Despite the midwinter economic-recession blues plaguing much of the West, environmentalists have reason to feel good. After eight years of being frustrated by President George W. Bush, suddenly they’re getting traction. Signs include: On Jan. 20, just hours into his term, President Barack Obama froze all the Bush deregulation efforts that had not been finalized […]
Ray Ring
Posted inWotr
Don’t trust this Texas billionaire
See T. Boone Pickens. Run, T. Boone, run! Watch out for T. Boone Pickens. As funny as that sounds, in the sing-song style of the classic Dick and Jane kids’ books, it’s a smart warning. Just as those books have used simple repetition to teach generations of kids to read since the 1930s, Texas billionaire […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2009: Non-navigable River Blues
No news is bad news
For Westerners interested in the news, one of the biggest stories lately is the crisis in the news industry itself. A few highlights: Washington state’s second-largest newspaper, the 146-year-old Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was put up for sale Jan. 9. Its owner — Hearst Corp., a privately held chain based in New York — says that unless […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2009: Non-navigable River Blues
Political guns
Wyoming calls the shots on a pass in Yellowstone National Park
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
The West goes to Washington
Obama draws from “flyover country” for cabinet
Posted inGoat
Obama should pick Kemmis to help run Interior or Ag
Up front: I know Dan Kemmis. I’ve interviewed him, hung out with him at events, read his books and other writings. I like Dan for his careful manner and his visionary, out-of-the-box thinking about the West. I also like how he’s grounded in the real world. So add my voice to the back-channel chorus calling […]
Posted inGoat
Ex-HCN board member named Idaho lt. guv
Brad Little is a widely respected third-generation Idaho rancher, working livestock and crops. He’s taken a leadership role in many ag and business groups. He’s also a longtime Republican legislator, now serving as a state senator and Majority Caucus Chairman. He’s involved in efforts to resolve livestock grazing and timber management controversies on public lands, […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Western wish list for Obama
The hopes and worries of 11 key Westerners
Posted inGoat
Enviros shun autoworkers
A scene I’d like to see: The CEOs of the Sierra Club and other Big Green groups standing up in Congress and calling for financial help for the autoworkers in GM, Ford and Chrysler. Haven’t seen it, though. And that’s a problem in itself. The silence from environmentalists is one reason why they often struggle […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
On Obama’s coattails
Westerners inspired by Barack Obama have a right to feel giddy these days: The history-making wave that swept the Democrat into the presidency Nov. 4 had a lot of impact around the region. It lifted a surprising number of other Democrats into offices that had long been held by Republicans, many of whom were seen […]
Posted inGoat
Already one Westerner gets job in Obama admin
Jim Messina — born in Denver, raised in Boise, with a University of Montana bachelor’s degree in political science — will be a deputy chief of staff in Barack Obama’s White House. Messina worked his tail off to get there. He was chief of staff for Obama’s campaign, and his political experience stretches from Alaska […]
Posted inGoat
The pundits are wrong
The news chatters with suggestions that some Western Democratic governors will take jobs in the new cabinet being formed by President-elect Barack Obama. Montana’s Gov. Brian Schweitzer … ! Arizona’s Gov. Janet Napolitano … ! Wyoming’s Gov. Dave Freudenthal … ! New Mexico’s Bill Richardson … ! Any of them would be good as the […]
Posted inGoat
Mormon Church wins on gay marriage
Swayed by an alliance of the Mormon Church, evangelicals and Catholic bishops, voters decided yesterday to use two states’ constitutions to ban marriage for gays and lesbians … … even though, I’ll interject, constitutions are normally intended to ensure the civil rights of minority groups. California’s Proposition 8 was the most intense gay-marriage battle ever […]
Posted inGoat
Republicans seem tougher in Northern Rockies
As the Barack Obama wave swept much of the West, carrying fellow Democratic candidates to many victories, the Republicans in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming proved to be more resistant. John McCain won the presidential races in all three states. In the Congressional races, the Democrats apparently took one House seat that had been held by […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2008: Prophets and politics
Prophets and politics
Will the Mormon Church decide who gets married in California?
Posted inWotr
Democrats borrow from Madison Avenue
It’s like a supercharged dream: You find yourself sliding into the driver’s seat of a sleek, brand new car. Slap it into gear and you zoom ahead, through a spectacular wild-looking Western landscape. You take the curves faster than seemed possible, maybe around Utah’s eerie redrock spires, or between Rocky Mountain snowcaps, past waterfalls and […]
Posted inAugust 11, 2008: Trouble in (Private) Paradise
Obama’s Western ace in the hole
Jim Messina is the presidential campaign’s chief of staff
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
A fractured party
The Republican Party, struggling with infighting and lacking a coherent vision may find new life — or self-destruction — in the West’s green politics
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
Bears saved from the ‘burbs
Grizzly bears often wander through Montana’s Swan River Valley, as is shown in this satellite map tracking 10 grizzlies’ movements from 2000 to 2004. The bruins, increasingly threatened by development, are expected to benefit from “The Montana Legacy Project” — billed as the biggest private land-conservation deal ever put together. The Nature Conservancy and the […]