Access Utah

The recent suicide of Utah junior high school student, David Phan, has focused attention on bullying.  Other recent teen suicides have prompted action at the Utah legislature. 

We’ll try to find a good balance among many competing uses of our limited water supply on Monday’s Access Utah. We’ll preview the Bear River Basin Forum, sponsored by the Bear River Watershed Council.  

The federal budget sequester, which was supposed to be a poison pill that would motivate Democrats and Republicans to come up with a compromise, may go into effect on Friday.  Thursday we’ll examine possible effects on Utah’s budget and economy.

Wednesday we’ll take a break from current affairs and politics for an Access Utah tradition: a program of great Bossa Nova and Samba music from the USU Performance Hall.  We’ll preview the annual “Evening in Brazil” event, which happens on Friday at the Riverwoods Conference Center in Logan.

Many Utahns are getting frustrated with what they see as slow and ineffective progress toward solving our air pollution problem.

A Clean Air Rally is planned for Tuesday afternoon in Logan ahead of an expected decision on emissions testing from the Cache County Council.

"Makers: Voices of Utah Women" is a new documentary which premieres February 26 on KUED.  According to the producers, the film “tells the story of the women’s movement in Utah through the firsthand accounts of leaders and activists who fought to alter the social fabric of the state.  It was a time when women were learning to speak up and speak out.  A time when women had different visions of what equality meant.  A time when the voices of Utah women would finally be heard.” 

Host Sheri Quinn presents a one-hour special report about the history of Utah's mental health system called "The State of the Utah's Health." Changes have taken place over the last couple of years to overhaul what mental health industry experts call an outdated system that does not work and is currently in crisis. 

University of Utah doctoral students and twin sisters, Lindsay and Lexie Kite, run a non-profit organization called Beauty Redefined which offers sticky notes supporters can paste on mirrors in restrooms and dressing rooms with messages like: “Your reflection does not define your worth.” Now they’re taking on Sports Illustrated, urging people to paste the sticky notes on the annual swimsuit issue. The Kite sisters say that our ideas about beauty need to be redefined.  We’ll talk with them in the first half of Access Utah on Thursday.

On previous episodes of Access Utah, we’ve tapped into grassroots frustration directed at government for perceived lack of effective action on Air Pollution. Many of you are asking: why isn’t more being done?  Wednesday on the program we’ll give you the chance to express your concerns directly to legislators and government officials. We’ll ask our guests and you: what should government do to improve Air Quality?

In the first half, we’ll talk with Sen. Patrice Arent, D-Salt Lake City; Rep. Ed Redd, R-Logan; and Bryce Bird, Director of the Utah Division of Air Quality.

Tuesday on Access Utah we’ll attempt to narrow the political divide, hoping to model behavior we’d like to see in elected officials in our increasingly polarized society.  We’ll follow up on a program we did a few months ago with politicians and commentators. This time we’re appealing directly to you.  We’ll ask you to explore the weaknesses of your political beliefs, as well as the strengths of the other side. How we can listen to and understand each other more in our political discourse, and how do we get out of our silos and join with each other in solving our problems?