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South Jordan, UT — Utah is rapidly emerging as a national leader in regenerative medicine following the passage of a landmark bill supporting the advancement of stem cell therapies. The legislation is expected to expand access to innovative, non-surgical treatment options— particularly for individuals suffering from chronic knee pain and degenerative joint conditions.
For many Utah residents dealing with knee arthritis, meniscus damage, or long-standing joint pain, traditional options have often been limited to medications, injections that mask symptoms, or invasive surgery. Now, regenerative medicine is offering a different path—one focused on supporting the body’s natural ability to heal.
Among the most promising therapies are stem cell treatments and A2M (Alpha-2-Macroglobulin) therapy. Stem cell therapy uses specialized cells to help repair and support damaged tissue within the knee joint, while A2M—derived from a patient’s own blood—targets inflammatory enzymes known to accelerate cartilage breakdown. Together, these therapies aim to reduce pain, improve mobility, and potentially slow the progression of joint degeneration.
These advanced treatments are often combined with complementary therapies such as knee decompression, rehabilitation protocols, and precision-guided injections. When applied correctly, this comprehensive approach is changing how physicians manage degenerative knee conditions—without the need for surgery in many cases.
One clinic at the forefront of this movement is Freedom Integrated Medicine in South Jordan. Known for its expertise in treating knee pain, the clinic specializes in ultrasoundguided injections, allowing providers to deliver regenerative therapies with a high degree of accuracy directly into affected knee structures.
This level of precision, combined with a thorough diagnostic process, has positioned Freedom Integrated Medicine as one of Utah’s most trusted leaders in regenerative medicine. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all
approach, their team focuses on identifying the root cause of knee pain and determining whether a patient is a true candidate for these advanced therapies.
As regenerative medicine continues to gain momentum, medical professionals emphasize the importance of proper evaluation and individualized care—especially for complex joints like the knee, where accurate diagnosis and targeted treatment are critical to success.
For individuals struggling with knee pain and looking for alternatives to surgery, Freedom Integrated Medicine is currently offering a comprehensive evaluation for $49. This includes regenerative knee exam, Xray’s and custom treatment plan. This offer is only available until May 16th, 2026.
To learn more or schedule an evaluation, call Freedom Integrated Medicine today.
DESERET
The fight over water in the West
As temperatures climb, here’s how 7 states are negotiating over dwindling water resources
By Gitanjali Poonia and Eva Terry Deseret News
The seven states connected to Colorado River share at least one thing in common: all are feeling the pain of trying to cut their water consumption from the iconic Western waterway.
As the current guidelines over how to divide water resources in dry years expires, the states have a deadline of Oct. 1 to come to a new agreement.
This is no small feat. The states have been stuck in a stalemate over water cuts for more than two years, with the Upper Basin states — Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming — at odds with their Lower Basin neighbors — Arizona, California and Nevada.
The urgency for these Western states to f inalize a deal is greater than ever amid the record-breaking heatwave and generational drought moving through the Mountain West.
“It’s way too early to be having 80-degree weather and of course, the snowpack is a concern,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said last month during his monthly news conference. In Phoenix, Arizona, temperatures have been over 100 degrees for multiple days in March, marking the earliest 100-degree weather in the city’s recorded history.
While the last Colorado River agreement lasted two decades, current negotiations have focused on a potential shortterm agreement, based on the grim water forecasts this year.
The root of the issue comes from the states’ original 1922 compact, which was based on unusually wet years, allocating each basin 7.5 million acre-feet of water.
Through the next century, populations exploded across all seven states, and the river’s level withered through overconsumption and long-term drought.
Colorado River flows have shrunk 20% since 2000, and in 2026, its largest basins sit at critical levels. Lake Powell is 25% full; Lake Mead is 34% full.
What’s water usage been lately?
Both basins use less water than is appropriated to them.
Between 2016 and 2020, the Upper Basin’s total consumptive use averaged 4.6 million acre-feet per year, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. Meanwhile in 2024, the Lower Basin used 6.1 million acre-feet.
About 60% of the basins’ water consumption is for agriculture and livestock.
Both Colorado and Utah have battled severe snow droughts and record-warm summers in the past decade. Wyoming fared better, but it can’t avoid the strains on the system.
