http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/main/C108/L108/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2009 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:00:35 MST Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:00:35 MST http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/qClQR_OumH4/ Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:00:35 MST Best of the West 2009: New Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri Edited by James Thomas and D. Seth Horton, foreword by Rick Bass University of Texas Press, 268 pages, $19.95 Best of the West 2009 is a welcome revival of anthology series that ran from 1988 through 1992, collecting outstanding stories set in "the Wide Side of the Missouri" that previously appeared in literary journals.  Unlike some recent one-off Western story anthologies, such as New Stories from the Southwest (also edited by D. Seth Horton) and Forge Books' Best Stories of the American West, Volume I, the editors plan to make this an annual publication, and in the 2009 edition, the quality of the stories is just as high as those in the well-known national Best American Short Stories series. In the foreword, Rick Bass tries to put his finger on "what constitutes a Western short story," and although he notes, "Is it my imagination, or are there extra teaspoonfuls of loneliness in these stories, extra pinches of desperation?" and "a good many Western short stories tend to possess a kind of intensity or power of the felt physical senses," he decides, "I'm not convinced there is a Western short story, yet." Bass doesn't remark on it, but in this year's anthology, the overwhelming common them is sex: the people in these stories might be lonely, but they manage to partner up pretty well. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/west_is_a_sexy_place_in_best_of_the_west_2009/C108/L108/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/q5yszbEC7Po/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:14:28 MST Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has announced she's running for Senate in California, hoping to unseat Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer. Long one of Boise's biggest employers, HP is part of Idaho culture. It didn't take long for the Fiorina chatter to show up on Idaho blogs, including Tom von Alten's Fort Boise. von Alten, a mechanical engineer who worked at HP for twenty years and still holds stock in the company, wrote, "Her campaign slogan will presumably not be 'Let me do to the country what I did to HP,' but I have no doubt she will put a positive spin on every aspect of her career to date." As a longtime resident of Boise with friends who worked at HP, I've sat at many a dinner party where people told tales of how, instead of "bringing people together," she repeatedly did the opposite. Notorious for egotistical, divisive and manipulatory tactics, one of her biographers, Michael Malone, said Fiorina "created a pestilential culture" and "a poisonous stew." There are numerous reports of employees literally cheering and dancing in the aisles the day her "resignation" was announced. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/carly_fiorina_forwhat_did_you_say/C108/L108/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/0nq2bCbuHOk/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:45:31 MST The Sandpoint City Council hit a hot button last year when it proposed a temporary restriction on the construction of drive-through fast-food places. Council members wanted some time to consider how this kind of land use fit with the newly minted Comprehensive Plan, and the city had sprouted a drive-through Jack-in-the-Box while the plan was being cogitated over. Shortly thereafter, a corrugated metal farm shed turned up next to Highway 2 that turned out to be a drive-through convenience store. After the ban was passed, certain members of the community vehemently voiced their disapproval, and one owner of a restaurant that had both drive-through and sit-down options posted a notice on the order counter suggesting that the city planning director go back to where he came from, inspiring some other community members to dine elsewhere. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/commissioners_cogitate_over_consumption_by_car/C108/L108/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/x6rBrzi7SPw/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:06:50 MST Finally, some good news about drinking and driving. Car and Driver magazine reported that texting while driving is more dangerous than drunken driving, thanks mostly to self-absorbed teenagers and undisciplined technodorks behind the wheel. Texting and talking on cell phones while driving resulted in almost 6,000 deaths on U.S. roads last year, according to DOT officials gathered for a "distracted driving summit" last month. Although that's only about half the number of people killed by drunk drivers, it's an alarming--and fast-growing--statistic. And that doesn't even include the hundreds killed while trying to dig out a warm hunk of Dunkin Donuts sausage biscuit from deep in their crotch. (As far as the five-second rule goes, that remains a grey area. So to speak.) http://www.newwest.net/city/article/if_u_txt_drv_u_suk/C108/L108/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/vnNLtqucQ84/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:56:07 MST Open Fields was a "major victory" for hunters and wildlife conservation, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and many other green groups that lobbied for it. It passed back in December 2008, but almost a year later, this innovative hunter access program is still mired in the administrative rule making process. Now, predictably, conservationists who struggled mightily for the program are asking Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for a little more priority. