Access Utah

Police say Josh Powell killed himself and his two sons over the weekend.  Susan Cox Powell remains missing.

One of the first African American fighter pilots, Lieutenant Colonel James Harvey III, was honored Thursday at Hill Air Force Base. On Access Utah today, we join the celebration in action at the Air Force Base Museum, where the Colonel gave his inspirational speech about the first group of African Americans to fight in World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen.

At 9:30 Science Questions explores the biology of aggression and new research showing the social and physical environment has a lot of influence in sculpting our human genome.
 

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Wednesday on Access Utah we explore the pros and cons of building a nuclear power plant in Southeastern Utah near Green River. Reed Searle, Senior Vice-President for Business Development at Blue Castle Holdings, a Utah company seeking permits to build the plant, argues that nuclear power is a clean energy source that needs to be part of our energy portfolio. He’s Tom Williams’ guest in the first half of the program.  In the second half, we talk to Matt Pacenza, Policy Director for Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah,) which opposes nuclear power in Utah.

On the opening day of the legislature we talked briefly with Utah Governor Gary Herbert. We continue that discussion in the second half of Tuesday’s Access Utah.  We’ll talk about the economy, education, air quality and the proper balance of federal and state power.

Gardening is back! Today on the first half of Access Utah, Jerry Goodspeed joins us from Odgen. He's the Weber County Horticulture Specialist with the USU extension. We'll discuss catalog ordering and some unique plants that might find a home in your garden this year.

On the second half, we'll feature some Sundance reviews and interviews from UPR's Sheri Quinn, Steven Smith, and Tom Williams.

Today Science Questions presents a one-hour Sundance Film Festival special broadcast profiling one of the festival's documentary film highlights, Chasing Ice.

Photographer James Balog turned his 2007 National Geographic cover story about melting glaciers into a monumental five-year photography project about climate change. The documentary, directed by Jeff Orlowski, follows Balog's "extreme ice survey" -- an experiment that placed time-lapse cameras across three continents to capture massive ice melting and the effects of climate change.

Let us know what you think about the governor's State of the State Address. We'll bring your comments to the table on Access Utah as we continue our coverage of the Address with responses from State Republican Party Chairman Thomas Wright and Democratic Party Chairman Jim Dabakis.

A Canadian company has received a state mining permit from the Utah Division of Water Quality to extract oil from tar sands on public land in the Book Cliffs area of eastern Utah. The Moab-based group Living Rivers opposes the project and has appealed the permit, citing a possible pollution risk to the Colorado River.

Tom Williams will talk with Uintah County Commissioner Mike McKee, University of Utah Professor William Johnson,  John Weisheit of Living Rivers, and  Rob Dubuc with Western Resource Advocates.

The Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University is celebrating 40 years in existence at the university. To accompany the celebration, there is currently an exhibit at the university library that follows the history of human rights for persons with disabilities. Tom Williams is joined by key staff members from the Center on today's Access Utah.

More information on the topic can be found at http://www.cpdusu.org.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival officially opened Thursday in Park City. Today on the program we join Sundance founder and actor Robert Redford and two of his cohorts at the opening day press conference, where they discuss what's new this year. Redford reveals some of the major changes and challenges he has had to endure and face during the festival's history.

Tuesday, January 17

The book Streaked with Light and Shadow: Portraits of Former Soviet Jews in Utah features the stories of the emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union to Utah. The book’s editor Leslie Kelen, Executive Director of the Center for Documentary Expression in the Arts, will lead a discussion and several people featured in the book will tell their stories at an event Wednesday evening at 6:30 at the Wagner Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City.

Thursday, January 12

Today on Access Utah we revisit a program from September of last year on The Legacy of Joe Hill:

The execution of Joe Hill is one of the most famous in American history, immortalized in the ballad "I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night." William Adler talks about his book, The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon.

Wednesday, January 11

We review the results of the New Hampshire primary with New Hampshire Public Radio reporter Dan Gorenstein.  We’ll look at the future for the Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman campaigns.

Then, what should we do about  what Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood calls an epidemic: distracted driving? We talk with U. of U. professor David Strayer who has studied the effects of cell phone use on drivers; and with Rob Reynolds, Executive Director of FocusDriven, a group that advocates for the elimination of cell phone use while driving.

Tuesday, January 10

The death of Ogden police officer Jared Francom and wounding of five other members of the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force last Wednesday has shocked and saddened Utahns and reminded us of the high cost sometimes paid to protect our communities.

Monday, January 9

Mark Anderson joins Bryan Earl to answer gardening questions in the first half on Monday’s Access Utah.
Then Tom Williams’ guests in the second half, Stanford researcher and doctoral student William Anderegg and University of Utah Biology Professor John Sperry, say they’ve discovered the reason for a phenomenon known as Sudden Aspen Decline.

Thursday, January 5

Wednesday, January 4

We've finally arrived at votes that count. We'll review the results of the Iowa Caucuses with several political experts: Mike Lyons, Associate Professor of Political Science at USU; Kirk Jowers, Director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics; Deseret News columnists, LaVarr Webb and Frank Pignanelli; and Quin Monson,    BYU Assistant Professor of Political Science and Associate Director at the Center for the study of Elections and Democracy.

January 3, 2012