Politics
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While Idaho taxpayers are facing budget cuts to public education and health care, ranchers are busy writing self-serving bills to provide money for “studies” that will paper over destructive impacts of livestock grazing on sage grouse. Last year saw thousands of people marching on the grounds of the Idaho Capital in Boise. People were marching…
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Sequester looks almost certain. What now happens to public lands? The New York Times article linked below discusses the effects of the now almost certain sequester on the national parks . Most people who follow this issue know that they are chronically underfunded when it comes to resource protection. The Parks aside, what about…
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By George Wuerthner State Fish and Game agencies are in the midst of a funding and mission crisis. They appear unable to adapt to shifting political and demographic changes much as the Republican Party is failing to adjust to new voter realities. The crisis is nowhere more evident than in their attitudes towards predators like…
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Takedown of Hurlock makes Idaho State Senate look awful- We don’t know if she should be commissioner or not, but Rocky Barker’s story on the aftermath details of her defeated nomination casts an unpleasant light on Senate and Commission. These people manage our wildlife and write Idaho’s laws! Hurlock said senators told lies, half truths…
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The Idaho Senate has voted against confirming Joan Hurlock to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission. Citing that “there’s a fear of some environmentalism here. The sportsmen are worried” Senator Monty Pearce voted against her confirmation along with 18 other senators in a vote that was 19 to 16. Hurlock is the daughter of a…
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Idaho Senate Resources committee votes not to confirm Gov. Otter’s nomination of Joan Hurlock- Although once a woman sat on the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, Nancy Hadley of Sandpoint 1997 to 2005, that was then. In the last few years Idaho has retreated culturally by perhaps a generation. Governor “Butch” Otter recently nominated Joan Hurlock to…
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Decaying Management In America’s National Park System- Yellowstone Park is loved by millions of Americans and many more around the world. It is the original model for not just America’s National Park System, but for national parks in other countries. By “system,” it is meant the national parks are established and managed by a common…
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I’ve been reading about the world’s economic woes quite a bit recently and the arguments between between those who support austerity to fight some looming “deficit crisis” and those who support deficit spending to stimulate the economy. In these arguments I am starting to believe that those who argue for austerity cuts to reduced the…