I feel really fortunate to live in one of four states that have outright bans on billboards (HCN, 1/23/12, “Billboards vs. Democracy”). Despite an underhanded attempt to gut the Alaska billboard ban a few years ago, the citizens rose up with a resounding no. Call me a worrier, but will the Citizens United case, which […]
Politics
Posted inFebruary 20, 2012: How Arizona's culture helped shape the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
We need Wilderness Watch
The issues discussed in “The law, the lookout and the logging town” are significant, but the focus is wrong (HCN, 1/23/12). Lookouts are great, but in wilderness areas they straddle the boundary between historic and intrusive. Wilderness is not for people even though we benefit from it. The Wilderness Act of 1964 is clear: Abandoned […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 2012: How Arizona's culture helped shape the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
We the corporate campaign donors?
I remember the billboard controversy in Tucson in the 1980s described in Ray Ring’s story (HCN, 1/23/12, “Billboards vs. Democracy”). As a scientist, I try to look for simple, logical solutions to problems. My take on corporate money in politics is a simple one. We, the voters, elect someone to represent us. If a candidate […]
Posted inGoat
Anger over the lion’s share
In a classic cartoon, a hulky lion sits in a rink as a frenetic lion-tamer waves a stool in front of its face. The smug beast represents a nameless corporate lion watching patiently as the government espouses threats. As the cartoon suggests, federal regulators often talk a big game, but cracking down on misbehaving industries […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2012: Can evolution help snowshoe hares adapt to climate change?
Montana court defends law defying Citizens United
Judge William Clancy, who presided over a state district court in Butte, Mont., was a heavy drinker who often dozed off during lawyers’ arguments; when awake, he showered a spittoon with tobacco juice gobs. Another Butte judge, Edward Harney, cheated on his wife with an employee of a mining company that was a defendant in […]
Posted inGoat
The clean blue line
California State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) remembers the day he picked up a local newspaper and read the shocking news: A 940-passenger cruise ship had chucked a 18-ton load of sewage, dirty water and oily bilge perilously near to the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary off the California coast. Simitian, then serving in the California […]
Posted inGoat
Martinez making her mark
updated 2/9/12 “New Mexico Governor Rushes to Undo the Agenda of Her Predecessor“ That headline ran in the New York Times last August, about eight months after Susana Martinez, a republican, took the helm from Bill Richardson, a democrat. Martinez had just sold the gubernatorial jet for a cool $2.5 million, and in one of […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2012: Can evolution help snowshoe hares adapt to climate change?
John Mionczynski: naturalist, accordionist, and Bigfoot expert
ATLANTIC CITY, WYOMINGOn an overcast August afternoon, John Mionczynski is crouched underneath an aspen by the porch of his one-room log cabin, attending to his motorcycle’s broken headlight. Over 30 years ago, he assembled this machine using pieces from four different BMWs — a 1951, ’53, ’63 and ’65. He named it “Serendipity.” “Whenever I […]
Posted inArticles
The postal service is slipping away
On many days, it seems as though the things I like best about our country are all under attack: public lands, the Bill of Rights, passenger trains and the U.S. Postal Service. Especially if you live in the boondocks of the West, the Postal Service means more to you than it does to most urban […]
Posted inGoat
Friday news round up: Romney in Nevada, Glacier thief in handcuffs
As we slip from January to February, allowing a few more New Year’s resolutions to fall by the wayside, we’re rallying our strength as spectators: both for the Superbowl this Sunday, and the drawn out GOP presidential drama. Amid the hustle, bustle and bluster of the week, a few headlines caught our eye. PUBLIC LANDSOn […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2012: Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote
Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote
Salt Lake City, UtahDriving around Salt Lake City on a pleasant day last June in a plain white city government car, Doug Dansie pauses at the corner of two streets, 1300 South and 300 East. This is a residential neighborhood where old trees tower over the houses. But there’s no house on this particular corner […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2012: Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote
Richard West Sellars’ distinguished National Park Service career
On a late October afternoon, Richard West Sellars orders a bowl of black bean soup at Harry’s Roadhouse in Santa Fe, N.M. At least twice a week, he has lunch here with other former and current National Park Service employees. Today, Dan Lenihan, a retired underwater archaeologist, describes diving to survey sunken ships at Bikini […]
Posted inGoat
Obama’s energy love fest
1: number of times President Obama said the word “environment” in his 2012 State of the Union address 23: number of times he said “energy” 8: number of times he preceded it with “clean” 1: number of times he preceded it with “renewable” 1: number of times he mentioned “climate change” A word cloud of […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2012: Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote
The logging town of Darrington, Wash., fights to save a fire lookout
On a blustery summer night, the Red Top Tavern in Darrington, Wash., is nearly empty. A neon Hamm’s beer sign illuminates a picture of a local logger reclining in the bucket of an excavator with the caption “Redneck Hot Tub.” Above it hangs a crosscut saw, just like in every bar in every other Northwest […]
Posted inGoat
(In)secure rural schools, once again
Many struggling Western counties will find themselves in even worse financial shape if an expiring federal law isn’t renewed soon. Since 2000, local governments in 41 states have received billions of dollars from the feds to compensate them for reduced revenue from timber sales. Especially in logging-dependent states like Oregon and Washington, which saw federal […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2012: Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote
Detente in the rancher v. environmentalist grazing wars?
If you’ve been trolling the news recently, you might think that ranchers still reign supreme over the federal estate, despite the fact that the number of cattle and sheep on public lands has declined by more than half since the 1950s. In November, for example, the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2012: Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote
How much time does Congress spend discussing the issues you care about?
Ten months before the election, news outlets are already jammed with political jabber. One way to put it in perspective is to chart the attention Congress has paid to your particular issues over time. Capitol Words, an online visualization tool created by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Sunlight Foundation, assembles the daily contents of the Congressional Record […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2012: Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote
Huntsman: not worthy
Obama should ditch Vice President Joe Biden for Jon Huntsman in the 2012 presidential campaign? It is hard to believe that High Country News would suggest such a move (HCN, 12/26/11 & 1/09/12, “A Westerner for the White House”). First of all, Huntsman resigned as ambassador to China to run against the president who appointed […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2012: Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote
A former Green Mountain fire lookout tells his story
“Lightbulb” Winders recounts his experiences as the last lookout on Green Mountain, in the Glacier Peak Wilderness near Darrington, Washington.
Posted inGoat
Friday news roundup: Defense goes solar and helicopter bear shooting goes legal
While presidential opponents dropped like flies, news affecting lands west of the 100th meridian continued to spit and sputter out onto the interwebs, mimicking the sleet-snow we got here in Paonia this weekend. Here’s a roundup of the important news of the week: ENERGY President Obama announced his rejection of the Keystone XL project on […]