From a singlewide trailer perched atop a mesa south of Moab, Utah, KZMU community radio began broadcasting in 1992. It took nine years for the station to build a modest studio next door, but the station kept growing, and in 2008, KZMU erected a solar array to power its electrical needs. Now 23 years old, […]
Marty Durlin
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
The SWOP letter
Signed by 100 people of color, charging racism in the environmental movement
Posted inWotr
Growing up political
The gray November morning was framed by the windows in my parents’ bedroom. They were still in bed — it must’ve been early — and they cut short my eager question: Did Daddy win? No. Daddy lost. People voted for the other guy — the Republican. I was 5 years old, shocked and crushed by […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
The Shot Heard Round the West
What resulted from activists’ 1990 challenge to the big greens
Posted inBlog
EPA, Black Caucus announce environmental justice tour
“All environmental protection, like all politics, is quite local,” Environmental Protection Agency director Lisa Jackson told her staff this month. “Very few people come to environmental protection because they wake up one morning and read a book about it. They come to environmental protection because it touches them — the lack of that protection, a […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
The Group of 10 respond
The big greens grade themselves
Posted inArticles
Audio: Water wonk
Matt Jenkins talks about the complex politics of the West’s most precious resource
Posted inGoat
The West leads the country in personal bankruptcy filings
Every state saw a rise in bankruptcy filings in 2009, but the West — hit hardest by the collapse of the real estate market — showed the most increases. The Associated Press reports nationwide figures of more than 1.4 million filings, making 2009 the 7th worst year on record. Arizona led the way, with a […]
Posted inGoat
The fight over cap and trade
The carbon emissions trading scheme known as cap-and-trade is on the global table as the United Nations Climate Change conference gets underway this week in Copenhagen. Cap-and-trade is also a feature of the Waxman-Markey bill currently being reshaped by the U.S. Senate after passage in the House in June. Hailed by supporters as “an important […]
Posted inDecember 7, 2009: Dueling Claims
Betting on the rails
Buffett buys BNSF as Congress considers reform legislation
Posted inGoat
Keeping uranium out of the Grand Canyon
Are 21- year-old documents adequate to approve reopening a uranium mine about 15 miles north of the Grand Canyon? The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Grand Canyon Trust say no, and they’re suing the Bureau of Land Management for giving the go-ahead, claiming the agency is violating multiple federal laws by […]
Posted inArticles
Audio: The joy of CX
The BLM’s categorical exclusions have allowed some questionable drilling permits.
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
My father’s political career
The family also wins and loses.
Posted inGoat
Eco-pawprints
Has it come to this already? Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living is the name of a new book written by two Victoria University professors, Brenda and Robert Vale. The couple — both architects who specialize in sustainable living — have computed the carbon emissions created by pets, taking into […]
Posted inGoat
Tepid statistics as the planet burns
Mired firmly in denial, we seem to be stuck in the first step of Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s five stages of grief about the death of life as we know it on Planet Earth. Adam D. Sacks has an excellent piece on Grist about our lack of urgency about global climate change — and from the […]
Posted inArticles
Audio: Big threats to small ecosystems
Madeleine Nash talks about the springs of the ‘heart of the American West’
Posted inGoat
Is the Pioneer doomed?
What a pleasure it was to ride Amtrak’s Pioneer route, which ran from Salt Lake City to Boise, through Oregon to Portland and north to Seattle. The route operated from 1977 to 1997, hooking up with the California Zephyr to service riders in Colorado. I remember one fabulous trip to LaGrande, Oregon, getting off at […]
Posted inGoat
Sen. Baucus’ healthcare plan
The political comedian Bill Maher this week told President Obama to act on behalf of the “70 percent of Americans who are not crazy” and go ahead with his agenda, instead of trying to please enough Republicans to make a bill bipartisan. The Democratic senator from Montana, Max Baucus, might heed this advice as well. […]
Posted inGoat
The Cheney International Center
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne donated about $3.5 million to the University of Wyoming, and in return UW named a 20,000-square-foot center in Cheney’s honor. The Cheney International Center will house the university’s international programs, which include the study of global economic systems, international culture and social issues, international development and […]