Heard Around the West

UTAH Some Western wag once said that the most dangerous thing in a forest was a bunch of Boy Scouts with hatchets. In Utah’s Wasatch-Cache National Forest, make that heavy equipment instead of hatchets. When his son needed a service project to become an Eagle Scout, Scott Vanleeuwen proposed “cleaning up” an abandoned trail that […]

IDAHO Editorials across the country spanked Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig for wielding his formidable clout just to bring what the New York Times called “wasteful pork” to Boise — in this case, eight C-130 cargo planes that the Air Force supposedly promised to Boise’s Air National Guard seven years ago. Only four planes have […]

CALIFORNIA If you protest acts of violence, does that make you a violent person? The answer is yes, according to the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center. The center warned Oakland police that an anti-war protest planned for the city’s port might turn violent, even though there was no evidence that demonstrators intended to do anything but […]

NEVADA Las Vegas’ drought has gotten so serious that some golf courses are replacing grass with crushed rock. But course managers aren’t ripping out their turf without casting verbal stones at homeowners, who use 65 percent of the area’s water, spraying three-quarters of it outdoors, according to The Associated Press. Golf courses are just the […]

A typist at the Herald Journal in Logan, Utah, misread a letter to the editor, and the result was a howler, particularly since the letter dealt with public misconceptions about wolves. The word “wolves” was transmogrified into “wives,” and somehow got through copyediting without a hitch. Here’s how the sentence appeared in the paper: “Wives […]

Don’t mess with Monterey; it plays hardball. For the next 15 years, no cruise ship from Crystal Cruises will be allowed to enter the California city’s harbor. What’s more, if one city official had his way, the company would be banned “forever” – because one of the cruise line’s ships, the Crystal Harmony, dumped 36,000 […]

Watch out, Satan, your number may be up. Route 666 in northwest New Mexico has been called the Devil’s Highway, Satan’s Highway and the highway to Hell — because 666 is “the number of the beast,” in the biblical book of Revelation. It’s also been called downright dangerous, reports the Albuquerque Journal: At least 15 […]

Open a Wenatchee, Wash., phone book and you might want to take a bite out of it. A fragrance strip has been applied to the front cover, and instead of perfume, this one sends out succulent molecules of green-apple aroma. That’s fitting, says Jim Hail, co-owner of Hagedone Directries Inc., who came up with the […]

Vive la France! There, we’ve said it, knowing full well those are fighting words — especially in Nevada. The owners of a restaurant in Reno were so angry at France for thwarting our Iraqi war plans at the United Nations, they poured expensive French champagne into a bucket on the sidewalk. And if they’d had […]

Who said you’re never safe when a state Legislature is in session? In Idaho, women who choose to breast-feed infants came under attack from lawmakers who find the practice offensive. After Rep. Bonnie Douglas, D-Coeur d’Alene, introduced a bill protecting a woman’s right to breast-feed her baby in public, Rep. Peter Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, was […]

President George Bush, reputed to create pet names for just about everybody, has one for environmentalists: They are “green, green lima beans,” according to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. If you’re one of those green beans, you might think twice about getting a divorce. A new study in the journal Nature says splitting the […]

“Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if he recycled the newspapers,” deadpans the San Jose Mercury News. But Tom Bates, candidate for mayor of Berkeley, Calif., was so angry when the Daily Californian endorsed his opponent that he threw 1,000 copies of the free newspaper into the trash. Almost as embarrassing as being caught […]

How do you distinguish between those “good” animals — native species — and the bad actors that stomp on the locals and conquer their turf? Animal rightists don’t like to make those distinctions, arguing that all animals deserve our respect. Just off the coast of California, there’s been a dispute about what to do on […]

Los Angeles Times columnist John Balzar says it’s no secret: The Bush administration “hates” environmentalists. “I cannot see another way to explain the endless string of one-sided decisions and the dripping condescension with which they are delivered,” Balzar writes. “In a feather-brained brief, the administration argued that conservationists should consider the upside of bird deaths […]

Cabela’s of Nebraska, the consumer bible for hunters, anglers and other rugged outdoor folk, offers a novel gift for Christmas in its new catalog: Camouflage bedding. Sheets come in elusive patterns of wetlands, hardwoods and mossy oak that bring “the look and feel of the outdoors to the bedroom.” Spouses who indulge in other products, […]

Animal rights activists just don’t get it: Not all animals are wimps. A 4-year-old dachshund called Brutus loves jumping out of planes, according to his skydiving owner, Ron Sirull, who puts the pooch in a pouch to strap him to his chest. The daring duo took part in an air show at Vandenberg Air Force […]