New West Blog News | New West Network

Montana in Play

Sen. Barack Obama celebrated July 4 in Butte, MT, honoring a spirited working-class town rich in history and signaling his seriousness about contesting the state in the general election. Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post has a thorough analysis of the political dynamics of the Butte visit and the Democrat's New West strategy. Gov. Brian Schweitzer had nice things to say, which has not always been the case in the past. It was also a family occasion for the presumptive Democratic nominee. The Montana Standard has full local coverage and New West's Alexia Beckerling photographed the event.


  [more]

An Odd Tradition

On Fourth of July some years back my dad caught six rattlesnakes, played with them, tossed one at my feet and let them go. It was his way of celebrating independence. He said, “Happy Fourth of July.” I said, “What the hell?” Like other holidays in my family, Independence Day wasn’t traditional. Sure, there were cookouts and fireworks, but those outings were far from normal as well.

  [more]

lynx habitat cited

The U.S. Forest Service turned down the Bitterroot Resort’s third request for a special-use permit to use national forest lands for Nordic and alpine skiing and mountain biking, Perry Backus of the Ravalli Republic reports.

Resort officials said Wednesday they are reworking their request and will likely resubmit it within a few weeks.

The new federal conservation regulations for Canadian Lynx put into place this spring made Lolo Forest’s lynx habitat the number one concern for the Forest Service during the reviewing process. Also, ski trail maintenance could disturb elk wintering habitat, and clearing trees for alpine skiing in the Bitterroot Forest could ruin the view from the Maple Creek area, Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor Dave Bull told Backus.  [more]

from the new west blog: shouldn't we expect better?

Politicians on both teams are so busy hollering at each other and issuing dueling blame-game press releases about the price of gas and energy policy, other issues are drowning in the noise.

An inexhaustible supply of put-down quotes are standard fare at the Senate Republican website as well as the Senate Democrats’, not to mention in media reports worldwide.
  [more]

Sen. Barack Obama is leading Sen. John McCain by five percentage points, gaining ground with younger voters in Montana, according to a new poll from Rasmussen Reports.

Forty-eight percent of voters polled by telephone said they would vote for Obama while 43 percent said they would vote for McCain. The last time Rasmussen polled Montana voters, in April, it was just the opposite. McCain was leading with 48 percent to Obama's 43 percent.

The poll shows Obama is most popular with voters under the age of 30, where he has a 27-point lead. McCain was more popular than Obama with voters older than 50.

Party loyalty is strong for both candidates, with 89 percent of Democrats going for Obama and 85 percent of Republicans going for McCain.  [more]

from the new west blog: FIres and the Fourth

Last year’s devastating fires in Montana, Idaho and other Rocky Mountain states should be enough to deter neighborhood firework parties, but it won't be.

Western lands include tumbleweed desert, prairie grass, tinderbox forests with stands of dry pines, and brown foothills near big neighborhoods. Why on earth do we think it’s sensible to let loose with toys that shoot sparks, especially since some people will be hammered from the neighbor’sFourth of July party?

Despite the elementary-school logic, telling some people they can’t set off fire fountains on a street lined with pine trees is incendiary: “Ban fireworks? On the freakin’ Fourth of freakin’ July? This is America, you freak! Go recycle something, you freaking pansy whackjob!”

Let’s review the facts.

  [more]

Western Book Roundup

Best-selling Boulder author Jon Krakauer has withdrawn the manuscript for Hero, his book about Pat Tillman, according to Publishers Weekly (Via Slushpile.Net). Rachel Deahl writes that Doubleday had scheduled the book for an October release with a first printing of half a million copies.

Denise Hill at the always informative NewPages blog pointed out Ahmede Hussain's interview with Brian Kevin, Managing Editor of the University of Montana's CutBank. The interview ran in The Daily Star, which Hill says is "Bangladesh's largest circulating English-language newspaper." And according to Hussain, CutBank is "America's foremost literary magazine."

Also in the Roundup: Bigfoot spotted at the bookstore.  [more]

From The New West Blog

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, the newly elected leader of the Western Governor's Association, is pushing other Western Governors at the annual meeting in Wyoming to collectively come up with a national energy initiative to guide the next president's policy.

The group will work over the next 12 months to come up with a plan, which governors have said the federal government has been sorely in need of, that addresses climate change and energy independence.

The timing is good, Huntsman said, and that means this time, the new administration might listen to what Western governors have to say. He tells the Deseret News that be it McCain or Obama, the next president is going to need to take advice from what Huntsman calls "the most energy relevant region."

More from The Denver Post here.
More from the Deseret News here.  [more]