Marcelo Bonta helps color the environmental movement
Politics
Posted inRange
Tribal recognition
When President Obama recently announced that the U.S. would finally endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN DRIP), he was immediately heaped with effusive praise from tribal and human rights groups alike. There have been unrelenting references to the Crow Nation giving Obama the Indian name, “One Who Helps People […]
Posted inGoat
Wilderness creates jobs too!
If you were to submit today’s Department of Interior press conference to a Facebook word ranking game, it would probably look something like this: JOBSECONOMYBILLIONDOLLARSWILDERNESS The conference, which took place at an REI store in Denver, was called to announce that the Bureau of Land Management would once again start taking inventory of lands in […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
The BLM’s conservation experiment
Salazar directs agency to put conservation first – in some places
Posted inBlog
A new standard for tribal and U.S. relations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — What’s my take away from the White House Tribal Nations Conference? Easy. This is an administration that actually believes the United States government must represent all of the people, including American Indians and Alaska Natives. Make no mistake: Everything is not perfect between Indian Country and the United States as we close […]
Posted inRange
Westerners and the White House
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson didn’t get far with his 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, but that may not deter his immediate predecessor, Republican Gary Johnson, from seeking his party’s nomination as the jockeying for 2012 begins just after the 2010 midterms. Johnson served two terms as governor from 1995 to […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Just say ‘no’ to Dr. No
My thanks to Arnold Hamilton, Denver Nicks and Ray Ring for having the journalistic guts to call out two of the most inept and unproductive members of that elite legislative body derisively referred to as the “Dead Poets Society” (HCN, 11/8/10). Even in a body where incompetence is the expectation and the norm, I can […]
Posted inNovember 22, 2010: Hardrock Showdown
A divine business
Montanan claims uncanny ability to locate water — and just about anything else
Posted inRange
Training for Afghanistan
Back in late 2001, when we started to see Afghanistan often on TV reports after the American invasion, my mother remarked that the distant land reminded her of the Wyoming country she grew up in during the 1930s and ’40s. “No paved roads or power lines,” she commented, “and it’s dry and rugged and empty.” […]
Posted inRange
So goes Alaska…goes Indian Country
There are three elements in successful political campaigns: money, organization and voter participation. The historic re-election of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, had all three … generated by Alaska Natives. But 2010 was no ordinary year for a lot of reasons. The first one being a change in the election laws because of a […]
Posted inBlog
Arizona on the edge of a precipice
Even though it’s been a couple weeks since the midterm election, I’m can’t seem to stop wincing. Apparently I’m one of the few Arizonans to have this reaction to both the national and statewide races. My fellow citizens (who, let’s face it, were “tea party” before tea party was cool) displayed their outrage with our […]
Posted inNovember 22, 2010: Hardrock Showdown
In Tancredo’s corner
The mainstream media routinely distort the position of those opposed to illegal immigration. For example, the Oct. 25, 2010, issue of High Country News called Tom Tancredo, who lost the Colorado Governor’s race, “an anti-immigration rabble-rouser.” Actually Tom Tancredo — as well as the overwhelming majority of Americans — is not “anti-immigration,” but anti-illegal immigration. […]
Posted inNovember 22, 2010: Hardrock Showdown
Snapshot of an election
This article is a sidebar that accompanies the news story, Western elections wrap-up Alarm bells rang early this year when the Supreme Court lifted key restrictions on corporate political spending. The decision gave corporations and unions the right to spend unlimited amounts to explicitly campaign for or against candidates, and allowed independent interest groups to […]
Posted inNovember 22, 2010: Hardrock Showdown
Sounds suspicious, Senator
I was disappointed with your article regarding Sen. Tom Coburn (HCN, 11/8/10). You allowed the subject to spew a series of incorrect, or irrelevant “statistics” and “facts.” In the future, please do some research, and correct these kinds of errors, rather than let people trot out falsehoods. Jim Evans Dept. of Geology, Utah State UniversityLogan, […]
Posted inNovember 22, 2010: Hardrock Showdown
Western elections wrap-up
Red states get redder, while key Senate seats stay blue
Posted inRange
Tanned, rested and ready?
Despite his train wreck of a campaign for governor Colorado this year, former congressman Scott McInnis says he hasn’t ruled out another run at political office. McInnis, a Republican initially based in Glenwood Springs, Colo., served in the state legislature before winning a 1992 race for an open congressional seat from the Third District, which […]
Posted inBlog
A new article of faith: don’t make the poor balance the budget
There is a political article of faith: “Don’t raise taxes during a recession.” Just Google the phrase and you’ll find some 2.5 million results. The popular idea is that deeply embedded into our political thinking. Of course it makes economic sense: You want people to spend their money on goods and services. Then producers will […]
Posted inNovember 8, 2010: Dr. No
The windhover
Wildlife biologist Travis Booms tracks remote Alaska gyrfalcons
Posted inGoat
How Big Oil won California
Count these among the things that will get more difficult after the midterm elections: passing a federal energy bill, being openly gay in the military, and governing California. It’s already hard enough. This is the state that has been pronounced “ungovernable” almost since its inception, and has been confirmed so in recent years by Forbes, […]