Access Utah

Today on Access Utah we hear from Utah State University Anthropology Professor and author Steve Simms. He has spent the last few decades researching and learning of Utah's ancient peoples with archeology as his scientific tool. His book, "Ancient Peoples of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau," details human occupation starting in the region 13 thousand years ago.

Greg Hudnall, then a new school principal, had to identify the body of a student who had killed himself.  Suicide prevention became a personal mission for Mr. Hudnall and he went on to found the Utah Hope Task Force.

You may have been following NPR’s series, “Family Matters: The Money Squeeze,” heard Tuesdays on Morning Edition. Record numbers of adult children, middle-aged parents, and elderly grandparents are living under the same roof and doing their best to deal with the emotional and financial stresses. Many others are dealing with similar issues while not living together. Some economists are calling those middle-aged parents ”the sandwich generation.” 

Tuesday on Access Utah we revisit a conversation from March of last year with singer-songwriter Janis Ian.  Her song “Society’s Child” about an interracial romance placed her right at the flash point of the racial tensions of the sixties.  She writes in her autobiography about at least one experience performing the song: “I was having a hit record.

The private aerospace company Space-X launched the first private spacecraft this week bound for the International Space Station. Today on Access Utah, we explore U.S. space security with Victoria Sampson, Director of the Secure World Foundation.

At 9:30 Science Questions presents Part II of the series "In the State of Mental Breakdown," a profile of the mental healthcare crisis in Salt Lake County that mirrors what is happening across the nation.

It started as Decoration Day, a day to honor fallen Civil War soldiers and has evolved into Memorial Day, a time to honor all of our dead.  We’ll talk with Warren Hegg, with the “Keep the Spirit of ’45 Alive” organization about the Borgstrom family of Thatcher who lost four sons in WWII.  Utah State University folklorist Randy Williams will join us to talk about the Veterans History Project and we’ll talk with several war veterans.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed legislation recently that would have taken public lands back from the U.S. government, explaining that the bill appeared to be "not reconcilable" with the Constitution. On Access Utah Wednesday, we invite Representative Ken Ivory to come talk about why he's disappointed in Gov. Brewer's decision and why he thinks the Utah bill would not be considered unconstitutional. We'll also talk to Stephen Trimble, a vocal opponent of the legislation.

Whether you ended up in the designated "sweet spot" with a solar telescope or just happened to see an eclipsed shadow on your front porch, we want to hear about your Utah eclipse experience. Post your photos or just your thoughts on UPR's Facebook page. Amateur solar gazers, writers, photographers are all welcome. It was a special night in Utah and we want to keep the feeling alive.

Monday on Access Utah's Gardening segment, I talk to Utah State University Extension Fruit Specialist Brent Black. 

We start off talking about strawberries: Why should you buy your strawberries, and other produce locally? We also discuss healthy fruit trees, and other fruits. 

Friday on Access Utah, we first have  Science Questions, storytelling is combined with music as people tell their experiences with hydraulic fracturing and the earthquakes and other effects from it.

Rural sociologist John Allen says that community creates the success or failure of a civil society.  He has helped several communities trying to resolve serious conflicts.  His list of key mindsets required to achieve a civil society includes: “Meet the Weirdos” (anyone who may be different from you,) “Cultivate a Civil Tone,” and “Personalize” (get to know those on the other side as fellow human beings.)  John Allen, Dean of the USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences, was selected by USU Honors students to give the annual “Last Lecture,” which he delivered recently at USU.

Eric Greitens is our guest Wednesday on Access Utah, and will be discussing his book, The Heart & the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL,  and his experiences as both a humanitarian and soldier.

Water, fire, food, education; those are the basic themes of Tuesday’s Access Utah when we’ll broadcast from the Federal Building in Salt Lake City at the Utah celebration of the 150th anniversary of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Today on Access Utah, Sheri Quinn speaks to film makers Don Argott and Sheena Joyce about their movie, The Atomic States of America. The film takes a look at the impact of nuclear power on the lives of every-day Americans, from well-known incidents like Love Canal to the present-day concerns, like the Blue Castle Power Plant in Southern Utah.

The second half of the hour is Science Questions, the beginning of a two-part series titled, "In the state of Mental Breakdown" discussing the overhaul of the Valley Mental Health system.

 As the New Magini String Quartet prepares for a performance of Schubert's masterpiece, "Death and the Maiden," which it hopes will resuscitate its faltering career, someone starts picking off members of the quartet one by one.  It’s up to blind violin teacher and amateur sleuth, Daniel Jacobus, to solve the mystery.

Women make up approximately half of Utah's population, and yet there are no women in Congress who represent Utah. A bi-partisan group called Real Women Run is encouraging women to run for elective offices, and on Access Utah today, Tom Williams discusses the organization and training workshop, as well as having women in public office. 

Our guest for the hour today is Ann Packer, author of 2 national best-selling novels, Songs Without Words (2007) and The Dive from Clausen’s Pier (2002). She has a new collection of short stories out, Swim Back to Me, just in time for her appearance at the Sundance Author Series on May 19.

Depending on your neck of the woods (or desert), it may be time to plant more tender plants like tomatoes, corn, and beans. Today on the Access Utah Gardening Show, Utah State University Extension vegetable specialist Dan Drost will join us for the entire hour. We'll discuss the signs that give an indication that it's warm enough to pop those tender plants and seeds into the ground. Barring an extended snap of cold and wet weather, your corn should be the best it has been in several years.

UPR is featuring periodic programs on voting and the political process as we move toward Election Day 2012.

Thursday on Access Utah we’ll check in on the candidates and the issues, looking back on the political conventions and looking ahead to the primary election.

Our guests will include state Democratic party chairman Jim Dabakis and state Republican party chairman Thomas Wright, Deseret News columnists Frank Pignanelli and LaVarr Webb, and University of Utah Hinckley Institute of Politics Director Kirk Jowers.

We participate in an ongoing national discussion on bullying today. A young man in Iowa, Kenneth Weishuhn, recently committed suicide after he was bullied when he came out as gay. The Sioux City Journal responded by devoting its front page to an editorial headlined “We must stop bullying. It starts here. And it starts now.”  The editorial board said: “We are all to blame. We have not done enough. Not nearly enough.”

Some of the best tastes of late spring are developing right now, including strawberries . You can grow them as big as your fist or as small as the tip of your pinky finger, and everyone knows they are infinitely better plucked from the garden than anything you can buy in the store. Mark Anderson from Anderson Seed & Garden in Logan is our guest on the gardening segment of Access Utah today and happy to take your questions.

Saturday is World Astronomy Day and we're celebrating by spending the whole hour hanging out with astronomers.

First up is Tyler Nordgren, astronomer and Assistant Professor of Physics at University of the Redlands in California. He visited 12 national parks in one year, photographing the stars in order to create the book Skies Above, Earth Below: A Guide to Astronomy in the National Parks.