Access Utah

How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting rural Utah? We’ll talk about concerns of smaller healthcare facilities, decisions over closures of national parks, and how the economies of rural communities are being affected.

This year marks the 157th anniversary of the largest massacre of Native Americans in the United States.

Photographer, marriage and family therapist and Utah State University alum Kimberly Anderson was on the USU campus in early March to give a presentation on her work. Her presentation, “Transitioning Within Landscapes: The Photography of Kimberly Anderson,” touched on her work as a photographer interwoven with her identity as a transgender woman.

Thi Bui was born in Vietnam three months before the end of the Vietnam War, and came to the United States in 1978. In November, she presented a lecture "Finding Home," based on her debut graphic memoir, “The Best We Could Do,” a beautifully illustrated and emotional story about the search for a better future and a longing for the past.

Utah’s K-12 public schools are closed and teachers are teaching their students online because of precautions to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Linda Hirshman, acclaimed historian of social movements, delivers the sweeping story of the struggle leading up to #MeToo and beyond: from the first tales of workplace harassment percolating to the surface in the 1970s, to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal—when liberal women largely forgave Clinton, giving men a free pass for two decades. Many liberals even resisted the movement to end rape on campus.

We’re compiling another UPR Community Booklist and we want to know what you’re reading.

On Tuesday’s Access Utah, as a part of UPR’s Project Resilience, we’re going to talk about how to be resilient with all that’s happening with the coronavirus pandemic, including social distancing. We’ll also talk about how all of this is impacting children and individuals with disabilities. Our guests will include Vonda Jump Norman, USU Assistant Professor of Social Work and Director of the Trauma Resiliency Project at The Family Place in Logan; Matthew Wappett, Director of the USU Center for Persons with Disabilities; and Kevin Webb, Associate Director of the I-System Institute for Transdisciplinary Studies and a Licensed Social Worker.

DEBUNKED is a new podcast produced by the USU Tribal and Rural Opioid Initiative and USU Extension in conjunction with Utah Public Radio, which focuses on harm reduction and debunking myths around the opioid crisis. Their newest episode focuses on COVID-19.

As we all deal the best we can with Coronavirus and COVID-19, we want to hear examples that you have heard or experienced of people, businesses or organizations doing good.

The Utah Legislature concluded its 2020 session on Thursday. We’ll recap the session on Monday, with a special focus on issues important to people in rural Utah. We’ll also talk about COVID-19 and Coronavirus.

On Tuesday’s Access Utah, Tom Williams will talk with UNLADYLIKE2020 Executive Producer Sandra Rattley and series creator Charlotte Mangin.

The tax reform bill that was passed in December by a special session of the Utah Legislature was soundly repudiated by a referendum drive that collected the required number of signatures before the regular session of the legislature began in January. Lawmakers subsequently repealed the tax reform bill. We wondered: what about now? Is there still a need for reform? What should happen next? What is likely to happen next? We’ll talk with the organizer of the referendum drive, Fred Cox. Our guests will also include Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, a Republican who voted against the bill and two Democrats, Rep.Susan Duckworth, D-Magna, and Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City.

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.