Missoula's Future

The master plan that's in the works for downtown Missoula will take many years to implement, but if you want to do your part today to push it along, the consultants have a suggestion for you: shop local, and, especially, shop downtown.

And while Macy's may not be locally owned, shop there too.

At the fourth and final public forum on the master plan project Wednesday night, consultants Crandall Arambula identified four top-priority projects for getting the plan rolling, and two of them indirectly involved Macy's: a new parking garage at the corner of Front and Pattee, which would allow Macy's to expand onto its existing parking lot, and a new mixed-use commercial development, including a hotel, that's envisioned for East Main just north of the store.
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Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall this week confirmed an earlier report that the 48Straight winter sports and music event is canceled for this season and that Jeep caused the cancellation by pulling its support.

"It doesn't take a brain surgeon or the mayor of a small town to realize what's going on in the auto industry," Hall said.

Jeep is trying to cut costs wherever it can, Hall said, and that means the festival, a boon for Sun Valley, is out. "Unfortunately, we are also a victim of the national economic downturn."
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Weather In Missoula and Beyond

The problem with unseasonable weather in Montana is the temperature is probably plummeting -- or rising -- even as you note how odd it is.

So far this fall, the weather has been warmer than usual, said meteorologist Corby Dickerson of the National Weather Service's Missoula office.

But the warmth won't last.

The "normal" high temperature for November 19 is 38 degrees Fahrenheit. The low is 23 degrees. Wednesday's high was 42 degrees. Tonight's predicted low is 30. [more]

Guest Commentary: George Wuerthner's "On the Range"

In the November 17th Science Section of The New York Times there was an article by Jim Robbins about the current pine beetle event occurring in the West.

There was a lot of good factual information in the piece about pine beetles and their basic ecology, and on the whole, Robbins did a good job of describing some of the concerns that people have about the beetle situation. Nevertheless, the tone and implied message conveyed an overly pessimistic and negative picture of beetles as well as wildfires. It was not so much that it had a lot of false statements as much as the way it was written. Taken together the various quotes, and background in the article leaves one with the perception that somehow beetles, as well as wildfires are “out of control” in the West's ecosystems. [more]

Why do we long for snow?

I’m snow hungry.

You know what I mean. You stand in front of your house as the sun sets over the mountains, watching for clouds, testing the wind direction, sniffing the air. You’re like a wolf nosing the atmosphere for the scent of prey, and when you catch it, when your nose tingles with that faint sting of cold-wet you howl and grab your gear and sprint to the high country, hungry for snow. [more]

WESTERN BOOK ROUNDUP

This years National Outdoor Book Awards honor crusaders to save the American chestnut tree, Grand Canyon explorers and the widow of mountaineer Alex Lowe, rebuilding her life after the death of her husband in a Himalayan mountaineering accident.

“What a year it was,” says Ron Watters, professor emeritus at Idaho State University. “The writing in the outdoor field has always been good, but it just keeps getting better – and this year it was outstanding.” [more]

Update

For more than 20 years, the Mitchell Slough in Montana's Bitterroot Valley has become a showcase of the battle between public access and private property rights and Monday the Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the former.

With a 54-page ruling, the Supreme Court deemed the waterway a natural stream, which means access to it is protected by Montana's stream access law, which is among the strongest in the country. The ruling has been coming for more than two years and overturns two lower-court decisions that had defined the stream the way the Bitterroot Conservation District and several high-profile landowners had advocated it be: Just a ditch.

The case, which has been watched closely across the West as a crucial test of stream access law, has been a long-running extravaganza of protests, celebrity, and political maneuvering but more than that, it has been a spur for complex and often heated discussions on water rights, landownership, what's natural and what's not and most of all, how to square the values of the Old West with the demands of the New.

The Ravalli Republic's Perry Backus has a detailed story on yesterday's ruling here and to catch up on the case and it's implications, Greg Lemon wrote a very good primer for NewWest.Net when the case first went to the high court. [more]

Guest Opinion: Children Chant

When second- and third-graders chanted "Assassinate Obama" on a Madison School District bus recently, district spokeswoman Janet Goodliffe explained that most of the children didn't understand what the words mean. According to The Associated Press, she attributed the chant to the community's being "highly conservative" and overwhelmingly for John McCain.

I admire Janet Goodliffe as a preschool education leader. But as a teacher, she offered tortured excuses instead of capitalizing on a great teaching opportunity.

This is not an isolated incident. As a former teacher and Idaho Falls school volunteer, Luella Hendrickson, wrote on this page Thursday, after the election, children in her daughter's elementary class condemned Obama for being a Muslim, not being a U.S. citizen, selling out to the Arabs, taking away our guns, etc.

Anyone with ears to hear know these children were parroting their parents. Children get the drift from home: The new president is radical, dangerous and not to be trusted.

How terribly sad. [more]

More stories, easier navigation

We're very pleased to launch our new New West Boise page - a new look and lots of new features. We'll post at greater length shortly on the thinking behind all this, but in the meantime let us know what you think.

The main box on top is called Editor's Pick - a story specially chosen to be featured.

Below Editor's pick, the two-column box has the latest from New West Boise on the left. You can click on the headlines, or just scroll down to find them. On the right are a few stories from other sources we've chosen. Click on their headlines.

On the far left you'll find a vertical column with our regular contributors.
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Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

The Bush administration has given the incoming Obama team (and the American people) yet another middle finger. First they announced--on Election Day, the day the American people decisively rejected "drill, baby, drill"--that they were putting huge swaths of Utah's most beautiful and fragile canyonlands under the auction block. Now they think they've figured out a way to make their policy of "rape the land first, don't bother with the questions ever" permanent. [more]