To the south in New Mexico, low snowpack and prolonged drought have also reduced flow. The state doesn’t sit on the main Colorado River but pulls from a tributary, the San Juan River.
The 1948 compact allocated 51.75% of the Upper Basin’s 7.5 million acre-feet to Colorado, 23% to Utah, 14% to Wyoming and 11.25% to New Mexico.
Meanwhile, California enjoyed the highest apportionment of water of roughly 4.4 million acre-feet. Arizona is entitled to 2.8 million acre-feet and Nevada 0.3 million acre-feet.
But as the Upper Basin experienced “natural” mandatory cuts every dry year, the Lower Basin is subject to mandatory federal cuts. In 2021, the Colorado River system faced a Tier 1 shortage, and escalated to Tier 2 in 2023. It has since reversed back to Tier 1.
In 2025, California decreased its Colorado River water consumption by 14% — the lowest use level since 1949. In that time, the state’s population has quadrupled.
Meanwhile, Arizona decreased its Colorado River consumption 32% in 2024. The cuts led to most farmers losing access to their share of the river’s water supply.
Nevada also faced cuts, but the state has managed to
“decouple water demand and population growth,” Las Vegas Fox5 reported.
What does the Upper Basin want?
Upper Basin states are hesitant to commit to guaranteed releases from Blue Mesa, Flaming Gorge, and Navajo dams to meet water demands in the Lower Basin.
Utah representatives say that requiring such releases is unsustainable and delays the problem of over-consumption.
Lower Basin water demands were initially met by the Upper Basin releasing water storage from Lake Powell and Lake Mead, but “that storage is essentially gone,” Utah’s Colorado River commissioner, Gene Shawcroft, told the press in mid-February.
“So reductions have to occur to be on par with what the
Kristin Murphy, Deseret News Boaters lounge on rafts near a mudbank at Lower Ten Cent campsite in Cataract Canyon on the Colorado River on Sept. 19, 2024.
system will actually provide,” he said.
If Lake Powell, which sits above the Glen Canyon Dam, continues to release more water than it accumulates, it could present serious problems for the West. Turbines in the dam generate power for more than 1 million homes at maximum capacity.
However, if water elevation dips below 3,490 feet, power generation comes to a halt. And if it falls beneath 3,370 feet, it becomes a dead pool, and water cannot pass through the dam.
Amy Haas, the executive director of Colorado River Authority Utah, told the Deseret News that discussions “have pivoted to the possibility of a shorter-term agreement, focusing on the dire hydrology and grim forecasts for this water year.”
She referenced projections showing Lake Powell declining to levels that cease power production and jeopardize infrastructure at Glen Canyon Dam.
“The latest reports show that Upper Basin snowpack peaked at the lowest date on record and at its lowest level since the early 1980s. We are in serious trouble on this river,” she said.
What does the Lower Basin want?
The Lower Basin group argues that all seven states should share the burden of cuts.
The Colorado River may begin in the Upper Basin, but the way Arizona sees it, the federal government wants “to balance a water shortage completely on” the Grand Canyon State’s back, as Gov. Katie Hobbs said.
Historically, the lower basin states are governed by the “junior water rights system,” which has made Arizona bear the largest burden of cuts.
In 2023, the three lower basin states agreed to commit to reducing their water use by about 14% through 2026. Despite
this move, Arizona believes a long-term and sustainable solution is necessary.
Hobbs, a Democrat who brokered a deal with Nevada and California and secured the meeting with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, is now leaning on Arizona’s businesses to bring in more water from the Colorado River.
Hobbs made the case for Arizona to get more water at the recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce “Keep America Moving” summit.
“I f irmly believe Arizona has the most to offer in advancing national priorities of AI, national defense, and technological advancement,” the governor said. She also noted the importance of Arizona’s semiconductor industry, which is key in the AI arms race against China, and the aerospace and defense sector, which becomes crucial amid the ongoing conflict in Iran.
Arizona is also responsible for about 25% of the entire lettuce supply nationwide and about 90% of the leafy greens and winter vegetables.
“This administration must step in, show leadership, and help the seven states come to a reasonable and fair agreement and ensure Arizona has the ability to defend our nation, feed our nation and build the high-tech economy of our nation’s future,” Hobbs said.
