We are approaching a crisis that stems in part from irresponsible behavior and is aggravated by our insatiable consumer culture. A lack of government oversight has let the problem grow to catastrophic levels. Now it could devastate entire economies and societies. No, I’m not talking about Wall Street. I’m talking about the crisis we seem […]
Jonathan Thompson
Jonathan Thompson is a contributing editor at High Country News. He is the author of Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands. Follow him @LandDesk
Posted inWotr
Republican ticket is just more of the same
One needn’t go far to hear how the gun-slingin’ and moose-eatin’ vice presidential pick of John McCain is going to snowmobile to victory this November on the backs of rural Western voters. She is a member of the National Rifle Association, grew up in the West and likes to fish and hunt. So, a lot […]
Posted inGoat
Lipstick on a Cheney
One needn’t go far to find mention of how the gun-slingin’, moose-eatin’ vice presidential pick of John McCain is going to snowmobile to victory this November on the backs of rural Western voters. Because she’s from the West (Alaska via Idaho), and because she’s been mayor of a small town (a suburb, actually), and because […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Fire, fire everywhere
Type “wildfire” into your Google news search box on any given summer day, and you’ll get more than 15,000 news stories to sift through. As I write this, on Aug. 19, a brush fire has just burned 250 acres in Southern California, buildings in Reno have been devoured by wildfire, and a huge fire in […]
Posted inDnc 08
A view of Obama from the West
“It was magical.” That’s how Tillie Herrera Brummell, a diminutive woman with salt and pepper hair and round spectacles, described the closing extravaganza of the Democratic National Convention. Brummell, a native New Mexican who currently lives in Mountainair, sat with her son, Daniel, on a bus taking Convention-goers from the event back into town. She […]
Posted inDnc 08
Stegner at the DNC?
It’s not that often that Wallace Stegner’s words are woven into a political speech before an audience of 75,000 (plus all those folks watching on television). But during the blockbuster, Super Bowl-esque spectacle that closed out the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Rep. Mark Udall — a candidate for Senate here in Colorado — did just […]
Posted inDnc 08
Protest makes waves
There was plenty of hype leading up to the Convention about the potential for big protests. Recreate 68 planned some serious, mischievous action, as did DNC Disruption 08 and other groups. As of Wednesday evening, most of that had fizzled. Protests were generally small and — except for one that snaked down the 16th Street […]
Posted inDnc 08
I fish, I hunt, I vote … Democrat?
The National Wildlife Federation hosted a reception at the posh Curtis hotel in downtown Denver on Wednesday. They called it, I Hunt, I Fish, I Vote Conservation. The whole shindig had a decidedly less liberal feel to it than other DNC events. After all, these were hunters, anglers and the like, who, as Bob Carpenter, […]
Posted inDnc 08
Schweitzer on Bloggers, energy and guns
“I wake up at 4 o’clock every morning and read all the blogs,” said Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, surrounded by reporters at the Big Tent Denver on Wednesday morning. “It’s good to see what bloggers look like. And it ain’t a pretty sight.” Though that comment drew a few groans, Schweitzer’s visit to new media […]
Posted inDnc 08
Schweitzer speaks!
The West got a fairly prominent place on the Convention agenda Tuesday when Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer spoke just before Hillary Clinton. The Pepsi Center was packed for the event (in anticipation of Clinton). It was so full that many journalists and other credentialed folks actually had to watch both Schweitzer’s and Clinton’s speeches on […]
Posted inDnc 08
Gratuitous Celebrity (and editor) Photo
Actress and Activist Daryl Hannah with yours truly.
Posted inDnc 08
Drill Here. Drill Now. Part II
You’ve got to give the Democrats credit. They tried to make some noise about energy today here in Denver. But no one heard them. Finally, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with other key Democratic house leaders, arrived. And then, just as she began to speak about her plan for American energy independence, the chants began: […]
Posted inDnc 08
Freegin’ the Convention
Jack Shafer, of Slate.com, while making his argument that the press should boycott the conventions, wrote: … he may argue that meeting all the important politicos up close at the convention will produce future news dividends. But he’ll pout if you ask him whether the intimacy justifies the expense, which can easily exceed $3,000 per […]
Posted inDnc 08
Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less?
If you’re attending the Democratic National Convention, and you can get past the Stormtrooper-looking police in riot gear, and past the people selling Obama buttons for $3 a pop, and you can keep plugging along even after running across the guy riding his bicycle with a giant flag reading: “You are going to Hell”, or […]
Posted inDnc 08
The Las Vegas of Politics
Denver, this week, feels a bit like Vegas. Okay, the lights aren’t so bright. And I haven’t run into any slot machines, yet. Or, for that matter, giant fountains spewing water into the dry desert air. Still. You know how, along the Vegas strip, there’s guys flipping those little cards at you, emblazoned with pics […]
Posted inDnc 08
WELCOME TO DENVER!
Downtown Denver, Aug. 25, where there are nearly as many journalists as there are riot-gear-clad cops. The High Country News team has just arrived. Stay tuned for more coverage from the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Posted inGoat
Winning the West: HCN @ the DNC
What’s a Colorado journalist to do when, for the first time in a century, the Democratic National Convention comes to your state? The first impulse of the newshound: Go to Denver, of course, and get yourself a scoop (not to mention free food). Then comes that slightly bitter aftertaste when you realize that there are […]
Posted inAugust 11, 2008: Trouble in (Private) Paradise
If you build it, will they come?
Big Water (nee Glen Canyon City), Utah, sits west of Lake Powell in the middle of the desert. It’s not the most obvious place for a town — in fact, there wasn’t anything there at all until a man camp for dam workers was constructed in 1950. In the 1980s, it was reborn as a […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
Power of the picture
International photographers hit the Wyoming Range to document the effects of energy development — and find that beauty and ugliness walk hand in hand