It’s not a joke, though it sounds like one: A new law signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, R, allows people to walk into a bar carrying concealed weapons, though once there, they can’t order a drink. The National Rifle Association’s Todd Rathner insists the law makes perfect sense: “Any time law-abiding gun owners can […]
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Posted inHeard Around the West
Can’t see the forest for the skyscrapers
The last time anybody looked, no national forests grew in Washington, D.C., so why should the city get almost $3 million in stimulus funds to fight wildfires? Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso and other Western representatives are wondering, because their region is home to most national forests and the super-expensive wildfires that sweep through, destroying homes […]
Posted inNovember 9, 2009: Roadless-less
Is the BLM practicing unsafe CX?
More than 6,000 drilling permits issued under questionable provision
Posted inHeard Around the West
Shocking steps
“Wildlife officials are counting down the days” until black bears head for the high country to den up for the winter, reports the Aspen Times. It’s been an exasperating year, admits the state’s Division of Wildlife. The bears have grown ever smarter about breaking into Aspen homes, forcing open refrigerators and even — three times […]
Posted inNovember 9, 2009: Roadless-less
Roadless-less
The campaign to protect unroaded forests gets torn apart by a Wyoming judge in ‘half-assed retirement’
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
How the West made cheeseburgers cheap
Way back when I was in high school, kids used to snatch copies of the student newspaper right off the racks. They were literally starving for what was inside it. That doesn’t mean they were interested in the content. No, what they wanted was the coupon for McDonalds that appeared in each issue. And that’s […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
My father’s political career
The family also wins and loses.
Posted inHeard Around the West
Sit down and shut up
Paul Rolly seems a jolly fellow, at least judging by the picture that accompanies his column in the Salt Lake Tribune. On second thought, that amused look might mask a certain fed-upness. Here’s what’s bugging him lately: A state legislator who professed to be an expert on the U.S. Constitution proposed a bill saying “any […]
Posted inNovember 23, 2009: After the Floods
Avalanche education for all
Janet Kellam tackles an “urban” snow problem
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Conservation for the adrenaline crowd
Can the Red Bull generation go green?
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Refugees unsettle the West
Meatpacking, Ramadan and other cultural collisions in Colorado
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
When cows are outlawed …
In a letter to the editor, rancher John Marble writes, “I doubt many items in the organic produce aisle are grown with as little environmental impact as our beef” (HCN, 9/14 & 9/28/09). A while back, I discovered a remarkable statistic: Making a pound of beef creates 36 times the greenhouse gas emissions that creating […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Fish stories
Regarding your story “The Most Cooked-up Catch,” I was there when the 200-mile limit was, in fact, first imposed (HCN, 8/03/09). (Editor’s note: Congress enacted the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone in 1976.) I was a freshly minted Coast Guard airman sent to Kodiak, Alaska, in 1967 to commence fisheries enforcement for the new 200-mile limit. […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Green delusions
Audubon’s equivocations in Arizona are just the tip of the iceberg (HCN, 10/12/09). In the last decade, mainstream environmental groups have been co-opted, again and again, by wealthy entrepreneurial “benefactors.” Often these benefactors leverage their massive donations into a seat on the group’s board of directors, where policy is set. Even as human-caused climate change […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Still riding the edge
Riding the Edge of an Era: Growing Up Cowboy on the Outlaw TrailDiana Allen Kouris254 pages, softcover: $17.95.High Plains Press, 2009. Diana Allen Kouris grew up on a ranch, riding horseback with her siblings in untamed country surrounded by the ghosts of Indians, mountain men and outlaws. “It could have been a hard way of […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
The diplomacy of water
Water and the West: The Colorado River Compact and the Politics of Water in the American West (Second Edition)Norris Hundley Jr.433 pages, softcover: $24.95; hardcover: $60.University of California Press, 2009. Norris Hundley’s book Water and the West has long stood as the classic account of the epic negotiations to divide up the Colorado River’s water. […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Our national parks: Another idea
In 1912, James Bryce, the British ambassador to the United States, proclaimed that the national parks are “America’s best idea.” Others have called the parks “America’s best places.” But if the parks are our “best” places, what about all those other places where we live and work and go about our daily rounds? Don’t they […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Buddy, can ya spare a subscription?
An HCN subscriber who owns an energy corporation in California got in touch with us earlier this summer. He wanted to do more than renew his subscription, he said — he wanted to send seven-month gift subscriptions anonymously to 20 former readers who had not renewed because of personal hardship (job losses, etc.). A huge, […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
The newest Westerners
See end of story for a complete package of refugee stories in this issue. It was right about the time that my teeth sank into the Basque BLT (marinated pork loin, bacon, the works) that I had my epiphany. OK, maybe the timing wasn’t quite that serendipitous, and maybe it was less an epiphany than […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
A hard-fought immigration victory
Russia to Seattle