Utah State News Service

By Jason Walker  The Facing Project came to Logan on Friday with its newest show, “Facing Depression in Cache Valley,” which took aim at stereotypes of people who struggle with depression in their lives. Students from the Utah State University Department of Theater Arts performed short monologues at the school’s Black Box Theater, telling the stories of Cache Valley residents who had sat down with writers to share their story of how they overcame depression. “Our main goal,” said Matt Omasta, the director of the performance, “was to take the stories that we had and portray them as authentic as possible to try to reach a wide audience and create a piece that would be engaging and interesting, but honor the stories we were working from.” The Facing Project is a national nonprofit which works with communities to put on performances to address a variety of issues, including mental health. Jenni Allred, who organized the Facing Depression project, said depression is very...

By Lauren Bennett This month’s temperatures have been 7.6 degrees warmer than average — and that’s likely to be just the start of warming to come, a National Weather Service scientist said today at the annual Spring Runoff Conference at Utah State University. “This is something we’re going to have to deal with,” said Brian McInerney, the senior hydrologist at the service’s forecast office in Salt Lake City. Anomalous temperatures in February and March indicate that temperatures are rising earlier in the year and by increased margins. The consequence this year has been rapid snow melting — and flooding — in Northern Utah. The early melting is a direct result of the warming conditions and it has significant impacts on Utah’s economy, as flooding can cost millions of dollars in repair damages, McInerney said. In a world in which carbon emissions continue at high levels, temperatures could increase by 12 degrees by the year 2100. A low-emissions scenario projects a 7-degree in...

By Lauren Bennett  When Utah State University-Brigham City student Kyle Dority was unsure about whether he’d done everything necessary to keep his financial aid package, he did what school leaders suggest: He reached out to an adviser. Dority said he was relieved to hear the adviser tell him that “it would be fine.” It wasn’t. Dority, who ended up losing the financial aid he was asking about, called the situation “frustrating.” And he’s not alone. USU-Brigham City’s dean, Tom Lee, said he’s heard from several students who have complained about advising. “I always hate to hear that, but sometimes it happens,” Lee said. “Advising almost always comes up if you talk to students.” Lee said he’s hoping events like the campus’ first “Dinner with the Dean,” which was held earlier this month, will create an open space for communication between students and faculty, offering the information needed to make changes to problems, such as those he’s hearing about with the advising pr...

By Abby Bart  They roasted one another. They lauded each other. They shared embarrassing stories. And then they danced. Saturday brought the latest installment of the Provo City Library’s AuthorLink series, featuring New York Times best-selling young adult authors – and close friends – James Dashner, Brendan Reichs and Ally Condie in a raucously unconventional book reading, signing and panel discussion. The event was intended to promote Dashner’s “The Fever Code,” the final installment in his “The Maze Runner” series, and Reichs’ “Nemesis,” the debut novel in his new duology. It was to be moderated by Ally Condie, the author of the “Matched” trilogy. But the authors had something else in mind. The revelry started as Condie and the library staff entered the venue — a small, blank-walled space known as “The Attic” that held more than 100 fans — and shed their jackets to reveal T-shirts with pictures of Reichs and Dashner. The shirts were intended to reconcile Reichs...

By Ben Nielsen Trail advocates in Northern Utah are trying to remind members of the public to treat the region’s trails with respect. Just five people are responsible for maintenance of trails crisscrossing more than 2,800 square miles in three Northern Utah counties. “So when you see people ask, ‘ugh, why aren’t they maintaining the trails?’ well, there just isn’t funding for that,” said trails planner Dayton Crites, who is hoping two upcoming meetings will help gauge opinion on trail preservation. Because there simply aren’t enough resources available to fix the damages that can be done by inconsiderate people, Crites would like fellow hikers to stick to established trails and to avoid creating new ones. “If you make trails everywhere, you can damage watersheds; you can damage environments and animals coming through,” Crites said. “If everyone does that, it’s 4,000 people and all of a sudden this nice trail becomes an erosion patch.” Crites said he appreciates the work o...

By Anapesi Kaili  Olivia Fatongia felt ignored when she first arrived in Northern Utah. Then 23 years old, Fatongia said she spent weeks trying to get the leaders of Utah State University’s wrestling club to take her seriously. “When I finally showed up to practice, they took me lightly,” she said. “They thought I was a joke.” Then the two-time Hawaii state champion and 185-pound national champion got on the mat. “After seeing me wrestle, I think they changed their minds,” she said. “We have now all become good friends.” It wasn’t the first time she had to fight for respect, nor was it the last. And these days she’s fighting again – this time alongside the wrestlers she coaches, who have taken their struggle for equality from the mat to the courtroom. Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Central Davis Junior High School had to allow one of Fatongia’s wrestlers to try out for the school’s previously all-male wrestling team — at least so long as th...