As Election Day looms, High Country News takes a look at Trump’s disruptive effect. From mobilizing undocumented immigrants to unsettling Mormon Country, Trump’s rhetoric is permanently recoloring Western politics.
The Western races to watch
Democrats hope to nab vulnerable Republican seats.
Consider the connections
Kudos to Rita Clagett for sharing her anguish over what to do about the prairie dog colony on her property (“Slaughter of the Innocents,” HCN, 9/5/16). Taking us through the steps that led to her “final solution” raised ethical questions we all might well ponder. But in calling her earlier defense of the colony an…
This election season’s unexpected power players: undocumented immigrants
Donald Trump’s rhetoric is sparking a movement to mobilize Hispanic voters.
Don’t embrace invasives
Stephen Jackson’s common-sense perspective — that we can’t do everything — matches the daily decision-making of land managers who determine where to invest their limited resources to best stop the spread of invasives (HCN, 9/5/16). Land managers are very aware of their limitations, and of the dynamic nature of the places they manage. The perception…
Meet Denise Juneau, who hopes to be the first Native American woman in Congress
Indian Country votes will help determine whether this seat flips to blue.
Geologic vandalism, the return of the Blob and Glacier’s top dog
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Trump and the West
In the past, elections in the West have been fairly predictable. In urban areas and along the West Coast, folks tended to vote blue, for Democrats. In rural areas and in the Rocky Mountain interior, they leaned heavily red, for Republicans, especially in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. Over the past decade, however, that pattern…
Groundwater without borders, detention for profit and a new generation of farms
HCN.org news in brief.
Visits from students and an issue break
It’s starting to feel like autumn in Paonia. Breezes are getting crisper, ripe apples are dropping, and the aspen leaves are turning gold. The season has been busy here at High Country News headquarters, as we make some staffing adjustments. Tay Wiles, our former online editor, is moving to the San Francisco Bay area, where…
Dark money is re-shaping Arizona’s energy fights
The 2010 Citizens United decision is affecting elections on the ground.
What it takes to save an imperiled fish
The impressive effort to restore the Arctic grayling in a Yellowstone National Park stream.
How the West’s populist politics play out at the ballot box
Voter-driven ballot initiatives are a powerful force during the Western election season.
Why Utah’s Mormons waffle on this year’s GOP candidate
Trump sparks a conflict between morality and political belief.
Inside Wyoming’s rough, tough underground
Boom and bust cycles shape the fates of Wyoming’s young people.
Lies and damn lies: What to believe on the campaign trail
HCN sorts truth from fiction on the campaign trail.
Winners of the 2016 HCN reader photography contest
Audience and editor favorites from our national parks.
Resistance is not futile
It was to our dismay that the USGS Director of the Southwest Climate Science Center put forward an argument to abandon large swaths of the Sonoran Desert to invasive species (“A conversation with Stephen Jackson,” HCN, 9/5/16). Climate change is certainly going to reorganize Sonoran Desert ecosystems, but the paleo-environmental record has shown that this…
See these photos of ‘the new settlers’
In the 1960s, a counterculture revolution brought a new wave of migration Westward.
Stopping the downward spiral
While the factors Elizabeth Zach cites — low reimbursement by public insurers, reduced inpatient services, hospital mergers and others — have historically impacted the ability of rural communities to sustain viable health services, this litany of forces reflects incomplete knowledge of research dating back 30 years (“A Rural Health Care Checkup: Lessons from the Central…
Remembering a ‘free man’ who died at the Grand Canyon
A transient outdoorsman, he only wanted to be in the mountains or down some canyon.
In Arizona’s shift toward purple, a backlash to Trump hastens the pace
Democrats hope increased Latino turnout will upset Republican dominance in the state.