In a statement to the Deseret News, her off ice said the primary goal is for all seven basin states to “share the responsibility of water conservation to save the Colorado River.”
“While Upper Basin states have rejected proposals to commit to water use reductions of 2% each year, Arizona remains at the table ready to negotiate a deal.”
“Arizona water users are demanding an equitable plan to manage the Colorado River, and Gov. Hobbs is committed to working with anyone to achieve this outcome and chart a
sustainable course forward for the Basin.”
Meanwhile, Utah has clashed Arizona over how the latter has characterized the negotiations.
At the end of February, Shawcroft scheduled a press conference to address the Lower Basin’s reporting about the ongoing negotiations.
“When we see and hear the press indicating that the Upper Basin states were unwilling to do anything, that’s simply not true. ... The Upper Basin did have a plan. We put that plan on the table, and it was not accepted. It wasn’t countered. It just simply wasn’t accepted,” he said.
What’s next?
If the seven basin states haven’t come to an agreement by the end of the summer, the Department of the Interior will impose a plan.
Since odds are low that every basin state will agree to a federally proposed plan, the most likely outcome is years of litigation, which would go straight to the Supreme Court.
As for Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox said last month that the state should anticipate water restrictions through most of the summer.
However, the state “actually had a good water year,” he said. “If you look at precipitation from October to now, we’re really close to normal. It hasn’t been bad.” The problem is snowpack, which is at a record low.
Most of Utah’s reservoir storage comes from snowpack, so state leadership is hoping for a very wet spring and an early monsoon season.
“I would remind people that all of the decisions around cutbacks happen at the local level,” Cox added. “So we’re in constant contact with our water managers all across the state; they know what they need to do.”
Spenser Heaps, Deseret News archives
The curved concrete wall of Glen Canyon Dam holds back Lake Powell in Page, Ariz., on July 19, 2022.
By Valerie Braylovskiy Deseret Magazine
If there was ever a golden age of farming, it was the early 20th century, when rural life anchored the nation. More than half of Americans lived outside cities, and nearly half the workforce farmed — growing diverse crops by hand and earning a living directly from the soil. Those days are gone.
Today, the U.S. loses an average of 63 farms each day. That’s more than 23,000 each year since 2017. That means that between 2017 and 2024, 162,000 farms — nearly 13% of the national total — went out of business. It’s a loss of nearly 24 million acres, an area larger than Maine.
Most of these farms that are going out of business in the U.S. are family-owned, small farms — with an annual gross income below $350,000. Large farms that gross over $1 million are continuing to expand, producing nearly half of the country’s total domestic food output while accounting for less than 4% of total farming operations in the country.
The numbers don’t paint a bucolic picture. While median farm household income exceeded the national average, over half of small farms are running on profit margins below 10 percent. For new farmers, startup and operating costs now require millions in upfront capital. Making ends meet is nearly impossible for most, and the few who do make a profit are almost always large commercial operations.
Caught between consolidation, trade wars, rural flight and record production costs of nearly $482 billion in 2023, the majority of American family farms are teetering on collapse. For generations, the government has tried to save them with bailouts. So far, it hasn’t slowed the number of family farms going out of business year over year.
Since 1933, subsidies and crop insurance have pumped an inflation-adjusted average of $17.6 billion annually into farm income. But those dollars now flow mostly to the largest operations — those with the most acreage and commodity crops like corn and soybeans — allowing them to expand by buying up land from neighboring small farms. In 2022, around half of the farms that participated in the federal crop insurance program were small family farms. Despite that, they received just 12% of the payouts. Large and medium farms, which accounted for 42% of participants, collected 80% of the funds.
Government payouts don’t provide as much relief to small farmers as they do commercial operations, and short-term bailouts paid by the federal government have been widely criticized for weak oversight and uneven distribution.
An analysis of early Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payments — totaling $5.6 billion — found the top 1% of recipients received more than 20% of the funds, while the bottom 10 percent got just 0.26%. Despite a $250,000 cap on payments, large operations often bypassed limits through eligibility loopholes. Titan Swine, a conglomerate of Iowa hog producers, claimed over $2.5 million. Small, family farms didn’t receive as much help.
Jonathan Coppess, former administrator of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency and professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, uses this kind of example to stress how “bailouts” for farmers are the very thing that
No bailouts
Can the American farmer hang on?
can drive midsize and small family farms out of business.
