For 20 years, Jim Stiles has published one of the most essential alternative newspapers in the West: The Canyon Country Zephyr, based in Moab, Utah (latest motto: “All the news that causes fits”). With sharp, see-all-sides reporting, the independent has taken on the excesses of extractive industry, the failings of the New West economy, and […]
Colorado
Posted inWotr
The terror and beauty of away games
The mud-spattered school bus hits snow at about 7,000-feet elevation. I’m following in a front-wheel-drive mini-van, and my tires are starting to spin in the gathering slush. Any moment, I expect the bus driver to find a wide spot in the road and retreat back to the high school, elevation 5,300 feet, where it is […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2009: Non-navigable River Blues
The HCN miracle
Well, you’ve done it again. Just when we were worried that the worsening economy would seriously cripple our financial condition, you stepped up in December with a blizzard of support. All told, our readers provided $150,000 in Research Fund gifts — a record amount for a single month. The presses (and the electrons at hcn.org) […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Fa-la-la-la
We’re taking a two-week publishing hiatus in late December, like we do every year. We’ll be working on new stories, saying farewell to our latest excellent crop of interns, and singing carols. Our traditional Open House won’t be held this year, though — another victim of the economic meltdown. Enjoy the holidays and look for […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Congratulations, Theo
HCN‘s most famous hometown scientist, Dr. Theo Colborn, just received a prestigious international prize, the 2008 Goteborg Award for Sustainable Development. Theo is the founder and president of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange, which studies how industrial toxins affect the health of humans and the environment (www.endocrinedisruption.com). The prize, awarded by the city of Goteborg, Sweden, […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2008: Still Howling Wolf
From the Beltway to the mountains
His close-cropped hair, aviator shades and straight-backed bearing hint at his Navy past, but the silver hoop in his left ear and baggy bike shorts give Keith Baker a twist of hip outdoorsy-ness. He stands in the HCN office with his wife, Evelyn, also in bike garb, and their dog, a sleek weimaraner named Prana. […]
Posted inSeptember 9, 2008: Reclaiming the low country
Dear friends
Kirk Crawford, of nearby Crawford, dropped by during a hike of the Continental Divide Trail. He had one message to share: STOP. As in Stop Trashing Our Planet, Start Telling Our Politicians, and Start Thinking Of Peace. Good thoughts, Kirk. Judy Muller, an associate journalism professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Dear friends
FROM FRANCE, NEW YORK AND CALIFORNIASummer visiting season is in full swing. Ned Ames and Jane Sokolow, both of New York City, stopped by after visiting some friends in Hotchkiss, just down the road. They were on their way back to New York from their Fort Union Ranch in Watrous, N.M., which has been in […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Heard Around the West
NEVADA Debbie Rivenburgh is the general manager of a bordello in Pahrump, Nev., 60 miles from Las Vegas — one of 27 legal brothels in the state. In 21 years, she says, no college has ever called to request an intimate tour of her desert establishment. Then Randolph College in Virginia, a private liberal arts […]
Posted inMay 26, 2008: On Cancer’s Trail
Dear friends
FELLOW NEWSMEN COME TO CALL Kevin Haley, the “founder, publisher, editor, janitor and copyboy” of the San Juan Horseshoe, dropped by to say hi. The Ouray, Colo.-based parody newspaper bills itself as “Refried News for a Half-Baked World.” From Salida, Colo., came Mike Rosso, webmaster for four newspapers owned by Arkansas Valley Publishing. He said […]
Posted inMay 12, 2008: Boom! Boom!
Boom! Boom!
In western Colorado, an energy boom of unprecedented proportions has been layered on top of a thriving amenity economy. Which will come out on top?
Posted inApril 28, 2008: Pillaging the Past
Dear friends
A CRASH IN WESTERN COLORADO What happens when an energy boom collides with an amenity boom? Join High Country News and a panel of experts on Thursday, May 15, at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo., for a rousing discussion exploring whether a gas-field town and a recreation and retirement community can coexist. Hear […]
Posted inApril 28, 2008: Pillaging the Past
Heard Around the West
WASHINGTON How many ways can a neighbor’s house drive you crazy? The Seattle Weekly counts 10, with each one dreadful in its own distinctive way. Among them is the “Pig Face” dwelling that thrusts its two-car garage toward the street “like a greedy sow rooting for rotten vegetables.” This house clusters in herds, and its […]
Posted inApril 14, 2008: Taking to the Trees
Dear friends
MORE KUDOS FOR RAY Senior editor Ray Ring‘s cover story “Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields,” April 2, 2007, received an Honorable Mention in this year’s Heywood Broun Award contest. The top winners were Dana Priest and Anne Hull of the Washington Post. The award, from the Newspaper Guild, recognizes journalism that helps […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2008: My Crazy Brother
Dear friends
POETRY CORNER We usually focus on hard-hitting news about the West, not sonnets and blank verse. But to lighten things up, we thought we’d share a couple of poems we recently received from readers. Subscriber Susanne Twight-Alexander of Eugene, Ore., sent us verses inspired by her reading of Home Ground. The book, edited by Barry […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2008: My Crazy Brother
Heard Around the West
WYOMING Spring really is around the corner, says longtime “Far Afield” columnist Bert Raynes in the Jackson Hole News&Guide. With keen eyes, he’s observed some of the season’s earliest manifestations: “Coyotes in pairs and in groups … Ravens in mock pursuits. Bald eagles carrying nest materials, horned and great gray owls calling, dippers in noisy, […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2008: Seeking the Water Jackpot
Dear friends
WELCOME, SARAH GILMAN She’s baaaa-aaa-ck! We’re pleased to welcome former HCN intern Sarah Gilman as our new assistant editor. A Colorado native, Sarah was born and raised in Boulder. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and studio art at Whitman College in Washington state in 2004. The pull of the Rocky Mountains was too […]