http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/main/C33/L/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2009 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:00:10 MST Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:00:10 MST http://www.newwest.net/city/article/missoulas_progressive_talk_radio_hijacked_again/C33/C33/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:54:05 MST Out state owners of our airwaves shut down progressive talk once again..... http://www.newwest.net/city/article/bear_spray_campaign_endangers_hunters_grizzlies/C33/C33/ Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:19:04 MST Year after year, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee fails to provide for hunter safety while minimizing grizzly bear mortality. Here are eight solutions to the problem. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/parma_research_station_opinion/C33/C33/ Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:49:43 MST In my opinion, Jill Kuraitis's NewWest.Net article on the Parma research station (7-9-09) contained an error and omissions. The subtitle of the article indicates that it was a UI College of Agriculture committee that reversed the decision. I don't agree. The article omitted the fact that it was lobbying by growers and a threat of legal action by the UI faculty union that forced the UI administration to reconsider closing this essential research station. Read the full version: www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/Parma.htm http://www.newwest.net/city/article/parma_research_station_must_remain_open/C33/C33/ Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:59:06 MST The U.S. leads the world in agricultural innovation primarily because of research done at the nation's land grant universities. One of the most successful experiment stations in Idaho is located in Parma, but the UI has just announced that it will be closed at the end of the year. The faculty union and growers are trying to get the UI administration to reverse this disastrous decision. Esmaeil Fallahi, a world renowned fruit expert at Parma, is responsible for the fact that Idaho now grows Fuji apples, table grapes, and white peaches. In the recent years, hundreds of thousands of boxes of white peaches and table grapes have been shipped to Asia. Saad Hafez, another researcher at the Parma station, brings in $500,000 a year in research and service funds for Idaho agriculture. Because of Hafez's work the nematodes that destroy Idaho crops, farmers saved $8.1 million annually over a 20 year period. During a meeting with Parma faculty and staff on June 16, John Hammel, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was hammered about the closure decision and his mismanagement of the station. Ron Mann, founder of the Idaho Table Grape Association and former advisor to President Reagan, asked Hammel why the growers were not consulted. Mann offered several viable alternatives to save money short of closing the station. In a phone conversation with Mann, he told me that the UI administration is "inept in the management of people and budgets." http://www.newwest.net/city/article/thomas_jefferson_atheist_and_leveler_from_virginia/C33/C33/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:54:45 MST From 1904 to 1957 it was a tradition that every new member of Congress would receive a copy of the "Jeffersonian Bible." Judd Patton, a member of the conservative United Church of God has sought to revive this practice. Since 1997, Patton has spent $1,500 of his own money sending 753 copies of the book to members of Congress. Patton realizes that Jefferson was "not a believer in Christ," but he thinks that it is essential that America's representatives read about the moral essence of Christianity. Read the full version here. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/montana_governor_gets_stoned/C33/C33/ Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:01:00 MST On Monday, Governor Brian Schweitzer emerged from a closed-door meeting at Smurfit-Stone's Frenchtown mill, looked right into a video camera and declared, "If we can harvest 15,000 acres of the 2 million acres of dead and dying [trees] that we've got on federal land in Montana we can keep this mill open." http://www.newwest.net/city/article/somali_woman_rejects_islam_with_a_vengeance/C33/C33/ Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:15:59 MST Ayann Hirsi Ali is on a crusade against her former religion, claiming that Islam is inherently violent and is particularly destructive of the lives of women. In 2004 her anti-Islamic activism led to the murder of a Dutch filmmaker and resulted in death threats against her. Five years later as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Hirsi Ali still requires full-time bodyguards. See full version with Ali's picture and an image from film at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/HirsiAli.htm http://www.newwest.net/city/article/memo_to_mccain_the_economy_tanked_long_ago/C33/C33/ Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:40:44 MST Since the early 1980s profits from the financial service industry rose from 10 percent of total corporate profits to 40 percent today. It's high time to close America's financial casinos, and I for one would not trust a McCain/Palin administration, recent converts to regulation, to stop this disastrous game of making money out of money without sufficient regulation. Read the full version. All year long John McCain has repeated, at least 17 times, George Bush's mantra: "The fundamentals of the American economy are strong." The last time he said it was September 15, right after Lehman Brothers folded, Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America, and American International Group, the world's largest financial insurer, was on the edge of collapse. McCain has admitted that he knows very little about economics, and this gaffe proved that in spades. McCain thought that as president he could fire the chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission (no way, Senator), and his running mate Sarah Palin was blithely unaware that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were semi-private companies. McCain once said that there has been "great economic progress" under Bush, but, less than 24 hours later, he stated that "Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago." As far as America's working people are concerned, the economy tanked long ago. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/mccains_pit_bull_wages_cultural_war/C33/C33/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:30:03 MST John Edwards has an affair and his political career is finished, but John McCain sleeps with Cindy and his political career takes off with a bang. Former Senator John Tower tells of carousing with McCain while he was still married to his first wife, describing him as "turning forty and wanting to be twenty-five again." Edwards is criticized for running a campaign on the huge gap between the rich and poor, but John "Teflon" McCain unleashes his "pit bull with lipstick" (Palin's own words) to wage cultural warfare on America. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/designing_the_new_west_conference/C33/C33/ Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:13:27 MST The Designing the New West: Architecture and Landscape in the Mountain West Conference is wrapping up here in Bozeman at the historic Gallatin Gateway Inn. Put on by NewWest.Net and sponsored by the Sonoran Institute, the conference brought together designers from all over the country to explore innovative design ideas, identify best practices, and better understand how to bridge the gap between good architectural theory and sometimes-messy building practices in the fastest growing region in the nation. A mix of presentations and engaging panel discussions tackled pressing Western issues like sustainable development, land design and the special challenges of urban, rural and resort design, historic preservation and affordable housing. Click on the photo or here for a slideshow of the days' events. Click "more" for a recap of the conference.