No matter what time of day or night the phone rings, the voice that summons me sounds tired and desperate. But that’s not the only reason I go. I’m known there, so I seldom wait long before someone comes for me, leads me into the little room, closes the door, asks to see my ID […]
Communities
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Big yellow taxi — in Duke City
At once meditative and profane, Robert Leonard’s Yellow Cab traces his after-dark odysseys as a University of New Mexico anthropology professor who moonlights behind the wheel of a taxi. Leonard makes us privy to the stream of confessions from the back seat, narrating them in a breezy, urban voice, with the world-weary persona of someone […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
The longevity of place and race
Westerners, in general, live longer than other Americans, according to a recent study by the Harvard University Initiative for Global Health. Northern Plains residents live longest, but 29 of the 50 counties with the highest life expectancy are in the West — 16 in Colorado. Native Americans, however, aren’t as fortunate: Nationally, they have a […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Give us your poor, your uninsured…
Many Westerners live in poverty, but even more lack health insurance. U.S. Percentage below poverty level: 12.6 Percentage without health coverage: 15.7 New Mexico Percentage below poverty level: 17.9 Percentage without health coverage: 21.1 Arizona Percentage below poverty level: 15.2 Percentage without health coverage: 8.1 Montana Percentage below poverty level: 13.8 Percentage without health coverage: […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Film: Lens of compassion
Note: This article is one of several feature stories in a special issue about community media in the West. Philomath, Ore., nestled on the Coast Range’s eastern flanks, looks like an average logging town. On a Saturday afternoon, kids pushing BMX bikes scamper across the main street. American flags hang limp in the late summer […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
More Radio Waves
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Radio: Spice for the ears,” in a special issue about community media in the West. Connecting Communities Five Northern California stations used satellite technology to string together a temporary network in mid-July. The Seven Rivers Radio Network hosted a two-hour, live call-in […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Online: Web watchdog
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Radio: Spice for the ears,” in a special issue about community media in the West. Four years ago, Dave Frazier spent a whole summer in court, suing Boise over the city council’s decision to build an $18 million police station without putting […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Online: No more talking heads
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Radio: Spice for the ears,” in a special issue about community media in the West. Jennifer Napier-Pearce, who runs the Salt Lake City-based podcast Inside Utah, calls audio recordings “the theatre of the mind.” Combine that with the “magic of the Internet, […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
The myth trafficker
Note: This article is one of several feature stories in a special issue about community media in the West. DOUGLAS, Arizona — Keoki Skinner sits on a park bench under moonlight, talking quietly into his cell phone. There’s a rumor going around that a federal agent is involved with a drug trafficker, and Skinner wants […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Leave only footprints, and turn the darn phone off
The other day on a national forest trail, we passed a lone hiker. Cell phone glued to her ear, chattering away, she stomped by us without the usual trail civility of at least a smile. Engrossed in the world at her ear, I doubt she even registered the beargrass blooming at her feet. Since cell […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Our Green Mountain
In Reno, Nev., there is a hole in the air where a hotel/casino once stood. Back in the 1980s, my wife and I sometimes stayed there. I stand across the street from it today, and I wonder where life goes. I gauge the approximate height of five or six stories, guess where a room would […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
From the ground up
A staff walks out; a grassroots newspaper is born
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Heard around the West
COLORADO In the photo, it looks like a cozy den for hobbits, peeking out from underground with a hillside rolling right over its roof. But the builder of this “ultimate secure home” boasts that it can “withstand almost any natural or manmade disaster you can name,” including a nuclear blast and biological and chemical war. […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Stirring the pot
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “From the ground up.” The paper: The North Coast Journal, published weekly in Arcata, Calif., for almost 18 years, features in-depth journalism with a strong arts and entertainment section. The local media scene: Two dailies, one printed in Humboldt County for many […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
A paper with bite
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “From the ground up.” The paper: The Taos Horse Fly is a 7-year-old monthly whose name says it all: Its stories sometimes leave bite marks. Local media scene: Dominated by the long-lived weekly Taos News, owned by the same company that owns […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
News from the gas fields
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “From the ground up.” The paper: Roughneck is a two-year-old monthly covering oil and gas in Sublette County, Wyo., the top natural gas producing county in the U.S. Local media scene: Two local weeklies, including the Pinedale Roundup, cover community news; Roughneck’s […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Undaunted muckraker
Note: This article is one of several feature stories in a special issue about community media in the West. How many American journalists can claim that their reporting helped oust two presidents? Navajo Times reporter Marley Shebala can: Her tireless muckraking helped lead to the downfall — and eventual imprisonment — of Navajo Nation Chairman […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Zine Roundup: Sweet simplicity
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Undaunted muckraker,” in a special issue about community media in the West. Dan Price’s media empire is centered in a kind of hobbit hole in a meadow in Joseph, Ore., where his 2003 Toshiba photocopier prints 200 copies every two months of […]
Posted inWotr
Thanks, neighbors
I took a long trip with my family this summer, six weeks away from home. Well before we left, during the school year, we found some ideal house sitters. A young couple my wife knew who needed a place during that same time and who were eager to trade some yard work and house upkeep. […]
Posted inWotr
Dumpster diving for frugality and fun
No, not the kind you might think. I’m not talking about extreme hunter-gatherer dumpster diving, like the Rainbow People do behind Burger King in Boulder, Colo. Mine is sartorially oriented. I’m talking about raiding the “unsalable” clothes bins outside of the Bargain Box and the Senior Center Thrift Store here in Cody, Wyo. I seem […]