Center for the Rocky Mountain West - Home - University of Montana

Center for the Rocky Mountain West - Home - University of Montana

.:: Government by the People -- TheCommonInterest.com ::.

.:: Government by the People -- TheCommonInterest.com ::.

Power shift Republicans are losing their grip on the West, by losing touch with its changing constituency.

Headwaters News: Perspective; Insight and Analysis for the Rocky Mountain West"

Western Democrat: What makes a Western Democrat

Western Democrat: What makes a Western Democrat

Economy - The Idaho Statesman - Always Idaho

Economy - The Idaho Statesman - Always Idaho: "Idaho's economy will generate about 14,700 new jobs in 2005, according to the annual Wells Fargo Economic Forecast.

But experts say most of those new jobs will be lower-paying service industry work.

Wells Fargo also forecasts that the residential housing boom, which fueled the state's economic recovery over the past two years, will dip slightly in 2005 as interest rates continue to climb.
Ultimately, however, Idaho's overall economic numbers for 2005 will mirror the previous year's, said Wells Fargo economist Kelly Matthews."

Inaugural ball shows support for area tribes - billingsgazette.com

Inaugural ball shows support for area tribes - billingsgazette.com

Schweitzer outgoing and hard-working - billingsgazette.com

Schweitzer outgoing and hard-working - billingsgazette.com

"Top Billings" How a Montana Democrat bagged the hunting and fishing vote, and won the governor's mansion. by David Sirota

"Top Billings" by David Sirota

Vasquez to run for 1st CD

A Canyon County commissioner adamantly opposed to unlawful immigration may run for Congress.

In December, U.S. Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, filed the required papers to begin a campaign for governor. His expected vacancy has many politicians looking at the congressional job — including Republican Robert Vasquez, who has formed an exploratory committee to look into a bid for the 1st District seat.

Vasquez recently spearheaded the commission's request to ask Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to declare Canyon County a disaster area due to an anticipated "imminent invasion" of illegal immigrants.

Vasquez said a comic book-style guide allegedly providing safety advice for Mexican nationals planning to illegally enter the United States prompted such action.

In a resolution approved last month, the commissioners blamed undocumented residents for increasing crime, spreading infectious diseases and causing fatal car accidents. The commissioners asked the state for money to cover related costs.

Vasquez has taken similar unconventional measures before. Last year, he tried to bill the Mexican government $2 million for reimbursement of jail and medical treatment costs he claimed the county provided to Mexican citizens.
Article

Natural Allies - Sierra Magazine - Sierra Club

"If only hunters, anglers, and environmentalists would stop taking potshots at each other, they'd be an invincible force for wildlands protection." Complete article. A good read.:

Sierra Club: The Planet

"Spurred by blatant congressional attacks on America's natural resources, environmentalists are setting aside past differences with hunters and anglers and working together to defend wild lands and habitat from timber and oil companies, mining conglomerates and irresponsible developers.

More than 100,000 Sierra Club members - better than one out of six - are active hunters and anglers dedicated to continuing the sporting tradition through public land conservation. Considering that more than 50 million Americans fish and 15 million hunt, such a coalition makes sense. Most recently, alliances such as Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, run by elk hunters, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, run by a former National Audubon Society lobbyist, have protected or restored 1.8 million acres north of Yellowstone National Park.

Trout Unlimited has been another powerful force in not only conserving public lands from the threats of grazing reform and irresponsible forestry practices, but preserving the Endangered Species and Clean Water acts. 'What has made Trout Unlimited so successful is that it is run by people who are not just sportsmen or environmentalists, but both, ' wrote Ted Williams in the September/October issue of Sierra magazine. Whenever sportsmen combine with environmentalists, you have 60 to 70 percent of the population, an absolutely irresistible coalition.
More:

TRCP -- Guaranteeing You a Place to Hunt and Fish

"There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country."
~ Theodore Roosevelt 8/6/1912

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is a coalition of leading conservation organizations and individual grassroots partners, working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing by conserving fish and wildlife and the habitats necessary to sustain them, increasing funding for conservation and management, and expanding access to places to hunt and fish.

"To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed."
-Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

TRCP -- Issues and Action