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/open_fields_still_closed/C108/L108/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/qjuL0jZ66bo/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:56:44 MST For the past several days a walnut-sized lump has been throbbing on the top of my skull. This morning when I attempted to shampoo my hair, the scrubbing motion nearly brought me to tears. I can't wear my blue baseball hat without feeling pain. The cause of the hideous and horribly painful lump on this writer's noggin? It came from a sharp-ass rock in a dark-ass cave. A lava cave, to be precise. And despite the injury, I encourage everyone to go check out the lava caves in central and eastern Oregon for themselves. Just try not to be an idiot and get hurt yourself hurt, okay? http://www.newwest.net/city/article/keeping_it_underground_in_oregons_lava_caves/C108/L108/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/NgzBw1NdPig/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:04:28 MST More than 3 million acres of farmland in the country is ready to be broken again this season, freed up from contracts from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a little-known farm program that has large implications for land-use in the West and Midwest. Roxana Hegeman of the Associated Press details the changes afoot with the program in a story today. The basics are these: CRP was created in 1985 in the thick of the farm crisis. The program pays landowners to take their land out of production and let it "rest" in native grasses for a specified period of time. Contracts range from 10-20 years. In September of this year, 33.47 million acres were enrolled in the program. But, the 2008 Farm Bill, passed last fall, capped the total acreage at 32 million, so as contracts expire, more and more land is coming out of CRP. According to Hegeman's story, more than 3.4 million acres were taken out of the program in September--most of them in Texas, Colorado and Kansas, but "hundreds of thousands" of acres are also going back into production in Montana and the Dakotas. In September of 2008, more than 2 million acres were taken out of CRP nationwide compared to September the previous year. The USDA has boasted CRP as the largest private-public conservation effort in the country and indeed, studies from the agency show great benefits to water, erosion and habitat since its introduction. But, in the last five years it has come under fire for a number of things, the largest being the criticism that it takes farmers off of the land and thus contributes to the depopulation of rural America. It's also been panned for being a "retirement plan" for farmers, driving up land prices by making cropland attractive to amenity ranch buyers who are looking for places to hunt and fish while getting income from the land.  http://www.newwest.net/city/article/as_millions_of_acres_come_out_of_conservation_reserve_program_whats_next/C108/L108/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/_mlYxfd8IpA/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:44:04 MST The elections that attracted national attention Tuesday were all on the East Coast, with New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (suddenly burdened by his previous job as head of Goldman Sachs) going down to defeat and conservative Republican activists like Sarah Palin failing in their effort to override the local party and elect a fellow-traveler to an open Congressional seat in upstate New York. Unsurprisingly, voters across the country were worried about the economy, not too keen on incumbent office-holders, and wary about measures that might cost them money. In Colorado, open space and marijuana were the issues of the night, in Boise, the streetcar desire played a role in the elections and in Montana, the liberal bastion that is Missoula finally has a liberal city council. Here's a quick and dirty roundup of highlights from election night:  http://www.newwest.net/city/article/election_roundup/C108/L108/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/8GuNvcqxEQI/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:00:05 MST As I've mentioned on a couple of occasions over the years I've written the Roundup, when I'm not reading other people's books, I'm trying to write my own, and after many, many years of effort, I have some good news: my first novel, The Ringer, will be published by The Permanent Press in 2011.  I am delighted about it.  Now I just need to edit the book and figure out how to convince people to read it.  (Beg?  Bribe?  Cajole?) Check out my new website for more information. • The winners of the Utah and Oregon Book Awards were announced recently.  In Utah, the winners included David McGlynn in fiction for The End of the Straight and Narrow, Stephen Trimble in nonfiction for Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America, and in the poetry category, Craig Arnold won the award posthumously for his collection Made Flesh.  Ben Fulton of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote in greater detail about all the winners. Also in the Roundup: Oregon Book Award winners, events at the Center of the American West, and Annie Proulx donates her papers to the New York Public Library. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/utah_and_oregon_book_awards_announced_and_hooray_i_sold_my_novel/C108/L108/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boise/~3/KfNZgkozE3U/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:03:38 MST A Central Oregon geothermal project many years in the making continues to heat up following a recent announcement that nearly $30 million will go toward work near Newberry Crater. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced the Energy Department grants would be coming through for seven Oregon projects. An estimated $25 million will be designated to power-producing technology involving water injected into the earth and about $4.5 million on technology to locate geothermal reservoirs at Newberry, according to Wyden. "This funding will literally help to bring Oregon's geothermal energy potential to the surface," Wyden stated in a released statement. "It will create and sustain jobs improving alternative energy technology to better tap into Oregon's unique set of renewable energy resources." We've been covering this story on NewWest.Net for several years, and this is by far the biggest advancement in the project. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/feds_grant_30_million_for_central_oregon_geothermal_project/C108/L108/