A Utah automotive dealer has taken back the courtesy cars it once provided to Utah State University coaches in an apparent protest of recent firings within the school’s athletic department.

The Murdock Auto Team, co-owned by Ben, Tyson and Blake Murdock, previously provided courtesy vehicles to all Utah State head coaches. Murdock ended its relationship with the USU athletic program after associate athletic directors Jerry Bovee and Amy Crosbie were fired last month.

“I’m very aware of Murdock (Auto Team)’s decision,” Sabau told The Salt Lake Tribune. “We’re super appreciative for all the years of providing courtesy cars for our head coaches. And it’s their business and their decision and we respect that decision. Yeah, it hurts our coaches because now we don’t have cars for them.

“We understand that, and we will come together and we’ll recover from it. It should never be about Diana Sabau. It’s about our student athletes, and it’s about our coaches who work with our student athletes every day. So, I’m hoping that over time maybe we’ll get them back involved and maybe they’ll like the direction that we’re going. This community, this Utah State campus has had crimes of sexual violence for too long. And, to just continue to allow it to happen, I wouldn’t be proud to be associated with that.”

Bovee was fired on July 2 following a Title IX investigation, led by Kansas City-based law firm Husch Blackwell, that concluded that former head coach Blake Anderson, Bovee and director of player personnel and community engagement Austin Albrecht violated reporting policies regarding sexual assault and domestic violence cases. Crosbie was also terminated on July 8 for reasons that have not been made public.

After Sabau, USU President Elizabeth Cantwell and Utah State’s general counsel terminated Crosbie and Bovee, select members of the Logan community have voiced their displeasure about the moves. Last week, former and current student athletes signed a letter addressed to the Utah Board of Higher Education and Utah State University Board of Trustees, asking for an “independent investigation” to be done on behalf of Crosbie and Bovee.

Bovee also recently filed an official grievance against Cantwell and Sabau. He now awaits a decision from a General Grievance Counsel that will then write a letter on their decision and send it to Cantwell, who will either uphold, reject or send it back to the committee for further review.

Jeannine Bennett, who is the chair of the Utah State Foundation, spoke out in support of Sabau and Cantwell following the decisions to fire Crosbie and Bovee. She has been a donor to the university and athletic department and says she’s excited about its future direction.

“It just goes to show that the rules apply equally to everyone, and everybody is held to a high standard at Utah State University, and we have a president who is willing to make that happen regardless of the fallout, because that’s the right thing to do,” Bennett told The Tribune.

Bennett also hopes that Utah State donors who are now hesitant to donate or are pulling funds completely from the university will jump back on board in the future. More particularly, she feels more confident in the direction and the culture of the athletic department despite the pushback Sabau and others have faced from the Cache Valley community.

“I am very hopeful that they see the progress that the university is making, and also still see that there are so many students that still need our support to get their education, and that’s what we need to do as a university,” Bennett said.

“We are taking the appropriate steps to right any wrongs that have happened in the past, and so I’m sorry that we have alumni that have told their support, and I hope that with the more information they gain, that they will change their position.”

An ink-wash drawing once owned by President George Washington will be going under the hammer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The work of art, “The Destruction of the Bastille,” will be offered as a part of Freeman’s | Hindman Books and Manuscripts auction.

The piece drawn in 1789 was personally gifted to Washington by French military commander Marquis de Lafayette, according to a press release from the auction house, which is headquartered in New York City.

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Notably, Major General Lafayette helped lead the Continental Army’s victory at Yorktown, Virginia, that ended the American Revolution in Oct. 1781.

George Washington “was taken by the young man’s ebullience and profound dedication to the American cause,” writes the Washington Library of Mount Vernon. 

The drawing was “made at the onset of the French Revolution and only weeks after the Bastille fell” and was one of the two gifts Lafayette sent to Washington on behalf of France’s appreciation for the American president,” according to Freeman’s | Hindman auction house.

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The other was a main key to the Bastille prison, serving as a symbol of victory against French royal oppression.

The drawing was one of “Washington’s most cherished possessions,” according to Freeman’s | Hindman. The work of art will go under the hammer at the auction house’s location on Market Street in Philadelphia this September. (Heritage Images via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“The drawing would become one of Washington’s most cherished possessions, hanging prominently in the presidential house during his two terms, and then in the entryway of his Mount Vernon home, even after his death,” said the auction house’s press release.

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Before going under the hammer, the famed piece will return home on an international tour starting with a stop in Paris, France.

It will then be shown in New York and Chicago before heading to Philadelphia, the auction house said. 

