Like a sausage maker inured to the sights and smells of his job, anyone who dabbles in lawmaking expects un-pleasantries: Negotiations will seem endless, and compromise will be painful. But lately in the nation’s Capitol, legislators have had to grapple with a new stink: Even the most hard-fought deals are indefinitely lodged in legislative limbo. […]
Danielle Venton
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Friday news roundup: Endangered species, oily disappointments
This week was a tough one for news watchers. Our favorite Monkee died, yet another member of that rare, endangered species — the moderate Republican — fell by the wayside, and good manners seem ever on the wane. Even upstart subway station ads are becoming shockingly rude. Despite our general melancholy, we still took heed of tweets […]
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Of tooth, claw and plane: Making my peace with predator control
Updated 3/6/2012 A troubling item appeared in the news last month, troubling to this news consumer and, if they could read, troubling to the predators of Alaska. Out of a desire to save caribou, moose, elk and in particular musk oxen, the state’s Board of Game now allows state officials to shoot bears from planes […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 2012: How Arizona's culture helped shape the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
Photojournalist Lisa Hamilton explores rural California
For her project, Real Rural, photojournalist Lisa Hamilton traveled throughout California, interviewing and photographing scores of rural people.
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Friday news roundup: Inside the world of climate change deniers
Amid the excitement of the week’s federal budget proposals, an exposure of climate-change deniers’ tactics and GOP candidate reshuffling (Romney, what’s happening to you?), we at HCN headquarters were battling winter colds and coughs, reaching for DayQuil, NyQuil and Benadryl, when we weren’t keeping up on the news. Here’s what caught our watery, itchy eyes: ClimateDocuments […]
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Seal Stories from the Pribilof, middle of everywhere
Stiff winds blow over the treeless islands of St. Paul and St. George, over 300 miles from mainland Alaska. The Pribilof Islands, breeding grounds to the northern fur seal in the middle of the Bering Sea, seem unlikely actors in world events. “People come and say, ‘It’s in the middle of nowhere,’” says Aquilina Lestenkof, […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2012: Can evolution help snowshoe hares adapt to climate change?
Greenhouse gas sources, emitters and effects
All of the top emitters listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s inventory of greenhouse gas producers, released early this year, are coal-fired power plants. Western coal, in particular from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, contributes significantly to those emissions. And though our region’s inhabitants feel fewer of the impacts of burning it, we’re not in the […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2012: Can evolution help snowshoe hares adapt to climate change?
High Country News welcomes new interns
Two new editorial interns just joined us for six months of “journalism boot camp” at our Paonia, Colo., office. Danielle Venton was born in Petaluma, Calif. Early backpacking trips sparked her curiosity about the natural world, which eventually led her to study biology at Humboldt State University. Unlike her classmates, Danielle couldn’t settle on just […]
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Friday news round up: Romney in Nevada, Glacier thief in handcuffs
As we slip from January to February, allowing a few more New Year’s resolutions to fall by the wayside, we’re rallying our strength as spectators: both for the Superbowl this Sunday, and the drawn out GOP presidential drama. Amid the hustle, bustle and bluster of the week, a few headlines caught our eye. PUBLIC LANDSOn […]
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EPA grilled over Pavillion report
The opening act of yesterday’s hearing led by the House subcommittee on Energy and the Environment was uncommonly action-packed: Josh Fox, documentary filmmaker and director of “Gasland,” was lead from the room in handcuffs, on the grounds he did not have the right credentials. Earlier, a camera crew claiming to be from ABC news was […]
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Snow fight on the slopes
A tussle over water rights has broken out between the ski industry and the U.S. Forest Service. And, like the conditions this winter, things are a bit nasty. The dispute is over a new clause in ski area permits that prohibits ski companies from selling or transferring some water rights to cities, farms or other […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2012: Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote
How much time does Congress spend discussing the issues you care about?
Ten months before the election, news outlets are already jammed with political jabber. One way to put it in perspective is to chart the attention Congress has paid to your particular issues over time. Capitol Words, an online visualization tool created by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Sunlight Foundation, assembles the daily contents of the Congressional Record […]
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Friday news roundup: Defense goes solar and helicopter bear shooting goes legal
While presidential opponents dropped like flies, news affecting lands west of the 100th meridian continued to spit and sputter out onto the interwebs, mimicking the sleet-snow we got here in Paonia this weekend. Here’s a roundup of the important news of the week: ENERGY President Obama announced his rejection of the Keystone XL project on […]
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Renewables forecast: rainy with patchy sunshine
A few headlines last week celebrated the news that in the U.S. renewable energy production now surpasses nuclear energy production. The increase, however, is hardly coming from the solar panels adorning your roof. Conventional hydroelectric power still makes up the majority of renewable energy, as it has for decades. And, according to the National Hydropower […]