Access Utah

The Coronavirus epidemic has affected lives around the world and in Utah. We’re going to talk about it Monday on Access Utah. More than 2,500 deaths have been reported in China. Iran is second in numbers of deaths. Two people have died so far in Washington state.

Crystal Marie Fleming, Ph.D. is an author, public intellectual and expert on white supremacy and global racism. She is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University with affiliations in the Department of Africana Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Fleming is the author of two books: the critically-acclaimed How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy and the Racial Divide and Resurrecting Slavery: Racial Legacies and White Supremacy in France. Additionally, her scholarship appears in journals such as The Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Poetics, Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race and Mindfulness.

For the first time Utah voters are participating in the Super Tuesday presidential primaries this year, and ballots are already arriving. In the days leading up to the primary we’re interested in hearing what you’re thinking and the factors you’re considering in making your decision on how to vote. Continue the conversation by emailing us at upraccess@gmail.com.

Various Moab government and business leaders have come out in opposition to the Trump administration’s plans to allow an oil and gas lease on the nearby Slickrock Trail. The group is decrying what they say is an opportunity currently mis-understood by the Department of the Interior to support the power of world famous recreation assets like the Slickrock Trail. They say that these types of outdoor treasures bring revenue flows and tax receipts to public land communities and create real long term jobs and that oil and gas development does not deliver the same economic benefits. They further assert that with less than 35% of existing leases on public lands now in production, there is no need to damage current recreation economies. The group says that the oil and gas auction scheduled for June includes landscapes within two miles of Arches National Park, span over 60 percent of the Slickrock Trail, a world-famous mountain biking trail, and threatens drinking water supply for the City of Moab.

"Eight years ago, Bob Inglis ran for a seventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives and didn’t even make it out of the Republican primary. He lost by nearly 3 to 1. His estrangement from South Carolina voters ran deep, friends-gone-missing and allies-turned-enemies deep.

Utah State University has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) concluding its Title IX compliance review of USU’s policies and procedures for responding to reports of sexual misconduct involving students between 2013 and early 2017.

We’re heartened by all the good being done in our communities by dedicated individuals and nonprofits. They sometimes don’t get the recognition they deserve, and you may want to help but don’t know where and how. Today we’re opening the phone lines, email and Twitter to give you the opportunity to spotlight a nonprofit or individual doing good in your community.

The U.S. Senate has acquitted President Trump of both impeachment charges brought against him by the U.S. House of Representatives. Sen. Mitt Romney was the lone senator to break party ranks when he voted to convict the president on the first impeachment charge. today we’re going to look back on this historic impeachment and look forward to the presidential election.

An alternative prison ranch in New Mexico conducts a daring experiment: setting the troubled residents out to retrain an aggressive herd of horses. The horses and prisoners both arrive at the ranch broken in one way or many— the horses often abandoned and suspicious, the residents, some battling drug and alcohol addiction, emotionally, physically, and financially shattered. Ginger Gaffney’s job is to retrain the untrainable. With time, the horses and residents form a profound bond, and teach each other patience, control, and trust.

Co-directors of the USU Digital Folklore Project Jeannie Thomas and Lynne McNeill (USU English Department Head and USU Assistant Professor of English, respectively) will join Tom Williams to talk about the 2019 Digital Trends of the Year.

Sadie Hoagland’s new book “American Grief in Four Stages,” a collection of short fiction, asks the question: why does our country do so little for the bereaved? Why do we have only empty cliché to address the grief of others? Why do we expect people to just "get over" insurmountable tragedy?

Retired USU professor Richard Ratliff has developed what he calls the theory of Relationism, which he hopes will help us bridge the many divides we’re experiencing in our increasingly polarized society. He’ll join Tom Williams to explain.

Over the span of fifty years, Charles M. Schulz created a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culture—hilarious, poignant, inimitable. Some twenty years after the last strip appeared, the characters Schulz brought to life in Peanuts continue to resonate with millions of fans, their four-panel adventures and television escapades offering lessons about happiness, friendship, disappointment, childhood, and life itself.

It's the opening day of the 2020 Utah Legislature, and Access Utah is back at the state capitol. We’ll speak with Senator Lyle Hillyard, Senator Evan Vickers, Senator Karen Mayne, and Representative Brian King. We’ll also hear from Bill Tibbetts with Crossroads Urban Center, Rusty Cannon with Utah Taxpayers Association, and Courtney Bullard with Utah Health Policy Project. You can get us your questions and comments by email to upraccess@gmail.com.

Today, as a part of our series: Stopping Sexual Harassment, we’ll talk with Susan Madsen and Robbyn Scribner of the Utah Women and Leadership Project at Utah Valley University. We’ll talk about sexual harassment and sexual assault. We’ll also talk about voting, leadership, body image and other topics.

Barrie Gilbert's fascination with grizzly bears almost got him killed in Yellowstone National Park. He recovered, returned to fieldwork and devoted the next several decades to understanding and protecting these often-maligned giants. He has spent thousands of hours among wild grizzles in Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks, Alberta, coastal British Columbia, and along Brooks River in Alaska's Katmai National Park, where hundreds of people gather to watch dozens of grizzlies feast on salmon. His research has centered on how bears respond to people and each other, with a focus on how to keep humans and bears safe.

Andrew J. Russell is primarily known as the man who photographed the famous “East and West Shaking Hands” image of the Golden Spike ceremony on May 10, 1869. He also took nearly one thousand other images that document almost every aspect of the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad.

In fighting to pass the 19th Amendment, brave suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Emmeline B. Wells fought to end laws and take down barriers that prevented them from voting. Champions of Change introduces young readers not only to Anthony and Wells, but also to a diverse group of firsts and freedom-fighters in America’s fight for equality, such as:

Reimagining a Place for the Wild contains a diverse collection of personal stories that describe encounters with the remaining wild creatures of the American West and critical essays that reveal wildlife’s essential place in western landscapes.

From Utah State Magazine, "In the parched black desert of northeast Jordan, archaeologists recently unearthed a stone hearth containing loaves of flatbread more than 14,000 years old.