Soon after learning I was less than nine months away from becoming a first-time father, I experienced an unexpected sense of déjà vu. The baby was coming whether or not the room was painted or anything else was ready. That feeling of being hitched to a biological clock that stops for no one is a […]
People & Places
Posted inArticles
Ranch Diaries: Dispatch from a confab of women in agriculture
When holistic management is too land-focused, the needs of the people on the land gets lost.
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
Far from home, the West’s foreign sheepherders get a pay raise
Since the ’50s, Western states have brought in international workers but offer them few of the benefits given other workers.
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Scalia was Supreme Court’s leader on limiting environmental rules
A conservative legal foundation fears its winning streak may be over.
Posted inArticles
Dispatch from Nevada’s cowboy poets confab
An older generation of artists looks for a younger set to take over the tradition.
Posted inArticles
Can we make sense of the Malheur mess?
A writer finds camaraderie and despair inside the Oregon standoff.
Posted inArticles
Analyst: FBI let Malheur militants save face to end occupation
Emotional negotiations with a like-minded Nevada state legislator may have helped FBI operation.
Posted inArticles
New leader steps up for the American Lands Council
Montana lawmaker takes over lands transfer group, as a new tendril of the movement emerges.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Graphic: The hidden connections of the Sagebrush Insurgency
Where a sprawling network of actors find common cause.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Sagebrush Insurgency connections
Connecting the dots within a vast right-wing network of militia members, state and local politicians, and others.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Past and present in a New Mexico town famous for its pies
A review of “Pie Town Revisited” by Arthur Drooker.
Posted inArticles
Rants from the Hill: Reno is a desert city with a river heart
The Ranter recalls playing an unexpected concert on the banks of the Truckee River.
Posted inArticles
Grand Canyon park’s 15-year failure on sexual harassment
Interior Department investigation shows a history of harassment, hostility and retaliation.
Posted inJanuary 25, 2016: The Forever War
The tree in the river
A writer ponders a remnant of past disaster.
Posted inArticles
How smokejumpers prepare for wildfire season
Photos of the rigorous training this special type of firefighter endures.
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Economic downturns fuel Sagebrush Rebellion events
Natural resource-dependent rural economies help explain why disputes happen where they do.
Posted inArticles
Sieges like the Oregon standoff turn the rural West into a political stage
The armed protesters occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon have indicated that they will leave if the locals so desire. Well, it’s time for them to go: Harney County residents, who just held a huge community meeting about this invasion, seemed to heartily agree that they want the vigilantes to pack their […]
Posted inArticles
Rants from the Hill: A Christmas tree grows in the Nevada desert
The pinyon offers an alternative to artificial or commercially farmed trees.
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Ranch Diaries: Year in review at Triangle P
Coconut the elk, Clem the colt and big dreams for next year.
Posted inArticles
12 stories from the archives you should read now
A look at our writers’ favorite stories of all time, as our 45th anniversary draws to a close.