Documenting Juarez’s demise
Communities
Posted inGoat
Olympic Sasquatch
Quatchi is a bearded, earmuff-loving sasquatch. He was one of the official mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics, part of a trio that included Miga, a mythical sea bear sporting a serious cowlick, and Sumi, an animal spirit with furry feet and thunderbird wings. All three were inspired by the legends of four of Canada’s […]
Posted inWotr
When school budgets get cut to the bone, what then?
Last fall, a massive budget deficit was uncovered within the Grand County School District in Moab, Utah, leaving parents aghast. Because of mismanagement, the school district faced a cascade of shortfalls, from $1 million for the 2008-’09 school year and $1.4 million for 2009-’10, to $1.9 million for 2010-2011. Just before the holidays, the district […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Three cheers
GOOD NEWS DEPARTMENT While most school districts continue to struggle (and argue) over how to cut millions of dollars out of their budgets, the residents of Grand County, Utah, were just told they could relax and take a deep breath — at least for one year. Thanks to an anonymous donor’s gift of $700,000, the […]
Posted inWotr
Republicans face an uncertain battle for governor
Republicans this year are supposed to start taking back those state capitols that have swung to Democrats and that looked possible in Colorado until early January. That’s when Republicans closed ranks behind former Congressman Scott McInnis, a one-time cop turned Denver lawyer, who was eager to don the mantle of outsider in a year when […]
Posted inBlog
Saying “yes” to climate justice
It’s Sunday morning and I’m on my way home from the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, Ore., the annual convergence of lefty lawyers, scientists, and policy advocates on the frontlines of the fight to preserve the earth. As usual, the conference afforded a tremendous array of opportunities to learn and be inspired; every […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Shooting bullets, not blanks
UTAH The San Juan Record in Monticello, Utah, celebrated William Morley Black, a “father of thousands,” as part of its series on the “giants” of San Juan County. When Black died in 1915, he’d had six wives and 41 children, and he left 214 living grandchildren and 206 living great-grandchildren. “In the intervening 95 years, […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
The incredible journey
No longer flushing, but still flashing, a ceramic toilet fitted with a transmitter signaled its way across the Northwest last fall. Tagged to send its location to nearby cell phone towers, the discarded commode was one of 782 objects donated by 40 Seattle residents in autumn 2009 for Trash Track. This Massachusetts Institute of Technology […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
Chuck Bowden’s border war
Nearly a decade on, a writer’s look at the futility of the war on drugs still matters.
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
‘Rage against the machine’
Thank you for writing about the Mountain View Neighborhood in Bernalillo County, N.M. (HCN, 2/01/10). It is rare that communities suffering from the injustice of disproportionate levels of environmental degradation are given attention in the media. I cringed to read about our deficiencies as activists and community organizers. Nevertheless, you captured the challenges that face […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
Letter of intent
This comment originally posted on hcn.org. Many environmentalists mischaracterize the intent of the letters that were written to the Group of 10 and other environmental groups (HCN, 2/01/10). They would say that people of color wanted to be included in the environmental movement and be part of their agenda. In fact, that was not the […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
Meditation in stone
Rock art is a unique cultural legacy in our region that deserves attention as we lose sites rapidly to vandalism. Unfortunately, the article “Ancient Conversations” misses this very important point (HCN, 2/01/10). It also left me with many questions about the seemingly Eurocentric interpretations of symbols. Meaningful collaboration with Native Americans is past due, and […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
Power (and financial) struggle
Despite running head-to-head with President Obama’s State of the Union speech and a talk on campus by Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko, our Jan. 27 panel discussion on energy, activism and the role of the media on the Navajo and Hopi Nations drew more than 100 Tucsonians. “Power Struggle,” co-hosted by the University of […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
The myths of Native American identity
Everything You Know About Indians Is WrongPaul Chaat Smith193 pages,hardcover: $21.95.University of Minnesota Press, 2009. We approach the millennium as a people leading often fantastic and surreal lives. The Pequot, a tribe that’s all but extinct, run the most profitable casino in the country, and tribal members become millionaires. But guess who’s still the poorest […]
Posted inGoat
The Illusory Cowboy Way
It stands to reason that a state that features a cowboy riding a bronco on its license plate would be partial to “the cowboy way.” And the Wyoming legislature is trying to make it official with a code derived from the 2004 book Cowboy Ethics, by James P. Owen. The proposed code […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
How much does that canyon weigh?
ARIZONA If you don’t laugh or gasp with amazement at least once while reading the boatman’s quarterly review, the off-and-on-again magazine published by the nonprofit Grand Canyon River Guides in Flagstaff, Ariz., you’re way too serious. A recent profile of teacher and guide Steve Lonie, 61, included these tidbits: Asked about the craziest question he’d […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
Down the wormhole
A Colorado cave might hold a key to extraterrestrial life forms
Posted inHeard Around the West
Think a shock collar’s cruel?
COLORADO/DOWN UNDER Don’t like your dog chasing wildlife, but think a shock collar is cruel? A trip to Australia just might teach him a lesson. A Jack Russell terrier, owned by a Colorado couple on work assignment Down Under, tangled with a giant lizard. The lizard was fine; the dog was a bloody mess. But […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
Turnover at the top
“Attention, Home Depot shoppers! Aisle 12 has lumber ripped from the heart of old-growth forests!” California environmentalist Mike Brune got the idea to make shocking announcements like that during what he calls his “intercom campaign.” He and his operatives acquired the access code to Home Depot’s intercom systems — punch *80 — and pulled it […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
Water fallout
Utah’s first nuclear plant won’t float without water rights