Radmilla Cody and Geraldine Laughter discuss domestic violence and the challenges for enforcement and victim support services on the Navajo Nation. Last year, President Obama signed the Tribal Law and Order Act, which could help improve enforcement and support for domestic violence victims on reservations around the country.
Nathan Rice
Posted inGoat
Fish (farm) on
If you dine on salmon in the Rockies, you’re used to having fish travel by interstate to your dinner plate. But even if you live on the coast, don’t be surprised if your next succulent fillet actually comes from the other side of the planet. Unless a menu says “wild,” the seafood special probably grew […]
Posted inGoat
The birds and the blades
Driving through rolling hills into California’s Bay Area on Interstate 580, it’s impossible to miss the thousands of windmills spinning in the incessant breeze off the Pacific. The Altamont wind farm, built during the 1970s oil crisis, was an early example of the West’s clean energy potential. But there’s a startling unintended consequence of all […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
County kickbacks
Though Westerners tend to idealize frontier independence, rural county governments often rely on Uncle Sam. Federal payment programs meant to compensate counties for lost cash from tax-exempt public lands distributed about $900 million nationwide in 2009. One of these programs — the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS) — was barely renewed in […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Welcome, new interns
Two more interns have joined us for six months of “journalism boot camp.” We’re also delighted to announce that Emilene Ostlind, intern extraordinaire from the Summer/Fall 2010 session, is staying on as an Editorial Fellow. When Sierra Crane-Murdoch was tagging birds in Vermont in 2007 to monitor their migration, she found herself more interested in […]
Posted inGoat
Another round against hardrock handouts
The frontier days are long gone, but hardrock mining companies still do business like it’s the Wild West, with big government handouts and few taxes on spoils reaped from public lands. Back in the day, generous subsidies were used to boost mining in remote parts of the West. Today many of those old-fangled policies, including […]
Posted inGoat
Of beetles and borders
The mountain pine beetle’s red hand of death (see photo below) continues to plunder Rocky Mountain forests, according to a report released last week by the U.S. and Colorado forest services. The rampant pest chomped through another 400,000 acres of pines in Colorado and southern Wyoming last year, for a grand total of four million […]
Posted inGoat
Bring the electrons home
On New Year’s Day, the city of Boulder, Colo., started down a road toward energy independence by decoupling with their electrical utility, Xcel Energy. After three years of negotiations for more green power failed, Boulder let its 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel expire at the end of 2010. When voters in the environmentally-minded city approved […]
Posted inArticles
Pinon Ridge uranium mill clears state hurdle
Long-dormant industry could rise again in Colorado
Posted inGoat
Proposed Colorado uranium mill gets key state go-ahead
Web only: Watch an audio slideshow about the proposed Piñon Ridge uranium mill. Colorado took one step closer to kickstarting a new Western uranium boom this Wednesday, when state regulators approved a license for the Piñon Ridge uranium mill. The western Colorado mill — which could be the first in the nation in over HCN […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
‘The last word is action’
Boulder clean-energy activist sees declining coal supply as a boon
Posted inArticles
Shades of hope for uranium’s forgotten victims
A proposed bill expands worker compensation