A (Tasmanian) Devil of a Dilemma

May 23, 2018

In the golden age of cartoons, the Tasmanian Devil was a favorite Looney Toons character, a whirling tornado throwing temper tantrums, and eating everything in his path. Both Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck had to cleverly escape his voracious appetite. It has been 54 years since Warner Brothers discontinued the cartoons, yet that character inspired […]

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Holy Hummingbird, Batman!

May 18, 2018

The lesser long-nosed bat is no longer in danger of extinction, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), so it will be taken off the endangered species list. New Mexico and Arizona leaders have advocated de-listing for years. They are getting their wish, partly because of red plastic hummingbird feeders. The bats’ attraction […]

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Who Needs Congress Anyway?

May 11, 2018

What if I were to suggest turning all of New York into a national monument? OK, maybe we would exclude the gigantic city, but the rest of that beautiful State could be our newest national monument. You might instinctively see a couple major problems with my idea. There are other cities and towns in the […]

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Captain Obvious Strikes Again

May 10, 2018

Since President Trump reduced the size of a couple national monuments in Utah, the chorus of critics has grown increasingly shrill, moving from press conferences expressing outrage, to lawsuits demanding reversal. Now the nation’s largest newspaper (the one back East) has uncovered what it considers one of the nation’s most embarrassing scandals – there are […]

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Trust Me, Everything Will Be Fine

April 27, 2018

Would you invest in a business with a debt it could never hope to repay? If you knew the largest company in the world was about to face hundreds of billions in fines, would you still buy its stock? Would you invest in municipal bonds in a city you knew would no longer exist in […]

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Special Places for the Special People

April 20, 2018

The National Parks are our national treasures, from Grand Canyon and Yellowstone to Shenandoah and Everglades. Nature’s masterpieces are unique places, almost unimaginable unless you have seen them. Only one thing is wrong with our national parks – people sometimes want to visit. That is the view of a chorus of activists who see people […]

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I Get to Look, But You Don’t

April 13, 2018

Americans don’t generally believe in absolute power. Nobody has complete unchecked control over another. Even a toddler, whose entire world appears to be controlled by his parents, is protected against unreasonable use of that power. Parents are not allowed to sell, abuse, or neglect the child. Though he may not yet realize it, he is […]

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Because I Said So!

April 6, 2018

A federal judge has ruled that the government must consider reducing mining in America’s top coal-producing region, to fight climate change. Moreover, he ordered the BLM to work with the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and four other environmental industry groups, to write a new management plan for the region. Montana District Judge Brian […]

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Quoth the Raven, I Love Tortoise

March 30, 2018

Once upon a dread September, ‘twas in `11, I remember, Desert tortoise was declared, not one well-known species, but even more; By committee, in the city, finding distinctions itty-bitty, one endangered what a pity; Signaling change from shore to shore, not like things had been before; Why is this, with tortoise galore, now one called […]

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A Broken Promise Finally Kept

March 23, 2018

Westerners are tired of broken federal promises, but this week, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke righted a wrong that has festered for two decades. He released $18 million in Anvil Points funding owed to Western Slope communities. Collective regional thanks are due Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt, a native of Rifle who knows firsthand the complex problems […]

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