A staff walks out; a grassroots newspaper is born
Colorado
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Dear friends
HCN NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT It’s that time of year again, when we come to you on bended knee, asking for help keeping High Country News going. Unless you’ve given recently to our Research Fund, you should be receiving a letter soon. For comments from writer Jane Braxton Little about the importance of the Research Fund, […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
The wet Net
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “The myth trafficker,” in a special issue about community media in the West. John Orr created the “Coyote Gulch” blog in 2002 to follow Denver-area politics, but the following November, that topic converged with his other love — Colorado water. Voters were […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Dear friends
WELCOME, EVAN AND FLETCHER New HCN intern Fletcher Jacobs arrived in town only to find that the “off-the-grid” solar-powered house he’ll be living in for the next few months was recently struck by lightning. Until the home’s electrical system can be repaired, it’s back to flashlights and candles. Fletcher spent the last two years in […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
The memory of mountains
A long time ago, I climbed a mountain with my mother. It was back in the early ’80s, when she was only slightly older than I am now — hard for me to believe, even though I’ve done the math and know it’s true. The mountain was Pikes Peak in Colorado. We climbed it from […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 2006: Blast from the Past
Dear friends
BIKERS, FILMMAKERS, ENGINEERS, CHEESEMAKERS Billie Stanton, editorial writer for the Tucson Citizen, left a business card in our door on a recent weekend: “I was here; you were gone. But keep up the good work.” Sorry we missed you, Billie. Filmmaker Dave Gardner and his daughter, Stephanie, of Colorado Springs, Colo., stopped by as part […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 2006: Blast from the Past
The Fourth Wave
Can the West’s uranium towns rise once more?
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Dear friends
CONGRATS, MATT AND PAOLO HCN staffers recently took home two more writing awards. West Coast correspondent Matt Jenkins received the 2006 James V. Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism for his story “Squeezing Water from a Stone” (HCN, 9/19/05: Squeezing Water from a Stone). Judges had high praise for Matt’s story about the implications of Las […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Safety first
NAME Steve Ficklin VOCATION Petroleum Engineering Technician AGE 54 HOME BASE Silt, Colorado KNOWN FOR Keeping drill rigs from blowing up HOBBIES Working brainteaser math problems, fishing, hunting, camping. HE SAYS “Each hole is different. No two wells are identical.” Steve Ficklin doesn’t talk a lot. As he drives along a dirt road outside the […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Nine reasons why a river is good for the soul
SILT. Healthy particles of silt are suspended in the river, buffed off eons of Wingate sandstone and the debris of flash floods fire-hosing through twisted arroyos. These tiny particles of soil, mud, stone, trees and bones scour our skin as we float in the slow, warm current of the river. We drift in silence, particles […]
Posted inAugust 7, 2006: Is It or Isn't It (Just Another Mouse)?
Dear friends
MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK Readers have been calling for more content and a greater diversity of stories in High Country News. We’re happy to deliver: We’ve added four pages with this issue. To help cover the additional costs of printing and mailing, we’ve added an extra page of advertisements — but not to worry: […]
Posted inAugust 7, 2006: Is It or Isn't It (Just Another Mouse)?
There was no green in this Rainbow gathering
When we tell folks that we became the unwitting hosts for the Rainbow Family’s annual gathering, the first response is “the who?” The Family’s Web site, welcomehome.org, styles the Rainbows “the largest non-organization of non-members in the world.” At the beginning of July, more than 17,000 of them gathered in Big Red Park, north of […]
Posted inJuly 24, 2006: Taking Liberties
Dear friends
SUMMER EDITORIAL RETREAT In June, our editors and correspondents spent a day and a half at an editorial retreat (actually, it was more like a “full rout,” quipped one staffer). Former staffer Florence Williams, now a successful freelance writer, gave us a workshop on magazine writing techniques. Look for exciting changes coming to the news […]
Posted inJune 26, 2006: The Tamarisk Hunter
The wild, wild weather
Blame it on climate change or the vagaries of nature, but whatever the cause, weather in the West has been extreme — and wacky. The Southwest has become a tinderbox, while Northwesterners are sopping wet. WASHINGTON Average yearly moisture: 37.02 in.* Moisture June ‘05-May ‘06: 41.53 in. Nine consecutive days of downpour hit western Washington […]
Posted inJune 26, 2006: The Tamarisk Hunter
Dear friends
SUMMER BREAK HCN staff will be taking some much-needed time off during the last two weeks of June. We’ll be enjoying our families and praying for rainstorms. Look for the next issue of HCN to reach you around July 24. WELCOME, ABBIE AND JESSICA Two new faces have recently appeared in the HCN office. Abbie […]
Posted inJune 12, 2006: The Perpetual Growth Machine
The Latest Bounce
Asbestos victims in Libby, Mont., can now qualify for Social Security disability benefits. In late May, the Social Security Administration, under the prodding of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., issued a new ruling that allows victims of tremolite asbestos to receive disability benefits. More than 1,500 Libby area residents suffer from exposure to tremolite asbestos, the […]
Posted inJune 12, 2006: The Perpetual Growth Machine
The noisy democracy of the West
The problem seems unavoidable: Historian Peter Decker wants to write about what he knows and loves, his adopted home in rural Ouray County, Colo. But his passionate prose is sure to spark more visits from outsiders, perhaps helping to destroy the very isolation that he cherishes. The first edition of Old Fences, New Neighbors appeared […]
Posted inJune 12, 2006: The Perpetual Growth Machine
Dear friends
CHANGES AT HCN High Country News is searching for its next editor in chief, following Editor Greg Hanscom’s announcement that he’ll be leaving us at the end of the year, after 10 years with the organization. HCN’s former associate editor, Matt Jenkins, apparently got lost en route to California, where he was planning to set […]
Posted inJune 12, 2006: The Perpetual Growth Machine
On a wing and a prayer
Gunnison grouse must fend for survival without help of Endangered Species Act
Posted inJune 12, 2006: The Perpetual Growth Machine
‘Miss Fish Hatchery’
Name Jenn Logan Vocation Wildlife conservation biologist Age 33 Home Base Alamosa, Colorado Known for Her efforts to protect and save endangered fish She says “I love the challenge of persuading a person to care about suckers or toads.” The very walls were chirping: There were crickets in every crack and cupboard of Jenn Logan’s […]