“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” –Hunter S. Thompson, in Rolling Stone, 1974 Who knew that the home of a gigantic desert lake that is mercilessly full of salt could get even weirder? Utahn politics have begotten some truly magnificent works of campaign art this cycle – let’s get right to it.
Telemocracy # 2
Posted inBlog
From prom queens to dam dialogue
“She kept us out of trouble,” is how former High Country News publisher Ed Marston describes the first intern to take up the post in Paonia. Mary Moran arrived in the fall of 1983, just a month after the organization moved from rural Wyoming to rural Colorado and Ed and Betsy Marston took over as […]
Posted inAugust 16, 2010: Young, All-American, Illegal
Crude combat
Enviros seek leverage to curb Canadian tar sands development
Posted inAugust 16, 2010: Young, All-American, Illegal
These boots were made for walking…
I appreciate Cherie Newman’s review of Joe Hutto’s The Light in High Places in the July 19, 2010, edition. However, Newman missed the key point. She quotes Hutto writing that “it is not the greed of multinational corporations with their vicious bulldozers, chain saws, and oil rigs” consuming the earth’s resources and polluting our environment, […]
Posted inAugust 16, 2010: Young, All-American, Illegal
The upside of apathy
I realize that probably over 90 percent of Americans have this affliction called nature illiteracy and I think that it is just because they do not “connect.” They are busy power walking, driving at top speed in their isolation chambers, or roaring along in the dust of an ATV or even sliding over the snow. […]
Posted inAugust 16, 2010: Young, All-American, Illegal
The first vs. the most fascinating?
As one who is interested in the earliest humans in the Americas, I have long admired Bonnie Pitblado for her years of tireless archeological research in the Mountain West (HCN, 7/19/10). I was very pleased to read of the success of her artifacts roadshows in bringing to scientific scrutiny significant clues to early peoples of […]
Posted inWotr
When you bike in Boise, “STOP” means maybe
Boise, Idaho, one of the most liberal cities when it comes to bicycling, issued new rules of the road this June that basically said to both drivers and bicyclists: “Don’t be jerks.” The rules said drivers should make room for bikers as they pass them and not harass them, while cyclists should never ride recklessly […]
Posted inAugust 16, 2010: Young, All-American, Illegal
A vault, not a souvenir shop
In the July 19, 2010, issue, HCN included a sidebar article entitled “How to Return a Pot.” There is, however, no legal process for returning artifacts taken from public lands. We often receive calls from people who have artifacts and want to return them. We can give your readers several reasons not to ever place […]
Posted inRange
The data story: How much? How many?
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Every agency that serves American Indians and Alaska Natives must answer these questions in order to fuel the decision-making process: How much will it cost? How many people are served? And, by the way, who is an Indian? None of the answers are easy. The demand for federal services is growing as […]
Posted inAugust 16, 2010: Young, All-American, Illegal
Monstertruck alley
Remember the last time a fleet of semis roared past you on the interstate? Now triple the size of the trucks and halve the size of the road, and you have a rough image of a plan to ship 207 loads of oversized mining equipment through Idaho and Montana to the Kearl Oil Sands in […]
Posted inRange
Another way to see immigration
A friend pointed me to an interesting article about immigration from Mexico, especially into the American Southwest. In essence, it argues that this is not some internal U.S. law-enforcement issue that can be resolved by intensive policing, like Arizona’s controversial recent effort. Instead, our Southwest is typical of borderlands throughout the world, and the current […]
Posted inRange
Who’s burning the forest?
High Country News’ recent feature on arson (The Fiery Touch, August 2nd edition) provides a fascinating look into changing attitudes toward citizens who light wildfires without official permission. Wildfire arsonists have gone from something like hero status to criminal status … at least in urbanized areas. But what interested me more was senior editor Ray […]
Posted inGoat
New law empowers tribal justice systems
In late July, President Obama, an adopted member of the Crow Tribe of southern Montana, signed the Tribal Law and Order Act. The measure, introduced by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) in 2008, aims to smooth out the “jurisdictional maze” of law enforcement on reservations in order to empower tribal communities to better confront crime. Many […]
Posted inRange
Colorado’s bizarre primary
About 20 years ago, the Colorado General Assembly moved the state’s primary election from September to August. Cynics figured there was a reason, something like this: Coloradans are on vacation in August, or at least getting outdoors at every opportunity, so they’re not paying attention to politics the way they would in September. An August […]
Posted inBlog
What a week for wind
On Tuesday, July 27, the Los Angeles Times reported the groundbreaking of the immense Alta Wind Energy Center near the Mojave Desert town of Tehachapi. The story described a facility “being called the largest wind power project in the country,” and its potential to generate three gigawatts of electricity for Southern California homes. Though light […]
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
Summer blizzard
Wonderful things are everywhere — but you have to pay attention in order to see them.
Posted inGoat
Rain rights
Let the water wars commence – or not. Douglas County will soon be the site of Colorado’s first large-scale rainwater harvesting project — an important step away from a more than century old state policy that made the practice illegal, perhaps without good reason. The Colorado Water Conservation Board voted unanimously last month to make Sterling Ranch, a […]
Posted inGoat
Insect to Injury?
With plenty of doomsday hysteria circulating about the destruction of western forests from the mountain pine beetle epidemic, the U.S. Forest Service is attempting to allay fears about another beetle on the rise – a 2mm-long twig beetle, Pityogenes plagiatus knechteli, that’s killing younger trees in mountain pine beetle-affected areas throughout Colorado and Wyoming. First […]