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Daylight-Saving Time Is Past Its Prime

Saturday night marks the end of daylight-saving time for 2012. Time for those clocks to “fall back” an hour to standard time, when the sun really is highest at high noon. An extra hour of cold, dark fall mornings is probably the last thing you look forward to when you first wake up—or when you’reContinue reading “Daylight-Saving Time Is Past Its Prime”

Environmental Protection Up in Smoke

When the wildfires that are burning millions of acres in the West are finally smothered by winter snows, environmentalists undoubtedly will blame climate change. They might look in the mirror instead. Environmental laws since the 1970s require public input into federal land-use decisions including logging on national forests. This has led to lawsuits challenging effortsContinue reading “Environmental Protection Up in Smoke”

Public Lands v. Madison Co. Commission

PUBLIC LANDS ACCESS ASSOCIATION, INC., Petitioner/Appellant, v. THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MADISON COUNTY, STATE OF MONTANA, AND C. TED COFFMAN, FRANK G. NELSON, and DAVID SCHULTZ, constituting members of said Commission; and ROBERT R. ZENKER, in his capacity as the County Attorney for Madison County, State of Montana, Respondents/Appellees. JAMES C. KENNEDY, Respondent-Intervenor/Appellee/CrossContinue reading “Public Lands v. Madison Co. Commission”

Lessons from the Old West: The 150th Anniversary of the Homestead Act

By P.J. Hill On May 20, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, an effort by the U.S. government to make 160 acres available to anyone who would move to unclaimed territory, build a cabin, farm the land, and live there for five years. Eventually 270 million acres were privatized by the process, ushering inContinue reading “Lessons from the Old West: The 150th Anniversary of the Homestead Act”

Unnatural forests are depleting water supplies

By Helen M. Poulos and James G. Workman Ronald Reagan once justified logging with “a tree is a tree; how many more do you need to look at?” Besides, he warned, “trees cause more pollution than automobiles.” We cringed at his biases. Yet due to forces none foresaw, Reagan’s gaffes may now ring true. Today,Continue reading “Unnatural forests are depleting water supplies”