Access Utah

We’ve had some time now to see how the Affordable Care Act is working. On Tuesday’s AU we’ll ask you what your experience has been and what you think about the ACA going forward. The Utah Health Policy Project’s annual policy conference coming up on December 2nd is titled “Is It Working? Taking the Pulse on Health Reform in Utah.” The conference will tackle several questions: Which states are succeeding? What’s different about the 2015 marketplaces? What should Utah do to cover the Medicaid expansion coverage gap?

Are corporations people? The U.S. Supreme Court says they are, at least for some purposes. NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports that in the past four years, the high court has dramatically expanded corporate rights. It ruled that corporations have the right to spend money in candidate elections, and that some for-profit corporations may, on religious grounds, refuse to comply with a federal mandate to cover birth control in their employee health plans.

One in 30 children in U.S. are homeless according to new report by national center of family homelessness released this week. Today on the program author Walter Biondi joins host Sheri Quinn to discuss what its like being a homeless teen in America and how he was able to go from a street kid to a U.S. Interpol Chief and author.

Brooke and Terry Tempest Williams came across a copy of British nature writer Richard Jefferies’ autobiography “The Story of My Heart” in a small Maine bookstore. The beautiful volume intrigued them and inspired a journey: they traveled to England in order to learn more about the 19th-century nature essayist, to wander the countryside which so inspired and captivated him.

President Obama is demanding that the FCC reclassify the Internet as a public utility under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. He wants rules to ensure “that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online."

After nine years of keeping his prostate cancer at bay, the drugs were no longer working. The doctors told him his time was nearly up. So Jeff Metcalf dove deep into writing, tasking himself with writing one essay each week for a year. His new book “Requiem for the Living” contains the best of the resulting fifty-two essays by an author who continues to defy his medical prognosis. The essays form a memoir of sorts, recounting good times and critical moments from Metcalf’s life.

NPR Science Correspondent Joe Palca set out to become a college professor and ended up on the radio. He’s in Logan for several events for UPR and USU and he’s Tom Williams’ guest for the hour on Friday’s AU. They’ll talk about the art of reporting on science and the fascinating stories he has covered, including a story from Utah about the dangers of household sponges.

The Greater Sage-Grouse is an iconic symbol of the American West. They thrive in healthy sagebrush ecosystems in prime grazing land. Their population numbers are declining in states across the west. Utah has a population of roughly 20,000 Greater Sage-Grouse and efforts are currently underway to work with private land owners to help protect the bird and preserve the environments they inhabit. An international forum about wildlife management of the Greater Sage-Grouse is taking place in Salt Lake City today and Friday.

Jim Steenburgh says that for many who come to our state, powder is more than snow. It is a way of life.

What happens when newcomers from the suburbs move into farm country? Or when small-scale backyard farmers in cities or suburbs want to continue or begin operations against neighborhood opposition? Sometimes conflicts ensue. How should these be handled?