Access Utah

StoryCorps founder David Isay joins Tom Williams for Thursday’s Access Utah on the first day of registration for a free recording session in the StoryCorps booth during StoryCorps’ upcoming stay in St. George. David Isay is editor of several books from StoryCorps including “Listening Is an Act of Love.” He’ll talk about the power of listening and the importance of each life story. StoryCorps’ mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.

Are GMOs or Genetically Modified Organisms beneficial or dangerous to global health? Are GMOs critical to sustainability or a danger to the environment? Should companies have the right to patent seeds? Can GMOs co-exist with organic farming? We’ll seek answers to your GMO questions from Jennifer Reeve, USU Associate Professor of Organic and Sustainable Agriculture; David Hole, USU Professor of Plant Breeding/Genetics; and Amelia Smith Rinehart, U of U Associate Professor of Law.

The U. S. Senate appears to be moving towards a compromise on immigration. We’ll ask you where you stand. Do you support the principles in the Utah Compact? Do you prefer an Arizona-style solution? Should any plan lean towards border security and enforcement or a path to citizenship for those now here illegally? Should Utah implement its currently-delayed guest worker law? What does a good solution to the immigration problem look like?

Should Governor Herbert’s veto of HB 76 be overridden? HB 76 would loosen restrictions on the use of concealed weapons. Should national background checks be expanded? How do we reduce gun violence? We’ll look for your response to these questions on Monday’s Access Utah. Our guests are Sen. Allen Christensen R-North Ogden, Senate sponsor of HB 76, Rep. Brian King D-Salt Lake City; Maryann Martindale, Executive Director of the Alliance for a Better Utah; and Clark Aposhian, Chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council.

Today on the program we hear from former state archeologists Kevin Jones about his new book "The Shrinking Jungle." In his book, he takes us on a journey with the Ache of Paraguay, one of the last hunter-gatherer groups to come into contact with the western world. His story is a fictional tale based on experience with the Ache' and their efforts to save the gradually diminishing rainforest.

Many of us believe in sustainability. But do we walk the talk? We’ll ask you what you’re doing in your daily life to promote sustainability, to personally be part of a green solution to our environmental problems. What changes have you made? What solutions have you found that you‘d like to share with us?

According to NPR, the Defense Department estimates there are about 19,000 sexual assaults in the military per year, but according to Pentagon statistics, only a small fraction of these cases go to court-martial. Last fall, nineteen current and former members of the U. S. military filed a lawsuit alleging that they were sexually assaulted while serving. They claim that even though reform has been promised for years, the military doesn’t seriously investigate or punish sexual predators.

Poet, playwright and Logan native May Swenson would have been 100 this year and USU scholars have organized a centennial celebration, including readings by A Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor and former Utah Poet Laureate, and current University of Utah English Professor, Katherine Coles, on April 25 at 7:00 p.m. in the Morgan Theater of the USU Chase Fine Arts Center. (The reading is free but seating vouchers are required and are available through the USU Caine College of the Arts Box Office in the Chase Fine Arts Center, room 139-B.)

Today on the program Sheri Quinn talks to author David Gessner about his latest article "How Vernal Utah Grew to Love Big Oil" in the March 2013 issue of One Earth magazine.

Eva Kor is a Holocaust survivor and victim of Dr. Josef Mengele’s medical experiments on twins at Auschwitz. Mengele was given the name “Angel of Death,” because of his position as a SS physician in charge of selecting which new prisoners of the camp would be killed or selected for forced labor. Kor and her sister launched a search for other twins who survived Mengele’s experiments and located 122 individual survivors. She founded C.A.N.D.L.E.S. Holocaust museum in Indiana.

Moab resident Steph Davis is a superstar in the climbing community. But when her husband made a controversial climb of Delicate Arch, the media fallout and the toll on her marriage left her without a partner or an income. Accompanied by her beloved dog, Fletch, she set off in search of a new identity and discovered sky diving. Though falling out of an airplane is antithetical to a climber’s control, she discovered new hope and joy in letting go.

When nine Vietnamese women arrived at Virginia Sudbury’s law office in Pago Pago, American Samoa she wasn’t sure she would take the case. She ended up as lead plaintiff attorney in precedent-setting case which drew international attention to issues of involuntary servitude and human trafficking in far-flung U. S. territories. Virginia Sudbury now lives in Utah, and is author of a new book: “Sweatshops in Paradise—A True Story of Slavery in Modern America.”

We’ll address issues in Higher Education on Tuesday’s Access Utah. How did Utah’s colleges and universities fare at the Utah legislature? How best to plan for the change in age requirements for LDS missionaries? What does the future of higher education look like? Will we see more online classes, video conferencing and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs?) Will these new methods of teaching and learning displace traditional face-to-face classrooms? Should they?

Jack Schmidt, professor in Utah State University's department of watershed sciences and head of the US Geological Survey's Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, has long studied the Colorado River. He's among the team of scientists that designed a series of controlled releases of water from Glen Canyon Dam in an effort to restore habitats altered by the use of dams.

Mark Lynas, author of “The God Species: Saving the Planet in the Age of Humans” joined us for the hour on Wednesday. He says we need to embrace Nuclear Power and Genetically Modified Organisms as parts of any successful portfolio of solutions to Climate Change. Many fellow environmentalists disagree.

Mark Lynas is the author of a number of books, including The God Species, and is Tom Williams guest for the hour. We discuss Lynas' idea that we must master human technology, like nuclear power, to save the world from ourselves.

When USA Today invited their readers to send in questions about fracking for Duke University professor Robert Jackson, readers responded with such questions as: “What happens to the chemicals that are left behind after the fracking process? What is the risk to well water? It’s my understanding that fracking uses massive amounts of water? Does fracking cause earthquakes?”

According to www.domesticviolencestatistics.org every 9 seconds in the U. S. a woman is assaulted or beaten; domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women—more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined; and nearly 1 in 5 teenage girls who have been in a relationship said a boyfriend threatened violence or self-harm if presented with a breakup.

What should government’s role be in promoting our health? New York City’s mandated downsizing of sodas was recently blocked by judge. In Utah, HCR2, which urges the state to address obesity, overwhelmingly passed the 2013 legislature. Some governments are adding fatty foods and violent video games to the traditional list of goods, like tobacco and alcohol, subject to “sin taxes.”

Governor Gary Herbert will join us on Thursday’s Access Utah. We’ll ask him about Medicaid expansion, guns, the possible prison move, air quality, the economy, and anything else you’d like us to talk about. We’ll also ask the governor if there are any bills he may veto. Later in the program Sen. Todd Weiler R-Woods Cross joins us to talk about his proposal that we look at changing Attorney General from an elected to an appointed office. Finally, we’ll get a Democratic reaction to the recently-concluded legislative session from Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck D-Salt Lake City.