Quote of the day

Editor's notes

In the Rockies today, a federal judge in Missoula has issued a preliminary injunction against a precedent-setting salvage sale on the Bitterroot National Forest.

Environmentalists argued the sale, the biggest in the history of the Forest Service, was too expansive and the agency evaded public involvement.

The timber industry was poised to start logging more cumulative volume than the forest has offered in years.

Forest Service officials said the plan was geared toward restoring forest health after catastrophic fires in 2000.

But U.S. District Judge Don Molloy castigated agency officials for illegally precluding any appeals and for what he called "mystical legal
prestidigitation."

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The Western Charter Project examines Western values and regional policy issues.

Rockies Today

Utah's Rep. Jim Hansen says he's done.
Utah Congressman Jim Hansen, who began his 11-term tenure as an advocate of wilderness and then spent most of the rest of his career opposing it, announced he won't run again.
Salt Lake Tribune; Jan. 9

• Candidates start lining up.
  Hansen's surprise announcement created one of the most wide-open races in the West, and suddenly there's a growing slate of potential candidates.
  Salt Lake Tribune; Jan. 9
  

Campaign donations already flooding in to Utah candidates.
Utah corporations and special-interest groups are funneling donations to candidates, some of whom aren't running this year, amid increasing concern of watchdog groups.
Deseret News; Jan. 8

• Leavitt is most successful fund-raiser.
  Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt leads the pack in money raised this year, although he has yet to say whether he'll run again in 2004.
  Deseret News; Jan. 8
  

Columbia River fish kill could contest key Canadian laws.
Canadian officials are investigating B.C. Hydro's role in a fish kill last summer on the Columbia River in southeast B.C., a case with implications for the province's revenue and the nation's fisheries.
National Post; Jan. 9

Opinion

Polarization helps no one in endangered species debate.
There is room for the Endangered Species Act to protect both disappearing species and landowners' rights, but the debate must evolve beyond us vs. them.
Great Falls Tribune; Jan. 9

Idaho governor, Legislature should fund schools as promised.
Funding is available for Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and Idaho lawmakers to keep their school-funding promises, and they should be held accountable if they don't.
Spokesman-Review; Jan. 9

Montana governor must deliver on pledge for fair school funding.
A Montana governor's council delivered its recommendations on school funding last week, and the governor immediately pronounced some of the proposals too expensive.
Billings Gazette; Jan. 9

In depth

EPA ombudsman examines agency's moves on toxic gases.
The EPA ombudsman's office has launched an investigation into why agency officials relied on bad information to call off audits of the risk from toxic gases leaking from Superfund sites and why the agency relies on an admittedly poor computer model to gauge risks to homeowners.
Denver Post; Jan. 9

• Colorado one of the best for protecting residents from fumes.
  Colorado has become a leader for finding and cleaning up toxic gases inside residential homes, mainly because state officials have been tougher than the EPA.
  Denver Post; Jan. 8
  
• EPA's computer model suspect.
  The computer model the EPA uses to decide whether homes are dangerously contaminated with industrial solvent fumes seriously underestimated the risk in one Denver-area home and probably in hundreds of cases across the country.
  Denver Post; Jan. 7
  
• Agency ignored threat of toxic gases.
  More than 4,900 people in a five-state area suffered cancer, strokes, anemia and other health problems at rates two or three times the national average because of toxic fumes leaking into their homes, and the EPA did little to warn them.
  Denver Post; Jan. 5

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