July 2020

January, 2019, Utah. I traveled 5,000 miles to a foreign country that would be my home for the foreseeable future. I’d left France, my country of birth, to marry the love of my life. I knew marriage would not be easy at all times and I had a feeling my …

When I was first getting into prison abolition in 2016, I wrote a future manifesto for 2021 titled “WE HAVE PEACE! NO MORE POLICE!” to commemorate 50 years since the September 1971 uprising in the Attica, New York prison in response to the killing of G …

CHAKRA SIX Location: between the eyebrows. Governs: circadian rhythms. Main issue: intuition. Externalizes: as the pineal gland. Element: light. When balanced: we feel imaginative. Color: is a harmonic of INDIGO. Key words: vision, seeing, sleep, dream …

An estimated one million people pass through the doors of the Main City Library every year, logging on to the library’s public computers, checking out the latest display of new books, or simply watching the magnificent glass elevators float up and down …

July 1  Average temperatures today: high 90º, low 64º. Sunrise: 6:10am. Sunset: 8:56pm. July 2  Garlic at a glance: Hardneck and softneck (Allium sativum) and elephant (Allium ampeloprasum). Hardneck garlic has shorter shelf life but larger cloves and …

Economic discrimination and racism are needed by tyrants big and small to perpetuate their unfair and unjust dominion. Locally, two of the most egregious unfair, unjust and unnecessary forms of discrimination revolve around access to health care and th …

The Central Wasatch Commission is the governmental entity that emerged from the Mountain Accord process, which focuses on  transportation, economy, recreation and environmental stewardship for Central Wasatch Mountains. The organization, headed by form …

The White Mesa Mill in San Juan County is seeking permits to import radioactive waste from Estonia, a northern European country with a population less than half that of the state of Utah. The mill, located near the Ute Mountain town of White Mesa, is t …

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has released a Lake Powell Pipeline Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the multi-billion dollar water boondoggle to send Colorado River water to the Saint George area. An appendix on environmental justice, s …

Acclaimed Utah author Terry Tempest Williams has previously written eloquently about The Open Space of Democracy (2010), but her new book, Erosion, is a tour-de-force. Williams is a witness to civic erosion and a fierce advocate for citizen engagement. …

In June the Salt Lake City School District Board of Education passed a resolution to go carbon-free by 2050. This fall, the district will form a Sustainability Leadership Task Force to develop a plan and track the district’s carbon footprint. The resol …

In response to a temporary slump in oil prices during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, the Trump Administration gave the fossil fuel industry a huge handout by reducing royalties for oil and gas companies operating on federal public lands. Royalties are a …

Utah Senator Mike Lee, an advocate for privatization of federal public lands, has been boasting that a transfer of federal water infrastructure is a “minor miracle” that will give “local control” to Emery County and Uinta Basin water districts. In a ne …

A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil and gas lease sale scheduled for September 2020 threatens to drastically alter the landscape of southern Utah, affecting more than 114,000 acres near Canyonlands, Arches, Capitol Reef, Bears Ears, Labyrinth Canyon, …

I’m far more concerned about journalism. I’ve debated abortion with evangelicals and politics with demons of all afflictions, but I have never seen the hate, sarcasm and shaming as on both sides of the mask/no-mask issue. It is logic spiraling in on it …

Osho Zen Tarot:  Turning In, Inner Voice, Postponement Medicine Cards: Turtle, Turkey, Whale Mayan Oracle: Manifestation, Cauac, Portal of Transcendence Ancient Egyptian Tarot: Two of Cups, Three of Cups, Eight of Disks Aleister Crowley Deck: Works, Pr …

As an introvert, I’ve been spared the particular COVID – related hardship that comes from quarantine. Still, certain necessary sacrifices have recently proven to be bittersweet. For example, I miss teaching in-person yoga classes, but with infections r …

Salt Lake City’s transportation response to Covid-19 challenges us to reconsider what it means fora street to be “Open” In the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in late March, we were asked to stay at home and venture outside only to meet essential …

I’m a huge fan of risky behavior in the garden. The edge is where the action is. Our seasonal weather in Utah is a wild ride to be sure, and you never quite know what the next week will bring. A boss level gardener strives to bring in a harvest in all …

From March through April when Utahns were asked to “stay home, stay safe” as much as possible to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) saw a decrease in traffic of about 40-50%. As a result of so many fewer p …

Central Wasatch stewardship The Central Wasatch Commission is the governmental entity that emerged from the Mountain Accord process, which focuses on  transportation, economy, recreation and environmental stewardship for Central Wasatch Mountains. The …