Dogs become friends and cats purr perfectly, but can either lay eggs with golden yolks that stand upright at attention? No, and maybe that’s why more and more homeowners are choosing chickens as pets. “Enthusiasts have been pecking away at multiple local laws,” reports USA Today, persuading officials in Fort Collins, Colo., Portland, Ore., Seattle, […]
Communities
Posted inWotr
Tent cities and what they tell us
The blockbuster love story, Slumdog Millionaire, has brought images of a ramshackle slum in Mumbai, India, to millions of American viewers. Although the slum may have been a bit prettified, it did the trick: Moviegoers were shocked, offended and also deeply moved by how the poor of other nations live. The movie’s popularity has inspired […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Ode on a glue factory?
A giant statue of a rearing blue horse has welcomed drivers to Denver International Airport for about a year, and nobody made much of it — until now. Rachel Hultin, a Denver real estate broker, thought the sculpture a dud and started a Facebook page, byebyebluemustang.com, to vent her criticism. She also asked for comments […]
Posted inGoat
Is the San Andreas slipping?
Fill the water jugs and put the wrench back near the gas valve, Southern Californians, the Big One’s about to blow! Or not. You never can tell with these things. But geologists are watching closely a “swarm” of recent earthquakes on the Southern San Andreas Fault, the largest of which logged in at 4.8 on […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
The burning billboard
Grand Junction in western Colorado has long had a problem separating state from Christian church. County commissioners keep trying to pray before public meetings, and public officials approve of nativity displays on public property. Now, a Wisconsin-based organization, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, is striking back with an in-your-face message for drivers. The Associated Press […]
Posted inGoat
“Suns and pulsing moons” of content
Paolo Bacigalupi, formerly the online editor of HCN and now a rising star in science fiction, was just nominated for the 2009 Hugo award (he’s been a Hugo finalist in past years, and has won other sci-fi prizes as well). His story “The Gambler“, in the Novelette category, is a tale about the sordid future […]
Posted inWotr
Dust off your survival skills
These are good days for survivalists, those dour predictors of dire times who’ve said all along that we’d better prepare for the worst. With people losing jobs, homes and life savings through no fault of their own, and with natural disasters, oil shortages and terrorists in the news, those long-predicted grim times may have arrived. […]
Posted inGoat
Colorado’s job bias complaints soar
Nancy Sienko became Colorado’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission field office director three years ago, in the middle of a surge of discrimination charges. While job-based discrimination complaints grew by 17 percent in the United States in the past five years, the caseload in Colorado exploded by 46 percent in the same time period. Sienko, with […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
The Universe on Blacktop
A family dumpster-dives for cash and satisfaction.
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
Changeable weather
The West’s environmental movement got buffeted by strong late-winter winds, both good and ill. First, President Barack Obama has targeted the federal government’s 22-year-old multibillion-dollar effort to bury nuclear waste in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. He vowed to devise “a new strategy” on dealing with nuclear waste, while seeking little money for Yucca Mountain in his […]
Posted inWotr
Calling Hollywood to run the West
Macho Hollywood actor Val Kilmer has starred in more than 40 movies, often playing tough cops and Western gunfighters. He’s probably best known for playing the 1995 Batman and punching out a villain called The Riddler. Now Kilmer wants to become a political hero by running for the governorship of New Mexico. Don’t laugh too […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
Raising cows — and kids — in the West
The Family Ranch: Land, Children, and Tradition in the American WestLinda Hussa, photographs by Madeleine Graham Blake272 pages, hardcover: $24.95.University of Nevada Press, 2009. The families described in The Family Ranch: Land, Children, and Tradition in the American West are traditional in that they are not “traditional” at all: One mother is single, and […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
History viewed through gunsights
Famous Firearms of the Old West: From Wild Bill Hickok’s Colt Revolvers to Geronimo’s Winchester, Twelve Guns That Shaped Our HistoryHal Herring189 pages, hardcover: $24.95. TwoDot/Globe Pequot Press, 2008. Chief Joseph was carrying a lever-action Model 1866 Winchester rifle that fired .44 Rimfire cartridges when he led the Nez Perce against the U.S. Cavalry […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
Tarp Nation
Squatter villages arise from the ashes of the West’s booms and busts
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
See you in April!
Last summer, we switched to a 22-issue-per-year publishing schedule; that means we skip an issue four times a year. Look for the next HCN to hit your mailbox around April 13 — now you’ll have more spare time to work on your taxes. Water on the BrainFor all of you folks who love to speculate […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
7-Eleven: the Final Frontier
Who was that masked man? Wearing a black mask, a black jacket and jeans, a man wielding what appeared to be a Klingon sword held up two convenience stores in Colorado Springs recently. According to a surveillance camera, the first 7-Eleven clerk handed over some money at 1:50 a.m. A half-hour later, the clerk at […]
Posted inGoat
Restorationists gather in Santa Cruz
Last week I attended the 27th annual conference of the Salmonid Restoration Federation. Restoration scientists, restoration technicians and young people enrolled in the California Conservation Corps gathered in Santa Cruz, California for four days of field trips, plenary addresses and workshops which showcased watershed and salmon restoration programs and projects from throughout California. You can […]
Posted inGoat
The Native health gap
Despite the skyrocketing cost of healthcare, Americans are enjoying longer lifespans, and fewer children are dying in infancy. Unless they’re Native American, that is. The numbers for Washington state, as reported in the Seattle P-I, are shocking: A recent state Department of Health report showed that the march against cancer, heart disease and infant mortality […]
