Two years ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must have felt on top of the world. He stood at the helm of a Democratically controlled Congress, and he and his state had just helped put a Democrat in the White House. Reid and his cohorts immediately set to work: They scotched the plan to bury […]
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Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
New Mexico: Wolves, wilderness, drilling and Latinos
“Nothing is more attractive to a wolf than the sound of a crying baby,” said then-Rep. Steve Pearce, R, during a 2007 debate over one of his bills, which sought to kill funding for the federal Mexican wolf reintroduction program in southern New Mexico, Pearce’s district. More recently, Pearce expressed his views of land protection […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Oregon: Tea Party limbo
It’s hard to imagine, in these Tea Party times, a guy with a political history like John Kitzhaber’s having a chance to win a major elected office. As a Democratic state senator in the ’80s, he authored Oregon’s government-funded health plan; later, as governor from 1995 to 2003, he expanded the plan, got more funding […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Utah: A Sagebrush Rebel headed for D.C.
Utah’s most important election this year was held in the springtime, when angry right-wingers overthrew three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett in the Republican primary. Mike Lee, a lawyer who pushes high-profile Sagebrush Rebel cases, is now the Republican candidate for Senate. And given Utah’s history, Lee will almost certainly crush Democrat Sam Granato to win […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Washington: Tea Party limbo #2
Washington is a coffee-drinking state; Starbucks is only one of the many java peddlers rooted in Seattle. Tea, however, at least of the political sort, is not catching on. So the fact that some of this year’s races appear to be ramped up on caffeine can probably be blamed on roasted, ground-up beans. HCN’s Guide […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Wyoming: A popular governor gets mysterious
Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal isn’t running for a third term, despite his belief that he could successfully challenge Wyoming’s term-limits law in court and translate his high approval ratings into another win in the ballot boxes. And he’s apparently decided that it’s no longer crucial to have a Democrat in the governor’s office as a […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Idaho: How a Democrat wins in the Northern Rockies
When the votes are counted election night, it might surprise some national pundits if Idaho’s 1st Congressional District goes blue. But Democrat Walt Minnick was a pretty good bet when he wrested the seat from 14 years of Republican ownership in 2008. And since then, Minnick has positioned himself to appeal even more to Idaho’s […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
We’re listening
Below are some of the comments you sent us on the most recent reader survey. Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think. We’ve been reading all your survey responses, and thinking about how we can keep HCN on your “essential reading” list. I have learned more from HCN about the […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Taming the River Wild
Proposals to make rapids safer raise raft of questions
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
Fighting the logic of fire
A writer reassesses her love for the West.
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
The birds and the bee(tle)s
The end of a controversial tamarisk biocontrol program may be good news for habitat
Posted inHeard Around the West
Fire and brimstone
COLORADO There’s no doubt that the college town of Boulder has grown all too familiar with fire, thanks in part to those young people — and there are some 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Colorado — who have a developed a strange tradition: They ignite couches in front yards or in […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
A tight — but stable — budget, and a big bash
Eight members of the High Country News board of directors joined staff for a meeting in Fort Collins, Colo., Sept. 17-18. The main business was passing an annual budget, a task made easier by the tremendous financial support from readers during our 40th Anniversary. Despite the recession, HCN’s reserve remains at nearly $500,000, about the […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
Once More Unto The Breach
Into Utah’s Black Hole with guidebook author Michael Kelsey
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
Deadly crossing
The number of people entering the U.S. illegally has plummeted by nearly half since 2007, but 2010 promises to be one of the deadliest years on record for undocumented migrants. The group Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, which keeps count of those who die crossing into Arizona from Mexico, says 236 bodies have been found this […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
No walk in the park
Walking Home: A Traveler in the Alaskan Wilderness, a Journey into the Human HeartLynn Schooler272 pages, hardcover: $25.Bloomsbury, 2010. Hoping to gain perspective on his troubled marriage, the deaths of friends, and the vagaries of male middle age, Lynn Schooler (author of The Blue Bear) embarks on a walkabout along one of the wildest stretches […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
‘The music of men’s lives’
Work SongIvan Doig288 pages, hardcover: $25.95.Riverhead Books, 2010. “My train journey had brought me across the Montana everyone thinks of, mile upon hypnotic mile of rolling prairie with snowcapped peaks in the distance, and here, as sudden and surprising as a lost city of legendary times, was a metropolis of nowhere. …” In his latest […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
Breathing easy
West Oakland’s Breathmobile combats inner city asthma
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Who can capture the Forest Service?
As an impressionable teenager who had fallen in love with the wild landscapes of the American West, I was shocked to discover that the vast public lands were not all that wild, nor even fully public. That was particularly true of the deserts, grasslands and forests managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
Frack forward
Wyoming’s fed-bucking approach to environmental policy