Two years ago, Earl Shumway became notorious by
bragging about looting archaeological artifacts and then receiving
the most severe prison term yet for this crime – 78 months. Now, a
U.S. appeals court has decided that the sentencing was too severe
for Shumway’s crime of pillaging an Anasazi infant’s burial
blanket, among other grave goods. The judge cut 15 months off his
sentence …
The nation’s largest conservative
religious group has asked two Western politicians to fill the shoes
of executive director Ralph Reed. Washington’s former Republican
Rep. Randy Tate, who did not win re-election last November, will
become the executive director of the Christian Coalition. Coloradan
Donald Hodel, secretary of Energy and then Interior under Reagan,
was named president. Reed is leaving to start a political
consulting firm …
Wyoming has a new endangered
species – the working ranch, Gov. Jim Geringer told the Wyoming
Stock Growers Association. Hobby ranches and subdivisions are
putting ranchland in peril, says Geringer …
The
Forest Service is wasting time trying to recruit minority workers
in her state, says Idaho Republican Rep. Helen Chenoweth in the
Idaho Spokesman-Review, because “the warm-climate community just
hasn’t found the colder climate that attractive.” Accused of
perpetuating northern Idaho’s image as a haven for bigots and
racists, Chenoweth said she “didn’t mean to offend anybody”
…
Meanwhile, in Idaho’s panhandle some 30
dissidents are working on seceding from the Union. The members of
the Benewah County Safety Committee say since they live in the
Republic of Idaho, they don’t need to pay taxes. Their chairman,
Hari Heath, who calls himself a back-to-the-land greenie, leads the
group in meetings of “Our One Supreme Court in and for Benewah
County” at a local pizza parlor …
Former vice
president Dan Quayle hopes a Western address will help him win the
Republican nomination for president in the year 2000. He recently
opened Campaign America in Scottsdale, Ariz.
*
Heather Abel
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
