Utah State News Service

By Lauren Bennett  To convince lawmakers of the dire need for more mental health providers at Utah State University’s regional campuses, student leaders are hoping to demonstrate the issue is being taken seriously by fellow learners across the state. To that end, a vote scheduled for this week on whether to raise student fees by $15 could prove crucial. “It’ll probably take a couple years before the state will increase any funding to address the problem,” said David Bush, a licensed psychologist and the director of the university’s Counseling and Psychological Services office. “But more immediately we thought, well, this year we can at least show the state that the students are willing to put their money where their mouth is.” Bailee Bird, the student executive vice president for the university’s Uintah Basin campus, said increased awareness of where the money will go is vital, because students typically are wary of fees.  “The term ‘adding a fee’ is kind of freaky ...

By Matilyn Mortensen Rezoning land in the Cliffside area of Logan will encourage housing stability, city leaders believe, but likely will also contribute to urban sprawl in Cache Valley. The city council voted Tuesday to rezone approximately 65 acres of land in Logan, shifting lot sizes from six houses per acre to four houses per acre. Russ Holley, the Logan city senior planner, said the rezone is “not a big deal” because both designations are for single family homes. “It’s not like you’re going from residential to commercial, or residential to industrial,” Holley said. “Those kinds of drastic zone changes tend to be very impactful. This is a very minimal change.” The intent of the rezoning is so future development will match already existing neighborhoods. The Cliffside area was zoned for higher density a few years ago as part of the Envision Cache County plan. The goal of the plan is to “keep the city, city and the country, country.” This means preventing urban sprawl to...

By Eddie Collins A spike in Cache Valley’s air pollution earlier this month may have been bad for the health of people in Northern Utah, but it has been good for some researchers at Utah State University. The inversion culminated in the highest level of particulate matter 2.5, or PM2.5, in a single day since 2005. And that has provided researchers with increased accessibility to samples that are crucial for their work. “We want to know what air pollutants do to human health,” said Randy Martin, who researches airborne particulate matter in Utah’s Uintah Basin. “If we’re going to try to quantify that, we need to sample our air pollutants.” Collection of particle samples is Martin’s area of expertise, and it requires understanding of what the particles are made of, their sizes, and how to effectively collect them. During periods of bad pollution, his duties increase with the number of agencies and colleagues who need samples to carry out their own research. Roger Coulombe, a p...

By Zachary Aedo  If there’s a time to celebrate traditions, it’s now. That’s the perspective of students from Utah State University’s Latino Student Union, which is planning its annual Fiesta Americas celebration in the wake of a year in which many of its members felt targeted by hurtful words and hateful attitudes. Club member Karina Hernandez said it was hard “to witness people being so hateful towards our community" during the election season. "First it hurt. It did sting," Hernandez said. "But now we're coming together and creating a network of forces to combat that attitude towards us ... it's forcing us to mobilize and to be stronger than we've ever been before. So if anything, it's definitely bringing us together." For Hernandez, the Fiesta Americas party is a way for the Latino community to come together and keep celebrating its traditions — which can be hard when one lives in "a community that's very much different f...

By Shayne Bair Two Richmond business owners have launched an employer-owned medical center to provide healthcare for their employees. The new center opened Wednesday as one of Utah’s first employer-owned medical centers. The facility is expected to provide low-cost healthcare to the employees of two of the town’s largest businesses, Casper’s Ice Cream and Lower Foods. “It is going to save money for our employees, because we buy them a membership to come here,” Casper’s owner Paul Merrill said. “So now they don’t have to pay towards their deductible when they are coming here.” Lower Foods owner Alan Lower believes the new clinic will save his company money by reducing workers’ compensation claims. “In the workers’ comp world, it is all about minimizing your claims and not having people sit home longer than they need to,” Lower said. “This place will allow us to get our employees back on the job faster, and at a fraction of the cost.” The facility will contract wi...

By Natalie Draper  For weeks, Brad Orme had been telling his grandmother he didn’t believe superheroes. That belief was challenged on Saturday, though, when the four-year-old attended The Family Place’s Superhero Training Academy at Playgrounz in Logan. Brad, living as Captain America for the day, went to the event with his grandmother, Jennie Orme. When Orme asked her grandson how long he had been waiting for the “hero party” he said, “I’ve been waiting for 100 days!” Being excited and being a believer, however, are two different things; he still insisted that heroes were imaginary. At the party, kids of all ages dressed up as Spiderman, Wonder Woman, members of The Incredibles and   other heroes. They also   made masks, conquered an "American Ninja Warrior" obstacle course, engaged in tug-of-war with the Hulk, beat Batman in a Frisbee toss and collected sought-after autographs. Britney Bird, the event coordinator, said the annual superhero event has a...