Proceeds from th.sale of “The Destruction of the Bastille” will be split 50/50 with the Shriners Hospital for Children in Florida and the Masonic Charity Foundation of Connecticut to benefit each organization’s mission. (Freeman’s | Hindman; Heritage Images / Getty Images)

“It seems only fitting that it returns to Paris, the heart of French democracy, before being sold in Philadelphia, the cradle of American democracy. I can only imagine Washington and Lafayette would have appreciated the symmetry,” Darren Winston, senior vice president and co-head of Freeman’s | Hindman Books and Manuscripts department told FOX Business in a statement via email.

He also said, “Freeman’s | Hindman is extraordinarily proud to offer this incredible testament to the power of liberty over oppression.”

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The auction will be held on Sept. 10. The work is art is estimated to sell for between $500,000 and $800,000.

All proceeds from the sale will be split 50/50 with the Shriners Hospital for Children, headquartered in Florida, and the Masonic Charity Foundation of Connecticut to benefit each organization’s mission.

Wildlife management officials from Montana celebrated the translocation of two grizzly bears from northwest Montana to Wyoming, supplementing the genetic pool of the population around Yellowstone National Park and bolstering arguments for state management of the iconic species.

In an announcement on Aug. 2, Gov. Greg Gianforte and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced that two bears had been successfully trapped near the Middle Fork Flathead River, part of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE), and released in Wyoming’s Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).

“Due to the work and sacrifice of Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) and many Montanans over many decades, we’ve been successful in helping the grizzly bear recover,” Gianforte said during a Monday press conference in Helena. “Since Fish and Wildlife Service listed the grizzly bear under the Endangered Species Act, this milestone marks the first time we have a confirmed NCDE bear in the Yellowstone Ecosystem. The state of Montana has made genetic connectivity between these two ecosystems a priority and now we have acted on that priority.”

Grizzlies in the Lower 48 states are protected as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) with six defined recovery areas across the northwestern United States. In both the NCDE and GYE recovery areas the grizzly population is estimated around 1,100, with roughly 80 bears in the Selkirk recovery area that spans the Washington-Idaho-British Columbia border, around 40 bears in Montana’s Cabinet-Yaak recovery area. A handful of grizzlies have been documented in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, while there are currently no bears in Washington’s Northern Cascades.

Despite an increase in the number of animals and expanded ranges in the two largest populations, the animals remain isolated from each other with no documented grizzlies crossing between the NCDE and the GYE.

The physical separation prevents any genetic mixing between the two groups with potential long-term implications for the conservation of the species. The translocation of grizzlies from one population to the other supplements the existing gene pool and increases the sustainability of the population.

“We’ve done a lot to help improve the conditions of the Yellowstone and the NCDE grizzly bear population. Both of those populations have met their recovery goals or exceeded them, really,” FWP Research Biologist Cecily Costello said. “Natural movement between these two populations might happen in the future, but this basically gave a head start to that process.”

Costello said that the GYE bears have a lower genetic diversity than other grizzly populations in the Lower 48 with biologists estimating they have been isolated for roughly 100 years. While there is no immediate danger to the population’s genetics and no evidence of inbreeding, the addition of the two Montana bears will serve to bolster the population long term.

“It’s really trying to allow for this population to have enough diversity in their genetics to respond really well to any kind of changes in the future,” Costello said.

After spending two months trying to trap suitable bears to move to Wyoming, biologists with FWP captured the two grizzlies back-to-back within 48 hours along a remote section of the Middle Fork Flathead River.

The first bear, a sub-adult female, was captured near the headwaters of the Middle Fork Flathead River and was released in the Blackrock drainage approximately 35 miles northwest of Dubois, Wyoming on July 30.

The following day Yellowstone National park personnel released a sub-adult male south of Yellowstone Lake within the park boundaries.

Republican officials across the western states have long pushed for the delisting of grizzlies with management returned to the states. Montana officials petitioned FWS to remove the distinct NCDE grizzlies from the ESA back in 2021, citing the robust population and the state’s track record in conserving both the species and its habitat. Idaho and Wyoming officials have also submitted their own petitions for delisting — Wyoming for the GYE, and Idaho for all grizzlies in the Lower 48.

In late July, the FWS announced it would release a decision over delisting the species by the end of January of next year, according to a court filing related to the three state petitions. If either of the distinct populations, or the species as a whole, was delisted, management would be turned over to the states, a future Montana officials have already begun planning for.

“The bottom line is this: The Endangered Species Act was designed to keep species from going extinct, not manage a robust population that’s growing,” Gianforte said during his press conference. “Working with state of Wyoming and our partners, we achieved the goals set for us and we’ve shown the ability to manage bears, protect habitat and population numbers. It’s time for the state to take over management of these iconic animals. It’s time to have full authority for grizzly bears in Montana returned back to Montana.”

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