah Supreme Court attend the State of the Judiciary at the Capitol in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026.
An open letter to the nominating commission and Gov. Cox:
As you consider what two new people to appoint to the Utah Supreme Court, please select attorneys who are as highly qualified as our current justices.
Two went to top-10 law schools (Harvard and Yale), the two University of Utah graduates were in the top 10% of their class, and the BYU graduate was magna cum laude. Four justices clerked for prestigious federal circuit or district courts. Four worked for major law firms, one in New York City. Two served in U.S. attorneys offices, one prosecuted war crimes in the Hague, and one served in the Utah attorney general’s office and a district attorney’s office. Four served either as Utah court of appeals or district court judges before being appointed to the Utah Supreme Court.
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If you make the mistake of nominating individuals who are less stellar than the current bench, you will confirm the worst suspicions of the critics — that the expansion of the court was court packing, an attempt to manipulate the outcome of pending cases for political purposes.