Last December, the Trump administration announced another $12 billion in one-time “bridge payments” for farmers that produce row crops like soybeans and corn ahead of expected funding later this year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Farmers and lawmakers across party lines dismissed it as a “Band-Aid” that ignored structural problems.
“How many bridge payments can there be?” Coppess says. “I don’t think we’re learning the right lessons here, and we’re certainly not learning the right lessons from history because we’ve seen these problems before.”
The United States was built on the ideal of the American farmer: self-reliant, hard-working, abundant. But the reality is a hundred years of hard times. The number of American farms peaked at 6.8 million in 1935, then fell sharply midcentury. Since the 1970s, they’ve continued to steadily decrease.
If decades of policy and payouts were meant to save American farmers, then why are we still losing them so dramatically?
In 1932, months before Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, Farmers Union president John Simpson issued a warning. “My candid opinion is that unless you call a special session of Congress … and start a revolution in government affairs, there will be one started in the country,” Simpson wrote the president-elect in a letter. Dust Bowl droughts, Depression-era debt and collapsing markets had pushed farmers to the brink.
Roosevelt responded by signing the New Deal’s 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act, paying farmers to cut acreage and stabilize prices — putting millions of acres out of use to revive demand. After the Supreme Court struck down parts of the law for creating artificial
David Plunkert, for Deseret Magazine
Photo by Marty Feely
scarcity, Congress passed a revised version in 1938, financed through federal revenues and laying the foundation for the modern Farm Bill. The USDA’s Farm Security Administration — precursor to today’s Farm Service Agency — began offering land-purchase loans, resettlement housing and health care, raising participating farm families’ net worth by 21% in its first year.
These safety nets were unprecedented. But the farmer’s role as a political figure — both celebrated and defiant — long predated them. George Washington released a militia against farmers protesting grain taxes during the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion. Thomas Jefferson called farmers America’s “most valuable citizens.” By the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Homestead Act of 1862 — granting land to aspiring farmers — and the creation of the USDA formalized support, even as populist movements rose in protest of falling crop prices and land speculation. Even 164 years ago, farmers needed help to get started and to get by.
“Already in the 18th century, there’s this ideal of the self-sufficient American farmer that just wasn’t true,” says Peter Simons, an environmental historian at Hamilton College in New York. This “tension,” as he puts it, is always going to be there. It’s why farmers were catapulted into powerful political symbols early on — the tension is “so unsatisfying,” he says, because those whose work it is to feed the country and who serve as a symbol of its bounty have always struggled, and the American government has struggled to support them.
That struggle hasn’t always been evident, politically or otherwise. Under the 1941 Lend-Lease Act during World War II, farmers ramped up production to feed Allied nations, even as many were drafted. Within three years, output rose 16%. After the war, President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Food for Peace program exported surpluses abroad, turning agriculture into a tool of Cold War soft power.
“Most of the world is devastated because of World War II, and American farmers step in to fill this void,” Simons says. “They perceive that they’re holding communism at bay in the rest of the world.”
But at home, the costs mounted. Between 1940 and 1980, the farm population dropped from about one-quarter of Americans to less than 3%, while the average farm size more than doubled. The Green Revolution, urban sprawl and USDA pressure to “get big or get out,” as Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz famously put it, accelerated consolidation. When the U.S. sold massive portions of subsidized wheat to the Soviet Union in 1972, farmers took on heavy debt. By the 1980s, high interest rates and embargoes triggered another farm crisis. Over the decade, more than 250,000 farms went out of business, and hundreds of thousands defaulted on loans. In 1985, the U.S. saw its highest number of bank failures since the Great Depression, in large part because farmers simply couldn’t make it.
That year’s farm bill, the most expensive in history at that time, aimed to stabilize the sector while initiating a deeper restructuring of federal support. Price supports were lowered to match global markets and loan deficiency programs introduced direct payments when prices fell below targets. A decade later, the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act completed the shift — eliminating remaining price supports, ending acreage limits and mandating crop insurance to receive subsidies — leaving small and midsize farms newly exposed to global market swings.
