Kerry Bringhurst

September is National Honey Month - and Utah beekeepers say it's been a year full of challenges, both for professionals and hobbyists.

The hot, dry weather has meant fewer and less healthy crops and flowers in some areas, which are necessary for the pollination process and as food the bees use to make honey. Steve Stoddard of Delta transports his bee colonies from California to South Dakota to pollinate crops. He says almost everywhere they went was drier than normal, and his home turf of west central Utah was the exception.

This summer has been a busy one for young people working on public lands projects in Utah. Hundreds of them get jobs with the Youth Conservation Corps, headquartered at Utah State University. They maintain trails, restore wildlife habitat, rip out invasive species - and keep at it as long as weather permits. For some, says director Sean Damitz, it's their first outdoor experience and their first job - and there are lessons just as important as the hard work. 

As a proclaimed member of the same religion practiced by the Republican candidate for president, Mitt Romney, Utah Governor Gary Herbert has had ample opportunity to answer questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints during this week's National GOP Convention.

Herbert was a councilman in Salt Lake City when Romney was there for the Olympics, and during his time in Tampa, the Governor has worked to persuade delegates to focus on Romney's ability to manage -- a message he says is more important than Romney's ability to socialize.

All but a handful of the nation's Fortune 500 companies now voluntarily include protections against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. That makes most major companies more inclusive than Utah. Here in the Beehive State a person can still lose his/her job for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.

Becky Pringle is the Secretary-Treasurer of the National Education Association, the largest education union in the country.  She was  also a classroom teacher for over 30 years. She talks with UPR's Kerry Bringhurst about the NEA & Parenting Magazine survey released just in time for back-to-school anxiety and excitement. Pringle has ideas about how parents can help children succeed during the school year.

A project to repair a bridge in Northern Utah begins this weekend and farmers needing to move farm equipment through the area should prepare now for road closures.

Repair work on the Bear River-Cutler Reservoir Bridge is scheduled to begin Sunday. Utah Department of Transportation crews will repair the deck of the bridge between Cache Junction and Newton on SR-23.

Kerry Bringhurst's extended interview with Ed Kociela about his new book, plygs, a fact-based novel based on his 17-year career as a Southern Utah journalist.

Hummingbird researchers in St. George are gathering data as the birds are beginning their seasonal migration.

Ned Batchelder is visiting about 15 volunteers' yards, trapping and putting tiny leg bands on hummingbirds. He says this project will help track hummingbird migration patterns.

"For the month of August you've got this mass of birds migrating down the Rocky Mt corridor. There's about a 15-day window where we can set up and band 50 - 100 birds easily in one day."

It's not unusual to sneak a peak of the planet Venus. Observers have been watching what appears to be a bright star shining in the east before sunrise for some time now, but on Monday, the moon and Venus will shine bright enough to be seen in daylight, but only if you know exactly where to look, says Patrick Wiggins, Utah's Solar System Ambassador for NASA.

On August 13, the moon will be easily spotted during the daytime and around 2:00 that afternoon you can look to the upper left of the moon, about 1/3 of the way up the western sky, to get a pretty good glimpse of Venus.