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Montana

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Conservation groups buy pieces of Montana — a lot of pieces

Posted Thu, Jul 3, 5 a.m.

The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land are buying 500 square miles of western Montana from Plum Creek, the timber real estate investment trust, for $510 million. It involves a federal financing mechanism, to the consternation of conservatives, and compromise, to the displeasure of some environmentalists. But it is preventing development of forest habitat.

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Monorails: the idea that will not die

Posted Tue, Jan 6, 6 a.m.

You can't go many news cycles without hearing about some kind of monorail mess-up, but there's good news too.

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How Wall Street is destroying the timber way of life

Posted Fri, Dec 12, 6 a.m.

The pressure for real estate and the short-term perspective of fancy Wall Street financial instruments have changed the old line companies utterly.

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Lending for ultra-luxury Western resorts: dumb, dumb, dumb

Posted Wed, Dec 10, 6 a.m.

As resorts for the wealthy such as Yellowstone Club, Tamarack, and Promontory tumble into insolvency, you have to wonder what the lenders such as Credit Suisse and Lehman Bros. were thinking. Here's another tale of toxic assets, poor diligence, and no backup plans.

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Indiana Jones, meth addict

Posted Sun, Oct 12, 4:09 p.m.

The strange link between looting Indian artifacts and methamphetamine users.

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The state's economic strength helps Gregoire

Posted Fri, Oct 10, 4 p.m.

Some misery is more equal than others, as new figures show. The governor also gains a notch by being able to dole out budget savings.

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Pit bulls, bears, and lipstick: more attacks involving animals

Posted Tue, Sep 16, 4 a.m.

Lessons learned from the places where people, animals, and politics collide.

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The faux maverick's sidekick

Posted Sat, Aug 30, 3 a.m.

Sen. John McCain's got a perception problem, and Gov. Sarah Palin is the solution.

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Go eastward, young Americans

Posted Tue, Aug 5, 4 a.m.

There's a reverse flow of population in the West, drifting from expensive coastal cities to interior boomtowns. It's definitely changing the politics of the Rockies, while also stirring resentments at "Aspenization."

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Travels with Charley and GPS

Posted Tue, Aug 5, midnight

A Depression-era book series is the ultimate road-trip must-have, a way of comparing past and present as you tool around the country like a latter-day John Steinbeck. And in Washington, a new version even links travelers to the digital age.

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My day with the ranchers

Posted Sat, Jul 19, midnight

An urbanite spends two days with ranchers in Montana and comes to see that she has much in common with them: ground.

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When animals attack, and also when they don't

Posted Mon, Jun 30, 5 p.m.

It's the time of year when animal-human encounters are on the rise. Bears are picnicking on hikers, moose are invading trailer parks, and muskrats are blamed for destroying entire towns. You could be next.

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Annals of Northwest secession

Posted Tue, May 6, midnight

A primer of regional separatist movements, real and imagined.

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A radical management plan for gray wolves: hunting

Posted Sat, Apr 19, midnight

With healthy numbers, the gray wolf faces de-listing as an endangered species. Introducing trophy hunting into the management plan has arguably worked for other species, such as the mountain lion, and some think it will work for the gray wolf, but the idea is not without its staunch critics.

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Sharing a sense of place when change is fast-paced

Posted Sat, Mar 22, midnight

A definition of the Western landscape varies according to individual economic, social, and recreational values. Here's a look at how our Western neighbors foster a shared sense of place across differing perspectives.

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High Tex: A new generation covers the campaign its own way

Posted Sun, Mar 9, 9 p.m.

Sixteen journalism students from the University of Washington descended on Texas during the presidential campaign to see what they could do with few resources and little clout. In hindsight, one might ask, what could they not?

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Do we need guns at Paradise?

Posted Wed, Mar 5, 5 a.m.

Some Northwest lawmakers have pushed the Bush administration to allow visitors to carry loaded guns in our national parks. It gives backpacking a whole new meaning.

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Reaganomics, Election '08, and the New American West

Posted Sat, Dec 29, midnight

We live in a changed world – of NRA Democrats and environmentalist Republicans.

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Why we hate soccer

Posted Wed, Nov 21, 5 a.m.

Will Paul Allen and Drew Carey succeed in establishing Major League Soccer in Seattle? Some suggest they're kicking the ball uphill.

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Bitch-slapping bears, Bigfoot, and mystery moss

Posted Thu, Oct 25, 1 a.m.

Mossback update: Critters big and bigger, some of which can be seen and some of which can't, and none of which you'd want to.

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Time for a new backcountry coalition of MPVs: muscle-powered vehicles

Posted Sat, Oct 13, midnight

Outdoor-recreation constituents who oppose motorized vehicles need to consider the concept of 'Wilderness Lite' instead of full wilderness designations for federal lands. It means allowing traditionally banned mountain bikes but would bring more political clout to the preservation cause.

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Other media

Got wind, please send power lines, says Montana Some worry that a vast expansion of transmission lines to the sunny West could end up producing a boom in coal-powered utilities.

