If you’ve watched TV recently, you’ve almost certainly heard from T. Boone Pickens. He’s the Republican oil billionaire who recently saw the light on the need for alternative energy and has sponsored a flood of windmill-porn TV ads to make sure the rest of America gets the message. Now he’s taking his pitch straight to […]
Politics
Posted inRnc 08
The future of the Idaho GOP?
I have seen the future of the Idaho Republican party. His name is Brett Peterson, he’s a 24-year-old student at BYU-Idaho, and he’s in favor of more domestic oil and gas drilling. So much in favor of it that he showed up at the Democratic convention with a group of college Republicans who proceeded to […]
Posted inRnc 08
Ron Paul rallies in the Twin Cities
The West has always had a libertarian streak, and the 2008 election year has proved no exception. Ron Paul, the Republican U.S. house member from Texas who was the favored presidential candidate of his party’s libertarian wing, did an amazing job fundraising in the West. (This may be a better indicator of support than the […]
Posted inGoat
Read our tweets
The High Country News team is jumping headlong into the Web 2.0 world. Our most recent social networking adventure is happening on Twitter — an online application that allows our reporters and editors to provide short, quick updates, via cell phone or computer, about our work as it unfolds. In addition to writing blog posts, […]
Posted inGoat
New GOP tax policy?
Like most Americans, I can’t say I know much about the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. But I have read that during her relatively brief tenure, she’s been a reformer who fought to raise taxes on oil companies, and then used the money to distribute $1,200 checks to Alaska residents. This could be a winning […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Two weeks in the West
Twenty years ago, wildfire blackened 1 million acres in and near Yellowstone National Park, caused more than $3 million in property damage, and killed two firefighters. Such humongous wildfires will become more and more common in Western states as the climate warms, according to dozens of researchers. The latest such report, from the National Wildlife […]
Posted inRnc 08
Lions and tigers and anarchists, oh my!
“Make sure you put these credentials in your pocket as soon as you step out of the convention center. The protesters are going through the streets looking for people who are here for the convention. Wearing your credentials around your neck will make you a target.” These were the stern words that the man handing […]
Posted inRnc 08
Environmental swing voters? Nah.
New Mexico is shaping up to be one of the most interesting battleground states in the West this year. The presidential polls are starting to look good for Obama, and Representative Tom Udall, a member of the West’s most famous environmentalist family, has a good chance of taking the Senate seat currently held by the legendarily […]
Posted inRnc 08
Guerilla blogging the RNC
If you ask me, HCN did a damn fine job covering the unreported, uniquely Western stories coming out of the Democratic convention in Denver. So what could we do for an encore? Well, one of your fearless correspondents jumped on a Greyhound bus to get the inside scoop on the other convention — the convention of the party […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
The Mog Squad
The venerable — and very German — quest for the ultimate weapon against wildfire
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Dear friends
FROM FRANCE, NEW YORK AND CALIFORNIASummer visiting season is in full swing. Ned Ames and Jane Sokolow, both of New York City, stopped by after visiting some friends in Hotchkiss, just down the road. They were on their way back to New York from their Fort Union Ranch in Watrous, N.M., which has been in […]
Posted inDnc 08
Environmental swing voters? Nah.
New Mexico is shaping up to be one of the most interesting battleground states in the West this year. The presidential polls are starting to look good for Obama, and Representative Tom Udall, a member of the West’s most famous environmentalist family, has a good chance of taking the Senate seat currently held by the legendarily […]
Posted inDnc 08
Video: Coalition rallies for peace
On Wednesday evening, a coalition of peace groups organized a march in an effort to elevate the voices of anti-war veterans.
Posted inDnc 08
A view of Obama from the West
“It was magical.” That’s how Tillie Herrera Brummell, a diminutive woman with salt and pepper hair and round spectacles, described the closing extravaganza of the Democratic National Convention. Brummell, a native New Mexican who currently lives in Mountainair, sat with her son, Daniel, on a bus taking Convention-goers from the event back into town. She […]
Posted inDnc 08
Stegner at the DNC?
It’s not that often that Wallace Stegner’s words are woven into a political speech before an audience of 75,000 (plus all those folks watching on television). But during the blockbuster, Super Bowl-esque spectacle that closed out the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Rep. Mark Udall — a candidate for Senate here in Colorado — did just […]
Posted inDnc 08
Rocking the Native vote
Health care, tribal sovereignty, education, economic development and criminal justice. These are some of the most critical issues with which Native Americans are currently wrestling, and there’s a lot on the line in the 2008 election. This was the message at Wednesday’s “Native Nations United for Change Policy Discussion.” “We’ve suffered through a long, cold […]
Posted inDnc 08
A seat at the policy table
When we came in the door, a greeter saw our press passes and grasped my hand for longer than is customary. “We need you,” she said. “We need you.” This unusually personal reception was perhaps apt — it soon became evident that the underlying theme of the event was the invisibility of Native Americans on […]
Posted inDnc 08
Johnny Five and the bomb squad
After a long day of meetings and protest-following, a police officer informed us that the road to our car was closed. A half a block away, we found a small group of re-routed pedestrians staring across the street — enchanted by an odd little robot that was inspecting a “suspicious package.” The wheeled machine, which […]
Posted inDnc 08
Protest makes waves
There was plenty of hype leading up to the Convention about the potential for big protests. Recreate 68 planned some serious, mischievous action, as did DNC Disruption 08 and other groups. As of Wednesday evening, most of that had fizzled. Protests were generally small and — except for one that snaked down the 16th Street […]
Posted inDnc 08
I fish, I hunt, I vote … Democrat?
The National Wildlife Federation hosted a reception at the posh Curtis hotel in downtown Denver on Wednesday. They called it, I Hunt, I Fish, I Vote Conservation. The whole shindig had a decidedly less liberal feel to it than other DNC events. After all, these were hunters, anglers and the like, who, as Bob Carpenter, […]