Access Utah

Cache Valley residents Roy and Kathleen Sneddon have been living with their son’s disappearance since 2004. 24-year-old David Sneddon was last seen hiking in China, leaving no physical trace. The Sneddons and several sources in Asia believe David was kidnapped by North Korea. The Sneddons believe their son is likely one of many who have been abducted and held captive in North Korea.

It’s Summertime! The kids are out of school and life slows down for some of us and speeds up for others. Trips to favorite vacation spots and into the backcountry ramp up. On Monday’s Access Utah, we’ll come together as a UPR community to share ideas for summertime trips, activities, traditions and stories.

Frank Montoya, Jr. is a retired FBI special agent and senior executive. In addition to running FBI field offices in Honolulu and Seattle in the course of his career, from February 2012 to May 2014, he served in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the National Counterintelligence Executive, in which role he was head of national counterintelligence for the United States government.

Jeff Meldrum is Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Idaho State University. He is author of “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.” He is a leading expert on Bigfoot or Sasquatch, or the term he prefers: “Relict Hominoid.” He says “...[I]t is one matter to address the theoretical possibility of a relict species of hominoid in North America, and the obligate shift in paradigm to accommodate it, but there must also be something substantial to place within that revised framework. There must be essential evidence to lend weight to the hypotheses, and counter the critics’ various aspersions. I was once confronted by a colleague, who declared, ‘After all, these are just stories.’ My response: ‘Stories that apparently leave tracks, shed hair, void scat, vocalize, are observed and described by reliable experienced witnesses. Hardly just stories.’”

Iconic Utah outfitter Ken Sleight began his river-guiding career in Glen Canyon during the mid-1950s, just as the Glen Canyon Dam blueprints jumped from the drawing board to remote desert terrain. The pulse of the Colorado River through the canyon would soon be halted by a cement wall and Glen Canyon backfilled with water. Sleight knew the condition of the canyon was terminal. He used every ray of daylight to memorize every detail of the canyon before inundation: to learn its 125 side canyons, to observe Native American ruins and mining relics, and to immerse himself in the lives of seminal guides who preceded him like Dave Rust, Bert Loper, and Moki Mac.

Today, as a part of Utah State University’s Year of the Arts, we’ll focus on the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, which is looking forward to a grand re-opening in September after renovation and expansion. We talk about a new book, “Collecting on the Edge: Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art.” We’ll talk with the museum’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, Katie Lee-Koven; writer, curator, and museum director Bolton Colburn, who edited the book; and independent curator and corresponding editor for Art in America, Michael Duncan, who wrote an introductory essay for the book.

The Bennion Teachers' Workshop for the Perpetuation of Democratic Principles is a program made possible by an endowment to Utah State University's Mountain West Center for Regional Studies. The endowment was created by Ione Bennion, a teacher and community activist, to "provide an atmosphere and the educational resources to explore the concepts upon which democracy is built, the conditions under which it flourishes, and the dangers to its existence." Taught by Utah State University faculty and guest speakers who represent the latest scholarship in the topics presented, the workshops focus on giving inservice and pre-inservice teachers practical tools that they can use in the classroom.

From Amazon.com:

The Utah Women's Giving Circle (UWGC) will host a panel on The Slippery Slope of Sexual Harassment at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30th in the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Auditorium at the University of Utah. The panelists will talk about the media representations of sexual harrassment and violence, the connection between sexual harrassment and violence, and the role of public policy.

As we head toward summer we want to know what you’re reading. What’s on your nightstand or device right now? Is there a book that has had a big impact on you? Which books are you looking forward to reading? Perhaps you’d like to tell us a personal story connected to a favorite book. We’d love to hear about books in the adult, young adult & children’s categories. One suggestion or many are welcome.

In a remote corner of Oregon, James Pogue found himself at the heart of a rebellion. Granted unmatched access by Ammon Bundy to the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Pogue met ranchers and militiamen ready to die fighting the federal government.

Gail Miller, owner of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies, is author of a new book, “Courage to be You: Inspiring Lessons from an Unexpected Journey.” She will be the keynote speaker at United Way of Cache Valley’s Annual Fundraising Dinner on May 24. She joins us for the first half of today’s program o talk about motherhood, work/life balance, navigating the business world as a woman after the death of her husband, and finding her voice and identity.

A recent article in Politico took as a given “the newspaper industry’s coming death.”

For generations, the Wrights of southern Utah have raised cattle and world-champion saddle-bronc riders ― some call them the most successful rodeo family in history.

On Tuesday’s Access Utah, Jim DeFelice joins us to talk about his new book “West Like Lightning: The Brief Legendary Ride of the Pony Express."

A.J. Jacobs, author of the new book: “It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree,” joins us for the hour on Monday’s Access Utah.

“My whole childhood, I never had a bed.” That’s how Elva Trevino Hart opens her memoir “Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child.”

Tom Paxton says folk music is lumber with the bark still on. His legendary career spans six decades of traditional music and topical songs. He says today's political climate presents an embarrassment of riches to the song writer. He hasn't penned a Trump song yet, but that will come.

Religious courts in the Middle East had historically banned women from adjudicating domestic and family matters - in both the Shari'a courts of Islam and the Rabbinic courts of Judaism -until Kholoud Al-Faqih, dares to challenge that history. With the support of a progressive Sheik, Kholoud becomes the first woman judge with her appointment to a Palestinian Shari'a court in the West Bank, bringing a subtle new perspective garnered from her early professional life working with battered women as an attorney in both the criminal and Shari'a courts.

Loved by generations worldwide, “Little Women” is a universal coming of age story. Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, the story follows sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March on their journey from childhood to adulthood. With the help of their mother, Marmee, and while their father is away at war, the girls navigate what it means to be a young woman: from sibling rivalry and first love, to loss and marriage.