Access Utah

Debating constitutional amendment a in the first half of the program today, continuing our Vote Utah series. The amendment proposes the Utah constitution be amended to require a portion of the revenue from all state severance taxes, to be deposited in the state trust fund, beginning in 2016. 

A severance tax is a tax required of all those who extract oil, gas or minerals from land within the state. This amendment would exclude resources taken from Native American tribal land within the state. 

 On Access Utah we preview the Restoring the West conference happening Tuesday and Wednesday on the Utah State University campus. The conference will focus on balancing energy development and biodiversity. There's a boom in energy development in many areas of the west, and Tom Williams asks our guests if there is a balance to be found on Access Utah this hour. 

Our guests on the program are:  

   The amazing recordist Chris Watson, from Britain, takes us on a sound journey to  Antarctica, where he encounters some of the rarest sounds on Earth.  At 9:30, we visit the Pope's summer home in Italy, to hear about astronomy. 

Today on Access Utah is a rebroadcast of Wednesday night's House 2nd Congressional District debate on the Southern Utah University campus, in conjunction with the Michael O. Leavitt Center for Politics and Public Service. UPR Southern Utah Correspondent Chris Holmes moderates with Eric Kirby, Director of the Leavitt Center.   

 The candidates include: 

Today on Access Utah Lee Austin fills in for Tom Williams and brings in two notable poets, Missouri's Poet Laureate and William Trowbridge as well as Utah State University lecturer Shannon Ballam, who teaches poetry.  Trowbridge will be at USU Thursday at noon and will do a reading in room 101 of the Merril-Cazier Library, he will also take part in a reading at Helicon West in the Logan Library in the evening. 

KPCW's Larry Warren moderates a debate between 1st District Republican Congressman Rob Bishop and his Democratic challenger Donna McAleer, who are both running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The debate originally aired during KPCW's Community Voices and UPR's Access Utah.

According to at least one poll, 1 in 5 Americans say they wouldn’t vote for a Mormon for president.  The nation is about to test that proposition, of course, and in the meantime on Monday’s AU we’ll talk with Trevor C. Hill producer and director of "The Religious Test—A Documentary Film about Mormonism and Politics."

In the second half, Tom Williams’ guest is BYU Assistant Professor of History, J. Spencer Fluhman, author of A Peculiar People: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America.

Sheri Quinn speaks to local author Christine Geery, who wrote "A Heart Full of Hope," a memoir about the challenges of growing up. 

At 9:30 on Science Questions, we explore a new trend in education at community colleges across the nation- Industry in the classroom, specifically in the bio-technical field. The change is happening to better prepare students for jobs in the ever-changing market. 

The RAPZ (Recreation, Arts, Parks and Zoos) tax is on the ballot this year for renewal this year. The tax was approved by a large margin originally, and is a tax of a tenth of one percent, a small portion of which is given to the state for collection purposes, the rest is put toward community organizations in Cache Valley.