AltWeeklies Wire
Gassed Up: Study Shows Montana's Emissions Have Jumped 36 Percentnew
Environment America, a national conservation group, announced last week that Montana has had a 36 percent jump in carbon dioxide emissions between 1990 and 2007. The state's increase dwarfs the average 19-percent rise across the nation and, since 2004, only Oklahoma's emissions grew faster than Montana's.
Missoula Independent |
Jessica Mayrer |
11-24-2009 |
Environment
The Natural Burial Eco-Trend Reaches Montananew

Every year, traditional burials put an estimated 30 million board feet of casket wood, 1.6 million tons of concrete from burial vaults, more than 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid and 90,000 tons of steel from caskets into the ground. Whatever happened to naturally returning to the earth?
Missoula Independent |
Skylar Browning |
09-17-2009 |
Environment
In Health Care Battle, Two Opposing Views of Sen. Max Baucus Emergenew
Is the Montana Democrat the sellout the left portrays, or the savvy centrist poised to finally reform American health care?
Missoula Independent |
Matthew Frank |
08-18-2009 |
Politics
Prosecution's Case Against W.R. Grace is Dying as Time Drags Onnew
U.S. attorneys intend to prove at an upcoming trial that six W.R. Grace executives conspired to keep the truth about asbestos contamination secret from the federal government for more than a quarter century--contamination that has claimed the lives of hundreds of residents.
Missoula Independent |
Patrick M. Klemz |
01-09-2009 |
Environment
Remembering Jim Crumley, the Last Good Detective Writernew
When the Texas-born novelist James Crumley died at age 68 on September 17, newspaper obituaries in Los Angeles, Washington, New York, and London all mentioned one of his sentences. The sentence was not the only notable string of words this fine writer composed, but devotees of his work often point to it as a landmark in modern detective fiction.
The Texas Observer |
Dick Holland |
11-19-2008 |
Books
How Far Will Montana Go for Healthy Cows?new

The state's livestock industry wants to eradicate brucellosis from Yellowstone, but more than the bison stand in the way.
Missoula Independent |
Patrick Klemz |
09-08-2008 |
Animal Issues
Mountain Migrant Rick Bass Tries to Explain Why He Left Houston for Higher Groundnew
The American West is a receding point, measured by imagination rather than sextant, and Bass has found it in a rugged stretch of 1 million acres whose human census -- 150 -- is outnumbered by each of several other species, including black bears, owls, elk, and coyotes.
The Texas Observer |
Steven G. Kellman |
07-24-2008 |
Nonfiction
Salvia D: The Tempest in a Tea Leafnew

Indigenous people use this Mexican plant for medicinal purposes, which has researchers touting its healing potential. Others smoke it for a legal high, which has legislators itching to regulate. What's to keep Salvia D from being the drug war's next casualty?
Missoula Independent |
Patrick M. Klemz |
07-22-2008 |
Drugs
Superfund, or Superfraud?new
The EPA wants you to look at the Milltown Dam and see Superfund restoration at work. Look further and see the costly truth.
Missoula Independent |
Patrick M. Klemz |
06-26-2008 |
Environment
Pondering the Democratic Map of the Intermountain Westnew
With this year's Democratic presidential nomination fight now going all the way to the June 3 Montana primary, and with the Democratic National Convention set for Denver in August, things are about to get real Western around here. As the growing West starts to flex its political muscles, the impacts may well be felt in the general election in a way that they haven't been before.
Boise Weekly |
Shea Andersen |
05-29-2008 |
Politics
Just Say Nonew

Montana fights the Real ID Act.
Missoula Independent |
Jessie McQuillan |
02-08-2007 |
Civil Liberties
The Mad Emperornew
Can Congress block Bush's urge to surge?
Missoula Independent |
George Ochenski |
01-18-2007 |
Politics
The Accidental Activistnew
Asbestos watchdog Mike Crill has been in the wrong place at the wrong time his whole life, fighting to right wrongs even as activism and ill-health consumed him.
Missoula Independent |
Paul Peters |
05-11-2006 |
Crime & Justice
View to a Killnew
Buffalo Field Campaigners take aim at hunters in West Yellowstone during Montana's first bison hunt in 15 years.
Missoula Independent |
Brooke Hewes |
11-23-2005 |
Animal Issues
Forensic Pathologists Work to Solve Mystery of Human Remainsnew

No one ever thinks their bones are going to come to rest in a ditch by the highway, or in the pit of an outhouse. But it happens. And when it does, the bones begin a second journey.
Missoula Independent |
Andy Smetanka |
06-01-2004 |
Science