Tom Williams

Calling it “one of the most difficult calls he’s had to make,” Governor Herbert has rejected a deal that would have shared rights to water beneath Snake Valley with Nevada. The Southern Nevada Water Authority says that Las Vegas needs Nevada’s share of the water and wants to pipe it south. Local citizens fear that the export of water could damage Snake Valley’s environment and economy.

In his new book, "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation," Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth—to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. "Cooked" becomes an investigation of how cooking involves us in a web of social and ecological relationships: with plants and animals, the soil, farmers, our history and culture, and, of course, the people our cooking nourishes. Cooking, above all, connects us. 

  Almost 20 billion times each year, a person walks into a doctor's office and becomes a patient. Dr. Kevin Jones says that physicians can’t tell you what they don’t know. They can tell you when they don’t know, but they might not. Dr. Jones, in his book "What Doctors Cannot Tell You: Clarity, Confidence, and Uncertainty in Medicine," explores the uncertainty that pervades medicine.

Over the years, the Selfhelp Home in Chicago has brought together more than 1,000 refugees and Holocaust survivors under one roof. A new documentary film, "Refuge:  Stories of the Selfhelp Home", features the stories of the eventual residents of Selfhelp, who spent the war years surviving by any means necessary – fleeing to the Jewish ghetto of Shanghai, hiding in the French countryside, taken in by English families as part of the Kindertransport, or as prisoners in Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

  A few months ago we explored the culture of hunting with Stephen Rinella author of “Meat Eater.” He asserts, as does Michael Pollan who wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma & Cooked,” that Americans are losing their connection with the way their food finds its way to their tables. Hunting, Rinella argues, is intimately connected with our humanity; and assuming responsibility for acquiring the meat that we eat, rather than entrusting it to proxy executioners, processors, packagers and distributors, is one of the most respectful and exhilarating things a meat eater can do. Thursday we explored this idea from the other direction, talking about vegetarian and vegan culture with a panel of vegetarians & vegans and a former vegetarian. 

  The United States’ rate of incarceration is the highest in the world. Why and how did this happen? Marc Mauer’s “Race to Incarcerate,” first published in 1999, has become an important text for understanding the growth of the US prison system and a canonical work for those active in the US criminal justice reform movement. Now Sabrina Jones, a member of the World War 3 Illustrated collective and an author of politically engaged comics, has collaborated with Mauer to adapt and update the original book into a comics narrative designed to reach new audiences. 

  The Utah Prairie Dog Recovery Implementation Program (UPDRIP) has two goals: “Recover the Utah prairie dog so that it no longer requires protection under the Endangered Species Act; and allow for existing land uses and continued growth and development within the historic range of the Utah prairie dog.” Some in the area want the process to move faster. 

For decades, Walter Cronkite was known as "the most trusted man in America." Millions across the nation welcomed him into their homes, first as a print reporter for the United Press on the front lines of World War II, and  later, in the emerging medium of television, as a host of numerous documentary programs and as anchor of the CBS Evening News, from 1962 until his retirement in 1981.

  In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, we’ll ask you what the proper balance should be between privacy and security, between rights and safety.  We’re all glad, of course, that ubiquitous security and cell phone cameras helped in the rapid capture of the alleged perpetrators in Boston, but are you comfortable with the idea of surveillance cameras on every corner or the increasing ability of law enforcement and others to snoop into what used to be private areas of your life?  Are you willing to give up some privacy rights for increased safety? Do you worry your rights will be eroded? What should the rules be regarding these new technologies?

In the first test in the nation of an “Ag Gag” law, a Utah woman was recently charged for using her cell phone to film a slaughterhouse. Charges against Amy Meyer were subsequently dropped.  Under Utah’s law (H.B. 187) passed in 2012, it is illegal to film an agricultural operation while trespassing or entering the premises on false pretenses. Meyer says that she became an animal rights activist and vegan after learning about the conditions in factory farms and that people deserve to know where their food is coming from. <--break->Supporters of the law say that these secret recordings do nothing to help the public and that if a person suspects wrongdoing at an agricultural operation the proper step is to contact law enforcement.