It’s time to watch your step in Yellowstone National Park. Aggressive herds of rutting elk have taken over park headquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs, as they do every year at this time, and two women tourists narrowly escaped injury at the hands – make that horns – of sexually aroused bulls. The first incident occurred […]
Elk target tourists
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Desperate wolves
Four wolves in Montana’s Sawtooth pack that were shot in September for killing livestock may have been starving and frantic to feed their 14 pups. All the wolves had badly maimed paws, says Bob Ream, a biologist at the University of Montana. “The federal trapper who shot the wolves told me that three of four […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
What happens when “True Grit” meets “Easy Rider’
Utopian Vistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and the American Counterculture by Lois Palken Rudnick, 1996, University of New Mexico Press, 416 pages, $35. Lois Palken Rudnick’s Utopian Vistas is almost enough to send me back to my native New York. But it’s probably too late. After more than two decades here, I’m unlikely to […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Montana Native: Who Cares?
In bold, black letters the bumperstickers declare: Montana Native. I spot them as I drive and, like the chiggers of my native Virginia, they make me itch. For the naive observer, the message must seem benign, a mere statement of birthplace pride. But for an increasingly wary transplant like me, it conveys something more sinister […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Heard around the West
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation may be in terminal decline, but its spirit lives on over at the Federal Highway Administration. The FHA recently rebuilt Highway 9, from Murray, Idaho, to Thompson Falls, Mont., and the new road is so high and so water-resistant that during wet periods it backs water into Murray, population 63, […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Custom and culture’s worst enemy speaks
The West is certainly changing, but cultural beliefs rather than economic facts tend to dominate our dialogue. Because those beliefs are tied to a vision of a good society rooted in stereotypes of a simpler, less-corrupted-by-evil America, I see them as a type of economic fundamentalism. Consider these characteristics: Worshipping at the rearview mirror. Economic […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Wise-users try to whip up a recipe for their own salvation
Casper, Wyo. – Utah House Speaker Melvin Brown tells the audience that he doesn’t want to end the evening on a negative note. But he does want to make you “mad enough to come back tomorrow recommitted.” To get their blood pumping, Brown conjures up an enemy – Thomas Michael Power – a University of […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
The body politic may edge to the left
WASHINGTON, D.C. – If only they had as much imagination as gamblers, politicians here could be singing the lament of Harry the Horse and Nicely Nicely in “Guys and Dolls”: “Where’s the action? Where’s the game? Gotta have the game or we’ll die from shame.” There’s supposed to be a game going on here. The […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Public-lands issues loom large in November
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. A hot election issue this year in Wyoming is the fate of the state’s 3.6 million-acre school trust lands, which generate money for the public school system. The Legislature approved the sale of some 35,000 acres in 1995, despite well-attended protests. Primary results show little […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Indian gamblers target green lawmakers
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. It’s not sagebrush rebels who have environmentalists and their candidates on the run in New Mexico this election – it’s Native American gambling interests. Angered by the state Legislature’s refusal to sign gaming compacts, some tribes have thrown considerable resources into campaigns to defeat key […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
A green state could return to its roots
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. With the possibility of winning another U.S. Senate seat and four out of five House seats, no other state in the West holds greater promise for Democrats than Oregon. Democrats won an early victory in the state last January, when Ron Wyden defeated Republican Gordon […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Moderates may gain in most conservative state
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. The Idaho Legislature – considered the most conservative assembly in the West – probably won’t change too dramatically this election. Democrats are hoping to double their seats, but even if they do, they’ll still hold barely a third of the Senate and less than half […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Brown air could lead to greener state politics
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Even though Republican Gov. Fife Symington is facing a trial next March for bank fraud, Arizona Republicans say they don’t anticipate a backlash in the upcoming elections. Of the six U.S. House seats now held by Republicans, only the 6th District seat is competitive. Republicans […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Nevada: Who hates nuclear waste most?
Nevada’s two congressional districts seem a lot like Mutt and Jeff: Covering two-tenths of 1 percent of the state’s land mass but containing half its population, the 1st Congressional District encompasses Las Vegas. The other 99.8 percent of the state is the 2nd Congressional District. In a tight race for the Las Vegas seat are […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Arizona: Harvesting a bumper crop of bombast
Recent Arizona history has provided us with plenty of grimly entertaining political characters: Used-car salesman Evan Mecham’s first act on being elected governor in 1987 was refusing to sign into law Martin Luther King Day. Less than two years later, he was impeached by the state Senate. Current Gov. Fife Symington isn’t in danger of […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Washington: Greens storm the suburbs
Northwest environmental activists have branched out from their natural urban habitat and invaded the bright shiny suburbs of the Pacific Northwest, looking to wake up the green vote that slept through the 1994 election. Washington state has become a national battleground since 1994, when it threw out five Democratic House members – including Speaker Tom […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Skunked Democrats hope to turn the tide
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. What happens in Washington state will reveal a lot about the difference two years can make. Democratic leaders hope to shake up the state Legislature the same way they want to win back the House of Representatives. The current state House has the worst known […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Montana: For veteran Baucus, it seems to be in the bag
In polling, a lot depends on how you ask the questions. And on how you read the answers. Max Baucus, a Democrat running for his fourth term in the U.S. Senate, points to polls that have consistently put him 10 or more points above Republican challenger Dennis Rehberg, Montana’s current lieutenant governor. But Rehberg sees […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
California: A 28-year-old talks the talk to green voters
Compared to the passionate fight to save redwoods from logging in the privately owned Headwaters grove, the campaign for California’s 1st Congressional District is a skirmish. But it has attracted national environmental groups aiming to strengthen protections for wildlife, water and woods. Their target is Republican Frank Riggs. The district ranges from the well-heeled wineries […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Montana: A scrappy Republican tries to cut down a green Democrat
Rick Hill was so far behind in the polls last winter that his two Republican primary opponents said Hill wasn’t even a contender for Montana’s one seat in the House of Representatives. So Hill tried something. He went negative. He attacked his Republican opponents, who both complained he was being nasty and unfair when he […]