During a recent visit with troops in Kuwait, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in a rare, unchoreographed moment, opened the floor to questions. He got a zinger. Why, asked one serviceman, are troops forced to scrounge through dumps in search of scrap metal, so they can outfit their vehicles with makeshift armor? The question, and Rumsfeld’s […]
Buy them some body armor
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Conscientious Objectors
Public employees and their allies on the outside fight against Bush’s war on science
Posted inWotr
Western governors take aim at wounded species
Judging by their comments last week at a meeting in La Jolla, Calif., Western governors have thought a lot about the Endangered Species Act and its consequences for ranching, farming and real-estate development in their states. It became equally clear during the meeting that many governors have not thought clearly about this most far-reaching of […]
Posted inWotr
Bewitched and bewildered near Moab, Utah
If there’s a doubt in anyone’s mind about the rapidly changing rural West, look no further than the latest controversy to grip Moab, Utah. It doesn’t get much stranger than this. A few months ago, Robbie Levin, owner of Sorrel River Ranch, a luxury lodge north of Moab, applied for a cabaret license from the […]
Posted inWotr
How to write a Christmas card — or not
There has to be something in between the kind of Christmas card that is merely signed “Happy Holidays, Carol and Frank and The Whole Funk Family,” and the five-page Christmas monograph from Jane and Bob, who express so many detailed success and so much pride in their family accomplishments that you want to stab yourself […]
Posted inWotr
Sneak fees stalk our public lands
Would you still call your town library “public” if a private corporation managed the books your taxes paid for, then charged you a fee to borrow them? Thanks to a provision sneaked into the recently passed federal spending bill, we may face that question about our public lands. Just hours before senators were expected to […]
Posted inWotr
A sleeping green giant may yet awake
Consider the matter of Row v. Wade, and no, that’s not a misspelling. We’re talking fishing here, and the never-ending debate over whether the best way to catch fish is from a boat or while walking through the water. What does this have to do with the re-election of President George W. Bush? As any […]
Posted inWotr
Whatever happened to the environmental movement?
It can no longer be denied: The national environmental movement has stalled. It became glaringly obvious as the movement campaigned against George W. Bush for three years with no noticeable influence on his re-election. It’s proven more subtly by the fact that Congress has passed almost no significant environmental laws since 1980, and by now, […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Grand plan for Grand Canyon
Every year, more than 22,000 people run the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Amazingly, there is still a list of 8,000 private, non-commercial boaters who have waited up to 15 years to get on the ultimate whitewater run in the country. That waiting list is among several reasons the National Park Service has released […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Calendar
The 8th annual Saving Places Conference will be held in Denver on Feb. 2-4. Sponsored by Colorado Preservation Inc., the 2005 conference is entitled “Bringing Preservation Home.” www.coloradopreservation.org 303-893-4260 Colorado State University has just released “Bio-Pharming in Colorado: A Guide to Issues for Making Informed Choices,” a policy report geared toward Colorado’s decision-makers and interested […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Toxic waste, tainted justice
Between 1952 and 1989, Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant — just 16 miles outside Denver — was the country’s headquarters for weapons of mass destruction. Workers there produced more than 700 plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs in the Cold War arsenal. But in 1989, following allegations of radioactive groundwater contamination and illegally burned and lost […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Lessons from the Netherlands
In response to Geneen Marie Haugen’s essay (HCN, 11/8/04: American — and proud of it): I’m sorry those Dutch were rude. As a Dutch-American woman, I know that being confronted with the Dutch sense of righteousness can be disconcerting. The population is well known for its ever-wagging “Little Dutch finger.” However, Holland — in fact […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Living poor and voting rich
Your two-part series on the plight of the ski bum inspired this letter (HCN, 10/25/04: As the town hollows out, one Aspen neighborhood thrives) (HCN,.11/8/04: A new breed of ‘ski bums’ is anything but). Aspen is what it is today because young bohemians who supposedly believed in equality among the classes, wanted to shut the […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Wanted: Environmental Leaders
The HCN profile of Stewart and Mo Udall is an excellent account of their heroic achievements to protect and to save the resources of the West (HCN, 10/11/04: The First Family of Western Conservation). Perhaps Mark and Tom Udall, with the genes and the same determination, will continue the legacy of the fathers. But, as […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Four more years? Help!
Well, now we can only watch to see if Bush’s administration cooks the entire elephant in its own oil. As my friend James says, borrowing from Robert Reich: “Middle-class workers voting for Bush are like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders. “Millions of chickens voted for Colonel Sanders on Tuesday. “What’s for dinner for the next […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Nice work, Adam Burke
HCN arrived this afternoon and I’ve already finished Adam Burke’s “Keepers of the Flame” (HCN, 11/8/04: Keepers of the Flame). Excellent. Especially happy to have found it in HCN, given all those dark mutterings of a couple of years ago about making the paper punchier and more attractive to young ’uns by shortening articles. I’d […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Californians put their money where their meter is
California reached a conservation milestone in September, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R, signed a bill requiring all homes in the state to use water meters by 2025. Existing California law requires water meters on all houses built since 1992, but most utilities charge a flat rate, rather than using the meters to charge by […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Follow-up
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R, says he won’t ask the federal government to uphold the Clinton-era roadless rule in his state (HCN, 8/16/04:Feds pass roadless headache to states). In July, the Bush administration gave governors until January 2006 to request that the governnment keep the rule in place in their respective states. Meanwhile, Wyoming Gov. […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Heard around the West
OREGON “It’s perfect rattlesnake country,” exulted Deputy Sheriff Dan Brewer from Sweet Home, Ore., as he walked through sagebrush in eastern Oregon at the start of a vacation. He found what he was looking for underneath a boulder, and as his family videotaped the encounter, Brewer uttered the fateful words: “I say, let’s take a […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Together, we cross the fence
“My credo has always been: Don’t take yourself too seriously, and never give up.” –Tom Bell, founder of High Country News, speaking to the National Wildlife Federation, March 9, 2002 Barbed wire in the mind, I’ll call it that; a four-strand fence, let’s say, barbs sharp against chest, gut and legs, little reinforcers, reminders that […]