http://www.newwest.net/topic/main/C69/L/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2008 Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:42:20 MDT Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:42:20 MDT http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/gun_sales_boom_fact_or_hype/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/gun_sales_boom_fact_or_hype/C69/C69/ Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:44:54 MDT Since the election of Barack Obama, and the Democratic near-sweep of Congress, two weeks ago there have beenhundreds of news stories about an up surge of gun sales across the West and across the country. Many of these have appeared in newspapers in the Rocky Mountain West: the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, the Salt Lake Tribune, and so on. The problem is, while these accounts seem to present persuasive evidence, they're almost all based on anecdotal evidence. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/mountain_west_cities_join_national_protest_against_prop_8/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/mountain_west_cities_join_national_protest_against_prop_8/C69/C69/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:48:11 MDT No matter your feelings about gay equality and marriage, the issue is firmly political. It’s the civil rights movement of our day, and can no longer be relegated to a fringe few --especially after the passage of Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, in California ten days ago. Donors from many states gave money to help pass Prop. 8, but Idahoans donated more than $400,000 to pass it, second only to Utah in out-of-state contributions. Several publications, including Pride Depot, are calling for a boycott of businesses on the donor list. A national day of protest called “Join the Impact – Promote Love and Equality in Your City” on Saturday aims to bring national attention and a collective experience to people who want to claim their support for gay marriage and their objection to the California initiative. In the Rocky Mountain West – at least in the states where New West publishes - there are 19 events scheduled for tomorrow, all at 11:30 Mountain Time, which are listed here. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/western_republicans_soul_searching_time/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/western_republicans_soul_searching_time/C69/C69/ Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:30:24 MDT The sweeping Democratic victory across much of the West has state Republican Parties in Colorado, Washington, Oregon and even Idaho questioning their leadership and direction. In Colorado, some predictable sniping at the tactics of the party leadership is accompanied by a deeper argument over whether the party should turn to the right, as Tom Tancredo is urging, or move to the center, reports the Denver Post. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest, Republicans are facing population trends (i.e. in-migration and urbanization) that look grim indeed, reports Floyd McKay at Crosscut. Oregon now has no statewide officeholders from the GOP for the first time ever. In Idaho, Republicans remain in firm control and the state party considers Tuesday to have been a fine day. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/partying_like_its_1992/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/partying_like_its_1992/C69/C69/ Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:42:46 MDT Ohio was the turning point. When Barack Obama won the crucial Midwest state last night it popped the release valve on eight years of pent-up outrage, frustration, and shame for millions of Democrats and independents across the U.S. Up to that point the several hundred Obama supporters gathered at the Boulder Theater had reacted with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety as early returns were reported by MSNBC and CNN on the big screen. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/blue_tide_floods_colorado/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/blue_tide_floods_colorado/C69/C69/ Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:29:14 MDT It took a while, but Democrats in Colorado got almost everything they wanted in today's election results. For more than an hour after the polls closed around the state neither the national nor local news organizations had called the presidential race in Colorado. Finally, at about 8:30 – moments before CNN called the national race – and with 32% of the precincts reporting, The Denver Post reported, "Colorado, a traditionally red state, swung blue tonight as voters chose Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president and Congressman Mark Udall for the state's open Senate seat." http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/the_new_president_and_the_new_west/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/the_new_president_and_the_new_west/C69/C69/ Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:28:48 MDT Here in Montana, and across the Rocky Mountain West, the election of Barack Obama represents the startling culmination of social, cultural and political changes that have been underway in this region for many years. You've heard a lot of this by now: the Mountain West, increasingly populated by amenity-seeking coastal migrants and Latino immigrants, and with an independent-minded electorate that's resistant to Republican over-reaching on social issues, is no longer solid red, but rather "in play." And if the breadth of Obama's victory ultimately rendered the electoral votes of Colorado and New Mexico and Montana and Nevada superfluous, the deeper significance of the changes remain. It certainly didn't play out the way any pundit might have predicted a couple of years ago. Obama, for starters, is hardly the "Western" candidate that many Western Democrats imagined would be the standard-bearer for the inevitable breakthrough. "You guys have a nice deal around here," Obama said in Missoula last spring, with all the wonder of a first-time tourist. He joked about going fly fishing (a river runs through it, after all!), but it's hard to picture him in waders. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/sportsmans_warehouse_ceo_speaks_out_on_cooper_firearms_controversy/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/sportsmans_warehouse_ceo_speaks_out_on_cooper_firearms_controversy/C69/C69/ Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:23:30 MDT Anybody who has been following the cyber-firestorm over pro-Obama statements and campaign contributions made by Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, knows that as part of the collateral damage, life has gotten hectic at Sportsman's Warehouse. After the story broke on October 28 in USA TODAY and became the subject of my column on NewWest.Net five days later, gun owners angry with Cooper besieged Sportsman's Warehouse's 66 superstores and corporate headquarters with threats of a boycott if the company didn't stop selling Cooper's products. Then, gun owners angry with gun rights activists calling for the boycott went into those same stores threatening their own boycott if America's Premier Outfitter didn't continue selling Cooper products. You got to feel for Sportsman's Warehouse, obviously caught in the middle of a controversy they didn't create, so I called CEO Stuart Utgaard. He was anxious to clear it up for us. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/boosting_obama_coloradans_voter_early/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/boosting_obama_coloradans_voter_early/C69/C69/ Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:56:59 MDT Equipped with a camp chair, a book, and a box of glazed doughnuts (Vote the Fried Dough Party!), I arrived at my polling place at 7:20 a.m. today prepared for a long wait. There was no one there. Nobody. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/energy_scare_tactics_wide_right/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/energy_scare_tactics_wide_right/C69/C69/ Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:34:14 MDT This morning, on E-Day Minus 1, I got two emails from coal industry associations claiming that Barack Obama wants to "bankrupt" the coal industry. They're equally bogus. If you actually look at what he's saying, it's No. 1, we should create a cap-and-trade system that will use market forces to make future conventional coal-fired plants non-viable, and No. 2, we should pursue clean coal plants to the degree that the technology develops to enable them. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/gun_lobby_attack_dogs_strike_again/C69/C69/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/gun_lobby_attack_dogs_strike_again/C69/C69/ Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:07:54 MDT Something extremely scary happened last Friday on Halloween. Dan Cooper, President and Founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, resigned. Not so scary, you say. Well, wait until you hear why. If you believe in freedom and that there's a reason why the right to free speech is the First Amendment, prepare to be terrified. Editor's note: Links to three updates at the end of the story.--Bill Schneider