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• UM Western Professor Wins National Honor from Carnegie

  University of Montana Western environmental sciences professor Rob Thomas has been named Outstanding Baccalaureate Colleges Professor of the Year by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The two groups chose Thomas as the recipient of the prestigious award from [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 4:11pm EST
  

• When Print Classifieds Get Strange

  The ad was simple: Bored Housewife seeking legitimate work, bondable, wage negotiable. I came across these words while scanning through the 'Looking For Employment' section of the Saturday, Nov. 28, edition of the Bend Bulletin. Some help around the house would be nice, I thought. What the heck? I called the number [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 3:55pm EST
  

• Managing Forests in a Changing Climate

  In case you missed it: The New York Times this weekend looked at how the West's forests are being managed as potential carbon sinks, specifically the fir forests of the Pacific Northwest. From William Yardley's piece: Over the next 50 years or so, experts say, some forests could be cultivated to [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 9:59am EST
  

• Managing Forests in a Changing Climate

  In case you missed it: The New York Times this weekend looked at how the West's forests are being managed as potential carbon sinks, specifically the fir forests of the Pacific Northwest. From William Yardley's piece: Over the next 50 years or so, experts say, some forests could be cultivated to [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 9:59am EST
  

• Lone Wolf: Mitch Wieland's God's Dogs

  God's Dogs: A Novel in Stories by Mitch Wieland Southern Methodist University Press, 275 pages, $22.50 In Boise novelist Mitch Wieland's God's Dogs, Ferrell Swan, a sixty-year-old retired Ohio schoolteacher sets out to live alone in a cabin in the Idaho desert for many of the same reasons hermits have been taking to [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 8:00pm EST
  

• My Ten Best Musical Acquisitions of 2009

  This list used to be called Top Ten Albums Of the Year. But there are so many ways to buy, borrow, copy, steal and find new music that the purchase of a physical album is becoming as rare as a Libertarian at a food bank. While I download some music, I [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 10:44am EST
  

• In a Town Full of Trains, Is the Depot Worth Saving?

  Sandpoint is a town of trains. Dozens of them come through day and night. We don't wax sentimental about hearing that lonesome whistle blow because we hear it all the time. Trains stop conversations with their noise. Trains are the excuse students give for being late to school. Trains make' [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 12:44pm EST
  

• In a Town Full of Trains, Is the Depot Worth Saving?

  Sandpoint is a town of trains. Dozens of them come through day and night. We don't wax sentimental about hearing that lonesome whistle blow because we hear it all the time. Trains stop conversations with their noise. Trains are the excuse students give for being late to school. Trains make' [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 12:44pm EST
  

• Montana Deer Harvest Near Record Lows

  Whitetail buck numbers are way down in Region 1. Through Nov. 22, check stations reported 549 bucks, the fewest at that point in the season since the record low of 478 in 1997. The mule deer harvest is also among the lowest in history. With better weather conditions and the rut [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 9:00am EST
  

• We are all Bushmen and Women

  In August of this year I was just 250 milies from the area where scientists have determined is the origin of all humankind. Genetic markers on the Y-chromosome indicate that our migration out of Africa began on the Atlantic coastal border of Namibia and Angola. Read the full version with [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 10:56am EST
  

• My Dog in a Trap on Thanksgiving Day

  It's a walk I've taken hundreds of times, a trail that runs alongside the Big Flat irrigation ditch near the confluence of the Bitterroot and Clark Fork rivers. My nephew, in his first year at college in Portland, is here for Thanksgiving, and we were wandering along the riverbank just' [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 8:13am EST
  

• An Interview with Writer, Pathologist, Professor, and Rancher Robert Greer

  Robert Greer has been a surgical pathologist and Professor of Pathology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver for 35 years and has written a number of books, including ten CJ Floyd mysteries, a series that he began in 1996 with The Devil's Hatband. Greer's new novel, [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 8:00am EST
  

