Access Utah

Today on the program we explore the connection between fire, prehistory, and biodiversity with researchers in Nevada who reviewed anecdotal and anthropological data on the historical uses of fire in the Great Basin. Their literature review revealed how lessons learned from the uses of fire hundreds and thousands of years ago can improve modern land management practices.

Should Utah take federal money and expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act? Governor Herbert is pushing for expansion using $258 million in federal dollars.

Wednesday on AU we remember Ed Abbey, author of “The Monkey Wrench Gang” and “Desert Solitaire,” and consider his legacy. What is Abbey's relevance today? What is the status of the environmental movement today?

A while back, UPR listener Derek Butcher emailed us saying that he’s pleased that “UPR has devoted a fair amount of airtime to discussions of Utah's air quality...which is great because it's an important issue that affects all of us."

On Monday’s Access Utah we’ll not only talk about key writers of the Beat Generation--such as Allen Ginsburg, Philip Whalen, and Kenneth Rexroth, but we’ll hear their voices as well. John Suiter, author of “Poets on the Peaks,” a book about Beat poets and their experiences as fire lookouts in the Northwest during the 1950s, discovered some historic photographs and audio tapes during his research.

NASA and a team of four aerospace companies are ready for two missions that will propel humans into outer space. The space shuttle launch and Orion rocket are ready for launch towards deep space starting in early fall this year.

Living in the second-driest state in the U.S. most of us are closely attuned to water issues, especially as we face changes to our climate. Three experts at USU recently chose water as the topic of their TEDxUSU talks.

What’s the best way to involve people in the political process? Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney is in favor of the Count My Vote initiative, which would mandate a change to direct primaries to determine party nominees. He says that the current caucus and convention system excludes many people and rarely reflects how rank-and-file party members feel.

It’s a tradition that every year about this time “Evening in Brazil” presents a concert or two in northern Utah. And each year, we gather group members in UPR’s studio C to enjoy some great Bossa Nova and Samba on Access Utah. Linda Ferreira Linford, Christopher Neale, Eric Nelson and Mike Christiansen will join us with their music on Tuesday. We hope you will too, beginning at 9:00 a.m.

We’re putting more and more of our lives in the cloud. More and more our transactions are electronic. Which is convenient and fast. But is it safe? How secure is all that stuff in the cloud or moving around electronically, like your credit card information or your bank records?