Ryan Dennis, author of “Barn Gothic: Three Generations and the Death of the Family Dairy Farm,” grew up on his family’s dairy farm in upstate New York as those changes took hold. Deregulation gutted milk price supports — briefly restored in 2002, then ended again in 2012. Between 2003 and 2019, the U.S. lost over half of its dairy farms. His family sold theirs in 2008.
“To me, the big issue is that (farmers) felt unseen and unheard for so long, and that’s had consequences,” Dennis says.
A 2016 Journal of Rural Studies analysis found farmers’ trust in government plummeted after 1968. Between 2002 and 2008, not a single surveyed farmer said they trusted the federal government “just about always.”
“Farmers have a really long memory,” says Pam Lewison, a fourth-generation farmer and agricultural policy research director at the Washington Policy Center. “If you continually get bit over and over and over again, eventually that loyalty erodes and it turns into something different.”
Once a volatile voting bloc swayed by commodity prices, farmers are now a smaller share of the electorate, folded into broader rural politics. In the 444 farming-dependent counties designated by the USDA, about three-quarters of voters supported President Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and again in 2024. His promises to revive rural America resonated, but his trade policies during both terms destabilized markets, triggered billions in federal aid and left many farmers uncertain where their loyalties lie.
“He doesn’t seem or act like a person who is going to help someone from a farm,” Dennis says. “But because he promised to disrupt the system, that was attractive to farmers. In my opinion, it did nothing but hurt them.”
With most agricultural lobbying now driven by agribusiness, the gap between policy and farmers’ needs has only widened. Lewison argues the problem is more about perception than partisanship. Farmers are often reduced to caricatures — either faceless conglomerates or nostalgic pastoral figures.
“There are all kinds of farmers, and there are all kinds of people on farms,” Lewison says. She believes there’s a disconnect between who farmers are and the picture that government policy has painted of them; that “farmers aren’t people who are aware of the things that happen to them politically (and) the broader world around them.”
When a family business is running on razor-thin margins, all it takes to shut down the operation is a little bit of bad luck. A disease like bird flu or brucellosis infects a herd. Drought wipes out a crop. A combine breaks down.
That’s why when grain farmer and former Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, entered Congress in 2007, he bought duplicate versions of nearly every piece of equipment to keep his farm running while he was in Washington. In recent years, modern farm machinery has become so digitally dependent that a single malfunction can mean days of waiting for a technician, and thousands in losses. A 2023 U.S. PIRG Education Fund report estimated that farmers lose $3 billion annually to tractor downtime and another $1.2 billion in excess repair costs.
Tester’s Agricultural Right to Repair Act, introduced in the Senate in 2022, requires manufacturers to provide farmers access to diagnostic tools and software. Dozens of states have proposed similar laws, but only Colorado has passed one that covers farm equipment.
“The good lord played a trick on me,” Tester says, recalling a tractor failure shortly after introducing the bill — and the $800 repair that amounted to resetting a computer code. “It’s amazing to me that
you can buy a tractor with a computer and not own the computer.” Equipment costs are just one pressure farmers can’t control these days. In the first half of 2025, the U.S. posted a record $28.6 billion agricultural trade deficit. Soybean prices sank under Chinese tariffs, with farmers shouldering an estimated market loss of $89 per planted acre. Cattle ranchers faced their own strain after record prices, spurred by restrictions on imported beef from Brazil, fell steeply as Trump opened the U.S. market to increased imports from Argentina. Shawn Arita, a former USDA economist, estimates losses of $35 billion to $44 billion across nine major commodities in 2025.
As so many farms shut down, the land and resources they leave behind are reshaping America’s role in the global food system. Foreign ownership of U.S. farmland has risen 67% in less than 10 years. The termination of USAID in mid-2025 threatens not only future farm income, but also international agricultural research — millions once funneled through U.S. universities into disease management, crop resilience and climate adaptation. Food insecurity in farmingdependent counties rose nearly 12% between 2013 and 2023, though the USDA has since stopped tracking much of that data. Budget cuts also wiped out roughly $1 billion in local food programs connecting farms to schools and food banks.
“If the purpose is to generate commodity exchanges, then this is a terrific system,” says Andrew Flachs, an anthropology professor at Purdue University. “But if the purpose is to feed hungry people and sustain rural communities in place, then we need to think of a better system.”
