Articles

My anxiety-prone 7-year-old son, Elias, was so nervous about his first baseball game that he felt sick. “Those are called butterflies,” I said. To help him out, I took him into the backyard and pitched some balls, all the while reciting a litany of “great athletes who got nervous” stories. I told him that the […]

A little-known battle in this country’s marijuana war is underway in a small town of 1,500 in western Colorado, known – if at all — for its underground coal mines, 12 wineries, a microbrewery, organic vegetables and fruit, and, its perfect climate for growing pot. The town is Paonia, and this November, its registered voters […]

For climate activists, this feels like the last moment. The huge marches in New York and other cities around the world were a reflection, among other things, of desperation. How loud must we scream before our so-called leaders will listen? How many hundreds of thousands must fill the streets before any of those leaders act?  […]

There is an unfortunate stigma attached to frozen meat, a widely held assumption that it’s inferior to fresh meat. This prejudice runs deep enough that fast-food chain Wendy’s promises that its burger meat is “always fresh, never frozen.” This belief, and all the retail efforts that cater to it, are misguided. If processed correctly, frozen […]

When I set out to report on the effort to save a historic chalet in the rugged backcountry of Washington’s Olympic National Park, I thought the toughest part would be the 13-mile hike. What I found after six hours on the trail, however, was a bizarre blockade on press freedom, the likes of which I’d […]

You’re a big game hunter in the wilds of Wyoming, Montana or Idaho, and a grizzly is headed right for you, just like a freight train. Do you reach for bear spray, or use your rifle? For more than a decade, state and federal agencies have said hunters should use a firearm only if bear […]

I was reading the newspaper at my computer desk when a huge explosion rattled the window of my home office. I leaped several inches off the chair, sure that my husband, who was working on our camp trailer, had been blown to smithereens by a propane tank explosion. I ran to the front window and […]