Last-minute rules change could convert Montana forestland to development Bush administration change would greatly benefit Plum Creek Timber's real estate plans in scenic Montana.

Montana aluminum smelter to close, costing 200 jobs In its heyday, the Columbia Falls plant used 25% of all power consumed in Montana. Plunge in world-wide aluminum prices a blow.

Former mayor of Missoula might be next Forest Service chief Dan Kemmis, author and defender of civil society, gets a mention. Rep. John Salazar of Colorado might be tapped as Interior Secretary. Here's a good story on the future of the Forest Service.

Courtroom drama continues over Yellowstone Club bankruptcy Credit Suisse takes another swing at the complex web of investment at the golf-and-ski Montana resort for the uber-rich.

Blog posts

State by state with NBC's Chuck Todd

Posted Sat, Nov 1, 6:22 p.m. 2008

The network's political director surveys all 50 states for races and trends to watch. Here's what he sees in the Northwest.

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When the Northwest was red

Posted Thu, Oct 9, 4 a.m. 2008

There's a cool Web site that lets you look at the electoral college results in presidential races since 1789. It features a U.S. map that shows the color of states as they were carried every four years: red for Republican, blue for Democrat, purple for Whig. It's fun to look at the Great Nearby and see the trends.

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Inside the Obama campaign: How he wins

Posted Fri, Sep 12, 5 p.m. 2008

A source "tight in the Obama campaign" has sent out a memo, meant to reassure anxious supporters by deflecting attention from national polls, where McCain is rising, and to the state-by-state electoral tally, where the election will be settled. While there might be some disinformation in such a message, and things are obviously still fluid, it makes for interesting reading. Washington and Oregon remain firmly in the "Obama solid" category, while Montana has joined Idaho in the "McCain solid" group.

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Washington and Idaho score very high as business-friendly states

Posted Sun, Sep 7, 9:31 a.m. 2008

In the governor's race, Gov. Chris Gregoire understandably often cites the state's recent rating by Forbes magazine, which names Washington as the third best state for business. The magazine's annual ranking put Virginia first and Utah second; Idaho retains its high rank, this year as 7th. Oregon finished 16th, Colorado is 6th, Minnesota is 11th, Montana is 24th, California is 40th, and Alaska is 48th.

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Seattle outpaces Portland in income growth

Posted Wed, Aug 13, 11:05 a.m. 2008

The current issue of Marple's Pacific Northwest Letter ($) tallies up personal income figures for Northwest metro areas. One shocker is how low the figure is for Portland, a booming area that is still shy on high-paying jobs. Or, conversely, how affluent Seattle is.

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Walkability is nice, but it's not making us skinny

Posted Wed, Jul 30, 10:49 a.m. 2008

Current theory says that a city's walkability promotes health and will impact the fight against obesity. The claim is that America's weight problem can be helped by making cities more pedestrian-friendly. It should follow, then, that our most dense and walkable cities are where the skinny people are, right? Well, not really.

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Polimedia lunch links

Posted Thu, Jun 5, 11:53 a.m. 2008

Ruby Chow remembered: Brad Wong outlines the contributions from the life of a local political icon. ...

Elite opinion on Obama: Jamieson, Sims and Locke, Horsey, Westneat. ...

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A Seattle software exec makes sure that the buffalo don't roam

Posted Sat, May 10, 3:35 p.m. 2008

In the 19th century, tourists used to slaughter bison herds from passing trains, blasting the big beasts into near extinction just for fun. That ugly tradition is echoed in the recent massacre of buffalo in Colorado, which has also touched off a classic confrontation over rights between two ranchers. The Northwest connection: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's John Cook points out that the man behind the recent massacre is the chairman and CEO of one of Seattle's top software companies, Jeff Hawn of Attachmate. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

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Recession alert: Put Oregon on the danger list

Posted Mon, Mar 31, 9:38 a.m. 2008

Marple's Pacific Northwest Letter, a bible of the Northwest economy, is predicting that Oregon, "if not yet in recession, it likely soon will be." The reasons: sectors like lumber exposed to the homebuilding recession; continued manufacturing decline in computer chips and electronic instruments, which have not fully recovered since the dot.com meltdown; and overall manufacturing decline since mid-2006.

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Bellevue ranks at top for places to live and launch a company

Posted Thu, Mar 27, 9 a.m. 2008

Bellevue is the top city in a new ranking of best American cities to live and launch a new business by CNN Money.com. Seattle doesn't even make the list of the top 100 such places. The survey rates Bellevue high for its low crime rate, great schools, excellent health care, and diverse population (40 percent nonwhite or foreign-born). It describes the town as having "grown with unusual grace" into a place that is sophisticated and metropolitan but not yet crowded or expensive. Apparently the survey is not aware of the traffic problems on the Eastside, though some of the comments on the site point that out, along with the high cost of housing. One Seattleite protests: "Boring!"

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