Alternative Energy

UM Native American Lab Snags Big Green Energy Grant

Big dollars for green energy -- and for a unique University of Montana program -- arrived this week at the UM Native American Research Laboratory (NARL), considered the only such research facility in the nation for Native college students.

NARL Director Michael Ceballos said the laboratory has received a $300,000 two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a new process that boosts the efficiency of ethanol production. The goal is to perfect an enzyme technology that makes celullosic ethanol -- a high octane, renewable fuel produced from the stalks and stems of plants -- easier to make and cheaper to buy.

Groundbreaking

New Dean for UM Law School

Legal scholar and educator Irma Russell, a specialist in environmental and energy law, is the new dean at the University of Montana School of law -- the first female to hold that position. Russell replaces outgoing law school dean E. Edwin Eck, head of the law school since 1995, who announced last fall that he would step down at the end of the academic year and return to the law school faculty, according to UM's announcement.

Here are a few highlights from the UM press release about the new chief:

--Before coming to Montana for her new job, Russell was the Director of the National Energy-Environment Law & Policy Institute and NELPI Professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law.

--She chairs the innovations committee of the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy and Resources.

Bones of Contention

Beloved Dino Museum to Close its Doors, Shutting Down the Public

Revolution rages in Tehran and the world is transfixed by millions of Iranians demanding free speech. Laramie, Wyoming is light years away from the Islamic world, but amid charges of repression of free speech and totalitarian decisions, a revolt is gaining momentum against the University of Wyoming (UW) trustees -- and its emblematic martyr is Big Al, the Allosaurus.

Facing an $18.3 million budget shortfall, UW decided to close the school’s Geological Museum in response to the state of Wyoming’s mandated 10 percent budget cuts. The museum will close to the public July 1; its director and assistant are among the people who will lose their jobs as a result.

Big Al -- whose incredibly-preserved bones greet museum visitors -- will become a recluse. Some researchers may be able to see him, but not the public. The same goes for other museum prizes, including one of the only mounted skeletons of an Apatosaurus (or Brontosaurus, as it was formerly called).

Fighting Words

Drafted: The New Missoula Academic Freedom Policy

Here is a working draft of the new academic freedom policy for Missoula County public schools, otherwise known as policy 2330. (To read about how these types of codes are being used in surprising anti-evolution battles across the country, click here.) The policy will be posted to the Missoula County Public Schools website after final approval, which is expected in the coming weeks.

Policy Bonk

War of the Words: Will New Missoula School Policy Make Stuff Worse?

In an effort to prevent another fracas like the one that erupted over the video The Story of Stuff, the Missoula County Public Schools board of trustees last week approved a draft of a new academic freedom policy -- one that sets clear rules for teachers about how to deal with controversial issues.

Sounds innocent enough. And that’s what’s dangerous, observers say. Because there’s more to this stuff than meets the eye. According to education and civil liberties groups nationwide, an increasingly organized army of parents and political leaders are using seemingly innocuous academic freedom guidelines to fight the teaching of evolution, climate change, and other hot-button issues.

6degrees Astroblog

What Should be Taught in Science Classes

For nearly a century a battle has raged in our country over the nature of science and how it should be taught to public school students. When Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species” in 1859 based on his observations of various animal species during his voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle, it immediately crystallized a growing disagreement between the proponents of a divinely inspired origin to life on Earth and those who looked for a natural explanation for the multitude of species.

state politics: idaho

Nonini Asks for $45 Million for Idaho Education

Representative Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, chair of the House Education Committee, asked the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee to fund $45 million in enhancements for the education budget.

Nonini also said he would be presenting to the education committee later today a bill for an “Idaho Education Network,” modeled after the extensive – and expensive – Utah Education Network that enables many Utah high school students to accumulate credits in Utah colleges.

Monday Politics

Benson Battle Bruises CU Image

The candidacy of Republican fundraiser Bruce Benson to become the president of the University of Colorado received another blow over the weekend when CU regent Cindy Carlisle announced she would no longer support him. A candidate for state Senate from Boulder, Carlisle had previously been the sole Democrat on the board of regents to come out in favor of Benson.

Late last week the CU faculty assembly postponed a vote on whether to support the proposed appointment of Benson, who has been an oil and gas CEO and is the former chairman of the Colorado Republican party. He is the sole finalist for the job of CU president.

Introducing...

A New Magazine: The New West

The best way to check out The New West magazine is to subscribe. We want to know who’s interested in The New West, so we have made the magazine available free to qualified subscribers who answer a short questionnaire.

• Click here for the questionnaire for a free subscription.
• You can also subscribe for $9.95 a year by clicking here.

In the Spring Issue and online here:

• Montana’s Cash Cowboy
• Real Ranch Living: Not Everyone is Selling Out
• Essay: The Family Farm, Version 2.0
• Essay: Tracks Across A Landscape
• Have Your Ranch & Develop It, Too
• Design Showcase: The Big and Little of Western Building
• Stuff It: Can Wolf Hunting Help Conserve the Species?
• Traffic Perplexes New Western Communities
• Boise in Its Own Little Bubble
• Revenge of the Resource Economy
• Spotlight North Idaho: On the Agenda: Youth, Growth & Silver
• Spotlight North Idaho: Players of the Panhandle
• Spotlight North Idaho: Coeur d’Alene Tribe Rides the Idaho Boom

[read more]

By Robert Struckman, 2-01-08 | comments (23) | email story | print story

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