Access Utah

"I didn't know about sex trafficking until I was in the middle of it. I found out that they actually had chosen me." 

So goes a clip from the website of Shared Hope International, which seeks to combat child sex trafficking. The problem is growing internationally, and it's here in Utah. You've probably seen the report- girls as young as 14 were coerced into performing sex acts for Utah men who patronized the back rooms of three Salt Lake area so-called massage parlors. We're going to talk about this problem with John Swallow and Kirk Torgerson from the Attorney General's office and Linda Smith from Shared Hope International. 

Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York who's impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. he trudged around the US and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than 50 women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. 

Bullying is receiving a lot of attention right now, which seems an opportune time to discuss it on Access Utah. According to The Bully Project's website, 13 million kids will be bullied this year, and 3 million will be absent from school, because of it. Some kids may take their lives. 

Today on Access Utah, Sheri Quinn talks with writer Patrick Radden Keefe. With the drug-related violence in Mexico thriving, understanding how the drug industry operates is crucial to combatting it. Keith investigated the business side of the blooming illegal drug trade and in June 2012 his report, Cocaine Inc. was published in the New York Times Magazine.

We've been hearing about the death of Twinkies. The closure of the company Hostess has the public fearing the treats such as Twinkies and Ho-Hos, and has shined a spotlight on unions. 

A recent headline from Fox Business reads: "Death of Twinkies a Union Contract Hit." Others have differing opinions, and a headline from Salon.com reads: "Vulture Capitalism-not unions- killed Twinkies." 

Utah's laws underwent extensive reform a few years ago, and now Sen. John Valentine is creating a bill that would create a "master license" for hotels, which would free up licenses currently required for the restaurants, catering services and bars inside the hotels.  

The control of alcohol is a vexing problem from state to state, and Utah has an interest in controlling alcohol for public safety reasons. That's asserted by many citizens, but if state laws are seen as too restrictive, it may harm the economy. 

One mother  talks about the gap between when her son is seen as "normal", and when he's seen as "not normal."  She's talking about his invisible disability - a disability which at first glance isn't readily apparent, and includes intellectual impairments such as autism and other disorders. 

We're talking immigration on Access Utah, specifically illegal immigration. There are an estimated 110,000 illegal immigrants in Utah according to the Pew Center, and more may arrive. The Republican Party's stance on immigration seems to be softening after the election, although not in Utah. Some legislators are suggest pushing back the controversial guest worker act. 

We talk to Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and others about immigration for the hour. 

Today on the program Sheri Quinn talks to paleontologist Dr. Kenneth Carpenter about recent advances in the study of dinosaurs and why Utah is one of the best places on earth to study them.  

At 9:30 science questions explores the era after the extinction of the dinosaurs, the Eocene, where mammals ruled the planet.

 With the expansion of mobile computing, we are all more or less living in the "cloud." We are either having services or storing our music, movies documents and pictures on someone else's server. The advantages are lower cost and accessibility. Some of the concerns: changing definitions of ownership. 

Today on Access Utah we explore the cloud, the good and the bad and ask you for your input. What is it about the "cloud" that has you either utilizing it or abstaining from it?