Access Utah

The book by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein: “It’s Even Worse than It Looks--How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism” caused quite a stir when it was published last year. Mann and Ornstein said that the dysfunction in our government is the result of a mismatch between increasingly parliamentary-style parties and our constitutional separation of powers. They pinned more of the blame for increasing polarization on Republicans. Their proposed solutions were provocative as well, including mandatory attendance at the polls, changing the political culture through restoring public shame, and restoration of full disclosure to campaign financing.

Our guest for the hour today is Emil Kerenji, an applied research scholar at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

We’ve recently experienced a zombie renaissance and Southern Utah University Assistant Professor Kyle Bishop has a book out called: “American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture.” He says that zombie movies reflect our cultural anxieties. Indeed, such movies have addressed the violence of the Vietnam War, fears of mass annihilation during the Cold War, and anxieties related to 9/11.

On the next-to-last day of the 2013 Utah Legislature, we’ll ask you which issues you’re focused on: Liquor Laws? Guns? Medicaid Expansion? The Budget? Social Services? State’s Rights? Education? Is there a bill you hope passes? Maybe there’s a bill you hope dies in the home stretch?

BYU is out with a poll on Utahns’ attitudes toward guns and Utah Parents Against Gun Violence recently delivered a letter to Governor Herbert urging him to veto a bill which would loosen concealed carry restrictions.

Amit Peled was raised on an Israeli kibbutz listening to cassette tapes of the great Spanish cellist Pablo Casals. He went on to become a prominent cellist in his own right and was recently selected to play Pablo Casals’ cello.

During the first half of Access Utah, Sheri Quinn talks with author Christine Geery about her first book, "A Heart Full of Hope." In the book, she tells the stories of what she calls her "ordinary life." Each story reveals the extraordinary experiences many of us can relate to but oftentimes overlook.

How do we control health care costs, reduce the numbers of uninsured Utahns, ensure high quality health care, and provide for a sound economy? Governor Herbert and Utah legislators are grappling with those questions and deciding how to implement the Affordable Care Act and whether to expand Medicaid.

The U. S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments later this month on a challenge to California’s Proposition 8, narrowly approved by voters in 2008. The amendment to the state’s constitution states that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The Utah Pride Center and 26 other groups recently filed a brief with court urging the justices to declare that gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry. Last month the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints along with other churches and groups filed a brief supporting traditional marriage.

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.

"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?

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? Leading the discussion will be Cache Valley residents Jonathan and Loralee Choate. They have to reach across the aisle at home: he leans libertarian and she’s more liberal. We’ll also hear from our politically-plugged-in Access Utah producers, USU students Dani Hayes and Adison Pace.

On today's Access Utah, Sheri Quinn talks to New York Times technology reporter Matt Richtell about his new novel,"The Cloud." In his book, Ricktell weaves today's cutting edge technology into a suspenseful story about the addictive power of technology that keeps you gripped to the last page. In the second half, Science Questions explores the effects of climate change from new climate data and how changes in national energy plans can benefit the economy.