Thank you for your Dec. 22/Jan. 5 issue “What a Mess.” The entire Beltway community — Republicans, Democrats, media/corporate America — is busily sweeping the ugly, and illegal, Bush legacy under the red carpet being rolled out for Obama. Bad enough that the Constitution lies crumpled in the trash (not the recycle) bin, but most […]
Departments
Posted inFebruary 2, 2009: Non-navigable River Blues
All Aboard
A classic American transit system seems poised for a comeback
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Of an environmental hero and the need for reform
The Bush administration’s most enduring mark on the American West may well be the tens of millions of acres of public lands it has handed over to the oil and gas industry — and the belated backlash the giveaway has spawned. As if to punctuate this legacy, the Bureau of Land Management — which oversees […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Mountain of doubt
Will the country’s only planned nuclear waste dump survive Obama?
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
The return of Colorado’s missing lynx
Cat’s saga highlights the challenges wandering wildlife face in a growing West
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
In praise of prey
American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost IconSteven Rinella288 pages, softcover: $24.95.Spiegel & Grau, 2008. Steven Rinella is a hunter with complex feelings about his prey. The Michigander-turned-Montanan-turned-Alaskan spends about half of his new book near-breathlessly extolling the virtues of the bison: its superbly adapted physiology, its prominent role in American history, its unlikely rebound […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Welcome, new board members
We’re delighted to announce that Marley Shebala and Jesus De La Rosa have become our newest board members. Marley is the senior news reporter and a photographer for the Navajo Times in Window Rock, Ariz. Marley is Dine (Navajo) and Ashiwi (Zuni Pueblo). Her mother’s clan is Toaheedliinii (The Water Flow Together Clan), and her […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
The West goes to Washington
Obama draws from “flyover country” for cabinet
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Who’s an Indian?
On a frosty February morning in 2004, I joined a small caravan headed to the Hopi Reservation in northern Arizona. Our group was led by the well-known Colorado peace activist Chuck Worley, who had befriended several Hopi during World War II, when they were imprisoned together as conscientious objectors. He’d kept in touch with the […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Notes from the (water) underground
Gordon Grant’s pioneering work on the northwest’s hydrologic sponge
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
The fine art of bureaucracy
Artists helped further a government agenda
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Bass-o-matic
Regarding your story “Ultimate Solution?”, it has been observed that history repeats itself because people don’t learn (HCN 11/21/08). To some extent that may be true. What is certainly true is that history repeats itself because untruths repeated often enough take on the trappings of truth. This came to mind when I read the article. […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
“Stop the madness”
I am tired of people like Patty Limerick, chair of the Center of the American West, University of Colorado-Boulder, making uninformed statements about environmentalists (HCN, 12/22/08). Criticizing environmentalists with a broad brush by saying “the whole-line-in-the-sand, Alamo type-of-thing again” when referring to environmental issues is just plain wrong. If anything, environmentalists should be praised for […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Water wishes, part II
The observation by the mayor of Carlsbad, Calif., that stopping population growth is not enough to solve the city’s water problem was astute (HCN, 11/21/08). According to the U.S Geological Survey, California is below the national average in per capita use of freshwater of 1,280 gallons per day. This estimate includes all water use, which […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Water wishes
I admired the foresight of many of your Western “Wishers” for Obama. However, none of them mentioned water (HCN, 12/22/08). Great Basin Water Network seeks an end to giant water pipelines, the ones that take water from the West’s magnificent landscapes, wildlife, livestock and crops and send that water to unsustainable urban sprawl. The environmental, […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
A mean lean — to the left
As one of your Republican subscribers, I must take issue with your Dec. 22 cover illustration and the strong general tone of the editorial content therein (HCN, 12/22/08). If broader reach and credibility are your goals, you need to curb your frothing hatred of George W. Bush, which sometimes gets in the way of straightforward, […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Blood Quantum
A complicated system that determines tribal membership threatens the future of American Indians
Posted inHeard Around the West
Parking is primo in Vail
Ah, Vail, where big money still gets spent on a crucial item like a parking space. The Vail Daily says a treasured spot within Vail’s heated indoor Founders Garage is now on offer for $500,000. “Parking is going up in Vail,” said Buzz Schleper, the spot’s owner. “There’s always somebody out there who has money […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Life during wartime
Refresh, RefreshBenjamin Percy256 pages, softcover: $15.Graywolf Press, 2007. In Refresh, Refresh, his second collection of short stories, Benjamin Percy examines the fallout of the Iraq war on the people at home. Set on Oregon’s high plateau, these tales are shaped by the tension between the banal and the bizarre. The collection’s eponymous knockout story describes […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
For the love of stuff
I don’t find most theistic versions of the afterlife compelling, but over the last few weeks I have become convinced that if there is a hell, it surely involves shopping for a car. After an epic quest, my wife and I finally decided on a 2-year-old Subaru, which will allow us to travel Wyoming’s wintry […]