• Appreciating the Skiing - and the Scenery

  I strap my ski boots; breathe deeply filling my lungs with icy air and click into my bindings. I glance out through my rose colored lenses into darkness. It's 5a.m. at Copper Mountain, I'm tired, my body feels as though it's been bucked off a bull from yesterdays' training and [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 5:42am EST
  

• A True Turkey Story - and Not for the Faint-Hearted

  Getting a turkey from pasture to table is no small task. Nor is it one for the squeamish. But, if you're going to enjoy the bird and all its trimmings this Thanksgiving, you might as well know where they come from. This last weekend, 75 pasture-raised heritage turkeys met their demise and' [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 10:51am EST
  

• Why Should I Support Tester's Wilderness Bill?

  On July 17, I went to R-Y Timber Company in Townsend, Montana, and to stand in the sweltering heat and watch sweat pour off Senator Jon Tester (D-MT). On such a day you'd think Montana's Junior Senator would be talking about global warming, but no, he was talking about an' [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 7:28am EST
  

• There's More to Lady Gaga Than Fiery Nipples

  She can't sing. Her music is shallow, throwaway pop. She's more interested in showing off some T&A than in crafting any kind of quality songs. Her stage antics are vulgar, over the top, tasteless and exploitative. She's setting the women's movement back thirty years by presenting herself as an oversexed' [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 5:12pm EST
  

• Western Literary Magazine Roundup

  In this week's Roundup, I'll be taking a look at a few of the many literary magazines in our region. Whitefish Review is a journal based in Whitefish, Montana, that is five issues and two years into what will hopefully be a long and fruitful run.  Recently Whitefish Review gained nonprofit [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 8:00am EST
  

• Health Reform Debate Continues Back Home

  Lawmakers are back in their districts for the week, but the healthcare debate rages on during the recess. In a memorandum to members, Senate Democratic leaders suggested this is a prime time to frame the debate because momentum is growing after Saturday night's vote to start debate on the measure. Americans' [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 2:13pm EST
  

• Energy Trade Groups Spreading 'Untruths,' Salazar Says

  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took aim at oil and gas industry trade groups on Tuesday, accusing them of spreading untruths and launching poison attacks against the Obama administration. Trade groups for the oil and gas industry repeatedly launch attacks that have all the poison and assumption of election-year politics, Salazar said [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 1:40pm EST
  

• Energy Trade Groups Spreading 'Untruths,' Salazar Says

  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took aim at oil and gas industry trade groups on Tuesday, accusing them of spreading untruths and launching poison attacks against the Obama administration. Trade groups for the oil and gas industry repeatedly launch attacks that have all the poison and assumption of election-year politics, Salazar said [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 1:40pm EST
  

• Moonlight on Track for Ski Season Despite Bankruptcy

  Moonlight Basin, the Big Sky resort that filed for bankruptcy protection last week, will have sufficient capital to open as scheduled on Dec. 12 and, barring extraordinary events, to operate as normal through the ski season after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge on Tuesday resolved some initial issues in complex [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 12:09pm EST
  

• Dr. Power: Key Assumptions behind Senator Tester's Forest Jobs and Restoration Act

  What I want to do here is simply outline the conventional wisdom from which Senator Tester appears to be operating. That will sound familiar, and, to many, convincing, but those assumptions are, in fact, highly debatable. In commentaries over the next two months, I will then seek to critically explore [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 10:26am EST
  

• The Pesticide Wars

  If the American Farm Bureau Federation has its way, the issue of whether herbicide spraying over water requires a Clean Water Act permit will be heard by the Supreme Court. A coalition of agricultural groups led by the Federation has petitioned the nation's highest court to reverse an appellate court' [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:02am EST
  

• Porch Productions Benefit for Film on Foster Care

  Anyone who has had any contact with the foster care system knows that it is, well, in need of help. Missoula-based Porch Productions is currently working on a documentary film in which it follows six Missoula children as they age out of foster care. It's a worthy and important topic,' [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:51am EST
  

