High Country News August 31, 2009
Feature
The dark side of dairies
A combination of lax laws and poor oversight leaves dairy workers vulnerable to exploitation and on-the-job dangers.
Editor's Note
How the West made cheeseburgers cheap
Our cheap food has a high price tag, especially for workers on the West’s big dairy farms.
Dear Friends
A wedding, a story
Visitors; editor's note on Gary Paul Nabhan's piece about Jon Jarvis.
Romancing the stone
Maurice McKinney has long delighted the staff of High Country News with lively letters about his life as a rockhound.
Two Weeks in the West
The new Third World
While some Americans fight over healthcare reform, others line up at dawn to receive free care at a temporary clinic in Los Angeles.
Uncommon Westerners
From Tuscany to the Mohave
Guiseppena Bellandi Perry remembers the events -- and the husbands -- who brought her from her native Italy to the desert of Needles, Calif.
Book Reviews
As the crow flies
In Crow Planet, Lyanda Lynn Haupt looks to the corvid family for lessons about life.
Writers of the Native American Renaissance
Native American literature is collected and analyzed in the anthology In Beauty I Walk.
Current
A new land grab
The Oglala Lakota are determined to reclaim both their land and cultural heritage.
Agency Watch
Lawless future
State parks are facing a budget crisis all their own, especially in California.
Evidence
Extinguished
Firefighters are dying for different reasons as wildfires in the West become more extreme.
Focus
Solar salvation?
Timber companies and unemployed workers are looking to renewable energy for an economic boost.
Sidebar
Dairy injuries and deaths 2003-2009
Dairy work is dangerous, but lax laws and reporting requirements make it difficult to tell how many people are hurt or killed in dairies each year.