No one knows when the next bailout will arrive, what the new Farm Bill — up for renewal in September — will deliver or how many more farms will disappear before then. Farming has always been a gamble shaped by weather, markets and politics. But today, the odds are stacked almost entirely against those still playing.
“If things don’t change, it’s hard to figure out how things are going to pencil out moving forward,” Tester says. “I watched my neighbors leave en masse in the 1980s, and I’m watching my neighbors leave now, too.”
How many more decades of loss can American agriculture endure? At the current pace — more than 23,000 farms lost each year — within three generations, the nation’s remaining 1.6 million small and midsize family farms could all be gone.
This story appears in the March 2026 issue of Deseret Magazine. Learn more about how to subscribe.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Farmland is pictured in Farr West, Weber County, on June 10, 2025.
‘Ready for Work’ program offers workplace training, developmental counseling and vocational certifications
By Jackie Asher Church News
While some people see Deseret Industries thrift stores and donation centers as regular secondhand stores, Houston store manager Dale Kerr knows they are much more than that.
Deseret Industries serves as training facilities for those facing employment barriers. Employees — called associates — all participate in a program called “Ready for Work” throughout their employment. This job training program prepares associates for future employment opportunities and is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ efforts to help individuals achieve self-reliance.
“It’s what Christ would do if He were here on the earth,” said Kerr. “He would help people better their situations and better who they are.”
What is Ready for Work?
Ready for Work is a 13-week program where Deseret Industries associates receive workplace training and development counseling to help them overcome barriers to employment.
“I tell people it’s like a stepping stone in their career path,” said Kerr.
Throughout the program, associates meet one-on-one with operations supervisors to learn about workplace behaviors that fall into one of f ive categories: dependability, productivity, professionalism, teachability and teamwork. Associates rate themselves on how well they currently exemplify each skill and set goals for improvement.
Additionally, professional counselors help associates identify and pursue opportunities for vocational training, such as receiving CNA, automotive repair, phlebotomy or welding certif ications. GED assistance can also be provided. Kerr said people from all walks of life participate in the Ready for Work program.
“Some, it might be their f irst job, and some, they might be returning back to work after several years of not working, and some, it may be a career change,” he said. “So we facilitate and help people on their path. We meet them wherever they’re at.”
According to the Church’s Caring for Those in Need 2025 Summary, the 46 Deseret Industries stores in the United States helped 10,653 individuals complete the Ready for Work program in 2025. The program has been translated into Spanish, Swahili, French and Arabic.
An emphasis on self-reliance
Deseret Industries is one of several programs headed by the Church in an effort to help individuals become self-reliant. Other programs include employment services — where individuals can receive hands-on help with resumes and
interview skills — and transitional services, which helps individuals facing signif icant life challenges such as incarceration, homelessness or displacement rebuild their lives and regain stability.
“The Lord is very heavily invested in our lives and genuinely cares about our path to self-reliance,” said Deseret Industries program manager Mark Thornton. “Our Father in Heaven wants His children to be taken care of temporally and spiritually. To the Lord, they’re one and the same.”
Kerr said that when individuals are self-reliant, new
opportunities for growth arise.
“You can’t grow spiritually unless your temporal needs are met. And so we help meet those needs for the people that are employed here in our training program,” he said. “As we help there, then it just opens the door for the Spirit to touch their lives.”
A living witness
Thornton called himself a “living witness” of the Ready for Work model.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints A Deseret Industries associate smiles while working at the cash register.
Thornton began working with Deseret Industries in 2008 after losing his job as an accountant during the Great Recession. His bishop initially suggested that he apply to be a job coach at Deseret Industries — now called an operations supervisor — but when there were no openings available, Thornton was hired as an associate.
Although Ready for Work hadn’t been developed when Thornton was an associate, he said the same principles of encouragement and hope for the future were exemplif ied by his supervisors, which he said “changed my life dramatically.”
He worked as an associate for a year and a half before being hired as a job coach, eventually being promoted to assistant store manager, project manager and now program manager.
Thornton was working as an assistant store manager when Ready for Work was developed about eight years ago. A self-proclaimed analytical thinker, Thornton said he had been very focused on the business side of Deseret Industries. That changed when the job training program was implemented.
