KZMU News

Best of KZMU News week continues! We’re reflecting on another year of grassroots, community powered journalism. Today’s featured story first aired in October, not only on KZMU but on community radio stations across our region as part of a collaboration between the Solutions Journalism Network and Rocky Mountain Community Radio. We gave it a ‘best of’ for its collaborative approach, and for trying something new (to us) - digging into a response to a problem, aka solutions journalism.

Original Broadcast

https://www.kzmu.org/short-and-long-term-solutions-at-walnut-lane/

Community Rebuilds and affordable, efficient housing

​​https://www.kzmu.org/monday-november-1-2021/

This week, KZMU News reflects on another year of grassroots, community powered journalism. Today’s featured piece first aired in October, after we learned that residents along Kane Creek Boulevard were facing evictions due to future development. We gave it a ‘best of’ for its straightforward approach - prioritizing local voices directly affected by this situation.

Original Broadcast

https://www.kzmu.org/facing-eviction-along-kane-creek-road-locals-worry-over-housing-options/

Close-knit ‘Charlie-wood’ Residents Tell Story of Displacement, Housing Insecurity

https://www.kzmu.org/close-knit-charlie-wood-residents-tell-story-of-displacement-housing-insecurity/

It's Best of KZMU News week! We're reflecting on another year of grassroots, community powered journalism by airing some of our favorite stories of 2021. Today’s piece first aired in June, shortly after a fire broke out in the Pack Creek day use area. It’s a pretty raw interview, an extended conversation with a Pack Creek local who shares their experience watching the fire grow into the mountains. We gave it a ‘best of’ for its community radio power – locals informing locals during a difficult time.

Original Broadcast

https://www.kzmu.org/news-extra-thoughts-from-a-pack-creek-area-resident/

Fighting Fire with Fire: Prescribed Burns on the Local Ecosystem

https://www.kzmu.org/fighting-fire-with-fire-prescribed-burns-on-the-local-ecosystem/

Dear listener, KZMU News is on a break Thursday and Friday. We will be back on Monday to broadcast some of our favorite stories of 2021 – the best of KZMU News! Plus, each day next week we will share reflections on those stories to celebrate another year of local, grassroots, community-powered journalism. Stay tuned for our ‘Best Of’ week and thanks (as always) for supporting KZMU – your community radio station.

Music in this piece:

Little Grass Shack by Voodoo Suite

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Voodoo_Suite/blissbloodcom/Little_Grass_Shack

For nearly a century, Colorado’s North Fork Valley relied on coal for high-paying jobs and a thriving economy. But as mines close their doors, they leave behind a troubling legacy: leaking methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and global leaders are taking it seriously. One entrepreneur is a step ahead, using his business to address methane emissions while also tackling other environmental problems. Plus, more and more people headed into the backcountry this year – and many rescue groups have seen an increase in calls. That puts pressure on volunteers who help respond to emergencies.

Show Notes:

Photo: Eric Edwards (left) and Chris Caskey (right) search for the best quality sediment for brickmaking. Delta Brick & Climate Company manufactures building materials from excess clay sediment and will soon capture waste methane from an abandoned coal mine. Credit Stephanie Maltarich/KVNF

KVNF: Climate action through creative entrepreneurship in the North Fork Valley

https://www.kvnf.org/news/2021-12-16/climate-action-through-creative-entrepreneurship-in-the-north-fork-valley

Mountain West News Bureau: Some backcountry rescue groups see increase in calls

https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/news/2021-12-22/some-backcountry-rescue-groups-see-increase-in-calls

Over the weekend, Davina Smith rode on horseback to a spot in Monument Valley where her family buried her umbilical cord, a Navajo tradition tying her to the area. It’s that area she hopes to serve in Utah’s House of Representatives. Smith recently announced her candidacy for Utah’s newly redrawn House District 69, which includes all of San Juan and Grand Counties. Plus, Moab City recently updated their water conservation plan, outlining action items to achieve regional water goals. The plan encourages water preservation to steady against an ‘uncertain future.’ And later, discussions on the future of the Colorado River have wrapped up in Las Vegas, and the BLM’s National Headquarters is shifting back East.

Show Notes:

Photo: Davina Smith announced her candidacy for Utah’s newly redrawn House District 69. She is the first Diné woman to run for Utah state legislature. Courtesy KUER/Kate Groetzinger.

Moab City Water Conservation Plan Update 2021

https://moabcity.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/4371?fileID=5513

Utah ranks near the bottom for school nurse to student ratios. Today on the news, we speak with the only nurse in the Grand County School District about her work and why it’s so important. Plus, archaeologists found a monument at a Utah internment camp that imprisoned Japanese Americans. The prisoners there built it for a man killed by a guard. But earlier this year, the Topaz Museum removed it with a forklift before informing the former prisoners and their descendants. Our radio partners report on the reaction from the Japanese American community.

