Bipartisan politics reappeared in Washington, D.C., in March. It felt like a ghost from the golden age of the environmental movement, the 1970s, when Republicans and Democrats worked together to pass major environmental laws. The new Omnibus Public Land Management Act assembles 166 deals related to conservation and natural resources (plus an unrelated 167th for […]
Ray Ring
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Montana wrestles nation’s boldest gun-rights bill
If you have a taste for irony and political dilemmas, this is delicious. We all know how Western Democratic politicians get more popular by coming out for gun rights. They’re packing guns and twirlin’ and shootin’ … partly because some are gun folks, and mainly because it’s good for the image. It differentiates them from […]
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Sage grouse robot video!
Even though today is April Fool’s Day, I think this is not made up. Scientists studying sage grouse behavior in Wyoming have built an amusing but useful grouse robot. The robot looks like a grouse, if you have bad eyesight. It runs on a little railroad track that goes into a lek (mating ground). The […]
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Was our last wild jaguar euthanized by mistake?
Until today, this was the sad story of Macho B, the last known wild jaguar in our country: The jaguar was snared by accident south of Tucson Feb. 18. Wildlife agents decided to strap it with a radio collar to study its movements. Then they noticed the jaguar behaving strangely for 12 days, so they […]
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Some ‘stimulus’ may be bad for environment
Despite their greenish credentials, Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress are bound to offer a mixed bag of environmental policies. Reality ho. Yes, they’ll push conservation deals like the Omnibus federal-lands package that Congress just passed. They’ll try to address climate change and energy and they’ll try other greenish moves. But it’s already apparent, some […]
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Newsitos for 3/26/09
Enviros are literally popping champagne corks to christen the Omni federal-lands package. Undercover feds busted several American Indians, charging they killed eagles illegally to sell the feathers for ceremonies. Mormon Church leaders calculated their moves quietly, leading many years of political campaigns against gay marriage, says a Salt Lake City columnist. And as killer bees […]
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Western Repubs remain split as Omni wilderness deals pass
It required additional amazing tricky moves by Democrats running Congress. But finally, culminating more than a year of wrangling, today the House of Representatives approved the substance of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. The Senate approved it most recently on March 19. President Obama will certainly sign it. Many of the Big […]
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Newsitos for 3/23/09
Who’s the most reasonable Republican in the Interior West? The latest evidence is here and here. Obama’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, is this unique: He has “a Nobel Prize, a YouTube following (for his lectures on climate change) and an unofficial theme song (Dr. Wu by Steely Dan.)” For a glance at the nuclear waste […]
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Newsitos for 3/20/09
Birds are in trouble. Pretty much everywhere. Largely thanks to our appetite for energy. “In the last 40 years,” reports AP, “populations of birds living on prairies, deserts and at sea have declined between 30 percent and 40 percent.“ The biggest bundle of federal-lands deals in decades (the Omnibus Lands Bill) — which died last […]
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Western states flex various Congressional muscles
Keep in mind the famous line: “There are three kinds of lies — lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Roll Call, a 54-year-old Washington, D.C. insider magazine, has announced its latest ranking of the political clout of each state’s Congressional delegation. The Western states are ranked: California has the most influential delegation of all the states, […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
Changeable weather
The West’s environmental movement got buffeted by strong late-winter winds, both good and ill. First, President Barack Obama has targeted the federal government’s 22-year-old multibillion-dollar effort to bury nuclear waste in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. He vowed to devise “a new strategy” on dealing with nuclear waste, while seeking little money for Yucca Mountain in his […]
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Calling Hollywood to run the West
Macho Hollywood actor Val Kilmer has starred in more than 40 movies, often playing tough cops and Western gunfighters. He’s probably best known for playing the 1995 Batman and punching out a villain called The Riddler. Now Kilmer wants to become a political hero by running for the governorship of New Mexico. Don’t laugh too […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
History viewed through gunsights
Famous Firearms of the Old West: From Wild Bill Hickok’s Colt Revolvers to Geronimo’s Winchester, Twelve Guns That Shaped Our HistoryHal Herring189 pages, hardcover: $24.95. TwoDot/Globe Pequot Press, 2008. Chief Joseph was carrying a lever-action Model 1866 Winchester rifle that fired .44 Rimfire cartridges when he led the Nez Perce against the U.S. Cavalry […]
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Enviros suffer first major setback in Obama era
The environmental movement has just fallen short of a major goal, for the first time in the new green-trending era of President Barack Obama and the ramped-up Democrats in Congress. The stakes of this national battle are mostly on Western ground. It’s the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 — the biggest public lands […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
A desert poet takes his work inside
Richard Shelton has taught writing in prisons for 30 years
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
True tests of ‘Stay and Defend’
Australian wildfires could alter Western fire policies.