There’s no denying that some Spanish speakers get frustrated with the dialect that’s spoken in New Mexico and southern Colorado. Take, for instance, the Jemez Mountains. Anyone who’s sat through a high school Spanish class would say “HEM-es.” Don’t try that in New Mexico: Those are the “hay-mez” Mountains. Luckily, Rubén Cobos, a professor for […]
Laura Paskus
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Congress overrules the courts
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Tipping the scales.” Even when environmentalists do emerge victorious from court, their celebrations are often short-lived: Congress can overturn a court’s interpretation of an existing law by passing a new one. It’s not a new tactic, but it’s one that is especially favored by […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Follow-up
The Forest Service is selling its final management plan for California’s Giant Sequoia National Monument as a compromise, but not all environmentalists are buying it (HCN, 6/9/03: Giant sequoias could get the ax). The plan would allow logging on 10,000 of the monument’s 327,000 acres in order to control future wildfires. Chad Hanson of the […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Generation gap
The laws meant to protect future generations may not last one more
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Follow-up
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is not all wet, after all: After outraged public comment from environmentalists and sportsmen alike, the Bush administration has backed off plans to remove “isolated” wetlands — those that are dry for more than six months out of the year — from protection under the Clean Water Act. Proposed changes […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Voices rising from the desert
I say the writers of the Southwest, we are like horses that have gone out on the llano and eaten locoweed, and madness is what is unique to us. –Rudolfo Anaya It’s one thing to read the printed words of your favorite author; it’s quite another to actually hear his or her voice. Almost 10 […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Follow-up
During his introductory address, the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Mike Leavitt, told of a visit to President Bush’s Crawford ranch: “I’m from the West, and I know love of the land when I see it,” he said. Leavitt then announced plans to implement Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative, which, among other things, allows coal-fired power […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
More than just a city on a river
In New Mexico, history is never an abstraction. Whether you are seeking shelter in a thick-walled adobe home, listening to the lilt of a native New Mexican’s words, tracing the path of acequias or tasting posole, you can sense history there. And there are few writers better able to tell that history than Marc Simmons. […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2003: Riding the middle path
Follow-up
New nukes — as well as old nuclear waste — may soon be headed West: Tucked inside the 2004 Water and Energy Appropriations Bill was $11 million for the Modern Pit Facility, a factory to build plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs (HCN, 9/1/03: Courting the Bomb). Now, it’s up to the Energy Department to decide […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2003: Riding the middle path
New nuke studies are in the works
When Congress passed the $27.3 billion Water and Energy Authorization Bill on Nov. 18, lawmakers voted to do more than revamp harbors and fund physics labs; they also set aside money for new nuclear weapons research, and reduced the time it will take to fire up the nation’s nuclear testing grounds. The bill included $6 […]
Posted inWotr
Getting ready to wreck the vote
Let’s just get this out of the way: As a nerd, and an overly opinionated one at that, Election Day — not Thanksgiving — has always been my favorite “holiday.” Some kids couldn’t wait to turn 16 and drive; I couldn’t wait to turn 18 and vote. Simply put, I’m a maniac for democracy. That […]
Posted inNovember 24, 2003: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut
Follow-up
Is that sound science, or the sound of science being strangled? For years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has pressed the Army Corps of Engineers to operate its Missouri River dams to mimic natural river flows and help endangered fish and birds (HCN, 11/11/02: Corps stands behind status quo). But the Corps has consistently […]
Posted inNovember 24, 2003: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut
New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut
As Los Alamos National Laboratory embarks on a new era of weapons development, critics drag its unfinished business out into the light
Posted inNovember 24, 2003: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut
Atomic comics
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut.” Visitors to the “history” section of the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos will find more than photos of early lab workers and atomic test explosions. They’ll also find comic books, including Learn How Dagwood Splits […]
Posted inNovember 24, 2003: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut
Cold War workers seek compensation
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut.” Workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are a special breed: Not only do they work with the most dangerous objects on the planet, but most of them believe in what they are doing and are […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2003: San Diego's Habitat Triage
Follow-up
Just say “no” to greenhouse gases. New Mexico has joined the growing number of states that have sued the Environmental Protection Agency for weakening the federal Clean Air Act (HCN, 10/27/03: West Coast states tackle global warming). So far, 13 states, 20 cities and 14 environmental or public health groups have decided to fight the […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2003: The Big Story Written Small
Follow-up
Dig deep, fellow taxpayers: On Oct. 1, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund — a fund, fed by corporate polluters, which cleans up some of the nation’s most contaminated places — officially ran out of money (HCN, 12/9/02: Life in the wasteland). Now, taxpayers will foot the cleanup bill for everything from toxic dumps to defunct […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 2003: Harvesting Poison
City at the end of its rope
Anyone who has lived in Albuquerque, and sworn a curse upon the city and all its planners, visitors and inhabitants while broiling in traffic, and then eaten chile rellenos at sunset while watching the Sandia Mountains turn pink, knows that love and hate, beauty and grit, stand shoulder to shoulder in this desert city. Longtime […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 2003: Harvesting Poison
Follow-up
Environmentalists aren’t the only ones opposed to mining in the wilderness. Citing “quality of life” concerns, more than 50 business owners in Sandpoint, Idaho, officially opposed the Forest Service’s plan to allow a copper mine beneath Montana’s Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area (HCN, 2/18/02: Battle brews over a wilderness mother lode). The downstream businesses include an […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 2003: Harvesting Poison
Who’s at the helm?
The EPA hasn’t had anyone at the wheel for three months — but it’s been charging full steam ahead