LET'S FOCUS ON ISSUES THAT REALLY MATTER

Don’t Waste Energy on Rule Allowing Concealed Guns in National Parks

A lot of people are hot and bothered about the Bush administration's proposed rule to allow concealed weapons in national parks, but practically, is this really worth our time and effort?

Yes, it's maddening to tolerate such low-end, election-year politics spurred by the National Rifle Association (NRA), but I say give the gun lobby this hollow victory, so we can spend our time and energy on issues that could really help our national parks instead of worrying about something that's already happening and hasn't caused any problems.

Pro Managers Will Run Yellowstone Club, and Finish Building It

Edra Blixseth and the other top owner of the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky have retained an Arizona-based company to manage the private club and complete its long-overdue construction projects, according to an item on PR-inside.com.

Over the past year and more, the Yellowstone Club, the world's only private skiing and golf community, has been in and out of the news, thanks to the public divorce of owners Tim and Edra Blixseth as well as legal battles between owners and Tim Blixseth. Also, the club missed loan payments to creditor Credit Suisse and teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Earlier this year, Edra won control of the club and vowed to get its overdue construction back on track and to keep its business out of the public eye.

Western Book Roundup

Bozeman Launches New Community Reading Program

The first One Book-One Bozeman joins a number of other regional community reading programs when it kicks off this week, featuring Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder. The program, organized by "A host of volunteers and community partners, including the Bozeman Public Library, the Bozeman Public Library Foundation, Hopa Mountain, MSU, and Yellowstone Public Radio," according to its website, will include a series of varied events now through October 15, such as book discussions, a photo exhibit (opening September 5 at the Bozeman Public Library), cooking lessons, and storytelling and writing workshops for kids.

One highlight: on October 9, Dr. Michael Iseman of Denver's National Jewish Medical Center will discuss his research on multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and the work of Paul Farmer, the subject of Kidder's book.

Watch for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's announcement of the next One Book, One Denver selection next week. They've been accepting book nominations from the community on their website, so it will be interesting to see this year's pick.

Also in the Roundup: The Democratic Convention gave a boost to the Tattered Cover, and the University of New Mexico Press launches a fall reading series.

New West Book Review

Ski Bum Dad: Ken Wright’s “The Monkey Wrench Dad”

The Monkey Wrench Dad: Dispatches from the Backyard Frontline
By Ken Wright
Raven's Eye Press, 230 pages, $18.95

What happens to ski bums when they grow up? In his essay collection The Monkey Wrench Dad, Durango's Ken Wright provides his answer to this question. Wright moved from Boston to Colorado in 1983 for a season of ski bumming and never left. He managed to carry on with the usual adulthood rituals (he married a fellow ski bum and has two now-teenage kids) while maintaining the lifestyle that he moved West for.

One Delegate's Story

A Long Journey From Pine Ridge

Having finagled my way onto the floor of Invesco Field, I watched the address by Barack Obama with the South Dakota delegation, seated just to the right of the stage. There I met Cecelia Fire Thunder.

Chatting with Fire Thunder – an imposing woman of impressive bulk and a face that belongs on the side of a mountain – I didn't know her back story. She's a licensed nurse, she told me, with two sons and two granddaughters. She's from Kyle, S.D. and she was a Hillary supporter. Asked if she planned to vote for Obama, who was about to take the stage, she said "Of course. We're Democrats."

Above the Convention

A Flight Into Energy’s Future

Bumping along at 7000 feet in a Cessna Citation, we could see below us Colorado's dirtiest power source – and its cleanest.

Below us to the west, near the Colorado-Wyoming border in northern Weld County, stood the Rawhide coal generating station, which provides much of the electricity for the booming towns of Fort Collins, Longmont, and Loveland. To the east lay long rows of white turbines making up the Ponnequin Wind Farm, Colorado's first, built starting in 1998.

NEW REPORT BY RIVAL PROVIDES ALARMING DETAILS

The Anti-Conservation Mission of the NRA

It's hardly a news flash that the National Rifle Association (NRA) supports anti-conservation, if not anti-hunting, politicians. Even though I've written about it several times, I never realized how bad it was.

A just-released report by the NRA's nemesis, the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), deals out all the dreadful details, and it should be a major eye-opener for any hunter who still supports the NRA.

Oil & Gas Vs. Renewables

Do Dems Have the Right Stuff on Energy?

Tuesday night was Energy Night at the Democratic Convention, and a good night it was: while Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer blew the doors off the Pepsi Center with an impassioned plea to combat the "petrodictators" of the world, former Virginia governor Mark Warner, now running for Senate, delivered a lower-key, more reasoned argument for a balanced energy policy that includes limited new domestic production (including offshore drilling) and a sharp focus on shifting to renewables.

It was both good theater and sound thinking. But still, one has to wonder if the Democrats are really willing to muster the courage, and the votes, to push through a comprehensive energy policy that reduces dependence on fossil fuels, slows the advance of global climate change, and keeps gas and electricity affordable for most Americans.

Convention Coverage Roundup

Schweitzer, Steers, and Street Action

Brian Schweitzer: studmuffin. That was the conclusion of plenty of online commentators after last night's rousing speech at the DNC.

"I'd like to declare Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer the MVP of Tuesday night," eclipsing even Hillary Clinton's impassioned plea for party unity, writes Dayo Olapade on The New Republic's political blog, "The Plank." Wowing the assembled partisans, Schweitzer "could well be the Barack Obama of 2008," Olopade added.