Ted Hartwell is a victim of the federal government shutdown. He is one of several researchers at the Desert Research Institute who have been told by the federal government to stop working. The institute is the research arm of the Nevada System of Higher Education. In 2011-12, about 81 percent of its research projects were funded by federal dollars.

For six years an impressive exhibit of works by contemporary Japanese artists has been touring the globe, landing in cities in Germany, Spain, India and Vietnam, with stints in South American and Eastern European countries.

Adele Morris of the Brookings Institution is proposing a policy that she says would fix both the energy and fiscal problems of the United States simultaneously. A carbon tax - across all forms of fossil fuel energy - would raise additional revenue, encourage energy conservation and stimulate the development of new forms of renewable energy that would not attract the tax. She tells us why it's a great idea for the Mountain West.