• Protecting America's Public Lands a National Concern

  We can take much inspiration from Ken Burns' film "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" and readily extend its premise to the remainder of America's public lands. Key take-home messages in Burns' film are that threats to America's wildlands never cease and that their protection is brought about through national' [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:47am EST
  

• When Good Apples Get Spoiled

  HOOD RIVERBill Neal has no problem explaining what the state should do with David Ryan and his juice company. They need to come up here and shut his ass down, Neal said. This has been a problem for 15 years. Ryan, the founder and CEO of Hood River Juice Company, was charged [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 10:06pm EST
  

• Mr. Coffee, Meet Mr. Fist

  For most of us functioning adults, we just can't start the day without that steaming mug of joe. It's not just the caffeine, but it's also the ritual, the comfort of the warm cup between the hands, the jolt of heat and aromatic bitterness with every sip. There's also the [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 6:32pm EST
  

• More Praise for Priest River's Beardmore Block

  The Beardmore Block in Priest River continues its phoenix-like rise from metaphorical ashes in garnering another awardthis time the Grow Smart Award from Idaho Smart Growth. The award language says the Beardmore incorporates historic preservation, downtown revitalization, and sustainable green building practices in an existing town center and illustrates that [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 3:05pm EST
  

• While Big Resorts Struggle, Echo Mountain Booms

  What does Gerald Petitt know about the ski industry that other ski resort owners should learn? In a year when resorts across the country watched their visitor numbers tumble, the Aspen resident who owns tiny Echo Mountain near Idaho Springs saw its numbers rise 30 percent, one of just three ski [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 1:27pm EST
  

• Surprise! The CMA got the awards right this year... for the most part

  Before they are too far into the past, I had a few comments on this year's Country Music Association awards, which were presented earlier this month in Nashville. Entertainer of the Year went to Taylor Swift.  While this young phenom might be just a bit too young and bubbly for my [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 1:06pm EST
  

• Moonlight Bankruptcy: is it Yellowstone Club, or is it Tamarack?

  For U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Ralph B. Kirscher, the opening hearing in the Moonlight Basin bankruptcy case, scheduled for this Tuesday in Butte, promises more than a little bit of deja vu: it was just a year ago that some of the same lawyers appeared in the same courtroom to [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 11:09am EST
  

• Bighorn National Forest Resorts to User Fees at Popular Trailhead

  The West Tensleep Trailhead in the Bighorn National Forest ­-- the most popular access to the Cloud Peak Wilderness ­­-- will have a $10 parking fee next summer. I can't fault forest managers for searching for an additional revenue stream after years of funding shortfalls, but this user fee unfairly' [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 9:35am EST
  

• Bighorn National Forest Resorts to User Fees at Popular Trailhead

  The West Tensleep Trailhead in the Bighorn National Forest ­-- the most popular access to the Cloud Peak Wilderness ­­-- will have a $10 parking fee next summer. I can't fault forest managers for searching for an additional revenue stream after years of funding shortfalls, but this user fee unfairly' [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 9:35am EST
  

• Following California off the Cliff

  Heavy use of citizen initiatives is one of the clearest predictions of states that are in danger of following California to the brink of insolvency, according to an extensive survey of state financial problems by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States. Oregon, looking toward a critical vote in January, [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 11:23am EST
  

• Following California off the Cliff

  Heavy use of citizen initiatives is one of the clearest predictions of states that are in danger of following California to the brink of insolvency, according to an extensive survey of state financial problems by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States. Oregon, looking toward a critical vote in January, [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 11:23am EST
  

• Saturday: Crapo Delivers National Address on Health Bill

  Saturday, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo delivered a national address on the health care legislation expected to be considered by the U.S. Senate Saturday evening.  Crapo was chosen by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to offer the Republican response to the President's weekly radio address.  A vote in the Senate on [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 10:16am EST
  

• Saturday: Crapo Delivers National Address on Health Bill

  Idaho Senator Mike Crapo delivered a national address on the health care legislation expected to be considered by the U.S. Senate Saturday evening.  Crapo was chosen by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to offer the Republican response to the President's weekly radio address.  The address airs Saturday on many radio [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 10:16am EST
  

