Rich get richer while everyone else wallows in a region once known to be economically egalitarian.
Jonathan Thompson
Jonathan Thompson is a contributing editor at High Country News. He is the author of Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands. Follow him @LandDesk
Posted inFebruary 2, 2015: This Land is Their Land
Goats at the table, and bobcats on (in) the grill…
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inJanuary 12, 2015: What Are We Thinking?
The Cow Liberation Moovement, bear tizzies and more
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
After a ski patroller’s death, a flurry of questions
Forest Service permitting issues complicate a southwestern Colorado tragedy
Posted inArticles
Is altitude causing suicide in the West?
Researchers find that high elevations may affect our emotions in both good and bad ways
Posted inArticles
The oil boom hasn’t busted, but it’s straining at the seams
Oil patch communities and states are starting to feel the impacts of sliding prices.
Posted inArticles
Killings by cops are much more common in Western states
Arrest-related death rates are highest in New Mexico, with Nevada and Oregon close behind.
Posted inArticles
The linchpin to a national supergrid
Clovis, New Mexico, may link three grids and become a renewable energy hub.
Posted inArticles
Gentrification comes to Denver
With the right policies, the city can be desirable and affordable.
Posted inNovember 24, 2014: Transportation Transformation
Light rail enters the West’s most sprawling metropolis
New transportation sparked a renaissance in Denver. Can it do the same for Phoenix?
Posted inArticles
Water use is lower than it’s been in 45 years
U.S. population has grown by 105 million people since 1970, yet we somehow shrank our water footprint.
Posted inNovember 10, 2014: Fallout
Keep the spray out of the oatmeal
One advertisement urged housewives to “MURDER Flying Pests” with the Black Flag bomb, which basically consisted of aerosol DDT. Another exhorted parents to cover the walls of their kids’ rooms with Trimz DDT, “a children’s room wallpaper” infused with pesticide to protect babies from flies, mosquitoes and ants. Parents Magazine said the wallpaper was perfectly […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2014: Fallout
Will falling oil prices kill the shale revolution?
The current drilling boom is more sensitive to price fluctuations than its predecessors.
Posted inArticles
Extraction taxes are on the ballot
North Dakota and Nevada voters might learn something from Wyoming.
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
The Latest: When wind and solar need reliable backup power
Western grid operators can now buy backup power on a real-time, open market to smooth intermittent renewables.
Posted inArticles
NASA finds methane hot spot over Four Corners
The culprit is the extensive fossil fuel industry infrastructure, not just fracking or coal mines.
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About the price of oil
Since rig counts follow oil prices, the current slump will hurt Western economies.
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The 21st century’s Hoover Dam?
What a huge Wyoming wind and Utah storage project tell us about the West’s energy landscape.
Posted inArticles
Is Denver the Houston of the Rockies — again?
Even greenie hotspots get their economic mojo from fossil fuels.
Posted inArticles
A cyclist’s plea to motorists
Cars are a deadly weapon and drivers need to take care.