Paul Vandevelder’s article was right about the end of western welfare, in my opinion (hcn, 10/13/08). Large government deficits and the recent unraveling of our credit-based economy will likely have lasting effects on the west. While we may not be able to depend any longer on government largesse to fund bridges, dams, and other pet […]
The great barbecue, revisited
Posted inOctober 27, 2008: Prophets and politics
The coming quake
Is Los Angeles ready for the Big One?
Posted inArticles
Audio: Researching Rexburg
Rexburg, Idaho, may be the most Mormon of any town in the nation. HCN Senior Editor Ray Ring spent time in Rexburg, getting to know the place, and trying to understand what happens when religion completely saturates a community. He wrote about it in his story, Prophets and Politics, in the Oct. 27 issue of […]
Posted inWotr
Take a hike!
“I thought we’d go for a hike,” I told the boy I’m mentoring. “You know, look at stuff.” “How about we go to a movie?” he parried. “Or we could play electronic poker.” He’s not an unusual kid. There has been a major swing in his generation away from all things outdoors. The National Academy […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2008: Prophets and politics
Prophets and politics
Will the Mormon Church decide who gets married in California?
Posted inGoat
Unaccustomed attention
For a lifelong Coloradan, this has been a strange election year. We’re a “swing state” where the polls are close in the presidentail race, and that’s a novelty. In the past 60 years, the Democratic candidate has carried Colorado only three times: Harry Truman in 1948, Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and Bill Clinton in 1992. […]
Posted inWotr
Another chance emerges for salmon
This fall, the most endangered salmon on earth is giving us another chance to save it from extinction. Snake River sockeye salmon are small as salmon go, with a blue sheen when they leave the Pacific Ocean. That sheen has burnt bright red 850 miles and two months later by the time they reach their […]
Posted inWotr
For many Americans, voting this November will be historic
Strange the things that come to you through your kids. A week ago my daughter, Ruby, came home with an eighth-grade social studies assignment on the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “You know,” I told her, “your grandparents were involved with civil rights when I was a kid. Maybe you should talk to them. […]
Posted inGoat
Winning the West
Like much of the country and all of the media, HCN is focused on the upcoming election. One of the ways we’re feeding our obsession is by surfing the web, seeking out new tidbits, poll numbers, and punditry. To help you navigate the political world from the base of our Winning the West page, you […]
Posted inGoat
The wolf-go-round
Seven months ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Oregon off the endangered species list, marking the end of 34 years of protection. In July U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy issued an injunction against killing wolves in the region after conservationists filed suit, saying it was too […]
Posted inGoat
BLM steamrolls another protection for public lands
On Oct. 10, the Bureau of Land Management proposed a rule change that will make it harder for the Department of Interior secretaries and Congress to protect public lands through an “emergency withdrawal.” In June, the House Natural Resources Committee used the rule that the BLM is attempting to change when it called for an […]
Posted inGoat
ABC censors clean energy ad
Oil companies have bought influence in Washington and used that influence to make life easier for themselves and harder for their competitors. This may be a controversial statement, but it’s not an unfounded one, given the amount of money the oil industry pours into politics and the regularity with which it gets its way in […]
Posted inGoat
Endangered species meltdown
The Bush administration just won’t quit trying to weaken the Endangered Species Act. Big rewrites require Congressional approval, so instead they’re quietly revising the regulations that implement the act. In August, the administration proposed letting federal agencies decide for themselves if, say, a new dam or highway would harm any endangered or threatened species, rather […]
Posted inGoat
Drill here, drill now: the music video
Did you know that politicians don’t pay for their gas? Well, now you do. You’ll know even more — no, you’ll be a veritable expert in energy policy — after you watch this music video, which Joe Romm of climateprogress.org describes as “the first (and hopefully last) song ever inspired by Newt Gingrich.” Wow. Just […]
Posted inWotr
Animal pharm is coming our way
On Sept. 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released its “guidance” for allowing the sale of genetically modified animals as food. Guidance is agency-speak for “the law will look something like this.” With the announcement, a 60-day period for public comment opened. Right now, the only genetically modified animal licensed for sale is the […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
The end of Western welfare?
As Wall Street’s titans of finance crumbled before our eyes in mid-September (coincidentally, this was Bin Laden’s stated goal after 9/11), I remembered the day I interviewed Bill Yellowtail at his ranch, near Wyola, Mont., 15 years ago, and the shocking things he said that afternoon about capitalism in the West. One of my notes […]
Posted inGoat
Plum Creek deal — plumb wrong?
Since last spring, Plum Creek Timber Company and the Forest Service have claimed that thousands of miles of old logging roads in western Montana can automatically be turned into driveways for second homes and cabins. Such guaranteed access would make Plum Creek’s 1.2 million acres in the state worth much more to buyers. The industry-friendly […]
Posted inGoat
Politics + water = mud
The League of Conservation voters has compiled a whole list of reasons not to vote for John McCain, some of which are nuanced and good. But they didn’t see fit to use any of them in their new anti-McCain ad that just started running in Colorado. Their attack is a lot more basic: McCain wants […]
Posted inWotr
Scoundrels and scandals in the Interior Department
As the last vestiges of laissez-faire capitalism were being lowered into the ground on Wall Street last month, out on the Western edge of the high plains an administrative circus of a similar nature was unraveling. Its center was the Minerals Management Services (MMS) division of the Interior Department, in Lakewood, Colo. On Sept.10, Earl […]
Posted inGoat
GOP’s Acorn fixation is downright nutty
The McCain campaign — by now looking for any dirt they can get their hands on — has just released a web ad attacking Obama for his ties to Acorn, the progressive community organizing group. The ad tries to link Acorn to the mortgage crisis and accuses it of trying to steal the election by […]