After decades of stalemate, the new bill gets mixed reactions.
Politics
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West Obsessed: Behind the Malheur occupation
Our editors discuss the lead-up to the stand-off in Oregon.
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Feds announce moratorium on new coal leases
Interior Department will examine the federal coal program in light of climate change.
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Economic downturns fuel Sagebrush Rebellion events
Natural resource-dependent rural economies help explain why disputes happen where they do.
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The first Sagebrush Rebellion: What sparked it and how it ended
Today’s movement is a radical, perverted version of the 1970s-80s rebellion.
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Who’s who inside and on the outskirts of the Malheur occupation
Here are the most vocal occupiers, along with a core group of militia members staying in Burns.
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How the feds can ensure Western states get more water in 2016
Key legislation failed in 2015. Will this year be any different?
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Former BLM chief: Bundys ‘pursuing an agenda’ on public land
Bob Abbey was Bureau of Land Management chief from 2009 to 2012 and Nevada state director from 1997 to 2005. In a recent interview with High Country News, he discusses the BLM’s response to ranchers, including Cliven Bundy in Nevada, who broke federal laws, as well as the importance of collaborating with local law enforcement when it comes […]
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The BLM has armed up since 1978, but it’s still outgunned
In confrontations with armed groups like the Bundy supporters, local law enforcement matters most.
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Malheur occupation, explained
The deep history behind the Bundy brothers’ takeover of a wildlife refuge in Oregon.
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Forty years of Sagebrush Rebellion
The Oregon occupation, the 2014 Bundy standoff and many other stories are all related to a long-simmering movement.
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Where private land meets public interest
A group of landowners on the Colorado-New Mexico border aim to conserve a contested landscape.
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Court will hear case against data trespass laws
A federal judge rejected the state of Wyoming’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit.
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
These are your state’s gun laws
In the wake of mass killings, a state-by-state look at Western gun policy.
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
Pet the nipping pup and hide your newcomer roots: tips from a failed campaign.
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
Western nativism has a rotten odor
Back in my railroad days, we often said that something had “a bad smell.” “I smell a bad order!”— lingo for a car that was rolling wrong and needed to be removed from the train. The alarm was shouted down from the conductor up in the “angel’s seat” in the caboose, back when a person actually […]
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Budget bill would lift ban on crude exports and incentivize renewables
Months of bickering results in $1.1 trillion package to fund most of what the federal government does.
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COP21: Let us celebrate the lack of total failure
The Paris agreement won’t end climate change. But it’s a long awaited step forward.
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Western senators angle to influence Paris climate talks
Wyoming’s Barrasso is undermining the treaty, while New Mexico’s Udall flew to Paris to support it.
Posted inDecember 7, 2015: Good Neighbors
Coal comfort, secretive powerbrokers and dastardly Ducks Unlimited
Hcn.org news in brief.