Show Notes:

Photo: Topaz survivor Masako Takahashi, of San Francisco, ties a handmade paper flower to the fence near where James Wakasa was killed during a ceremony for Wakasa at the Topaz internment camp site in Millard County, Utah on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. Photo by Briana Scroggins for KUER, with permission from the Topaz Museum.

KUER: Long-lost monument brings up a painful legacy for Utah Japanese internment camp descendants

https://www.kuer.org/race-religion-social-justice/2021-12-06/long-lost-monument-brings-up-a-painful-legacy-for-utah-japanese-internment-camp-descendants

Today on the news, an interview with activist Hy Thurman, who helped found Chicago’s Young Patriots Organization in 1968. The organization fought for affordable housing and health care, and later joined with the Black Panther Party and Young Lords to form the Rainbow Coalition, an influential multi-racial network. As labor issues heat up around the country, Thurman shares some lessons for rural areas like Southeastern Utah.

Plus, the Weekly News Reel where we discuss stories about the Moab area with the journalists and editors who reported them. Doug McMurdo of The Times-Independent (13:00) discusses Arches’ 2022 reservation system, a lost appeal for a man who killed a Moab resident in 2018, and the new Grand County EMS building. Maggie McGuire of the Moab Sun News (22:00) has details on the city council’s decision to fund the replacement of the Pack Creek footbridge.

Show Notes:

Photo: The cover of a March 1970 edition of ‘The Patriot: A Peoples News Service,’ a white revolutionary newspaper. The Young Patriots Organization formed in the late 1960s, later joining the Black Panthers and the Young Lords to form the multi-racial Rainbow Coalition. Credit Washington Area Spark

Read the transcript of this interview:

https://www.kzmu.org/activist-hy-thurman-on-the-rainbow-coalition-labor-organizing/

Revolutionary Hillbilly by Hy Thurman

https://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Hillbilly-Hy-Thurman/dp/1587905515

Music Featured in the Hy Thurman Interview:

Body Busy Blues by techtheist

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/techtheist/fma2021-part-2/body-busy-blues

I Have Found a Way by Jacob Henry & Bill Jolliff:

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jacob_Henry_amp_Bill_Jolliff_1928/Music_From_the_True_Vine_2002/I_Have_Found_a_Way

Dirty Old Frogg (ID 359) by Lobo Loco:

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/NIce_Nowhere/Dirty_Old_Frogg_ID_359

Weekly News Reel Mentions –

The Times-Independent: Arches to pilot timed entry in 2022

https://www.moabtimes.com/articles/arches-to-pilot-timed-entry-in-2022/

The Times-Independent: Man who killed Moab resident loses bid for new trial

https://www.moabtimes.com/articles/man-who-killed-moab-resident-loses-bid-for-new-trial/

The Times-Independent: New EMS building is ‘substantially completed’

https://www.moabtimes.com/articles/new-ems-building-is-substantially-completed/

The Times-Independent: Two truckers dead following head-on collision

https://www.moabtimes.com/articles/two-truckers-dead-following-head-on-collision/

*The Moab Sun News story will be added once available online*

After staff condemned the Pack Creek footbridge behind the Episcopal Church earlier this year, the city council has decided to fund its replacement. The bridge is used by local bicyclists and pedestrians as a shortcut from Kane Creek Boulevard to Main Street. Replacing the bridge to modern standards will take time and an estimated $300,000. Plus, the state of Colorado reached a $1.6 million settlement this week related to the Gold King Mine spill. And, federal law enforcement arrested a Telluride man over the weekend for his alleged involvement in the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol.

Show Notes:

Photo: The Pack Creek footbridge behind the Episcopal Church was condemned by city staff. This week, the city council allocated $300,000 to its replacement, calling it vital infrastructure for many local bicyclists and pedestrians. Courtesy Moab City

Moab City Fiscal Year 2021-2022 Amendment

https://moabcity.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/4367?fileID=5499

In just a few weeks, Moab’s new mayor and two new city council members will assume their offices. Today on the news, we check in with Moab’s mayor elect Joette Langianese as she prepares for her new role in the community. Langianese discusses why she decided to run for mayor, and outlines her priorities during her first few months in office, which include stabilizing city hall and supporting workforce housing.

Show Notes:

Photo: Moab’s mayor elect Joette Langianese will assume office on January 3, 2022.

Moab City 2021 Election

https://moabcity.org/236/Election-Information