Tuesday April 16, 2013

Careers in the Foreign Service and The Work of the U.S. Department of State

Maxwell Stoneman, Foreign Service Officer

As the National Day of Silence approaches this Friday the 19th, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center is honoring allies who reach out to people who are marginalized to give mutual respect and inclusion. Kai Martinez is the director of the center located on the campus of the University of Utah. He says Ally Awareness Week puts the focus on the support system.

After the explosions in Boston Monday, one Salt Lake City mother was relieved to find out that her daughter was safe at the Boston Plaza Hotel. But the family is still having trouble getting past the incident.

Rennly Williams says she didn’t see or hear the explosion at the finish line. Her boyfriend Tom Hickenlooper had finished the race 10 minutes before – faster than he expected because of a knee injury. Just a little slower, and he and Williams might have been there for the blast. 

The emergency medical and public safety communities in Salt Lake City are welcoming a new traffic system that allows faster, safety patient transport to trauma centers.

Troy Madsen is an emergency physician at the University of Utah. He says in a crisis situation, saving minutes and even seconds can be the difference between life and death.

The early estimates of the size of the Bingham Canyon mine slide show that more than 165 million tons of rock and dirt have slid into the bottom of the mine. That makes this slide the largest to ever happen there. Kennecott Utah Copper spokesperson, Kyle Bennett, says it will have a large impact on their yearly copper production.

"The 165 million ton slide does translate, unfortunately, into a reduced production of refined and mined copper of about 50 percent,” he says.

  Communities across Utah are planning for another statewide earthquake drill Wednesday morning – and each one has its own emergency planning issues to deal with. 

West Valley City, for example,  is miles from the Wasatch Fault, but it has unique vulnerabilities.  There are a couple of faults running under the city, and Fire Marshal Bob Fitzgerald says the lake bed soils over most of West Valley could liquefy in a strong earthquake

The Salt Lake City Police department re-evaluates security plans for the Salt Lake City Marathon, the Utah Legislature likely won’t reconvene to overturn the veto of HB76, and the Salt Lake County District attorney drops more drug cases involving the West Valley City Police Department.

Friday April 12, 2013

Nonviolent Struggle: Past Use and Future Potential

Jamila Raqib, Executive Director, Albert Einstein Institution and assistant to Dr. Gene Sharp

Friday April 12, 2013

Barack Obama and the Future of Liberalism

Charles Kesler, author, I am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism

Co-Sponsored by The John Adams Center for the Study of Faith, Philosophy and Public Affairs