By Shanie Howard A Utah State University researcher believes his team might have found a potential vaccination for Zika virus. Justin Julander, an associate professor with the university’s Institute for Antiviral Research, has been working on Zika with funding from the National Institute of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since December. Now, he said, he’s ready to publish some of the team’s findings. “We’ve identified several anti-viral agents and a few vaccines that are effective in treatment and prevention of Zika,” said Julander, who plans to submit a paper about the discoveries by the end of this week. Up to this point, these vaccinations have only been tested on mice, and would still need to undergo clinical trials before being distributed to those infected or at risk of infection. It’s not the first time a potential vaccine has been identified. Clinical trials got underway for one possible inoculation on Tuesday in Baltimo...

By   Ayanna Likens Cache County is scrambling for salt to clear the roads — and the money to pay for it. After facing nearly non-stop snowstorms, Matt Sprague, a snow plow driver, said this is the first year the county has run out of salt. “We have been going through more salt this year than any other year,” Sprague said. “The plow drivers have been working 18-hour days to find more salt and to clear the roads.” Steven Thomas, another snowplow driver for Cache County, said there is not enough salt in Northern Utah bays. As a result, drivers have been making a four-hour-round-trip drive to Grantsville just for salt. “We are out of salt all the way to Ogden,” Thomas said. “Because of the shortage, keeping up with the snow has been a challenge this winter season.” Cache County Council members said they used up their entire annual salt budget in the first month of the year. “We never expected this to happen, so we are taking money from different places to fund the salt,”...

By Jessica Dryden An anti-abortion organization is working to introduce "healthy relationship education" to students in Cache County. Leaders from The Center for Pregnancy Choices, a "life-affirming" organization that provides support for individuals facing unexpected pregnancies, said they have been in contact with officials from the Logan and Cache County school districts about enrolling students into their program. “We rely on God for help, and we have good communication with Logan and Cache County schools,” center director Valerie Byrnes said. “They like the message we offer.” That message: Relationship Education and Leadership, or REAL, an abstinence-focused curriculum package developed by the Denver-based Center for Relationship Education. “Lack of healthy relationship education is a problem,” said Katie Harris, a volunteer at the Logan pregnancy center and certified sexual risk avoidance specialist, a designation bestowed upon her by the National A...

By Eddie Collins  The concentration of fine particulate matter in the air reached a high of 102.6 micrograms per cubic meter on Friday — a level of unhealthiness that even those in often-smoggy Cache County haven’t experienced in a long time. “I don’t think we’ve had levels that high in probably 12 years,” said Josh Greer, the air quality program manager at Bear River Health Department. “Best way I can categorize it is definitely unhealthy; doesn’t really matter who you are.” The levels of particulate matter 2.5, which is responsible for the decreased visibility and general toxicity of the ambient air, were nearly triple the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for allowable concentration. PM2.5 is particularly dangerous due to its ability to penetrate deep into a person’s lungs, causing serious health issues for anyone with prolonged exposure, especially to high concentrations. “We have roughly 100,000 vehicles here that fill up the narrow, deep valley with p...

By Abby Bart  Utah author and historian Rebecca de Schweinitz will appear at the Orem Public Library on Thursday at 7 p.m. to discuss the role of children in the Civil Rights era as part of the library’s Black History Month series. De Schweinitz, a history professor at Brigham Young University and author of  If We Could Change the World: Young People and America’s Long Struggle for Racial Equality , was a consultant on the creation of the newest American Girl doll. The doll, named “Melody,” is a young African American girl living in Detroit, Michigan, during the Civil Rights Movement. “I’m planning to talk a little bit about the time period of the story, and especially what it was like for children living in this era,” de Schweinitz said. She plans to read a few excerpts from Melody’s story, as well as “talk about some of our hopes for the Melody project.” Orem Public Library event coordinator Marilee Clark said the library’s staff hopes to re...

By Natalie Draper  A new project aimed at strengthening relationships around children impacted by trauma has been launched by a Logan-based non-profit. The Trauma Resiliency Project at The Family Place began on Jan. 3. “Our goal is to build and foster relationships by helping the child deal with and regulate emotions while helping the caregiver recognize those emotions,” said Tiffany Gleason, the patient care coordinator for the project. While several organizations in Logan recognize and treat trauma, “the Family Place focuses on family relationships rather than strictly focusing on the individual,” project director Manny Zizumbo said. “The attachment piece is huge for us.” Zizumbo noted that childhood trauma has been linked to medical issues developed later on in life. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood trauma can have a tremendous negative impact on lifelong health. Preventing those long-term consequences is a key goal of t...

