When a private prison company came to Evanston, Wyoming, local officials believed an economic revival was at hand. Instead, it unleashed a bitter debate.
Economy
Posted inArticles
Will the extraction industry’s economic turmoil blight Colorado?
Questions about gas well maintenance, clean up and public safety rise amid bankruptcies in the sector.
Posted inNovember 1, 2020: When the Smoke Clears
How a pandemic-related drop in Oregon Lottery revenues could lead to a rise in invasive plants
Spiky-stemmed gorse pushes out native plants — and COVID-19 is imperilling measures to keep it in check.
Posted inNovember 1, 2020: When the Smoke Clears
Indigenous data sovereignty shakes up research
In the COVID-19 era, tribal nations want research in service of their people.
Posted inOctober 1, 2020: Democracy's Frayed Western Front
Energy dominance or climate action: Trump, Biden and the fate of public lands
In Grand Junction, Colorado, the presidential election is a choice between two distinct energy futures.
Posted inOctober 1, 2020: Democracy's Frayed Western Front
Sage advice
The ecological and ethical problems of ‘smudging.’
Posted inOctober 1, 2020: Democracy's Frayed Western Front
When home is next to an oil refinery
All I knew about Wilmington, California, was poverty, so I long hid my connection to it.
Posted inArticles
Alaska’s salmon are getting smaller
New research finds some species diminished by as much as 10% and that the climate crisis may be a driving factor.
Posted inOctober 1, 2020: Democracy's Frayed Western Front
In a small Montana town, there’s a thing with feathers. Hope? Not so much.
Maxim Loskutoff’s debut novel explores the fraught history of the Bitterroot Valley.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2020: The Next West
The failures of U.S. immigration policies
Three new books challenge the way we imagine the U.S.-Mexico border.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2020: The Next West
Marlon’s hustle to survive
The unforgiving economy left by the pandemic leaves many undocumented people without a safety net.
Posted inArticles
Essential transportation in rural Alaska is up in the air
Since Alaska’s largest regional airline went bankrupt in April, roadless communities have been searching for ways to restore service.
Posted inArticles
Across California, local governments are abolishing court fees
Legal fees tend to fall disproportionately on low-income people.
Posted inArticles
Utah housing advocates take on a cost crisis made worse by COVID-19
A new fund aims to acquire properties and maintain them at affordable rents.
Posted inArticles
A Washington town isolated from the U.S. is now cut off from Canada, too
COVID-19 border closures have curtailed the international routines of the tiny town of Point Roberts.
Posted inAugust 1, 2020: Infectious Ideologies
The job loss epidemic
COVID-19 impacts ripple through every sector of the economy.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2020: The Next West
Is a big win for conservation a blow to climate action?
As extinction and climate crises loom, the Great American Outdoors Act and recreation industry continue to rely on oil money.
Posted inArticles
The West has a role in reimagining the U.S.
Our notion of ‘American exceptionalism’ has collapsed. What will replace it?
Posted inArticles
Video: How rural and urban housing crises affect one Indigenous family
Oakland is pricing out long-term residents, among them Joe Waukazoo.
Posted inJuly 1, 2020: 'I am here fighting for my life and future children'
How a Washington ski patrol learned to unionize
When Vail Resorts added Stevens Pass to its empire, ski patrollers feared becoming fungible parts in a corporate machine. So they organized.