Many Westerners live in poverty, but even more lack health insurance. U.S. Percentage below poverty level: 12.6 Percentage without health coverage: 15.7 New Mexico Percentage below poverty level: 17.9 Percentage without health coverage: 21.1 Arizona Percentage below poverty level: 15.2 Percentage without health coverage: 8.1 Montana Percentage below poverty level: 13.8 Percentage without health coverage: […]
News
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
‘They both do not exist’
“They both do not exist.” — Wyoming Attorney General Patrick Crank, equating the federally protected Preble’s meadow jumping mouse with the mythical jackalope. Crank made the comparison at a congressional hearing on the mouse in Greeley, Colo., in September. U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., led the hearing. This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Will Montanans reject their bagman?
The answer may determine which party controls the Senate
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Ballot box hangover
Repairing Oregon’s model land-use system will take years
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Duke City dustup
The nation is watching the race for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Unpaved with good intentions
New easements keep farmland in production despite spiraling property values
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Running on empty in Sin City
The Colorado River states pin thirsty hopes on Las Vegas’ lust for Great Basin groundwater
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Fractures on the right
The West’s moderate Republicans battle their party’s extremists
Posted inSeptember 4, 2006: Blast from the Past
The anatomy of an energy lease
How a city’s watershed was opened for natural gas development
Posted inSeptember 4, 2006: Blast from the Past
When can the BLM say ‘no’?
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “The anatomy of an energy lease.” If a BLM or Forest Service management plan OKs an area for leasing, BLM officials say they have little power to prevent drilling. “The bar (for withholding land from leasing) is […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 2006: Blast from the Past
Anti-government attack has many fronts
Out-of-state activists mastermind assault on government spending and judiciary
Posted inSeptember 4, 2006: Blast from the Past
States crack down on illegal immigrants
Congress punts until after the elections; states turn ‘nativist’
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Wilderness cliffhanger
Three compromise bills pass the House, await Senate approval
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Tribes tackle taggers
Gang culture — and violence — hit rural Indian reservations
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Clearing a path for power
Plans for power lines and pipelines would make it easier to tap the West’s energy boom
Posted inAugust 7, 2006: Is It or Isn't It (Just Another Mouse)?
Hollywood heads east
Western states compete to get a piece of the action
Posted inJuly 24, 2006: Taking Liberties
The Latest Bounce
New Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne won some friends in the environmental movement in June, when he junked a National Park Service proposal drafted under his predecessor, Gale Norton (HCN, 9/19/05: Revealed — secret changes to park rules). That proposal came under fire from greens, park employees and even some Republican lawmakers for relaxing rules regarding […]
Posted inJuly 24, 2006: Taking Liberties
Falcon’s future rests on a definition
Endangered aplomado falcons in southern New Mexico may be stripped of their protections — by the very agency trying to bring the bird back to the state. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is moving forward with a controversial plan to release up to 150 captive-bred aplomado falcons as a “nonessential experimental population.” Because the […]
Posted inJuly 24, 2006: Taking Liberties
Watch the river flow
After 18 years of wallowing in court, farmers and conservationists have reached a settlement that allows water to run again in California’s second-longest river. The Friant Dam, built in the 1940s, irrigates 1 million acres of rich agricultural land in the Central Valley. It also has dried up sections of the San Joaquin River for […]
Posted inJuly 24, 2006: Taking Liberties
As states ponder protection, roadless forests unravel
Forest Service says it’s bound by the rules to allow some logging, drilling and mining