“I would say it made me start thinking correctly about the program, from less of a managerial or cost-accounting perspective to more of a people-person or Christlike leadership perspective.”
Building conf idence
Kerr said it’s amazing to watch people’s conf idence grow as they meet with their operations supervisors and develop new skills.
“I love coming to work every single day,” he said. “To see people make even small steps, and the joy that brings them and the happiness, and it’s just like, ‘Wow, I’ve done something. I’ve accomplished something.’ That makes it all worth it every single day to come to work.”
Kerr recalled a man he worked with several years ago who thought he was completely unemployable.
“As he worked through the Ready for Work program, it really opened up his eyes. He started to realize that he had skills and abilities that he didn’t recognize.”
This man — who once thought he would never have a job — got his commercial driver’s license through Ready for Work and now works as a truck driver. Kerr says that man stops by and says thank you whenever he’s in town.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
An associate at Deseret Industries sorts shoes at one of the D.I. thrift stores.
CHURCH
Andy Reid to narrate ‘Music & the Spoken Word’ on July 5
Kansas City Chiefs head coach joins special broadcast as guest narrator as part of America 250 celebrations
By Christine Rappleye Church News
Andy Reid, the Kansas City Chiefs head coach, will join The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square as a guest narrator during a special broadcast of the “Music & the Spoken Word” on Sunday, July 5, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the United States’ Declaration of Independence.
Reid, a three-time Super Bowl champion and one of the most respected coaches in the National Football League’s history, will reflect on the principles of unity, perseverance and faith that have shaped the American story, according to a March 19 announcement on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
“I spent more than a decade just down the road from Independence Hall [in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], where our Founding Fathers put pen to paper on the Declaration of Independence,” said Reid, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He worked for the Philadelphia Eagles football team as coach and other positions from 1999 to 2012.
The Founding Fathers “were the ultimate team — facing adversity, staying the course and building something that has endured for 250 years. I’m honored to join The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square to celebrate the birth of our nation in a place that reflects the same spirit of unity and faith,” Reid said.
“Music & the Spoken Word” will be presented live twice on Sunday, July 5 — the Sunday after the United States’ Independence Day on July 4 — at 9:30 a.m. MDT and again at 11 a.m. MDT. The broadcasts can be viewed or listened to on television, radio and the choir’s YouTube channel. (See Musicandthe SpokenWord.com to see where to watch or listen.)
The broadcasts will continue to originate from the Tabernacle on Temple Square through 2027. Tickets will be required to attend the July 5 broadcasts, and information on obtaining tickets will be released at a later date, according to the announcement.
Reid previously directed the Tabernacle Choir when the choir performed in Philadelphia’s Mann Theater on July 7, 2003, as part of the choir’s Northeast tour.
He said of the experience at the time was that it was “the thrill of thrills. I’ve been to the Super Bowl; this was right up there.”
The Tabernacle Choir and orchestra’s rendition of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” is part of “America’s Soundtrack,” a national music collection created to commemorate the 250th anniversary, ChurchofJesusChrist.org announced on March 5.
It’s one of three songs that were on the America250 YouTube channel earlier this month. More music has been added.
About ‘Music & the Spoken Word’
The 30-minute weekly “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast includes several songs performed by the 360-voice choir and 85-musician orchestra, an organ solo and a spoken message.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid of the National Football League will join The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square as guest narrator for a special program on July 5, 2026, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. Photo taken at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 12, 2024.
Derrick Porter has been the producer, principal writer and presenter of “Music & the Spoken Word” since June 2024. The broadcasts are free and tickets aren’t required. The allvolunteer choir and orchestra’s Thursday evening rehearsals are also open to the public. See TheTabernacleChoir.org for information about attending.
Tabernacle Choir President Michael O. Leavitt said, “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square lends its voice in celebrating the freedom of religion proclaimed to the world in the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago.”
The “Music & the Spoken Word” f irst aired on July 15, 1929, and the 5,000th episode aired in July 2025.
EVENTS
FESTIVALS
EARTH DAY FESTIVAL
DATE: April 23
TIME: Noon-1:30 p.m.
LOCATION: 1840 S. 1300 East, Salt Lake City
Celebrate Earth Day with hands-on activities.
NIHON MATSURI/ UTAH JAPAN FESTIVAL
DATE: April 25
TIME: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
LOCATION: 100 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City
Join us for a day of celebration of Japanese culture, food and music.
