Summertime, and the visitin’s easy
Betsy Marston
Posted inJune 25, 2007: Predator hunters for the environment
Dear friends
SUMMER BREAK As we do every June and December, we’ll be skipping an issue. Our staff plans to spend the last two weeks of June catching up on the long-term projects that we never quite find time for, enjoying family and friends, and battling the bindweed that’s overtaken our gardens. Look for the next HCN […]
Posted inJune 25, 2007: Predator hunters for the environment
Heard Around the West
IDAHO What you surely don’t need when you show up for work is two men walking into your office carrying a goat. Then one says cheerily: “Congratulations, you’ve been goated!” True, the goat is a mini-breed, no bigger than a dog, but it does poop (one goat-handler totes a handy pooper-scooper) and it is, after […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Heard Around the West
COLORADO Decked in virginal veils and jaunty bowties, 178 canine couples walked down the aisle recently in Littleton, Colo., though we’re still wondering how a ring fits over a toe that sports a claw. The mock nuptials weren’t just a dotty indulgence for dog lovers, reports the Denver Post. “Bow Wow Vows” raised over $3,000 […]
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Heard Around the West
MONTANA Blame YouTube, the Internet source for stupid and hilarious videos, for delaying Montana’s Legislature and governor from finishing a state budget. Negotiations stalled for two days while more than 17,000 people went to YouTube to view a red-faced rant by Republican House Majority Leader Michael Lange. Leaving an unproductive budget meeting with Democratic Gov. […]
Posted inMay 14, 2007: Two Views of the Verde
Heard Around the West
OREGON Eugene’s annual used-book sale, organized by Friends of the Library, turned vicious last year, reports the Register-Guard. “Aggressive and boorish” Internet booksellers hired local people to wait in line, and when the doors opened, they swarmed in and threw sheets over tables, claiming every book. “It was over the top — it was savage,” […]
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
Heard around the West
COLORADO A ski instructor at Powderhorn Ski Resort near Grand Junction, Colo., was riding a lift some 30 feet above the Red Eye trail when he looked down and saw a wide-awake black bear. It was standing at the mouth of a cave no longer blocked by snow. Rick Rodd took a quick photo, but […]
Posted inApril 16, 2007: Phoenix Falling?
Heard Around the West
CALIFORNIA There’s nothing like a bunch of twitchy-tailed rodents to annoy some people. The squirrel population in a Santa Monica park has mushroomed to 1,000, even though the city has tried poison and gassing to knock down the numbers and reduce any risk of the animals spreading disease. But nothing slows the animals’ reproduction rate […]
Posted inApril 2, 2007: Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields
Heard Around the West
MONTANA Let’s get this straight: Was a unicorn behind the wheel of a truck that crashed in Billings? A deputy prosecutor told a judge that story in all seriousness, asking for a high bond because he thought the driver had claimed a unicorn was driving. But the prosecutor misunderstood a colleague’s e-mail using the term […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA Sometimes you can be too vigilant. Someone who spotted a black bag on the side of a road in eastern California reported that it had a suspiciously “foul odor.” A sheriff’s deputy investigated, says the Grass Valley-Nevada City Union. Inside the bag, wrapped in a blue towel, was a dead fish. WASHINGTON AND […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Heard around the West
THE NATION Pity Gail Kimbell, the first woman appointed chief of the U.S. Forest Service. On Feb. 5 — her first day of work — President Bush proposed cutting her budget by 2 percent and eliminating more than 2,100 Forest Service jobs. A week later, Kimbell’s job got even more uncomfortable when she had to […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 2007: One nation, under fire
Heard around the West
THE NATION Molly Ivins, that passionate defender of the underdog, died recently from breast cancer at age 62, leaving behind hilarious books skewering the Texas Legislature and a Texas homeboy named George W. Bush. The word “scrappy” doesn’t begin to describe her style. John Nichols, in a tribute to Ivins in the Nation, called her […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Heard around the West
WASHINGTON At the edge of his Soap Lake, Wash., backyard, Rick Froebe has lined up seven toilets and some old bathtubs and water heaters — all to annoy the golfers whose proximity makes his four dogs bark, which, in turn, annoys his neighbors. Froebe has even placed “three scarecrow-like dummies” on the toilets to look […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA AND CONNECTICUT A Squaw Valley ski instructor with mechanical moxie and a $950 rope tow has created a backyard ski area. The Vail Daily says Ken Wittel’s rope tow is powered by a 5 horsepower gas engine that can pull skiers up Wittel’s 300-foot-high hill at 11 to 18 mph. If your backyard lacks […]
Posted inDecember 25, 2006: Confessions of a Methane Floozy
Heard around the West
CANADA AND IDAHO Spurred by global warming or just plain wanderlust, a female polar bear and a male grizzly got together six years ago for what Borat would call “sexy-time.” What the encounter produced might be dubbed a “pizzly” or a “grolarbear.” The male hybrid was shot earlier this year on a remote Arctic island […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Heard around the West
MONTANA The Washington Post couldn’t resist a colorful headline about the outcome of Montana’s tighter-than-tight race for the U.S. Senate: “A true blue libertarian: Stan Jones, the also-ran who changed the hue of politics.” Jones, 67, is certainly known for his ashen-blue face — the unfortunate result of drinking a homemade medicine that contained silver […]
Posted inNovember 27, 2006: The West: A New Center of Power
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COLORADO As the Rocky Mountain News put it, “Naked frivolity heats up the night.” Their heads inside pumpkins and their clothes nowhere in sight, hundreds braved cold weather on Halloween to streak past the costumed pedestrians thronging Boulder’s outdoor mall. “With the pumpkin on the head, it’s anonymous,” said Jazzmin Jenkins, 21. “What could be […]
Posted inNovember 13, 2006: Bred for success
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA It may sound like a weird thing to have to face at work first thing in the morning, but inside California’s EPA building in Sacramento, squirming worms share space with employees. The live animals, housed in 60-some bins, are such a part of cubicle culture that staffers compete for the prize of “most productive” […]
Posted inOctober 30, 2006: Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico's Forests
Heard around the West
UTAH AND IDAHO Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Forest Service employees from Utah, that’s who. Two staffers from the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Ogden were working in Idaho’s Sawtooth Wilderness Sept. 23, when they spotted wolves chasing a bull elk across a meadow. They weren’t frightened by the sight of the running […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Heard around the West
THE BORDER Life in southern Texas can get pretty boring if you’re a 20-something National Guardsman sent to patrol the dusty border with Mexico. Three guardsmen recently found life so dreary that they picked up their weapons, jumped in their vehicle and headed out for a joyride. They failed to find much action until they […]