• Young Men and Fire: Timothy Egan's The Big Burn

  The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & The Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 324 pages, $27 In August of 1910, the largest fire ever to sweep across forests in the United States claimed trees, buildings, and lives across a stretch of three million acres in the Rocky Mountains.  Timothy [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 8:00am EST
  

• More Praise for Priest River's Beardmore Block

  The Beardmore Block in Priest River continues its phoenix-like rise from metaphorical ashes in garnering another awardthis time the Grow Smart Award from Idaho Smart Growth. The award language says the Beardmore incorporates historic preservation, downtown revitalization, and sustainable green building practices in an existing town center and illustrates that [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 7:05am EST
  

• Resorts Hope Olympics will be Golden for Snow Sports

  Skiing and snowboarding aren't exactly the TV spectacles that baseball and football are in this country, but every four years when the Winter Olympics roll around, they have their moment in the spotlight. Resort operators hope the Olympics will inspire more people to get out on the slopes this winter, and' [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:12am EST
  

• Flu Update: H1N1 Cases Down, But is Uptick Ahead?

  As flu pandemics go, H1N1 sometimes seems hard to compute, given all the information flooding our way. Is it a panic? An impending storm? A party theme? Yes, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that some people are hosting swine flu parties where people who know someone with H1N1 purposely [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 3:01pm EST
  

• Oregon Cat Dies From Swine Flu

  Oregon is home to the country's first reported fatal case of swine flu in a cat. The cat, a 10-year-old male, died Nov. 7 near Portland. The Oregon State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory examined the dead cat and discovered he carried the H1N1 virus. While this is the third confirmed case [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 12:21pm EST
  

• Sen Tester and His Logging Bill Rack-Up Major Endorsement

  [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:54am EST
  

• Moonlight Basin Files for Bankruptcy Protection

  Moonlight Basin, the troubled Big Sky, Montana ski resort, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, just a day before a foreclosure hearing that could have put the property in the hands of its primary lender, Lehman Bros. Moonlight took a loan of $100 million from Lehman Bros. in [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:15am EST
  

• Senate Health Care Bill Now on the Table

  Senate Majority Leader Reid released an $849 billion healthcare overhaul bill Wednesday that includes a public option and will extend coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans, though a few Democrats are still on the fence over whether they will vote to proceed to the bill. The bill would extend insurance to [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:23am EST
  

• Grizzlies On the Move, Back On to the Wide-Open Prairie

  Montanans living along the winding Teton River, well east of the Rocky Mountain Front were quick to notice their new neighbor this summer. As early as the beginning of July, ranchers and other landowners along the prairie began intermittently spotting a solitary grizzly bear journeying east away from the mountains. [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 6:47am EST
  

• Kids, Road Rage, Gun Laws, Union Conservationists, and More

  I used to play basketball, but not too much since the day my coach took me aside, patted me on the head, and said, Bill, you're short, but you're slow, and you really need to follow your shots. Well, that was a long time ago, and I admit to never [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 5:14am EST
  

• Minnick's Bill on Job Training AMERICA Works Targets Focused Training Goals

  It can be scary for adults to change careers, but the recession has handed many American workers no choice. Enrollment at trade schools, community colleges and specialized private colleges has increased all over the U.S.  But whether or not graduates of these programs find work in their new area of [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:07pm EST
  

• Optimism Cautiously Creeps in for Ski Season

  If you're a ski resort operator, it's hard to be optimistic when the country is suffering the effects of a grueling recession and about one in 10 Americans is jobless. But when snow is dumping in the high country and across the room at the Colorado Convention Center people are' [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:02pm EST
  

• Intrawest Sells Colorado's Copper Mountain to Park City Company

  Copper Mountain resort, a major ski hill about 75 miles west of Denver, is being sold by troubled ski giant Intrawest to Park City-based Powdr Corp., the owner resorts in Utah, California, Vermont, Oregon and Nevada. The deal is expected to close in December, and both companies say patrons should [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 12:52pm EST