Lawyer Melanie Gleason is traveling the West, offering legal advice pro bono.
People & Places
Posted inMay 30, 2016: Trial by Fire
The Wampus Cats, a Chinese Jackson Hole and a sheriff on the loose
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inMay 30, 2016: Trial by Fire
Photos: Three years with New Mexico’s Hispanic communities
A photographer’s nostalgic look back at time spent with Nuevomexicanos.
Posted inArticles
Searching for solutions in the changing rural West
A new project looks to answer how small towns can survive a new era.
Posted inArticles
How rural New Mexico shares water during drought
Centuries-old traditions offer guidance for water managers seeking resilience in an uncertain future.
Posted inArticles
Can a ranch sawmill improve forest health in rural Colorado?
Cutting timber on a billionaire’s land could boost the San Luis Valley’s economy.
Posted inArticles
Photos: The American town left behind in Canada
Point Roberts, Washington, is cut off from the rest of the U.S. by the Canadian border.
Posted inArticles
Ranch Diaries: The peculiar confines of cowboy culture
I see my 19-year-old self in our new intern, as she builds her skills and learns the ropes of ranch etiquette.
Posted inMay 16, 2016: Grizzly Face-Off
Photos: Inside the controversial sport of coyote coursing
This subset of coyote hunting involves trained dogs and is relatively uncommon in the West.
Posted inMay 16, 2016: Grizzly Face-Off
How Utah’s public defense system is failing the poor
The state is one of just two that provide no funding for the right to legal counsel, leaving local governments on the hook.
Posted inMay 30, 2016: Trial by Fire
It’s still dangerous to be gay in Wyoming
Anti-gay violence in Wyoming is real, and it deserves a real response.
Posted inArticles
Video: Meet the Nevada rancher fighting to stay on his land
A Southern Nevada Water Authority transfer is intended to get water to Las Vegas but could dry up his business.
Posted inMay 2, 2016: The Gold King Reckoning
Gnome sharpshooting, satanic texts in schools, and coal bonuses
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inMay 2, 2016: The Gold King Reckoning
In a dead-end prison town, a fraught journey home
A first-time novelist follows a quiet Montana man in the wake of grief.
Posted inMay 2, 2016: The Gold King Reckoning
The absurdist Western
It’s worth following the twists and turns of Robert Garner McBrearty’s The Western Lonesome Society.
Posted inMay 2, 2016: The Gold King Reckoning
The life of a fire lookout is one of the senses
A former lookout finds the woman who used to guard her tower.
Posted inArticles
In Washington, the Nooksack 306 fight to stay in their tribe
An internecine battle rages over tribal membership and identity.
Posted inArticles
Inside a town where young people aren’t allowed
Last summer, my wife and I visited our friends, Randy and Abby, at their desert home outside Tucson. They live in a retirement community with age-restriction covenants. Eighty percent of the homeowners have to be over 55 years old and the remaining 20 percent at least 40. Anyone under 19 is out of luck. I […]
Posted inArticles
National Park Service chief expands sexual harassment probe
Upcoming survey to determine if misconduct at the Grand Canyon represents a widespread problem.