By Matilyn Mortensen  Logan city leaders and volunteers are working to improve air quality by educating residents about the effects of idling — and they’re starting by taking small steps with young allies. “Early on we were looking for this silver bullet or this grand thing that’s going to improve our air quality,” said Paul Rogers, a community volunteer. “Well, it’s now become clear, I think to all parties, that it’s going to take a lot of little fixes to improve our air quality.” One “fix” is the 2014 amendment to the Logan anti-idling ordinance. This made it illegal to idle a vehicle for longer than two minutes in temperatures above zero degrees — something that tends to happen a lot around schools as parents wait to pick up their children. To combat this, Rogers is working with the Logan City School District, and alongside other volunteers, to put up signs informing drivers of the anti-idling ordinance. Educational programs and materials will be available as well...

By Madeline Thorpe For the first time, North Logan’s Valentine’s Day dance will be open to couples as young as 25, rather than just senior citizens. The dance will be held on   Feb. 10   at Greenville Elementary. The city has been hosting a Valentine’s Day dance for the past few years. The dance has received positive feedback but, after listening to citizen input, officials decided it was time to make some changes. Linda Smith, North Logan’s recreational coordinator, is hoping to get more of the community involved by expanding the age limit. A babysitting service, which will be provided in the library of the school, is also new this year. “We want to make sure we can help make it possible for everyone to attend,” Smith said. That came as welcome news to North Logan resident Ethan Evans. “I am glad they lowered the age limit because this is my first year being married on Valentine’s Day, and I was in need of a date idea,” Evans said. “This pre-planned dance ...

By Zachary Aedo Mexican restaurant owners serving their country’s traditional dishes throughout Northern Utah expressed dismay at President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose a 20 percent tariff on Mexican imported goods to fund the building of a border wall. Angelica Madrigal, the owner of Patricia’s Restaurant in Ogden, said a tariff would negatively affect her business and mean her restaurant would have to “fight once more for profit” against local competition. Madrigal said the majority of the food her restaurant serves is made from Mexican-imported produce such as avocados, chili peppers and onions. The locals' favorite Mexican soft drink, Jarritos, is also imported. Madrigal said she would be angry if Trump were to impose the tariff because "here one pays taxes upon taxes upon taxes without receiving any support from them. Here it's all about paying taxes." Although Patricia's Restaurant will soon have been serving Mexican food for five years, Madr...

By Monica Esparza  As the nation’s largest beer maker brews up controversy with  a Super Bowl commercial  celebrating its German founder’s immigration story, Utah State University is sharing a similar tale of ale in its first alcohol-themed exhibit. On Jan. 26, the university’s Merrill-Cazier Library launched “Utah Brews: The Untapped Story of Ogden's Becker Brewing and Malting Company,” an exhibit focusing on the story of John S. Becker, who immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1845 to escape European imperialism — and to brew beer. The exhibit was coordinated by Utah State student Cody Patton and manuscript curator Clint Pumphrey, who worked together for more than six months to tell the story of Becker and his pilsner-making progeny. “I found this project particularly interesting because even though I have grown up in Utah my whole life, I had no idea that breweries played a significant role in the state’s history,” Patton said. The...

By Lauren Bennett  Many hogs being raised by 4H participants in Utah may be carrying a gene that can negatively impact the texture and taste of their meat, according to an agricultural researcher at Utah State University.  Josh Dallin, a specialist in livestock, horse and agriculture for Utah State’s 4-H extension, conducted a research project involving the genetic mutation in market hogs. According to Dallin, a small sampling was collected at the beginning of last year in Kane and Garfield counties, and many tested positive for the Rendement Napole gene, also known as RN.  The RN gene produces pig meat that is “soft, pale and watery,” Dallin said, and also caused to meat to taste leathery, “almost like eating a boot.” A more recent DNA sample from 140 hogs was collected from all around the state of Utah between May 2016 and September 2016. The results were sent in for testing in late 2016 and 4-H received them in early 2017. The test results fou...

By Abby Bart  Children’s author Nora Ericson and her sister, artist Lisa Ericson, will appear at Salt Lake City's King’s English Bookshop on Saturday at 11 a.m. to promote their second co-written children’s book, “Dill and Bizzy: Opposite Day.” The sisters will read a special extra-large version of the book while in costume as the characters of the story, Dill and Bizzy. They will sign copies of the book for people who purchase them from The King’s English Bookshop, and lead a craft activity for children attending the event. This book is the sisters’ second story about these characters, and a follow-up to “Dill and Bizzy: An Odd Duck and a Strange Bird,” which they published a year ago. The second Dill and Bizzy book puts the characters’ friendship to the test, when Bizzy decides it’s Opposite Day, “and drags a somewhat reluctant Dill through a series of Opposite Day activities,” Lisa Ericson said. The book was published on Jan. 24, just...