Jackie Harris

People with substance use disorders face enormous internal and external challenges on the journey to recovery. Harm reductions services aim to keep people safe while using drugs as well as helping them eventually reach recovery. Cultural and community background plays an important, but often overlooked, role in these services. 

As the mineral lease money that comes from the oilfields shrinks, Uintah County officials are making tough decisions about how to fund services like the fire department and animal control. 

When Robert Burch was a kid, he didn’t idealize the cowboys on TV.

A new report from public policy researchers finds that over 50% of homeless service providers are facing a variety of challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A proposal from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission exempting emergency planning for new nuclear plant designs is raising alarms.

COVID-19 cases are increasing in Utah, but there are still pockets in the state where cases numbers are lower than the average. In mid-June the Governor allowed these rural areas to go into the “green” phase of economic reopening. The “green” phase allows businesses to reopen and residents to gather in larger numbers but with suggested health guidelines such as social distancing of six feet and wearing a mask.

On Tuesday night, Utah’s Democratic Party is launching a voter registration drive to increase the number of registered voters in the state. Utah was once a state with high voter turnout, but that legacy is not holding up to today’s numbers.

The Mendez v. Westminster case is not well known in U.S. history, but it laid the framework to ending legal school segregation in the United States. Northern Utah student Natalia Lopez recently made a documentary on the legal case to highlight its importance, “Mendez V. Westminster: Breaking Barriers.”

Utah’s wildfire season is just beginning and already, it’s intense. Recently, over 3,000 Saratoga Springs homes were evacuated because of the Knolls Fire, and one family learned the hard way about the importance of evacuation plans. 

Polling results for the June Primary are pouring in, and in Cache County, early data shows a newcomer upsetting an incumbent with concession already.

“He’s won,” said Senator Lyle Hillyard of Logan. “There's no way I'll win, so he's won, and I’m not even worrying about it anymore.” 

The first round of results from this year’s primary election are in and as expected, many of the races are too close to call, including the four-way Republican primary for the Governor’s seat.

Firefighters are continuing to contain the multiple wildfires raging in Utah. While much of these fires are now at least semi contained, the fires burned through utility poles causing power outages for many Utahns. 

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak at a meatpacking plant in Hyrum, animal rights activists have used the situation as an opportunity to protest. 

Over the past month, hundreds of workers in the JBS meatpacking plant in Hyrum were infected with the coronavirus. Activists and JBS employees are concerned not enough is being done to protect workers from further spread.

There are a number of book lists circulating social media to give audiences a better view of what it looks like to be Black in the United States. But according to one Utah State University professor, the idea of connecting audiences to Black culture reaches back nearly a century to American poet and author Langston Hughes’ international efforts. 

Ten years ago, Michael Leavitt managed pandemic preparedness when he was former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.  At the time, Leavitt played a big role in putting together a plan for handling the H1N1 Swine Flu. 

When you think of quilting, the image that comes to mind may be a patchwork blanket or hanging fabrics passed down through generations. The “Evolving Perceptions” exhibit at the Brigham City Museum of Art & History is an attempt to shake up quilting’s old fashioned reputation in the art world.

To celebrate Junteenth, the holiday commemorating the emancipation of American slaves, the Utah Juneteenth Commission held a town hall on Friday and addressed "The State of Black Utah.” The town hall’s primary topic was mental health care and resources for Black Utahns. 

As part of a larger effort to better serve the community, The Women’s Crisis Center in Uintah County changed its name last year. 

Utah meatpacking plants are deemed essential businesses, but the industry and its workers are extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. Hundreds of workers at the Hyrum JBS plant in Logan were infected with COVID-19 in the last month. Monday night the Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Peterson held a Facebook Live conversation on how the Utah meatpacking industry and its workers have been impacted. 

Friday is Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. As part of the celebration in Utah, Robert Burch, the president of the state’s Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, is encouraging Black Utahns to research their family story. 

Imagine you’re a city recreation director. Your whole job is to connect the community with big fun events, and summer is the busiest season. But then a pandemic hits in spring and most of your hard work has to be scrapped. 

Twenthy-five murals are sprinkled throughout Ogden for the next two weeks. This weekend was supposed to be the Ogden Arts Festival, a huge fundraiser for an arts education non-profit, Nurture the Creative Mind or NCM. Like many local summer celebrations, the Ogden Art Festival was canceled due to the pandemic. When the event was cancelled, organizers decided to turn a negative into a positive.

Monday night the four Republican candidates in Utah's gubernatorial race debated some of the most pressing issues for rural Utahns. 

As closures as part of the efforts to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic continue, Utahns are taking to the outdoors in full force. 

“Summer slump” is a phrase used to describe the digression students may make while they are out of school if they don’t read or engage academically. Because students throughout the state have already been at home for months due to the pandemic, there is concern that this phenomena will be even worse this year. Community members in Vernal are working to keep the kids in their community reading and learning despite all those months at home. 

The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths is rising, according to state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn in today’s press conference. Since yesterday, there are 295 new cases making it a total of 10,497 cases, and four new deaths, a total of 117, in the state.