OGDEN CINCO DE MAYO FESTIVAL 2026
DATE: May 2
TIME: Noon-7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: 343 25th St., Ogden
Entertainment from mariachi to folklorico.
CONCERTS & LIVE MUSIC
JOSHUA BELL
DATE: April 21
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: 800 W. University Parkway, Orem
Grammy Award-winning violinist showcases his talent at The Noorda.
LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE
DATE: April 25
TIME: 8 p.m.
LOCATION: 301 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City
This show will take you on an unforgettable musical journey.
AMERICA 250 PATRIOTIC CONCERT
DATE: April 30
TIME: 7 p.m.
LOCATION: 58 N. State, Orem
The Timpanogos Chorale celebrates 250 years of American independence.
NATHAN PACHECO
DATE: May 1
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: 3209 Music Building, Provo Step into a night of beauty and inspiration with a classically trained tenor.
THEATER & COMEDY
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
DATE: April 18-26
TIME: Varies
LOCATION: 131 S. Main, Salt Lake City
The Phantom is back to thrill audiences once again!
COME FROM AWAY
DATE: April 24-May 9
TIME: Varies
LOCATION: 300 S. 1400 East, Salt Lake City
When the world stood still on 9/11, an unexpected resilience unfolded in a remote Canadian town.
SHAUN JOHNSON
DATE: April 25
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: 425 W. Center Street, Provo
Come see this hilarious, clean, one-man show.
SCHOOL OF ROCK: THE MUSICAL
DATE: April 30
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: 745 S. State, Orem
Musical based on the hit movie.
SPORTS
UTAH SOFTBALL VS. BYU SOFTBALL
DATE: April 23-25
TIME: 5 p.m. (Saturday, noon)
LOCATION: 102 S. Wasatch Drive, Salt Lake City
The Cougars and Utes tangle once again.
SALT LAKE BEES VS. SACRAMENTO RIVER CATS
DATE: April 28-May 3
TIME: 6:30 p.m. (Sunday, 2 p.m.)
LOCATION: 11111 S. Ballpark Drive, South Jordan Bees host Giants' Triple-A affiliate.
BYU BASEBALL VS. UTAH BASEBALL
DATE: April 30-May 2
TIME: 6 p.m. (Saturday, 1 p.m.)
LOCATION: 400 E. University Parkway, Provo The rivalry reignites on the diamond.
REAL SALT LAKE VS. PORTLAND TIMBERS
DATE: May 2
TIME: 2:30 p.m.
LOCATION: 9256 S. State, Sandy RSL aims to chop down the Timbers.
COMMUNITY & MARKETS
STARS, STRIPES, AND SKILLS: 4-H AMERICA 250 WORKSHOP
DATE: April 20
TIME: 6 p.m.
LOCATION: 1181 N. Fairgrounds Drive, Ogden
Get creative, learn new skills, and work on projects that you can enter in the 4-H Indoor Exhibits at the Weber County Fair
SPRING FLING BOUTIQUE
DATE: May 1-2
TIME: 1 p.m.-7 p.m. (Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.)
LOCATION: 163 W. Laker Way, Ogden Spring boutique, cafe and garden plants.
ART IN THE PARK 2026
DATE: May 2
TIME: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
LOCATION: 1985 W. 7800 South, West Jordan Local artists and live music.
Chelsey Allder, Deseret News archives
Tyler Uyeda and Sam des Etoiles perform at the 10th annual Nihon Matsuri Japan Festival in Salt Lake City on April 25, 2015.
GAIN CONFIDENCE
WITH OUR RETIREMENT PLANNING CHECKLIST:
Is my estate protected so I can stay in my own home if I have longterm care expenses?
Will I maintain my purchasing power through high inflation and market volatility?
Do I understand probate and how to avoid it?
Are my assets protected from being forced to surrender to Medicaid?
Has my CPA talked with me about eliminating taxes on my Social Security benefits?
Do I know why a trust may be more effective than a will and why I may need one?
Am I aware of the tax and legal consequences of placing children on my bank accounts or home?
When donating to charity (including tithing) do I donate tax efficiently?
Is my retirement income protected from taxes and inflation, so I don’t outlive it?
