Is America running out of workers? According to a December 13, 2018 report by The Conference Board—a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching and addressing looming business issues—2019 may be a historically tight year in the labor market. This will be especially true in blue-collar industries like mining, manufacturing, maintenance, agriculture, and others … [Read more...]
Love Letter to Panguitch: One of Utah’s Hidden Gems
Panguitch and I go way back. When I was a kid, my mom, grandma, and great-grandmother would throw my brothers and me in the car and we'd drive from Idaho Falls to Panguitch to visit my great-great aunt who lived in a restored house across from an abandoned LDS church house. On our first night in town, a truck with what seemed like every kid in town piled in the bed, … [Read more...]
Can We Learn From Happy Rats?
A famous experiment: isolate a rat in a cage and give him a choice between water and water laced with cocaine; eventually the rat will stop drinking healthy water and overdose on cocaine water. This experiment was repeated in the 1950s and it developed our modern theory of addiction proving that cocaine and other narcotics are irresistibly addictive. This experiment made … [Read more...]
Human-Scale Design, Native Plants and Paths are the Norm in Moab’s New Suburb
Juxtaposed against Moab’s red rock landscape, the paved path down the urban section of the Mill Creek riparian corridor can feel like Alice’s Wonderland. Following a perennial stream, the verdant parkway meanders across bridges and through underpasses past gems like the Youth Garden Project, the city dog park, Utah State University Moab, and a well-maintained community bike … [Read more...]
Open Space and Mental Health
It’s an accepted fact that physical activity and eating a nutritious and varied diet can improve our health and well-being. But when it comes to our mental health, what we eat and how much we move around is often only part of the equation. Mental health issues like depression and anxiety disorders have traditionally been the purview of health care professionals. But a … [Read more...]
Empty Boxes—How Utah Communities Adapt When Amazon Washes Away Brick-and-Mortar Retail
The following story was researched and written by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with Utah Stories. On January 2, 2018, Amazon announced it had shipped 5-billion items through its Prime services alone in 2017. That year also saw many traditional retail stores washed away by the swift waters of change brought by online commerce. Macy’s had to … [Read more...]
History of the Suburbs in the United States How the Utopian Dream Never Materialized
The suburbs are a uniquely American invention. But how did they come about? Back in the late 1930s, after America suffered the worst ravages of the Great Depression, most agreed that big cities with congestion, poverty, industrial pollution and blight, must be drastically redesigned. Lewis Mumford’s The City, was a propaganda film offering an alternative vision to cities for … [Read more...]
Asphalt in the Wilderness? Sandy Residents Say No Thank You
Tempers flared earlier this year when some residents learned about so-called improvements to the scenic Dimple Dell Regional Park in southeastern Salt Lake County. When they voted in November for a bond that included $4 million in upgrades for the 650-acre park, the last thing they expected was to hear that the plans included asphalt paving of a 3-mile portion of a trail in the … [Read more...]
Healthy Cities, Healthy People
We recently spoke with Dr. Brett Mciff, physical activity coordinator at the Utah Department of Health. Brett has spent his career working to improve the public health in Utah through encouraging regular physical activity. The benefits of active living are numerous and well documented: Stress relief Better management of diabetes Decreased risk of heart attacks and … [Read more...]
Jefferson, Hamilton and Marriner Eccles
“There is a problem with Capitalism,” I hear young people say. “Capitalism and corporations are killing this country!” But is capitalism really the problem? Capitalism is a system that works if that system isn’t manipulated by special interests. The founding fathers knew that decentralized power was a key to creating opportunity but capitalism has the tendency to centralize … [Read more...]